Read the New York Post today?

Apparently the New York Post has run an article today revealing a pretty major change to a well-loved superhero's status quo, and it has more than a few people upset. It involves the Marvel character Spider-Man, so if you don't want to know, don't read on and don't pick up today's New York Post.

What is revealed is that Spider-Man, who has long kept his human identity a secret, reveals that he is Peter Parker before members of the press, pulling off his mask and saying, "My name is Peter Parker and I've been Spider-Man since I was 15 years old. Any questions?"

As soon as that detail hit the web, fans blew up. Comments like "I'm never going the movies or reading a Spider-Man comic again" were very common this morning. Honestly, I don't get it. I'm as big a Spider-Man fan as the next guy, having read a lot of his comics growing up and having seen (and loved) both movies. I'll be first in line to see SM3. So I say, if you think for one minute that Peter revealing his identity goes against his character, you don't know a thing about him.

Remember his mantra? The one about great power giving great responsibility? The reason he unmasks himself is because in the comic in question (Civil War #2), the government tells superheroes to register their identities because they can be as big a threat as any villain with all their web-shooting, hammer-throwing, city-destroying abilities.

Personally, I think DC (the Washington one, not the Distinguished Competition) would have tired a lot sooner than this of having the Hulk smash through yet another city on one of his rampages. The legislation would actually have happened about a year (or less) after the first superhero was zapped with a mind control ray or went amuck and threw a few cars into a building. That's just the country and times we live in. So the registration part makes sense. And Peter's obedience to such legislation also does. He's always been a straight arrow, an honest Joe. That's what makes him likeable. And the fact that he does think that he has a responsibility to do what's right means that he will reveal his identity to the public. It's that simple. He'd be first in line to comply.

Now, from a story-telling perspective, this is ripe with possibilities. Even if you've never read the comic, and have just seen the movies, you know that his employer at the Daily Bugle, cigar-chomping J Jonah Jameson, likes Peter Parker but HATES Spider-Man. Can you imagine the heart attack JJJ suffered when he saw that announcement on the news? Or what about the immediate danger this puts wife Mary Jane and his Aunt May in? Suddenly every enemy Spider-Man has knows how to hurt him - through his family.

At the very least, shut up on the whining and wait and see what happens before you decide you hate all things Marvel and Spider-Man, and give some writers the chance to explore what that means to the web-shooting superhero. Or, you could just realize that we're talking about a fictional character in a fictional universe and just grow up already.

The picture below, taken from the last page of Civil War #2, and showing SM reveal his identity to the press, was drawn by Steve McNiven.

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The Music Genome Project

So I heard about this great website today - the Music Genome Project (located at www.pandora.com). The site prompts you to enter an artist, and then brings up a radio station that starts playing artists that are similar in style. The trick is that it doesn't just use the typical "rock" "pop" "rap" tags, but actually analyzes the song structure, vocal tendencies, and tempo of the group you put in and recommends artists with similar attributes. I put in some fairly obscure artists and was pleased to see the results were actually very similar to the group I had chosen.

Give them a try by either clicking on the link to the side or by typing a music choice in the box below the archives directory on the right.

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If I had a million dollars...

I was watching a television show recently when this Barenaked Ladies song … (wait, wait, I know – it sounds risqué. The name of the group is, but the song, like all the songs they write, is not at all risqué. They just came up with a weird name) Where was I? Oh yeah, the song.

The Barenaked Ladies song “If I Had A Million Dollars” was played during a scene in this show, and the lyrics to it started me thinking. What if we did have a million dollars, tomorrow, waiting in our bank accounts when we woke up? How would that change our lives? What would we do differently?

The way the song goes, the singer starts out saying he’d buy his girl a house, nice furniture for it, a fur coat (but not a real fur coat, that’s mean, he tells us) and a fancy car. However, as the song continues, he starts to deviate into more unusual territory, telling her he wants to use some of it to build a tree fort in the yard, bring in a mini fridge, and stock it with pre-wrapped sausages and Kraft dinners. Not exactly what we’d think of when we start writing those first few checks. But it made me wonder. What exactly would I do with it?

The easy things come to mind – pay off the house (scratch that – buy a nicer house, on a lake), buy a new truck, put money away for the kids. But then it occurs to me. Take the taxes out of it, and that leaves me with about $650,000. Buy a nice new house on a lake – in today’s market, a shack near Shantytown Lake would run me $500,000+. Buy a new truck - $35,000. Money for kids’ college – at least $50,000 a piece, and probably more. Suddenly, realistically, I’d be in debt again. So is it worth it? Would it make me a better person? Would it make my marriage stronger?

Now what if I took that million dollars, and instead of buying a new house, I used it to buy materials for a huge tree fort, big enough for my wife, our two kids, and me? What if I stocked it with fun foods to eat and got everyone up there to spend the night under the stars? Would that make my marriage, and family relationship, stronger?

What if instead of buying a new truck, I used some of the money to take my family on a trip to see new places and learn new things? What if instead of a fur coat, I used the money to help a poor family buy coats for their kids? Would it make me feel better now that I’d become more aware of my surroundings, learned something new, and helped someone out in need?

The surprising thing is, we don’t need a million dollars to accomplish those things. You don’t even need a tree fort. You just need a yard, maybe a blanket, and your family. You don’t need an exotic destination or 5-star hotel. You just need your car, a road map, and a Saturday. You don’t need a mink coat. You just need $100 to go to an outlet mall and pick up some winter coats for that family next door. In fact, if you can’t find a coat for that price or can’t afford the $100, use whatever money you can spare to buy the family some groceries. It’s easier to feel warm with a full belly.

Too often, we use the excuse of money to keep us from doing what’s really important. We think, “If I just had more money, I could make a better life for my family.” Really? Latrell Sprewell, an NBA basketball player, made a well-publicized complaint a while back that on his current salary he couldn’t afford to feed his kids. His 2004-05 annual salary? $14.6 million. That’s for one year, people. His total contract, paid out over 5 years, is $61.9 million, and yet he can’t feed his kids. The lesson here is that no matter how much you make, it’s never enough. Never enough to buy happiness. Never enough to buy peace of mind.

We can’t earn enough money to get happiness, but we can BE happy. We can make a difference in someone else’s life. We can be closer to our family. It’s in our point of view. Not our position, our annual salary, or our square footage, but in what we do with the time we’ve been given – and make no mistake: a minute is much harder to earn back than a dollar is.

Take a minute to call a friend or family member just to say “Hi!” Next weekend, plan a road trip. Next month, find a family that needs some help. You’ll be instantly rich in your minimal wage.

Here’s the kicker – at the end of that song, the singer says, “If I had a million dollars, I’d buy your love…If I had a million dollars, I’d be rich.” I think that’s what a lot of us would be doing – buying our family’s love. And ultimately, all we could say is, “I’m rich.” But is that really important? Or is eating a Kraft dinner with your family under the stars more important than any expensive candlelight dinner at a fancy restaurant? I don’t know about you, but given my choice of food and mood lighting, I’ll take Kraft dinners and starlight.

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