Applesauce Parker

I did see the movie, and even though sung-through musicals usually aren't my favorite, I loved all the parts that didn't include the incongrously campy Thernardiers. I usually like the character Helena Bonham Carter plays, but I got pulled out of the story every time she & Baron-Cohen turned up.

In general, I'm loving the book a lot more, though I'm not too deep in. When I left off, ValJean - as honored guest M. le Maire - had just arrived, after a hard journey, waffling all the way, in the courtroom where Champmathieu is being tried as Jean ValJean. The movie has also been useful as a throughline on the book's plot; I've been charmed by the narrator's tangents, but would probably have been less so if I were trying to link them up into a tight plot.

Definitely still too cold; it's actually decided to snow here today. Which I love only so long as I can watch it through the window without having to otherwise navigate it.

"Mourning of the Magician" is probably my single favorite issue. Among the things I love about it are the way it places John within his family, in their complicated grief, and visits him and someone he loves with the consequences of something rash he's done years ago, and gives him a small chance at amends.

I also love Sean Phillips's art during Delano's run; there's a page in "Dead Boy's Heart" where the composition is tied together by the blue comforter of the spare bedroom where John's twisting himself, that I love so, so much.

You know, I was expecting this book to be awful, but gosh, Sargon the Sorceress, with those ballet slippers and cleavage netting has totally turned me around on it! Said no one. Oof.

a few well-meaning guardians trying to stem a rising tide. They’re outnumbered and outgunned at every turn,

Ok, I'm in.

I'm reading Les Miserables for the first time, and kind of kicking myself for not having picked it up before!

I hereby declare my love for portobella mushrooms, cheap reisling, and key lime pie.

Also for spring training! Baseball is coming!

"star of Justice League Dark"

Ugh. Who had that in the pool?

You know too much.

Are you some sort of Nick Necro obsessive?

That chill that just went up your spine? Someone, somewhere - possibly a DC intern - just started a facebook page for " Necro-philes".

Every year my grandmother picks a theme for Christmas Eve dinner, usually some kind of ethnic food. This year's is Israeli Cuisine. I'm looking at making cheese-mushroom-spinach bourekas - a snack-sized version of spanikopita/burek/pastry-pocket-filled-with-Yum - for my contribution.

Maybe also some baba ganoush and an interesting-sounding recipe for tahini butter cookies, assuming I can find some ready-made tahini, because I'm ambitious, but not that ambitious.

That's the one! Flashbacks, I love them a lot!

Really, on paper, I'm someone they should be able to entice with a series about a younger, more vulnerable John, a too-wily-for-his-own-good (or anyone else's) kid with more nerve than caution. I wish I thought Constantine would be that book. But I just don't believe the John that's appearing in the bits of JLD I've read ever spent his childhood fixated on the dead boy's "heart" or cursed his father or murdered a familiar.

Gah, do we know if Newcastle/Ravenscar even are part of that John's story? Maybe he'll go there for a Fall-Out Boy show after he defeats Nicky Necro with a well-aimed fuschia fireball? /0\

Oh, Greek food! I hereby declare my deep and abiding love for spanikopita!

The teaser could use more John Cho (though, in all fairness, so could most things in this world) and I'll be astounded if the end of the movie finds the pretty lady in the science uniform any place other than Kirk's fridge, but I'm pretty optimistic, overall.

Desolation Jones was always full of big, weird, sometimes quiet spreads:

I wish that book hadn't trailed out mid-storyline. I loved it kind of a lot.

I've been chewing on this one while I ponder a re-read, and I think mine's gotta be the finish of the Family Man arc: #31 "Mourning of the Magician". It's got Delano and Phillips doing their respective things, John interacting with Gemma and Cheryl, flashbacks, grimy magic, grief and regret and pity, imperfect families, rash decisions with long consequences, and pretty much every other thing I love about this book.

"Dead Boy's Heart", "Waiting for the Man", and "In Another Part of Hell" are all pretty high on the list and might take the top spot if I were typing this at some other moment.

How do I word this - the brothers rock a shaved head so much better, they can totally pull it off in ways us white dudes can't.

Well, no one's going to wonder even for a beat whether a man of color with a shaved head might be a white supremacist; I imagine that makes it easier to be all "yeah, I'm bald. It's awesome. What's up?"

In keeping with the writerly theme, a little China Mieville:

I love this thread already! MmmMmmMmm... Statham!

I'd also submit Taye Diggs, especially now that he's getting these beautiful laughcrinkles around his eyes.

And, Stanley Tucci:

I would have said Jeremy Piven at one point, but he's since a) revealed himself to be kind of a creep, and b) gotten some intervention done to remove himself from this venerable thread.

At this point, Paul Bettany's only bald if he wants to be, but when he is, he works it. (Also, lookit all those freckles!)

I did some travel to Indiana for business in 2006 and was completely baffled that y'all don't have a MLB team.

We're pretty spread out, population-wise. And most of the larger outlying cities are closer to Chicago or Cincinati than Indy. That's the justification I've always heard anyway. The Indians have a nice little park though.

So then you a Pacers and Colts fan too?

Sorry, not so much. I can usually muster some interest in college basketball during the back half of March, but that's about as far as it goes beyond baseball and the Olympics. Which I love, like whoa.

... everything you'd want from a proper Hellblazer story - right down to Sean Phillips on pencils!

For my last birthday, I bought myself a piece of Sean Phillips' art, a page from Hellblazer 100; I love it beyond all reason.

You just hand that rag right back to him, you hear?

That, or use it as a kleenex - anything but read it!

I don't know when it's coming out. It's not on Feb. 22nd, is it?

The solicit says the 20th, but this early it may bump a week forward or back. I guess if nothing else, it'll give me an excuse for an extra gin and tonic.

I haven't been by the shop since I learned of the cancellation, but there's a 50/50 shot I'll cry when the owner tells me he's gone ahead and added "Constantine" to my pull, because "it's got your guy in it".

Indiana, but my local minor league team's affiliated with the Pirates. And I love an underdog. Winning season, 2013! Go Bucs!

Ooh, I was really impressed with Austin Jackson during the World Series!

For bands and foodstuffs, mainly; I had notifications for the last couple pages of comments in this post. It pleased me, because I've spent too much time lately with one of those people who's too cool/sophisticated/artiste-y/whatever to be just vanilla excited about anything. I love enthusiasm, basically. And Pirates centerfielder Andrew McCutchen.

I wish it had some deep significance (or at least a punny origin story), but I think "Applesauce Parker" came from some random name generator, back in the mists of time. I like the ring of it, though, and it's just odd enough that it's never already taken when I start an account somewhere. If you meet an Applesauce Parker out in the wilds of the internets - especially in fannish, bookish, or feminist/progressive political places - it's probably me. Feel free to say hi!

I love, after having neglected my email for a bit, finding an inbox full of other people's declarations of love.

Dunno that I have 10 off the top, but "Family Man" and "Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" would certainly top my list. "In at the Deep End" would feature, as would "Son of Man" and, much as it pains me to love on a Milligan story at this point, "Scab".