Watching Bruce Through Kate’s Eyes

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 25, 2009

I’ve been seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform since December 1975 and each time I go, I am utterly amazed. First of all, it’s pure rock and roll with plenty of showmanship. But you get your money’s worth. The shows last between two and three hours without an intermission. The band rocks out from beginning to end and clearly seem to be enjoying themselves.

Kate recalled how, at 13, she begged me to take her to see him the first time I attended a performance in Hartford. She really wasn’t into his music but liked my passion and certainly liked the idea of a rock concert. I asked her to name the saxophonist and dámn if she didn’t name Clarence Clemons.  But, she really wasn’t into his music, it was a school night, and the parents agreed, it just wasn’t the right time.

Last night was the right time. We decided that for her birthday we’d make it an event rather than a gift. The second tickets went on sale, I scored three seats in a reasonable location and then informed her to much rejoicing.

We braved Friday night rush hour and arrived at the XL Center around 6:30. With our dinners in the back, we sort of tailgated, and played lots of cuts from live recordings to enhance the mood. As it turned out, a coworker was also up from Maryland and had gotten a pretty good number to access to the General Admission floor and was close to center stage, texting status reports.

Knowing he never starts on time; we meandered over to the center, lingered over a choice of t-shirt as a memento and then took our seats, which turned out to be pretty good. Kate and Sarah waved to one another and then we settled in.

That is to say, for the next 2:45 or so, we were mainly on our feet, swaying to the music, clapping, cheering and singing along. As has become custom on the tour, he took signs with song titles from the fans and played two as part of the “stump the band” portion of our evening. For the first time, according to Bruce, the band played “Wild Thing”. These days, you hear it and think of Charlie Sheen in Major League. Seeing the band play it, you’re reminded it’s a rock and roll song first and foremost.

Kate was hoping for Radio Nowhere, I was hoping for Cadillac Ranch and neither of us was disappointed. Sarah tried in vein to get him to take her suggestion of “The Fever” which he hasn’t performed on tour in ages. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

It Shouldn’t be This Difficult

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 24, 2009

When you’re a company as big as Verizon Wireless, there are inevitably gaps in knowledge and training. I understand that but the last week has been an exercise in frustration.

On April 14, I earned my $100 credit for an upgrade and I decided I really wanted something a little thinner and lighter, maybe with a QWERTY keyboard. I had browsed on line and saw a few models that looked promising so, on the 15th, I headed over to the local office. There, a sales rep informed me that if I wanted a phone that could synch with my calendar and contacts, I had to have a data plan for a mere $29.95 a month. But, I complained, I just wanted to synch – I had no need for e-mail, the internet, V Cast, etc.  Sorry, she said, it was what the manufacturers were insisting upon.

I went home, seething, and later I called their customer service people. Oh no, this new woman told me, there were several phones which could do what I wanted without requiring a data plan. She rattled off three or four models and I checked them out online as we chatted. After discussing the pros and cons, I was advised to go back to the store and handle them before deciding.

A day later, I headed back to the store where a different rep showed me the models. As I outlined what I needed, hoping to confirm my current intelligence, he said that two of the models I really liked did not have cables for synching but instead a wireless connection which would run $10 a month. A ha! Something the woman on the phone neglected to mention.

He took me to see the only two models that would do as I wanted. One was a Verizon-branded phone that I didn’t like at all. He said it was deeply discounted because a new model was coming which would also require the plan. I checked out the other one and wasn’t sold yet so returned home empty handed.

Friday, calm and cool, I called customer service again, outlined everything that had been experienced to date. This gentleman walked me through even more models that no one had previously mentioned. We more or less settled on a Samsung phone but again, suggested I go fondle one to be certain.

On Monday, I went to BJs for supplies but since they had a Verizon kiosk, I stopped by on the off chance they had the phone.  Well, it turns out they had stopped carrying it, again, a model being retired in the coming months. She did have a demo model so I got to actually handle it. The phone is not thinner, with a slide out keyboard, but it does have a touch screen and seemed acceptable. She checked online and determined no phone store in the vicinity had one in stock, but she’d gladly order it for me.

Yesterday, the phone arrived.  It seems to be doing as I wanted, is simple to use and manipulate. It’ll take a little getting used to but not too long.

What concerns me, though, is that when this one is ready for retirement, I will have no choice but to get a data plan. The desires of the manufacturers seems to have won out over the needs of the customers and to me, that’s just plain wrong.

That, and a staff that couldn’t provide me with all the information and options I needed in one visit.

Work Update

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 23, 2009

It’s been about two months since I did any sort of proper update so let me bring you the latest about my professional career.

As you know, I have been writing book jacket copy for Marvel, and was just asked to do my fourth in addition to contributing to their facsimile of the 1939 Daily Bugle as part of their 70th anniversary celebration. Not sure what or how much I’ll be writing but it’ll be fun.

The biggest amount of my time has been spent working on The Essential Superman Encyclopedia.  I was asked to complete the manuscript, from J through Z by April 30, which is looming large. Today, I’m working on P so two of the three largest letters are behind me. My editor, Chris Cerasi, has been very supportive and recognizes that I’m like to run a tad behind given the zero to sixty start and wealth of material to sift through and organize.

I’m spending about ten hours a week doing consulting for a publisher and that’s been going well. It also means I get to visit NYC about once a week which breaks things up.

What will follow Superman on my schedule? Good question. I have a proposal being reviewed by one publisher, and have been speaking with a different company about a long-term project that would make me rather happy to undertake. There are other novels out there and DC’s Special Projects department keeps calling with small things and no doubt will continue to avail themselves of my services.

And, I’ve been invited to contribute to the first Green Hornet anthology, now in the works from Moonstone. That’ll be first after Superman and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m keeping my hand in at ComicMix, doing a ton of book and video reviews which is fine for now.

With others, there a bunch of collaborative works being developed on spec with the hopes of selling the concepts. There’s one with my pal Aaron Rosenberg that a few editors are evaluating and then one with two friends that could be really interesting if we get the business side done because the creative side is pretty nifty. There’s a slightly more ambitious group of us at work on a few concepts and that’s the one to most likely gain traction and lead to paying work.

All in all, I am far more optimistic about how this year will play out compared to how things were in February and such is the nature of the freelance life.

Meantime, the essays I wrote last year for Haunting Museums hits bookstores on Tuesday – here’s the cover for the curious.

Checking out Citi Field

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 20, 2009

We’ve been looking forward to Citi Field, henceforth still called by me as Shea Stadium since construction began.  Driving over the Whitestone Bridge Sunday morning, we looked for a new silhouette to replace the familiar one but couldn’t quite spot it.  When we did see it coming over a rise on the Whitestone Expressway, it looked odd.

Arriving just over two hours before game time meant little traffic coming south and no problem finding parking. There were even people directing us, polite people at that, and more than I ever recall handling traffic.

Walking across the parking lot to the stadium, it’s clearly designed to fit in with one of New York’s boroughs. I could easily see taking a subway or trolley to arrive at the park so it looked just a tad out of place. We did stroll the entire exterior and noted various digital boards letting people driving by know there was game, who the Mets were playing and so on.

Our loop around Citi Field noted the many billboards plastered around the exterior and then we wound up at the main entrance known as the rotunda, the part designed to evoke memories of Ebbets Field, one time home to the Dodgers and still fondly recalled by our Greatest Generation. In front of the entrance were the memorial bricks and we easily found the one Bob & Laurie Rozakis so kindly purchased in Robbie’s memory. We took pictures and one day our software will allow me to actually post pictures here. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Rebuilding a Lost Collection

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 19, 2009

As so many of you know, Len Wein’s house burned down recently and he’s starting to put the pieces of his professional life back together. His pal, and mine, Mark Evanier has begun organizing a drive to collect copies of Len’s written work to replace the ones lost.

He writes:

Hey, let’s rebuild Len Wein’s comic book collection!  But we don’t want just any old comics here.  We want the ones Len wrote and/or edited.

You know Len Wein.  Award-winning comic book person.  Co-creator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine and various other X-Men.  Editor of Watchmen.  Writer, at one time or other, of all the major characters: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, you name it.  That Len Wein.  A great guy.

On April 6, 2009, a fire destroyed most of the home he was sharing with his wife Chris and their son Michael.  As Len tells us, Chris was out when it happened.  The men were home and asleep.  He awoke to find the world in flames around him and he managed to get himself out and to save Michael, as well.  Sadly, their beloved dog Sheba perished that day.

So did Len’s collection of books and toys and games and artwork and those things we accumulate that help define and enrich our lives.  You have stuff.  He had stuff.  Insurance will fix the house but many things, including his comics, were not covered.  Some of us thought it would be grand if his friends and fans pitched in to help him recreate those shelves of the comic books he’s worked on.

Here’s the plan: We’ve compiled a list of the comics Len needs to reacquire.  We’re updating it from time to time as comics are pledged or received.   (It’s a PDF file, which means you need to have Adobe Reader.)  The list will be updated often.

Check your collection for duplicates.  If Len’s given you some moments of reading pleasure, you might even want to buy him some of these issues.  A few may be pricey but he’s written so many, you may find a stack in the bargain bins.

We’ve set up a special e-mail address for communications relating to this.  It’s…
comix4len@povonline.com

If you have something you can donate, write us and tell us it’s on the way.  And then send it to this address:

We’re asking you to let us know what you’re sending in order to minimize duplication.  If we do somehow wind up with more than one copy of something, we may try to trade it for something we need.  Please don’t send anything on the basis of “Return it if you can’t use it.”  It’s going to take enough effort just to log all this stuff in and store it ’til Len’s home is rebuilt.  Whatever you send becomes property of Len Wein.  And we are making no representation that any donations are in any way tax-deductible.

We also need volunteers to collect donations of comics (not money) at conventions.  At each major comic con, we’d like to have someone — preferably, someone who’s already getting a table — who’ll agree to accept whatever comics Wein fans want to give and to ship them all to us.  Info on who’ll be making these collections and where will be posted over at www.newsfromme.com, along with other updates on the project.

And thanks in advance for everything.

My webmaster, Glenn, is already culling through boxes of my comic books to help out – see what you can do.

Help Bob (and Peter David) get their pages back on Google

Posted by Glenn Hauman on April 16, 2009

Due to unknown wackiness, the websites for Bob Greenberger and Peter David seem to have been delisted from Google. We’re working on resolving it, and one of the best things we can do is to ask people to provide links to their sites so that Google knows they exist. So we’re asking for your help.

If you have a web site, or a blog, or anything else like that, you can help by creating links yourself. The main link for Bob is <a href=”http://www.bobgreenberger.com”>http://www.bobgreenberger.com</a>, and Peter’s is <a href=”http://www.peterdavid.net”>http://www.peterdavid.net</a>. Even better, if you go deeper into the sites and come up with a link to a particular article you like, that will help even more.

Thanks for your help, we appreciate it.

Coming to Shore Leave This July

Posted by Bob Greenberger on

I’ve been waiting to talk about this one for a while now and suddenly, it’s gone public.

Back in August, David Mack sent out an e-mail called “A Diabolical Plan” and invited a group of selected co-conspirators to make an event out of what we normally do for sport. That is, pick on Keith R.A. DeCandido. David saw this as a natural outgrowth of the concentration of authors at Shore Leave and a chance for us to have fun and do some good.

We signed on and David asked me to serve as Master of Ceremonies then proceeded to cackle madly as he explained it to the committee.  Each roaster will contribute money to the American Red Cross and encourage all in attendance to cough up a donation. The R-rated (or worse) event would kick off the Friday night festivities with a cash bar meaning all the authors would be properly liquored up in time for the Meet the Authors party at 10.

As the site says: Warning: This event will contain crude language, vulgar jokes, and visual gags guaranteed to offend just about everyone. There might be a disturbing puppet involved.

Over the last few months, sporadic e-mail chains cranked up as people discussed structure and rules.  Sample gags were tried out, David also crafted a nifty flyer,  and workshopped his comments over dinner while we were at I-Con.   Let’s just say this will be a must see event which, for those not attending, can catch on video at some later date.

For those attending the con, I strongly recommend being on hand for this special event. For those considering attending, this should tip you over.

Siblings

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 15, 2009

We’re slowly catching up on our television watching now that our evening schedules are easing just a wee bit.  We’ve decided that Castle is entertaining, thanks to winning performances by the leads. While we know Kings is doomed, we watched the pilot last night and were intrigued enough to stick with it until NBC decides they’re done with it.

As a result, I’ve had a chance to note some trends which I find quite nice for prime time. Maybe it’s the shows we watch here or something else, but to me, many of the best moments on the series tend to be moments of family, usually between siblings. Now, maybe this is a trend or maybe it’s something I’m more sensitive to these days but for whatever reason they resonate with me.

I began to notice this with the wonderfully supportive relationship Chuck has with his older sister Ellie. They’re there for one another, with Chuck doing whatever it took to find their missing father, and protecting her from the mess his life has become. (An aside: Deb and I are split over the revelation that Dad invented the Intersect which is now stuck in Chuck’s head. I think it’s contrived, Deb expected it.)

While the cases on Castle are fun, I really like the relationship between father and daughter. She’s so incredibly level-headed in contrast to his devil-may-care attitude but they love one another deeply. I look forward to seeing this develop.

Interestingly, Kings’ pilot did nothing to establish any sort of relationship between Prince and Princess while David was clearly close to Eli and his other siblings. I’ll be curious to see how this plays out.

Of course, the nifty family trend may have begun with the success of Brothers & Sisters.  It’s often over-the-top and somewhat predictable but watching families come together and then spontaneously combust is quite enjoyable. We recognize traits from our own experiences so it rings true more often than not.

Too often our heroes, especially in comics and science fiction, seem to be solo folk, with few family ties which is actually a shame.  While it works as motivation for Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, it would have been interesting if, say, Daredevil had a sister to lean on after Dad died.  Any time a series debuts with siblings established early on, they feel different and it’s a rarity. In all the titles I edited, Roger Stern and I did this with Will Payton and his sister Jayne in Starman. I think it worked to differentiate the hero from other titles and wish more did this.

Starlog Shifts to the Web

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 10, 2009

In the spring of 1980, I was facing graduation and needed a job. I researched 35-40 publishers of books, newspapers and magazines, all in the New York area and all I wouldn’t mind working for. Clearly, some were more desirable than others but I couldn’t be picky. I added to the list, Starlog, since I had been reading the mag since its debuted in 1976.

Of the letters mailed, a handful netted very nice notes saying thanks but no thanks. A few led to phone conversations and only one led to an actual job interview.  During the April break, in the midst of a transit strike, I headed into New York in my suit, ready to wow the publisher at Starlog Press.  A little after our appointment was scheduled for, Kerry O’Quinn, clad in jeans an boots, rushed in, shook my hand and took me back to his office.  We chatted for something like an hour and then he asked to see samples which I would have to mail him.

A week later he called, impressed, and told me they intended to expand and would need a managing editor for Fangoria come September. Was I interested?  Well, I was more a science fiction than horror guy, but I said sure. They offered a low sum which I negotiated up to as whopping $10,000 a year and accepted.

My three-plus years were largely a delight. I got to write for Starlog and Future Life in addition to my work on Fangoria. I met people, learned the ropes, made contacts, and conceived Comics Scene which led to my giving up Fango in exchange for a new project. Comics Scene led to my offer to join DC Comics in 1984 and things proceeded apace.

I continued to write for Starlog for several years thereafter and then the work dried up but I have remained a loyal reader all these years. Its editor, Dave McDonnell, was one of my writers and I helped get him hired just before I left. We’ve been friends ever since. He’s been at the helm for ages now and he has weathered the newsstand declines, managerial indifference, and ownership changes.

This week it became official. Starlog has ceased to be a print publication and will join the plethora of web-based magazines covering the field of science fiction, fantasy, and comics. Like so many sites, it’s being done on a shoestring budget but does have the clever writing and visual touches that are unique to the magazine.

At a time when the UK has a bunch of mags still covering the field and the US has Sci-Fi Magazine still around, one wonders why the granddaddy isn’t still in print. The answer really comes down to the same reason why so many others have faded away. The publishers never exploited the franchise at its height or changed and adapted when the market evolved. The website has always been a hit or miss proposition when it should have contained archives, indexes, exclusives and the like. The Starlog Store concept was interesting but so poorly executed it hurt the brand. A line of books containing its interviews or episode guides or instructional pieces should have happened but were always done hit or miss.

Dave’s editorial approach hewed to the traditions of solid journalism and the design was freshened now and then to keep it interesting.  However, as the news arrived faster on line and mainstream outlets like Entertainment Weekly started grabbing the exclusives, Starlog was starting to feel stagnant. By the time their solid coverage of a film rolled out, we’d already seen pieces with the same people on numerous websites and in other magazines. It was starting to lose ground and lose relevance and nothing Dave could do from his editor’s desk could change that.

When Kerry left, his partner Norman Jacobs, tried and failed repeatedly to extend the franchise, placing more of his efforts into Fangoria which seemed to better catch on with its audience. He subsequently sold the company to the Creative Group and they in turn had no clue what to do with Starlog so ignored it like an ugly stepchild. And now the print version has been suspended.

At its height, Starlog offered the sharpest writing and most extensive coverage every month.  It was the authoritative voice of the field for years and that will be missed. By all means, check out the site and enjoy the new coverage along with the digital archives from its glory years.

I’m going to miss having that arrive in my mailbox every month. After all, you never forger your first job.

Happy Birthday, Robbie

Posted by Bob Greenberger on April 8, 2009

When I turned 21, my dad wrote me a letter, a serious missive discussing the changes this meant, both legal and in terms of how the world will deal with me.  It was encouraging and the pride was clear with every word.

When Kate turned 21, I wrote something similar to her.

Today, Robbie’s 21st birthday, I am denied the opportunity.

He was on his way to becoming a fully legal adult but he was also on his way to becoming the adult he wanted to be, a process shaped immeasurably by his disease. I wanted to see that adult, cheer him on as he completed college and headed out into the wide world, a Child Life Specialist, helping others. His heart was always generous and by finding a career where he could use that gentility to be of service would have seen him go far.

Robbie wanted to marry and actually craved the white picket fence suburban dream, complete with wife and kids. Of course, he still wanted to attend cons, getting more involved with the Baltimore-based shows and be an active committee member. Most important, though, was his desire to be near Kate. He saw how important it was for Deb to have siblings near by and he wanted to make certain they would be there for each other.

His goals were good, attainable ones and I would have applauded them in the letter I will never write.

We’ll honor his memory with a visit to his gravesite and the go have dinner at Pizzeria Uno, his official hangout and last place of employment. We’ll eat and silently hoist our glasses and wish him a happy birthday.