Film and stuff

Ran across this blog today. Mostly due to a comics/screenshot comparison of Sin City. Looks like there are other interesting things to browse through as well.

Spent part of the day warning people away from Casshern while trying to decide if it was really that bad. I think part of the problem was the trailer. It suckered us in expecting one sort of movie while in reality we got another. And for a foreign drama it wasn't too bad, but it certainly wasn't really an action movie. It was good to see Rutger Hauer working again though. (Well if Rutger Hauer were Japanese that is...)

Fun fact: Need to put a baby to sleep? Try No Angel by Dido. Works every time.

Casshern

So. Sat through Casshern tonight. What a mess of a movie that was. Pretty. But a mess. Part The Monkey's Paw, part anti-war film, part Evangelion, part who-the-hell-knows. It kind of boggles the mind. Admittedly, by the end a few things make sense (mostly the horribly confusing first half of the movie), but by that time it's a little hard to care. But it is pretty... And in good Asian cinema style everybody's dead by the end. There you have it.

But hey! Sahara's coming out soon! I can almost say that with a straight face. Ok, not really. Actually there are a few interesting films coming out soon, so we'll move on.

And finally...

This is pretty darn cool. And a sign of far too much time on your hands. I must do it myself...

The Easter baby, err, bunny

McKenna and Miranda were up bright and early this morning at about 6:30. My wife was asleep and I was barely able to form coherent thought.

They tromped into our room in order to inform us of the arrival of the Easter Bunny and far too much chocolate. Graeme took that opportunity to begin fussing a bit as he could hear his sisters playing around.

"It's the Easter Bunny!" McKenna promptly exclaimed with a look of wide-eyed shock. (Well, ok I'm imagining the look, my eyes were closed due to still wanting to sleep and all the laughing I was unsuccessfully holding in.)

"No sweetie, it's just your brother..."

The grilled cheese story

My wife asked Miranda what she wanted for lunch.

"A girl cheese sandwich."

"A grilled cheeses sandwich?" My wife asked, not hearing the mispronunciation.

"No, a girl cheese sandwich, not boy cheese!"

"Oh. Well, ok then..."

Quick notes

The Grudge - still creepy.

Jungle Beat - still addictively, frustratingly good.

Miranda - still hilarious (come back tomorrow for the grilled cheese story).

d - still tired.

And that is all.

Book 11

Finished off the Jhereg collection. Yendi and Teckla rounded the book out. Yendi was another fun little romp detailing the meeting of Vlad and Cawti. Teckla however was anything but fun. There were little flashes of fun and the trademark bits that make the series are still there, but the plot is much more serious and features much trouble in Vlad's personal life.

It's interesting in a couple ways. I remember while I was reading Jhereg that I found it interesting that Vlad was married. That type of character rarely is. And in Teckla some of the reasons become clear for the marriage - it looks like it's to set up some tension for the rest of the series. Vlad and Cawti's marital problems help mirror the conflict Brust is setting up in the world he's created. The odd thing is that (for me at least) it works. Vlad and Cawti's courtship is pretty whirlwind. And arguably it allows for the possiblitiy of some problems as they don't really know each other all that well. But Jhereg, which takes place chronologically after their courtship in Yendi, paints a picture of a couple in love. And then Teckla throws that out the window. Almost immediately. But you still feel for them. Despite the fact that it's all so quick, Brust's writing covers the gaps pretty well.

So, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series, but I'm a little more tentative now. Yendi ends on a hopeful note, but the woods are still present and anything can happen. We'll see how it goes. But not for a while... I've got a couple other books I'm going to try and get through first.

The Dangers of Bongos

My wife was helping Miranda play Jungle Beat the other day. She took a turn playing through a level that involved a lot of clapping and upon completion realized that her hand hurt quite a bit. Managed to burst a blood vessel playing the bongos. So no Jungle Beat for her for a couple days. I tried to sympathize with her, but I think the laughter gave me away...

Red Eye looks good. And for once the trailer doesn't give much away, it's just tantalizing enough that it really piques my curiosity. Fun. And spooky!

Sharks and Book 10(ish)

So, I watched Spring Break Shark Attack last night. Sadly, they ruined what should have been a wonderfully cheesy disaster movie with an after school special subplot about date rape. And there weren't nearly enough sharks. In the first hour and a half of the movie (excluding the first 10 minutes or so which I missed) there was one shark attack. It did feature a nice fountain of blood, but then there was nothing for the next hour. It wasn't until the last 1/2 hour that you got the stellar shark attack that the promos promised. Fins everywhere! Screaming coeds! Truly ludicrous dialogue ahoy! There was at least one bad guy with an accent. And a really bad shark metaphor, but other than that it was just a lot of wasted potential. So sad really... There was at least a promo for Locusts!

So, the next few books (well this one and the next one anyway) are by Steven Brust. I'm currently reading the Book of Jhereg collection and I just finished Jhereg. It was a fun little read. Brust has an easygoing style that's pleasant to get lost in. And the characters are interesting and slightly familiar. I'm going to cheat a little and call Jhereg book ten, but Yendi and Teckla - the remaining two books in the collection - will get counted as book eleven. And if I read the other two collections (I suspect I will) they'll count as one each. At any rate, enough book keeping.

My first encounter with Brust was Cowboy Feng's. So far I haven't encountered any thinly veiled social allegories, just an enjoyable series that reads a bit like Fantasy Noir. You could almost claim that Brust is combining elements of film noir and typical fantasy tropes. I don't think you'd be wrong. It'll be a little easier to tell once I'm further into the series. But Jhereg itself was a fun read and left me wanting to read more, so that's good. I may end up spending a bit more time tracking down some of Brust's work.

And that's enough for a Monday.

Ahh Quiet

House is pretty quiet at the moment. McKenna is off to a birthday party and Miranda and my wife are off to do shopping. So Graeme and I are just chillin' here at the house. It's definitely a vast improvement upon last weekend.

If you haven't seen this, it's certainly worth a chuckle. I have little to no desire to see Star Wars Episode III in the theater. Oddly, I enjoyed the first episode, but II killed any desire I have to see the dark alley where Lucas kills off the series. There's already talk of Lucas trying to redo Episodes IV-VI in 3D. He just can't leave the poor thing alone. It's a bit sad really. He reminds me of a character from some book I was forced to read in High School (Of Human Bondage I think) that kept painting the same scene over and over as it was the only thing he'd done well...

Well, enjoy your weekend. Go watch The Incredibles or play a game or bask in what sunshine you can find.

Green thoughts and music

The Scots-Irish in me says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day." Throw down a beverage of your choice (I don't drink so I won't offer any really interesting suggestions) and offer a toast for family and friends and those without those comforts.

Recently the letter 'r' passed along the following link. Fluxblog is a nice little blog that features different songs by different bands. I'm currently in love with the Halcali "Surf Rider" song featured a few days ago. So I offer you that link and I'll go one better and throw in music (for robots). My musical tastes seem to run a little closer to this site's offerings, but both are quite fun to check out. I'm going to have to be extremely careful or I'm going to get sucked into the world of musical blogs that I've been woefully ignorant of up until now. Which is funny because I like music quite a bit. You'd think I'd have stumbled on one or two by now, but no such luck. So enter at your own risk! ^_^

Real quick

Finished off the Wonderfalls discs. Great show. Shouldn't have been cancelled. At least they completed a story arc over the first season. It was nice to not have a horrible cliffhanger staring us down for eternity...

Although I'd really like to have seen season three where they had her committed.

Hit the beat now

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat that is. Jungle Beat is a platformer that uses the DK Bongos. Hit the right drum to go right, left to go left, both to jump, and clap to interact with the environment. Deceptively simple that. Which the best games are. The real joy comes in when you try to wrangle every last banana out of a level. Is one hiding over there? Can I jump up there? What if I hit this spot here? Addictive really. I've heard the game is pretty short, but in some ways that works to your advantage. You're not going to want to pound the drums for level after level unless you're a pain glutton. Small doses - a little goes a long way. And if you're like me, you'll find yourself playing a level over and over trying to wrangle one more banana, one more crest. Arrrrggh! Stupid obsessive compulsive must collect everything mania...

Breathe... Breathe... I'm ok now.

It has become quite the hit in the house at the moment. I foresee the rekindling of the great Klonoa 2 war. Back in the day, my wife and I waged quite the competition over Klonoa. Who could get through which level first? Who could collect the 6 puzzle pieces first? And don't get me started about the gems... I suspect the girls might even get involved. Miranda's already plotting her chance to wrest the bongos back into her control. And I can't give much more praise than that.

Monday, Monday

Well, after a weekend that was far too short and much too loud, Monday arrives. Shoot me now. I really like Zombies!!! It's a pretty fun game. Here is my piece of advice for Monday the 14th of March, 2005: if the helipad shows up and you have a decent amount of ammo, head for the helipad! Don't waste your time dorking around in the building you're currently in so you can get, "Just one more bullet". You'll lose. Trust me on this.

And in order to beat one more horse to death, Firefly is also still excellent. I really can just sit and watch that show over and over.

So, The Incredibles comes out tomorrow. That's grand. I'll be snagging a copy on my way home. I'm looking forward to submersing myself in the goodness that is the film and the extras over the course of the week.

Can I throw one more non-paragraph into this post? Sure I can. And now I can go to sleep...

Book 9

And so the Dan Brown movement comes to a close. Finished off Angels and Demons - the first Robert Langdon book. It was certainly better than Digital Fortress, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Actually it was, for the most part, pretty good. I'm still not crazy about the way Brown's characters have moments of plot-serving stupidity. And it was pretty obvious early on who Janus (the main antagonist) was. But it was a fun read and that counts for a lot when you're talking this kind of literature. I think one of the things I enjoy most is his little forays into architecture and symbology. Not that most of it should be taken as the only way to look at it. Symbols are after all pretty open to interpretation (Freud's cigar notwithstanding).

I'd like to see an illustrated edition of this book as well. The illustrated Da Vinci Code is certainly fun to flip through and Angels and Demons is right up there with art and architecture references. The bad guys this time around are the Illuminati. Poor Illuminati, always picked on. I have the card game version of the Steve Jackson Illuminati game mentioned briefly. Haven't played it in ages though.

At any rate, you could do worse than to flip through this one. The science vs. religion debate is a little grating at times. Brown does manage to play it pretty even handedly though - both sides get their moments. Although it's arguable that religion comes off a little worse for the wear. Still a fun popcorn book and probably Brown's best.

Movie Trailer Moment

Layer Cake looks good. I enjoyed Snatch. Never made it around to seeing Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Actually makes me want to watch Snatch again. I've been in a bit of a watch old movies kick. Want to see Strange Days again for some strange reason. And maybe Much Ado About Nothing. And a couple others.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend. Go track down the covers for the new Harry Potter book if you're a fan. I like the adult version of the British cover myself...

Giddiness

New H2G2 trailer is up. And it's brilliant. Go and seee it won't you?

Ouch...

In college, you can study anything you want... I'd cry if it weren't quite so close to the truth...

Counterpoint and Book 8

Here's an article that lambasts the "new game journalism". It also makes some valid points. Here's the thing though, gaming journalism does need to grow. And while yes, you need a certain amount of game good, game not good, I think you can evolve how you explain that a game is good. Does that mean that the new game journalism is self-serving snobbery? Maybe. It certainly can fall into that trap. But it can also be a powerful way of explaining what a game means in another context than just a guy hitting buttons on a controller. Unfortunately, with a few minor exceptions, you're going to get a lot of the self-serving snobbery before game journalism as a whole grows to the point where a review isn't just x points out of y. And I think that's all I'll say about that for now.

So. Book 8. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. What a piece of work that was. And not in anything remotely resembling a good way. I believe this was Brown's first book. And I'm surprised he was allowed to write more. I had to force myself to finish this thing. The characters were pretty much all unlikable, the plot was really forced and scripted, and it just became a chore to read. Most of Brown's books seem to tackle some sort of issue. The Da Vinci Code tackles Catholicism and Christ's possible family life, Deception Point tackles NASA, and Digital Fortress tackles the NSA and the EFF. If you get tricked into picking up the book based on some of the puzzles you encountered in Da Vinci Code and thinking that you might find more here (based on the book jacket and the subject matter), drop it this instant. There really aren't any - Brown hadn't learned that trick yet.

The characters... I don't know what Brown's fascination is with disabilites, but it's like Crichton and theme parks. If a character has some sort of disability, you can bet they're a bad guy. This time it's a deaf assassin. I can only wish I were kidding (and that's not a slight against deaf people). The main character is once again a drop dead gorgeous scientist (aren't they all, really?) and she mostly just pouts her way through the story. And if you're female and you work for the NSA it must follow that you're stacked. Unless you're the janitor, in which case you're just small and honey-covered. <sigh> There's an actual reference to heaving chests in this story. And while it's not a romantic reference, it's certainly as melodramatic. I just... Words fail really...

The plot is pretty forced. And while it has the potential to be interesting, it mostly just ends up passing by. You've probably noticed that I haven't really described what happens. I would, but I can't bring myself to try and remember enough detail to give you a decent synopsis. Once again the technology is pretty accurate and you wonder just how much of this really goes on, but the ham-handedness of things makes it pretty hard to care. If you're looking for a good book on cryptography and society I recommend Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. And if you want a story that deals with who will watch the watchmen, read Alan Moore's Watchmen. Give this one a miss. Eesh...

Game journalism

There's been a lot of talk about the "new game journalism". Here's an article that rounds up a few examples. The Prince of Persia piece as well as any of the Shoot Club articles are worth perusing. In a lot of ways this is a movement against traditional reviews and more a commentary on how games are part of our lives. Our reactions to games. The way they worm their way into our lives and affect us. It's certainly an interesting trend. It's only sort of caught on. I suspect there's a lot more of it on the web where you don't have the costs and need for readers that come with print publications. Which is a shame. I'd certainly be interested in a videogame magazine that wasn't just a series of scaled reviews and hype previews. And it can be hard to find even on the web. The more traditional game sites are starting to embrace it to some extent (there have been a few pieces over at 1up and insert credit that qualify, but I'd be hard pressed to point out too many more. Of course, I've really cut back on the game sites I hit any more as well. It's possible that this style may revitalize gaming journalism. Certainly couldn't hurt...

Quiet moments

The new Panda Express opened in town. The orange chicken was quite nice. As were the eggrolls. It's a little pricier than fast food, but it certainly tastes better.

Played a rousing game of Cooties with the girls this evening. They had quite the good time with that. It was fun to watch them enjoy themselves. And someone really needs to teach Miranda how to roll dice. She sat there shaking her hand like it was on fire only to hold the die in a deathgrip. And then she'd drop it straight onto the floor. I can tell she's on her way to Vegas...

For the moment things are quiet and that's something to take advantage of. Of course my wife decided to choose this exact moment to flip the tv on... Oh well, all good things come to an end I suppose. Accursed tv, we meet again. You'll get yours one day! It's funny, while there are a few shows I enjoy watching, the tv mostly serves as a medium for me to watch DVDs or play games. I could just about do without the actual broadcast portion. And now that tv shows are making their way to DVD... Mwa ha ha.

Book 7

You'll sense a trend for the next three books. Mostly because my holds at the library strangely all came in at the same time. Anyway. Book seven was Deception Point by Dan Brown. Brown, in some ways, reminds me a lot of Crichton. Take a plausible premise, throw in some fiction and mix. Brown doesn't pull it off as well as Crichton (well, earlier Crichton anyway) mostly because he telegraphs his moves. You can see the deus ex machina lumbering towards you for most of the "cliffhangers" in the story. I will admit to being caught off guard a couple times in this one, but that's mostly my own fault. I'm always a little too willing to overlook the really obvious bad guy for the obvious bad guy. Which means I can read mysteries and enjoy them. ^_^

So. Government coverups, bastard politicians, NASA blunders, and hot scientists. What's not to like? The book equivalent of a popcorn movie, Deception Point was a fun read and did offer some food for thought. Mostly along the lines of how we perceive NASA these days and what it might take to restore some of it's lost luster. As well as other possible ends for the space program. I have no idea how much of what's covered is legit. I doubt I'll do the research. I'll probably track down my friend over at Scaled and ask her about some of their recent experiences from this point of view. But mostly it's just a fun read. And there you go.

Up next is Digital Fortress and then Angels and Demons and then I'll be moving on to someone else. If I can take that much Brown. I had a serious Cussler overdose a couple years ago and I find it really hard to read him any more without breaking out into serious giggles and eye-rolling. Speaking of Cussler, what's up with that trailer for Sahara? McConaughey as Dirk Pitt? Seriously? <shudder> We need another weep for Hollywood moment...

And with that, enjoy the weekend!

Copper

Go read some. Wonderful little stories with a great art style. You cannot resist. Go read all of them. And then go read them again. And then go to Bolt City and catch up with what Kazu's working on at the moment. I'm gonna have to pick up Flight 2...

Not much else worth passing on at the moment. Well, that's not entirely true. I could make you go test your reflexes.

Or I could ramble on some more about the unaired episodes of Wonderfalls and how Fox should never be let near programming decisions ever again. Ever. No really. No more. <deep breaths> Ok. I'm ok. It's not my fault the program directors at Fox are idiots. <sigh>

Or I could relate the story about Miranda and her irrational fear of pirate cups... I really ought to post a McKenna story before that though.

Anyway, I think that's enough of a diversion for a Thursday night. And if not, go read the Radio from Hell blog. That will take at least 5 minutes. Or so.

Inner Geek Alert

I'm enough of a geek to want a few of these. There are a couple skins for the GBA and the Gamecube that are seriously beckoning to be mine. That GBA 9000 for one... And maybe the Matrix GC skin and... <sigh>

I find casemodding to be an interesting little field. I think the one I've liked the most so far was the guy that modded an old typewriter. It was pretty cool looking when he was done with it.

Due to a lack of concentration

Did I pass this along? I can't recall. Oh well, go look at the covers and laugh again...

Backup Title #2

It's a quiet Tuesday evening, which is an oddity, but a welcome one. My wife is at a meeting and strangely enough the kids are asleep. So I'm taping House for when she gets back and I watched [scrubs]. Didn't that show used to be at least a pseudo-medical dramedy? It's still pretty good, but it could take place just about anywhere with the current storylines.

I'm rapidly making my way through book 7, but you'll get the lowdown on it when I'm done. I probably should have gone into a little more detail on some of the stories from McSweeney's, but I didn't want to give too much away. My wife is currently reading through it and that's rather fun. It's interesting to see her reactions to some of the stories.

Not much to direct you lot towards at the moment. The rumors regarding the next gen consoles are mounting as E3 draws closer. It might even be interesting to see what happens. I've got little interest in what Sony and Microsoft have planned as they seem to simply be waging a media center war, but Nintendo's next box could be interesting...

And that's about it.