I know the world is a lunatic cesspool full of bad people, but why do we need so many superheroes? When I was a kid, even until 1989, we got by with the Big Two: Batman and Superman. Now, I am getting all geeked up for Ant-Man and The Wasp (a sequel no less to the original Ant-Man that made Paul Rudd a superhero)…yes Paul Rudd.

Yet I digress…

Things were a lot easier when the Big Two were battling the same super villains over and over again. Now every superhero is a superstar. Take Thor from the planet of Asgard. He wanders around with a mini sledgehammer and was the the ace in the hole in the latest Avengers movie. We all know what happened to him (right?). Batman or Superman would never let that happen.

Blank Panther made a big splash at the box office recently. Until I was dragged to the theater I thought it was a biopic about Bobby Seale or Huey Newton. Everywhere I look there are super heroes getting their own movies, Silver Surfer, Aquaman, The Thing, The Green Lantern. Speaking of the Green Lantern, his power is in his ring, yet the ring is hooked to a battery. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up.

(I guess you quite literally can.)

Serious question: Are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles super heroes? It’s almost like asking if a hot dog or a wrap is a sandwich. You might get a 50-50 split, yes or no, if you asked 100 people Family Feud-style.

Really, the only super heroes you ever really need is Batman or Superman. And, if you live in the real world, Margrét, My New Favorite Amazon Model is all you need.

Okay, so where am I?

I’m meeting Margrét in South Central Los Angeles, helping her out with a western hat ad comp she’s trying to get off the ground. I mean, who am I to say no?

(For those of you wondering why she’s a big deal in The Media Guy lore, scroll to the bottom and take the primer and read the three previous columns, including the first one from 2014 which still remains the top post of all time.) And, for regular readers, catch up with the queen of the birthday suit.

Media Guy: I heard a bunch of stories about your showdown with Betty Rage, how did that go down?

Margrét, My New Favorite Amazon Model: You may recall that last time I mud-rassled, I accidentally ingested some of the chocolate pudding “mud,” and was afflicted with terrible stomach flu afterward. Well, this time I knew better, so made sure to keep my lips shut, and to shower off thoroughly afterward. This rassling experience was better all-around than my last time, which you might recall was slightly scarring since I only got a $40 bid to be my towel boy — well, this time, some poor drunk guy bid $60 on me, and paid up….but he was so wasted that they had to escort him out of the bar before he had a chance to get in the ring with me. So they auctioned me off a second time, and this awesome British dude bid another $60 on me — and he was cool. He helped me defeat my first opponent, Kombat Kitty…but then I faced off against Betty Rage, and she beat me silly. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all!

MG: What a wacky gig! Surely there are better ways to drum up modeling gigs…

MMNFM: In this #MeToo #TimesUp culture, nude modeling has taken a real hit, which is a true shame. One is that historically, with a few exceptions, the nude is mainly a phenomenon of Western art. The other is that from very early on, the nude male and the nude female are treated quite differently and have different roles to play. The male nude body in Greek sculpture was used both for portrayals of ideal heroes – gods and idealized portraits of real heroes, notably the champions at the Olympic games. This brings up another basic aspect of the nude in art, its sometimes uneasy relationship to sexual desire. The entrenched homo-eroticism of ancient Greek society clearly has a good deal to do with the pre-eminence of the heroic male nude. In fact, around the 4th century BC, Praxitales and other sculptors did begin depicting nude females, notably the goddess of love, Aphrodite. But it remained indecorous for female portraits to depict nudity. More generally, a double standard where male and female nudity was concerned, persisted through the period of Roman sculpture and, indeed, right up to modern times, though its terms of reference frequently changed.

MG: So wacky gigs are the way to go?

MMNFM: One final wacky gig I did lately was act as concierge for this group of rowdy drunken Canadian guys who come out every year to play golf and cat around: I caddied for them last year, and they were so taken with me that this year they hired me to arrange everything. The first day, I set up a nude photo shoot with me and my fellow Goddess Collective members up at Red Rock Canyon — we drove the guys out there and posed for female-on-female art shots for a couple hours, and a great time was had by all. Then the next day, we all met up at a local golf course and proceeded to booze our way around the course, taking all manner of salacious photos and engaging in all kinds of naughty shenanigans involving strategically-placed golf tees and lots of puns involving the word “balls.” The final day, we were all supposed to get a cabana at one of the big pool parties, but the weather had turned shitty so we ended up just getting wasted at their hotel Jacuzzi, then going to the nightclub and getting messed up til all hours of the night.

Now, I haven’t set foot in a nightclub since the days when I was working at one…and guess what? It was just as abhorrent an experience as I recalled! This particular place was especially lame and unremarkable — they actually had the gall to hire that tired moron from Jersey Shore, Pauly D, as DJ! Even worse, all the star-struck, farm girls in the crowd were absolutely stoked, holding up their cell phones to capture footage of this momentous occasion. JEEZ!

Still, I’m not sure what happened but I ended up having a fantastic time — I was dressed really sloppily, in leggings and flip-flops (remember, we were boozing at the pool all day), but something happened and I went bat shit dancing, burning about 1,000,000 calories and having a really good time, despite the horrible DJ and lame-ass environment…so I guess it wasn’t all bad! The only downside was, after all that I felt like I’d been hit by a giant alcoholic Canuck bus — I mean, I was exhausted when those guys left! I don’t know how they did it.

MG: You used to be the belle of the ball, working every party which leads to me wondering if there have been any good parties lately.

MMNFM: The best party I went to lately was this amazing Burning-Man-themed bicycle pub crawl organized by one of my neighbors, called Blinking Man. Twice a year, about 300-400 wackos in costumes ride bikes covered in blinking lights all over downtown Vegas, stopping at four or five bars along the way for drinks and fun. This one group carts around a full DJ setup, and we basically have raves in all the parking lots we stop at along the way –

– it’s a RIOT! I went with some of my neighbors and friends, and even my roommate made an appearance, Rollerblading around half-naked in an Indian headdress and a G-string. NICE! All in all I was out til about 2am, pedaling furiously about the streets of downtown Vegas, dancing and drinking and getting merry like Christmas. NO WONDER I’M TIRED — that was my day off!!!

Previous Margrét, My New Favorite Amazon Model Columns:

NSFW: At the Baghdad Cafe with Margrét>>October 16, 2017

Catching up with Margrét>>March 9, 2015

Nude Modeling>>February 2, 2014

The post The Summer of Superheroes and Margrét, My New Favorite Amazon Model appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Logan adds a new sidekick in the R-rated flick.

Okay, so where am I?

It’s a Saturday, so I wrapped some serious wee hours of the morning re-writes of my Japanese television show and powered through the day so I could see Logan in the theaters before the super hero flick gets reduced to one of those 50 seaters and exits to some streaming service and soon-to-be-defunct DVDs.

Logan is a big deal as the only compelling X-Men character that warrants a standalone movie. This one promised us moviegoers our last chance to see Wolverine with Hugh Jackman as the frontman he he first brought to the silver screen nearly 20 years ago in the first X-Men movie.

Even if it was just a brief cameo, Jackman has played the character in each of the franchise’s installments. For super hero aficionados, Jackman’s presence provided a point of consistency in a series of movies that’s jumped through time and offered often conflicting takes on continuity. Of course, who doesn’t want to be some kind of icon at work? Jackman is such an icon and that speaks to his incredible turn in the role and has been possible because the character basically doesn’t age, meaning he can look more or less the same in a story taking place in 1776, 1945 or 2029.

The twist here is the R-rating. Logan, like last year’s Deadpool, is pretty violent. Violent enough to earn itself an R-rating. For those paying attention, Deadpool had a decent amount of sexual content and the related language that helped get the R. These two films are the only exceptions to the PG-13 rule that has dominated movies from both Marvel Studios and DC Entertainment/Warner Bros. In the past, the only comic-based movies that have delved into R-rated territory have been the Blade series starring Wesley Snipes, Lionsgate’s two Punisher films and adaptations of indie books like Barb Wire, Spawn, Kick-Ass and a few others that didn’t need to get the the kids into the theater along with the older crowd.

According to a recent survey from online movie ticket seller Fandango, audiences are anxious for more hard-core superhero movies. The survey reports the 71 per cent of respondents want more R-rated comic book movies, while 86 per cent were specifically anxious to see a more violent Logan this time around.

All of this is working to the tune of $537,138,242 worldwide at the box office as of March 24th. That is quite a nice final bow for Wolverine.

Speaking of super heroes, each one needs a supervillain. And even though you might not be a super hero yourself, you probably have a burgeoning antagonist at work. You night not need to look too far…maybe in the office next you.

Created by TaskWorld, you may find characters like ‘The Joker’ familiar, a term that describes colleagues or superiors that loves to watch you suffer by setting you up with impossible tasks on a tight deadline.

Can you identify these Supervillains in your own workplace? Beware of these supervillains that may take advantage of you, and wear you out with their evil antics.

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The post Work Supervillains appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Hail ye Spiderman, Superman, Batman. Time to dust off your capes and come out and play. Super heroes, and acting like one, have long been a running theme in The Media Guy Struggles. Connecting with your favorite hero just go easier.

I know that few of you realize, but August 28, is the second annual celebration of International Read A Comic in Public Day. So grab your favorite comic or graphic novel and grab a spot in the park with your kids. Some of you are now wondering—perhaps you already Googled—what a graphic novel might be. Graphic novels and collected editions came into vogue following Marvel Comics’ emergence from bankruptcy in the mid-90’s when they shifted focus away from single issues sold in the direct market to these specialty items sold through mass-market bookstores.

While you’re sitting there saying, “Media Guy! Take off those nerdy Clark Kent goggles and see the forest among the trees…comic books are for booger-eaters living at mom’s house.”

The Blade and X-Men series showed that smaller comic properties could open films and sell DVDs. They revived the superhero film genre almost instantly opening the door for Spider-Man’s $800 million dollar payday.

Recently, The Walt Disney Company proved just how far comics have come with their $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Comics and all of their intellectual property. Even Donald Trump would agree that comics aren’t nerdy any longer.

On a side note, the thing about this media I find ironic is the term “book” in the “comic book.” When we speak of books, we imagine verbose narratives with grand words and deep Lawrence Durrell-like thinking. It’s about the words, right? Comic books are just the opposite. Their narratives are all about the pictures telling the story with minimal words. They are the ultimate “a picture is worth a thousand words” medium. Words aren’t completely dismissed, but a great deal of the word’s value rests in the typography and unique tradition hand-lettering.

The post Dust Off Your Capes appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Motherf***er!

This is one of the seven banned words that scream through my head as Arrogant Bob from accounting strolled in with a per diem denial for my next seminar roadie. As I try to balance my chi, the overactive mind begins to ramble.

Why do I always have to play banker? Why does Bob have to be so freaking smug? Why does his left ear freak me out? I can’t get over that warped sense of self-worth. I keep staring at him. I wonder what the hell happened to him in college. Why is everyone silent? One quick snipe will wipe that self-satisfied glare he struts around with off his face. Why doesn’t he just pat me on the back and show a bit of empathy? Bring me a Starbucks? Or maybe just a simple interoffice memo.

Back to point. What’s wrong with a $200 stipend to get me through the week? A little greasing of the palms is hard to expense after all. Geez, this is where I am supposed to embrace stress, learning to actively surround it with balancing and compensating activities. Isn’t that the company line?

Balancing and compensating activities? Wouldn’t it be simpler just to drag Bob out back by his ear and wipe that smug look off? How about torching the smugness with a flamethrower? The very existence of flamethrowers establishes that somewhere, sometime, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to torch that guy’s look off, but I’m just not close enough to get the job completed.”

Maybe the guys are right? A slimmer, sleeker, sexier self would put me at ease…balance the negative with positives. I need an outlet. The new sleek Media Guy would be a super hero right?

Super hero. Incredible! But what would I name myself? Super Media Guy? And if I did, would I need to create a secret identity? Can someone tell me why in the hell do super heroes need secret identities?

I’m told that a solid secret identity protects the super hero’s loved ones. Because, goodness gracious sakes alive, if Lex Luther even suspected that Lois Lane is actually married to Superman, then she’d be in a boatload of trouble. What am I talking about? Lois Lane is forever in danger in every Superman tale. Why does the super hero even bother with a significant other? She’s always being kidnapped or dangled as bait in exchange for some missing launch code or something.

The Media Guy shouldn’t need a silly secret identity.

Yet I digress.

Time to arrange my mind, get into the gym, stop thinking about Bob’s social deficiencies and focus on the slimmer, sleeker Media Guy.

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