December 30th, 2007
Tonight I didn’t really know what I wanted to write about so I thought I’d do a little exercise that I’ve been thinking about for a while now. What I do is select someone on my blogroll and then randomly visit someone on their blogroll and so on until I visited five blogs and report back here on what I found.
So first off I selected SamuraiFrog at Electronic Cerebrectomy.
SamuraiFrog’s post at Electronic Cerebrectomy was Technological Question in which he asks why his iPod may or may not turn off properly after plugging it into the computer. I have to say I had what I believe to be similar problem a couple of weeks ago - I reset it, reinstalled the software and eventually it fixed itself. I think it may have had something to do with having charging on a different computer and restarting the computer with the iPod still plugged in - I don’t know it was all a bit of a mystery so I can sympathise.
So next on my little trip through the blogosphere was a quick stop at A Salute to Some Stuff where there is An Obligatory Cute Baby Leah Shot - Manx has a very festive picture of Leah - I’m assuming who is his child (I’ve never visited this site before!!) - the post title promises cute and delivers.
From there the next stop was at the wonderfully named The Hidden Agenda of Cowboy the Cat and Cowboy the Cat’s post The Proper Lyrics for a Song You May be Singing Soon which publishes the actual words to Auld Lang Syne and brief explanation of what it all means which is very cool because A) I had no idea what the words were and B) didn’t really think about the song’s meaning before.
Onwards to Nerdy Laundry where Cat features in the post Live action fun features a very cool live action Mario Kart reproduction from YouTube - it’s done really well, shot in stop motion along with sound effects and all.
Last stop tonight was at the Very Big Blog where Jen writes in her post Okay i’ll take it back about the new Duran Duran album and because I’ve not listened to it myself at this stage I can’t comment on its lack of bass or that Nite Runner sounds like ‘knight butter’.
So there you go, four of those blogs I’ve never been to before so I’ll think I’ll do something like this again the next time I’m at a loss for a post or something to read!
Popularity: 6% [?]
Categories: QYDJ |
Tags: Blogs | 8 Comments
December 29th, 2007
I’m working on a new series of pieces that are based around Polaroid photos taken of super heroes by casual bystanders.
The very first is titled Like a flash:
It was in France that I managed to get the photo of him, he only stopped for the briefest of seconds, I was certain he was standing still when I took the photo.
I’m still playing with the Polaroid format but I’ve done the image in a way that I can transfer it to another frame easily enough. Tell me what you all think. I’ve already sketched out the next one.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Categories: Art, Polaroid heriocs |
Tags: Polaroid heroics, The Flash | 13 Comments
December 28th, 2007
When I said a couple of weeks ago to go out and read the novel I am Legend it was before I saw the new movie. Now I beg you to watch the movie (if you like movies, that is) and read the book afterwards. The novel in no way will be ruined by watching the movie but vice versa is a different matter.
Now before we get into this I’m not entering a “the book is better than the movie” debate. There is no debate. The book is a brilliant piece of literature that they should make children read in school. The movie on the other hand is a brilliant apocalyptic drama, performed impeccably by Will Smith, which looks awesome and is inspired by the novel.
The movie is inspired by the novel it is not a direct interpretation of it. Which is why, if you go into this film hoping to see the book on screen you’ll be disappointed and will probably cheat yourself of a great movie experience.
The first thing that is great about I am Legend is the visuals, I mean really great. We’ve all wondered what it would be like if humanity was removed from the planet and the cities were slowly reclaimed by nature. I think that I am Legend manages to show this without going over the top with vines hanging off the tallest skyscrapers that is often the hallmark of a deserted city. There is a couple of tongue in cheek references to films on the posters in the abandoned Times Square, most notably the Batman/Superman poster.
Will Smith is possibly the only actor in the world that I could see in this role which is a credit to him and the casting director. Smith is playing the last man on Earth which pretty much means the whole film is carried by him.
One thing that did strike me in the production was the use of the media, something like seven billion people have died but there are still movie posters on the walls which would have been so important to so many people had they not been dying or being killed. Material objects no longer matter despite the importance placed upon them by society before the end.
There is a bad side to the film though that I have to address, bloody CGI. I read somewhere that they originally wanted to use just actors as the zombie/vampires that humanity had become but realised that they needed a CGI edge to them.
They were wrong.
The creatures look wrong.
They look as though they’ve been taken from Smith’s earlier film I Robot in the crowd scenes. What is it with vampire zombie mouths having to open wider than normal anyhow? Who decided that was good idea? It just detracts from the characters and removes believability. Fortunately this does not ruin the film, well for me anyway.
Watch it, then go out and read the book.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Categories: Movies |
Tags: I am Legend, Movies, Review, Will Smith | 8 Comments
December 26th, 2007
This looks pretty cool so I can’t wait for the DVD to come out. I love the Batman in the Batwing dogfighting. I have to go get the graphic novels. Enjoy!
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Popularity: 4% [?]
Categories: Comics, Movies |
Tags: Final Frontier, Justice League | 3 Comments
December 25th, 2007
Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean I’m letting up on the poorly crafted popular culture observations and since it is Christmas I’m going to make a controversial one.
Venom from Spider-Man is overrated.
I don’t know what people honestly see in him. I mean I suppose he is a good villain for Spider-Man (who in the last year or so I’ve started to consider less and less important) but does he deserve the rabid fan group that he has?
Does he even deserve his own mini series on his own?
God no! He’s just annoying. I know of late he’s been working on both sides of the good/bad line and I think that he isn’t Eddie Brock any more but I still can’t stand the character. I guess it’s good to watch him get his arse handed to him by various Marvel characters. I especially enjoyed it when Iron Man about ten years or so ago took him on. Venom attacked Stark’s body double robot and then Iron Man came in with sonics blaring. Which brings me to one of the reasons I can’t wrap my head around the vile creature. You ring a bell or blast him with sonics and it puts him down. Someone like Iron Man should be able to wipe him out every time. Surely Reed Richards could stick it in an ultrasonic cage thing and drop him into the archives?
I do like the symbiont concept though.
Are any of you Venom fans? I’m actually willing to be convinced otherwise, why do you like him? Is it cause he looks cool? Because frankly I can live without the tongue thing. I’ve seen some artist’s impressions of him that are just rubbish.
So there you have it, some Yuletide contention.
Venom sucks.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Categories: Comics |
Tags: Comics, Spider-Man, Venom | 5 Comments
December 25th, 2007
Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Everyone stay safe out there on the roads, remember that it is the thought that counts and that these are not the droids that you are looking for.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Categories: Housekeeping |
6 Comments
December 24th, 2007
It makes me wonder about the general state of professional movie reviewers when the film Transformers gets a positive reception from a wide group of reviewers yet National Treasure gets panned. I’m not sure why it is that reviewers seem to hate Nicolas Cage so much.
Actually the good thing about it is that I don’t really care, and the box office doesn’t seem to care either.
Surprisingly enough every once and a while I like to go to the movies and enjoy a pop corn film that doesn’t examine the human condition and the existentialism of life. That’s right, as shocking as it may seem a cool scene on top of an Olmec platform that is rigged to balance so that if everyone were to rush to one side they would all topple off to the death is something that I’m pretty happy to see.
In fact I pretty much enjoyed all of Book of Secrets, the plot was interesting enough and had a couple of little nuggets in it that I didn’t previously know such as there being more than one Statue of Liberty and the story behind the Resolute desks. I always enjoy Cage’s films, maybe not Snake Eyes, yeah actually Snake Eyes is one of the only Cage films I can point to that I don’t like. I don’t hate it either mind you, I can watch it on TV but I wouldn’t rent it or buy it.
There were some pretty cool action sequences, some clever ideas and some scenes that would not be out of place in an actual good Tomb Raider film and maybe a non-geriatric Indiana Jones film (to be fair and even the Tomb Raider films have their place and an older Indiana Jones may still prove entertaining!). The film is about American history and in Australia we often knee jerk hate a film that is heavy in American nationalism, but I mean it is an American film and there is one scene that does poke a little fun at Americans.
So the thing is, if you enjoy a bit of action, some Dan Brown/Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type stuff and don’t mind American history then ignore the critics and go see Book of Secrets, preferably at an independent cinema.
I think you can do a lot worse.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Categories: Movies |
Tags: Book of Secrets, Movies, National Treasure, Nicolas Cage | 4 Comments
December 24th, 2007
I’m not taking a break from posting over the festive season but I am hoping to get some stuff done that I’ve just not had the time to do so.
- Write and draw the next Tassie the ninja dog strip
- Finally update Pop Culture Heroines with a new essay
- Update Urban Cultivation
- Work out what to do with Crypt Hunter (this is really bothering me)
- Redesign Quiet Paws for Tracey
- Update my about me page and description on various social sites such as mybloglog which is now fixed I might add
- Update my portfolio
- Launch my new comic book site
- Finish the script for The man who, in actual fact, could fly.
- Possibly get a couple more concept sketches together for the issue and maybe even a couple of pages done.
- Install and explore Kompozer and Gimp (open source software packs to replace Dreamweaver and Fireworks - I’d be happy to hear anyone’s opinion about these too!!)
- Write an assignment for Friday and catch up on tutorials.
Phew, I’m exhausted just reading that list, even if I get a third of that done I’ll be happy!!!
Whilst I’m here I should add that I’m really impressed with the Blog Rush network, it’s not bringing in the traffic yet but I like the ideas behind it and where the guys are going. I hope the referral network will start really pushing proper interested readers through as it grows. If you’re interested in signing up be sure to do it through my link so I get some traffic love too!
Popularity: 7% [?]
Categories: Housekeeping, QYDJ |
Tags: Blog Rush, Gimp, Housekeeping, Kompozer, QYDJ | 2 Comments
December 22nd, 2007
The title of the post is taken directly from the cover of the fourth and final part of Green Lantern versus Aliens. Remember the days when comic books would say outlandish things on the covers to get people to buy them. This seems to be a half hearted attempt at this.
In this issue we talk about how we don’t have the ring, we go get the ring, an obvious plot development is revealed and a hard choice is finally made after much internal debate. Yes that’s right folks it’s the conclusion to the four part series that could have been told in half that many!
So Kyle is staring down at his ring which is stuck in Alien goo. He makes some lame comment about why he can’t Luke Skywalker it and then Robo-undies-girl decides that she’ll draw the Aliens away and he has to run to the ring as fast as he can, but he isn’t to look back. Which is fine since she’ll be to his side anyway and behind is just the unguarded tunnel they have entered through.
OMG Robo-undies-girl is actually an android!!! Oh and Kyle kissed her for luck and because he is lame, I’m pretty certain the look on her face is one of disappointment also, this is the only human who’s kissed her and well, it’s not like he’s Batman or Gnort for that matter.
So Kyle gets a second kiss from a face hugger though who also seems slightly disappointed and is torn off his face when he blindly grabs the power ring.
After a deep and meaningful with Bishop… ahem I mean Robo-undies-girl he decides to wipe out all the Aliens so that they won’t be the next Green Lantern’s problem (it is apparent even to Robo-undies-girl that Kyle probably won’t be GL for too long). He utters the sacred oath that Green Lanterns before him used to say and this sets off his thermo nuclear power ring effect.
We get to see plenty of Aliens blowing up but we do miss out on the actual aftermath and Kyle rescuing the crew etc. We cut to a camping scene where Kyle is feeling blue for wiping out the bug infestation and is given moral support from the two remaining non-Green Lantern Green Lanterns (???).
At the end we have the ghost of Hal behind Kyle lost in thought about where to get his power ring resized and should he get a matching bracelet.
Ahhh good times.
I hope you all enjoyed as much as I enjoyed reading the series (Oh hang on, no I don’t.)
Might do an old Indiana Jones series next.
Oh crap I forgot to mention that Kyle broke his arm in all the action, as if you care.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Categories: Comics |
Tags: Aliens, comic books, Gnort, Green Lantern | 8 Comments
December 19th, 2007
If this was a movie you might promote it by saying something along the lines of Three times the action! Three times the adventure! Three times… some other thing that sounds appealing!!!
Well this isn’t a movie and even if it were you would get sued for misrepresentation if you used any of those lines.
We join Kyle where we left him, staring down the hole into which he dropped his ring. He mentions that his ring has gone and the other two characters left there with him exchange weird glances as they try and work out why he’s stating the obvious out loud again. They may also be wondering why it is the Aliens (I can’t work out if it should be capitalised or not) aren’t still attacking them or why Kyle isn’t picking up a gun just in case they come back. Of course they may also be wondering, especially if they know anything about Green Lanterns, why he still has his costume on and is still clean shaven without his power ring.
After some miscellaneous whining about his lost ring…
OK we get it!
You lost your ring!
I wouldn’t be drawing attention to it myself, in fact I would be pointing at stuff and saying “what’s that?”
Anyway he tries a jedi trick and attempts to ’summon’ the ring. Colour me surprised when he doesn’t.
Kyle figures it’s go home time now that he’s lost his bling until the young lady in underwear pushes a gun on him. Kyle is unable to actually fire the weapon without falling down. Apparently the power of a ray gun is so much more powerful than a Green Lantern power ring. Kyle also enlightens the Green Lantern readers on why his costume hasn’t disappeared, I would repeat it here but it would increase the lameness ratio by so much that the denseness would be so intense it would form a black hole of lameness.
Undies girl and Kyle share a moment between gun practise and then they go abseiling despite the fact that Kyle doesn’t want to kill the aliens but it’s ok to leave his new found friends to die.
I don’t know, ummmm, sigh, they find the crew of undies girl’s ship and they have all been alien’fied. The other ex Green Lantern who is still alive for some reason draws attention to the fact that Kyle’s costume hasn’t disappeared, I’m guessing the writers feel guilty about it, I’d be trying to draw attention away from it by pointing to things and saying “hey what’s that?”.
Aliens attack, I’m waiting on the third wheel to die and tell Kyle he was wrong about how lame he is, undies girl gets acid on her but it doesn’t hurt, does anyone hear the word android or obvious?
Third wheel dies.
Thinks Kyle is not lame.
He’s wrong.
The Alien Queen shows up and they happen to see Kyle’s power ring in the Queen’s chamber and there is no obvious way it could have ended up there, actually there’s no obvious way Kyle should have survived up to this point except for robo undies girl.
I can’t wait to see if Kyle gets his ring back!!!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Categories: Comics |
Tags: Aliens, comic books, Green Lantern | 6 Comments
