Link's Little Secret

Click the title to see. Normally I wouldn't post something like this but I like captioning things (yeah, that was my idea.)

Speaking of Link, I'm playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess right now. The bosses are too easy and the puzzles are too hard. I had to check a FAQ three different times to figure out what to do in some of the dungeons but so far I've beaten every boss on the first try. Without spoiling things, I've gotten past the third fused shadow dungeon so I think I'm halfway through. Overall I think I'm having more fun with this game than with the previous Zelda, The Wind Waker. Twilight feels more like a game for grown ups so I think that's a factor, but I could do with more color in the graphics. I've put it away for now but I was playing Kingdom Hearts II before Twilight and the graphics on KH2 alone sell the game just because everything is so damn pretty. The game itself has issues like overblown cut scenes and chaotic, button mashing gameplay, but it is made playable just on getting to see and explore various Disney story-worlds. I wish they'd make a Zelda game where you got to explore lands or worlds outside of Hyrule so that it had more variety in art styles and cultures, but if Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't want to do that then I won't complain.

I am promising myself that I will see Pan's Labyrinth tomorrow (since I might have missed the chance to see Perfume in theaters) and I'm planning on going to the Drink and Draw at the 75th St Brewery. I'm pretty nervous around booze I know I'll feel weird since I don't draw (anymore) so I hope I don't chicken out. I don't hang out enough with other comic people.

Crytome

Space Coyote Update

The artist behind the pictures I posted of The Simpsons and Futurama casts as anime characters is on a huge roll! Via her Deviant Art page Space Coyote announced that Bongo comics hiring her to do a manga parody comic. But what's more is that 20th Century Fox is contacting her as well (and not with a cease and desist notice!) If you didn't believe in the power of web 2.0 before, believe in it now!

The Simpsonzu

Here are two of the most popular fan-art pieces (two of the most popular pieces of art period, really) on Deviant Art within the past 24 hours.


The Simpsonzu by *spacecoyote on deviantART


Futurama: Super Happy Fun Show by *spacecoyote on deviantART

The artist is Space Coyote and I know next to nothing about her* except that she's Japanese by blood and probably American by birth. Space Coyote also has a web-comic (web-manga, really) called Saturnalia which sounds like a winner based on the title alone.

She also does commissions with a very clever web based quote system that does all the math for you to figure out how much an original drawing will cost.

Space Coyote's web page is the very-easy-to-remember SpaceCoyote.com. I'm putting her in my artists-to-work-with bookmark file. She's an artist worth keeping tabs on.

*I'm assuming she's female but, hey, it's the internet! You never know...

Courage

The Tank Man, made famous by standing his ground against a line of tanks during the Tianamen Square Massacre in 1989. The moment I stumbled upon this clip I knew I would post it. Yes, it has nothing to do with Christmas but I hope it encourages you to be bold for the next year. If he can take a stand against a tank and, with that, the entire Chinese government, then you can take a stand for yourself too.

Merry Christmas!

Miscellanious things: Featuring the work of Apricot

troupe by *apricot8585 on deviantART
NOTE: Edited to put art in the post. Show don't tell and all, you know?

APRICOT - There are many manga artists on DA and most of them, honestly, are not very good. The ones who are good, however, are often great. However, Japanese artist Apricot (listed as Apricot8585) stands out because her work has a decidedly unique and fresh look about it. While the manga look is obvious, it does not take a well trained eye to see that her work is significantly different from that of other manga and anime influenced artists. For one, she has an obsession with the color red. Almost every piece she makes is thick with cherry red color. However, what is truly significant in her work is the influence of the forefather of manga style, Ukiyo-e, the woodblock prints known as the pictures from a floating world. Her mix of classical Japanese art, along with occasional shots of Euro-American Art Noveau influences, makes her work feel fresh and sharp. Apricot seems almost dangerous because she is doing things that other manga stylists aren't. It's as if she's breaking the rules with her work and that's why she's exciting. She's making manga style works that reach the level of high art by embracing her influences instead of mocking or criticizing them. Apricot also stands out because she's one of the few Japanese artists on an English language website. Her English is getting better all the time and I hope it gets good enough that she can realize her dream of publishing English language manga.

Read an excellent interview with her on The Anime Blog and see her work on Deviant Art.

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Christmas is fast approaching and I've got most all of my holiday shopping done. There's only one present to go and I don't know what it will be but I have some ideas.

Writing wise I feel like I might be figuring out what I need to do but I worry I might be dawdling over something that I needn't worry about. There's a new character in my head born out of my examinations of past story concepts and finding that the same elements creep in over and over again. I don't want to be redundant but I know there are things that fascinate me and those are things I want to explore. Hopefully I'll find leeway to explore them in different ways. Werewolves, for instance, always interest me but I'd like to create and explore different concepts and realities for them rather than create one universe for them and only explore them that way.

I started more than I finished today--okay, I started three or four different pieces and finished nothing--but I still feel like I was actually productive. One piece was something that's been rattling in my head now for a while: a short comic spoof of J-RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. I also wrote a wandering piece on why I don't like Superman and why the idea of writing a Supes book fascinates me anyway but it's gonna need some work. I'm also working on that new character. All I can say is that he's the result of my worries of redundancy in that I decided to put a lot of the concepts that always come into my story worlds into him and his new world. I think it will be interesting but I'm also worried it may feel too weird. I did some searches today for help with character development and found a character sketch template to work with. It's helpful but I think it's high time that I created one of my own to use.

Most of today was spend puttering around Deviant Art and here's where things get tricky. Because I have a profile there now (which you've probably already know about) I'm seriously considering removing my semi-anonymous status from this blog. I think I've learned my lessons and am careful enough now to not go around publishing things that I wouldn't want people seeing. However, I'm pretty private so I worry about people getting the wrong impression of me, even though I also worry about the opinions of others way too much--geez, I sound emo. I'm 26! That's too old for emo! Anyway, I hope you liked my feature on Apricot. I'll do more of these in the future so look forward to them!

Bob Welch featuring Stevie Nicks - Ebony Eyes

When I first heard this song I thought it was the perfect theme song for one of my movie ideas. The lyrics don't quite match the idea but the exuberance of the music and that late seventies, early eighties sound captures everything I'm going for. The song would go well with an animated adventure along the lines of Heavy Metal or Rock and Rule (A nearly lost classic I happen to own on a legitimate two-disc DVD set. I'll tell you all about it someday. -B)

The footage itself comes from a concert called Cal Jam II. It was huge but, as you may have surmised, it wasn't Woodstock.

Review: Casino Royale

Starring Daniel Craig as 'James Bond'
With Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, and Dame Judi Dench as 'M'
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis
Directed by Martin Campbell

Note: I'm cheating by copying a review I wrote earlier on MovieLens (see the sidebar.) -B

I'm not a huge James Bond fan but when word got out that this was going to be a big reinvention of the series that was closer to Ian Fleming's vision I was intrigued, even though I've never even read the Bond books or short stories.

Indeed, the movie is as good as everyone says it is. I can't say its the Best Bond film ever but if it isn't the best then its close. So many of the Bond films, especially the more recent ones, seem to go through the motions with easy to follow plots overly focused on the villains. This one, on the other hand, has its own unique rhythm. As we get to see Bond develop he becomes a brand new character to us which is aided by Daniel Craig's debut Bond performance. Craig looks a little too rough to be the Bond most of us think of and he hasn't got the swagger and thrust of Sean Connery but I think a few more films will seal him as the new face of Bond.

I liked that there were only a few gadgets, the only obvious one being a clever one that I can't describe as its a mild spoiler. The lack of the usual science fiction trappings were refreshing and I'd like to see the next few Bond films follow the grounded feeling of this film.

If I can't say this is the best Bond film then I can say that the opening sequence is the absolute best opening I have ever seen. One reviewer called it boring but I think he was just mad that there were no naked girls. Being a man, I missed the silhouetted vixens too but that didn't hurt the opening as we get to see Bond fighting and killing his way through a psychedelic world of playing card motifs. And Chris Cornell's Bond theme is a perfect one. It has the unmistakable sonic signature of a Bond theme but the rock roots and Chris's voice matches the rougher Bond world involved in the film.

Also, one has to mention the Bond "Babes" but here, at least in Eva Green's character of Vesper Lynd, we have a Bond Woman who, while not at all tough, still comes across as a strong and real person, not a bimbo or superwoman like many other Bond heroines.

And, like many other recent Bond films, there are lots of fun in jokes for Bond fans. One I caught was a familiar interior from one of the films in the final action sequence. Again, I'll say nothing since its a spoiler but the scene was rather elevating.

The only problems the film has are the shape of its plot and its running length. Personally, I prefer a plot that builds continuously up to the climax and conclusion but this film . . . well, I can't describe it well without spoiling things but it has an odd structure that can be difficult to follow. I actually enjoyed that it didn't take the usual route of most storylines but had the movie been shorter it might have taken some of the confusion away. An easier way around this would have been to let us viewers in on more of the story that isn't revealed until the end but that would have made things less surprising. Casino Royale doesn't have obvious flaws, just unusual choices made to tell the story in the way the filmmakers needed.

Overall, this was an unusual Bond film but a much more satisfying adventure than many of the others. At the very least we have the best Bond film and the best Bond actor since Sean Connery. If the next films stick with a similar storyline (I suspect that the new films will form an ELLIPSIS) then I am all set to go again.

One more observation: While the violence and sexuality in this film is not as intense as others have said it is, this is a film for grown-ups. I say that as a compliment.

Sunday Funnies

Okay, let me apologize for the title. While this is a post about comics, its about the type you find on a newsstand, not a newspaper. This started out as a reply to a post on the CCN message board by a local ghost-buster (which had nothing to do with ghosts.) He wanted to know what comics everyone was reading and I started to get wordy, as usual, and I realized that I was writing a blog entry so, here it is: What the Bombastic B is reading in comics:

Thanks to my unfortunate home situation, I have a lot of spare cash so I've been able to go to the comics store and buy at least one new comic for every week in the month. For the most part I stick with mini-series since they're easier to pick up since its just three to six comics to tell one complete story.

However, I've dived completely into and am now lost in Bill Willingham's Fables. It's my current comics obsession and has almost everything I like: werewolves (sorta), multiple worlds, magic in modern settings, boobs, sacrilege, a focus on characters over plot, and artwork that puts everything else in comics to shame just based on how its presented. I've bought every trade paperback including the new hardcover. However, I've stopped buying the individual comics until the next TPB comes out at which time I'll either pick them up again or just resign myself to trades. Fables, for me, might work better as a trade than as individual issues.

I'm also picking up lots of She-Hulk comics. Funny that, even though I'm a Hulk fan, I don't read the Hulk himself since I find most of his comics boring. The lack of jellyfish floating in the desert does it for me. She-Hulk, however, is way too much fun. Dan Slott does what I want to do with superheroes: he has fun with them. Nothing is too terribly serious here and Slott chooses to focus more on character (do you see a trend?) than galactic battles and funky villains. The book is weird and I love that.

The two mini-series I'm on are about to finish: Secret Six, Gail Simone's continuation of work on Villains United, and The Escapists which is a loosely based sequel to Michael Chabon's incredible novel, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Both have been quite entertaining and I'll miss both. However, I'm hoping they both spawn full series if possible. I'd read them.

Last, but not least, I'm just starting out reading the new Juggernaut arc on New Excalibur. The book itself doesn't interest me as most anything X-Men feels ruined after House of M(ess.) But Juggernaut is a favorite character of mine and I want to see if he stays a good guy or goes back to evil as well as whether or not he'll get his powers back--or get new ones.

Heroes We Have Yet to Meet

Heroes is my official show of the 2006/2007 TV season. It's got all the superheroes you want without the spandex, code names, and steep $2.99 price tags that usually plague them. Like most of the other fans, Hiro Nakamura is my favorite and his actor looks to have a promising future. However, last night's episode revealed some other potential heroes who we haven't seen yet.

The names come from Mohinder My-plot-is-boring Suresh cracking the password on his father's computer, thus revealing his list superpowered humans both living and dead. Most of the names on the screen were of heroes we've already met. Some of them, perhaps all of them, are just throw away names and cities, but that has yet to be seen. I'm guessing at least one of them will be seen in a later episode.

• Byron Bevington (Marshfield, VT)
• Daniel Buzzetti (Greeley, CO)
• Tracy Chobham (Frostburg, MD)
• Paula Gramble (Monteith, IA)
• Curtis Hovsepian (Grant Pass, OR)
• Penkala Burton (Albert Lea, MN)
• Teresa Hue Pham (Shreveport, LA)

Some of you in the know can rest assured that I've already picked out my favorite person from this list. ;)

EDIT: I found four more names!

• David Berman (New York, NY)
• Adam Soo Hoo (Kailua, HI)
• Sparrow Redhouse (?, New Mexico)
• Amid Halabi (Los Angeles, CA)

Just so you know, I didn't find these on my own by any means. Here's a link to the best screen capture (so far) of the list.

What I'm Thinking About

Movies:

• Casino Royale: Bond is reborn
• Stranger than Fiction: Smart Ferrel
• The Fountain: Aronofsky/Jackman Masterpiece

Comics:

• The Escapists: Denny's in trouble
• Fables: Waiting for trade paperback
• Secret Six: Just one more!

Video Games:

• Wii: are curious, but waiting.
  
• Playstation: Not until it's affordable.
• Final Fantasy XII: Transgendered heroes?
  

Politics:

• Democrats: Don't blow it (again.)
• Republicans: They blew it (again.)
• Bush: Why are you president?

Me:

• I hate my stupid job.
• Must develop better work ethic.
• Must go to bed. Bye!
  

Casino Royale Theme: You Know My Name - Chris Cornell

I'm not that big of a James Bond fan but I respect the franchise. Think about it: a more or less Hollywood film franchise with a British hero that has lasted 40 years and still makes an impact on the culture. It's pretty incredible that these films are still so popular.

The last few films, however, have only been passable. Pierce Brosnan was a darn good James Bond but the movies seemed flat. Even lovely Halle Berry in Die Another Day wasn't enough to save that clunker. In fact, you knew it wasn't going to be that great going in just because of that awful Madonna song!

I like Madonna (her old stuff, at least) but that DAD theme was not happening. I appreciate that she went somewhere other than the Shirley Bassey route but a poor excuse for techno does equal Bond in my ears. While I'm not big on Bond movies, I LOVE the openings. Full of sexy women in nude silhouettes mixed with guns and killer visuals and awesome music, Bond openings are often more fun than the movies themselves. The last opening was interesting as we saw Brosnan Bond being tortured during the opening, but I'd have preferred a slightly more traditional opening and a much more traditional song.

So its pleasant for me to feel that this new Bond movie, Casino Royale, the film in which we see the beginnings of Bond, looks to be the best Bond film in years. And it's even better to hear this brand new Bond theme. It's a rarity in that instead of having a woman sing, they chose Chris Cornell, ex lead vocalist of Soundgarden and Audioslave, to create the new song. As you probably heard already, its a gritty, hard rocking song but one that still sounds very much like a traditional Bond song. Mix that song with a new Bond (who actually looks like the man Ian Fleming envisioned in the books) and a plot stripped of tacky sci-fi lite trappings, and you get what should be a huge hit.

Unfortunately, I have other movies to get to. I have yet to see what is being haled as the true masterpiece of the year, Borat!, and I'm also dying to see Will Ferrel's new comedy for the smart set, Stranger than Fiction. And I have to see Darron Aronofsky's The Fountain on day one. Seeing it any later will not be allowed.

Jill Scott - Golden

This is one of my sister's favorite artists and one of mine too. Jill Scott dumps the oversexed-kitten act that other artists use in favor of smart and cheerful R & B. Her musical sensibilities are old fashioned but that's her strength. Listen very closely and *gaps!* are those real instruments? Is that a melody? Wow!

Hi, Richard

Do you like the new look? I think it might be a little bright although not too loud, I hope. I like purple with orange because it reminds me of the sunset and dreamier landscapes so I hope this gives you something of that feeling. Purple is a color representative of creative people so it suits me. I'll probably change this, though, since the Blogger update allows me to change my blog's looks much more easily.

I went and saw some of my Warrensburg friends last Wednesday. If I didn't see you don't feel shafted. I wasn't there that long but I need to try and visit more. While I was there I got to see Richard and his fiancee, Becca (Congratulations!) and Becca's son who, through no fault of his own, further convinced me that I don't want to have children--at least not yet.

Tomorrow I have my writer's workshop and nothing to show for it. I need to get more serious about my creative work but you've heard that before. I've been poking at a self-help book that my sister gave me but I'm so lazy that I haven't even implemented the suggestions it gives. At least not fully. One of the suggestions, however, is that you set a goal for yourself with a set completion date and look at it everyday. I've decided on one dominant goal for my life:

To be the foremost creative force in the world by October 13th, 2026.

Yeah, it's unreasonable but maybe...

Every man needs to have a dream. And I'm sick of dreaming. That's all I'll say for now.

Six word short stories

Stolen from Neil Gaiman who did one for Wired Magazine. The task: write a short story only six words in length. An easy task but you have to try to beat this one:

For sale: baby shoes, Never worn.

-Ernest Hemingway

I can't do that...yet. But let me try a few:

Me eat world. Me full. Good.

As she waits he weeps alone.

My heart stopped during rush hour.

I thought I could fly. Oops.

My hammer opened her beautiful mind.

You murdered me... but I'm back!

This is fun. I'll try more.

Fast Film

happy birthday: i am ? years old today

Today I turn 26 years old. That's how old I am. How old I feel however is a different matter.

Sometimes I feel older. I have aches and pains that seem incongruent to my actual age. I look at young people, my age or younger, and marvel at their choices and tastes. They confound me at times and always have. I have a taste for older movies and I'm developing an appreciation for jazz standards by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald.

But, more often than I feel older, I actually feel much younger. While my elderly side is simply a result of having gotten older, my young side seems to be a sort of arrest in my development. It's like I have one arm that is growing and changing at a normal rate while the other doesn't age at all with the exception of accumulating scars.

I think we're all like this in a way and that gives me a little solace. Many of the things that excited individuals as children still excite them as adults. I still have a fondness for cartoons even if I now prefer animation geared or appealing towards adults, but I always remember that I never would have developed such tastes had I not long ago decided that I didn't want to give cartoons up as I got older. Somehow I've found my way back to the career I chose in 3rd grade, cartoonist, although I'm still wondering if I'm just chasing rainbows (and how gold there will actually be in the pot at the end.)

More importantly, I still live at home with my parents and I work a job that is well below my actual abilities and certifications. Somewhere along the way I decided to take a summer vacation from school that has lasted almost three years. I'm even considering ending this pseudo-vacation to go back to school! Yes, I would be going back for a master's degree but what can one really do with a creative writing other than sell his soul to the devils of advertising? I haven't published anything substantial enough to justify teaching even at a high school level (not that one needs to do so.) And I couldn't give a kid an F unless he spat in my face. I'm too sympathetic to poor students as I have always been a poor student. (Yeah, man! Homework's for douche-bags! WOOOOO!)

I am sorry to bring you my depressing rants on a day that I ought to be happy but lets face it: like Christmas, birthdays lose all of their shine after childhood ends. Honestly, I think my presents-giving-and-receiving-days have gotten progressively less exciting since I was seven but that's mostly greed talking. A different subject we can look at some other day. I just wish that I could have woken up this morning and thought "Wow! It's my birthday! I'm 26! Look at all I've done! Look at what I'm doing! My life is great!" Instead I thought this: "I'm turning twenty fucking six and I still live at home with my parents. God help me." And for the many of you who feel the way I do, may God help you too. May God give us all at least one birthday to be happy about.

Haircut

I've gone from Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable to Samuel L. Jackson in, well, pretty much every other movie he's been in. I'm not completely bald but there's not much left. It feels good, cost only 14 bucks including tip, and I'm again wondering why I was so reluctant to get it done although I actually liked my hair beforehand except that it was too shaggy behind the ears and in the back of my head where, on one side, my hair grows three times faster than the other side.

More importantly, I'm looking forward to the weekend before Halloween but until I get more info I won't say why. If I play my cards right, however, it could be HUGE for me. Wish me luck!

Today's Sucky

I hate today.

I hate a lot of days but I REALLY hate today.

To avoid trouble I'll spare you the details but to sum things up I was in a car accident AGAIN. It wasn't my fault but I didn't handle the situation well so now I'm in worse than before.

My life sucks.

Kansas International Film Festival

I've been spending the weekend in front of a screen. A movie screen at the Glenwood Arts Theater for the 2006 Kansas International Film Festival. So far I've seen eight films not counting 20 plus shorts and I'm going to give a quick rundown of what I've seen. Here we go in order of viewing:

DAY ONE

Sandstorm: Set in China, it is a hazy examination of a police officer trapped in a massive sandstorm with his wife and his guilt over his actions in the brutal persecution of the peaceful Falun Dai (or Falun Gong) movement. While it does a good job of showing the cruelty of the police, this film seems to be Falun Gong propaganda. There's nothing wrong with that since we're talking about a nice bunch of people who were punished for promoting peace in a nation that thrives on military fervor--sound familiar?--however, I do not need to be convinced to believe Falun Gong is hao. I am convinced that the film had alterior motives and I didn't appreciate that.

Night of the Living Dead: Wow! It was my first time seeing it and I got to see it on a big screen. How great is that? And director George Romero was there too with his collaborator Tom Savini! Just having the opportunity to see these two in person was nice but it helps that the film was interesting too, if not that great.

You already know what the movie is about. If you don't you need to go and download a free and legal copy of the film for yourself. I knew that the film had a black hero but it was still amazing to see it on the screen knowing that it was a film produced by white people back in 1968. He actually hits a white woman (not his finest moment) and fights with white people, killing one. This is far more impressive than the zombie stuff.

The movie is old and was done on a low budget with inexperienced people and it shows but for all of its glaring flaws there are moments where everything working against it works for it, creating moments that feel uncomfortably real or become quite frightening without relying of gore. It's a must-see, at least because of its acclaim in the film world.

BachelorMan: I met the director of the film while getting tickets and told him I would go and see it. Big mistake. The movie isn't absolute trash as the acting is actually quite good (Missi Pyle shines in a role many more popular actresses wouldn't have put effort into and David DeLuise is charismatic as BachelorMan himself) but the script in not only juvenile but often doesn't make any sense. Things happen because the formula demands them to happen, not because they make any sense. Some scenes were obvious candidates for cutting but somehow still ended up in the film to suggest things that never happen. This is a "guy" film that most mature, real guys would be offended by.

DAY TWO

Sentenced Home: In 1996 a law was passed that forced every non-citizen American convicted of a felony to be deported, even if they had already served jail time. The law provides no appeals process and, with our post 9/11 world, it seems unlikely that there will be any chance of this law being changed to take into account those who have changed their lived around and/or have never been to the countries they are being deported to. In this film the subjects are Cambodian citizens brought over to America to escape Pol Pot back in the 70s. Some of them don't even remember their home countries but because of their crimes they are being forced back there.

Not all of the subjects are sympathetic but the unfairness of their plight is well stated. It's also impressive that the one voice in the film supporting the deportations (or at least the one that represents the deporters) makes a good arguement in favor of the law. That said, it still shows families being torn apart and young men being tossed from the opportunities and advantages of America and back into the poverty of Cambodia all because of crimes for which they thought they had already payed the penalty.

The Hole Story: A mockumentary about the director's quest to solve the mystery of a hole that forms on the frozen surface of a lake in Minnesota despite freezing temperatures. His exploration, however, is sidetracked by reality.

While the story is nice and clever, it isn't all that interesting. The hero who is the real-life director of the film comes across not as a loveable loser but a big loser who might be loveable. Parts of the film seem a little farfetched and it just isn't that entertaining. Everyone else liked it but I wasn't impressed.

IFCKC Horror Film Competition: Lots of horror shorts. So many were entered because of Romero and Savini's judging of the films that they had an overflow day on Thursday night. That resulted in the two winning films being shown BEFORE the festival and leaving many people not knowing this until that night. A good display of bad organization. Also, during the films I did get to see, one had technical difficulty and was skipped over to the insult, in my opinion, of the filmmaker who worked hard to make his or her film.

Most of what I saw wasn't very good and I probably shouldn't have expected much but one film I noticed was Female Intuition. It was the only film that felt like something I had never seen before (or, more accurately, hadn't seen a million times before.) In it a girl goes to the doctor because she feels her sixth sense of danger is telling her she has a chronic illness. Turns out she's not the one with the problem. At least she's not the only one... The production values were high quality and the story was told well. Some of the other films seemed sloppy or had vague stories (including some "experimental" films that hopefully stay experiments) but Female Intuition stayed logical, functional, and fun.

Creepshow: Another Romero scarefest, this time with Steven King's help to create five short tales of terror. Romero himself says that the film is more funny than scary and this is true. Although it has gory moments the real focus is on the jokes.

The best story featured Stephen King himself (he's not a bad actor) playing a country bumpkin who encounters a meteor that unleashes a green weed that grows on and over everything. While the other stories are tradition fare of monsters, this one is a tale of torture from beyond and its frightening--and funny--to watch Stephen wrestle with the bizzare plants.

DAY THREE

This Film is Not Yet Rated: Best film of the festival so far. The director was kind enough to submit this film as a sneak peak showing prior to its official October run. Despite showing in a small theater it is still impressive that they actually had to turn people away from the screening. They actually had to set up folding chairs to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend.

None of us were disappointed as the film is a funny but angering look at the MPAA movie rating process. A system that, as you might already know, sees sex and pleasure as more vile than violence. It is amazing to learn what the now not-so-secret screening board thinks constitutes an NC-17 rating. Female pleasure is essentially offensive to them. Bloodless violence is not. Gay sex is far more offensive than straight sex even when the latter is more explicit. Little moments that make a film feel real are the moments that the MPAA (and studios by association) want removed to get that precious R.

It was pretty disgusting but the film has a bemused tone seeing as this is not nearly as important a subject as war or disease or the-idiots-in-office. The real amusement, however, comes from the director hiring a private eye to find out the identities of the MPAA ratings board. A group that is supposedly made up of the parents of young children and teens turns out to be full of people who have adult children and at least one member who might not have any kids at all! What effect the revealation of the board will have is yet to be seen (I doubt much will change since many of thsoe who most need to hear this message won't even hear about This Film is Not Yet Rated.) but one can hope that, someday, a new rating system will be put in place that at sees violence as more offensive than sex and that considers the artistic integrity of a film.

Drakmar: A documentary that started as a look at a charismatic teenage geek which turned into something more. Colin Taylor is (or, rather, was) a 14-year-old with a passion for Halo, Dungeons and Dragons, and live action role playing with real steel fighting (how cool and weird is that?) The documentary details his quest to move up in the ranks of the LARP realm but it gets a positive sidetracking through Colin's brother Corwin who asks the filmmakers to help him find their absent birth-father.

It's great to see a film that looks at geek-culture through a positive lens even though the weirder and sillier aspects of Colin and his friends still show. Better yet, the movie was made on 200 dollards cash. 200 dollars not only gave two filmmakers their shot at the big time but they also changed the lives of two people for the better. Money is so amazing when used the right way. And as for Colin himself, I think he'll be a geek hero for years to come. I know a lot of kids across America will see or hear about this film and say "Hey! That's me! Someone made a movie about me!"

WHAT'S NEXT?

I only have eight more showing to go. Only one film stands out as a must see: American Stag made by local filmmaker Ben Meade who is also a chairperson of the festival. Stag looks at 50s and 60s porno films (hooray porn!) It shows on Wednesday evening so, if you can, come on down and get a look at it (but for the intellectual value, not the porn you perv.)