While I’m dealing with stuff that’s backing up posts in the pipeline, I figured I’d put
the soup can on display as I plug the Zoop campaign for Mark Waid & Barry Kitson’s Empire.
The effort has been funded, so you should be assured of receiving it if you pledge. Choose from a digital copy; the hardcover itself, collecting Empire’s original eight-issue story as begun under the Gorilla imprint and finished at DC, with lots of bonus material; and a slipcased edition.
I’d meant to kick off this year on Blam’s Blog with optimism by displaying the
soup can.
You may recall the concept if you’re a longtime reader. And if not, or really either
way, you can scroll back through its dozen or so appearances here — several of which mention its ancient origins via the eminent and prolific Mark Evanier at News from ME. (I did swap in the bottle of Devil Tylenol from Hell that I cobbled together for a friend a couple of times, and the can also went up on a few occasions, transiently, in
the sidebar.)
The idea is to exhibit said can when there will be little or no other content for a while. So why optimism? Well, I’m hoping that material gets published regularly enough that any break merits calling out.
Vintage Radio: Jakkapan via Adobe Stock. Composite: BSL.
A very long time coming, I Have Issues has gone live.
Kind-of. I’m stretching the definition of “live” there. Right now all you get is a logo
and tag line, plus — maybe, depending on the results of my internal debate over whether it adds value or subtracts from the minimalist placeholder — a brief mission statement. But at least the URL works. I registered the domain a while ago now and have been planning the site for more than a decade.
With higher priorities commanding my attention, even as older posts slowly get refurbished amidst ongoing technical problems, new content here will continue to be sparse at best for some time — meaning the soup can is long overdue for display. Not the greatest way to mark the blog’s anniversary, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles... or at least the way to cooking Campbell’s. Please check in every now and then.
You might have noticed that content around here has been sparse to nonexistent
lately.
The reasons for this are, unfortunately, manifold. I spent much of last year setting
up Adventures in Comicology, a website meant to archive my past writing on comics and steadily stream new material to boot. Posting here on Blam’s Blog in 2013 fell markedly in number from previous annual totals — just under one flipping half of 2012’s high-water mark — and even though I’m working to resume the flow this week I’ve only managed to reach a baker’s dozen posts for 2014 thus far. I’d honestly be fine with that if technical problems, along with the inability to properly deal with those problems due to other life stuff, hadn’t ground progress on Comicology and related projects to a halt. While it’s bad enough simply not being able to put in as much time and effort as I’d like, it’s way more frustrating to put in considerable time and effort
yet have so little to show.
More pressing matters will continue to demand my attention in the short term, but hopefully by summer’s end you’ll see activity pick up here a bit. Another, more detailed status update on all things me will be along when that happens.
Cover detail from X-Men #141 © 1981 Marvel Comics.
While posting here is never easy, at times yet another new Blogger problem crops
up or I forget about an older glitch because I’d been avoiding it for a spell or I just don’t have the patience to deal with the workarounds and troubleshooting, so it seems even harder and plans get kicked down the road again. That’s when I’ll put up the Campbell’s soup can or its associate the bottle of Devil Tylenol from Hell — and when I share another batch of word-verification definitions. I’ve explained the phenomenon before in my first such post and more recently on the dedicated page of this blog that collects them all to date.
• ashible — [ash ih bull] adj. Made of such substance as will be reduced to powder by burning.
• Boxidect™ — [boks ih dekt] It’s ten — ten — ten boxes in one!
• caticeph — [kat ih sef] n. A being with a feline head.
As you can plainly see, I’ve put the Campbell’s soup can into effect.
I was hoping to have thoughts on the last Harry Potter film up soon, never mind all
the other posts in the pipeline. But of course if wishes were horses I’d be buried under a pile of stallions, mares, foals, ’n’ fillies — and I know too well that just wanting a thing to be does not, in the words of Jean-Luc Picard, to mix my multimedia franchises, make it so. Which brings us to another round of word-verification definitions, those lists of lexicographical alchemy that result from my attempts to conjure a bit of amusing sense from nonsense; for more on the phenomenon, you’re welcome to click through the boldface type above to the page on this blog that explains it and collects the definitions to date, while I try to regroup.
• afenemat — [uh fen uh mat] n. What you lay outside to welcome visitors who insist on entering through the window.
• BenCur — [ben kur] The (sadly unsuccessful) all-dog production of Ben-Hur.
• cacturne — [kak turn] n. Short, romantic piano composition about desert plants.
As faithful readers of this blog know, I’ve adopted Mark Evanier’s practice of using a Campbell’s soup can to symbolize a break in new content.
I don’t always owe a hiatus in posts to lack of time, however, except insofar as technological glitches make blogging more time-intensive than it’s supposed to be. Sure, I’m a bit of a control freak, and I find it harder to write than I used to, but once something’s written the essential selling point of various blogging platforms is ease and simplicity of virtual publishing — Blogger most of all, which is why I chose Blogger, yet Blogger couldn’t be more successful at frustrating me and driving me away if it had tried.
It’s time for the blog to really and truly go on hiatus. As I’ve been trying to get a post up here for a couple of days now, with the usual technical roadblocks preventing me from doing so, I’d rather just stay away until everything’s worked out well enough for it all to run more smoothly.
Original panel from Dell's Four Color #280: Andy Panda in the
Isle of Mechanical Men © 1950 Walter Lantz Productions.
This post is currently down for maintenance and, oh, the irony’s palpable.
equit — [ee kwit] v. Take a sabbatical from online activity.
I’m sorry to have gone so long without a post. No-one misses regular activity on this blog more than I do, but it looks as though I’ll be in hibernation mode here for a while yet. Up goes the infamous Campbell’s soup can once more.
The soup can is back in effect. Which signals, as regular visitors here know and the
rest of you can find oat in another post, that one’s blog is being updated more sporadically than usual. I’ve plenty of reviews and bits of commentary almost ready to go, but I keep dropping them to get my old Lost entries back up, the look at this past week’s episode finished, and my grand think-piece(s) on the series in shape.
Did I say “find oat”?
My keyboard is acting like it has a mind of its own, so the Campbell’s soup can is in effect until further notice. [Note: I’ve switched from the Cream of Mushroom used by Evanier to Bean with Bacon for Blam’s Blog even though he’ll tell you that Cream of Mushroom obviously makes far more sense.]
I’m going to adopt what Mark Evanier — writer of comics, animation, variety shows
of my childhood, and more — claims is the ancient Internet tradition of displaying a
can of Campbell’s soup when activity on one’s blog looks to be lighter than usual if not suspended altogether due to personal matters, technical problems, or what have you.
