• Yes, it's yer old pal Andy with the first edition of AlterBadger.  While Sean will be your source for news, I'll be looking back at whatever crap caught my attention this week.
• I love TV on DVD, and there are a couple of recent releases that have really grabbed my attention.  Parks and Recreation was originally designed as a spin-off of The Office, and The Office is probably my favorite TV series.  And yes, the 6-episode pilot season that began Parks and Rec did indeed feel like a spin-off.  But season 2 is miles beyond that.  The character work is every bit as flawless as The Office, and the plots are appropriately bizarre, but what really makes the show shine is its discussions of feminism and other social issues.  It's refreshing to see a series focusing on a female character that doesn't obsess over her dating life and actually portrays the struggle of being good at your job while not being taken as seriously as your male coworkers.  All that while being funny at the same time.  Parks and Recreation Season 2 is available now on Netflix instant play, and comes out on DVD late November.  The other series that caught my eye is Community Season 1.  The series focuses on the bizarre adventures of a group of seven students at a community college.  Community explores the complexity of human relationships (friendships, sex, family, etc) in a way that is generally cynical and always honest.  These aren't nice people, they're hypocritical, they lie to themselves, they make fun of other people for no reason (though they do have the decency to feel bad about it)... in short, the characters are about as realistic as they come.  The plots are a broad mix of satire and general weirdness that is astonishingly funny.  "It's funny" is never really reason enough for me to watch something, since funny only lasts so long, but Community is hilarious and insightful, and that makes for something fantastic. 
• But it's not all love and adoration in TV land.  Just before I started watching Community, I tried a disc of Modern Family.  I can't really say I disliked the show, but... I think my wife said it best when she called it tame.  It's about an unconventional family (gay people, 2nd wives, different races, etc), but dey all wuv each otha so vewy vewy much.  Ten minutes of standard familial difficulties, eight minutes of everybody fighting, two minutes of apologies and hugging, end credits.  It's better than Full House, but I just can't get into these family shows where we all learn to get along and love each other every half hour.  Messages about the power of love are strong and certainly welcome, but come on... let's have a little honesty. 
• Speaking of honesty, I finally saw the rest of Metropolis.  One of the greatest silent films, and I had only seen about half of it, and a crappy print at that.  This week I watched a restored version, and there's no question why so many people consider this one a classic.  The fanboy crowd will typically tell you this is the first major science fiction film, but that's really a misnomer.  It's set in the future, and there are a couple of scenes with a robot.  Metropolis is more akin to 1984; a dystopian future, with a totalitarian corporation taking the place of the totalitarian government (pre-World War II, poverty was a much greater threat than Communism).  This is a dark film, unflinching in its depictions of greed and mass manipulation of the populace, though it interestingly favors peaceful mediation between the rich and poor rather than violent revolution against the upper class.  The sets and cinematography are beautiful, and the special effects are genuinely stunning for a film from 1927.  Looking forward to November, when The Complete Metropolis is finally unveiled on disc, including the 25 minutes of lost footage recently discovered in South America.  This is a genuine classic of cinema, and we should all be thankful that it's whole again at last.
• Comic book artist R. Crumb recently released his Book of Genesis, and it's something to see.  Crumb was one of the first major underground comix artists of the 60s, and his work has become very finely detailed over the years.  His idea was to tell a straight, unabridged comic book version of the Book of Genesis, unadorned with either satire or reverence.  The result is an excellent piece of mythology, a book that brings to life all the weirdness, sex, violence, grandeur, sex, yearning, and sex of one of our oldest surviving religious texts.  It really is a fascinating piece when viewed in a straightforward fashion; I recently saw the book at the Columbus Art Museum, where all 201 of Crumb's pages were on display in a long gallery.  The detail in the faces and backgrounds are absolutely amazing.  You can see a few of the pages and read some detail on all the work that went into it here.  And of course, you can preview even more pages and actually buy the damn thing at Amazon.  I think I might just have to stop by the Museum gift shop and grab a copy.
• Richard Powers published a short story in the October 18 issue of The New Yorker, and it might be one of the best short stories I've ever read.  "To the Measures Fall" is a masterful piece about the way we devote our lives to fiction, and the complicated ways we use it to make ourselves belong to something greater.  Powers is a National Book Award winner and a college syllabus regular, which makes this yet another author that I need to devote some more time to.
• Das Rheingold opened at the Metropolitan Opera House this month, and if your city has Met Live in HD broadcasts, you owe it to yourself to take advantage.  Wagner's Das Rheingold is the first opera in the Ring of Nibelung cycle (which I've honestly wanted to see since high school), and the Ring's impact on opera can not be underestimated.  Epic in scope with huge, roaring music, Das Rheingold is a perennial stunner, and the Met's new production is solid.  Die Walkure hits in May 2011, and I'll definitely be there.  Or, save yourself the $23 seats and order an older production from Netflix.  That's how poor people like me see most of our opera.
• This week's reading:  Just about done with Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom.  I picked up The Best American Comics anthology from 2007 at Borders for an awesome $3, so that's probably next.