Cårven Der Pümpkîn

Happy Halloween everyone!

Flash Friday: Flash Field Guide

Tired of friends, family, and office workers mixing up your favorite character?  We here at That F’ing Monkey have your back.  Now just print off the appropriate Geek Guide and never have to worry about being mistaken for the wrong superhero again.  If these go over well we may branch out with more volumes, let us know what you think.

Flash Field Guide Volume 1, Basic Character Guide

 

Flash Field Guide Volume 2, T-Shirt Guide

Happy 100!!

That F’ing monkey is only a post away from 100 posts! And tomorrow I’m actually taking the day off from work and the blog to recharge the batteries, play some video games, and drink some beer. So Friday’s Flash Friday will be the actual 100th post.

I was hoping to have a huge shakeup for number 100, but funds cut some things short. By now you should have noticed the new layout, hopefully you like it. The buttons on the right will take you to posts on Hangover Thursday, Flash Friday, or Brandon’s Guest Posts. Also there is finally away to drop us an email.

Even bigger news, we know have our own url. So http://www.fingmonkey.com/ is all you have to remember now! I wanted to replace the title monkey image, but I ran out of time and monies. I love the picture, but well, it was pulled from a cartoon. So someday that will be replaced; hopefully before we reach post 200. I have a cool theme for next week’s posts, so it should be interesting.

A big thank you for everyone who has stopped by to read, a giant thank you to anyone who passed to site on to friends, and a special thank you to Kelson over at speedforce.org for making sure the Flash community is kept up to date with Flash Fridays.

More then just Werewolves.

We’re getting really close to Halloween so you’ve probably already heard it. Maybe it was on the radio or maybe you hit up an early Halloween party. You know it immediately; those early piano notes can only be “Werewolves of London.” I heard it on my drive into work this morning and it got me melancholy. Warren Zevon was a musical genius, left this world way too soon, and most people will only ever know him for singing about Pina Colada drinking Werewolves.

Check after the jump for some non-werewolf music.

Review: 9/11 heartbreaker

As seen in the comment field from this week’s Hangover Thursday; there was a request to review a short graphic novel. Up until this point at That F’ing Monkey we’ve mostly hyped about things we really like or complained about things we didn’t. There hasn’t been much actual reviewing. So I thought long and hard the other night on how to do reviews. At one point I was going to award up to five pint glasses as a score (like so and so gets 3 and a half pints out of 5). But I find reviews with scores or grades end up being skimmed down to the bottom to see how it rates. So instead I’m going to write about my thoughts and feelings when doing a review and leave behind any type of scoring system.

9/11 heartbreaker by Craig Staufenberg is a change of pace from the normal books talked about here. There are no swords, superheroes, or monkeys. In fact I was a little nervous by the title. Living in Florida, I understand the loss of life in 9/11 is a tragedy but I know a total of one person who was even in the state of NY at the time. I was worried that I might be a little too distant from the material for it to really have an impact.

I was wrong, it definitely has impact. In fact after I read it, I spent the rest of the night thinking about it. The story begins as the main character meets Peter at a karaoke bar. Peter tells her that he records young people’s memories of 9/11. That is the part of the plot you’re getting from me. Not because there is some grand twist you’ll never see coming, but because of how thought provoking the rest of the journey is. History, legacies, and personal memories become intertwined.

The art style is simple, yet manages to still be expressive. Sometimes there are backgrounds, other times the backgrounds consist of just solid colors. The panel layouts can be at times creative, but more importantly are always easy to follow. The text all appears to be handwritten. It makes the book feel like you are reading through someone’s journal. Peering in on the main character’s private thoughts makes the entire experience seem even more intimate.


In case it isn't obvious at this point, I really enjoyed the book.
Digital copies of 9/11 heartbreak are 2.99 and print copies are 4.99. The print copy is 28 pages. You can order either version from this link: http://memoryisfiction.com/?page_id=67
Check it out for yourself, come back, and let me know what you thought.  It may make you reevaluate the memories you hold on to.

Flash Friday: Flash Cakes Found

After weeks of searching I got a picture text one day of a friend holding up a box of Hostess Flash cakes. I had been to every grocery store in my area numerous times and like a 70’s Hostess ad; I had been thoroughly defeated by the snack cake. Batman and Superman branded treats were everywhere. I had run across Glo Balls at one location but no Flash Cakes. So finally it came down to some friends who were way down in South Florida who came to my rescue. What follows are entirely too many pictures of a snack cake and its packaging.

The Answer is B; Beer

It’s Hangover Thursday once again. Personally my head is pretty good right now; hopefully everyone else’s is too. I realized last night that I’ve been going to my local bar of choice almost every Wednesday for over a year now. I know it is around this time because one of my earliest visits there I cleaned up on the Halloween trivia. So much so that people were starting to get upset at me. Of course at the bar you win a free draft beer if you win the round, so people were mad I was getting all the free ones.


I love bar trivia though. I think it is something about being a geek, you have all this useless knowledge catalogued in your brain and you are just dying to share it with people. When I was working out in Shreveport this big group of girls were playing the video trivia and the one sitting next to me was struggling. Her friends were giving her a hard time about it too. That’s when the screen showed, “Coming up next Indiana Jones Trivia!” I told her I’d win her the round if she’d by me a beer. We proceeded to destroy everyone else playing that round.

I did okay last night. With six rounds of play I’m always happy if I win one; especially when there are sometimes teams of 4 or 5 people playing. Never figured out how they split the beer 4 ways when they win. On top of that I also got to work on my list. Not only that I was told I didn’t have to drink the two Monster Energy drinks that are on the list since they aren’t alcoholic.

So beers 86-89 were Witterkerke, Radeberger, Bells Oberon, and Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. Everything else I drank that night was already checked off my list, I really need to stop doing that.  Hopefully there is Halloween trivia next Wednesday.

My Heart is on Fire

Last Saturday I discovered something very wonderful and very Halloweeny; Elvira is back on TV! Back on her little red couch the Mistress of the Dark is hosting a brand new version of Movie Macabre. It’s the same old formula, Elvira shows up before and after commercials, cracks some jokes, and shows some classic B movies.

Check your local listings, it might be under Evira’s Movie Macabre or it might just be listed as the movie title (that’s how it was for me). The guide said The Giant Gila Monster was supposed to be on. When I clicked over to it, there was Elvira vamping it up and introducing the Brain that Wouldn’t Die.

The best part is this doesn’t look to be just a Halloween thing. That means we get lots of boob jokes and bad movies far past the 31st. This is fantastic news to me. I love Elvira and I think she is hysterical. Some people can get away with telling bad jokes and puns and still make them funny somehow. And yes, she still looks amazing.

I missed the days of hosted horror movies. Elvira was always a favorite, but I miss seeing Gilbert Gottfried showing things like Flesh Eating Mothers on USA Up All Night too. Not to mention Joe Bob Briggs on Drive-In Theater and Monstervision (that jingle still gets in my head some days). Joe Bob is a personal hero. Yes I know about Svengoolie, but I’m not in Chicago so that doesn’t do me too much good.



Back to Elvira, the movies shown so far or are scheduled to show are Night of the Living Dead, The Terror, The Giant Gila Monster, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, and Scared to Death. With all the Halloween parties starting to pop up, I know my Saturdays are about to get busy. But my DVR is already set; I’m not missing another minute.

How to ruin an Icon

Just a real quick guest blog because I have just seen this....


That thing is supposed to be the power battery for the Green Lantern movie. What the fuck is going on here? How the hell can that be the battery? It is such an iconic thing for the Lantern mythos and they have turned it into something completely unrecognizable to anyone. I did not even know what I was looking at when I first saw it as it looks like a prop from one of the shitty Matrix sequels. Combine that with the weird "organic" looking costume and my
for this movie is quickly changing to

Sorry had to be done.
So you tell me does that weird looking blob up there take the place of this?




And that is how and icon is ruined. Hollywood gets a hold of it and next thing you know Batman has nipples.

Tales from the Brain Jar, #7

Tales from the Brain Jar might have taken a week off, but we’re back! We are also getting about a third of the way through my book. So I guess I need to be on the look out for new opportunities to get some sketches. In the last installment I mentioned that Brandon was up at Motor City Comic Con and was kind enough to get me two different sketches. The first was the awesome Mouse Guard and this week we look at the second one.

Guy Davis did this Liz Sherman for me. If you don’t recognize Liz, she is a member of the B.P.R.D. and to a lesser extent was the love interest in the Hellboy movies. I say lesser extent because I could never get my head around the idea of the two characters hooking up; it bothered me so much I have never seen the second Hellboy film. Ever since Hollow Earth where Hellboy is shown like a big brother, it makes it almost incestuous. Abe and Liz? Sure, I’m fine with that. Sword of Storms made me giggle like a school girl.

Let’s get back to Guy Davis though. Since the show I’ve had chances to meet him and he is just a super nice. I knew of him from the Nevermen series and already loved his work from that. I was unsure what to think of his take on the B.P.R.D. characters when he did his first one-shot. As he became the main artist for B.P.R.D. he put his own mark on the characters and now it is hard for me to see anyone else draw them.

Guy also gets extra cool points for doing a drawing of Roger in a kilt for the Hellboard. Dark Horse has announced that they are doing B.P.R.D. omnibuses so if you missed out on the fun, there will soon be an affordable way to catch up.  Next week the sketchbook goes back to Megacon.

Dragone Age Ultimate Editon

Ever look back at something and think about how much money you could have saved by waiting an extra week, month, or year? My Jonah Hex figure was probably purchased for twice the price at a con because I wanted Jimmy Palmotti to sign it. That was well worth it, but today we’re talking Dragon Age.

BioWare has my number and I jump like a hopeless fanboy for what ever scraps they throw out. I pre-ordered for extras. I jumped into their browser game for even more in-game riches. I picked up novels so I could learn about the world. The game launched and I loved it. I slew Darkspawn by the hundreds, fell in love with a dark witch everyone seems to hate, and managed to save all of Ferelden. The game ended and I jumped right back in to try another character. Again and again.

Again I was their fish and they didn’t even need to bait the hook. The DLC came and I grabbed it. The Awakening expansion came and I grabbed that too. While there are a couple things I didn’t download, I have the vast majority of it. Which is why now when I look at the new game releases coming out, my wallet and I hold each other and cry.Dragon Age Ultimate Edition is about to hit the store shelves. It include Origins, Awakening, The Stone Prisoner, Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar, Feast day Gifts, The Darkspawn Chronicles, Feast day Pranks, Leliana's Song, The Golems of Amgarrak, and Witch Hunt.
It costs 60 bucks, the same as just Dragon Age Origins did.

If you like RPGs and you’ve never played Dragon Age this is a ridiculous deal. My wallet may wish I had waited, but I don’t regret picking it up on launch day. It has given me hours and hours of enjoyment. Actually I just started another play through because I hadn’t played Witch Hunt yet. As further proof that I am impatient and a whore for BioWare; I have to go preorder the Dragon Age 2 Signature edition today when I get off of work. All preorders placed before January 11 will get an extra playable character, new missions, soundtrack, and digital armory.

Flash Friday: Sharp Dressed Flash

It’s Flash Friday, so I know everyone that’s been reading this week is probably happy that all the Pittsburgh Wedding talk is over. Certainly I’ll be talking about the Funko vinyl Flash, that Whatzit is showing up in the Super Pets book, or that I finally found Flash Cakes…

But actually, it is more wedding talk. Today we’ll be looking at two Flash accessories that I don’t get many chances to pull out of the display case. One of them made it to the wedding; the other didn’t quite make it.


Check out after the jump to find out exactly what I’m talking about.

So Long and Thanks for All the Beer

We are no longer in Pittsburgh. Sunday my friends and I all boarded different planes and went off the Florida, Jersey, Texas, etc… But we have our memories, and some of us that stood up in the wedding got spiffy new drinking boots! We got them the night of the rehearsal dinner and immediately had to break them in. And then they came back out during the wedding reception.

They hold a liter of beer, so it was fun to run up to the bar and have them pop open two fresh bottles and just pour them in every time we started getting low. It also made sure the beer was always cold, which was fantastic. But we didn’t spend the whole time just drinking from boots. The first day we were in Pittsburgh we also hit up the beer distributer.

Can I just say I’m sorry to everyone who lives in Pennsylvania? With separate beer distributers and liquor stores they make it very difficult to just pick up some drinks. We managed okay though and grabbed the old standby cooler. Since we were in Pittsburgh we figured we had to go with Yuengling. So we got a case of lager cans, a case of black and tan cans, and what we thought was a case of lager bottles. We get back to the room and open everything like it is Christmas morning. Turns out those weren’t just bottles, they were 22oz bottles.

We spent most nights on the hotel patio with our cooler and drinking to the wee small hours of the morning. I don’t think I did anything to make an ass of myself, so that is always good. Although quote of the weekend happened at like 2am after the wedding when our friend looked at our drinking prowess and said, “I like to drink, but y’all are drunks.”



Now, back to my beer list. After three days of back to back hardcore drinking I wasn’t looking to do much damage. I ended staying at the bar far longer then I meant and still got home at like 10. Beers 82-85 are Newcastle Brown, Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown, Boddingtons, and Lost Coast Downtown Brown. So lots of brown ales last night; next week I’m going to hit the remaining pales on the list.

Doing some bar math shows that my beer list should be completed by the end of the year, but I’ll still be hungover most Thrusdays, so the Hangover Thursday portion of the blog will keep going strong.

Wedding Photos are Good Shit

The following story is all true. I’m not creative enough to make these things up. Yesterday I mentioned I had met the craziest photographer in the world, now I believe it is my duty to tell the world.

It is a Thursday, the wedding is Friday. The bride and groom want some pictures of the wedding party in Pittsburgh. It means an extra day in a tux, but hey I’m a trooper. The first location is a great one. It’s an area looking over the incline with a fantastic view of the Pittsburgh skyline. As we’re walking to get there a random stranger walking away from the area tells us that the photographer is pissed and has been bitching about us for five minutes. We are supposed to be there at 11. The boys get to the picture taking area at exactly 11, how do I know? The bells of a nearby church are ringing.

So we’re actually thinking there is going to be an argument and a guy getting punched. Almost the first picture he takes makes it look like we’re pissing off the scenic lookout and onto the road below. There were some normal pictures, after that there were pictures of us throwing our hands up in the air and jumping. The next thing I know we’re walking down the middle of the street and he’s taking pictures. We’re blocking traffic as the 6 of us walk shoulder to shoulder down the street. Then he wants us to cross the street like Abbey Road. I joke that I want to be Paul and take my shoes off. He says, “That’s a great idea. Shoes and socks off everyone. Who does this?” Also he decides we need to reach our right arm out and rest them on the shoulder of the person in front of us like we’re fucking elephants at a circus, I don’t remember that in Abbey Road.

Seriously, it gets stranger. Check it out after the jump.

Back in the Saddle Again; Where I've Been

So Brandon and I were away at the yearly That F’ing Monkey planning summit, well not really. The two of us went up to Pittsburgh for our friends Eric and Shannon’s wedding. Because we were up there for 5 days, expect this week, including Hangover Thursday and Flash Friday, to be mostly wedding trip themed.

So how did Pittsburgh treat me? Well the first thing I have to let you know is we stayed at a hotel near the airport with no other real transportation. For the most part, if we couldn’t walk there then we couldn’t get there. Considering there was a Primanti Brothers just a short walk down the street, we weren’t too worried.

If you aren’t a Pittsburgh native or addicted to the Travel and Food networks you’ve probably never heard of Primanti Brothers. It’s a chain founded in 1933 and famous for putting their coleslaw and french-fries on their sandwiches. I still have fond memories of my first visit to Pitt when I was a little kid. Ever since I can remember I’d pile my fries on my hamburgers, sandwiches, sloppy Joes, etc… When I got my first sandwich there it felt like someone understood me.

Our food choices were hotel food, Bob Evans, Primanti, or Wendys. We ate at Primanti a lot. I started with egg and capicola, then corned beef and pastrami; then hot sausage, and finally I created what I consider to be a masterpiece of sandwich construction. It was no slaw, double fries, egg, hot sausage, and capicola. That was just the sandwiches, there was also the giant slices of pizza for a buck fifty and the bacon, chili cheese fries. Not all in one day of course, just over the time we were staying there.

Check back tomorrow for the story of the craziest photographer in the word.

State of the Blog.

It is October, the weather just got beautiful here in Orlando. This is the 86th entry post to That F’ing Monkey; so I’m barreling towards the 100th. I wasn’t sure I’d keep up with it as much as I have been when I started in late May. I’m hoping to have something special for my 100th entry, but that may or may not work out in time.

More importantly at this moment though, I’m off to Pittsburgh in the morning and will be gone for a week. I doubt I’ll be updating from my phone, so unless someone else brings a laptop this is the last post for a bit. When I come back I’m sure there will be plenty of things to talk about, hell I already know what the first Flash Friday will be about.

So anyway, just a short break, then we’ll be back on our way to 100, 150, 200, 250…..

Also, I'm not sure how long it is good for, but right now Amazon has ME2 for 20 bucks. If you haven't played it yet, that is a fantastic deal.   Mass Effect 2

Beat Drums!

Stephen J. Cannell (1941-2010)

Stephen J. Cannell past away on September 30th. His name is probably not one you recognize, his face is. It was at the end of so many of my favorite television shows, hammering away at the keyboard and then throwing the paper onto a stack to form a letter C. I didn’t know the man, but the show he wrote for and helped create are part of my life.

He was the creator of the Greatest American Hero, the A-Team, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Booker, and many others. Later I’d learn to appreciate Jim Rockford and his writing on Black Sheep Squadron. The last time I was aware of what he was doing was the cameos on Castle, where he was part of Castle’s regular poker night with other authors.

He was dyslexic, but managed to write numerous books and scripts. I feel bad having never picked up one of his novels considering how many of his shows I’ve loved. It is something I’m going to have to remedy. If anyone has a book to recommend I’d start with that one. Mr. Cannell, you will be missed.

Really, there is no other way to end this post, then with this:

Flash Friday: A Very Special Flash

It’s Flash Friday and today I have a pretty important piece of my flash collection to talk about. In all honestly it isn’t a very impressive piece at first glance. During the Justice League cartoon they sold some 12 inch maquettes. After that they used the sculpts for the first run of action figures. After that they used them for 12 inch action figures and 2.75 inch die cast figures. Today I’ll be taking specifically about the die cast figure.

I need to veer off subject for a moment for all of this to make sense, but it’ll eventually get Flash related I promise. Just a few years ago I was up in the Chicago area for my wedding. It was early January, and amazingly not covered with snow. Being a fairly large wedding and since I was the groom; I went where I was told and tried to stay out of the way. Still it was a dizzying amount of frantic confusion.

I wasn’t nervous, but it was a surreal experience. Also the odd joke everyone likes to make to the groom about their freedom ending is very odd. Only one more day of freedom, you still have a chance to run, etc… I heard it lots and it never really made sense. So the day finally comes and I’m getting dressed with my groomsmen. My buddy Nick, who I’ve know since 6th grade so 20+ years, walks up to me and says something along the lines of, “Hey man put this in your pocket and if you get nervous you’ll know it is in there.” What was it? A die cast 2.75 inch Flash figure.

So as I was standing in front of my family and my soon to become family, I had the Flash in my pocket. The little guy is obviously pretty important to me now. The blog will be taking a week off starting next Wednesday. I’ll be going up to Pittsburgh for my friend Eric’s wedding. I’ll be enjoying some Primanti Bros sandwiches as often as I can and trying to walk that fine line of drunk between charming and ass.

Oh and last Sunday when I saw Eric I had a little present for him.