Looking Back at an Awesome 10 Years

Being that I was born in a year ending in a ‘zero’, the year 1970 to be precise, I’ve come to associate the coming of a new decade with the passing of a decade of my own. It’s a similar association I got from having my driver’s license renewal, leap year, the Olympics, and the presidential elections all in the same year, but my liicense renewels have gotten out of sync with all those other events, so this analogy doesn’t hold up as well anymore.

At any rate, even though I’m kinda sad about saying good-bye to my 30s, I also appreciate just how awesome this past decade was. At this point, ten years ago, I had no clue what I was in for. I was mostly in a funk about not being in my 20s anymore, wondering with more than a little dread what the future would hold. Hitting another decade feels different now. If my 30s were great, then maybe my 40s will be decent, too.

So, why exactly has this decade been so awesome? There’s a whole slew of surprises on a personal level, which I’ll address as briefly as possible, but also larger cultural events that just blew me away. Why so brief about the personal stuff? Cause, if you’re a typical person in your 30s, you’re probably already familiar with, at least to some degree, the first 4 items below:

Kids: Raising children is not easy. Discipline sucks. But, isn’t Christmas morning a blast? Or how about revealing to your children at the end of a long dreary car ride that, no, we aren’t visitng your feeble, boring Aunt Sally for an entire week, but instead we’ll spend that week at Disney World? I won’t go into all the cliches about raising kids, cause we’ve all heard them ad nasuem. I knew, at least minimally, going in that having kids is a combination of joy and heartbreak, surprises both good and bad. Perhaps without that immense contrast, we wouldn’t appreciate the joy children give us quite as much. Either way, it’s certainly never dull, and then, to my immense surprise, all the nieces and nephews are like icing on the best cake you’ve ever had.

Marriage: Again, I won’t go into all the cliches and Hallmark-card sentiments .. I’m trying to keep the personal stuff to a minimum. I will say how lucky I am to have a wife that not only tolerates but encourages every bizarre off-the-wall hobby I have a notion to indulge. Every day, I appreciate a little more how much being single again would really suck. Especially on these miserable winter nights!

Career: Speaking of sucking, for the most part, the jobs I had in my 20s were awful. Just dreadful, cubicle, Dilbert-inspired hell. So what changed? After getting a technical degree when I was 31, the kind of jobs I’ve gotten have been so much better. I’m building things and solving puzzles, not just punching buttons to keep the work flowing. And, giving a client a tool to make their jobs easier is an extremely gratifying thing to do. Plus, all the travel goodies I got from consulting work was pretty sweet. Per diem, I miss you so!

Fitness: I kinda worked out, sort of, when I was in my 20s, but never really very hard or consistantly. In my early 30s, I started running, building up some distance, and doing 5ks, and over the past couple of years, I’ve started competing in spring triathlons. A tri sounds so tough, doesn’t it? But, a sprint really isn’t that bad. One big bonus: food tastes twice as good after a race! Plus, who knows, by the time I’m 50, maybe I’ll be doing an Ironman.

George W Bush: I’m not kidding. Bush getting elected was great!! Would the Daily Show even still be on the air, were it not for the 8 years of cluelessness and dishonesty that pervaded this administration? It’s not just the rank incompetence, but the air of outright villainy, courtesy of Dick Cheney, that made the elections in ’08 possible. Were it not for the crash & burn politics of the extreme right for the past 8 years, we’d never have seen the election of our first black president. When your administration is bookended by both the worst terrorist attack on American soil and the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, you know you’re really making some history.
And, courtesy of Karl Rove, we do have a new political majority, but it’s a Democratic one. Heckuva job, Turd Blossom!!
And, hey, that $300 check I got was OK, too, I guess …

Lord of the Rings: Long ago, from somewhere or someone I’ve forgotten, I read a definition of fiction and literature. It was something like this: “Fiction entertains you … literature changes you.” I was 14 when I first read LOTR and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was a different person after reading it, because the story touched me at such a deep level. And, I couldn’t really articulate why. Even now, it’s difficult to describe why LOTR is far more than just an adventure story or a simple ‘fantasy’.
For years, I wondered if anyone would ever try to do a live-action version of LOTR. The scale of the story, the weaving of the narrative, and the special effects required all seemed to be tremendous barriers to ever doing such a production. Plus a standard 2-hour film just isn’t long enough to do justice to a single volume of LOTR. You’d need 2 hours for each ‘book’ in the story.
In 1999, when news broke on the ‘Net that some guy in New Zealand was making a live-action version of LOTR, everyone was more than a little apprehensive about the fact that we were in danger of getting another Ralph Bakshi debacle. I remember reading an interview on aintitcool.com from Peter Jackson, where he tried to reassure fans about his intentions and what he had in mind. From that moment on, I was sold.
Yeah, I know that the Tolkien purists have never forgiven Jackson for the liberties he took, but do you know what you get when you don’t take liberties with the source material? You get Harry Potter (I half suspect that the teenie-boppers now swooning over Twilight are the grown-up tweens who elevated the Potter films to such ridiculous levels of undeserved hype. What boring cinema Harry Potter has been). Sure, there’s things in Jackson’s versions I don’t particurlarly like, such as the rift between Frodo and Sam after Minas Morgul or how badly Gimli was utilized in the movies. But, all 3 films were nominated for Best Picture, with the last one winning. The purists (and the purist in me) needs to get over it: these films were a stunning acheivement. Try to enjoy them on their own terms. Which is exactly what I do, about every other year.

Superheros: This is the golden age of the superman. Without fail, I can pick up almost any comic and come away dazzled not only by the quality art, but also by the excellent storytelling. And, finally, finally, we have superhero movies.
Not just cheesy, grade zero productions like the 1990 Captain America flop, but great movies that mainstream audiences really enjoy. Who woulda thunk it?
I remember in the late 80s/early 90s, readin the X-Men, thinking that, ‘Yeah, it’ll never happen, but if they do make an X-Men movie, they should get Patrick Stewart to play Xavier.’ It’s such an obvious choice. What a surprise that Hollywood actually got that one right!
And, we’re still getting superhero flops, to be sure. Superman Returns, Daredevil, Catwoman … sadly, this list grows longer every year. But, the ratio of bad to good is still … pretty good. There’ve been so many iconic comic images brought to life on the big screen, among them:
• Doc Ock and Spidey duking it out in the air above NYC
• Ironman outmaneuving F16s
• The Comedian getting knocked out of his penthouse window
• Christopher Nolan’s Batman crashing down on top of a car
• Mystique !!

And, several shows from the small screen were real highlights as well.
For awhile on Saturday nights, about midway though the decade, we had a Saturday night ritual:
1) X-Men evolution
2) Teen Titans
3) 1 Hour Justice League

What a treat that was! We were such fans of the Teen Titans, one Halloween we even dressed up like them. But, the superhero animation highlight of the decade was easily the ‘Justice League’. By using the same visual style as the Batman and Superman shows of the 90s, as well as many of the same actors, the Justice League maintained a wonderful thematic consistancy.
True enough, the JL’s first season was spotty. But, from the 2nd season onward, it took off like a rocket. If you think Superman is a cheesy character or that kids cartoons are just too silly, do a Youtube search for ‘Superman vs Captain Marvel’. And, if that doesn’t convince you, when you compare the JL to the Superfriends, which is all we had in the early 70s, you should appreciate what Bruce Timm gave us much, much more.
Christian Bale gave us the best movie Batman, but the best Batman ever, IMO, is Kevin Conroy. And, similarly, as terrific as Heath Ledger was onscreen, Mark Hamill is still the best Joker.
And, as far thematically as you can get from JL, we have Smallville. Smallville is about the silliest soap opera around. These characters have had so many scenes in the hospital, they practically live there. For example, just how many times has Lex Luther been shot, stabbed, beaten, electroshocked, etc??? And, for high school kids, these characters display amazing emotional maturity. Perhaps it’s unrealistic or perhaps it’s what happens when your actors are about a decade older than their characters.
Having said all that, I’m addicted to Smallville. I’m midway through Season 5, and watching this show is a blast. Despite these failing, or maybe because of them, the show works really well. The acting is consistantly good, you can tell the creators are having fun playing in the Superman mythos sandbox, and the shows drib and drab just enough continuing story to keep you in suspense. How much does Lionel Luthor know about Clark? When will Clark tell Lana his secret? What other heroes will Clark run into? And, of course, the big question is, when will they finally show Clark wearing the Superman costume?
The references in the shows are a lot of fun, too, not only to the Superman mythology but also to the Dukes of Hazzard. This is a great series, with a lot of emotional depth.
And, I think Smallville and JL are 2 reasons why the Superman Returns movie felt so flat. When you have the Superman/Clark Kent character done so well on the small screen every week, your theatrical film sure has a lot to live up to.
It really sucked with JL was cancelled, and, for the most part, the follow-up DVD productions just haven’t been as inspired as the original show. Maybe Bruce Timm is just going through a creative rough patch, but here’s hoping that with the new decade, he gets his groove back.

Gaming: Early in the decade, I started going to a local sci-fi convention in High Point, about 15 miles from my house. My expectations were pretty low, but it was something I was a little curious about. Since about 2002, Stellarcon’s become an annual ritual.
Why do I like playing games so much? I’m not talking about games most folks are familiar with, like Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary. Those are OK, but a really good game gives you something you can’t get in real life. I’ll never orchestrate the liberation of France from the Nazis, fight supervillains, run an international conglomorate, or nagivate a dungeon filled with traps and monsters,. But, a game can let you do those things vicariously. So, what games this decade blew me away?
• Settlers of Catan: I knocked mainstream boardgames, but this game is about to go mainstream. It’s hugely popular in Germany and is making growth in the USA. Don’t be surprised to see this one in a Toys R Us sometime soon. Very simple gameplay, lots of strategy, easy enough for a kid to learn, challenging enough to engage an adult; lots and lots of fun. This game will go down as one of the classics, like Monopoly.
• War of the Ring: Playing this at my first Stellarcon was as big of a deal to me as seeing the Fellowship of the Ring in the theatre. I loved that they got John Howe to do the artwork for this. It’s pretty, sure, but the game delivers a huge ‘What If?’ with clever mechanics and lots of cool battles. What if the Fellowship had taken the Gap of Rohan? What if Sauron had ignored Gondor and instead invaded Erebor? With this game, you can play out those scenarios.
• Heroclix: A confession: I haven’t played Heroclix in years, but about 8 years ago, my son and I began to collect these and we played the game a ton. Collectible superhero mini’s are like crack cocaine to geeks and I was certainly not immune to their appeal. While it lasted, Heroclix was great. But, after my kid bought his 15th Batman figurine, you got the feeling that the well had been pumped dry.
• Power Grid: A Euro game about managing a public utility? Eh, I almost passed this one. Don’t make that mistake, should you get the chance to play this one. This game is excellent. Gameplay is tight as a drum, plus games where you build stuff are usually enjoyable.

Halloween: Yeah, Halloween ain’t new this decade. But, it’s actually been one of my favorite holidays since childhood. During my 20s, I never used to do anything special for it. We had fun, and still do, with the kids’ costumes and putting up some decorations, but until a few years ago, that was about the extent of our involvement with Halloween.
About 3 years ago, I stumbled across a MAKE magazine that was a special issue devoted to the holiday. It was a door to a new world (new to me, at least) of hobbyists who raid their local hardware stores to build illusions and props from scratch. Suddenly, there was so much to learn about things I’d previously never had any interest: pneumatics, electrical wiring, costuming, electronics, etc.
So, the aftermath of this explosion in propmaking is that I now have no place in the garage to put my car, but the tradeoff is that I have kids in our neighborhood anticipating 2010’s haunted house. It’s barely December, but I better get started soon cooking up ideas for next year!

Pixar: We live in a new Golden Age of animation, one that is surprassing Walt Disney himself. Pixar has storytelling down to a science, and the fact that their movies are consistantly great and the fact that Disney now owns Marvel Comics, makes me curious as to what Pixar will deliver in the coming years. But, a quick look back at what they’ve done is so impressive.
The real Fantastic Four movie was the Incredibles, not Tim Story’s turkeys. This year’s ‘Up’ is easily one of the best films of the year; it ought to be able to compete for Best Picture, not just Best Animated. But, the best film out of their entire library so far, ‘Ratatouille’. It’s such an oddball concept for a film: disgusting rodents and French cuisine, but the film isn’t merely entertaining, it’s a true work of art.