Archive for the 'Blog' Category
mario February 18th, 2008
 Denver, The Last Dinosaur! He’s on DVD, and a whole lot more!
So yeah, I ordered one as soon as I found out this morning (the DVD / t-shirt combo, if you’re curious), and I suggest all you Denver fans out there to do likewise. They only printed 1,000 copies in this run to gauge receptiveness by the public, so please show them that there are still fans of this one-year-run cartoon show about a newly hatched dinosaur that runs into a gang of Gen X nerds and wears sunglasses and rides a skateboard and sometimes gathers everyone around a piece of his eggshell that magically reveals tangential tidbits about prehistoric beasts! DO IT. I am not kidding. If enough people buy Volume 1, they just might give us the rest of them, and then I’ll probably be your best friend or something.
I’d like to take a brief moment to express my profound gratitude to Laura, the nice lady that handled my order over the phone. I was having trouble getting the shopping cart system to work via the website, so I called them directly. Not only did she place my order quickly, she was very receptive to my love of some random old cartoon show. She encouraged me to drop her company an email to let them now how much I wanted the rest of the DVD volumes to be produced (the answer is a lot), and I did so almost immediately, but I figured a mention on some no-name blog on the Innertubes would also be in order. Thanks Laura! It’s refreshing to see a company not only release classic content on DVD, but to go the extra mile with merchandising and responsiveness to the fans’ requests. If anyone here orders this DVD set, let Laura know how awesome she is.
(courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD.com, several months ago but hey that’s just how I roll)
[discuss]
mario February 17th, 2008
 Last Saturday, I went to see Jumper at AMC Saratoga 14 with a few friends. This isn’t a review of Jumper… well, Jumper sucked and blew, and it was dumb. There, I reviewed it. But this entry’s primary purpose isn’t to review Jumper, it’s to showcase a little game I made up awhile back. When you go out to see a movie, pay close attention to the trailers. Add one to the count for every:
-Remake (a newer version of a previously released movie) (Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job)
-Sequel (slash prequel slash interquel slash etc.; a movie taking place within the chronology of a previously released movie) (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Land of the Dead)
-Adaptation (a movie based on a previous non-movie work, like a book, play, real life event, what have you) (I Am Legend, Iron Man)
Count each trailer that meets one of these conditions (movies that match multiple criteria still count as one, though they make interesting case studies and should be noted for posterity), and compare it to the total number of trailers, and you have a percentage that represents how many upcoming films are “unoriginal”. Of course, plenty of movies that don’t fall under these criteria are unoriginal in a multitude of other ways (entries in well-defined genres, ripoffs of other movies, some guy getting kicked in the crotch, and so on), but I’ll go out on a limb and say that my definition of an unoriginal film is a far less forgivable instance. How many times do we need to see The Incredible Hulk on the big screen (at least two, apparently)? I’d much rather see another Michel Gondry movie with whimsically low-budget special effects than another James Bond crapfest. With this game, we get a general idea about how the coming months will play out in terms of originality in Hollywood. If we sample enough movies, we might even be able to glean some useful data and (God willing) throw together some Excel spreadsheet charts!
On with the trailers!
—
–The Happening
I’m very excited about this one. We haven’t had an M. Night Shammalammadingdong movie for a few years now, and I’m eager to see if he can top Lady in the Water, arguably the shittiest film of all time. The presence of Mark Wahlberg and a seemingly pointless reference to Colony Collapse Disorder in the trailer are icing on the cake as far as I’m concerned. While the Wikipedia mentions that this script started as a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender (man, that would have been a really stupid idea), it no longer carries this distinction, and is therefore ORIGINAL.
–Street Kings
Keanu Reeves is at the top of his game when portraying a renegade cop who doesn’t play by the rules, so this will probably be good watchin’. I’m always sad to see more capable actors like Forest Whitaker get dragged down though. And looking at these credits, I see at least two rapper names (“Common” and “The Game”). Oh yeah, this’ll be good shit. But a cursory scan of the credits also doesn’t reveal the phrase “based on a short story by” or anything of that kind, so we’ve got another ORIGINAL on our hands.
–Wanted
Noble assassins that curve bullets around corners! It’s clear that these trailers were made just for me. What could have potentially been a freakish long streak of originality is blissfully broken by this ADAPTATION of a comic book miniseries.
–WALL-E
Pixar can do no wrong, and like every other film they’ve made, this one is 100% ORIGINAL. Though the robot’s resemblance to R.O.B. and Johnny Five is intriguing, I won’t hold it against them if the movie is up to their usual standards of excellence.
–10,000 BC
This film slides by on a technicality. Though it, as historical fiction, is loosely based on real life, it is not based on any specific real event, and therefore is ORIGINAL. The CGI blows though. So that’s something.
–The Bank Job
My brain didn’t retain any knowledge of this trailer after the film, so I’m glad I wrote it down so as to look up the video later. Wait, maybe “glad” isn’t the word I was looking for. There’s like sex and bank robberies and a bumbling ensemble cast and and other cliché bullshit, but the trailer proudly proclaims to be based on a true story, so it gets the dishonorable ADAPTATION stamp of disapproval. Oh yeah, and it sullies The Clash by playing London Calling at the end. Boo.
Total: 33.3% (2/6)
—
So as of a February 16th screening of Jumper at AMC Saratoga 14 in Saratoga, CA, Hollywood was slated to be 33.3% unoriginal. Honestly, this is one of the best scores I’ve ever seen in my thus-far limited tallying, but now we’ve got hard data! Give this game a try the next time you go to the movies, and I’ll post your results (include date and location of viewing; the more random data, the better the pie charts!).
On a sidenote, “Hollywood Unoriginality Ratio” makes a great acronym to describe these dumb movies. Go me.
[discuss]
mario February 2nd, 2008
 Still disheartened by those lucky Japanese kids playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl over a month ahead of us, I thought I’d console myself with a little bit of the previous entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. Melee. This was the sparkling diamond amid a sea of GameCube coal. It came out less than a month after the ‘Cube’s stateside release, and I played it almost daily for a long time. Even after unlocking all the characters and stages and sound tests, I still kept playing. The game had an amazingly well-refined balance and complexity to it that made each experience unique. I quite literally saw something new every time I played that game. Though the occasional Super Mario Sunshine or Resident Evil 4 would momentarily attract my attention, I’d always come back to Melee. I played and loved the original N64 game, but Melee surpassed it in every way. Only in the past year have I seriously neglected the game, but it wasn’t out of lack of enjoyment. My hope was to approach Brawl from a fresh perspective, untainted by Melee‘s now antiquated graphics and control scheme. I want to be on the same play level as everyone else come release day. But since release day is now as far back as March 9th, I figured there wouldn’t be much harm in a little nostalgic run-through.
So I was sad to find that my save data was corrupted.
I guess six years is a long time to continually write and rewrite to a data file, but damnit, I had a lot of data! I had amassed thousands of hours (yes, thousands) of play time, fallen countless thousands of miles, and Link had racked up an impressive KO percentage. Kind of a bummer for all that to just disappear. Guess I’ll be making backups of such things in the future.
Sigh.
[discuss]
mario January 30th, 2008
 There, I said it. I’ll even go so far as to say it again:
There is no good reason for Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s release to be delayed over a freakin’ month after the Japanese release this week.
What have we been looking at all these months on the Smash Bros. Dojo? Screenshots and videos, every single one of them containing text or spoken dialogue in English. Clearly translation has been hand in hand with game development throughout the entire process. So how come Japan gets the game in January, and we have to wait until March? I wish Nintendo would offer explanations beyond “delays in the completion”. If the game’s coming out in Japan this week, it is finished.
When Melee came out on the GameCube back in December ’01, it had been a mere two weeks since the Japanese release. Both games had the option to switch languages. I can’t understand what the holdup could possibly be getting this game stateside.
Nintendo: I was willing to put up with a several-month delay, but this latest one doesn’t even make any sense.
Also: that last statement doesn’t actually mean anything, because I’m still going to buy the game when it comes out, so obviously I’m gonna have to put up with the delays. But that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about the situation.
mario January 27th, 2008
After a minor plumbing emergency last night, the household was in need of some relief in the form of delicious desserts. I stepped up and threw together a great treat I’ve made maybe once or twice in my life before, a heapin’ batch of chocolate chip cloud cookies!
I’m no baking expert (cookologist? mixmaster?), so I did what I always do in such situations and googled the recipe. Found a nice one from Free Cooking Recipes, which apparently offers free cooking recipes (I chose them because the recipe was more in tune with most of the ingredients in our house at that exact moment). I got a little extra enjoyment out of the project because I can still remember when I first made and tried a cloud cookie, back in middle school cooking class. Gotta love how strongly food can be tied to memory (especially me, since I generally have lousy memory).
I was a little hasty pulling them out of the oven (a common flaw on my part when it comes to making food; I just get hungry!), so the chocolate chips didn’t all melt as much as they could have, but overall they came out pretty much like I remembered them, light and crumbly and delicious. Natalie said they looked like cat turds, but hopefully they tasted better than that. I thought they did, though I have little basis of comparison.
mario January 12th, 2008
Isn’t it just gorgeous?
mario January 12th, 2008
 A group of, let’s face it, insane Zelda fans at cameronbanga.com have decided to play straight through Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in the span of 48 hours! Go check out the live video feed! They’re also reading email during the event, so send them a message to show them your support, and let ’em know who sent you! They’re also accepting money donations, and whatever they don’t spend on food is going toward Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity; if you’ve got any money to spend, Child’s Play is a great cause (I’ve talked about it in years past, they donate toys and video games to children in hospitals), and this is an awesome way to support a fine charity. But we can all agree that these guys are still a little crazy.
Crazy brilliant.
Please be aware that they sometimes say naughty things in the feed. I’m not gonna hold that against them, but you kids out there should tread lightly.
[discuss]
mario January 9th, 2008
I’m not one to brag, but I consider myself to be something of an amazingly skilled artist (please note subtle sarcastic undertones). One day while bored at work (fixing computers doesn’t really tax the artistic muscles much), I noticed I had a large amount of twisty-ties at my disposal. Remembering that the characters in the excellent DS puzzle game Meteos were generally stick-figureish in design, I realized I could probably recreate one of them!
So I did! Press on to see the pic and revel in its artistic awesomeness!
Continue Reading »
mario January 1st, 2008
Hey all you people in California’s 15th District! You should seriously vote for Peter Myers for U.S. House of Representatives. I don’t live there anymore (District 1 in the hizzy!), but as a longtime resident of “Ol’ Fiffy” (as it is commonly known), I feel that Mr. Myers (I don’t actually call him that) would be an excellent candidate for the position. Even if you don’t reside in that particular(ly awesome) congressional district, you can help out in his grassroots campaign by clicking the following link a couple dozen times and spiking up his Google ranking:
Peter Myers for U.S. Congress
While you’re there, you can check out how he stands on various issues, read his campaign blog, and contact him to show your support! The site appears to still be a bit under construction (by cool guy Paul), so keep checking back, join the mailing list, or subscribe to an RSS feed or two. Good luck, Peter!
mario December 20th, 2007
Yeah yeah, this is another post about the Smash Bros. Dojo updates. Screw it, this one had some quality imagery.
We’re probably fairly well-acquainted with Kirby’s ability to copy his opponent’s powers, so at first glance this update may have appeared to be nothing new. But wait! New characters means new powers to copy and, more importantly, new looks to Kirbify! My favorite had to be Kirby as Snake, but there’s plenty of fanboyin’ to go around. Check him out won’t you:
(courtesy of Smash Bros. Dojo; Go check out the rest of the Kirby hats!)
[continue to discuss]
« Prev - Next »
|
|
