Nothing in Common

Today I went to a store I usually go. A collection items store. I bought two things, also I spent some time talking to the owner, which I have a friendship relation. WE talked about comics, movies and some stuff but after a while I started getting bored, even though the conversation was good.

I´ve always had that, I lost interest in people easily, maybe it´s me or it´s the others´fault. I get bored ad it affects me, not something I can call a issue, maybe it´s a defence mechanism or just a "thing" telling me to get out as fast as I can or to terminate the conversation, I don´t know.

I can´t complain, I bought two figures I didn´t have and tonight I have some good TV shows to watch.

I also need to have my hair cut.

Nothing to Say

I really don´t have nothing to say, anything has happened to make me write about it, but I wanted to add something here, I found these 2 photos so, It´s at least something. Enjoy.

Dream Hunters, Luxuria, Hunter, Gula, Brief Lives and The Outfit.

Last week, I went to a new (quite not so new) at least was new to me bookstore. It´s called Cultura, like you can see in the picture below. I ordered a book, Sandman: The Dream Hunters and they had the book, luck me. I went there and I have to say it wasn't an easy trip. It´s a little far from my home so I took the subway and then a bus to go. When I arrived, I was mesmerized by the amount of books they have there. I believe 20.000 give or take.I have to say the comic book section, TPbs and Hcsis one of the biggest I've ever seen. I wish I had a lot of money to spend but I spent a good amount as well. After all, not only I found what I was looking for but...

... I also bought Casanova: Luxuria and Gula, Sandman Vol7: brief Lives, not to mention...

... The two volumes of Richard Stark: Parker, The Hunter and The Outfit.

Sunny Day

In homage to this horrible raining day, some sunny photos I took last week,

Pretty much what is coming for Summer.

Superman Vs Muhammad Ali

Today, after some months waiting I finally got my Superman VS Mohammad Ali Deluxe Edition. I read that story when I was very young, back when I started reading comics. This one is new and like the name says, deluxe. I just can´t wait to read it again. It´s what I´ll go as soon as I get home.

Sometimes is hard to talk with lobotomized people.

After lunch, I went back and I was only me, a woman, who sometimes do some work for us arrived just in time, to spoil my day!


She is very boring, those who when start talking, doesn´t end soon you being so pissed and start a fight.


She started asking how I was, not so bad, I answered I was ok, nothing new and stuff but for her, it´s the click to start her drill, endless talking. She asked me if I watched Green Lantern, I said I did but the movie was lame and boring...Why I did that? She stared trying to convince me I was wrong, the movie (even she doesn´t know a thing about Green lantern) was entertaining, full of action and stuff, maybe I watched a different movie. I said (which I am sure I am not wrong) the movie was boring, slow pace rhythm, the actor, Ryan Reynolds so dull, not to mention he made Green Lantern looks like a retarded. It´s what I think about the movie, sorry. It was what she wanted to re-start her crusade to make me change my mind, pointless. After some bi time later and so my patience, she changed the subject, talking about a rail accident that happened here in Rio. I was aware of that but not that aware, that was when the party really started. When I realised, we were fight about how Brazil handles its people and about this stupid Olympic Games and World Cup. I was about to lose my mind, when I decided to leave my office and go home, after almost an hour of terror.


I just hate to talk with people who doesn´t respect other´s opinions. Maybe I am not right, maybe I am but like I respect others, them have to respect mine. If you can´t do that, why are you gonna spend a big amount of time talking to others?


At least my afternoom wasn´t that bad, I bought some rare comics and have some fun with an adorable girl. Thank you my lobotomized friend for that and next time she comes, I will close the door and call the exorcist.

This Week

This week is going to be great! On Thursday, I will go to biannual book fair and only the trip to arrive there is like an event itself. It´s pretty far from where I live and work so, I will not go to work... don´t tell my boss.


If you want to take a sneak peek, check this old post about it:


http://cpahl2000.blogspot.com/2009/09/biannual-book-fair.html



Don´t worry, I will post abut it later this week, after I go. I just love to go there, it´s quite an experience!

Action! Figures.

This Monday I bought two new additions to my collection. Marvel Select Captain America (Buck) and Spider Woman. I didn't have both and were pretty cheap, well, they were.

This is Buck, at least he is still alive in my collection, different from the comic world, which he died, trying to save the World from Sin, Red Skull´s daughter.

This is Spider Woman.

Now both are in their place in my shelves.

This is my happy face after I got them.

Just Like The Good Old Days!

Today I went to watch Captain America with my mom and before that, we went to a small comic book fair, after a while a good but small one was here in Rio. I missed the old days when we used to go to lots of those fairs, It was like religious, not to mention stores to hunt down comics for my collection. I still remember those days, I always went back home full of comics, I just loved that and also miss it. Sad here in Rio doesn´t have it very often. I ended up buying some good and rare comics, specially that big captain Britain TPB, from marvel U.K. Also The Kents TPB and some Secret Origins issues and In The Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe HC from Vertigo.

By the way, Captain America was FANTASTiC!!!! Actually was a very nice movie telling captain America´s origin, respecting some of the comics elements and also adding some new things from the movie mythology. Also the scenes after the credits... Awesome!! That´s why Marvel´s movies are unique events and I can´t wait to watch The Avengers next year.

Funny and unusual

Today I had some time off after lunch so I decided to go to a bookstore. It´s a type of flee market, a two floor store full of old books and magazines. Of course I went straight to the comic book section.


I already went there, several times but the reason I don´t go there often is it´s very dirt, all the shelves and comics are dust and disorganized. You need patience and hours to go deep and dig all shelves if you want to find anything you want and sometimes, you´ll not succeed.


Actually, I wasn´t looking for any specific comic, I just went to kill some time off but I found an old Prisoner limited series I didn´t read, 4 part mini-series. I also find some interesting stuff I will go get them in another opportunity but what really caught my attention was the cat I saw there, yeah a cat.


I knew that grey cat for a long time, he is a type of mascot of the place. He is a piece or work. he sleeps on the shelves, just like he is taking care of the comics. Interesting is when you ask him to move to another spot and he goes. He is really nice but very away, he looks to you, let you touch him and play but after a while. he moves, lays down and goes to his sleeping.


Sometimes, those small and amusing things really make our day, even for a little while, like this funny cat, definitively his way put a smile on my face.


Sad I forgot to take a picture but next time I go there, I will take one.

Bored (again)

I am kind of bored today, actually this whole week I a´ve been feeling that way. Nothing really bad happened to click on this feeling but it happened. In fact, a bad incident happened, some accounting problems really made me down, also boredom really affects me



I am sure after watching The Hangover 2 (I will scape from work later to watch it) will, is going to make me feel much, much better.



Until them, lunch and some more boring stuff is waiting for me. Ah! Hope my new comics arrive today.

Thor.

Yesterday, I watched Thor and what I can say, any doubts in my mind, it was a excellent movie.

I read toms of Thor adventures in comics but I never considered myself a big fan of Thor. There are amazing stories and runs, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas and John Buscema, Walter Simonson, Tom de Falco and Rom Frenz although after the latter I mentioned, I stopped reading his adventures, only his Avengers´s part, just that.

When J. Michael Straczynski too over, with his visionary and fresh vision of Thor, I became a fan again and since Thor #1 (once again) i've been reading Thor.

Thor movie really is what brought me back to the character in comic format, freshpoint but without the classic aspects of the character.

I had no idea Straczynski wrote the story, I have to say was amazing. He and the other writers really knew the game. They didn´t used a version of thor, instead, they mixed a variety of elements from the classic stories. Lee and Kirby´s run was there, Simonson´s Thor was there too, I just loved they didn´t used Dr. Donald Blake´s persona, really was a fantastic thng because it didn´t confused the non fans, and i liked too, even though I thnk Blake´s return to Thor´s mythology was another great things from Straczyinski´s mind and run, also, most of what he did was there, pleasing a big fan of his run myself.

The other characters were excellent played by their actors, Antony Hopkins´Odin was excellent, he portrayed all might father classy, like always, Tom Hiddleston as Loki was amazing! It was the real Prince of Lies in movie scream. Bravo, he was one of the best part of the movie, his moves, expressions, deceives and everything, Kat Dennings always cute and beautiful, Stellan Skarsgard was great as well. The Warriors Three were there too. I like them and they were great too.



Lady Sif by Jamie Alexander was so beautiful, she played her in an extraordinary way. She is now one of my movie crushes after that movie. I think the cast really got right in every choice for this movie.

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Chris Hemsworth as Thor had the perfect chemistry together. His Thor was flawless, from Thor´s fall to his return to grace, he knew the game and Portman, as (different from comics, which Foster was first a nurse and later a MD) movie´s Jane Foster was a scientist, really was the hook to make the movie relevant and perfect.

I loved Clint Barton(Hawkeye) appearance , made me want the day to watch The Avengers´movie, I just can´t wait for that.

The special effects were the ticket. The colors, locations, Asgard was huge, shinning and so living, like a real place not that fantastic making believe comics and mythology home of Nordic Gods.

If you have second thoughts in watching Thor, take this humble entry review as an invitation to watch Thor. From a die hard comics fan to others and non fans, it´s a movie you don´t need to read any Thor comics to have a great time in the cinema, go watch, you´ll not regret.

I´m back (again)

After some time off , I returned to this old and reliable blog. In fact I kind of put behind what I like the most, writing. I totally lost my thing, I realized I had nothing new to tell, which was my mistake because the real reason, what make any blog alive is to write on it, even if it´s an ordinary and senseless (not so quite) stuff.


I felt I was voiceless and spending some type on my other blog, Life or Something http://cpahl2000.tumblr.com I saw I need some space to write and I still have lots to write, even if what I write will not save the world or cure ant disease.


I set a day, in every week to post anything here, Monday will be the prime day to do it, when it´s not possible, any other day but I will write weekly I will try.


If you want, check my tumblr blog and here too, I also change the blog´s title, just a little. It will continue to be Thoughts but with something else.


Hope can be relevant and be a blogger (kind of lol! )

The Cape,

I just love The Cape! I stated watching because of the theme, super hero adventures and after 5 episodes I have to say, it´s one of the best TV series out there.

The series, set in fictional Palm City, CA, follows Vince Faraday, an honest detective who decides to leave the police force after he witnesses the murder of a new police chief by a mysterious individual known as "Chess". Faraday accepts an offer to work for a private security firm named ARK, owned and operated by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Fleming. ARK is petitioning Palm City to privatize the police and public safety operations.

An e-mail from an investigative blogger known only as "Orwell" leads Faraday and his partner, Marty Voyt, to a cargo train owned by Fleming's firm. They discover the train is smuggling implosiveWMDs inside children toys. Unfortunately, Voyt set up Faraday and delivers him to "Chess", who is Fleming the CEO of ARK. Fleming frames Faraday for the police chief's murder and sends his security team after Faraday (televised by News channels) ending with a tanker explosion.

The entire city (including Faraday's family) now believes Faraday is "Chess" and has perished in the explosion. Faraday is abducted, but then becomes accepted, by "The Carnival of Crime", a traveling circus turned bank robbery ring. Their ring leader, Max Malini, trains Faraday to use a special black cape for defense against his intended foes. Max convinces Faraday to not reveal his identity, as this would endanger his wife and son. He then decides to fight Palm City's corruption and clear his name by adopting the visage of his son's favorite comic book hero, The Cape.

Max Faraday The Cape is played by David Lyons, the aazing Summer Glau plays Jamie fleming /Orwel, an investigative blogger who wages war on the crime and corruption in Palm City. She becomes Vince's ally and helps him even though she is trying to keep her life and her reasons a secret. James Fraim is Peter Fleming / Chess – the billionaire founder/CEO of Ark Industries and the Cape's nemesis. He is a criminal mastermind and serial killer and is responsible for framing Vince for the murders. When appearing as his alter ego, Chess, Fleming's pupils appear as chess pieces, specifically a knight and a rook; it is revealed in the Season 1 finale that this change is made with contacts. He has an obsession with the game of chess, as he sees everything around him as merely a game, often using chess terminology in his speech. In "Scales", Fleming reveals he is a mechanical engeneer. It has been strongly implied that Fleming has multiple personality dissorder, as he has had conversations with his Chess persona - who urges him to kill everyone and .keith David as Max Malini – the ringleader of a gang of circus-performers-turned-bank-robbers known as "The Carnival of Crime". He mentors Vince after saving him and trains him to become the Cape. Despite being a criminal, he shows a strong knowledge of right from wrong, and abhors the use of killing, operating on what would appear to be a strong moral code.

The series has everything, action, intrigue, suspense, a real super hero comic in a TV series. Sad to not know if it will continue, another season is not sure to happen but if it only have only this season,I am sure I will always remember this series as one of the best I´ve followed and if you love The Cape, let´s make this extraordinary series continue.

Cruel Summer!

Last Friday, I decided to break free from my regular activities and I escaped to take a walk on the beach. It was one of the hottest days in Rio´s Summer, which is difficult, real difficult to not name a hottest day during the Carioca´s Summer. I will not write or try to describe how beautiful and was the day so I posted some photos I took so, enjoy and let yourself travel your mind to the beautiful Ipanema´s beach. have fun!

A New Beginning Of My Old Collector´s Life.

Two week ago, I started a new level in my collector´s life, I changed where I used to buy my comic books. Since 1991, I bought my comics in the same store/service but after almost two years of problems and bad quality service, they decided to stop the service of importing comics.


It is notorious I hate changes but I had to do if I wanted to continue to buy and read my comics, I have to say it was for the best. A good friend started importing the comics and now he is the store, if I can call this way. I felt a little nostalgic, after all I bought my comics in the same way but this new is totally different and much, much cheaper than the previous one.


These comics I received represented the November´s comics, was a huge amount but now it´s the way that has to be, weekly and in fact, I received another box yesterday and another one arrived and next Tuesday will be in my home. I am pretty happy, although I still got a big number of back issues but my friend found a place and we already ordered some, to complete this hole in my collection.





You can see some here, Superior, Sweet Tooth, Buffy, Action Comics and the box.

More of them.

Now you can see Superboy #1, Thor, Unwritten. Bellow you have zatanna, Superman, Detective Comics Gotham City Sirens, Amazing Spider-Man and Batman Inc.

I am very happy I can continue to collect and buy my comics and the most important, read them, was a dark time , the uncertainty of continue or not was really tough but now I am happy. I know it´s totally pointless but I love reading comics, since I was 6 I´ve been reading them and I just can´t stop doing it. I know, I am just a big kid

Christmas!!!

So far, Christmas has been awesome! I got my Absolute All Star Superman editon and a copy of Grant Morrisson: Talking with Gods DVD, which I was dying to get in my hands and I watched last night.My dearest Sandra gave to me. I am not a Christmas type of guy but this year so far, it´s been fantastic!

Finally!

Today I finally made this blog´s background the way I always wanted, my onw, not just an already created or someone else´s design, my very own. I found the perfect image that ilustrated what my blog really is. I am pretty happy, it took me a while but I managed it extremelly well.

Well done Claudio, you are a real designer. lol!

I have now do do a title image for my blog, half way throught it.

You Can Be Old But You Also Can Kick Some Ass And Red Shows That.

Today was good day. I went to the movies with a friend and we watched Red. It´s a fine movie. Based on a Graphic Novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. It´s totally different from the comics, well, pretty much different. The main character was there but the rest, was a little different but great.


We just love it, even it was based on a comics ( I don´t like those movies based on comics, they change everything about it) and it´s a entretainment from the beggining to the end.

Frank Moses , a former black-ops CIA agent, is now living a quiet life in retirement. However, he begins to feel lonely and often chats on the phone with Sarah , a customer service agent working for Frank's pension office in Kansas City.

His life is disrupted when a hit squad raids his house in the middle of the night. Frank kills the assassins and, knowing they would have tapped his phone, goes to Kansas City to protect Sarah. She becomes Frank's reluctant companion while he tries to find out who is trying to kill him, and track down his old black ops team for help. Meanwhile, CIA agent William Cooper is assigned to hunt and kill Frank

John Mankovich is fantastic! Marvin Boogs , his character doesn´t exist on the comics but here, he makes it one of the best part of the movie. He is a extraordinary actor and this shows why. Mary-Louise Parker as Sarah is another gen of the movie. She isn´t one of my favourite actresses but here she is perfect, not to mention she was the best choice for the part and she and Willis fitted together perfectly.


Morgan Freeman, what can I say about him... just perfect! Hellen Mirren too. She is the best actresses of all time and playing Victoria, an international professional hit-woman. When she appeared, I got crazy! lol!



Red is an etraordinary and well made movie. if you read the story and don´t want to watch because it´s a bit different, change your mind and watch it, you´ll love the movie. If you didn´t read the story but fear it´s another comic-based movie, you are wrong! It´s one of 2010´s best action movie . After all, it´s doesn´t matter if you are retired or if you are old, Red shows elderly can kick some butts too and with style!

Darn It!!!

This mid November has been a little unfair, specially to me. After I had a huge hindrance in my life, in regards to something I really love, I am kind of trapped in uncertainties. I know there is a way out to solve this bad thing but at what cost? I really don´t know how will be from January on, again, uncertainties.


Anyway, at least I got a way out.