cool Heroes casting news

I was just coming home and on the train I was listening to The 9th - A Heroes Podcast. And in their news section they had a piece of sort of under the radar casting news from this week that I definitely had not heard before and was very excited about. Although it hasn't yet been widely reported it looks like the role of Sylar, the shadowy man who is apparently responsible for a series of the grisly murders has been cast, and boy is it a good one. According to the IMDB, the role of Peter Sylar has gone to none other than Sean Bean.

If anyone really knows how to pull off a conflicted character walking the line between good and evil, it sure as heck is the man who brought Boromir to life; Sean Bean. Very, very cool.

:)

old becomes new: Wii's Virtual Console slate '06

You know how the Wii is going to have this Virtual Console channel? Well, it's of special interest to me as I'm planning on buying the Wii for pretty much this reason alone. Oh sure I'll pick up a few new titles, Mario Galaxies, Zelda, and maybe Red Steel to name a few; but the real draw to me is playing these older 'classic' games on a shiny new system, with spruced up graphics and tons of good wholesome (cheap) fun. The system will, at least begin with games from the NES, SNES, N64, and in a stroke of genius Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafix-16. Hooray!!!

Late yesterday Nintendo revealed its slate of virtual games to be released on the console by the end of the year. The games will be priced in Wii points, where $1 = 100 points. The cost for games, NES = 500 pts, TG-16 = 600 pts, SNES = 800 pts, Genesis = 800 pts, N64 = 1000 pts. I think that maybe some games will be more expensive than that listed price as they notably say that games will 'start' at these prices, but I'd assume this cost will for the most part stay fixed.

Check out the games:

NES
Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Ice Hockey
Pinball
Soccer
Tennis
Urban Champion
Wario's Woods
Baseball
Solomon's Key

SNES
F-Zero
SimCity

Nintendo 64
Super Mario 64

Sega Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog
Altered Beast
Golden Axe
Columns
Ecco the Dolphin
Gunstar Heroes
Space Harrier II
Toe Jam & Earl
Ristar
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

TurboGrafx-16
Bonk's Adventure
Super Star Soldier
Victory Run
Bomberman '93
Dungeon Explorer

I am very very stoked to see this. Great games are on the way, and there's only more to come. Reportedly Nintendo plan to release around 10 new virtual games per month after things settle from the launch. I just hope the console has enough room for all the games I want to pick up.

From this list alone I'll probably go for: Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong Jr, Pinball, Mario 64, Sonic, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Gunstar Heroes, Toe Jam & Earl, Bonk, and Bomberman. So that's like 12 games for $77. That's a damn good deal if you ask me. Especially because these are the kind of games that I know I can pick up and play anytime; so well worth it as opposed to a more blind buy of a new game. At least that's my thought. Anyone else plan on picking up the Wii, or any of these old yet new again virtual games?

If I we're to pick one game per console not on the slate yet, that I'd like to see: Super Wonder Boy from the NES, Street Fighter 2 for the SNES, Mortal Kombat for the Genesis (that's the version that had the blood and secret fatalities intact), and Waverace for the N64. Oh and as I don't really know much about TG-16 past Bonk, I'll say any one of the good ones that was ported onto it along with the other systems, like Operation Wolf, or maybe Super Ghouls and Ghosts.

Oh and go check out how much money everything will cost you using this handy Wii calculator.

Podcasting tonight. See y'all later.

Conflicting Reports on Mad Max 4

A little conflicting news for you today.

First I read on IESB.net that Mel Gibson thinks he's a bit too old to play Mad Max in any future movies. Specifically saying "...I don’t know. I’m gettin’ a little long in the tooth for that one." He also mentioned that he would never want to go back and play Riggs in another Lethal Weapon movie; for which I thank god.

Then literally just a day or two later I see through an AICN article that in an interview with In Focus magazine, Mad Max director, and helmer of the new animated flick Happy Feet, George Miller, is absolutely getting Mad Max 4 ready to roll. And that he's got Mel on board.

From the article:
In Focus: A story in Daily Variety dated Dec. 10, 2002 reported that Mel Gibson had signed on for a fourth “Mad Max” movie. Does that mean the rumors about “Mad Max 4” being a prequel — focusing on Max’s days in the Main Force Patrol — were always patently false?
GM: Yeah. Yeah, they are

Mad Max 4, aka Mad Max: Fury Road was apparently just about ready to start filming a few years ago in Namibia and then the financing fell apart and it was shelved. But the prep is really all pretty much done. Miller says he is doing one more small film before launching into Mad Max but that there's "a decent probability it will happen."

So there you go. Hooray for us. It looks like we're going to get more Max to enjoy. I have to say though I agree with Gibson here. He really is getting a bit too old to play the part. The character is so classic now, he's almost become iconic. And there is so much relevancy in topic and theme, especially in the "blood for oil" type of story that I think this could stand on it's own merits without Gibson in the Max role. I personally would love to see some new young unknown actor take a crack at the part, and then we can start a franchise. I always think it's weird to keep actors locked into characters. When a character has taken on a life of it own and achieved something more iconic like it did with James Bond, I think that changing the actor with the time is perfectly acceptable. And not to slight Gibson here, 'cause he made that role, but just like Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, that ship has sailed. Or at least in my opinion it should have.

My Halloween Adventure

So Halloween was pretty fun last night. As I mentioned earlier, I went out to The Castro district. There's a big street party there, and that's where everyone with the best costumes goes to hang out. Due to some violence there in past years though (including stabbings, and gay bashing) the city decided to try to keep it low key, maintaining a very large police presence, checking everyone who entered for alcohol or weapons, and allowing absolutely zero alcohol on the streets. It was extremely crowded, and pretty cold out too. So while overall I'm glad I went, other than seeing some great costumes it really wasn't especially exciting. That no alcohol rule really kept a lot of the craziness in check. Well maybe not a lot of the craziness, but definitely some. Ultimately though it kept things just kind of boring. Yes, it was a great people watching experience but not much else. The few clubs that were actually inside the police cordoned off 5 square blocks, were all packed to the gills. So after doing a 'walk through' which granted took about an hour and a half, my friends and I just left and walked over to Mission district to hit up a cool little bar called the Elbo Room. We definitely had a good time there, and as I found out later we left the street party at precisely the right time. The police we're imposing a curfew, and started clearing the streets at around 10:30pm. So of course, that's when the violence erupted. 10 people were shot. Thankfully no one was killed, and as of yet no one has even been arrested. But I am very glad I wasn't there for that. Actually later that night I heard that there had in fact been a few more stabbings this year too, although I haven't seen that reported anywhere. Regardless, it's pretty scary stuff.

I have a feeling this might be the last year we see a street party for Halloween in The Castro. Sure I had some fun, but I just don't think it's worth it. Maybe I can find a good house party instead. And hopefully I'll get my hands on some of the pictures from last night later on today. I'll post all the cool ones as soon as I get em. Later kids.

Halo no more

So according to an official statement by Peter Jackson, and Microsoft's Wingnut Films (correction Wingnut Interactive), Halo is officially on hold. Pre-production has been halted and while everyone still hopes it'll happen one day, they aren't in a position where they can go forward with it at this time. This is sad news, if you've been keeping up with recent developments, you'll know that a few weeks ago Fox and Universal (who we're co-financing the picture) pulled out financially. And although it looked like PJ and director Neill Blomkamp might be able to pull it off and find some other backers that has unfortunately not materialized.

I hope this does come together maybe in a year or so, but you never really know. Hollywood is very fickle. Although I think we can definitely say this: as long as Microsoft is making such ridiculous amounts of money off this property, I'm sure they will try to get a film made. So I think there's still reason to hope.

Read more about this over at Dark Horizons.

Jumping the Tubeshark

Over the weekend YouTube pulled off most of it's clips from Comedy Central for copyright infringement violation. This includes clips from Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and South Park. Read about it here. Why? you may ask after so long of turning a blind eye did Comedy Central decide that now was the time to start caring? Why, it's Google of course. Pretty obvious actually. Now that Google is pulling the YouTube strings they've started "legitimizing" their relationships with the entertainment industry. Both CBS, and now NBC have recently inked deals with YouTube to distribute material over the netwaves. While maybe people like Jon Stewart see their material on YouTube as free promotion or no different than getting it off the tv, I'm sure there is at least one executive out there who has plans (probably involving heavy advertising) to package this material and serve it up officially.

Is it just me, or does this feel like the beginning of the end? Internet tv, especially clips and snippets of shows have been rolling around online for a few years now. Up to the point of over the past 8 months to a year, where we've been having full episodes of tv shows turn up on Internet, sometimes official sometimes not. Of course the caveat to watching these tv clips on internet is that the more popular it's become and the better quality we're getting, be it official or not, the more likely it was that someone was going to catch on and start royally screwing us for it. I have a feeling that Google buying YouTube, especially at such a high price tag, has just woken everyone up to the fact that there's a whole new secondary market here that has yet to be capitalized on and monetized effectively. Despite the fact that no one really knows how or what this digital market is evolving into; metaphorically speaking Google has just bent us over, and given the call that we're ready and willing, and now we're about to take it from the corporate media, hard.

I was browsing Pop Candy this morning and ran across a lot of this info. For example check out this interesting article from USA Today on the state of TV on the internet, as well as their list of all the major network shows that are currently available officially online. Yes, it may seem great for the moment, but how long is this going to last? Is this possibly an early death thrall for YouTube? Will it become all corporate crap and commercials posing as viral videos? And in what new and unscrupulous ways will corporate media try to screw us this time?

Maybe I'm just jaded, I will say this: for every new DRM there's eventually always a hack...

I don't think Media can ever win against us, but why does it always have to be such a battle.

Halloween comes together

So I'm feeling better about Halloween now. I went out on Sunday and picked up a costume, for only $30 as opposed to $50. Unfortunately it's no ninja suit, but it's definitely passable. I'm going to be a cowboy for Halloween. I was thinking at first about being a sheriff but I couldn't find a cowboy hat I liked so knowing that I need more than a shirt and six shooter I've decided to wrap a bandanna around my face like I'm an old west robber. The costumes not great, but it's not as bad as it could have been, and $30 is a livable price.

Also my plan as it stands now is to go out to The Castro for the street party, and I'm sure cowboys will be popular there; in a Brokeback kind of way. I'm glad I'm planning on going this year. I've lived here for almost 3 years now and haven't ever been to it. But it really is a fairly renowned party, and I feel like it's an experience I should have. Also there's the concern that it might not be around forever, as every year it's gotten more and more rowdy, with scattered violence and actually a few 'bashings' last year. There's word that the cops might be shutting the party down, and clearing the streets by midnight. Seeing as it's a Tuesday night though, and I will have to work the next morning I'm not overly concerned if it's a bit of an early evening. I think it should be a good time regardless.

I carved a pumpkin, and set up a few decorations around the house on Sunday also. So yeah, maybe this isn't turning into the biggest Halloween ever, but I think it's come together alright for what it is in the end.

Halloween lameness

Halloween is kind of depressing me. I can't figure out what to be, and it's getting so late. I'm almost tempted to call the whole thing off. But that's just a bad idea; because really I love Halloween. I love the candy, I love the kitch, I love the costumes, and the pumpkins. Not so crazy about the scariness, but I really love the commericalized Halloween.

I would suggest that the heyday of Halloween was back in the 80s and early 90s. That was before parents got worried about letting their kids out after dark. Before political correctness hit the scene, before the scare of kids breaking in and looting your house. But we we're sophisticated enough to know the value of a good commercial tie-in. Corporate America sold us the holiday start to finish and as a kid we literally ate it up. It was always an amazing night that I really looked forward to and have very fond memories of.

When I moved back to the western world from Africa the year before last, and then again last year I was really into reading, and posting on the message boards, of a great site called X-Entertainment. And from that site I got back into Halloween in a big way. The main man over there Matt has a great was of writing his blog, and articles to jog your memory of yesteryear, and remind you not just of what happened back in the day, but remember how it really felt to be a kid at this time of year. Matt and X-E really helped me reclaim the spirit of Halloween, and for that I am ever grateful. While I still read the site, especially at this time of year, I'm not as dedicated to it as I used to be. Things have changed a fair bit for me this past year, I've moved in with my girlfriend, started exercising a lot, started eating better, and gotten a lot busier with things like podcasting and blogging. So while there's definitely a real place in my heart for Halloween I'm not sure I can, or want to really live it up the way I did these past two years.

I was just over at the costume store, and I was thinking about getting a ninja costume. That's cool right; but it would've come out to probably be around $50. That's really just not worth it. Especially since I haven't seemed to be able to bring it together for a party or anything. I don't have any big plans. Sure I'd like to wear a costume to work (I work somewhere that a lot of people wear costumes) but when else can I wear it? I live in an apartment so no kids will be knocking on the door. I suppose I could go out to The Castro for the big crazy street party, something I would like to do one of these years, but I don't think my friends are particularly interested in that; and I'm not going to something like that alone. So maybe it's just not worth it. I passed on the ninja costume and came home empty handed. Somewhat depressed about this whole thing. I bought all these decorations last year for Halloween but I haven't even put them up yet. And I don't think anyone will get to see them, except me and Erica, and then I'll have to take them down in like three days. sigh...

Ok, I'm sorry. I'm going to go carve the pumpkin I bought this morning, then force myself to put up my Halloween decorations, and finally have a look through my closet for some inspiration. I don't own much costumey type of stuff, but man, it shouldn't be that hard should it? I can do this. And I know that as soon as I do, I'll be happy with myself that I did. Ok, better head. Later.

Blue side wins

Forgive me, because I'm not an American, but apparently I had it wrong all this time. California is actually a Blue state despite the fact that we have the Govenator in power. State color is determined based on how the state votes in the Federal election; not State. My friend Tara pointed that out to me this morning, and I finally had time to look it up on the Wikipedia.

Anyhow, the only reason that matters is because my Blogger profile had, until a few minutes ago, the line "I'm thankful to live in a blue city, even if it is a red state." oops... oh well. fixed now. Although, and I am kind of annoyed at Blogger for this, they've ruined my page's feng shui because apparently in Blogger Beta which I recently switched over to you cannot have html tags encoded in your profile anymore. This means that I have to live with an unjustified personal blurb. This is disruptive to the site's overall look and really just doesn't seem clean. So to appease my enraged chi, I will most likely write a letter off to Blogger and complain. Hopefully it's just an oversight in the Beta that will be fixed soon.

Mysterio in Spidey 3?

So I saw this as yet unconfirmed rumor on one of my favorite sites, Superhero Hype! but they sourced it from some blog that I've never heard of called Film Ick. Seeing the number of rumors that emerge regarding things like this I normally wouldn't even mention it here, but this one is the kind of rumor that I could really see being true. Mostly because it's pretty innocuous.

So as you can read on Film Ick here, they are reporting that in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 there will be a plotline involving a Hollywood film being made about Spider-Man, this was done in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe comics, maybe two years ago. Anyhow, as we all know there is usually an exception made for a cameo by Stan 'The Man' Lee in most of the Marvel films, well apparently along with producer extrordinare Avi Arad, he will be cameoing in the film as the producer and director of the Spider-Man film within the film respectively... I hope that makes sense.

More importantly though Film Ick claims that a "very dependable source" is telling them that the uber awesome actor Bruce Campbell will be playing a bit part of Hollywood stuntman Quinten Beck. In the comic world of Spider-Man, Beck becomes the nefarious villain known as Mysterio, after emulating the powers of Spider-Man for the silver screen. If this is actually true, who knows if Campbell will actually suit up as ol' fishbowl head; but even if he's just there as a background player, layering in mythology for later films, as they did with Doctor Conners (aka The Lizard) , I will be very happy.

Campbell is a great actor, and I for one think he'd be a great fit for the character.
For now let's keep this firmly in the rumor category.
Hopefully though it'll prove to be true.

dissapointed by tv... again.

I'm slightly annoyed at this past season of Fall tv. Aside from a few standouts like Heroes it's been a growing disappointment week after week. It feels like the shows I was really championing just a few weeks ago, have all started to sour slightly, and that's really disheartening.

I called Studio 60 the best show of the new season, and where has it left me? Each episode seems to be weaker than the last, mainly in my opinion because its a show about a cutting edge late night sketch comedy show that has really really lame sketches. Sure the behind the scenes stuff is ok; but its not that great. I'm sad to say that this show hasn't lived up to the hype I gave it.

Devon called it on our podcast last week and I'm calling it now; Jericho has lost a lot of it's appeal. Great in concept, weak in execution. The people just aren't acting believably enough. I've read enough post-apocalyptic sci-fi to know, that this story just doesn't feel right. Check out The Hammer of God for a much more probable reaction to this level of disaster. And Skeet Ulrich is making me crazy, he has this constant dour yet 'trying to be' sexy look that's really starting to get on my nerves.

Both Six Degrees, and The Nine have failed to grab me, as they expect you to invest too heavily in people that you don't even know. I find it hard to care about the characters and their weighty emotional problems when I can't even remember their names.

Smith which was a show I initially dissed, looked to be getting much better before it was killed so unceremoniously. And 30 Rock, will probably be killed before it gets a chance to disappoint me. I only have seen a single episode so far but I thought it was ok; although I'm in the very small minority on that. Amazing Race, and Survivor are both ok, but really they're just junk tv that I watch to pass the time, and both will probably disgust me eventually when the games get far enough along for the backstabbing to begin in earnest.

What am I actually liking? Well, Friday Night Lights seems to be doing well, although the ratings are another story. But it's one of, along with the still excellent Heroes, the only shows I do actually still hold out hope for. I'm also liking Grey's Anatomy which I've just jumped on board now, but that's only really good in the context of knowing it's a slightly cheesy, very girly, soap opera dramedy.

I'm almost done watching (4 more eps!) the dvds to Lost season 2, and I'll be caught up on that soon enough. I am a bit concerned that I will be aggravated to no end by the slowness of the story in broadcast form, but at least I know it will be entertaining viewing.

Day Break, and Traveler both from ABC are the only upcoming mid-season shows that I'm looking forward to. And yea I hope they'll be good, but so far most of my viewing hopes have been dashed. I guess I just feel kinda gypped by television this season. I mean it's one of the first times in years I've actually had the time and inclination to invest myself in shows and so many of them have turned out kinda crappy.

I think I need an application to easily get my dvds onto my ipod. Then I will have something better to watch. Unfortunately due to copy protection, this kind of thing isn't as easy to do as it should be...

I don't think there's any good solution to the crappyiness of television. Probably I should just stop watching. Or at least stop watching all the garbage that disappoints. I just always hold out hope that it'll get better, that's probably a dumb idea though.

I guess there's no real point to this post, I just wanted to vent my frustrations.

Damn you television. Damn you to hell...

Free Hugs

I really like this video, even though I started out watching it totally cynically, I couldn't help but be moved by it in the end. It's honestly an inspiring vid. Good work. Check it out.



Hugs all.

Trailer Watch

There's a couple awesome new trailers over at Apple.com that I think you guys might want to check out.

There's a new trailer out for Eragon that is completely awesome. It's the one listed as Trailer 1, and it's finally got me thinking that maybe, just maybe Eragon can be something pretty good. Watching the other advertisement, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but the one with Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich being so fantasy film cliched, it just reminds me a bit too much of like Ladyhawke meets Dungeons & Dragons. This new trailer though has no dialogue, just that great swelling score, and lots of badass dragon shots. Check it out.

I only mention the trailer to Pan's Labyrinth in case you've been living under an cyber rock and don't know the dark beauty of this absolutely amazing looking film yet. If you are in the dark so to speak, stop it, go watch this trailer now. Personally this (along with The Fountain) is my most anticipated film of the Xmas season. I don't even know how to describe how much in love with this trailer I am though. It's just that cool.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of those out of nowhere films that is so morbidly fascinating you can't help but gape at it. The trailer is creepy, and disturbing, and kind of sickly beautiful, It has that same disturbed feel as From Hell, which I loved at least the look of, and the main actor, Ben Whishaw, although I can't place if I've ever actually seen him before is so familiar and creepy/interesting looking that I definitely think I will have to see this film. The trailer says it all.

Also worth checking is the trailer for Bobby. It's intriguing not only in that it is a film directed by Emelio Estavez but that it attracted such an amazing ensemble cast. The subject matter is fascinating, and I suspect the film will be quite good, assuming it isn't overshadowed by the cast. It features Harry Belafonte, Nick Canon, Laurence Fishbourne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Josh Jackson, Ashton Kutchner, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H Macy, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, of course Estavez himself, and a host of others. Pretty impressive.

The last trailer that I wanted to recommend to you is for Harsh Times, it stars Christian Bale as a meth head psycho Iraq war vet returned to his home (somewhere like East LA). He is about to be recruited into Homeland Security, which is scary enough, but he is loosing it the whole time. Total taxi driver style. This is another in a line of quasi-indie Christian Bale films that probably won't do super well at the box office, but fuck does it look intense. Just go check it out.

That's all for today's trailer watch. Lates.

still paying my dues

Yesterday I applied for a new job at a new company. It wasn't really a job I wanted, but it was a job I would've taken as at least it was in the city, so no more commute, and it possibly could lead to something more. Or at least that's what I told myself. And really, even though I've already 'paid my dues' at the company I'm at, if I can't move up here I will unfortunately have to move on and probably 'pay my dues' all over again. Man what if all I ever do, is get stuck 'paying my dues'??? That would really suck. I'll tell you though, I've made peace with the job I have. It may be a Joe job, but it's a pretty good Joe job, and I've got good benefits. Also, it's great company (which no I'm not going to name here), but I do wish/hope I could stay here. But since I can't handle living my life working this job forever, staying here may just not be possible.

So like I said, I applied to another job yesterday, and although it wasn't perfect I wasn't expecting the response I got. Within a few hours of sending my resume off to (I believe it was) the agency/headhunter firm managing the hiring, I got an email back saying: "Thanks for your application. Considering the other applicants, this is not the best fit. I wish you the best of success and satisfaction. " In a way I can see that it's actually quite courteous of the recruiter to send me that note so quickly and not leave me waiting forever as I end up most of the time after sending out my resume. This time however I just couldn't help feeling kinda crappy about the whole situation. I know that maybe it wasn't the right job for me, and I've no doubt the recruiter was right that there were probably far more appropriate candidates but it's just so frustrating being so eminently unmarketable, that people can reject me with this kind of immediacy.

I'm a smart enough guy, have decent social and writing skills. Perhaps a general lack of focus but I'm eager to work and learn. I'm basically a pretty decent all around kind of guy, and know that I would be a good person to employ in a number of situations. However the sort of general or I'm sure as some perceive it random skill set and experience I've acquired over the years does not lend itself to a particularly cohesive resume. In a city like San Francisco, that is a bit of a problem. On a whole, people here are more driven, focused, and highly skilled than anywhere I've ever been. You really have to be considering how expensive it is to live here. Particularly if you plan to stay, and raise a family, buy a house, etc. So the fact that I spent almost two years in Africa teaching while it makes for great conversation and is a nice point of interest on my resume, does not, and cannot compare to someone who spent those two years aggressively working in the competitive American market. Hence my unfortunate situation as a rounded, talented, and unmarketable individual.

Paying my dues, again and again. When I'm 35 I sure hope I can look back at this time and actually understand where I came from. I don't want to, nor would I want others, to trivialize it. Far too often I hear people, usually my successful peers/near elders who tell me that it'll all work out. I know that people are concerned, and for the most part just don't want me to get down on myself about this stuff, but regardless of if I find a way to break free of this due paying cycle or not, this time is important, and very very frustrating. I don't want to forget, how truly suckie feeling being stuck in a rut is. For some reason I think that's important too. Hopefully I'll get that opportunity.

Ok, I'd better get back to 'paying my dues'. It's not so bad being trapped down a hole, it just seems to take a really long time to dig myself out.

I endorse Threadless

Over at Threadless.com, which if you don't know is the coolest online t-shirt store, they've got a sale going on until Wednesday that you should really check out. T-shirts normally priced at $20 a piece are now all, or almost all, priced at $10. These are super cool shirts, that are really great quality, and I can't recommend the store enough.

I've only ever gotten one shirt from them before and I love it. It's called Dark Side of the Garden, and I swear it's only just now after months and months of heavy rotation slipping from my top spot as #1 favorite tee.

The cool thing about Threadless is that it works like a co-op, ok not exactly, but close. Actually its an ongoing design contest. Basically, any artist can submit t-shirt designs to Threadless, of all the weekly submissions 4 to 6 of the best are picked and then printed by the company. All of these winning designers are compensated with a $2000 prize. Obviously Threadless makes out the best, but its still a great forum for designers and artists to get their work out there. Its got a pretty active community and a really fun atmosphere. I think the best part about it though is that because there are so many different artists contributing designs to the site the range of shirt designs is extremely varied. If you could categorize it at all you might use the words original, and interesting.

The shirts I ordered today are Damn Scientists, I Like Trees Too, Strangers With Candy, and Pandamonium, $10 each plus 7 bucks shipping that comes out to $47 total. Really a great deal on 4 super awesome shirts. Go check out what they've got that you might like.

Cinescape, and me, on Terminator 4

Have you guys ever looked at Cinescape online?

Its a pretty decent site especially since the magazine is now defunct. I used to subscribe to the physical mag and before there was insane internet coverage of all things genre I felt that it was honestly the best place for film and tv news. Along with Fangoria, and Premiere, it is really where I satiated my obsession for all things cinematic and genre. Of course by 1996 or so the juiciest information was starting to hit the web first, and magazine like Cinescape couldn't hope to keep up to date. What they excelled at right up until the end though was the features. They had real old school reporters, not bloggers who would eventually become decent reporters. And these guys always had a class to them that I at least appreciated. The magazine Cinescape stopped publishing sometime earlier this year, and the rest of my subscription was transferred gratis over to SciFi magazine. Which is alright, considering its a glorified commercial for the tv station. The other thing that was great about Cinescape that to this day is in my opinion only matched by Greg's Previews on Yahoo is their section called Development Heck. For some reason no one else has been able to really keep up on all the online chatter about the far out upcoming films as well as Cinescape, and I applaud them for it.

Care of a story on Cinescape this morning, I heard that it's finally come down officially that the govenator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger will absolutely not be involved in Terminator 4. To that I say thank god. I actually liked T3. Ok, well I liked the ending, and I liked Nick Stahl who played John Connor. I think this is a good time to re-invigorate the franchise. I'm actually really more excited to see a Terminator 4 film than I was to see T3. The new one, especially sans Arnold can go into some really cool hard sci-fi directions that I'd be very interested to see. We can see how Cyberdine really leads the world into the Skynet ruled post-apocalyptic future. And we're sure to get some good birth-of-the-resistance, style commando action. Cool futuristic technology, man vs machines. Really this is the film everyone wanted to see when the first one came out.

My vote is to make it a new trilogy, the first film is the birth of the resistance, where John Connor finds his place in the new world, and ends with a first real win for the movement which solidifies Johns place as a true leader, we end with his wedding to Kate. The second film finds a growing band of ragtag fighters starting to make some headway against the machines, John has become harder, and tougher; a leader who gets things done even if people don't always like him. His battle scars have earned him respect. But he's had to become almost machine like in order to fight and win. His relationship with the pregnant Kate is strained almost to the point of breaking. The Skynet supercomputer is pumping out robots by the millions. Terminators have started to infiltrate the resistance, posing as humans, no one knows who to trust anymore. Making a daring play to disable the machines power from its heart John and a commando squad make a daring infiltration into the midst of the enemy. Surmounting obstacles and defeating adversity at every turn the commando team race the clock to make it to the Skynet supercomputer and destroy it before their ultimate weapon has can be unleashed. Just in time they manage to destroy the Syknet 'brain' dealing a almost fatal blow to the machines. But not before they realize their technological totalitarian machinations and invent their most secret and devastating weapon yet, time travel. The third film begins and all bets are off, as we learned in T2, the future is not set in stone and anything can happen. The machines have developed a limited form of time travel and are using it to decimate the human resistance. Now its up to John and a young buck lieutenant Kyle Reese to destroy the machines once and for all. But how can they fight against time travelling killing machines? The conflict rages to a head as Kyle and John do everything in their power to stop the devastation of this bleak future. As we end with the humans overcoming the insurmountable odds one lone terminator remains and he kills John's beloved wife leading him to recruit Reese for one final mission. Go back in time and save his mother, try to stop the war from ever beginning in the first place, and there we end. Reese going back to the past and John holding the corpse of his wife, in the rubble of a newly won free world. He's won everything he's ever been bred for, the war is over, but he doesn't care about any of it. Tragedy and hope. Everything the films have been about culminating in one final image.

It'll be a great way to end the series. Anyhow, that's just my idea. What do you guys think?

Here's the Terminator WIKI.

Optimus and Starscream toys, and more

On the Transformers side of things from the new movie two of the toy prototypes have surfaced on the web today. These are of Optimus and Starscream BEFORE they get their earth vehicles mode. So they look much more alien than they will for most of the film. If that makes sense. Personally I always loved the alien shaped Transformers. In that first episode of the old G1 cartoon series where Bumblebee is like this sweet spaceship looking thing. Anyhow, check the pics below and the links to the two sites where I got this info.

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These are just too cool. Optimus, and Starscream rock hard. So sweet.

I found these images through AICN, but they credit it from ACtoys.net

Back in this post I linked to some pics of Megatron from the new movie. Well apparently those images are NOT in fact what Megs will actually look like in the film. Those leaked pictures were early designs that have since been changed. Or at least that's what producer Don Murphy is saying.

You know the 20th anniversary TF the movie dvd? Well if you go over to the Amazon.com web page for the disc (pre-order for a mere $15.39, release Nov 7th) you can watch one of the new bonus features from the dvd. It's a short little featurette on the Death of Optimus Prime, and I challenge you to go and watch it, and not want to immediately watch the movie again. Man what a great scene, in such an awesome film.

According to this post on TheTF.net forums looks like Cartoon Network is going to be making a new Transformers cartoon show to coincide with the movie next year. This is hardly surprising, but I'm really happy to hear that its being made by and for Cartoon Network rather than Fox or some other more kids oriented station. I've been a pretty avid Transformers fan in all of their incarnations, from Beast Wars (the best), and Beast Machines, to Robots in Disguise, to some of TF: Armada (although the comics are way better), and I'm Tivoing TF: Cybertron everyday now, just waiting for enough episodes for a good marathon. I'd like to see a more adult take on the characters, or at least more realistic, which if based off the movie I'm sure will happen. I'll definitely keep my ears and eyes open for any more news on this front. Should be a sweet show, no matter what.

To keep up with all your most current TF news regarding the new movie, I'd really recommend you keep your eyes on the TFW2005.com boards. They are always the absolute best. Talk with you heaps of slag later...

Lost aggravates and Heroes satisfies

This weekend was really nice. Very relaxing. E and I just chilled at home mostly. Really a nice change from being so busy all the time with friends. We didn't really get up to too much except watching about two-thirds of Lost season 2 on dvd. We made our way through a lot of episodes and I have to say I'm enjoying it; conditionally though. Basically its great, in most ways great. I love the dynamic between the characters, but man I'd forgotten how slow the show is. It does answer questions, but only after stringing you along for soooo long, that really by the time they answer them I've already moved onto something else and don't really care. Like seriously it's not until halfway through season two that we find out what the airplane full of the virgin mary drug staues was all about. And seriously, I just don't care anymore. The immediate story is better, but since I know they're not going to resolve anything until next season at least it makes me kinda crazy. Lost needs to pick up it's pace. I'll be happy when I get caught up and can watch it week to week. Maybe that'll be better; although I think it might just make me crazier.... we'll see.

On another show though, Heroes they are doing things really right if you ask me. I think maybe I read this in an interview or an article online or something, but the point really struck home with me. In Heroes they ask a lot of confusing and interesting questions (like Lost) however Heroes actually answers those questions in a reasonable manner, and then raises new ones. Much more satisfying. Man tonight's Heroes is going to be sick. I'm really stoked about it.

A blog note

This morning I wrote a blog post, and then I decided to split it up. Really those huge long blog posts are a bit unwieldy. Especially when they cover multiple 'types' of topics. In going along with my idea to reform the blog and make it easier to read, particularly for casual visitors I'm going to try to stay on topic within each post. So what that means is I might end up with a number of smaller posts rather than one big post. As it stands I seem to have no problem rambling on about things, and I wouldn't be surprised if this actually works better for everyone. Of course you'll have to scroll down a bit to make sure you haven't missed anything. Or really a better idea for you, why not just subscribe to the blog feed? Trust me, it's not hard. If like me you use Firefox, the capacity is built into the browser. But you can always use a blog reader. I like Sage, as it integrates into Firefox as a simple sidebar when you want it. Very nice. Anyhow, let me know if you like this kind of blogging style better.

exploding glass

Quick story. Last night I came home and made homemade lasagna for dinner, but I had a big scare. I had a glass lid to the frypan that I accidentally left covering a stove element that was still on. I realized that the stove was on when I was cleaning up and turned it off. Then I moved the lid aside so that it could cool off before washing everything up. I actually left the lid until last as I was cleaning around the kitchen but I guess I didn't wait long enough, cause when I picked up the lid and put it in the sink to wash as soon as the cold water touched it BAM, it exploded in my hand. I was pretty freaked, but the glass actually stayed totally in the sink and I didn't get hurt at all. Of course I had to spend the next 15 minutes fishing glass shards out of the garbage disposal, not a very fun thing to do, but ultimately I got everything cleaned. And yes the lasagna was great.