Rising — Quality of Lady Gaga albums
Yes, that's right: Lady Gaga's new album, "Born This Way," released May 23, is her best album to date.
Amazingly the worst song on the album is also its third single, "The Edge of Glory." It is a phoned-in power ballad, immensely forgettable and lyrically empty.
But nearly every other song has that single-quality, especially the apathetic dance track, "Heavy Metal Lover." Also "Bloody Mary" essentially just sounds like Depeche Mode with Lady Gaga on vocals, and that is awesome.
Rising — Reverence for our role model, "Macho Man" Randy Savage
"Macho Man" Randy Savage, former world champion in both WWF and WCW, passed away on May 20.
Savage, known for his bombastic interviews and exciting flights of fancy in the ring, was perhaps most known among wrestling fans for his bout with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at WrestleMania III in 1987. Savage lost the encounter with Steamboat, but it was a match that launched several wrestling careers. Though all the attention was on Hulk Hogan's legendary encounter with Andre the Giant in the main event, Savage and Steamboat ended up stealing the show.
What made Savage stand out most was his over-the-top interview style that managed to maintain a small shred of believability while also being incredibly fun to watch. Savage oozed energy and made fans want to watch his upcoming matches.
For non-fans, Savage was, perhaps, most famous for serving as the spokesman of Slim Jim. His catchphrase, "Snap into a Slim Jim! Ohh yeah!!" became synonymous with the brand, as he praised the virtues of the tasty beef jerky snack.
For this college generation, in particular, Savage might also be known for guest turns on Cartoon Network animated programs in the late 1990s. He appeared in the "Dial M for Monkey" segment of "Dexter's Laboratory" and also played Space Ghost's grandfather on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast."
He even toyed with a rap career, releasing an album called "Be a Man" in the early 2000s. The titular song was clearly aimed at Hulk Hogan, during one of their real-life feuds.
Even in death, Savage has managed to do the impossible. World Wrestling Entertainment produced a Savage tribute video, with a Coldplay song as the main soundtrack. And due to it being an extremely moving tribute about an amazing wrestler, we now like a Coldplay song.
That's amazing. But then again, Savage could do just about anything. Will he be missed? Oh, yeah.
Rising — DC Comics' promotional tricks
It was announced this week that DC Comics is taking a few radical approaches to winning the comics war with Marvel.
Firstly, DC has decided to start releasing its comics the same day digitally as in print, beginning Aug. 31.
The idea is fundamentally a good one, considering the move the world is making from print to digital. But any self-respecting comics fan would rather have a dusty, old print copy. A digital version would have to be significantly cheap, like, say, 99 cents an issue for titles that are normally $2.99, to even merit consideration. This is clearly a move aimed more toward casual comics fans, ones that perhaps might be made from the plethora of comics movies coming out this summer.
More stupidly, DC has decided to relaunch all of their titles — that's right, every single one — with a new No. 1 issue. Why? Because apparently people will just assume that every comic has a new jumping-on point now that the numbering is new.
If followed through within the long-term, this is a dumb idea. It stupidly throws away institutions like the numbering of classic Superman and Batman comics "Action Comics" and "Detective Comics." These titles have been going with their original numbering since the 1930s. Why would you throw that away on a stunt?
But it probably will not even be followed through. Comics are constantly renumbered in the industry. People should start making bets as to how long it lasts, and anyone betting on longer than two years has a lot of faith in DC Comics' long-term editorial decision making.