Ruin The Links

Did Millennials Ruin the Olympics? I know it's hard for older people (like the kind of people that run TV networks) to wrap their mind grapes around this but younger people just don't sit down in front of the TV as much as previous generations did. It's not a matter of getting them to tune in, it's a matter of taking the content to where they are. I mean, I'm too old to know where they are but I know they're out there. Snapchat maybe?

Former NBC Analyst Dwight Stone Calls It's Track & Field Coverage a Disgrace. Former employee calls out old boss is hardly a surprise, but I love that Pole Vault seems to be right at the forefront of the track and field discussion. Pole Vault hasn't been this relevant since Sergei Bubka was breaking the world record every 2 weeks.

The Four Women Saving Wrestling. First off, that's a fantastic illustration, top notch work by GQ. Secondly, this is a great article about the current state of women's wrestling in WWE. It sucks that it's taken so long but we're finally at the fireworks factory. Bayley's debut to the main roster on RAW last night was probably the highlight of the show and definitely got the biggest reaction from the crowd. I know this might sound crazy but when you give the audience a reason to care about something, as opposed to relegating it to pee breaks between the "important matches" people will actually care about it. Crazy huh?

13 New Marvel Cosplay Variants. In theory I really like these Variant covers, but in execution many of them don't have very interesting backgrounds or dynamic poses. The photos and costumes look a little amateurish. Maybe it's the trade dress? I don't know what it is exactly, I just know that as much as I like cosplay I'm not shelling out 9.99 for any of these.

Dark Links

The Significance and Possibilities of The DC Superhero Girls Line. Here's some big news that shouldn't be. DC and it's parent company Time Warner, have finally come to the conclusion that girls also like comic book superheroes. Woohoo?

As the parent of a boy and a girl I loathe the idea that some toys are inherently for girls or for boys. If Logan wants to play with My Little Pony go for it, if Ash wants to play GI Joe, great. I'll be Bazooka. In a perfect world you wouldn't need Lego specifically marketed for girls because Lego is pretty gender neutral to begin with. The thing is we don't live in a perfect world, if you try and make products gender neutral they don't find their way to retail shelves because Target needs and aisle for boys and and aisle for girls. I don't know who to blame there, title 9?

The long and the short of it is that when it comes to superhero swag the genders have not been represented equally. A line of toys and merch exclusively marketed for girls isn't the perfect solution but it's a start.

Chris "Birdman" Andersen Has a $300 ATM Withdrawal Limit, Drives a '67 Chevy C-10. Chris Anderson sort of checks every box for me as far as professional athlete goes. Crazy athletic, check. Mohawk, check. Overcame a drug problem, check. Complete ass to the press, check and check.

The 1968 Playmate of the Year AMC AMX Comes With A Very Twisted Story. I'm not sure if they still do it but Playboy used to give every Playmate of the Year a cool pink car. Some of those cars were kinda out there. This AMC AMX kinda got involved in murder. Good times.

Dark Chocolate Is Not Good for You, and Also Sucks. I'm going to go on record as semi-pro-dark chocolate. I LOVE Hershey's special dark but I also understand that it isn't real Dark Chocolate. Ditto on the dark chocolate M&Ms but those organic 90% cacao bars they sell at starbucks for 5 dollars are HORRIBLE. It's like eating chocolate flavored drywall. Yeah it's better than eating regular drywall but it's still drywall. Also chocolate snobs are the worst. I work with like a dozen of them.

Tragic Links

Incredible Hulk, GI Joe Artist Herb Trimpe Passes Away at Age 75. Jeez, I'm not sure if this served as a kick in the ass this morning or just one more thing to keep me down. I guess we'll see how the rest of the day goes. Long story short Herb Trimpe is one of the co-creators of Wolverine (who I'm silly enough to have named my son after), he's a legend that had a long storied career in comics. He also kind of got dicked over by the big 2 when art styles changed in the 90s. He went from goto guy, to guy that couldn't get regular work. Anyway, his passing is sad and I wish his family the best.

As far as the context of where this fits in with my life, the last 24 hours have been pretty rough. My son has bronchitis and walking pneumonia, which is entirely treatable BUT he completely refuses to take his medicine. We spent about an hour and a half last night trying to get him to take it. We started by offering rewards but that didn't work. Finally after taking away everything he likes to play with he agreed to take the medicine and then immediately spit it out... That's when I totally lost it and made a BIG deal about throwing his new toys in the garbage right in front of him. That's when he completely melted down and I had to retreat to the basement with baby girl. It was just a horrible feeling as a parent. Long story slightly shorter, after another hour of nonsense this morning he finally took his medicine. Needless to say it's put me in a real poor mood. This Herb Trimpe stuff.. I don't know. It bums me out even more, but it's also a good reminder that my problems with the kiddo aren't that big in the grand scheme of things.

I Tried Tidal and It Sucked. The press conference for Tidal had glorious flop written all over it. So far so good. The funny thing about Tidal is that I believe if it really was a better streaming platform it could be successful. There's certainly a market out there willing to shell out big bucks for for high quality audio. Yes, people who wear Beats headphones aren't really getting quality audio but they think they are and that's the important thing. It's amazing how sometimes repackaging the same old crap as premium and goosing the price can actually work. HOWEVER, if your product is hot garbage, which it sounds like Tidal is, it doesn't matter how many Kanye's you have at your press conference you're doomed from the start.

Olivia Munn has been cast as Psylocke. Not bad Fox. I'm not sure how Olivia Munn will be as an action star but she's been surprisingly good on The Newsroom. They could have done a lot worse here, right?

The Tragic Love Story of Christy Mack and MMA Fighter War Machine. Jimminy Christmas this is a sad story. When this hit the news cycle a few months ago a lot of people were really dismissive of the whole thing. I mean she's a porn star, who cares right? Plus his name is freaking War Machine what did she expect?

I think that's kind of a garbage attitude to have. Domestic violence is a terrible thing that effects a ton of people and this story is brutal and real and I think very important in the context of today's celebrity obsessed culture. Anyhoo, it's a good read, check it out.

The Doubleclicks: Nothing to Prove

This video by the Doubleclicks is pretty great. As the newish father of a baby girl I've become much more acute to the amount of institutionalized sexism there is in almost every aspect of raising a kid. For instance my son has a boat load of Justice League branded clothes and books. None of them have Wonder Woman in them, because he's a boy and I suppose if his shoes had a girl on them they would be girls shoes? Meanwhile have fun finding anything Justice League related for a little girl that isn't all Wonder Woman and Batgirl.... also hope you like pink!

Those are just small superficial things, I would rather deal with a mountain of pink onesies than the first asshole that tells my little girl she can't do or like something mundane simply because she's a girl (with my luck that a-hole will be my son).

Anyway, back to the video. This thing already has a million hits. That's pretty good for a Portland nerdcore folk band that I've only heard of because I've fallen far too deep down the Pacific Northwest nerdcore rabbit hole. Good on ya ladies, make your voices heard, or read in this particular case.

ECCC Story: Girl Power

I know, I know. Girl Power is a very 90s, Spice Girls thing to say. It's almost come to represent a superficial female empowerment that's often driven by embracing sexist attitudes in a half-hearted attempt to subvert them, yet in the end kind of reinforces them further. Sometimes when dealing with heavy issues like sexism and racism the illusion of change becomes more important than any sort of real, substantial, change.

Sorry that paragraph got way deeper than I usually get.

There were a lot of kick ass female artists/writers at Emerald City Comic Con this year. Out of the measly 10 books I did get signed, 5 were either written or drawn by women. And I'll be honest, the women that I talked to, like Kelly Sue DeConnick or Amanda Conner, were a lot nicer and more interesting as a whole than their male counterparts. That's not to say that I didn't have some great conversations with a couple dude artists. It's just that if I had to choose between hanging out with the gals or the guys, I'm picking the gals. Maybe that says more about me than anything else? I don't know.

It's amazing how quickly I can get away from my original point.

As the father of a 7 month old future geek girl, it was great seeing how many positive female role models there are in the industry and culture that I love so much. There's still a long way to go but it feels like the tide is turning. I know that one father's experience at one convention doesn't erase all the fake geek girl memes or the boorish behavior of some guys that think seeing cleavage is a free pass to harassment but it did provide some needed encouragement that this is a community I'd be happy to raise my daughter in.



ps. the girl dressed as Deadpool in the picture up top was one of my favorite cosplayers at the con. She was super bad ass. I didn't take the picture but I wanted to share it.

pps. I have lots to blather on about regarding Emerald City Comic Con this last weekend. I'm going to try and spread it all out over this week, so if you didn't want to read about ECCC, maybe you should hang out at Ars Technica this week. Go head, I won't hold it against you.

What am I doing with a Russian Prostitute?

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Difference Makers - Roy Den Hollander
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Last night Stephen Colbert gave us a profile of another great American, Roy Den Hollander. Hollander's legal fight against ladies nights is truly a noble struggle.