Launching RBT Art

Remember the other day when I posted some random cheesy iPod art? Shortly after that, I discovered an app called Brushes that allows you to compose more serious and complex digital art. I downloaded it and started screwing around. I don't claim the results to be great art. But I'm having a blast "painting" and figure all art is worth sharing. Rather than just post stuff here, I decided to give my pieces they're own little home. Hence ... RBT Art. It's only purpose might be as a creative outlet for me. But if you spend a few minutes perusing and see something you like, all the better.

Three samples of what you'll find there (and how cool Brushes is, even for a rank amateur like me):

iPod Touch art

Been awhile since I posted here, and there's only one good way to fill the void ... with my iPod Touch art!

Watching





















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Batman

Should the All-Star Game count?

Throughout this summer, Around the Horn Baseball, one of Fantasy Hurler's sister sites, is running a series of arguments called The Great Bloguin Baseball Debate. The series features a bevy of Bloguin network baseball writers examining both sides of hot-button topics and classic hardball arguments. This week, it was my turn to step up to the podium, where I was tasked with convincing the masses that the MLB All-Star Game should indeed have meaning, that it should be more than an exhibition. An excerpt:

Having the All-Star Game determine home-field advantage is not only more fair than saying, "Well, it's the American League's turn this year," but it also ensures that outcome of the game matters once more. Players may never again play the game with the passion that they once did, but at least MLB execs realize the All-Star Game would be better served if they cared a little. With the new rule, they're forced to.

To read my full argument, along with i94 Sports' Rex Jaybels counter-argument, please click right here. If you're a baseball fan and you enjoyed this one, spend some time perusing the other articles in the series. Bloguin writers have worked really hard on these, and the end results have made for some excellent reads.

Three of my essays now available digitally

You can now buy digital versions of all three of the essays I've written for Smart Pop Books at the publisher's revamped website.

Raimi vs. Bendis: Reimagining Spider-Man and The Captain May Wear the Tight Pants, but It's the Gals Who Make Serenity Soar can be purchased individually or as part of their respective e-book. Keeping It Real in Gotham, for the moment, is full e-book only.

Just click on the above links to go to each essay's respective page, where you can also leave a comment and recommend the essay via your fave social-networking site.

Smart Pop notes

Happened upon another positive Batman Unauthorized review from last year, courtesy of Ink 19. They write:

This book comes highly recommended, and the collection of essays is successful because the writers expertly and passionately present fresh ideas about the Dark Knight and highlight how he's changed with the times -- a perfectly imperfect hero for our society.

BenBella Books is going to relaunch their Smart Pop website this fall, and word is past essays will be available digitally for individual purchase. I've signed some paperwork for it, so at least one of the three I've written for them should be offered.

At long last, the Cup returns to Pittsburgh

I'm officially Twittering

These days, who isn't? You can find me right here.

The "Lost" finale was a little meh

Am I the only one in the entire universe who was underwhelmed by last night's Lost season-ender? This was the last season (not series) finale of Lost ever! Their final chance to leave our jaws dropped, shocked at what we'd just seen, dying to know what's coming next! Instead, they gave us a fade to white that made me do little more than shrug. No big reveal. No scintillating tease as to what's coming next.

Plus, I'm not buying the Jacob reveal. All the crazy, scary stuff that happened in the cabin -- that was just Ben knowingly talking to an empty chair, followed by a little unexplained mayhem? Kind of lame.

The twist with Locke was nice, but the payoff sucked because the character now posing as Locke is someone we never knew existed until the beginning of the same exact episode. Again, I was less than thrilled.

The scene with Rose and Bernard was all kinds of wonderful, though.

Who wants to hear me on the radio?

Internet radio that is!

If you're reading this right now, you possibly already know that I run a fantasy baseball blog called Fantasy Hurler.

Because of that site, I got invited to talk fantasy baseball on the FantasyPros911 Internet radio show on Sunday. The show was originally broadcast live last night, but you can listen to it now by clicking right here and streaming it on your PC. There's also a link there to get it through iTunes. Or, if you go to this page and find the 3/22 show under On Demand Episodes, you can directly download the show in MP3 form.

So you're interested at all in baseball or what I'm up to these days, check it out. Oh, and if I sound nervous (and I'm pretty sure I do), remember to cut me some slack. It's been a good long while since I've done any type of radio.

Neil Patrick Harris has a great sense of humor

Screw Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. THIS is the funniest thing I've seen on SNL all season ...

Fantasy Hurler 2.0 launches

For the last two years I've run a fantasy baseball blog called Fantasy Hurler, something I've done for fun. When I started, I just figured that I talk so much about fantasy baseball as it is, I might as well write about it, too. I brought some other writers on, and last summer, somewhat surprisingly, the thing started picking up a little bit of steam. We had regular readers, a tiny trickle of advertising revenue. And now this year, an opportunity came along to relaunch the site with a whole new look, as part of a new sports blog network called Bloguin. So, to get to the point, Fantasy Hurler 2.0 launched this week, and I thought anyone stopping by here might be interested in checking out it out now. Our new and permanent address:

www.fantasyhurler.com

The new version of the site's still in its infancy. Nobody's using the forum yet. I need to get my other writers posting again. And readership won't start rising again until leagues open in February. But I'm gearing up for the new season and hopefully things will be hoppin' at the site soon. Consider this my invite to stop by the site at anytime and see what we're up to.

Another nice "Batman Unauthorized" review

This one from The Christian Manifesto, of all places. From their review:

Robert Brian Taylor’s “Keeping It Real In Gotham” is the first essay in the title and all other titles really hinge on this one. Here, Taylor talks about the difficulties of transferring Batman from the printed page to the big screen.

Gems are shiny and good, right?

World Famous Comics reviewed Batman Unauthorized this summer and was nice enough to label my essay, which does indeed take "the comics and movies to task for epically stupid developments," as one of the book's gems. As a whole, they give the book a three out of five on the Tony scale. (When you click on the link, you'll need to scroll down a bit to read the review.)

Still writing about baseball

Fantasy Baseball Generals has been running an excellent series of articles detailing the top five fantasy stories from every Major League team this season. They asked yours truly to contribute Pittsburgh's top five, which you can read in all its glory RIGHT HERE.

Remember, if you're interested in baseball and, for some reason, find yourself caring about what I'm up to, you can always visit Fantasy Hurler, the fantasy-baseball blog I've run for two seasons now.

Groucho Reviews likes Batman Unauthorized

I found this comprehensive and very favorable review of Batman Unauthorized today. Groucho Reviews calls it "essential reading on the modern myth of Batman, its meaning, and its enduring hold on the American imagination," as well as name drops yours truly. Can't beat that.

Yes, I am still among the living

So, uh, yeah. I haven't blogged here forever. For anyone who's been stopping by, sorry 'bout that. I have been doing a fair amount of writing, but it's all been over at Fantasy Hurler and Three Rivers Poker, or me tooling around on various fiction projects that aren't worth talking about yet. Plus, there have been vacations, my summer job working for Major League Baseball, figuring out how to communicate with a two-year-old, etc., etc.

It's too bad I haven't taken the time to write because there have been things to talk about. Anyone who's seen The Dark Knight and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog knows we were treated to two supreme entertainments this summer. I've decided that Joss Whedon and Chris Nolan should be crowned kings of Hollywood, with free rein to write/film/produce whatever they want. (Actually, thanks to TDK's box office, Nolan might actually have that power now.)

I've also read good stuff (Batman: The Long Halloween) and played good stuff (Civilization: Revolution). Hell, I even finally finished Y: The Last Man, tackling the final 10 issues over a two-day stretch last week. (Standing O for you, Mr. Vaughn.) Obviously, I've been playing lot of catch-up since my TV column was axed. That's the one good thing to come from it -- I no longer have to waste time subjecting myself to the Swingtowns and Wipeouts of the world just to have something to write about every week. In fact, I'm only watching three shows this summer: Season four of Weeds (started out sucky, has gotten a whole lot better), season one of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (started out sucky, has gotten a whole lot better) and season two of Burn Notice (is never sucky, always rocks).

So there, at long last ... that's what I've been up to recently. I'll try not to let too much time pass before blogging here again.

You've got to be kidding me

My Xbox 360 crapped out on me for the second time in four months today. I was playing some GTA IV, when the game went out and my system flashed a quick message about cleaning the disc and trying again. I ignored it, figuring that some dust must have glommed onto the disc, and turned the 360 off. A few hours later, I fired it back up to play again, except this time, it wouldn't acknowledge that GTA IV was even in the machine. So I tried another game ... which also didn't work. I stuck a DVD in ... which too didn't register. A bit of research showed that my 360 suffers from the "open tray" error, named as such because my Xbox tells me I have an open tray even though I damn well know there's a disc sitting in it.

So I called Microsoft customer service to see what they could do about it. They broke the news that they could fix the console but it would cost me $99 because the three-month extended warrenty I got after having my console fixed for the Red Ring of Death expired on Saturday. Are you fucking kidding me?

So now I'm back to having no Xbox 360. It's unplugged, sitting on my kitchen table, while I decide whether I want to pay to fix the cheap, sloppily made, hurried-to-market piece of shit. I guess I'll have to, considering the money I have invested in games for the thing. Next generation, though, I'll seriously consider avoiding Microsoft altogether. It's just not worth the hassle when your machine eventually breaks ... and then breaks again.

Addicted to the Electone on YouTube

When I was a kid I took piano lessons for several years -- learned how to read sheet music, played in a few recitals, all that jazz. But in high school, I switched to guitar, which I thought was the "cooler" instrument and the one that hung from the neck of my musical heroes, including Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. I've played the six-string recreationally ever since, though recently I've gotten the urge to tackle piano again. The big problem there is I don't think I can fit one in my house, so I've been considering buying a keyboard. Something cheap, I figure. Doesn't need to be a professional model. Just something to fool around with.

Then I accidentally discovered the Yahama Electone while screwing around on YouTube the other day, and I've decided I must have one. Never mind that I couldn't possibly play it with the skill that the folks in the videos below display. (Or, let's face it, 1/20th of said skill.) But just the fact that these people can do these things with an Electone makes me want to have one in my living room. Sadly it seems Yahoo doesn't sell them in America; they can only be imported. Which also likely means they're expensive as hell. (I haven't researched cost yet 'cause I want to let the dream live a little longer.)

Anyway, check these out. And, yes, the fact that I'm a film-music junkie is helping to feed my Electone addiction.

TAYLOR ON TV: Signing Off

I’ve endured many unfortunate cancellations during the five years I’ve written this column – Angel, Deadwood, Veronica Mars and Invasion, to name a few. Unfortunately, I’m now facing one I won’t be able to get past – my own.

Yes, fellow couch potatoes, the Herald’s Powers That Be have decided to force Taylor on TV into an early retirement. No hard feelings here. At its inception, this column was really just a happy accident. Back when I worked as editor of the Lake Wylie Pilot, I was out wining and dining with a group of newspaper people that included the then-publisher of the Herald. She overhead me talking passionately about some TV show or other and offered me my own column. How could I say no?

My first Taylor on TV was a massive piece on the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, still my all-time favorite television show. Between then and now, I watched a whole lot of good stuff that I felt privileged to write about in this very spot: The debut of Lost, and then, after its disappointing second season, its glorious season-three rebirth. Jack Bauer kicking terrorist butt season after season on 24. Shane murdering Lem and betraying Mackey on The Shield. Veronica Mars catching Lilly’s killer.

While writing this column I saw the beautiful beginning of Pushing Daisies and the sad, touching finale of Six Feet Under. I became smitten with that wonderfully snappy Gilmore Girls dialogue and enthralled by the dizzying lunacy of 30 Rock. Like everyone else, I was tuned in when Tony Soprano and family sat down to eat those onion rings.

Would I have seen all of these things if I wasn’t writing this column? Tough to say. But there’s little question that knowing I had to turn in one of these babies every week drove me to search out good TV storytelling in places I might not have otherwise looked. (Places like the USA network, which has me hooked on Burn Notice, and Showtime, where Weeds is a personal fave.)

I want to thank you, the reader, for both your attention and feedback over the last five years. Whether you e-mailed with a question, to thank me for introducing you to your latest TV addiction or even to inform me of just how wrong I got it in a recent column, I appreciated the fact that you took the time to read Taylor on TV and drop me a line.

Of course, just because I’m not writing about TV anymore doesn’t mean I won’t be watching it. The upcoming season looks particularly promising with new shows from Alias creator J.J. Abrams and Buffy guru Joss Whedon coming this fall or shortly thereafter. (And, yes, I find it disturbingly ironic that Joss finally gets a new show on the air and I won’t be here to talk about it. That’s just not fair at all.)

I still believe that the best storytelling in the world is done by TV writers, producers, directors and actors. They get all the benefits of cinema but with a much larger canvas to create on. There’s nothing more satisfying than watching a group of sophisticated characters evolve naturally over the course of many seasons, regardless of whether they change for the better or worse, come together or grow apart. Well, actually, there might be one thing more satisfying -- when you get to not only watch, but to write about it, too.

You guys have been great. Thanks again for reading. Now go find something good on TV to watch.

originally published in the May 9th, 2008 edition of The Herald

TAYLOR ON TV: Don't Jeer the "Reaper"

No word yet on whether the CW will renew Reaper for a second season, but I’m really hoping they do. The horror-comedy hybrid was labeled early on a spiritual successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and though the show never lived up to that promise, it’s improved enough in its second half to convince me that the show could really hit its stride in year two. (Much like Buffy did, by the way.)

The biggest reason for Reaper’s recent winning streak is that the writers have cut back on the repetitive demon-of-the-week tales to stress a larger mythology being woven from episode to episode. Last fall, every episode of Reaper was exactly the same: A demon wielding some unique power escapes from hell. The Devil tasks 21-year-old slacker Sam (Brett Harrison), whose soul was sold into servitude by his parents before he was born, with capturing the demon. Sam’s even-bigger-slacker buddies, Sock and Ben, come along for the ride. The good guys win, and the soul is dropped off at the local DMV to be returned to the underworld were it belongs.

But Reaper’s writers have recently pulled back the curtain to reveal more of the interesting universe these characters inhabit. We’ve found out that not all demons are pure evil. In fact, some – like Sam’s gay neighbors Tony and Steve – are pleasant conversationalists, excellent cooks and all-around nice guys. They even attend AA-like meetings to suppress their uglier demonic urges. Additionally, Tony’s leading a resistance to overthrow the Devil – a power play that unfortunately gets Steve killed and catches Sam in the middle. That’s all Sam needs. He’s already got enough problems trying to hold down both a normal job and awesome girlfriend while still working as Satan’s bounty hunter.

The complexity is appreciated. Reaper has never had a problem with the “comedy” half of its genre. (Tyler Labine remains a hoot as the overenthusiastic Sock.) But for the “horror” half to work, the show must present Sam with tougher moral decisions than how best to kill that week’s escaped demon. Lucky then that Ray Wise’s Lucifer is slowly turning from just sleazy to downright sinister. When Sam promises the Devil a favor in return for his girlfriend’s protection, the Devil doesn’t take long to call it in by asking Sam to betray the people who trust him.

The next hurdle for Reaper writers to jump is to get a grip on their show’s wonky continuity. When we first met Steve and Tony, we saw them sandblasting their demon horns down so they can pass as human. But later we learned they can just morph from demon to human form and back. And while the contract that gives Sam’s eternal soul to the Devil was made out to be ironclad in early episodes, a group of genial demons recently revealed that they could break Sam’s contract with a quick and simple sacrifice. (Sam, of course, refused, but still …)

Maybe the writers just need a little more time to effectively lay out all the rules of the Reaper universe. (Or, more likely, to figure out for themselves what exactly those rules are.) It’s unlikely that Reaper will ever take a leap into Buffy-sized greatness, but this strange yet amusing little show deserves better than to be forgotten after a single season. We’ll soon find out if the CW agrees.

originally published in the May 2nd, 2008 edition of The Herald