Sorry for falling off the map without giving any notice, folks. That was rude, I apologize. ( This is me venting about my current school life )

Anyway, the school has been basically draining the lifeforce out of me lately and I really didn't feel up to the challenge when it came to the Internet. Well, frankly, I still don't but sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. So I'm updating. A bit, at least.

( This is me rambling about comics )

( And this is me talking very very briefly about tv shows )


There's really no telling when I'll be back again. With the school being the way it is, I simply have no energy for regular updates nowadays (or 'semi-regular' since I've never actually been a regular updater, let's not kid ourselves). I'm not announcing a hiatus here, I probably will show up here and there, with either actual posts or just comments. I just don't know when. Sorry. Just bear with me. Please.

ETA: Ok, I am actually announcing a hiatus. Sorry. You are all great people and believe me when I say this: it's not you, it's all me. The disorganized, lazy, undependable me. I'm really REALLY sorry.
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That's the one I've waited the most impatiently this month. And... well, it's not exactly what I expected.

( X-Men 203 'Blinded by the Light, part 4' )


'X-Men First Class' is, unsurprisingly, adorable again. Bobby and Hank go on a road trip. It's really as simple as that. They visit weird places, go to a casino, eat boiled peanuts, camp, gossip on their friends' love lives, help a few people run from a hurricane and bond. Not even one villain in sight. I love it. And Julia Bax' art looks remarkably similar to that of Roger Cruz so there is no jarring shift here. I still prefer Cruz but I think I actually like Bax' Hank better. And she drew this little picture of Scott with a Yay!face, which is too perfect for words:


'Cable & Deadpool' takes us into WWII to meet Captain America and his teenage sidekick, Bucky ('Seriously, who gives a teenage kid a machine gun and says, "Go get them"?' - word, Bob). It's good issue. Bob acts twitchy, Deadpool, amazingly, manages to hold a serious conversation with Captain America and Bucky the bloodthirsty, foul-mouthed psycho sidekick is thoroughly entertaining ('He's a lot feistier that the history books said'). However, as much as I like Bob the Agent of Hydra, I miss Deadpool doing the recap page. And narrating of course, but I'm pretty sure Bob's square thought boxes stint was just a one-off. He whines quite amusingly, though: 'We walk for miles. Captain America and Wade never get tired. Apparently, Bucky refuses to. I'm very tired and my feet hurt. I watched 'Band of Brothers' and this feels nothing like that.' Hee.

The murder investigation plotline in 'Iron Man' man is definitely starting to heat up and I'm positively intrigued now. Points on great character design with Gadget and how nicely it ties with the Mandarin plot. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like this 'talking to the dead' thing but so far I'm still willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and Roberto de la Torre's art is as breathtaking as ever.

'Avengers The Initiative' continues to be great fun. I like the twist in the end. I like how the on-going threads with MVP not being quite dead, Hardball kinda working for evil people get handled. I like Gauntlet's family and big bunny, little bunny. I like neurotic Gyrich and his 'I frickin' hate that woman. You run a full background check. See if she's paid all her taxes'. I like 'the clue in the locker' move. I actually like everything here. Even Steve Uy's art. Even though his Tigra and Sally Floyd are obviously wrong. And his black people should be blacker. Otherwise, it's just dandy.

'The Order' is visibly a book with an certain formula that will probably get annoying if they keep it up for too long but, for now, it works perfectly. And Matt Fraction made himself the most interestingly fucked-up team in the whole Marvel Universe (ok, other than 'Thunderbolts' but they are all psychos so it's easier for them). The best issue yet, hands down.

'Immortal Iron Fist' is practically a kung fu movie in a comic version. A good kung fu movie in a comic version. A good kung-fu movie in a beautifully drawn comic version, even. In other words, I'm quite delighted. And Danny's duel with Fat Cobra is easily wins The Best Fight of the Month Award. Oh, and there is this great Heroes for Hire cameo (I'm less delighted with the annual, partly because it has Howard Chaykin and I hate Howard Chaykin and his square jaws, partly because it makes a great deal of how Danny going to see this historian dude is crucial for his immediate survival and how he needs some answers right freaking now because otherwise the world is doomed and then he doesn't even ask any questions. Where is the logic in that? Also, I'm really not that fond of flashbacks.



As for the tv eps that I managed to catch already, 'Shark' was, as usual, pretty bland (and I don't like the new guy since the Young, Brash and Angry Hotshot thing doesn't really work for me here and, also, Sam Page was prettier), 'Grey's Anatomy' was more or less alright (on the one hand it got back that light and quirky vibe it was famous for, on the other, I don't like that Lexie girl, they are mistreating Callie and Alex had bad hair) and 'House' was so great I almost didn't miss Chase at all (it has the Janitor the Emergency Duckling, House and Wilson biggest power play ever and, to boot, a genuinely interesting medical case with a surprise ending, what more could you possibly want? oh, right, Chase). Now I'm gonna get my hands on 'Bionic Woman'. It has Starbuck, it can't be bad.

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My favorite cartoon is back! Well, one of the reasons it's my favorite is because I don't watch any other one but I'm still ridiculously happy about it. I missed you, 'Avatar'.


( New X-Men 42 'Children of X-Men' )


Also, 'Captain America' continues to be utterly engrossing despite the fact, apart from Iron Man in the supporting role, it holds no characters that I actively like and a few that I actually actively dislike. The first 'Marvel Comics Presents' proves to be a mixed bag with the nice starts to the Hellcat (Stuart Immonen, yay!), Omega Flight (part 1 of 12, though? isn't it an overkill?) and the seems-random-so-far-but-I'm-quite-positive-it-really-isn't crime storylines on the one hand and a rubbish Spider-Man piece about his billion counterparts from other dimensions on the other (which, I guess, leaves the Thing story in the no man's land part of the scale for being ok but too sappy). 'World War Hulk' mostly annoyed me, especially that it's four issues in and only now we see one of the Illummnati try to explain to Hulk that they did not, in fact, kill his wife and kid. 'World War Hulk Frontline' keeps on the trend of being actually better than the real thing it's supposed to accesorize. I hope Sentry throws Hulk into the sun next month, even though I do realize it's extremely unlikely. I also hope 'Secret Invasion' will be good enough to let me forget about all those failed giant crossover events Marvel has been dishing out left and right over the recent years. Even though I do realize it's extremely unlikely.


So that you don't think that my media life consists solely of cartoons and comics - because that would be sad - I assure you that I watch proper movies too. I would love to add that I also read proper books but that would be a lie. So I won't.

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The new tv season is dangerously close and, as usual, I'm downright scared. I'm nowhere near ready for that. Except 'Stargate Atlantis'. I'm always ready for 'Stargate Altantis'.

On to my main point, this week's comics pull:


( New Avengers 34 'Trust, part 3' )

( X-Factor 23 'The Isolationist, part 3' )

( X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, part 1 )


Heroes For Hire continue their Hulk adventure, are fairly entertaining and, as usually, wonderfully drawn by Clay Mann. The back-up Scorpion strip is nice too, though, sadly, John Bosco is no Clay Mann, and it contains this lovely exchange - Paladin: 'I trust my Academy Award is in the mail, Agent Sareva', Agent Sareva: 'No, but I've just arranged to have your payment wired to that Cayman Islands account number you gave us. Which, I presume, is what you'd prefer anyway.' Ok, that probably counts as an un-cut spoiler. Please, don't beat me up.

Also, I've caught up with 'Thor', which turns out to be a solid comic. The main premise
with Thor rebuilding Asgard is certainly fascinating. I'm not completely happy with this particular issue because Iron Man suddenly turns up and acts stupid. And I really don't like my Iron Man to act stupid. The rest is ok, though. As for the art, I like Oliver Coipel, but he draws an ugly Thor. I wish Donald Blake was back, he was prettier.

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About the imminent 'Messiah Complex' crossover:

( the cut, because, possible spoilers? )

Oh, and the 'Iron Man' trailer looks spiffy so far. Ok, so they went a bit over the top with all the flying at the end but there's still the joyous fact that Robert Downey Jr. seems to be playing Robert Downey Jr. (the role you surely remember from 'Zodiac', or 'Wonder Boys', or 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang') and that has always been my favorite in his repertoire. Really, I love Robert Downey Jr.

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'Girl in the Fireplace' won the tv Hugo and that makes me annoyed. Seriously, I hated that one. I even would be happier if that SG-1 episode won and there really is no love lost between me and that show.

Well, at least the other results were more sensible. Not even one matches my preferred choices, which I find shockingly unsurprising, but they are good stuff, too.

Now, comics:


( Uncanny X-Men 490 'The Extremists, part 4' )

( Incredible Hulk 110 'Warbound, part 5' )

( New Warriors 4 'Defiant, part 4' )


In other news, 'Ms. Marvel' is in the middle of the most entertaining storyline since, well, ever, though that's mostly due to her new support staff being rather fun (yay, Machine Man! yay, more screen-time for Agent Sum!) as Ms. Marvel herself is as bland as always. Also, in 'Iron Man - Enter the Mandarin' mini, Iron Man battles the Mandarin. It's still the first issue, so he doesn't get very far with that but he does it with acceptable, though not terribly high, level of entertainment. Joe Casey I remember from his stint with the X-Men, which went more or less ok (apart from the X-Corp storyline, which did not go well at all) and brought me Stacy the Prostitute, one of my favorite X-Men ever. Eric Canete I never heard of before but I like him already. His Iron Man looks a bit, uhm, funky there but he draws a mean Mandarin.

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The Hugo Awards are announced tomorrow and, since I actually did manage to read all the nominated short forms this year, I'm able to make informed private choices.

( my informed choices )

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Better late that ever, right? And I don't think there was any need to rush with the review anyway. We'll probably see another issue around November.

( Astonishing X-Men 22 'Unstoppable, part 4' )

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I've always thought that the Frankenstein Mix project is a nifty idea. So, as a sign of support I've decided to, well, actually participate.

( THE FRANKENSTEIN MIX 16.0 )

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A bunch of comic-book reviews. One from the last week's batch:


( New X-Men 41 'The Quest For Magic' )

And some from this week:

( X-Men 202 'Blinded by the Light, part 3' )

( X-Men First Class 3 'Island X, part 2' )

( Cable & Deadpool 44 'Head Games' )

That's it for today, children. Tune in soon, there will be more.

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Tomorrow four new X-Men issues come out and I'm so excited about it it's almost obscene. And very very sad. I decided to distract myself with movies, then. Well, truthfully, these are the movies that I saw two weeks ago, but, since writing movie reviews has been like pulling teeth lately, it took me some time to get down to them.


( Quentin Tarantino's 'Death Proof' )

( Len Wiseman's 'Die Hard 4' )

( David Fincher's 'Zodiac' )


By the way, I caught all these movies when I was still in Wrocław because when the film festival came to an end and I still had two prepaid days left at the hostel and my friend was not coming over as was previously arranged because she very untimely broke her leg and I just refused to go clubbing in a strange city alone, after a day full of obligatory sight-seeing and shop-traipsing when I asked myself 'How shall I amuse myself in the evenings?' there wasn't even a moment's hesitation before 'oooooh, more movies' popped up. Which I suppose puts the final tally at 47 full-lengths and 74 shorts. All that in thirteen days, mind you.

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Marvel X-Land appears to be doing really well this year, but with X-Factor it really struck gold. The series was, hands down, the best thing to come out of the whole 'House of M' circus, and, two years later, it's still going remarkably strong. I'm practically in love with it.

( X-Factor 22 'The Isolationist, part 2' )


I realized that I really shouldn't complain about 'New X-Men' as much as I do. I just got through all the pre-Decimation issues (my Modus Operandi with my every new comic series is to read a few most recent story-archs and then gradually work my way backwards) and they were really pretty bad. Verging on dreadful, even. And so vanilla, that it was downright sickening. I don't even want to think about some of the art, because Paco Medina? That went right against my gag reflex. Anyway, Kyle & Yost, you might have made some missteps, true, but the two of you were a bloody salvation to this title.

Now, that I've got through all the New Mutants/X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, X-Men First Class and X-Factor past issues and reached reasonably far into the Uncanny and Adjectiveless X-Men history, I think it's high time I got my teeth into 'Cable and Deadpool'. Judging from the four latest issues, the book looks like loads of fun.

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For some unfathomable reason, writing comic book reviews seems much easier that writing movie reviews, so here we are:


( X-Men 201 'Blinded by the Light, part 2' )

( X-Men First Class 2 'Island X, part 2' )

( New X-Men 40 'The Quest For Magic, part 4' )

( Cable & Deadpool 43 'With Friends Like These' )

( Uncanny X-Men 489 'The Extremists, part 3' )

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So I'm back. Well, frankly, I got back last Thursday but first there was this whole 'oooh, regular sleep and food!' excitement and me meeting with various people and subtly bragging about the glorious time I had in Wrocław and they didn't. you know the drill. And then my PC croaked up on me. On a Saturday, no less, meaning it was full five days before I got it back. It was supposed to be four days but apparently people at the computer store are cretins. All in all, very irritating.

After almost two weeks of no-computer Wrocław time, with yet another five no-computer days (and no cool movies to distract me with) I was going seriously stir-crazy. I was so bored that I actually read that 'Harry Potter 7' that my sister in some strange wave of sibling love sent me from London. It was so nice of her when she said that she ordered me one that I didn't have the heart to tell her that I stopped reading the series at book five. Some commentary about HP might crop up later but if I forget (or if I'm too lazy) to actually do that, let me just tell you now that it was ok. I'm not too happy about some plot developments but basically Rowling managed to dig herself out quite cleanly.

Anyway, here's my slightly belated film festival report. 44 full-length movies (which I boldly interpret as a 50-plus-minutes category) and 74 shorts. No actual reviews because, knowing my usual speed, I'd probably be still writing them in October. Just basic categorizing, then:

( THE 7TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ERA NEW HORIZONS )

On the whole, the festival was a blast. Most of the movies were great fun, Wrocław is just as beautiful a city as I remembered it and the weather was quite ok. Yes, this year is I lived a fair bit from the city center which meant a lot of extra legwork and, me being a lazy creature who complains promptly whenever a prospect of physical effort arises, I'd normally see it as quite a bother. However, when you put good movies at the destination point, my internal need for wailing and whining usually dries up pretty quickly. If it's actually good movies in great quantities at the destination point, then I'm even moderately eager for a morning walk. So there. Happy happy happy.

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So tomorrow I'm off to Wrocław to partake in a ten-days-long film orgy otherwise known as Era New Horizons International Film Festival. I don't even have a schedule put together this year which might bite me in the ass yet, but it's not like I won't have plenty of time between screenings to figure out my next moves so it'll probably sort itself out. God, I hope.

Anyway, I'm going be incommunicado for a bit more than two weeks (first the festival, then Wrocław sightseeing, then Poznań sightseeing and, then, well, probably a lot of exhausted sleeping). Hmm, not that I've all that hyper-active lately with my lj-life. It might even be hard to tell the difference. Just saying that, for a change, it will not be the case of 'Magda not posting anything because she's too lazy to do so', but of 'Magda not posting anything because she's busy living the Life of Adventure and Excitement'. Oh, I love those.


In order to get myself into the movie-watching spirit I caught some of the movies offered by the Czech Month at the local cinema. Well, when I say 'some' I actually mean 'two'. Namely Sasa Gedeon's 'Návrat idiota' (aka The Idiot Returns) and Petr Koliha's 'Vychova divek v Cechách' (aka 'Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia'). Czech cinema really has a unique feel to it. It's perpetually hanging between sadness and amiable grotesque. 'Návrat idiota' is definitely drifting towards the former, with its distinct lirical ambience, 'Vychova divek v Cechách' hovers more or less in the middle. These are not great pictures, certainly not the best Czech cinema has on offer, but they are alright. And they manage something only few movies are able to accomplish. They are getting better as they go along. Now, that really doesn't happen often.

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I've been spending way too much time on comics lately than is seemly, so let's at least make something constructive out of it. Reviews, then:


( X-Men 200, 'Blinded by the Light, part 1' )


( Uncanny X-Men 488, 'The Extremists, part 2' )


( X-Men First Class 1, 'The Job Shadow' )


( New X-Men 39, 'The Quest For Magic, part 3' )

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I just got my braces set which means that my teeth hurt so much that I'm seriously starting to contemplate knocking myself unconscious. Which would be a pretty extreme move so best left as a fall-back plan rather than the main course of action. For now, I'm just going to think happy thoughts, I'll see that that works.


Oh, a happy thought. I met roguem on Sunday. Like, in person. Still feels a bit surreal. An amazing girl, she is. Funny, clever and pretty. You practically don't get any better. Seriously, roguem, you rock. Hard, plain and simple.


Oh, movies. Another happy thought.

( Allen Coulter's 'Hollywoodland' )

( Giuseppe Tornatore's 'Nuovo cinema Paradiso' )


And a book. These happy thoughts just keep on coming.

( 'The Algebraist' by Iain M. Banks )


And for a nice finish, my dear volleyball boys won again. And it's the final round, just six teams left, people, so that's, like, extra good. Especially that the Brazilians got finally slayed by Bulgarians so we are the only undefeated team left. Go, we.



Well, happy thoughts or not, my teeth still hurt. Time to try this unconscious thing, I think.

I basically spent the last three days reading X-Men comics. Which wasn't supposed to happen. The result is that I have an exam in about four hours and I haven't even started on the studying. Well, better late than never, right?


But first:

( Steven Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Thirteen' )


( Tim Story's 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' )


( Ronny Yu's 'Huo Yuan Jia' )


Also, 'Rescue Me' is finally back. So far I only watched one episode (because then I started reading the damn comics and couldn't stop) but since there are only twelve episodes ahead, it's probably better to pace myself anyway. Now, shortly, ( ... )


The Polish volleyball team continues to glide through the World League with delightful ease. Ten wins, no losses, which puts us on a par with Brazil (who, I'm pretty sure, are robots). Still two games before the final phase, but since the Bulgarians proved this weekend to be less of a threat than I feared, I'm relatively calm about the whole affair. Go, us.

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So I got up at 9 am this morning, which makes by far the earliest Sunday morning for me in three years, just to watch Poland battle China volleyball-wise. I make a generous gesture to show my support and loyalty and those cheeky buggers have the gall to lose two first sets. Yes, they did win in the end - barely, I might add - but that's not the point. I have a veritably gruesome week ahead of me (two exams, three tests, plus one paper and one giant project to turn in). I don't need this kind of stress.


Now, I need to cool down. Reviewing movies is as good a way as any other.

( Nicholas Hytner's 'The History Boys' )


Ok, seriously, it's great that they won, especially that it's the 6th win in a row. And it wasn't even an important game, it would have been ok if they lost, they can afford to lose. I just wasn't mentally prepared for all that frantic drama. It's freaking Sunday.

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Kraków is celebrating its 750th anniversary (and it really is quite thrilling to live in a city that has been officially a city since 1257). Said celebration is actually a ten-day-long culture fest but right now the city is celebrating with fireworks. And they are nothing short of opulent. Huh, I believe that's the first time I've ever used the word 'opulent' in my life. Well, the occasion is most fitting.

The beauty of the whole situation is that I didn't even have to trudge all the way to the actual event and stand there uncomfortably among a throng of people on this quite chilly night to watch all that pretty flashiness. My flat being situated the way it is, all I had to do was open a window and let myself be awed.

The downside was that the fireworks were obviously incorporated in some bigger spectacle which, from a mile away, meant: OOOOH, FIREWORKS! five minutes of nothing OOOOOH, FIREWORKS! two minutes of nothing FIREWORKS! SO PRETTY! four minutes of nothing. And so on for nearly an hour. And every other time when the nothing stretched for more than three minutes, you thought that that was it and wandered off, only to run back a moment later when all the noise began again. Oh, well, on the plus side, I managed to brush my teeth and do plenty other little useful stuff, during all these breaks, once I figured out the general schedule.


( Gore Verbinski's 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End' )


( 'House M.D. 3x24 - 'Human Error' )


The Volleyball World League is now in full swing and we are doing very well so far. Which was only to be expected, naturally, us being silver medalists from 2006 World Championships and a fourth team in the world according to the FIVB ranking. I'm still proud, though. The start wasn't without a hitch, since we nearly lost our second game with China (come on, China?) and pulled though only in the fifth set - I fortunately didn't watched that because the Polsat channel miraculously stopped working properly that very evening and I switched to TV4 where the Russians were just beating the poor Serbians into the ground, so I was spared the frustration. Later it turned out that the wind swung the receiver on the balcony the wrong way but it took us two full days to notice that.

And the Polish team are not only good. They are pretty, too. Check out this eye candy, my personal favorite:
( Michał Winiarski )
The team has also recently acquired a lad who kinda looks like a scruffy Chris Evans, only thinner, 7 foot tall (seriously, 2.11 meters? that's tall) and my age, and who seems to be a very viable option for my second favorite.
( Michał Możdzonek )

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( 'House M.D.' 3x23 - 'The Jerk' )


I'm in the process of watching 'Resident Evil'. I missed the beginning, but I'm pretty sure that's no great loss. My thoughts so far: Milla Jovovich is hot, kicks ass with unique grace and is undoubtedly going to survive, because she's in the sequels; James Purveroy is hot, so far doesn't really do much and he's probably gonna die in the end; Eric Mabius is hot, though in a dorky way, and I'm quite certain he's on the shit list, too; Martin Crewes is hot, again the dorky type, but I feel he's dropping dead any minute now; Michelle Rodriguez is hot but a bit annoying, so by Murphy's law, she might yet survive. The CGI monsters are quite badly made. Oh, and the plot makes precious little sense, but that's only to be expected since the whole thing is based on a freaking video game.



( Stefen Fangmeier's 'Eragon' )

( Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man 3' )
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It's Sunday, 5 am, and the Juwenalia, the wonderful, beautiful week when the Polish students go, faithful to the decades-long tradition, collectively wild is officially over. Boy, but was it good this year. Which is probably because I went a bit wilder than usual. And, curiously, there wasn't even that much alcohol involved. I guess I'm just naturally high on life. But also note that double vodka with apple juice is very very tasty. And after three of those I'm quite a merry person. A bit tipsy, I admit, but mostly just merry.

We, meaning me and my girlfriends, decided to say goodbye to the Student Jubilation Week with a bang and chose the trustworthy method of getting a bit drunk, going to a club and then dancing so hard and so long that you practically lose all the feeling in your limbs. And they kick you out because it's already dawn and the staff wants to finally go home and get some sleep. Which I actually should be doing right now too.

So, right, sleeping, bye.

( 'House M.D. 3x20 - 'House Training' )

( Tony Giglio's 'Chaos' )

Damn, I really have to cut my nails. They are awfully pretty when this long, but I can't type for shit with them sticking out like that.

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As for the new batch of tv shows that cropped up lately, none of the newcomers yet managed to blow my socks off. 'The Tudors' win easily in the man-candy department but are somewhat lacking in, well, all other departments. 'Painkiller Jane' is sorta ok, but the main plot arch is pretty ridiculous. 'The Drive', after the one episode I've seen, I found quite watchable and even a bit intriguing, but I've just heard some rumors that this particular show is already a goner. 'The Riches'-- oh, 'The Riches' I haven't got around to just yet. Overall, the midseason new shinies appear to be less exciting that expected. Who knows, though? One of them might actually end up as a permanent addition to my tv dance card. I live on hope.


( Jan Jukub Kolski's 'Jasminum' )

( Oskar Roehler's 'Elementarteilchen' )

( Roger Donaldson's 'The World's Fastest Indian' )


The final movie quote quiz score is 7 points to my flist, 8 points to me. Meaning, 8 quotes left unguessed. Which proves that I'm a crappy quote quiz maker, but fear not. I shall improve. Practice makes perfect and, in this case, practice is fun, so I'll probably hit you with another try sometime next week. Or the next next week. Or a bit later. Anyway, in the foreseeable future.

( the answers )

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( Laurence Dunmore's 'The Libertine' )


Now, a meme, stolen from estel_sparks, because it really looks like fun:
Recommend me...
1. A movie.
2. A book.
3. A musical artist, song or album.
4. A website.
5. An LJ user not on my friends list.
Leave a comment with your answers, then copy the questions and ask them in your own journal.

Ok, now I'm off. The movie night marathon awaits me. I'm pretty wiped out already, so there's a strong possibility I'm gonna drift to the la-la land somewhere around the second movie, but let's not be overly fatalistic.

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