I've known for all of my life that I was related to author (and Charlie Chan creator) Earl Derr Biggers, but I was in my thirties before I discovered that Biggers and I shared the same birthday: August 26th. Now I've discovered more coincidences. There is some dispute over Biggers' year of birth--some sites list it as 1884, some as 1885 (for what it's worth, the family records have indicated 1885 as the correct year). It turns out that he and I suffered our heart attacks on the exact same day of the month as well--and if the year 1885 is the correct year of birth for EDB, then we were both exactly the same age when we suffered our heart attacks.
(Thankfully, my heart attack ended up being less fatal than his...)
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Monday, March 07, 2011
An Eighties Appreciation
It's no secret that I am an avid fan of 1960s music; it's the music of my childhood, the music of my adolescence, the music I grew up with, the first music that I bought. I think the latter is particularly crucial in anyone's music appreciation--the first music that speaks to us so intensely that we're willing to spend our limited allowance funds to own it is the music we're likely to love as long as we live.
However, I've been listening to a lot of 1980s music lately, and I'm about to say something that may surprise many of my friends: as much as I love 1960s music, I am convinced that the 1980s were the nexus of pop music, with more diversity, more energy, more vitality, and more creativity than any other pop music era, including the 1960s.
I credit MTV with a lot of that; when the cable channel launched with the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," they did a lot more than stress visuals as well as music. They also encouraged originality and experimentation. Since MTV of the early 1980s was hungry for videos to fill its airtime, almost any group with a strong sound and a striking look could get MTV airplay. And audiences were hungry to see music videos; watching MTV was a normal part of the weekly entertainment cycle in the 1980s, and people discussed music videos with the same intensity they devoted to hit TV shows, films, and books.
Groups like Scandal and the Motels and Wang Chung and the Stray Cats and Minor Detail and Quarterflash and Big Country would have probably gotten very little if any airplay in the pre-MTV radio-driven music days. However, MTV made room for anyone with a fresh sound and a catchy video, style notwithstanding. Rockabilly, new wave, punk, pop, dance, folk, techno, soul--there was room for all of these styles and many, many more.
I recently transferred several 1980s compilation sets to MP3 to listen to on my iPod, including Priority Records' Rock of the 1980s, Time-Life's Greatest Hits of the 1980s, Capitol's Sedated in the 80s, Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 1980s and a few more--and I was amazed that, after transferring more than a thousand songs from a variety of greatest-hits packages, I had only about a 20%-25% duplication of titles. There was so much energetic, catchy music from the era that each label found distinctive songs from the decade that no one else had picked up on.
There are distinctive 1980s sounds--punchy, up-front drums, strong bass lines, swirling synthesizers--that add a lot to the sound of songs from this era, but the improved production values and upgraded recording quality also helped. Even the most minor groups could produce songs with the same production values as the big guys, and multitrack recording had become cheap enough that small groups could easily afford big sounds.
I'm having fun re-experiencing a lot of these songs, many of which I haven't listened to in years. And I've learned that even musicians and groups I didn't care for could capture the feel of an era much more intensely than I had initially realized.
I guess I was lucky enough to experience two remarkable musical decades!
However, I've been listening to a lot of 1980s music lately, and I'm about to say something that may surprise many of my friends: as much as I love 1960s music, I am convinced that the 1980s were the nexus of pop music, with more diversity, more energy, more vitality, and more creativity than any other pop music era, including the 1960s.I credit MTV with a lot of that; when the cable channel launched with the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," they did a lot more than stress visuals as well as music. They also encouraged originality and experimentation. Since MTV of the early 1980s was hungry for videos to fill its airtime, almost any group with a strong sound and a striking look could get MTV airplay. And audiences were hungry to see music videos; watching MTV was a normal part of the weekly entertainment cycle in the 1980s, and people discussed music videos with the same intensity they devoted to hit TV shows, films, and books.
Groups like Scandal and the Motels and Wang Chung and the Stray Cats and Minor Detail and Quarterflash and Big Country would have probably gotten very little if any airplay in the pre-MTV radio-driven music days. However, MTV made room for anyone with a fresh sound and a catchy video, style notwithstanding. Rockabilly, new wave, punk, pop, dance, folk, techno, soul--there was room for all of these styles and many, many more.
I recently transferred several 1980s compilation sets to MP3 to listen to on my iPod, including Priority Records' Rock of the 1980s, Time-Life's Greatest Hits of the 1980s, Capitol's Sedated in the 80s, Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 1980s and a few more--and I was amazed that, after transferring more than a thousand songs from a variety of greatest-hits packages, I had only about a 20%-25% duplication of titles. There was so much energetic, catchy music from the era that each label found distinctive songs from the decade that no one else had picked up on.
There are distinctive 1980s sounds--punchy, up-front drums, strong bass lines, swirling synthesizers--that add a lot to the sound of songs from this era, but the improved production values and upgraded recording quality also helped. Even the most minor groups could produce songs with the same production values as the big guys, and multitrack recording had become cheap enough that small groups could easily afford big sounds.
I'm having fun re-experiencing a lot of these songs, many of which I haven't listened to in years. And I've learned that even musicians and groups I didn't care for could capture the feel of an era much more intensely than I had initially realized.
I guess I was lucky enough to experience two remarkable musical decades!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
So Long, Seventies
This evening, I watched the final episodes of That 70s Show, after beginning the series almost two months ago. (I only watch episodes of old series while I'm exercising, generally watching one episode in the morning and another in the afternoon, so it takes about a week per season for half-hour sitcoms.)
From the very beginning, I found the shows little elements of 1970s life to be appealing. I continually found little set elements that reflected our own life at the time, from the macrame plant hangers and spider plants to the addition of cable tv to the first VCR. The addition of so many spot-on decade-appropriate references made the series particularly engaging for me.
The kids themselves--well, they could have been students of mine. I started teaching high school in 1975, so I taught a senior class that graduated the same year as the Point Place kids. I have fond memories of my students of those years--Steve Callaway and Debbie Marsh and Bill Schroeder and Scott Prince and Leanna Leithauser and Edith Anderson and Jodi Crim and so many others who shared one character trait or another with Hyde, Eric, Donna, Fez, Jackie, and Kelso. So I found myself both empathizing with the characters as their experiences reflected my own, and viewing their experiences through the eyes of one who saw real-world high school students come of age at the same time.
The show's humor works so well for me because it blends timely cultural references, ensemble-cast interaction, cleverly written dialogue, endearing characters, and just enough physical slapstick to season the series without overwhelming it. None of the other elements would have mattered were it not for the endearing characters, however; for a show to succeed (in my eyes, at least), I have to like the focal characters. I not only liked Eric and Donna in particular, I actually cared about them and what happened to them. That's a relative rarity for television. I like the cast of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother and The Middle and Rules of Engagement and 30 Rock, but I don't care about them; I don't find myself wondering at the end of an episode what might happen to them next, or how their lives might be made better or worse by what happened to them in that episode. By the end of Seinfeld or Malcolm in the Middle, I was ready for them to move on. At the end of That 70s Show, I actually hoped that the lives of these fictional characters would continue in the way that I felt that it should.
Friends was the last sitcom whose characters made me care about them. And like Friends, I found myself thinking that I'd like to know if life continued to treat these characters well... if they found happiness, if their lives became what they hoped they would be, if they remained friends for years more. That, to me, is the sign of a well-crafted work of fiction; the characters, born from the imaginations of the writers, become real enough that the audience truly wants to think that their lives continued beyond the end of the fictional work.
If there were any one element of That 70s Show that I didn't like, it was the strong emphasis on marijuana use. I went through the 70s (and in fact, through my entire life) without using marijuana or other illegal drugs, and I sort of resented the implication that drug use was such an inherent part of the decade that every person who came of age during that decade just naturally used the drugs, regardless of gender or background or social or religious standing. However, I like the characters enough that I can empathize with them in spite of the drug use--and when you consider my personal anti-drug militancy, that's quite an accomplishment on the part of the writers.
The last season--most of which struggled along without Topher Grace (who left at the end of season 7) and Ashton Kutcher (who left a few episdoes into season 8)--was weak, to be sure. The plots weren't awful, by any means, but the interpersonal chemistry was missing. Donna, Hyde, Jackie, and Fez remained interesting, but not interesting enough; the disgruntled alienation of Hyde needed the reckless exuberance of Kelso to balance it, and the serious strength of Donna relied on the mercurial, ineffectual whimsy of Eric to give it direction. The addition of new characters like Randy and Sam was detrimental, because it forced the ensemble cast to act out of character in order to make room for the newcomers.
The series ended on a high note with the return of both Kelso and Eric to Point Place on New Years Eve, 1979. That 70s Show and those 70s came to an end at the same time, and with just enough optimism for the future that I can believe that Eric and Donna finally found happiness with one another. If you think otherwise, don't tell me--I see the entire show as building to the point where they not only accept the intertwined nature of their lives (they did that early on, in spite of several stumbles), but that they embrace it and walk into their futures together as a couple. Life gives us far too many missed opportunities; for me, this show, from the very beginning, was the story of a love's fits and starts as it searched for its true course.
Sure, it's a lot of burden to put on a sitcom. The fact that it stayed the course and delivered an ending that these characters deserved proves that the series and its writers were up to the challenge.
From the very beginning, I found the shows little elements of 1970s life to be appealing. I continually found little set elements that reflected our own life at the time, from the macrame plant hangers and spider plants to the addition of cable tv to the first VCR. The addition of so many spot-on decade-appropriate references made the series particularly engaging for me.
The kids themselves--well, they could have been students of mine. I started teaching high school in 1975, so I taught a senior class that graduated the same year as the Point Place kids. I have fond memories of my students of those years--Steve Callaway and Debbie Marsh and Bill Schroeder and Scott Prince and Leanna Leithauser and Edith Anderson and Jodi Crim and so many others who shared one character trait or another with Hyde, Eric, Donna, Fez, Jackie, and Kelso. So I found myself both empathizing with the characters as their experiences reflected my own, and viewing their experiences through the eyes of one who saw real-world high school students come of age at the same time.
The show's humor works so well for me because it blends timely cultural references, ensemble-cast interaction, cleverly written dialogue, endearing characters, and just enough physical slapstick to season the series without overwhelming it. None of the other elements would have mattered were it not for the endearing characters, however; for a show to succeed (in my eyes, at least), I have to like the focal characters. I not only liked Eric and Donna in particular, I actually cared about them and what happened to them. That's a relative rarity for television. I like the cast of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother and The Middle and Rules of Engagement and 30 Rock, but I don't care about them; I don't find myself wondering at the end of an episode what might happen to them next, or how their lives might be made better or worse by what happened to them in that episode. By the end of Seinfeld or Malcolm in the Middle, I was ready for them to move on. At the end of That 70s Show, I actually hoped that the lives of these fictional characters would continue in the way that I felt that it should.
Friends was the last sitcom whose characters made me care about them. And like Friends, I found myself thinking that I'd like to know if life continued to treat these characters well... if they found happiness, if their lives became what they hoped they would be, if they remained friends for years more. That, to me, is the sign of a well-crafted work of fiction; the characters, born from the imaginations of the writers, become real enough that the audience truly wants to think that their lives continued beyond the end of the fictional work.
If there were any one element of That 70s Show that I didn't like, it was the strong emphasis on marijuana use. I went through the 70s (and in fact, through my entire life) without using marijuana or other illegal drugs, and I sort of resented the implication that drug use was such an inherent part of the decade that every person who came of age during that decade just naturally used the drugs, regardless of gender or background or social or religious standing. However, I like the characters enough that I can empathize with them in spite of the drug use--and when you consider my personal anti-drug militancy, that's quite an accomplishment on the part of the writers.
The last season--most of which struggled along without Topher Grace (who left at the end of season 7) and Ashton Kutcher (who left a few episdoes into season 8)--was weak, to be sure. The plots weren't awful, by any means, but the interpersonal chemistry was missing. Donna, Hyde, Jackie, and Fez remained interesting, but not interesting enough; the disgruntled alienation of Hyde needed the reckless exuberance of Kelso to balance it, and the serious strength of Donna relied on the mercurial, ineffectual whimsy of Eric to give it direction. The addition of new characters like Randy and Sam was detrimental, because it forced the ensemble cast to act out of character in order to make room for the newcomers.
The series ended on a high note with the return of both Kelso and Eric to Point Place on New Years Eve, 1979. That 70s Show and those 70s came to an end at the same time, and with just enough optimism for the future that I can believe that Eric and Donna finally found happiness with one another. If you think otherwise, don't tell me--I see the entire show as building to the point where they not only accept the intertwined nature of their lives (they did that early on, in spite of several stumbles), but that they embrace it and walk into their futures together as a couple. Life gives us far too many missed opportunities; for me, this show, from the very beginning, was the story of a love's fits and starts as it searched for its true course.
Sure, it's a lot of burden to put on a sitcom. The fact that it stayed the course and delivered an ending that these characters deserved proves that the series and its writers were up to the challenge.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Re-Kindling My Interest
I really don't think I'm the right customer for a Kindle.
Oh, I have one--Amazon literally made me one of those offers I can't refuse.
The problem is, I absolutely love books.
Certainly, a Kindle allows me to enjoy the text of a book--but no matter how I try, I can't think of it as a book. It is, at best, akin to a galley proof, a review copy. Problem is, every time I got a galley proof of a book that I really liked, I had to procure a copy of the book as well.
I thought, "Well, I can use the Kindle to enjoy classic literature." There are a lot of books now in public domain that I can download through the Kindle.
Didn't help. Whenever I really enjoy one of those classics, I find myself tracking down a handsome copy of the book to add to my library.
So I've finally come to the realization that a Kindle is actually the electronic equivalent of one of those Brodart library book jackets (you know, the clear plastic sleeves that protect dust jackets from smears, smudges, tears, and wear). It's a great way for me to read a book without damaging my physical copy.
Okay, I know that's not the plan they had in mind... but as long as I think of it that way, I can enjoy a Kindle a lot more. And you know, every now and then I find a book that I don't like that much, so I don't have to buy a copy of it.
But that's far less common than I would have hoped...
Oh, I have one--Amazon literally made me one of those offers I can't refuse.
The problem is, I absolutely love books.
Certainly, a Kindle allows me to enjoy the text of a book--but no matter how I try, I can't think of it as a book. It is, at best, akin to a galley proof, a review copy. Problem is, every time I got a galley proof of a book that I really liked, I had to procure a copy of the book as well.
I thought, "Well, I can use the Kindle to enjoy classic literature." There are a lot of books now in public domain that I can download through the Kindle.
Didn't help. Whenever I really enjoy one of those classics, I find myself tracking down a handsome copy of the book to add to my library.
So I've finally come to the realization that a Kindle is actually the electronic equivalent of one of those Brodart library book jackets (you know, the clear plastic sleeves that protect dust jackets from smears, smudges, tears, and wear). It's a great way for me to read a book without damaging my physical copy.
Okay, I know that's not the plan they had in mind... but as long as I think of it that way, I can enjoy a Kindle a lot more. And you know, every now and then I find a book that I don't like that much, so I don't have to buy a copy of it.
But that's far less common than I would have hoped...
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Flaky Weather
This year, the weather forecasters have been particularly focused on the "mention every possibility and hope one of 'em is right" school of prognostication. Last weekend, they were saying that we had a chance of 1/2" to 1" of snow on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. As the week progressed, the same forecasters backpedaled, reducing the totals to 1/10" to 1/4" of snow. This afternoon, Atlanta's meteorological Cassandra, Glen Burns, backpedaled even further, claiming that the snow was turning into a light rain event instead, with virtually no snow predicted for metro Atlanta.
Well, the snow began at about 10pm, and as of right now, we have about 1/4" to 1/2" of snow on the deck, with the yard lightly covered in snow as well (it's too warm for it to stick to the road, thankfully). So you can be sure that come tomorrow morning, Glen and crew will tout the fact that they had predicted this a week ago... ignoring the fact that they modified that prediction to the point of total inaccuracy by this afternoon.
It's sort of like giving a darts player a hundred darts, then letting him paint the target where he wishes after he's thrown all the darts. That's one way to ensure that one of 'em hits the bullseye...
Well, the snow began at about 10pm, and as of right now, we have about 1/4" to 1/2" of snow on the deck, with the yard lightly covered in snow as well (it's too warm for it to stick to the road, thankfully). So you can be sure that come tomorrow morning, Glen and crew will tout the fact that they had predicted this a week ago... ignoring the fact that they modified that prediction to the point of total inaccuracy by this afternoon.
It's sort of like giving a darts player a hundred darts, then letting him paint the target where he wishes after he's thrown all the darts. That's one way to ensure that one of 'em hits the bullseye...
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
So Long, FedEx Ex-Warehouse
This was the first week that Diamond Comics Distributors sent my freight shipment to the new FedEx Freight hub in Smyrna, GA (formerly a National Freight hub, I believe, prior to the merger of the two). Prior to that, we've been driving 45 miles one-way to the South Atlanta hub in Conley, GA. We didn't ask to make the change, and in fact were willing to keep on driving to Conley in a while, but as someone at Diamond explained to us, "It's like having the USPS open a new post office in your neighborhood. That's your post office now; you don't get to keep getting your mail delivered from the old post office."
I had wonderful experiences with the Conley warehouse and the wonderful crew who worked there--Tommy, Chris, Don, Barry, and the rest of the crew there always went out of their way to give us unprecedented service, and I really appreciated them. But now that the switch has been made, I have to admit that there's something good about an 18 mile drive that never takes me out of Cobb County (where my store is located). I figure it's going to save me more than 5000 miles a year, as well as saving me at least an hour on the road each week.
The folks at the Smyrna hub were very friendly and helpful today, and I think the transition is going to be a smooth one. It's going to take a little getting used to, though!
I had wonderful experiences with the Conley warehouse and the wonderful crew who worked there--Tommy, Chris, Don, Barry, and the rest of the crew there always went out of their way to give us unprecedented service, and I really appreciated them. But now that the switch has been made, I have to admit that there's something good about an 18 mile drive that never takes me out of Cobb County (where my store is located). I figure it's going to save me more than 5000 miles a year, as well as saving me at least an hour on the road each week.
The folks at the Smyrna hub were very friendly and helpful today, and I think the transition is going to be a smooth one. It's going to take a little getting used to, though!
I'm an Equus-trian
I forgot to mention after my post on 12/28 that Ed Voyles Hyundai came back with a very aggressive offer, made up for the shortcomings of that initial experience, and ultimately made the Equus irresistible.
The problems with the vehicle's shortcomings still exist, of course--but I've become all too aware that there is no perfect vehicle for me. I've driven a BMW, a Mercedes, an Infiniti, a Lexus, an Acura, a Cadillac, a Lincoln, an Audi, a Volvo, a Jaguar, a Range Rover, a Bentley (okay, I never even for a moment considered buying it, but they were willing to let me drive it, so why not?...), and a Porsche as well as the Equus, and there isn't a single one of them that doesn't have problems and shortcomings. Let me pick and choose features from each and I could build the perfect car... but that's impossible, so I have to determine the best combination of features, performance, comfort, and price.
The Equus ultimately won out. At the price they were originally asking, the shortcomings made it an unacceptable vehicle--but at the revised price, complete with a full ten-year extended warranty, the positives outweighed the negatives. So I now have a black-on-black Equus Ultimate, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Between this car and the Acura MDX, I think I have the best combination of price/features/performance/comfort available.
The problems with the vehicle's shortcomings still exist, of course--but I've become all too aware that there is no perfect vehicle for me. I've driven a BMW, a Mercedes, an Infiniti, a Lexus, an Acura, a Cadillac, a Lincoln, an Audi, a Volvo, a Jaguar, a Range Rover, a Bentley (okay, I never even for a moment considered buying it, but they were willing to let me drive it, so why not?...), and a Porsche as well as the Equus, and there isn't a single one of them that doesn't have problems and shortcomings. Let me pick and choose features from each and I could build the perfect car... but that's impossible, so I have to determine the best combination of features, performance, comfort, and price.
The Equus ultimately won out. At the price they were originally asking, the shortcomings made it an unacceptable vehicle--but at the revised price, complete with a full ten-year extended warranty, the positives outweighed the negatives. So I now have a black-on-black Equus Ultimate, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Between this car and the Acura MDX, I think I have the best combination of price/features/performance/comfort available.
Getting a Job IS a Job
I own a business. As a result, I routinely hear from people who wonder if we're hiring. Problem is, most of them don't have the slightest idea how to search for a job, and as a result they do it quite wretchedly.
Some of the lowlights include:
•The person who walked in, looked around, said, "They still make this shit?" And then in all seriousness came up to the counter and said "Are you hiring?"
•The fellow who asked "Are you hiring? My parole officer said I need to get a job."
•The surly young man who said, "You wouldn't hire me, would you?"
•The flighty young woman who came in with her coterie of friends (all of whom rearranged merchandise for us), asked if we'd hire her, and then said, "If you do, all of my friends will come in with me every day!"
Here's the basic fact, folks: If you're applying for a job, you need to realize that you already have a job, and that job is selling yourself. If you don't make yourself as desirable an employee as possible, you've already failed at your first job.
Try dressing for the job. Don't come in wearing dirty clothes, offensive clothes, trashy clothes, exercise clothes, wifebeater shirts, baggy shorts, risque clothes, or with garish piercings or tattoos evident. It says, right off the bat, that you value your comfort and your personal statement more than any job.
Tell me what in the world you have to offer that might make you worth cash. A business isn't a charity; I need to know how I'm going to make money on my investment in you.
Have some idea what we do.
Don't make demands prior to even being given an interview. "I don't work weekends" is an exit strategy, not a entrez into a job interview.
Don't assume that telling me I have the best comic shop on earth is going to get you a job or even an interview.
Identify yourself. Sending me an email with an address like perv3000@hotmail.com or bigsexy@yahoo.com isn't going to win me over. It's even less likely to win me over when that email is my first contact with you, and you don't even fully identify yourself in the email.
Another hint: I don't ever hire from an email.
If you're not following these rules, it's no wonder you're not finding a job.
Some of the lowlights include:
•The person who walked in, looked around, said, "They still make this shit?" And then in all seriousness came up to the counter and said "Are you hiring?"
•The fellow who asked "Are you hiring? My parole officer said I need to get a job."
•The surly young man who said, "You wouldn't hire me, would you?"
•The flighty young woman who came in with her coterie of friends (all of whom rearranged merchandise for us), asked if we'd hire her, and then said, "If you do, all of my friends will come in with me every day!"
Here's the basic fact, folks: If you're applying for a job, you need to realize that you already have a job, and that job is selling yourself. If you don't make yourself as desirable an employee as possible, you've already failed at your first job.
Try dressing for the job. Don't come in wearing dirty clothes, offensive clothes, trashy clothes, exercise clothes, wifebeater shirts, baggy shorts, risque clothes, or with garish piercings or tattoos evident. It says, right off the bat, that you value your comfort and your personal statement more than any job.
Tell me what in the world you have to offer that might make you worth cash. A business isn't a charity; I need to know how I'm going to make money on my investment in you.
Have some idea what we do.
Don't make demands prior to even being given an interview. "I don't work weekends" is an exit strategy, not a entrez into a job interview.
Don't assume that telling me I have the best comic shop on earth is going to get you a job or even an interview.
Identify yourself. Sending me an email with an address like perv3000@hotmail.com or bigsexy@yahoo.com isn't going to win me over. It's even less likely to win me over when that email is my first contact with you, and you don't even fully identify yourself in the email.
Another hint: I don't ever hire from an email.
If you're not following these rules, it's no wonder you're not finding a job.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Why I'm not driving an Equus today...
First off, I wasn't allowed to drive it. Since they had only this one for sale and had not gotten a demo car yet, I could only sit in the parking lot and test out various aspects of the vehicle. I've never bought a car that I wasn't allowed to drive at all prior to purchase, so that was off-putting, to say the least. Perhaps if I had insisted, I would have been able to drive the car, but I definitely go the feeling that it would have taken some pushiness on my part to get that car moving off the lot, and I didn't feel like being pushy... wasn't really sure that I should have to, either. It goes against the customer-oriented luxury nature of the vehicle.
I did get to test out the driver's seat, passenger seat, and rear luxury seat. The driver's seat was fine (although a headrest angle adjustment would be nice... all it has now is a headrest elevation control), although the massage feature was less soothing than aggravating--almost as bad as having someone slowly pressing on the seat from behind. Didn't do anything for me.
The passenger seat does have height adjustment as well as angle adjustment and forward/backward movement (there was some rumor out there that the height was fixed), but it does not have lumbar adjustment or leg support adjustment.
The rear "luxury seat" is, to be kind, an absolute disaster. Unless you earn your living pointing at the sky and saying "zee plane, boss, zee plane!" or questing for the one ring to rule them all, then this seat is entirely too cramped to be of any comfort with the legrest elevated. I tried pushing myself as far back into the seat as possible, but even with the front seat moved forward to its maximum, I either had to bend my feet sideways or press them against the back of the front passenger's seat and leave dusty footprints. Even then, it wasn't at all comfortable. The features are nice, but the seat simply doesn't work in the space allotted for it unless you're about 5'2" or less.
The iPod control is improved but I'd only give it a B-. You can connect an iPod, then say "iPod" and "random songs" to randomize on the fly. However, if you change input to anything else (XM, FM, etc.) and come back, you have to randomize again. The DIS displays an iPod symbol and the track number on the center of the dash when you're in iPod mode--not the title, mind you, but the track number, which tells you nothing. And as is the case with the Genesis, if you leave the iPod display (to go to map, for instance) and come back, it no longer shows you the artist/album/song info about the current track playing--you have to go through a cumbersome system of finding the playlist once again, then looking at the screen for the track number and maneuvering your way to that track. Since I was randomizing an 800 song playlist when I was testing it, I found that the track being played was 534, and it would have taken way too long to maneuver my way through that many tracks.
The bass seems stronger and punchier than on the 2009 Genesis--but conversely, the treble seems a little more subdued, giving it almost a Bose-like sound quality (and I'm aware that Bose isn't well respected by a lot of audiophiles, but I"m not saying that as a negative--I don't mind the Bose sound in the Acura RL, for instance--but I didn't feel that this system had the full resonance of the Lexicon in my 2009 Genesis). Surround separation and processing was superb except for one little glitch. I have an Acura TL demo disc that begins with a Doobie Brothers Song--first in two-channel sound, then in 5.1 surround DVD-A sound. That disc plays fine in the Acura, plays fine in the 2009 Genesis, plays fine in the 2011 Genesis they had loaned me at one point... but on the Equus, it would NOT play the stereo track. It went dead silent on that track, even though the timer was counting down. Once it got to the 5.1 version, the sound came right back on. Led me to wonder if I might have similar problems with other discs.
No A2DP streaming bluetooth audio--an odd omission that underscores the general impression that the audio, NAV, and DIS tech is years old. It contradicts the contemporary, cutting-edge luxury attitude that Hyundai seems to be trying to convey with its iPad owner's manual and other touches.
The doors definitely do not have auto-closing feature, as I had been warned would likely be the case. That's a shame; they actually had to remove this feature for the American market, since it's included in the Korean version of the car.
Nav system looked like the Genesis system--although since I couldn'td drive the car, I didn't get a chance to put it through its paces. I also didn't have time to check out voice commands in the manual to determine it destination entry is any easier. Wish that Hyundai would include that part of the manual in their iPad app--the audio and DIS/NAV system section is totally missing, however. I'd need more time to explore the NAV interface, and that would require being able to drive the car. Right now, the NAV interface in the Genesis is so cumbersome that it's almost unusable.
Front camera had a good field of vision; I could see objects well not only in front, but off to each side. Not sure how useful this would be, since I've never had a driving situation that led me to think, "Boy, I wish I had a little camera mounted on the snout of my car."
Coolbox is very compact; I suspect it would hold a six-pack of canned beverages, but didn't have anything with me to test it out. There are two storage compartments between the two rear seats that seem a bit too high to be comfortably accessible, but they're still nice to have.
The rear DVD has to be moved into position manually--an oddity in a field where most DVD screens automatically raise and lower themselves. All in all, the picture was fair to adequate--but the display on various Acura, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan vehicles I've sampled with rear-seat DVD screens was brighter and more vivid.
Motorized rear sunshades worked nicely, but that's not a feature that means much to me. If it's important to you, you'll be happy.
Fit and finish quality seemed very respectable; at first I thought the paint had an orange-peel look, but that turned out to be the play of light off the heavily-metal-flaked paint finish.
What led me to pass on the Ultimate? Well, not driving it was a big factor. Having to wait for a half an hour to see the car after having made the appointment five days earlier was an inconvenience since I was on a tight schedule, but not a deal-breaker; I do hope that the vehicle prep team can keep to schedule a little better in the future, though, because it's always disappointing to wait a half an hour when you have a specific appointment time.
Ultimately (no pun intended) I just didn't feel that there was $65K+ of car there. Since the stereo system/DIS system is under a 3 year warranty, it would cost from $689 to $1700 to extend that to 5 or 10 years--and with the many problems that DIS has had for Genesis drivers, I wouldn't feel comfortable without that extension. (Woodstock Hyundai threw that in at no charge on my 2009 Genesis.)
The price differential was made even more noticeable by a very low trade-in offer on a 2009 Genesis with 10,500 miles. The car has been garaged continually when not driven and is in impeccable shape, but the offer came in at almost $5000 under Kelly Blue Book trade-in value.
The absence of a Hyundai Circle discount (which was once rumored, but was confirmed by Hyundai as NOT being offered for the Equus after all) left me in a situation where I was going to have to write a check for almost $10K more than I would have hoped. And even at the price I had originally hoped, I just didn't feel that I was going to get my money's worth. I could not have seen myself closing this deal unless the drive-out price after trade-in had been $10k less than what was offered to me, including a warranty on the DIS. That sounds like I'm pipe-dreaming, but bear in mind that if I had been offered Kelly Blue Book trade-in value and had the Hyundai Circle pricing been offered as many of us thought it was going to be, I would have had the car for $10,000 to $11,000 less than what was quoted to me at Ed Voyles.
I haven't cancelled my deposit with Ed Voyles; I've asked them to let me know when they have a Signature edition that I can actually drive, and then I'll see how I feel about it. But right now, The Equus strikes me as a missed opportunity; had Hyundai actually designed a luxury car for the American market rather than shoehorning a Korean car (with Korean-buyer-focused features) into the American market, it could have been a real winner.
(One more piece of advice, Hyundai: you might want to avoid announcing improvements to the Equus and the Genesis even before the current Equus is available. I saw the announcement that the Equus would get a 5.0L V8 and an 8-speed transmission even before the first Equus went on display in November; I saw just last week a report that the 2012 Genesis with the same engine and transmission might be available as early as the first quarter of 2011. It makes your very expensive flagship car seem tired and lackluster out of the gate when buyers are already told that both the Genesis and the Equus will have improved engines and transmissions but no, there will be no Hyundai Circle discount or other incentive to encourage early adopters to buy, drive, promote, and support the line.)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Spin Is Job One
Comics have reflected political viewpoints pretty much as long as there have been comic books (Little Orphan Annie strongly reflected the Rooseveltian Depression-era politics of the 1930s, books such as Captain America captured the patriotic fervor of the war years, Superman always supported the American ideal). For the most part, though, the comics existed to tell an entertaining story, while the politics were secondary.That's not the case with Erich Origen & Gan Golan's The Adventures of Unemployed Man. The raison d'etre for this book is entirely political: Origen and Golan want to present a very left-slanted view of current economic conditions, and everything else is secondary. They're not telling a superhero story--they're presenting propaganda clothed in superhero tropes.
The result is a book that is so ham-fisted and unyielding in driving home its one-sided points that it fails to entertain. Even energetic artwork from such creators as Ramona Fradon, Rick Veitch, Michael Netzer, Thomas Yeates, and Shawn Martinbrough can't salvage a story whose only purpose is to perpetuate one-sided political views. The tone is overly strident throughout, and any opposing views are set up as paper tigers designed to be immediately knocked down.
In the hands of someone skilled at combining wit and history (Larry Gonick, for instance), Adventures of Unemployed Man might have had a chance. As it is, this is a book that can only appeal to those who agree with its politics--because ultimately, that's the only content that matters for the book's writers.
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