Book 17

Issola rounds out the Brust-a-thon. Vlad ends up with a new toy and you get more exposition about the nature of the world the characters live in. An interesting story rounding out the Vlad novels thus far in existence. So. Now that I've read them all would I recommend them? Yes certainly. Just probably not all at once like that. The characters remain interesting and it's always fun to spend a little time with them.

And now it will be on to Flight 2.

The Joy of Flight

Flight Volume 2 arrived in the mail today. Joy! Once I polish off Issola I'll immerse myself in lovely sequential art. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the PA guys made it into this offering, but Jeff Smith (Bone) did as well as a few new faces and some of the artists from the first volume. I can't wait.

The trailer for George Romero's Land of the Dead is running around the net now. It's worth watching just for Dennis Hopper's last couple lines at the end. You can go roving for it - I refuse to make this internet thing completely easy for you.

And I ran across this blog the other day. It seems to have some potential as a gaming blog.

Gorillaz

I kind of like them. And at the moment, that's all I have to say...

Serenity Now

Serenity trailer is up. It needs to be September 30th right now...

Book 16

Dragon (yeah, yeah, Brust etc.) took a bit longer to get into than the previous Taltos novels, but by then end it still ended up pretty interesting. I will say that I'm looking forward to finishing off Issola and moving on. I think this may be the longest stretch of books I've read by one author. I refuse to speculate on whether or not that's a good thing. Dragon, for the most part, delves into Vlad's past and provides the soldier story for the series. One of the things I like about Brust is his willingness to gloss over things. Most authors get bogged down in descriptions and setting up events and things like that. Brust winks at the reader a few times and manages to skip that sort of thing and it works out for the best. That's not to say that he doesn't provide descriptions and scene setting, but he knows when it's important and when it's not. Vlad's willing to just tell the story. Plus, some of the description he waves off ends up being other stories. It's either a cheap trick or refreshing brevity. Your pick.

Still chuckling over Kung Fu Hustle. That was such a great movie...

This is hilarious

From Boing Boing:

A hilarious collection of personal ads.

Evil $1 DVDs

We were shopping at WalMart today and they had a bin of $1 DVDs. I couldn't resist The Bodyguard (starring Sonny Chiba, not Kevin Costner thank you), Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Horror Express. Oh, and we got Heidi for the kids. Just finished suffering through watching The Bodyguard. Oddly I can see the influence movies like this had on things like Kill Bill and Cowboy Bebop, but this was not one of the more spectacular examples of Kung Fu cinema. Despite the write up on the DVD case promising, "much kung fu mayhem"... I feel so cheated. Well, ok since it was $1, I can't quite say that with a straight face.

So, Kit, Eric, James when are you coming out for some silly movie marathoning? Horror Express looks especially promising.

Do the Hustle

Yeah, yeah, terribly unoriginal title considering I'm going to talk about Kung Fu Hustle. Deal with it. Funniest movie I've seen in a long time. It's been a while since I've laughed that hard. Do yourself a favor and go see it. Now. And then go see it again. Stephen Chow has come a long way since Shaolin Soccer. I enjoyed Shaolin Soccer, but this movie is on a completely different level. It manages to be both a Kung Fu movie and a parody of Kung Fu movies. Toad Fu! Hand Ax dance number! It's like watching a live action Kung Fu cartoon. And there are several sly pokes at popular American movies. Just go see it. I'll have to come back and actually talk about the movie once it's been out a little longer so I don't feel like I'm spoiling it.

And so on

So the week that would not die is inexorably dragging its way to some form of conclusion. At least it will end on a high note. Kung Fu Hustle comes out tomorrow and a group of us from work are going. Mwa ha ha.

And we have managed to accomplish some spring cleaning. The house has, for the next five minutes, been declared clean and livable.

Now if I can just track down a copy of House of Flying Daggers...

Is this week over yet?

What do you mean it's only Wednesday?

They got rid of Vogler last night on House. While it's not surprising, all things considered, I am surprised they did it so soon. He was a really good bad guy. And it will be interesting to see what they do to keep some of the tension on the show.

I have this bizarre urge to pick up Magnum P.I. on DVD...

Moving on. <whistles>

My wife insists on watching Smallville. At the moment she has to settle for taping it as we tend to have plans for Wednesday nights. But seriously. Smallville. I will admit to enjoying the first season, but since then it's just kind of grated on my nerves. Not unlike Alias... Why is it that American dramas can't seem to sustain themselves past a season or two? I blame the lack of finite plotting. This desire Hollywood has to find the next show that can just go on forever and ever must stop. It's ok to have a story to tell and then tell it over a set period of time.

And that's about it.

Fight the System

Punk Rock Graeme,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Either that or marry someone not afraid to embarrass her son with photos of a silly nature. Graeme has since had a haircut as we really just can't encourage this behaviour at such an early age. ^_^

And as a further note to this morning's post, Burger King really does not for good leftovers make.

So the subtle campaign to turn Heather to the dark side of gaming life is continuing. She's currently playing through Tales of Symphonia with me controlling one of the characters during the battle sequences. Of course, one of the main reasons behind the purchase of this game was that you could have up to four people controlling the characters during the fighting. It makes for a nice gateway RPG. The dialogue ranges from wonderfully cheesy to nicely funny. So you get both ends of the spectrum. And the art and music are lovely.

And work life continues to make one question the existence of intelligent life on planet Earth...

Fast food

Arby's the next day (cold) = quite good.
Burger King the next day (cold) = not so much good.

Memo to myself - no BK for breakfast...

Wise words indeed

Good ol' Neil.

Book 15

And Orca bites the dust. A little more interesting than some of the previous stories, Orca actually bothers to fill in a little more of Vlad's world. More grist for the mill at any rate. There are little tidbits mentioned almost in passing that you wish got more attention. Possibly later books. If nothing else it's nice to see another style of story out of the series. This one was more of a mystery than the usual intrigue/assassination plot of the earlier stories. I remember thinking the Brust made a comment that his goal with each of the Vlad stories was to keep trying new things. At any rate a couple more to go and then it's really time for a new author.

Today's tidbit

When you're very tired, Lost in Translation almost seems fast paced. And Bill Murray is the best.

Eye of the Storm

Kids are sick, so the house is actually relatively quiet for the moment. While you always hate to see your kids sick, the quiet is almost always welcome.

Polarium could almost make me buy a DS...

And Vogler on House is just evil. Evil!!

Cool architecture

Nifty.

Books 13 and 14

Yeah, more Brust. Phoenix and Athyra to be exact. Three more by him and I'll be done. Phoenix picked up where Teckla left off and Cawti and Vlad split. Athyra was interesting in that it was from the point of view of a young boy, so you got to see Vlad from the outside. Plus it featured Brust's take on Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I'm still finding the series interesting to read, so that's something. Other than that it's a bit difficult to come up with something. Possibly because I'm reading them all so close together. shrug...

While the critics are panning it, several people I know have seen Sahara and enjoyed it. I find that perplexing. Actually, if I'm honest I'd probably enjoy it myself once I get over the casting decisions. One of my friends claimed it was similar in some ways to The Mummy and that was a fun movie. So who knows.

If you follow movie news, chances are you've heard about the less than flattering review (warning that link is super spoilerific) of Hitchhiker's. I'm not putting a whole lot of stock in it at the moment. One, the internet is famous for being less than kind. And two, the person doing the reviewing might be a little too close to the original source to be terribly unbiased. Although some of the dialogue choices he reported are a little silly. We shall see...

And that's Monday for you.

Friday

Porco Rosso is quite good. Although my wife was quite frustrated with the ending. Some of the scenes were quite beautiful - Miyazaki knows how to animate nature, that's for sure.

I'm extremely glad it's the weekend. And I think I'm going to go enjoy it...

Speaking of Kung Fu

Soul Calibur 2 has become rather addictive lately. Curse you Weapons Master Mode! I'm going through it for the second time trying to unlock all of the areas. And I still haven't finished Paper Mario 2, Metroid Prime: Echoes or DK Jungle Beat or... Well you get the idea. And I won't even mention some of the games I want to try. ^_^;>

Kung Fu Biography

Watched Fighter in the Wind last night. Certainly more comprehensible than Casshern. And funnier in places. It was an interesting movie detailing the story of a Korean fighter that beat the practitioners of several dojos throughout Japan. If you run across it, it's worth watching.

The Onion AV Club has an article up detailing bad scenes in great movies and vice versa. It's worth poking through.

And other than that your on your own.

A McKenna story

mckenna sketch,
originally uploaded by dkun.

My mother-in-law sent the girls some tapes of the old radio show Let's Pretend. She used to listen to it when she was younger and since the girls enjoy listening to stories she thought they'd get a kick out of it. And they do.

One of the more amusing aspects of the tapes is the inclusion of the ads they used to run during the programming for the radio shows. Each story is brought to you by some form of food or what have you.

The other morning McKenna came up to my wife telling her that you could grow babies from Cream of Wheat. She received an odd look and not much more was said. Then last night as we were getting the girls ready for bed we put in one of the tapes and it played a jingle for Cream of Wheat.

And it contained the line, "Cream of Wheat, good for growing babies." And the light bulb went on and my wife and I couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes. We tried to explaing the alternate meaning to McKenna, but I suspect we're all convinced that babies come from secret Cream of Wheat farms somewhere in the midwest.

A comic, a movie, maybe book 12

This is my new favorite webcomic. The current one (Monday April 4th, 2005 if you hit the link after Friday) just makes me laugh. And most of the strips in the archive do the same. I like the art style and the way color is used. So go read.

Watched After the Sunset over the weekend. Strange movie. The parts that were about diamond heists and thieves that may or may not be in retirement were good. The buddy movie middle section with Brosnan and Harrelson was just not good. It was silly. And it seemed to be from some completely different movie. I have no idea why they made the film that way. So it's worth a rental for the beginning and end, but ignore that whole middle section.

And I read Taltos by Brust. I know, I know. I said I was going to read something else. Chung Kuo just isn't grabbing my attention. Taltos was pretty good though. It was fun to read some more of the back story of the characters.

And Graeme is now rolling over. It begins...

Friday bits

Great place to eat: Asuka

Great art to look at: James C. Christensen

Great time to go to bed: now...