Read So Far:
I've got an enormous pile of graphic novels and comics to read coming off San Diego, and it's going to take me a while to get to reviewing them all.
So far, however, I have read: Gunpowder Girl & Outlaw Squaw, And Then One Day #1 & #4, Small Favors Vols. 1-2, Bumperboy Loses His Marbles, Arsenic Lullaby: Year of the Fetus, The Passion of Da Keef, Invincible HC, aeiou, Scalawag, Tricked, The King, Smoke & Guns, 1000 Steps to World Domination and Spiral Bound. Reviews of all of these should hit relatively soon (next couple weeks, hopefully) but the quick hit favorites are the Invincible HC (packed with extras, so damn cool!), Tricked (worth the wait), The King (better than Three Fingers, which I loved), Smoke & Guns (insane fun) and Spiral Bound (all-ages greatness).
*sigh* I was this close to being caught up on all my comps before San Diego, now I've got a huge backlog again. Ah, well, it's all stuff I'm dying to read and review! :)
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
I Have Returned:
Back (finally) from the big San Diego trip, a day later than planned thanks to delays and other related BS from Southwest Airlines. This is the first time I've had major flight trouble in a while, and definitely the *last* time I'll fly through Las Vegas on Southwest if I can avoid it. While our customer service in San Diego was great, friendly and accomodating in what were unbearably difficult circumstances, we got nothing but frustration and anger from dealing with the ranking manager on duty Lance Thibodeau in Southwest's Las Vegas branch. He was of course mildly more helpful than the woman who first greeted us with a surly "That means nothing to me" when we told her we were the six misconnects from Austin and got more surly and unhelpful from there, but he was basically a sarcastic and useless tool and we had to badger him to get us the hotel rooms that had been promised us in San Diego if we wound up stranded in Vegas.
Aargh. This will of course all show up in the con report on Fourth Rail in a few days. Oddly, I just finished perusing Newsarama, which has all the news that I missed while on the floor of the Con, and realized that most of it holds little to no interest for me. It's all about DC/Marvel plans, and while there are a few intriguing bits, the big hypefest books that are going to sell don't really hold much attraction to me. Does this mean I've lost interest in comics? Well, given the stacks of graphic novels and sketchbooks I picked up in San Diego, and the fact that I'll probably go read a few more when I finish typing this, not really... it just means that I'm getting tired of bullshit hype and would rather have creators doing their thing instead. San Diego was a nice reminder that there are still a ton of people out there beyond DC/Marvel, and the reports of good sales from most everyone I talked to a welcome reminder that there's interest in this kind of thing from fans as well.
Back (finally) from the big San Diego trip, a day later than planned thanks to delays and other related BS from Southwest Airlines. This is the first time I've had major flight trouble in a while, and definitely the *last* time I'll fly through Las Vegas on Southwest if I can avoid it. While our customer service in San Diego was great, friendly and accomodating in what were unbearably difficult circumstances, we got nothing but frustration and anger from dealing with the ranking manager on duty Lance Thibodeau in Southwest's Las Vegas branch. He was of course mildly more helpful than the woman who first greeted us with a surly "That means nothing to me" when we told her we were the six misconnects from Austin and got more surly and unhelpful from there, but he was basically a sarcastic and useless tool and we had to badger him to get us the hotel rooms that had been promised us in San Diego if we wound up stranded in Vegas.
Aargh. This will of course all show up in the con report on Fourth Rail in a few days. Oddly, I just finished perusing Newsarama, which has all the news that I missed while on the floor of the Con, and realized that most of it holds little to no interest for me. It's all about DC/Marvel plans, and while there are a few intriguing bits, the big hypefest books that are going to sell don't really hold much attraction to me. Does this mean I've lost interest in comics? Well, given the stacks of graphic novels and sketchbooks I picked up in San Diego, and the fact that I'll probably go read a few more when I finish typing this, not really... it just means that I'm getting tired of bullshit hype and would rather have creators doing their thing instead. San Diego was a nice reminder that there are still a ton of people out there beyond DC/Marvel, and the reports of good sales from most everyone I talked to a welcome reminder that there's interest in this kind of thing from fans as well.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Fantastic Four:
Just as I seem to be out of step with the majority of comics buyers relating to the two event stories going on at DC and Marvel, I also seem to be somewhat out of step with the consensus on comic book movies so far.
Because honestly, I liked Fantastic Four. Certainly better than Batman Begins. Why? Well, mostly it comes down to fun. Batman Begins is dour and lifeless, Fantastic Four feels like the sort of fun I'd rather have in my comics. It is true, in a lot of ways, to the spirit of the team that was instilled by Lee and Kirby in their legendary run.
I'm not saying it was a great movie. There are any number of logical inconsistencies that add up, and if you let yourself keep asking questions about the variations in science, the bizarre flip-flops in characterization that a few characters suffer (poor Doom worst of all) or why on Earth someone thought it was a good idea to use that music at that time, you'll probably hate it.
However, if you can go with a flow and ignore some of the Hollywoodisms (and these days, to enjoy an event movie you pretty much have to ignore some Hollywoodism), Fantastic Four is a pretty fun, even action-packed take on these characters that does justice to at least 3 1/2 of them. Doom gets short shrift in the script, but it's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a sequel that has him taking over Latveria and becoming the Doom we'd all prefer, and I like to think that Julian McMahon could handle that role and that the missteps as Doom in this movie are due more to script failures. Jessica Alba is, as with Sin City, a bit miscast, as she doesn't quite make me buy into her as smart scientist Sue Storm (btw, I like changing Sue from '50s housewife to Reed's scientific equal, whether it's here or in Ultimate FF), but in general she's still pretty good. Michael Chiklis, as expected, is great as The Thing, and the effects actually work to make us believe him as the Thing. A little old school, maybe, could have used a bit more CGI touch-up maybe, but certainly not as bad as early shots would have led you to believe. Ioan Gruffudd is given the difficult job of bringing major-league stiff Reed Richards to life, and he pulls it off admirably.
Of course, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm steals the movie. He's the guy actually enjoying himself when the powers comes along, he gets some of the best special effects and some of the most effective humor and action sequences. I would have guessed before seeing the movie that Chiklis was the best bit of casting, but Evans is the real find, he just embodies everything that Johnny Storm should be. Oh, and I like the change that he is the team's pilot, not just Sue's younger brother who tagged along on the mission. I wasn't down with all the changes made in this story from the original (Doom as business tycoon feels like lazy writing, for example) but I did like quite a few of them.
Maybe it's lowered expectations, maybe I'm willing to forgive a lot in the name of fun... but unlike Batman Begins, I see myself buying Fantastic Four when it comes out on DVD. And although Batman will get a sequel and FF might not, truthfully I'd rather see that reversed, because I'd love to see these actors meet again, this time with Doom at the head of Latveria, as he should be, and with all the origin stuff pushed out of the way to make way for a stronger story.
Just as I seem to be out of step with the majority of comics buyers relating to the two event stories going on at DC and Marvel, I also seem to be somewhat out of step with the consensus on comic book movies so far.
Because honestly, I liked Fantastic Four. Certainly better than Batman Begins. Why? Well, mostly it comes down to fun. Batman Begins is dour and lifeless, Fantastic Four feels like the sort of fun I'd rather have in my comics. It is true, in a lot of ways, to the spirit of the team that was instilled by Lee and Kirby in their legendary run.
I'm not saying it was a great movie. There are any number of logical inconsistencies that add up, and if you let yourself keep asking questions about the variations in science, the bizarre flip-flops in characterization that a few characters suffer (poor Doom worst of all) or why on Earth someone thought it was a good idea to use that music at that time, you'll probably hate it.
However, if you can go with a flow and ignore some of the Hollywoodisms (and these days, to enjoy an event movie you pretty much have to ignore some Hollywoodism), Fantastic Four is a pretty fun, even action-packed take on these characters that does justice to at least 3 1/2 of them. Doom gets short shrift in the script, but it's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a sequel that has him taking over Latveria and becoming the Doom we'd all prefer, and I like to think that Julian McMahon could handle that role and that the missteps as Doom in this movie are due more to script failures. Jessica Alba is, as with Sin City, a bit miscast, as she doesn't quite make me buy into her as smart scientist Sue Storm (btw, I like changing Sue from '50s housewife to Reed's scientific equal, whether it's here or in Ultimate FF), but in general she's still pretty good. Michael Chiklis, as expected, is great as The Thing, and the effects actually work to make us believe him as the Thing. A little old school, maybe, could have used a bit more CGI touch-up maybe, but certainly not as bad as early shots would have led you to believe. Ioan Gruffudd is given the difficult job of bringing major-league stiff Reed Richards to life, and he pulls it off admirably.
Of course, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm steals the movie. He's the guy actually enjoying himself when the powers comes along, he gets some of the best special effects and some of the most effective humor and action sequences. I would have guessed before seeing the movie that Chiklis was the best bit of casting, but Evans is the real find, he just embodies everything that Johnny Storm should be. Oh, and I like the change that he is the team's pilot, not just Sue's younger brother who tagged along on the mission. I wasn't down with all the changes made in this story from the original (Doom as business tycoon feels like lazy writing, for example) but I did like quite a few of them.
Maybe it's lowered expectations, maybe I'm willing to forgive a lot in the name of fun... but unlike Batman Begins, I see myself buying Fantastic Four when it comes out on DVD. And although Batman will get a sequel and FF might not, truthfully I'd rather see that reversed, because I'd love to see these actors meet again, this time with Doom at the head of Latveria, as he should be, and with all the origin stuff pushed out of the way to make way for a stronger story.
Monday, July 04, 2005
A Good Weekend:
I don't technically get holidays at my job, but because Sundays and Mondays are my regular days off, and because many of my friends were enjoying a three-day weekend, I got to enjoy this holiday weekend quite a bit anyway.
Friday night was a DVD release party for the STAPLE DVD at Austin Books. I did the interviews with Scott Kurtz and Michael Lark on the DVD, and I thought Gary Bartos and Doug Benning did a terrific job putting the DVD together. If you've got any interest in seeing a series of interviews about a first-time (very successful) small press show, this DVD is well worth a look. For me, the coolest thing was hanging out at Austin Books with my friends Chris Nicholas, Dave Lamplugh and Nate Southard as well as out-of-towner Toby Craig and DVD director/producer etc. Gary Bartos. Much good conversation and a fun, cheap late dinner at Taco Cabana made for an entertaining evening.
On Saturday, before going in to work, I went to the Red River Cafe with Gary, Chris, Dave and Toby and had brunch. Good food, more good (if weird) conversation, lots of fun. Then on Saturday night I went with my buddy Dave Farabee to see War of the Worlds. Dave was unimpressed, but I was pretty happy with the movie, and the suspense pretty much had me hooked in throughout. The very end is a little bit too pat and sentimental, but most of the movie I liked.
My wife and daughter had been out of town on Friday and Saturday visiting relatives in Dallas, so I was glad when they returned on Sunday, which also happened to be my wife's birthday. After spending the day playing with Katy, Suzanne and I took her over to my parents' house to spend the night so we could have an evening out. We went to The Melting Pot, an *awesome* fondue restaurant. It's pricey, special occasion fare all the way, but it was just amazing food. Melted cheese and bread, apples and veggies, a "Pacific Rim" sampler of meat (which included duck, teriyaki steak, pork, chicken, shrimp and potstickers) that we cooked at the table and an amazing dessert course made up of chocolate, marshmallow fluff and graham crackers made for a great meal. Truthfully, I ate a bit too much, and regretted eating that last bit of cheesecake (dipped in the chocolate), but I couldn't resist.
We then went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which I also liked quite a bit. Pitt and Jolie had great chemistry, Liman's direction is as sure and sharp as his work on Bourne Identity and Go and the story might have been easy to read, but the action was solid and the general writing pretty decent.
Tomorrow, we'll go over to my folks' house for burgers and brats on the grill and Katy's first experience with fireworks (Black cats and sparklers). A good weekend. And now it's almost 3:00 AM and I should really go to bed.
I don't technically get holidays at my job, but because Sundays and Mondays are my regular days off, and because many of my friends were enjoying a three-day weekend, I got to enjoy this holiday weekend quite a bit anyway.
Friday night was a DVD release party for the STAPLE DVD at Austin Books. I did the interviews with Scott Kurtz and Michael Lark on the DVD, and I thought Gary Bartos and Doug Benning did a terrific job putting the DVD together. If you've got any interest in seeing a series of interviews about a first-time (very successful) small press show, this DVD is well worth a look. For me, the coolest thing was hanging out at Austin Books with my friends Chris Nicholas, Dave Lamplugh and Nate Southard as well as out-of-towner Toby Craig and DVD director/producer etc. Gary Bartos. Much good conversation and a fun, cheap late dinner at Taco Cabana made for an entertaining evening.
On Saturday, before going in to work, I went to the Red River Cafe with Gary, Chris, Dave and Toby and had brunch. Good food, more good (if weird) conversation, lots of fun. Then on Saturday night I went with my buddy Dave Farabee to see War of the Worlds. Dave was unimpressed, but I was pretty happy with the movie, and the suspense pretty much had me hooked in throughout. The very end is a little bit too pat and sentimental, but most of the movie I liked.
My wife and daughter had been out of town on Friday and Saturday visiting relatives in Dallas, so I was glad when they returned on Sunday, which also happened to be my wife's birthday. After spending the day playing with Katy, Suzanne and I took her over to my parents' house to spend the night so we could have an evening out. We went to The Melting Pot, an *awesome* fondue restaurant. It's pricey, special occasion fare all the way, but it was just amazing food. Melted cheese and bread, apples and veggies, a "Pacific Rim" sampler of meat (which included duck, teriyaki steak, pork, chicken, shrimp and potstickers) that we cooked at the table and an amazing dessert course made up of chocolate, marshmallow fluff and graham crackers made for a great meal. Truthfully, I ate a bit too much, and regretted eating that last bit of cheesecake (dipped in the chocolate), but I couldn't resist.
We then went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which I also liked quite a bit. Pitt and Jolie had great chemistry, Liman's direction is as sure and sharp as his work on Bourne Identity and Go and the story might have been easy to read, but the action was solid and the general writing pretty decent.
Tomorrow, we'll go over to my folks' house for burgers and brats on the grill and Katy's first experience with fireworks (Black cats and sparklers). A good weekend. And now it's almost 3:00 AM and I should really go to bed.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Batman Begins:
I'm already sick of talking about it. Working in a comic shop, everyone comes in and immediately asks "Seen Batman yet?" Apply to any other comic or geek-related movie, and you might get why I'm just tired of talking about all the geek-tainment much, much faster than most. Especially since really, I have to be a buzzkill on this one. Batman Begins is a decent flick, but it is not the great definitive Batman movie everyone is making it out to be. It seems like as comic fans, we've all become so desperate for a good comic book movie that any halfway decent comic book movie gets called great.
Don't want to spoil it for anyone, so all I'll say specifically is that the first half, the Bruce Wayne half, is pretty good, and I bought into most of it. I thought Bale did a great job playing Bruce Wayne in general. But his Batman is so over-the-top angry that I felt like Bale didn't "get" superhero acting and was almost verging on camp. Liam Neeson and Michael Caine were both terrific, and in fact their characters' relationships with Bruce were so much more interesting and believable than the one he had with Katie Holmes (who I like, but who really didn't belong in this movie... others have suggested Talia as a more obvious love influence, and a likely stronger female presence, and I totally agree). Gary Oldman was good, but his Gordon was toned down to a borderline comedic presence at times, and I think Oldman could have pulled off the badass Gordon from Year One if only the script had allowed it. Then there's the second half of the movie, the Batman vs. supervillain half, which seemed like a completely different film. The plot doesn't really make much sense, and it's like the whole thing suddenly went from ultra-real to over-the-top sci-fi, and it didn't work.
Overall, my sense was: Good casting (with a couple exceptions), good direction, weak script. Good movie, but I'm unlikely to see it again. Bale provided the best Bruce Wayne we've yet seen in films, but I thought Keaton was a better Batman. And nothing live action has even come close to touching the animated series, which got it all right in all the right ways.
Favorite superhero movies for me remain The Rocketeer and The Incredibles, with X-Men 2 trailing just behind, and X-Men and Spider-Man quite a distance beyond that.
Oh, and I'm in almost total agreement with Scott Kurtz (of PVP) and Peter Travers (of Rolling Stone, who also nailed Episode III right on in his review).
I'm already sick of talking about it. Working in a comic shop, everyone comes in and immediately asks "Seen Batman yet?" Apply to any other comic or geek-related movie, and you might get why I'm just tired of talking about all the geek-tainment much, much faster than most. Especially since really, I have to be a buzzkill on this one. Batman Begins is a decent flick, but it is not the great definitive Batman movie everyone is making it out to be. It seems like as comic fans, we've all become so desperate for a good comic book movie that any halfway decent comic book movie gets called great.
Don't want to spoil it for anyone, so all I'll say specifically is that the first half, the Bruce Wayne half, is pretty good, and I bought into most of it. I thought Bale did a great job playing Bruce Wayne in general. But his Batman is so over-the-top angry that I felt like Bale didn't "get" superhero acting and was almost verging on camp. Liam Neeson and Michael Caine were both terrific, and in fact their characters' relationships with Bruce were so much more interesting and believable than the one he had with Katie Holmes (who I like, but who really didn't belong in this movie... others have suggested Talia as a more obvious love influence, and a likely stronger female presence, and I totally agree). Gary Oldman was good, but his Gordon was toned down to a borderline comedic presence at times, and I think Oldman could have pulled off the badass Gordon from Year One if only the script had allowed it. Then there's the second half of the movie, the Batman vs. supervillain half, which seemed like a completely different film. The plot doesn't really make much sense, and it's like the whole thing suddenly went from ultra-real to over-the-top sci-fi, and it didn't work.
Overall, my sense was: Good casting (with a couple exceptions), good direction, weak script. Good movie, but I'm unlikely to see it again. Bale provided the best Bruce Wayne we've yet seen in films, but I thought Keaton was a better Batman. And nothing live action has even come close to touching the animated series, which got it all right in all the right ways.
Favorite superhero movies for me remain The Rocketeer and The Incredibles, with X-Men 2 trailing just behind, and X-Men and Spider-Man quite a distance beyond that.
Oh, and I'm in almost total agreement with Scott Kurtz (of PVP) and Peter Travers (of Rolling Stone, who also nailed Episode III right on in his review).
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
iPoooooodddddd!!!!:
Read that in a sort of Star Trek II "Khaaaaannnn!" inflection. See, I sent my iPod Photo in for repair due to battery problems a little while back and got back (in rapid time) a new iPod Photo which seemed to be working perfectly. No sign of the previous problem. The previous problem being that for some reason, even when fully charged, when I disconnected the thing from the power adapter at work and brought it to my car, it would sometimes just conk out and refuse to reset or act like it was alive. After two days or so of dormancy (when it had drained most of its remaining power), it would respond to a reset and allow me to power it up, working a few days and then doing the same damn thing.
It just did it again today. And I'm remarkably frustrated with it. I can't decide if its superstition that the work connection has something to do with it or if the iPod mini cord is somehow different than the iPod Photo cord (despite looking identical) and I've now screwed up two iPods. Hoping that when the damn thing comes back on, I can do a software reboot and fix it. If anybody out there reading this has had the same problem or has any tech advice, I'm all ears.
Read that in a sort of Star Trek II "Khaaaaannnn!" inflection. See, I sent my iPod Photo in for repair due to battery problems a little while back and got back (in rapid time) a new iPod Photo which seemed to be working perfectly. No sign of the previous problem. The previous problem being that for some reason, even when fully charged, when I disconnected the thing from the power adapter at work and brought it to my car, it would sometimes just conk out and refuse to reset or act like it was alive. After two days or so of dormancy (when it had drained most of its remaining power), it would respond to a reset and allow me to power it up, working a few days and then doing the same damn thing.
It just did it again today. And I'm remarkably frustrated with it. I can't decide if its superstition that the work connection has something to do with it or if the iPod mini cord is somehow different than the iPod Photo cord (despite looking identical) and I've now screwed up two iPods. Hoping that when the damn thing comes back on, I can do a software reboot and fix it. If anybody out there reading this has had the same problem or has any tech advice, I'm all ears.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Next Fall Season:
I love this time of year. See, I'm one of those weird folks who loves reading the Previews of what's coming up in comics, watches the movie trailers on the Apple site about once every couple of weeks and watches pilot season with interest. I want to know what's next, because even if everything is disappointing me now (as is often the case with comics and movies at the moment, although happily not TV), something great might be just around the corner.
TV networks had their "upfronts" this week, and given that this new season gave me two new shows I loved (Lost, Veronica Mars) and some shows that impressed me again or still (24, Arrested Development, The Shield), I'm excited to see what happens next. There was only one big schedule conflict (although it is a doozy), something I always worry about when networks are shuffling their schedules, and there are a few promising shows. Also, Veronica Mars, which is probably my third-favorite show (behind Arrested Development and The Shield), wasn't even on my radar until early in the season last year, so there could still be some surprises waiting. Here's what I'm looking at for next season (not counting midseason):
Sunday 8 PM
Family Guy (FOX) - If Fox can stop screwing with the timeslot, and thus my Tivo, so that I wind up getting the lackluster American Dad instead of this show. It's been on three times, I've seen it once.
Monday 7 PM
Fathom (CBS) - Intriguing alien invasion show (third of its kind on three networks), aliens are some kind of "new sea life," but the cast and producing crew don't stand out, and there's no way *anything* could compete with:
Arrested Development (FOX) - I'm so thrilled that this show got a third season renewal, and will be watching every week.
Monday 7:30 PM
Kitchen Confidential (FOX) - I like the cast on this one: Bradley Cooper from Alias, Nicholas Brendon from Buffy, etc. I also like the premise, about "bad boy" chef Anthony Bourdain, and I want to watch the show if only because it's lead-in is AD and I'll see what FOX is pairing with that. But if it's not good immediately, I'll probably switch over to:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Premise sounds dull, typical relationship type stuff but with the twist of being narrated from the future by the successful couple. The cast, however, includes Alyson Hanigan and Neil Patrick Harris. I'd rather see both of these actors on drama, because I think they're stronger there, but I'll at least check this out.
Monday 8 PM
Emily's Reasons Why Not (ABC) - Heather Graham was really good in her Scrubs guest shot, so maybe this comedy about her as an advice columnist will be funny. But I'll probably watch:
Prison Break (FOX) - A season-long show about two brothers planning a prison break? Has 24 in its DNA, and sounds like good, pulp "guy soap opera" fun in that vein.
Tuesday 7 PM
Bones (FOX) - Premise sounds too CSI, and a little boring, but it's got David Boreanaz from Angel and there's nothing on opposite that I want to watch, so I'll at least catch a few early episodes.
Tuesday 8 PM
My Name is Earl (NBC) - Jason Lee as a low-rent crook who wins the lottery and then tries to right all the wrongs of his old life? Good casting (also has Jaime Pressly and Ethan Suplee), good premise, no timeslot competition, I'll be watching. But two of those three apply to Joey, and I gave that up, so it'll have to be good to earn its place on the Tivo.
Tuesday 8:30 PM
The Office (NBC) - I like this when I watch it, so I might watch more. Or I might not.
Wednesday 8 PM
Lost (ABC) - One of my favorite shows of this season. You can bet I'll be watching, although it might be on a friend's DVR because:
Veronica Mars (UPN) - MOTHER FUCKERS! They renewed the show and put it up against ABC's ratings juggernaut? Don't get me wrong, the only thing that could get me to choose against VM is Arrested Development, but I'm not most of America, and this could easily kill the show if they're hoping to see ratings improvement. Jesus, what are they thinking?
E-Ring (NBC) - Bruckheimer-produced drama about the Pentagon. Mildly interested, has Dennis Hopper (!), but up against these two other shows? I'll never see it.
Wednesday 9 PM
Invasion (ABC) - Another "alien invasion" show, this one probably has the best chance of success, since it's lead-in is Lost. Cast isn't instantly recognizable by name (although I know some of the faces), but the general approach sounds interesting, and again, no timeslot competition for me.
Thursday 7 PM
Alias (ABC) - Almost lost me early this season, still nowhere near as good as it was in seasons 1 and 2, but has regained my interest enough that I'll watch if nothing better is competing. And nothing is.
Thursday 8 PM
The Night Stalker (ABC) - No love for the original, my original interest in X-Files has turned to hatred, and yet... this sounds like Kolchak crossed with the Fugitive, and a good underlying central mystery can help a show. Curious to check it out, at least.
Friday 8 PM
Threshold (CBS) - The third alien invasion series, hampered severely by the involvement of Star Trek's Brannon Braga and Blade: Trinity's David Goyer, but boosted given that it features Carla Gugino, one of my favorite actresses, as well as some other notably good cast. I'll watch, although not if it's on opposite Battlestar Galactica.
And that's it. Mind you, some of my favorite shows aren't in this upfront, including all the intriguing looking midseason stuff like The Unit (Shawn Ryan and David Mamet) or The Inside (coming in June, really looking forward to this one) or the stuff on cable networks like Sci-Fi (Battlestar Galactica) and FX (The Shield), but that's what I'll probably check out come the Fall season.
I love this time of year. See, I'm one of those weird folks who loves reading the Previews of what's coming up in comics, watches the movie trailers on the Apple site about once every couple of weeks and watches pilot season with interest. I want to know what's next, because even if everything is disappointing me now (as is often the case with comics and movies at the moment, although happily not TV), something great might be just around the corner.
TV networks had their "upfronts" this week, and given that this new season gave me two new shows I loved (Lost, Veronica Mars) and some shows that impressed me again or still (24, Arrested Development, The Shield), I'm excited to see what happens next. There was only one big schedule conflict (although it is a doozy), something I always worry about when networks are shuffling their schedules, and there are a few promising shows. Also, Veronica Mars, which is probably my third-favorite show (behind Arrested Development and The Shield), wasn't even on my radar until early in the season last year, so there could still be some surprises waiting. Here's what I'm looking at for next season (not counting midseason):
Sunday 8 PM
Family Guy (FOX) - If Fox can stop screwing with the timeslot, and thus my Tivo, so that I wind up getting the lackluster American Dad instead of this show. It's been on three times, I've seen it once.
Monday 7 PM
Fathom (CBS) - Intriguing alien invasion show (third of its kind on three networks), aliens are some kind of "new sea life," but the cast and producing crew don't stand out, and there's no way *anything* could compete with:
Arrested Development (FOX) - I'm so thrilled that this show got a third season renewal, and will be watching every week.
Monday 7:30 PM
Kitchen Confidential (FOX) - I like the cast on this one: Bradley Cooper from Alias, Nicholas Brendon from Buffy, etc. I also like the premise, about "bad boy" chef Anthony Bourdain, and I want to watch the show if only because it's lead-in is AD and I'll see what FOX is pairing with that. But if it's not good immediately, I'll probably switch over to:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Premise sounds dull, typical relationship type stuff but with the twist of being narrated from the future by the successful couple. The cast, however, includes Alyson Hanigan and Neil Patrick Harris. I'd rather see both of these actors on drama, because I think they're stronger there, but I'll at least check this out.
Monday 8 PM
Emily's Reasons Why Not (ABC) - Heather Graham was really good in her Scrubs guest shot, so maybe this comedy about her as an advice columnist will be funny. But I'll probably watch:
Prison Break (FOX) - A season-long show about two brothers planning a prison break? Has 24 in its DNA, and sounds like good, pulp "guy soap opera" fun in that vein.
Tuesday 7 PM
Bones (FOX) - Premise sounds too CSI, and a little boring, but it's got David Boreanaz from Angel and there's nothing on opposite that I want to watch, so I'll at least catch a few early episodes.
Tuesday 8 PM
My Name is Earl (NBC) - Jason Lee as a low-rent crook who wins the lottery and then tries to right all the wrongs of his old life? Good casting (also has Jaime Pressly and Ethan Suplee), good premise, no timeslot competition, I'll be watching. But two of those three apply to Joey, and I gave that up, so it'll have to be good to earn its place on the Tivo.
Tuesday 8:30 PM
The Office (NBC) - I like this when I watch it, so I might watch more. Or I might not.
Wednesday 8 PM
Lost (ABC) - One of my favorite shows of this season. You can bet I'll be watching, although it might be on a friend's DVR because:
Veronica Mars (UPN) - MOTHER FUCKERS! They renewed the show and put it up against ABC's ratings juggernaut? Don't get me wrong, the only thing that could get me to choose against VM is Arrested Development, but I'm not most of America, and this could easily kill the show if they're hoping to see ratings improvement. Jesus, what are they thinking?
E-Ring (NBC) - Bruckheimer-produced drama about the Pentagon. Mildly interested, has Dennis Hopper (!), but up against these two other shows? I'll never see it.
Wednesday 9 PM
Invasion (ABC) - Another "alien invasion" show, this one probably has the best chance of success, since it's lead-in is Lost. Cast isn't instantly recognizable by name (although I know some of the faces), but the general approach sounds interesting, and again, no timeslot competition for me.
Thursday 7 PM
Alias (ABC) - Almost lost me early this season, still nowhere near as good as it was in seasons 1 and 2, but has regained my interest enough that I'll watch if nothing better is competing. And nothing is.
Thursday 8 PM
The Night Stalker (ABC) - No love for the original, my original interest in X-Files has turned to hatred, and yet... this sounds like Kolchak crossed with the Fugitive, and a good underlying central mystery can help a show. Curious to check it out, at least.
Friday 8 PM
Threshold (CBS) - The third alien invasion series, hampered severely by the involvement of Star Trek's Brannon Braga and Blade: Trinity's David Goyer, but boosted given that it features Carla Gugino, one of my favorite actresses, as well as some other notably good cast. I'll watch, although not if it's on opposite Battlestar Galactica.
And that's it. Mind you, some of my favorite shows aren't in this upfront, including all the intriguing looking midseason stuff like The Unit (Shawn Ryan and David Mamet) or The Inside (coming in June, really looking forward to this one) or the stuff on cable networks like Sci-Fi (Battlestar Galactica) and FX (The Shield), but that's what I'll probably check out come the Fall season.
Star Wars: Episode III:
I tried like hell not to get my expectations up above the "this is gonna suck" level that I had after Attack of the Clones, but I apparently didn't manage it, because I was still really disappointed in this movie. A few neat moments, but most of the emotional resonance comes from John Williams's score and the nostalgic ties it has to the actual good Star Wars movies, and all of Lucas's many directing and writing foibles are on display in this flick. It is the best of the prequels, but that still ranks it amongst some of the worst crap I've seen in a theatre.
Seriously, this thing is getting good reviews from the fanboy quarter on Ain't It Cool all the way to the critics in the mainstream press, and I'm left wondering what movie they saw that I didn't. I wanted it to be good, wanted the hype to be true, but man... it isn't. Episode III wasn't as boring as Episode II, but it's still miles away from good.
I tried like hell not to get my expectations up above the "this is gonna suck" level that I had after Attack of the Clones, but I apparently didn't manage it, because I was still really disappointed in this movie. A few neat moments, but most of the emotional resonance comes from John Williams's score and the nostalgic ties it has to the actual good Star Wars movies, and all of Lucas's many directing and writing foibles are on display in this flick. It is the best of the prequels, but that still ranks it amongst some of the worst crap I've seen in a theatre.
Seriously, this thing is getting good reviews from the fanboy quarter on Ain't It Cool all the way to the critics in the mainstream press, and I'm left wondering what movie they saw that I didn't. I wanted it to be good, wanted the hype to be true, but man... it isn't. Episode III wasn't as boring as Episode II, but it's still miles away from good.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Life and Times of Juniper Lee:
And this is a reminder to set my Tivo for Judd Winick's new show on Cartoon Network, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, in May. Yes, I'm using my blog as a reminder system now. I can't help it, my memory is swiss cheese, and only getting worse as I age. :)
And this is a reminder to set my Tivo for Judd Winick's new show on Cartoon Network, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, in May. Yes, I'm using my blog as a reminder system now. I can't help it, my memory is swiss cheese, and only getting worse as I age. :)
Mark Ricketts' Webcomic:
This is just a link to remind myself (and anyone else who might be reading this and like good comics) to check out Mark Ricketts and Jay Washer on BEATITUDE.
This is just a link to remind myself (and anyone else who might be reading this and like good comics) to check out Mark Ricketts and Jay Washer on BEATITUDE.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Is this thing on?
Well, let's see, I last updated in... huh. 2004.
Hey, I've been busy! No, not busy, what's that other word? Lazy. Actually, I have been busy, but mostly the reason I haven't updated the blog is that it just doesn't occur to me, and usually I'm spending time playing World of Warcraft, watching DVDs (either from Netflix or my copious post-Christmas/birthday stacks) or Tivo (I'm roughly a month behind on The Daily Show), writing reviews or, more likely, playing with Katy.
So it's another big update of what's been going on in my life, which are probably of no interest to anyone but myself, but it's the Internet blogger age, so I'll post my thoughts anyway.
Games: I love World of Warcraft. I bought the Collector's Edition from a friend of a friend just before Christmas, and have been playing it in fairly devoted fashion ever since. My character is Marrok, a level 47 Dwarf Warrior on the Gilneas server, who is an Armorsmith & Blacksmith (level 255), Cook (level 275) and Miner (level 260-something). Yeah, I can geek out about the game for a while. Anyway, it's really fun, much more repeat fun than City of Heroes, the first MMORPG that I played, and I paid up front for 6 months to get a cheaper rate and don't regret it at all. The upcoming D&D Online is tempting, and maybe by the time it comes out I'll be ready to depart World of Warcraft for a new game, but I'm not sure... it's a really great game. And has made it unnecessary for me to pick up any other games for PS/2, although I do want to give God of War a try at some point.
iPod: My last post indicated that I wanted an iPod Photo. I bought one after Christmas and for the most part haven't regretted it at all. I got to show off a slideshow of Katy pictures for family on a recent trip to Arkansas, and that was a lot of fun, and I love having all my music in one little box that plugs into my car stereo. I was a bit annoyed to find myself having battery problems about a month ago, but I sent it in for warranty service and got a new iPod back almost within a week, so I've got no complaints about Apple's service. I do wish I'd held out until the price dropped from $500 to $350, but then I would have gone many months without all my pictures and music in my pocket, so I'm not too terribly disappointed.
Movies: I haven't seen a ton of movies in recent months. I rented Garden State and really enjoyed that, but mostly Netflix has been occupied sending me TV DVDs. However, I did see Sin City, which was amazing, and just last night I went with some friends to see Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, which was equally amazing. Lots of fun, fight sequences that have all the visual innovation of the Matrix movie with better story and characters, so involving that I didn't really even notice the subtitles because I was so involved in it. Owen Gleiberman at EW described Chow's style as "Tex Avery meets Quentin Tarantino," and if you throw in a little bit of Bruce Lee, I think that's about right. My buddy Dave got me the soundtrack as a belated birthday present, and it's terrific too.
TV: I changed up my "current favorite" TV listings over on the sidebar. Alias is gone, because I'm still watching but increasingly skeptical about the new direction it's gone in, while 24 has returned, recovering nicely from the season three stumble for what has probably been its best season ever. The Shield is also having a great season so far... no surprise, as that show has really never even had a bad episode (aside from some misfires in the Mamet episode where I didn't think he "got" the show), but I've been taken aback at just how much I'm liking Glenn Close's character, and hoping that she'll stick around for more than one season. Also digging ABC's new spy/PI drama with comedic touches Eyes, although given the ratings, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to enjoy it. I was also shocked at how good the Sci Fi Battlestar Galactica was, and cannot wait for it to restart in July. Oh, and Arrested Development and Veronica Mars continue to be my favorite shows, coming in just below the Shield. Delighted that Mars is getting a season two, very hopeful that Arrested will get a season three. It's actually been as good or better in season two than it was in the brilliant first season, and cracks me up like no other show on TV.
Deadwood: I list favorite shows that I watch on Tivo, but I don't have HBO, so there are a lot of shows that I watch on DVD. Doesn't mean I love them any less, just means that I'm patient and don't mind the "wait for DVD" (akin to waiting for trade paperbacks) approach. Deadwood is a recent discovery, and I adore this show. I haven't watched the last disc (although I probably will as soon as I post this), but the first season is just great. It might be my favorite thing ever from HBO, and was almost enough to get me to sign up for the network if I didn't already have so many demands on my time and plenty to watch. Of course, I haven't watched The Wire yet, which everyone also tells me is really good, so I can't say Deadwood is the best thing on HBO, but I can say that it's my favorite thing so far, beating out Sopranos and probably even Band of Brothers, although that one's really close.
That's it. Everything else is either comics (which I cover ad nauseum over on Fourth Rail), boring day-to-day life stuff (like my sink being clogged up in the latest of seemingly neverending house expenses) or talking about how cute and smart and wonderful my two-year-old daughter Katy is.
Well, let's see, I last updated in... huh. 2004.
Hey, I've been busy! No, not busy, what's that other word? Lazy. Actually, I have been busy, but mostly the reason I haven't updated the blog is that it just doesn't occur to me, and usually I'm spending time playing World of Warcraft, watching DVDs (either from Netflix or my copious post-Christmas/birthday stacks) or Tivo (I'm roughly a month behind on The Daily Show), writing reviews or, more likely, playing with Katy.
So it's another big update of what's been going on in my life, which are probably of no interest to anyone but myself, but it's the Internet blogger age, so I'll post my thoughts anyway.
Games: I love World of Warcraft. I bought the Collector's Edition from a friend of a friend just before Christmas, and have been playing it in fairly devoted fashion ever since. My character is Marrok, a level 47 Dwarf Warrior on the Gilneas server, who is an Armorsmith & Blacksmith (level 255), Cook (level 275) and Miner (level 260-something). Yeah, I can geek out about the game for a while. Anyway, it's really fun, much more repeat fun than City of Heroes, the first MMORPG that I played, and I paid up front for 6 months to get a cheaper rate and don't regret it at all. The upcoming D&D Online is tempting, and maybe by the time it comes out I'll be ready to depart World of Warcraft for a new game, but I'm not sure... it's a really great game. And has made it unnecessary for me to pick up any other games for PS/2, although I do want to give God of War a try at some point.
iPod: My last post indicated that I wanted an iPod Photo. I bought one after Christmas and for the most part haven't regretted it at all. I got to show off a slideshow of Katy pictures for family on a recent trip to Arkansas, and that was a lot of fun, and I love having all my music in one little box that plugs into my car stereo. I was a bit annoyed to find myself having battery problems about a month ago, but I sent it in for warranty service and got a new iPod back almost within a week, so I've got no complaints about Apple's service. I do wish I'd held out until the price dropped from $500 to $350, but then I would have gone many months without all my pictures and music in my pocket, so I'm not too terribly disappointed.
Movies: I haven't seen a ton of movies in recent months. I rented Garden State and really enjoyed that, but mostly Netflix has been occupied sending me TV DVDs. However, I did see Sin City, which was amazing, and just last night I went with some friends to see Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, which was equally amazing. Lots of fun, fight sequences that have all the visual innovation of the Matrix movie with better story and characters, so involving that I didn't really even notice the subtitles because I was so involved in it. Owen Gleiberman at EW described Chow's style as "Tex Avery meets Quentin Tarantino," and if you throw in a little bit of Bruce Lee, I think that's about right. My buddy Dave got me the soundtrack as a belated birthday present, and it's terrific too.
TV: I changed up my "current favorite" TV listings over on the sidebar. Alias is gone, because I'm still watching but increasingly skeptical about the new direction it's gone in, while 24 has returned, recovering nicely from the season three stumble for what has probably been its best season ever. The Shield is also having a great season so far... no surprise, as that show has really never even had a bad episode (aside from some misfires in the Mamet episode where I didn't think he "got" the show), but I've been taken aback at just how much I'm liking Glenn Close's character, and hoping that she'll stick around for more than one season. Also digging ABC's new spy/PI drama with comedic touches Eyes, although given the ratings, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to enjoy it. I was also shocked at how good the Sci Fi Battlestar Galactica was, and cannot wait for it to restart in July. Oh, and Arrested Development and Veronica Mars continue to be my favorite shows, coming in just below the Shield. Delighted that Mars is getting a season two, very hopeful that Arrested will get a season three. It's actually been as good or better in season two than it was in the brilliant first season, and cracks me up like no other show on TV.
Deadwood: I list favorite shows that I watch on Tivo, but I don't have HBO, so there are a lot of shows that I watch on DVD. Doesn't mean I love them any less, just means that I'm patient and don't mind the "wait for DVD" (akin to waiting for trade paperbacks) approach. Deadwood is a recent discovery, and I adore this show. I haven't watched the last disc (although I probably will as soon as I post this), but the first season is just great. It might be my favorite thing ever from HBO, and was almost enough to get me to sign up for the network if I didn't already have so many demands on my time and plenty to watch. Of course, I haven't watched The Wire yet, which everyone also tells me is really good, so I can't say Deadwood is the best thing on HBO, but I can say that it's my favorite thing so far, beating out Sopranos and probably even Band of Brothers, although that one's really close.
That's it. Everything else is either comics (which I cover ad nauseum over on Fourth Rail), boring day-to-day life stuff (like my sink being clogged up in the latest of seemingly neverending house expenses) or talking about how cute and smart and wonderful my two-year-old daughter Katy is.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Early November Update:
So let's see, a fair amount has happened since the last time I posted. I think there was some kind of election, but I've blocked it all out to keep from screaming and going mad.
So, what else? Well, I saw the Incredibles today with my lovely wife, and my take on it, some 10 hours later, is that it is probably my favorite Pixar movie and is certainly the best superhero film ever created. It's got its funny moments, as with all Pixar films, but it also has tremendous heart, fantastic action, a true understanding of superheroes from both a story and a visual side and a '60s Silver Age superhero/cool Bond espionage vibe that is unbeatable. Not that any of this is surprising, really. Pixar has never let me down, Brad Bird (writer/director of this and The Iron Giant) is awesome and Michael Giacchino (composer for this, Alias and Lost) is both exceptionally talented and perfect for the material. Great work by the voice cast as well, especially Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson and Brad Bird, all of whom just brought so much life to their characters.
TV season is rolling along surprisingly well, given that most of the new offerings this season looked awful. But while much of the TV landscape is a wasteland of reality shows and scripted TV so dumb it might violate the Geneva convention, the bright spots do shine all the more brightly. Veronica Mars has turned out to be great, a little overly cutesy and impressed with itself at times but just on the right side of quirky, with exceptional writing and some great casting. Lost hooked me after about three episodes, and though I'm still not prepared to say it's better than Alias, it might just be as good. Bravo, meanwhile, has a cool new show called Long Way Round about Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman going from England to New York by way of Asia on BMW motorcycles, which I'm really enjoying so far. Arrested Development has started up again, which is great news for those of us who enjoy intelligent comedy. And Drawn Together on Comedy Central, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is crude in imaginative ways, not quite up to South Park's level of outrageous humor but definitely entertaining in an "I can't believe I'm watching this" kind of way.
My faith in mankind has been shaken a little this last month or so (don't worry, I'm still not going to talk about the election), and part of that is that somebody broke the passenger window of my car and stole my radio while I was parked in front of my house! $750 and a great deal of hassle later, the upside is that I have a new, cheaper car insurance policy with better coverage and a new, cool in-dash radio/CD player for the car. It has two features I've wanted for a while, the ability to play MP3 CDs (I now have over 800 songs across 5 CDs that comprises most of the music I want to listen to in the car) and an audio in-jack for my next big tech purchase, an iPod.
I'm waiting on Christmas money to see if I can afford one. My original plan was to buy the 40GB deal, maybe even spring the extra $50 for the cool black and red U2 limited edition, but then I went over to Apple's site and saw this. Now I can carry around all the baby pictures I want along with my music. I can't wait to pick this up, and very much hope finances allow me to do so in January.
So let's see, a fair amount has happened since the last time I posted. I think there was some kind of election, but I've blocked it all out to keep from screaming and going mad.
So, what else? Well, I saw the Incredibles today with my lovely wife, and my take on it, some 10 hours later, is that it is probably my favorite Pixar movie and is certainly the best superhero film ever created. It's got its funny moments, as with all Pixar films, but it also has tremendous heart, fantastic action, a true understanding of superheroes from both a story and a visual side and a '60s Silver Age superhero/cool Bond espionage vibe that is unbeatable. Not that any of this is surprising, really. Pixar has never let me down, Brad Bird (writer/director of this and The Iron Giant) is awesome and Michael Giacchino (composer for this, Alias and Lost) is both exceptionally talented and perfect for the material. Great work by the voice cast as well, especially Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson and Brad Bird, all of whom just brought so much life to their characters.
TV season is rolling along surprisingly well, given that most of the new offerings this season looked awful. But while much of the TV landscape is a wasteland of reality shows and scripted TV so dumb it might violate the Geneva convention, the bright spots do shine all the more brightly. Veronica Mars has turned out to be great, a little overly cutesy and impressed with itself at times but just on the right side of quirky, with exceptional writing and some great casting. Lost hooked me after about three episodes, and though I'm still not prepared to say it's better than Alias, it might just be as good. Bravo, meanwhile, has a cool new show called Long Way Round about Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman going from England to New York by way of Asia on BMW motorcycles, which I'm really enjoying so far. Arrested Development has started up again, which is great news for those of us who enjoy intelligent comedy. And Drawn Together on Comedy Central, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is crude in imaginative ways, not quite up to South Park's level of outrageous humor but definitely entertaining in an "I can't believe I'm watching this" kind of way.
My faith in mankind has been shaken a little this last month or so (don't worry, I'm still not going to talk about the election), and part of that is that somebody broke the passenger window of my car and stole my radio while I was parked in front of my house! $750 and a great deal of hassle later, the upside is that I have a new, cheaper car insurance policy with better coverage and a new, cool in-dash radio/CD player for the car. It has two features I've wanted for a while, the ability to play MP3 CDs (I now have over 800 songs across 5 CDs that comprises most of the music I want to listen to in the car) and an audio in-jack for my next big tech purchase, an iPod.
I'm waiting on Christmas money to see if I can afford one. My original plan was to buy the 40GB deal, maybe even spring the extra $50 for the cool black and red U2 limited edition, but then I went over to Apple's site and saw this. Now I can carry around all the baby pictures I want along with my music. I can't wait to pick this up, and very much hope finances allow me to do so in January.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Late September Update:
Yeah, I'm just not real good at the concept of blogging, which is meant to revolve around frequent updates. Most of my web effort goes into The Fourth Rail.
However, there have been a few things worth noting on this site. Most notable is that I took a weekend trip a few weeks back out to New Orleans for the N.O.D.I.Y. alternative media show. Put together by Leo McGovern, who runs the free magazine Antigravity in town (which happens to syndicate Snap Judgments as well), the show was unusual and a lot of fun. Music, a variety of things besides comics, a night-time show and a bar right there (the whole thing was held in a warehouse sized bar called Twiropa), I had a lot of fun. Probably would have had more if I hadn't been wiped out from the 10-hour drive, but the Saturday after, when we just bummed around New Orleans, was plenty of fun.
I was there with my buddies Chris Nicholas and Dave Lamplugh (creators of the minicomics You Chose Right The First Time) as well as Toby Craig (creator of the Engine minicomics and more), whom we had picked up in Houston. On Saturday, we all walked around, got plenty of pictures (and Toby and Dave got plenty of sketching done), had breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, lunch at Central Grocery (where we had their awesome Muffelettas) and dinner with Leo and his girlfriend Michelle at a place Leo picked out called Mandina's. We then hit a few of the coolest bars I've ever been to, thanks to Leo and Michelle, which were more local places and not as swamped as the Bourbon Street joints. I discovered my new favorite drink, Coke and Absolut Vanilla, and maybe had a *little* too much of it, but it was a good time.
That's the really exciting stuff that's gone on. Otherwise, I've been playing the hell out of Burnout 3, which I rented from Gamefly, and much as I enjoyed Burnout 2, this one is sooo much better. It looks better, and the addition of the ability to steer your car after you wreck is just genius. I also like the "Road Rage" events that consist of you trying to wreck as many opponents as possible. It's been getting rave reviews at the game sites, and I can see why. I desperately want to hold onto it, but will probably give it up soon so that I can rent Star Wars Battlefront and X-Men: Legends, both of which I'm also hearing good things about.
New Fall TV season has started, and is pretty much just as bad as I thought it was going to be. However, there are a couple bright spots. Joey is a guilty pleasure, just like Friends was for the last four or five years of its existence. Lost had an intriguing opener, not quite the throat-grabber that Alias was for me but certainly interesting. And the real winner of the Fall season so far for me is Veronica Mars, which had a very smartly-written pilot, plenty of charm mixed with a little darkness (not unlike Rob Thomas's previous show, Cupid) and a terrific cast, highlighted by the lead actress. Surprisingly enough, UPN might have my favorite show right now, although there is room for Lost to overtake it, and of course, it *will* be overtaken when The Shield, Alias or Arrested Development start up again. Still, well worth a look.
Other than that, I've also been lucky enough to find that Trio is running Spaced, the Britcom by Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edward Wright, and it is every bit as funny as the clip reel they put together in San Diego indicated. Happily, I'll have every episode of Spaced on my Tivo in just a few days, and this has spurred me to organize a trip to the Drafthouse to see Shaun of the Dead next weekend. Still bummed I missed Pegg and Wright when they were in town to premiere the film, but ah well.
Yeah, I'm just not real good at the concept of blogging, which is meant to revolve around frequent updates. Most of my web effort goes into The Fourth Rail.
However, there have been a few things worth noting on this site. Most notable is that I took a weekend trip a few weeks back out to New Orleans for the N.O.D.I.Y. alternative media show. Put together by Leo McGovern, who runs the free magazine Antigravity in town (which happens to syndicate Snap Judgments as well), the show was unusual and a lot of fun. Music, a variety of things besides comics, a night-time show and a bar right there (the whole thing was held in a warehouse sized bar called Twiropa), I had a lot of fun. Probably would have had more if I hadn't been wiped out from the 10-hour drive, but the Saturday after, when we just bummed around New Orleans, was plenty of fun.
I was there with my buddies Chris Nicholas and Dave Lamplugh (creators of the minicomics You Chose Right The First Time) as well as Toby Craig (creator of the Engine minicomics and more), whom we had picked up in Houston. On Saturday, we all walked around, got plenty of pictures (and Toby and Dave got plenty of sketching done), had breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, lunch at Central Grocery (where we had their awesome Muffelettas) and dinner with Leo and his girlfriend Michelle at a place Leo picked out called Mandina's. We then hit a few of the coolest bars I've ever been to, thanks to Leo and Michelle, which were more local places and not as swamped as the Bourbon Street joints. I discovered my new favorite drink, Coke and Absolut Vanilla, and maybe had a *little* too much of it, but it was a good time.
That's the really exciting stuff that's gone on. Otherwise, I've been playing the hell out of Burnout 3, which I rented from Gamefly, and much as I enjoyed Burnout 2, this one is sooo much better. It looks better, and the addition of the ability to steer your car after you wreck is just genius. I also like the "Road Rage" events that consist of you trying to wreck as many opponents as possible. It's been getting rave reviews at the game sites, and I can see why. I desperately want to hold onto it, but will probably give it up soon so that I can rent Star Wars Battlefront and X-Men: Legends, both of which I'm also hearing good things about.
New Fall TV season has started, and is pretty much just as bad as I thought it was going to be. However, there are a couple bright spots. Joey is a guilty pleasure, just like Friends was for the last four or five years of its existence. Lost had an intriguing opener, not quite the throat-grabber that Alias was for me but certainly interesting. And the real winner of the Fall season so far for me is Veronica Mars, which had a very smartly-written pilot, plenty of charm mixed with a little darkness (not unlike Rob Thomas's previous show, Cupid) and a terrific cast, highlighted by the lead actress. Surprisingly enough, UPN might have my favorite show right now, although there is room for Lost to overtake it, and of course, it *will* be overtaken when The Shield, Alias or Arrested Development start up again. Still, well worth a look.
Other than that, I've also been lucky enough to find that Trio is running Spaced, the Britcom by Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edward Wright, and it is every bit as funny as the clip reel they put together in San Diego indicated. Happily, I'll have every episode of Spaced on my Tivo in just a few days, and this has spurred me to organize a trip to the Drafthouse to see Shaun of the Dead next weekend. Still bummed I missed Pegg and Wright when they were in town to premiere the film, but ah well.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Robert Rodriguez Scares Me:
I finally sat down to watch the DVD of Once Upon A Time in Mexico tonight. I'd already re-watched the movie, but I sat down to watch Rodriguez's commentary and the extras. Rodriguez's commentary is great, as he just talks constantly throughout, and it's both extremely technical and yet accessible to the casual viewer, funny and light without being stupid or lightweight. Then I watch the Ten Minute Film School, Ten Minute Cooking School and Inside Troublemaker Studios featurettes, and I realize that Rodriguez is talented in so many areas that he doesn't even realize how rare it is.
Rodriguez can compose scores (kickass ones, too, like the one for Kill Bill), direct and write movies, speak intelligently on sound mixing, editing and other movie technical shit that I barely understand, play guitar, cook, mess with CGI/digital effects... it's frightening. It also makes for a very entertaining DVD, and bodes well for the upcoming Sin City. I mean, I'm predisposed to like Rodriguez already because he's a comic book fan who resides in Austin (like me) and because he's made several movies I really love, but realizing just how far his talents range makes me all the more happy that he's the guy doing Sin City.
I finally sat down to watch the DVD of Once Upon A Time in Mexico tonight. I'd already re-watched the movie, but I sat down to watch Rodriguez's commentary and the extras. Rodriguez's commentary is great, as he just talks constantly throughout, and it's both extremely technical and yet accessible to the casual viewer, funny and light without being stupid or lightweight. Then I watch the Ten Minute Film School, Ten Minute Cooking School and Inside Troublemaker Studios featurettes, and I realize that Rodriguez is talented in so many areas that he doesn't even realize how rare it is.
Rodriguez can compose scores (kickass ones, too, like the one for Kill Bill), direct and write movies, speak intelligently on sound mixing, editing and other movie technical shit that I barely understand, play guitar, cook, mess with CGI/digital effects... it's frightening. It also makes for a very entertaining DVD, and bodes well for the upcoming Sin City. I mean, I'm predisposed to like Rodriguez already because he's a comic book fan who resides in Austin (like me) and because he's made several movies I really love, but realizing just how far his talents range makes me all the more happy that he's the guy doing Sin City.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Meet the new game... same as the old game:
Well, since I had only played once in about three weeks, most of my superhero group had outlevelled me and several of my friends had quit, I decided to call it quits with City of Heroes. I enjoyed it when I played, but I wasn't feeling the addiction anymore, and couldn't justify $15 a month for something I was only playing for a few hours a month. Still, early May to mid-August is a pretty good run for a game, and I'll definitely be back on the game at some point... just not right now.
I'm also getting my superhero buzz from a new Mutants & Masterminds game I started with my regular gaming group. It's the first time I've played M&M, and I like it so far, although after having played pretty much Champions only for about 10 years, it's taking some adjusting. The superteam, as is typical for my gaming groups, is more than a little bit strange. There's a speedster social worker who got his powers from being caught up in an alien drug deal (Torque), the electrical blaster who was sort of the head of a gang in a bad area of town until reaching adulthood and becoming a superhero (Bolt, although originally he was Shock, and before that he had no official superhero name), the '60s vocalist for a third-rate band who got sucked into 1993 by a dimensional invasion and was granted a number of weird powers like transmuting objects into other objects, teleporting and animating objects (The Shifter) and, off a dare, a plant guy (Doc Nightshade). They chose The Outcasts for their team name, and it's looking pretty appropriate. First session was fun, though, and while I'm still getting the hang of the power levels/balance, I think M&M may wind up overtaking Champs as my favorite superhero RPG.
I've been playing SSX3 on the PS/2 a lot lately, and my love of console games got the better of me. With City of Heroes funding turned off, I decided I could once again justify my subscription to Gamefly, the Netflix-like service for videogames, and started that up again (Net savings from CoH to Gamefly: About a $1 a month. Nice one, Randy). At any rate, though, I currently have Spider-Man 2 out for rent, and while the plot and some of the dialogue is just hokey as hell, occasionally crossing the border into downright stupid, the webswinging through New York is really addictive and fun.
So there you have it. Three loooong paragraphs about my videogame habits and gaming. Good God, does anyone read this blog? If so, I'm deeply sorry that I don't have anything more interesting to say. My wife's got cute baby stories on her blog, maybe you should visit there. :)
Well, since I had only played once in about three weeks, most of my superhero group had outlevelled me and several of my friends had quit, I decided to call it quits with City of Heroes. I enjoyed it when I played, but I wasn't feeling the addiction anymore, and couldn't justify $15 a month for something I was only playing for a few hours a month. Still, early May to mid-August is a pretty good run for a game, and I'll definitely be back on the game at some point... just not right now.
I'm also getting my superhero buzz from a new Mutants & Masterminds game I started with my regular gaming group. It's the first time I've played M&M, and I like it so far, although after having played pretty much Champions only for about 10 years, it's taking some adjusting. The superteam, as is typical for my gaming groups, is more than a little bit strange. There's a speedster social worker who got his powers from being caught up in an alien drug deal (Torque), the electrical blaster who was sort of the head of a gang in a bad area of town until reaching adulthood and becoming a superhero (Bolt, although originally he was Shock, and before that he had no official superhero name), the '60s vocalist for a third-rate band who got sucked into 1993 by a dimensional invasion and was granted a number of weird powers like transmuting objects into other objects, teleporting and animating objects (The Shifter) and, off a dare, a plant guy (Doc Nightshade). They chose The Outcasts for their team name, and it's looking pretty appropriate. First session was fun, though, and while I'm still getting the hang of the power levels/balance, I think M&M may wind up overtaking Champs as my favorite superhero RPG.
I've been playing SSX3 on the PS/2 a lot lately, and my love of console games got the better of me. With City of Heroes funding turned off, I decided I could once again justify my subscription to Gamefly, the Netflix-like service for videogames, and started that up again (Net savings from CoH to Gamefly: About a $1 a month. Nice one, Randy). At any rate, though, I currently have Spider-Man 2 out for rent, and while the plot and some of the dialogue is just hokey as hell, occasionally crossing the border into downright stupid, the webswinging through New York is really addictive and fun.
So there you have it. Three loooong paragraphs about my videogame habits and gaming. Good God, does anyone read this blog? If so, I'm deeply sorry that I don't have anything more interesting to say. My wife's got cute baby stories on her blog, maybe you should visit there. :)
Saturday, August 14, 2004
F/X does it again:
OK, I finally realized that I'd had enough of guilty pleasure trash TV Nip/Tuck, especially since I barely have time to watch everything I want to anyway, but F/X has replaced that show in my personal Tivo lineup with Rescue Me, a great little drama with touches of comedy that reminds me in a lot of ways of what I like about The Shield without really using any of the elements of that show, save a pretty solid ensemble cast and sharp writing.
Dennis Leary, as it turns out, can act, the rest of the cast is highly entertaining and the show has made me laugh and tear up, especially in light of the shocker moment of the fourth episode that puts Leary's character into a whole new situation with his wife.
OK, I finally realized that I'd had enough of guilty pleasure trash TV Nip/Tuck, especially since I barely have time to watch everything I want to anyway, but F/X has replaced that show in my personal Tivo lineup with Rescue Me, a great little drama with touches of comedy that reminds me in a lot of ways of what I like about The Shield without really using any of the elements of that show, save a pretty solid ensemble cast and sharp writing.
Dennis Leary, as it turns out, can act, the rest of the cast is highly entertaining and the show has made me laugh and tear up, especially in light of the shocker moment of the fourth episode that puts Leary's character into a whole new situation with his wife.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Justice League Unlimited:
I was not a huge fan of the previous Justice League series on Cartoon Network. Despite a few really good episodes, mostly I thought it was a pretty big comedown from the amazing Batman: Animated Series and the almost-as-good Superman: Animated Series. Not enough story, and the action, while good, wasn't good enough to keep up with it. The dialogue tended to be kind of "kiddy-fied" and so did the stories. Oh, I watched it, and I think I've actually seen every episode once (and the good ones a couple of times), but I kept thinking, "Damn... it could have been so much more."
If the first episode of Justice League Unlimited is any indication, it might be "so much more." A note perfect (well, his voice was too young for me, but that's quibbling) Green Arrow, some great chemistry with Captain Atom and Supergirl, Brimstone (from Suicide Squad, and that's major bonus points in my book), and a ton of DC heroes, both big and small, in the background? This is the DC Universe cartoon I wanted to see. Not to mention that they didn't lose the action, in fact Green Arrow in action was some of the coolest superhero stuff I've seen in animation.
Turns out maybe the hour-long two-parters were giving the creators too much room to move. With only half an hour, and a wider cast of characters, they seem to have tightened up the stories and the dialogue (I chuckled at several lines in the episode) while maintaining what worked about the previous series. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
I was not a huge fan of the previous Justice League series on Cartoon Network. Despite a few really good episodes, mostly I thought it was a pretty big comedown from the amazing Batman: Animated Series and the almost-as-good Superman: Animated Series. Not enough story, and the action, while good, wasn't good enough to keep up with it. The dialogue tended to be kind of "kiddy-fied" and so did the stories. Oh, I watched it, and I think I've actually seen every episode once (and the good ones a couple of times), but I kept thinking, "Damn... it could have been so much more."
If the first episode of Justice League Unlimited is any indication, it might be "so much more." A note perfect (well, his voice was too young for me, but that's quibbling) Green Arrow, some great chemistry with Captain Atom and Supergirl, Brimstone (from Suicide Squad, and that's major bonus points in my book), and a ton of DC heroes, both big and small, in the background? This is the DC Universe cartoon I wanted to see. Not to mention that they didn't lose the action, in fact Green Arrow in action was some of the coolest superhero stuff I've seen in animation.
Turns out maybe the hour-long two-parters were giving the creators too much room to move. With only half an hour, and a wider cast of characters, they seem to have tightened up the stories and the dialogue (I chuckled at several lines in the episode) while maintaining what worked about the previous series. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
Monday, July 05, 2004
Random TV Thoughts:
Thanks to my wife having started watching the show back when BBC America ran a marathon, I've checked out Coupling, and found it to be absolutely hilarious. It's currently in season four, which is where I started watching, but the episodes I've seen inspired me to rent the DVD of season one from Netflix, and it turns out the show has been laugh-out-loud funny from day one.
Which means that yet another TV show on my must watch list doesn't come from American network TV. The stuff that I always go for from the Tivo when I get a chance to watch TV these days is Coupling, Celebrity Poker Showdown (so pleased that they did basically *two* seasons this year, with another round starting right after the first championship match) and Dinner For Five.
Which is good, because I like watching TV, and the slate for next season is just bloody awful. The Lost is intriguing, but it's on ABC, and will probably be cancelled before its time, although given the leeway they've given Alias, maybe that means showrunner J.J. Abrams can save it from that fate. Beyond that? Nothing new really caught my eye, to be honest. I'm mildly interested in LAX because of the cast (love Blair Underwood) and because I've always had this weird idea that an airport would make a great setting for an ensemble comedy or drama story, and some of the midseason stuff sounds intriguing, but come September, I'm not really gonna care much that the new TV is starting.
Thanks to my wife having started watching the show back when BBC America ran a marathon, I've checked out Coupling, and found it to be absolutely hilarious. It's currently in season four, which is where I started watching, but the episodes I've seen inspired me to rent the DVD of season one from Netflix, and it turns out the show has been laugh-out-loud funny from day one.
Which means that yet another TV show on my must watch list doesn't come from American network TV. The stuff that I always go for from the Tivo when I get a chance to watch TV these days is Coupling, Celebrity Poker Showdown (so pleased that they did basically *two* seasons this year, with another round starting right after the first championship match) and Dinner For Five.
Which is good, because I like watching TV, and the slate for next season is just bloody awful. The Lost is intriguing, but it's on ABC, and will probably be cancelled before its time, although given the leeway they've given Alias, maybe that means showrunner J.J. Abrams can save it from that fate. Beyond that? Nothing new really caught my eye, to be honest. I'm mildly interested in LAX because of the cast (love Blair Underwood) and because I've always had this weird idea that an airport would make a great setting for an ensemble comedy or drama story, and some of the midseason stuff sounds intriguing, but come September, I'm not really gonna care much that the new TV is starting.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Paul O'Brien Hits The Nail on the Head Again:
Article 10: Foursquare Panels - Paul's online reviews are probably my favorites on the web (yep, including mine), but I'm just as pleased by his biweekly forays into industry analysis on Ninth Art. This one in particular is a look at the controversy over Gary Trudea's latest Doonesbury strips.
I can't really add much, because Paul has a pretty cogent analysis here, but I will say that as much disgust as I have for our current administration, I have even more for the illogical zealots who pretend that any examination of it, even if it's only mildly critical or arguably apolitical, is anti-American. The crap on TV and in movies these days has me worried about the lowest common denominator already, but the level of discourse about politics is even worse. Maybe we should start instituting a basic IQ level for people to vote?
Article 10: Foursquare Panels - Paul's online reviews are probably my favorites on the web (yep, including mine), but I'm just as pleased by his biweekly forays into industry analysis on Ninth Art. This one in particular is a look at the controversy over Gary Trudea's latest Doonesbury strips.
I can't really add much, because Paul has a pretty cogent analysis here, but I will say that as much disgust as I have for our current administration, I have even more for the illogical zealots who pretend that any examination of it, even if it's only mildly critical or arguably apolitical, is anti-American. The crap on TV and in movies these days has me worried about the lowest common denominator already, but the level of discourse about politics is even worse. Maybe we should start instituting a basic IQ level for people to vote?
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The End of Angel:
Fantastic. It should have been two hours, really, but then, it really should have been the finale at the end of *next* season, when Whedon and company had time to really explore all the interesting developments they had set up in the last few episodes. This show has, in my opinion, been stronger than the series that it spun off from, not just because the last two or three seasons of Buffy were soooo uneven but because aside from some very worrisome stuff with Conner around season three, Angel has been pretty consistently great. The darker tone meant that I had an easier time going along with the darker stuff that happens to our heroes, where on Buffy it just felt a bit wrong. And it's amazing that the show started with two of my least favorite characters in the Buffyverse (Cordelia and Angel), added another that I pretty much hated (Wesley) and by the end had made me like all of them and even put Wes, poor tragic Wes on my list as possibly the best Buffyverse character period. Aside from Xander, who became completely uninteresting and poorly written right around season four or five of Buffy and never completely recovered.
Hell, the fifth season of Angel even made me love Spike again, a character I had grown to hate ever since he went from villain to goofy anti-hero who dominated the Buffy show. And that ending... oh, that ending was perfect, the kind of thing that takes real guts to do (especially with a rabid, judgmental and already pissed-off fanbase) and even more skill to pull off.
Then the WB puts up this little trailer at the end thanking the fans and the show for five years? Like it's not entirely their fault that the show is ending now, like the creators and the cast and crew didn't want to do more? Complete and total BS, and while I don't think the ire of a bunch of genre fans screaming "boycott" is really going to affect their bottom line, I do think they'll have a helluva time launching any kind of genre programming in the future if they decide to try it again. Certainly I'm not watching anything on WB next season, although in fairness that has more to do with their schedule being total shit than any kind of boycott decision on my part.
Fantastic. It should have been two hours, really, but then, it really should have been the finale at the end of *next* season, when Whedon and company had time to really explore all the interesting developments they had set up in the last few episodes. This show has, in my opinion, been stronger than the series that it spun off from, not just because the last two or three seasons of Buffy were soooo uneven but because aside from some very worrisome stuff with Conner around season three, Angel has been pretty consistently great. The darker tone meant that I had an easier time going along with the darker stuff that happens to our heroes, where on Buffy it just felt a bit wrong. And it's amazing that the show started with two of my least favorite characters in the Buffyverse (Cordelia and Angel), added another that I pretty much hated (Wesley) and by the end had made me like all of them and even put Wes, poor tragic Wes on my list as possibly the best Buffyverse character period. Aside from Xander, who became completely uninteresting and poorly written right around season four or five of Buffy and never completely recovered.
Hell, the fifth season of Angel even made me love Spike again, a character I had grown to hate ever since he went from villain to goofy anti-hero who dominated the Buffy show. And that ending... oh, that ending was perfect, the kind of thing that takes real guts to do (especially with a rabid, judgmental and already pissed-off fanbase) and even more skill to pull off.
Then the WB puts up this little trailer at the end thanking the fans and the show for five years? Like it's not entirely their fault that the show is ending now, like the creators and the cast and crew didn't want to do more? Complete and total BS, and while I don't think the ire of a bunch of genre fans screaming "boycott" is really going to affect their bottom line, I do think they'll have a helluva time launching any kind of genre programming in the future if they decide to try it again. Certainly I'm not watching anything on WB next season, although in fairness that has more to do with their schedule being total shit than any kind of boycott decision on my part.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
City of Heroes:
How do I love this new MMORPG about superheroes? Let me count the ways:
City of Heroes
How do I love this new MMORPG about superheroes? Let me count the ways:
City of Heroes
Monday, April 05, 2004
A Little Quick Math:
I've gotten to the point where I'm not so much surprised and angry at shows being cancelled as I am just kind of tired of it. Wonderfalls, a show I had quickly fallen in love with, got cancelled as of its fourth episode, and there won't be any more. Meanwhile, more and more reality shows that I wouldn't watch if you put a gun to my head continue to take the place of scripted programming. And networks bitch because their viewership overall is down. Maybe not everybody likes the reality shows and cheesy sitcoms? Maybe we want more than three or four flavors of CSI and a half-dozen Law & Orders? And I say this as someone who Tivos CSI and Friends, and who used to Tivo Law & Order! It's not that the formula drama and sitcoms are crimes against nature or anything, it's just that I'd like a little more originality and imagination in my TV as well.
Anyway, a little quick math from this season:
Number of new shows I liked (Wonderfalls, Arrested Development, Karen Sisco) = 3
(minus) Number of shows cancelled (Wonderfalls, Karen Sisco, Angel) = 3
(minus) Number of new shows likely to be cancelled (Arrested Development) = 1
(plus) Number of continuing shows I was enjoying (24, Alias, Angel, The Shield, West Wing, The Daily Show) = 6
(minus) Number of shows that went downhill (24, West Wing) = 2
(equals)
Me watching three shows next season: The Daily Show, Alias and The Shield. Only one of which is actually a network show. Unless the pilot season winds up much stronger than its looking (no Joss Whedon and no Aaron Sorkin), I'm going to be strictly on DVDs of HBO/Showtime shows and movies and reruns of shows when TV was better. Which is fine by me, I don't really need any more TV to watch, but I wonder how universal that experience is, and how much that has to do with the general decline of network TV viewership?
Seems like maybe the nets, if they want to build their viewership again, need to stop with the constant rollout of the new and maybe try and build a critical darling into a big hit, the way they used to do with shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, The X-Files, etc.
I've gotten to the point where I'm not so much surprised and angry at shows being cancelled as I am just kind of tired of it. Wonderfalls, a show I had quickly fallen in love with, got cancelled as of its fourth episode, and there won't be any more. Meanwhile, more and more reality shows that I wouldn't watch if you put a gun to my head continue to take the place of scripted programming. And networks bitch because their viewership overall is down. Maybe not everybody likes the reality shows and cheesy sitcoms? Maybe we want more than three or four flavors of CSI and a half-dozen Law & Orders? And I say this as someone who Tivos CSI and Friends, and who used to Tivo Law & Order! It's not that the formula drama and sitcoms are crimes against nature or anything, it's just that I'd like a little more originality and imagination in my TV as well.
Anyway, a little quick math from this season:
Number of new shows I liked (Wonderfalls, Arrested Development, Karen Sisco) = 3
(minus) Number of shows cancelled (Wonderfalls, Karen Sisco, Angel) = 3
(minus) Number of new shows likely to be cancelled (Arrested Development) = 1
(plus) Number of continuing shows I was enjoying (24, Alias, Angel, The Shield, West Wing, The Daily Show) = 6
(minus) Number of shows that went downhill (24, West Wing) = 2
(equals)
Me watching three shows next season: The Daily Show, Alias and The Shield. Only one of which is actually a network show. Unless the pilot season winds up much stronger than its looking (no Joss Whedon and no Aaron Sorkin), I'm going to be strictly on DVDs of HBO/Showtime shows and movies and reruns of shows when TV was better. Which is fine by me, I don't really need any more TV to watch, but I wonder how universal that experience is, and how much that has to do with the general decline of network TV viewership?
Seems like maybe the nets, if they want to build their viewership again, need to stop with the constant rollout of the new and maybe try and build a critical darling into a big hit, the way they used to do with shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, The X-Files, etc.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Vegas Baby!
Honestly, my week-long trip to Vegas has little to do with this site being so infrequently updated. I'm just busy and/or lazy. But yeah, last week I headed off to Las Vegas for the second time in six months, and just as it was last time, it was on the boss's dime for a work-related Con. This was my first trip to GAMA, the game industry trade show, and I'd been primed to expect something huge. What I got was indeed big, but when you've been to a half-dozen San Diego Comicons, you have a certain expectation for the phrase "Big Con" that GAMA didn't really meet.
Which is good, because had it been any bigger I'd be exhausted. The show was a lot of work, both in terms of the amount of walking and the amount of work involved. Some of it was a loss (the first day seminars were almost universally awful, saved only by Joe Field's engaging panels, and even those were aimed surprisingly at newer retailers, when you'd expect most of the folks at GAMA to be retail vets) but I got to see some cool new games (the Spycraft CCG is going to be great, the D&D Minis Titans of Legends are amazing looking and the Nocturnals book from Green Ronin looks terrific as well) and take in a bit of Vegas as well (love those Bellagio water shows).
In other news, right before Vegas, I discovered my favorite new show of the season: Wonderfalls. I'm not a fanatical follower of AICN (although I do read the @$$holes Talkback reviews religiously), but I do occasionally check in on Hercules' Coaxial side of the site, and it was his constant badgering about how good Wonderfalls was going to be (along with Firefly/Angel vet Tim Minear's name) that got me to check it out. I'm so glad I did, because the show is quirky, snarky and hilarious, with a great cast and smart writing. While it reminds me in tone of Dead Like Me and my late lamented Cupid (the one with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, not that reality shit), it is very original and unusual.
It is also probably doomed. But I continue to hope that Fox will realize they've got something special here and move it from the self-fulfilling prophecy Friday death slot into a better place. Not to mention marketing the thing more effectively. I don't watch a great deal of TV commercials these days, it's true (thank you Tivo!) but still... I didn't see a single ad for this new show.
Honestly, my week-long trip to Vegas has little to do with this site being so infrequently updated. I'm just busy and/or lazy. But yeah, last week I headed off to Las Vegas for the second time in six months, and just as it was last time, it was on the boss's dime for a work-related Con. This was my first trip to GAMA, the game industry trade show, and I'd been primed to expect something huge. What I got was indeed big, but when you've been to a half-dozen San Diego Comicons, you have a certain expectation for the phrase "Big Con" that GAMA didn't really meet.
Which is good, because had it been any bigger I'd be exhausted. The show was a lot of work, both in terms of the amount of walking and the amount of work involved. Some of it was a loss (the first day seminars were almost universally awful, saved only by Joe Field's engaging panels, and even those were aimed surprisingly at newer retailers, when you'd expect most of the folks at GAMA to be retail vets) but I got to see some cool new games (the Spycraft CCG is going to be great, the D&D Minis Titans of Legends are amazing looking and the Nocturnals book from Green Ronin looks terrific as well) and take in a bit of Vegas as well (love those Bellagio water shows).
In other news, right before Vegas, I discovered my favorite new show of the season: Wonderfalls. I'm not a fanatical follower of AICN (although I do read the @$$holes Talkback reviews religiously), but I do occasionally check in on Hercules' Coaxial side of the site, and it was his constant badgering about how good Wonderfalls was going to be (along with Firefly/Angel vet Tim Minear's name) that got me to check it out. I'm so glad I did, because the show is quirky, snarky and hilarious, with a great cast and smart writing. While it reminds me in tone of Dead Like Me and my late lamented Cupid (the one with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, not that reality shit), it is very original and unusual.
It is also probably doomed. But I continue to hope that Fox will realize they've got something special here and move it from the self-fulfilling prophecy Friday death slot into a better place. Not to mention marketing the thing more effectively. I don't watch a great deal of TV commercials these days, it's true (thank you Tivo!) but still... I didn't see a single ad for this new show.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Video (Games) Killed the Radio Star (And All My Free Time):
Been playing some video games lately. I got the Warcraft III expansion for X-Mas, and since my computer had crashed last year, I had to play through Warcraft III original flavor to get back to the point where I could play the expansion. I just finished it recently and have installed (but not played) much of the expansion yet.
And that's because I got a subscription to Gamefly, a Netflix-like service for PS2 (and XBox and GameCube, but I don't have those) games. Since then, I've been spending way too much of my not-too-copious free time playing these rented games. Loved SSX 3 and Need for Speed: Underground, had fun playing Burnout 2 and returned both R: Racing Evolution and NFL Street within minutes of opening them and playing them.
The really fun find, though, has been James Bond: Everything or Nothing. 3rd person James Bond game that feels like a modern Bond movie. Has its quirks, like a slightly off-kilter auto-targeting system that sometimes has me popping caps in a wall while some nameless mook shoots me in the back (not very suave, that), but is generally a blast to play. Such a blast, in fact, that I play too long, and since I've got the unfortunate physiological quirk of becoming nauseous when playing videogames (almost immediately with first-person, takes longer with 3rd), sometimes I wind up having to turn off the TV, etc. and lie there, wishing I had stopped playing the game about fifteen minutes earlier.
Given that I love videogames, I'm very annoyed by this particular physiological quirk. But not as annoyed as I am with myself every time I push the limits too far. But even knowing it might make me feel like vomiting, I love this game. How many reviews of a PS2 game are you gonna read with *that* qualifier?
Been playing some video games lately. I got the Warcraft III expansion for X-Mas, and since my computer had crashed last year, I had to play through Warcraft III original flavor to get back to the point where I could play the expansion. I just finished it recently and have installed (but not played) much of the expansion yet.
And that's because I got a subscription to Gamefly, a Netflix-like service for PS2 (and XBox and GameCube, but I don't have those) games. Since then, I've been spending way too much of my not-too-copious free time playing these rented games. Loved SSX 3 and Need for Speed: Underground, had fun playing Burnout 2 and returned both R: Racing Evolution and NFL Street within minutes of opening them and playing them.
The really fun find, though, has been James Bond: Everything or Nothing. 3rd person James Bond game that feels like a modern Bond movie. Has its quirks, like a slightly off-kilter auto-targeting system that sometimes has me popping caps in a wall while some nameless mook shoots me in the back (not very suave, that), but is generally a blast to play. Such a blast, in fact, that I play too long, and since I've got the unfortunate physiological quirk of becoming nauseous when playing videogames (almost immediately with first-person, takes longer with 3rd), sometimes I wind up having to turn off the TV, etc. and lie there, wishing I had stopped playing the game about fifteen minutes earlier.
Given that I love videogames, I'm very annoyed by this particular physiological quirk. But not as annoyed as I am with myself every time I push the limits too far. But even knowing it might make me feel like vomiting, I love this game. How many reviews of a PS2 game are you gonna read with *that* qualifier?
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Priorities? What are those?
McSupersizes to be phased out - Soldiers are still dying in two countries that we invaded, a shockingly large number of people in the country think gay marriage should be outlawed, the Catholic church is still fondling little boys like it's a national sport... and *this* is where the public pressure is?
I swear, these days I just want to throw my hands up about the American public, and maybe humanity in general. Perhaps we're all too stupid to live. C'mon... eating McDonald's every day is bad for your health? Are there actually people out there who don't know that, who need a documentary or a lawsuit to clue them in? If so, I think being fat is the least of their problems. Fat and stupid and skinny and stupid really isn't that far apart, in terms of quality of life.
McSupersizes to be phased out - Soldiers are still dying in two countries that we invaded, a shockingly large number of people in the country think gay marriage should be outlawed, the Catholic church is still fondling little boys like it's a national sport... and *this* is where the public pressure is?
I swear, these days I just want to throw my hands up about the American public, and maybe humanity in general. Perhaps we're all too stupid to live. C'mon... eating McDonald's every day is bad for your health? Are there actually people out there who don't know that, who need a documentary or a lawsuit to clue them in? If so, I think being fat is the least of their problems. Fat and stupid and skinny and stupid really isn't that far apart, in terms of quality of life.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Something for the Fourth Rail fans:
It's something we've gotten many requests for, and something I always kind of liked the idea of, so I've spent some of my rare spare time in the past few months putting together an alphabetical archive of my Snap Judgments reviews from when we started the site (in 2001) to the last complete year in the archives (2003). Two and a half years of reviews, all listed alphabetically within each year.
Now, it's still not perfectly searchable, and it's certainly not done for the whole site (this page is sort of a beta test, the final version should have Critiques and Features as well and will take me a while longer), but for those who haven't been able to find stuff in the Snap Judgments archives easily enough, hopefully this will help out.
It's something we've gotten many requests for, and something I always kind of liked the idea of, so I've spent some of my rare spare time in the past few months putting together an alphabetical archive of my Snap Judgments reviews from when we started the site (in 2001) to the last complete year in the archives (2003). Two and a half years of reviews, all listed alphabetically within each year.
Now, it's still not perfectly searchable, and it's certainly not done for the whole site (this page is sort of a beta test, the final version should have Critiques and Features as well and will take me a while longer), but for those who haven't been able to find stuff in the Snap Judgments archives easily enough, hopefully this will help out.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
My Thoughts on Gay Marriage:
Since nobody asked, here they are. I've been reading more than a few threads online following Bush's inane notion to ban gay marriage in the Constitution (finally, someone has come up with something more moronic than the flag-burning amendment! Congrats, G.W.! You continue to excel in stupidity!) and every time I see someone responding with their reasons why gay marriage shouldn't be allowed, I keep wanting to respond in detail. But who has that kind of time? So let me just lay it out plainly.
If you oppose gay marriage, I think you are either a bigot, a moron or a politician. You can give me all the religious bullshit you want, you can give me all the "separate but equal" bullshit you want, you can give me all the "marriage is fer makin' babies" you want, you can even give me the "insurance system can't handle gay marriage" bullshit you want. It's all bullshit. The notion that two consenting adults in love can't get married is stupid enough... the notion that such a rule should be written into our national code of laws, the very thing that defines our nation? That is unpatriotic. It's the secular equivalent of blasphemy against everything this nation is supposed to stand for.
Since nobody asked, here they are. I've been reading more than a few threads online following Bush's inane notion to ban gay marriage in the Constitution (finally, someone has come up with something more moronic than the flag-burning amendment! Congrats, G.W.! You continue to excel in stupidity!) and every time I see someone responding with their reasons why gay marriage shouldn't be allowed, I keep wanting to respond in detail. But who has that kind of time? So let me just lay it out plainly.
If you oppose gay marriage, I think you are either a bigot, a moron or a politician. You can give me all the religious bullshit you want, you can give me all the "separate but equal" bullshit you want, you can give me all the "marriage is fer makin' babies" you want, you can even give me the "insurance system can't handle gay marriage" bullshit you want. It's all bullshit. The notion that two consenting adults in love can't get married is stupid enough... the notion that such a rule should be written into our national code of laws, the very thing that defines our nation? That is unpatriotic. It's the secular equivalent of blasphemy against everything this nation is supposed to stand for.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
My Baby Girl Can Bend Metal, Apparently:
They say the first casualty of war is the truth. Apparently the first casualty of Katy is my glasses. For a long time now, my little girl has had a fascination with my glasses, grabbing at them and often pulling them off my head. Tonight when she did so, I heard a loud "pling!" as part of the right temple assembly went flying off behind the couch, never to be found, and discovered that she hadn't just knocked a pin loose, but had actually broken the thing.
So for a week or so, until I get a replacement for this part, I'll be doing the geek thing with tape on my glasses. Oh, well, at least she didn't poke my eye out while she was at it.
They say the first casualty of war is the truth. Apparently the first casualty of Katy is my glasses. For a long time now, my little girl has had a fascination with my glasses, grabbing at them and often pulling them off my head. Tonight when she did so, I heard a loud "pling!" as part of the right temple assembly went flying off behind the couch, never to be found, and discovered that she hadn't just knocked a pin loose, but had actually broken the thing.
So for a week or so, until I get a replacement for this part, I'll be doing the geek thing with tape on my glasses. Oh, well, at least she didn't poke my eye out while she was at it.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Star Well, Who Really Gives a Damn:
There was a time when I would have been thrilled to hear today's news, confirming the rumor that the Star Wars Trilogy is coming to DVD. Hell, given that I just watched the Indiana Jones DVD box set and found it to be pretty good this weekend, now would have been a great time for it.
Unfortunately, the "Special Editions," while improved in some regard, mostly contain what I consider to be stupid and unnecessary changes, and the whole reason I'd be getting Star Wars at this point is for nostalgia's sake... and nostalgia doesn't work if it's aimed at where I was in 1997 as opposed to when I was a kid. I'm sure the DVDs will do just fine in sales without me. More the pity... if the set came out and flopped, I think there's a slight chance Lucas would reconsider his decision and put out the original on DVD.
But hey, more importantly... when the hell are we gonna get Seinfeld on DVD?
There was a time when I would have been thrilled to hear today's news, confirming the rumor that the Star Wars Trilogy is coming to DVD. Hell, given that I just watched the Indiana Jones DVD box set and found it to be pretty good this weekend, now would have been a great time for it.
Unfortunately, the "Special Editions," while improved in some regard, mostly contain what I consider to be stupid and unnecessary changes, and the whole reason I'd be getting Star Wars at this point is for nostalgia's sake... and nostalgia doesn't work if it's aimed at where I was in 1997 as opposed to when I was a kid. I'm sure the DVDs will do just fine in sales without me. More the pity... if the set came out and flopped, I think there's a slight chance Lucas would reconsider his decision and put out the original on DVD.
But hey, more importantly... when the hell are we gonna get Seinfeld on DVD?
Monday, February 02, 2004
Soundtracks:
You know, why is it that whenever you watch a movie (or lately, play a videogame) and think, "Wow that music is great, I should get the soundtrack" almost none of the music you really wanted is on the soundtrack? I mean, practically I know that it's down to licensing concerns, but I was really ticked to find out that neither The Italian Job soundtrack or the SSX3 soundtrack featured "Go" by Andy Hunter, though both featured the song in prominent roles. It's even more irritating that I can't get the song on iTunes.
Don't get me wrong... the Italian Job score is good, and the SSX3 music selection decent as well (although I'm bummed that I bought "Mas" on iTunes only to get it months later on the SSX3 soundtrack as well), it's just that the music in the original video game or movie was so good, and the soundtracks don't have that full effect. And this seems to be a pretty common thing.
You know, why is it that whenever you watch a movie (or lately, play a videogame) and think, "Wow that music is great, I should get the soundtrack" almost none of the music you really wanted is on the soundtrack? I mean, practically I know that it's down to licensing concerns, but I was really ticked to find out that neither The Italian Job soundtrack or the SSX3 soundtrack featured "Go" by Andy Hunter, though both featured the song in prominent roles. It's even more irritating that I can't get the song on iTunes.
Don't get me wrong... the Italian Job score is good, and the SSX3 music selection decent as well (although I'm bummed that I bought "Mas" on iTunes only to get it months later on the SSX3 soundtrack as well), it's just that the music in the original video game or movie was so good, and the soundtracks don't have that full effect. And this seems to be a pretty common thing.
Friday, January 30, 2004
Iron Chef:
Don calls this my "What you're watching" blog, so I figured I should add some other things I like doing. For example, eating. For the past few months, whenever Suzanne and I have driven home from visiting my parents in a different part of town, we've seen the Iron Chef restaurant and wondered if it had any connection to the show and, either way, if it was any good. Finally, I decided to look up some reviews and learned that it does indeed have something tangentially to do with the show (the owners are fans and named it after Iron Chef for some attention) and it is indeed quite good.
I haven't had enough variety in Crab Rangoons to really think there's much difference between them, but Iron Chef's Crab & Shrimp Rangoon appetizer was pretty tasty. For my entree, I got the Butter Shrimp... it was sweeter and much lighter than you'd expect of a dish that includes Fried Shrimp in a butter sauce. I was surprised that I didn't really taste the butter, instead it was like a lighter sweet and sour sauce. I tasted a bit of my dad's Golden Duck (which was really good) and my wife's Orange Peel Beef (also surprisingly light given that it's fried beef in orange sauce), which is quite possibly what I'll get the next time I go there.
Dinner prices were about $12 an entree average, and the portions were very good, such that my dad had enough of the Golden Duck left over for lunch tomorrow, although both Suzanne and I polished off our entrees just fine.
Don calls this my "What you're watching" blog, so I figured I should add some other things I like doing. For example, eating. For the past few months, whenever Suzanne and I have driven home from visiting my parents in a different part of town, we've seen the Iron Chef restaurant and wondered if it had any connection to the show and, either way, if it was any good. Finally, I decided to look up some reviews and learned that it does indeed have something tangentially to do with the show (the owners are fans and named it after Iron Chef for some attention) and it is indeed quite good.
I haven't had enough variety in Crab Rangoons to really think there's much difference between them, but Iron Chef's Crab & Shrimp Rangoon appetizer was pretty tasty. For my entree, I got the Butter Shrimp... it was sweeter and much lighter than you'd expect of a dish that includes Fried Shrimp in a butter sauce. I was surprised that I didn't really taste the butter, instead it was like a lighter sweet and sour sauce. I tasted a bit of my dad's Golden Duck (which was really good) and my wife's Orange Peel Beef (also surprisingly light given that it's fried beef in orange sauce), which is quite possibly what I'll get the next time I go there.
Dinner prices were about $12 an entree average, and the portions were very good, such that my dad had enough of the Golden Duck left over for lunch tomorrow, although both Suzanne and I polished off our entrees just fine.
Pixar Leaves Disney:
That hammering sound you hear is another nail in Disney's coffin. Congrats to Pixar for getting while the getting is good, and I'd be very surprised if they don't wind up with a really excellent deal elsewhere. At this point, I would categorize every single film they've made (short or feature length) as really good, with the majority of them falling into the excellent category.
That hammering sound you hear is another nail in Disney's coffin. Congrats to Pixar for getting while the getting is good, and I'd be very surprised if they don't wind up with a really excellent deal elsewhere. At this point, I would categorize every single film they've made (short or feature length) as really good, with the majority of them falling into the excellent category.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Web-buying:
So I just recently ordered a couple used items from Amazon and when I was looking around in my account, realized that you can go back and look at invoices from when you first started using them. Or at least, pretty close. And it turns out that I've been ordering from Amazon since 1998, at the very least, meaning that I've been using them for over 5 years. I still do, moreso now that I can buy stuff used (Last Boy Scout DVD for $8, including shipping - that's a good deal!) and now that I have a credit card that gives me a reward certificate to spend at Amazon when I use it, and I get more credits if I buy at Amazon.
I've also noticed that since I signed up for iTunes, I'm buying a lot more music. I mean, I used to buy a CD maybe every 3-4 months, now I'm buying the equivalent of a CD every month, only every track is one that I like. I'm a little bummed that I can't find all the music I want, like the Foo Fighters' "Darling Nikki" or most of the music that was in The Italian Job, but I'm hoping that as time goes by we'll see the selection increase as record companies give in to inevitability and realize that song-by-song, downloadable is a way that a lot of us want to buy music.
Oh, and I looove Netflix. Been using them for a year or two now and have no plans to stop. Even though some months I only watch one or two DVDs, most months I watch a half-dozen or more. Just signed up for Gamefly, a similar service that deals in PS2 games (actually, X-Box, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance too, but I only have PS2). I don't play PS2 all that often, but if I have a rotating pool of games to play around with, that may change.
No real point to all this, just random meandering on how cool I think shopping online has become. I think I did 95% of my Christmas shopping online this year and it was so much easier. Maybe it's ironic that I'm a big online shopper and yet I work in brick-and-mortar retail? I dunno, maybe so, but with comics retail there's still something to be said for that in-person experience or, as my friend Don was so fond of saying when we worked at Psycomic, "People want to touch the books."
So I just recently ordered a couple used items from Amazon and when I was looking around in my account, realized that you can go back and look at invoices from when you first started using them. Or at least, pretty close. And it turns out that I've been ordering from Amazon since 1998, at the very least, meaning that I've been using them for over 5 years. I still do, moreso now that I can buy stuff used (Last Boy Scout DVD for $8, including shipping - that's a good deal!) and now that I have a credit card that gives me a reward certificate to spend at Amazon when I use it, and I get more credits if I buy at Amazon.
I've also noticed that since I signed up for iTunes, I'm buying a lot more music. I mean, I used to buy a CD maybe every 3-4 months, now I'm buying the equivalent of a CD every month, only every track is one that I like. I'm a little bummed that I can't find all the music I want, like the Foo Fighters' "Darling Nikki" or most of the music that was in The Italian Job, but I'm hoping that as time goes by we'll see the selection increase as record companies give in to inevitability and realize that song-by-song, downloadable is a way that a lot of us want to buy music.
Oh, and I looove Netflix. Been using them for a year or two now and have no plans to stop. Even though some months I only watch one or two DVDs, most months I watch a half-dozen or more. Just signed up for Gamefly, a similar service that deals in PS2 games (actually, X-Box, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance too, but I only have PS2). I don't play PS2 all that often, but if I have a rotating pool of games to play around with, that may change.
No real point to all this, just random meandering on how cool I think shopping online has become. I think I did 95% of my Christmas shopping online this year and it was so much easier. Maybe it's ironic that I'm a big online shopper and yet I work in brick-and-mortar retail? I dunno, maybe so, but with comics retail there's still something to be said for that in-person experience or, as my friend Don was so fond of saying when we worked at Psycomic, "People want to touch the books."
Sunday, January 04, 2004
2004:
Well, another year down. This was a pretty good year for me. Though I'd like it if I had a job with more of a future and a little bit more money, it was kind of nice working a job where I felt like what I did made a difference, like I was good at what I did and I actually liked going to work. I don't know how long I can keep being assistant manager of a comic-book shop without feeling like I've wasted both my college degree and all my youth on a job with no future, but I'm hoping to hold out at least one more year.
No moves or surprise surgeries or anything like that this year, which was nice. We started in Austin, we stayed in Austin. In fact, the only really major upheaval was a positive one, because this is the year my daughter Katy was born. Everything you hear about "it will change your life" is absolutely 100% true. But not in the way you expect. My routine, dull as it is, remains pretty much the same. Reviews on the off-time, work, weekly gaming with friends, the occasional movie... but every single thing I do now, in the back of my head, I'm doing it as a father. There is not a moment that goes by that Katy isn't in my thoughts, and it's kind of amazing.
The other big moment that sticks out for me in 2003 is San Diego. It was a blast getting to hang out in person with Don again, and for that matter getting to reconnect with all the people that I know in and around comics. There are so many negative things about this industry, and so many people (including me, on some days) are cynical about the whole thing, saying that the industry needs to die for the comics medium to survive... but I can't help but remember how much fun I had at San Diego, and how much of that was down to the community that sprung up in this industry, and I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.
My predictions for 2004? I don't have any, really. I have hopes (I dearly hope someone else is President-elect after November), I have plans (alphabetical archives for The Fourth Rail, even if it kills me to do all the hand-coding), I have guaranteed moments of joy (Katy learning to walk, and *maybe* saying her first word?)... but no predictions.
Well, another year down. This was a pretty good year for me. Though I'd like it if I had a job with more of a future and a little bit more money, it was kind of nice working a job where I felt like what I did made a difference, like I was good at what I did and I actually liked going to work. I don't know how long I can keep being assistant manager of a comic-book shop without feeling like I've wasted both my college degree and all my youth on a job with no future, but I'm hoping to hold out at least one more year.
No moves or surprise surgeries or anything like that this year, which was nice. We started in Austin, we stayed in Austin. In fact, the only really major upheaval was a positive one, because this is the year my daughter Katy was born. Everything you hear about "it will change your life" is absolutely 100% true. But not in the way you expect. My routine, dull as it is, remains pretty much the same. Reviews on the off-time, work, weekly gaming with friends, the occasional movie... but every single thing I do now, in the back of my head, I'm doing it as a father. There is not a moment that goes by that Katy isn't in my thoughts, and it's kind of amazing.
The other big moment that sticks out for me in 2003 is San Diego. It was a blast getting to hang out in person with Don again, and for that matter getting to reconnect with all the people that I know in and around comics. There are so many negative things about this industry, and so many people (including me, on some days) are cynical about the whole thing, saying that the industry needs to die for the comics medium to survive... but I can't help but remember how much fun I had at San Diego, and how much of that was down to the community that sprung up in this industry, and I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.
My predictions for 2004? I don't have any, really. I have hopes (I dearly hope someone else is President-elect after November), I have plans (alphabetical archives for The Fourth Rail, even if it kills me to do all the hand-coding), I have guaranteed moments of joy (Katy learning to walk, and *maybe* saying her first word?)... but no predictions.
Finding Nemo DVD:
So my Christmas was really good, and most of my gifts were of the DVD variety. (Which was fine by me.) I've been spending some time recently watching some of them, although I'm not even remotely close to getting through them yet. I'll probably still be watching Christmas DVDs when my birthday rolls around in April. So far, I've watched the movie of Pirates of the Caribbean, the first disc (cartoons only) of the fantastic Golden Looney Tunes collection and, as the title of this post would indicate, Finding Nemo. In addition to rewatching the film, which *might* be my favorite Pixar movie ever, I just watched the "visual commentary" tonight.
This is the kind of thing that makes DVDs worth buying. There are three voices on the commentary track itself, but using seamless branching technology, the film breaks off between 5-15 minutes at a time and shows little bits of behind-the-scenes, ranging from a video of Ellen Degeneres speaking whale to CG animators talking about a particular technique. The result is that you feel like you're taking part in an intelligent and thorough discussion of the making of the movie, even as you can compare what they're talking about to the finished product. It might be the best commentary I've ever seen.
Along with the Behind the Scenes featurette and the general quality of Pixar movies, it just reaffirms something for me: If everyone put the same amount of passion and hard work, and had as much fun and investment, in making their movies as Pixar does, there would be no bad movies. Also, I've decided that I would like to work at Pixar when I grow up. Shame I have absolutely no skills that would be applicable to such a job, huh? ;)
So my Christmas was really good, and most of my gifts were of the DVD variety. (Which was fine by me.) I've been spending some time recently watching some of them, although I'm not even remotely close to getting through them yet. I'll probably still be watching Christmas DVDs when my birthday rolls around in April. So far, I've watched the movie of Pirates of the Caribbean, the first disc (cartoons only) of the fantastic Golden Looney Tunes collection and, as the title of this post would indicate, Finding Nemo. In addition to rewatching the film, which *might* be my favorite Pixar movie ever, I just watched the "visual commentary" tonight.
This is the kind of thing that makes DVDs worth buying. There are three voices on the commentary track itself, but using seamless branching technology, the film breaks off between 5-15 minutes at a time and shows little bits of behind-the-scenes, ranging from a video of Ellen Degeneres speaking whale to CG animators talking about a particular technique. The result is that you feel like you're taking part in an intelligent and thorough discussion of the making of the movie, even as you can compare what they're talking about to the finished product. It might be the best commentary I've ever seen.
Along with the Behind the Scenes featurette and the general quality of Pixar movies, it just reaffirms something for me: If everyone put the same amount of passion and hard work, and had as much fun and investment, in making their movies as Pixar does, there would be no bad movies. Also, I've decided that I would like to work at Pixar when I grow up. Shame I have absolutely no skills that would be applicable to such a job, huh? ;)
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Celebrity Poker Showdown:
I am completely addicted to this show on Bravo, and owe a big debt to James Lucas Jones for mentioning it to me and sparking my interest. I'm actually shocked that I'm enjoying it this much. The players are mostly actors I really like, but I really don't know poker at all. I played a few games in high school and college at various parties and I suuuuucccked at it. Watching Celebrity Poker Showdown, though, I find myself wanting to get a game going with my buddies.
Fortunately, not enough to actually do it, because who can afford to lose that much money? At any rate, Celebrity Poker turns out to be a blast to watch, and a nice balm for the somewhat dead new TV season, especially during these lean months between sweeps.
I am completely addicted to this show on Bravo, and owe a big debt to James Lucas Jones for mentioning it to me and sparking my interest. I'm actually shocked that I'm enjoying it this much. The players are mostly actors I really like, but I really don't know poker at all. I played a few games in high school and college at various parties and I suuuuucccked at it. Watching Celebrity Poker Showdown, though, I find myself wanting to get a game going with my buddies.
Fortunately, not enough to actually do it, because who can afford to lose that much money? At any rate, Celebrity Poker turns out to be a blast to watch, and a nice balm for the somewhat dead new TV season, especially during these lean months between sweeps.
Monday, December 15, 2003
The New Place:
Well, after a couple weeks of being mostly static, thanks to a catastrophic computer crash and then moving Internet/phone/cable providers, Inside Joke Theatre is back online.
Cue crickets.
At any rate, this is the new address, and while I'm not crazy about having to put the ~ in the address, otherwise this is pretty much exactly what it used to be. A place for me to store random thoughts, updated whenever the mood strikes me, that I'm amazed anyone would actually read.
Well, after a couple weeks of being mostly static, thanks to a catastrophic computer crash and then moving Internet/phone/cable providers, Inside Joke Theatre is back online.
Cue crickets.
At any rate, this is the new address, and while I'm not crazy about having to put the ~ in the address, otherwise this is pretty much exactly what it used to be. A place for me to store random thoughts, updated whenever the mood strikes me, that I'm amazed anyone would actually read.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Ascending From Hell into Purgatory:
$200 dollars later (and there go my plans to buy a DVD burner for the computer), my computer is working again. Mostly. I had some frustration getting it to recognize the sound card, and the monitor is still reading as Generic Plug and Play, but everything is working, and the random lock-ups seem to be (knock on wood) gone.
Now begins the arduous process of putting all the programs and data back onto the system. Which includes rebuilding a long-standing address book from basically nothing. So if you are someone who has regular contact with me and you want me to have your email address or other contact info, it might not be a bad idea to email it to me again.
Also, we're moving ISPs in a day or two, so this site will no doubt move. Not exactly sure what the URL will be, but it should be on www.grandecom.net. Probably. If you're really curious and can't find it by searching on Inside Joke Theatre, drop me a line at randy@thefourthrail.com and I'll hook you up with the new address.
$200 dollars later (and there go my plans to buy a DVD burner for the computer), my computer is working again. Mostly. I had some frustration getting it to recognize the sound card, and the monitor is still reading as Generic Plug and Play, but everything is working, and the random lock-ups seem to be (knock on wood) gone.
Now begins the arduous process of putting all the programs and data back onto the system. Which includes rebuilding a long-standing address book from basically nothing. So if you are someone who has regular contact with me and you want me to have your email address or other contact info, it might not be a bad idea to email it to me again.
Also, we're moving ISPs in a day or two, so this site will no doubt move. Not exactly sure what the URL will be, but it should be on www.grandecom.net. Probably. If you're really curious and can't find it by searching on Inside Joke Theatre, drop me a line at randy@thefourthrail.com and I'll hook you up with the new address.
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Absolute Total Hell:
A little while back, I wrote about a condition in which my computer was randomly locking up. I thought it might be a virus, or a damaged hard drive, or something else. So, when Suzanne and I ordered our videocamera as an early X-Mas present to ourselves, I decided to upgrade: Got a 120 GB hard drive, planning to use it as the new base drive.
After a tortuously long attempt at installing said hard drive, which wasn't helped by a manual for another hard drive that turned out not to be my old one, we finally got the jumpers set right and the master/slave thing worked out and the whole thing up and running. Except: It still locked up at random moments.
Oh, how I miss the halcyon days when that was my computer's only problem.
Through a series of misadventures involving reinstalling Windows XP, changing display drivers and other such things, I eventually found myself with a computer that wasn't even remotely working. Desperate, I called Computer Nerdz here in Austin, they sent someone out, he gave me peace of mind by assuring me that he would have done the same types of things I was trying but much less peace of mind when he couldn't fix the computer any better than I could, at least not without a big huge tech support bill that I couldn't afford.
So it was decided that I would do a clean install of Windows XP on my old hard drive, use the new one as a slave. Except that now the computer was locking up every time I tried to load up Windows, such that it took over two hours just to get it started on the installation. I went to work, hoping Suzanne would be able to keep resetting until eventually the computer would fail to lock up and Windows XP would install.
It did, but then Suzanne ran a virus scan (understand, I'd had McAfee for as long as I'd had this computer) and found a virus. Which might also be the cause of the random lockups. Long story short, my computer is now practically useless. It has Windows XP on it, but it goes about 5-15 minutes between locking up. It has either: A) a virus B) bad memory C) a bad motherboard or D) all of the above. Frankly, I'm at a complete loss. And speaking of loss, somehow the computer managed to lose all of my saved email and my copious address book, neither of which was backed up as most of my data (which it *can* still find) was.
Now I'm working on my (much slower) laptop until I can figure out what to do. One thing's for sure... I'm looking much more seriously at getting a Mac the next time I buy a computer.
A little while back, I wrote about a condition in which my computer was randomly locking up. I thought it might be a virus, or a damaged hard drive, or something else. So, when Suzanne and I ordered our videocamera as an early X-Mas present to ourselves, I decided to upgrade: Got a 120 GB hard drive, planning to use it as the new base drive.
After a tortuously long attempt at installing said hard drive, which wasn't helped by a manual for another hard drive that turned out not to be my old one, we finally got the jumpers set right and the master/slave thing worked out and the whole thing up and running. Except: It still locked up at random moments.
Oh, how I miss the halcyon days when that was my computer's only problem.
Through a series of misadventures involving reinstalling Windows XP, changing display drivers and other such things, I eventually found myself with a computer that wasn't even remotely working. Desperate, I called Computer Nerdz here in Austin, they sent someone out, he gave me peace of mind by assuring me that he would have done the same types of things I was trying but much less peace of mind when he couldn't fix the computer any better than I could, at least not without a big huge tech support bill that I couldn't afford.
So it was decided that I would do a clean install of Windows XP on my old hard drive, use the new one as a slave. Except that now the computer was locking up every time I tried to load up Windows, such that it took over two hours just to get it started on the installation. I went to work, hoping Suzanne would be able to keep resetting until eventually the computer would fail to lock up and Windows XP would install.
It did, but then Suzanne ran a virus scan (understand, I'd had McAfee for as long as I'd had this computer) and found a virus. Which might also be the cause of the random lockups. Long story short, my computer is now practically useless. It has Windows XP on it, but it goes about 5-15 minutes between locking up. It has either: A) a virus B) bad memory C) a bad motherboard or D) all of the above. Frankly, I'm at a complete loss. And speaking of loss, somehow the computer managed to lose all of my saved email and my copious address book, neither of which was backed up as most of my data (which it *can* still find) was.
Now I'm working on my (much slower) laptop until I can figure out what to do. One thing's for sure... I'm looking much more seriously at getting a Mac the next time I buy a computer.
Monday, November 24, 2003
The Many Sins of ABC Chapter Six-Hundred and Twelve
Everything that is wrong with television is encapsulated in this story about ABC and Karen Sisco. They plan to change up a critically-acclaimed show by changing one of the very things that made it so interesting (they're going to ditch the hapless, Elmore Leonard style bad guys for something more "dangerous" i.e. "ripped from the headlines?"). I want to give them credit for not giving up on the show, but when the article ends with "We don't want to do anything without everyone being enthusiastic about it" it's hard not to be a bit cynical.
Really? Anything? Yeah, that's definitely the way to create edgy, must-watch television, by making sure that everyone is enthusiastic about every single thing you do.
Everything that is wrong with television is encapsulated in this story about ABC and Karen Sisco. They plan to change up a critically-acclaimed show by changing one of the very things that made it so interesting (they're going to ditch the hapless, Elmore Leonard style bad guys for something more "dangerous" i.e. "ripped from the headlines?"). I want to give them credit for not giving up on the show, but when the article ends with "We don't want to do anything without everyone being enthusiastic about it" it's hard not to be a bit cynical.
Really? Anything? Yeah, that's definitely the way to create edgy, must-watch television, by making sure that everyone is enthusiastic about every single thing you do.
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Karen Sisco:
So AICN is reporting that Karen Sisco has been yanked by ABC. Supposedly, they're going to "relaunch" in March in a new timeslot. Which will no doubt conflict with something else I'm watching.
The only good show to come out of the new season is now gone, 24 is hugely disappointing in Season Three, no new Shield until January... man, it's a good thing I don't have enough free time to watch much TV anyway.
Although I am still *loving* Alias. Wish it wasn't on ABC, given that they've killed so many good shows before their time. And the last two episodes of Angel (the Mexican wrestling episode and Wes's dad) have been pretty good, with my biggest complaint being that I still hate Spike and don't want him on the show.
So AICN is reporting that Karen Sisco has been yanked by ABC. Supposedly, they're going to "relaunch" in March in a new timeslot. Which will no doubt conflict with something else I'm watching.
The only good show to come out of the new season is now gone, 24 is hugely disappointing in Season Three, no new Shield until January... man, it's a good thing I don't have enough free time to watch much TV anyway.
Although I am still *loving* Alias. Wish it wasn't on ABC, given that they've killed so many good shows before their time. And the last two episodes of Angel (the Mexican wrestling episode and Wes's dad) have been pretty good, with my biggest complaint being that I still hate Spike and don't want him on the show.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Las Vegas:
So I went to the Las Vegas Comicon and Diamond/Alliance Retailer summit last weekend. The Con was a bit of a bust, and I would have been pretty pissed if I'd spent my own money on the plane (as opposed to just blowing the cash for the hotel.) It was a good effort, but the organizers wanted to be too big too fast, and it felt very much like one of those "done in 10 minute" small Cons. Still, I got to see a lot of folks who I might not have seen if I went to just the retailer summit, including Bendis, Eric Shanower, Alex Robinson and Kristen Siebecker (of BOP fame), Chris Staros (of Top Shelf), and the Diamond/Alliance summit itself was really well done, even if you did have to walk an enormous distance to get from registration to the events themselves for no readily apparent reason.
Oh, and I got to see several of the water shows at the Bellagio, which were pretty impressive.
So I went to the Las Vegas Comicon and Diamond/Alliance Retailer summit last weekend. The Con was a bit of a bust, and I would have been pretty pissed if I'd spent my own money on the plane (as opposed to just blowing the cash for the hotel.) It was a good effort, but the organizers wanted to be too big too fast, and it felt very much like one of those "done in 10 minute" small Cons. Still, I got to see a lot of folks who I might not have seen if I went to just the retailer summit, including Bendis, Eric Shanower, Alex Robinson and Kristen Siebecker (of BOP fame), Chris Staros (of Top Shelf), and the Diamond/Alliance summit itself was really well done, even if you did have to walk an enormous distance to get from registration to the events themselves for no readily apparent reason.
Oh, and I got to see several of the water shows at the Bellagio, which were pretty impressive.
I Hate My Computer:
For a while now, my computer has been locking up in miduse. Locks up, won't respond to anything from the keyboard (not even control-alt-delete) and has to be rebooted using the reset button. Which, at least twice, has wiped out information on programs I was running at the time, most notably erasing the contents of my Inbox twice. Pretty annoying, especially this last time, when I had about a dozen messages saved that I needed and hadn't responded to yet.
So the long and short of it is... if you emailed me in the past four or five days and didn't get a response, I might have lost the email, so send it again. And if anyone out there has any ideas how to fix this (I'm running Windows XP, updated regularly, and I have McAfee anti-virus software, also updated regularly, but I'm beginning to suspect it's a virus) I'd appreciate a hint or two.
For a while now, my computer has been locking up in miduse. Locks up, won't respond to anything from the keyboard (not even control-alt-delete) and has to be rebooted using the reset button. Which, at least twice, has wiped out information on programs I was running at the time, most notably erasing the contents of my Inbox twice. Pretty annoying, especially this last time, when I had about a dozen messages saved that I needed and hadn't responded to yet.
So the long and short of it is... if you emailed me in the past four or five days and didn't get a response, I might have lost the email, so send it again. And if anyone out there has any ideas how to fix this (I'm running Windows XP, updated regularly, and I have McAfee anti-virus software, also updated regularly, but I'm beginning to suspect it's a virus) I'd appreciate a hint or two.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Just a little housecleaning...
Huh, been a while since I updated, huh? Well, it's either this or Fourth Rail, and I think most folks would rather I put the time into doing reviews.
To update, though... downloaded iTunes for Windows last week, and I *love* it. I've converted all my MP3s into AAC, which saved me quite a bit of space, and have already bought half a dozen tunes in two weeks (most of them from bands I'd never even heard of before). It's not likely to replace CDs for me, because I still want albums, and if I'm going to buy them, I'd rather have hardcopy as well, but it's really cool. And it has me wanting an iPod, even though I really don't need one. Now if I had a car stereo that took an audio input, I'd be much more anxious to get one, but every report I've read indicates that the iPod FM tuners don't work so well for car audio, and that's mostly what I'd want to use it for.
TV... really enjoying Karen Sisco, and otherwise the new season is a complete waste. The stuff I'd been enjoying is still great (I'm *loving* Alias and it's never status-quo status quo, and Nip/Tuck ended very well), good (Smallville is fun, although I could turn it off in a second and never miss it, which I couldn't say for Buffy or Angel at heart) or worrisome (I can't stand that Angel has become Angel & Spike, since I liked Spike as a villain and have hated the character (but not the actor, I should note) for about three seasons of Buffy). Looking forward to 24 (it's beckoning from the Tivo now, but I have made a pact with some friends to only watch it on Friday nights when we're together for gaming) and The Shield (January?! Ah, the downside of 13 episode seasons).
Movies... Saw Kill Bill and enjoyed it. Enjoyed it even more on second viewing. It sits below Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and True Romance in my personal ranking of Tarantino, but if volume two can deliver, I think it will rest just above Jackie Brown. And who knows... for sheer re-watchability, it may exceed Reservoir Dogs as well.
DVDs... Let's see. Caught Dark Blue the other night, which was solid but not exceptional. Before that, I saw Confidence (which I *loved*), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Lukewarm, and I was disappointed), Bend It Like Beckham (as much fun as everyone said it was), Identity (predictable, but a good way to kill a couple hours), The Italian Job (fun popcorn heist movie, went on my Amazon wish list), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I think you had to see it when you were in high school to really dig it) and Undercover Brother (stupid but fun).
Music... Just bought Office Space soundtrack and the latest Smash Mouth used (and cheap) from Amazon. My iTunes purchases have been Fountains of Wayne, Beck, Big Audio Dynamite II, Sinead O'Connor (thanks to Alias), Kinky (thanks to Karen Sisco and Nip/Tuck) and The Forces of Evil. Looking forward (probably at Christmas) to the new Barenaked Ladies, the 70's Punk compliation No Thanks!, The Best of R.E.M. and the Alias soundtrack (which I hope has pop songs as well as score type stuff).
Gaming... Just restarted our Spycraft game (I love that system), and the first session went well, if a little long on the "gearing up" phase of things. And still running the Champions game on occasional Sundays, somewhere between 1-2 times a month.
Wow. I bet nobody reading this actually cared about all of that stuff. Wonder if anyone but me cares about any of it?
Huh, been a while since I updated, huh? Well, it's either this or Fourth Rail, and I think most folks would rather I put the time into doing reviews.
To update, though... downloaded iTunes for Windows last week, and I *love* it. I've converted all my MP3s into AAC, which saved me quite a bit of space, and have already bought half a dozen tunes in two weeks (most of them from bands I'd never even heard of before). It's not likely to replace CDs for me, because I still want albums, and if I'm going to buy them, I'd rather have hardcopy as well, but it's really cool. And it has me wanting an iPod, even though I really don't need one. Now if I had a car stereo that took an audio input, I'd be much more anxious to get one, but every report I've read indicates that the iPod FM tuners don't work so well for car audio, and that's mostly what I'd want to use it for.
TV... really enjoying Karen Sisco, and otherwise the new season is a complete waste. The stuff I'd been enjoying is still great (I'm *loving* Alias and it's never status-quo status quo, and Nip/Tuck ended very well), good (Smallville is fun, although I could turn it off in a second and never miss it, which I couldn't say for Buffy or Angel at heart) or worrisome (I can't stand that Angel has become Angel & Spike, since I liked Spike as a villain and have hated the character (but not the actor, I should note) for about three seasons of Buffy). Looking forward to 24 (it's beckoning from the Tivo now, but I have made a pact with some friends to only watch it on Friday nights when we're together for gaming) and The Shield (January?! Ah, the downside of 13 episode seasons).
Movies... Saw Kill Bill and enjoyed it. Enjoyed it even more on second viewing. It sits below Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and True Romance in my personal ranking of Tarantino, but if volume two can deliver, I think it will rest just above Jackie Brown. And who knows... for sheer re-watchability, it may exceed Reservoir Dogs as well.
DVDs... Let's see. Caught Dark Blue the other night, which was solid but not exceptional. Before that, I saw Confidence (which I *loved*), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Lukewarm, and I was disappointed), Bend It Like Beckham (as much fun as everyone said it was), Identity (predictable, but a good way to kill a couple hours), The Italian Job (fun popcorn heist movie, went on my Amazon wish list), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I think you had to see it when you were in high school to really dig it) and Undercover Brother (stupid but fun).
Music... Just bought Office Space soundtrack and the latest Smash Mouth used (and cheap) from Amazon. My iTunes purchases have been Fountains of Wayne, Beck, Big Audio Dynamite II, Sinead O'Connor (thanks to Alias), Kinky (thanks to Karen Sisco and Nip/Tuck) and The Forces of Evil. Looking forward (probably at Christmas) to the new Barenaked Ladies, the 70's Punk compliation No Thanks!, The Best of R.E.M. and the Alias soundtrack (which I hope has pop songs as well as score type stuff).
Gaming... Just restarted our Spycraft game (I love that system), and the first session went well, if a little long on the "gearing up" phase of things. And still running the Champions game on occasional Sundays, somewhere between 1-2 times a month.
Wow. I bet nobody reading this actually cared about all of that stuff. Wonder if anyone but me cares about any of it?
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Movies:
In the past few weeks, I've been to one movie in the theatre (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which I quite enjoyed, although Desperado remains my favorite of the trilogy) and seen lots more on DVD. I watched Chicago last night, and while I expected to like it, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that it graduated from Netflix rental to a place on my Amazon wish list, because I can definitely see re-watching it several times. Not as re-watchable to me, but also entertaining, was Catch Me If You Can, and I'm looking forward to diving into Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (the third in my recent rentals) soon.
In the past few weeks, I've been to one movie in the theatre (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which I quite enjoyed, although Desperado remains my favorite of the trilogy) and seen lots more on DVD. I watched Chicago last night, and while I expected to like it, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that it graduated from Netflix rental to a place on my Amazon wish list, because I can definitely see re-watching it several times. Not as re-watchable to me, but also entertaining, was Catch Me If You Can, and I'm looking forward to diving into Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (the third in my recent rentals) soon.
Monday, September 15, 2003
Comic Book Idol - Round Five:
The final entries in Comic Book Idol, a three-page sequential sequence plotted by J. Torres, are in, and wow... they look really good. Both Hickman and Scherberger did a great job, and if there's any justice, we'll see both of them (as well as L. Frank Weber, and maybe some of the other contenders) doing work in comics soon. I'm honestly not sure who I'll wind up voting for.
The final entries in Comic Book Idol, a three-page sequential sequence plotted by J. Torres, are in, and wow... they look really good. Both Hickman and Scherberger did a great job, and if there's any justice, we'll see both of them (as well as L. Frank Weber, and maybe some of the other contenders) doing work in comics soon. I'm honestly not sure who I'll wind up voting for.
Monday, September 08, 2003
Comic Book Idol - Round Four:
Well, with L. Frank Weber eliminated (and Flores remains in?), my enthusiasm for the contest has dampened considerably, as I thought Weber was easily the best of the bunch. I even voted for him instead of Hickman, who was probably my favorite cover of the last round, because I thought Hickman relied a little too much on his beautiful color work and because it looked like he was going to make it through OK without my vote. This week is a bit disappointing, actually... none of the pieces really blow me away. Even Scherberger, who I really like, has some inconsistency and the "raccoon eyes," which I could have written off as a stylistic quirk for Queen & Country, indicating black marks for cover work, have gotten a bit annoying. Still, I'd vote for Scherberger if it wasn't for Hickman. His work has a couple minor flaws, and again it feels like his work relies as much on a great color sense as it does on actual pencilling/inking (or painting, as it were) skills, but it's a strong piece. I could easily see Hickman on a Vertigo book with this style, or doing something really different with some of the Marvel and DC characters. Hell, if this were the art style on Iron Man, and he were matched with a good enough writer, I think I'd be pretty interested.
Well, with L. Frank Weber eliminated (and Flores remains in?), my enthusiasm for the contest has dampened considerably, as I thought Weber was easily the best of the bunch. I even voted for him instead of Hickman, who was probably my favorite cover of the last round, because I thought Hickman relied a little too much on his beautiful color work and because it looked like he was going to make it through OK without my vote. This week is a bit disappointing, actually... none of the pieces really blow me away. Even Scherberger, who I really like, has some inconsistency and the "raccoon eyes," which I could have written off as a stylistic quirk for Queen & Country, indicating black marks for cover work, have gotten a bit annoying. Still, I'd vote for Scherberger if it wasn't for Hickman. His work has a couple minor flaws, and again it feels like his work relies as much on a great color sense as it does on actual pencilling/inking (or painting, as it were) skills, but it's a strong piece. I could easily see Hickman on a Vertigo book with this style, or doing something really different with some of the Marvel and DC characters. Hell, if this were the art style on Iron Man, and he were matched with a good enough writer, I think I'd be pretty interested.
Monday, September 01, 2003
Comic Book Idol - Round Three:
I had an easy time voting last week, because there were really only two pieces that impressed me in the Queen & Country round, but I'm going to have a lot tougher time voting for Comic Book Idol this time out. All six entries are now up, and I'm leaning toward Jonathan Hickman as my favorite, but L. Frank Weber and Patrick Scherberger have done it again as well, and while Martin Redmond's cover looks a little too busy for me, I really do love his style.
I had an easy time voting last week, because there were really only two pieces that impressed me in the Queen & Country round, but I'm going to have a lot tougher time voting for Comic Book Idol this time out. All six entries are now up, and I'm leaning toward Jonathan Hickman as my favorite, but L. Frank Weber and Patrick Scherberger have done it again as well, and while Martin Redmond's cover looks a little too busy for me, I really do love his style.
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Same Difference and Other Stories:
There's never enough time to review everything I want to. Right now, I've got stacks of comics and graphic novels to review on The Fourth Rail, and sometimes in order to keep going, I have to let something slip by that I just don't have time to review. Same Difference and Other Stories, by Derek Kim, is one of those things. I picked this up after getting recommendations from Chris Butcher at Previewsreview and my friend Dave, and I loved it. I agree with pretty much everything in Greg McElhatton's review, which was posted on Friday.
There's never enough time to review everything I want to. Right now, I've got stacks of comics and graphic novels to review on The Fourth Rail, and sometimes in order to keep going, I have to let something slip by that I just don't have time to review. Same Difference and Other Stories, by Derek Kim, is one of those things. I picked this up after getting recommendations from Chris Butcher at Previewsreview and my friend Dave, and I loved it. I agree with pretty much everything in Greg McElhatton's review, which was posted on Friday.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
SoBig... SoGoddamBig...
I'm not certain, because I haven't really been counting every time, but I think I'm receiving in the neighborhood of a 1,000 messages a day courtesy of our good friend the SoBig virus. Even with spam-killing filters, this thing is an enormous pain in the ass. It is my hope that they will catch whoever created this pox on our modern society and send them to (in the parlance of Mike Judge's Office Space) "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison."
I'm not certain, because I haven't really been counting every time, but I think I'm receiving in the neighborhood of a 1,000 messages a day courtesy of our good friend the SoBig virus. Even with spam-killing filters, this thing is an enormous pain in the ass. It is my hope that they will catch whoever created this pox on our modern society and send them to (in the parlance of Mike Judge's Office Space) "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison."
Monday, August 25, 2003
Comic Book Idol: Round Two
All of the contenders for Round Two of Comic Book Idol are in now. To me, it looks like a race between Patrick Scherberger and L. Frank Weber, and I'm not sure where my vote in the poll is going to go. I do know that I've finally signed up on the CBR forums as a member specifically so I can vote in these polls. I'm hooked!
All of the contenders for Round Two of Comic Book Idol are in now. To me, it looks like a race between Patrick Scherberger and L. Frank Weber, and I'm not sure where my vote in the poll is going to go. I do know that I've finally signed up on the CBR forums as a member specifically so I can vote in these polls. I'm hooked!
Dead Like Me:
Though I don't have any pay channels, it's hard to resist when they keep coming up with such great original series. A friend recently loaned me the first eight episodes of Dead Like Me, Showtime's new comedy/drama about "Reapers," undead folks who take the souls of the living right before they die. I had caught episodes two and three a little while back when staying with my in-laws in Dallas, and was intrigued, and by the end of episode four on the tapes I was completely hooked. It's just gotten better from there, and while I'm not yet sold on new character Daisy Adair (loved the actress in 24, though, and her character here is starting to grow on me) I *love* the work that Mandy Patinkin and star Ellen Muth are doing, not to mention all the work of the mom and sister of lead character George. I've missed Jasmine Guy's wonderfully acerbic Roxy in the last couple episodes, but the show is really sweet and growing funnier. I'll definitely be picking this one up on DVD.
Though I don't have any pay channels, it's hard to resist when they keep coming up with such great original series. A friend recently loaned me the first eight episodes of Dead Like Me, Showtime's new comedy/drama about "Reapers," undead folks who take the souls of the living right before they die. I had caught episodes two and three a little while back when staying with my in-laws in Dallas, and was intrigued, and by the end of episode four on the tapes I was completely hooked. It's just gotten better from there, and while I'm not yet sold on new character Daisy Adair (loved the actress in 24, though, and her character here is starting to grow on me) I *love* the work that Mandy Patinkin and star Ellen Muth are doing, not to mention all the work of the mom and sister of lead character George. I've missed Jasmine Guy's wonderfully acerbic Roxy in the last couple episodes, but the show is really sweet and growing funnier. I'll definitely be picking this one up on DVD.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
If you haven't checked out J. Torres's Comic Book Idol over at CBR, you're missing some interesting artwork and fun commentary, and just a well-executed neat idea. I wasn't so sure at first, given my absolute hatred for American Idol, but I'm digging Comic Book Idol so far.
Monday, August 04, 2003
NEWSARAMA - SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR CASTILLO CASE - There are so many frustrating things about this decision to me. First and foremost is that I can relate very much to Jesus Castillo's position, given my own job and locale, and I can't even imagine what he's been put through. It makes me angry to think that because he did his job, sold adult material to an adult, he suffered financial and legal hardships.
Second is, of course, that this sets a legal precedent whereby "comics are for kids, despite any evidence or testimony you might here." Not only is this stupid and insulting to a medium that I have devoted a lot of my time to, it's chilling and dangerous from a legal standpoint.
Third, I live in Texas (OK, Austin, but still...) and I know that this just reinforces the view that Texans are a bunch of inbred hillbillies with values from the 18th century. Sure, the people who hold this view tend to come off as judgmental idiots who don't know what they're talking about, but when something like this comes down, it's really hard to argue with them, and I *live* in fucking Texas and know better.
Probably most frustrating, though, is that this is a victory for the small-minded. And there have been way too many of those lately, in the world arena, in national politics, everywhere I look, and it's depressing as hell.
Second is, of course, that this sets a legal precedent whereby "comics are for kids, despite any evidence or testimony you might here." Not only is this stupid and insulting to a medium that I have devoted a lot of my time to, it's chilling and dangerous from a legal standpoint.
Third, I live in Texas (OK, Austin, but still...) and I know that this just reinforces the view that Texans are a bunch of inbred hillbillies with values from the 18th century. Sure, the people who hold this view tend to come off as judgmental idiots who don't know what they're talking about, but when something like this comes down, it's really hard to argue with them, and I *live* in fucking Texas and know better.
Probably most frustrating, though, is that this is a victory for the small-minded. And there have been way too many of those lately, in the world arena, in national politics, everywhere I look, and it's depressing as hell.
Monday, June 30, 2003
Finding Nemo:
Saw this about a week ago and, no surprise, loved it. Pixar Studios gets my money anytime they put a movie out (in theatres or on DVD) and it's always, always worth it. Finding Nemo had a special resonance for me as a new dad, because the notion of being able to protect my daughter from everything is one that weighs on my mind, and I like that Nemo had a message for kids (Your parents may not seem cool, but they'll do *anything* for you) and adults (you can't protect your kids by hiding them from the world). It also had, as always, great actors doing voice work and funny bits (loved Crush, the turtle voiced by director Stanton).
Saw this about a week ago and, no surprise, loved it. Pixar Studios gets my money anytime they put a movie out (in theatres or on DVD) and it's always, always worth it. Finding Nemo had a special resonance for me as a new dad, because the notion of being able to protect my daughter from everything is one that weighs on my mind, and I like that Nemo had a message for kids (Your parents may not seem cool, but they'll do *anything* for you) and adults (you can't protect your kids by hiding them from the world). It also had, as always, great actors doing voice work and funny bits (loved Crush, the turtle voiced by director Stanton).
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Shadowrun Duels:
This action figure game is completely addictive, just as Wizkids' Heroclix line has been. I swore I was going to avoid taking the budget hit, what with so many good comics coming out in June and DC: Cosmic Justice besides, but I couldn't resist once I saw the figures. Amazing sculpts, pretty solid articulation and nifty gear made them fun for a toy collector, and the game system is simple enough but tailored to the action figure size, not just a retrofit of the Clix rules. I've played but one game so far, but the potential is there for big fun and big multi-player run and gun fests. So far I've picked up half: Kyushi the Yakuza sniper, Lothan the troll mage (by far the best plastic/money ratio of the bunch) and G-Dogg the ork bouncer, and I can easily see buying the other three before Wave 2 hits. Wave 2 and 3, btw, look even better than most of the figures in this first wave. Fun stuff.
This action figure game is completely addictive, just as Wizkids' Heroclix line has been. I swore I was going to avoid taking the budget hit, what with so many good comics coming out in June and DC: Cosmic Justice besides, but I couldn't resist once I saw the figures. Amazing sculpts, pretty solid articulation and nifty gear made them fun for a toy collector, and the game system is simple enough but tailored to the action figure size, not just a retrofit of the Clix rules. I've played but one game so far, but the potential is there for big fun and big multi-player run and gun fests. So far I've picked up half: Kyushi the Yakuza sniper, Lothan the troll mage (by far the best plastic/money ratio of the bunch) and G-Dogg the ork bouncer, and I can easily see buying the other three before Wave 2 hits. Wave 2 and 3, btw, look even better than most of the figures in this first wave. Fun stuff.
The Hulk:
Went and saw this Saturday night with low expectations, and still walked away disappointed. It's not the FX... in fact, the Hulk just rocks, and the best scenes in the movie are the ones where he's fighting tanks, leaping through the desert or tearing up San Francisco. No, it's the fact that the FX crew delivered on the damn-near impossible task of creating the Hulk for live-action and Ang Lee and company dropped the ball with a slow, disjointed, emotionless and dull story. It never comes together, and I'm at a loss as to why it was necessary to spend a good hour or so of the film trying to convince us of the scientific plausibility of the Hulk... it's a guy who turns green and throws tanks around... how plausible can you really get? Throw in other minor-league complaints (would it have killed them to have the Hulk talk, or at least thrown us a "Hulk Smash!") and you've got a comic-book movie that sits right below Daredevil in the disappointing-but-not-really-unexpected failures.
Went and saw this Saturday night with low expectations, and still walked away disappointed. It's not the FX... in fact, the Hulk just rocks, and the best scenes in the movie are the ones where he's fighting tanks, leaping through the desert or tearing up San Francisco. No, it's the fact that the FX crew delivered on the damn-near impossible task of creating the Hulk for live-action and Ang Lee and company dropped the ball with a slow, disjointed, emotionless and dull story. It never comes together, and I'm at a loss as to why it was necessary to spend a good hour or so of the film trying to convince us of the scientific plausibility of the Hulk... it's a guy who turns green and throws tanks around... how plausible can you really get? Throw in other minor-league complaints (would it have killed them to have the Hulk talk, or at least thrown us a "Hulk Smash!") and you've got a comic-book movie that sits right below Daredevil in the disappointing-but-not-really-unexpected failures.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
And The Award for Most Colossal Fuck-Up in Comics Management Goes to:
Graphitti Designs Presents... NEWSARAMA: WAID FIRED FROM FF WITH #508 - This rumor surfaced on the Bendis board and seemed completely ridiculous. I mean, under Waid's guidance the Fantastic Four is enjoying a creative resurgence (whether I'm a big fan of his take on Doom or not, the book is still good to great) and a sales resurgence... so they take him off the book? And replace him with President of Marvel Bill Jemas, who has gone to great lengths to prove that he can't write? (Update: Jemas is, according to Marvel, not the new writer on the book. That part may have been Waid repeating the rumors from the Bendis board poster, or (to be less charitable to Marvel) Marvel may have back-tracked on that when they saw how much heat that part of the announcement was stirring up.)
I'm just boggled by this decision. It strikes me as the kind of bone-headed move Marvel would have made during the 90s, right around the period where I (and many others) dropped all of their books in frustration.
Graphitti Designs Presents... NEWSARAMA: WAID FIRED FROM FF WITH #508 - This rumor surfaced on the Bendis board and seemed completely ridiculous. I mean, under Waid's guidance the Fantastic Four is enjoying a creative resurgence (whether I'm a big fan of his take on Doom or not, the book is still good to great) and a sales resurgence... so they take him off the book? And replace him with President of Marvel Bill Jemas, who has gone to great lengths to prove that he can't write? (Update: Jemas is, according to Marvel, not the new writer on the book. That part may have been Waid repeating the rumors from the Bendis board poster, or (to be less charitable to Marvel) Marvel may have back-tracked on that when they saw how much heat that part of the announcement was stirring up.)
I'm just boggled by this decision. It strikes me as the kind of bone-headed move Marvel would have made during the 90s, right around the period where I (and many others) dropped all of their books in frustration.
Friday, June 13, 2003
Proof of God Found on IMDB:
Thanks to a tipoff from a message-board poster at the Pulse, I went over to IMDB and discovered that it is true: Brad Bird, creator of the underappreciated work of genius Iron Giant, is the writer and director of The Incredibles, a super-hero film by the "haven't had a miss yet" Pixar Studios.
I was already looking forward to The Incredibles because of the teaser trailer and my slavish devotion to the work of Pixar... now I absolutely can't wait for November 2004.
Thanks to a tipoff from a message-board poster at the Pulse, I went over to IMDB and discovered that it is true: Brad Bird, creator of the underappreciated work of genius Iron Giant, is the writer and director of The Incredibles, a super-hero film by the "haven't had a miss yet" Pixar Studios.
I was already looking forward to The Incredibles because of the teaser trailer and my slavish devotion to the work of Pixar... now I absolutely can't wait for November 2004.
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
The Animatrix:
Picked this up today (the 2-disc set with CD, naturally) and *LOVED* it. I'd already seen 5 of the shorts and liked all of them (Flight of the Osiris was a favorite, with Second Renaissance a close second and Detective Story a pretty close third... and if you ask me tomorrow, I might rearrange the order of those, and put Program in the mix as well). The last four on the disc are also anywhere from good to exceptional. Matriculated got a little too weird for me, but is still intriguing, but the rest are fantastic. I particularly loved the fast-paced "A Kid's Story," although the lyrical and strange "Beyond" and the hopeful and powerful story "World Record" are also great.
This has had the side-effect of interesting me more in some anime, and I've put Blue Submarine on my Netflix list as a result... the last thing in the world I need is a new addiction, but these features, and the well-done documentary about anime that accompanies them, has stirred my interest a little more. I also got a kick out of seeing local professor, Dr. Susan Napier, on the documentary, given that she's a professor that a friend of mine talks about constantly and absolutely adores.
I liked Matrix Reloaded, but in just about every way, The Animatrix is the superior product. I can see myself watching it over and over again, in whole and in part.
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Tax Law Omits Child Credit in Low-Income Brackets - While they found room for cutting taxes on high-income taxpayers on their stock dividends, it seems that the majority who passed the new budget couldn't find a way to make the tax credit of $400 extend to families who need it, those making under about $27,000.
To those who worked this bit of political skullduggery... you are Scum. Absolute, total scum. When people talk about politicians in the same warm tone that they use to describe child molestors and rapists, you are the one who earned your colleagues this reputation.
To those who worked this bit of political skullduggery... you are Scum. Absolute, total scum. When people talk about politicians in the same warm tone that they use to describe child molestors and rapists, you are the one who earned your colleagues this reputation.
Good Reading on the Web:
Steven Grant has turned his column over to some of his readers for a commentary on the "state of the industry" for this week. The result? Some really interesting stuff. In particular, Chris Todd's piece really spoke to me. This paragraph pretty much makes a point that I absolutely believe in:
"The point is this: that while comics are a rich, inventive art form, they are also a marginal one and always will be. Like opera, Shakespeare, James Joyce, jazz, "The Saragossa Manuscript," and Laurie Anderson, even the laziest of comics requires not only a certain amount of dedication on the part of the reader to learn how to read it in the first place (panel transitions, different fonts, motion lines, all the Scott McCloud stuff), but also an interest in seeing stories told in that fashion at all. And in the same way that a lot of people -- a lot of the mainstream, in fact -- don't enjoy classical music, a lot of people simply don't like to experience stories in comic form. It's not a matter of "if they only knew," it's that they just don't like it."
But it's all really interesting. Go read it, it's worth the time.
Steven Grant has turned his column over to some of his readers for a commentary on the "state of the industry" for this week. The result? Some really interesting stuff. In particular, Chris Todd's piece really spoke to me. This paragraph pretty much makes a point that I absolutely believe in:
"The point is this: that while comics are a rich, inventive art form, they are also a marginal one and always will be. Like opera, Shakespeare, James Joyce, jazz, "The Saragossa Manuscript," and Laurie Anderson, even the laziest of comics requires not only a certain amount of dedication on the part of the reader to learn how to read it in the first place (panel transitions, different fonts, motion lines, all the Scott McCloud stuff), but also an interest in seeing stories told in that fashion at all. And in the same way that a lot of people -- a lot of the mainstream, in fact -- don't enjoy classical music, a lot of people simply don't like to experience stories in comic form. It's not a matter of "if they only knew," it's that they just don't like it."
But it's all really interesting. Go read it, it's worth the time.
Monday, May 26, 2003
San Diego Here I Come:
With Suzanne deciding to take another couple of months off with the baby, I finally decided that I have the time to go to San Diego, and I'm stupid enough to try it even though I probably shouldn't spend the money... so I'm going. This marks the first time in a couple years that both Don and I will be in San Diego, which should be a lot of fun. I had pretty much resigned myself to not going to San Diego this year, so I'm pretty excited that I managed to talk myself into spending the money and going.
With Suzanne deciding to take another couple of months off with the baby, I finally decided that I have the time to go to San Diego, and I'm stupid enough to try it even though I probably shouldn't spend the money... so I'm going. This marks the first time in a couple years that both Don and I will be in San Diego, which should be a lot of fun. I had pretty much resigned myself to not going to San Diego this year, so I'm pretty excited that I managed to talk myself into spending the money and going.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Bye Bye Buffy:
The final episode of Buffy, written and directed by Joss Whedon, has pretty much guaranteed that I will, in fact, buy season seven on DVD despite hating a good 90% of it. It was a great finale, everyone was very much in character, there was the balance between dark and moody and light and funny that has made the show successful, it opened the mythology up so that a Slayers spinoff could easily have been done...
Basically, the only thing that could have made this finale better was to have Joss Whedon write the rest of the season, because I can only think of how much stronger the episode would have been with better lead-up and less filler. There were plenty of questions that could have been answered, build-up that could have made it feel more important and certainly characters who were ignored while other, lesser characters were pushed to the front. But really, those are mostly still complaints about this season, which has been an absolute disaster. In the final episode, my only complaints are that one of the characters I really wanted to die didn't and that Spike got to play the big important hero, which is still a role I don't think he's earned.
The final episode of Buffy, written and directed by Joss Whedon, has pretty much guaranteed that I will, in fact, buy season seven on DVD despite hating a good 90% of it. It was a great finale, everyone was very much in character, there was the balance between dark and moody and light and funny that has made the show successful, it opened the mythology up so that a Slayers spinoff could easily have been done...
Basically, the only thing that could have made this finale better was to have Joss Whedon write the rest of the season, because I can only think of how much stronger the episode would have been with better lead-up and less filler. There were plenty of questions that could have been answered, build-up that could have made it feel more important and certainly characters who were ignored while other, lesser characters were pushed to the front. But really, those are mostly still complaints about this season, which has been an absolute disaster. In the final episode, my only complaints are that one of the characters I really wanted to die didn't and that Spike got to play the big important hero, which is still a role I don't think he's earned.
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Matrix Thoughts:
I'll admit up front that in just about every aspect, Matrix Reloaded is not as good as the original. However, it's still damn good stuff, and I'm a little annoyed by the geek community backlash that seems to be going on against the film. It's got a lot more to think about, and it throws out the exposition pretty fast and furious, so I can see where people might have just gone slack-jawed about halfway through thanks to the infodump... but I think I caught most of it, and there's so much to think about that I definitely want to see it again, and I think the Wachowskis have really opened up the concept for exploration. I also think that the action scenes in this movie were pretty phenomenal, particularly the car chase, the fight in the atrium and the opening sequence (which, in all honesty, should have only been in the closing sequence where it belonged, timewise). It's not the expectation-shattering new thing that The Matrix was, but it's a solid B, maybe B+, and I'll definitely be happy to see it again and again on DVD.
The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack is a surprise because it focuses more on the orchestral side of things than the last one did. The music on the first disc is interesting, although not as great as the music on the Matrix soundtrack, but I have to admit that some of the heavier tracks (Rob Zombie's "Reload" and, surprisingly, the Marilyn Manson track) both appeal to me as "Matrix" music. Surprisingly, though, Don Davis, the composer, got more into the action this time, and his score is more techno and upbeat and actually is much more prevalent in the film than techno or metal music. Which means that the score, the second disc, is stronger than the original Matrix score. At any rate, it's a solid disc, and also probably a B, B+.
I've only played a little bit of Enter The Matrix, the computer game (PS/2 flavor in my case), but it's looking more like an A. Great voices and acting, extra footage, nice graphics and a cool game engine, plus a side quest that relates to the movie and to the Animatrix, makes it a pretty promising game, and I've enjoyed the hell out of the hour or so I've played so far.
I'll admit up front that in just about every aspect, Matrix Reloaded is not as good as the original. However, it's still damn good stuff, and I'm a little annoyed by the geek community backlash that seems to be going on against the film. It's got a lot more to think about, and it throws out the exposition pretty fast and furious, so I can see where people might have just gone slack-jawed about halfway through thanks to the infodump... but I think I caught most of it, and there's so much to think about that I definitely want to see it again, and I think the Wachowskis have really opened up the concept for exploration. I also think that the action scenes in this movie were pretty phenomenal, particularly the car chase, the fight in the atrium and the opening sequence (which, in all honesty, should have only been in the closing sequence where it belonged, timewise). It's not the expectation-shattering new thing that The Matrix was, but it's a solid B, maybe B+, and I'll definitely be happy to see it again and again on DVD.
The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack is a surprise because it focuses more on the orchestral side of things than the last one did. The music on the first disc is interesting, although not as great as the music on the Matrix soundtrack, but I have to admit that some of the heavier tracks (Rob Zombie's "Reload" and, surprisingly, the Marilyn Manson track) both appeal to me as "Matrix" music. Surprisingly, though, Don Davis, the composer, got more into the action this time, and his score is more techno and upbeat and actually is much more prevalent in the film than techno or metal music. Which means that the score, the second disc, is stronger than the original Matrix score. At any rate, it's a solid disc, and also probably a B, B+.
I've only played a little bit of Enter The Matrix, the computer game (PS/2 flavor in my case), but it's looking more like an A. Great voices and acting, extra footage, nice graphics and a cool game engine, plus a side quest that relates to the movie and to the Animatrix, makes it a pretty promising game, and I've enjoyed the hell out of the hour or so I've played so far.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
I rented Six Feet Under: Season One from Netflix, and I'm currently about six episodes into it. It is great, terrific music, great direction and amazing characters. I honestly was prepared to be a bit underwhelmed, and to find the show was overhyped as I found Sopranos to be, but after getting about halfway through disc two I've put the set (overpriced though it is) on my Amazon wish list, and added the soundtrack CD as well.
Monday, May 05, 2003
New online comic written by Andrew Dabb is up at NextComics. It's a creepy and entertaining short story with great color artwork by Sean Clauretie.
On Alias:
Season two ends with a lot of big changes, but I'm not as blown away as I was by the ender for the first season, when it seemed like Vaughn had died and we finally found out for sure what Sydney's mom had been up to. Honestly, I was glad to see Irina go back to being a no-doubt bad guy, working with Sark and Sloane, they made for a great villainous trio, and the "is she or isn't she?" stuff got old for me, so I was sorry to see it reintroduced. Although glad to see that Sid wasn't having any of it. Still, Sloane gets a terrific, creepy turn with Jack Bristow, who is still absolutely the man (every time he's on screen, I'm reminded of how great a character he is and how good the actor playing him is) and though the Rimbaldi plot has been building since season one, I'm still not tired of it. Oh, and Marshall and his new girl (whose name still hasn't stuck with me) are still very cute, and I really like the actress they've chosen for that role... hope she continues next season as a regular. In addition, there was some great action here, from Irina's escape to Will's escape to the final fight between Allison and Sydney... guess I was wrong on who was behind the mask at Fran's place, too bad as I thought having her be Anna would have had more resonance for Sid. Not so sure about the cliffhanger... it's certainly a shocker, but I liked the relatively pain-free and angst-free relationship of Sydney and Vaughn, and I'm sorry that we may once again be going back to the "staring wistfully at one another across the room."
Still, given that I just about gave up on the show when they went into the whole "Sydney is the anti-christ" X-Files-ish thing, I'm right back on board now, and can't wait to see season three or pick up the season one DVDs.
Season two ends with a lot of big changes, but I'm not as blown away as I was by the ender for the first season, when it seemed like Vaughn had died and we finally found out for sure what Sydney's mom had been up to. Honestly, I was glad to see Irina go back to being a no-doubt bad guy, working with Sark and Sloane, they made for a great villainous trio, and the "is she or isn't she?" stuff got old for me, so I was sorry to see it reintroduced. Although glad to see that Sid wasn't having any of it. Still, Sloane gets a terrific, creepy turn with Jack Bristow, who is still absolutely the man (every time he's on screen, I'm reminded of how great a character he is and how good the actor playing him is) and though the Rimbaldi plot has been building since season one, I'm still not tired of it. Oh, and Marshall and his new girl (whose name still hasn't stuck with me) are still very cute, and I really like the actress they've chosen for that role... hope she continues next season as a regular. In addition, there was some great action here, from Irina's escape to Will's escape to the final fight between Allison and Sydney... guess I was wrong on who was behind the mask at Fran's place, too bad as I thought having her be Anna would have had more resonance for Sid. Not so sure about the cliffhanger... it's certainly a shocker, but I liked the relatively pain-free and angst-free relationship of Sydney and Vaughn, and I'm sorry that we may once again be going back to the "staring wistfully at one another across the room."
Still, given that I just about gave up on the show when they went into the whole "Sydney is the anti-christ" X-Files-ish thing, I'm right back on board now, and can't wait to see season three or pick up the season one DVDs.
Friday, May 02, 2003
On X2:
Well, that kicked ass. I went in with pretty high expectations, partly from the cool trailers and partly from the positive buzz, and I still came out satisfied. The team absolutely *nailed* the character of Nightcrawler in powers, appearance and personality, Hugh Jackman has another amazing turn as Wolverine and Halle Berry works a lot better as Storm in this one than she did in the first. Mystique is also just an absolute badass in this film, and it's got me even more hyped for more of Vaughan's Mystique comic. The film has some strong resemblances to "God Loves, Man Kills," but it also references everything from the Phoenix storyline to Weapon X, and amazingly, it all works and ties together. Some of the characters get pushed to the side a bit... Xavier, Cyclops and Rogue all have smaller roles here than they did in the beginning, but nobody is left behind. Even Colossus, basically a bit part, gets a really cool moment. It looks good, it's fun to watch and it's got winks to the super-hero crowd without overloading on them. This is what super-hero movies should be, and quite frankly, I think it's even better than the much-lauded Spider-Man.
Well, that kicked ass. I went in with pretty high expectations, partly from the cool trailers and partly from the positive buzz, and I still came out satisfied. The team absolutely *nailed* the character of Nightcrawler in powers, appearance and personality, Hugh Jackman has another amazing turn as Wolverine and Halle Berry works a lot better as Storm in this one than she did in the first. Mystique is also just an absolute badass in this film, and it's got me even more hyped for more of Vaughan's Mystique comic. The film has some strong resemblances to "God Loves, Man Kills," but it also references everything from the Phoenix storyline to Weapon X, and amazingly, it all works and ties together. Some of the characters get pushed to the side a bit... Xavier, Cyclops and Rogue all have smaller roles here than they did in the beginning, but nobody is left behind. Even Colossus, basically a bit part, gets a really cool moment. It looks good, it's fun to watch and it's got winks to the super-hero crowd without overloading on them. This is what super-hero movies should be, and quite frankly, I think it's even better than the much-lauded Spider-Man.
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