Sage's Stray Thoughts: Episode 4

Pop Rap Perfection:  Right now this might be my album of the year.  Rittz's Next to Nothing was great and I'm proud of what Lecrae did as a Christian rapper with Anomaly, but I don't think there's a more complete project than People Keep Talking.   Every song is playable, as Hoodie has an amazing talent of writing catchy hooks and using bass-heavy but catchy pop beats to effortlessly display what's actually one of the best flows I've ever heard.  Even the songs I didn't like (Act my Age felt like it belonged on a frat boy film's soundtrack when I first heard it) made sense within the context of the album.  I kept waiting for "that" one song that you hear and kinda want to skip, and found myself wondering when it would come until I realized I was done with the whole album.

If I had one complaint it's that most of the songs' subject matter can kinda run together (you're probably not going to get through a song without mention of women), but when you rap this well I really don't see that as a problem.   It's better than tossing in something oddball for the sake of "shaking things up", or worse taking angles that obviously don't come from your own life.    Everything he does come from a place of honesty and I appreciate that.

Songs of Note: Won't Mind, All About It, Sirens, Overtime.

Go pick People Keep Talking on iTunes if you haven't already.

Super Hero Overload:  Earlier this week, WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara decided to reveal the company's plans to capitalize on the DC properties they've been sitting on for the better part of two decades through a document they clearly made up in MS Paint.    All jokes aside--it's 2014 and for the life of me I'm not sure why such a low quality image came from a studio that makes multi-million dollar blockbuster films. 

It's admittedly not too far off from what I'd suggested back in 2012, only with the Justice League films sprinkled in the middle rather than at the end.  And for the life of me I can't figure out why they're so set on keeping the films and television series separate.  People love Stephen Amell, and they're rapidly falling for Grant Gustin.  All WB is doing is setting themselves up for large (far larger than your average comic book's) fanbases grumbling about why Flash isn't Grant Gustin, or if/when Green Arrow appears, why it's not Stephen Amell.

More to the point: If the television and film divisions are so separate, why can't Batman, Superman, and the rest make an appearance on television?   It's seriously a "worst of both worlds" situation.

Plus DC's track record with films...it's just not there.  Batman vs. Superman already sounds like a giant mess--loaded down with the tons of characters and cameos that they were afraid to place in Man of Steel.   It's rapidly approaching the point where if Supergirl is any good, I'm just going to write off DC's films altogether and just stick with the television division.  But while that works for me, it doesn't bode well for the superhero genre as a whole.  With over thirty films planned from Marvel, Warner Bros., Sony, and Fox over the next six years, too many mediocre movies will sink the whole ship so let's hope Warners steps their game up.

The Depressing Adventures of Oliver Queen:  I got a chance to go through both episodes of Arrow recently and ouch.  I thought after the way they pretty much went nuclear last season, this one wouldn't be as heavy on the emotional bombshells...and then I saw the first episode.   Now, killing off that character absolutely made sense as a comic book fan...but I still would never have predicted it.  Points to the Arrow team for being so bold but...does Oliver's life ever get better?

That said, I'm loving having Brandon Routh on the show.  I never actually watched Superman Returns so I don't have many jokes to make about the guy, but he's doing a great job playing a smug, likable bastard of a scientist in Ray Palmer.   For those wondering--no Ray was never rich in the comics, but when you think about how tech-focused we are these days, it absolutely makes sense for him to be if he has even the smallest knowledge about patents.   And although we may never see him don the Atom outfit on Arrow, he's still a worthwhile addition to a cast that was beginning to dwindle in numbers.

Year of the Do-Overs: Okay, Marvel's spent all of last week hyping their old stories and events, from Planet Hulk to Civil War.    If this isn't a Secret Wars thing I'll eat my hat.  Of course, I don't own a hat so I'd have to buy one first, but there shall be some hat eating.    It makes perfect sense--how do you make these different Earths matter?  You show them dealing with versions of major milestones in Marvel history.   You change bits and pieces to make it worth looking at, but it makes each Earth easily identifiable, recognizable--and you get a chance to return to some of the cooler moments in your universe's history at the same time.   Could they botch it up?  Absolutely.   But we're still a year away from knowing if that's going to happen or not, so I'm erring on the "wait and see" side for now. 


And, that's close enough to 1000.  I'll see you guys next week.