Some things are up for debate: Muhammed Ali is the greatest boxer of all time. The Beatles were the greatest band of all time. Ghostbusters is the greatest documentary of all time.
Some things are definitely not up for debate, such as the fact that the Fender Telecaster is the greatest guitar ever made in the history of guitars. Here are some vintage ads for Telecasters.
Normally I'd encourage discussion in the comments, but there's nothing to discuss. Telecasters are the best.
note: Let's be real. There's no way I'm gonna post something everyday. From now on, this will be known as "Daily(ish) Randomness."
Today I'm going to do another action figure team-up that would be awesome. This one could actually happen, seeing as how Warner Bros. owns both of these characters.
Let's be honest here: this would be an epic 6 issue miniseries. Geoff Johns writing with Ethan Van Sciver on art. Come on, DC, make this happen!
What are some other team-ups you want to see? Let me know in the comments. Bonus question: what color ring would Space Ghost wear?
So I haven't written in my blog in a very long time. I have a couple posts that I'm working on, and have been for a while, but they won't be ready for a while, so I'm gonna try to just post small, random things every day (or almost every day). It may be something cool out of a comic book, it may be a link to a Youtube video, a news article, who knows! Or, like today, it may be a picture that I have taken. So, here goes!
The great thing about being a toy collector is that you can make your own crossovers that would never happen anywhere else. Lando riding a Ghostbusters terror dog would be cinematic gold! Would Darth Vader have altered his deal if Lando showed up riding one of these bad boys? It's not very likely! Comment with your Lando/terror dog scenarios!
I grew up during the golden age of cartoons. The 80s and early 90s produced some of the greatest pieces of animation in television history. My earliest memories of watching cartoons are of Voltron, Transformers, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Other shows that I loved were Thundercats, G.I. Joe, and Bravestarr.
Things reached a ridiculous level of awesome in 1987 with the debut of this little show you may have heard of: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That show changed my life. Well, it may not have changed my life, but it gave me something to obsess over. And obsess I did. That's another blog entry entirely, though.
Following the awesome action cartoons of the early to mid 80s were the comedy cartoons from Disney and WB: Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs.
Then came the shows that would really change my life (or at least my buying habits): X-Men and Batman: the Animated Series. Those two shows are the reason I'm a comic book fan today. I'm sure eventually I'll devote an entire blog to each of those shows, so that's all I'll say about them now.
There was something about those shows that cartoons these days are missing. It seems like back then the producers understood kids better. Or maybe we were just way cooler back then and didn't like lame stuff like kids these days do.
Anyway, this post isn't about awesome cartoons so much as their awesome opening sequences, so here are my top 6 theme songs/opening sequences in no particular order. I tried really hard to rank them, but I'm no good at that.
SWAT Kats Season Two
This is a show that I did not catch on its original run. I don't know why that happened, but I didn't start watching it until it was on Cartoon Network some time in the late 90s. The show is about two mechanics (who are also cats, just like everyone else in Megakat city) who secretly defended the city from villains and monsters as the SWAT Kats. One of the Kats (Jake) is voiced by Barry Gordon, who was Donatello and Bebop on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
What Megakat city would look like IRL.
The theme for this show is pretty awesome. It doesn't have any lyrics that describe the show or the characters, but it has some sweet guitar licks set over some pretty smooth animation. Plus, I feel like this one would be forgotten on most lists and I wanted to spotlight it.
Scooby Doo, Where are You!
Okay, so this one isn't from the 80s or 90s, but how does one make a list of great cartoon theme songs and leave this one off? The answer: one does not. I don't really have to say a lot about this show, because if you are clueless about it then you've been living under a rock for the last 40 years.
Hey. What did I miss?
This song has a great late 60s groove about it. That bass line is killer! The footage from the show is a great summary of what to expect in the show: scary ghosts, a lot of running, and Shaggy and Scooby running in funny ways. I also like the bats at the beginning.
Transformers
Awesome guitar licks, awesome robot voices, and awesome visuals of robots shooting each other with lasers. There was always something that intrigued me about the line "more than meets the eye." It's an obvious reference to the fact that they're cars or jets or whatever AND huge freakin' robots, but still, to my 4 or 5 year old brain there was something mysterious going on there.
Soundwave was more than meets the ear.
X-Men
This show has held up surprisingly well compared to other cartoons from the early 90s. Granted, there are some crazy bright colors going on in the wardrobes of most of the characters, but look at Saved By The Bell. That was happening in real life, too.
I'm pretty sure Cyclops wore this in one episode of X-Men.
The stories were pretty much straight from the comics and the theme song was straight from what I imagine a soundtrack to an X-Men comic to sound like from 1992. In the opening sequence, each character was spotlighted to show off his/her power and name (which used the characters' logos from the comics..awesome). When I started playing guitar (way back in ninth grade, circa 1996), this was one of the first songs I looked up the tabs for. I have since forgotten how to play it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how to do a cartoon and appeal to children at pretty much every level. Ninjas. Turtles. Mutants. Creative villains. Toys. Catchy theme song. When this show came out in 1987, my mind was blown. Talking turtles with swords? Yes, please! My grandparents (or parents or greatgrandparents, whomever) would buy me a new Ninja Turtles toy every time we went to Wal-Mart (which, back then, wasn't that often, because we lived way out in the sticks).
I was so very obsessed with this show. It was quite the departure from the original concept of the Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird way back in 1984. The comic started out as a parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil run. Our favorite Renaissance artist-named turtles were not the happy-go-lucky, pizza-eating friends that we grew to love on the cartoon. They were cold-blooded killers. It's what ninjas do.
I don't remember the episode where Leonardo stabbed Shredder then threw him off a building. With a grenade.
The theme was greatness. It is ridiculously catchy and tells exactly what the show is about:
They're the world's most fearsome fighting team (We're really hip!) They're heroes in the half shell and they're green (Hey, get a grip!) When the evil Shredder attacks, these turtle boys don't cut him no slack!
(Obviously, we didn't worry about things like grammar in the 80s.)
And introduces the characters:
Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He's a radical rat!) Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That's a fact, Jack!) Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!) Michelangelo is a party dude (Party!)
(The Ninja Turtles were saying "Jack" before Uncle Si!)
The song (which was co-written by Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory fame) was played over some really great animation. The animation was almost this good in the pilot episodes, but decreased in quality after that. Overall, a great opening for a great cartoon!
Batman: The Animated Series
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how to do a cartoon and appeal to everyone on almost every level. Much has already been written on the internet in the last 20 years summarizing the show or detailing its influence. In my opinion, this is the greatest animated show in the history of animated shows. As has been the case with all the themes on this list, this one gives a great introduction to the look and feel of the series. It's dark and has Batman kicking butt. And the music was composed by this guy:
Danny Elfman reworked his theme from the 1989 Batman movie to be used for the opening of the animated series. And it worked perfectly. The animation flows along with the music, rising and falling together like a couple climbing a mountain to jump to their deaths at a lovers' leap.
Well there's my list of favorites. I probably could've made this a top 15 or top 20 list, but I think six will suffice. Comment with your favorites and let's discuss.
Ah, football season. The time of year men wait all spring and summer for and women dread because they lose their husbands until February. Or maybe women are excited for that very reason. Whatever. Here are my thoughts on the goings on of various football related topics of late:
New Orleans Saints
3-0!! What a way to start the season! This is much better than last year's start, which I won't even talk about in depth, because who wants to relive that? Coach Payton is back, which has relit a fire under the Saints. New Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan has completely turned around the defense. I think it's his hair. He's a modern-day Samson.
Plus, I think he hides a 12th defender under his shirt who jumps out, swats the ball away, then runs back to his XXXL safe haven.
To start things off, the Saints beat the scourge of the NFL, the ingrown toenail on the foot of football, the despicable Atlanta Failcons. I don't like them. At all. General Sherman missed the Georgia Dome on his march through Atlanta. Can he get a redo?
Could've had a V8. Not that it would help the fact that you're a Falcon.
I don't want to start talking Super Bowl just yet, but I'm a fan, so I have to. Super Bowl, here we come!
Miami Dolphins
3-0!! How long has it been since my two favorite teams have started 3-0? No, really. How long? I'm too lazy to research it. Point is, I like it.
I was excited when they drafted Ryan Tannehill last year. I enjoyed watching him at Texas A&M and enjoyed even more watching him grow as his first NFL season went on. He's looked pretty solid so far this season.
Wait, I didn't know you could red shirt NFL players..
This upcoming Monday night, the Dolphins travel to New Orleans to face the Saints. Though they are my two favorite teams, I bleed black and gold, so I'm obviously pulling for the Saints. I just hope the Saints' victory doesn't derail what the Dolphins have going so far.
College Football
I haven't watched too much college ball this season; I've had to play music pretty much every Saturday. From what I can tell, though, Mississippi State sucks about as much as normal (which sucks). Ole Miss actually looks pretty good and they get their first real test against Alabama this weekend, which I will miss because I have to play music. Apparently, Alabama may not be quite up to their usual standards this season. Their normally stingy defense gave up 628 yards to Johnny Manziel.
The real Johnny Football
My lack of time to watch college football has not allowed me to get as excited about it as I usually am. Oh, well. There are many weeks left for me to catch some games.
Fantasy Football
For years, I've been resisting fantasy football. I thought it would take up too much time and it wouldn't be that fun, anyway. I was wrong. Even as I'm typing this, I have my fantasy league opened up in a different tab, making some adjustments to my lineup for this weekend's games.
People have told me that it completely changes the football viewing experiencing, making you care about games that you would otherwise not watch. That is true. It also causes much frustration during those games, such as Sunday night when Roethlisberger kept throwing the ball to Antonio Brown (who was on the team that mine was going up against) instead of Emmanuel Sanders (who is on my team).
Here is my team: QB - Drew Brees, Eli Manning; WR - Danny Amendola, Jordy Nelson, Emmanuel Sanders, Golden Tate, Torrey Smith; RB - Reggie Bush, Darren Sproles, Ben Tate, Le'Veon Bell; TE - Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates; Kicker - Garrett Hartley; Defense - Denver.
I think next season I'm gonna join another league or two. Lots of fun.
Which brings us to...
So far it's been the trend in this blog for me to lay out in the open things that are convicting me, so here we go again.
Why in the world do so many Christians (myself included, oh so much) get so fired up about something as meaningless as football but fail to engage in even one conversation a week about Christ? There's some kind of disconnect between what our priorities should be and what they actually are.
Am I saying it's wrong to enjoy football season? No, I don't think it's wrong. I just think we need to be really careful about what our focus is on. Colossians 3:2 says, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." It's really easy for me to get carried away with all the excitement of my two favorite teams being undefeated and lose sight of what matters.
So I'm asking that you pray for me that I can keep my focus on things above and I'll do the same for you.
I'm going to take this time to share with you some of my favorite comic artists. I'm not going to say anything about them, I'm just gonna let the artwork speak for itself. So here they are, in no particular order (except for Jim Aparo being first...he's my absolute favorite):
Jim Aparo
Neal Adams
Adam Kubert
There should totally be bones where some of those bullet holes are, but whatever. It still looks cool.
Mark Texeira
Hope you enjoyed looking at some drawings that I enjoy looking at. This was fun for me. I'll probably do another post like this one soon. Y'all be good to each other.
