Kanye teh nerd
Oct 30My respect for Kanye spiked when he went off-script on the Katrina fund-raiser, waned with his post-loss Grammy rant, and then spiked to new heights when his new single dropped. If you can rap over Daft Punk, you’re my hero. Automatically.
And when the video came out, well. I heart Kanye.
It’s not often rap and various electronica acts pay direct homage to their sampled sources, especially in their videos (start with Run DMC’s Walk This Way and start counting. Tell me when you get to ten) – so it was a huge treat to see Daft Punk (or at least their Robot Counterparts) guest-star in Kanye’s Stronger video.
But to make the whole video a giant, live-action nod to Akira. Let’s just say, if my… symptoms… persist for more than three hours, I’m going to have to see my doctor.
"Uh, Whistler…"
Oct 29“…I hate to tell you this. But, you’re blind.”
An interesting, real-world story that, as so often happens with me, triggers a movie quote.
I’ll buy you a chocolate bar if you recognize it.
By the Power of Sophisticated Computer Graphics!
Oct 29Get this while it’s hot (or rather, while it’s still available online):
A pretty rad Masters of the Universe animatic/fake trailer/test reel.
I found it via Rich Johnston. He-Man.org has this from creator Kaare Andrews on the clip:
“This is a kind of conceptual piece for a live action film. This is a new technology I call Go-Cons or ‘animated conceptual paintings’ and represents the tone and scope of the world, not the actual end product. It was pulled together in a little over a week with a small (but talented) team. Just imagine this as an epic live action feature with a budget and full team.”
I hope the guy gets something going–even a direct-to-video feature. That Skeletor animation, for just a week of work…that is too cool.
I just have one question:
WHERE MY ORKO AT?!
Rise of the Silver Surfer
Oct 28I’ve already bitched hither and yon about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and how their ability (or lack thereof) to deliver the ideal big-screen Galactus would make or break the film for me.
Well, their Galactus turned out to be…a big cloud swarmy thing, like bees upon bees inside a storm. It wasn’t the big freaky purple dude that is iconic and crazy brilliant like its creator, Jack Kirby.
Though that meant a lot to me before the movie came out, once I started watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it didn’t occur to me once. I’d like to attribute that to a great wave of involvement and enjoyment with the film itself, but I think I just forgot.
Rise of the Silver Surfer is enjoyable, but not very involving. It’s a half-hour too short, probably, to really deliver. In a strange perversion of the usual comic book movie mistakes, this flick maybe doesn’t have enough in it, as opposed to having too much; they could honestly have used another villain.
BREAKING: New Fall TV Season Stinks A Little (Like Feet)
Oct 26I may have mentioned here already my frustration in trying to find a new show that I can cuddle up against, the same way I cuddle with Lost and 24 and the horde of reality fare that I consume on a weekly basis.
I tried Pushing Daisies, and it was WAY too twee for me. Lotsa people probably say the same about Joss Whedon, who I love, but I guess that ship has sailed in my brain, because the too-cute dialogue and the whole unrequited love vibe (they literally cannot touch each other! OH, ANGST) did nothing for me. In fact, it repelled me, and I loves me some Chi McBride, so it had to have hit the wrong buttons to push me away.
Chuck, Journeymen, Heroes season 2–all shows I had a mild interest in, but reviews and/or timing has kept me away. Torchwood rotted on my DVR for weeks until I finally deleted it. Cane? Uh, no thanks.
Reaper, however, finally made it to our watch list, after the end of the latest episode of Beauty and the Geek left us with nothing to watch on Tuesday night.
More than anything else, Reaper reminds me of a lazy version of early Buffy–you can tell the writers are trying for something, but they’re not trying hard enough yet. The stuff with the Devil is genius; the plots are goofy scary enough to mildly entertain; there’s occasional laughs from the supporting cast, especially the Jack Black wannabe who plays Sock.
But the parts where the show is just about this kid who works at a Home Depot-esque big box store and pines for a fellow cashier–man, those parts need some work. Dull, dull, dull.
It does have that girl I thought should play Wonder Woman in it, so maybe this will help her bid to portray the Amazonian on screen. It also leaves me with some intriguing questions, like why did his parents sell his soul to the devil, and why isn’t he more angry with them, and so on.
Having said all that, I’m gonna sit myself on the Reaper bandwagon and ride until the train runs off the rails. I have to watch SOMETHING on television, after all–God forbid we turn the precious box off!
