If there's one thing you can count on from local television news, it's making mountains out of molehills. Sacramento seems really good at this, but I'm sure that it must happen everywhere, right? Please say I'm right.
The latest molehill is this video made by some local teens in Rocklin. It didn't make me laugh out loud, but I did find it amusing.
It is of course a spoof of “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, but what they are making a mountain out of it for is that it was recorded at their high school. Here's the story from News 10, a station that I watch because they usually don't go for this sort of crap:
What was that that Liz said? Yup, that's right, the “C” word; Columbine! And look, this story aired a week before the anniversary of said tragedy, although I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Lets see if they find some way of running something about this again tomorrow.
Anyway, thank you Liz for being the stereotypical out-of-touch adult. To be fair, I'm sure the reporter did not give you the context of the video they showed you (and I doubt they showed you all seven minutes of it), because they certainly misrepresented it in the story. I got the feeling like they were trying to represent this as something more than a funny video produced by creative teens who actually put down the controllers for a few hours and went and did something else... even if that something else was still video game related.
Of course it doesn't help me think that Channel 10 was not trying to deceive me as to what the video is about by repeatedly showing the headshot clips from 3:40 and 5:20 during the promos and intro to the story. I don't expect intellectual honesty from the media anymore, but I do... well, did, hold Channel 10 at a higher standard than the other local stations (Fox 40 and CBS 13, I'm looking at you here). Why was I still able to be disillusioned by News 10? Well, unlike some other stations they don't generally do news-free newscasts (I watched in amazement one time as another local station managed to do twenty minutes of broadcast without actually covering any news), and while they may get silly sometimes, and they may obsess, like every other station, about the fragging Kings, they seemed like they treated the news with a little respect.
I guess this explains why they stopped running the ads saying that they don't do sensationalism.
Come on, News 10, you're better than this. A Youtube video of students making a parody of a video game is never news, and asking the school if they new about it while it was being filmed is just stupid. If you notice in the vid, even the little slivers of it shown in the news story, they are not holding any weapons; their hands are empty, and all of the sound and visual effects are added later on computer. If you saw a kid in a sombrero running around while being video taped, would you automatically think “OMG, they're making a school shooting video!”? I certainly hope not.
Ugh, okay, that's enough for now. Until you hear from me again, don't trust the darkness.
I think I like that one.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Pick Three
A few weeks back, a listener asked the hosts of “The Weekly Geek” what their three favourite albums were. This is of course not a question a person can just answer off the top of their heads, and indeed may just be impossible to answer. Can you pick your three favourite albums of all time? I have trouble even picking my ten favourite winter movies.
What the hosts ended up doing were picking the three albums they would want to expose to a stranger to. This stuck in my rather cluttered mind, and has now come back with answers. The three albums I would suggest that you listen to are:
No More Kings (2007)
While there is a lot of great stuff on their second album, “And the Flying Boombox:”, No More Kings' first album is still my favourite. From the zombie-ness of “Zombie Me” to the love letter to “Knight Rider” that is “Michael (Jump In)”, their original album is just fun, and cheerful, and listening to it never fails to make me smile (the same can be said for “And the Flying Boombox” as well).
I originally discovered No More Kings through Pandora. I listen to Pandora a lot while I am writing, and it was while I was working on Mallville that I first heard them. The station I was listening to had artists like Jonathan Coulton, Bareknaked Ladies, Bowling for Soup, and Weezer as its basis, and as I was busily typing away I suddenly realized that the song playing was about the living dead; it was “Zombie Me”.
After hearing a couple more of their songs, “Michael (Jump In)” and I believe “The Grand Experiment” , I rushed out to Dimple Records and bought their album (new, not used). Aside from having a good sound, the lyrics of the songs appeal to my inner geek (as well as my outer geek) with references to everything from “The Smurfs” to “Ghistbusters 2” to “Peanuts” sprinkled throughout them.
Sadly there is no video for “Zombie Me”, but the video for “Sweep the Leg” is a truly awesome, if long, vid which brings me back to the Michael Jackson style of music video production. Check out the appearance by Mr. Belding from “Saved by the Bell” in the beginning
Apocalyptica: 7th Symphony (2010)
I know, I've already babbled about them a couple of days ago, but that was about their sixth album, which is good, but it's no “7th Symphony”. I do not have all of their albums, but of what I do have, this one is my favourite. From the awesome rock of “End of Me” (featuring Gavin Rossdale of Bush fame) and “Not Strong Enough” (featuring Brent Smith) to the instrumental piece “The Shadow of Venus” (which appears on the deluxe version) which is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, this album is fantastic from start to finish. Even the song “Bring Them to Light”, which is exactly the sort of screamy heavy metal that I don't like has grown on me.
I first discovered this group while listening to a political podcast that was using some of the tracks from “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” and “Inquisition Symphony” as transitional music between segments. Hearing Metallica's “Nothing Else Matters” played beautifully on the cello got my attention to the point that I had to go to that show's web site and see who this group was.
I love music done in unusual styles, at that point I had already had an album of Metallica music done on classical piano (Scott D. Davis' “Pianotarium”), and could not pass up a chance to get some more Metallica done in the wrong style, so when I happened to see “Inquisition Symphony” while looking for something to use a coupon on at Borders, I snatched it up.
If you listen to their early work, where there is just the cellos and almost all the songs are covers, and then compare it to their last two albums where it is all original music and they have added a drummer and vocals, you can really hear how this group has matured from simply making metal beautiful to making it epically so.
The video I've chosen to provide as a demonstration is “Broken Pieces” which features Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf.
Flyleaf: Memento Mori (2009)
“Memento Mori” is Flyleaf's second album, and while the band's Christian background shows A LOT more strongly on this album (on the first album, someone who knew nothing about the group could easily not realize that this is Christian Music), they do not consider themselves a Christian group. I'm not sure why they feel the need to distance themselves from their faith (especially since the we're-not-a-Christian-group argument seems a little harder to defend given the lyrics on this album), but I don't really care because I love their sound.
I find listening to this album to be very uplifting, now whether that's due to the spirituality behind the lyrics or now, I cannot really say. I really like the tracks “In the Dark”, “Beautiful Bride”, and “Swept Away”, but my absolute favourite on the album is “Arise”.
“Arise” is the song I was heard in my head when thinking about how to end “Mallville”, and I consider it to be a sort of unofficial closing theme to the story. It is probably no surprise that this is my favourite of all of Flyleaf's songs, only possibly edged out by the awesome remix of it by Ben Moody on the “Remember to Live” EP that came out last year.
I discovered Flyleaf because Dimple Records was pushing their original EP at the register back when it came out in 2007. The clerk pushed it as being similar to Evanescence, saying that “she screams while she sings”. The idea of screamy singing did not really appeal to me, but it was also only two bucks, and I'm always happy to try something new, especially if it's cheap. I loved all of the songs on the EP, and bought the original full album twice (the second time because it was re-released with acoustic versions of some of the songs).
There is no video for “Arise”, or In the Dark”, or “Swept Away”, and the video for “Beautiful Bride”, like most of their Memento Mori videos is extremely WTF-y, so I have chosen the video for “Again”. The video is still WTF-y, but not to the point that it may distract you from the music like some of the others might.
So there you have it; the three albums I would most recommend you give a chance. Are they my all time favourites? Would I still choose these three albums five years from now? Ten? Not necessarily. I could never narrow down my CD collection to a mere 3 that are the best; heck, these three weren't even easy picks (with the exception of “7th Symphony”). Even once decided on picking a No More Kings album, it took a lot of thought to not choose “And The Flying Boombox”, and for a while there the third album was going to be the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” soundtrack (which is every bit as awesome as the film... for the most part)
This tends to guarantee that I get no feedback, but I”m going to ask anyway. What would your three be?
Alright, that's enough babbling for now. Until next time, remember that the first cut is not always the deepest; in fact it's usually shallow and hesitant since it takes a few stabs to really build up your confidence in what you are doing.
No, that's just creepy, and way too long.
What the hosts ended up doing were picking the three albums they would want to expose to a stranger to. This stuck in my rather cluttered mind, and has now come back with answers. The three albums I would suggest that you listen to are:
No More Kings (2007)
While there is a lot of great stuff on their second album, “And the Flying Boombox:”, No More Kings' first album is still my favourite. From the zombie-ness of “Zombie Me” to the love letter to “Knight Rider” that is “Michael (Jump In)”, their original album is just fun, and cheerful, and listening to it never fails to make me smile (the same can be said for “And the Flying Boombox” as well).
I originally discovered No More Kings through Pandora. I listen to Pandora a lot while I am writing, and it was while I was working on Mallville that I first heard them. The station I was listening to had artists like Jonathan Coulton, Bareknaked Ladies, Bowling for Soup, and Weezer as its basis, and as I was busily typing away I suddenly realized that the song playing was about the living dead; it was “Zombie Me”.
After hearing a couple more of their songs, “Michael (Jump In)” and I believe “The Grand Experiment” , I rushed out to Dimple Records and bought their album (new, not used). Aside from having a good sound, the lyrics of the songs appeal to my inner geek (as well as my outer geek) with references to everything from “The Smurfs” to “Ghistbusters 2” to “Peanuts” sprinkled throughout them.
Sadly there is no video for “Zombie Me”, but the video for “Sweep the Leg” is a truly awesome, if long, vid which brings me back to the Michael Jackson style of music video production. Check out the appearance by Mr. Belding from “Saved by the Bell” in the beginning
Apocalyptica: 7th Symphony (2010)
I know, I've already babbled about them a couple of days ago, but that was about their sixth album, which is good, but it's no “7th Symphony”. I do not have all of their albums, but of what I do have, this one is my favourite. From the awesome rock of “End of Me” (featuring Gavin Rossdale of Bush fame) and “Not Strong Enough” (featuring Brent Smith) to the instrumental piece “The Shadow of Venus” (which appears on the deluxe version) which is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, this album is fantastic from start to finish. Even the song “Bring Them to Light”, which is exactly the sort of screamy heavy metal that I don't like has grown on me.
I first discovered this group while listening to a political podcast that was using some of the tracks from “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” and “Inquisition Symphony” as transitional music between segments. Hearing Metallica's “Nothing Else Matters” played beautifully on the cello got my attention to the point that I had to go to that show's web site and see who this group was.
I love music done in unusual styles, at that point I had already had an album of Metallica music done on classical piano (Scott D. Davis' “Pianotarium”), and could not pass up a chance to get some more Metallica done in the wrong style, so when I happened to see “Inquisition Symphony” while looking for something to use a coupon on at Borders, I snatched it up.
If you listen to their early work, where there is just the cellos and almost all the songs are covers, and then compare it to their last two albums where it is all original music and they have added a drummer and vocals, you can really hear how this group has matured from simply making metal beautiful to making it epically so.
The video I've chosen to provide as a demonstration is “Broken Pieces” which features Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf.
Flyleaf: Memento Mori (2009)
“Memento Mori” is Flyleaf's second album, and while the band's Christian background shows A LOT more strongly on this album (on the first album, someone who knew nothing about the group could easily not realize that this is Christian Music), they do not consider themselves a Christian group. I'm not sure why they feel the need to distance themselves from their faith (especially since the we're-not-a-Christian-group argument seems a little harder to defend given the lyrics on this album), but I don't really care because I love their sound.
I find listening to this album to be very uplifting, now whether that's due to the spirituality behind the lyrics or now, I cannot really say. I really like the tracks “In the Dark”, “Beautiful Bride”, and “Swept Away”, but my absolute favourite on the album is “Arise”.
“Arise” is the song I was heard in my head when thinking about how to end “Mallville”, and I consider it to be a sort of unofficial closing theme to the story. It is probably no surprise that this is my favourite of all of Flyleaf's songs, only possibly edged out by the awesome remix of it by Ben Moody on the “Remember to Live” EP that came out last year.
I discovered Flyleaf because Dimple Records was pushing their original EP at the register back when it came out in 2007. The clerk pushed it as being similar to Evanescence, saying that “she screams while she sings”. The idea of screamy singing did not really appeal to me, but it was also only two bucks, and I'm always happy to try something new, especially if it's cheap. I loved all of the songs on the EP, and bought the original full album twice (the second time because it was re-released with acoustic versions of some of the songs).
There is no video for “Arise”, or In the Dark”, or “Swept Away”, and the video for “Beautiful Bride”, like most of their Memento Mori videos is extremely WTF-y, so I have chosen the video for “Again”. The video is still WTF-y, but not to the point that it may distract you from the music like some of the others might.
So there you have it; the three albums I would most recommend you give a chance. Are they my all time favourites? Would I still choose these three albums five years from now? Ten? Not necessarily. I could never narrow down my CD collection to a mere 3 that are the best; heck, these three weren't even easy picks (with the exception of “7th Symphony”). Even once decided on picking a No More Kings album, it took a lot of thought to not choose “And The Flying Boombox”, and for a while there the third album was going to be the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” soundtrack (which is every bit as awesome as the film... for the most part)
This tends to guarantee that I get no feedback, but I”m going to ask anyway. What would your three be?
Alright, that's enough babbling for now. Until next time, remember that the first cut is not always the deepest; in fact it's usually shallow and hesitant since it takes a few stabs to really build up your confidence in what you are doing.
No, that's just creepy, and way too long.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Zombie-Come-Lately
I have been a fan of zombies since I first saw the music video for Michael Jackson's “Thriller” as a child. I remember that we watched it, along with the making of it, in school; it was probably in first grade. From that point on I have always loved the living dead as my favourite movie monsters.
Zombie movies tended to be a little hard to find over the years. Of course there was the Romero series of films, and the Return of the Living Dead” series (which are inferior to Romero's films, in my opinion), and that was pretty much it for a long time unless you wanted something really odd or schlocky. Then suddenly zombies exploded in popularity. “The Walking Dead”, “Zombie Survival Guide”,“World War Z”, “28 Days Later”, a sort-of remake of “Dawn of the Dead” (which is fairly meh in my book), “Left 4 Dead”, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, etc. I was in absolute zed heaven.
The resurgence of zombies along with inspiration from a number of podcasts finally got me to write a book (well, it turned out to be two books) that I had been tossing around in my head for years: “Mallville – A Journal of the Zombie Apocalypse”. I had finally achieved a long time goal, and had more zombie fiction available to me than I can actually read/watch/play. Of course it also brought out a bunch of bandwagon-jumping fans, or zombie-come-latelys.
One thing I would like to make perfectly clear about Mallville. I did not write it because zombies were becoming popular again; I had the original idea for it back in 2004 or 2005, and started writing and posting it to challenge myself to get back into writing. I didn't realize how popular zombies were becoming again until I was already posting it. So while it may look like I am one of the zombie-come-latelys, I do not consider myself such.
Of course when something gets too popular, there naturally has to be a backlash against it. We've seen this recently with vampires thanks largely to the “Twilight” series, but, and this is just my opinion, sparkly vampires deserve it both for being pretty lame and for the rabid fangirls that think it's romantic for a man to break into their bedroom and spy on them while they sleep. I don't think zombies deserve this kind of backlash.
Zombies seem to be attacked based either on their sheer popularity, or based on the fact that the Internet treats them as if they were a meme, and has run them into the ground a bit. I have been disheartened to see people that I respect expressing their dislike of both the living dead genre, and fans of it; in particular fans who only jumped onto the zombie bandwagon. I understand why some people are getting burnt out on the genre: once I saw both a Lake Wobegon zombie story and one that takes place at a Star Trek convention I knew things were going a bit far. Of course Marvel Comics did not help things any by not stopping “Marvel Zombies” after the “Army of Darkness” crossover, and instead running the series into the fragging ground.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with people disliking zombie fiction; everyone has their own likes and dislikes. What I do have a problem with is acting like all fans of zombie fiction are teenage basement-dwellers who glom onto anything that is popular on certain Internet message boards. I have liked zeds since the 80's, and when they finally burn out this time around, and all of the zombie-come-latelys have moved on to the next meme, I will still be here; a fan of the living dead.
Hopefully by the time zombies roll around to the top of pop culture next time around, I'll have the Mallville books completely re-written and ready to pitch to someone looking to cash in on the craze. It shouldn't be too hard when polished up; hell, the first draft version that I posted online is already better than “Twilight”.
Okay, that's enough babbling for today. Until next time, watch the shadows.
Hmm, better, but still not quite right.
Zombie movies tended to be a little hard to find over the years. Of course there was the Romero series of films, and the Return of the Living Dead” series (which are inferior to Romero's films, in my opinion), and that was pretty much it for a long time unless you wanted something really odd or schlocky. Then suddenly zombies exploded in popularity. “The Walking Dead”, “Zombie Survival Guide”,“World War Z”, “28 Days Later”, a sort-of remake of “Dawn of the Dead” (which is fairly meh in my book), “Left 4 Dead”, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, etc. I was in absolute zed heaven.
The resurgence of zombies along with inspiration from a number of podcasts finally got me to write a book (well, it turned out to be two books) that I had been tossing around in my head for years: “Mallville – A Journal of the Zombie Apocalypse”. I had finally achieved a long time goal, and had more zombie fiction available to me than I can actually read/watch/play. Of course it also brought out a bunch of bandwagon-jumping fans, or zombie-come-latelys.
One thing I would like to make perfectly clear about Mallville. I did not write it because zombies were becoming popular again; I had the original idea for it back in 2004 or 2005, and started writing and posting it to challenge myself to get back into writing. I didn't realize how popular zombies were becoming again until I was already posting it. So while it may look like I am one of the zombie-come-latelys, I do not consider myself such.
Of course when something gets too popular, there naturally has to be a backlash against it. We've seen this recently with vampires thanks largely to the “Twilight” series, but, and this is just my opinion, sparkly vampires deserve it both for being pretty lame and for the rabid fangirls that think it's romantic for a man to break into their bedroom and spy on them while they sleep. I don't think zombies deserve this kind of backlash.
Zombies seem to be attacked based either on their sheer popularity, or based on the fact that the Internet treats them as if they were a meme, and has run them into the ground a bit. I have been disheartened to see people that I respect expressing their dislike of both the living dead genre, and fans of it; in particular fans who only jumped onto the zombie bandwagon. I understand why some people are getting burnt out on the genre: once I saw both a Lake Wobegon zombie story and one that takes place at a Star Trek convention I knew things were going a bit far. Of course Marvel Comics did not help things any by not stopping “Marvel Zombies” after the “Army of Darkness” crossover, and instead running the series into the fragging ground.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with people disliking zombie fiction; everyone has their own likes and dislikes. What I do have a problem with is acting like all fans of zombie fiction are teenage basement-dwellers who glom onto anything that is popular on certain Internet message boards. I have liked zeds since the 80's, and when they finally burn out this time around, and all of the zombie-come-latelys have moved on to the next meme, I will still be here; a fan of the living dead.
Hopefully by the time zombies roll around to the top of pop culture next time around, I'll have the Mallville books completely re-written and ready to pitch to someone looking to cash in on the craze. It shouldn't be too hard when polished up; hell, the first draft version that I posted online is already better than “Twilight”.
Okay, that's enough babbling for today. Until next time, watch the shadows.
Hmm, better, but still not quite right.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Worlds Collide
So my little rambling yesterday about the five minutes I spent watching some televangelist got something that most of my posts never get: confirmation that someone is actually reading them. This confirmation was in the form of a comment from someone named “Kat”. Now I'm not sure if this is the Kat that I know in real life or not, but either way, “Hello, Kat!” **waves**. Of course the thing that really surprises me about getting a comment on a post like that is that I never publicized its being posted; not on my Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, so unless Kat follows my blog normally, she must have just stumbled onto it, which is interesting.
So I've decided to try and liven things up around here by posting something other than movie reviews and the very rare Early Morning Amusement video. Sure, I'll likely grow bored of this when I finish my Typewriter Challenge story (which is going nicely) and start on something new or go back to the Mallville re-write, but for now, lets ramble a bit.
I picked up a new Apocalyptica album over the weekend, and by new I mean new to me, not a new release. The album I got was “Worlds Collide”,which came out back in 2007. I've listened to it a couple of times, while nothing has instantly grabbed me like some of the songs on “7th Symphony” did there are a couple that are growing on me.
The first is “I Don't Care” featuring Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace:
And the other is “I'm Not Jesus” featuring Corey Taylor from Slipknot:
I would like to point out here that I am not a fan Slipknot or Three Days Grace; in fact my metal tastes generally begin and end with Megadeth and Metallica from my teenage years, but Apocalyptica manage to so perfectly make heavy metal beautiful in a way that even surpasses my love of Scott D. Davis' classical piano renditions of Metallica songs.
If you're not familiar with what Apocalyptica is, well the videos above are probably a bit of a hint, but let me explain a bit more. They originally started out as four graduates of the Sibelius Academy in Finland (this is a big deal, this is one of the biggest music schools in Europe, and it is over one hundred years old) who discovered that you could play Metallica songs on the cello, and make them sound awesome. Indeed their first album, “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” is nothing but covers of Metallica songs. They have gone on since then to add a drummer and vocal artists to turn what could have been a mere novelty group in a seriously beautiful hard rock experience.
I suppose I should point out that I love cover songs done in different styles, which is what attracted me to Apocalyptica in the first place, but their newer, original music is really some of the best rock I have ever heard; especially songs like “Broken Pieces” which features Lacey Mosely from one of my other favourite bands: “Flyleaf”.
Alright, that's enough rambling for today, but seriously, if you have never heard of Apocalyptica, give those videos up there a watch (or more importantly, a listen), and see what you think, and until the next time I get the urge to ramble....
I need a signature line. Mur Lafferty has “Be mighty”, Steve Eley had “Have fun”, I need something.
Keep and eye out for zombies...?
No, I don't think so.
So I've decided to try and liven things up around here by posting something other than movie reviews and the very rare Early Morning Amusement video. Sure, I'll likely grow bored of this when I finish my Typewriter Challenge story (which is going nicely) and start on something new or go back to the Mallville re-write, but for now, lets ramble a bit.
I picked up a new Apocalyptica album over the weekend, and by new I mean new to me, not a new release. The album I got was “Worlds Collide”,which came out back in 2007. I've listened to it a couple of times, while nothing has instantly grabbed me like some of the songs on “7th Symphony” did there are a couple that are growing on me.
The first is “I Don't Care” featuring Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace:
And the other is “I'm Not Jesus” featuring Corey Taylor from Slipknot:
I would like to point out here that I am not a fan Slipknot or Three Days Grace; in fact my metal tastes generally begin and end with Megadeth and Metallica from my teenage years, but Apocalyptica manage to so perfectly make heavy metal beautiful in a way that even surpasses my love of Scott D. Davis' classical piano renditions of Metallica songs.
If you're not familiar with what Apocalyptica is, well the videos above are probably a bit of a hint, but let me explain a bit more. They originally started out as four graduates of the Sibelius Academy in Finland (this is a big deal, this is one of the biggest music schools in Europe, and it is over one hundred years old) who discovered that you could play Metallica songs on the cello, and make them sound awesome. Indeed their first album, “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” is nothing but covers of Metallica songs. They have gone on since then to add a drummer and vocal artists to turn what could have been a mere novelty group in a seriously beautiful hard rock experience.
I suppose I should point out that I love cover songs done in different styles, which is what attracted me to Apocalyptica in the first place, but their newer, original music is really some of the best rock I have ever heard; especially songs like “Broken Pieces” which features Lacey Mosely from one of my other favourite bands: “Flyleaf”.
Alright, that's enough rambling for today, but seriously, if you have never heard of Apocalyptica, give those videos up there a watch (or more importantly, a listen), and see what you think, and until the next time I get the urge to ramble....
I need a signature line. Mur Lafferty has “Be mighty”, Steve Eley had “Have fun”, I need something.
Keep and eye out for zombies...?
No, I don't think so.
Monday, April 11, 2011
False Wonders
I regularly go to sleep with the television on, and one of the neatest things about owning a DVR is that you never know what will be on the screen when you wake up. When I went to sleep Saturday night, the TV was on Cartoon Network, I wake up later on, and it's “Doctor Who” on BBCA. I go back to sleep, and when I wake up, it's switched over to some televangelist, so I sit and listen to what he has to say for a minute.
The TV preacher is talking about the second coming (I believe he was referring to Thessalonians, if you're interested), and about how the Anti-Christ (or “The Lawless One”, which is mostly what the speaker called him) might try to trick us into believing that he was the second coming of Christ with false wonders and counterfeit miracles.
What I took from this was that we should look at anyone claiming to be the son of God with a skeptical eye, which is certainly good advice to take with anyone who claims to speak for God, but it raises certain problems for me. The main problem is that how am I supposed to know the real messiah from the the fake one? If the fake messiah can perform the same fantastic miracles as the real one, and they both claim to be the son of God, how do I know one from the other? I don't recall the preacher having an answer for that, not before I got up to go to the bathroom anyway.
Of course my mind can't stop there, I went into conspiracy theory mode, and looked at the idea harder. If the devil can trick us into believing in a fake messiah, could he not also trick us into doubting the real one? If you're playing a long con that literally lasts for two or three millennium wouldn't it be easier to just create the idea of a fake messiah than to actually bother creating a fake one? I mean, how hard would it be for Satan to get the idea of a fake Christ inserted into the bible as it is edits, interpreted, translated, re-edited, re-translated, etc of the ages?
I've always been a believer that it is both easier and more effective to make your opponent think you've done/will do something horrible to them than it is to actually do that thing; for instance, it is much easier to make someone think that you poured sugar in their gas tank by leaving an empty bag of sugar on the ground next to their car along with some spilled sugar than it is to actually try and funnel sugar into the tank. Your victim's reaction will be the same, and if you get caught you at least won't have to worry about having to actually fix anything.
By the above argument, wouldn't it just be easier to make the mortals doubt the real messiah than it would be to make your own? If you can just discredit your opponent before they ever make an appearance, wouldn't that work just as well? Especially now when a loud (if not necessarily large) portion of Christians have a fairly skewed idea of what Jesus would want people to do? I don't know what you believe, but I think some people expect him to show up supporting tax cuts for the rich, tax hikes for the poor, and using his right to bear arms (because he would have to be American, doncha know) to mow down homosexuals and women's healthy clinic employees. I somehow don't see Jesus doing that myself.
Is it bad that my mind works this way?
The TV preacher is talking about the second coming (I believe he was referring to Thessalonians, if you're interested), and about how the Anti-Christ (or “The Lawless One”, which is mostly what the speaker called him) might try to trick us into believing that he was the second coming of Christ with false wonders and counterfeit miracles.
What I took from this was that we should look at anyone claiming to be the son of God with a skeptical eye, which is certainly good advice to take with anyone who claims to speak for God, but it raises certain problems for me. The main problem is that how am I supposed to know the real messiah from the the fake one? If the fake messiah can perform the same fantastic miracles as the real one, and they both claim to be the son of God, how do I know one from the other? I don't recall the preacher having an answer for that, not before I got up to go to the bathroom anyway.
Of course my mind can't stop there, I went into conspiracy theory mode, and looked at the idea harder. If the devil can trick us into believing in a fake messiah, could he not also trick us into doubting the real one? If you're playing a long con that literally lasts for two or three millennium wouldn't it be easier to just create the idea of a fake messiah than to actually bother creating a fake one? I mean, how hard would it be for Satan to get the idea of a fake Christ inserted into the bible as it is edits, interpreted, translated, re-edited, re-translated, etc of the ages?
I've always been a believer that it is both easier and more effective to make your opponent think you've done/will do something horrible to them than it is to actually do that thing; for instance, it is much easier to make someone think that you poured sugar in their gas tank by leaving an empty bag of sugar on the ground next to their car along with some spilled sugar than it is to actually try and funnel sugar into the tank. Your victim's reaction will be the same, and if you get caught you at least won't have to worry about having to actually fix anything.
By the above argument, wouldn't it just be easier to make the mortals doubt the real messiah than it would be to make your own? If you can just discredit your opponent before they ever make an appearance, wouldn't that work just as well? Especially now when a loud (if not necessarily large) portion of Christians have a fairly skewed idea of what Jesus would want people to do? I don't know what you believe, but I think some people expect him to show up supporting tax cuts for the rich, tax hikes for the poor, and using his right to bear arms (because he would have to be American, doncha know) to mow down homosexuals and women's healthy clinic employees. I somehow don't see Jesus doing that myself.
Is it bad that my mind works this way?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Hanna
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Hanna (Saoirse Ronan: The Lovely Bones). Hanna lived in a snowy forest with her father, Erik (Eric Bana: Star Trek, The Time Traveler's Wife), who has done his best to teach her everything she needs to know to be able to survive, but children grow up, and there is only so much a child can learn from her father before she wants to learn more.
Knowing that he will eventually need to let Hanna experience the rest of the world, Erik retrieves a box he has hidden for many years, and presents it to Hanna. He tells her that if she flips the switch on the box everything will change and she can leave, but that an evil witch named Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett: The Lord of the Rings) will come for her, and she will not stop until one of them is dead.
Hanna feels she is ready though, so she flips the switch. Erik leaves her to deal with the witch's coming minions, reminding her where they are to meet, and that she must always “adapt or die”. Hanna soon discovers that the evil witch is more dangerous than she realized, that she has the big bad wolf on her side in the form of a man called Lewis (John MacMillan), and that defeating her will not be easy.
“Hanna” is director Joe Wright's fairy tale for the modern age, and while the wicked witch is actually an intelligence operative, and the big bad wolf is really just a perfectly normal human assassin, the tropes and symbolism of many of the Grimm's Fairy Tales play large roles in the movie as we follow the titular character's journey across Europe to meet up with her father. You have the little girl lost, out of her element, and occasionally overwhelmed by the strange reality that no amount of survival training could have prepared her for.. You have her interacting with a villain who does not appear immediately villainous (and who has a fixation with her teeth that went kind of over my head). Finally, you have that fairy tale standard moral of what happens to children who don't listen to their parents.
This is not nearly as action-y as the trailers would have you believe, but what action there is is brutal and well choreographed. Instead of a hundred minutes of Hanna cutting a bloody Kill Bill-esque swath through her enemies, what you have is a fairly intense, and frequently humourous film with a fair bit of heart as well. There is a nice balance between humour and drama in the film that keeps it entertaining, and prevents it from ever becoming too cold or stark.
A lot of the things that I liked about Wright's last directorial outing, "The Soloist” are present again. This is a movie to be experienced more than just seen. While it does not have anywhere near the warmth of that movie, the titular character has a lot of the same sense of wonder as Nathaniel Ayers, when she's not busy killing her enemies anyway.
The only problem with this film is that it does slow down a bit at parts, but usually for a good reason. Some of Marissa's scenes in particular can drag on a bit, but they serve the purpose of developing her character. In a lot of bloody-rampage action films the villains are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Alternately, some films spend so much time developing the antagonist that you actually start to feel sorry for them. That's not the case here; there's enough time spent on Marissa to let you know that she is her own person with her own drives and neurosis, but it's all kept vague to keep the focus on the fact that she is also a complete monster.
It's not a cheerful movie ( but how many un-Disneyfied fairy tales are?), but it is humourous and exciting, and I would even say a little bit beautiful. I found myself rooting for Hanna as she tried to come to terms with the fact that there is more to living in the real world than just being able to kill anyone who threatens you, being able to speak a dozen languages, and knowing how many muscles it takes to kiss. Ronan does a great job flipping back and forth between the rather bland and curious Hanna and the cold, calculating killer that will do anything to survive.
If you want a tense, exciting, but still funny movie that doesn't weigh itself down too much with unnecessary details this weekend, then I can't help but recommend “Hanna”. From the acting, to the visual presentation, to the great soundtrack, this is a fantastic movie. In the near future we will probably end up with an over-saturation of teenage girl assassin films, but I think that this will always stand out as one of the better ones.
“Hanna” is in theaters now.
Knowing that he will eventually need to let Hanna experience the rest of the world, Erik retrieves a box he has hidden for many years, and presents it to Hanna. He tells her that if she flips the switch on the box everything will change and she can leave, but that an evil witch named Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett: The Lord of the Rings) will come for her, and she will not stop until one of them is dead.
Hanna feels she is ready though, so she flips the switch. Erik leaves her to deal with the witch's coming minions, reminding her where they are to meet, and that she must always “adapt or die”. Hanna soon discovers that the evil witch is more dangerous than she realized, that she has the big bad wolf on her side in the form of a man called Lewis (John MacMillan), and that defeating her will not be easy.
“Hanna” is director Joe Wright's fairy tale for the modern age, and while the wicked witch is actually an intelligence operative, and the big bad wolf is really just a perfectly normal human assassin, the tropes and symbolism of many of the Grimm's Fairy Tales play large roles in the movie as we follow the titular character's journey across Europe to meet up with her father. You have the little girl lost, out of her element, and occasionally overwhelmed by the strange reality that no amount of survival training could have prepared her for.. You have her interacting with a villain who does not appear immediately villainous (and who has a fixation with her teeth that went kind of over my head). Finally, you have that fairy tale standard moral of what happens to children who don't listen to their parents.
This is not nearly as action-y as the trailers would have you believe, but what action there is is brutal and well choreographed. Instead of a hundred minutes of Hanna cutting a bloody Kill Bill-esque swath through her enemies, what you have is a fairly intense, and frequently humourous film with a fair bit of heart as well. There is a nice balance between humour and drama in the film that keeps it entertaining, and prevents it from ever becoming too cold or stark.
A lot of the things that I liked about Wright's last directorial outing, "The Soloist” are present again. This is a movie to be experienced more than just seen. While it does not have anywhere near the warmth of that movie, the titular character has a lot of the same sense of wonder as Nathaniel Ayers, when she's not busy killing her enemies anyway.
The only problem with this film is that it does slow down a bit at parts, but usually for a good reason. Some of Marissa's scenes in particular can drag on a bit, but they serve the purpose of developing her character. In a lot of bloody-rampage action films the villains are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Alternately, some films spend so much time developing the antagonist that you actually start to feel sorry for them. That's not the case here; there's enough time spent on Marissa to let you know that she is her own person with her own drives and neurosis, but it's all kept vague to keep the focus on the fact that she is also a complete monster.
It's not a cheerful movie ( but how many un-Disneyfied fairy tales are?), but it is humourous and exciting, and I would even say a little bit beautiful. I found myself rooting for Hanna as she tried to come to terms with the fact that there is more to living in the real world than just being able to kill anyone who threatens you, being able to speak a dozen languages, and knowing how many muscles it takes to kiss. Ronan does a great job flipping back and forth between the rather bland and curious Hanna and the cold, calculating killer that will do anything to survive.
If you want a tense, exciting, but still funny movie that doesn't weigh itself down too much with unnecessary details this weekend, then I can't help but recommend “Hanna”. From the acting, to the visual presentation, to the great soundtrack, this is a fantastic movie. In the near future we will probably end up with an over-saturation of teenage girl assassin films, but I think that this will always stand out as one of the better ones.
“Hanna” is in theaters now.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
WonderCon '11
Every year I sit home and watch as people tweet/Facebook update/podcast about going to all of these awesome conventions all around the country: San Diego Comic-Con, Emerald City Comic-Con, PAX, E3, DragonCon, etc, etc. The list goes on and on, meanwhile the bet I go to is Sac-Con and SacAnime.
Now don't get me wrong, I like going to these conventions, I've been able to meet, and get autographs from Crispin Freeman (“Hellsing”, “GITS:SAC”), Spike Spencer (Evangelion), and Benjamin Roman (“I Luv Halloween”), and those were really great, but those are usually held in a space about the size of a school gym. It's just not the same, you know?
So this year I decided to go for it. San Francisco's only a couple of hours from here, so why not give WonderCon a try? For those who do not know, WonderCon is held in San Francisco's Moscone Center, and is put on by the same people that run Comic-Con San Diego. The folks at Sac-Con put a lot of work into the local conventions, but it's a bit like comparing a child's lemonade stand to Tropicana.
We decided to go too late to get the first day of the show off, so we just got tickets for Saturday. On Saturday morning I donned my best Punisher shirt, grabbed my goggles, packed some suitably white trash snacks, and drove down to San Francisco for a day where I could wear a pair of goggles while walking around and not feel at all out of place.
Mind you, in San Francisco I could probably walk around with my goggles on anytime, and still not look out of place.
Even at the street you could tell that the empire was not taking any chances; security was everywhere:
Luckily we had pre-bought our tickets, so we were able to skip the ticket queue (which wasn't really all that bad, given that we arrived just as the convention was opening for the day), but just going to get our badges it was evident that this show was just as big as I had expected it to be.
And this is just the registration area.
So we go and turn our tickets in, are issued our badges and Showtime “The Borgias” lanyards, and in we go.
WonderCon, I have arrived!
If you've never been to this size convention before, and as I've stated, I hadn't, then it is pretty overwhelming at first sight. Where do you go first? The Capcom display? Nintendo? Marvel Comics? Nope. I headed straight for artist alley (with a few minor detours on the way, one of which finally netted me a Doctor Who Ironsides Dalek figure). Why would I go there? Because it was finally a chance to meet a couple of the podcasters I've been listening to for going-on four years now:
Dave Dwonch and Super Ugly of The Geek Savants! This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was actually a bit of a deciding factor for going to WonderCon to begin with. I picked up a signed copy of Super Ugly's colouring book, and Dave Dwonch's graphic novel, “Back in the Day”. Aside from being really nice guys, they also gave me a print of their Episode 200 poster (which is an awesome Star Wars parody), and a pair of prints featuring artwork from other episodes. I need to move into a bigger place just to give me more wall space.
I also got to meet Sergio Aragones. If you don't know who that is, then shame on you. I'm not going to tell you, go Google it. I did get a signed copy of the Groo 25th anniversary book though.
I did get to see Robert Kirkman, but you had to have tickets to get him to sign anything, so I didn't bother. With only one day to see everything, I didn't want to spend a lot of time waiting in lines for things. If we go next year we may go for multiple days so that we can spend time waiting in line for some panels.
I may not have gotten a Kirkman signature, but I did get a copy of “Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns” signed by artist James Silvani (and he even did a little DW doodle on a bookmark to go with it), and a bunch of free stuff, including a cute children's book, the name of which escapes me, a short story collection edited by Mike Resnick, and Osaka got a promo copy of a novel about The Black Friars of Berkeley.
There were the usual assortment of actors who are, shall we say, past their prime, but the only one I feel I needed to take a picture of was:
Lou Ferrigno. That's right, The Incredible Hulk himself! Why did I not get a picture with him, you ask? Because he wanted forty bucks for a polaroid, that's why. I know he needs the money, but still...
If you're wondering what is wrong with his face in the picture, he was chewing.
Of course no convention is complete without cosplayers (I really need to come up with a costume myself). There were lots of great costumes that I did not get pictures of, like the Doctor Girlfriend and the group of Monarch's Henchman, or the kid dressed as an Angry Bird, or any of the Doctors roaming about (saw a few Tennants, a couple of Smiths, one with Amy Pond, and even one Baker), or the woman who I am pretty sure was a Fallout ghoul in a pink dress, but I did get pictures of these guys:
And this guy:
:
Okay, so that's not really a guy exactly.
And there were some zombie pirates on hand, but never fear:
The Ghostbusters were on hand to deal with them.
Things got a little weird with this one, not because of anything the guard did, but because after Osaka took my picture with him, someone else wanted to wait to get a picture of me with him as well. My ego would like to think that someone recognized me, but I know that that is silly. If you happen to see this picture, but shot from a different angle, somewhere else on line, please send me a link.
Cosplaying takes a certain amount of courage (especially if you are not a masked character), and some people have a clear surplus of courage:
I would like to point out that I saw a total of four Princess Leias while at WonderCon; one Episode IV, and three Slave Leias. You know, some of us are built to cosplay Slave Leia, and some of us are born the cosplay Klingons. I am in the latter camp, which is a large part of why I've not built myself a costume. I can't think of any fat characters I want to play as, and I just can't see wandering around as a fat Doctor (although if I can ever find an Azumanga Daioh Father Hat, I am totally going to cosplay as Kimura-Sensei).
One large problem with cosplay is that the costumes are frequently delicate, which means they are hard to clean without damaging them. They are also frequently warm (why do so many characters insist on wearing heavy coats and full face masks?). Those two things combine to make the even some of the best costumes hard to be around due to their fragrance. We had an issue while splitting an eight dollar personal size pizza with a girl dressed as Death from “Sandman”, although it may have actually been her non-costumed friend now that I think back on it.
Aside from everything else that I got to see, I also ran into Beka, an old co-worker of mine and Osaka's from the toy store days, but we didn't get a lot of time to speak as she was just plunging herself into the nerdgasm that was WonderCon. I hope that I am in a position to be able to go again next year, but we will definitely need to go multiple days; there's just too much to do in a single day.
So until next year, farewell WonderCon!
Now don't get me wrong, I like going to these conventions, I've been able to meet, and get autographs from Crispin Freeman (“Hellsing”, “GITS:SAC”), Spike Spencer (Evangelion), and Benjamin Roman (“I Luv Halloween”), and those were really great, but those are usually held in a space about the size of a school gym. It's just not the same, you know?
So this year I decided to go for it. San Francisco's only a couple of hours from here, so why not give WonderCon a try? For those who do not know, WonderCon is held in San Francisco's Moscone Center, and is put on by the same people that run Comic-Con San Diego. The folks at Sac-Con put a lot of work into the local conventions, but it's a bit like comparing a child's lemonade stand to Tropicana.
We decided to go too late to get the first day of the show off, so we just got tickets for Saturday. On Saturday morning I donned my best Punisher shirt, grabbed my goggles, packed some suitably white trash snacks, and drove down to San Francisco for a day where I could wear a pair of goggles while walking around and not feel at all out of place.
Mind you, in San Francisco I could probably walk around with my goggles on anytime, and still not look out of place.
Even at the street you could tell that the empire was not taking any chances; security was everywhere:
Luckily we had pre-bought our tickets, so we were able to skip the ticket queue (which wasn't really all that bad, given that we arrived just as the convention was opening for the day), but just going to get our badges it was evident that this show was just as big as I had expected it to be.
And this is just the registration area.
So we go and turn our tickets in, are issued our badges and Showtime “The Borgias” lanyards, and in we go.
WonderCon, I have arrived!
If you've never been to this size convention before, and as I've stated, I hadn't, then it is pretty overwhelming at first sight. Where do you go first? The Capcom display? Nintendo? Marvel Comics? Nope. I headed straight for artist alley (with a few minor detours on the way, one of which finally netted me a Doctor Who Ironsides Dalek figure). Why would I go there? Because it was finally a chance to meet a couple of the podcasters I've been listening to for going-on four years now:
Dave Dwonch and Super Ugly of The Geek Savants! This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was actually a bit of a deciding factor for going to WonderCon to begin with. I picked up a signed copy of Super Ugly's colouring book, and Dave Dwonch's graphic novel, “Back in the Day”. Aside from being really nice guys, they also gave me a print of their Episode 200 poster (which is an awesome Star Wars parody), and a pair of prints featuring artwork from other episodes. I need to move into a bigger place just to give me more wall space.
I also got to meet Sergio Aragones. If you don't know who that is, then shame on you. I'm not going to tell you, go Google it. I did get a signed copy of the Groo 25th anniversary book though.
I did get to see Robert Kirkman, but you had to have tickets to get him to sign anything, so I didn't bother. With only one day to see everything, I didn't want to spend a lot of time waiting in lines for things. If we go next year we may go for multiple days so that we can spend time waiting in line for some panels.
I may not have gotten a Kirkman signature, but I did get a copy of “Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns” signed by artist James Silvani (and he even did a little DW doodle on a bookmark to go with it), and a bunch of free stuff, including a cute children's book, the name of which escapes me, a short story collection edited by Mike Resnick, and Osaka got a promo copy of a novel about The Black Friars of Berkeley.
There were the usual assortment of actors who are, shall we say, past their prime, but the only one I feel I needed to take a picture of was:
Lou Ferrigno. That's right, The Incredible Hulk himself! Why did I not get a picture with him, you ask? Because he wanted forty bucks for a polaroid, that's why. I know he needs the money, but still...
If you're wondering what is wrong with his face in the picture, he was chewing.
Of course no convention is complete without cosplayers (I really need to come up with a costume myself). There were lots of great costumes that I did not get pictures of, like the Doctor Girlfriend and the group of Monarch's Henchman, or the kid dressed as an Angry Bird, or any of the Doctors roaming about (saw a few Tennants, a couple of Smiths, one with Amy Pond, and even one Baker), or the woman who I am pretty sure was a Fallout ghoul in a pink dress, but I did get pictures of these guys:
And this guy:
:
Okay, so that's not really a guy exactly.
And there were some zombie pirates on hand, but never fear:
The Ghostbusters were on hand to deal with them.
Things got a little weird with this one, not because of anything the guard did, but because after Osaka took my picture with him, someone else wanted to wait to get a picture of me with him as well. My ego would like to think that someone recognized me, but I know that that is silly. If you happen to see this picture, but shot from a different angle, somewhere else on line, please send me a link.
Cosplaying takes a certain amount of courage (especially if you are not a masked character), and some people have a clear surplus of courage:
I would like to point out that I saw a total of four Princess Leias while at WonderCon; one Episode IV, and three Slave Leias. You know, some of us are built to cosplay Slave Leia, and some of us are born the cosplay Klingons. I am in the latter camp, which is a large part of why I've not built myself a costume. I can't think of any fat characters I want to play as, and I just can't see wandering around as a fat Doctor (although if I can ever find an Azumanga Daioh Father Hat, I am totally going to cosplay as Kimura-Sensei).
One large problem with cosplay is that the costumes are frequently delicate, which means they are hard to clean without damaging them. They are also frequently warm (why do so many characters insist on wearing heavy coats and full face masks?). Those two things combine to make the even some of the best costumes hard to be around due to their fragrance. We had an issue while splitting an eight dollar personal size pizza with a girl dressed as Death from “Sandman”, although it may have actually been her non-costumed friend now that I think back on it.
Aside from everything else that I got to see, I also ran into Beka, an old co-worker of mine and Osaka's from the toy store days, but we didn't get a lot of time to speak as she was just plunging herself into the nerdgasm that was WonderCon. I hope that I am in a position to be able to go again next year, but we will definitely need to go multiple days; there's just too much to do in a single day.
So until next year, farewell WonderCon!
Friday, April 1, 2011
The All-Pro Pre-Order
Podcaster, and Future Dark Overlord Scott Sigler's next novel, "The All-Pro", can now be pre-ordered from ScottSigler.com.
"The All-Pro" is the third in Sigler's Galactic Football League series, and if you pre-order it you get a signed and numbered copy of this book's limited first edition run, and in case you missed out on them before, there are still copies of the first two novels "The Rookie" and "The Starter" available for order as well, so you won't be lost when you begin to read the third volume.
The GFL series are the perfect novels for the science-fiction or football geek, and has been compared to both "Star Wars" and "The Godfather".
It's really a good idea to get your orders in, folks, because when the Future Dark Overlord ascends, a signed copy of his books might be a handy thing to have when begging for your life and/or freedom.
I just pre-ordered my personalized copy of "The All-Pro", now it's your turn.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot! Enter the coupon code "Hutch" at the order screen for a discount, because every dollar helps right now, right?
"The All-Pro" is the third in Sigler's Galactic Football League series, and if you pre-order it you get a signed and numbered copy of this book's limited first edition run, and in case you missed out on them before, there are still copies of the first two novels "The Rookie" and "The Starter" available for order as well, so you won't be lost when you begin to read the third volume.
The GFL series are the perfect novels for the science-fiction or football geek, and has been compared to both "Star Wars" and "The Godfather".
It's really a good idea to get your orders in, folks, because when the Future Dark Overlord ascends, a signed copy of his books might be a handy thing to have when begging for your life and/or freedom.
I just pre-ordered my personalized copy of "The All-Pro", now it's your turn.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot! Enter the coupon code "Hutch" at the order screen for a discount, because every dollar helps right now, right?
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