The Pop Culture of Gus Lequerica

Another week penniless, but at least I can aford sometimes one of my hobbies “comic books” this week I could get (and I hope tomorrow I can buy The Cabal and Ms Marvel #38 who introduces Moonstone as the new Miss Marvel) was Runaways volumen 3 #9; reading #9 it makes me wonder if the title is going to be canceled because it hasn’t got any interesting storylines as the ones got in the Joss Whedon days, but probably the last few issues had been a filler because something better is on the way. Since the exit of Xavin from the team, the group faced a magical zombie horde produced by Chase former boss D.J. Val who transformed via a magical song the people of L.A. who had plastic surgery into mindless zombies. So far at the end of issue #9 this arc seemed to end as issue #10 shows a cover of Molly with Wolverine.

One positive view about this arc was the Manga art and not the Manga influenced content like the previous issues because they brought Manga-Ka Takeshi Miyazawa; it was a fresh idea from Marvel but let’s hope that this idea don’t turn into a constant as American comics are not manga, even if manga has influenced the contemporary development.

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Probably one of the biggest mysteries of this year is the formation of the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants and what plan they have against the mainstream universe and the X-Men, because so far Matt Fraction hasn’t given any clues about what is going to happen, except now there are hints about that there are two Psylockes in the Marvel Universe; leaving the question if this is going to be a retcon about Elizabeth Braddock body switch, that maybe she died and Kwannon was led to believe she was the original Betsy as a way to cease the pain because the real Betsy was dead; but that’s only a crazy theory of me that I’m praying not to happen, because then the timeline will have more continuity problems than it has now. I want to see what is going to happen because the writing has been really cool so far, as Matt Fraction has given a unique way of handling the story.

The art is something really positive as it use a photorealistic approach, some kind of art that not many artist do, but thank God Eric Land draw that way as he gives a unique look to the title, much ala Alex Ross.

To describe King of The Hill, is to describe a more updated version of The Flintstones, probably the last cartoon situational sitcom that was aimed to adult; sure, we can mention The Simpsons and Family Guy but those series use a slapstick/ shocking humor to entertain, opposite to the King of the Hill that searched for humor in the quotidian and the mundane to entertain and make his audience laugh; one cool thing about the show it was the only show of FOX who tried to maintain a realistic approach of life even if it was a cartoon, you wouldn’t see any of the characters doing something without any repercussion, other cool thing about King of the Hill was that it had some form of continuity, where the viewer won’t see see a perpetual status-quo in the characters or the settings. A practice that was later taken by other shows as well.

In 1995 Mike Judge (The creator and star of the show) after a long and successful run with MTV, he decided to create something different from the juvenile humor that was in Beavis and Butthead and with the collaboration of Greg Daniels, King of the Hill was born and soon after the first episode the show was an instant hit with mature audience and was named by several publications of the time one of the best shows on history of television ever. Also, it was the second longest running cartoon, right after The Simpsons who started eight years early (1989) setting the ground for situational comedies and Sunday prime time T.V. as we know it.

Is difficult to think of today’s T.V. without thinking on King of The Hill, practically if you grew up in the 90’s this was one of the series that changed the view of cartoons in history and also it was one of the few who created the schism between the sweet 80’s television sitcoms and realistic approach of the 90’s. I know is difficult to think about how much television changed, but imagine Married With Children or Parker Lewis Can’t Loose set today, probably they fell and probably that’s why Married With Children was canceled because it was extremely surreal and people grew up tired of the antics of Al Bundy because they wanted something more real and less fictional (even if it was a cartoon) at first The Simpsons was the answer for the dose of reality, the anti-Cosby, but after season 10th the show went “ga-ga” and less smart, even if today entertains is not the same as it was in his first years of run, so King of The Hill took over when the Simpsons became strange.

But today’s television dynamics are changing again and following the principle of entropy, television history is repeating itself by the renaisance of the slapstick humor in the Seth McFarlane shows, who are gaining a lot of popularity lately; but Seth couldn’t do anything without the founding fathers of today’s television comedy who set the bases in the 90’s. Is going to be difficult forget a groundbreaking comedy as King of The Hill as is going to be for a very long time now in syndication and reruns because the show was canceled in early 2009, but at the end is not going to be the end but just a new beginning.

Or you love it or you hate it, is an actual true about the most popular blogger on planet Mr. Mario Lavandeira or as he is known globally Perez Hilton.Is difficult to describe Perez, he is kaleidoscope and probably the male equivalent of Oprah Winfrey right now, but at the beginning Perez was totally the opposite a man in his middle 20’s who had a childish temperament when he opened his website, not many people thought he could be a serious individual back then; but time spoke and in a gradual process (even if he use some childish tactics in his website) Perez evolved into an individual who is a crusader of LGBT rights as well as many other charities and a respectable power player in the media bizz, even his antics like using wigs or strange costumes had diminished and he looks now more respectable than he was at the start.

Being honest, at first I hated Perez but gradually I have seen the great social work he has done, and how he has opened the door to many future writers, blogger’s and journalist showing that even the most “unique” individual can become somebody not by his looks but rather by his talent and determination; clearly he set an example even if some people want to say the opposite, but probably the most important he helped to open more the doors of tolerance for the LGBT community as in the mainstream market there aren’t many gay or lesbian individuals who are power players in Tinsel Town.
Right now his website and himself clearly evolved into something more mature than it was at the beginning, just compare into the archives and the differences are clearly visible; such as promoting artist and helping charities and even if he still pokes fun at celebrities it isn’t in the same way he did at the beginning his acting more responsible right now, probably because he knows that his audience expanded and practically people from all ages read perezhilton.com .

Probably now he is less scary than he was before, as he has became a personality in his own right by doing what he does best, blogging; at first celebrities ran away from him, but slowly he has gained some recognition inside Tinsel Town as he is now friends with many stars and luminaries; it makes me wonder if all the childish acts at the beginning were some kind of calculated risk to become someone powerful and influential? I don’t know, but what I know is that Perez is going to be for many years more as he gave a fresh and irreverent look to the world of show business.

So I was right, so far so now Heroes officially jumped the shark by replacing one character with another; Sylar replacing Nathan and now living as Nathan, what a surprise and what a twist, that I can bet nobody was expecting… sarcasm… as the writers ran out of ideas with Sylar as well as Nathan so they decided to fuse both characters into one, to see if they could gain more audience, is like a twist version of the “same character different actor rule” because now Adrian Pasdar plays the mantle of Sylar (I see the sarmy really angry right now) as his old character died he has a new one; but, I don’t think the producers are dumb enough to let go Zachary Quinto as he is one of the most popular actors right now, but I am just assuming of what is going to happen on volume five, as the show has some future (can’t wait until November).

Contemporary and Modern art, are two periods in art history that revolutionized the way we see art in the 21st Century; there are many iconic paintings worldwide that challenged the standards in art history forever. 100 years ago nobody would think that a Campbell Soup would be one of the most iconic symbol in art history as well how comic books created a standard in the way younger generations see art as many comic book artist drawn from the mundane to the sublime, the comic book characters; but that was only a short introduction to the list of 10 famous works in Modern and Contemporary art trough the lenses of Pop Art.

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Campbell Soup 1: From the mundane to the sublime is the only way to describe this masterpiece that reflects how commercialism has taken a place in the world of art as well in the pop culture. Nobody so far had reflected the beauty o a Campbell Soup or any other product in such a marvelous way as founding father of the Pop Art Movement as Andy Warhol. Probably we never see that there is art even in the quotidian, such as going to the market; take a look on how the products are arranged, the shapes they form and how they tempt us the consumers to buy them. Simple a masterpiece of Modern history.

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The Scream: By Edward Mund; there are no words to describe the suffering that is behind this painting, is a scream to nowhere, a scream for desperation, a scream for attention for a scream to madness; there are many interpretations for this work of art that goes from the desperation and to the fear of dead, even fear of reality itself; is difficult to know what the figure is screaming about, but if we go what the artist was thinking when he made this masterpiece we can think that he felt a desperation for life as he was walking with some friends near Ekerberg, Olso, where suddenly the sky turned red and he felt a scream or a cry to nature. The traces are fantastic, they have an imprint of the human mind and emotions.

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City of Words: The only explanation that I can find for this lithograph from Vito Acconci, is an homage to the language as society is not composed by bricks or concrete but rather words and actions; we build our own empires trough words, we create the world trough words as language is the most important tool and invention in human history. This work is appreciate it better looking the meaning rather than the construction of the traces and the superfluous beauty as it can interpreted how we build ourselves around the world trough language.

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 The Man: By German-Serbian artist/actor Branko Tomovic; a piece that shows a influence in the early expressionism movement where there is an anguish and grim imagery, remarked by the use of spectral colors to remark the anguish of humanity. We can see that Tomovic works have a distinguish use of the existentialism imagery where the human condition is challenged up to the last moment of living; where there can be happiness, there can be beauty but suffering and the doubt of a higher being are always questioned if they influence on the human existence. There is a powerful message behind every of his pieces and we can’t wait to see more of Mr. Tomovic; if you want to visit his online gallery you can click here .

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Sawyer: A new comer in the world of Art is The Time Devourer, his work is mainly digital, making his art on the computer; his style goes with the photo realism as  well with the surrealism, even the absurd and the Pop Culture, such as as this portrait in B&W of Sawyer from Lost or references other icons of the internet and television culture.

Another week has passe, and is another week where my budget with amenities is restrained due the economical crisis and my own personal one; but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy one of my few indulgences, comic books (yes, even if I am 25 years old I like comics). One of the interesting comics that appeared this week was the Third Chapter of Messiah War which at the same time wasn’t that interesting *spoiler* as Stryfer reached Hope, X-Force and Cable; and we could get a glimpse of Apocalypse appearing at the end; maybe that means Archangel is going to join the baddies again, but in the weird Marvel time-line he appeared on issue #508 of X-Men, but I guess we need to wait to see what happens because we know Marvel time line is almost as messy as D.C. time line.

The art of Messiah War chapter three is a perfect ten, we have to applaud Clayton Crain for bringing the photo realism with this comic, as many comic books don’t have this kind style where reality is tried to be emulated until the last consequence. The writing is really cool Craig Kyle and Christoper Yost make a great team in terms of story telling as not many writers can achieve the suspense as this team gives, or as Michael Bendis who created the event Secret Invasion technically by himself.

With Messiah War, we are going to see the last consequences of Secret Invasion  and what role is going to be played by the so called Mutant Messiah.

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So… this is the beginning of the end of the Initiative? it better be, as the story seems to be running out of fresh ideas and I don’t think this title is going to be missed by many people and it sounds a good idea to that issue 24 or 25 would be the last one, and the members of the initiative would be placed on new teams or in the limbo where they are not going to be killed or anything. After almost a year the secret of the cloning of MVP has been revealed, Norman Osbourne closed Camp Hammond so what else is left for the Initiative, is difficult to speculate what is going to happen with all these characters, we can assume that some of them as Ultra Girl is going with the New Warriors an maybe Trauma is going with the baddies (if that happens is going to be cool) but what can the fans do?, just wait.

On a side note, I don’t know what to expect with the Avengers, there are what? 1, 2, 3 and 4; four teams of Avengers, The Avenger, New Avengers, Dark Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative; Marvel needs to do something with so many titles of the Avengers, is getting ridiculous, but what is getting really ridiculous is that there is no freaking clue about the Scarlet Witch, the real one.

So one more episode before the season finale of Season 3 of Heroes; Monday’s episode had the title “I am Sylar” an allusion to the comic book given in last year Las Vegas Comics-Co, which had an art with the title I am Sylar. The acting of the episode was great as always, although the writing was kind of disapoiting as it seems my theory was right that Sylar is turning more cartoonish in every episode as he absorbs a new power every time he appears, I hope on season four if the character is not going to be written out, I hope the character is make more human rather than a Hannah Barbera cartoon. The episode is a continuation of the last one where the viewer got a cliffhanger of who was the other Nathan Petrelli, but beside that this episode don’t give too much information about what is going to happen on season 3 finale, except that we are going to know is going to end in a cliffhanger and some of the main character are going to be written out.

Truly I don’t understand why when celebrities go political, they forget they are under the public eye; the biggest fail in these days is without a doubt Carrie Prejean , Miss California and one of the favorites to win the competition but we guess her xenophobic speech cost her the crown as no one was expecting such an awful remark from that beautiful woman (on the other hand, she was brave enough to say what she thinks); hey! who was the one who say beauty is only in the outside? ,no doubt this child is rotten in the inside and I don’t get? from all of the beautiful ladies in California who are avant-garde in thought, why this hillbilly was sent? I don’t get, it’s something in my mind is amazing that a woman like her was sent to represent one of the most advance States as her beauty representative, I’m just speechless to think about that because she has to know that world never stays in an status quo and slowly changes are made; remember about 50 years ago when African-Americans couldn’t vote?, remember 100 years ago when woman couldn’t vote and they were looked as third class citizens? It seems this lady don’t know how much the world has changed in the past century and is matter of time that the LGBT community gains the right to get married as heterosexual couples and people like Miss Prejean should think more openly that everybody has the same rights under the constitution, but it looks like people don’t see that and that is a hypocrisy to think that there are 3d class citizens in this world, so at the end why they don’t take a look at the constitution and see how ridicule is the ban on gay marriage because those people are committing a crime by saying is illegal as in the constitution it says everybody have the same rights and privileges.

The other fail this week is Mr. Jackie Chan, from what I think with his statement, It gives me the idea that Mr. Chan is a closeted communist but we have to wait what he has to say because he really screwed up by saying “that China needs to be controlled” , hey it seems that the lovable actor in reality have other opinions toward Democracy and politics.

Nobody every think how difficult issues of being a journalist involves being a male, I know this sounds sexist but is true, male journalist have to work harder than female journalist because people don’t trust completly them at first; I know it sounds sexiest but is true because of woman influence in the child development people grow up trusting more on women than certain issues, such as doing an interview or collecting a testimony as 99% of people grow thinking on trustful motherly figure and is true, I learned that from the experience such as many of my male peers that at the moment of gaining an interview it was a difficult process, so we learned to look more friendly to the people we were going to interview for the story we were collecting as at the end nobody really trust completly on journalist.

Right now, even if I am as a freelancer I have done more in a year and 4 months than I did back in my home country, is something that still I cannot believe it because I’m been judge by my writing and not by my looks and is something that I find interesting that some judgments are not here… but at the end probably you are wondering, why a Spanish guy is writing in English? I will leave that answer open.

I’ve been thinking lately about the price of fame; it could be true, many relations are destined to be doomed, as the percentage of divorce and split up between famous couples is really high; in a sociological POV, I wish I have an accurate answer, but is kind of difficult to think about one single reason; probably, the main one is jealously of one partner to another because he or she could achieve what the other couldn’t, technically the high rate of failed relations can be attributed to sentimental reasons focused on economical aspirations,  but at the same time living in an extra-ordinary environment where glamor and decadence are 24-7 can put strings into a relationship as there are not more positive surprises to discover in your significant other; simple, the spark that one time triggered the romance in the relationship disappears as there is not going to be anything new or amazing in the relation.

Beside the sentimental focus, there are external reasons that can influence the break up, such as groupies or fans trying to approach to their object of fantasy without realizing that he or she is interfering in a relationship, as they had to fix the fixation between them and their token of appreciation at any cost, that’s why probably we had seen such many celebrity murders in the past two decades as more people tend to get obsessed with their television or movie idol, as well as divorce. The price of the fame is not cheap, specially if you are trying to pursue a relationship, where if you are a famous individual you will be under 24 hour surveillance as your daily life will be selling tabloids, even the smallest ride to town or a trip to the supermarket will trigger the restless eyes of the paparazzi, and if you go out with a friend even to take a coffee the tabloids will make an instant gossip and a feast of speculation. Probably that is the key why many relation in Hollywood fail, because there is a a half of the couple that  could not trust completly on his or her other half, and that’s why maybe why so many relations fail so quickly, because there is no trust at all and there is always the doubt of if your partner was unfaithful (also this happens in the mainstream).

To think about one single reason, why relations in La-La Land fail so much is difficult; we have to think to a whole group of reasons and the social dynamics that move behind the center of powers; we have to know that the social dynamics in Hollywood are completly different from the rest of the world, as practically there are no ugly or average people there (J/K) but rather the way of socializing is a way to improve your personal image, and a boost to your career. You will be judged with the people you hang up or date, probably we can add that explanation to the reasoning we are trying to make to know the why so many relations are doomed there, in that place where dreams are made… probably if we think about it, is going to be difficult, but at the end we can assume that is the lack of trust and the difficult environment  that those power couples are living where the speculation can kill anything, just as real life.

What’s the deal with this crazy lady ?, I don’t know, sure she has a litter of 14 kids but that is no reason that she has to be in the center of the spotlight, but now I can say that Andy Warhol was right Everyone has their own 15 minutes of fame , I guess Andy was right everyone has their own 15 minutes of fame and is true that Nadya is no exception to the rule, but one thing that bothers me about this whole issue is that even Sideshows had been prohibited we still love looking at the freaks and that is how I see Nadya, as the human incubator and people are delighted with this sideshow that the media has given in such a frenzy; but one thing that really bothers me is that 14 children are in the middle of media circus and people forget that those children aren’t phenomenons they are human beings that deserve to be raised normally (even if the circumstances aren’t obvious) as any other child in this world, but it seems history tends to repeat itself sometimes because I am seeing the same thing that happened with the Dionne Quintuplets , human beings used as a tourist attraction.

This issue of X-Men #508, was really interesting, probably because we could get a glimpse into the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants and how they operate; we know that members are the Red Queen, Lady Deathstrike, Spiral, Chimera, and the Wyngarde Sisters. The only piece of information that was given in this issue was that the Red Queen resucitated Kwanon and that Psylocke was used in some spell to let the assasin live again, probably they will use Kwannon as a bait to the X-Men making her pose as Psylocke, I don’t know I am just making a weird theory, but still this issue was cool as it gave a new perspective of this new Sisterhood and what plans have against the X-Men.

On a side note I see that Psylocke is going to be written out as Carol Danvers but really no one dies at the comic books.

X-Men: Legacy #223 gives only the last chapter before the conclusion of the Danger Arc, so far Xavier and Gambit are looking for Rogue in the outback; but to their luck they found a group of Shiar who had plans of their own, but as everything in the Marvel Universe there is always some happy ending (even a half happy ending) we knew that Professor X took control over Danger but at the same time something happened with Rogue at the end, that I guess we have to see on issue #224; maybe X-Men Legacy is some kind of preamble to the rumored Dark X-Men?, who knows.