What J.D. and Turk Have Taught Me About Fatherhood

As I sit here, mere hours away from witnessing the birth of my first child a lot of emotions are rumbling in my tummy.  Of course I am super excited to meet this little girl who has made my wife very moody and achy this last month.  I am a bit nervous about doing the right thing during and after labor.  What if I don't rub Lisa's back enough or what if I drop the kid as they had her to me?  Chances are I may vomit from all the smells I'll be experiencing.  Then of course there is several kinds of dread.  Dread that this child will out live me, which means I already feel like I dying, and I'm also dreading the day she starts growing breasts and the boys start to notice her growing breasts.  But of course I'm happy to see the face of my wife as she is excited to finally become a mom.  Now these are a lot of things swirling around inside of me. Luckily I can always turn to good friends for life lessons; my TV.  A few weeks ago I started re-watching season 6 of Scrubs, and then continued through season 7. These seasons are where J.D. and Turk become fathers.  I payed attention as much as I could I learned a few things along the way.

DON'T PISS OFF MOM WHILE SHE'S GIVING BIRTH

J.D. and Turk are both good guys who only want to do the right thing, but they seem to screw up and act a little juvenile.  When his girlfriend was giving birth J.D. told her that he didn't love her.  This of course got him kicked out of the room and a slew of names called at him.  

Turk tried to be helpful and set-up a webcast so that his wife's sister could witness the birth of their child via internet.  This ended with Turk doing something wrong and the entire hospital seeing Carla's pekachu.  This did not sit well either.

CONTINUE TO HELP BECAUSE YOU KNOW SHE'LL THANK YOU IN THE END

After J.D. got kicked out of the delivery room he sat around for a while until he realized this was his child being born and that even though Kim hated him she needed him to get through this.  Meanwhile, Turk continued to try and be helpful and it ended with him getting his hand stuck in an ice dispenser.  But when Carla was about to have a c-section Turk fought is way over to her, and as he stood next to her his cold hand cooled her hot head; literally.

PARENTING IS SACRIFICE, CHANGE, AND FUN 

When J.D. and Turk became parents they didn't have as much time to sit around and think of ways to scare each other or paint Turk's bald head orange and pretend he was a dribbling basketball. They both gave up a lot of their free time to be dads but they didn't give up who they were.  Turk spent his time photo shopping a picture of his baby girl to make it seem like she could dunk a basketball.  J.D. used his baby to help pick-up women and made an excellent ventriloquist dummy.  

Finally, when Turk had to do surgery on a patient he changed his mind when he found out that patient had a daughter and Dr. Cox reminded him that becoming a parent changes who you are and every decision you make.  Also, he saw The Wiggles in concert, twice, and it was awesome.

I'm looking forward to having as much fun with my own child as I do with my nephew.  They say time goes by quick so that means I'll just have to soak in every day of it and hope it goes by slow.  We've been prepping for 9 months and I think my nerves are just nerves of the unknown.  I'm excited to start this next phase in my life, but I'm already scheming of ways I can still do things I love to do.  I can read my comic books TO her.  I can go for jogs WITH her in her stroller.  I can even just strap her to my chest as I READ some magazines at Barnes & Nobles.  I'm not going to give up being a husband and friend, but this'll just add another job to my resume.  Let's Do This!

The Man of Steel's Pal Will Be.......A Girl?

This week's blog was already written in my head.  I was going to share my thoughts and feelings on the great gun debate that everyone seems to be engulfed in, but then I found something way more pressing to talk about; Jimmy Olsen is a girl!  In the upcoming film by director Zack Snyder, Man of Steel, it seems they are planning on replacing Superman's best friend, Jimmy Olsen, with a female counter part, Jenny Olsen, played by Rebecca Buller.

My brother alerted me to this grave crime, and I, being a bigger Superman fan than he, become enraged with fury.  Jimmy Olsen is a character that goes to the very core of the Superman mythology.  In the center of the story you have Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Perry White, and Jimmy Olsen.  These are just five characters you can just alter and not expect to get hell from the fan boy community. As of right now Lex Luthor is not listed on the IMDB website as a character in Man of Steel, and Laurence Fishburne will be playing Perry White.  Now changing Perry from an old white guy to an old black guy isn't too much of a difference, however, I will remind you his last name it WHITE.  I know that in this P.C. world where you can't step on a bug without pissing somebody off the way to help a movie make money is to diversify your film as much as possible, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the story.  Changing Jimmy from a young male to a young female completely changes the dynamic of the Superman mythology that the film will be based on.

Now odds are this Jenny could not be Jimmy changing his sexual identity, but perhaps his sister and Jimmy will be in the sequel, but let's stick to the point.  This female character who is replace a male character could ruin this movie!  If you know anything about the character of Jimmy Olsen you know that he is a young photographer for The Daily Planet who works with Clark and Lois, gets Perry's coffee, and is everything Superman fights for.  Jimmy is idealistic.  He likes to give people the benefit of the doubt and thinks people are mainly good.  He even starred in his own comic book at one point.  Now when Clark has a rough week of fighting super villains Jimmy reminds Clark that there are good people in the world besides him, and these people are who he continues to fights for.  Clark and Jimmy hang out, Jimmy has his own watch to call on Superman when he's in trouble, and I think at one point Clark lived with Jimmy as his roommate.  How is that relationship going to be the same when Jimmy is Jenny? 

To answer my own question  believe I have the answer; love triangle, or some form of puppy love.  You see kids, love triangles are all the film franchise rage lately from Twilight to The Hunger Games.  Clark developing a relationship with Lois would be just too simple for the film making hot shots of Hollywood.  My guess is that when Lois and Jenny go out to cover Superman's adventures like Lois and Jimmy did that they'll both be smitten by the Last Son of Krypton and two tongues will fall the floor.  

Of course this is all just hypothetical from what I know and what I hear about Man of Steel, and I had nothing to do with the making of this film, so don't quote me only any of this.  But this little idea of Jimmy's possible gender switch does not help the fear I've had about this movie from the beginning. David Goyer, the man who wrote all 3 Blade and Dark Knight films wrote the story and screenplay for Man of Steel, and I know Goyer as a big comic book fan so I trusted him.  Christopher Nolan, who is producing, is also a great film maker, who makes great films, as is Snyder.  But to put all three of these people on a Superman film seemed like a mistake to me being that most of these gentleman make darker and more gritty films.  Now that kind of tone is great for Batman, Blade, and Watchmen, but dark and gritty is the exact opposite of what Superman is.  And seriously guys, a British actor to play the ultimate American hero?

I'm told Man of Steel will make Superman more relatable to modern film audiences, but both DC and Marvel have ruined film versions of their characters by straying from the formula that has made their characters work for decades!  If Snyder ruins this chance for Superman's silver screen comeback he may just beat out Brett Ratner on my list of people I need to kick in the nuts. "What was I supposed to do? Just let 'em die?"  "Maybe"  

MAYBE, MAYBE!  Do you even know who Jonathan Kent is!  Come on guys!  Pull you're heads out of those studio executive's asses and make the film worthy to be called MAN OF STEEL!  Do it for comic book truth, film justice, and god damn it, The American Way!  Here's the trailer, judge for yourselves:

In His Defense: Grease 2

I have had the same argument many times in my life, and I'm always asked the same shocking question; how can you like Grease 2 better than Grease?  I never found the intrigue with the original Grease film.  Recently I watched Grease 2 again and my wife commented how horrible she thinks it is compared to Grease.  So I figured it was time to build a defensive case for my enjoyment of Grease 2.  In this entry I will examine three aspects of both Grease films; music, supporting characters, and main characters/plot. I will prove that Grease 2 is almost as good, if not better, than Grease.

With both films being musicals it's hard to not first comment on the musical numbers.  Grease had such classics as 'Summer Lovin', 'You're the One That I Want', and 'Grease Lightning.'  They are catchy tunes and I've sang them a time or two myself, but the Grease 2 songs are just as catchy, and I feel more relatable; because most of them have to do about sex.  In 'Do It For Our Country' Louis is trying to get his girlfriend to sleep with him, while she thinks they're going to join the army.  'Reproduction' shows how kids in science class dirty up any talk about any species reproducing.  It's pretty much what hap pend in my high school experience, except no one sang or danced; unfortunately.  Now I'll admit there are a few bad songs in Grease 2 such as 'Charades', but are you telling me that 'Sandy' helped make the Grease soundtrack complete?

Of course the songs can only be heightened by the characters and situations that they are sang in.  The T-Birds and Pink Ladies that appear in both films had their merits.  If you look at the main T-Birds, Kenickie and Johnny, both were true leaders of their pack, but had their faults.  They both wanted to appear more cooler than they actually were, and so did Danny, but more on that soon.  Both characters struggled with girl issues.  Kenickie thought he knocked up Rizzo and Johnny was afraid of Paulette's sexual confidence because of his own short comings.  Looking at the Pink Ladies both Rizzo and Paulette struggled with their men and identity by trying to be honest with themselves.  The rest of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies were just comical background noise which didn't add too much to either film's plot.

Speaking of plot, we come to the real meat of the issue. The reason I actually prefer Grease 2 over Grease; the main characters. In Grease, Sandy is the sweet new girl from across the sea who falls for the nice boy, Danny.  But when Sandy is reunited with Danny he isn't the boy she remembered.  Danny is so busy trying to keep up the cool image he wants everyone to see him as that he treats Sandy like trash.  He's what Red Forman and I would call a dumb ass!  

In Grease 2 Michael is the sweet new guy from across the sea (and Sandy's cousin) who is smitten by the rebellious Pink Lady, Stephanie. In the song, 'Cool Rider', Stephanie tells Michael what she wants in a guy, so he becomes this Batman-Esq, motorcycle hero, who Stephanie falls for.  But also, at the same time, Stephanie is actually beginning to like Bruce Wayne, I mean Michael.  Now I know where Joel Schumacher got his Batman Forever love story from.  

At the end of Grease Danny and Sandy both try to completely change who they are just to be with the other person.  Does that seem right to you, because it doesn't to me.  Meanwhile, in Grease 2, Stephanie finds out the two guys she's falling for just happen to be the same person, and she doesn't even have to buy a whole new wardrobe to get her guy!  To me Grease sends a message to young minds that if you want to be with someone you have to completely give up who you are to get your high school crush.  Yeah, yeah, I know, "and we'll always....be together," but come on, it's a high school crush.  At least Stephanie will still have her dignity when her man splits because Stephanie never compromised who she was.

I don't know if I've made my point, pissed you off, or just made myself seem like a crazy person, but their is a message in everything we do and everything we watch, and I feel like Grease 2 has the better message.  That message helps make the movie more likeable and the songs more singable for me.  Plus, Olivia Newton-John went on to do Xanadu while Michelle Pfeiffer went on to be Catwoman in Batman Returns.  Who won that category of Best Career Choices.  The Defense Rests! 

The Trials of Ben Affleck

Last night, as I watched the 70th annual Golden Globes, a swell of pride came over me as Ben Affleck won not only Best Director, but also Best Motion Picture Drama for his film, Argo.  I've always liked Ben Affleck, even in his dark days when no one seemed to take him seriously and he couldn't make a good movie if Spielberg or Scorsese was directing it.  His perseverance has paid off though and now I feel he is on his way to transitioning from film star to a great film director, much like one of my favorite directors; Ron Howard.  It seemed like a very long road for Mr. Affleck to get to this point, with a lot of milestones, both good and bad.

I didn't know it at the time but I first saw Ben Affleck act when I was very young, a little film called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Written by entertainment god, Joss Whedon, Ben played "Basketball Player #10."  I went back and watched the film, and there his was; I'll be damned.  Next I saw Ben in School Ties alongside his best friend, Matt Damon.  Ben only had a small part in the film as Damon, Brendan Fraser, and Chris O'Donnell starred.  Damn, now I want to go watch that movie.  I wonder if it's on Netflix?

Anyway, next came the films by Ben's buddy, Kevin Smith.   If you know me than I've probably made you watch Mallrats because it's one of those films that "best describes me."  Affleck played one of the film's villains who liked to have sex with women in a very uncomfortable place; but not the back of a Volkswagen.  Mallrats did not have very much critical appeal, but when Smith put Affleck to star in his next film, Chasing Amy, the film created a buzz.  Affleck played a character who was in love with a lesbian; aren't we all.  It was low budget and very "indie" but was enough to get Ben noticed.  Finally Affleck's big break came.

With the help of Smith, Affleck got green lite a film for Miramax that he wrote with his buddy, Matt Damon.  Good Will Hunting earned Matt and Ben Oscar's for Best Original Screenplay in 1998 and from there both of their career's skyrocketed.  At the time he was dating Hollywood good girl, Gwyneth Paltrow, but soon started dating Jennifer Lopez, and what happened next was the 'Bennifer' nightmare!

Damon went on to have a great career starring in film franchises like the Jason Bourne trilogy, and the Ocean's Eleven trilogy.  Affleck went on to do blockbusters like Armageddon and Pearl Harbor.  On the set of Pearl Harbor is where I assume he met is future wife, Jennifer Garner, who only had a small part in the film.  The two would later go on to star in Daredevil together, based on the Marvel comic book character.  But at the time, the two were both seeing other people.

What followed was the "dark days" of Affleck's career, at least I'm hoping.  Armageddon and Pearl Harbor were box office hits, but critical failures, as well as was Daredevil.  But watch the director's cut of Daredevil, it takes the movie from a 5 to at least an 8 out of 10.  Ben kept starring in roles that didn't seem to click with audiences like 200 Cigarettes, Bounce, Forces of Nature, Reindeer Games, Boiler Room, Changing Lanes, and The Sum of All Fears, but Ben's relationship with JLO was all the rage.  He was getting more face time in the tabloids than on screen. The two were soon engaged and it seemed like 'Bennifer' would live forever.  The couple even starred in 2 films together.  Jersey Girl was directed by his friend Kevin Smith, which Lopez was hardly in.  The other, Gigli, was rated as one of the worst films of all-time!  I enjoyed Jersey Girl, and I guess I can blame JLO for Gigli. Thankfully, 'Bennifer' ended soon after!  But by then Affleck's career was in worse shape than Josh Hartnett at the end of Pearl Harbor.  Throughout this time Affleck continued to work with his friends Damon and Smith in films such as Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back; which to me made him still seem genuine that he still liked hanging out with his old friends.

The turn around for Ben, I felt, was Hollywoodland.  Affleck played the late George Reeves, star of TV's Adventures of Superman. Ben played Reeves with a such complexity that he made it a great mystery film to watch.  Of course Diane Lane was nice to look at too.  Anyone not seen Unfaithful?  This made it seem like Affleck was ready for more serious roles, and a more serious career.  Ben went on to play an un-employed family man in The Company Men; another good role for him in a good film.  From there Ben decided to give the big chair a shot; directing. 

His first feature film, Gone Baby Gone, starred his brother Casey Affleck.  By this time he was dating Jennifer Garner, if not already married to her I think.  I like them together.  Garner isn't a sexy sultress like JLO.  She looks and seems like the girl next door, who kicked quite a bit of ass on Alias.    Then came The Town, and then Argo, and now he's winning Golden Globes for directing, and Argo is nominated for Best Picture in the 2013 Academy Awards, but Affleck is not up for Best Director.  But that's a different blog about the Oscars and how Leonardo Dicaprio is always under-appreciated by those snooty pricks.

It's been a bumpy road for dear Mr. Affleck.  Although I feel some of his films like Daredevil(director's cut) and Jersey Girl were over-scrutinized he has had a few bad apple that spoiled his film making orchard.  But a new day has dawn for him; I hope.  He's got the hot wife, the great kids, and hopefully good buds who he'll continue to work with.  I don't know if this all seems like an E! True Hollywood Story or a stalker's rant, but I'm intrigued by the maturity of Ben Affleck's career and excited to see where it'll go from here!  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go browse Netflix.

Second Genesis

Well, a new year has come and I figured it was time for a new blog; for several reasons.  First off, my old blog was called "Waiting for Wednesday" in reference to the fact that new comic books come out on Wednesdays, a day I look forward too.  But now I've stopped collecting single issue comic books and sold most of the ones I own.  I say 'single issue' because I am still planning on keeping up with comic books, but in graphic novel form.  It's kind of like when you stop watching new episodes of a TV show every week and just watch the whole season all at once when the DVD comes out.  It saves me some money and time.

The way I see it my expenses are comics, DVD's, alcohol, and eating out.  By switching to graphic novels, and buying them at Half-Price Books, I not only cut my monthly comic budget in half, but also don't waste the gas money driving up north every week to the CBS (comic book store).  Although half the experience is going to the CBS every week and looking all the new comics and collectibles, I thought it was time to make a responsible choice.  Plus graphic novels on a tight book shelf will last longer than single issues and, according to my wife, look better than cardboard boxes.  My big issue has been trying to get all the graphic novel versions of all the single issues I've sold.  Let's just say I went from 8 long boxes of comic books to 1.  The last box I will be keeping single issues in that I feel are valuable or someday will be.

Thanks to the local library I can also cut down on my comic and DVD spending because they have both.  Lisa and I only go to the movie theater when there is a movie we desperately want to see, and I plan on using Redbox for the other ones I want to see.  Every other film that peaks my curiosity I will wait months for and rent it free from the Austin Public Library.  The same goes for graphic novels.  As for my vices of alcohol and hating to cook I can simply just order off the $1 menu and not buy as much beer because liquor lasts longer and I find gives me less hangovers.

So, back to the point of this blog.  I'm not just going to be talking about comic books, TV, and movies like I did in my last blog.  I could literally write about anything.  I have been called an 'enigma' more than once in my life because I have such a variety of interest.  I love comic books, TV, movies, and most things geeky (not nerdy, theirs a difference) but I also love watching sports and playing sports.  And of course I watch the news almost everyday so I can keep up with current events, politics, and world events.

The title of this blog is a reference to the show Supernatural, where every week the recap of previous events starts with the title "The Road So Far...."  Supernatural is about 2 brothers who travel the country hunting demons and monsters to kill.  Of course it's only natural that my brother Patrick would be the one who introduced me to this show.   Some nights I lye awake at night shuttering at the idea that I will get old and die some day, and for now I can take comfort that I'm still closer to the beginning of my life than the end.  So, hence, the name of this blog, "My Road So Far...."

Of course, the big reason for all these changes is that Lisa and I are about to begin the next stage of out lives: parenthood.  I believe that the meaning of life is for each generation to take what they have learned in their lives and pass it on to the next, thus making each generation better than the last, and therefore making the world better.  But, I also believe the exact opposite is happening because the wrong kind of people are reproducing more frequently than the right kind of people.  In any event, I'm anxious to begin this next chapter of life.  From what I'm told you can never really be fully prepared for parenthood so I'm also anxious for the little surprises that await us.  After buying a house and getting stable jobs a little unstable-ness could be for the better.

We only have a few weeks to go before we welcome little Nora Theresa into the world.  Lisa and I had boys name all picked out, but we had to think about a girl's name.  FYI, for the next child my top girl names are Rachel and Kara.  My top boy names are Clark (which we've agreed on), Luke (which Lisa won't let me have), and Nathan (which Lisa just plain doesn't like).  If anyone can tell me why I like all 5 of those names, and the reference I'm making with this post's title, then they are the person that knows me best.  That being said I think the best person to know the answer is Patrick or Lisa, if she's been paying attention to all my rants throughout the years.

So, please stay with me as I continue writing about comics, TV, movies, parenthood, and the occasional 'what am I doing with my life', rant which is sure to happen.  And I will keep trekking down this road of life with all it's speed bumps, detours, and Yield signs.  Now if you'll excuse me Lisa and I are about to go look at 'family friendly' vehicles. Too quote one my favorite songs of all-time, "Life's journey, not a destination."  Thank you Steven Tyler!