A place for things and stuff
The San Diego Comic Con starts today! I hope we get lots of new geeky movie and video game news, and of course some cool new comic books. I am sure we will hear a lot about the Marvel movies and shows, Star Wars, DC’s TV show empire, and the Justice League movies, but I am hoping that this year’s show will still have a few surprises for us. A new Green Lantern movie perhaps?
We shall see! Is there anything you are hoping for out of this year’s Con?
Let’s do a word association game. Ready? Hard… rock. Cut… paper. Bread… toast. Cute… Batman.
Sorry, my association with the word cute has been skewed forever by the fantastic webcomic JL8 by Yale Stewart. Imagine of you will, all of the DC comicbook superheroes and villians are eight-years-old and attend Schwartz Elementary. Awesome, I know.
Yale captures the essence of these heroes whilst having them deal with the life issues of little kids and it’s great! Batman broods alongside his best friend Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern get into all sorts of hijinks, and the Martian Manhunter is the new kid. I’d read from the beginning, but the current story arc has Green Lantern inviting The Flash and Martian Manhunter to his annual camping trip with his Green Lantern Troop and the search for Bigfoot. Also, Sinestro is a jerk. SURPRISE!
JL8 is posted on Facebook and here about twice a week. You’re welcome. Now for more word association to pass the time. Night Light… Green Lantern. Soft… silly string. Timeout…
I am happy to announce that we have another writer for Shmee.Me, The Paladin! He writes stories over at his own blog, but he is going to write some reviews for me! Yeah me! His first set of reviews follows this post. I hope you like them!
Famed actor Bob Hoskins died two days ago (4/29/14) from pneumonia at the age of 71. He had a long career with a variety of great roles, but for me he will always be Mr. Smee from Hook. I loved that movie as a kid, and while it hasn’t held up as well as some of Spielberg’s other movies, it holds a special place in my heart.
My favorite character from that movie was Bob Hoskins’ Smee. The way he was able to be a bumbling idiot, but at times still be the smartest guy in the room. It was kind of the way I saw myself sometimes. Most of my friends liked Rufio or Pan, but it was Mr. Smee for me, and that wouldn’t have been the case without Hoskins’ brilliant portrayal.
I liked the character so much that when it was time for me to venture online, years ago, I tried to take Smee’s name as my own. Sadly I am a horrible speller and it came out Shmee, and by the time I had figured it out, the name had stuck. Still without Smee there wouldn’t have been Shmee.
Hoskins was a great actor who was very important to my childhood. While the films he was in weren’t always great, he was always great in them. My prayers and best wishes are with his family. I will have to dig out Hook and watch it again to say a proper farewell to Mr. Smee.
I recently got the chance to check out the Seattle Museum of Flight, and I am glad that I did. It is amazing how many planes and attractions that they pack in to this museum: They have the grand gallery, that has almost every type of plane imaginable including the SR-17 Blackbird; The Boeing exhibit, that shows how the plane maker got its start; The WWI/WWIII area, that has just about every small great war fighter crammed in to it; The air park with a Concord and an Air Force One for you to walk around in, and last but not least the Space Shuttle Trainer that the astronauts got to train for their missions on.
There are bigger air museums out there, but the Seattle Museum of Flight is very good. It filled me full of wonder around every turn. If you are in Seattle and looking for something to do, The Museum of Flight was more than worth the time and money to check out!