36 Days of Adrenaline: Day 2 — “Larger Than Life”

Posted January 6, 2011 by swanshadow
Categories: 36 Days of Adrenaline, Soundtrack of My Life, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

Artist: Backstreet Boys

Why this song is an adrenaline rush: I can hear you screaming already — “A boy band? Seriously?” But in the same way that a busted clock is right twice a day, every once in a great while even a boy band finds a ridiculously catchy hook and rides it home like Ron Turcotte atop Secretariat. This is that kind of song.

It’s that rare number about the ups and downs of rock and roll stardom that succeeds in making me feel like a rock star myself. Larger than life, even.

Lyric line that’s fun to belt at maximum volume:

All you people, can’t you see, can’t you see
How your love’s affecting our reality
Every time we’re down
You can make it right
And that makes you larger than life!

Fun factoids:

  • The video for “Larger Than Life” — the eighth most expensive music video ever produced — features a robot played by Antonio Fargas, better known to people of a certain age as the pimp Huggy Bear on the 1970s cop show Starsky and Hutch.
  • “Larger Than Life” boasted the longest run at #1 on MTV’s Total Request Live. Which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about why MTV switched from music videos to cheesy reality programs like Teen Mom.

Other songs by the same artist that I could have chosen instead: Umm… yeah.

[Late to the party? Here’s an explanation of 36 Days of Adrenaline.]

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One Hall step forward, one step back

Posted January 5, 2011 by swanshadow
Categories: Hero of the Day, Ripped From the Headlines, Sports Bar, Taking Umbrage

Congratulations to Roberto Alomar, one of the greatest second basemen in the history of the game, on his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, Robbie is well deserving of enshrinement. The only reason he wasn’t chosen in his first year of eligibility was the incident in which Alomar spat in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck. One single moment of stupidity — and it was stupid, no question — in an otherwise exemplary career shouldn’t keep the guy out of the Hall. Now, it won’t.

As for Bert Blyleven, I’m glad he finally made the Hall on his 13th attempt for one reason, and one reason only: We won’t have to listen to him whine anymore about not being elected.

Here’s the bottom line on Blyleven. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, during which time he racked up 287 wins and 3701 strikeouts. But we’re talking about the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Hung Around Forever. If we’re going by longevity, Jim Kaat and Jamie Moyer should be in the Hall (at least, Moyer should be if he ever retires), and no one who knows anything about baseball is going to make either of those arguments.

The fact is that Blyleven was a good pitcher, but nowhere near a great one. He won 20 games only once in 22 seasons, even though he played in an era when 20 wins was the gold standard of excellence for top starting pitchers. Heck, Mike Krukow won 20 for the Giants once — should Kruk be in the Hall? Blyleven only won as many as 19 once. At the same time, he posted seven — count ’em, seven — sub-.500 seasons. That’s seven years in which he lost more games than he won. That’s nearly one-third of his career. Does that sound like a Hall of Famer to you?

No one who ever saw Blyleven pitch — aside from a handful of snow-blinded Minnesotans — thought he was the best pitcher of his time, or even one of the best. He never won a Cy Young Award. He never placed higher than third in the Cy Young voting. He was chosen as an All-Star twice. Twice — in 22 seasons. Again… does that sound like a Hall of Famer to you?

It’s no accident that the most statistically similar pitcher to Bert Blyleven was Don Sutton, another somewhat-better-than-average pitcher who rolled up deceptive numbers simply by virtue of avoiding career-ending injury for more than two decades. The Hall of Fame should not be rewarding players just for being lucky. Don Sutton — who, like Blyleven, won 20 or more games only once, and was never a Cy Young front-runner — doesn’t belong in the Hall, even though the baseball writers saw fit to enshrine him.

Bert Blyleven doesn’t belong in the Hall either.

Roberto Alomar does.

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36 Days of Adrenaline: Day 1 — “Let’s Get It Started”

Posted January 4, 2011 by swanshadow
Categories: 36 Days of Adrenaline, Soundtrack of My Life, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

Artist: The Black Eyed Peas

Why this song is an adrenaline rush: “Let’s Get It Started” might be one of the greatest party records ever conceived. It alternately grooves and rocks but never stops, with each member of the Peas taking a turn leading the festivities. The chorus couldn’t be more infectious had it been concocted in a bioweapons laboratory. You could blast “Let’s Get It Started” in a mortuary, and people would dance.

Lyric line that’s fun to belt at maximum volume:

Get messy — loud and sick.
Your mind past normal on another head trip.
So, come dumb now, do not correct it.
Let’s get ig’nant, let’s get hectic…

Fun factoids:

  • The song was originally released as “Let’s Get Retarded.” You can see why this would be a problem in today’s politically correct environment. Fortunately for the Peas, they rejected such alternate titles as “Let’s Get Crippled” and “Let’s Get Republican.”
  • At one time, “Let’s Get It Started” held the record for most downloaded song. It was recently surpassed by another Black Eyed Peas number, “I Gotta Feeling.”

Other songs by the same artist that I could have chosen instead: The aforementioned “I Gotta Feeling”; “Boom Boom Pow.”

[Late to the party? Here’s an explanation of 36 Days of Adrenaline.]

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Announcing 36 days of Adrenaline

Posted January 3, 2011 by swanshadow
Categories: 36 Days of Adrenaline, Soundtrack of My Life, SwanStuff, That's Cool!

In a New Year’s effort to force myself back into more consistent blogging habits — it’s hard to believe that I used to be good for at least four posts per week, not so long ago — I created a meme for myself, so that for at least 36 days, I can’t use “I have nothing to write about” as an excuse.

Some time ago, my iTunes account and I threw together a pair of 18-song CDs that I play in my car at eardrum-rending volume when I’m driving to the voiceover studio. For me as an actor, emotional energy is vitally important to my confidence, which in turn is essential to my performance. The more juice I can generate before I step in front of the microphone, the better off I am. With all that’s gone on in my life over these past many moons, I can’t always gin up that energy from whole cloth. Music enables me to get there. (The technique has proven effective against my persistent social anxiety also.)

These 36 songs have only one thing in common: They pump me up. They span a broad range of genres, from bubblegum pop and arena rock to heavy metal and hip-hop. Some of them are among my favorite songs — or at least are songs by some of my favorite artists — of all time. Others are songs by artists of whom I’m not particularly a fan, except for this one example. A couple I like only because they’ve got a good beat, and I can butt-dance to them in the driver’s seat of my Subaru.

All of them provide adrenaline.

I’m going to cover these in the order in which they appear in iTunes’ juvenile alphabetizing system (first names first, which annoys the devil out of the copy editor in me), with the exception of the first song, which I moved to the front of the line for lyrical appropriateness. Over these 36 posts, you’ll learn something about each of these songs — and probably more than you ever wanted to know about me.

Just so we’re clear: I won’t finish this project in 36 consecutive days. I don’t usually blog on the weekends, and Fridays are reserved for comic art and related folderol. I will probably interrupt on occasion to write about other matters of moment. But I will finish it.

The adrenaline rush begins tomorrow.

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Comic Art Friday: The very best of 2010… maybe ever

Posted December 31, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Breast Cancer Awareness, Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day, Reminiscing, SwanStuff

In previous years, I’ve presented my favorite comic art acquisitions of the foregoing 12 months on the last two Fridays before year’s end. Last year, I mustered sufficient ambition to make an entire week out of it.

2010 was a sparse collecting year for me, for reasons you can probably deduce if you follow this blog with even a modicum of regularity. Despite the small number of pieces I added this year, the quality overall was exceptional, as you’ve observed if you’ve been stopping in on Comic Art Fridays like you know you ought to. I’m delighted with every single commission that was done for me in 2010.

But when it comes to my Best of 2010, one artwork stands alone. And you haven’t seen it before now.

KJ as Electra Woman and KM as Dyna Girl, by comics artist Geof Isherwood

If you were a kid in the 1970s, the costumes will be familiar even if the faces of the women wearing them are not: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, whose adventures elevated The Krofft Supershow on Saturday mornings in 1976.

Electra Woman (played by actress Deidre Hall, better known as Dr. Marlena Evans on the long-running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives) was in everyday life a magazine journalist named Lori, while her youthful sidekick Dyna Girl was really her assistant Judy (played by Judy Strangis, better known as one of the students on the seminal high school drama Room 222). In a thinly disguised distaff knockoff of Batman and Robin, the duo battled crime using an amazing array of high-tech gadgets, the names of which invariably began with the prefix “Electra-” (at least it wasn’t “Bat-“). Most notable among their toys were their ElectraComs, clunkier versions of Dick Tracy’s famous wrist radio.

EW and DG’s 15-minute exploits lasted a single season — they shared their hour of airtime with segments featuring Dr. Shrinker (a mad scientist who invented a miniaturizing ray), Wonderbug (a flying dune buggy manned by three hip postadolescents), and Kaptain Kool and the Kongs (a faux rock band in the mode of the Monkees). Wonderbug and the Kaptain soldiered on for another year of Supershow after the Day-Glo superheroines and the incredible shrinking doctor got their walking papers.

But now you’re wondering… who’s that masquerading as Electra Woman and Dyna Girl?

On the left is my late wife KJ, a natural brunette who’s sporting a blonde wig here in imitation of Deidre Hall’s flowing locks. On the right is The Daughter, also referred to in this space as KM.

My original plan for this commission started long before KJ passed away due to breast cancer in July of this year. In fact, artist Geof Isherwood and I first discussed a KJ/KM tribute several years ago, but the project went onto the back burner — my fault, not Geof’s — for quite some time. In the aftermath of KJ’s passing, though, I knew it was time to complete the job.

When Geof and I brainstormed the idea initially, my concept was to dress KJ as Wonder Woman — the superheroine she most identified with — and The Daughter as Supergirl, which has been one of my pet names for her since she was young. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that wouldn’t work. KJ, who underwent a radical mastectomy in 2000 and was always a modest dresser even before that, would never have donned Wonder Woman’s signature bustier. She was, on the other hand, a dedicated Days of Our Lives fanatic — as is The Daughter even now — so portraying her in the guise of Deidre Hall’s Electra Woman struck me as the perfect compromise.

Although I commissioned this drawing in ink, Geof insisted on painting over his inks in watercolor, to create a stunning showpiece. This project became a labor of love for the artist, whose beloved wife Sonja also lost her battle with cancer in 2009. The final result is both a sterling example of Geof’s always brilliant work, and a fitting tribute to the two strong young women who have shared my life.

Geof Isherwood’s masterpiece reflects all of the reasons why I collect original comic art. I couldn’t have asked for more.

May you and yours enjoy a joyous, healthy, and fulfilling 2011, friend reader. Your Uncle Swan thanks you for all of your support and encouragement during his darkest, most challenging year, and promises to blog more often during the coming 12 months.

And that’s your final Comic Art Friday of 2010. Happy New Year, everyone!

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Comic Art Friday: Doctor, Doctor, give me the news…

Posted December 17, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Comic Art Friday

…I’ve got a bad case of loving you.

Doctor Fate and Doctor Doom, pencils and inks by comics artist Joe Bennett

Or, at the very least, I’ve got a bad case of loving this Common Elements artwork by Brazilian superstar Joe Bennett (Captain America and the Falcon, 52, Teen Titans), featuring a dynamic duo of metal-masked doctors — specifically, Doctor Fate (he’s the one in danger of being devoured by the creature that resembles the graboids from Tremors) and Doctor Doom (he’s the one towering over Fate’s plight with nefarious glee). You can click the image above for an expanded view.

Although Doctor Fate isn’t that familiar a name outside the universe of comics cognoscenti, he’s one of the oldest superheroes still going, having made his debut way back in May 1940’s More Fun Comics #55. The good Doctor was also one of the founding members of comics’ original superhero team, the Justice Society of America. He’s never been a major headliner, but he has certainly proven himself a durable character. Or, to be more precise, characters — given that several different entities (including at least two women, a disembodied spirit, and a chimpanzee) have donned Doctor Fate’s golden helmet over the course of 70 years.

For me, the one true Doctor Fate is the original — Kent Nelson, who was raised from boyhood by an ancient Egyptian sorcerer named Nabu, and schooled in the magical arts. Kent eventually becomes a physician who uses the arcane powers vested in his helmet (as well as his cloak and amulet) to battle evil. Much like his JSA contemporary, The Spectre, Doctor Fate wielded seemingly limitless supernatural might, which in turn gave him an aloof, antisocial air. These qualities made him seem perhaps less vulnerable and interesting than other heroes (and likely contributed to his lackluster popularity).

Doctor Doom, by contrast, has never had a popularity problem, having been the most prominent supervillain in Marvel Comics continuity since his debut in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). Pretty much every Marvel hero who’s been around for any length of time has tangled with Doom at least once, which is the only reason the megalomanical ruler of Latveria has never realized his dream of global domination.

Victor von Doom — and with a name like that, how could the poor guy not turn evil? — came to America as a young man, and was a college associate of Reed Richards (later Mr. Fantastic, leader of the Fantastic Four). Horribly scarred in a failed scientific experiment, Doom outfits himself with a mask and armor, setting out on a path of vengeance against those he blames for his plight — which includes just about every human being on the planet, but specifically Richards. If Reed Richards is the smartest person on Earth, Victor von Doom is a close Number Two, so the battle of wits between the two has been fought to a virtual draw for nearly five decades.

The match-up of these two Doctors illustrates (no pun intended) the kind of magic that happens more often than not in my Common Elements commissions. I provided Joe Bennett no instruction or direction about this artwork other than the two characters to be featured. The powerfully dramatic scenario you see here sprang entirely from the creativity of the artist, and came as a total — albeit pleasant — surprise to me when the piece was completed.

Which is why I choose, generally speaking, not to describe to an artist what I want drawn. Inevitably, the artist’s idea will be better than anything I’d have come up with. That’s why they’re artists, and I’m just a guy who admires and collects their work.

Next week: Our annual Best of Comic Art Friday, in which we’ll take a fond look back at my favorite acquisitions of the past 12 months.

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

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Comic Art Saturday: Happy 50th, Geof Isherwood!

Posted December 4, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day

Usually, we do our comic art posts on Fridays here at SSTOL. But I held off until Saturday this week, just so that I could pay homage to a terrific artist and gentleman who’s celebrating his half-century anniversary today.

The Suicide Squad, pencils by comics artist Geof Isherwood

Geof Isherwood — born December 4, 1960 — is an American expat who lives in Montreal, Canada. He’s best-known in mainstream comics for his work on such series as Marvel’s Power Man and Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, and Conan, and especially DC’s Suicide Squad, for which Geof was a member of the artistic team — originally as inker over Luke McDonnell, then as penciler with Robert Campanella inking — for roughly half of the book’s original run. In recent years, Geof has focused on his creator-owned projects, a thriving practice as a commission artist, and storyboards for motion pictures including Gothika and The Fountain.

Geof was one of the first artists from whom I ever bought a piece of original comic art. He was also among the first few artists I personally commissioned. Over several years of correspondence — not always about comics or art — I’ve come to think of Geof as a good friend, albeit one I’ve never met in person. He and I keep saying we’re going to remedy that omission one of these days.

So many of Geof’s creations rank among my favorite commissions, but I chose the one above to showcase on this auspicious occasion because it’s not only an incredible display of Geof’s talents, but also representative of the series with which he’s most closely associated: Suicide Squad. I chose the four members of the long-running, ever-changing team that would appear in the piece; the scenario is 100% Isherwood. Clockwise from 12 o’clock, that’s Deadshot, the Bronze Tiger, Vixen, and Nightshade.

This drawing so beautifully demonstrates the talents Geof brought to his Suicide Squad run that when Back Issue, the outstanding magazine devoted to comics from the 1970s and ’80s, decided to publish a feature story about the Squad (with Geof as one of several creators interviewed), BI editor Michael Eury used this artwork to illustrate the first page of the feature. The story and accompanying art appear in Back Issue #26 (February 2008), the “Spies and Tough Guys” edition.

Happy 50th, Geof! May your drawing hand and imagination continue to produce wonders for at least another half-century!

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

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And don’t call me Shirley

Posted November 29, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Celebritiana, Cinemania, Dead People Got No Reason to Live, Disney, Ripped From the Headlines, Teleholics Anonymous

When I heard last evening that Leslie Nielsen had died at the age of 84, I immediately thought — as I presume most people did — of the comedic roles he played during the last three decades of his acting career, beginning with Airplane! and continuing most notably with the TV series Police Squad! and the Naked Gun movies it spawned.

Often lost in that thought, however, is that Nielsen’s first comedy successes resulted from his not previously having been viewed as a comic actor. It’s a marvelous study in contrast — which is, after all, the very essence of comedy.

What made Airplane! funny was the absurdity of seeing actors whose screen images were stereotypically strait-laced — Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, George Kennedy — doing and saying outlandish things. Think about the classic scene where Graves’s airline pilot makes homosexually suggestive remarks to a young boy: “Have you ever been in the cockpit of an airplane before? Have you ever seen a grown man naked? Have you ever been in a Turkish prison? Do you like movies about gladiators?” It’s shockingly funny, because at that point we mostly knew Peter Graves as the humorless secret agent Jim Phelps from Mission: Impossible. Did Graves ever utter a funny line in the entire run of that series? Did he ever even crack a smile? I don’t think so. Thus, when he makes these outrageous comments in Airplane!, it’s hilarious because, well, we didn’t know Peter Graves had that in him.

Now imagine, say, Will Ferrell in that same Peter Graves role. (Yes, I know Will Ferrell was in junior high school when Airplane! was made. Just go with me here.) It wouldn’t be as funny, because we expect outrageous comments from the mouth of Will Ferrell. The jokes would be the same, and Ferrell’s take on them might be more inherently humorous, but the impact of contrast would be lacking.

When Airplane! appeared, most people knew Leslie Nielsen — if indeed they knew him at all — as the sober-sided space captain in Forbidden Planet, or the equally somber ocean liner captain in The Poseidon Adventure, or the daring but dull Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion in the Disney miniseries The Swamp Fox. He was not an actor one expected to hear tossing off deadpan one-liners like the one in the headline of this post. Nielsen’s stiff-upper-lipped persona (as well as a previously untapped gift of timing) made him the perfect contrast for humor — a contrast he milked to great financial reward for the next 30 years.

Unfortunately — at least in my view — Nielsen didn’t know when to quit. In the aftermath of his first Naked Gun bonanza, he cranked out more than a dozen execrable films showcasing his newfound penchant for deadpan comedy, each of which proved more rancid than its predecessor. It’s one thing to find a fresh horse to ride; it’s entirely another to keep beating that horse long after it’s expired. Had Nielsen contented himself with the two movies that made his reputation, plus the TV series that inspired the second of those two movies, he’d be remembered as an unqualified comic genius. As it is, our fond memories of those noteworthy roles are muted by the likes of Repossessed, 2001: A Space Travesty, and Scary Movies 3 and 4.

If you like science fiction, and have never seen Forbidden Planet, you owe it to yourself to check it out on cable (it turns up periodically on the classic movie channels) or DVD. It’s one of the very few films from the bug-eyed monster era of sci-fi flicks that still holds up well today. (It’s more or less a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in space opera dress.) Nielsen is effective in stolid action hero mode, Walter Pidgeon gnaws scenery as a brilliant but mad scientist, and Anne Francis — later the star of TV’s first female-lead detective series, Honey West — fills out a miniskirted space dress with aplomb.

Thanks for the good times, Mr. Nielsen. And remember… when you’re offered a choice between steak and fish for dinner, always choose the lasagna.

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Comic Art Friday: Black (Panther) Friday

Posted November 26, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Comic Art Friday

For those of you out there battling the mob scene at your local mall or big box store, I have no sympathy. Your choice, your scars and high blood pressure. I’m relaxing comfortably in my new office chair with a mug of freshly brewed coffee and a slice of leftover Thanksgiving apple pie, thank you very much. Shopping is the reason God invented Amazon.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the Black Friday thing, I’m brim-full of excitement about something else Black — specifically, the Black Panther, my favorite superhero of all time. (Okay, maybe he’s #1 with Spider-Man at #1A. But still.) I’m especially excited about this astounding tableau, created by one of the true modern masters of the comic art form — Steve “The Dude” Rude.

The Black Panther, pencils and inks by comics artist Steve Rude

There are artists whom I commission because I know almost exactly what they will do with the assignment, and I’m commissioning them in part for their consistency of vision. There are other artists whom I commission knowing that I have no advance clue at all what they will do with the assignment, and if I try to guess, I will be incorrect. Steve Rude falls squarely into that latter category.

Because Rude’s bold style is unabashedly influenced by the late, legendary Jack “King” Kirby, who co-created the Black Panther (pretty much every comic book artist of the past 50 years has been influenced to some degree by Kirby, but Rude more directly than most), I might have supposed that, when asked to draw the Black Panther, Rude would give me a propulsive, energetically Kirbyesque take on the character — say, something along the lines of Kirby’s iconic cover to Black Panther #7.

Instead, Steve went in the opposite direction, drawing on another of his primary influences: Alex Toth, whose mastery of shape and minimalistic linework made him a much-in-demand designer for TV animation, a medium in which clarity and simplicity are essentials. (Among the classic cartoons Toth designed are Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Super Friends.) Rude used a Toth-like contrast of deep shadow and blinding light to create a dense, moody, atmospheric scene. I was absolutely floored when I first saw it.

Actually, the second time I saw it.

The Black Panther, rough pencil sketch by comics artist Steve Rude

My first view of the piece came by way of Steve’s preliminary sketch, at which you’re now looking. You can see how, even though all of the key shapes, lines, and spaces are present in the rough, the dramatic impact Rude will ultimately introduce through skillfully placed shadow (it’s called “spotting blacks” in comic art jargon) is not only absent, but nearly impossible to anticipate. The prelim sketch suggests a very nice drawing to come. The finished, fully inked version goes light-years beyond “very nice,” into the realm of “jaw-droppingly stupendous.”

Now that’s a Black Friday I can get behind.

And that, friend reader, is your Comic Art Friday. (Remember: Avoid mob scenes; shop online. Just a tip from your Uncle Swan.)

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SwanShadow Gives Thanks — Episode 7: A New Hope

Posted November 24, 2010 by swanshadow
Categories: Aimless Riffing, Listology, SwanStuff, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010 marks the seventh consecutive year that I’ve written my annual A-to-Z list of people and things for which I’m giving thanks on this contemplative holiday.

As those of you who drop by here regularly know, 2010 has been a challenging year at Casa de Swan. KJ, my life partner of 29 years – my wife of 25 and a half years – passed away in July after a lengthy battle with breast cancer and degenerative liver disease. One might suppose that, in the wake of such a monumental tragedy, it would be more difficult than usual to find gratitude in my heart for the trivial accoutrements of life.

Truth to tell, however, I could write several dozen of these lists – the X’s, Q’s, and Z’s would get tough after a while – and not exhaust the limitless possibilities of thankfulness. If I’ve learned anything from recent experience, it’s not to take anything or anyone in my life for granted.

Before I delve into this year’s alphabetical progression, I’m going to take time for some special acknowledgments that belong on a list all to themselves.

I’m thankful for every moment of every day KJ and I were blessed to share together. Like all couples, we had glorious times and dark days, sunshine and struggle, soaring heights and devastating lows. Through it all, we never stopped loving each other. KJ’s quiet influence made me a better man, and a better human being. I would not be the me I am today without her. There’s a pretty fair argument to be made that I would not even be alive today without her. She has been the single most powerful presence in my life. She was my lover, my companion, my good right hand, and my very best and closest friend. I miss her terribly. I am grateful for all that she gave me, and I am especially grateful that she is now at peace.

I’m thankful for The Daughter, who, like her mother before her, makes me a better person just by being around me. KM has been a model of strength and perseverance throughout her mother’s illness, and in the aftermath of her death. She is everything any father could ask a daughter to be – kind, respectful, sweet, helpful, diligent in her studies, and quite often, wickedly funny. You would love her if you knew her, because everyone who knows her already does. She will graduate from university in May after just four years, even though her entire college career has been overshadowed by her mother’s failing health. You go, Supergirl — I am more proud of you than you will ever know.

I’m thankful for my parents-in-law, whose support and compassion has been invaluable in these haunted times. They have never stopped regarding me as their son, even though, technically speaking, the contractual connection between us no longer exists. This hard road would have been impassable without them sharing it with The Daughter and me. I will be forever grateful to them for all their help, encouragement, and love.

I’m thankful for the three communities of people whose fellowship has buoyed me over the tempest this year: my church family; my chorus family – the incomparable men of Voices in Harmony, and their significant others; and the family of Bay Area voice actors with whom I work and study at Voicetrax San Francisco. All of them have aided me in ways of which they are likely not even aware. I love them, every one.

And now, in keeping with our long-standing tradition, I’m also thankful for…

Abby, my personal assistant. Her typing is abysmal, her filing skills nonexistent, and she leaves her toys and chew bones strewn about the office, but she’s as warm and furry as any daily companion could ever be.

My BlackBerry Torch. It’s hard now to imagine how I functioned for so many years without a smartphone. It has made life easier and more organized in ways that I’d never have imagined – especially considering the fact that I rarely use the actual phone. The e-mail access, text messaging, GPS navigation, and instant updates from the Weather Channel and ESPN all pay for themselves ten times over.

Comic Art Fans, the home of my online art gallery and those of hundreds of other comic art collectors. The estimable Bill Cox has built, and continues to refine, an invaluable resource for participants in our hobby – and doesn’t even make us pay for the privilege of using it unless we choose to. (I do. Gladly.)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the nonpareil voice-recognition software by Nuance Communications. I’m now on my third iteration of Dragon, and the program just keeps getting better and better. It’s an incredible timesaver for clumsy typists like myself. In fact, I’m dictating this blog post with it.

The Eagles, one of my all-time favorite American rock bands. Do I ever get tired of listening to Hotel California? No, I do not. They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast.

Faith. I always knew it was important. Until this year, I’m not sure I understood exactly how important.

My beloved San Francisco Giants, who this year won their first World Series championship in 52 seasons by the Bay. For diehard fans like The Daughter and myself, the joyous accomplishment of the Orange and Black couldn’t have come at a better time. Big-Time Timmy Jim, Shotgun, Buster, Huff Daddy, The Boss, BWeez, Pat the Bat, Magic Juan, J-Lo, Fast Freddy, Andres the Giant, MadBum, and the rest of the crew brought a ray of soul-cheering sunshine to a dismal summer.

The House Jacks, the original rock band without instruments. Their latest album, Level, flat-out kicks butt. (You can buy it on iTunes. And you should.) I’ll be seeing The Jacks live at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley on December 11, as an early birthday present to myself.

“Indian Food,” our household nickname for Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ premier point guard. We like our Indian Food hot and spicy, dishing the rock, and bombing away from outside the arc.

Jury duty, which may, I know, seem like an odd thing for which to be thankful. I haven’t written much about it for reasons that will become immediately obvious, but I served on a jury this year that convicted a man of murder. It was a harrowing month-long experience, and yet one that I am glad I underwent — and which I will never forget.

KJ. As previously noted, I can’t say enough how thankful I am for her life.

Ladybugs, KJ’s personal totem. The Daughter and I refer to the mausoleum where KJ is encrypted as the Ladybug House. She would have liked that.

Memories – I have so many precious ones to treasure. With God’s blessings and a fair wind, perhaps I’ll make many more before this trip reaches its terminus.

Nigiri sushi. Man, that stuff is tasty. My favorite bites: tako, ebi, unagi, hamachi, and the ineffable toro.

Old school. That’s how I like my music. That’s how I live my life. Get off my lawn, you punk kids.

The Princess Bride, one of my best-loved motion pictures of all time. It has taken on a new meaning recently, ever since I came face to face with the real-life Dread Pirate Roberts. I’ll be your Westley any time, Buttercup. Just watch out for that six-fingered man. And, never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Quail. Cute little birds they are, and yet, they deserve to be persecuted. I’m just looking for a few good recipes.

Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill. Their Taco Tuesdays, when you can score all the fish tacos you can wolf down for $1.25 each, are among the greatest fast food bargains on the planet. Not to mention, delicious.

Supergirl – which, in addition to being my pet name for The Daughter, is also the nom de guerre of one of my favorite superheroines. I crossed an item off my bucket list this year by meeting Helen Slater, the actress who played Supergirl in the 1984 movie, and getting her autograph on the 50th issue of this current Supergirl run, to which she contributed a story. She’s every bit as lovely in person as she is on screen.

Throat Coat, the herbal tea from Traditional Medicinals that is the best friend of voice-using professionals everywhere.

The universe. Standing under a clear night sky never fails to remind me exactly how small and fragile I am. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, hat is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

Voice acting. It took me more than 45 years, but I am at long last becoming what I really want to be when I grow up.

Writing. Where would I be without the mystery and beauty of language? Words truly are my greatest passion. (Well, one of my greatest passions, anyway. Ahem…)

The X factor — that is to say, the unknown. I don’t know what the future holds for me. Whatever it is, I’ll face it head-on. And, knowing me, with a witty quip or three.

Yelp, the ultimate do-it-yourself review site. I’ve lost count of the number of great restaurants – not to mention other businesses – I’ve discovered using this helpful tool. As is the case with Wikipedia, one has to take what’s written on Yelp with a grain of salt, because anyone and his Dutch uncle can get on and write whatever they please. Still, used with discernment, it’s an incredible resource.

Andrew Zimmern, the globetrotting chef and culinary adventurer who hosts Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. You’d never catch me eating half the items that Andrew is called upon to sample, but I always enjoy journeying vicariously with him to the exotic places he goes, and seeing the amazing array of comestibles enjoyed by people of various cultures around the world.

Last, but by no means least, I am eternally grateful for you, friend reader. May you and the people you love experience the true joy of Thanksgiving this holiday. Please understand that no matter how challenging your life circumstances may seem, you have much for which to be thankful, if you just stop and look around.

Peace to you. And pass the mashed potatoes.

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