The Oscars are tonight. I'm trying to avoid them. I'm sure King's Speech will win but I want anything else to win but it because King's Speech seems like the obvious winner. We'll see. Really, I'm trying to hold on to my self-made promise not to care about things like that. What does it matter what awards movie makers give to other movie makers? All I should care about are what movies I like. All you should care about are what movies you like. Screw Hollywood, Bollywood, the indie scene, whoever. Awards are meaningless. Celebrate the art that means something to you tonight.

So certain people will kill me for admitting that I'd never heard "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs before it was on the Glee Super Bowl episode. But, even though that ruins my cred, I think it's embarrassing that YYY fans are scoffing at all of the people who now like the song because they found it through Glee. When did being popular become bad? Why can't we be happy when people discover the things we love? Being first does NOT make you special. It just makes you first.

Now shut up and enjoy the music.

Whenever I see the mug shot of the Jared Loughner, the psycho-killer from Tuscon, I am, of course, freaked out by his expression. Maybe it wouldn't be so scary if we didn't know what he's done but I think he looks pretty crazy regardless. What really frightens me, however, is that he doesn't understand--he has no capacity to understand--what he's done.

Loughner was clearly mentally ill but he wasn't being treated for it. He should have been put into a psychiatric hospital before he could do something like this. Sure, he was kicked out of school but all that did was make the people in that environment feel safe. They didn't go far enough in making sure everyone was safe. I'm not faulting them. How many times have I seen someone who clearly had a problem and just shook my head with pity? Shaking our heads and sweeping madness under the rug isn't good enough. I suspect that a large part of the violence in our society stems from undiagnosed mental illness. We're putting people in jail or, worse, we're letting them roam the streets when they should be somewhere that will provide them with proper medical treatment.

Fitz and the Tantrums - MoneyGrabber

Happy New Year, everyone! To celebrate, here's a song from last year: Money Grabber by Fitz and the Tantrums. It's a huge throwback to soul music--a trend I hope keeps growing and evolving into a genuinely modern movement. While the sound is definitely from the sixties, the look of the band is sixties inspired eighties.

Top 10 Movies of 2010

I go to the movies a lot. Not as much as I want to. Someday I'd like to be a professional movie critic so I could get paid to go to movies but, with newspapers dying and a stigma of elitism attached to film criticism*, that occupation is getting loftier and loftier. But that won't stop me from doing what every professional critic is doing this time of year. So, without further delay and in alphabetical order, here are my 10 favorite films of 2010, and why I think they're great.

• Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky gave us another head trip with his story of a ballerina's transformation from a sweetie-pie girl into a cold but sensual monster.  What's real and what isn't in this movie?  I won't tell you because I'm still not sure what was and wasn't in her head.  What I do know is that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis proved that they're two of the most exciting young actresses out there, with or without having done the scariest lesbian sex scene ever recorded.
• Get Him to the Greek - Russell Brand and Jonah Hill are boozing and using all across the UK and the USA to get to Los Angeles in time for a concert.  While the movie is raunchy, it's filthier moments feel organic and real, rather than something pushed into the movie just to shock the squares.  The best part of the movie was the music from Russell's character of Aldous Snow (first seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and his band, Infant Sorrow.  They're my favorite fake band.  Even more than Spinal Tap.  Bonus points go to Greek for including Elizabeth Moss, best known as Peggy Olson on Mad Men.  Yeah, I kinda have a crush on her.
• Inception - I can't mention Inception without mentioning a better dream film, Paprika, from the late Satoshi Kon who we lost this year to cancer.  Paprika had the absurdities of dreams down pat while Inception's dreams were on a much more realistic level.  However, that doesn't take away from the excitement of watching Christopher Nolan's well constructed inversion of a heist film.  Leonardo DiCaprio was the star of the show but he had great back up from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Michael Caine and many other stars.  Best of all, we're all still wondering what happened at the end of that movie.  I don't want an answer to that, though.  A sequel--or, better yet, a companion film with new characters--would do just fine.
• Kick Ass - Also known as The Hit Girl Movie because it's Chloe Moritz's Hit Girl character who stole the movie.  While some people whined and cried over it's over-the-top violence, especially that involving the pint sized psychopath, I thought the movie did a great job of deconstructing the comic book superhero while still being funny and fun to watch.  And Nicholas Cage is in it too.  That's not a good thing, but what happens to him makes it all worth it.  (Spoiler: he dies!)
• Machete - Even though I have little patience for B-movies, Machete had all the juvenile, over the top fun that regular B flicks never give me.  Danny Trejo earned his place as one of the great cinematic bad-ass heroes by chopping up bad-ass bad guys on both sides of the US/Mexico border.  The movie also gave us Robert DeNiro as a Janus faced Texas senator (not very bad-ass) and Michelle Rodriguez as a sexy and powerful freedom fighter (totally bad-ass.)  Director Robert Rodriguez usually irritates me with his other films but he definitely won me over here.  He even gave Lindsay Lohan a job between  rehab stays.  Wasn't that nice of him?
• Ondine - Sadly, this is my only real foreign film on the list, but it's a lovely one to have.  A little bit of a fairy tale, Ondine features Colin Farrell as a fisherman who rescues a beautiful woman from the ocean only to discover that she might be a selkie.  I was disappointed that a potentially wonderful family film had too many bits that make it unsuitable for the elementary school crowd but if you're looking for a something to enjoy with adults and teenagers, I think this will be a treat.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - I don't know if this is the best movie of the year but it's probably my favorite.  A crazy, relentless, and joyous tribute to youth culture, Scott faithfully clings to it's source material and, if it doesn't improve upon it, it happily expands upon it buy embracing the visual language of comic books, video games, kung-fu flicks, and a host of other influences.  Made by Edgar Wright, best known as the guy who made Simon Pegg and Nick Frost the comic duo of the decade, this movie should have made him the hottest director in Hollywood.  Instead, it looks like it may take more time for him to earn the recognition he deserves but he will get it..  Even though he plays his usual lovable loser, Michael Cera took a turn for the aggressive with his fight scenes at the titular hero.  And even though he was only on screen for a few minutes, Chris Evans almost stole the movie as evil ex #2, Lucas Lee, and convinced me that he's the right man to play Captain America.  Well, Lucas Lee is the right man, anyway.
• Shutter Island - Another weird film starring Leo DiCaprio, this one also has you questioning what is and isn't real, like Inception.  From one of our living cinema legends, Martin Scorcese, Shutter Island gives us a spooked out mental institution from the 1950s with all of the trimmings.  Once again, you don't really know what happens at the end and I don't want an answer.  But I do want to soak up the disturbing and beautiful images again.  It's one thing to have a wound that sprays blood.  It's far scarier to have a wound that sprays water.
• The Social Network - Once again we have a movie where you don't know what is real and what isn't, but this time it's because a lot of it was all made up even though it's the true story of Facebook's founding.  Time Magazine Man of the Year, Mark Zuckerberg, might have been afraid of the movie's release--which is why he used that time to make some big donations to charity--but the movie accidentally makes him look like a hero, even if he's an overly logical and cold hero.  With Jesse Eisenberg taking on Mark's persona, Mark is shown to outsmart everyone around him without giving a damn about anything other than making his creation the best it can be.  The movie isn't flattering but it made me respect the man and his accomplishments, and it made all those who were burned by Mark look like novices who need to go back to school.  The movie also featured some nice tunes from Trent Reznor, including a mischevous, industrial interpretation of Edvard Grieg's In The Hall of the Mountain King.
• Toy Story 3 - Full confession: I did NOT cry during this movie, but I sure felt sad at it's bittersweet ending.  But it's a Pixar film!  It's always more sweet than bitter.  While I'm not in the belief that everything Pixar does is magic--I'm one of the five people in the world who don't like Up--they certainly made something special here, and they once again proved why they should have bought the Disney company instead of it happening the other way around.  John Lassiter and company also proved that just because they make cute animated films instead of serious live action ones doesn't mean they can't make an engaging and intelligent piece of art.  The entire movie is about leaving--or losing--your home and your family.  It's something so powerful and universal but it's all wrapped up in a candy coating of beautiful CG colors and adorable characters that just touch snarkiness without wallowing in it the way so many other animated movies do (I'm looking at you, anything-made-by-Dreamworks.)  There's a good chance that Toy Story 3 might get a best picture nod... and the win.  it is the highest reviewed movie of the year and it deserves all the praise it gets.

Honorable Mentions go to Hot Tub Time Machine, Babies and Despicable Me.  I also want to shout out a few movies that I, unfortunately haven't gotten to see yet: True Grit, Easy A, and Cyrus.


*That criticism is well deserved, but I wish more people would listen to the critics. They've saved me from seeing more than a few rotten flicks.

Spammers. Go Fig.

SO. This blog is still remaining barely touched in years and yet I just had to turn away some idiotic spambot who was commenting on posts from three years ago! What is the point of them? How do these things make money? Perhaps I ought to go an look up these kinds of things but the truth is that I don't really care. I just want them and their little pork shouldered overlords to go away.

But I suppose it's a nice way for them to remind me that this blog is still up and that I ought to maybe sorta pay a little bit more attention to it just in case I get the urge to use it again like I'm doing right now.

Isn't it funny how things turn out?

By the way, I'm writing this all in Hugh Grant's voice because I've been watching "About A Boy." I never forgave him for cheating on Elizabeth Hurley. Never cheat on a woman with a less attractive prostitute. That should go without saying.

All right, then. Ramble over.

Why Are Female Fans Invisible?

Why is the female geek treated as non-existant in the media? So many shows seem to reinforce the stereotype of nerdy guys who can't get girlfriends when the reality is that nerdy guys hook up with nerdy girls. They seek out nerdy girls to be with. But, for some reason, we can't have any women on television or in the movies who like video games or sci-fi or comics. Yes, there are areas in fandom where men outnumber women--comics fandom comes to mind--but that doesn't mean they're completely devoid of women. What gives?

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Answer here

What is your totem-spirit-power animal?

What is your totem-spirit-power animal?

Answer here

Mike Wieringo 1963 - 2007

Normally I wouldn't copy a post from a message board to here (where I'm supposed to be "anonymous") but I just wanted to put the message here too because it's so personal.

I'm in total shock. Peter David mentioned on his blog that Mike was only 44, a vegetarian, and in good health so it makes no sense to me that he could die of a heart attack. But what can you do? When it's time to go you have to go. I just wish he didn't have to go so soon. I'd only just started following his work. I posted comments on his sketches up at Deviant Art and he even replied a few times, which was nice since he was (I can't believe I have to say was now) a big pro and I'm just a fan. We didn't come close to actually knowing each other but I feel like I've lost a friend. I hoped I'd get to meet him someday or even work with him. Now I'll just have to wait for the hereafter.

Mike's entry on Wikipedia

Please Tell Me Why...

What bothers me isn't the collapse of the bridge so much. I'm horrified and saddened that such a thing had to happen to so many innocent people without warning but that is the way of life. Accidents and disasters happen and, no matter what the reason for this turns out to be, we can't avoid these sorts of things. We have to go live and do the things we need and want to do while we have time on the Earth. And, you know what? As a whole, we're pretty good about that. People have gone through rapes, murders, wars, ethnic cleansing, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and so many other things but after the event, although they may be shaken and permanently changed in some way, they go on and continue with their lives.

Here's what bothers me. This nightmare just began two hours ago and already there are people out there making jokes about it and on the news website no less. Yes, there's no reason for a story like this to even allow comments just out of the knowledge that these jerks will spread their ignorance and lack of concern and inhumanity over it, but that doesn't excuse the fact that people post such things. I won't bother to put the comments up here. If you want to see them then go to the site yourself. Hopefully they're gone by the time you get there, but a part of me wants them to stay. I'd like to think that I'm not the only one disgusted by how people can make jokes about things like this disaster.

Houston Chronicle - Minneapolis bridge collapse sends cars into river

Hinterlands Who's Who

Are Those Pecs or Boobs?

From Game Almighty

In the beginning, games were played on boards with characters represented by pagan tokens. A male could be a pebble, a female a button, the dog a coin, etc. Fast forward to where games have become an electronic medium, and suddenly characters are blips of homogenous pixels fluttering to and fro across the screen...

read more

Twelve Fantasies Finalized

WARNING: This blog post may go off into a tangent or two. You have been warned. -EiS Staff.

SO I bought the big special edition version of Final Fantasy XII from EB Games last week. I was a little disappointed that all I got was a fancier box and a lame DVD that could have been done better as a fan project but I only paid 30 bucks for it while it was originally sold for 60 so I'm not upset about it.

I've been playing for a week pretty heavily but I'm starting to get tired of the game. Although it's not necessarily a bad thing, the game is getting way too hard for me. I'm at the part of the game where I'm re-entering a key location after an attack from the bad guys and I'm getting my butt whooped by the boss. This after spending possibly nine hours on one dungeon not because it was hard but because it was so freaking big and because I had to deal with yet another super hard boss who kept kicking my ass until I figured out a good plan. I don't want to bore you with specifics (if you're an FF Fan then ask and I'll tell) but there's a lot of new stuff in this game that isn't in the previous Final Fantasies or any other JRPG that I've played before that gives this game a steep but healthy learning curve.

Hard bosses aside, I'm also annoyed by the protagonist, Vaan. While there are cooler, more grown up characters in the forms of Basch, a tarnished bad-ass of a knight, and Balthier, an upper-class version of Jack Sparrow, Vaan is just some sort of anime rip off of a Lou Perlman boy band member. And, while I'm avoiding spoilers for the story (which isn't very original aside from its veiled and possibly unintentional similarities to the US/Middle East conflict) I hear that Vaan isn't even that important compared to Balthier. Granted, every other character is cooler than Vaan except for Penelo who is just a throw away character put in so that Vaan can have a girlfriend (Vaan is like so into women. Yeah.) However, Vaan is the one who gets the most screen time during cut scenes so he is, like it or not, the star of the show.

Square Enix, the Japan-based publishers of the Final Fantasy series, seems to be responding to western criticism of Vaan and other feminine looking lead characters in their games, by creating a new character called The Conqueror to co-star in their new game, The Last Remnant. Conq is big, muscular, and apparently likes to kill a lot of people. Just as pretty-boy characters like Vaan are stereotypes of Japanese RPGs, The Conqueror seems to be Japan's stereotype of the hyper macho heroes found in American games like Gears of War. While he sounds interesting, he's almost as tiring as Vaan is because he's still a cliche. This is pretty unfortunate as the more traditional protagonist of Remnant, Rush Sykes, is a more appealing looking character than Vaan and his ilk. While he's still a teenager, he's obviously male and doesn't look like a prostitute. In other words he's everything you want in an RPG lead, a blank character for players to project themeselves on without feeling creeped out by playing a hermaphrodite.

Someday JRPG developers like Square Enix will take a page from western RPG developers like BioWare by allowing players to create their own characters* instead of forcing us to stick with characters who don't appeal to us. They struck lightning with the character of Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII (7), not to mention beloved villain Sephiroth, but afterwards they seemed to lose their way. Final Fantasy VIII (8) had Squall who was okay although his game was seen as too deviant from the other games, but the following characters of Zidane, Tidus, and now Vaan have all been criticized as being too whiny and too feminine looking for most western male players. While many female players have stated that they like the character designs as opposed to the hyper macho men and over sexualized women found in other games, even many ladies have been put off by recent Final Fantasy heroes and others have been put off by being forced to yet again have a man as the protagonist--though they'll get their due when Final Fantasy XIII (13) comes out with FF's first lead heroine, Lightning. However, I know that at least a small portion of male gamers won't like having to play as a woman--and others will relish this for reasons ranging from getting to watch a sexy virtual butt to deeper feelings of gender inadequacy and body alienation. All that aside, I think it would be really exciting to see a new Final Fantasy game go back to the series' roots by allowing players to at least pick a class and name for their hero. Choosing gender would be a massive plus. Getting to chose hair, eye, and skin color especially would be great for those of us FF fans who don't want to play as another stock white guy. Maybe they can even do that for the next edition of Final Fantasy XII. It's not like Vaan is that important a character anyway, if what others say is true. If I'm just going to be given a blank character to project myself onto, why can't I have a character that at least looks a little like me?

*Final Fantasy XI (11) doesn't count becasue it's one of those big online games

Drawn to Find a Spore Alternative

Sad that Spore is being delayed until Spring 2008? (or later? Much MUCH later?) Then you might want to check out this game. Drawn to Life is a project for the king of portable gaming, Nintendo DS.

In it you design your own characters, like in Spore, but this time you draw them yourself. It might be bad for those of us who are stinky drawers (I'm just kinda good) but various news reports promise alternatives like pre-made parts and shape tools. The drawn characters won't just be static designs but will be animated and will have collision detection based on the shapes drawn on the screen. There will also be user created weapons and vehicles as well as other objects that will appear randomly in the game. Unlike Spore's evolution simulation, Drawn to Life looks like a Paper Mario style game so it looks to possibly be even more fun than that other game.

Oh, who am I kidding? I still can't wait for Spore, but Drawn to Life game looks just as hot and it should be coming to us this September.

Spore is Delayed . . . Until 2009?

While most of my posts have been music videos, I've also been following this quiet little video game in the making called Spore. If you don't know what it is, Google it. I found out about the game in Spring of 2005. At that time people thought it was going to be released in the fall. But where is it now? Still in development with a launch date of possibly 2009 at the latest.

This will be the last Spore post I make until the game gets an official date. I am sick and tired of waiting even though I know the game will be worth it. I can't understand why it's taking so long but I accept that Will Wright, Computer Gaming God, knows what he's doing and needs time to work his magic.

That said, I'd like to make a proposal to him and all other video game developers:
DON'T SHOW DEMOS OF YOUR GAMES UNTIL YOU KNOW THEY'RE FINISHED!!!

arrrrg.

Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn and John

Young Folks is the new Crazy"and Peter, Bjorn and John are the new Gnarls Barkley. This song makes me want to do the pogo (but I'd look dumb doing it.)

I really like songs that are throwbacks to old music, especially 60s stuff. In the 90s there was even a genre born out of 60s throwback songs called Shibuya-Kei. It started in Japan but nowadays most music that would be classified as Shibuya-Kei, like Young Folks actually comes from the States and Europe. One of the foremost Shibuya-Kei groups (and one of my favorites) is the Pizzicato Five. Here's my favorite song of theirs, It's a Beautiful Day, as a bonus.

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

The scary thing is that this only looks like a parody.

Satoshi Kon's PAPRIKA

If Hayao Miyazaki is Japan's answer to Walt Disney, Satoshi Kon kicks both of their asses. His prior works include the films Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and the mind fuck of an anime TV series Paranoia Agent. Paprika is based on the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui.



Notice the music? Susumu Hirasawa is back with Kon to provide another trippy soundtrack. I can't wait to see this in a theater . . . if one in Kansas City will have the balls to show it. It opens in America on May 25th.

On My Buy Pile

The Astounding Wolf-Man

This one really leaves me with mixed feelings. Yes, I am going to be buying this one. Hell, I might even start a pull for this. He's a werewolf and a superhero? I'm so there.

But what bugs me is that I wanted to do something like this! I'm so sick of the usual werewolf goes crazy and tears up the city thing and I'm not one for the nature lover or neo-vampire werewolves that seem popular. I love this idea but now I can't use it! At least, not obviously. I swear, if I don't get a move on things and get serious about my career then I'll find all of my good ideas being used by other people. Not only will I feel robbed but I'll also feel like a robber. Does that make sense?

ArchEnemies

I've known about this one for a little bit but now it has a trade paperback so I can read it without all the stupid advertisements!* This looks like a fun book indeed. With so many mainstream hero comics getting bloated on their own self-importance (HA!) and then getting tied up in irritating and pompous events (I'm talking about you, Marvel) I think parody and heroes-with-a-twist comics are much more appealing to me. Plus, when creators aren't bogged down by fifty plus years of someone else's continuity (AKA fan-boy shit) they can make much more coherent and fun stories.

Oh, but I'm supposed to talk about the actual story, aren't I? Silly me!

ArchEnemies is about a hero and his arch enemy who just happen to be roommates who hate each other even more. While neither good guy nor bad guy knows the other's secret, it looks as though things will get even more complicated before they find out the truth if the previews have anything to say about it.

I should also note that the writer of the series, Drew Melbourne, posts on a site I just discovered called Scryptic Studios
which is the first website I've found that focuses on the non-artist writer. His posts there tend to be a little rambling (at times incoherent, to be blunt) but his advice is sound even if its also a little self promotional.

*Side note: When will Marvel and DC and others quit putting ads in the books? I know they'll cost more but I think I might be ready to shell out more money for an ad-free comic. Better yet, when will they end monthlies and switch to a dedicated trade paperback system? I only read Fables in TPB because the ads in the monthlies drive me insane.