Blowin Smoke

2008-01-25T12:53:00.000-03:30

"This is the end... my only friend the end..."

It's been quite some time since my last update, the longest gap yet. Quite frankly, it's gotten to the point that my spare time has been spent elsehwere, and updates from work have become a total impossibility, which puts the future of Blowin' Smoke into some manner of serious doubt. No, i'm not pulling the plug and abandoning things entirely. Blowin' Smoke will remain where it is for those distinct few who are gracious enough to still care. But updtaes will probably be sporiadic at best until the blogging bug really sinks his teeth in again, which he may yet again sometime in the future.

Some current events: Abby starts Pre-Kindergarten today, and of course we're caught in a goddamn blizzard. It blows my mind that she's crawling towards school already. The last 4 years and change have been a whirlwind, gone in the blink of an eye. She's become a fiercely intelligent, and dare i say independant, little girl, she's not a baby anymore. When i hear her carry on a conversation, or read aloud one of her zillions of books, or have her eloquently tell me about her day, or even pass the buck on something, i can't help but be a proud father. Yep, she's even learned to cover her tracks and shift blame where nessecary - all important life skills right? ;) I look forward to doing it all again with Sammy, she's coming along very well herself - crawling like nobody's business, and calling me "DAD! DAD! DAD!" whenever she gets the chance - not bad for 8 months. Something tells me she's going to develop even faster than Abby did, and we're gonna be in for trouble.

My car is dead. Clutch and Flywheel damaged. Un-freakin-believeable. The car is barely a year old, only 11 thousand Kilometeres (less than 10 thousand miles!). Both myself and Sarah have a decade of experience with a standard transmission - i've never heard of anything like this before. And of course, GM is telling me my 5-year powertrain warranty won't cover it - so i'm looking at about 1500 in repairs. Money i just don't have.

Sarah has a new job with one of the local call-centres. Which is good news, as they pay excellent money. She starts on the 18th of February - which means my already hectic life is about to get that much more hectic. But it's all good.

Top tens for 2007 just didn't happen, for that i apologize, i'm sure 2 or 3 people were looking forward to it. Keep your eyes peeled - something may pop up before the end of February. Maybe not... no gaurantees.

That's it for now. I'll be around - look me up on MSN or drop an e-mail if you feel like getting in touch (stevetp@warp.nfld.net), or you can always find me over at the DVDVerdict forums (Steve T Power). I'm also on Facebook alongside a zillion other Steve Powers.

That's it, grab yer coats. I'm shutting the doors for now, one last rundown for the road:

The rundown:
Watching: Eastern Promises / Sunshine / The Mummy (1999) / Beowulf
Listening to: Magnus Rising - Counting the Numbers / Sheavy - The Machine that won the War / The Fountain OST / Seven Samurai OST
Reading: No Man's Land by Kevin Major / The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E Howard
Playing: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3) / Eye of Judgement (PS3) / Mass Effect (xbox360) / Heavenly Sword (PS3)
Eating: Bacon N Eggs
Wishing: My car wasn't gonna cost me 1500 bucks!

"How was i to know she was from Snake Mountain!!?? She was beautiful!!"

Cheers,
Steve

For old times sake:
Where there's smoke... There's a funeral pyre, sending the spirit of Blowin' Smoke to valhalla.

2007-10-17T21:25:00.000-02:30

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave..."

Just thought i'd share a few pics of the new store with anyone who's lookin'

Cheers,

Steve

"Give them nothing... Take from them Everything!"

2007-10-08T15:43:00.000-02:30

"This is Radio Nowhere, is There Anybody Alive Out There?"

It's been one heck of a month and a bit. On the work side of things, we packed all our shit and moved down the road to our new digs. It was nowhere near as painful as our last move a year or so ago. One 14 hour day (capped off with the midnight launch of Halo 3) and we were pretty much back to normal. The new place looks incredible compared to the old, i'm biased and all, but i think it's probably the most presentable looking place in the area. We're right accross the street from a Blockbuster Video, and things have picked up a tad. I'll try and snap a few shots to give you fine folks who don't live 'round here some idea of where I spend the lion's share of my time.

In Game news, I've finally laid mitts on a Playstation 3, and i have to give it to Sony, in spite of all the shit that's been circulating about them, and the PS3 in particular, they've put together one hell of a beautiful machine. Next to the PS3, the 360 feels cheap, and hapahazardly slapped together. Game wise, the 360 still owns the competition, but Sony's machine itself is a beauty. It only cost me a little over 100 games from "the collection", and 1.45, but thus far, it was worth it.

The first playthrough on the new hardware was Heavenly Sword, which had been ranking up scores that land in the higher part of average. I just don't understand it. The game is a phenomenal piece of work. The execution is flawless - from start to finish the game is what i could only call a tour de force! The ending was also a thing of beauty, and while some might call 7-8 hours of game time short, there wasn't a single moment where i grew frustrated, bored, or felt was less than flawlessly presented. How many much longer games can you think of where you have maybe 7-10 hours of sheer bliss alongside a few hours of slogging and grinding (if i ever meet David Jaffe i'm going to kick him in the nuts for the Hades level in God of War). Heavenly Sword remains riveting and rewarding throughout, and that is to be commended. The nature of the game would have made a 15-20 hour game seem drawn out and dull. Worth noting as well that the graphics and sound were phenomenal, some of the best i've seen.

Lair was also a hell of a lot of fun, and while it wasn't the solid 9 game that Heavenly Sword was, it's still a good deal better than the reviews have been painting it out to be. I'd give it a 7 in my book.

Conan and Assassin's Creed have also been pre-ordered, and i anxiously await them.

Also got my copy of Two Worlds for the xbox360, and promptly lost over 10 hours to it.

With the purchase of the PS3 also comes Steve's decent into High Definition DVD madness. After experiencing the joy of Blu-Ray , ipromptly grabbed a HD-DVD drive for the 360, and have begun in earnest to sell off select DVD's from the collection in order to facilitate the purcase of same movies in some shiny new HD format. I'm up to 10 titles as of now, split 50/50 between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and while some of them blew my mind (Blood Diamond), others were signifigantly less impressive (Sleepy hollow). Can't wait for next week (Transformers in HD!!) and December can't come soon enough (BLADE RUNNER). The toughest decision now is which formats to buy on. I tend to enjoy the look of Blu-Ray's packaging a little more (the shiny blue plastic looks less "bargain bin" than HD-DVD's Maroon). I'd also much rather play the stuff on the PS3 with my shiny Blu-Ray remote and whisper quiet operation, even using the HD-DVD add-on, the 360 still sounds like a washing machine.

Music wise, the new Bruce Springsteen is pretty kick ass, and the new Cult CD did not dissapoint. Neither really struck me like a bolt from the blue or anything, but they're both damn tight releases from their respective artists. If Bruce had maintained the awesomeness of "Radio Nowhere" throughout the runtime of "Magic", we'd be looking at definite contender for album of the year. it really is an amazing tune, but the rest of the album falls back into traditional "E-Street Band" territory with lots of wailing saxaphone and loose grooves. I was a little let down to be honest after the awesome rock vibe of Radio Nowhere. It's all solid material though. The Cult meanwhile, hearken back to their Electric/Sonic Temple/Ceremony years on their latest, which is to say, they've dumped the heavy metal vibe of "Beyond Good and Evil". It's not an exceptional piece of work or anything, i doubt it's going to bring about any rise in Cult Awareness or any kind of "She Sells/Firewoman" level of popularity, but it should please fans, and God knows i had my doubts we'd ever see another cult album after BG&E. It's just great to see Astbury and Duffy together again.

Not too much else to report, on the family front, both gals are doing excellent, Samantha loves her Daddy, which is great, and Abby has started on some kind of pre-Kindergarden thing, so we send our kids to school before we send em to school now? Man they do grow up fast.

Congratulations are also in order for some of the guys, Congrats to Jon and Kate, and congrats to Andy and Tracy, all of whom have done the insane and gotten engaged. Why should you guys be happy all your life? And mucho congrats to Russ and Lisa for buying their first home, which is a beaultiful place. If you could combine my home theatre room with the rest of their place, man you would have the ultimate diggs!

The rundown:

Watching: Shooter/Blood Diamond/Heroes: season 1/Deadwood: Season 3/Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Playing: Genji(PS3)/Halo 3(Xbox360)/Heavenly Sword(PS3)/Medal of Honor: Airborne (xbox360)/Forza Motorsport 2(xbox360)/Lair(PS3)/Project Gotham Racing 4(xbox360)/Two Worlds(xbox360)/Resistance: Fall of Man(PS3)

Reading: Conan: The Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories (Marvel Comics reprints)

Listening to: Matt Mays - When The Angels Make contact/Bruce Springsteen - Magic/The Cult - Born Into This/Pearl Jam - Riot Act/Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

That's it,

Cheers,
Steve

"You lost today kid, doesn't mean you have to like it."

2007-08-27T15:04:00.000-02:30

"Up so early feel so bright! Didn't get much sleep last night!"

Once more into the breech. Been ages, sick of apologizing to you guys - you understand i'm sure. Life's been hectic, baby, work, blah blah blah...

On August 23rd i turned 30, which was fine, and Saturday past (the 25th) Sarah threw me a little suprise shindig, which was amazing! I've got a nice Kent gift card to work with - the DVD Shelves will be done ASA-friggin-P!

Huge shout outs to everybody, Sarah N Nicole (my ladies!), Russ n Lisa, Chuck n Nicole, Andy n Tracy(Gun show!), Jon n Beth (Love the book - you spoil me dammit!), Jon n Kate, Chris, Brian n Sandra, and of course, my folks and the in-laws for just being awesome.

Huge props also to the guys who couldn't make it: Dana, Jeff (Great to hang out n play games again man... ) Kev (miss ya bro, can't wait till yer back in town), Mark n Daisy (who made up for it with Montanas! Hope you guys had a GREAT first anniversary!) Mark n Mike (two great guys to work with), and Ken (compadre, and senior Microplay guy). And anyone else i may have missed.

Maybe it's the age and what not - but being all introspective and sappy - a guy couldn't ask for a better circle of friends, you guys all kick ass.

So yeah, A message to Southpeak interactive: Where the fuck is my copy of Two Worlds you sons of bitches! People in America have been playing this damn game since last week - and after having it's ship date shuffled oh, somewhere between 10 and 200 times, I STILL don't have a copy of the damn game (which i pre-paid, i might add.) in my hands! If i didn't love the PC version so much when i tried it a few months back - i'd say screw your damn title and move on . I haven't seen this degree of unprofessional bullshit from a software publisher since the NES days.

In other game news, Bioshock is as good as you've heard. It's downright amazing on a game design level. Not quite the counter-argument to Ebert's "Games are not art." comment, but still amazing stuff. Oddly enough, from a storytelling point of view- i still prefer The Darkness - but that's just me. Also been playing a lot of Guitar Hero II on the 360, and Sheavy axe-slinger Dan Moore has seen fit to give the vanilla-white blandness of the 360's X-plorer guitar a fresh lick of paint for me - the results were downright amazing.

In other news - I have become a total Conan freak! My love of Robert E. Howard's sullen-eyed Cimmerian has become something boardering on obsession. I've picked up some amazing books, including "Conan: The Ultimate Guide To The World's Most Savage Barbarian", which was a fascinating read, and the latest collected TPB of Dark Horse Comic's amazing Conan run. Doubly exciting is our return to pen and paper RPG-ing. Mark's been running a damn fun Eberron campaign, and in September i'll be starting up a campaign set in Conan's own Hyborian Age! I can't freaking wait.

Musically - the new Sheavy CD - The Machine That Won The War - has finally made it into my posession - and i must say, it is one hell of a package. Beautifully done 2-disc set. If you can track down a copy, i highly recommend it.

Haven't seen too much in movies lately - Wild Hogs sucked bad, The Simpsons movie was damned awesome, and i'm on a bit of a Robocop kick.

Samantha is doing awesome - she's got a grin that would light up a room, Abby is doing well, Sarah is good, and Work is the same as always (we're moving shop in September, which is going to be busy as hell, and also suck very much).

That's all for now,

The Rundown:

Watching: Pathfinder/Robocop/Rome Seasons 1 & 2/Deadwood Season 3/Basilisk

Playing: TMNT (xbox360)/Persona 3 (ps2)/Conan(xbox)

Listening To: Powderfinger - Dream Days at the Hotel Existence/Jet - Shine On/The Travelling Wilburys vols 1 n 3

Reading: Conan (D20)/Conan - The Hall of the Dead and Other Stories / Dragonlance: The Elven Nations Trilogy

Working On (tm & (c) KJCW): Nothing at the moment.

Cheers,

Steve

"This is Tom Hanks saying if you see me in person, then please, leave me be."

2007-07-14T13:16:00.000-02:30

"There's something happening here... what it is ain't exactly clear..."

It's been ages, I know. I'm at that point in my life where i'm kept so goddamn busy that what little free time i do get is wasted on some unwinding with a game or a movie. To say i just haven't had the mental fortitude to write anything witty or worthwhile would be the understatement of the year. And rather than look at this whole bloggity thing as a chore - and waste my time with half assed attempts and polls and such, I figure i'd just wait until my head was in the right place and go from there - so here I am.

First things first - The Busted controller as many may remember it no longer exists. I just haven't had the time or energy to focus on reviews like i once did. the move from Microplay to Microplay-Jumbo Video combo store has drained any possibility of creativity whilst working from me, and reviews in the past were always something i could put together in the slow time and polish at home. So it's looking like the Dead rising review (published over there in October of 2006) was my last for the time being. Don't get me wrong - there are a ton of games out there that i would love to share my opinion on in a more professionally written manner - the big guns of last year, some of the amazing stuff we've seen so far this year, and some of the stuff to come. I may get back into the swing of things down the road - and i hope i do, but for now i've converted the BC into a collection list. so yeah, head on over there if you want to check out my Game collection in all of it's glory. I've been doing a solid job of keeping my excel spreadsheet updated, and it's relatively easy to port that stuff over to the site - so expect to see it maintained regularly. I'll also be spicing up the look a little in the days or weeks to come.

Transformers was freaking excellent - go see it if you haven't, and if you have, go see it again! Live Free or Die Hard was a colossal letdown - don't waste your time on castrated action fare. Am I the only person alive looking forward to The Simpsons Movie?

Family update - Samantha is doing very well. Alert, aware, laughing and cooing, all that fun stuff. Abby has been giving us a bit of grief around bedtime - just being an almost 4 year old i guess. Hard to believe it's been that long. But everyone is good, and that's all that matters.

Game wise - Snagged Guitar Hero II for the Xbox360, and find it improved on the PS2 one in a big way, most notably in the Iron Maiden department - The Trooper kicks ass! Also getting back into Oblivion again. I'd lost all my save games in a memory card related mishap, so i've started over - and the game still blows my mind with how damn good it is. I've just hit the Shivering Isles expansion, and it's excellent so far.

Best of '07 so far!

Ran through The Darkness - a first person shooter based on a shitty comic book from the mid-90's. The game was freakin excellent all around. One of the best new titles i've played so far this year. Solid 9 game!
Overlord kicks ass as well. If the idea of playing as a Sauron looking mother fucker with a hoard of gremlins following you around eating sheep and burning hobbits (sorry, Harflin's), all infused with that trademark British wit by way of Pratchett/Python sounds like a good time to you, well - find this game. It's an 8 for sure.

Tracked down a copy of the new Smashing Pumpkins CD, called Zeitgeist, over the last week or two, and i must say it is goddamn awesome (thanks Mark!). It'd been ages since i've listened to the band - i did own Mellen Collie and Siamese Dream back in the day, but sold them off shortly after Adore killed my interest. I've since gone back and re-listed to a bunch of the old stuff - man these guys were amazing in the day. I'd put Siamese Dream right up there with Ten, Nevermind, and Badmotorfinger as classic representations of the best the 90's had to offer musically. Need to re-buy all their discs now... damn.

Dang fine little Reunion album ya got there!

See Renaissance yet? No? Dammit people what's with you? It'll be available on R1 DVD from July 24th, after that you have no excuse!

Buy it! Watch it! Love it!

Ta for now,

The rundown:
Watching: Renaissance / The Relic / The Thing / Platoon / Falling Down / Transformers
Playing: Oblivion (xbox360) / Guitar Hero II (xbox360) / The Darkness (xbox360) / Overlord (xbox360) / Motorstorm (PS3) / Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
Reading: Zip!
Listening to: Sheavy - The Machine That Won The War / Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist / Smashing Pumpkins - Mellen Collie and the Infinite Sadness / Chris Kirby - on Rum and Religion / The Music - Welcome to the North
Looking Forward to: Pathfinder: Unrated (DVD) / 300 (DVD) / Two Worlds (xbox360)

Cheers,
Steve

"First we find her, then we sleep."

2007-06-07T09:34:00.000-02:30

Ridley Scott's next!

Looks damn fine!

Cheers,
Steve

2007-06-06T16:10:00.000-02:30

"Where the Earth Meets the Sky"

It's been a while once again. For that i don't apologize, as i'm sure you're sick of hearing it. So as i type, i'm at work, it's freakin amazing out, with a nice cool summer downpour going on (you can smell the clean smell of the rain - it's awesome), and Queen are on the DVD player. I'm not a huge Queen fan, they're ok - but this is Queen without Freddie Mercury. This Paul whasisface is actually a pretty damn powerful singer, like a Baritone Freddie M, and i'm digging it - but it got me thinking. When my band (tentatively called "The Rock Machine" or just "The Machine") has been 30 years on, with multiple platinum hits well over a decade old, featuring a long period of inactivity, decides to get together for "one last go" - it's gonna be called one of the following:

-The LAST SHOT AT RELEVANCE tour -
-The LAST MINUTE MONEY GRAB tour -
-The STEVE NEEDS A BIGGER HOUSE AND A FEW MORE CARS tour. -

all damn clever names I thought.

Samantha (the new baby) is doing well, one month old today! Abby and Sarah are great, and work is pretty good, busy as usual (main reason you haven't been seeing updates more frequently.)

Other happenings over the last 30 days or so:

- I've left the DVD Verdict forums, personal reasons more than anything else - but i've moved on. I really don't have any sort of online presence anymore outside of this blog and...

- Facebook - This community is retarded. If you thought the Myspace craze was insane, you haven't seen anything. I haven't dove face first so much into the deep end as dipped my toes into the cold cold waters at the shallow end. It's been a real trip seeing people i haven't heard tell of in over a decade add me to their Facebook accounts.

- My xbox 360 library continues to grow with no rhyme or reason. I've broken 30 titles now, with more on the way over the summer. Most recent additions were Shadowrun (pretty damn cool) and Forza 2 (amazing!). The fact that i can take photos of my cars and upload them to the Forza website never ceases to amaze me. Who knew that next gen gaming would mean taking snaps of purdy cars in real time in the middle of a race and sharing them with a community of gearheads.

My first racecar!

- J.R.R Tolkien's new book was bloody amazing!

- Mitch is back online! I'll try and update links accordingly. Head on over there and yell at him for not updating - tell him i sent ya.

- Kev is home for the summer as of this Saturday, coincidentally, this Saturday also happens to be the first official get together of the summer (for Andy's B-day). Good stuff.

Thats all for now:

The Rundown:
Watching: Flags of our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima / Inside Man / Twister
Listening to: Xavier Rudd - White Moth / Powderfinger - Dream Days at the Hotel Existance / Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction
Reading: Shadowrun 4th Edition
Playing: Shadowrun (xbox360) / Forza Motorsport 2 (xbox360) / F.E.A.R (xbox360) / Elder Scrolls: Shivering Isles (Xbox360) / Driver '76 (psp) / Two Worlds (PC)

Cheers,
Steve

"He went out and got himself some corporate sponsors! He's in it for the money, not the science!"

2007-05-09T05:38:00.000-02:30

ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

L to R: Cecilia (my Mom), Tom (my Dad), Samantha (the small one), Sarah (Wifey), Me (The ugly one), Georgie (Sarah's Mom) - Sarah's Dad is absent - someone had to watch Abby!

Sorry it's been so long folks. Been busy!

Here it is:

SAMANTHA GWENDOLINE ANGELA POWER

born May 9th, 2007 2:30 am.

Mom and Baby are great!

Hope to hear from you all soon -

Miss the verdict gang - hope all is well.

My xbox360 came back today! (same day as the baby - you were right Danno)

It's 5:30 in the AM - i'm having a victory breakfast (Cold pizza hut and a diet Dr. Pepper) and then i'm going to sleep!

Life is grand!

Cheers all,

Steve

2007-03-29T16:53:00.000-02:30

"Got my soul singing my soul singing!"

Yep, still alive. It's been a while, for that I apologize, or accept your gratuitous thanks, whichever you prefer. At any rate, if you look foreward to our little visits - be happy. If you've been praising the Gods in my absense, you're prayers remain unanswered - perhaps a change of faith is in order. I recommend Chinese Alchemaen Sorcery (you are not put upon this world to GET IT!).

What's all the news? Well, the Sheavy DVD show was awesome - i shot a bunch of raw stuff from all over the place. Whether any of it gets used is out of my hands - but i thought it turned out pretty good. At any rate - the guys put on an amazing show, simply amazing. And this DVD is going to own.

Myself and a small crew (The wife, Mark, Daisy, Chris, Jon, Larry) caught the midnight launch screening of 300, which was quite the piece of work. Quite possibly the best theater-going experience I've had since Lord of the Rings Trilogy Tuesday back in '04. Beautifully filmed, with some wonderfully staged and jaw-droppingly beautiful action sequences. Old-school epic storytelling at it's finest. It's going to take a lot to knock this one off of the best of '07 throne, but the year is young.

Amazing stuff!

Meanwhile, work has been madness since Monique left - leaving pretty much all of the "behind the scenes" mumbojumbo resting on my shoulders. My days have become far too short to get much of anything done, and work just keeps piling. A few weeks back, myself and a few of the guys whooked up on Xboxlive for a bit of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 action (which is awesome by the way) and had a total blast. Ken runs out into gunfire, gets downed, myself and Dan provide cover fire while Brian runs out to get his sorry ass off the ground, all of us shouting into headsets frantically the whole time. Awesomeness. So after a particularly hairy Tuesday and Wednesday last week, i get home from work - quickly change into a pair of flannells, grab a Coors Lite, and head for the xbox 360. Pop in Graw 2, get a game invite from the Stringvulture almost instantly, and my system dies. An entire night of Xbox live action gone, and my 360 wasted along with it. So I have 15 or so 360 games in various states of completion sitting on the shelf gathering dust while i find a way to replace my busted box. Yes, it sucks. I've been catching up on my PS2 stuff at any rate. Actually enjoying the first God of War - who'd a thunk it?

The bane of my existence!

In other news, we did grab an upscale DVD player after returning our bunk Laser printer (no toner??? WTF???) and I've been catching up on my movies. Finally managed to see Children of Men and Blood Diamond, which have caused me to re-think my top ten of '06 list in a big way. Both were amazingly well done flicks. The picture on this bad boy through HDMI on the 50" is goddamn awesome too. Grabbed a few of the Bond re-releases on the cheap, and have been enjoying them to - which I figured wouldn't be possible after the awesomeness of Casino Royale. Even scarier, For Your Eyes Only, a goddamn Roger Moore outing, is probably in my Bond top 5.

Mark has been bringing around a crazy amount of board games lately - not like Sorry or Monopoly or any of that shit - but full fledged strategy boardgames like A Game of Thrones (based on the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire books) The Fury of Dracula, which is awesome, and War of the Ring (based, of course on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) which is downright godly. Sarah has gotten in on the action - more so than i have - i burn out on board games pretty quickly - but i must say, we've been having a blast!

Finally, I've finally, after 16 years of hunting, landed a box of G.I Joe trading cards. These things were first released back in 1991, amidst the Marvel Super Heroes/DC Heros trading card fad that lasted 2-3 years, and were near impossible to find in my neck of the woods. Cracked that sucker open (still factory sealed!) and started sorting - and came up 22 cards short of a full set. Still, these things are awesome, and a must for any fan of the "real American Hero" era of G.I. Joe. Now i need to scour the interweb for mint condition singles!

One box of AWESOME!

Less than 5 weeks till Sarah's due - Mom n Baby are coming along fine.

I'll be back within the week with my revised "Top 10 movies of 2007 - complete with new best film of the year". Stay tuned

The Rundown:
Watching: Children of men / Blood Diamond / The Spy Who Loved Me / For Your Eyes Only / Happy Feet / 300 / Sahara / Megadeth - That one Night (Live in Argentina)
Playing: God of War (ps2) / God of War II (Ps2) / Driver: Paralell Lines (xbox) / Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Listening to: The Tragically hip - In Between Evolution / Sheavy - Republic / Megadeth - The System has Failed / The Black Crowes - Lions
Working on (borrowing from Kev): Getting the game library catalogued in Excel / The book / The Script

Cheers,
Steve

"That diamond is my ticket off this godforsaken continent!"

2007-02-22T18:13:00.000-03:30

"Me and You, You and I, Watch the World Explode From My Celestial HiFi"

Why in God's name am I watching Armageddon?

DVD player at work is toast, so i'm working through our pretty extensive VHS library, which has been pretty fun. Man I love the 90's. As far as movies go, it's really a total mirror of the 70's - for every daring bit of original filmmaking, stuff like Seven, Pulp Fiction, Miller's Crossing, or The Usual Suspects, we had our cheese-ridden spectacles like Armageddon or Independance Day. It's the biggest kind of irony that so many people who were "of age" when 70's cinema was in it's prime look down their noses at the 90's - both decades were pretty much identical. Ok, so the 90's didn't have Francis Coppola firing on all cylinders, but other than that? The same. I suppose you're gonna tell me The Towering Inferno is better than Twister hey? Inferno may have had McQueen, but it didn't have the Paxton Factor, or evil corporate stormchasers.

In other news - God has finally hit his "fook you" switch and dumped on us. We had something like 45 centimetres overnight Sunday and Monday, which pretty much means a 20-foot high pile of snow in the center of our street, and 4-5 feet of snow in the place of sidewalks on the major roadways. Coming in one of our major highways last night i felt inclined to start quoting the Death Star run from star wars. I coulda sworn that as i approached my exit i could hear Ben Kenobi's voice in my head, "Use the force Steve... this is your exit... hit your turn signal..."

Sheavy played a particularly kick ass show on February 10th, unfortunately i missed their show the week before, which i'm told also kicked ass. Imagine my pleasant suprise when i get home last night after an excursion to costco to find the entirety of the 10th show waiting for me in my inbox (sort of). Great quality recording taken right from the soundboard (Thanks Dan, yer a prince). I left the camera at home this time, so no pictures.

In other Sheavy news, the guys are planning a new album and DVD release tentatively for May, the DVD shoot will be happening on March 3rd at Holy Heart Auditorium. I'm told there's gonna be an amazing light show, a wall of Marshall amplification, and one hell of a tight set of rock n roll. If you're able - you should really be there. I'll be bringing along the camcorder and shooting handheld all night - should be a blast!

Blog wise - it seems like both Mitch and Dan are now AWOL. Figures. Not me baby! I might even start another one, and update the Busted Controller sometime this century.

Not a whole lot going on game-wise, or movie-wise for that matter. Hell, not a whole lot going on in general. Playing PSone games on PSP is pretty awesome. Have Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger and Vagrant Story

The Rundown:

Watching: Raiders of the Lost Ark / The Italian Job / Armageddon / The Mummy / Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Listening To: Sheavy - Republic / Powderfinger - Vulture Street / Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome

Reading: Nada right now.

Playing: Chrono Trigger (psone) / Call of Duty 3 (xbox360) / Oblivion (xbox360)

Eating: Granola bars.

Cheers,
Steve

"This is the Earth, at a time when the Dinosaurs roamed a lush and fertile planet. A piece of rock just 6 miles wide changed all that."

2007-02-08T23:50:00.000-03:30

DVD Review

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

I've always been a huge fan of Robotech, from it's initial airdate in 1985 (I can still tell you the first episode i'd ever seen) right up to the present. It's something that's stuck with me through reruns, old ratty VHS dubs made from my original Beta recordings, severely edited rental cassettes, and right on up to now with the two separate DVD releases (the original "Robotech legacy" editions and the 2003 Remastered versions). It's a testament to the imagination of Carl Macek and his team of writers, that they were able to take three entirely stand-alone animated series from Japan and retcon them into the multi-generational epic sci-fi space opera that so many people still revere today. The return of Robotech roughly five years ago came as a complete and utter shock to me. Doubly so when in 2004 Harmony Gold announced the third attempt at a new Robotech series, then titled "Shadow Force". I was skeptical that it would see the light of day. Updates were sporadic at best, and things didn't seem to be moving foreword until late 2005 or thereabouts when it reappeared, dubbed Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. I remained hesitant, but it seemed to finally be happening, after 20 years, Robotech was back!

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles finally landed on DVD this past week, and it was with a lot of excitement, and more than a little nervous anxiety, that I popped it into the player. Could this one possibly live up to the legacy of the old? Could it possibly please a loyal fan base bolstered by 20 years of nostalgia? Well, while it wasn't perfect, it certainly satisfied this viewer, and makes for a more than worthy successor to the legendary series.

The year is 2044, and the Earth has been taken from mankind by a parasitic alien race called The Invid. Earth's human forces are all but gone, with only small bands of rebel freedom fighters rising against the Invid oppressors. The Shadow Chronicles opens with the Robotech Expeditionary Force returning to Earth orbit and leading an offensive to destroy the Reflex Point, home hive of the Invid Regis. When the Invid willingly flee, taking the remaining supply of Protoculture, a powerful energy source upon which both the Invid as a race, and Robotechnology as a whole rely upon, the door is left open for mankind's forces to return to their home world. Unfortunately, Admiral Rick Hunter, commanding force and captain of the fleet's flagship, the SDF-3, failed to return, and a stray transmission from his ship shows the Admiral in some distress. Naturally, a rescue mission is mounted, led by Captain Vince Grant and his crew. The SDF-3 is found, only to be lost again, and a new enemy, hated and feared by even the powerful Invid, enters the fray. It's up to Captain Grant and the legendary Skull squadron to track down Admiral Hunter and his ship, retrieve the only known remaining protoculture matrix in existence, and remain one step ahead of a new and vicious enemy capable of using the REF's most potent weapons against them. Add Scott Bernard, leader of a rebel band on Earth during the Invid war, a rogue Invid princess, a beautiful android with a connection to the new foe, and, of course, some bad-ass transforming robots into the mix, and you get some great science fiction anime that does a wonderful job of living up to the original.

The Shadow Chronicles has two factors going for it: It's an all-new, original piece of work, which frees writers from the shackles of inventing a plot to shoehorn into already finished animation, and the fact that original series brainchild Carl Macek, and guys like Jack McKinney were able to paint such a huge picture on such a confining canvas. Harmony Gold hired writers who knew Robotech inside and out, die hard fanboys, and it shows through in the material, which oozes the same sort of charisma the original series did. It also draws on the same vocal talent for the most part, all as talented a bunch as you're going to find in English Anime, and features mecha and character designs familiar to fans of the old series (Cyclone cycles and Alpha fighters!). The first 30 minutes or so of the film takes place concurrently with the final episodes of the classic series, presenting the action from an alternate view. While it's great that it ties the story together so tightly, new viewers will probably be scratching their heads for the most part, and veterans will notice a few anachronisms or changes in continuity from the old shows (especially if they finished a run through of the "New Generation" chapter of the saga immediately before viewing The Shadow Chronicles - as i did). While jarring, the changes made are done for Character's sake, and are generally an improvement on the old series, and while not everything is easily explained away, the writers do a good job of not super ceding or outright contradicting the old material. Once we get out of the first act, with the Invid gone and the new enemy introduced, Shadow Chronicles really takes off. Several new characters are introduced, chief among them, Vince Grant, Marcus Rush, and Maia Sterling, and all are worthy of inclusion and show potential to become classic characters in the saga, which leads me to my biggest issue.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles essentially plays out like the pilot for a new series, it introduces a handful of characters, sets up an arc, and while it does have some feeling of closure, it leaves its largest threads, along with the development of these new characters, dangling in space. That's not to say that the characters aren't strongly established, they certainly are, but they don't develop a whole lot in the 90 or so minutes we spend with them. It's an unfair critique to make, as we really didn't get to know the old characters all that well in that short of a span either.
It also would have been nice to resolve one of the larger plot threads before the credits - maybe an extra half hour or so could have been used to bring Rick Hunter and the SDF-3 back into the fold. Should The Shadow Chronicles lead into a 20-30 episode series, or a few feature length DVD sequels, the potential is there for it to stand toe to toe with the classics, but as a self contained story, it's like having Empire Strikes Back without Return of the Jedi. Again, i'll re-iterate, these are strong characters, and what few of the old characters that do return, Scott Bernard, Ariel, and Louie Nichols chief among them, are handled excellently, but we just don't get enough time to really latch onto them. Fortunately, while it may come up a little short in the drama department, the action is intense and suitably epic. I'll also say that Rick Hunter was awesome, and just seeing the hero of the original Robotech generation in this thing (still voiced by Tony Oliver to boot!) was one of the finest moments in geek-dom.

The Shadow Chronicles scores points for the quality of the animation present. The production is pretty much entirely digital, resembling more recent forays into TV Anime like Full Metal Panic! or Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. With CG generated backgrounds and all CG robots alongside more traditional looking Cel drawn characters. The two don't always blend seamlessly, and the CG fighters seem a little bland in the texture department, but you forget about that 5 minutes in with the awesome direction of the space battles and the action. Stylistically, it's not too fancy, fluid, and the character designs all have a highly kinetic look to them. The new villains of the show are original and pretty chillingly rendered, and even though the CG occasionally drops to near "Reboot/Beast Wars" levels, the quality of the design and the direction of the action continues to perform admirably in distracting you from any flaws that may be present. It's ultimately a great looking, and very stylish show. The fact that the direct digital transfer on the disc is pristine, flawless, and looks marvelous on a HD display doesn't hurt none either.

Sound wise, The Shadow Chronicles excels. The voice actors are all top notch, the explosions and sound design are all well executed, and the 5.1 mix on the DVD shines like a diamond. I have to lay down some big kudos and congrats to Scott Glasgow on the awesome score he's composed for this one. The original Robotech theme makes an appearance, in fully orchestrated form, and it's a fantastic piece of work. Scott's themes for the show proper are also extremely well done, never bombastic or over the top, always complementary to the scenes without becoming overt or manipulative, and at the same time, wonderfully crafted and infectious. Scott, you've knocked it out of the park, vastly superior to the synth driven stock music that accompanied the old series, what it lacks in nostalgic charm, it makes up for in sheer skill of execution.

The DVD treatment of the show is top notch, the extras are a little sparse, but what's there is good. the big feature is a 45 minute featurette called,"Birth of a Sequel". It's actually quite extensive and honest, and features some wonderful interviews with some very enthusiastic people. It was neat to see Mark Hamill (who voices a few characters in the show) chiming in, and the frantic devotion of the crew to the series and the new project was something to warm the heart. Also included is the most recent trailer, marred somewhat by some rather dull voiceover that didn't need to be there, and a few funimation trailers.

Overall, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles should be considered an overwhelming success. What easily could have been another Star Wars: Episode One, irreparably damaging a well-earned legacy? Or worse yet, could have been a colossal failure on par with the Matrix sequels, negating any fondness for what came before, was ultimately a true and honest continuation of what came before. Die hard fans may have a few nitpicks about continuity and a lack of opera-ness in their space opera, and newcomers will probably be pretty lost, at least for the first 25 minutes or so, but the majority of you, if you're like me, will find a wonderful return to an animated classic that shows the promise of a bright future indeed for Robotech. It's more than anyone could expect really, and my heart is with Harmony Gold, Frank Agrama and company certainly seem to be doing this out of love rather than money. I for one hope to see the saga continue with the same quality and care that's been shown here.

- The movie -

4 out of 5

- The DVD -

4 out of 5

2007-02-04T01:33:00.000-03:30

Masked Crusaders working Overtime! Fighting Crime!

Because the 80's kicked such fucking ass - i give you 10 of the greatest Cartoon openings ever!:

and the FUCKING KING:

Man, where the hell did they find musicians desperate enough to record some of that craziness! The animation on that Silverhawks one kicks a bit of ass though, and Spiral Zone gets my vote for coolest RAWK!

Cheers,

Steve

"G.I. Joe is the codename for America's daring, highly trained special mission force. It's purpose: To defend human freedom against COBRA - a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world!"

2007-02-01T21:02:00.000-03:30

"Close to nowhere, and Halfway Accross."

What's happenin' cats n' kittens?

Been a little while since last I graced (or cursed) you with my prescence, and for that i sincerely apologize (or not, depending on how you feel about the whole thing.)

Current events: what the hell is up with the city of Boston hey?? None of them watch such fine fare as Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Well, not that i'd ever seen an episode in my life, but mistaking glowing neon critters for Bombs!!??? Americans sure can be stupid, or excessively paranoid. Or maybe this was a perfectly legitimate reaction, and we Canadians are just far too laid back in our thinking. Hey, that looks like a neon light brite critter flipping the bird... woah... BOOM! Dang, i should have figured it was packed with Semtex and fertilizer, and was meant to cause rampant chaos and disarray. Either way, we interpret it as a threat, shut down essential services, THE TERRORISTS WIN! Or we ignore it and risk fiery death, THE TERRORISTS WIN! Didn't the same thing happen with little boxes attached to newspaper dispensers that blared the Mission: Impossible III theme! "Holey shit! That little black box just told me this newspaper stand will self destruct in 10 seconds! As soon as I grabbed my copy of the New York Times! RUN AWAY! IT'S A BOMB!" Yes my friends, once again... THE TERRORISTS WIN!

In my own little corner of the world - The computron has been returned to its home on the second floor, complete with a nice new (p)leather desk chair, a new wireless router for some damn fast internet rates, and a retail purchased copy of Windows Vista (that i will install when i buy more RAM). It feels strange actually owning a legitimate operating system (my first since Windows 95 - i didn't say that out loud did I?) I like Vista, it's nice.

Also addicted to World of Warcraft - 2 years after i first started playing the damn thing and i finally "get on board". Blood Elves are cool - level 14 and counting!

Sheavy show this Saturday, and i have to work goddamn! Sheavy show next Saturday , and I'll be there - maybe I'll try and catch some video, which I'm sure Dan will let me share.

Sick as a dog earlier this week - had a fever for pretty much all of Monday night, all of Tuesday, and right up to Wednesday morning - still haven't completely recovered, but at least i can walk now.

In other gaming news, Xboxlive is taking over my life - lately it seems I log in, and there are a ton of people online! I've played more deathmatch and co-op in the last two weeks than I had the entire first year i had the machine! It's a hoot and a half! I'm finally getting to see what this "Xbawx live" stuff is all about.

Deadwood is the greatest TV show in the history of everything you fucking cocksuckers...

Almost done with Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, not a bad read, a little too smug and self aware for my tastes, but it got a few chuckles. It reads Brit-like, like an American trying real hard to do British satire...

Haven't done one of these in a while:

The Rundown:

Watching: Deadwood: Season 2 / Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut / Sky Blue / Flyboys / NCIS: Season 1

Listening To: Fu Manchu - We Must Obey / Pearl Jam - Yield / Jethro Tull - Aqualung / The DRopkick Murphys - The Warriors Code / Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death

Reading: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegurt

Playing: World of Warcraft (pc) / Gears of War (xbox360) / Lost Planet (xbox360) / Call of Duty 3 (xbox360) / Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (xbox360)

Eating: McDonalds

I'm out!

Cheers,
Steve

"Is that Frederich Nietzsche? You don't speak because of Frederich Nietzsche? Alright..."

2007-01-21T03:25:00.000-03:30

"And given time... the world would be mine..."

Short one, but a good one. After months of conflict - the damn computron is up and running again! As proof positive, i present - The crafting of this very blog entry, as seen on a goddamn 50-inch monitor! WOOT! (and yeah, it's another goddamn chance to show off the TV (Kev man, it looks SWEET!) Turns out the power supply did indeed crispify, and it took the board and processor with it. I'm running a Celeron D 3.06 now (anyone wanna enlighten me as to how that stacks up next to a Pentium 4 2.6ghz - i can build this shit in my sleep, but i've long since abandoned making any sense out of the variety of processors out there these days).

The big news I alluded to a few posts back was a line on a new job, which i wound up turning down. My heart is where i'm at, and i decided personal happiness for a few extra bucks wasn't worth the sacrifice.

Robotech is back - i'm fucking stoked!

Kev's got a new tune posted over on his myspace spot - go give it a listen, not only because Kev is a brother to me, but because it's an excellent bit of music, and he deserves the attention... go. go now, and click on "The Flame". Dude you've come a long way.

Maybe now that i have this sucker up and running again i'll update the Busted Controller again soon... one can only hope, my Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, Final Fantasy XII, and Zelda: Twighlight Princess reviews are well behind.

I leave you with a picture of my cats, doing cat-like things...

Sleeping - and being an inquisitive jerk - yup, those are cats all right.

Cheers,
Steve

"Who are these people? Friends of yours? Well this really pisses me off to no end!"

2007-01-09T14:07:00.000-03:30

"Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Your Hands Upon The Wheel!"

New wheels for Steve - Might as well share a few snaps hey?

That's it for now...

Cheers,
Steve

"Let me tell you what Melba Toast is packin'"

2007-01-04T20:42:00.000-03:30

Best of 2006 - Part 3

Best of 2006 - THE MOVIES

10. The Departed
Directed By Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese assembles an all star cast for a trip through the Boston underworld and the Undercover unit of the state police in this remake of Asian crime drama "Infernal Affairs". Jack Nicholson stars as a grizzled veteran Underworld kingpin, Matt Damon is his mole in the police department, Leonardo DiCaprio is the police mole inside Jack's gang, and Alec Baldwin and Mark Whalberg steal the show as a pair of asshole officers. Scorsese paces the film brilliantly, and the dramatic highs and lows keep the film riveting throughout. If not for the final act, which goes from "dramatic" to "slightly ridiculous", The Departed could have finished even higher on the list.

9. Mission: Impossible III
Directed By J.J. Abrams

JJ Abrams, most known for TV spy show "Alias", brings a fresh approach to the third film in the M:I franchise. It isn't quite the cerebral experience the first film was, nor is it the brain-dead action-fest of the second, but a solid mix of the two previous experiences with an added style all of it's own. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, retired from the secret agent game and engaged to be married, until a trainee of his winds up a prisoner and he's recruited by an old friend to bust her out. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays the truly loathsome villain of the piece in a tour-de-force performance that seems to have garnered the majority of the attention, though I feel Cruise does every bit as good a job when sharing the screen with Hoffman. Abrams also keeps the tension wound tight throughout, with one hell of an opening tease and one riveting scene after another with very little downtime. If it ain't the best film of the series, it's definitely tied with the first.

8. A Scanner Darkly
Directed by Richard Linklater

Based on the Phillip K. Dick novel of the same name, A Scanner Darkly is a drug-addled trip through the paranoid world of the near future, where everyone and anyone is under surveillance. One undercover cop, played by Keanu Reaves, begins to lose his grip after becoming addicted to a lethal mind-altering drug. To make matters worse, all undercover officers wear a special suit which hides their identities to one another, and the latest subject he's been assigned to investigate happens to be himself. Linklater uses Rotoscoping to fully animate the film and give it a unique look, and Reaves, along with Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson all give fantastic performances. It's one trippy ride of a movie.

7. Clerks II
Directed By Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith returns to his original (and most effective) piece of work, only a decade or so later. We find everyones favorite clerks, Dante and Randal, still jockeying a counter, only this time it's the fast food counter of a burger-slinging joint. Dante is engaged, planning on leaving Jersey for sunny Florida with his semi-insane bride-to-be, Randal is grooming Elias, a religious teen with a Lord of the Rings fetish (played brilliantly by Trevor Fehrman) to be Dante's replacement as his stooge, and everyone's favorite drug dealers, Jay and Silent Bob have gone sober, but still sell drugs of course. I'll come right out and say it, this is the single funniest film Smith has ever done, it has all of the sly wit and pop-culture jibes of the original, combined with some outlandish sillyness and hilarious commentary. The characters have aged well, and show the added maturity that would come with the passage of time from 20-somethings to 30-somethings. It's an intelligent and heartwarming film in spite of all the raunchy going's on (The donkey show is just wrong man.) Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson play Dante and Randal as they should, and the supporting cast is spot on. Smith even does a great job on the randomly inserted song and dance scene. Best "laugh-out-loud" comedy of the 21st century thus far.

6. Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
Directed by Gore Verbinsky

The first Pirates film's commercial success was a total fluke. By all accounts, it should have been a bomb of "Cutthroat Island" proportion. It wasn't, far from actually, so here we are with the inevitable sequel. Surely, being the sequel to a fluke blockbuster, it has to suffer, right? Not so. Pirates 2 takes everything that worked in the original, and amps it to eleven. The action is more intense, the fantasy elements are more fantastical (is that even a word?), and Jack Sparrow is even more bizarre and unhinged than he was in the first. Rest assured, this is entirely Johnny Depp's show, and while it bugs me that Jack isn't quite the consummate pirate he was in the first film (he has a distinct cowardly trait that was absent in the original), Depp still plays him with the aplomb and brilliance to make him one of the most memorable characters to come along since Indiana Jones and James Bond. Pretty much the entirety of the cast is back, and everyone is given plenty of screen time. The closing moments are also a brilliant setup for the third film, which is due in May of '07. Dead Man's Chest is pure spectacle, but with a heart and soul, the kind of film we haven't seen in 15 or 20 years. If they don't drop the ball on the third film, i'd say we're looking at another trilogy that will live on for decades.

5. Running Scared
Directed By Wayne Kramer

This flick was a total surprise for me. Paul Walker plays Joey, a low level mob guy typically responsible for disposing of "hot" pieces, guns that have been used in crimes and whatnot. Unfortunately, Oleg, the boy next door, just lifted a hot piece from Joey's basement and used it to take potshots at his crooked Russian father. What follows is a sort of film noir Alice in Wonderland as Joey and Oleg journey from one macabre situation to another. Wayne Kramer directs with a highly visual flair, and his script is sharp and full of twists and turns. The violence is gritty, over the top in the same vein as last year's Sin city. The biggest suprise for me was Walker, who actually gives a pretty solid performance. The supporting cast all did a great job as well, and Vera Farminga shines as Joey's wife, Teresa, who gets a pretty disturbing chapter of the story all her own. It's a dark horse to be certain, and is certainly not for everyone. If there's any justice in the world, it's a cult phenomenon in the making.

4. Casino Royale
Directed By Martin Campbell

For those who've been living under a rock, Casino Royale serves as a certified reboot of the long-running James Bond franchise. Recasting the role of Bond, restarting continuity, and generally tossing the good stuff (as well as the wretched) that came before. The stripping away of all the superfluous gadgets and cheesy elements of the series has resulted in a vibrant and energetic piece of spy-fiction along the lines of the Jason Bourne films. For the first time in a few decades, Bond feels fresh and original. Daniel Craig does an amazing job with the role, his Bond is an icy, arrogant killer, and thankfully, his quips are far removed from the lame one-liners of Bond's past. The film does a fantastic job with spectacle, from the opening "free-running" chase to the final shootout in Venice inside a slowly sinking house, the stunt work is spectacular, and CG interference is kept to a bare minimum. Overall an excellent re-imagining of the James Bond character and one hell of a spy-film.

3. The Fountain
Directed By Darren Aranofsky

Originally supposed to be a big-budget sci-fi epic starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette, Aranofsky's finished project is much smaller and more intimate. Hugh Jackman plays Tommy, a doctor researching a means to cure brain tumors, Racheal Wiesz plays Izzy, his wife, who happens to be slowly succumbing to the same illness. Sprinkled amongst the film are flashback and flash-forward scenes featuring a very different Thomas, a Spanish conquistador in search of the fountain of life in the name of his queen, Isabel, and a bizarre zen-priest version of Tom in the far future, careening towards a dying star inside a giant clear orb accompanied by the apparition of Izzie, and a giant tree. The whole thing is open to interpretation, and if you look at it the same way I did, it all seems a lot more straightforward than it sounds. Ultimately, what The Fountain is, is a heartfelt and beautiful commentary on love everlasting. The film is amazingly well acted, the score by Clint Mansell (performed by The Kronos Quartet and rock group Mogwai) is fantastic, the visuals are astounding, and, for me at least, the entire thing held me captivated until the closing moments. A beautiful and fiercely original film that will undoubtedly spur conversation and debate, even if you do come to the logical conclusion that I did. Aranofsky has knocked it out of the park on this one, it's his finest film to date.

2. Miami Vice
Directed By Michael Mann

Michael Mann brings his signature style to this slick re-imagining of his classic 80's series of the same name. Anyone expecting anything resembling the pop-culture infused semi-false memory of the original show is going to be horribly disappointed with this one. The affair is slow and deliberate, soaked in detail from start to finish, and unfolds in a slow and steady manner, occasionally exploding in fits of realistic violence. What makes the film so fresh and invigorating for me is the lack of the Hollywood action "slam bang" mentality that could easily have soaked into the film. Mann is far too smart for that. We get real characters, doing their jobs. Vice is a film that makes the viewer work, everything is not spelled out for you, you must think on your feet, much like the characters, piecing things together as they happen. It's intelligent to a fault, not taking our smarts for granted. The film is a visual marvel, Mann soaks it in a natural style, much like collateral, almost the way a photographer will capture a natural landscape, and the results are stunning. It's a police procedural through and through, like Heat before it, or The French Connection before that, an adult piece of work. Colin Farrell and Jamie foxx don't act per se, so much as they present us with real people. They aren't action heroes or rah-rah gunslingers, they are slightly above average joes doing a far from average job. I think the film is pretty much perfect on every level, I love it. One of Mann's best!

Movie of the Year

United 93
Directed by Paul Greengrass

Where do I even begin? I don't think there's anyone alive who doesn't know the history of September 11th, 2001. United 93 tells the story of the doomed flight of the same name, the plane that didn't hit its intended target due to an uprising amongst the passengers. There's so much more than that to this film though - we see the events of that fateful September day unfold deliberately, on Flight 93, in the FAA control center, and at Aircraft control centers in Boston and New York. In many cases, the officials in these centers are the real people, and the reactions seem every bit as real here as they probably did on that day. Director Paul Greengrass (the man behind "The Bourne Supremacy") uses a minimalist style, a fly on the wall approach, with little to no "Hollywood" interference. The end result is a visceral and involving film that feels entirely real without any of the baggage that would usually come with a Hollywood drama. We don't even know these characters names, and yet by the end of the film we feel more deeply for them, simply based on their reactions to the events surrounding them, than we would for any Hollywood cliche. The tension is ratcheted to the limit of human endurance, it's the only film in my adult life, or as far as i can recall anyway, that literally left me trembling and shaken. An incredibly powerful piece of work, a must see film.

Other notables:

A Prairie Home Companion
The Prestige
Silent Hill
The Last Kiss
Inside Man
Monster House
Cars
Bon Cop, Bad Cop

There are a few flicks i haven't managed to catch yet that very well could have had a place on this list - I figure i might as well give them mention:

World Trade Center
Unknown
Catch A Fire
Flyboys
Blood Diamond
The Good German
A Good Year
The Good Shepherd

That's it for the top 10's

Regular updates to follow

Cheers,
Steve

2007-01-03T14:33:00.000-03:30

Best of 2006 - Part 2

Best of 2006 - THE MUSIC

10. Tom Petty - Highway Companion

Tom Petty has long been a source of cruisin' music, but never moreso than here, his third "sans Heartbreakers" outing. The album seems tailor made for those highway voyages, making the name totally fitting. It's a great mix of uptempo rock like "Saving Grace" and "Big Weekend", and some slower more mellow tunes like "Turn this Car Around" and "Square One". The biggest strength of the album is it's consistancy, something Petty releases have lacked in the past. The whole affair is signifigantly less self-indulgant than Petty's last solo-effort, it's all about the tunes here, it's Petty having a good time.

9. Audioslave - Revelations

Audioslave finally sound like a cohesive whole. Given the nature of this album, being recorded while touring to support 2005's "Out of Exile", the band really gelled more this time around, and it shows. The music is tighter, playing to the strengths of both sides of the coin, the loose riff-driven groove of Rage Against the Machine, and the more melodic and musical vibe of Soundgarden. Overall it's a more enjoyable album than the previous 2, with some high energy rockers like "Original Fire" and the title track, and of course we get some of Cornell's more melancholy crooning on a few slower tunes. Cornell's voice is as awesome as usual, which makes it a winner.

8. Jeff Martin - Exile and the Kingdom

When the Tea Party announced their demise late in 2005, a Jeff Martin solo project wasn't too far behind. I can honestly say i really had no idea what to expect from Jeff, but happily he didn't rest on his Tea Party laurels, nor move in an entirely foriegn direction. Exile and the Kingdom is a solid slice of folk rock a la Page-Plant with Martin's very distinct vocal delivery. Gone are the literary and philosophical pretentions of The Tea Party, replaced by more personal and intimate lyrical content. It's probably as strong an album as any of the more recent Tea efforts, and shows that Martin is still a talented force in Canadian rock, and hopefully has a strong future as a solo artist. "Angeldust" and "Butterfly" show Martin's strengths as a folk rocker, and "Lament is as beautiful and melodic a song as anything he ever recorded with his bandmates. There are a few clunky moments, but overall this is a great folk-rock offering from one of Canada's most talented singer-guitarists.

7. Jet - Shine On

Jet's debut album pretty much took North America by storm about 6 months or so after its release. Immediately afterwards they suffered a venemous backlash from much of the music community. Their sophmore effort isn't going to win them any new fans i'll wager, but what it does, is show that they spent the downtime growing as a band, and working hard at creating an identity, musically, for themselves. They still have that "Aussie-rock" swagger, but it's laced with a later-years Oasis vibe and lacks the cockiness of their first offering. "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" sounds at once different from, and yet instantly similar to their debut material, while the rest of the album is more Beatles-esque than the AC/DC - Stooges fueled stomp of 2003's "Get Born". Overall a stronger album than their debut, and a solid rock n roll outing.

6. Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome (The Seeger Sessions)

Bruce invited a flurry of folk-style musicians to an old farmhouse, jammed like a madman, and recorded the whole thing. The result is a resoundingly brilliant effort. This album is the anti-thesis to Bruce's sombre "Devils & Dust", a rompin' stompin' hootenanny of an album. From the opening strains of "Old Dan Tucker" to the closing stomp of "Froggie Went A Courtin'" - Bruce takes us on an old time journey through the roots of American music. The songs aren't originals per se, but they sound it. If Devils & dust left you bored or depressed, We Shall Overcome will have you on your feet. One of the greatest albums of Bruce's career.

5. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death

Maiden does what they do best on this, their 14th studio album. They present truely EPIC chunks of what can only be described as "Storyteller-Metal". Where teh album truely excels is in the delivery, never have Maiden sounded so crushingly heavy, vibrant, or energetic. Bruce sings his lungs out, and the guitars just sweep over the listener. It all feels more spontaneous and less "pieced together" than previous efforts (probably because it was recorded mostly live in the studio). The beast of an album runs a whopping 70+ minutes, and also features one of the coolest Maiden covers ever. And any Maiden fan knows a cover is important. It's hard to choose single tracks to highlight, as each offering is exemplary of what Maiden does best. If i were forced at gunpoint, "The Longest Day" is the best metal song of the year hands down.

4. Matt Mays - Music From When The Angels Make Contact

Matt Mays has been doing a solid job of carving out a niche in the Canadian rock scene with his band El Torpedo. His blend of Petty-like grooves and Dylan-esque storytelling have earned him some notoriety in recent years. His newest offering, in Solo form this time around, pretty much shatters pre-concieved notions. This one is a more moody and experimental affair. When the album succeeds, it does so brilliantly, with some amazing tracks that strike a more mellow chord. "Past" is a spirited and haunting opener, "1 for the Motor" is a charming ballad, "When The Angles Make Contact" is almost hip-hop country electronica. A few classic Mays rockers do pop up later on in the album, but overall this is a vastly different journey than either of Matt's previous albums. Like every other experiment, there are some risky choices, and while nothing falls flat, some are less appealing than others, but overall it's one of the strongest efforts to come out of Canada this year, and when it does succeed, it's some of the best material Matt has ever done.

3. The Tragically Hip - World Container

The Hip are back once again, this time with a decidedly different approach, their second paradigm shift really. Originally a bar-rock band, they shifted into more melodic arena territory sometime around the mid 90's, and now they make the journey into pop-territory. The album is more loose, less melancholy than their more recent efforts. And while one or two songs keep the album from sheer greatness - the excellent material is some of the best stuff the Hip has ever laid to tape - from the infectiously poppy "In View" to hard rockers, "The Lonely End of the Rink" and "The Drop-Off", and the epic title track. The whole album has a level of poslish and punch that can only be attributed to uber-producer Bob Rock, and they sound vibrant and alive. It may not be as good as "In Between Evolution" on the whole, but taken song by song, it's an amazing piece of work.

2. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

This is what i said back in April: This is the most cohesive package Pearl Jam has ever assembled as a group. The band is really playing as a unit, and the fire is back, burning so brightly that you just might have to squint. For the first time, ever really, the band seems to be a collective whole. They're comfortable in their skins, they're enjoying playing off of one another. This is, for me, quite possibly the best, most complete album they have ever done. The guitar is a little cleaner, a little more forceful. Ed's vocals are less restrained than they were on Riot Act or Binaural. Musically the songs are effortless, they roll over you like a wave, there's not a jarring or off putting moment, everything sounds like golden honey. It all just flows together. It's hard to single out better or worse, as the whole thing is really one big experience. The self-titled approach was definitely the way to go, this is the new Pearl Jam, a transcendental piece of work, a re-birth. This is their "Dark Side of the Moon" or their "Led Zeppelin IV". It is not to be missed. I still feel the same.

Album of the Year

Sam Roberts - Chemical City

Chemical City is one hell of a musical effort. The typically Beatles meets Dylan feel of Robert's debut album has been drenched in 70's rock psychadelia and grooves to make for one of the most sonically captivating albums to come along in a while. From the all out rock of "The Gate" to the closing strains of the melancholy "A Stone Would Cry Out", every track is a winner. The band shifts from straight up rock mode to freeform jam and everywhere in between. Each and every song is a slab of rock perfection. Sam's lyrical content is also awesome stuff, and his voice is smooth and captivating. Every piece of this disc is classic, well executed, and toe-tapping. It's the tightest, most engaging, downright awesome bit of music i've heard in 2006, Chemical City is the best album of 2006!

Other notables:

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Incubus - Light Grenades
David Gilmour - On An Island
Sloan - Never Hear The End Of It

Next time - we finish this year-end badboy with my picks on the ten best films of 2006!

Cheers,
Steve

2007-01-02T14:19:00.000-03:30

Best of 2006 - Part 1

Happy new year to everyone.

Before I do anything else I must congratulate Good friend and compadre Jon Dobbin - Jondre has just become a Daddy! He's got a great story to start the new year with - and baby Emily and Momma Kate are doing fine. I'll leave it for him to tell, if he updates anytime soon.

Meanwhile - with the start of 2007, it's time for me to look back on the best of 2006 - as i did last year - with a look at what i considered the finest moments in gaming, movies, and music throughout the year. And i have to say - i've been doing this sort of thing for a few years, and this year was by far the hardest, as I really consider 2006 a banner year for films, music, and games.

Same rules apply as last year - i may be crazy, but you really don't need to remind me - friendly comments are always welcome.

Lets get the show on the road.

Best of 2006 - THE GAMES

10. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (Playstation 2)

Valkyrie Profile 2 is actually a prequel to a seldom heard of, but absolutely fantastic PSOne RPG released in 1999. The game puts the player into the shoes of Silmeria, a renegade Valkyrie exiled from Valhalla, desperately trying to stop a mortal king from discovering an ancient power he could use to wage war on the gods. Along teh way you pick up several party members in the forms of Einharijar, dead souls which the Valkyrie can harvest from ancient relics found in dungeouns. The combat system is one of the deepest i've ever encountered, the game itself is immense in size, the character designs are beautiful, and the entire game is a technical marvel on the ps2, with some amazing graphics and effects.

9. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (Playstation Portable)

Lenneth is a direct port of the original PSOne RPG, Valkyrie Profile, released to little fanfare and less supply in 1999. If anything, the original game, one of the very best RPG's available for Sony's grandaddy console, actually benefits from the smaller display. The hand-drawn 2d sprites look sharper, and the animation is stellar. In the game you play Lenneth, a Valkyrie in service to lord Odin. Your quest involves scouring the mortal realm of Midgard for souls on the brink of death, and guiding said souls to Valhalla to do battle at Ragnarok. Where the game really excels is in how it tells the stories behind the individuals you encounter. At once touching, heartbreaking, or downright tragic. The combat that does occur is a fast paced, turn-based affair that is quite addictive. The game does impose something of a time limit, which increases the urgency of your quest, and different endings allow for a few re-plays. The soundtrack is also quite awesome. A classic JRPG that shines on Sony's handheld system.

8. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Playstation Portable)

Metal Gear as we've come to know and love, in portable form! Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops picks up a few yeasr after MGS3: Snake Eater ends, and provides a very similar gameplay experience. The aspects of MGS that fans have come to love are all pretty much intact, the deep storyline, engaging stealth-based gameplay, and solid production values. Throw in a robust multiplayer mode, and the ability to recruit followers off of the battlefield, and you get a remarkable piece of portable software - a must have for MGS fans who happen to own a PSP.

7. Call of Duty 3 (xbox 360, Playstation 3)

Pretty much since day 1, The Call of Duty series' claim to fame has been replicating the sheer insanty of war. No game in the series has done it better than Call of Duty 3. Technology wise, the game is a step or two beyond last years entry in the series, with some amazingly beautiful graphics that scream "next-gen" to the player. Treyarch, the guys behind the excellent "Big Red One" entry in the series, take the development duties this time around, adding their flair for narrative to the chaotic combat. You get to know these characters a little more than you would in a typical WWII Shooter. You get some new experiences, playing as a Polish tanker, or Canadian infantry, and you also get a fully featured online mode complete with classes and an elaborate ranking system. While the Call of Duty games seldom attempt to re-invent the WWII shooter genre, they are consistantly the best entries in the crowded market, and Call of Duty 3 easily takes the crown for best entry in the franchise so far.

6. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (xbox 360)

You take command of Cpt. Scott Mitchell and the Ghosts, an elite team of US Special Forces. The mission this time around is to thwart a military coup of Mexico by fighting through armed insurgeants in a deserted Mexico City. Ghost Recon: advanced Warfighter (or GRAW, as it is affectionately called) is a "next generation" shooter from the ground up. It features inherent game design choices that elevate it above and beyond anything you've played on a PS2 or Xbox, add in drop-dead gorgeous visuals, an amazing multiplayer mode that feels like a stand alone game in itself, and incredibly tight polish and controls, and you get the best tactical shooter ever concieved, and the first "must have" title released for Microsoft's then fledgling xbox360. Sure Rainbow Six: Vegas is pretty cool and all, but GRAW is where it's at.

5. Guitar Hero II (Playstation 2)

The first one was awesome, the second is even better. The track selection is more varied, with some more endearing tunes, the gameplay has been tightened, made slightly more difficult, and the mutliplayer has been vastly improved - featuring the ability to play bass, rythm, and lead sections of songs independantly. I defy anyone to play Freebird and not have a big stupid grin on their face.

4. Gears of War (xbox 360)

Long considered a dark horse in Microsoft's next-gen arsenal, Gears wasn't released, it was unleashed. Whatever doubts anyone may have had were certainly laid to rest when this puppy hit. This is the Halo of this generation, an incredibly well-designed and executed shooter that differs from anything else on the market. It's incredibly refreshing to play a third or first person shooter that actually has a learning curve, it proves that innovation within the crowded genre is far from dead. The fact that Gears looks better than ANYTHING else released this year on pc or console definitely helps it's case. The fact that it controls well, has an incredibly fun multi-player component, and an incredibly cool back story is just icing on the cake. It's intense, it's addictive, it's gory, it's fun as hell. Still not sold? It has a huge assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Gamecube, Wii)

Four years and change were spent on development of this one, and it shows. Nintendo's Zelda series has long been a hallmark of video gaming, and Twilight Princess is quite possibly the single best entry in the long running series to date. Graphically, it pushes the aging Gamecube for all that it's worth, and unlike other entries in the series, there's more going on here than just "save the princess". It's really the narrative of Twilight Princess that sets it apart. The excellent gameplay of past entries is present, and then some, and whether you go with the Cube or Wii version, you're getting one amazing gameplay experience.

2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox 360, PC)

This was one of the hardest decisions i've ever had to make. Oblivion is quite simply a classic experience. One of the best, most fully realized game worlds ever commited to console or computer. The freedom you're given from the word "Go!" is unmatched in any other game, and yet, the wizards at Bethesda also manage to cram in one incredible storyline, several side stories centered around the game's different factions, and top it all off with some jaw-dropping visuals and audio. This is quite simply one of the greatest games of the last decade. If I were to factor in the additional downloadable content, like the excellent "Knights of the Nine" package, we would probably be looking at the game of the year. But I had to judge it based on what shipped initially. Maybe next year for PS3.

Game of the Year

Final Fantasy XII (Playstation 2)

Subject of heated debate and outright rage amongst the Final Fantasy hardcore. FFXII was perhaps one of the most hotly debated games within many circles, until it's release. Square-Enix updated the gameplay, made changes from the ground up, creating a completely different animal from what people have come to expect. It was a huge gamble, but the game that emerged is one of the most original, engaging, and incredibly well executed pieces of software to come from a company long heralded for their quality. It is, in my book, the single best game, RPG or otherwise, to ever grace Sony's now venerable PS2. The game is a marvel of game design, a shining example of art design over shiny new technology (much like last year's Shadow of the Colossus), and a joy to play. Characters have long been a hallmark of the series, and Final Fantasy XII is one of the better entries here, with some amazing personalities, all wonderfully voice acted. The game's storyline is suitably epic, without the doomsday prophecy elements of past games in the series. It was a close race between this and Oblivion, but ultimately, based on the strengh of it's gameplay, and the amazing story it tells, Final Fantasy XII recieves the top honors.

Other amazing games that didn't quite make the list:

Rainbow Six: Vegas (xbox360)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PSP)
Bully (PS2)
Driver: Paralell Lines (PS2, Xbox)
LocoRoco (PSP)
Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection (PSP)
Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
Tomb Raider: Legend (Xbox360, PS2, Xbox)
Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox360, Ps2, Xbox)
Ultimate Ghouls n Ghosts (PSP)
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2)
Dead Rising (xbox360)
Black (PS2, Xbox)
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox360)
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox, PS2) - not the same game as above.
Monster Hunter: Freedom (PSP)
New Super Mario Bros (DS)
Final Fantasy III (DS)

Up next: Music!

Cheers,
Steve

2006-12-30T13:58:00.000-03:30

The Post Christmas Update

Hello loyal readers (all 2 or 3 of you). Hope your Christmas was good all around. Bit of a mixed bag for me this year. Found out, while at my aunt's place for the traditional "KFC on Christmas Eve at Signal Hill" get together, that one of the most cherished people in my life, the closest thing in the world i have to a sister, passed away suddenly. Angela was home just this past August, when she and her daughter Chelsea (whom Abby gets her middle name from) were bridesmaids at the wedding. She was 33 years young, and we still don't know for sure what happened. Initial belief was that she took her own life, but we're waiting for confirmation on that one.The funeral was yesterday, myself and Sarah trekked out over the highway to be there, and i was a pallbearer, which was an honor. It was great to see Chelsea (my other sis) who's taking it pretty well, and her dad, whom i haven't seen in over ten years. She's going to be moving in with him and starting in a new school - i wish her all the best. Sad times all around.

The Christmas Eve get together at the Casa De Power did go off without a hitch, and i did my best to enjoy myself - the Sake was awesome Johnny boy.

Christmas day was awesome - Satan Claus was kind, as usual:

- Darth Tater and a Spudtrooper from Abby
- M:I: III in a nice limited tin - Guitar Hero II (rock!)
- A new leather Desk Chair (from the inlaws)
- Kiss pajamas!
- Optimus Prime in all his Transformers: Alternators glory
- Rob Roy (thanks Mark)
- A Hot Wheels radar gun! (i'm dishing out speedin' tickets to the cats!)
- Some assorted Junk food

And best of all Some new speakers for the home theatre!

These things sound awesome.

Abby did well also - got her fish tank, a few movies, and some toys, and Sarah got enough DVD season sets to keep her busy for a few weeks, and her book (Where is My Cow - by Terry Pratchett) was a huge hit. Work was insane throughout the week - Andy's place the day after Boxing Day was quite a bit of fun, and there's another get-together coming up at my place tomorrow night that should be a hoot.

That's it for now - there may be some big news coming in the next week or two - stay tuned.

The Annual top-10 should also be posted by Tuesday at the latest.

Cheers,
Steve
"They Didn't Even Ask Me Any Questions..."

2006-12-26T12:06:00.000-03:30

Where Did It All Go Wrong

Angela Murphy

1973-2006

Rest easy sis. I'll miss ya.

2006-12-21T18:36:00.000-03:30

There's a Lady who's sure, All that glitters is gold...

Only a few days left before Christmas - thought I'd hit you guys with a few pictures from the ole camera:

First up - the house, with a few Christmas lights. I'm not one of these Christmas Vacation types who believes in covering every nook and cranny of his domicile in twinklers or LED's, i like a "less is more" approach. I think it looks good anyway.

For a little Abby love - the munchkin can now spell her own name, and does a pretty good job at writing it too. Mom (or Nana to her) also taught the little braniac how to play Gofish during the week, and she's writing four or five words now! I'm not proud though, nosiree.

Finally - the Filmcave, version 2.0! After a ton of work painting and polishing, some furniature re-arranging, and two swanky incandescent lamps, the filmcave is better than ever. Light years beyond the dingy hole with carpet whose color can only be described as "Texas Chainsaw white" that it was when we moved in. Hopefully i get some laminate flooring early in the new year and finish it up.

In other news, still no idea what I'm getting for Christmas, have a pile of stuff picked up for Sarah, and yet - it feels like i don't have enough - go figure. Watched A Scanner Darkly during the week - one of the most original pieces of work I've ever seen. Waking Life and School of Rock may have soured me bigtime on Linklater, but this renews my faith in the guy, and the supplemental materials go a long way to proving he's one of the coolest guys in the biz.

I don't know if I've given mention to it or not, but Dan (Link to right) is back to blogging again, having abandoned his short brush with fiction. I'm still writing myself, the idea I've had since March or so. It's evolved somewhat over time, and the back story has grown a little more complex as it has evolved. The prose itself remains pretty straightforward. It's taken on a bit of a blasphemous bent - like if this thing ever got published, Christians would be burning an effigy of me and such. But essentially it's Indiana Jones, crossed with the X-Files, crossed with H.P. Lovecraft, and set in the very early 1900's. Call it adventure with a classic Horror bent. Central characters are a British surgeon from the 1700's named Luther Isaac Huxley, and his buffalo soldier Civil War veteran sidekick Nathaniel Grey. If this sounds at all interesting to you - well cool!

That's it for now.

The Rundown:
Watching: A Scanner Darkly / A Christmas Story
Listening To: Led Zeppelin - Boxed Set / The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Howard Shore / Incubus - Light Grenades
Reading: Sahara
Eating: Salt n Vinegar flavored popcorn.

Cheers,
Steve

"Fraah-jeele-Ay! Must be Italian!"

2006-12-13T16:32:00.000-03:30

I Can Feel it Comin' in the Air Tonight... Oh Lord.

Computer troubles continue unabated. Looks like it's the CPU that's toast in my machine - which also means mad ducets need be spilt. On top of that, it seems Mom's computer (or as i like to call it, tempermental bitch) is having issues as well - restarting haphazardly and giving me power managment errors whenever there's a usb device plugged in. Tried formatting, and it crapped out mid-install - so much for that. I need some time to hook up some old gear and format again - maybe next week.

Getting geared up for Christmas, which means both myself and Abby have been crippled by what would appear to be the Ebola virus, but is in fact the flu combined with an ear infection. Joy. The Staff Christmas party is this Sunday night at our place, hoping to have everything set up by then - Festivus pole and all that. Should be a good time though.

Slowed down on movies this week - back to games again. For those "in the know", Legend of Zelda: The Twighlight Princess shipped for the Gamecube this week, and in my own opinion it annihilates the version released a month or so ago for Nintendo's new Wii console, which is essentially a Gamecube with a gimmicky motion sensitive wand which feels cumbersome and unwieldy. If you want to play this game, play it ohn the Cube for the love of Mary and Joseph. Also grabbed Metal Gear: Portable Ops for the PSP, which is impressing the hell outta me. Thanks to downloadable content, i am also once again neck deep into Oblivion. The "Knights of the Nine" content is freakin amazing stuff. Just last evening, Arames entered the sanctum of the order of the nine, and had to pass "The Gauntlet", challenging each of the spirits of the Nine to single combat. I emerged victorious, and am now scouring the continent in search of the Holy relics of the Crusader. This shit is gold!

I was gonna try and get some pics of the filmcave Version 2.0 up to share, but io left the damn digital cam at home. Sorry.

Still reading Sahara, almost done - man it takes me forever to read a book, and yet I'm a mega fast reader. Strange that.

Kev is in tomorrow, looks like i'm gonna be at the airport too. Woo!

I'm also hooked something fierce on Wendy's Bacon Chedder Melts. Dammit!

The Rundown:
Watching: The Barnyard / Miami Vice
Playing: Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess (cube)/Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)/Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360)
Reading: Sahara by Clive Cussler
Listening To: Jeff Greene - Time to Heal / Led Zeppelin - Boxed Set / The Black Crowes - shake your Moneymaker / Starsailor - Silence is Easy
Eating: Nothing at the moment.

"Down on your marrow bones and prey!"

2006-12-06T12:42:00.000-03:30

I Ain't Ever Spoke to God, and I Ain't Ever Been to Heaven.

Newfoundland, Rock , Arctic Planet...

December has hit, so has the snow. Hello winter, i missed you, you sunuvabitch! Actually - i didn't. Cracked the front bumper on my car this morning trying to clear ice from around the tire... nice. Last payment on this thing is due next week, and i may be turning it in for some new wheels, and now I'm going to have to spring for a front bumper. Doesn't help that I've been flat broke since September, and i owe people money. Not bad, gonna break your legs sort of people, but good decent folk who were kind enough to give me stuff ahead of a getting paid for it. I feel like such a heel.

In other news, the basement is more or less done. Didn't manage to get the drywall to replace the chip-board wall, so i just painted over the damn thing. The film-bunker is no longer battleship grey, and i've switched the layout a bit. I really dig the new look - it'll be better when i can get some laminate flooring down, but it's certainly way beyond where it was aesthetically speaking. In all of the re-arranging, I lost my long length of ethernet cord to one of the cats, and had to move my router/modem downstairs to accomodate my Xbox360, so once again, i am without a computer with internet capabilities until i can either:

A: Get a longer length of Ethernet cable to run up two floors to the computer.
B: Fix my own computer and get the wireless up and running.
C: Buy a wireless receiver for the Xbox360.

Ideally, i'd like to combine B and C, but that's the more expensive out.

Mom's computer is also pissing me off. It's not an antique or anything, in fact it's a decently capable machine (pIII - 1.8 ghz) that's a little low on ram (128mb). But the damn thing hates USB! I have been unable to even install my little USB wireless receiver, and with more than 1 USB device plugged in, the damn thing restarts randomly during use. Ah hell, she was nice enough to let me steal it (and a bottle of Kahlua!) so i shouldn't complain. I'm really starting to miss my beast now though (and it's 32 GB of MP3).

In other news, Checked out the unrated version of Miami Vice, one of the best of films of 2006, no doubt, and was impressed. The "Director's Cut" flows a little better in my mind, and the added intro sequence helps a lot. It doesn't feel as much like you walked into a film that's been on on for 10 minutes or something. A problem i didn't really notice until i watched this version. Have to pick up a copy myself ASAP. I'm sure Mitch is digging this thing in HD. Also caught Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest for the first time since opening night, and thankfully i still enjoyed it immensely, I feared it would follow in the "loved in theater, never ever wanted to see again afterwards" footsteps of The Mummy Returns. It didn't.

Kev is home from Merry 'Ole England in just over a week, and Christmas is closing fast. Still haven't gotten any Christmas shopping done. Damn i suck. Next paycheck is pretty much spoken for as well - here's hoping i can find a way to order Sarah's stuff, otherwise I'm stuck scrambling around town on the 23rd.

When December hits, I usually start giving thought to my pretentious year end Top-10 lists. Normally i come up with a list of everything I've seen, listened to, or played during the year that i enjoyed and i go from there - but this year is proving a little more difficult - it's been a damn awesome year for me in terms of games, movies, and music. All around awesome. Also wondering if i should do one mammoth post like last year, break it down by category, or countdown from ten for the last ten days of '06. Decisions, decisions.

Enough outta me.

Cheers,

Steve

"Where is the thump thump?"

Your Deadly Sins

Sloth: 100%

Greed: 40%

Lust: 40%

Gluttony: 20%

Envy: 0%

Pride: 0%

Wrath: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 29%

You will get bugs, because you're too lazy to shoo them off. And then you'll die.

How Sinful Are You?

2006-11-30T14:59:00.000-03:30

Your Movie Buff Quotient: 100%

You are a movie buff of the most obsessive variety. If a movie exists, chances are that you've seen it.
You're an expert on movie facts and trivia. It's hard to stump you with a question about film.

Are You a Movie Buff?

2006-11-29T14:13:00.000-03:30

Don't go swimmin' past the Drop Off!

Updating from work. Still no computer at home, the computer room feels cold and lifeless, no living thing has set foot in there in weeks outside of the cats taking a dump or whatever. It's damn eerie really - you can tell when a room doesn't see much traffic - it's like that fancy room at yer grandma's place that you were never allowed to go near. Like a museum or something - without any exhibits. Odd feeling. I don't even like setting foot in there now - i get the heebie jeebies. Maybe the room is haunted or something.

Doing a bit of work around the house in prep for Christmas, hung a French door in the front porch, which I need to install a doorknob on, and stain, I'd rather just paint the bastard, wood stain is a pain in the arse, but what the woman wants, she gets I suppose. The master bedroom has been painted as well, though not without incident. Spilled about a quarter gallon of white denim onto the carpet, which wasn't cool at all, but got all that shit out. You'd never know it was there now, which is no small feat i can tell ya. The room looks pretty good, but we need to get some shit up on the walls now. Up next is the basement, really need to pick up some drywall and get the damn walls painted. The laminate flooring may have to wait for post-Christmas due to finances, but I'd love to get the whole thing done in time for the work Christmas party - which is looking like it'll be the Sunday before Christmas.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch. Time has pretty much been evenly devoted between Final Fantasy XII, which I'm hoping to review for The Busted Controller within the next week or so, Call of Duty 3, which is still awesome, and Gears of War, which is also awesome. Awesome!

Back on a bit of a movie kick this week - watched 2 on Monday, two yesterday. Mitch, i know you my dog and all, but i actually kinda liked Renegade man. Pretty trippy, and weird as all hell, and Juliette should NEVER sing, but overall I was pretty happy with the flick. Watched Sahara, based on the Clive Cussler novel which I'm also currently reading through, and had a total blast with it. My kind of movie. I'd love to see that cast in some more Dirk Pitt adventure yarns in the future. Too bad Clive is a rotten ole bastard when it comes to movies.

yep, i liked it

Last night was Michael Mann twofer with Heat and Collateral. Heat is pretty well known and has earned its reputation. amazing flick, but Collateral is the real gem here. I freakin love the flick. Mann presents LA in such an amazing light, and the mood and tone of the whole thing is excellent. Put Tom Cruise at his very very best and Jamie Foxx alongside a great supporting cast, and you have one hell of a flick - by far the best film of 2004, and one of my absolute favorites. Can't wait to lay mitts on Miami Vice tomorrow or the next day - see if it holds up to repeat viewings as well as Collateral did.

Quick note of sadness - RIP To director Robert Altman, who died this past week - I wasn't the biggest of Bob Altman fans, I will freely admit (not enough guns or swords). Outside of M*A*S*H, Nashville, and Gosford Park, I'd never really found anything worth repeating - but I freakin loved his most recent work, A Prairie Home Companion, and I figure he's been such a well regarded director throughout his career, he's certainly earned his fair share of fans, and it's probably a sad week for them.

New Matt Mays CD was released recently, titled "When The Angels Make Contact". Pretty strange stuff overall, but so far i dig it. Still listening to the latest Tragically Hip effort as well, which grows stronger and stronger with each listen. I'm also as surprised as anyone that i actually enjoy the new Incubus CD! Gears of War, first new track off of Megadeth's forthcoming album, United Abominations, is up for free download over at the official site - get it while it's hot. It's pretty awesome.

That's it for now,

The Rundown:
Watching: Heat/Collateral/Sahara/Renegade/Clerks II
Playing: Final Fantasy XII (Ps2)/Call of Duty 3 (xbox360)/Gears of War (xbox360)/Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360)
Reading: Sahara by Clive Cussler
Listening To: The Tragically Hip - World Container/Matt Mays - When the Angels Make Contact/The Tea Party - The Interzone Mantras/Incubus - Light Grenades
Eating: Doritos!

Cheers,
Steve

"That guy's being awfully forward with that donkey."

those warlike lads in Russia, They fought all in one mind

2006-11-18T01:25:00.000-03:30

Hey all. Texting this update from my PSP, yep, computer is still dead.

Just got back from CASINO ROYALE. Henceforth to be known as the best damn film of 2006, i shit you not!

Also the only Bond film that matters anymore.

I mean, i don't know how i could go back to any other film in the series after that 140 slice of coolcake with a side of awesomesauce.

Thats it until i can get to a keyboard.

Cheers,

Steve

I been meaning to call you...

2006-11-04T19:00:00.000-03:30

Back from the dead!

Sorry it's been so long - i was going to move my own blog into the slackasses column, but i didn't actually bother to make the effort - that's how slack ass I've been!

Life has been busy, very very busy. The new store is finally shaping up. Everything sort of has a home now, and I've finally stopped stickering and re-stickering inventory. I typically work solo, and with the extra traffic we've been seeing, i just haven't had the mental capacity to sit down and update for a while (some would argue i never did have the mental capacity to begin with, fair enough.)

Halloween was this past week, and myself and Abby took it upon ourselves to carve us a bitchin' jack-o-lantern - the fruits of our labors follows:

I thought it was awesome, Abby loved 'im - but Sarah made fun of us - go figure...

In other news, I've grown a little tired of Ye Olde Jury Room of late. It doesn't have anything to do with the people or the political nastiness and sniping that tends to go on in the special forum (or Special Ed forum as i like to call it). But there's been a very slowly developing paradigm shift towards television and classic cinema that's been happening over the last year or so, and it's finally reached the point where I'm just not on the same page as most of these people. I pretty much tend to just crack wise and pop in and out of the more testy threads to try and bring the levels down these days. I know my contemporary film loving self is not alone over there, but my kin have all been less chatty of late - leaving conversation to those who pretty much focus on oldies, cult or obscure as all hell horror stuff, niche bunk, and television - all topics i couldn't really give two shits about these days.

ASIDE: As far as I'm concerned, and i know this is going to sound egotistical (and there's no way around that, but people who know me personally will DEFINITELY back me up on this comment):

if i haven't heard of it - it's NOT A CLASSIC FILM!

It might be niche, it could even be a film you love, but it's not a classic because it was made before 1971, is black and white, fits the definition of film noir, won an oscar back in nineteen-tickety-two, or any combination of the above criteria. It takes a certain something special to become a classic - some of those things are public recognition and accessibility.

Back on track:
There's that bit of bile out of the way (hope i didn't burn no bridges). I'm not leaving the JR or anything, I'll still be in and out - but probably less frequently (*thank GOD* say some). I have some great friends over there, and i will always be popping in and out, but i just don't feel i have much worthwhile to add to the forum in it's present state that wouldn't cost me some friends and/or get me banned ;) Meanwhile - I've been posting a bit over on the Evil Avatar forums under the pseudonym "Virtual Machine". I strongly advise you to tread lightly over there if you decide to check it out - it's full of hardcore video game fan boys - a hive of scum and villainy if you will.

New Tragically Hip album (Called World Container for those not paying attention) kicks a lot of ass! Not quite as good as their last two, which disappointed me a tad - but still damn solid - and in my top 5 of 06 for sure!

Final Fantasy XII on PS2 is a strong... VERY VERY strong contender for game of the year! It just might have the stuff to knock Oblivion off of it's lofty perch.

A Prairie Home Companion - Robert Altman, ho hum, no interest whatsoever. Who knew it would be so damn good!

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Steve

"Its not hard to knock em down, it's getting them to stay down that's the trick."

A Sailor Peg and I Lost My Leg climbing up the topsails!

2006-10-15T01:02:00.000-02:30

I'm still alive...

However I have also worked 13 plus hour Days since Wednesday - with 4 more extra coming at me tomorrow. Everything is moved into our new location - now we're working on taking stock and getting everything organized - it's madness I tells ya. MADNESS! Someone let everyone at the Verdict know i still live.

The Departed was pretty cool - ending was kinda weak.

And The Dropkick Murphys kick all sorts of mad ass.

That's all for now - weep not for me o children of man, for i shall return when the stars are right.

Cheers,
Steve

I'm shippin up to Boston to find me wooden leg!

2.50 for a decade, and a buck and a half for a year.

2006-10-05T17:16:00.000-02:30

I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this one to an animal.
RIP: Tiger - grand methusela of the cat race

Has it really been 17 years? Feels like only yesterday i was in junior high and constantly tossing you out of my sleeping bag whilst trying to go to sleep. Sorry for the loss Chuck.

In other news, we, as in the place i work for, Microplay - are moving!

Joining forces to battle the forces of corporate evil!

We've taken over a Jumbo Video location in a more busy part of town, and will be packing up chez Microplay and turning the whole shebang into a Microplay-Jumbo Video combo store! It's pretty exciting stuff, but it also means my work-life is about to get a lot busier. Here's hoping things don't get too crazy, and that my schedule doesn't change. I'm psyched!

Some history, Microplay was North America's FIRST retail franchise specializing in video game consoles and software, and Jumbo Video was Canada's first "Blockbuster-style" video rental franchise. Jumbo, at least where i live, pre-dates Blockbuster by a few years. I have no illusions about the companies though - being independtant franchises means both got hammered in recent years by the big chains (Blockbuster and Rogers cut into Jumbo, EB Games and everybody else on the planet suddenly discovering that Video Games were a gold mine cut into Microplay). But we've always done well enough ourselves i'll wager, and i think this is going to be a fantastic undertaking.

I really need to watch something - haven't watched a movie in a while - discounting Arnold's masterpiece, The Last Action Hero.

That's all for now.

Cheers,
Steve

Just a quick one...

2006-10-02T17:42:00.000-02:30

The Busted Controller is back from the dead if you feel so inclined. Click on over to find a review of the Capcom zombie-fueled action game, Dead Rising.

Cheers,
Steve

As the day is long... We keep movin' on!

2006-09-27T16:23:00.000-02:30

Really diggin' this whole new work schedule thing. It's almost like a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 gig. Except it's Tuesday to Saturday, and it's 10 to 6, except on Friday, when it's 2-10 - so in reality I guess it's nothing like a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 kinda gig - but that's cool - it works.

My house has actually been clean since Saturday - what the hell is going on?

First a few announcements:

- To new reader "Helmut" - that "Handsome Black man" bit is absolutely priceless - and i would have youtubed that sucker on here if i could have found it, thus violating my "no Youtube next update" stipulation. (Which i did anyway - see below...).

- To Maintcoder - welcome back - it's good to have you - congratulations, you ain't a slack ass. and i like your photos as well.

- To Mark (aka Soapy Johnson) - congratulations slackass - it's now been over a month since your last update - you sir, are a slackass.

Meanwhile - over in Stevetown, not too much exciting. I have a fouton in the filmcave now, which is solid i guess. And i may have mentioned already that my house has been clean since Saturday - which in itself is a miracle of diabetic physics or something.

Got to hear a few new CD's this past week - new releases by Sloan (great canadian rock!) and Jet (great Aussie rock).

Sloan have been puttering along for over a decade now, and are pretty well known in the maratimes, if not all of Canada, and even have a slowly growing mob of American followers. Their new one, called (cleverly enough) "Never Hear the end of It", is a collection of 30 (!) solid rock tracks pretty much in line with their past material. I don't think it's going to win them any new fans, but the old ones will surely be pleased.

Jet, meanwhile, had been coasting through the mainstream suffering the slings and arrows of the typically blase mentality of the MTV2 generation. Despite them being a kick ass Rock n roll band that play out like the bastard offspring of Oasis and AC/DC, they've been the object of ridicule on a near Metallica level. Well their sophmore album, titled (not so cleverly i guess) "Shine On", won't win them new fans either - but it most definitely kicks a lot of ass. They've mellowed out some, and the songwriting has matured drastically, which may turn off those who got into em purely for their AC/DC side. This one is more reminiscent of Oasis than anything else, with a little less of a "jangly" vibe. All i know is i really dig it - and "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" is one hell of an awesome lead-off single. No, they ain't quite as awesome as Wolfmother or Powderfinger, but they still kick ass.

Jet's new album - SHOCKER - they are actually Oasis in disguise!

Also muchos gracias goes out to the beatnick samurai, the Stray Dog himself, Dan Mancini. Got the "City Hall Fred" cd in the mail on Monday - and was suitably impressed - i didn't have enough funk in my life. Nicely done Dan. My one critique, if you guys ever plan a reunion album, get a graphic designer involved. Belly button Lint! in my naval Cavity! I had the cd riding whilst re-arranging the film cave to situate the new seating - and it actually hindered my productivity through "spontaneous strutting to the funky backbeat". That shit is fly, as they say!

Caught an advance screening of School for Scoundrels, which I walked out of enjoying in the end. Initial thoughts were that it was entertaining but ultimately disposable - but the more i think on it, the more i like it. Billy Bob had one great line to Jon Heder to the effect of "So? You kissed her... it's not like you adopted a boy from China or something." which I thought was pretty goddamn funny - I was the only guy in the theatre laughing at that one - oh well. Go see it if you enjoy the whole "Road Trip/Old School" brand of comedy. It rises above the average teenie-bopper fare, and the tennis scene is awesome. I still say the whole ball of wax was a little too light and fluffy though - it should have been MEANER. Great supporting role for Ben Stiller though - just when i was starting to hate his guts he redeems himself.

The Godfather for xbox360 kicks ass - Francis Ford dissed it something fierce, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I thought they treated the source material with dignity and respect, and the game just plays well to boot.

Don't bug me about The Busted Controller - i know it's been a while.

Over in the hollowed annals of reading at the Casa de Power, Johnny Zero (AKA blistering singing voice of NYTEWYNG - Johnny Talon!) saw fit to allow me to borrow his prestigious Conan trade paperbacks from Dark Horse Comics - these things are AMAZING! Based entirely on the writings of Robert E. Howard (adapted by Kurt Busiek, father of Astro City and one of the finest writers in funny book history - i shit you not!)and beautifully illustrated by Cary Nord. I consider them a must for funnybook or fantasy folk - just finished the first of the three books he's given me (Conan - the Frost Giant's Daughter and other Tales) and was riveted throughout. The second book is looking to be even better! To Dan Mancini in particular, who just recently waxed poetic about the virtues of Howard's original version of the big C, i must say - Man, you NEED to read this shit!

Amazing!

Also brought what I have left of my comic book collection from my Ma's place - and have dug into some old goodies (Frank Miller's 300, and Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer).

I'm gonna stop now.

I leave you with some RAWK! The power of FU MANCHU compels you!

Cheers,
Steve

Goddamn this plan has gone awry...

It's all we really got! Tonight! Before ya know it it's gone!

2006-09-24T14:14:00.000-02:30

From one of the greatest flicks ever!

No YouTube next time - i promise.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a smoke machine...(i'm not even trying anymore)"

And You Thought SIN CITY Was Cool?

2006-09-21T01:35:00.000-02:30

Holy shit!

I first read Frank Miller's 300 during it's intial run (and i still own the series) - to say i'm looking foreward to this one would be an understatement...

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there are few standing against many, 300 Spartans against the might of the Persian empire..."

I'm betting this chicks are millionaires now...

2006-09-20T22:39:00.000-02:30

More youtube madness...

Did you make it all the way through?

Poor bastards...

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there's a wierd naked indian passing along a magic feather"

Keep your target in sight...

2006-09-15T11:40:00.000-02:30

This one's for you Mitch...

Oh, and for Jon too i guess...

Have a good weekend folks...

Cheers,
Steve

Coming October 17th!

2006-09-13T13:33:00.000-02:30

Can't wait! This year has been awesome for music!

That cover also kicks all kinds of ass

Listen to "In View" right here

And as we wind on down the road...

2006-09-13T12:47:00.000-02:30

Where were you on 9/11?

I was off, and had been up late with a good friend playing some video games. Mom came down and knocked on my bedroom door when the first plane hit - i groggily got out of bed, walked out to my living room. Turned on CNN, and after 5-10 minutes i watched the second plane hit live - spilled hot tea all over my coffee table, and remained glued to CNN until things started to slow down about 12. I then hopped in the car and drove to the mall, where the same friend from the night before was working in the Sears electronics department, and we spent the better part of the afternoon flaked on the department's leather couch with a handful of sales reps watching CNN.

That evening we drove to the airport to observe the traffic jam of international flights that had been forced to land at St. John's Airport. We had thousands of people from all over the world at
Mile One stadium, and shelters accross town, Myself and another friend popped by Mile One to see if there was anything we could do, and they already had more voulenteers than they needed, so they sent us on our way.

Spent the evening listening to open line (a call in show) on one of the local AM stations - and the outpouring of emotions from both those people stranded here - many of whom struggled with broken English to get their "thank you's" accross, and the locals who so quickly got behind America - it brought a tear to my eye - and i still get emotional thinking about it to this day. 9/11 would be a hard day for me i think if it weren't my daughter's birthday (as i type this i'm brushing cake frosting off of my desk and sipping some tea). Whatever backlash that followed, whatever rampant patriotisim and self-righteousness that caused a backlash against the mighty red, white, and blue in the months and years that followed - for a brief moment - the world had a gaping wound, and we were ALL Americans. I find it horribly sad and depressing that it takes a disaster of such magnitutde to create such global unity. It's something we should strive for in our day to day existance. Politics be damned.

-Originally posted on DVDVerdict, Sept. 11th/2006

Hey folks,

Been a little while - malaise and lack of creativity are to blame.

Not a whole lot going on.

Abby's birthday was Monday past (9/11). The little spud is now three - three years that just blew by like they were nothing.

Caught United 93 last week - a simply jaw-dropping film. Wonderfully executed without glorifying the events Hollywood-style. Thus far it's my favorite film of 06 - dethroning Miami vice. I hope to have a review posted by the end of the week if i can just sit down and get it done!

Also been on a huge Kurosawa kick - watched Kagemusha earlier this week - hoping to get to Seven Samurai, and The hidden Fortress before the weekend - may even squeeze in Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Incidentally - Criterion's new three-disc edition of Seven Samurai is amazing, and belongs in any discerning film fan's collection!

Also finished Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0 - which was amazing stuff, and am almost done Rome, which was also amazing.

The remastered version of Blade Runner is now on store shelves, and i highly recommend it - quite possibly the single best thing to come out of the 80's next to Indiana Jones.

Been listening to the new Iron Maiden album - A Matter of Life and Death - quite a bit. Simply amazing record - it's wonderful to hear these guys in such true form. GREAT CD. Also spinning the new Audioslave disc, which is pretty solid.

Myself and Jon have started writing again, which is awesome - i love collaborating with Jon - our sensebilities are so close to one another when it comes to movies and what not, and yet we have these subtle differences in our mannerisims that blend well in a screenplay form (he's the intelligent one, i'm the poetic one). It's also good to have a writing partner around to keep me from falling into my damned creative ruts. We need to put aside a night this week and get back at it - or just watch Seven Samurai.

Work schedule is changing slightly as of today - no more split shifts - which is awesome news for Sarah - can't wait to tell her.

As i type this - K-ROCK 97.5 is playing my request for Stairway to Heaven, which i have cranked, and Maggie, great gal that she is, read my e-mail on the air - that's pretty cool!

That enough mindless rambling for now?

The Rundown:

Watching: Kagemusha / Battlestar Galactica 2.0 / Rome

Playing: Chromehounds (xbxo360) / Saint's Row (xbox360) / Dead Rising (xbox360)

Listening To: Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death / Audioslave - Revelations / Megadeth - Rust in Peace / Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / Oasis - Be Here Now

Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert

Eating: Pizza

Wisihing: I'd get paid today so's i can go buy Ran and Blade runner!

"More human than human, that's our motto..."

Cheers,
Steve
Where there's smoke... There's a burning Los Angeles skyline circa 2015.

Coldly considering an act of cruelty

2006-09-02T23:46:00.000-02:30

Hey folks,

Just a quick one - yeah, so the big news:

We're gonna have a baby!!!

That's right. Come May of next year, Abby's gonna have a little brother or sister, which means myself and Sarah are gonna have either another daughter or a son!

Crazy hey!!

Personally, i rooting for a girl, guys are pigs!

Also MAD congrats to Jon and Beth for finally shacking up together - it's just a matter of time now Jonny boy , before that little plastic dipstick comes back blue.

Mad congrats to Andy, for not only hooking up with a nice gal (whom i haven't met yet but seems nice) and for landing a decent paying gig.

Mad congrats to Mark for finding a sweet new gal for me to flirt with (whom i have met and who's really sweet.)

That's it for now, catch you folks on the flip with a proper update...

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a romantic dinner for two and a candle related mishap."

You had a voice that could wake me...

2006-08-28T18:56:00.000-02:30

Gotta stop with these damn Quizzes

2006-08-25T19:27:00.000-02:30

You Are Oscar the Grouch

Grumpy and grouchy, you aren't just pessimistic. You revel in your pessimism.

You are usually feeling: Unhappy. Unless it's rainy outside, and even then you know the foul weather won't last.

You are famous for: Being mean yet loveable. And you hate the loveable part.

How you life your life: As a slob. But it's not repelling as many people as you'd like!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

So there's some more Quiz bullshit to keep you entertained for five minutes.

Thanks to Jon n Mark for chipping in and grabbing me Battlestar Galactica 2.0, you guys are swell.

Thanks to Kev for giving me my very own personalized Magic Cards! Woo! But Kev, you know i don't use white mana - whore!

Thanks to Mom n Dad for Rome, and thanks to Sarah for the second Xbox360 controller - now throwdown! Lets take it to the street beeyotch - see who really dominates in Project Gotham Racing 3!

Watching Rome - It's amazing - right up there with Deadwood, The Sopranos, and Band of Brothers - HBO never ceases to amaze.

Short n sweet - i'll probably be back tomorrow.

BIG news coming next week - HUGE news - can't say anythign else right now.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there's a goose-stepping moron who should try reading books instead of burning them..."

We are all diseased!

2006-08-21T14:00:00.000-02:30

Just a quick one to let you fine folk who care know that i've finally managed to get the entirety of the DVD collection entered over at DVDSpot. Very impressed with how the whole site works, i've been playing with the filters, grouping Sarah's stuff seperate from mine, and picking my personal favorite choices out of the whole shebang (i cut it off at 125 titles!) So you want to get some idea of where i lie cinematically, head on over there and check out the "my favorites" filter. Or just look at the whole mammoth collection and come back here to mock me - go ahead - i have thick skin.

Cheers, Steve. "Where there's smoke... there's Camel Non filters."

This is the End... My only friend the end.

2006-08-19T13:09:00.000-02:30

Saturday!

Not much going on this week - settling back into the work groove. Enjoying the new TV set. I've watched a shitload of flicks over the past week or so, catching up I guess. Other than that life has been dull and uninteresting.

Did manage to catch:

Apocalypse Now - I'd picked up the new DVD edition released last Tuesday. I did take in the Redux version back when that was released on DVD, and i'd really championed that one as the version to see. Well i revisited the theatrical cut this week - and it simply blew my mind. Last time i watched it was probably 96 or 97 on VHS, and i don't know what it is, but this past week it just clicked with me to such a huge degree. I don't know if it's an added maturity, or just that my head was in the right place, but i wanted to watch it again immediately afterwards. I may revisit the Redux sometime over the weekend, but the pacing and execution of the theatrical cut just seems so perfect to me right now, i doubt it will have the same effect. Dan has already posted an amazing review of the new disc over at DVD Verdict that I highly recommend, but i may take a stab at it myself next week.

Friday the 13th - It had been a LONG time since i've seen either of the original Friday flicks (pre New Line). I must say i was quite impressed. Yes, the flick is at it's very essence a Holloween rip-off, and what with the series being such a huge bastion of pop culture, the twist is kind of wasted, but man, it is a tense and terrifying piece of work. Great fun, did a wonderful job of unnerving me.

Friday the 13th Part 2 - not quite as good as the first, a damn effective thriller that sticks to the Holloween formula, and succeeded in creeping me out effectively. I wonder when this series started to get lame?

Tears of the sun: Director's cut - A VERY pleasant suprise. Not at all a typical military actioner, in fact the whole thing moves pretty methodically until about the 1 hour mark. Director Antoine Fuqua takes his time setting things up, but never really digs too deeply into Bruce Willis and his Navy Seals. The whole plot was a little implausible, why a highly trained Seal team would be risked for one American national, and the whole crisis of conscience angle was played a little hard - but during the runtime the flick kept me so engaged that the questions really didn't even pop up. Beautiful looking drama really, and the final act was pretty intense.

Oldboy - Korean cinema at it's finest. Oh Dae Su is a buisnessman who finds himself locked away in a fairly comfortable looking room for 15 years, then suddenly released. Revenge is on his mind, so he tracks down those responsible and proceeds to lay some smack down. This description is deceptively simple, the flick is a complex morality tale, and the mystery of Dae Su's imprisonment is actually a pretty dark and disturbing ride. I highly recommend this one. It is exemplary of the kind of innovative filmmaking that's coming out of South Korea these days. the look of the flick is stylish as all get out as well.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse - Goes into some pretty shocking detail about the making of Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now. By all accounts one of the most chaotic and catastrophic film shoots of all time. I was a little dissapointed to be honest. After all the talk i really expected something special, and yes, there's some amazing stuff here, and combined with the new documentaries on the Complete Dossier DVD it's more or less a good overview, but it isn't the "all encompassing" trip i was expecting. Perhaps i've been ruined by the insanely detailed documentaries on Ridley Scott's more recent discs (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven all had epic length documentaries of an incredibly candid and exhaustive nature). Where's the stuff about the rampant drug use? Coppola's infidelity? The impossible difficulties with Marlon Brando? Didn't Dennis hopper get paid in coke to do this flick? (i know that was a big rumor for a long time). There's just so much more i've heard about this legendary film that i would have loved to witness first hand. It did paint a damn nasty picture of Coppola's struggle to get the film made, but some of the near-legendary stories, most notably Coppola's threating to commit suicide, seem to have been blown way out of proportion based on his prima-donna rants on this documentary, for example, when he's ranting and raving and says something like, "I wanna get a gun and shoot myself" it never once comes accross as a genuine sentiment, just the ranting and raving of a frustrated artist.

Light update i know - i'll be back during the week. No Rundown either as i'm too damn lazy.

PS: Expect some more movie centric stuff in the next few updates i'd imagine.

Cheers,
Steve.
"Where there's smoke... There the smell of napalm in the morning."

Military Intelligence, two words combined that can't make sense

2006-08-14T13:35:00.000-02:30

Hey folks.

It's been a long time i know. Holidays are winding down, back to work tomorrow, so i figured i'd post a little update.

First things first, the wedding was fantastic. The ceremony was short n sweet (about 30 minutes), and the reception went off without a hitch. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 guests, and everyone told us they had a swell time.

A few props before i go any further:

- My Groomsmen - Russ, Kev, Andy, Chuck, Jon. You guys were awesome - and like i said at the reception, no way i coulda done this without my army at my back. I aped a shot off of Chuck's website:

From left to right: Back: Russ, Jon, Me, Andy - Front: Kev, Chuck (thanks for the pic chuck!)

- Kev - Dude, you get on a plane from London, show up barely a week before the wedding, and you MC the shit out of it. Hat is off to you sir.

- Bob - Sarah's bro, you kept the kids in line during the few days of insanity leading upto the whole shebang, after flying from Calgary no less - above and beyond the call of duty.

- Barry Crocker - Our DJ, did a fantastic job with the tunes!

- Our parents - Both sides, you guys all did a fantastic job on getting everything ready, it all went off without a hitch, and i owe that to you guys - even if you don't understand why we'd spend 2 grand on a tv set.

Anyway, stuck around until a little after midnight, when the DJ spun "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynard Skynard, our chosen exit song. Spent the evning in the beautiful Bonavista Room at Leaside Manor, and breakfast at McDonald's the next day!

I'll share some photos of the whole thang when i get some :)

In other news, made a huge purchase last week, a brand spankin new 50 inch Sony Grand Vega LCD. This thing is sweet. Movies look awesome (hell even the non-anamorphic discs look decent!) than ks to the upconversion feature on the xbox360. Have that sucker pumping through the VGA input on the tele for all my 720p visual goodness. Goes without saying that 360 games look incredible. Of course the problem with a display so big, is that you'll see flaws inherent in source material that you just couldn't notice on a smaller display, and this is where my PS2 suffers a tad. Some games (Tekken 5, GT4) look amazing, while others show their age somewhat. Everything still looks damn swell, but some of the inherent flaws in the PS2 hardware are a little more evident.

You can see how this thing compares size wise by looking at the xbox360 on the left!

Caught a few flicks, Miami Vice was awesome - best pic of 06 thus far for me. Bon Cop, Bad Cop was an interesting little Canadian cop thriller in the same vein as Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon, and it was entertaining enough - the Characters were excellent, even if the Hockey-centric plot was more than a little hokey - also - best villian death ever! Pulse was a misfire - total waste of time - at least it was free.

Best flick of 06 thus far in my book!

Enough outta me for now, i'm off to try and get my DVD collection posted on DVDSpot.

The Rundown:

Watching: V For Vendetta / Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade / Raiders of the Lost Ark / Sky Blue / Cross of Iron

Listening To: Megadeth - Rust in Peace / The Tragically Hip - In Between Evolution / Aerosmith - Gold (one of the many greatest hits packages) / Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death (three song sampler) / Slayer - Christ Illusion

Reading: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Eating: Kraft Dinner

Wishing: I had just one day alone to burn through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on the new display.

Cheers
Steve
"Where there's Smoke... There's a lit candle that got a little too close to the hairspray laced bridesmaids"

Quiz-a-rama IV!

2006-07-29T12:32:00.000-02:30

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture.
From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

You Should Travel to Cambodia

While you might not go all Angelina Jolie and adopt a baby...
You can still appreciate Cambodia's rich history and deserted beaches.

What Asian Country Should You Visit?

You Will Die at Age 67

You're pretty average when it comes to how you live...
And how you'll die as well.

What Age Will You Die?

We all need a little shelter, just a little helper to get us by.

2006-07-29T12:20:00.000-02:30

Saturday Update!

T- minus one week and counting! Wedding is next Saturday. Relatives have started showing up from parts unknown, and the monkey has landed! Kev is back from England.

In other news, my holidays kick in today at 6 pm, and i don't come back until August 15th, so updates and such may be a little light around here. I have a handful of reviews for the Busted Controller near complete, so hopefully i can actually do something over there over the break. Also have two or three DVD reviews that i may or may not get around to posting.

Meanwhile - word on the street is that the guys have something planned for me tomorrow night - which may or may not involve a few games of pool and Steve (that's me) getting destroyed. I've heard naught but the barest whisperings thus far, and none who i've approached have talked, despite threat of bodily harm (one even craoked in a pained voice, "If i talk, they'll kill me!"). I can wait, i'm a patient man.

Woah, there is a damn nice Monte Carlo outside the door right now...

Anyway. It's been a long week, with short nights, so i haven't had a whole lot of time to partake in the joyous things in life, no movies, not much in gaming (outside of the portable variety - love my PSP).

Yes, the new Tom Petty CD kicks arse, and i must track down a copy of Hardware on DVD.

That's all for now - short, i know. I'll see you folks around.

The Rundown:

Watching: Inside of my eyelids

Listening To: Tom Petty - Highway Companion / Sheavy - Synchronized / Chris Kirby on Rum and Religion / Jeff Martin - Exile and the Kingdom / Iron Maiden - Dance of Death

Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin / Dune by Frank Herbert

Playing: Tekken: Dark Ressurection (PSP) / Miami Vice (PSP) / Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) / Blade Dancer (PSP) / Guitar Hero (PS2)

Eating: Pizza!

Wishing: It were 6pm and i could go see Miami Vice tonight!

Since you lie and you're so shallow, I shall lie you in a shallow grave.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a funeral Pyre burning the remains of my bachelor-hood"

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

2006-07-24T12:53:00.001-02:30

Monday Update! This one is a little late - started on Saturday - things just got busy - that was that. First things first - Blogger is being a right bitch (no! Not Blogger!) and i can't post comments over at Kev's place to tell hi that his criticisims towards Pirates of the Caribbean 2 were justified and well understood by yours truely. I'd buy the "too long" argument, i'd agree that Depp was ever so silightly on cruise control, just having a bit of fun with it - but i have to split re: Orlando and the ending. I thought Bloom did well, and i LOVED the ending, mind i knoew there were gonna be two flicks going in, so i expected that sort of thing. That said, the lustre has worn somewhat in the last two weeks, my thoughts on the film are no where near as enthusiastic as they were opening night - Still possibly the best flick i've seen of '06, i think. I still think Silent Hill was pretty damn cool.

Some sad news:
Memoirs Of A Geisha star Mako has lost his battle with esophageal cancer at his home in Ventura County, California. He was 72. The Asian-American actor, who was Oscar nominated for his portrayal of submissive engineer Po-Han in The Sand Pebbles in 1966, died on Friday. Brought up in Japan by his grandparents while his parents were studying in New York, Mako joined his mother and father when they were granted US citizenship. He studied architecture before joining the US Army in the early 1950s and became passionate about acting while performing in military shows. He became a naturalized American in 1956. After his Army service, he enrolled at the Pasadena Community Playhouse in California and studied to become a professional actor. The Sand Pebbles, which earned him an Academy Award Best Supporting Actor nod, was his first film. His other movies include The Ugly Dachsund (1966), The Green Hornet (1974), An Eye For An Eye (1981), Seven Years In Tibet (1997), Bulletproof Monk (2003) and Pearl Harbor (2001). His impressive TV resume includes appearances in Wonder Woman, I Spy, Hawaii Five-O, Kung Fu and The Streets Of San Francisco.

All that may be fine and dandy, but Mako, for me, will always be The Wizard!

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And onto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!

Last week it was Floyd, having spent the weekend listening to Floyd, then looking for Pulse (which i've since found), and learning of Syd Barrett's death. This week it's Mako. He had just been announced as providing the voice of Splinter in the new Ninja Turtles cartoon, and just this week past, myself, Johnny Z, and Andy checked out Conan The Barbarian. We watched it Thursday evening. Remind me not to watch any Ridley Scott flicks for the next little while, at least until this curse thing ends...

Now that the unfortunate buisness is outta the way, i'd like to give mad belated congrats on my man Jhonny Z, the Deacon, Captain Charisma himself, for joining the Microplay army. Also have to give the shoutout to Matt, emo-lad, Jon's practice dummy, and swell guy, who also joined our ranks. Welcome to the frontlines boys, grab yer gun, say a prayer, and wait for the whistle.

Also, speaking of the new TMNT flick - the Teaser trailer was BAD ASS! But you don't have to take my word for it:

The rundown:
Watching: Conan The Barbarian / Beowulf and Grendel / Pink Floyd - Pulse

Listening to: Pearl Jam - self titled / Tom Petty - Highway Companion / Jet - Get Born / The Waking Eyes - Video Self / Pink Floyd - Wish you were Here / Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation

Reading: A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin / Dune - Frank Herbert

Playing: Miami Vice - PSP / Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - PSP / Street Fighter Alpha Anthology - PS2

Eating: Thinking about McDonald's

Wishing: My freaking ear didn't hurt so much - slept on it hard last night.

Yo Momma's goin' on a date! She's goin on a date wit' me! She's gonna have a good time!

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there's DOOM! Lets sing the doom song!"

Sign of the Gypsy Queen!

2006-07-19T15:46:00.002-02:30

Hey Mitch!

Why the hell didn't you tell me about the awesomeness that is STREETS OF FIRE! I know, i know, any self respecting Walter Hill fan should have seen this slice of fried 80's gold a decade or more ago.

Michael Pare (who?) stars as Tom Cody, bad ass extraordinaire. Tom is called back to town by his Sis (that chick what played Mercy in THE WARRIORS) to rescue a rock n roll star, and old flame (played by a young and very very hot Diane Lane) who has been kidnapped by a motorcycle gang led by Willem Dafoe's Hair. Along the way we get some awesome music courtesy of Jim Steinman (that dude who wrote Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell albums), Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, and others. We get different street gangs a la Hill's "The Warriors", we get motorcycles bursting into flame as Tom shoots gas tanks from a nearby rooftop, and a final showdown between Pare's bad-ass dude and Dafoe's bad-ass 'do fought with sledgehammers. There's also some Bill Paxton, some great 50's style dialogue, and cops who cruise around the streets in Studebakers. Also worthnoting is Hill's beautiful photography - this film looks amazing! It's wonderful what a man can do after scoring his first big hit! (Streets of Fire was Hill's followup to the blockbuster 48 Hours)

I have to thank my homeboy Johnny Z for this one, he picked it up blind because he'd heard it was one of the inspirations for the arcade classic, Final Fight! Sorry Jon, Tom Cody is more bad-ass than Mike Haggar.

On the Oblivion Front. I'm done! The vile forces of Merhunes Dagon and the Mythic Dawn have been vanquished, and the cursed realm of Oblivion has been banished from Tamriel permanent-like. The final hours of the game were utterly fantastic, and what's better, i still have so much left to explore and do - greatest game ever? quite possibly.

Meanwhile over in music - Metal gods IRON MAIDEN have posted the first single from their upcoming album over on their official site in video form. The positive buzz coming from the Maiden encampments surrounding this one is definitely something that gets me excited, and while the video was nothing special, a throwback to their 80's fare, the song, THE REINCARNATION OF BENJAMIN BREEG, is an awesome piece of work. Much more "riff-driven" than i'm used to from maiden, with a nice moody slow start followed by some great metal guitar. It's a "heavy" song for Maiden, very heavy actually, considering the band is usually more fast than heavy, with a more razor sharp guitar attack. This one hits with a more chugging, bass heavy vibe. It's experimental for Maiden, more in line with Bruce's more recent solo stuff, yet still easily identifiably Maiden. It's an awesome song, clocking in at somewhere around 7 and a half minutes. If teh rest of the album is this good - well... oh boy! It's not everyday the world's most popular metal band releases a new album, this one is gonna be a gem i'm sure. Check out the awesome cover art for A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH - which drops into music stores sometime in September.

In other news. Kev's brother Joe stopped by over the weekend and discussed photography for the wedding, before getting into our first real "game night" in ages. Myself n Joe had a damn heated match of Halo 2. I came out on top with 25 kills to his 24, but the whole match was intense, and my final kill was more fluke than anything, I round a corner, he's right in my face, and i just yank the trigger on my sniper rifle blindly. The guys were on edges of seats and there was much cheering (mostly for Joe) from the spectators. Then out came Street Fighter Alpha 3, goddamn Mark is good at this one - i'd love to say i was having an off night, but nope, Mark was just unstoppable with Zangief. 17 in a row was it Mark?

Everywhere I go, there's always an asshole.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Steve "Where there's smoke... there's Streets of Fire baby!"

Your scene doesn't do anything for me, it doesn't do anything at all.

2006-07-15T10:49:00.000-02:30

Wow, what a slow week it's been.

Wedding plans are coming along well. Pretty much everything is now looked after on my end. Sarah still needs to get dresses and such nailed down, but i've looked after pretty much everything else. DJ has been hired (i originally wanted to go "live band", but time was not on my side). We found a sweet car to get taxied around in during the festivities ('57 Chevy hard top), and i have a beautiful room booked at one of the manor houses here in town for the night of, so we don't have to flee back to our own house. Also pretty sure we have the wedding rings taken care of. It's all really happening i guess. 3 weeks from today! I hope Kev is down with pulling Master of Ceremonies duties! We haven't really talked much about it outside of me dropping it in casual comversation.

I'm really amazed at how relaxed i am over the whole thing, i've got relatives coming in for the "do" from places like New Hampshire and Massechusettes (spelled wrong?), My Mother, and Sarah are stressed to the max, and i'm just like, "chill people, it'll all work out, and if it doesn't it's only 6-7 hours out of one day of our lives, It's all over on August 6th and we won't have to worry either way." Sometimes i think i'm just too damn mellow.

In other news, i'm normally not one to condone genocide, well not often anyway, but i propose the following solution to the mounting tensions in the Middle East:

I'm just getting sick and tired of two groups of people so obviously determined NOT to reach a common ground that they must wipe each other out. I say we do 'em a goddamn favor.

Not much else going on, caught the tail end of Star Wars Episode III last night while Sarah finished it up. Man, that was a pretty awful film, mostly from an acting standpoint. I don't understand why so many looneys went ga-ga over Ian McDiarmid. The guy dialed so far over the top in this one that he couldn't breathe without an oxygen tank. In the older films, hell, even in the first two prequels, he was a far more menacing and shadowy evil, but here he blows through like a cartoon super-villian. Hell, performances all around were pretty terrible, worst of the six films, so many scenes that should have had balls to spare and huge emotional impact just fell flatter than a house of cards in high winds due to line delivery and canned reactions (yeah, i'm talking about the "The first Galactic Empire!!" scene). I'm not a prequel hater or a Lucas basher by any stretch, i love the guy, but i just don't think a return to the director's chair after 20-odd years was a very good idea. What frustrates me the most about the prequels, is not that they're terrible films (they aren't, just total cheeseball), it's that with some minor changes in each, and some more assured direction, they could have been classics!

Also caught Superman Returns. It was ok i guess, but without the Donner flicks to add the wistful pang of nostalgia, it just sort of fell flat for me. Superman doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot, and the final act was uttlerly rediculous. No way this should have been over 150 minutes.

Also having a HUGE hankering to sit back and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy again - maybe tomorrow.

Fear the Rogue Trooper

The rundown:
Watching: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith / Superman Returns / Ghost in the shell

Listening to: Blind Melon - Blind Melon / Blind Melon - soup / Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn / Pink Floyd - Wish you Were Here / Sam Roberts - Chemical City / The Trews - Den of Thieves / Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

Reading: Call of Cuthulhu (d20 Edition) - yeah it's an RPG.

Playing: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360) / Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2) / Rogue Trooper (ps2)

Eating: PB n Jelly bitch!

Wishing: I could find a nice collected volume of Lovecraft stuff!

I'm not going to kill you, but i don't have to save you.
Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's an H-bomb, and an itchy trigger finger."

The night they drove ole Dixie down!

2006-07-08T10:54:00.000-02:30

Saturday, Sarah's sis, Karen, and her charming daughter Harley, have moved back to good ole Newfoundland. I haven't bumped into em yet, but when i do, i'll put in a good word for my homeboy Mitch! Now, more importantly... Have you heard of the Bloop? Ok, the story goes thusly, In 1997, a system set up by the US during the cold war picked up a deep sea sound described only as "bloop". Many confirm that the sound could only be coming from a biological creature, but it would have to be even bigger than a Blue Whale! A giant Squid has been ruled out, as has an octopus or machinery. Two listening posts 3000 kilometers apart both registered the sound. The scary part is this, the sound emanated from roughly 50 S longitude; 100 W lattitude. Now read the following passage from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu":

"Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured yacht under Johansen's command, the men sight a great stone pillar sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47°9', W. Longitude l23°43', come upon a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror - the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, that was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars."

This is it my friends, the stars may soon be right! The tenth planet could very well be Yoggoth! The Black Hole at the center of our galaxy, the vile void of Azathoth, is in fact spinning faster and faster, and growing. Our doom is assured. Weep, O son of man, for the end of our time is near, the great old ones will ascend, we will weep and wail, scream and howl until our throats are raw and soaked in blood, and then as the great eyes watch, we will tear the flesh from our own bodies. Make peace with your chosen god, for in the end we will all face Cthulhu!

I don't know about you, but i'm fucking terrified!

Need more proof? check this out!

Want to hear the bloop for yourself? (warning: May cause madness!)

Our end is at hand, the stars are right!

In other news, Caught Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at a midnight showing. I could give you a detailed review, but i'm not going to, i don't want to spoil anything. suffice it to say, it's a damn fun ride of a flick. Every bit the equal of the original, with a jaw dropping final act and at least two "holey shit!" moments (one of which comes immediately before the end credits). If you do check it out, stay after the end credits for a neat little extra.

Also watched Sky Blue something like three times during the week - amazing flick!

S'it for now.

The rundown:

Watching: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest/ Sky Blue / Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Listening to: Sheavy - Blue Sky Mind / Sheavy - Republic? / Sheavy - The Electric Sleep/ Wolfmother / The Ramones - The Ramones / The Tragically hip - In Between Evolution

Reading: Legends - various authors

Playing: Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (PS2) / Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2) / Resident Evil 4 (ps2)

Eating: Rice Krispie Squares

Wishing: Humanity wasn't doomed to a fate worse than death at the hands of the great old ones.

Why is the rum always gone!

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a world consumed in the fires of our own insane creation."

DVD Review: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

2006-07-06T19:03:00.000-02:30

DVD Review

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed
(This is a pre-release review, release date is July 18th, 2006)

It was virtually impossible to walk into any Video Arcade in the early 90’s and not see a crowd of people gathered around a Street Fighter II machine, myself included. In a relatively short time, the game managed to set itself firmly into 90’s pop-culture, and in 1994, on the tail end of the Street Fighter craze, the faithful were rewarded and punished at the same time. For our penance, we were forced to sit through the awful live action Street Fighter film starring Jean Claude Van Damme, and, rumor has it, a quick rewrite of an aborted screenplay for a film based on G.I. Joe. We were rewarded with the home video release of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie a little under a year later. Over ten years on, and the animated film is still held in very high regard amongst Street Fighter fan circles. It is the definitive portrayal of these characters for many, and is often regarded as an anime classic. The VHS editions are long gone, and the early DVD release is still out there, but is generally hard to track down. Manga video has finally stepped up and given us about the best version of this film we’re ever going to see, not perfect, but pretty good.

Shadowlaw, a ruthless terrorist organization, is using monitor cyborgs (robots with funky Terminator-esque “scanning vision”) to hunt and analyze street fighters all over the world. Upon discovering the strongest fighters, they kidnap and brainwash them, and turn them into covert (or not so much so) assassins. Interpol investigator Chun-Li, and her American Air-Force partner, Guile, are working to gather the evidence needed to track M Bison, leader of the Shadowlaw forces. They plan to lay the big beat down for personal reasons. Meanwhile, the chief target of Bison’s search, Ryu, continues to wander the Earth, oblivious to the evil force that’s seeking him out. Ryu stumbles into one street fight after another, until his old training partner, and equally powerful fighter, Ken Masters, is kidnapped by Bison in Ryu’s place. Somewhere in all the madness, Chun-Li winds up hospitalized after a near deadly battle with Vega, one of Bison’s assassins, Ryu meets up with Honda, a Sumo who lives in the mountains of Thailand (?), Guile flexes his muscles a lot and cruises around in his Shelby Cobra, and Ken fumes and sputters about his unfinished business with Ryu while cruising around in his Porsche listening to Alice in Chains and Silverchair.

Does this movie stink? Well, yes, and no. Looking at it purely from a plot perspective, you’ll probably check out the moment you see Chun-Li in full Mandarin “entertainment” regalia giving an intense briefing on international terrorists in a room full of uniformed agents about 6-7 minutes into the flick. The plot is sheer nonsense – basically, it’s a simple wire coat hanger on which to hang a load of fight scenes. There are logic holes galore, characters pop in and out frequently, many relegated to glorified cameos, like Dee Jay, a kick-boxer who pops up long enough to kick a few guys, speak some jive, and be monitored by a monitor cyborg or two. Or Thunder Hawk, a giant Native American character who shows up long enough to fight Ken so that Bison can get a detailed spec sheet on Ken’s stats. Maybe someone could tell me why a wealthy world class martial artist like Ken would be hanging out in dingy Seattle warehouses at night fighting giant Indians. So yes, plot wise, Street Fighter II is a terribly bad flick, which pretty much rules it out for anyone looking for any sort or reasonably sensible entertainment. What the film does very well, is service the fans of the series. Every character, from series hero Ryu, right on down the line to bizarre weirdoes like Dhalsim, are handled in a manner in which they are portrayed truthfully to the source material (unlike the live action film, which recast Ryu and Ken as smarmy con men, or Dhalsim as a geneticist.). It gives us a glimpse of every character in the Street Fighter II series up to that point, and the character designs are universally excellent. Now we get to the meat and potatoes of the film, the fight scenes. From the opening awesomeness of the nighttime battle between Ryu and Sagat, to the final three way battle between Ryu, Ken, and Bison, each and every fight scene in the film is wonderfully directed, beautifully animated, and, until characters start chucking fireballs around, it remains pretty technically sound. The animators brought a real martial artist in to consult on the fighting, and it definitely shows. These matches are fast and brutal affairs that aren’t at all shy about displaying a little bit of graphic violence. Particularly awesome to watch are the fights between Ryu and Hong Kong action movie star Fei Long in an underground fighting arena, and the savage brutality of the Vega vs. Chun-Li fight. The animation quality in these scenes is fantastic as well, with wonderfully fluid and lifelike movements. It’s these two factors, the loyalty to the characters, and the quality of the fighting present, that makes this one such a well loved flick amongst Street Fighter fans, and fans of anime based on fighting games in general, most of which is horribly awful stuff.

The soundtrack to the film is also something that’s generated both admiration and controversy within fan circles. The film’s English language version does away entirely with the cheesy synth-driven score of the Japanese version, replacing it with a more “worldly” score, full of exotic beats and some hard driving metal guitar, as well as some very popular early 90’s alternative and techno tracks (Including Alice in Chains, Silverchair, Korn, and KMFDM). Many fans have been pissed that the original Japanese language version hasn’t been presented up to this point. These fans aren’t really missing anything. The voice-acting is equally bad in both English and Japanese (the plot certainly doesn’t make any more sense in Japanese, that’s for sure), and the Japanese score lacks any sort of real punch to accentuate the action on screen. The English score, by Corey Lieros and John D’Andera, is much better suited to the action, and does an overall better job of setting an appropriate mood. It’s definitely nice to have both versions available. Ultimately, I think the tv series, Street Fighter II-V, does a better job of telling a more grounded story with these characters, but for fans of the games, this one is easier on the eyes, and more or less entertaining throughout, in spite of the utterly ridiculous narrative.

This is the second outing for Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie on DVD. The first was released very early in DVD’s life, and was essentially a port of the VHS widescreen with a 2.0 stereo soundtrack and not much else to speak of. The “Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed” version is a double sided flipper disc, with the English version on one side, and the Japanese version on the other. Manga has done a passable job with this one, and it’s certainly nice to have the uncut version of the film again, and the original Japanese version in 5.1 is sure to make some people happy, but overall the quality of the disc is lacking. I was disappointed that there was very little effort put into restoring such a popular animated film, the transfers on both films are full of grain, dust, dirt, blotches, cigarette burns, and are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen. The Japanese version also suffers from some intense interlacing errors and aliasing which I didn’t notice in the English version, which leads me to believe they were taken from separate sources, despite the fact that Manga has stated that they come from original Japanese masters. The English version also has a softer feel, with a slightly less focused image. The majority of the problems were definitely inherent in the source material (outside the aforementioned problems with the Japanese version, which could very well have been side effects from a poor PAL to NTSC transfer). With a little TLC this could have been a much stronger release, but as it stands, this is about as good as we’re going to get. The English 5.1 mix is generally well done. It doesn’t really have any extreme highs or lows, but the sound is well separated, and has significant punch, but, again, the Japanese version suffers. Outside of occasional effects which overpower the mix (like the thunder in the opening scene) the Japanese 5.1 feels flat and lifeless. The score is barely audible much of the time, and character voices are poorly mixed, sounding very “tinny”. The English version is the clear winner here, which may anger purists, but as I stated above, the English track is vastly superior anyway.

So should you rush out and purchase? Well, that all depends on you, as shoddy as the transfer is, and the extras are non-existent, this is probably the best version of this film that Street Fighter fans are going to get. If you can park the ole brain, hell put it in reverse, and enjoy this one on the same level as other martial arts yukfests like Ong Bak or Fist of Legend, then, yeah, you’ll probably have a bit of fun with Street Fighter II. If you love the games or knew these characters intimately when the game was tearing up the arcade and Super Nintendo, then yeah, this flick is definitely for you. If you’re a total Street Fighter nutbar like me, well, I don’t have to tell you, you’ve got your copy pre-ordered already.

Film: 2 (out of 5)
DVD: 2.5 (out of 5)

Roller! She's a high roller baby!

2006-07-01T11:16:00.000-02:30

Saturday update.

the SHEAVY show was awesome! Myself, Russ(the best man), Jondre, Kate and Andy, hit downtown about 11:00 or so (Russ's other half, Lisa, showed up a little later), just in time to catch the end of Inciduim's set. Crazy death metal complete with snarling and cussing and rapid fire guitarwork. I'm not a huge death metal fan, but the guys sure were fun to watch, and they were damn good at the stuff. I wonder if they play weddings?

Next up was JKW, a sort of punk rock/ska/funk or something hybrid with St. John's music scene veteren Ritchie Perez on guitar. These guys were a hoot and a half. They were at their best for the first half of the set, including one song titled "Surf Nazis Must Die!" Their lead singer was also a freakin maniac, climbing speakers, jumping around, generally channelling the ghosts of Robert Plant and Jim Morrison's stage presences all rolled into one. The band had an almost Franz Ferdinand-ish vibe going on. Fun times!

Sheavy meanwhile, were in top form. Simply freakin' amazing show! One of the best Sheavy shows i have ever seen (and i've seen quite a few!).

My little "gang" have all been Sheavy fans since the mid-90's, and live shows used to be a weekly or bi-weekly affair. They were always good, but around '97 they became a rarity. They played St. Kevin's Parish Hall one night in the Goulds (my hometown), and didn't play another live show for something like a year (Electric Sleep release party at the Edge). There were a handful (something like 3) of shows that summer and a one off that Winter. The band was split all over North America. 2 years later, after releasing Celestial Hi-Fi, the band got together at The Corner Stone and FILLED the joint with an amazing show over Christmas in 2000. Everyone split off again, an album came, no live shows. Then, in the spring of last year came the Masonic Temple get-together, which was recorded for a live DVD, and in August of last year, a freaking amazing Bar-show at Junctions. And then there's last night's action. Part of what makes a Sheavy show so damned special is that you only get em every so often, and being such fans of the band as we are (they transcend the "local" term to become a truely world class rock n roll band in my mind), they never fail to impress. Last night's wasn't anything memorable in terms of the crowd or the location (the PACKED upper floor - something like 500 people - of the Corner Stone and Tom dunphy's intense light show in 2000 was probably the topper for sheer mindblowing spectacle), but in terms of the band themselves, it's probably the best show i've seen! Night before the Canada Day weekend means the crowd wasn't huge or anything, maybe 70-100 people, but the band were just SO into it. The guys seemed to be having a blast, and the "less is more" light show actually impressed the hell out of me. The whole show had a very earthy look. Steve's Alice Cooper crossed with The Crow's "mime from hell" look was inspired, and the guy NEVER stops jumping around. The setlist was also a great mix of old and new material (No "What's up Mr. Zero!"!), and the guys played it damn fast n loose. GREAT freaking show. The guys are off to Germany in a few days for 12 or 13 shows over there, i wish em all the best! We should be seeing another show locally in August or September, and another shortly thereafter that will be recorded for a live DVD, and the boys are back into the studio immediately after the Germany gigs to work on a follow-up to last year's "Republic?" album. It's great to see them back into the game fulltime! Can't wait to hear what they cook up next.

I managed to capture some video (a tune called "Saving Me" from The Electric Sleep album) and i took a pile of photos, the best of which i'll share here. The guys use pretty minimalist lighting, nice n dark, and Steve jumps around like a ferret high on angel dust, so you'll see some motion blurring and such due to lower shutter speeds. You really need some nice night-time photography skills and an old school Camera to capture Sheavy in all their glory, digital just ain't as good in that sort of environ. That said, i was impressed with how the shots came out on the new Sony, and a lot of the blurring and stuff gives it a cool "high energy" look. Check this shit out!

Steve Hennessey (vocals/general insanity) rocks through the set. Keith Foley provides all the "bow bow bow bow bababa bow"

From L. to R.: Tommy Boland (guitar), Keith Foley (bass), Steve Hennessey (vox.)

Tommy Boland, newest addition to the band. Gee-tar #2

Dan Moore, Sheavy riffmiester

Rockin out!

Keith "out of focus!" Foley - Sheavy's low end, chief cook and bottlewahser.

Steve - intense - "Is my make up running?"

Not much else going on this week. Caught Ultraviolet - what glorious trash it was! I loved it! Also grabbed a bunch of cheap shit, like the fourth Crow Sequel! God love blockbuster trade credit and 2 for 12 dollars sales.

HST in Newfoundland drops one percent today! We are now paying 14% tax on everything we buy instead of 15! Hey, it's a start.

That's all for now.

The rundown:

Watching: Ultraviolet / Death Watch / Kingdom of Heaven: The Path to Redemption / Gladiator

Listening to: The Trews - Den of Thieves / Wolfmother / The Ramones

Reading: Some Edgar Allen Poe

Playing: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (xbox360) / Call of duty 2 (xbox360) / Resident Evil 4 (ps2)

Eating: Spaghetti n meatballs... from a can

Wishing: I could afford a nice large screen display - getting sick of 27 inches.

Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this 17 times.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's roasted Marshmallows!"

Ahem...

2006-06-30T19:14:00.000-02:30

Awwww HELL yeah!

Back tomorrow, hopefully with pics from the show!

Check em out here to see what yer missing!

Supa-Hero a Go-Go!

2006-06-29T10:42:00.000-02:30

This one's for Dan!

Info comes from here

Captain Newfoundland

Real Name: Unknown

Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial

Occupation: Tutor to superheroes who protect the world.

Affiliations: Leif Eiriksson, Golden Dove, Captain Canada

Enemies: Remlin

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Odin, Captain Atlantis, Samadhi ("the State Beyond Form")

Base of Operations: Newfoundland (the last remaining tip of Atlantis)

First Appearance: Sunday Herald's Captain Newfoundland strip

Powers/Abilities: Able to transform his shape. Able to teleport through time and space, and to take passengers with him when doing so - he perceives both differently from humans which is why he can manipulate them. He can communicate telepathically, and can allow others to understand other tongues.

History: Captain Newfoundland's race came to Earth millennia ago and taught the young mankind how to build pyramids in Egypt and to become one with the universe in India. In a continent between what would one day be Europe and America, they founded the kingdom of Atlantis. Eventually however almost the entire island was destroyed.

Centuries later the Vikings, led by Leif Eiriksson, landed on the remaining tip of Atlantis (the land later known as Newfoundland), and founded a colony there. During their first winter, a strange being was sighted. The being tried to tell them he was a friend, but the frightened Vikings attacked anyway, until he transformed, growing into a giant version of the god Odin. Then he grabbed the leader, Leif, and carried him up the side of a nearby mountain. Once alone, the being returned to his previous form, and explained that he was Captain Atlantis, descendent of the beings who came from beyond the cosmos all those centuries ago. As the other Vikings caught up with them, Captain Atlantis warned them of an imminent storm, and showed them a safe place to harbour their ships.

Amazed at all of this, Leif wondered aloud what kind of future was in store for this new land, and Captain Atlantis decided to show him. He brought Leif to the modern day, to let his new friend see how the world had changed, yet stayed the same. Leaving Lief watched over by Golden Dove, Captain Atlantis (known in the modern world as Captain Newfoundland) went off to "travel beyond form", becoming one with the universe to recharge his energies. At the end of the day, he regained corporeal form and returned Leif to his own time.

Some time later Captain Newfoundland chose Daniel Eaton to become Captain Canada. He and other "cosmic beings" tutored the young hero in preparation for the coming trials he would have to face. When Sho-Gun attacked Montreal and Captain Canada opposed it, the hero discovered Remlin and his allies inside the machine. Seeing his protege outnumbered, Captain Newfoundland came to the hero's aid. He destroyed Remlin's allies and unmasked the evil mage. While Captain Canada faced Sho-Gun on the corporeal plane, Captain Atlantis faced Merlin on a spiritual one, eventually vanquishing him.

Comments: Created by Geoffrey Scott and Danny Bulanadi.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with other captains.

Uhhh, yeah...

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's the guys who created Captain Newfoundland, taking advantage of Canada's lax marijuana laws."

Here we go... Give me 10 bucks and a head start.

2006-06-25T11:35:00.000-02:30

Hey all,

Sunday update!

Sorry to those looking for an update last Saturday. Didn't really have a whole lot to say this past week, and the whole "creativity rut" continues unabated, so i took the week off. This update was supposed to come yesterday, but time was against me.

Busy week over all. Had to borrow Dad's lawnmower so's i could take care of the Peruvian rainforest that used to be my back yard. Also did a little electrical work around the house, installed a dimmer switch on the chandolier in the dining room, yadda yadda yadda. I'm boring you, i know.

Happy Birthday greets go out to my man Johnny Zero, who celebrated yesterday with some paintball, which i was looking foreward to all week - but of course a trip to Wal Mart for things like Cat Food, milk, underwear for Abby and Gas killed my chances of going, which rots me so very much. Also made the attempt to stop by, but there weren't nobody home...

So i played some Call of Duty 2 and some Ghost Recon for the 360. Finally won that goddamn war. the Nazis lay battered n broken under our allied might. Those last two levels were extremely intense though. The Battle for hill 440 was very nearly a loss, as we had to take a lone radar station atop a hill, and then defend the bastard from an onslaught of troops until some P-51's showed up and gave us some air cover. Then there was crossing the Rhine, and some intense house to house fighting that involved dodging 2 tiger tanks! Fun times! I'll be on xbox live for the forseeable future, so if any of you clowns have an xbox 360 and want to get in some gaming, look for "SocialistSteve".

Caught a few flicks this week:

Undead

Berkeley, Australia is a sleepy little fishing town with a colorful assortment of characters. we meet some of them, the filmmakers give us a little backstory on each, and then alien meteorites fall from the sky. Some kind of virus infects the town, the dead walk the earth, our intrepid heroes are dropped into an abandoned farmhouse, much gore ensues.

Undead is another one of those "rags to riches" stories that seems to follow the horror genre like flies follow you-know-what. It joins the ranks of films like Raimi's The Evil Dead, or Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, and ultimately provides the same sort of experience. The Spierig Brothers, fresh out of Australia, manage to combine that nation's offbeat quirk with a love for the zombie classics of the likes of Romero, and some good old fashioned know-how, to provide one of the more auspicious debut films i've seen in this particular genre (It certainly blows Cabin Fever out of the water for sheer enjoyment). All is not perfect though, the film is definitely an overachiever. Everything was assembled from DV footage, and edited on a home PC using Adobe Premiere and entirely homebrewed special effects, but things look a little "too" good. At first glance the flick could very easily be mistaken for a low budget studio effort, and the absurdity of the plot and characters does lose something to the more polished look of the film. (truth told, the Aussie budget was estimated to be somewhere around one million, a far cry from the miniscule money behind flicks like The Evil Dead). It gives Undead less of a "grass roots" feel, and more of a "bottom of the shelf B-movie" vibe, that could lead people to percieve that it's more House of the Dead than Night of the Living Dead.

The aforementioned absurdity of the plot doesn't help either. The characters remain gritty and serious throughout, which works fine with Dirk Hunter's foul mouthed policeman, but falls terribly flat with Marion, UFO abductee and bad-ass gunslinger, who should come off like Father McGruder in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, but instead comes off as a man who needs more fibre. Like in Roth's Cabin Fever, these actors (and i use the term lightly) play it a touch too straight, surrounded by such rediculous events (flying zombie fish anyone?). There are a ton of laughs to be had to be certain, but the tongue in cheek tone set before the opening sequence, and during the 50's-era titles, dissapears once the film gets rolling. I feel i should also mention, the post apocalyptic coolness of the DVD's cover appears no-where in the film, save for the closing moments, which gives me hope for a cool post-apocalyptic sequel (come on, don't call that a spoiler - we're talking about a zombie movie for chrissakes!). In all, Undead is a great way to spend an evening if you're looking for a bit of mindless fun. Rocket science it ain't, horror classic it ain't, but it's a solid first effort.

2 (out of 5)

Night Watch

The story goes thusly: A few thousand years ago, the armies of light and dark met on a bridge, neither would yield, conflict ensued. The leader of the Army of light, Gesser, made a pact with the leader of the evenly matched Army of Darkness, Zavulon, so that they wouldn't entirely annihilate one another. No "Other" (a human with special supernatural abilities, like a sort of Quija board-fueled X-man) could be forced to choose between good and evil, also, the light side would have a group of enforcers, used to patrol the streets at night to ensure the dark side held up theri end of the truce, called the Night Watch. The Dark side would get the same luxury, their enforcers would be called, (ready for it?) the Day Watch. The film follows one Other, named Anton, as he first hunts down some Vampires in search of a victim, and later gets involved in a prohphetic scheme which could result in the forces of Darkness gaining the foothold they need to start the war up again and conquer the forces of Light. There's also a whacked out witch with pet doll complete with spider limbs, a nitrous powered Gas company truck, the end of the world, and about a million ravens.

Night Watch is, at its core, a straight up thriller. It borrows from the horror and sci-fi genres and builds onto it's surface, and what's left is a dazzlingly filmed, if a tad incomprehensible tale of good vs. evil with the fate of the world at stake. While it's not a slow crawl, it doesn't play out as quickly as many of it's Hollywood equivalents, the story unfolds at a delibertae pace. Where the film truely differs is in the surroundings. The film is an entirely Russian production, set in Moscow, a place that is about as fictitious to many of us as the dystopian Los Angeles of Blade Runner, or the Anytown portrayed in The Matrix. The film is saturated with fantastic special effects, and the production values are on par with anything Hollywood could churn out. It's actually the first film in what is being called an epic horror trilogy. Quentin Tarantino compares it to Lord of the Rings (which pretty much indicates how coked out of his little mind QT actually is), but a more apt comparison would definitely be The Matrix. Performances were all fine and good, and i must say, the dub job on Fox's new DVD was actually pretty awesome. It's a damn good film, something a little different, and yet strangely familiar - i can understand how it was targeted by the russian filmsnobs as being a sellout to American culture. Either way, it's a damn entertaining way to spend a few hours, and i can't wait to see what happens in the sequel.

3 (out of 5)

That's all there is.

The rundown:

Watching: Undead / Night Watch /

Listening to: Kerbdog - Self titled / Kerbdog - On The Turn / Helmet - Meantime / Helmet - Betty / Alice in Chains - Dirt / Oasis - don't Believe The Truth / Muse - Absolution / Corrosion of Conformity - In The Arms of God

Reading: The Hedge Night by George R.R. Martin

Playing: Ghost Recon: advanced Warfighter (xbox360) / Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360)/ Doom 3 (xbox) / Call of Cuthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth (xbox) / Call of Duty 2 (xbox360)

Eating: Spaghetti - O's

Wishing: I could find something to spend my Blockbuster credit on!

...time is short. So you gotta ask yourself: Are you a fighter, Fish Queen, or are you zombie food?

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's an Aussie fisherman hopped up on goofballs."

More Quizzin' - BEST ONE YET!

2006-06-16T10:49:00.000-02:30

Take the quiz:
Which Dead Rock Star Are You?

Jeff Buckley
You are Jeff Buckley! You're influential to many young and old, and very talented. You have charisma and grace that sets you a part from many. You are beautiful! Oh, he died in 1997 from a drug-induced drowning in the Mississippi River.

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

DVD Review: Dazed and Confused: Criterion Collection

2006-06-16T01:43:00.000-02:30

DVD Review

Dazed and Confused
Criterion Collection

This review was a monster to write. Dazed and Confused is a film that conjures up so many strong emotions in me, and getting those thoughts organized was proving hellish. I tried everything, from blaring the soundtrack through headphones whilst sitting at the keyboard, watching or recalling specific scenes from memory, or recalling past experiences with the film, usually involving illicit substances of the green, leaf-y variety. I’d tried everything shy of sparking one up and waiting for a sudden creative epiphany. Then it hit me. Dazed and Confused isn’t a film one can review in the traditional sense, it isn’t a film you need to be in a certain headspace to appreciate, it isn’t a plot heavy art film or a character study. Dazed and Confused just is. It exists. You either identify with the film, whether you came up in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s, or you don’t. There is no middle ground. You either experience Dazed and Confused, or you don’t. Its film at its simplest, it doesn’t tell us a tale of social or political importance, it doesn’t wow us with glossy non-linear trickery or gob-smacking visuals, it exists.

Richard Linklater takes us back to the last day of school, in 1976, where we meet a colorful cast of characters, high school soon-to-be seniors, and the latest crop of freshmen, who spend their time cruising, partying, dodging brutal hazing rituals (in the freshmen’s case) or generally doing nothing over the span of 24 hours. The cast are a colorful bunch of young faces who would go on to bigger things, and in some cases become household names, notably Parker Posey, Rory Cochrane, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Adam Goldberg, and most notably, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey. The majority of the performances are fantastic and full of youthful energy, Jason London and Rory Cochrane are really the lynchpins, but the strongest impression is really Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of Dave Wooderson. Wooderson becomes the “Han Solo” of Dazed, he steals every scene he’s in, gets all the best lines, and provides sage advice for his teenage underlings as the 20-something hipster who just can’t let go of his high school life. A lot of attention was also payed to the soundtrack, featuring a full buffett table of classic 70's rock n roll. About the only two bands missing are Pink Floyd and Zeppelin (due to the crazy cost associated with liscencing either band's music). Linklater scores the film with this stuff, and it works brilliantly, from the opening strains of "Sweet Emotion" as Kevin's GTO saunters into the high school parking lot, to Wooderson, Pink, and Mitch's entry into the Emporium, in slow motion, like cowboys in from the desert, to the golden tones of Bob Dylan's "The Hurricane". Not a note is wasted.

There’s really nothing else to tell in the plot department, but to mistake lack of plot for lack of substance, particularly where this film is concerned, would be a mistake. This film is for a certain type of person, the type for whom the film is a typical Friday night. It’s for us small town or suburb teens with nothing better to do than hang out or cruise the streets in search of nothing in particular. The only thing that’s changed is the music and the cars, their Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin replaced by Pearl Jam and Nirvana (in my case), their El Caminos and Chevelle SS’s replaced by Reliant wagons and Ford Tempos. While the film recreates a picture perfect snapshot of the mid-70’s, it does so in a realistic manner without all the chintzy pastiche that came with films like American Graffiti, and it sure as hell isn’t mired in sentimentality, or wistful longing for a time gone by. The flick is definitely nostalgic, not for the 70’s, but for the carefree days when we “adults” were none to bothered with any day to day goings on of those people who inhabit the adult world. The film hits me like a freight train whenever I watch it, being a family man closing on 30, it makes me fondly recall those lazy summer days and nights which didn’t consist of much more than 10 dollars worth of gas, or maybe myself and the guys setting up shop on a tuft of fresh dry grass and just hanging out. I knew the people in this flick, be it the bullies, the stoners, the geeks, or the jocks, there were people everywhere in this film that I knew.

Grammercy pictures made the colossal blunder of marketing this one as a teen flick, and sure, it may well be a staple for teens (hell I was 16 or so the first time I saw it), but Dazed and Confused really works best for us late twenties to late thirties people, those of us who’ve been adults long enough to miss the carefree days of summer, but not so long that we’ve forgotten them. If it shows a few teens today how to party good and proper, well all the better! Sure cultural upheavals shaped each of the interceding decades between 1976 and 2006, trends come and go, but I can pretty much say, my world in 1996 was an awful lot like the world of 1976. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Universal has given Dazed and Confused very little love on DVD in the past. The original release was a bare bones disc with a horrid transfer. A special “flashback” edition followed, complete with a few deleted scenes and a remastered picture, but this is the version fans have been waiting for. Criterion has delivered an extensive 2-disc set with their typically excellent attention to detail. There’s a 50 minute documentary that covers every aspect of the film’s production and allows the cast to reflect on the making of the film, even modern day heavyweights like Affleck chime in. We also get audition footage, several deleted scenes, commentary tracks, the whole nine yards. Also included in the set is a great 72-page book which contains profiles on several of the characters plus several excellent essays. The film’s transfer is free of any dirt or print damage, there’s some film grain present, but it feels natural and authentic rather than sharpened to a digital edge. This is the best this film will ever look. The DTS soundtrack is an aural treat, never overdone, mixed perfectly, with a wonderful punch to the extensive soundtrack. It's just class act all around, as one would expect from Criterion.

Film: 5 (out of 5)

DVD: 4 (out of 5)

More Quiz Fun!

2006-06-15T18:43:00.000-02:30

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Sittin at the dock of the bay, watchin the tide roll in.

2006-06-14T14:36:00.000-02:30

Well, Windows Vista is on the home computer, and thus far i'm very impressed. Rather than have this turn into some hard core geek entry, I'll just say this, the interface is damn beautiful. Individual screens have this awesome transparency effect on the go, and everything is animated to a huge degree. If i were on my home computer i'd take a few screencaps of my desktop and show it off... but alas. There are some even crazier snazzy visual enhancements that i haven't been able to figure out how to turn on yet, like highlighted items giving off this cool 3d "cut glass" effect (truth be told i don't think my vidja card can handle it). But either way everything is really neatly organized, a lot of the same options and such as XP, but everything is more logically named and more organized. The start menu has been drastically compacted, and folderviews in windows explorer are quite different. the fonts used in all of the displays are more rounded, less "digital", and generally more pleasing to the eye. The new version of Internet Explorer also looks rather sexy, and brings a lot of the features of Firefox to the table, but the thing is pretty intense on system resources, likewise the new media player (sexy, but processor intensive). Overall i'm happy, and i'll be making the move permanent i would imagine. Drawbacks? System resources for sure. Vista is intense, and i wouldn't recommend it if you have anything less than a 2GHZ processor and 1 gig of system ram. I'm running a 2.6, which is more than enough, but i do hit RAM bottlenecks where my drive starts chug chug chugging while it's dumping and reloading into my 768 mbs of system memory. I've also had one issue where something (possibly Windows Defender?) start's running in the background, and the machine becomes dead slow. Restart and all is well. This is probably just a scheduling issue, maybe I shoulod check maintennance settings and ensure that these background scanning programs are running at a time where i WON'T be on the system. To be perfectly fair, the virus scanner and spyware scanner under Windows XP would often render my windows environment a chugging mess even on my old setup, so i can't complain too much. Speaking of security, this thing is locked up tighter than a drum! You need administrator access to run any sort of installation program, and whenever anything attempts to alter your system registry, or even execute any sort of program, you need to allow it first (in much the same way you would unblock something on your firewall settings). I love this! The chances of your machine becoming a slave to malware and spyware becomes slim to none. Combine that with Microsoft's excellent anti-spyware package, and you have a pretty tight system.

I plan on updating the vidja card to a Radeon X1700 sometime in the near future (current card is a Radeon 9600 le), and a gig of RAM is dirt cheap right now. After that, i'll have a beast on my hands. Curiously enough, My first trial run, gaming wise, was with the pc version of Oblivion, which was adequate, if a little choppy on "low" video settings on XP, under Vista (which itself is supposed to be more intensive) the game actually ran considerably smoother, holding steady at about 35 frames a sec on "low" settings, and between 20-24 on "medium, which was unplayable under XP. Color me impressed. The fact that this is only a beta, and the final version isn't due until January, instills me with confidance that Microsoft is really doing this right. The fact that they're giving the beta version away for FREE to the general public (a version that will be fully supported and will feature fully featured and free updates), and this version will be supported until July 2007, is an unprecedented move on Microsoft's part, and i think it'll go a long way towards ending the longstanding tradition of having a pirated OS on your computer. It will also make them a ton of green!

Guess this was a geek post afterall.

Good bud, gun-polishing, minority-opressing American, and pointer-outer of bad flicks Mitch, has bit the bullet and grabbed hisself some Wolfmother - and all is right with the world, now if only Steve could get him to listen to some Sam Roberts! And if only Steve would stop talking in the third person! I, meanwhile, am hooked on Brit prog-rockers Porcupine Tree (thanks Mark!) Calling them Tool, crossed with Floyd, and mixed with a touch of early 90's rock (a la Helmet or Bush) wouldn't be too far off the mark.

I'm having a hard time creatvely this week. It frustrates the living shit out of me. Having taken in the Criterion Edition of DaZed and Confused, I had been mentally prepared to put metaphorical pen to paper and start writing a review. I have some great stuff buzzing around in my noggin, this is a film that means a lot to me personally, but i just can't get the goddamn thing started. This always seems to happen when someone comes to me and asks me about reviewing. I haven't managed more than 50 words that read like amateur garbage on either Dazed, Running Scared, or Butch n Sundance. Frustrating no? This past weekend i didn't want to do shit, no cleaning, no writing, no parenting, no nuthin! It's a bad scene, but i just needed a break ya know? I wound up having a campfire and watching Robert Downey Jr. Movies (The Singing Detective was INSANE!). Here's hoping things snap back into place after tonight (we get fitted for penguin suits this evening). I don't have a whole lot to worry about after that until last minute sort of stuff, and Wedding stuff won't be occupying my mind. Here's hoping i can get the creative fire back. I had started on another screenplay as well, based entirely on a single solitary image and title, and i'm not plotting or anything, just flying by the seat of my pants, so this one could very well be a tad insane! Then there's the fiction I've been writing in the hopes of sharing with you fine folk. It had been coming along until about a week ago. I read back over the 20 or so pages i have now, and i feel like just scrapping the whole thing, ouch! I'm my own harshest critic.

Enough outta me for now,

"I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel!"

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a party at the moon tower."

The Shadow of the Wicker Man is Rising Up Again!

2006-06-11T00:04:00.000-02:30

Saturday,

Late one this evening, terribly sorry.

Saw Cars, it was quite good. I never should have doubted Pixar's ability to entertain. There was a great little short in front of the flick proper called "One Man Band", which was also fantastic. Abby loved every minute - i don't think i've ever seen her more excited!

Picked up the Criterion version of Dazed and Confused, hoping to get through that bad boy very soon and add it to my review queue (Behind Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Running Scared). Also grabbed the new Live album (yeah they're still around, and still pretty damn good!)

Everyone's favorite washed up rockers, Metallica, are currently taking a little break from the studio to do some live gigs, and one of their new songs was played at a show in Berlin this past week - it's a live version, but the sound quality is pretty bitchin', though James's voice is shot. There's some definite "kick ass" potential here - once they take a year or so in the studio to polish a little and play around with pro-tools. It does give the same vibe as St. Anger, but without the tin-can drum sound, and with some actual guitar solos - overall it gives me the faintest glimmer of hope that this will actually be a satisfying album if it ever sees the light of day. Rick Rubin's presence fills me with confidence. Listen to it HERE.

Finished The DaVinci Code late in the week, the last few chapters were actually halfway decent, not quite good enough to redeem the rest of the book mind, but still not horrible. I'll never read another Dan Brown book again, i can tell you that much. In other literary news, checked out one of the city's bigger libraries (at the Arts and Culture Centre) today, and man, did it ever SUCK. The reference section wasn't too shabby, nothing remarkable, but passable, but man the fiction selection was fucking terrible. I have to get into MUN's library, i hear all kinds of wacky stories about that place. Help me out will ya Jondre? ;) They better have a decent Lovecraft selection.

I now have Windows Vista, and will be installing that sucker, probably on Monday - wish me luck!

The rundown:

Watching: Running Scared / Patton / Underworld: Evolution / Dazed and Confused

Listening to: Live - Songs from Black Mountain/Starsailor - On The Outside/Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / Sam Roberts - Chemical City/Wolfmother

Reading: The DaVinci Code by Dan "Asshat" Brown

Playing: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360)/Call of Duty 2 (xbox360)

Eating: Had Pizza earlier

Wishing: I had a plasma! A big one!

Let me tell you what Melba Toast is packin' right here, alright. We got 4:11 Positrac outback, 750 double pumper, Edelbrock intake, bored over 30, 11 to 1 pop-up pistons, turbo-jet 390 horsepower. We're talkin' some fuckin' muscle.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's some cuervo gold and a cuban."

I don't need to Fight to prove I'm right and I don't need to be forgiven!

2006-06-09T16:25:00.000-02:30

Friday!
What a week, Car died on Sarah Wednesday afternoon, so i leave work in the afternoon and walk to meet up with her. Turns out the battery is toast, and they couldn't get her going with a boost. After much struggle, finally land a set of working cables, and a car with battery terminals big enough to suck some juice, and i get the beast rolling again (Thanks Nicole! You rock!). Quick once over at the garage tells me all is well under the hood.

Dan has pulled up stakes and shut down Stray Dog. He's still very much a part of the blogosphere (ugh, i hate that word), and you can find his new joint HERE. Glad to see the dude still abides.

In his first new/last old post, Dan brings up a great story abotu a Ouija board, which reminded me of an old experience with these things. Long story short:

People always talk to all of these foriegn dead guys, people like Adolf Hitler, or Jesus, or Mussolini, and what I've always wondered is this: Why the hell does EVERYONE speak English on a Ouija board? What's the dealio?!!

Anyway, Running Scared was awesome, great little slice of crime flick. Laced with noir sensebilities and solid perfomrances - i'll have a full review coming soon. Also did some weeding of the ole DVD collection and som buying of new materials, so the link to your right might be a little messed up right now.

Gonna go check out Cars with the familia tomorrow, should be fun.

Well, there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork.

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a glimpse of the future."

Look out Mamma, There's a White Boat Coming up the River!

2006-06-06T18:51:00.000-02:30

Bad news first. Looks as though the Town Cryer gig is done. I don't know the details, but the paper is on hiatus for the immediate future, which precludes me gettign any more articles in print. I had just submitted my third article, the paper was doing very well from what i'm told, things just got a little crazy behind the scenes. I wish them all the best, and I'd like to thank Neil for bringing me into the fold, even if i only managed two articles out there. I'd also like to thank the people who gave either Neil or myself some feedback on the articles, it leads me to believe that people were actually reading and enjoying them. Who knows what the future will bring. In the meantime, The Busted Controller is still there, and i just uploaded my review for Oblivion! Go check it out if you feel so inclined. If not, well, then don't.

We had Andy's birthday shindig over the weekend, and I had late night house guests pretty much every day of the weekend, and then Sarah's folks for supper yesterday - damn i been busy, top that off with a 12 hour shift today, and split shifts tomorrow and Thursday, and i don't forsee myself having a whole lot of free time for the rest of the week. May try to watch a movie or something when i get home this evening. How long is Patton?

In other news, my Kingdom of Heaven review continues to attract attention, and i've had an offer to write some reviews for a movie-centric website. It's a non-paying gig for a relatively new site, and i've given a tentative "yes" answer. It's an experiment mainly, i'm testing myself to see if i can handle some regular review work these days, and still keep the quality of the output from suffering. If i can keep myself at a level where i'm satisfied, maybe i'll push some stuff to the gurus over at DVDVerdict the next time they have a drive for some new Judges.

This "few days in the life" has been brought to you by the number 7, the number 14, and the letter "G". Bored? So sorry.

What difference do you think you can make, one man in all this madness?

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's David Wilcox catchin' a molotov cocktail while he's doin' the bearcat."

Some Pearl Jam News!

2006-06-03T13:47:00.000-02:30

From Blabbermouth.net

Launch Radio Networks reports: PEARL JAM taped an episode of VH1's "Storytellers""VH1 Storytellers: Pearl Jam" will premiere on VH1 on Saturday, July 1 at 10 p.m. ET.

PEARL JAM performed at the Avalon once before, in 1992, when it was known as the Limelight and the band was just beginning to take off.

The group's self-titled eighth studio album currently sits at Number 17 on the Billboard Top 200, having sold 461,000 copies since its May 2 release.

The group plays the second of two shows in East Rutherford, New Jersey tomorrow night (Saturday, June 3) as it continues its North American tour. on Wednesday night (May 31) at a small club in New York City, according to a press release. The band followed the program's traditional format by taking questions from the audience and telling the stories behind its songs as it performed new tracks and old hits before a packed crowd at the Avalon nightclub.

Some freakin SWEET news! Ever since the first time i'd ever seen Storytellers (I think it was a Sarah Machlachlan episode) i've thought that this show would be MADE for a band like Pearl Jam! I'm stoked - can't wait to see this!

Some people call me the space cowboy...

2006-06-03T13:08:00.000-02:30

Saturday update.

Lack of updates over the last week, I apologize... no i don't.

Not a whole lot going on. Over in busted controller land, i'll be putting up the long awaited (by 1 or 2 people anyway)review of Oblivion sometime over the next two or three days. It'll also come out in print in the Town Cryer sometime around the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, Arames continues his travels in Cyrodil, most recently, the long lost armor of first emperor Tiber Septim was uncovered and returned to the Imperial Blades. Several of the accursed Oblivion gates have been sealed, one of which was done with the assistance of the Bruma town watch. Heronimus Lex, scourge of the Grey Fox and sworn enemy of the Thieves guild has been "re-assigned" out of the Imperial City, thanks to some subterfuge on my part. He can carry on his campaign against the Guild in the remote city of Anvil, where he'll do the least damage. Also came accross a small town and got caught up in some sort of vile scheme, which resulted in the residents pulling swords and killing one another.

I'm quickly falling out of the loop, still haven't seen The DaVinci Code or X3, i'll probably wind up waiting for DVD for both - especialy considering the fact that X3 is looking and sounding like ass. We're gonna see Cars with Abby next weekend, it looks like a bit of fun. I'm actually not overly excited about Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which amazes me as i LOVED the first one. I fear they're going to play Jack Sparrow up far too much, and images of him puffing on a fire will tied to a spit don't exactly instill confidence that it will be a solid blend of action adventure and not overt screwball sight gags and shitty comedy - the whole "We have to wait for jack" cue 1000 angry pygmies... "Never mind" gag was ass as well, and again, doesn't fill me with a great deal of hope for a worthy sequel.

Speaking of the DaVinci Code - man the book SUCKS! I implore people not to read this piece of crap - yet i soldier on. Dan Brown is a goddamn terrible author. Your average chapter consists of a shitload of pseudo-academic rambling dumbed down for 40 year old soccer moms followed up by Tom Hanks - er - Robert Langdon shouting aloud - or in internal monologue - DAVINCI! In his best "Eureka!" vibe. It's far too repetetive, structurally speaking, and Dan Brown's attention to detail is self-serving and utterly pointless to the story - We know they get on a private jet and fly to England, we DO NOT need to know what brand, series, model number, or serial number. We don't need the pilot's name, pilot's grandmother's maiden name, , nor what sort of engines and how powerful they are - we just need to know they're on a plane. How the FUCK did this asshair get published! This is some of the most retarted bullshit i have ever read - it makes the turgid TSR novels of the 80's look like Shakespere. There are some great ideas here, and it's a solid enough pulp story - but the writing just SUCKS any sort of joy out of the reading. It's HORRID!

Ya know, this ALWAYS brings a smile to my face.

Other news, BBQ at my place this evening - to celebrate Andy's birthday. Campfire at my place tomorrow evening - hopefully.

I guess that's enough outta me for now.

The rundown:

Watching: Undergrads: Season 1

Listening to:Fu Manchu - California Crossing/Fu Manchu - King of the Road/ Judas Priest - British Steel/ Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / Sam Roberts - Chemical City

Reading: The DaVinci Code by Dan "Asshat" Brown

Playing: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (xbox360)/ Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines (PC) / Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP)

Eating:Tim Horton's!

Wishing: eh.

I'm always thinking of her, drunk or sober. What else is there to think about, except my job, my dirty job?

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... The pyro at a Metallica concert has gotten outta hand, and James Hetfield is on fire again."

He's got a big cool ring that says Jesus Saves!

2006-05-27T17:04:00.000-02:30

Saturday update!

How's everyone? Good? Yeah, that's grand. Not too much going on over this way. Last Sunday's May two four bbq event went pretty well. Of course it rained, poured even. Go figure. thankfully it stopped shortly before the cooking began, unfortunately it started up again afterwards, which killed any hope of a night outside with a roaring campfire. Everyone went indors, and split off into the Basement Guitar-hero playin' crew, the living room not-so social club, and the upstairs PC geeks. I spent most of the night going back and forth between the three, but truth be told i was a little stoned, and didn't know where I was half the time (thanks Dr. C! THC strikes again!).

Shout out to everyone who showed, Johnny Z and Beth (hey baby!), Jondre and Kate (way to rock the geetar hero there jondre), Chuck, Andy, Matt, Mark, and Jeff. JZ - that Chilli was fuckin awesome man! I was looking for the pot the next day, you must have snuck out with the leftovers... bastard. Beth i owe you a campfire! Maybe next Saturday night for Andy's B-day - that's right - Saturday June 3rd - another get together at the casa de Power! Same drill as last time i figure (only no weed for Steve! I'm gettin' too old for this shit!). Come on out guys! celebrate Andy's 31st with us! It'll be fun, and hopefully sunny, so this time we can roast marshmallows! Andy is bringing those crazy pickled wieners that everyone tends to scarf down at his place over new years - so there's reason enough right there! Leave the damn shrimp tray at home Andy - i don't want no stinkin seafood in my house!

In other news, the Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut review i posted earlier this week drew some pretty positive feedback, i'd just like to thank you fine folk who appreciated the review and sent me some positive notices - I really appreciate it, it gives me the confidance to keep at these things. Nice to know my stuff is worth reading at least once in a while, and a few people outside of the normal loop are browsing. I'll try to present some more of this style of material on a semi regular basis.

Meanwhile, watched The Dukes of Hazzard last night, yes, the remake. I won't go any further than that.

Second article for the Town Cryer is out - recieveing some decent feedback from some of the regular store customers - thanks for the support guys. And thanks to these M80 guys who keep offering me free games even after I sort of panned Full Auto - you guys are great!

In the animal department - the cats continue to live in a relatively fragile state of peace - Sid gave Hugs a whack on the head this morning that sent her flying accross the kitchen floor - if Sid weren't declawed i think he'd have decapitated the little tabby. Nice to see him fighting back. Enough of this bitch kicking him around! Go sid! I did take a cute photo of them both curled up on my bed together, but figured you fine folk could do without pictures of my pets (though i may put some Abby pics up tomorrow, for shits n giggles).

Literary stuff, still trying to get through The DaVinci Crap by Dan "hack on a stick" Brown. The book gives me a damn headache, but the story is actually pretty good - i can only imagine what it'd have been like if it weren't written by a meandering, academic, jackass! Still haven't checked out the movie. Back in my youth i read a lot of these old cruddy TSR novels, Dragonlance, Forgotton Realms, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, all that Dungeons and Dragons crud. Some of these books have actually aged pretty well, i started reading Chronicles, one of the very first TSR trilogies printed way back when,and i was immensely suprised how much i enjoyed it (after Pool Of Radiance and most of Salvatore's old stuff read like a video game). Well Devil's Due Publishing, an upstart little company that ressurected Marvel's old G.I Joe comic a few years back ,actually publishes comic adaptations of the old TSR stuff these days. They first tackled some of Salvatore's old Drizz't books, which are about as exciting as a root canal, but their second project was Chronicles! I picked up the trade paperback collecting the entirety of the first novel in the trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twighlight) and was suitably impressed. It's a pretty faithful adaptation, could have used a few more pages so that sequences wouldn't feel so rushed (maybe 15-20 issues instead of 8 i think it was) but overall it was a damn fine read, and the artwork was jaw-droppingly georgeous! The characters were beautifully portrayed, and facial expression, body movement and such was human and fluid (a problem i typically see with too many comic books that kind of pulled me away from the whole funnybook scene as i got older). The book had a thickly painted look, almost as though the characters were penciled and watercouloured - though i'm sure this wa san all digital coloring effort. It was a tad darker than I expected, i always pictured Chronicles as more bright and sunny, at it's grayest maybe slightly darker than Willow (the '88 swords n sorcery epic from George Lucas and Ron Howard), but the book is pretty gloomy looking overall, and I like it - it ain't your typical D&D Toesucking material. It'd make a GREAT movie with a few sequences snipped.

That's all for now i'm thinking.

The rundown:

Watching: Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut / Police Academy / The Dukes of Hazzard: Unrated / Black Rain

Listening to: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / Johnny Cash - Legacy / Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here / Porcupine Tree - Deadwing / Sam Roberts - Chemical City

Reading: Dragonlance: Chronicles - Dragons of Autumn Twighlight (Graphic novel)

Playing: Hitman: Blood Money (demo - Xbox360) / Diablo (PC)

Eating: Poutine

Wishing: I didn't have such a monstrous headache.

I am the greatest swordsman who's ever LIVED!

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's a blowtorch caramelizing the lunch time candy kiddies."

DVD Review: Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut

2006-05-25T01:36:00.000-02:30

DVD Review
Kingdom of Heaven
4 Disc Director's Cut

Sir Ridley Scott is a director who’s no stranger to studio interference. Two of his better known films, Blade Runner, and Legend were victimized during their original release, Blade Runner’s original intentions were all but destroyed by meddling producers who had fired Ridley and locked him out of the editing room, while Legend was severely cut by Scott’s own hand when he caved to self doubt and studio pressure. In the interceding years, Scott’s stock in Hollywood would rise, both films would be revisited, in their original forms, Ridley would father the term “Director’s Cut” as we envision it today, and with critically acclaimed work like Gladiator and Black Hawk Down to his credit, one would think he would be left to freely create without studio interference. Yet, in 2004, 20^th Century Fox delivered a mandate, Ridley’s latest work, Kingdom of Heaven, was to be no longer than 2 and a half hours. Fearing the backlash that had hit longer “pseudo-epics” like Troy or Alexander, Fox had impressed upon Scott that the film was not to be the sprawling epic he had envisioned. The resultant film, while certainly competently executed, was missing some important bits, particularly in the first act, that ultimately resulted in mixed opinions of the film overall. Kingdom of Heaven was taken to task mainly for its lack of character development, and the relative weakness of its lead actor, and neither was truly an outlandish critique. What many didn’t realize, was that Ridley’s original cut of the film ran near a full hour longer, the vast majority of which was actually character oriented, and thankfully that version has made its way onto DVD, and even more miraculous, this version of the film is quite possibly the most effective and redeeming of Ridley’s director’s cuts, taking a passable period-action piece with heavy religious and philosophical overtones, and turning it into a truly classic character-driven epic, the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen since David Lean in his prime.

Kingdom of Heaven, in its theatrical incarnation, was a window into the tumultuous world of Christian and Muslim during the fragile peace that existed between the second and third Crusades. It truly did a splendid job of weaving us in and out of this fantastical world of chivalry and treachery, with Balian, a meek blacksmith thrust (a little too swiftly) into nobility, as our tour guide. The film was largely about events, people, places, and encounters with all manner of individual. The Director’s cut is a completely different animal, a human story focused tightly on two people. This story belongs to Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith with a background in engineering, mourning the loss of a wife to suicide, and Sybilla (Eva Green), sister to the leprous king Baldwin of Jerusalem, and to what ends she will go to keep “her” vision of Jerusalem alive. When Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) returns from the crusades in search of an illegitimate son, the road leads to Balian’s door. Balian is offered a chance at redemption for his sins, as well as those of his wife, by joining his newfound Father and his band of knights on crusade to Jerusalem. Events force Balian’s hand, and he eventually finds himself alone in the east, newly named the Baron of Ibelin, and caught up in the cat and mouse game played between the Christian and Muslim armies. On one side, King Baldwin (Edward Norton), the leper king, concealed behind a silver mask, and his sword hand, Tiberius (Jeremy Irons), on the other side, Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), warrior poet and King of the Muslims, and his commander, Nasir (Alexander Siddig). Add to this, a faction of Templar knights who want nothing more than all out war, led by the bloodthirsty Guy De Lusignan (Martin Csokas) and the wildly insane Reynald (Brendan Gleeson), and stuck in the middle, Balian and his men, as well as his “spiritual guide” of sorts, Hospitaler (David Thewlis), Sybilla, and her son. Over time, Balian experiences much, the ins and outs of the volatile political landscape, and by the end, he will have emerged a changed man.

What screenwriter William Monahan does so brilliantly, and part of what makes Kingdom of Heaven such an effective picture in my mind, is the way in which both Christian and Muslim are portrayed. We see both the best and worst of both armies, the striving for peaceful co-existence, and the mad fervor that enthralls those who would kill or conquer in the name of their chosen God. Neither Christian nor Muslim is given preferential treatment, though it would be fair to say that the Templar Knights are portrayed as blindly warmongering savages. We want to see Saladin conquer Jerusalem just as badly as we want to see Balian defend it from conquest. Where the director’s cut triumphs absolutely is in the way that it carries this unflinching focus to the characters as well as the creeds, Balian is painted in broad strokes, far removed from the shallow vessel he was in the theatrical cut, we learn much about his character, and the breathing room given to development in the first act, makes his transition from Blacksmith to Noble that much more believable. Orlando’s performance is enhanced greatly; we get a much deeper look at how his mind functions, and how he deals with the foreign surroundings. Instead of fitting his new world like a glove, he feels much more like an outsider in this Eastern world, constantly observing and analyzing. He’s a much more calculating personality, and yet he also appears much warmer. Godfrey also benefits, his relationship with Balian is enhanced, and his past in France is somewhat elaborated upon, which makes events in the first act make that much more sense. Michael Sheen’s sniveling Priest is revealed to have a much more critical role in Balian’s past, and several characters appear in the first act that weren’t even present in the theatrical cut. When we reach Jerusalem, again, pretty much every character is emphasized. The story never really shifts focus entirely from Balian, but it really becomes Sybilla’s story at this point. We learn that she has a son, who will inherit the throne when Baldwin passes on. This element adds a GREAT deal to the story, many of the political happenings of the theatrical cut may have been foggy initially, but the revelation of Baldwin’s heir draws them into crystal clarity. Guy De Lusignan and Reynald also pick up some extra character moments which enhance their previously established qualities, Lusignan appears that much more bloodthirsty and cruel, and Reynald that much more insane. Jeremy Iron’s Tiberius remains largely unchanged, but is played magnificently. At any rate, any issues with weak links in casting is rendered irrelevant in the director’s cut, the cast is universally as perfect as any could ask for, Orlando Bloom and Eva Green benefit the most, for such young and inexperienced actors they put on magnificent performances, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, and Jeremy Irons all bring their “A” games, and Martin Csokas, David Thewlis, and Brendan Gleeson all perform amazingly well. Worth special mention is Ghassan Massoud, making his English-speaking debut. This man holds the screen like very few, he has a majesty and a charisma that steals every scene he’s in.

On the production side of things, the film is absolutely gorgeous. Arthur Max brings his considerable talents as a production designer to bear, and outdoes the splendid work he had done on Gladiator. Very few directors, living or dead have shown the ability to create a completely self contained and ultimately believable world within the confines of a specific film to the degree that Ridley Scott has throughout his career, and Kingdom of Heaven is no exception. Direction is typically Ridley, beautiful visuals combined with some of the single finest shot composition you will ever see. Here, neither the director’s cut nor the theatrical version really differ significantly– the film is skillfully shot and mounted all around, though the director’s cut does appear to have been digitally graded for a slightly more saturated look. Some have complained about Ridley’s combat scenes, I found them to be exhilarating, and no where near as frantic or hyper kinetic of those in other films of this nature (Lord of the Rings for example). Ridley does employ some over-cranking camera effects and slow motion, but it adds style and finesse to the scenes of carnage, and is never overplayed or over edited to the point that it becomes incomprehensible or overly chaotic. The siege on Jerusalem in particular, is a breathtaking sequence that rivals the most epic of sequences (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ “Helm’s Deep” sequence for example). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the beautiful score by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Scott Free, in collaboration with Charles De Lauzirika, have been responsible for some of the finest DVD sets around. Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut is no exception. This 4-disc set includes the full director’s cut of the film, including Overture, Intermission, and Entr’acte, spread across two discs. The other two discs include an all encompassing documentary entitled The Path to Redemption, a feature length look at every aspect of the films production, from its early start during the folding of Tripoli, another Scott project that was set to star Russell Crowe, to it’s premiere on three separate continents and the creation of the director’s cut. Theatrical trailers and TV spots are present in a comprehensive promotional gallery that also includes some 200 plus poster concepts from various territories. Three commentary tracks are included, one with Ridley, Orlando Bloom, and William Monahan, a second with executive producer Lisa Ellzey, effect supervisor Wesley Sewell, and assistant director Adam Somner, and a third commentary featuring editor Dody Dorn. Also tucked away on each disc are additional featurettes, and photo galleries that will take hours to fully explore. Picture and sound for the discs are exemplary, pure reference quality goods. This is an all encompassing package, a solid film made truly exemplary, elevated to classic status, truly one of Ridley Scott’s absolute best works, a plethora of quality bonus materials, and all wrapped up in a wonderful package. It’s a must own for fans of period epics, or epic filmmaking in general.

Film 5 (out of 5)

DVD 5 (out of 5)

He's got kung fu grooves that can never be imitated, she's got a fashion queen walk and she wears her blue jeans faded...

2006-05-20T10:49:00.000-02:30

Saturday Update!

May two four is, and has always been a weekend about plans, plans for out of doors activities involving good times. May two four is also all about rain, high winds, cold, and sometimes even snow, laying waste to said plans. Unfortunately, the weather forcast for the whole weekend was chilly temps with some rain - fortunately, our weather forcast these days is about as accurate as Ray Charles with a high powered sniper rifle in high wind. It's been sunny and pleasent. Hopefully this continues through tomorrow so the big BBQ goes off without a hitch (I think there may be quite a few people coming!). Should be a good time, i'll try to get pictures.

In other news, I broke my blog trying to get my fancy new title bar up there! You see it!? Isn't it GREAT!?? But things are back now - sad thing is i royally fucked my template - and lost all of my links! So if i had ya linked previously, and you don't see your name next door in the linky column, drom me a line and i'll remedy the situation. How's that for service!

Meanwhile - there are three PSP's here right now - people are throwin the smackdown in multiplayer, and i think i may join in. Game wise i've been into the first person shooters all week, still got a little Oblivion squeezed in there, but i've been trying to give my poor neglected PS2 a little love.

Musicwise this week - Mark has finally suceeded in REALLY getting me interested in a band, thanks to his 5.1 DTS DVDAudio version of Deadwing by a Brit prog-metal band called Porcupine Tree. Damn cool album. Tool, if they were still musical and concerned about harmonies instead of anger. I hear bits of Floyd and Bush (remember them?) as well.

That's all for now - sorry if the substance ain't up to my usual Saturday standard.

The rundown:

Watching: Undergrads

Listening to: Sheavy - Republic? / Sheavy - Celestial Hi fi / Wolfmother / David Gilmour - On an Island / Porcupine Tree - Deadwing / Sam Roberts - We Were Born in a Flame

Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

Playing: Killzone (ps2) / Call of Duty 2 (xbox360) / Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (xbox360)

Eating: Barbecue, hopefully!

Wishing: It were Tuesday already! Kingdom of Heaven DC!

Who wants to go home? And who wants to go with ME!!?

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's the finest weed in the southfarthing."

The sign says long haired freaky people need not apply.

2006-05-16T11:17:00.000-02:30

The official kickoff of the Canadian summer season begins this upcoming weekend. Each and every year, for lovely Queen Victoria's birthday on May 24th, Canuckleheads everywhere pack up the camping gear, or take the boards off of the windows of the ole Cabin, and generally whoop it up Canadian style for the entirety of the long weekend. It's a great time of year (except for that one time it snowed and we had to cut our way out of a brand new 300 dollar tent that collapsed under the weight of the snow!). Judging by the weather lately, we won't be worrying about any freak post winter blizzards. Since yours truely doesn't get a "long" weekend per se, and since my folks are planning on making the jaunt to the aforementioned Cabin, we're planning a little shindig in the Backyard for this Sunday night. The new backyard is freakin immense, and has a nice little firepit - so we'll probably get a little fire going, have a few drinky drinks, and top it all off with some Barbecue. Here's hopin' a few people show up!

In preperation for the event, and what i hope will be an uneventful yet glorious summer, I picked up this beast yesterday:

Side burner complete with a griddle! Man, Sunday morning breakfast during the summer is gonna ROCK! Now i just need a smoke box for my wine soaked hickory, some butterfly pork chops, a baked potato or two, and a bottle of Kahlua!

Also broke down and got the brakes on the car done - she was sounding like a 767 coming in for a landing every time i touched the brake pedal. Suprisingly cheap, and the guys at the garage fixed the mystery dent! For FREE! I'll be going back there for any future repair work i'll wager.

Coming next week, biggest release of 2006 for me thus far:

I was a pretty big fan of the original film, but by all accounts this new version, with a full 50 minutes restored, plays out in truely classic fashion, putting it up there with the best of Hollywood's historical epics. 1 Week!

Been trying to have "1 Week of Ridley" leading up to KOH's release, watched the Director's Cut of Legend on sunday. I may watch Alien this evening.

That's it for now.

Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!

Cheers,
Steve.
"Where there's smoke... There's a bitchin' cookout!"

There Ain't No Shelter Here!

2006-05-13T18:24:00.000-02:30

Saturday update.

Looks like the Town Cryer gig is official - i've been told to keep the articles coming. Up next is thoughts on E3, then followedprobably by my review for Oblivion (And man, that is gonna be hard to bring in in 400-500 words - more like a couple of thousand). I love it though.

Now to rant for a bit. Good friend Deeanne brought a job to my attention earlier this week, and I appreciate the effort, I really do. I'm debating whether or not i'm going to bother sitting down and trying to type up a resume. Apparently there's Data entry involved, and i'm told there's some formal sales, maybe some letterhead design, none of which i'm really cut for. Sarah doesn't seem to understand this fact - and having certain people come to me every two weeks and tell me "I need to look for something" really pisses me off to no end. we have food on our table, we have a roof over our heads, we have clothes on our backs, and bill collectors usually leave us alone. I just don't understand why everyone I know outside of my own parents seem to think i'm involved in some intense job hunt. It's not that I don't appreciate their efforts, but at the same time id like a little more support for what i'm doing right now! I'm happy to get up and go to work - the bullshit tolerance factor is very low, i'm selling something i'm very knowledgable of, and i don't come home from work ready to murder anyone. I don't want to blow my own trumpet or stroke my own ego here - but of all of the Video game retail outlets on this freakin rock in the North Atlantic i call home, i have yet to see another person in this damn field who has the degree of background knowledge i have (clerks, managers, owners, whatever). I love this industry, i love at least 2/3rds of the clientele, and i love not having to worry about what i'm wearing, or being clean shaven every day, or having to meet sales projections or sell "X" quantities of product "Y" within a certain span of time. I care about the business i work for, even if i don't have a personal claim to stake, and while i may not be paid what some may think i'm worth, i'm treated with respect, and yeah, fuck it, i have pride in what i do. It's frustrating to have want ad clippings stuffed in my face, or people constantly talking to me about work with this hint of "he could do so much better" pity in their voices. I don't need your pity. I could be answering phones, constantly being bitched at by Americans who can't figure out why their cel phone bills are so high. I could be stressed at the thought of HAVING to sell 20 customer cards, or having to get at least 10 people an hour to sign up for an MBNA visa. To have a job that pays my bills, and keeps me from committing homicide or ripping what's left of my hair from my scalp is more than enough for me right now. Are there people out there making more than me? Friggin right! Are there people out there making less? A hell of a lot more of them than the guys making more, i can tell ya that! I'm not delusional, i know where i'm workin' I know i ain't curing Cancer or saving the world, but we can't all be superheroes. You come to me, you get service without the corporate "how may I help you today sir or madam while grinning like a jackass" bullshit. I won't steer you wrong, i won't sell you shit you don't want, because i don't want you pissed off at me, if anything, i WANT you to come back, i WANT you to say, "Goddamn Steve, that game you sold me was tight!" I want you to tell your friends, "That guy Steve up at Microplay, he knows his shit, he's a straight shooter! He won't feed you crap and try to sell you Army Men: sarge's Heroes, and dammit, he's a swell guy to talk to!" I just can't see me showing up for work in a suit and tie, grinning like a fool while towing the corporate line. Not my scene.

Enough of that nonsense. I'll leave you with a reading from the book of Graves:

Oh, fuck you! Fuck you, pal! Jesus, there you go trying to pass the buck. I'm the source of all your misery. Who closed the store to play hockey? Who closed the store to go to a wake? Who tried to win back his ex girlfriend without even discussing how he felt with his present one? You wanna blame somebody? Blame yourself. "I'm not even supposed to be here today." You sound like an asshole! Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here. You're here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on your shoulder. Like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't here. Jesus, you overcompensate for having what's basically a monkey's job. You push fucking buttons. Anybody can just waltz in here and do our jobs. You-You're so obsessed with making it seem so much more epic, so much more important than it really is. Christ, you work in a convenience store, Dante! And badly, I might add! I work in a shitty video store, badly as well. You know, that guy Jay's got it right, man. He has no delusions about what he does. Us, we like to make ourselves seem so much more important than the people that come in here to buy a paper, or, god forbid, cigarettes. We look down on them as if we're so advanced. Well, if we're so fucking advanced, what are we doing working here?

I don't identify with Dante or Randall, i'm definitely more in line with "that guy Jay".

I'm out!

The rundown:
Watching: The New World / Last Exile

Listening to: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / The Tea Party - Edges of Twighlight / Wolfmother / Jeff Martin - Exile and the Kingdom

Reading: The DaVinci code by Dan Brown

Playing: Tomb Raider Legends (xbox)

Eating: Pizza, all freakin week!

Wishing: I could get some Obilvion time in!

You've never heard of the Millenium Falcon?

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... There's Steve setting Mark on fire!"

Cause i'll tell you everything about living free.

2006-05-11T19:24:00.000-02:30

Another sparse week for updates, not a lot to talk about I guess.

E3 is currently raging in Los Angeles, video game geek mecca - Not much to get excited about this year. Sony's Ps3 looks nice, but there's not much software out there, the Nintendo Wii looks er, interesting, but there's not much there that interests me either. Microsoft, outside of totally CASTRATING Shadowrun (also known as one of the coolest RPG's of all time video game OR pen and paper), had a pretty solid showing. I'll get into that stuff more over on The BC.

Speaking of which, The Busted Controller is now in print! Woo! Local coffee house/pizza place free newspaper, The Town Cryer, has decided to run with a bi-weekly gaming column, and good buddy and former co-worker Neil has brought me on board for now! I'm happy, see how it unfolds i guess. It's a paying gig too! Bit of gas money!

Two flicks i missed during their theatrical runs took a bow on DVD this week, Munich, Steven Spielberg's film about a group of soldiers waging a war of retribution on the organizers of the Black September killings at the '72 Olympics in Munich. I've heard much said of this one, and i have a very good feeling about it - i may have to revise the "top 10 of '05" list after i sit down with this one. Also on tap is Terrence Malik's retelling of the Pocahontes story, The New World, which i think looks fantastic. Malik is not for everyone - the guy loves the "tone poem" style of shooting, and frequently employs internal monologues and such. I loved both The Thin Red Line, and Badlands - so i have high hopes for this one, some are saying it's his best.

Sarah was a very bad girl this past weekend. While traipsing around Future Shop she somehow managed to pick up and purchase a 7.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot camera! This thing is sweet! I may indulge the photography bug again - but if i decide to share, be warned that i'm no Ansel Adams. I've got a few pics from my excursion to Long Harbour (outport community here in NF)on Monday - i may share a few. I definitely have to get a day in downtown St. John's to snap some shots.

A while back i mentioned the whole fiction thing, yeah, i'm writing when i get the chance, but i'm taking a new approach. Instead of sitting down at a computron and typing, i'm using a pencil and a pad of office paper. I'm really digging it - i find myself more carefully considering my words, not just spewing them out as fast as my fingers can fly (which i will freely admit is faster than my brain can process what i'm actually thinking). I think this'll lead to higher quality output when i finally do share what i've got, we'll see i guess. I'm no Howard Phillips Lovecraft (here's hoping i'm no Dan Brown!)

Caught Mission: Impossible III over the weekend - was pretty cool. I may attempt a review when i'm in a more cognizent state.

Man that book of yours musta been one nutty ride!

Cheers,
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there's burning records, burning books. Holy soliders. Nazi looks!"
(name that reference!)

Baby take my hand, we'll be able to fly...

2006-05-06T13:38:00.000-02:30

Saturday,

Slow week this week. Not a whole lot going on really.

Grabbed a new DVD player, a cheap-o brand Wal Mart special, like 30 bones, and region free out of the box! (and it doesn't screw up aspect ratios like the shitsonic). Diamond Vision DVD 870 or something, the fact that these guys don't even have a website i can link to instills me with confidance, but so far so good!

Hey Chuck! congrats on getting into grad school bud! Pretty soon we'll be calling you Dr. Chuck! And Steve'll know TWO whole respectable peoples! (a teacher with a pencheant for physcial violence, and a pothead philosopher with a doctorate!)

In other news, we're back to being a one car family, the damn Kia is gone! (A second car is convenient and all, but it'll be much easier to keep one car in gas, which is nice). Meanwhile i'm pretty much abandoning any hope of getting into a Mustang. I'll probably go with the '06 Persuit coupe - which was still a pretty swell ride.

Hey Chuck again! You remember that crazy fantasy anime (Herioc Legend of Arislan) you rented from Blockbuster when you were in like Junior High?? We watched it last night! It's aged pretty well! I'm gonna have copies on DVD later this week.

No Lodoss War, but still pretty cool!

Finally managed to sit through Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid without falling asleep this week. And i freakin loved it. I think it may even be my personal best of Peckinpah's westerns. Yeah, i liked it more than The Wild Bunch i think - Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn are so much cooler than Earnest Borgnine.

Not even bob Dylan's acting could ruin this one!

Over in weather - goddamn it's been nice all week! Love it! Starting to walk home from work when i get the opportunity.

Last but certainly not least, there are two things you can always count on to whip the internet pinheads into a frenzy, a new Metallica album, or a new version of Star Wars on DVD

Campfire in my backyard sometime this month!

That's it, go do something with your life!

The rundown:
Watching: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid / Heroic Legend of Arislan / Record of Lodoss War

Listening to: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam / Pearl Jam - No Code / Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - Walking into Clarksdale / Experience Hendrix - The best of Jimi Hendrix

Reading: The DaVinci code by Dan Brown

Playing: Nothing this week.

Eating: Peanut Smarties - pretty gross really!

Wishing: I had more money.

Da Wabbit kicked da bucket! Da wabbit kicked da bucket!

Cheers,
Steve.
"Where there's Smoke... There's Steve havin a campfire, roastin marshmellows, eating hot dogs, and drinkin grape soda!"

Many times i've wondered... how much there is to know!

2006-05-03T10:04:00.000-02:30

Well, it's all over for the Canadiens. Carolina rallied back from a 2 game loss to wipe them out in 4 games straight. coincidentally, this is also when i personally started watching the games. Not so coincidentally, this is when Carolina swapped up their goaltenders. Bottom line, the Habs got in, and those first two games suprised a lot of people. Considering the skill that Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward has shown, and the fact that Montreal's captain has been sidelined since game 3, i'm proud of what they managed to accomplish. Now as long as a Canadian team takes the cup i'll be happy - which probably won't be the case...

I'll be back later today with more of an update - time is limited right now.

Cheers
Steve
"Where there's smoke... there's Canada's lax marijuana laws."