And Bhutan didn’t win a medal for archery. I’m so heartbroken I could listen to the Smiths.

On the bright side, Dave is opening a Tibetan restaurant in Bangor, called Bangor to Bangkor. Due to my ignorance of podunk towns in Maine, I stumbled across the little fact that there is a Tibetan city called Bangkor (how’s that for a consonant cluster!). My searches for Decatkur met with a much lower level of success, but I did uncover this little tidbit: there are more black people in Bangkor than in Bangor (0 and -4, respectively).

Here’s hoping that the math team in Bangkor is gangbusters. And just so this entire post isn’t in-jokes, I’m going to rant about a comic-book movie.

The Spirit is going to suck red monkey ass-checks. Pardon my language, but I’m irate. Frank Miller, perhaps the most overrated creator in the history of comic books, is taking the seminal creation of Will Eisner and trashing it to hell. Who’s Will Eisner and what’s the big deal? Well, ya know the Academy Awards? Comics have the Eisner Awards.

Apparently “grim” superhero movies are in right now. That’s fine, but don’t take a hero who has always starred in light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek adventures and put him in Sin City. Worse, Miller has completely revamped the Spirit’s supporting cast, altering most of it beyond recognition, but going so far as to completely remove perhaps the most important foil for the Spirit, Ebony White. Obviously there are racial concerns (wiki it), but Darwyn Cooke proved in his run on the current Spirit comic series that Ebony can be an extraordinarily strong, interesting character. The Spirit just doesn’t work without Ebony.

And we’re allowed to see the Octopus’s face…blasphemous!

Eisner’s classic take on the Spirit has been called “the Citizen Cane of Comics.” Thanks to the likes of Cooke, Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragnones, and Paul Smith, the modernized version of the Spirit is one of the best comics on spinner racks today and has been for two years. And it’s always been fun. It’s always been happy. You’ve got plenty of grim-n-gritty comic characters to choose from, Frank. You should’ve left the Spirit alone. In the right hands, The Spirit would be a great movie. As it is, I’m afraid I’ll end up walking out on what is sure to be a travesty. The official title for the movie is Will Eisner’s The Spirit, but this bastardization has nothing to do with the great Will Eisner.

Announcements: if you’re in Atlanta September 12th , Deke Dickerson will be rocking Decatur CD and there will be FREE BEER. Be there or be square, babes and bros. Also, Be sure to check out my writing for Paste:Local Atlanta. And I have another tattoo now. I heard Dave got like six tattoos though.

Record: Anthony Braxton – Beyond Quantum. Comic: Showcase presents the Atom Vol. 2.