Brannigan's Law

Since it's been close to a year, it is high time for a post. Lots has changed - I am a graphic design student at the moment (haven't started flash or programming, hence the ugly site still) at Holland College Charlottetown. It's pretty great. Sandy Carruthers, and Nigel Roe are the instructors which means that I get to learn from the best.
There's only a week left in class, and I can't believe the first year's almost over....

Here are some of the sketch cards I have pulled from Marvel Masterpieces Sets II and III.

I just happened to pick up a couple of packs in Boston on a whim, and pulled two sketch cards (Karen Krajenbrink's unknown screamer, and David Rabbitte's Wasp). Two cards in five packs is pretty lucky considering their 1:36 insertion ratio.
From here, I was hooked. I found my way to collect a few more sketch cards (all pulled, none bought from ebay) and was lucky enough to find a Charles Hall Elektra card.

I was also lucky to land one signature card, that being of Paul Tobin who has written some Marvel Adventures comics, the Doctor Doom and The Masters of Evil mini-series, and who was just announced as the author of the Marvel Adventures Avengers series.

The Elektra card is certainly the gem, and I may put it up for sal on eBay in the next little while!

This is a satirical post, don't take it too seriously.

We need to get John and Kate back together. Here's my plan:


What is needed is a situation of such proportions that it makes the "Parent Trap" looks like an obvious ruse. With people of this caliber of celebrity, and resources it's going to take something special to rope them in so that they are invested enough to change their feelings toward one another.

First, we must kidnap the children and whisk them off to a desolate and poor village in India. There, we can arrange for a band of henchmen to kidnap all of the villages children (along with children 1-8) and put them to work, mining for some of the five fabled Sankara stones, which promise fortune and glory...

After, John and Kate will pretty much take it from there. They will find the secret notes left for each of them and realize that they both have to run to India to rescue their kidnapped children. Grabbing the closest 13 year old Chinese boy they can find (to act as a Cantonese interpreter, guide, and someone who believes the baby elephant that transports him in India is a reincarnation of his brother Chu) and head to India alone.

After an uncomfortable card game on the airplane (with tensions rising between the Chinese boy and John) and a terrible connection at the Shanghai Highest International Terminal Airport, the three will charter a plane to India. A plane that, unbeknownst to them, will be piloted by affiliates of Kate's evil boss from her stint at TGI Fridays years ago.

To settle an old score from when Kate accusing the then manager of TGIF for shorting her on her tips, the associate-pilots will jump out of the plane, leaving the three to die in a fiery crash! Thankfully, the plane that they chartered is also carrying hundreds off rafts destined for a Mountain Equipment Co-op store in North America.

The trio will manage to escape while flying over the Himalayas on an inflatable boat and ride down the slopes into a raging river, which will eventually lead them to the desolate and poor Indian village where they will learn of the kidnapped children (including numbers 1-8). Close call! This will surely bring them together more than any 'weekend-therapy-retreat' ever would! Kate will then totally "bitch-out" on the locals when they try and share their food with her.

John and Kate plus one Asian will then seek out the nearest Palace overflowing with evil characters and (oddly) be warmly welcomed. Kate will then learn what awful local food really
looks like. Then everyone will go to bed; as it has been a long couple of days. Being viewers of the show, the evil dudes at the palace will provide separate rooms for the struggling couple so that they don't fight all night keeping everyone up. It will also serve and ulterior motive the Palace baddies have in store as well.

Late at night, an assassin will make an attempt on John's life. Poor assassin. Not knowing that John played Daniel San in the Singapore Middle school presentation of "The Karate Kid", he would not be ready for the ass kicking he will soon receive! The assassin will bugger off, and pretty much leave a trail of bread crumbs to the secret underground temple where the dudes who kidnapped the village children (including 1-8) to mine for the five fabled Sankara stones are hanging out. The assassination attempt will really make John think about life and what's really important, causing him to look at Kate in a new light.

Once there, the situation will really start to stir John and Kate up. John will drink the Blood of Kali and fall into a trance, Kate will almost be sacrificed, and they will both see hearts get ripped out of people's chest (a symbolic gesture that will NOT be lost on the couple) all of which is really going to wake them up to what's really been going on between them. They've been trying to rip each other's hearts out (figuratively) while being drunk on the Blood of Kali (the self centered-ness of celebrity).

Once this is realized, they will no longer be trying to rescue their gaggle of children and escape as two individuals, but instead as one married couple in love. The experience will not only benefit the parents, but the discipline and hard labor from working in a mine, and the courage and success of escaping their stronger captors may even help the 1-8 as they grow through their formative years.

A simple ride on a century old mining cart on rickety track will bring them to their escape, and then with a simple switch of a knife (just like they did with their wedding cake) they'll cut the rope bridge supporting their evil pagan pursuers thus sending them to their deaths. Once done, the family (now closer than ever) will return to the Indian village to rejoice with the locals newly reunited with their children. John and Kate will then, undoubtedly dispense their parenting wisdom to the poor wives and fathers of the village, their strong bond or marital love shining through to all...


Through these easy steps, I think that we can bring John and Kate back together again so that they can have many, many more seasons * I mean * years of happy marriage. In turn, society can then feel relieved that one of the lynch pins holding our families together, is here to stay.
As I said before, this is just one idea. Let's hope we get them together before it's too late.

Just when you think you're never going to post again, you come across something like this.

If you have been waiting like we have for a good movie to return to your local theaters, then this week is a good week.

The Quantum of Solace hit the silver screen with a splash on Friday, November 14th. Nancy and I decided; after a lengthy sabbatical from visiting Empire Theaters Studio 8; that it was time to return and enjoy an adventure with James Bond.
This movie begins right on the heels of 'Casino Royale' and it almost catches you off guard.
I was aware that this movie was a "sequel" to it's predecessor, but for Bond it still caught me off guard.
For those of you who have not yet seen the film, maybe read the rest of this later, as there are no doubt things about the movie that will be let slip.



One of the first things we mentioned after the movie (the drive home after the film is almost the best part. Nancy and I get to talk about what we've just seen while it's fresh in our minds) was that the bad guy's plan was never really something that grabbed the imagination, or even demanded our attention.
In the end, you see where everything was going, and what the Quantum was looking to do, but it seems more of an afterthought than a really big reveal.

What we were especially taken with in The Quantum of Solace was how the characters conducted their business in the commerce of trust. Bond fell out of it (seemingly) with M, (definitely) with the British Government (nothing new), and seemingly the rest of the world. He was alone because nobody trusted him, and the feeling seemed to be more than mutual with James Bond toward the rest of the world!
This sets up what I think to be the most impressive characteristic of the James Bond character:

He does not need the rest of the world or it's trust/approval/permission to do what he knows to be right by the resolve of his conviction. Heck! He doesn't even need permission from his boss!

Who wouldn't want to live their life like this. To move on one's own intuition without regard to their boss, family, or friends? We all would, but many of us don't because we all realize that on our own, we may not possess all of the strength, knowledge, confidence, and intelligence to accomplish all that there is to accomplish in the run of our day. This is why people will like this movie. Bond is brave. Not just the 'I am in a car chase in a rock quarry, flying along open precipices without breaking a sweat' brave, but the kind of brave that tries to set aside the desire for revenge and sets out alone to right what is wrong in the world.

In this movie, James Bond was selfless (or as close as a Bond can get) and determined to peel back the layers to discover what group was behind Vesper's death and betrayal. He was compassionate (nothing new to the Daniel Craig Bond, his holding of Vesper in the shower after the stairwell scene in Casino Royale displayed this characteristic for us already) while holding Mathis who didn't want to be left alone to die, and rescuing Camille from the burning hotel. Not the 'usual suspects' when describing James Bond's character, but things that add depth to an otherwise fairly shallow 'person'.

Speaking of Camille in the burning hotel, who commandeers a hotel!!?!??! I thought that was pretty funny. Where did they send all of the guests, and speaking of that, who pays to stay in a hotel in the middle of the desert in Bolivia!?!?!? Crazy Bolivian exiled Generals, they do the darndest things.

The General was your typical Bond bad guy. He was a murdering rapist, and you felt creepy just looking at him. Greene was an atypical bad guy. He had a charitable foundation, and was more brilliantly devious than outright scary...now I haven't seen all of the Bond movies, so maybe this is nothing new, but Dominic Greene felt like something new. That new kind of evil we feel is there in our world today. The one who abuses our trust in the worst way, and sets out to take advantage for his own ends. The wolf in sheep's clothing...and the American's were doing business with him. Figures ;)

That all being said about the new style villain and the softer more thoughtful side of him, we still saw Bond's other side come out with rolling in Strawberry Fields, and getting fairly hammered on the flight with Mathis. He still quite a few people, and was incredibly bold at the performance of Tosca where he openly offered his suggestions to the Quantum who then fled like kids from a cigarette smoke filled locker room after the principal of the school walks in.

There were martini's, nice cars, beautiful women, brilliant locales, wheel barrow fulls of machismo, and even a plot to take over the majority of the world's water supply. All in all, it had everything you'd expect in a good James Bond film, but it was the extra things that it gave to us which made it a great movie to watch. Including the nod to Canadian Intelligence (as leaky as it is).

Go out, and watch The Quantum Of Solace. I don't think you will be disappointed. I hope not...

Right now, I am at work. Our net' is down until the 10th, when Eastlink can come and hook us up. Also, we have no phone until then.

We're renovating our new home, and it's taking a lot of time!

We head to Mexico soon too, so we're excited about that.

Mike