In the summer there is the tv show hiatus... I can't wait to the new season of Heroes to begin. And I have to wait till January to see new episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Lost :( In a way this is a good thing, though. In the meanwhile I can catch up with podcasts and reading and writing songs and... Sometimes I wonder if it's healthy to actually stress about things that you do for fun. All things concerning popular culture are just that for me, but still somehow I manage to feel stressed when I haven't read all the books I want or am not up to date on all the tv shows or podcasts that sound interesting.

I have this problem that I have to know if not everything then at least a lot on a subject that I'm interested in. For example, when I found the Buffy season 8 comics it isn't enough just to read that. I need to find out what else is out there what might possibly interest me. And then of course I need to also acquaint myself with all the classics of the genre so, that I can actually say that I'm interested in comics. And I also have to read some manga to have an opinion about that as well. This has to be some kind of disease or something. I wonder if I would be able to be only slightly interested in something... what a novel idea...

Been very busy lately... Mainly because I'm taking a Japanese course in the Summer University of Helsinki. I'm busy, because the course is on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So it takes up a lot of energy. But Japanese is cool. Maybe I can read manga in Japanese one day. Although, I still need to find a manga that I really like. Well, Astro Boy might be one. And you can always learn from different cultures (also I think that Hiro might have a small effect on my current enthusiasm about Japanese).

Today I created an account in the Wikipedia. I decided that since I use it a lot, I should also contribute. Especially to the Finnish version. But maybe to the English one as well, if there are same articles that need updating. Like I don't have enough things to do already. But I think sharing the knowledge, even if it is about trivial things, is very important. And it's good to have a possibility to access the knowledge in your own language, since not everyone is fluent in English. I already found things to update. And if I'm too lazy to actually update the articles, I can always do some grammar control and editing. Sharing is caring :)

I just finished watching the final episode of the first season of Heroes. I still can't believe how good the show was. I mean, the whole season. Adding to my favorite shows, this one blew me away. I've always love the superhero stuff and this was that but then it had the other thing that I love: it was very character driven. And who would not love Hiro Nakamura? I do. I have high hopes for the second season and I can't wait for it. I had to order the dvd right away.

Well, there will be a long summer before the fall... and before the next season. These weeks are really exciting for me. Last week I was watching the final episodes of Gilmore Girls (the very last one, since it's not coming back for next season) and Grey's Anatomy. This week there was Heroes and there's still coming Veronica Mars and Lost. I will be so tired when this week is over...

Well, I gotta say that when Lost first started in Finland, I thought, this is not really for me. Now I've seen it recommended in so many places by people who I seem to have a similar taste with, that I just had to give it another go. And I'm totally hooked. I've seen the first 7 episodes of the first season and I can't wait to watch more. The only problem is I have to sleep once in awhile... I think what influenced my first decision about the series was the fact that Veronica Mars was on at the same time on a different channel and I was kind of surfing between the two shows, and didn't really get the feel for Lost. Veronica was already a favorite.

Well, now I got one more addiction to follow. I think I just should stop at some point, but it might not be possible with my compulsive obsessive nature. Or maybe the series loses its thing after awhile and I don't need to follow it anymore. I guess one can always wish... Gotta go to sleep, so that I can wake up for Lost again... Not that I'm a slave for tv shows or anything.

I just have to tell the world how much I LOVE the new season of Buffy. At the moment I'm paying dearly for that love at the moment, since I've ordered the first two issues from US and that's costly. Now I'm starting to get them through a friend of mine who has a pull list at the local comics store. So the costs are coming down to half. Anyway, I just got the issue 2 today and that's what prompted me to write. I just had to sit down and read it first even though I was dying of hunger. And of course I can't eat while reading my Buffy comics, since I might accidentally get some food on them and then the world as we know it would end.

The picture on this post is from the first issue and the best panel I've ever seen in comics. It's not exactly a power walk, but something similar. And I'm a fan of power walks. Well, the power drop just hasn't the ring to it... I was a bit worried of the art style, since I don't always like the way comics and especially women in comics are drawn, but after reading a few interviews with Joss Whedon where he said that he carefully picked the artist who wouldn't draw Buffy with inflatable breasts, I started to breathe again. And when I saw what Georges Jeanty had done I was relieved that I could trust Joss Whedon's judgement.

I was annoyed when I read one of the letters in the back of issue 2, though. One reader basically said that if Tara doesn't come back and get back together with Willow, she will stop reading the comics altogether. I really didn't like the tone of that mail. I mean, even though I might have some preferences where I would like to see the story go, I wouldn't dream of telling Joss Whedon and the other writers how to do their job. And I noticed while watching the tv series that even though the turn of events was sometimes not what I would've liked the story as a whole usually was better for it. As Joss Whedon said somewhere (my mind is failing where I heard it) you shouldn't give the audience what it wants, but what it needs. And I need season 8! In my opinion there's nothing to complain about. But then I might be biased since Joss Whedon is my master...

I found some old comics at my parents's place. There were these old comics about Indians (this might not be a correct term, but in Finnish it's definitely not insulting and is not meant in any offending way here) that I used to love as a kid. The comics were called Hopeanuoli (Silver Arrow), which was the name of one of the main characters a young chief of the Kiowa tribe. A little search int he wikipedia tells me that the comics were published in Finland from 1976-1985, so it ended around the time I learned to read. I remember reading these first when we were visiting some friends of our parents's who had two sons that were few years older. Then I found them in the local second-hand book store. Now I actually learned that the comic was created by Belgian guy called Frank Sels. Not much about the comics can be found in the internet. The site with most information is a Danish fan site. So, if you can read Danish, go ahead.

Why am I writing about this? Well, I really used to love this comic. I always thought the Indian culture was very fascinating and I guess this romanticized my image about it a bit further. Now when I actually read couple of the old issues, there wasn't that much in there. I loved the little mountain lion cub that was running around and the strong female character Kuunsäde (Moon Beam), who was so not featured enough. I think even as a kid I was more drawn to the historical facts about Indians and their livestyle and what happened to them when the white men came. And even though I won't be spending a lot of time going over these magazines, I'm glad I found them and got reminded how much they were a part of my life one time. I'm feeling very nostalgic at the moment...

To get the blog thing going, I thought I would start with a review of a recent Buffy comic that I read. Unlike all things Joss Whedon that I usually enjoy, this wasn't up there with all the great stuff. I read it few weeks ago and the almost same review, and maybe some other opinions can be found here.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Viva Las Buffy

published by Dark Horse Comic in july 2003
Writers: Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza
Penciller: Cliff Richards
Inker: Will Conrad
Colorists: Dave McCaig & Liza Gonzales
Letterer: Clem Robins
Cover art: Paul Lee & Brian Horton

Ok, come on. I really didn't like this story. It was about Buffy before she came to Sunnydale, but in the world where Dawn exists. And Pike is there. The problem is that in the movie Pike was cool and in this he just whines and gets in the way. I really liked Pike in the movie, and maybe also because of this I really didn't like the story.

Also I don't think the story fits with the tv-series storyline. I mean, in the beginning of 1st season of Buffy, Angel wasn't really the one to fight and protect Buffy. Even in the end of the season he let Buffy face the master by herself. So it's really not believable that he's fighting very actively to protect her before this.

Also, Buffy was a lot more insecure in the beginning and it would be funny that just few months before she's totally confident fighting vampires. And Buffy has been all about that slayer can have it all: the job and personal life, so it's not really believable that she breaks up with Pike because of her duty as a slayer. Especially since she had "retired" when she came to Sunnydale.

And then come on: who really lets a 15-year-old to work in a casino? And what's with Giles and the watchers's council? I was under the impression that he didn't know Gwendolyn Post or Wesley personally. He thoroughly checked Wesley's background when he came to Sunnydale. If he had known him, he wouldn't had had to.

Besides the insipid and utterly stupid plot the writers were trying poorly to imitate the language of the tv series. The art wasn't too bad, but nothing extraordinary either. So I think that this was basically ripping off the fame of Buffy. Doesn't really make me crave for more Buffy that is not written by Mutant Enemy writers.

I'm watching Buffy again... I just finished the season 4 again and the last episode of that season Restless got me into blogging mode, hence the new blog. I don't think the season 4 was my favorite of all, but Restless was great. I just love the cheese man. My favorite quote is:

I wear the cheese, it does not wear me.

So, that got me thinking of a new blog about all things popular culture. I've also recently found the world of podcasts and got reintroduced to the world of comics, that is a lot wider that I thought. Also the reintroduction to comics is because of Joss Whedon and his new series of Buffy, season 8.

So, let's go wear some cheese!