The Casting Game - Robotech

With news that Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Lawrence Kasden has been pegged to pen the live action adaptation of the anime Robotech, I immediately begin on of my favorite pastimes of casting movies.

Now, these are just preliminary, I'm sure given some more thought I'd find better alternatives. I just found out about this news a few days ago. Also, I'm pretty sure this is a Toby McGuire vehicle and he'll be playing the part of Rick Hunter, but whatever. Here are my choices.

Rick Hunter - Emile Hirsch



Hot off the success (and yeah, I said success) of Speed Racer, Hirsch would be a natural. As with most stars appearing in this movie, age will be a factor, but at 23 he could get away with playing a 19 year old Hunter.

The only downside is the only role left after this would be Lance from Voltron.

Lynn Minmei - Charice Pempengco

Minmei's story in Robotech is one I'm sure most fans could do without. She's a flightly love interest of Rick's early on but is shown most of the time as a braty child. However, her music is what eventually changes the alien Zentradi into thinking that war is not everything.

Charice's voice is amazing, if you've never heard her sing, check it out. At 16, she may be a bit young for Hirsch, but that's not stopped Holywood before.

Lisa Hayes - Christa Miller

Yes, I'll change my mind on this later. I have a bad habit of casting people from different time periods rather than the present. Plus I just saw Miller in The Andromeda Strain and her acting wasn't great. She's a good comedic actress which might not fit the buttoned up Hayes very well.

Also, she's 20 years too old for the part. I was going off looks can you tell?


Roy Fokker - Neal McDonough

I would cast McDonough in anything. Whatever show he's in, he commands the scene. Boomtown was a sadly overlooked show and Medical Investigations was actually a decent show. He's got the smile and the charm but with just the edge of mystery Roy has in the show. As Rick's "big brother" Roy was always more than he let on and more than he'd allow Rick to see.



Commander Gloval - Rade Serbedzija

Rade is one of those actors you've seen in everything, or you think you've seen in everything. As far as I can find, he's only bee in a handful of movies and TV shows in the states, but it seems like he's been everywhere.

Playing Henry Gloval wouldn't be much of a stretch. Rade is a Croatian born actor constantly playing Russians. Gloval was originally and Italian in the Japanese series but became Russian in the American show. Natural fit.

Claudia Grant - Khandi Alexander

If for no other reason than to not have Halle Berry or Jada Pinkett Smith play another black woman character, I think Khandi was wonderful on News Radio and she was one of the better parts of CSI: Miami. This one might change again, Khandi is 50 and I'm sure Claudia is the same age as Lisa, around 24.




Max Sterling - Daniel Radcliffe

Max was always my favorite character. He was quiet and a little nerdy but mysterious and apparently pretty handsome. Plus he was the best fighter pilot in the fleet. I like him the same way I like Wedge Antilles; he's the unsung hero of the underdogs who quietly does his job with more skill than everyone else.

And honestly, I'd like to see Radcliffe not playing another kid with glasses. While Max may be emo, he's also very sure of himself, something Racliffe could probably pull off.

Myria (Sterling) - Kate Beckinsale

All I know is Myria is a hot, bad-ass fighter pilot. She marries Max because he's the better pilot and his doting after her eventually melts her heart and she sides with the Earth forces. It's a pivotal story moment and the offspring of the two becomes the protagonist for the next story.

I'm sure you could come up with several bad ass chicks, but after seeing Underworld, my money is on Beckinsale.

Breetai - Clive Owen

I don't know how Mr. Owen will appreciate being blue (or for that matter how any of these people will handle green hair) but Owen's got that dark, brooding look that commands respect. He played Arthur for frak's sake!




Ben Dixon - Seth Rogan

Every anime show has a team. It's usually in odd numbers and they're usually involved in some sort of robot forming or conjuring. Robotech didn't have any of that, but they did have the three buddies Rick, Max and Ben. Ben was the guy (same as Hunk in Voltron and probably countless other shows) that was the big loveable doofus. He likely had some skills but it was always overshadowed by his gruff nature, his imposing size and his affable grin. Sounds just like Rogan.



There are undoubtedly more characters needing to be involved. Kyle, the bridge girls, Dolza, Breetai's second in command and Khyron (who I think Matthew Fox would be perfect for, he nailed Racer X.) My brother also got involved and here's his list.

Rick-Tobey Macquire (duh he owns the property for that reason)

Roy - Mathew "Allright!Allright!Allright! Mcconaughey

Gloval- Come on man! Ian Mcshane

Lisa- Lili Sobeiski

Claudia-Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend it like Beckham)

Max- Topher grace

Ben- I actually agree with you Seth rogen or Jason Segal (How I met your MOther)

Minmei- Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers
Breetai-Micheal Ironsides (he bearly needs makeup!)

Myria-Megan Fox (Transformers)

Exador- Hugo Weaving

Dolza (Robert Logia again..bearly needs make up)

I'll have to look some of those up. Some I can see being very good. Ian Mcshane for one. Not sure I'd put Topher Grace in anything. He's always going to be Eric Foreman to me.

But there you go, that's the game. I probably spent too much time on it, but it's always fun to speculate. What will likely happen is it'll be McGuire and about 2 or 3 other big names and the rest will be actors coming off lesser known TV shows or indie movies. They'll butcher the story so it'll only be Robotech because it'll have Veritechs and the SDF-1. They won't zap a whole island into space and the Zentradi probably won't be giant sized. I don't know. On paper it sounds like a good story to adapt, but it's so big that anything they do will have to be a large story. The Macross Saga alone would be worth a trilogy, not to mention the Southern Cross and Invid Masters stories.

I'm intrigued why McGuire has the rights to this. It makes me appreciate him as a geek now more than anything. Robotech was such a big influence on my childhood that I can't help but feeling a little worried about this, more so than the comic book movies or Star Wars prequels.

Carry on.

WALL·E

(Warning: This post may contain spoilers.)

Last week a friend sent me a link to AICN saying if you think you're geek enough to see WALL-E early, send us an email. I sent links to all my robot drawings and was thusly picked. Me and a couple hundred other geeks and film nerds - and my daughter - got to see an early screening of the movie at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Harry Knowles of AICN gave a little intro after all the hilariously dated commercials and movie trailers and in it he stated that next to the Disney family and Pixar family (and a few small magazines) we were the first public audience to see the movie. LMA was more excited about this than I was. She thought we were there to see Kung Fu Panda.

She orders a bowl of popcorn and a coke and I order a cider and a burger and we begin our viewing. The thing I like about screenings is the lack of pre-movie junk. No previews, no commercials - it's quite refreshing. I see a lot of previews online so I don't feel I miss much.

It starts with a Pixar short, as all Pixar movies do. The one before WALL-E is called Presto and I'm not going to tell you anything about it other than it is quite hysterical.

The camera pans back through Disneyland, the lamp jumps on the I and we're ready to roll.

A catchy if not older show tune like piece begins as we approach Earth. Earth is surrounded by and covered in junk, so much junk the world is brown. There are no green things growing on this Earth. A side bit of a commercial plays by the company Buy 'n' Large (BnL) about how we've trashed this planet, but don't worry. We'll board these giant ships and leave behind the robots to clean it up, then we'll come back. Well the only one left is little WALL-E. Actually, they're all called WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class) but you begin to see he's the only one working. And little WALL-E has been working hard. It's not apparent what city we're in, but the stacks of trash he's been building tower has high as the surrounding skyscrapers.

The next few minutes are a joyous and charming look at every day life for WALL-E who appears as more of a curious 10 year old than an industrious robot. He collects things, he watches old movies and he has a pet cockroach. During one of his outings, he finds a plant growing in a refrigerator. A large space craft lands and dispatches a sleek little scout robot (EVE) and she begins looking for something. She (because it's obviously a she) is beautiful but deadly as WALL-E is quick to find out. But his centuries of watching musicals has made him yearn for companionship and he immediately falls for EVE. She follows him around a bit after it's obvious her search is finding nothing. WALL-E show her his little home and all his things. When he shows her the plant, her light turns green and she takes the plant into her storage compartment shortly before shutting down. A distraught WALL-E does what any loving person would do with a comatose partner; watch after her, show her things, take her places. It's depressingly sweet.

Eventually the big ship comes back and takes EVE. WALL-E clings to the ship and is whisked away to a larger ship waiting some light years away. At first all we see on the ship are robots, all sorts of them. They're mostly faceless, they follow lines on the floor but we begin to detect personalities and right off the bat, WALL-E's interaction with them changes them somehow. We also see the first humans since the commercial at the beginning of the film.

(Side note, the commercial and subsequent communiques with the President or Ruler-of-Earth are all done with live actors, something I hadn't seen Pixar do before. I'm not sure why they did it.)

The humans we see are fat sloths. Life on board a solitary cruise liner run by eager-to-please, all-things-taken-care-of robots has made humans soft and lazy. They all float around on hover-chairs, consuming all meals in liquid form, all wearing the same clothes and all talking to other people via video chat with screens mere inches from their face. It's not pretty and I don't think it's meant to be.

It was hard to ignore messages in WALL-E and that would be my only critique. Every Pixar movie has a theme. Most are non-confrontational and fall into the realm of "it's good to have friends." WALL-E's main theme is it's a love story. There are side bits that I suppose you could take away if you were a cynical bastard; we're trashing the planet, we're turning into fat, lazy, careless wastes, we're depending too much on machines. But those are just side events to tell the love story of WALL-E and EVE.

Things go wrong on the ship and we find out that even though EVE has found a plant and humans can return to Earth, there are some robots that have been programmed to keep them in space. A classified directive shows the Earth president saying the planet is toxic and to never come back. There's a lot of running around, a lot of robot humor, some crazy robots get loose from the repair bay, or robot loony bin, and finally the plant is put into the right place and the ship heads for Earth. But not before WALL-E is...

Well, you'll just have to see it to find out.

Pixar made me tear up with Nemo and Cars and Monsters, Inc. and they've done it again with WALL-E. Whatever they're doing, they're doing it right. There's so many little bits of humor and so many touching moments that you could watch this a dozen times and still be surprised. It's easily one of my favorite Pixar movies and very likely one of my top 10 movies of all time (my time, not since, you know, movie history.)

And if you don't get the joke in the theater, here it is. When WALL-E charges up with his solar panels and he reaches full charge, the sound he makes is the chime of a Mac booting up.

Wonderful.

I give it a five out of five, as Chip would say, it's a movie I'd pay full price for.

Happy Father's Day

Backyard Softball
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

To all you dad's out there, I hope you have a great day with your children. I hope they made you breakfast, brought you coffee, let you sleep in, let you watch the TV you wanted to watch and will behave for you when you go to dinner tonight.

I hope you older dads are proud of your grown up kids. I hope they're proud of you and you can share a nice moment remembering what it was like when you were small and unruly. I hope you can share stories of times when you'd poop in the bathtub, eat bugs, swear for the first time, blow things up with firecrackers and how you tortured your siblings.

For you new dads, I hope you can find a way to enjoy this time. The first couple years are scary and it's hard to find the rewards, but keep in mind you're their rock. They'll grow around you and soon enough will think and act on their own. Be happy for the little things and do what you can to help your kids become good people. Not everyone is a scientist or world leader, but everyone can be a good person and it takes good dads to start them on the right path.

Happy Father's Day. Hope you liked your ties.

Happy Friday the 13th

So not a lot going on lately, but I thought I'd at least try to get something important down here.

I've started doing some reviews for Television Zombies. I like the style of site they have going. It's a good podcast and they've been really upbeat about asking for call ins and emails and contributions. Seeing as the two things I seem to be doing lately are writing things online and watching TV, it was an easy transition to writing about things I like that other people can read. TVZ posts reviews and news about Sci-Fi TV shows and their podcast is very entertaining and usually full of good information. I've had many "Oh, I didn't know that!" moments listening to them. If you're a fan of sci-fi TV (Lost, Doctor Who, BSG, etc) you should definitely check them out.

Yesterday I won tickets to a Father's Day screening of Wall*E at the Alamo Drafthouse here in Austin. (AICN) A friend sent a link to the contest asking people to email reasons why you're geek enough to get these tickets. I emailed links to my Flickr robot sets and I think that probably did it. So for Father's Day I get to take LMA to see a movie about robots. How cool is that?

Someone in the comments suggested I create an account at RedBubble and make some shirts. I've done so and put up my favorite Zombie/Groundhog design. That's all for now as I want to do some new designs rather than post up all the old crap I've done. There was a Boing Boing post about an online store called Atomic Tarantula and they've got some great designs, but the shirts were $32 dollars. I made the comment that these are great ideas for me to use to make my own shirts on Zazzle for myself and someone (Will of the unknown email) suggested RedBubble and that they'd buy an "1138" shirt. So now I feel obligated, but a little sneaky knowing I'd have to change the design just a bit. But, that may be a new line of designs; sci-fi. Maybe TVZ would like to go in on it with me. I know Chris Piers (of the TVZ group) is also a graphic designer and illustrator and one of the other contributors is another Penciljack dude, seems like a good idea.

I've been doing some sketches lately. Just ballpoint pen on index cards. My finger still hurts and I'm going to figure out how to make myself call the doctor to get it looked at, but I need to draw again. I tried left-handed and while it worked ok, I don't want to have to relearn AND get these ideas out at the same time. A little bit of pain for the art.

I haven't talked much about the political landscape in a while. I just haven't felt the motivation. There are issues I still feel strongly about but just not enough to dedicate to a full post or series of discussions. Most of the people I know feel the same way so even we don't talk about it much. Hard to debate things when everyone agrees. Thought I think Scott and I would probably go a few rounds. We grew up together but different lives since then have made us different people and while I have liberal tendencies (gay marriage, pro choice, immigration reform, socialize medicine) I don't like big government. It's not that I don't think people aren't capable of running a democracy or republic, I just don't think it's worked so well lately. I don't want the gov't controlling everything, but I feel there are some things that should be handled at the federal level, some at the state, and some things shouldn't be handled at all. I think a major problem is no one at the private sector level is actively involved any more and we're just sheep being lead around; disagreeing with everything, but not taking a stand on it. (With exception, of course. Most of the folks I know are active in even local elections and campaigns. It's the rest I'm worried about.)

So that's the news for Lake Woebegone, where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.

Carry on.

Mystery Tales #40 - The Lost Comic

In episode 11 of Lost’s fourth season, “Cabin Fever,” Richard Alpert comes to a young John Locke with the Dali Llama test. First thing’s first — Richard is perpetually 45 years old. The only change in his appearance that I’ve seen to date is the length of his hair when he first met Benry Gailinus.

Richard produces several items for consideration; some everyday, some rather nefarious. He asks John to pick which ones are “his.” After some consideration, John picks a compass or watch, a small vial of sand, a Book of Laws and a worn knife. Richard is disturbed and leaves suddenly. I-I-I-I want the knife….pleeease.

What Locke didn’t pick up was the Mystery Tales #40. Comic books seem to play a small but fan teasing role on Lost. The first sighting being the Spanish translated Green Lantern and Flash “Faster Friends” issue in which Walt sees a polar bear. Because of that tie-in, seeing another comic book at such a pivotal moment sent fanboys into a lather trying to figure out if it had any meaning...

(For the rest, head over to Television Zombies.)

Where've you been?

Why, I've been on Twitter, doing nearly nothing.

Seriously. The most creative thing I've done in the past month is write a review of Andromeda Strain for Television Zombies. Haven't drawn, haven't written or lettered anything. Stopped playing video games about two weeks ago. Don't know, just have no drive. Must be the heat.

Couple weeks ago I damaged my finger. I'm not sure if it's broken but what I know from fingers is that even if it was, there's little a doctor can do outside of what I've already done which is just to tape it to another finger and wear a splint.

It only hurts if I bump it against things.

The big news this last week, my car had problems and LMA is officially not a first grader.

My little Kia Sportage had its alternator go south. The shop by my house (Three Points Auto in Pflugerville, good guys) wanted more than I could afford to fix it. So Ms. A helped out and found a part for cheap and a guy on Craigslist to put it in for $50. I love the internet about as much as I loathe cars.

I've not had bad luck with cars. In fact, I've always had cars that ran fairly well for a lot of years while I did very little work on them. I know I could be better to this car what with the oil changes and tune ups and what not, midyear resolution. If I can't afford an alternator, I won't be able to afford a new car.

Work's been busier and busier. A lot of the little side projects I could do while at work in between working I've not been able to do, which means trying to do them at home and that just doesn't happen. Another midyear resolution would be to use my downtime better. Right now I read news articles online, read books and watch my three shows. Doesn't seem like a lot during the week, but I don't know where else my 5-6 hours a night go.

And yes, LMA is officially on summer break. She got her precious snowflake award at school (Most Awesome Writer) as well as one of only 10 kids in first grade (about 70 kids I suppose) to reach the Green Level. Don't ask me, I don't know what that means. I think she read a lot and they recognized her for it.

I'm getting excited for Hulk and Dark Knight and Hancock. Still having a hard time coping with Indiana Jones, but I'm sure Batman will help ease the pain.

That's all for now, sorry it wasn't Life o' Riley.

Carry on.

Agenda 21 In Austin - Save the Red River District

Seen originally off a friend's site.

***************************

READ: FIGHT AGENDA 21 IN AUSTIN!!!!!!!!!! COPY AND REPOST!!!!!!

If you love hanging out on Red River as much as I do, you would be sickened by the plans they (the big real estate developers and NGO's) have.....

This is from my buddy John who runs Elysium on Red River..... This is SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT!!! WAKE UP!!!!

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/wallercreek/survey.cfm

"This is the survey for the City of Austin about the plan for Red River in 2012. This is the LAST CHANCE for public comment. All surveys must be in by May 31st. Please suffer through and fill out the survey, and if you know anyone else who enjoys any bars/bands on Red River, please send it to them as well.

The first part covers your interest in the Red River/Waller Creek area, then your choice of what should be done in different areas along Waller Creek/Red River, then lastly the comment section.

Please fill out the survey.

Thanks,

John Wickham
Elysium
President Red River District

PS Below is a summary of what I said. Please DO NOT say the exact same thing.

I am just including this to let you know my opinions:"

"The current live music venues and clubs transformed the area from a crime-ridden area to something desirable. The existing businesses should be rewarded by having a part in this new vision. Unfortunately, many of those venues do not own their own buildings and will get shortchanged in this renewal; even though those venues made the area attractive for development in the first place.

The dance clubs, Live Music Venues, and bars that are on Red River should be respected and incorporated into the larger plan.

The only true Live Music District of Austin left is Red River. Please do not ruin the last bastion of Live Music that Austin has. Red Eyed Fly, Beerland, Elysium, Room 710, and Headhunters have been there for almost 7 years changing the area themselves, please do not sell them out to developers. Not to mention all the new venues that opened like Sidebar, Creekside Lounge, Red 7, Beauty Bar and Mohawk... To say nothing of long-existing venues like Emo's, Stubb's and Club DeVille.

For Chip

Indiana Jones Review - Spoilers

I'm going to spoil this for you. Don't go see it.

I'm serious. If you love Indiana Jones movies, just forget this was made. Ignore the commercials, walk away from friends who talk about it. Go see Iron Man, wait for Dark Knight. Just pretend in your heart that this was never made.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull starts off in 1957 with an army convoy being teased by a joyriding hotrod full of loose girls and testosterone addled boys. The obvious nod to American Graffiti convinces the lead car to race and after, seriously, five minutes of racing, they are no farther in front of the convoy. A few CGI groundhogs later, the convoy pulls off into Area 51 where the guards say they aren't allowed in. The Russians in disguise mow down the guards, head to a hanger (which has all the wrong points of fact about it) and dump Indy and his voice dub along with a really poorly acted Aussie friend in front of a PsyOps Ukranian (Blanchett). They plod and poke through some heinous un-Indiana dialog until they find what they need and then Indy can escape.

By the way, it IS the same hanger the Ark is in and yes that's the Ark in that box, in case you missed the completely obvious throw back moments. More to come.

He makes his way to a rocket sled where he fights the guy from Rocky 4, they trip the controls (as per usual) and the rocket sled simultaneously fries half the Russians and launches Indy and his sparring partner into the night air. It was really only about noon when they went into the hangar, apparently all this took 8 hours.

Indy bumbles his way to an A-Bomb test site where he has the presence of mind to shove himself into a lead-lined fridge to escape the blast unharmed. The fridge is launched to a safe distance (the only piece of mock furniture to do so) and the only ramification to his incident is having a comical rub down by the radiation/car wash guys back at HQ where Janitor from Scrubs plays the second half of an unbelievable FBI duo. Indy is rescued from interrogation by a high ranking friend who leads us to believe he's been a spy and served the US. government enough to earn medals.

Um, WHAT?!

*sigh* Back to the quilt of a story, then. Dr. Jones returns to his school where he's fired. What they miss here is he's fired because they're worried he's a Commie sympathizer. I don't think either Spielberg or Lucas know how to deal with anyone but Nazis so their writing around this point is sadly circular and mushy. If you aren't a student of Murrow or basic history, you'd lose this fact entirely as though George and Steve were sitting around trying to come up with a reason to get him fired. "Hey, let's say everyone thinks he's a pinko-bastard and get back to the CGI groundhogs."

Indy is found by Mutt (I shit you not) Williams (LeBouf) as he's trolling the train station platform looking like James Dean, bike and all. How you get a hog onto a train platform is anyone's guess. There's some dialog heavy scenes with Mutt and Indy, they ride Mutt's bike (Indy riding bitch) through campus ending up in the library with a really, REALLY bad falling movement with one of Indy's students.

Indy and Mutt then go on a quest to find this crystal skull which either is or is not in Peru, I couldn't tell. They find it after fighting either 20 or just 1 crazed poison dart blowing local (again, I couldn't tell.) They find an alien skull made of single cut crystal and assume it's an artifact. It's magnetic, but also attracts gold. That was never explained but Mutt does say, "Gold's not magnetic." Right! So why does it attract it? Oh, well we don't know and we aren't going to bother figuring out. Hey, did you see our CGI water fall?

More chase scenes to follow, John Hurt shows up to throw his career away as a crazy old archaeological colleague of Indy's who's lost his mind after Spalko (Blanchett) has made him stare at the skull too long. So at this point the skull is either magnetic or psionic, but we're not sure if it's both.

More chases through a jungle. A giant Russian pathfinder resplendent in buzz saws and chewing wheels leads a convoy through the undergrowth. Indy, newly found Marion Ravenwood (yes, that Marion) beat up the one guard in the truck and find a rocket launcher (which you keep in the back of the prisoner truck) and blow up the pathfinder. Then a car chase ensues on paved jungle. Apparently they only needed the giant buzz-saw tank for a few miles. Mutt fights Spalko with a sword while jungle plants slap his balls, he's separated from everyone until he finds some monkeys. He then Tarzan's back into the fray. Not one swing, mind you, but several dozen. Enough to that he was able to catch up with speeding army vehicles. The fight ends up on a football field sized ant hill crawling with a very industrious and nigh-impossible species of giant ant. They eat a couple red-shirted reds while everyone else escapes over a cliff, and why not, they've been driving amphibious jeeps.

After three plummets down waterfalls, the final one making me giggle as it looked like the opening of Land of the Lost, all the good guys, and the double-but-not-quite-double-crossing Aussie make it to a set of ruins. They figure some puzzles, are set upon by a group of guardian warriors who apparently live in these remote temples buried in the walls for years on end and eventually make it to the central piece which is a room with twelve crystal skeletons...*guh*...ALIEN skeletons. Spalko puts the skull back on the one skeleton and shit starts happening.

Indy, Marion, "Ox" (Hurt) and Mutt all escape but here's what happens. The skeletons merge into a living alien. Spalko says she wants to know, she's on a quest for knowledge. It's actually a redeeming quality to this "bad guy" that I didn't quite get. Anycrap, the now alive alien makes a mean face and her eyes catch fire and she disintegrates, her bits sucked into a dimensional portal. The room is spinning and as we go outside to see our hapless heroes we see the whole temple is spinning because underneath it is a giant, functional flying saucer. It disappears, leaving the Amazon to flow into the hole. Indy giggles about walking through the jungle at dark.

Marion and Jones get married and he's named the Dean of Archaeological studies. Mutt (Henry Jones, III, swear) almost puts on Indy's hat.

I don't know if there's much more I can say about this movie that the really, really bad story doesn't. Indiana Jones wasn't charming. Marion wasn't feisty. Mutt wasn't bad, really, but he was far from wonderful. The editing was slow, scenes dragged on for far too long and the whole thing went from suspension of disbelief to suspension of sanity and morality. There wasn't music when there should have been, there was too much scenery and too many places. Indy never said he was there to get Marion (because she had been captured, mind you, that's why Mutt sought out Indy in the first place) and instead of the protagonist, he became a bystander. Instead of kick-ass Indiana Motherfucking Jones, he became Scooby, C-3PO, Falstaff. He was a witness to events someone else set aside for him to fall into. When made to look smart, he was nerdy smart, not street smart. When made to look tough, he was accidental and stooped.

I'm so heartbroken by this I don't know what to do. It's not that it wasn't as good as Raiders, it was worse than Temple of Doom. It was worse than Howard the Duck. Whatever parts that held any entertainment value were immediately snuffed by a shitty edit, a bad continuity cut, a childish bit of CGI or a poorly delivered line. Whoever wrote Indy's lines made him seem vindictive and simple.

Honestly, I should have known better. If you're younger than, say, 25 and haven't seen this movie yet NOR have you seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, please, please, PLEASE don't go see this. Buy Raiders on DVD or BluRay or whatever and just watch that. Raiders was awesome. Crystal Skull was awful.

I'm watching Raiders while I write this in the hopes that I forget tonight ever happened.

***Update***

As much I detest anonymous (see: chickenshit) comments telling me I'm stupid, I will at least provide the factual correction. Mutt's opening scene is supposed to be reminiscent of Marlon Brando in The Wild One, not James Dean. Not having ever seen The Wild One, I guess that was more than just an honest mistake. I guess I really am dumb.

I will not apologize for thinking Winstone (an English actor) was trying give the character of McHale an Australian accent. Not having visited the Wiki page where the characters nationality was listed, I was going off the very poor acting of Winstone to make this determination.

Look, if your defending this movie by calling me stupid, I feel really bad for you. I hope it makes you like this movie more, it certainly doesn't for me.

Happy Birthday Gregory

Form
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

Four years ago today, Gregory Powell came into the world with much fanfare. He's since become the magical forth member of the family and is easily the cutest and sweetest boy I've ever met.

He's a little terror as well. He loves copying his sister's every word until she screams at me. He loves to scratch and bit and punch and kick. He's shy at first but loves calling people loser when he gets to know them. He's still in the age where he can be accidentally deeply philosophical which can be comical to all the adults in the room.

"Where's the button."

"There is no button, you have to use your imagination."

"No, there's no imagination here."

Gregory loves his sister more than anything in the world. He just wants to play and be with her constantly. When he dreams, he dreams about her. We know because he talks in his sleep.

G-man loves Spider-Man and Lightning McQueen (or Ka-Chow! as he calls him.) His favorite show is Peep and his favorite pastime is collecting rolly-polly bugs in the backyard. He likes to give himself hiccups by burping then saying he needs a spoon full of white sugar.

He got his first bike today and I forsee many years chasing his sister. I hope that when the bikes are long gone, he doesn't do it forever.

As sweet and lovable as he is, he has a tenancy to walk out of bathrooms before putting his pants back on. I think he probably got that from his dad.

Happy birthday, buddy. I love you very much.

-daddy

Twitter me this, Batman.

So with no social life to speak of, I signed up for Twitter. You'll see the little widget on the sidebar on your right. I plan on sending random thoughts from my phone at least a couple times a day. Hopefully it won't interfere with the regular in depth reporting and insightful analysis of world events, entertainment and scientific discourse found on this the main blog.

Seriously, I need a girlfriend.

Carry on.

Super Algae

I may have to get Twitter just so I can post little comments about stuff I hear on the radio. Problems is, if I get Twitter, that's all I'd ever do.

Moving on. I heard a story on or local NPR affiliate KUT about researchers studying the use of algae as a biofuel. I immediately thought of a science fiction show or movie that mentioned the food they ate tasted too much like algae, but I can't remember it. I want to say it wasn't a recent show even though I know BS:G had a bit about an algae planet where they restocked their food. But I also thought about Enterprise and how their replicators (newly minted) worked based off some biological component like algae.

In any case, I had another moment of The Future Is Now. Small things like algae biofuels or retractable kitchen appliances or three wheeled hybrid cars make me...twitter with anticipation for whatever future is to be had. I mean, is 200bloody8 and there are certain things even the 1938 World Fair said we'd have by now. Sure email is a lot more convenient then 20 million pneumatic tubes for communication, but I'd still like my personal ion powered personal transport. Where are the monorails and Rosie the Robots and phase pistols?

The problem I run into is I want the grand and tend to ignore the minuscule. I miss the days where shuttle launches were broadcast on the major networks and Star Trek was in a prime time slot. Now you can go into space for 30 seconds if you have $1.5 million, a teasing glimmer of events to come. The Haydron Collider is set to start injecting their first particles in a matter of weeks and I hope something shiny comes out of the smashing. I want a black hole to open up and swallow the facility. I want Jodie Foster to hear a burst of noise on her headphones. I want Carl Sagan's magical 70's crystal spaceship.

I also want Pluto back, but whatever.

Carry on.

LilFormers

I don't think I've talked about this yet. New people should know about it though.

Every Monday, Matt Moylan puts up a new cartoon about Transformers. The strip is called LilFormers and you should definitely check it out, especially if you're a fan of the toys or the cartoons.

This one is so full of goodness I nearly spit out my Minute Maid.

How Do You Read 3000 Pages?

There's something truly charming about fantasy novels. There's no car or plane travel so you're guaranteed a long trek across a malicious country. There's always meals of dried meats, breads and cheeses - if you're lucky a skin of wine or a cup of ale. The books always have maps.

A friend of mine loaned me Tad William's epic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, a classic fantasy that sees the main character rise from castle scullion to reluctant warrior.

At least I think. I've gone through the first two of the trilogy at a numbing 750 pages apiece. The last of the books is a two parter, each with 800 pages - over 3000 pages all said. I fully expect to be finished in a year.

The story centers around a gawky, self deprecating lad named Simon. He's an orphan working in the castle of the capital city of the fictional land of Osten Ard. As per usual in a story of this ilk, a great shadow is passing across the land and the good folk of Osten Ard were either too slow to react to its danger or too dense to see it at all. Simon takes on studies with the kingdom's resident eccentric lore keeper and magician and learns more than he wanted to about how the world works. Like all teenagers in these books, he wants to learn how to make fireballs and ride dragons and turn his foes into pigs. What he gets is a lesson on reading, history and "science." But it's a short lived pursuit, and you'll have to read the rest for yourself.

I'm completely in love with this story. My fantasy knowledge is made up of Tolkien, Fiest and Brooks with pinches of C.S. Lewis memories. Stories like this are Hard Fantasy, much like 2001 would be Hard Science Fiction. I can't help liking these books and Williams does a wonderful job of exploring Simon's mental evolution from mooncalf to man. And while the names and races all seem familiar, they are different enough that you don't automatically think of this as a LotR clone.

Plus, for its length, it's a page turner. There's always flights and fights and discoveries that just make you not want to put it down. It's not light on description, but it's handled in a way that doesn't bore you or make you forget what's happening. My only complaint is the vast gathering of characters, all with the uniquely apostrophized names. There are so many, and many of them die off, that you feel you have to read the appendix just to make sense of them all.

As the story moves into the second book, however, you're solidly aware of who every one is and what their motives are. I'm fairly buzzing with anticipation to start the final book(s) and I'd recommend these to anyone who loves the genre.

Carry on.

Storm Damage

Damage
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Last night we were hit with yet another Central Texas thunderstorm. They're pretty regular around this time of year, being spring and all. For all the families, we're all ok. The kids didn't even wake up from the thunder and lightening. Ms. A's brother and his wife are ok too.

I tried to get a video of the lightning but I'm apparently not good with technology as the only video I got was of me turning off the camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The lightning was phenomenal. We knew the storm was approaching so we turned off all the computers and TVs and lights and lit a bunch of candles. Got a few glasses of wine and happily awaited the storm.

P-ville didn't get that much in the way of nastiness, but we did get to see a spectacular lightning show looking up north. I mean it was constant. Imagine the end of a fireworks display where they cram everything that have left into 2 minutes and then stretch that out over an hour. It was awesome in the strictest definition of the word.

There were tornado warnings for our area but nothing happened. I got an email this morning saying there's damage to our building and please don't park on the 4th level. I figured one or two tiles got knocked out and as a precaution they just tell people to stay clear.

Boy was I surprised.

First of all, the roads leading into downtown were covered with debris. And I don't mean the typical leaves and twigs you associate with a storm, I mean the kind of stuff you'd see in news footage about a twister hitting some place in Oklahoma. Ok it wasn't that bad, but there were sizable trees down all over the place and the roads were carpeted with the flotsam of blown-out office windows and open air parking garages.

I haven't heard of anyone I know suffering serious damage. One of Ms. A's friends got some hail through a window (baseball sized) and a tree in her yard crushed a neighbor's shed. That was the worst of it.

Bit of excitement for the day. I don't envy the clean up efforts.

Important News for Artists

Seen over at Drawn! This is large news for freelance artists and I'm a little worried most of us are finding out a day before the bill is being sent up.

http://drawn.ca/2008/05/13/oppose-the-orphan-works-act-of-2008

Currently, copyright is granted the moment a work is created. This new Orphan Works legislation proposes a change in U.S. copyright that would (indirectly) require artists, illustrators, photographers, and any creative individual to actively maintain and defend their copyright by registering each and every work with privatized registrars. Failure to do so would leave everything you’ve ever created as an artist up for grabs by anyone who wanted to copy, reproduce, create derivative works of, or flat out steal your work since the act defines an “orphan work” as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, and applies to both published and unpublished works, U.S. and foreign, regardless of age.

More information in the post including ways to contact your reps, an interview with Brad Holland about the issue as well as some other links. Please act on this if you're an artist.

Goggles4U - Follow Up

Almost
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

For those who remember the original posts about getting my new glasses, you'll recall that it was a very seamless and hassle free process. I still believe that.

If you want new glasses.

Goggles4U was the site I chose because they were the absolute cheapest. They had the frames I wanted and the recommendations came very high. Their service was excellent and the glasses were very nice.

The glasses broke last week.

While playing basketball, I was hit and my glasses were knocked off. A chip developed in the lens. I was dismayed because I haven't had them for very long and I regretted not buying goggles to go over them while I played. (We don't play that rough, but when you juke and fake with your head, your glasses get faked out as well and I tend to leave them on the court behind me counting on luck to make the shot blind.) The next week they were knocked off again and the lens split right down the middle.

I have my old glasses on right now. I emailed G4U and asked them if I could send in the frames and get new lenses. I also asked if I sent in other frames if they could put lenses on those too.

They can't. Their reasoning is the reliability of two way shipping.

I emailed back saying that was unfortunate because now I'm going to take their frames to a competitor (39dollarglasses.com) and get new lenses put in. I'll also be sending a second pair of frames AND some sunglasses. 39DG stands to make about $120 off of me and that's money G4U won't get.

Aside from that, despite the inexpensive nature of the glasses, I may not get more frames from G4U. It has nothing to do with their customer service or merchandise, but their policy.

So, if you're interested in buying glasses online, be mindful of lens repair/replacement. G4U doesn't say on their site that it's a service they offer, so it's not as though I was misled. I don't fault them. I think it's sad and unfortunate that they don't offer that service, but that's not for me to decide.

Carry on.

Speed Racer

I'm going to catch hell for this, so read at your own bile inducing peril.

I took LMA to see Speed Racer yesterday. I was going to take her little brother as well but I'm glad I didn't. It was loud, had lots of explosions, tense scenes and frankly a lot of dialog that would have been lost on a three year old.

However, I think LMA liked it well enough.

Hell, I even liked it. I wouldn't consider it a waste of money. It's a good matinée. I mean first of all the Wachowski's are making a full length cartoon based off a 1960's anime. How deep and meaningful could it be? I think you'd be surprised.

Yes, it was bright and fast and the races were impossible and the colors garish. It seemed a little long toward the end but that was because I was sitting next to a little girl with a little girl bladder. But in her defense, she said she wanted to see if she could hold it because she didn't want to miss anything.

For those that don't know the story, Speed Racer revolves around the Racer family and their racing/race car, mom and pop business. The original cartoon saw Speed facing off against various bad guy racers usually paid by local criminal organizations. Members of the family include Mom and Pops Racer, Speeds younger brother Spritle and his chimp friend Chim Chim, as well as loyal mechanic and family friend Sparky. There is also the recurrent character Racer X, who through the course of the TV show is rumored and then eventually shown to be Speed's older brother Rex. In the TV show, Rex runs away after a wreck and a falling out with Pops, vowing to become the best racer in the world. He helps Speed constantly and then drifts back into his unknown life. In the movie, Rex is thought to have died in a horrendous wreck but Speed suspects early on that Racer X is in fact his brother.

The film starts off with a nice flash back of Speed as a youngster, day dreaming of racing (accompanied by a nice child like animation) and whips right into him as a young man driving a local race. The Racer family is shown to be against all major sponsors until a megaconglomerate mogul comes along and nearly woos Speed into becoming part of his team. When Speed finds out this devil is no better than any other, the business man attempts to doom the Racer family financially and legally. Speeds only choice is to side with another racing team - and with Racer X - to bring this company down. The final show down is a grand prix race against a legend and I'll let you figure out the outcome.

Right up until the end, the film seems like a parody of the Wachowski's work. It's dialog heavy but action packed. Yes there are bullet-cam scenes. The ending even has a Neo-going-into-the-light moment that I know you wouldn't have seen from any other film makers. But for all it's glitz and...well, speed, it's a charming story about family and loyalty. The acting is fairly decent considering the cartoon dialog. Emile Hirsch is incredibly wonderful as Speed and Roger Allam (V for Vendetta) does a fairly good Tim Currey bad guy. John Goodman and Susan Sarandon are very charming and Mom and Pops. LMA's favorite was the younger brother Spritle played by Paulie Litt who I swear was channeling Kevin Pollack. I think I was most impressed with Matthew Fox as Racer X. I don't remember much of the cartoon, but I do remember Racer X's ominous voice and Fox did a great job of establishing and staying in that character. I think the only problem I had was with Trixie. I LOVE Christina Ricci and would watch her read the ingredients off an egg carton, but something about her was TOO sexy. I know she was Speed's love interested and thus had to be attractive, but there was something too smoldering and fantastically hot for me to believe she was Speed's childhood sweetheart. I guess that's a personal issue I'll have to work out on my own.

This movie will end up being a cult film, well loved by fans but over looked by Joe and Joann Q. Public. The references are all there (Cruncher Block, Inspector Detector, the 7 buttons, the original theme) but I think most people will view this as a technocolor nightmare. It's too clean, too fast, too well put together and too unreal. And honestly, it's really hard to see past that. I tried and did my best and I think I was able to enjoy the story and the performances and sort of be led down the rabbit hole to a place where things only make sense if you ignore what you see.

It's frenzied but triumphant. It's the pod race from Star Wars without the stupid CGI aliens and damn goofy lines. It's the Fast and the Furious without the testosterone. It IS a good family movie because it's about family and how supporting the ones you love and believing in yourself and your abilities is always the better choice.

I don't have a rating system, but let's say out of 5 Lego pieces I give it 3 1/2.

PS - Bit of trivia. The M on Speed's helmet doesn't stand for "Mach 5" (his car) but for Mifune Motors. In the original cartoon, Speed's name was Mifune Go. In a trend that defined later anime shows, the multilayer linguistic names used in Speed Racer led to later character naming difficulties. The original cartoon was named Mach GoGoGo. The car named Mach, the homophone go for 5, "Speed's" name Go and the English word "go." So the original title would have translated to Mach 5 Go Mifune Go.

Carry on.

SE7EN

7!
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

Happy Birthday Little Miss Austin.

Seven years ago, right about now, we were in the hospital with you. Your mom wanted to do a natural birth but you were being a stubborn little turkey and decided you wanted to roll over onto your back and hold onto the cord. Mommy got a shot in her back to help with the pain and then proceeded to fall asleep...she even snored a bit.

Six hours later, you were out. You cried and cooed and wiggled. You tried to deal with the lights with your untrained eyes. Your fingers didn't do anything but flex and hold onto my fingers. You were the smallest thing I'd ever seen.

You also came out with a shock of black hair on the back of your head that clashed pretty fashionably with the rest of your light brown hair.

Over the years you've learned the important things like how to walk and talk and read. You've always been a quick study and most things came early for you; your first words, steps, lost tooth, days without diapers. You've also been a big ol' stinker and have undoubtedly picked up a few bad traits from me and your mom. You're feisty and emotional and fairly crazy.

But dangit if you aren't the smartest and prettiest little girl I know. I hope you have a wonderful day. I love you.

-daddy

Nine Inch Nails

The last album of Trent Reznor's I bought was WITH TEETH because of the single HAND THAT FEEDS. The rest of the album was ok. It was no DOWNWARD SPIRAL or WISH. Last year after an almost Hall & Oats short span of time, NIN released another album YEAR ZERO which was a break from his record label and offered up tracks specifically intended to be remixed. Early this year, just a few months ago, Reznor put GHOSTS I-IV online. Several tracks were free, the album cut was something like $5 and for some 40 songs. Just a few days ago, another NIN album appeared; THE SLIP. This one is totally free.

I'll have to give it its proper listen, but at that price, why wouldn't it be worth it? GHOSTS was instrumental and that's not what I like about NIN. I didn't like FRAGILE because of the non-lyrical half of the album. There are parts of SPIRAL I don't like because of that. They server as good counter points to the hard driving songs like MARCH OF THE PIGS and STARFUCKERS, but over all I'd rather have HAPPINESS IS SLAVERY for 10-13 tracks.

THE SLIP seems a bit more, I don't know, funky. For NIN, funky just isn't something I'd say normally, but said it I did. It feels like several songs from WITH TEETH bleed over and were put on the shelf until the giant endeavor of GHOSTS was released.

My brother is a huge NIN fan and until all the remixing and record label disputes, was very proud that he owned all the Halo numbers - up to 10 I believe. That was almost 10 years ago. What are we up to now?

Go grab THE SLIP, give it a listen. What will it hurt?

Carry on.

The Real Guitar Heroes (a video post)

I've been spending a lot of time on GH3. So much so that I've taken to watching other players on YouTube. I finally hit a wall today when I realized I'm watching other people on the internet play a game. The culmination of my disgust with myself came while watching a clip from Ellen where a young boy played before a live audience...and the audience lost their fucking mind. They were cheering him on like he wrote, composed and then played the song and was hot and sexy in tight leather pants to boot.

So no more, I say. To The Media I say, IT'S A GAME. It's great that someone can get 100% on the Dragonforce song on Expert 4x hyperspeed, but does it require this level of attention? To the players I say I'M JEALOUS that you can do so well. You have, as the kids on my lawn say, mad skillz (the "z" connotes a 3d20 plus for skills.) At the end of the day, however, I hope you have a back up plan for the time you've spent mastering 5 buttons.

Therefore I offer folks a look at the musicians behind the music. These are the 5 songs I enjoy playing the most. I envy their skill still more.

Knights of Cedonia - Muse


When You Were Young - The Killers


Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughn


Lay Down - Priestess


Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson


Some of these have poor quality as they're filmed by alcoholic lemurs, but you get the idea.

Carry on.

Nothing

Crashed
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

I know I haven't written you lately. I feel like I want to tell you things, but there's nothing that comes to mind. I've ignore you, I've ignored Flickr and Penciljack and the rest and I think they're starting to resent me for it. I've noticed some of them are making it harder to log in. Can't say I blame them.

But I just can't seem to find a reason, a muse, a spark. This stack of index cards and its doodlings doesn't fill the void and I'm sorry. I know it's been since forever that I've sent you anything, given you a reason to update your feeds. I wish I had more answers for you. I've tried writing scripts and short stories but I can't seem to get past the idea part of it. I know that hurts you to get only these blithe updates about kids and I know you crave content. I can understand if you want to leave.

I can't say if you give me another chance I'll take it. I don't see movies. I don't read particularly fast and what I read isn't new. I watch a lot of TV, but I'm sure you're tired of being linked to other sites with reviews. That can't feel good. But you can't say I didn't try at the start. I had lots of ideas and a few projects I really thought were going to go places. I gave what I had, I just don't think it was enough.

I'm not hurt or angry with you, I know you have better things to do and deserve more. I'm not going any where. In fact, I have a few things I need to get out of the way and then I'm going to really focus on myself, hopefully pull out some good material and then you won't feel like such a waste of time and space.

And if you see DeviantArt, tell them I never want to talk to them again. They're fucking crazy.

Sincerely,
Ben

Smoking Ban Closes 7% of N. Ireland Pubs

Work smoke free or don't work at all. Glad you complained?

From BBC News.

Its (The Federation of Retail Licensed Trade) chief executive Stephen Kelly said: "The much-promoted view that non-smokers would be rushing to premises has not materialised.

This has been a much loved topic of debate on LIA (meaning I shout at the tubes until the spittle shorts out my monitor) and to this day I'm still not in favor of these bans.

Here's a quick run down of my talking points.

1) It's prohibition. It didn't work for alcohol, it won't work for tobacco.
2) If it's such a malicious problem, make it illegal. It's hypocritical to take tobacco tax to fund municipal works and education projects but then ban the same substance in public places. Think about it, the cigarettes you can't smoke on this property helped pay for its construction.
3) There are already nonsmoking establishments that serve alcohol. I don't understand the mindset of wanting to go to a bar and then complain of the smoke. It's like going to Six Flags and complaining about the roller coasters.

This isn't just me as a smoker not enjoying watching places I can have a cider and a smoke dwindle to seedy pool halls, it's also the lack of accountability and common sense. If it's so bad you have to publicly ban it, just fraking make it illegal already. If it's legal, and taxable, why are you telling me when I can use it? I don't smoke in my office or in my house. I smoke with other smokers. And where do we congregate? At bars.

Legislation like this makes me feel like I'm working a part time job where they don't want me any longer but instead of firing me they just schedule me for five hours a week in the hope I quit on my own.

Carry on.

First of May

Happy First of May, everyone. Time to go outside and get it on.



First of May by Jonathan Coulton.

Happy Birthday Willie

Today is Willie Nelson's 75th birthday. I've had the honor of seeing him twice in concert. The man still tours, doing roughly 100 shows a year.

In 1965, Nelson moved to RCA Victor Records and joined the Grand Ole Opry. He followed this with a series of minor hits and then retired and moved to Austin, Texas. While in Austin, with its burgeoning "hippie" music scene (see Armadillo World Headquarters), Nelson decided to return to music. His popularity in Austin soared, as he played his own brand of country music marked by rock and roll, jazz, western swing, and folk influences. A lifelong passion for running and a new commitment to his own health also began during this period.

Happy Birthday, Willie.

Colleague in Small Press Idol

A wonderful and creative writer D Cox (friend of LIA) has entered Small Press Idol. Here's some information:

I'm in a Small Press Idol competition on Dimestore in the US and could
do with some support.

The project is here
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/Content/Tokyogonzo.html

if you like the look of it, or just hate the other entries, and would
like to support it
you can register here
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/Your_Account/register.html

and then every day you remember up until May 4th click on this link
http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=4103.html
and post 'YES'

you may if you wish customise the YES with a 'goddammit' or an
'indeedy' or whatever takes your fancy but a clear 'YES' is important.

Also if you do like the project could you forward on to anyone else
you know who may be interested.

End of schpeel.

I've done some work for Dan and his work is really amazing. It's wild and trippy and fun and fanciful. Definitely worth some support.

Carry on.

Remember Hoboes?

Someone does.

I haven't drawn a hobo in a long, long time. I wish I could find what happen to my artistic motivation. If you see it, could you let me know? I sure miss it.

Guilty Pleasures - UK Slang

I admit it, I've used a few words that have made people cock their heads like dogs hearing a whistle. I don't know what it is about slang and colloquialisms from the UK, but I must use them. I must insert them into emails and IM chats and every day conversation. I feel it's my duty to bridge the gap (one language separated by an ocean or whatever) and impart some notions of foreign communication on my fellow Americans.

I can't say what it is that appeals to me about it. I watched a lot of Doctor Who as a kid, listened to Hitchhiker's Guide radio shows and later became a fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway. Now that I've got comic/art acquaintances in the UK, I do my best to use it. I guess as a way of showing that I'm not a Bush-loving cowboy or whatever stereotype they may have of us.

So if you hear me use words like "sussed" "dodgy" or "nackered", please realize I'm not trying to be fancy or purposefully odd. I just like their words better. I mean really, which would you rather say: "I've got it sussed" or "I've got it figured out." I'd rather say "cheers" than almost anything else to end correspondence. Nothing I say, however, makes it sound as good as when it is said by native purveyors of the language. In speech it sounds like I'm trying to hard. I'm sure in writing it makes me look like a nutjob.

But even if it wasn't UK slang, it'd be something else. I'm the only one I know in my circle to say "groovy" or "ciao" or "dag nabit." I've substituted sci-fi swears where possible, but I'm not John Creighton or Lee Adama so it still sounds wrong. Doesn't mean I won't try. As a plus, it's better for my kids to hear "that's frelling ridiculous" instead of any alternative. LMA has some imprint that doesn't allow her to say "shut up" or "stupid" without asking for a bad-word-pass, so while I slip up more than most, I'd still like them to understand that slang and curses are more about emphasis and how you feel saying them then the actual word. Odd that it's the actual word that gets you in trouble. I can promise you that a first grader saying "frak me" will still draw attention, but guess what, it's not against the rules.

On the other side of the coin, none of the guys I know across the pond use that much slang in forums or on chats. Frankly I try to use their words because I feel bad that their using mine so often. I can't hear a Brit actually saying "awesome" but I know they type it. I have a friend in Finland who I'm sure has fantastic words for "cool" and "that sucks" but he seems to have a better command of English than I do and doesn't seem to want to change that.

I need a bumper sticker that says "I Heart Polyglots."

Carry on.

Greatest Five Seconds

Picked up from Club Jade.

It was electrifying, seismic, a bombshell. Looking back it was as though two hundred million movie-goers all audibly gasped at the same time. Certainly, everyone in the theater I was in did. And the next time I saw it and the next time after that. It was an ultimate story-telling moment in our ultimate story-telling medium; absolute, perfect, completing a perfect circle that made pure emotional sense.

If you don't want to read the full article (which you should, it's very well written) it basically says that in The Empire Strikes Back, the scene where Darth Vader tells Luke, "I am your father." is the best five seconds in movie history.

I was going to respond in the comments, but like all internet arguments, I could either be the little girl or the donkey. Rather I'll subject you fine readers to my inane blather.

Bobby B. hit the astro-droid on the head with this one. For a while now I've been trying to think of movies that I've seen that had the same impact as that five seconds. It was such a bombshell that the actor playing inside the Vader costume, David Prowse, didn't speak that line during filming. Mark Hamill was told was the last second change was so he could react, but Prowse didn't know about until he saw the film at its release. (Prowse hasn't had the best of times with Lucasfilm; his voice dubbed, lines changed, actors brought in for unmaskings and finally no offer to reprise the role for Episode III. For one of the greatest villains of all time, he was treated like a stage hand.)

So what did this do? What kind of impact did it have? Let's consider a couple things. First, until Star Wars, there was a gap of several decades where movies didn't do sequels, not with much success. (I'm sure a film buff will prove me wrong.) The days of serials had past and Hollywood made a switch to single big budget movies, but it wasn't quite the blockbusters we know today. These were still very good movies, but marketing movies hadn't come to prominence yet and I'd hazard a guess that in the late 60's and early 70's was about making a critically acclaimed film and not a money grossing flick.

Second, by the time Empire was finally released, the world was Star Wars crazy. You can call it bad movie all you want, but it was a cultural juggernaut. Even if you'd never seen the movie, by sheer force of the collective, you knew about it. It was in the news, papers and magazines. There were toys and lunch boxes and bed sheets and albums. You couldn't get away from it. I'm sure other things happened in 1977, but in the entertainment world, Star Wars was it.

It was a perfect storm. A media darling that came out with a second installment at a time when America (and probably the world) needed a bit of pure escapism; entertainment distilled to its base elemental and mythical forms. We needed to cheer for good and throw fruit at evil. But what we got was a twist no movie had done with such skill up till that point. And I don't mean film making skill, I mean media skill. When you've captivated the world then hit them with something they either didn't think possible or only toyed with as a guilty fear, you've effectively blown the world's mind.

No one saw it coming. I don't care how studied you are in mythology or film making. This was big. Take any other classic movie and put in a twist like this and tell me it wouldn't have made a giant impact.

At the time, movies were still the king of entertainment. There was no world wide web or consumer internet. Cable TV was just starting and wasn't in a majority of homes and even then it wasn't the glut of senselessness we have now. This was it for entertainment. Honestly, the biggest moment around that time that I remember was the TV buzz around who shot J.R.

So I'm open to comments about this. It wasn't my article, but it's obvious I'm defending this position. I completely agree that this moment is the greatest five seconds in movie history. Give me some others, tell me sequels were big in the 60's and 70's, even say why you thought the movie was junk.

Carry on.

Apologies to Michelle

You're gonna hate me for this.

How Old Is She?

Wobble
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Yesterday the kids and I met up with a friend and her son at a park for an afternoon of wearing them out. Her son brought his bike, LMA brought her scooter and G-man brought is big wheel.

I don't remember when it exactly happened, but my friend and LMA had started riding around on the two wheeler. I was shooting hoops at the time, but I look over and LMA is cruising around on two wheels. I feel bad that I wasn't the one that helped her learn it, but it doesn't matter. She was having a blast and spent most of the rest of the day riding around the park.

Of course that meant today I had to take the training wheels off her bike. It's a little small, has sat in the backyard for years and needed to be cleaned and oiled, but she was off like a bolt when it was done. Well, a bolt that's a bit wobbly and tends to squeak and squeal when it gets a little out of control.

This also means that I have to go shopping before her birthday.

I've never seen her go away from me so fast. I was laughing to keep from tearing up.

Carry on.

Because I have nothing better to write

1) Do you like blue cheese? Nope

2) Have you ever smoked heroin? nO.

3) Do you own any guns? Squirt and rubberband.

4) What flavor do you add to your drink at sonic? I get root beers and chocolate malts

5) Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Not generally.

6) What do you think of hot dogs? They're delicious with chili and cheese.

7) Favorite Christmas song? The Christmas Song

8) What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange juice.

9) Can you do push ups? Yes, maybe about 40-50 before I have a heart attack.

10) Can you do a chin up? Not really.

11) What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I don't have any.

12) Favorite hobby? Drawing robots.

13) Ever been in a car wreck? Not a major one - just fender benders.

14) Do you have ADD? Yes. Wait, what?

15) What's one trait that you love about yourself? I'm quick witted.

16) Middle name? Michael

17) Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? Pillow fight. Office is chilly. Cramp in my calf.

18) Name 3 things you bought yesterday? Pack of smokes, texmex for lunch, coffee.

19) Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, coffee, juice.

20) Current worry? That it's going to end.

21) Current hate right now? A project I'm working on is pretty dead in the water.

23) How did you bring in the New Year? With my kids. Well...we were all in the same house.

24) Where would you like to go? Japan.

25) Name three people who will complete this? I can't name three people who'd read this.

26) Do you own slippers? No.

27) What shirt are you wearing? Blue collar shirt.

28)Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Not really.

29) Can you whistle? Yup.

30) Favorite color? Blue.

31) Would you be a pirate? Probably not. Romantic view of pirates aside, I'd make a lousy pirate.

32) What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever is on the radio.

33) Favorite girl's name? Genevieve

34) Favorite boy's name? Keegan or Logan

35) What's in your pocket? Box of cigarettes, two sets of keys, lighter, phone.

36) Last thing that made you laugh? Jawbone Radio podcast.

37) Best bed sheets as a child? I think I had Star Wars sheets. Those were cool.

38) Worst injury you've ever had? Broken jaw.

39) Do you love where you live? Yes. I love Austin.

40) How many TVs do you have in your house/apartment? Two. But I've got three computers.

41) Who is your loudest friend? Siobhan. Sorry, hon. But you are.

42) How many dogs do you have? One, and that's enough thanks.

43) Does someone have a crush on you? I hope so.

45) What is your favorite book? Imajica by Clive Barker.

46) What is your favorite candy? Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

47) Favorite Sports Team? Colorado Avalanche

48) What song do you want played at your funeral? Daily City Train by Rancid

49) What were you doing 12 AM last night? Calming kids down during a storm.

50) Do you believe in love at first sight? No, but I'm not that kind of a person. I'm glad other people believe in it.

Another Missed Opportunity

RobotJohnny cartoonizes 1968 yearbook.

He's made a book of it too. It's a good idea. I'm sure it'll sell well, now that Boing Boing listed it.

Unlike the all the other things I've tried to do for the past two years. I guess any more you need to do more than 500 of something to get noticed. It's not the idea, it's the leviathan effort put into it.

Don't get me wrong, RobotJohnny's on my Flickr contact list and I constantly look forward to and am inspired by his work.

I don't know. I'm still a bit cheesed that the 100AP isn't selling well. Got an email today that said they put in an order for it the day it came out and still haven't got their copy yet.

Pity party, table for one.

Chicken Lady

I know it's been a while. Have some Chicken Lady to hold you over.

It's Been Such A Long Time...

Guitar Hero
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

...I think I should be going.
Time doesn't wait for me,
It keeps on rolling.

I've got so much to talk about and so little I think I can actually say for reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss.

Is it all clear now?

Let's put it this way, Ms. A got Guitar Hero on Saturday and that wasn't the high point of my weekend.

Did you ever have a weekend that made you question what the hell you were doing again on Monday? Have you ever gone from quitting time Friday to punch in on Monday just talking and drinking and laughing and playing? I'm going to be completely spoiled now because it was so good I'm going to try to recapture it and it's not going to happen, so I spent Monday trying to accept that and allow myself to appreciate the memory.

I'm happier now than I've been in a long, long time. I've met new people that are fantastic and seen old friends that were fantastic to begin with. I was given very little responsibility and I felt free and loose and ready to do anything. It was a great jump start. I just have to get back into finishing a few projects, hopefully this won't distract me too much.

And if it did, that wouldn't be a bad thing either.

Really.

Carry on.

Life At Three

Sweetness
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

G-man (known to his parents as Gregory) is a boy. He's just a little boy. He plays with dinosaurs and cars. He chases bugs, digs holes in dirt and runs around sometimes only mostly dressed through sprinklers and sunshine alike. He eats Mac-n-Cheese and drinks milk. He loves Spiderman even though he's never seen a cartoon or read a comic book. His hair is shaggy and fun and his eyes are bright and mischievous. He loves to kick is little green ball.

G-man has a sister who he loves. His big sister is his whole world. He loves to be around her, loves to play with her and loves to pinch her and run away. When he dreams, he dreams of her. She's telling him what to do and he doesn't like it. She's giving him cookies and he loves it. Every little shout when he dreams has her name in it. He loves his sister.

G-man paints and plays little video games and he's a better Wii bowler than his dad. He loves to count things and will stop you long enough to let him count in his own unique way. When you call him a sweet name like "stinker" or "tough guy" or "noodle head" he says, "I'm not Noodle Head. I'm Gregory!" When you tickle him, he has the best giggle in the world.

G-man can eat a full bunch of bananas in one day.

G-man likes punk music, but not rock-n-roll. He likes Cars but not Finding Nemo. He doesn't the movie Aladdin because of the giant cave cat, it's scary. He likes throwing things, like rocks, by flinging them and seeing where they land. His head sweats when he sleeps and he loves his Ka-Chow! (Cars) pajamas.

G-man isn't in a daycare or school yet. He stays at home with mom while she works. We want to soon get him into a preschool so he can make some friends because I think he's got a lot of friendship rocks to throw around. He doesn't sleep in but he falls asleep fairly quickly.

G-man loves water as though he has an innate communal tie to the element.

It's not a birthday, he's not feeling poorly. I just realized that I don't talk much about him outside of what kind of trouble he and his sister get into (which is quite a lot). He's a wonderful child. I couldn't ask for a better son. I'm constantly entertained and....enwondered? by how magical he is.

Carry on.

Guilty Pleasures - Dragonball Z

I'm what you'd call a casual anime fan. My early experience with the genre was filtered through whatever early American cable TV channels were available in the early 80's. At the time of Robotech and Voltron, Speed Racer and even lesser known shows like Tranzor Z, there was no Cartoon Network. There wasn't the Manga Entertainment distributor and wouldn't be until 1991. (Oddly enough manga is the japanese word for comics. Anime is an adopted term for japanese animation. For a while it was japanime. To this day there's a confusion between magna and anime and having a movie company named thusly is akin to calling an American film company "Reader's Digest.")

Even before mainstream cartoons in the US adopted so many anime shows, we knew what it was. Young writings and discussions debated why these new shows had characters with big eyes and pointy noses and sharp chins. We noticed that all the robots looked like they wore cowboy boots. For us, it was a kung-fu movie. It was foreign and the dialog soundtrack didn't sync. It was fast moving and a little more grown up than we were used to. There was an attention to detail and emotion we hadn't seen in many shows before. When you've grown up on Tom and Jerry, Looney Toons and Smurfs and suddenly you see Robotech and its themes of love and growing up and war, the world changes. I'm sure everyone has their moments when they realize that just because it's four colors, doesn't mean it's just eye candy - that there can be more to what you've assumed as entertainment.

But my guilty pleasure isn't anime. Movies like Akira, Ninja Scroll and Macross Plus do not make me feel bad about watching them. No one gives me a hard time for enjoying those movies. They are skillfully made and hold up very well over time.

No, my guilty pleasure is a shōnen (teenage boy) show called Dragonball Z.

Dragonball is one of if not the most successful magna (re: comic) in Japan. It's print run was from 1984-1995 and it was later adapted into a long running TV series. Dragonball centers around a young boy named Son Goku who is from world of warriors. He's sent to Earth while an infant to be a sleeper agent. His race conquers planets by sending warriors early to avoid suspicion. At the right age, they turn into giant apelike berserkers with enormous power. They wipe out all life on the planet and then put it up for sale. Goku bumps his head coming to Earth and his amnesia prohibits him from completing his mission.

But that's not the main story. The main bit is there are these mystical artifacts called dragonballs that when all collected call forth a wish granting dragon. Most of the stories involved Goku learning to fight and trying to find all seven dragonballs.

Dragonball Z shifts to Goku as a child-at-heart adult and his continued adventures with his friends. I knew nothing about the original or the magna when I started watching it on Cartoon Network in the late 90's, but I was immediately captured by the idea of a bunch of super powered martial arts experts fighting aliens to save the world.

Unfortunately, it's not even as cool as I try to make it sound. DBZ suffers from a lot of posturing. Each episode is only 20 minutes long and in that 20 minutes there will be MAYBE 90 seconds of actual fighting. I'm not a violence junkie, but I do love me some super fast martial arts and chi powered fireballs. The problem with this show, and the reason I feel guilty about watching it, is that while it was popular in Japan, it's sort of ridiculed in the US as being a pointless, horribly written piece of junk. And it is fairly puerile and shallow, but sometimes you need that. You can't always watch the technical brilliance of Lost or the insightful wonder of Arrested Development. Sometimes you need an escape from your escape.

There was one moment when I knew DBZ and I would have a long and blissfully colored relationship. The story exists in long arcs and round about the third arc (the Frieze Saga) there's a bit where Goku transforms into this ultimate warrior, this Super Sayjin of myth and legend because he let his anger and frustration at the death of his friend push his power beyond the limits he knew. The love for his friend and the rage he felt at his death caused a change in him that was almost cathartic and being someone who suffers from anger, frustration and control issues, I instantly identified and almost idolized this character. He reached a point by letting his anger blossom to where he was stronger but also more confident and in much more control. A mental barrier had been breeched and all it took was an enormous amount of stubbornness to break through to that area of his mind that held his true power.

In the same vein, I also identified a bit with Mister Furious from Mystery Men. "No, anger REALLY rising!"

It's the Dark Side of the Force, really. It's the idea that your anger and hate can make you powerful. But in Goku's case, the anger and hate brought him the power, but also a sense of right and goodness. All he wanted to do was avenge his friend and save Earth, and if that meant getting pissed, then I say more power to him.

If I could find a way to condense all the DBZ episodes down to just the fights, I think I'd be very happy. I don't care about his friend the pig or his wife or the various side story wrestlers and fighters they run into. It's such a dichotomy because I really like half of the show and really detest the other half. But I keep coming back to it like a whipped pup. I don't expect it to be different, I guess I expect me to be different.