Sneak Peek

Just a sneak peek at what I’m working on right now.  Anything more might get me in trouble, so I’ll leave it at that.

Standing Guard

A weary old bear warrior watches a pass into his kingdom, his sharp eyed mouse companion by his side.  Or on his helmet, as the case may be.  Started this maybe a month ago mostly as an armor study (as you can see, I still need a lot of work when it comes to armor designs), and just to paint something other than humans.

Life works in mysterious ways…

…and everything happens for a reason.  These are the kinds of events that make these trite truisms suddenly make sense.  Sorry, let me backtrack for a bit.

Last Friday, I lost my phone in the meatgrinder that was the Oktoberfest.  The D900 wasn’t the best phone ever made, design or otherwise, but it was thin and I’d molded my texting habits to match it perfectly.  PLus all my numbers and messages were there so it was a pretty annoying situation to be in.  In addition to that, the phone globe gave me was the w270, which in all fairness was a decent phone, but Motorola’s UI just takes too long to get used to.After a day of sufering through that, I was annoyed enough that I started looking for second hand units online.

Lo and behold, I found THE cellphone that I originally wanted beore I settled on the d900, the Samsung P300.  At the time, the P300 was very hard to find and was being sold at ridiculous prices, like 20 grand upwards.  But now someone was selling it for 5999, which I bargained down to a neat 5 grand.  I got it yesterday, and it’s everything I thoguth it would be.

I wanted a phone whose design stood out from the crowd, and I’l be damned if this phone doesn’t do that, especially in the supplied leather case (which doubles as an extra battery pack, how sweet is that?).  Sure, some folks will knock it for it’s 80’s style calculator look, but personally I love its industrial design.  Strong, hard lines with no unneccesary curvature.  A brushed metal aluminum front  and no nonsense gray buttons.  And that sweet, sweet leather case that just completes the sophisticated and cultured yet masculine look.

For 5 grand, this is probably the best value for money purchase I’ve ever made!

Michael Moore : Hillary Clinton tastes good, like cookie dough ice cream.

A moment away from the art and a second for politics with our good friends Larry King and Michael Moore, who were discussing the democratic candidates by way of ice cream:

MOORE: I think that maybe in some of the states, they might have voted for Hillary over Obama. But, you know, it’s like that’s — they were choosing between, you know, chocolate ice cream versus Cookie dough ice cream, I guess. I don’t know. What’s the — I mean they’re both ice cream. They both taste good.

I wonder what kind of ice cream McCain would be.  What’s old and stiff and looks like it’s about to fall apart at any moment?

DS travel guide mockup

Gravemakers and Gunslingers

I fucking hate color theory.

These past few pieces, as some astute readers may have noticed, all revolve around the latest coheed and cambria album.  A tutorial I read advised artists looking for their own styles to interpret songs that they liked.  I took it a step further by trying to interpret all the songs in an album, and giving myself the added task of finishing each artwork in less than an hour.  I’ve been spending so much time on things that took days on end, and I wanted to cut loose.  Unfortunayely this results in very poor output.

But I think I’m learning, or at least I’m forcing myself to think about certain things like layout and color theory that I didn’t really pay attention to before.

I fucking hate color theory.

Al Jazeera

I’ve taken to watching Al-Jazeera lately, and have been surprised at just how good their programs are.  I like the fact that they offer a slightly different perspective than CNN, the BBC, and *shudder* Fox news.

You don’t mess with the Zohatow

Fans of Judd Apatow who happen to walk into a screening of Zohan will be pleased that his writing makes the latest Adam Sandler vehicle just a little sharper than usual.  Also, people who know anything about world news, American politics, and tennis from the 80s (hello gaza strip, tapping Laura Bush, and John McEnroe!) will have a little extra something to enjoy.  I’m still a little embarassed/pleased that Aissa and I were the only ones in the cinema laughing at those moments.

Also, the Sulu is gay joke kinda flew over people’s heads.

Update: Dave Matthews is in the movie, as James.  No idea who that is, but I’m betting it’s one of the rednecks.

Philippine Gaming Journalism

“How many game developers do you left the country to work offshore?”

Healthy Shabu Shabu

When people think of Genghis Khan they usually think “bloodthirsty Mongolian conqueror who began a dynasty that would cover most of Asia and parts of Europe, and father so many children that a third of the world’s current population have their genes in them.”  A much lesser known fact is that shabu shabu originated from the great Khan as a means to efficiently feed his vast nomadic army.  Constantly conserving fuel, the army would dip thinly sliced meat and vegetables into a boiling pot so that it would cook quickly and also preserve the nutrients needed for a world conquering army.

Centuries later, Genghis Khan’s armies (and their shabu shabu pots) have turned to dust, but a culinary delight born of efficiency had taken root, especially in health conscious Japanese and Chinese circles.  In the Philippines, Candy Hwang opened up Healthy Shabu Shabu, which prides itself on sourcing only the freshest ingredients available.  Aside from the standard set of vegetables and fishballs and tofu that accompanies every shabu shabu order, the customer can choose from such meats as angus beef, lamb, pork, or for those who love crustaceans (I am not one of them) a seafood platter.

The bottom half of this post was supposed to be dedicated to the proper process of shabu shabu.  Apparently you don’t just dunk all of those herbs and spices in.  Not that I did that before, mind you.

…

OK, fine, so I did.  I am an uncultured bastard.  Betcha the Khan’s armies did it too.  Anyway, so this was supposed to be a process, but to be honest with you I couldn’t remember a thing.  I remember that you have to mix the spices all into the special sauce, and that you have have to crack open the egg and put only the yolk into the special sauce mixture.  After that it was a blur of dipping all sorts of foodstuff into the pot, and anxiously wondering whether or not stuff was overcooked or not.  Luckily the waiters are extremely nice, so don’t hesitate to ask them for instructions or to help with your dining experience.

One of the best things about eating in healthy shabu shabu is that I don’t fel guilty afterwards.  Normally after a big meal I’ get what I call “fat man’s guilt”, but since everything was boiled and nearly half the stuff I ate were vegetables, I get to go home full and guilt free!

Healthy Shabu Shabu has branches at Powerplant Mall (Tel. No 898.3979/895.6300., The Podium (Tel. Nos. 914.1028-29), SM Mall of Asia (Tel. Nos. 556.0354-55), Robinsons Galleria (Tel. Nos. 633.1979/632.1634), SM North The Block (Tel. Nos. 442.0036-37), Alabang Town Center (Tel Nos. 850.6633/850.6976), Robinsons Midtown (Tel. Nos. 526.2981/529.3983) and  Shangri La Plaza Mall (Tel Nos. 910.3272/632.7532).

Landscape Practice

Inspired by the book “Dream Worlds” by Hans Bacher

My Escapist article is LIVE!

I’m gonna try not to overreact because I’m cool and badass like that, but this is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.  The Escapist is one of the most intelligent online magazines about gaming, and I’m proud to be on their roster of contributors.  And I get paid too, how sweet is that?

If you are interested in games, piracy, or myself, please clickety click!

Hancock

When Will Smith puckers his lip sand tries to look drunk/badass/mean, he just looks like he was forced to eat a whole lemon.

Too many things

• A curriculum
• A birthday
• A presentation ( I have never made/done a proper presentation before, at least not one that wasn’t required by a class)
• a game
• an article
• a life

I was never built to juggle so many things at one time.

Skindred

God I love Skindred.  They’re one of those bands that make you want to start your own band and just fucking rock out.

Magallanes v1.0

Very rushed. Need to get material together for a short talk I’m doing on the 11th, namely how to get from this to this:

Greenbelt Intramuros

People who think that Intramuros needs to be turned into a commercial complex featuring nightclubs in order to boost tourism need to get their heads examined.

As Aissa requested, here is my letter to the editor to counter the FUN fool:

Dir Sir,

I was inspired to write to you today because of an infuriating letter one of your other readers that was printed out on the June 25, 2008 issue of the STAR.  In it, he claims that FUN is what tourists are looking for and he even lays out the preposterous idea that we turn Intramuros into a commercial complex in order to make it relevant.  This is irrational and is the same idea that leads people to tear down buildings like the Jai alai building in the name of progress.  We are so desperate to become a modern country that we buy into the idea that in order to move forward we must tear down the past.

My girlfriend and I went to Hanoi a few months ago and it was thick with tourists: Caucasians, Asians, you name it, they were there.  You literally could not walk a few meters without seeing a fellow tourist.  A kindly German man took our photograph on a bridge and we were accompanied on our tour of Halong Bay by an Old Malaysian and Thai couple, a Japanese and Australian couple our age, a Japanese woman and her mother, and a Canadian doing social work.  Why were they there, do you ask?  Certainly not to see suntanned bodies and to have fun after hours in Hanoi, which is notorious for going to bed early and waking up even earlier.  They were all in Hanoi for the culture, for the taste of something different that they cannot find in their home countries.  And so were we. And so are thousands of other tourists.

There is nothing wrong with promoting tourist destinations for fun.  Heck, that’s basically the only reason to go to Boracay these days is for the nightlife.  And sure we can turn some of our other beaches like those in Bohol or Samal and turn them into FUN tourist destinations, but to propagate the idea that this is the only way we well get tourists into the country is preposterous and wrong minded, and will not further the tourism industry here in any meaningful way.

Come again?

On Cafe Juanita:

The ambiance? Quaint but nice. Maybe some would say it is eclectic. Yeah, like when you don’t know what it’s all about. And then suddenly you get it. It’s about “wala lang.” No theme at all. Just that the owner likes to put nice things together. A charming place really.

Color me bewildered.

Zed of Zardoz

You try to avert your eyes…but you cannot!  The damage this picture has wrought on your eyes will haunt you forever.  Witness Sean Connery as Zed in the movie Zardoz!

Simple Minds

People whose YM status message always reflects the current summer blockbuster du jour really annoy me.

On Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing

I’ve sent an email to the Children’s Television Workshop inquiring how much it would take to buy back the licenses of Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing. I wonder if they’ll reply?

Magallanes v0.8

Urduja movie review

I’ve refrained from writing movie reviews for a while, but after watching Urduja, I felt compelled to write this.  Urduja was…disappointing.  It epitomizes everything that I hate about Filipino cinema, all of the overacting and the bad jokes and actors who think they can sing.  The story is simple enough and easy to understand, but the dialogue sent shivers down my spine, or caused uproarious laughter at all the wrong times. The jumping to and fro between mangled english and tagalog also annoyed the hell out of me.  I can safely say that Urduja is one of the worst movies I’ve watched in a long time.

However, the animation itself is not bad.  I’ve been studying animation and composition in movies lately, and it was nice to see that these guys know their stuff, apart from the random slow mo effect or levitation.  Some of the animation sequences were very fluid, especially those involving the snake and the pirate chase scene.  The character design needed some help though; you know you’re in trouble when you don’t find the animal characters cute.

Unfortunately the sound design also lets the movie down.  You know how in those chinovelas and koreanovelas where the dubbing of the voices overpowers the background music?  That’s how it sounded.  Hell, the movie could have done with better direction, and the truth is if they had a bigger budget and more time, I’m sure this would have been a much better film.

But it’s not.

I do encourage you all to see it though.  I really hope it makes money, because that’s the only way these folks can get another project and make it better.  I’d encourage everyone to see it, and look at it critically.  Don’t praise it just because it’s Filipino, just because everyone worked so hard to make it.  No animated film is ever created with out the sweat and tears of hundreds of animators.  If other animated films don’t get a free pass, neither should Urduja, because if we never hold it up to the standards of others we’ll wallow in Philippine mediocrity forever.

Magallanes v0.7

Magallanes v0.5

Steampunk barbero v1.5

Thought the steampunk barbero could use a lot more love, so I started working on a new version a few weeks ago.  I was actually thinking of discarding him and working with a new idea I’ve been toying with, but when I took another look I figured I should go ahead and finish him  up first since it’d be a waste of effort not to.  God knows how long that’ll take though, since I only usually wok on these when I have free weekends.

MAG:NET Speflling Bee!

So my threadless submission failed.  BUt it’s all good, because MAG:NET’s first ever spelling bee is happening this Tuesday, May 27 at MAG:NET Bonifacio high street!  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hit JC medina up for the deets if you’re interested in joining…and facing my spelling wrath!!!

If I win, you win: A geekofalltrades threadless contest

So my pirate ducky shirt was approved for scoring today, and so far it’s getting good feedback. But I’d like to tip the odds in my favor a little bit, so this is where you guys come into play. Pimp this post on your blog and spread the word to your friends and if you’re the top link referrer (is that the right term? Whatever, you know what I mean) I will give you a free Threadless T-shirt of your choice! And that’s not all! I’ll give the runner up a free Pirate Ducky shirt!

To vote for the Pirate Ducky shirt, just click the cute ducky above or click here. I’m not looking for everyone to give it the highest score mind you, just give it the score you think it deserves and I’ll be happy. Thanks, and good luck to everyone! YAAAAAAY!

…

Excuse my excitement, I’m usually not this exuberant but this really made my day.

Pirate Ducky is on threadless!

Woohoo!  My T-shirt design has been approved for scoring on threadless!  I can’t see the average score yet, but the people who commented on it were all positive so far.  If you have the time, please check it out and score it yourself!

Steampunk Mekaniko v2

Just felt like the Mekaniko deserved a better version. Been awhile since I started it, finally finished it up.

Photography fun

I recently found out that my camera has some manual features, so while waiuting for my girlfriend to call last night I played around with it a little bit and came up with some interesting pictures:

swirl

supernova

ET’s touch

Unidentified Flying Toy

Captain Archer’s gonna kill ya

These images are teken directly from the camera with no editing involved, and merely involve the use of different white balance modes, a shutter speed of 2 seconds, and a florescent light bulb.

El Pato Pirata v3

This is probably the last update on this particular design.  I’ll be submitting it to threadless soon and crossing my fingers.  Comment on it here.

el pato pirata v2

If you’re feeling it, go on and comment on it.

Clearance Sale

I’m selling all most of my toys. I’m sad to see them go, but I don’t have space to keep them anymore. Check them out here if you’re interested, or if you know someone who is. Or if you know someone who deals in toys who might want to buy them wholesale. Don’t know about the prices yet but we can talk about that if you’re really interested in something.

Philippine logomania

This’ll be a bitch to cut if I ever decide to make a stencil out of it.

Mars Voltaic

This is what happens when you listen to the Mars Volta for too long. 15 minutes on photoshop.

weird star girl

An exercise in design that I played with until I tired of it.

Batman lego gear! Suhweeeeeeet!

Right, So I’ve been trying to be a good geek, not buying anything superfluous or unnecessary like action figures, comics, games and whatnot, but when I saw these things I just had to have them, especially since I’m a sale whore. I got me some keychains, and a 3-pack of Batman, Penguin, and two-face in lego form! Behold, my Batman lego gear:

(1)5 minute sketches : ‘Sup homes?

Just trying to keep loose and sketchy.

Game idea stream of thought

A game about mice and politics.  You run a nation of mice.  Your mission is to improve the standard of living so you can join the international league of creatures.  Mice, because mice are cute, and the game must be cute. The game is subversive.  The game will fool children and their parents into thinking they’re buying a kiddie game but in reality its a very serious game about politics and family and how the two can intertwine disastrously.  Economy is nuts and berries.  Every so often a mouse in your family will approach you asking for a government project he can skim berries off of.  This happens frequently.  If you refuse them, they will try to raise a rebellion against you.  If you give in to them, a whistleblowing mouse will appear out of nowhere and crush your credibility, and a rebellion will ensue.  There are no easy answers.

Changing the Philippines starts with love, as cheesy as that sounds

Cliff: All Arroyo wants is to take care of herself and her corrupt little brood. So why is she any worse than any of us then?

Found this on a blog, and it holds more truth to me than the “inter-faith” rally that was held last friday.  How indeed is GMA worse than us, when she’s merely practicing what every Filipino has been brought up to do, which is to take care of family first, above all else.  Maybe friends as well, but that’s already pushing it.  Everyone else can go to hell.  Don’t deny it.  You may not be one of them, but the majority of Filipinos feel this way, and it’s one of the roots of our current situation.  Rallies won’t solve the political crisis, only a cultural shift in thinking will.  Once every Filipino starts trying to take care of every other Filipino, that’s when the change will occur, in tiny increments.

The man on the street

I saw a man on the street today drinking the runoff water from an airconditioner.  His clothes were filthy and he looked like he hadn’t had a real meal in years.  I had a feeling of guilt and helplessness, and a little anger at the insensitiveness of a ruling class that steals money from the people instead of investing it in their well being.

Oblivious

In the span of 6 or so hours, I have reached the rank of “bloodletter” in the arena, helped a half orc find out the truth about his vampire father, and flushed out a den of thieves taking refuge in an abandoned fort, and made it my own. I love this game.

(1)5 minute sketches : Pink Boa

Decided to draw a chick for once.  Dudes are easier to draw, cause you don’t have to waste time prettifying them too much, but I think this one turnd out all right.  Added a dash of color so it’s not boring black and white.

Heroes has sucked me in again

The first few episodes were meh, and episodes 4 and 5 made me quit watching for a while and concentrate on my new favorite series, Avatar.  But episodes 6 and 7 threw a monkey wrench in the works, and set things into motion that have kept me glued to series once again.  I just finished episode 10 and I hate myself for saying it but I can’t wait to finish the second season.

Jumper is barely tolerable

I was one of those people who believed that Hayden Christensen’s awful acting in the newer Star Wars trilogy was due to George Lucas’ awful directing and hammy writing. I was only half right. Christensen proved all his critics right with this movie, and joins fellow actor Keanu Reeves in the “monotones only action heroes” club. He’s awful, just plain awful. He can’t even narrate well. There is no inflection in his voice and so you’re never sure whether he’s mad, sad, horny or angry, and your only clue is the shape his mouth makes. Also, Samuel L. Jackson looks like Sisqo.

I imagine the book must have been much better, but the plot just flits along too conveniently for my taste. Christensen’s apartment is full of pictures. When Sisqo Samuel L attacks him, a fight ensues and he barely escapes with his life. While looking amongst the rubble and licking his wounds, Samuel L find a few photos, chances upon a random one of a girl in a bowling alley and announces “well, who’s THIS?”. Cut to scene of Christensen going back to his hometown to hook up with said girl, whom he had a crush on since he was 5. Am I scaring you yet? Stay away from this movie. The special effects aren’t that great, and certainly not worth the price of entry. Do yourselves a favor and watch Juno or There will be blood. If I had friends with taste that’s what we would’ve watched tonight.

Hot air balloons!

Back from the 12th Philippine Hot air balloon festival, which was much colder than we thought it would be, and held plenty of photo ops, especially for pets.  You can find the pics here.

5 minute sketches : skinnyguy

This one took maybe 10 minutes. Getting a lot of inspiration/models from hypebeast.

5 minute sketches : hoodieguy

Well actually, more like 15 minutes, but yeah.

Movie Quote of the day : Conan the Barbarian

 

Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good.

I could say this all day in an Ahnuld accent and never get tired of it.

Wheel of Torture

I hate how Filipino TV manages to mangles imported shows. Aside from the fact that Kris “I’m going to talk like a retarded colegiala high on drugs” Aquino is the host, I just saw that one of their words today is “eleventh monthsary” and it’s categorized as an “event”. O RLY? Aside from the fact that monthsary is a word made up by kids and 20-somethings who can’t even manage to stay together long enough for an anniversary (o hai, self), how the fuck is that an event?!?!?! Seriously! Like, you could have picked “first monthsary” and that would have made more sense! I don’t even know why this bothers me so much but it really really does.

Knocked Up

Yeah I know it’s been out a while, but I only got to watch it over the weekend in bohol, thanks to my cracked and bruised but still managing to survive Creative Zen. The short of it is that I loved it. Since this movie is made by the same guys who did “The 40 year old virgin”, I was almost positive that I’d be laughing my ass off at it, but I’d say this was a better movie if only because it just felt more real. Nothing in it felt contrived, and the lessons learned weren’t passed along by some bartender giving sage advice. This, along with “The Breakup” is probably one of the most accurate portrayals of real life relationships that you can get when watching movies.

Also, this movie proves that men are animals, and there’s no way any of us can defend it. I’m looking at you, manblog.

5 minute sketches : Earthwater bender

Drew this after watching too much Avatar:The last airbender.  Squiggled some rocks in the background that might suggest he’s an earthbender, but the pattern on his clothes is more waterbender-y.

RJD2’s The Third Hand

 

Internet is still total ass, but just to keep up my new year’s resolution I wanna point y’all to RJD2 (born Ramble John “RJ” Krohn), who I only recently discovered but who is apparently a well known musician in the instrumental hip hop scene.  I’m currently digging his album The Third Hand, which is supposedly the “poppiest” of all his albums.  Anyone who appreciates hip hop that isn’t all about bitches and bling should give him a listen.  My favorite track on the album right now is “Get it”.  It’s got this killer opening groove that I’m not musically adept enough to identify or even describe, but it sure got my head bopping while listening to it.

Internet is sucky today.

My internet’s messed up.  I can’t access certain sites, have limited and slow ass access to the sites I can go to, and PLDT isn’t being very helpful about it.  Consider me annoyed.

A Laptop made of Corn!

This right here is a Fujitsu laptop made of corn.  That’s right, CORN!  CORN!!!!!  Well, not the entire thing of course, but the plastic casing of the laptop is made of 50% plastic dereved for corn product and 50% regular petroleum plastic.  Apparently they managed to make a plastic casing made of pure corn, but that just struck people the wrong way for some reason.  Read more at dvorak.org slash blog.

5 minute sketches : Random guy with buzzcut

Just noodling around on Photoshop.

Powermac store raided?

 

Looks like the Powermac store in greenbelt was raided, but there’s little definite information as to the the reasons and occurences.  I couldn’t find any news bits online and only have this forum to go on, but it looks like they had either pirated music or software on some of their computers on display.  Not entirely sure how I feel about this.  I hate the powermac store because they overprice their products (don’t believe me?  walk a few meters from the powermac store to Avant in Greenbelt and compare prices) these raids always feel like a waste of taxpayers’ money to me.

Street Art Manila : K-street?

Spotted this along A.Rodriguez in Pasig city.  Can’t really make out what it says, but the tag on top seems  to say “K-street 2007″.

Love and Hate : Rory’s and Mike Arroyo

I’m taking my cue from 1up’s sports anomaly and introducing a new part of the blog called love and hate. Essentially, it’s just me saying what I’m feeling good about, and what I want to take a shit on.

Love

Rory’s bar in Katipunan. It’s the ultimate definition of a “hole in the wall” (trust me if I didn’t know beforehand that it was there’s I’d never have seen it) bar and restaurant opened up by some of Aissa’s friends. It’s right next to Bo’s Coffee and a few stores before Ilocos Empanada along Katipunan Ave. Best bets on the menu are Tofu and Mushrooms, and some sort of fish in mango pesto sauce . No pictures yet, but I’m sure we’ll be back there eventually.

Got to see the Stereolalas and Luna last night in Route 196. She still doesn’t recognize me, but hey the music was great. Had to leave the venue soon thoguh, being crammed in a room full of emo people was starting to get to me.

Hate

Mike Arroyo, for being involved in sports again. I hate this guy for being such an attention whore. He raises funds for sports and the training of athletes for the olympic games simply because hew wants to be seen as the saviour of Filipino sports. I will never forgive him for threatening to cut his support to sports programs because “no one appreciates his efforts anyway”. Fuck you for being a whiny bitch. If you really cared about sports, it would show, and people wouldn’t jeer at you for dancing in the boxing ring when manny pacquiao wins a match.

Redneck Robotech

Geek quote of the day from Alex Albrecht of Diggnation:

“I would love to see redneck robotech!”

Referring to a spider mech built by rednecks.  Rednecks or no, this shit is totally awesome.

New year, new shoes!

I swear to god I’m like a fucking girl, I can’t stop buying shoes, especially when they’re on sale (go to the podium people, 50-00% off on shoes, shirts, jackets!! It’s crazy!CRAZY!!!!) Course, these particular shoes were 60% off and subsidized by my folks as a birthday gift, so I didn’t spend too much, but I have to put a stop to my shoe spending or finally just invest in a shoe rack.

RIP Netscape browser

It’s not like anyone’s still using Netscape all that much anyway, but it’s still kind of sad to see a pioneer in an industry go down this way.  Kind of like how Atari closed up shop.  Then was reborn, then closed up again.  Netscape will live on in the hearts and minds of old timers on the internet, and anyone whoever took up the “fuck Microsoft in the ass” cause.

Street Fighter 4 gameplay video

Looks awesome.  Love the fluidity of the movement and the effects when they do their special moves.  I gotta say though, I’m not a huge fan of the art style they chose.  I mean seriously, look at the picture above.  The intensity in Ryu’s face makes it look like he hasn’t taken a shit in days or something.  It’s like they went back in time to Street Fighter 2 and made it 3d.  i would have much preferred 3d versions of the Alpha series or the Udon comic style.

This is why having a geek girlfriend rocks.

I am now the proud owner of two Transformers “hard hero” busts, namely Ironhide and Soundwave. Aissa got them for me this christmas, and I couldn’t be happier. Oh and the coolest thing? They’re limited edition busts, so I am now the proud owner of 1 of 5000 soundwave busts and 1 of just 4000 ironhide busts! That limited edition nonsense always suckers me in. Plus, I kind of prefer busts to action figures because they’re low maintenance. Action figures you gotta pose every now and then, make sure they stand properly. Busts just sit still and look pretty all the time.

Unfortunately, this now makes me want to collect the other busts in the collection, like prowl or devastator, and that means busting open the piggy bank again.

An uphill battle.

I have a notorious tendency to reward myself too easily when it comes to work. I tend to do 15 minutes worth of work, then relax as soon as I have something done, or when something challenging comes up. Apparently when it comes to fight or flight, I’m a “flight” person when it comes to work. As is everyone I suppose.

Or at least, every normal person.

I find it a constant struggle to keep myself in front of the computer once something even remotely difficult comes up. It just feels so good to say “well, I’ll take a break and tackle it in 5-120 minutes”. If you can imagine it, I actually growl at myself/my brain telling me/it to quit whining and keep working. Of course, at the end of the day it feels much more rewarding to look at all the work I’ve done and I feel justified in relaxing with a drink, but the road there is just exhausting.

Eastern Promises is a killer

It’s sort of a shame that Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg’s follow up to the well acclaimed A History of Violence, had such a limited run locally.  It lasted all of one week before they pulled it out, and I only got to watch it because we live on the fringe of the capital, which means our malls sometimes get movies later than usual.  Viggo Mortensen is a driver who works for the Russian mob in London, where Emma Watson ends up with a 14 year old girl giving birth and dying on her watch in the hospital.  It’s the closest you’ll ever get to a side of the world that you never really want to see, a gritty picture of the English underworld that’s far less amusing than guy ritchie’s movies would have you believe it to be.

If you live in the boondocks like me, you have one more day to check it out in the theater, or else you’ll probably just download it.  On a side note, is it just me or do both these movies have really awful posters?

Rest in peace (however belatedly) Ulrich Muhe

I was able to catch the The Lives of Others in the most recent cine europa film festival and found it to be one of the best movies I’ve watched all year. It’s tragic and sort of pathetic that I’ve only just found out that Ulrich Muhe, who plays the central role of a Stasi agent spying on a suspected activist playwright in the movie, died of stomach cancer last July. I don’t often do this, but when the filmspotting crew mentioned offhandedly that Mr.Muhe had died I was greatly saddened and felt moved to write a little something in his memory.

Thank you sir, for a movie that truly moved me, and a role that is certain to captivate audiences for generations to come.

20 peso comics!

Comic geeks should definitely troop over to comic odyssey in robinson’s galleria, where they’ve got a bargain bin of crazy comics at 20 pesos each (and if you buy 5 they give you an extra one free!).  I’m kind of a cheap comic geek so I rarely pick up singles, especially since they’re a bitch to take care of.  I do indulge in a TPB or two every now and then, but 20 peso comics just call out to my frugal inner geek, so I couldn’t resist poring over the rows of comics to see if i could spot any gems amongst the copies of “badger” and “ferret”.

I got me Issues 2, 3 and 4 of Truth:Red, white and black and issues 1,3,and 4 of Jim Mahfood’s Grrl Scouts.  The basic idea behind “Truth” is that Americans would have never tested the super soldier serum on a white guy first, so it hypothesizes that like many dangerous ideas, the super soldier serum was first tested on a black man before the good ol’ Cap’n that we know and love came into the picture.

Grrl Scouts on the other hand is about…actually I had no idea what it was about, but I’ve been a longtime fan of Jim Mahfood’s art, and picking this swag up for 20 bucks apiece was a no brainer for me.

Also of interest for me were some Quantum and Woody issues, which I might come back for when I have more time on my hands.

Is there a word for a small park?

For example, River is to stream as Lake is to pond. But what can one call a small park? My sister and I were talking about the tiny park in the ortigas district, and I felt uncomfortable calling it a park because really, you can walk across it in half a minute. Park sounds too big, but garden sounds too residential. I suggested smark. This didn’t go over well with the sister.

Any suggestions?

We’re mice, not men

Absolom frowned at the corpse laid out in front of him.  It took him a few moments to recognize the face of the traitor Benedict, who had been leaking information to the armies of the Kingdom for quite some time.  He shifted his gaze from the face of the traitor, barely recognizable from a multitude of nicks and cuts, and settled on imperious little figure standing on it, a bullhorn in one paw.

“I would thank you, friend mouse, but I’m almost positive that there’s something you want in return.”

Harald the mouse was the finest specimen of his kind alive in those days, and while a human child could simply fall on top of him and crush his tiny frame, he was a mountain of a mouse, and had proved his worth in many battles with the Rat tribes of the underground.  He raised the bullhorn (while mice most commonly scampered up the shoulders of men to speak into their ears, bullhorns were used in more formal exchanges, such as negotiations) to his lips and spoke loudly.

“Your eminence Lord Absalom, leader of the United Nations of the South, the mice of Dagaland wish to propose an alliance, and we offer the body of this man as a token of our (trustworthiness?).”

“I see.  Your country has been famously neutral in past wars, sir Harald.  Why would you request an alliance now?”

“It is no secret that the Rats, backed by the armies of the Kingdom, have been making sorties into our territory.  Already two of our dens have been wiped out, and we do not believe we can hold out much longer.  Our ruler has sent me out as an official represenative, to ask for your aid in helping to push back the Rats, and we in turn would aid your cause against the Kingdom.”

The mouse placed the bullhorn down to await Absolom’s reply.  The leader stroked his beard unconsciously, his mind whirring in all sorts of directions at the same time.  He’d had very little contact with mice, who were known more as merchants than warrior, although this particular mouse looked like he wouldn’t back down from a fight with any man, mouse, or rat.  He chose his next words carefully.

“I am…intrigued by your offer, and thankful of your aid in this…matter of the traitor Benedict.  I also offer you my condolences for all the lives you have lost, for we too have felt the loss of life keenly.  I mus ask you however, what we have to gain from all this?  My armies are stretched thin as it is, and to aid your cause… is something that would require much deliberation.  How exactly does dagaland expect to aid us?”

Harald let out a small grin.  He’d been expecting this question, this test.   He raised the bullhorn to his mouth.

“We’re mice, my lord, not men.  We realize we’ve little to offer you in terms of military strength, but we can be useful in many ways.  For example, we knew about the traitor long before you did, and managed to catch him when he evaded you.  The eyes of mice are everywhere, and even the keenest eyed human would never know that they were being watched.  We offer you recon(find full spelling), communication, and espionage, tools that every general requires to win a battle.”

Absolom smiled.  He had judged rightly, and was now certain that the mice would prove useful as allies, especially this one.

“Well said, sir Harald.  I’m sure that your people will be marvelously useful in the battles to come.  Rest assured that our armies are with you, and will aid you in every possible to be rid of the recent plague of rats.”

Harald took off his small helmet and bowed. “Thank you my lord, you are most gracious.”

“I will have my assistants prepare an official copy of the treaty right now.  Would  you like any refreshment?  I’m sure you must be exhausted.”

“Well…now that you mention it lord, a slice of cheese and some wine would be most excellent.”

Deathproof is ok too

Finally got to see the second half of the Rodriguez/Tarantino Grindhouse two parter, Deathproof.  This one’s the Tarantino movie, and while I don’t think I managed to blog about the Rodriguez helmed Planet Terror, I’ll preface this mini review with the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed Planet Terror.

I’d heard that Deathproof was by far the superior movie, so I entered the theater fully expecting to enjoy myself.  I almost didn’t.  The first quarter of the movie was pure cinematic masturbation on Tarantino’s part, and I just couldn’t get into it.  I suppose it was meant to be an intro into the “stuntman mike” character, but it just played on WAY too long.  I think the idea was that the first part of the movie was an entirely different story altogether, as evidenced by the sudden change of the title in the first few seconds of the movie, which lends itself entirely to the “grindhouse” aspect of the film, but nevertheless it just didn’t work for me.

The latter part of the movie though, was pure, unadulterated badassery, and was well worth the price of entry. In the end I’d say that I enjoyed Planet Terror much better, if only because I laughed a hell of a lot more than in deathproof.

Cabin Fever

Working from home has its pros and cons.  A major con being not having any human contact aside from the folks and Michelle the helper.  I have figured out why I’m so desperate to listen to podcasts lately, so much so that I find it hard to work without having a podcast playing.  It’s because I miss human voices.  Podcasts are my friends.   They are funny and they get me and I laugh when they laugh and…

I need to get out.

The Golden Compass is OK

Not spectacular mind you, but good enough to merit dropping some coin to catch it in a theater. Unfortunately, it has some editing deficiencies that will leave most moviegoers a little confused about what’s going on, as there are numerous events that just “happen” out of the blue.

For example in one scene (not really a huge spoiler, don’t worry) a central character is kidnapped while on an expedition. After 45 minutes of shit happening, we are then quite matter of factly informed that he has since bribed his kidnappers and found/built a laboratory during all the time we were wondering had forgotten all about him.

Peter Jackson (and by extension the screenwriters of the LOTR movies)’s brilliance was in distilling everything that made the Trilogy awesome (ie the epic battles) and foregoing all the singing Tom Mombadil nonsense. They also set things up much better in the beginning, with the narration of the how the one ring came to be, Bilbo’s finding of the ring, etc. Of course Philip Pullman’s series might just be that more complex and difficult convert into a 2 hour movie, but an additional 15 minutes of narration would have helped to explain a lot of things.

Oh and I don’t understand the brouhaha over this being a rant against religion. I have been informed by Aissa that this is more apparent in the books, but anyone who watches this movie and comes to the conclusion that it’s anti-christian is a lunatic. It’s quite obviously anti-authority, but that authority could be the nazis, communists, or even the Marcos regime. A bit of advice for hardcore christians: Just because you treat the good book as fact, doesn’t mean you should take other people’s fiction just as seriously.

30 Days of Night

Anyone who hasn’t had a chance to see this movie yet really should.  I can think of a lot worse movies to be watching than this, Fred Claus (one wonders at the boatloads of cash Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughn were must have been paid to make this movie) and Mr. Magorium’s wonder emporium being two prime examples.  There’s action, suspense, survival, gore, and a very, very subtle romantic undertone that never gets in the way of things.  It also offers an interesting take on vampires, which unfortunately wasn’t explored as much as I’d like.

I’m not even much of a horror/thriller movie fan, but I still enjoyed this movie, and I’m interested in reading the graphic novel it was adapted from.

My Etrian Odyssey Episode 1 : Firing Troubadours

Etrian Odyssey is a DS game by Atlus that promises to last much longer than an average game, so I thought I’d chronicle my adventures in it just for kicks. Essentially you’re a party of aventurers that travels down into a big hole to seek fame, fortune, and mugwort.

This will be sort of a crossover with Intendo, since I wanna try to keep contributing there as well. So clickety click in the link to enjoy My Etrian Odyssey Episode 1, in which the party is felled by treerats and a troubadour is fired.

I’m back for real now.

So that was a long dry spell wasn’t it? But I’m back now, and I no longer have a purpose. I originally intended this blog to be a resource for cool things to get geeky over, and I think I managed that for a little while, but eventually it just tired me out. Professional blogging is definitely not my cup of tea, as I’ve learned over the past year vainly trying to write for my own gaming blog and contributing to intendo. Alas, the written word is only my second love, and frankly I’m at the stage of my life where I’d rather be doing things than writing about them. Plus you have no idea how hard it is to be articulate about sharing something that you want other people to experience in the same way you did.

But that is the past, and now we look towards the future. Or at least a few steps ahead. I created another blog, which will remain nameless, for my more personal posts and I’ve been using that as my primary blog recently. Not that I’ve been posting much mind you, but there you have it. I’ve decided to move back to geekofalltrades, and call my personal blog my “emo” blog, where I’ll let out any personal frustrations I’ve been feeling that I think might not be suitable for geekofalltrade’s audience.

So what can you, dear reader, expect from this revitalized blog? Some more music and game and movie and gadget reviews as usual, plus a special sneak peek into the life of a work at home game artist. Tales of crusty underwear, forgetting to take showers, and eyestrain from being in front of the PC await!

*crickets*

My new toy!

Got my first paycheck from the new job, but in true budget geek fashion, I logged on to tipidpc and found this gem of a videocard, the 7600gt for only 2,900 pesos!  It’s used, but at the going rate of a little less than 5k brand new, this baby’s a bargain, and it even comes with a free Spellforce 2 game!  I can play KOTOR2 and Chronicles of Riddick now!!!!!

If I ever find the time, that is…

Did you know? featuring Adam Baldwin

Been on a Firefly kick lately, looking for memorabilia online and checking to see if there are any established Firefly nerdclubs in my neck of the woods.  No such luck, but remembering what someone said in a podcast about Adam Baldwin aka Jayne of Firefly fame being a voice actor in a video game, I decided to check his credentials in IMDB.  So, did you know:

• He was the voice of Superman/Clark Kent in the animated version of the Superman/Doomsday plotline
• He was the voice of Hal Jordan in the Justice League animated series
• He was the voice of Archer in the P2 game Kill.Switch (and according to the podcast people, he was the voice of random NPCs in the game, and it was funny because every character was just his voice in different pitches)
• He’s in a new series called Chuck, which I haven’t had the chance to catch yet but have heard is borderline good

I love how the internet is a repository of all the information you never even knew you wanted to know.

New artwork!

Over at my more personal blog.  I really have to organize my blogs one of these days.

Stardust

Definitely uneven.  Claire Danes is annoying when she tries to be expressive.  Some lines are meant to be read and never acted out.  But the movie manages to hit most of the right notes, and if it didn’t pull at your heartstrings even the slightest you’ve got a heart of coal.  One scene comes to mind, where claire danes and charlie cox are dancing together on a pirate airship, and she’s glowing because she’s happy.  The music swells at just the right moment, and that essentially captures all that was good about the movie.

Oh, i don’t get what all the fuss with Sienna Miller is about.  I really don’t find her all that attractive.

I now pronounce you chuck and larry

A funny, if sometimes a little too over the top movie.  Brilliant acting all around.  It’s nice to see Sandler abandoning his retarded nice guy schtick.  Apparently bombed by critics, but I think this is a case of leave your brain at home and you won’t be disappointed.  Jessica Biel is hawt.  Ving Rhames as a fag isn’t as funny as it seems.  The ending was a bit contrived but if you expected more then you’re an idiot really.

Disturbia

 

One of the few thrillers where all my questions were answered, the plot made sense, and two stories weave perfectly into one.  Disturbia definitely shouldn’t be missed.

The iPod touch theme song

Just a quick thought.  There are two songs that would be perfect as background music for any ipod touch ad.  “The touch” by Stan Bush and “I touch myself” by Blondie or Divinyls.  Think about it.

Grab bag

grab bag n. Slang A miscellaneous collection.

So, I’ve been having a bit of an NBA card renaissance, what with ebay offering instant access to tons of cheap and relatively rare goodies.  Case in point: Hakeem Olajuwon’s second NBA card:

250 pesos, in near mint to mint condition, to my untrained eye.  Interesting discrepancy, this card actually shows Olajuwon having already played 3 years in the NBA, but this was the only the second card printed with him on it.

Steve Nash RCs, 2 for 120.  What a skinny fucker, and what’s up with the hockey outfit, eh (Yes I know he’s Canadian and that explains it all, I just thought it looked funny)?

The man whose beard led the Golden State Warriors past the number 1 seeded Dallas Mavericks in last year’s playoffs.  4 rookie cards for 140 pesos equals hey not bad.

I also got a grab bag of Glenn Robinson rookie cards and inserts for 150 bucks, none of which are worth even putting up here, despite the Big Dog’s athletic achievements.  You couldn’t buy a quarter pounder value meal with those cards, but what they hey, right?

Quentin Tarantino in Manila!

 

Pretty exciting stuff, and apparently the cinemanila film festival’s getting a lot of funding lately.  But I digress.  Tarantino.  In Manila.  Why hasn’t this gotten more publicity? Buy the gold ticket.  It’s worth it.  10 movies plus free entrance to all the seminars, including the one with Tarantino.

SULIT!

Guilty Pleasures: Good Charlotte’s Good Morning Revival

I hate Good Charlotte.  Really really hate them, as much as I hate any triple platinum raking in the money like there was no tomorrow fucking hollywood starlet bands that complain about their miserable lives.  But dammit they set out to reinvent their sound and they succeeded more than even they probably thought they would.  Their first few single (the river, get your hands of my girl, dance floor anthem) are catchy as hell, and for the most part the album manages to keep that spirit alive and kicking.  I’m still a little ashamed this is in my zen but what the hell, it’s better than catching them on MTV and being forced to watch their skinny tattooed bodies just to hear a song.  The last few songs feel a bit tepid though, so best avoid them entirely.

Music and Lyrics movie review

People complain that it’s formulaic but let’s face it, romcoms aren’t really known for breaking boundaries.  There’s enough wit and humor here to please even the hardest of hearts, and Hugh Grant gives another of his bumbling British guy performances to good effect.  And if that doesn’t do it for you, the 5 or so minute intro of Hugh and his 80s band “POP” in a music video should elicit a few chuckles, if not uproarious laughter.

Music and Lyrics is a great date movie, especially if you’re not sick of 80s pop culture references.

In the land of Women movie review

I kinda liked it. Miriam REALLY liked it. Some scenes felt forced along by the music, which was killer by the way, I’d ge the soundtrack for this movie more than the movie itself.

One thing that really struck me though, Adam Brody is the next John Cusack. Not as good as John Cusack in his heyday, but he plays the scruffy regular guy just trying to get by much better than the elfin Orlando Bloom did in Elizabethtown. Think about it.

Fallout boy in Manila September 21

That’s right kids, check it out on their website.  Tickets on sale TOMORROW.  Despite the fact that they’re admittedly not the greatest live band ever, I’m definitely looking to catch them, if only to compensate for the means in which I acquired their albums.

Darth Vader lives on…

 

In limited edition adidas sneakers.  Cute, but i’d never buy/wear them.

Transformers follow up

Now that I’m over the movie, here’s something that’ll perk up even the most disheartened Transformers fan: A soundwave mp3 player!

Also, because I can’t express myself clearly enough, I shall direct you to two podcasts that say exactly why I wasn’t quite floored by transformers. One reason they brought to light about the redesigns that I entirely agree with was that one of the things that made the transformers so fun was that even in their robot forms you could tell what they were supposed to be. But in the movie, they were so “robotized” it was almost impossible to tell what they transformed to in vehicle form.

Back to Soundwave. Interesting that he’s called “music label” soundwave. Is he in the pay of music execs?  Is this what happened after he got kicked off the set of the Transformers movie?  That’s right, he’s the RIAA’s new semi-legal watcdog, and he’ll track all you music pirating criminals down!

Upcoming

On a shirt. Soon.

Clerks 2 movie review

I’d like to say that you don’t need to have watched the original Clerks in order to appreciate Kevin Smith’s latest movie, but you kinda have to.  The first Clerks movie was about being twenty and stuck in the same old job as a convenience store clerk and all of the excitement (or lack of it ) that this entails.   The common thread between the two movies is the idea of moving forward in life, something that the main characters Dante and Randall don’t manage in the first movie but somehow blunder into in this second installment, with a little help from Jay and Silent Bob.  I don’t wanna spoil too much, but I’ll just say that their evolution happened in the only possible way it could have.

Along the way lots of hilarity ensues, my favorite part being the standoff between Lord of the Rings geeks and Star Wars geeks, and Randall’s reenactment of the LOTR trilogy (“the entire three movies were about walking to goddamn volcano and dropping off a ring!).

Clerks 2 is highly recommended, I’d give it five stars if only I didn’t want to sound like too much of a Kevin Smith fanboy, so it gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Oh. and hot diggity damn Rosario Dawson looks smoking hot wearing glasses.

Die Hard 4.0

The action summer blockbuster to watch this year. Until the Bourne Ultimatum comes out, maybe.  This is the perfect movie to watch with a big tumbler of popcorn and a bunch of your friends.  Bruce Willis is a badass.  Justin Long is funny at the right moments, and provides a way for the audience a character they can relate to.

My one peeve, my one and only peeve comes when (kinda spoiler alert) maggie Q gets hit by an SUV head on and not only survives, but manages to put up a fight afterwards.  Granted, some of the action sequences were a bit ludicrous, but they were feasible.  You get rammed by an SUV and you’re crippled for life at the very least, and you’re not gonna start kicking the shit our of Bruce Willis.  If anyone, and I mean ANYONE decides to argue this with me, I will ram them with an SUV and watch amusedly as they try to get up and prove me wrong.  Really, I will. Anyway watch the movie, it’s well worth the price of admission.

One last thing.  Kevin Smith has a bald spot?  A HUGE one?  I had no idea.

My Simpsons avatar

Here’s a neat little online app that lets you make your own Simpsons avatar. Check out my friend luis’ avatar here. Not having such a great day, but this cheered me up some.

Transformers is slightly overrated

That’s right, it is. Someone wanna pick a fight? I’m not looking for one, and I’m not looking to shit all over your movie experience, so if you came all over yourself while watching this movie, please leave this blog. I implore you. Go over to rottentomatoes.com where Transformers has achieved a spectacular 82% approval rating from critics the world over.

If you’re reading up to this part I’ll assume that you are on the same boat as I am regarding Transformers, thrilled but not overjoyed. It was an okay movie. It had its moments, both good and bad.

The Good

Breaking from tradition, I’ll go over the parts I loved about the movie. Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. He sounds a little different, but maybe that’s because he’s 20 years older now. But I still got a little shiver down my spine when he said “Autobots, roll out!” Shia Lebeouf, and in general all of the human actors. All of them played their parts well, although the cute hacker and the big black hacker dude could have been excluded from the movie and no one would have noticed. The CGI was also gorgeous. As much as I disliked the robot redesigns, I have to give up to the animators for creating such beautifully rendered machines.

The action scenes were fucking amazing. This is where Michael Bay, for all his directorial weaknesses, really shines. There were a few moments that felt a little too Michael Bay-ish (ie slow-mo high contrast silhouetted against the sunlight moments) but they came at just the right moments and were used sparingly enough so that you wouldn’t get sick of them. And that scene where Prime takes out his sword/ax and chops off (insert name of Decepticon here)’s head? Totally badass.

The references dropped for the fans were sometimes cute and somtimes annoying (Like them…we are more than meets the eye). But the dialogue between Prime and Megatron towards the end of the movie mimics their great battle in the animated film, although the actual battle itself was less than spectacular.

Oh, and Mikaela aka Megan Fox is smoking hot.

The Bad

Now the stuff that I didn’t like. Again, if you’ve read this far and you LOVED the movie just don’t read any further. I’m tired of being accused as a wannabe critic and a “purist”. I am not a fucking purist. I watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies and appropriately had a hard on after leaving each one. Any Tolkien fan knows that the movies chopped up maybe half of of the content in the original book and presented what I call “the good stuff” onscreen. What Jackson did and what I feel Bay failed to do was stay true to the core of the fracnchise they were revamping.

For example, Optimus Prime doesn’t do comedy. He doesn’t. Why? Because he’s the leader of the autobots. Because he’s solemn and old and tired and has fought a never ending battle against megatron. This is what lends him gravitas. This is what made children (myself included) cry when he died the Transformers animated movie. The jokes they threw him felt so forced they really made me cringe.

The robots also lacked character because Bay doesn’t spend enough time with them and the time we do spend with them is used up in an SNL comedy sketch called “robots at play in the garden”. By far the only characters that resonated were Ironhide’s triggerhappy “kill the parents” character, Bumblebee, and to a lesser extent, Prime. Jazz was black and Ratchet was the doctor and if either of them went to the scrapheap I don’t think I would have noticed much.

The Transformers redesigns. I’ve gone over this a bit before, but I don’t think I’ve ever articulated why I really dislike the redesigns. Again, I’m not a purist. There are legitimate reasons why I dislike the new designs, one of them being that the makers of the movie decided to imbue the character with personality through the articulation of their faces. This is why optimus prime has lips, to convey emotion. In some cases, like Ironhide, it works because the way his face was designed made him look tough like a soldier. But to be honest it just put me off everytime I saw those mechanical eyeborows and lips move because it felt like watching someone with their skin taken off. If they wanted character they should have done it with the appropriate dialogue.

The redesigns also hamper the action scenes to ta certain extent. When the robots are all flying about and smashing each other I found myself a bit confused as to who was who because there were so many moving parts to focus on. Cleaner, streamlined desings would have allowed us to focus more on the actual fight isntead of the technology bristling from every mechanical pore.

The wha-huh?

• What happened to the robots that were accidentally created by the allspark? That one vending machine robot was fricking hilarious, I can just imagine it lobbing mountain dews at unsuspecting peestrians.
• Why, after making a big deal about their being able to transfer their “spark” to a new vehicle at will, did Bumblebee not simply transfer to a different vehicle when his legs were smashed?
• Why are most of the decepticons cannon fodder, with made up names like “blackout”?
• With the allspark cube gone, we’re so screwed, seeing as all of our technology was reverse engineered from it

I give the Transformers movie a 3.5 out of 5, and am looking forward to the inevitable sequel.

Virtual Bubblewrap

Oh those kooky Japanese, what will they think of next? This, apparently.

Orson Welles = Unicron

 

Apparently Orson Welles of Citizen Kane fame was the voice of Unicron in the original Transformers movie.  I don’t know what amazes me more, that or the fact that he lived till 1987.

Comic Con 2007

So last weekend I went to the 6th annual Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention in Megamall, as I have for the past 6 years (except the one time it slipped my mind entirely).   I haven’t been as much of a collector as i have been in recent years, but I still wanted to check out the con to see what kind of buys I might find.  Also, I wanted to support my friend’s cosplaying as Cy-kill (as mentioned in the post before this).  Anyhoo, I snapped a couple of pics with my D900 that I thought you guys might enjoy.

My friend as Cy-kill. Give gobots a chance, why dontcha?

His brother came as leader-1.  I didn’t get a chance to shoot him with his yellow goggles on, a shame.

 Shockwave, the robot who can’t shoot a thing to save his life, and is somehow put in charge of defending ALL of Cybertron while the other Decepticons are away.  Behind him is Arcee(sp?), one of two known female robots in the Transformers universe.

And here we have cardboardboxtron, one of the few Decepticons with a sense of humor.  He didn’t last very long.

I thought this one was kind of cute. Cell Jr. from Dragonball Z.  On a side note, it’s cute how cosplayers are such camwhores.  I had my camera trained on this dude for a second and he had this pose ready to go.

Speaking of camwhores…  By the way, the sailor moon second from left?  That’s a sailor dude, if you know what I mean.

This dude came tricked out in full stormtrooper gear, which was totally badass.  Double-chinned dark robed Jedi in the background…notsomuch.

Speaking of badass, this dude, whatever he is, looked totally awesome.  He won bestmostelaborate costume something or other, and he deserved it.

The swag.  I got this Ekimus bust for 1k, which is pretty sweet since it’s a limited edition, and I’ve wanted a bust, any bust, for the longest time.  that’s a shyguy on his shoulder.

I also got this Stikfas action figure and some premo! sculpting clay for around P350 total.  I’m planning on doing some custom toys in the future, and I thought I’d practice with this.  I wanna make a steampunk stikfas.

All in all I spent less than 1.5k this time out, which isn’t bad.  I guess I’m not into buying toys as much as I used to be, but the convention’s still worth the once a year visit.

Fantastic 4 movie review

 

For the most part, I enjoyed myself.  I don’t expect anything deep from movies of this sort, so I was pleased enough with the action scenes, and felt that Doom was a big enough threat this time around.  Jessica Alba looks odd with all that makeup plastered on her face, like they’re trying to make her look more white.  Silver Surfer’s moral crisis is passably done, cause you really do feel for the dude.  One does wonder how he and the cloud that is galactus negotiated his sparing Norrin’s world for his services as herald.

Too many meh jokes thrown in though, and they passed up the opportunity for a killer ending.  At the end, when Sue and Reed are discussing if they’re ever going to have a normal wedding, Reed says “I have an idea.”  Anyone with a funnybone would instantly think “Vegas”.  But no, they go get married in Japan with some random people as guests.  Somebody shoot those writers, please.

The Geek Heirarchy

 

Just a quick linky to  an org chart of the geek heirarchy, just so’s you know who you can piss on (you  know, like your friends) when going to a comic book convention or something.

When there’s no will, there’s no way

I haven’t been blogging for ages, and I figured I’d update today just in case anyone’s curious what’s happened.  The truth is, not much really.  I jsut got bored. Again.  When I started this blog I thought it would be cool to put together a repository of all the geeky and cool things I encountered in real life and while trolling through the internet.  It was fun for a while and I got addicted to seeing my stats rise (thank you antonella barba, you have no idea what your being half naked meant to me) but I’d always have periods where I’d completely lose interest in blogging.

I think it was partly because it felt like it required so much effort to try to be funny and witty and/or snarky while writing that I felt it really wasn’t worth it anymore.  I’d run across a few interesting tidbits on the net and think ah, someone already wrote about it anyway, what’s the point?  Also, I’ve been working a lot on stencils and artworks offline, which frankly gives me a much larger sense of achievement than anything I’ve done on a computer screen.  The ability to actually touch the artwork you made makes a whole world of difference, and I find myself looking for ways to get off the computer more and more.   Let’s just say there’s a different kind of feeling when someone comments on a work you made online as opposed to a friend of yours saying that they like the t-shirt design that you made.

So what’s the point of this post?  I’m not sure that I’ll keep geekofalltrades up, but its not like I’m paying anything for it, so I’ll just let it lie in limbo for a while.  One of these days I’ll post again, but when that’ll be, only time will tell.

Al this drama, and I’ve only had this site for like, 8 months. Jeez.

I found out where Jessica Simpson honed her songwriting skillz.

 

So I’ve been thinking about writing songs because a)I’ve always wanted to be in a band but never got the chance and b) actually it’s just a).  I never did join a band cause I was too much of a pussy.  I could never learn an instrument to save my life and musical notes were as good as numbers to me (I’m useless at math, except for calculating 10% of anything) and my voice wasn’t exactly a showstopper plus I have stage fright.  That right there is a horrible, horrible combination.

But this post is not about my songwriting dreams and aspirations, but rather about why the hell does ultimatesongwriting.com look like a fansite for rainbow brite?   Seriously.  I mean, is this where britney, christina, or (insert name of blonde airhead here oh hello Jessica Simpson) go to when they feel like they actually want to write their songs?  Suffice it to say that I didn’t stay there very long, but moved onto bloggingmuses.com, which proved to be a much more visually restrained and interesting blog about songwriting.

Oh look, some of the snark’s returned. Isn’t it grand?

So now I’m ALMOST a little bit excited to watch the Transformers movie

Almost. After seeing this trailer on Defamer. I’m still pissed at guyver-ish redesigns of the robots and the fact that michael fucking bay is directing it, but maybe if I just ignore the fact that this is a transformers movie and just treat it as a regular old summer action flick, I’ll get by without frothing at the mouth and hurling invectives at Bay’s mutilated corpse. Maybe. Oh, and is it just me or do the transformers not talk in this movie? wtf? Sign language maybe? Ok I’m sort of NOT excited again. WEll at least the transforming “e-e-u-u-o-o-u-u” sound is intact, thank god for that.

Castlevania + Warren Ellis + James Jean = wetpants

 

I have no idea how this went over my head, but apparently a Castlevania animated film is being brought to life by writer Warren Ellis (Planetary,Transmetropolitan) and arti directed by Illustrator James Jean (Fables covers, jaw dropping illustration above).  I never actually got to play the game it’s based on (Castlevania III, the last NES castlevania), but I do have a lot of love for the series in general, and the combination of creative power behind this outing seems unstoppable.

Check out the official blog here. 

Mr.Potato Head Optimus Prime

 

This is the funniest/coolest toy I’ve seen in a long while, and I want one.

Good games and good booze

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first official DS night in Grilla Kalayaan! It was rough going at first (for the first hour or so there were maybe 6 of us in total) but then people started pouring in and it was a blast for everyone involved. I personally met some great people, and got my ass handed to me in mariokart and brain age (poor penmanship’ll kill ya). Of course I was boozed up, so I got an excuse.

Pics here, but I’m pissed at Jayvee for picking the absolutemotherfucking worst pic of me evar.

Mii love you long time!

I put this up on Intendo as well, but I thought it was too funny to keep on just one blog.

Pure genius.

Spiderman 3 movie review

 

Despite being a Spiderfan, I’m going to look at this movie as objectively as I can and try not to let preconceived notions of the Spiderman universe get to me.  It wasn’t mindblowing, but it certainly wasn’t a flop, despite the arrogant observations of  certain ogres I know.  The film just barely managed to get a dozen or so subplots in line and make the movie work in the end, although I honestly think you could have made two good movies out of this, or a “one movie shown in two episodes” schtick that Kill Bill pulled off.  That said here’s my take on Spiderman 3 in an organized Good, bad, and ugly manner:

The Good

• Managed to pull off convoluted storyline
• Gwen Stacy is hawt
• Sandman’s more interesting than I thought he’d be
• Bruce Campbell as French Maitre’d
• Acting still as good as ever
• Love the black suit
• Action still good, but not great, maybe I’m just jaded but the use of CG is starting to wear thin
• “Before Sunset”-ish ending is a nice way to close out the trilogy, because a wedding would have been too much

The Bad

• When a single movie has enough story elements for two distinct movies, it’s never a good thing
• Topher Grace is slightly miscast as whiny venom
• Symbiote Peter Parker is a perky emo boy, if that makes any sense
• Symbiote storyline kind of vague
• Venom shows his face too often
• A little Melrose Place action sort of out of place
• Too many villains spoil a movie

The Ugly

• Alfred Bernard finally decides to tell Harry that his father killed himself…after 2 movies where all sorts of nonsense could have been prevented had he said something earlier.  It’s a obvious case of a line being put into the movie to to move the plot forward
• Mary Jane wore a bra
• Symbiote meteorite (and Symbiote itself) looks rather B-movie-ish

Spiderman 3 wasn’t the best movie of the trilogy, and it didn’t affect me the same way the first two did.  Had they divided it into two movies, it would have been much better.  In my imaginary world Spiderman 3 would have showcased Sandman and ended at the part where Spidey “killed” him.  He’s lost MJ and his best friend, he’s killed his Uncle Ben’s killer, and is fully revelling in the powers the Symbiote gives him.  The End.

Spidey 4 would pick up a few months later, where a “Dark Knight”-ish Spidey is beating thugs to a pulp and basically wreaking havoc on Peter Parker’s life.  He’s alienated and angry and it culminates with his striking of MJ.  Then the movie progresses as it did in the “real world” Spiderman 3.

Trust me, it would have been much more satisfying an experience.

Classic 80s collectibles and toys sale in Greenhills!

If there ever was an event that geekofalltrades was made for, this is it.  So apparently they’re selling these old toys and stuff in greenhills (it says behind Tropical Hut, I’m not entirely sure where that is though).  Sale’s good while supplies last, and Toni from Metroblogging Manila got her hands on some really interesting stuff:

I went there last weekend and got an old Dragonlance Atlas, a 1985 Dragonlance calendar, a Marvel Superheroes RPG, and my husband got several old toys from his childhood like GI Joe. There’s a mix of things — old paint-by-number kits (I’m not sure about the paint’s quality though!), old Lisa Frank stuff, old figures and dolls whose names I don’t remember, lots of old fantasy books.

A Dragonlance Atlas! Wow! Who would thought?  Hey ET, let’s go bully some kids into giving us their GI Joes!

Chen Shui who?

 

In one of the most ludicrous shoe related news I have ever read, Nike’s put out a limited edition Air Force 1 shoe with Taiwanese president Chen Shui Bian’s mug “lasered” on the side of the shoe.  I seriously doubt that any self respecting Taiwanese hipster would want to wear these shoes, but what do I know right?  I’m just a geek blogger after all.

In other presidential show related news, Nike Philippines is releasing its own limited edition shoe with former president Erap Estrada’s face printed on the side of a red, yellow, and blue colored shoe, with a matching wristband to boot.

The squid and the whale movie review

It’s kind of hard to share exactly what makes a movie like “The Squid and the Whale” so good because it doesn’t exemplify the typical Hollywood bombast that most people expect, ie big stars, big explosions, and big stories.  This movie is the antithesis of all that, being a short movie about a dysfunctional family that’s just trying to get through life as best as they can while dealing with a divorce.  It exposes the flaws and weaknesses of human nature while at the same time celebrating in tiny, measured amounts, its nobility as well.

Slice of life movies like this may never make big money in the box office, but they’re certainly well worth watching and learning from.  At the very least you’ll feel relieved that you life isn’t as fucked up as theirs.

Flickr sidebar ressurectd

Just a quick update, the Flickr widget is back with a vengeance, and features pics of my street art hunting romp through UP Diliman.  I’ll write a much more detailed post about this soon, but till then, feel free to scroll down to check out the flickr widget and check out my Flickr account while you’re at it.

Musiq Soulchild’s LuvanMusiq

 

If you’re tired of listening to JT and Pharell and you want some light RnB tunes to carry you through the day, I present to you Musiq Soulchild.  He isn’t revolutionary  by any means and will probably remind you of a host of other musicians , but his sweet, soulful music is just good enough to make you want to bob your head and maybe ask someone out on a date.  For real.

Half Nelson movie review

 

This is the kind of movie to watch on a lazy summer day with a coke and some chips in hand.  It isn’t a blockbuster by any means, but a thoughtful, contemplative movie on how people deal with their lives, how they struggle to overcome the pitfalls they find themselves in.  It isn’t  a grand story about redemption, but just a story about a teacher looking to inspire his students while at the same time being a druggie fighting to pull his life together when he’s not in class.  Half Nelson may not have entertained me as much as TMNT did, but it certainly had its moments, and is one of my favorite movies of this year.  Or last year, since it came out in 2006.

HAPPY HOLY WEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!!

 

First off, to the people who regularly visit this site, I’m sorry I’ve been away for days.  I’ve taken a mini art sabbatical to work on a painting, and it’s really eating up my time.  It’s also sort of refreshing to go out and do something in the “real world” that’s tangible, but I assure you I won’t be abandoning this blog anytime soon.

Well then, in homage to my project, I’ll just give you kids a quick link to an interview with noted street artist Josh MacPhee, where he talks about street art and how and why he does it as a means to expand people’s horizons.  We live in a world where vitually every bit of space we see is up for sale, and street art aims to take it back and give people’s eyes an alternative to the latest shampoo ad.

If you can dig where I’m coming from, clink on the link for more revolutionary talk.

TMNT omg so good!

 

This is going to sound odd, but I think that TMNT is the most enjoyable movie I’ve watched in 2007.  It’s just that good.  For everyone who was bashing me about not really liking 300 all that much, I present to you the case for a good action comedy flick.  It’s got the right amount of humor, drama, action, and just a tinge of romance thrown into the mix.

What really draws you in about the movie is how fleshed out the characters are.  Donatello’s the genius doing tech support to earn a living, Michaalangelo’s earning money being a clown, Raphael’s the hotheaded borther doing vigilante work at night, and Leonardo…well, Leo’s off doing training in south america or something, becoming the “ghost of so and so forest” and pulling a batman on April O’Neil.  The sense of family is as real as a CGI movie can make it, and I totally buy the fact that Raphael would have issues when Leonardo comes back to lead team.  Oh and a sort of spoiler alert, things get really exciting once tempers start flaring and we finally find out who’s the better fighter.

The plot was semi ludicrous, I didn’t buy that the Turtles would all go to pieces just because Leo left, but it’s ok.  I LOVED this movie.  The Turtles have become relevant again in a way the revamped cartoon series never achieved, and towards the end there were hints of a sequel.  As long as it’s done by the same group who put this together, I’m on the TMNT bandwagon.

WATCH IT NOW NOW NOW!

Smurfs spotted in Lord of the Rings Online

It’s April Fool’s kids, and in the gaming industry that means it’s time to pull out the pranks!  Lord of the Rings Online developer turbine released a cute press release today (or was it yesterday) that featured the introduction of a small, hobbit-like race with blue skin called the Smeorufolc.  That on its own was hilarious enough for me, but for those who need to know more, check out the deets after the jump.

Shepard Fairey VS. WK Interact Street Art extravaganza

 

I don’t know all that much about these dudes, except that I bought a fake “obey” shirt from American Blvd. A loooooong time ago, but I swear the artwork they make inspires the hell out of me.  One of these days I’m gonna bust out my sneakers and just run around pasting shit up on the walls of Manila.  But first, I have to learn to run fast, real fast.

Check out more pics after the jump.

Tranformers Movie Poster

Sigh.  This just doesn’t excite me at all.  I hate Michael Bay.  I hate Steven Spielberg for producing this monstrosity.  I’ll watch it, but I’m really not getting my hopes up that it’ll be much good.

I need Entourage Season 4!

 

Entourage is the show you watch before you go on a boys’ night out.  It’s Sex and the City for men.  It’s what every red-blodded, horndog man aspires to at some point in his life.  It’s funny, witty, hip, and has jsut enough underlying tones of male emotional bonding to make it feel real.

Ostensibly it’s about the life of one Vincent Chase, an up and coming movie star,  his brother Drama (a washed out actor), E (Vince’s best friend and his manager), and Turtle (a sometime rap music manager and freeloader).  It’s supposedl based on the life of Mark Wahlberg (who co-produces the series), and tells the tales and travails of a bunch of friends living the life in Hollywood, and it comes with all the glitz, glamour, and sex that you can imagine.

HBO’s been yoyo-ing between finally finishing season 3 and filming for season 4, and with their history of cutting good shows, it’s still touch and go at this point.  I really hope they keep this show going though, because it’s spectacular.  I’d suggest that any guy out there just go out and buy a copy of the complete seasons 1,2 and 3.  I don’t care if you buy the pirated copies, just WATCH THIS SHOW!

Update: Just as I was about to sumbit this blog, I noticed that HBO is indeed extending the series, and has a preview clip on the official entourage website.

Jason Thielke

This guy’s art and his use of wood get me excited to try painting and playing around with mixed media.  I’d love to know his process of transferring print to wood, but I haven’t managed to dig up anything.  I guess I’ll just have to experiment some and see how that all works out.  I’d say more, but I’d really rather you just go to his site and check out his gallery and be awed.

I piss on first world nations

The picture above looks like a dream condo for your up and coming yuppie or salary man, but in fact, it’s a minimum security prison in Austria.  Seriously.  I don’t know whether to be amazed or annoyed, but I swear to god it’s enough to make anyone on the third world seethe.  A fricking 5 star prison. Jeheeeeeesus.
Well at least if I’m ever in Austria and I’ve run out of money, all I need to do is commit a burglary and I’m set for the next year or so.

If phones were women…

Been checking out lots of cellphones recently, and I thought it would be fun to categorize them as how they’d be like if they were women, cause I’m geeky like that.

Sony ericsson K800

Let’s begin with the K800. The K800 is stylish, no doubt. She’s also pretty smart, and she’s got an artsy side (she’s a really great photographer). She’s a little chunky though, but I’d be willing to overlook that if it weren’t that ugly hump on her back. I mean seriously, what a turn off right?

Samsung P300

The P300, like I said before, is retro cool. She doesn’t like dressing up like the other girls, and she knows how to flaunt what she’s got. While she’s not as curvy as he other girls, she uses her slim, boxy shape to stand out from the rest of the crown. The leather case she puts on sometimes marks her as an intelligent, classy gal as well. The downside? She’s a little deaf, and she speaks softly, so talking or listening to her can be a chore, especially for my mp3player ravaged ears.

Samsung D900

The D900 and the P300 are related, in that they’re both attractive and intelligent, but they’re attractive in different ways. The D900 is like an ugly ramp model: She’s slightly anorexic and her face looks “interesting”. But, unlike most ugly ramp models, she’s pretty intelligent, even more so than her retro cool cousin.

LG Chocolate

The Chocolate’s the bimbo of the bunch, sort of like the iPod in mp3player land. She’s stylish and sexy, with just the right amount of curves to make you want to hold her forever but dammit, she’s just not that smart. She sports a weak 1.3 megapixel camera, and the featureset is nothing to write home about. But she sure is hot.

Motorola MING A1200

And finally, we come to the Ming. She’s almost perfect, this one. She’s smart, hot, and she has a unique look that really sets her apart from the crowd. She’s the kind of girl that draws glances everywhere she goes, and she revels in it. Unfortunately, like some smart women, MING likes to make even the tiniest operation complicated. I don’t always want to have to take out the stylus and stroke her with it some before I can send a message, sometimes I just want to go tap tap tap Boom! Message sent.

So which phone will I end up with eventually? Only time will tell. One thing’s for sure though, like women, no phone in the world has all the features and looks you’ll ever want. There’s always a drawback, and you just gotta choose the woma…er, phone that’s right for your needs.

Go heart your own damn city

Probably as a response to the proliferation of “I <3 New York” T-shirts all around the world, reason clothing released this nicely crafted rebuttal T-shirt.  Gotta love those Noo Yawkers eh?

For more  pics and info on Reason, click here.

Malaysian pirates send hitmen to teach dogs a lesson

 

In one of the most bizarre stories I’ve read in a while, it appears that DVD pirates (yarrr!) have put out a hit on two Labradors named Lucky and Flo who have been instrumental in busting a $3 million pirate (yaaaar!) operation.  It’s unknown how much the conract for two doggies’ deaths will pay, but they’ve been whisked away to a super secret hideaway in order to assure their safety for future DVD sniffing action.

More info about pirate fighting dogs after the jump.

Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls is a movie for any fan of motown and the history of that era, but even the most ardent fans will cringe everytime Jennifer Hudson as Effie White hits those high notes. I don’t understand how she got a best supporting actress nomination Oscar, I really don’t. She wasn’t horrible by any means, but she was nowhere near an Oscar-worthy performance.

I liked that the movie was set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, as a parallel to the struggle of black musicians to bring their music to to the white dominated pop charts. It’s also fun to match the real life motown singers to their fictional counterparts (ie the jackson 5 = the campbell connection, marvin gaye = jimmy early), and just to watch the progression of the characters as the story goes along.

I wouldn’t call Dreamgirls a bad movie, but it isn’t stellar either. It’s just good enough that you don’t feel cheated of your hard earned money, like after watching a movie like ghost rider.

Nerd art by Jeremiah Palecek

Jeemiah is a Czech nerd that’s made it his mission to make one Nerd art painting a day, nerd art being anything that draws inspiration from 8-bit or classic videogames that Palecek played in his childhood.  The artowkrs aren’t astonishingly good (they were done in a few hours mind you), but it definitely brough back memories for me, especially this one of 10 yard fight.  I swear to god I played the fuck out of that football game even though I had no idea what I was doing.

Check out his blog here.

Sudokube

 

Now I really really hate Sudoku and puzzle games like it, and I’ve never managed to solve a Rubik’s cube, so this really isn’t something I’m excited about.  But I’m sure puzzle geeks out there are frothing at the mouth to get their hands on something like this so I’ll post it for all of you to fantasize about.  Ew.

Greyone to set up shop in the Philippines

 

To be honest, I don’t know much about greyone aside from the fact that they’re a retailer that specializes in streetwear.  I do find it interesting that they’re setting up shop here, although the deets on time (sometime in May?) and place are pretty sketchy at best.

Check out the announcement here and their site here.

Wanna know how Leonidas got his killer “300″ body?

Apparently the release of the movie 300 did two things: Raise female hormonal levels 200% AND is also made any males they were with while watching the movie feel small, helpless, and impossibly flabby. While the chances of females getting their hands on those tight Spartan bodies is a million to one, they can, however suggest (read:coerce) their significant others to click here and here to get the lowdown on the “Spartan” training regimen.

These exercises certainly aren’t for the weak of heart, so if any of you armchair warriors does decide to take a stab (ha! a stab! get it? no? screw you.) at it, do inform your next of kin, and a doctor.

Quicksilver’s interactive ads

 

Another hypebeast linkie, these pics are from Copenhagen, where Quiksilver’s put up some really interesting outdoor advertisements.  I love it when brands and advertisers do this kind of stuff, because is speaks of much more creativity than your standard “make it as big as fucking possible” billboard ads.

Check out more pics after the jump. 

Inquiring Minds magazine

Hypebeast pointed me out to this interesting interview with some designer named Jeff Ng, and while the interview itself was quite fresh and informative, I was more impressed with the overall layout and presentation of the inquiring minds magazine.  It’s tuned towards hip hop and street culture, so not all of you will be into it, but I loved how the souondtrack was perfectly chosen, how the music didn’t jar you and and make you look for the “stop” button.  It was also cool how inside the article they had interview snippets that you could click on, and when the video came up, the background music would fade out, and it would be back full force once the video was done.  It’s those little touches that make a publication stand out, and I’ll definitely be visiting inquiring minds again soon.

Crossgen Comics SALE at National Bookstore!

 

Crossgen comics was a shooting star in the comics industry.  In its brief history, it became the third largest american comics publisher in the world, was a shining light for comics professionals who wanted a steady job with benefits instead of freelancing, and in general made pretty damned good comic books that spanned the range from high fantasy, space opera, and victorian mystery.

But the dream that was Crossgen died when financial rot started to seep in, and most of its books weren’t picked up off the shelves.  The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and its assets were picked off by Disney for a paltry $1 million.

Fortunately for cheap thrifty comic geeks in the Philippines, good comics never really go out of style, and if you wait long enough, one bookstore or the other will let go of its old stock at bargain basement prices.  150 pesos per issue of EDGE, to be exact.  EDGE is an anthology that collects the best stories of 5 Crossgen comics, and while it’s (the stories) not neccesarily in chronological order, they are for the most part self contained, and for that price its a steal.  I was lucky enough to find EDGE 1-11 in my bookstore, but my friend’s told me that similar sales are going on in other National bookstores as well, so you all might find something worth buying.  Along with EDGE, Crossgen also released FORGE as a similar anthology, but the FORGE collection at my National was sorely lacking.

Anyway, what are you guys waiting for!??!?! Go out and buy some comics already!!!!

300 the movie

Watching 300 is like watching a high school play with an unlimited special effects and choreography budget. The movie itself is beautiful, like watching high contrast photography come to life. The action, while nothing we haven’t seen before, is suitably vicious and gory. The men…well, I’ll leave that to fags and women to talk about.

While the movie was a treat for the eyes, the story, as I feared it would be, was painfully weak and the acting can be boiled down to a series of either yelling (THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAA) or homoerotic coercion (All I ask is that you kneeeeel, yesss, that’s right, get on your kneeeeeees). 300 lacks the grandeur and epic proportions of movies like Troy or even Braveheart, but maybe it was never meant to be such. I’m only disappointed because I’ve loved this historic battle for the longest time, and I just really felt the movie didn’t do it much justice. It’s just another action movie set in olden times, like Apocalypto.

It also bothered me immensely the kinds of creative license Frank Miller took with his costume designs. The Spartans didn’t just fight in their briefs, they actually wore armour. The Persian Immortals did not look like hybrid samurai-ninjas in black, and weren’t deformed. In fact, many in the Immortals were the flower of Persian and Medean nobility, and they wore clothing nothing like Miller’s Immortals. Miller’s were scarier to look at though, I’ll give you that. And don’t even get me started on bisexual god-dess Xerxes. Seriously, what? Watch Alexander again, if you want to know what the Persians would have looked like.

Still, despite all this, I’d pay good coin to watch 300 again if they ever bring it over to the Mall of Asia’s imax theater.

Nordic music rocks

SXSW is an annual gathering of the hip and bleeding in media and technology. It’s a breeding ground of ideas where geeks and hipsters can gather and swap stories and business plans. There’s absolutely no way I’ll ever get to visit the festiveal, but the magic of the internet provides the next best thing.

This blog links up to more than a dozen Nordic (Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc) bands that performed in SXSW, and provides you with free mp3 samples to boot. I’ve listened to the Norwegian bands already (wassssssup Andreas?), and I love all of them. The standout for me has to be Chris Lee though, because who knew there were Norwegian rappers?

Click on the link for some sweet, legally free music.

Talladega Nights

 

In a bit of geekiness, I was able to figure out how to hook up my creative zen to my TV so that I could watch movies on it instead of on the Zen’s tiny screen.  Talladega Nights is a hilarious movie, and a testament to the fact that Will Ferrell is comedy gold. While there were lulls in the movie, there were also plenty of times I found myself howling helplessly with laughter as well.  That’s all I have to say really, just go watch it if you haven’t already, or Ricky Bobby will sic the baby Jesus on ya, or a cougar even.

Verizon’s online beatbox music generator

 

Here’s a cute toy those who are musically inclined can play around with for a few minutes.  Verizon’s beatbox generator allows you to take your pick of 5 different beatboxers (you know, those guys who makes scritchy scratchy sounds with their mouths?) and mix and match them to your heart’s content to produce your own slick beatbox track.  In essence, the website operate like a dumbed down version of full blown music software like FLstudio or ableton, so anyone familiar with those programs should have an easy time of it.

Check out the beatbox mixer here.

The Rapture

 

After hearing this band play on Conan O’Brien, I scrambled to get a copy of their album, so impressed I was with their music.  Unfortunately, this Franz Ferdinand-ish band’s best song is the same one that they sang on Conan, a single entitled “Get Myself Into It”.  The other songs pale in comparison, which left me a trifle disappointed.

Check em out here.

Tempt one exhibition

Been trying to get in the art groove again these past few weeks, and exhibits like this help keep the excitement going. Picture shamelessy lifted from the hundreds.

This is why New York is so cool (except for the muggers)

This pic was shamelessly plucked off fraudwasteabuse, and is one of the reasons I want to visit NY city one of these days.  This kind of massive grafitti work would never see the light of day in Manila, but I hope some local graf artists stumble onto my site and start getting some wild ideas, cause I would LOVE to see a local versio of this one day.

C heck out the rest of the pics here.

Masi Oka is my hiro (and he should be yours too)

 

Anyone who hasn’t been hiding under a huge rock has at least heard of the hit TV series Heroes on NBC.  The of the more popular characters is the time bending Hiro Nakamura, portrayed by Asian American whiz kid Masi Oka.  So why’s he my hero?  Get this, before the dude became an emmy nominated actor, he used to work with Industrial Light and Magic, providing special effect for movies such as the new Star Wars trilogy, and at the same time, he was doing improv and stand up comedy.  How cool is that?  SO cool.  It’s a good thing I’m better looking than him, or else I’d have a huge inferiority complex right now.

Read more about Masi Oka here.

You never need to sleep again.

So apparently coffee is passe.  The kids of the future today drink coffee not to wake up, but to be cool.  The real waker uppers are drugs like modafinil, which not only keeps you awake, but alert and focused as well,perhaps even more so than if you were just well rested.  If you’re the yuppie that works all day and parties all night, this may just be the thing to get you through the night, especially of you’re pushing 30 and your energy levels aren’t what they used to be in college.

The flipside is that the body really does need sleep (no, really, it does), and excessive sleep deprivation will cause damage to your body, and I already foresee millions of college kids and yuppies burning out on these pills in the near future.

And you thought getting into UP Fine Arts was hard…

Check out the 6,000 examinees attending the entrance examination in Shandong Art & Design Academy in Jinan, China.  That’s some crazy competition right there.

Picture lifted from the coolhunter.

Graduation Night!

 

Hated your graduation?  Hate your graduation pics?  Never graduated but really really wanna fake it?  Then head on over to the Graduation Night event put together by geek chorus and Rock Ed on March 14, 9PM.  Yours truly will be there, partying with the guys of geek chorus, who almost make it cool to be a geek.

Triumvir Spring 07

I’m lovin that King on the back of the hoodie, and the Baby Castro Tee.  This is the stuff that makes me wish I lived in the states.  Check out the rest of the collection here, and the triumvir site here.

The Queen

 

I’ve liked Stephen Frears ever since I first saw his name on the High Fidelity credits, and his work is The Queen is just as good.  Helen Mirren perhaps really does deserve her Oscar, but the parts that I liked the most were when the royal family was together, and they were bitching and quarreling just like any other family.  Any other British family at least.

I’m a little disappointed that the movie teased me with a nugget of information that hinted that Princess Diana isn’t the vulnerable, beautiful princess that everyone thinks she was.  When “Prince Charles” says something like “well, they’re not the ones that have to live with her on a daily basis are they?” or something like that.  Would’ve been nice if they’d shed some more light on that, but otherwise it’s a great movie.

Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor

So I’m gonna break with tradition a bit, and not limit myself to one sentence, cause Lupe Fiasco is just so fresh. I dig the music, I dig the vibes (he’s a hero to nerds and middle class suburbia), and he has a Nintendo DS on the cover of his album. Seriously. I can’t say I totally dig the cover though, it feels a little early 90’s to me, but it looks like that’s where the trendsetters are going anyway, since the 70s and 80s revivals are running out of steam.

If you like cool, intelligent rap music, pick up this album quick.

Poker shoes!

 

Themed shoes seem to be the trend in Reebok these days, as they’ve released another 5(+1) pack called the Royal Straight Flush pack.  This is something I wouldn’t mind wearing right now, especially since my friends and I are starting to get back into the Saturday night poker groove.  I dunno about that Joker shoe though, it’s too early 90s outer space looking for me.

Voltron shoes!

 

Ok, so I was ragging on the Nike Transformers shoes a few months ago, but this just feels so much cooler.  I keep thinking like if I was a kid again, and I had a small group of friends, we’d all get our moms to buy us one of each “lion”, then we’d go out and parade our kicks to the other kids on the block or something.

No seriously, I do.

The “300″ starter kit

To whet people’s appetites for the upcoming film extravaganza that is “300″, I’ve prepared a bit of a starter kit for thermopylae neophytes to get a bit of a background on the great battle before watching the actual movie.

For a better historical perspective on the actual battle of thermopylae, click here, here, and here.

For a more in depth look at not only the battle, but the traditions and cultures of the Spartans and Greeks in general, you might also want to purchase “Spartan” by Valerio Massimo Manfredi and “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield.

I know I bitched about 300 a few months ago, but the truth is that I’ll still go to watch it for the pure visual spectacle that I’m sure it’ll be. Still it’s always nice to get some more background info, if only so you don’t start quoting movie scenes as actual history.

The Last King of Scotland

There is a reason why “Last King of Scotland” recieved no nominations for best film, and that’s because it’s really just an above average movie at best.  Forest Whitaker however, deserves every award he can get his hands on for his bravura performance as the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.  That alone is worth the price of admission.

The Ataris’ welcome the night

Far too much emo for the average joe to consume.

Ghost Rider omfg so fucking bad

I’m glad Nick Cage is a comic geek, I really am. Hollywood stars that reveal themselves to be comic geeks give the medium mainstream credibility, and takes it from the hands of pimply fanboys. I’m glad Nick Cage got to do a comic book movie, because he’s desperately wanted to do one. And I’m glad he did Ghost Rider, because there would have been riots in the streets if he’d done Superman.

Cage is horrible in this movie, absolutely horrible. It may have been the direction, or it may have been the writing, but once Cage turns into ghost rider everything goes downhill. I didn’t walk into this movie expecting to see an Oscar worthy flick, just a cool action movie with cool special effects. I didn’t care that the plot barely made any sense, or that Nick Cage does this incredibly awkward and stupid “pointing” pose everytime he wants to look menacing. I just wanted the action to be good.

But it wasn’t, and it just compounded the lameness of this movie. None of Ghost Rider’s enemies felt like they were threatening at any point, and for a hero, he certainly does a lot of collateral damage just riding around on his bike. Collateral damage bothers me a lot, I don’t know why. I mean, sure I’d expect it if there was a huge fight going on and buildings were being destroyed in the process, but when your superhero destroys stuff just by riding around on his bike…I dunno, I’d be pissed if I lived in that city you know?

Oh, and the one time, the one time that things looked like they’d get exciting, the movie just drops the ball completely. Spoiler Alert! So Cowboy ghost rider and Nick Cage have both turned into their flaming incarnations, one on a horse and one on a bike. They ride off together in what is meant to be the final conforontation, and we have a long scene of them riding into the desert. Finally, I think, here’s the good part. Then they get to the edge of a deserted town and cowboy ghost rider “flames off”, gives his shotgun to Nick Cage, and tells him to “stick to the shadows”.

WTF?!??!?

I wanted to see both ghost riders kick the crap out of the bad guys!!!!! What is wrong the writers of this movie? That was perfect popcorn action flick material. But nooooooo, Cowboy ghost rider had to run out of juice and go home. Here’s my gun, I just rode with you so the movie could have a cool special effects extravaganza, I have to go now because I was too stupid to conserve my ghost rider energy to help you with the fight. *sigh*

The only thing worth the price of admission, if you’re a guy or a lesbian, is the close ups of Eva Mendes’ bursting, barely buttoned cleavage. I swear to god they did that on purpose, with a matching flesh colored bra. Otherwise, the movie’s total crap.

Valentine’s day robot brings love and peace on Earth

 

In a bit of lighthearted Valentine news, it seems that I was mistaken in my previous apprehension for robots, because they can be a force for good, just like the man-bot 2007.  Not only can the man-bot replace the men in women’s lives, they can also be switched to “gay-mode” for the times when women just need a little understanding.

What I wanna know is, when are the fem-bots coming out?  You know, the anatomically correct fembots that provide constant companionship, aren’t schizophrenic crazies for a week every month, can actually make up their minds, can be one of the boys but at the same time be a smoking sexpot in bed?

Astronaut Loving

I swear to god this was so priceless I couldn’t help but post it.  I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid.  To me, they’re the equivalents to the knights and explorers of yore.  The best, brightest, and toughest of the human race chosen to go where no man/woman has gone before.

So it’s just a little bit hilarious to find out that a female astronaut has been arrested for the attempted kidnapping of a romanatic rival.  It seems Mrs. Lisa Marie Nowak tried to kidnap and threaten her rival for the affections of Astronaut Bill Oefelein, but failed miserably.  Yes, that’s a Mrs.  She’s married with three kids but I guess the astro-allure was just too much for her to handle.

It’s sort of comforting that even the best of us fall prey to this sort of thing.

Apocalypto

Mel Gibson likes gore. He liked it in Passionof the Christ and he likes it in the Atzec adventure movie Apocalypto. Make no mistake folks, that’s all Apocalypto is. This is no sweeping epic, no in-depth exploration of the Aztec culture and civilization. This is an out and out action flick set in an era where men wore thongs and ate tapir balls.

And as an action film, it works. Mel Gibson, jew hating prick that he is, is a still talented filmmaker who deserves all the praise he gets for his craft.  It’s barely noticeable, but it struck me right away just how clean the film was and I knew something was up.  Apparently Apocalypto was filmed using the Panavision “genesis” digital camera, the same one used to film “Superman returns”.  I can’t say exactly what the advantages were for shooting in digital, but at least there were no negative effects.

Seeing as how parts of Superman Returns were ported to imax, I wonder what the chances are of an imax version of Apocalypto sometime in the future?  The sheer amount of gore in the movie makes it a long shot, but if it ever does happen I’d be first in line to watch it.

One last thing, if you ever, ever have to jump off a waterfall, don’t go head first.

A Slice of Filipino Life

I often lamented (lamented wtf?) the fact that Philippine cinema and TV was just a bit too escapist. Most of our TV shows and movies reflected the worlds of the elite, the rich kids and fairy tale stories of the amo and the maid getting it on. I wanted a bit more realism in local cinema, and two films gave me that during the bagong agos indie sine film festival (wow they should really shorten that).

Kubrador

Kubrador is a movie unafraid to show the Philippines for what it is, a dirty, stinking cesspit of corruption where desperate people give up whatever money they have in order to get a shot at winning a small fortune via jueteng. The film itself focuses on Ami, a “kubrador” or bet collector, and follows her as she goes about her rounds, henpecking people to bet on their lucky numbers. The film is well made, but what strikes me is that nothing really stood out for me. The movie flows well until the rather open ended finish, but there’s nothing striking about it at any point. Nothing that really pulled me in.
Gina Pareno (who incidentally was at the screening I watched) gives a bravura performance as Ami, and so does the rest of the cast.

But the most astonishing acting came from the local folks, who managed to subsume their natural Filipino tendency to mug for the camera at every chance they get.  Props to the filmmakers for managing to pull that off.

ICU Bed #7

If Kubrador was a slice of Class E life, ICU gives viewers a glimpse into the middle class of Philippine society. What the movie does right is that it manages to squeeze in every bit of melodrama the average Filipino family encounters without feeling too schizophrenic.  Teenage pregnancies, drug use, getting kicked out of school, second families, it’s all here, and none of it feels forced in any way.

The only thing that really annoyed me about this movie was the guy they cast as the “son”.  Damn he’s annoying.  I mean, he’s supposed to be seventeen but his voice cracks up every 5 minutes or so, he can’t act for shit (and when he tries I want to slap him upside the head), and he just looks…retarded.  I dunno.

Lastly, Eddie Garcia’s being in the hospital was the key to holding all of the disparate stories and drama together.  Once he was out and about, it sort of felt anti-climactic, and I was itching for the movie to end as soon as possible.  Still, it’s worth a watch, and since there were around ten people watching with me in the cinema it’s safe to say that you’ll have your choice of seats.

Transforming shoes wtf?

 

Ok, I like the transformers as much as the next guy who grew up in the 80s, but seriously, shoes?  Nike shoes?  That transform?  Nike running shoes that transform?  I have no (more) words.

The geek’s guide to sunglasses

If you had any doubt that geeks are infiltrating popular culture, then doubt no more. This guide to picking out th right sunglasses could only have been done by someone geeky enough to actually take the time to do a heckuva lot of research into this rather popular topic. Clickety-click!

Todo Todo Teros

This is what I get for watching the filmfest during “experimental” day. Todo Todo Teros is by no means a horrible movie, it just lacks a lot of things, not the least of which is focus. Like many experimental films, it assaults you with a visual and aural overkill that doesn’t serve to elucidate the goings on in the movie but merely to inform you that yes, this is experimental, and we are trying all sorts of shit here.

It’s good in that it makes you think, and at the end of the movie you will feel a little better after piecing in certain parts of the puzzle that director John Torres presents to the viewer, but it’s still not enough. There is no character that the audience can really attach itself to, and so they’re lost in a sea of people they’ll hardly recognize by the end of the movie. One might argue for open ended movies, and refusing to spoonfeed audiences, but the sheer number of questions I had at the end of the film made me feel like the filmmaker was just being lazy. Who’s the guy who went to Berlin? Did he die, or was he captured? What was he supposed to do there in the first place? And what does the Russian chick in Germany have to do with anything. Sure, a lot of my questions were answered after reading reviews and blurbs, but if a movie can’t communicate these things on its own then it’s failed in its purpose.

the film is a surreal take on Manila and how artists can subvert a culture by the mere act of creating works that empower and transform.

The description above comes from the movie’s blurb in the Singapore International Film Festival. Throughout the movie the idea that artists are treated as terrorists because they subvert culture is alluded to but never crytallized. How exactly are they doing this? I dunno, maybe I’m just stupid, but I didn’t feel like clapping at the end of the film.

The one cool thing about the movie was in the opening scene, there was a T-shirt on display that said “This is what a destabilizer looks like”. I found that funny as hell, and I’m gonna stencil that onto a T-shirt soon.

photo is of director John Torres

Making money in Makati

Or rather, how much of it slips from your pockets into cash registers.  I came across this article while looking for rent to won units in Makati and found it amusing, if not outdated.  For christs sake, the author’s using a geocities account, so it’s gotta be at least pre 21st century.  I can only hope he’s moved on to wordpress or some other more respectable blogging medium, cause he’s actually a good writer.

If you want to know just how much of your money (in percentages even) actually ends up in your own pockets, read on.

Bagong Agos : A pinoy indie filmfest at Robinson’s Galleria

Because it’s terribly hard to find information on the net about this little Filipino indie filmfest, I will share the film schedule with all the indie film buffs who view my blog (yes, all three of you). For brevity’s sake (and because I’m lazy), the films will be showing at the set times of 11AM, 1:30PM, 4PM, 6:30PM, and 9PM, and I will list the movies accordingly.

January 22

 

Pepot Artista – Doy Del Mundo (takes up 2 slots)

And Daan Patungong Kalimugtong – Mes De Guzman

Riles – Ditso Carolino

Manoro – Dante Mendoza

 

January 23

 

Heremias – Lav Diaz (takes up 4 fucking slots)

The Shorts of Khavn Dela Cruz

 

January 24

 

Rigodon – Sari Lluch and Keith Sicat

Cut – Jon Red

Indio Nacional – Raya Martin

Todo Todo Teros – John Torres

IMAHEnasyon – anthology

 

January 25

 

Bayaning Third World – (5 slots?)

 

January 26

 

Todo Todo Teros – John Torres

Ilusyon – Paolo Villaluna

Indie Giants – anthology(?)

Rome and Juliet – Connie Macatungo

Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong – Mes de Guzman

 

January 27

 

Riles – Ditso Carolino

New Shorts – anthology(?)

Ang Babae sa Breakwater – Mario O’hara

Kubrador – Jeffrey Jeturian (definite must watch)

Huling Bayan sa Buhi – Sherad Anthony Sanchez

 

 

January 28

 

Camiling Love Story – Erwin Romulo

Mga Pusang Gala – Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil

Rigodon – Sari Lluch Dalena and Keith Sicat

Pepot Artista – Doy Del Mundo

Perfumed Nightmare – Kidlat Tahimik

 

January 29 (schedule starts at 1:30PM)

 

North Diversion – Dennis Marasigan

Roomboy – Aloy Adlawan

Cut – Jon Red

Masahista – Brillante Mendoza

 

January 30

 

Cavite – Ian Gamazon and dominique Gonzales

Sarong Banggi – Emmanuel dela cruz

Manoro – Dante Mendoza

In the Red Corner – Dado Lumibao

Tulad ng Dati – Mike Sandejas

 

I’ll be trying to catch as many of the 6:30 showings as I can this week, since I get off work around 4:30, giving me just enough time to get to galleria to buy a ticket and a snack/dinner. So if you see a hug motherfucker with a Burger King or KFC bag sipping ona coke, munching on fries plugged into his mp3 player, it’s probably me. Tap me on the shoulder and strike up a conversation, because I’d be thrilled if someone who reads this blog actually saw this post and decided to go check out an indie movie because of it.

PS: Click the link for a couple of reviews to see what the films are like.  They aren’t the best written reviews mind you, but they should give you a general idea.

This man, he listens to music better than I can

 

Which is to say his tastes are more varied, he has the capacity to absorb twenty-something albums at once and eke out ever so plausible and satisfying mini blurbs to describe each one.  I hate him for this ability, but thank him for introducing me to Jim Noir and the Easy Star All-stars.

Confused? Check out the wily Filipino and be enlightened, my blogging brethren.

Kasal, Kasalo, Kasali getting much love

My blog’s getting more than its fair share of hits lately, and a lot of it’s been because of my KKK entry. It doesn’t mean much for the blog, but I’m sort of glad that the movie’s getting the attention it deserves. I love how wordpress lets you check these google searches, although I wish you could go back and check earlier dates, and not just the current day.

Why Kasal Kasali Kasalo is the Winner

 

I’m not a fan of Filipino films.  Let’s get that straight.  I hate the singing and dancing and the overacting and the screeching fags. I hate the fact that we only create films that follow the current Hollywood trend…a year after that trend has been beaten up and kicked to the curb by rabid moviegoers (and yes, I meant Exodus).

But Kasal Kasali Kasalo is proof that sometimes you can make a smart romantic comedy that pleases the masses and make a hell of a lot of money too.  That it recieved 2nd place to EntengfuckingKabisote3 is a travesty that is best scribed by others more knowledgeable than I regarding these matters, but I feel like it’s about time I hopped on the bandwagon to plug this movie because it deserved it.

First off, to all the peopel who cry out that “art films” just don’t make that much money, KKK isn’t an art film, it’s a romantic comedy starring Juday and Ryan Agoncillo, about as masa-pleasing as you can get.  Where it works its magic is how it takes elements from the tried and true storyline of the taking two different dysfunctional families together and bringing them together through a marriage (Meet the Fockers, My Big Fat Greek Wedding,…) and adds uniquely Filipino elements to make sure that everyone gets the joke.

For example, it’s funny in Meet the Fockers that Ben Stiller’s mom is a sex/yoga practitioner because that’s how you imagine those crazy Americans to be.  In the Philippines, that sort of joke wouldn’t fly, so instead Juday’s mom (played brilliantly by Gina Pareno) is a “kagawad” or a “politicians”.  It’s these insights into Filipino culture that made watching the movie such a treat, not to mention the fact that for the most part the film is tightly edited (except maybe for the first 10 minutes where the “courtship” seemed a bit rushed).

If you see KKK on the DVD shelves, you might just think about purchasing it if the price is right.  With increasing revenues and the whole brouhaha over the judging process, maybe it’ll open producers’ eyes to the fact that the Filipino moviegoing public really isn’t as stupid as we all seem to think they are.

Oasis’ Stop the Clocks

 

They’re arrogant bastards, but this album is proof that sometimes they have every right to be.

Roses are Red’s What Became of Me

Another emo band with just one listenable track in their entire album.

RIP James Brown : Godfather of Soul dies at 73

Sad news, indeed.  I honestly don’t know what to say, except every music fan should take a moment to thank him for the music.  So long, and I hope you’re somewhere up there still sining your lungs out.

The Beatles’ Love Album

It’s like listening to the Beatles if they were a band coming out today.

The Worst Movie Trailer Ever

 

Seriously, how can anyone get excited about the Transformers movie when they release a shitty trailer like this?  It’s like the editor suddenly rediscovered “Fade to Black” on his video editing program and went wild with it.  Using fadeToBlack ad infinitum is sooo not the way to get me excited about the movie.

Instead of submitting yourself to that torture, check out MattMoylan’s collection of “Lil Transformers” comics, which are sure to make any transformers fan laugh till his gut hurts.

Little Miss Sunshine

 
I swear to god at the end of this film I was misty eyed, and I missed my family more than I’ve ever missed them in my entire life.  Little Miss Sunshine is an ode to the dysfunctional family, and it crosses borders of race and culture to deliver a message about the importance of sticking together, even when you have to push a broken down VW van in order to start up the engine in 3rd gear, while your dead grandfather lies in the trunk wrapped in a blanket.

It’s too late to catch it in theaters, but I encourage you all to go out and watch this movie, even if you have to buy it from pirates (yarrr).

Line Rider = Time Waster

 

Draw a track, press play, and watch the line rider ride along his merry way.

Team Manila SALE!

This may be too late, but any of you within the Makati area should really go check out their shop. Astig ung mga desayns ng mga Teesirt nila. Saka ng mga bag. Solid mhen, solid. Bili na kayo!

Check out their site (and address) here.

Jamiroquai’s High Times:

 

You’d think it’d be pathetically easy to make a  Jamiroquai greatest hits album, but High Times proves you wrong by officially becoming the worst greatest hits album ever.

The Cold War Kids

They remind me of Gavin De Graw mixed with a lot of Hot Hot Heat, which is definitely a good thing.

Incubus’ Light Grenades

More of the same old stuff, which isn’t really a bad thing.

Better late than never: Casino Royale

Everyone and their sister has probably seen and reviewed blogged about this film, so I’ll just offer up some food for thought. Casino Royale’s success is partly based on the fact that the filmmakers were able to “reinvent” bond. Daniel Craig is neither as stylish, debonair, or manipulative as the older James Bonds, but that’s because we’re watching a man in transformation.

Casino Royale was the first Bond novel, so it’s safe to assume that as the follow up will show us a Bond that’s morphing into the one we know and love recognize. How much of the success of this film is based on the fact that it’s much more grittier than earlier Bond films? Will it be as exciting once the whole “reinvention” cycle is complete? Lastly, how many more Bond films starring Daniel Craig can we expect to see?

My prediction is that the next one will be just as good, and ideally they should let it go at that, but studio execs will want to milk it a little further, giving Craig a total of 3-4 Bond films under his belt. You heard it here first.

Hugh Laurie on American Accents

 

Hugh Laurie, when asked about his American accent in an interview once replied: It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot. I wonder how he feels about Australian Jesse Spencer, who plays the Australian Dr. Robert Chase in “House MD”.

Pissed off would probably be an understatement.

Bridge’s Love from Lust

Arriving too late to the acoustic trend to gain public acclaim, Bridge is one of the the best acoustic bands no-one knows about.

Dice and K9’s mobbstar

They made hip-hop fun again, then slowly faded into obscurity.

Tenacious D’s The Pick of Destiny

 

“You can’t kill the metal.  The metal will LIVE ON!”

Kicking and Screaming

 

While certainly not as heralded Anchorman or Talladega Nights, Will Ferrel’s Kicking and Screaming is still a fun, lightweight movie to watch when taking a break from mind-bending movies or political art films.  It’s a little bit about soccer, a little bit about parenting,  and a lot about being addicted to coffee.  And it hit me on a personal level because it’s also about a guy who’s never quite lived up to his parent’s expectations.

Well, as much as a Will Ferrel movie can hit you emotionally, that is.

Bob Dylan’s Modern Times

This is proof that Bob Dylan should never stop making music.

Big comebacks or early season luck?

Was there ever a time in the past 5 years or so that you thought the Atlanta Hawks would be starting 3-1?  A team that took till December to reach its third win last year?  Why is this happening?  I submit to you, dear readers, Joe Johnson.  He leads the young Hawks team in scoring, steals, and assists, and is sure to be the building block for a rejuvenated Hawks franchise…if it comes to that.

I’ve been a Jazz fan for the longest time, and I have a pretty extensive Karl Malone NBA card collection (they were so cheap people were almost giving them away) so nothing makes me happier to know that the Jazz are 4-0 starting this season.  What I  loved about the old Jazz was their sense of consistency and humility.  In a league of high profile trash-talking money-grubbing athletes jumping ship from one team to another for the fat paycheck, you could always count on Malone, Stockton, and Sloan to be Salt Lake City loyally toiling away to reach that ever elusive championship.  Even when Malone went to LA for one last shot at the ring you could hardly feel upset because he’d paid his dues.

Now after a few years of searching it looks like Salt Lake’s got a new bunch of kids who are here for the long run in the form of Andrei “AK47″ Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, and Mehmet Okur.  They keep this unit intact with the guiding hand of the gandalf-ish Jerry Sloan, and I expect good things from this team.

Another team I’ve been a fan of sincethe Larry Bird days is the Boston Celtics.  And since their opening games have been less than inspiring (0-3), I’ll just direct your eyes to Boston’s first ever cheerleading squad to cheer up any sad Celtics fans out there.  My favorites are Courtney, Meaghan, and Chantal.  I know, I’m a sucker for brunettes.

Updates: The Jazz are now 4-1 after a loss to the Nets, and as I write this the Celtics have blown a chance to get their first win against the Bobcats by blowing a late lead and going OT at 100-100.  I don’t even know if I want to see how this turns out.

Neil Patrick Harris = Gay

So apparently, Neil Patrick Harris is Gay. That’s right folks, your favorite child prodigy has come out of the closet and announce to the world that he is happy, content, and fruity. Is this the season for coming out or what? Lance Bass coming out was like, meh, totally saw that one coming. But Doogie Howser? He certainly had us fooled.

But if you surf the net for the DVD collection of Doogie Howser, you’ll see that the evidence was right there all along, and we were just too infatuated with him to notice.

They’re a cute couple aren’t they? Minus the girl of course.

Keane’s Under the Iron Sea

Music to sooth frayed workday nerves.

The Prestige, and a podcast.

The Prestige is a masterful film that’ll keep your brain up until way after the credits have rolled. Christopher nolan is fast becoming one of my favorite directors, and both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are coming into their own as actors. Scarlet Johanssen comes along to entertain us with some boobage, but could easily have been replaced with some equally well endowed bosom.

I can’t reveal the plot too much without giving away spoilers, but what caught my attention the most was the allusion to Thomas Edison as something of a villainous character, in that he would use goons to menace Nikola Tesla, who at the time was proposing an alternative to Edison’s more popular DC electricity. Edison in many ways has taken on the form of a legend, of a man who brough the 2oth century to us with his inventions. To see him portrayed as a cunning and wily businessman who would stop at nothing (even holding back technology) to protect his patents is an eye opener, to say the least.

Right, back to the movie. Since there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said, I’ll point you guys to my favorite movie podcast, Filmspotting. I’ve listened to these guys for almost a year now, and it’s partly their fault that I’ve felt like I’ve watched so many movies without actually ever going to a film theater for the longest time.

Anino Goes Next-Gen with “Xenon”

Got the news from a friend of mine who works there. He’d been telling me about a sci-fi game they were working on, but he had to keep most of it mum because it was some big corporate secret. Now the secret’s out, and they gave frickin Hackenslash (meh.) the Press Release for the game.

I’m really thrilled that Anino’s come this far, especially since I know a lot of people who work there and in their mobile division. Hopefully the game does better than Anito did financially, so that they can continue to grow even bigger. I can still remember reading about them in the news when they were first developing Anito and thinking that it’d never be completed. 10 odd years later and here they are, going full throttle with a next-gen game to boot.

Somebody should tell them to fix up their website though, cos it looks SO 5 years ago. And while they’re at it,they should change their logo, cos it looks SO Slycesoft.

edit: Apparently someone (me) did tell them that their website looks ancient and their logo looks like Slycesoft, because Luna (I’d link your blog but I forgot what your new one is called) found her way to my website.

Sephiroth = Gay

So this really isn’t recent news and I’m not the first one to notice Sephiroth is voiced by Lance Bass after reading my Kingdom Hearts manual, but that doesn’t make it any less funny.

Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations

Experimental space opera sums it up quite nicely.

John Mayer’s Continuum

John Mayer v.3 boasts a new featureset including blues, soul, and a bit of jazz to expand an already established singer/songwriter program.

Two movie reviews for you!

You know how sometimes you’ll get tired of watching movies for a few months, then one weekend you watch two movies almost in a row?

Annapolis- Take boxing and the naval academy, mix it with an up and coming Asian American director, and you’ll get the uninspired mess called Annapolis. The eternally wooden faced James Franco stars as a new recruit in the Naval Academy, hoping to earn his stripes to fulfill his late mother’s dream. But wait, there’s more! He’s also a boxer, and he’ll run into a tough as nails commanding officer who he’ll slug it out with in the final scenes of the movie.

Annapolis is one of those rare movies that almost doesn’t make you feel anything at all. You don’t feel for the characters, James Franco acts like a bratty 9 year old, and the only guy that stirred the pot up a bit, the class clown of the group, gets kicked out in the middle of the movie for not taking a shower. There is only one moment in the movie that’ll get a rise out of you, and after that it’s all downhill. This movie’s coming out soon in theaters, but I’d encourage you to avoid it at all costs, since this isn’t even worth a rental.

V for Vendetta- I think I know what people who watched Constantine without any knowledge of the comic book feel now. I have never read Alan Moore’s celebrated graphic novel, and so I wasn’t too disappointed when I watched the film version. When I watched Constantine, I wanted to kick Keanu in the balls to get some kind of reaction out his stoner face because he was horribly miscast as John Constantine. I’ll go so far as to say that perhaps Constantine isn’t as bad as I make it out to be, but it would have been much better with an Ewan McGregor or that guy from “The Full Monty” in the lead role.

Oh right, V for Vendetta. Good stuff, and very relevant in our day and age especially if you’re tuned in to the news and current events. If not, you’ll appreciate how hot Natalie Portman still is and to be careful around guys wearing masks.

Sorry Frank, but 300 just doesn’t cut it.

I am an avowed Frank Miller fan, and I love what he’s done to the comics medium and have the hardbound copy of “The Dark Knight Returns” in my mini library. That said, I’m not too excited at the prospect of hearing the new movie based on his graphic novel, “300″. Why hear, you say, when I’m talking about a movie? Because I know that I will visually be impressed. The few trailers and video journals I’ve seen are so mouthwateringly good that I’ll willingly pay to see this artistic masterpiece on the big screen. But the truth is that Frank Miller’s version of the events at Thermopylae was poorly written and shallow.

Fans of the graphic novel, please refrain from throwing your spears. When I first read 300 I myself was awed by it, by the visual masterpiece of Lynn Varley’s paint over Frank’s rough pencils. I even bought the fact that the spartans only wore briefs and red cloaks to war and that Xerxes the Persian emperor looked like a Nubian. I was one of you once.

But when I read Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s “Spartan” and Steven Pressfield’s “Gates of Fire”, it just dawned on me how lacking Miller’s vision was. How he reduces the Spartans to the role of noble and valiant savages whose only aim in life was to do war. There is hardly any depth to Miller’s Spartans, a trait that will become all too apparent once blown up onto the big screen. I fear that what I’ll end up watching is a beatifully rendered classical Greek action flick, with curly haired men yelling “SPARTAAAAAA!” each time they stab a Persian warrior in the face.

Like Miller’s first film outing “Sin City”, 300 will barrage you with a truckload of blood drenched eye candy. But remember kids, as much as we all like candy, it has no nutritional value.

Beck’s The Information

 

If you can ignore the links to Scientology, you’ll find that Beck can do no wrong when it comes to music.

I am now the third member of Intendo

I’m proud to announce that I am now the third part and the only asian contingent of the alternative gaming blog Intendo.wordpress.com. Intendo is, as the site says, a “gaming blog: the idea is to provide a haven for avid gamers – who fancy Nintendo – to critique Mario’s House without deranged fanboys rabidly barking at them…”. It isn’t so huge, and I don’t get paid, but it’s a nice place to hang out for an alternative to your regular gaming blog. And alternative is like, so cool, so you want to go visit it right now. Now. Right now.

MRT Radio is back!

MRT Radio is back, with a vengeance. Not only are they broadcasting again, but they’ve added a few key features as well:

• Expanded playlist, which includes more contemporary music
• A new “greeting card” segment, where riders are encouraged to send in email greetings to friends or loved ones
• That’s all really, but two bullet points seemed a little…what’s a word for “not enough”?

I don’t recognize a lot of the new songs, but they’re all still very cool and mellow, soulful music even. I sort of wish that the DJ would announce the song titles and artists, but maybe they’ll get to that in the future. For now, I really gotta give props to the guy handling the playlist, because it’s top notch.

Still, there was an odd moment when the playlist hit a Jack Johnson song about trains breaking down. It was a little peculiar hearing him singing “I need this…old train to break down…” while riding on a seven(?) year old train.

Geekofalltrades now Youtube friendly

I finally figured out how to embed Youtube clips onto WordPress.  This particular one is from Happyslip productions, which as far as I’ve figured is some Fil-Am chick in the US pulling a Rex Navarette.  It definitely needs some polish, but it’s good for a few laughs.  She’s kinda cute too, so that helps.

Budget PS2 game review: Front Mission 4

And when I say “budget”, I mean “borrowed from friend who is much more well-off than I am”.

FRONT MISSION 4

The Front Mission series, for those not in the know, was created by squaresoft in the 90s as a tactical RPG that featured Wanzers (Giant robotic mechs). Deep political storylines, tactical turn-based combat, and near infinite Wanzer customization are the hallmarks of the series, and FM4 doesn’t veer away from that.

There are quite a few niggles that keep this game from being a classic however, not the least of which is the rather tepid AI. Enemies are grouped into “units”, each of whom will wait until you’re in range before going in to attack you. Battles then become repetitious, with you simply taking your time wiping out wave after wave of enemies to clear the level. Speaking of levels, most objectives will simply have you “destroy every enemy unit on the map”, which gets really dull after a while. Additionaly, using different weapons can sometimes be a hassle, especially when A) you have a weapon equipped but you can’t use it and the game doesn’t tell you why or B) you launch a missile at an enemy only to see it smash against a building.

Still, the engaging storyline and top notch voice acting will keep you playing, and any fan of bighuge mechs and political intrigue is sure to enjoy this. Just be prepared to spend 1/3 of the game levelling up. It would have been nice to see the Philippines (and FIlipino characters) again, just like in FM3, but then maybe that’s asking too much.

Jet’s Shine On

If you’re not tired of Oasis (I am) and the retro 60s-70s  rock craze (I’m not quite yet), you just might like this album.

Jollibee Scandal

Sex scandals have long been a mainstay in Philippine media, but when something like this pops up on Youtube, you just have to sit up and take notice. For those who live outside the Philippines, Jollibee is the nation’s largest fastfood chain, beating out even McDonald’s as the number one fastfood restaurant in the country. It’s taken a lot of work to be number one, and the Philippine’s favorite bee just has to let that stress out once in a while…

This has actually been circulating for a while through YM, so this is for those of you who missed the initial rush.

The Gin Blossoms’ Major Lodge Victory

If you ever wanted a relaxing ride on a time machine back to the 90s, this is it.

The Kooks’ Inside In Inside Out

These Kooks will constantly surprise and delight your ears.

The Departed

Far more people have reviewed it better than I ever will, but I have to say that “The Departed” is one of my favorite movies of the year, and one of my top ten crime dramas ever.  I loved the Bostonian acents, I love the deception, i loved the heroism and the villainy, and I hated Mark Wahlberg’s hair.  I really hated it.

Also,  this is one of the first times that following US politics has paid any dividends.  When and aging Alec Baldwin sid “Patriot Act, Patriot Act, I love it I love it I love it!” I was the only one who snickered in the movie theatre.  Brilliant movie.  Watch it while you still can.

Panic! at the Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

 

If you ever wanted an album that you can listen to without skipping any tracks, this is it.

Why I won’t be eating at Mcdonald’s for a while.

First, a prelude. I’ve given up trying to convince people to do things because I am not a good marketer. I always believed that people would listen to reason, but we all know that’s not true. But people will always listen to a well marketed idea.

Still, there are times that I’m stirred to action because of an event that I just can’t ignore, and this is one of those times. The following is a forwarded account of a an event that occured a few days ago. I was tempted to delete it, as I automatically do my forwarded messages, but I’d read about this story in the paper a while back, and so I knew that this event actually did happen.

The account is biased to a fault, but strip away all of the flourish and adjectives and what you get is an acccount of a multinational company refusing to hold a dialogue with concerned consumers. Mind you, these people weren’t a raving mob, but concerned citizens. All they wanted is for McDonalds to commit to reducing their use of styrofoam by 50% in a year. A steep number? Maybe, but we all know that no sale goes by in this country without a proper “tawad”, so I’m sure those people set their standards high in preparation.

The sad thing is that many of those who took part in the march may very well have been McDonalds customers who just wanted them to show a little respect and responsibility. The way the company belittled these well-meaning people is what made me decide today to avoid McDonalds products as much as possible. It’s a small contribution, and it’s all I can do. Well, that and posting this on my blog and highfiber.

W hat you choose to do is none of my business, but take a read, and then decide on your course of action. If you’re worried that it’ll do no good to avoid going to McDonald’s, this snippet from findarticles gives a bit of hope:

A nationwide grassroots campaign convinced McDonald’s to cut back on its use of styrofoam packaging in 1990. If that clown Ronald can do it, so can the rest of the world.

Apparently, Ronald’s pinoy cousin hasn’t caught on yet, but if enough people speak up, he just might listen.

MRT musings summary

I just found out that a post that I thought I’d posted..disappeared. how odd. Anyway, here is the gist of what I blogged.

MRT radio is AWOL. I haven’t heard in my last two commutes and I’m worried that it has been taken off the “air”. That would be sad, since it’s a brilliant move for Metrostar, and it really doesn’t cost them much to do it.

Outkast’s Idlewild

 

Outkast is proof that rap as a genre is alive, kicking, and evolving.

Educational Games

 

I’ve always been interested in the idea of games as both entertainment and a means of education, and this group of games by the Nobel Prize Foundation is the perfect example of that concept.  The games both look and play great, and you’re learning new things at the same time.

My personal favorite is the “Lord of the Flies” game because that’s one of my favorite novels, but I’m pretty sure that “Conductive Valley” will be the most popular choice.  Clickety click to make learning fun!

Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Sounds

This album makes me want to be black, just like Justin Timberlake.

MRT Radio

Anyone who’s ridden the MRT recently will find a welcome surpise. Where before all you herd was the sqeaks of ungreased wheels and the shuffling of people trying to get into a more comfortable position, now jazz music wafts through the air to soothe the ears of disgruntled commuters. Featuring instrumental jazz tracks set to songs like “Fly me to the moon” and even contemporary jazz by the likes of Jamie Cullum, it’s the only thing that keeps me sane when I’m packed like sardine in a full MRT train.

It makes sense in a huge way, because Metrostar, the company that runs the MRT, has long been complaining that they’re losing money, and proposed to double the price of ticket sales a few years ago. I’m assuming someone predicted the backlash of such a drastic measure, and said person also had the bright idea to suggest an onboard radio station to increase ad revenue. I’m just glad that they didn’t decide to broadcast something like 93.9 “Love Radio” (kelangan pa ba i-memorize yaaaan?) and went with soothing jazz instead. Sheer genius.

This is Next-Gen?

 

My friend’s brother (yeah, they’re a geeky family) bought his Xbox 360 the other day and I sat down and watched him play for a while last night after work.  He bought “Dead Rising” to go along with the console and well…it looked nice.  I haven’t played the game myself, but as a spectator I must admit that I wasn’t floored.  The graphics, while much cleaner and more textured than the current gen (PS2, gamecube), just weren’t eye-poppingly good. This could be attributed to the fact that he was playing it on a standard def  TV, since you need to play on an HDTV for the full “next-gen experience.  Perhaps it’s unfair, but I keep comparing it to when I first saw MGS2 on the PS2 and was just awed at the sheer leap in graphical power.

Of course I can’t properly give any kind of review on the console or the game since I didn’t really get to play it, this is what you might call a “spectator’s” review.  Xbox 360s are starting to become relatively affordable here in the Philippines, with retail values hovering around 25k or so, and interesting deals popping up on ebay.  Still, when you consider that HDTVs are still hovering around the 75k or more range, maybe it’s still not the best time to get one.   With the Wii coming out soon at a decidedly lower price point, and sticking to standard def ouput, that’s where my pesos are going.

8 Below is good stuff.

Busy day at work but I’m trying to keep to my “at least one blog a day mantra” so here’s a quick movie review during my break.

Paul Walker is still as wooden as Keanu Reeves, Jason Biggs needs to break out of the “dorky guy” stereotype badly, and relative unknown Moon Bloodgold is hawt. The only reason to watch 8 Below is because of the adorable looking Siberian Huskies and frankly, it’s a pretty good reason. Except if you hate dogs. In which case, watch Garfield. Then you’ll hate cats.

Street Fighter: The Later Years

I’ve always been a fan of “where are they now” kinds of shows, but this fan video about former Street Fighters Zangief and Dhalsim takes the cake. Apparently, Zangief is now a lowly (yet very sensitive) janitor at an arcade of all places, and Dhalsim is a cantankerous taxi driver. My only beef is that the Dhalsim in the video has a receding hairline, while Dhalsim circa SF2 was completely bald.

Hilarity ensues after the jump.

Machuca!

I haven’t been to a European film festival in a while, so it was with some excitement that I went to Greenbelt 3 with my girlfriend to watch the Peliculas! film fest. We got to watch the Chilean(?) film Machuca, which tells the tale of two boys in 1973 Chile, a time of revolution and uproar as the Chilean right were looking to overthrow then socialist president Salvador Allende.

Pedro Machuca is a young Chilean boy from the lower classes who is allowed into an exclusive Christian school where Gonzalo Infante studies. Gonzalo is a withdrawn, affluent middle class child who has to bear with his mother’s infidelities and the fact that he looks like an even more retarded version of Ron Weasley. They become friends after being the butt of a joke played by Draco Malfoy (if you get to watch if you’ll understand what I mean). Their budding friendship is a metaphor for the social upheaval occuring in Chile during the time, but this is never forced or apparent, and for a while you can imagine that you’re just watching a buddy movie, a “country mouse meets city mouse” kind of schtick. The movie slowly starts to unravel towards the end however, as the ties of friendship are slowly unbound by the sheer difference in their respective worlds. This comes to a boiling point in one scene of the film, when the military storm the shantytown that Pedro lives in, and Gonzalo must decide where his loyalties lie.

To be honest, I wasn’t too ecstatic about this film. It was masterfully crafted and I never once felt bored or manipulated by it, but I never really felt attached to the story of Pedro and Gonzalo. In fact, I was more interested in the story of father McEnroe, the liberal headmaster of the school that both the boys go to. Not that this isn’t a good movie mind you, I’d still suggest you watch it.

The biggest takeaway for me had less to do with the movie and more to do with wanting to research the history of that time period, which I promptly did. It’s kind of ironic that towards the end of the movie, they deposed Allende (the first democratically elected socialist/marxist leader) for fear that he would turn Chile into a Cuban style dictatorship, and they ended up with Augusto Pinochet, a dictator who ruled Chile until 1990.

Audioslave’s Revelations

Audioslave is proof that corporate music can still rock, and I’ve listened to all their albums with gusto since they first came out in 2001. Comprised of Chris Cornell (formerly of Soundgarden) and the Rage Against The Machine minus Zach de la Rocha, Audioslave have been putting up critical and financially successful albums from the get go, and their third installment is more of the same, with a more political edge. See, when they first got togehter Chris Cornell made it clear that he didn’t want to be RATM’s new vocalist (RATM at the time being one of the most political bands in the rock scene), but with band members like Tom Morello and friends Serj Tankian(of System of a Down), I suppose it was inevitable that they’d proceed along that path.

Revelations offers up more of the hard edged stuff that epitomized their first offering, and the new single “Original Fire” is a catchy, hand clapping song that sets the tune for this album,. Unfortunately, although songs like the soulful “Until we Fall” Rhythym and Bluesy “Broken City” offer a different flavor, I’m a little afraid that the band’s not really growing , and that by the fourth album their sound will be a bit stale, if it isn’t already to some.

Check out their website here.

I am so not l337

The Urban Dictionary is a wiki of sorts where users can upload their definitions of slang words. Apparently l337 and those who would be l337 are the most active participants, since most of the words are gamer talk. It’s amazing how language grows at an increasingly fast pace, and how much of an effect the geek elite have had on it lately. I mean, everyone’s at least read or herd the words pwned, w00t, and l337, but when was the last time you were “coworked”?

Scissor Scisters’ Ta-dah!

Scissor Scisters is an American band whose music is hard to define, but very much akin to a mix of the Bee Gees, Duran duran, and Elton John. The fact that they’re a mostly gay band shouldn’t be a deterrent to anyone who’s a fan of good music, because I guarantee that as soon as you hear the single “i don’t feel like dancing”, you’ll have images of the Bee Gees disco dancing in your head and you can’t help but smile and bob your head to the music a little. I first heard the band on NU107 years back, when their single “Your Mama” first came out, and they’ve come back in a big way.

Sure, the cover’s a bit scary, especially for the extremely homophobic male, but this album is chock full of tunes that defy stereotype and will force music pundits to define a new genre simply called “fun”.

Check out their official site here.

Sony Ericsson W300

I’m gonna cheat a little, and reprint an article that I wrote for a publication a while back.  Now that the W300 has been released in the Philippines, it seems like an apt time to do it.

Sony’s merger with Ericsson a few years ago reinvigorated the staid and aging cellphone giant.  Now, with some success behind them, Sony is starting to push even harder into the mobile market, using its well known brands to attract customers to their phones.  And what better brand than the once ubiqitous walkman?

The walkman changed our way of life when it came out in the 80s, and a few years ago Sony Ericsson tried to capture that phenomenon once more with their W800 and W550 walkman phones.  Howver, these phones were slightly on the high end, and cost more than the average consumer could afford.  The company promised to build a walkman phone for the masses, and now it’s arrived.

The aptly named Sony Ericsson W300 (W for Walkman and 300 as a model number to dictate that its below the 550) is a clamshell phone that boasts many of the features of its older brothers.  It’s got the same software (including the music playing software) and it’s a quadband phone with a VGA camera as well.  The phone boasts 20mb of internal memory, which is surprisingly large for its price point, and also accepts memory expansion using Sony’s new proprietary memory stick micro (M2) memory card.  Buyers need not worry about space, because a 256mb card comes with the box, which is usually more than enough space for the average user, since that’s enough to store roughly 60 songs at an average of 4mb each.  Connectivity through bluetooth and USB 2.0 is also very handy, so the computer can be hooked up very easily to your PC to transfer music and photo files, as well as your calendar.

The screen size is 128×160, which is tolerable at this price point, and looks to be replacing the old standard of 128×128 for budget phones.  When closed, the phone has an external monochrome display that lets you know the time, signal, etc. and additionally also provides you with music information when you’re using the phone as a walkman.  Buttons on the side also let you use the walkman without having to flip open the phone.  Earphones similar to those packaged with the W800 and the W550 will also be included, and they sound just as great when used with the phone.

The camera function is almost negligible, as it seems to have been added only as an afterthought.  This isn’t to say that it doesn’t work well, but remember that this is a budget phone that’s focused on being a music player on the side, so the camera wasn’t given as much focus.

The keypad’s been given a facelift as well, and it really does seem that this particular walkman was given a much more design-centric focus, with its nice curves and small form factor.  The circular keypads look like they might be a little difficult to get used to, but I’m sure that the new user will get used to it in time.

In conclusion, if you want a stylish phone that doubles as a music player with some camera functionaily thrown in, this is the phone for you.

Note: I’ve actually gotten to try out the phone for a while at my office, and I must say it’s a looker.  Plus the keypads aren’t as hard to use as I figured they’d be.  The recessed middle button on the navigation key does offer minor difficultes, and the way Sony uses the T9 dictionary feels far less functional than how Nokia does it).

Thoughts on the Wii

This article from ars technica delves into the the decisions and thought processes that led to the development of the Wii as a game platform that both refuses to compete with Sony and Microsoft’s consoles and offers something entirely new; a true “revolution” in gaming.  Whether or not that path will ultimately be reward Nintendo remains to be seen, but I for one support them, and the Wii is my choice for my next “next-gen” console.  Aside from the low price point ($250 with a controller and game), Nintendo’s success with the DS makes me believe that it really can achieve all its set out to do.

Of course, I’m still gonna wait it out until they come up with the black Wii to go with my black DS.  By then, it should cost slightly less and new games for my beloved PS2 will become few and far between.

Once Upon a Time in the West

 

When the western was dying out in its native land of the US of A, inspired European filmmakers took the tradition and ran with it, much like the Japanese took Betty Boop and made sweet love to her with alien tentacles.  Thus was the “spaghetti western” born, and the name of director Sergio Leone enshrined at the altar of western fans.  While more famous for his “man with no name” trilogy, I chanced upon “Once Upon a Time in the West” at a friend’s house and decided to give it a try.  When it was released, the movie broke many barriers with its casting, with the oft-heroic Henry Fonda cast as the villain and Charles Bronson, more commonly seen as a goon, cast as the Harmonica playing desperado out to get revenge on Fonda.

The movie opens up with what I’ve read is Leone’s trademark 10-minute long introduction, which takes its sweet time and immerses you into the sounds and visuals of the old west (ie windmills creaking, flies buzzing about, and water dripping onto a cowboy’s hat) until “Harmonica” comes in by train and the action begins.  Then stops.  This becomes a familiar routine as long winded scenes stretch on almost infinitely before anything truly significant occurs.  I found myself at times rapt with the visual style and cinematography of the movie, but at certain times looking at my watch wondering when it would end (the movie’s 2 hours and 45 minutes long).

Perhaps I’m just spoiled, seeing as movies rarely stretch for more than 2 hours these days, but the movie could have benefitted from some major editing and trimming of unneccesary scenes.  I read that the original release was 20 minutes short.  That, (while still 20 minutes too long for me) coupled with seeing this on the big screen, may have made this a more enjoyable film.  As it was, I couldn’t wait to turn my DVD player off.