Spit out the gum it doesn't work



How? How did this happen? How does a man responsible for one of the worst albums of all time to one of my favourite albums of the year?



It's probably a combination of things. 35 years later, Shatner has traded in his bizzarro wailing for a quieter, more intense sort of hamming. There is still the token weird cover (of Pulp's "Common People," which you will either love or despise,) but for the most part, this time the lyrics are his own. And surprise... they're good, covering the spectrum from clever satire to sincere introspection.



His voice changes to compliment the message -- at times he is an author reading you one of his short stories, or a guy having a conversation with you in a bar, or a crazed preacher giving a sermon from his podium. The accompanying music, written by the incredibly talented Ben Folds, covers an equally broad range of styles -- gospel, jazz, tango, western, rock -- but is a perfect fit with the lyrics every time.



I'm a big Ben Folds fan, but that's not why I like this CD. No question, he is a huge contributor to the album's quality, but most of these songs sound nothing like his usual work. Folds is an incredibly gifted songwriter, and as it turns out, Shatner is a pretty solid writer. They're a heck of a team, and it's a killer disc.



Go figure!



Sam Logan

Kishinda Sono Kokoro, Sore Understand



Why yes, Andrea is talking about the same woman. Thanks for noticing!



Can I have a "behind the panels" moment? One of the cool things about comics is how the flow of the visual action can reinforce the flow of the dialogue, even when it has little to nothing to do with the actual subject of the conversation. It's something I try to do in almost all of my comics where the joke is entirely "verbal" rather than visual. And long story short, I was particularly happy with how today's turned out. Though, it kind of makes me feel like an egomaniac to deconstruct my own comics on my own website, so I think I'll just leave it at that for now!



I've mentioned before how I love to slave away making music mix CDs, toiling for hours on end to get that perfect combination of songs in the perfect, logical order. It's a kind of anal hobby, but oh well, I did it again anyhow. It wasn't intended at all, but I notice now this one is surprisingly heavy on music from outside of North America, drawing pretty substantially from Japan and, to a lesser extent, the UK and Australia. It just goes to show that music knows no borders, or... or some similar sentimental mumbo jumbo.



I think we just had a Hallmark moment.



Sam Logan

Lonely rolling star



Ah, Kiwi Cola. It's appeared in the strip more times than I can count, but I think this is the first strip to actually revolve around it!



So apparently, I decided to praise the amazing Katamari Damacy on the same day as did the Penny Arcade folks. It was entirely a coincidence, I swear. Just like it was a coincidence when Antz and A Shark's Tale were developed around the same time as A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo, respectively. Conspiracies asside, you still need to check out this game... assuming you can find a copy.



I'm actually listening to the soundtrack RIGHT NOW. It consists of some of the best songs-about-rolling-things-into-large-balls that you'll ever hear.



Sam Logan