What's "fast food" in Chinese?
Apr 11
A friend just came back from a trip visiting family in Hong Kong – I got a knock off set of Constructicons (or was it Destructicons – they were just outside my time in Transformer land) out of the deal, which is awesome. They made up names for them, which start logically enough and then just get wierd – the dump truck is Feeding and the crane truck is Sanitation.
Anyhow, he was telling me about the toy you can buy at KFC there – I know! They have KFC there! Now, I’m a big fan of fast food. The food is ok, but the corporate machinations are something incredible. You know guys who study sharks or tornadoes? Yeah, that’s me, only with fast food. It can kill, but at times that power is a sight to behold and be in awe. So, this kind of thing was right up my alley.
Artist Eric So (I’d seen some of this action figures before) has created a line of little dudes with sign language for heads. Absolutely incredible. The letters that require a gesture? Those dudes have clear plastic arrows indicating the hand movement. There’s one for every letter in the alphabet and KFC HK has them.
At two bucks a pop, I’d buy em. And the plane ticket. And accomodations. And the promotion is over now. And… aw, never mind.
Get Rich
Apr 11The new issue of Sequential Tart is up and boasts some lovely interviews, including this one with former Oni Ed-in-Chief Jamie S. Rich, who has both prose and graphic novels on the way. I dig the way Jamie is creating a “universe” for his characters via all kinds of media, including the web.
Select quotage:
“What I love is looking at people from different angles, and how they are portrayed being different based on who is looking at them. Some events will be in various books, but while a given scene might have been a triumph for one person in one book, it will be a failure for another. And the ultimate goal is to have worked through one big theme, hopefully, by the time I am through with this stage.”
Bitchin' Brits
Apr 11So Jamie Bamber, aka Apollo on Galactica. I can certainly see why he attracts such an ardent fangirl following, but physically, he’s not really the type I get swoony over. And if I’m going to go on obsessively about a BG character, it’s generally Roslin or Starbuck or crazy-ass Baltar.
But, see…I just found out Jamie Bamber is British.
I don’t know how to explain this, but there is something irrefutably hot about a man hiding a charming accent for a role (and then, naturally, busting out full-on with it in interviews and at conventions and so forth). See also: McMahon, Julian. (Australian!)
"Spock Exchange"?! Riiight.
Apr 11Wow. As a Trekkie in good standing, I’m ashamed this totally missed my radar:
Apparently, G4 is attempting to enliven TOS Trek with some kind of interactive component. The site, as you may already have seen, isn’t live as of this writing, but should probably wake up for the premiere later today. At least, I hope it does, or G4 is already behind.
Not that trying to make a forty-year-old series “interactive” and “exciting” isn’t by itself an idea that demonstrates severe behind-lagging. But whatever.
I’d try it, but I don’t get G4 anymore. Maybe one of our readers can use the fledgling message board linked to the left to file a report?
A Scanner Darkly mystery artists
Apr 09
So, I’m pretty excited about the new Philip K. Dick-based movie, A Scanner Darkly. It’s hard to say why, other than a) I’m a fan of PKD and b) the art-style looks fantastic. The picture is rotoscoped, which according to a recent article in RES magazine, let them shoot for under 9 million, and still visually achieve some of the crazy effects the story calls for (most notably the scramble suit) – not to mention the effect lends itself to a story centered around a group of drug addicts.
I wrote a whole big, long bit, but you can read that after the jump – right now I want to talk about the trailer and a mystery it contains – well, a mystery to me. And mysteries where there’s an explaination within reach just drive me nuts. I’ve been watching both trailers over and over. I’m too busy to totally obsess, but if I had the time, I would. Actually, after you read this, you may decide that I did obsess, but trust me, I’m fine now.
