Sunday, June 08, 2025

The New Teen Titans Volume Nine by Marv Wolfman and George Perez: Book Review


Started: June 4, 2025

(This is my first time reading this book, so according to my new rules, I'm doing this as a video only review.) 






My reviews of Silver Age Teen Titans books:

Related Playlists:





The New Teen Titans Volume Nine Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x47Zoxt4Nn1OmeSe7sznqDR&si=zssIJt5uYtJoWVOZ

I was able to read this book thanks to the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat, which may be in danger thanks to a Presidential executive order.  If you, like me, enjoy using MeLCat, contact your local representatives and let them know.  

Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FAgkW8         (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Saturday, June 07, 2025

The Awful Truth with Michael Moore: TV Series Review



This is part of my so-called "Scripted Review" series, in which I make a Youtube video based on an old blogpost.  For more information on what this is and why I'm doing it, see HERE:

This is also part of my Television Addiction series.  For my explanation of what the Television Addiction series is and why I'm doing it, see: https://youtu.be/T5CEQ9-35xA and http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2021/04/television-addiction-article-on.html


Michael Moore’s The Awful Truth

          This wasn’t my first encounter with The Awful Truth.  I’ve seen it before back in the day.  But when I saw the DVDs in the store, I decided to buy them and work through the series again anyway.
            Parts of The Awful Truth I remembered very well.  Parts of it I didn’t remember at all.  (I’m not sure if that’s because I never saw the whole thing, or if it’s just because my memory is so lousy).  But anyway, I’ve now worked my way through the entire series.
            Like most liberals, I have a lot of ambivalence towards Michael Moore (something - I’ve- expressed in this blog before).  I sympathize with his politics, but I believe that anything that misinforms or misleads does a disservice to the political discourse.
            (The extent to which Michael Moore’s movies are misleading is always a source of controversy.  Part of the problem is that most of the right-wing hatchet men who attack Moore’s movies are seldom any more honest than Moore is, and this leads to a lot of claims and counterclaims that just make my head spin.)
            However, the great thing about The Awful Truth is that it isn’t a documentary—it’s just pure political theater, so you don’t need to worry about fact checking it, you just enjoy the theater.  Michael Moore does some great political stunts like getting throat cancer victims to sing Christmas carols at Philip Morris, for instance.   Or driving around a Sodom mobile to every state where sodomy is still illegal.
            In the course of the show, Michael Moore of course manages to really piss off a lot of rich and powerful people—making me a little bit suspicious about the fact that the show was mysteriously cancelled after two seasons despite getting good ratings.
            And yet, much of the format of The Awful Truth—sending correspondents out to conduct satirical interviews with people who don’t realize they’re being satirized until it’s too late—is what The Daily Show  is still doing. 
            And in fact, considering The Daily Show manages to produce 4 episodes a week (compared to The Awful Truth’s 12 episodes a season) The Daily Show is arguably doing Michael Moore’s job a lot more efficiently than Michael Moore ever did.




Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this series on Amazon: https://amzn.to/45dVczl           (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Friday, June 06, 2025

Starting: The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 17: 1956-1957

Check this book out on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4n4RAX0                  (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Bone: Tall Tales by Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski: Book Review

Started: June 3, 2025

(This is my first time reading this book, so according to my new rules, I'm doing this as a video only review.)




I was able to read this book thanks to the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat, which may be in danger thanks to a Presidential executive order.  If you, like me, enjoy using MeLCat, contact your local representatives and let them know.  

Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Fyvlb0                  (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Thursday, June 05, 2025

Muppet Babies Omnibus: Book Review


Started: April 22, 2025

(This is my first time reading this book, so according to my new rules, I'm doing this as a video only review.)




I was able to read this book thanks to the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat, which may be in danger thanks to a Presidential executive order.  If you, like me, enjoy using MeLCat, contact your local representatives and let them know.  

Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Gkc3Gl         (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Wednesday, June 04, 2025

Gregory Porter - Revival--Sharing Music I Like


I was substitute teaching the other day, and another teacher was playing this song on his classroom playlist.  "That's a cool song," I said.  "What's the name of it?"
"Revival," he said.

I'd never heard this song before.  But then, I can be a bit out of it sometimes.  (And having been out of the country for so long doesn't help.)  I'm not sure if this song was every really popular, or not.  But I liked it at any rate.  So I'm reposting it here, and adding it to my Sharing Music I Like index.
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Started: The New Teen Titans Volume Nine by Marv Wolfman and George Perez


Check out this book on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3FAgkW8                   (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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The New Teen Titans Volume Eight by Marv Wolfman and George Perez: Book Review


Started: May 28, 2025

(This is my first time reading this book, so according to my new rules, I'm doing this as a video only review.) 





I messed up slightly when talking about the wedding.  I should have said that all the Titans old and new appear except for Gnarrk.  There's a couple lines of dialogue which alude to Gnarrk having died somehow, but his exact fate is never revealed.  And as far as I can tell, via a bit of Internet sleuthing, it looks like his fate never is revealed, at least not in that Pre-Crisis version of DC continuity.  I suspect that Marv Wolfman never liked the character, and that's why he just decided to do-away with Gnarrk off-screen, and later never showed any interest in explaining what had happened to him.


My reviews of Silver Age Teen Titans books:

Related Playlists:






I was able to read this book thanks to the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat, which may be in danger thanks to a Presidential executive order.  If you, like me, enjoy using MeLCat, contact your local representatives and let them know.  

Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/43Rt2sM         (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Started: Bone: Tall Tales by Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski

Check out this book on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3Fyvlb0                   (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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Akkadian Literature: The Archaic Period 2300-1850 B.C. (from Before the Muses by Benjamin R. Foster)





These are the works contained within this section:
--The Valorous Sun
--Star Incantation
--Sargon the King
--Sargon the Victorious
--Naram-Sin and the Great Revolt
--Naram-Sin and the Gods
--Against a Demon
--Against the Evil Eye
--Love Charm
--Do Not Sit on a Chair!
--The Predatory Gutians
--Sargon, Lord of the Lies
--She is Singular
--She is Furious
--Against Dogs

Links to Stuff mentioned: 

That footnote I was looking for was actually at the top of the text, and not the bottom of the text, which is why I couldn't find it.  It just said "The final section is parodied in I.6"  (I.6 is Sargon, Lord of the Lies) in this edition.

Related Playlists




* Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x4Cvg1Yw4LQyKEXIwDwo1m0&si=X6OZ7Ectw-fzHbCn

I was able to read this book thanks to the Michigan statewide state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat, which may be in danger thanks to a Presidential executive order.  If you, like me, enjoy using MeLCat, contact your local representatives and let them know. 

Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman

Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman

Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HeIruz            (This is an Amazon Associate's Link.  If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
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