The Songs of Johnny Go

My Chicago weekend was dedicated to five things: ex-girlfriends, downtime, Route 66 plotting, awesome tacos, and mustaches.



( More fun with ex-girlfriends! )

Sadly, I'm not able to go into much more detail than all this. As with so many of these forthcoming entries, I must warn you that I shall be saving the really good stuff, the true stories of this adventure, for a later period. Probably for a book. Because I can tell you right now, this is a book, all this stuff which you guys don't know about yet. But I can't write it until it's written, so to speak. So in the meantime, except more pictures, silliness, and tantalizing hints of what's really going on behind the scenes!

For now, time to conk out and rest up for tomorrow. Gotta get up at 6:30am to hit the remnants of Route 66! Tomorrow, the real adventure begins.

With that in mind, a big apology to civilbloodshed for not thinking to hit you up! So much else going on, I totally neglected to give you a heads-up. If you get this Monday morning before 7:30am, hit me up and maybe I can swing by or something. Otherwise, sorry and hopefully our paths will meet again!

With a heavy heart and a giddy smile, I bring you the third and final part of my mad little photo adventure with mirthical.

And while I've been apologizing all week for what I'm about to post here, allow me to apologize one last time. I'm very, very sorry, ladies and gentlemen.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Hell, not safe for sanity.

( But then, that'd be appropriate, wouldn't it? )

Warning: an assload of photos behind the cut. But it's worth it.

( Part One: A Merry Night on the Town )

Baseball, Apple Pie, and Kicking Your Fucking Ass: 21 Hilariously Hyperbolic Pro-America Songs.

That said, though, there's really only one video for me today:





Oh man. One week till Fringe. One week till the premiere of THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES: HOW HEFNERIAN.

Two weeks. Two weeks till Bloo comes to DC for the day. Two weeks till costumes and makeup and photos. Two weeks till THE DARK KNIGHT.

These next two weeks are going to be something, that's for bloody sure.

I just saw a box of Corn Pops or some such cereal proclaiming to include, as a prize, "Free DARK KNIGHT stickers!" For a movie that--by all accounts--is going to be a hard PG-13 (the Joker alone, not to mention what we might see for Two-Face, could scar children for life), this is kinda fucked up.

Really, if they're going to do that, they should just go all the way with the idea Bloo and I came up with not too long ago for a hot new breakfast cereal:



Heya kiddies! Tired of the same old boring, humorless breakfast?



LAME.

Well fret no more, you little pencil-chewers! Start the most important meal of your day as if it's your last with JOKER-O'S: the breakfast the smiles back!

But what's that, Mom and Dad? Worried about stuffing your hyperactive brats with even more sugar-packed junk food based around questionable role models?



Don't be THAT parent!

Feed 'em Joker-O's instead, fortified with Smilex and Vitamin J, and watch as the pounds melt away! Literally! ALL of them! Best of all, Joker-O's stay crunchy even after you're dead!

Now I know what you're thinking: "But what does the box even look like? Where do I get this wonderful cereal?" Well, that's the gag: chances are, you've bought 'em already! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Joker-O's: Why so cereal?




Health benefits of Vitamin J have not yet recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration, but they will if they know what's good for 'em. Consumption of Joker-O's may not actually result in death, but whatever doesn't kill you makes you more interesting.

Snagged from kali921, who snagged them from alizzy, there are not one, not two, but seven new official viral marketing websites for BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT.

Never in my life have I seen such marketing for a film, not when we haven't even seen a single real trailer. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if there are Oscars for ad men, these guys deserve a sweep.

The Gotham Times, fleshed out with fully-written articles detailing a post-Batman Begins Gotham City (and a working phone number). (!!!!)

The Ha-Ha-Ha Times, the Joker's (brilliant, hilarious, and I'll add disturbing) version of the same paper, complete with mind games.

We Are The Answer, one of Harvey Dent's campaign sites, where you can tip him off about corrupt cops. Reading the testimonials... I can't speak for anyone else, but me? Oh, Harvey, you poor doomed bastard. And "WE" are the answer? Oh, Harvey.

Gotham National Bank, self-explanatory (something going on with the map...?)

Remembering Gina, for a girl who was killed in a Maroni*-headed gang war that ticks off Harvey something beautiful (according to The Gotham Times page 4 article).

Gotham City Police Department, where you learn that if you're a teen, you've now got a curfew, thanks to the Narrows madness.

Gotham City Rail, where you can (attempt to) adopt a bus stop (only to be told that re-construction is complicating things).

And there are more recruitment shenanigans with the Joker's www.whysoserious.com's personality profile.

I haven't spend much time scouring over these sites, not even to actually read the Gotham Times, but I have to wonder just what hidden messages or easter eggs are littered around, if any. This stuff is heaven to the obsessive compulsive geeks.



It all certainly gives me encouragement as to the film, particularly Harvey. His focus here seems to be more on corrupt cops than purely gangsters, but that makes sense; the guy hates hypocrites.

At least, my version of him does, and that's the really odd thing about this: I started writing this (at the encouragement of Bloo) because while there were plenty of Two-Face stories, very few dealt with Harvey Dent. We felt his origin was easily one of the most fascinating things about this character, yet it was never fleshed out. Not to our satisfaction, anyway.

So it's weird seeing all this Harvey Dent stuff all of a sudden, making me feel like someone else is horning in on my virgin territory! At the same time, seeing all this is rather thrilling, and I just hope Nolan and company put as much work into the film as their ad men have.



Still, no Two-Face image. So far, all the news and attention has been on the Joker, everything about the Joker, and I've been concerned that Harvey will just be the second fiddle bad guy, just like BATMAN FOREVER (shudder).

And while I am very anxious to see how they're gonna handle the makeup (I understand they're even employing CGI in the scarring, presumably to accomplish effects that mere prostethics could not alone achieve), Bloo and I are rather one of mind regarding how we want Two-Face to be revealed. Namely, not until you actually see the film.

We live in a day and age where big movies have virtually no surprises. Images are leaked all the time, and studios have taken to leaking the big reveals themselves, figuring that if they're gonna get out there one way or another, they might as well take control as a marketing strategy. Right? That's my guess.

So here's what we're hoping: we don't want to see Two-Face in any publicity shots. We want all the attention and hype focused squarely on Joker, Joker, Joker, even all the way through as they watch the film. And when the acid hits and the big reveal happens, BAM! It's the movie's secret weapon, its sucker punch. It's the one you half-expect but still underestimate, if you see it coming at all. Because that's Harvey.



EDIT: Reading the Gotham Times articles on Harvey, I'm now increasingly concerned that they're making him an opportunistic politician rather than driven crimefighter. Shit. Every time they give me some encouragement, they give me something else to make me anxious.

Unless he really is genuinely good, but he's faced with a city that hates and distrusts him. Notice the indignant letter to the editor railing against Dent for smearing the "good name" of police officers like Arnold Flass.

But I'm still fearful. It'd be entirely too easy for a lazy screenwriter to think it'd be appropriate for him to be duplicitous and two-faced, har, har har. TWO-FACE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.

... on the other hand, this might work well in my novel. The mob realizes they can't scare or threaten Harvey, so they try to work public opinion against him. And this further grates at him, playing on Harvey's deep-seated love AND hatred for Gotham. Hmm. Yes, mayhaps.



*Another little reason I hate Jeph Loeb; he arbitrarily changed Vincent Moroni's name to Sal Maroni, which has since become the definitive take. Yeah, fuck that for my novel. He's Vincent MOroni. Even LJ spellcheck recognized "Moroni" over "Maroni."

But at least "The Boss" will be in the movie; this means that, in all likelihood, Harvey's origin will more or less unfold as canon, rather than at the hands of the Joker or something.