What I Think is Fun

College Hockey at Fenway!

2012-01-16T17:57:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I atteneded a very, very ridiculous and cold event: College Hockey at Fenway Park. It was a cool idea, so I thought it would be fun to go. Gosh, I can't even being to tell you how chillingly correct I was.

(My buddy Ray poured beer on a BC kid, more on that later.)

The event: Northeastern University, my alma mater, in an outdoor hockey game in the middle of winter, playing against Boston College. Northeastern has long had a rivalry with every other Boston school with a hockey team, so I was pretty thrilled to take part in what would surely be a loss on our part. Go team! There was alos the novelty factor, how many times is a guy going to be able to see a Hockey game played in the middle of a Baseball field? Not many, and frankly, after having attended, never again.

It was cold. Did you read my puns up top? Pay some fucking attention! It was really, really cold. Like, c'mon, there's really no reason to subject yourself to a mediocre display of athletics in the freezing goddamn cold. Sure, maybe if it was an entirely awesome thing (I'm not sure what that thing could possibly be, but bear with) that was worthwhile in the slightest, but this totally wasn't it.

And, I'm pretty sure the game was rigged. There was a point where NU scored a goal and it was scored for BC. If I was adding pictures into this, and I might, at a later date, if and when I remember and think it's a good idea, I'd add the picture of Jackie Chan looking all confused with the caption about Jackie's mind being blown. Then there was the NU breakaway, with a blatant BC trip... and no penalty shot. There was the egregious check, the multiple goals that had to be put under review, and the lack of importance placed on NU's dominating victory in the ice cream challenge.

I'm just making myself angry here, as a completely unbiased participant in a college sporting event, I am outraged. Still.

I really like my new Logitech Keyboard that I use for my iPad! (Product placement)

2012-01-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

I'm still writing about Christmas, this is wild!

I finally got a keyboard for this bastard iPad thing so I no longer have to use the awful, or at least not easy to use, touch keyboard. It's like I have the easiest to use computer ever, kind of, not really. It makes for a pretty fantastic word processor though. I can now type with the iPad on my lap, comfortably, without my hands being jammed all together. I can also access numbers and punctuation like a normal person.

The logitech bluetooth keyboard syncs easily to the iPad. It's comfortable and lightweight. It even comes with a carrying case that easily snaps into a stand for the main device that actually works while I have the case for the iPad on it.

Now I really don't need to carry around pen and paper. Which is all the better, as I really am not a fan of writing by hand. Typing has always been much more my bag. I really want to go on a complete tangent as to why that might be, but after staring at the mist that the humidifier is shooting up, I really can't think of a reason. We'll accept that this tangent will suffice for my favorite literary device.

I'm using a really great program to write in as well. I forget the name of it. One second. It's called PlainText. Great software. I've read for some time that writing inside of a program that blanks out the rest of the screen makes the focus on filling white space. It really does! It's much easier to concentrate and think like this, without the normal distractions that my laptop normally leaves. You know, that whole taskbar of options that will deliver me to a wild amount of different worlds. This, I actually have to reach forward and press a button or the screen to get out of. I'm practically trapped here! TRAPPED!

That's not true. Not really any way. But it kind of sort of not really at all feels that way in a manner of speaking. Who really knows what's going on inside of my head that's triggering this sharp focus to go from brain to screen at light speeds. LIGHT SPEEDS. I almost miss being able to italicize that I think the impression would be more what I'm going for. Which leads me elequently to my next point.

This thing syncs up to DropBox. So, if I ever type up something where I want to get real creative and add pictures, I can totally use my laptop as an editing tool and write all of the text on here. It's like nearly instant, practically.

I wonder if having the keyboard detached from the main device adds anything to the experience? Kind of. It's freedom. I used to have a whole wireless setup for my computer, back when I had a tower. A tower, can you believe that people had those things? People still have those things. I hope mostly for cheap alternatives to laptops or for gaming rigs. Heck, most games can be played on a decent laptop these days anyway.

Skyrim is fighting with Gears of War 3 for my love

2012-01-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

A little bit before Christmas I beat Gears of War 3. I loved the single player campaign and thought it an incredibly fitting end to what is probably the best pure action game series created thus far. Then I started playing Horde mode, which is like the infinite replaysbility version of the game, and was very satisfied to enjoy that as much as possible.

Christmas came and I got Skyrim. I put down the game I was playing at the time (Red Dead Redemption) and started my journey into this amazing new world. Skyrim might be the largest and most amazing single player sandbox game out there. There is such an incredible amount to do. Since Christmas I don't even want to know how many hours I've logged into my Orc warrior Chaos. (side note: the iPad auto corrects orc into Orc which just blew my mind.)

I've found myself jonesing for Gears of War again. Just Horde mode, mind you. I want to dive back into that world where combat means just about everything. No quests, nobody to talk to, just violence for the sake of getting to the next wave, and the next wave, and the next wave. On top of that there's some great new DLC available: RAAM's Shadow; which serves as a prequel to the entire series and gives you the first opportunity to play as the much revered Locust leader and final boss from the first Gears of War game. You might know how awesome I think RAAM is if you've ever played Heroclix with me.

So it's like a war going on in my brain. A war that Skyrim is winning, for now, but I'll be interested to see how long it's going to be able to hold out. I can't really compare the games, they're both the best of their breeds, but I know that they're fighting for a place in my XBox.

Which kind of leads me to wonder what might happen if Marcus Fenix picked a fight with my Orc warrior. Which is kind of making me want to play WH40K: Space Marine...

Skyrim: The Further Adventures of Rune and Chaos

2012-01-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to get Skyrim for Christmas. It's only the biggest game of the year, and it's probably Bethesda's best work. I'm a pretty big fan of their Fallout series, and this being my first venture into the world of the Elder Scrolls I've got to say I'm very impressed.

You have the choice to be an orc, which is probably the most badass choice, so I chose that first. Continuing in that line of thought, I decided my badass orc would use nothing but two handed axes. A brilliant and inspired choice I think. I might have gone with a war hammer instead of the axe, to celebrate Robert Baratheon, but I had to go with my heart, especially when I decided who my character was going to be.

I decided my character was going to be Chaos, a character that I created as a child for a freestyle fantasy story that I wrote with my best friend Patrick: The Adventures of Rune and Chaos. Chaos was my character, a brazen, run into the thick of things warrior. Rune was his character, a thoughtful mage who, generally, used his power to get the two out of the trouble Chaos had put them in.

Pretty awesome right? I hadn't thought of Run and Chaos in years. It's pretty awesome to have the two of them back in my life.

Wrestling in MMA

2011-12-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

Just a thought:

Tried and true wrestlers have a really interesting advantage in MMA that I'd never really thought about before this fight. When a wrestler gets rocked by a strike, their first instinct is to go for a takedown of some sort. Assuming they aren't fighting another, equally skilled wrestler, they will at the very least get some sort of positional advantage that keeps them out of danger, allowing them to recover from the strike that initially damaged them.

Nifty.

Get Angry!

2011-11-02T18:19:00.001-07:00

Get Angry!

2011-11-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

Do I have anything to say about Gears of War 3?

It’s fucking awesome, that’s for sure.

It delivers on everything that I wanted it too: non-stop action led by giant action hero caricatures who get angry instead of feeling real emotion.

Hell, I even got to experience pain and loss, which isn’t exactly something you expect to feel from a mess of bullets and blood in an action/entertainment setting. Dammit I was moved. It was cheap emotion too, but damn was it well done. Does that mean it’s still cheap? Maybe not. I think that term, cheap, is meant to describe something without subtlety, when, well, what the fuck is subtlety worth? I’m not playing Gears of War for subtlety. I’m not living my life to be subtle! I’m living my life to be all up in everywhere! I want to make impacts like nuclear bombs, lasting. I want to get real real with everything, stand up and take all kinds of stands.

Fuck yea! Stand up, get angry, get in the moment!

Boo Adventures

2011-05-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

Some gym musings

2011-05-04T19:01:00.001-07:00

What exactly am I trying to accomplish in the gym? Good question. I’m not entirely sure.

I want to be stronger. I want to be smaller. I want to have some bigger guns. I want to be able to sprint for distance. I want to be able to jump higher.

There are several sports that I admire greatly, which have helped fueled this desire. Combat sports, be they BJJ, wrestling, muay thai, boxing, or MMA; I’d like to have the physical capacity to perform in this area. More recently I’ve been interested in parkour, freerunning, and Ninja Warrior.

Shit, when you lay it out on paper like that, it looks like I’m really going to have to rock a lot of cardio and endurance based activities. Obviously I’ll have to keep up with my general strength training, but I’ll have to find some time to build up that endurance.

I’m curious as to whether or not I should add pure cardio days. I seem to be pretty worn out from either squatting or deadlifting, and that ends up with me doing some pretty shitty cardio, and that’s no good.

Woo!

2011-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Now that was fucking inspiring!

I’m playing Gears of War 2 right now. It’s a video game where I run around as a hulking badass action film caricature in a war town mid-apocalyptic future-esque landscape fighting off humanoid monsters that come from below. Yea, it’s pretty much exactly what you would want if you enjoy ridiculous displays of gratuitous machismo wrapped up in a science fiction package. The game, I’ve found after beating Gears of War and playing through the bit of Gears of War 2 that I have, is my favorite display of war in a video game. I’m a big fan. It really gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing.

So the little bastards from underneath have somehow managed to sink human cities under the ground. It seems an efficient way of crippling the opposition, so you can’t really blame them. The wonderful part is the scene that comes immediately after you witness HOW that’s done first hand, as the pale fuckers drop a city in front of you, and you have the amazing task of running into the once-a-city and rescuing anyone you can find.
The enemy is out in full force. Your three person team moves from position to position fighting off wave after wave of the enemy. Massive buildings fall from hundreds of feet in the air and destruction surrounds you. It’s one of the most intense ten to fifteen minutes of game play I’ve had the joy of experiencing. The shit doesn’t let up. You kill ten monsters, gain a few yards, and kill ten more. They come at you from the air, they come at you from underneath the ground, everywhere you look, you can expect to see the enemy waiting to murder you.

Finally, you find yourself trapped in a burnt out husk of a building in the middle of what might have been the first floor. The enemy is on the second floor. You’re surrounded. They have the elevation, they have the numbers, and no matter where you go you’re receiving fire. Your character screams may day, demands assistance. Right when it looks like you won’t receive any quarter and will be indeed making your final stand, at the last, breathtaking moment, you’re saved, in a gratuitous action scene by this guy:

People watching at the mall

2011-04-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

I like to make fun of people that I see in the mall. Would it be horrible to take pictures and post them here? I kind of think so.

But holy hell do some people deserve it!

I'm a CONSUMER!!!

2011-04-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

My apologies to my brain, I've been a consumer first, a producer second as of late.

It's a real shame, because I have things that I want to write, I have things that I want to create, I WANT to give back to the world that is giving me so many wonderful things. I just don't have the time. I'm busy consuming. I'm a big fat, gluttonous entertainment junkie.

Did I write about how awesome I think the comic book Lucifer is? No.

Did I write about how entertaining and fucking manly Gears of War is? No.

Have I written about MMA lately? No.

What about my adventures making chili!

A shame. I'm sure the world is missing out on so much.

I suppose I did produce a little bit today. I thought of a post-modern proletariat superhero team whose sole existence is to combat the spiritual evil of giant soulless companies. That's something to toss in the win column!

I'm reading X-Statix right now. I can see where this little bit of brain explosion came from. Will I write about that?

Tropes and Gods

2011-03-23T17:07:00.001-07:00

Steam punk Jesus can power his own personal rotocopter through his powers of science magic. Steam punk Jesus has all of the coolest energy weapons: the concentrated lightning blasts he fires have less initial energy discharge than other peoples blaster guns.

Deep future Buddha is fat and mostly naked. His science fiction underpants can change the electrical pulses in your brain: he will literally force nirvana upon you. In the far future that Deep future Buddha is from all food is in pill form and is engineered to give you everything you need and nothing more. Deep future Buddha eats people to maintain his girth.

Chibi Cthulhu forces everyone who gazes upon him to be filled with the love and joy of an over excited tweenage fangirl. He does not understand the concept of sadness, because he literally cannot feel it and nobody in his presence can feel it. Chink Cthulhu has never used a cellular phone because he doesn't have ears, he listens to noises by converting sound waves into ambient energy that only his brain can process.

I have an iPad

2011-03-18T19:11:00.001-07:00

I have an iPad.

Yes, I still think that’s a stupid name. I hate the “i” bit. Seems a smidgen selfish, ya know? Why can’t there be an usPad that everyone can love? Why the focus on the individual, like we’re all unique snowflakes or something. I’m not saying I dislike individuality, but let’s be real here, we’re talking about a netbook, most people are going to want and enjoy a netbook.

This is the first time in a while that I’ve sat down and typed up something on the old laptop. No touch screen here, just keys in a fairly ergonomic space. I don’t need to cramp my hands together in order to write, and I barely have enough time to let my brain process what my figures are ripping out. That’s the way I like it. I might not write as well, but I certainly write how I think, which feels better to me. Which is all that matters, really, as writing is a very, very selfish thing for me. It helps to clear my soul a little bit, and we know that thing can always use a bit of spring cleaning.

The problem with my laptop is that it’s not as convenient as my iPad. My laptop is, relatively speaking, quite large. It takes up at least three times the space of that my new toy does. But, I think I like writing on it more. A lot more, actually. There’s no word document on the iPad, none that I’ve found (not that I’ve been searching, mind), and even if there is it won’t have the same feel. Even opening up notepad feels like I’m opening up a new place in my mind. I think it’s because of the window, the appearance of a blank page. Not that the toy doesn’t have a blank page, it just doesn’t feel as inviting. It doesn’t give me a distraction to look at while I type.

I do like to read comic books on the thing though. Wow, are comic books on the iPad amazing to read.

I’m going to go search for some kind of word app.

Cotto vs. Mayorga

2011-03-13T17:09:00.001-07:00

Cotto vs. Mayorga

I'm a relative new comer to boxing, so when I saw that I'm excited for this fight, I saw it because it's been hyped well.

I think, typing this during round two of the fight, that the hype is warranted! It's been a solid firefight thus far. Both fighters are going at it, not terribly technical, but it's certainly entertaining.

Ha, Mayorga just talked smack to Cotto. Man might not be as good of a boxer, if I'm to believe the announce team, but he knows how to put on a show. Right now I've got to say I'm favoring Mayorga right now, he seems to be really going for it.

Start of round three the announce crew says Cotto is taking it. I'll believe them. They know more than I do.

Wow, Mayorga is trying to get Cotto to brawl. Like, legit just standing in the corner and shouting at the guy. I think he's frustrated, Cotto is pretty clearly more skilled. Mayorga is making a good show of the fight, but I think he's been getting beaten to the punch more often than not. Cotto had a lovely combo in there.

Round four. A lot of dancing so far. Cotto is evading most attacks and really picking his shots. I don't want to say Cotto is putting on a clinic, but... He did just slam Mayorga with a nice hook. Mayorga just went for a wild flurry, but, Cotto just smiled at it, and for good reason I think. Mayorga needs to pick his wild flurries better I think.

Round five. Mayorga with more corner showmanship, but Cotto just lit him up with an uppercut or two. I can't say I get the showmanship if you aren't going to do anything with it. Cotto is coming out real aggressive here, and I think it's working. I think Cotto is winning the fight Mayorga wants now. Conditioning issue? He doesn't look tired, but, he isn't going for it like he was in the first two rounds. Maybe he's just tired of getting punched?

Round six. Slow start, Mayorga just threw some wild shots at the air. Cotto has some solid dancing skills! He just slipped a lot of power shots while throwing some stingers back.

Mike Tyson is commenting! He just called both fighters past their prime. Brutal comments.

Round seven. Mayorga is sticking to his wild shots, I think I few found their mark! Now Cotto is missing, bit of a Bizzaro round here. Cotto spent most of that round running. So it certainly isn't a card issue for Mayorga.

Round eight. The announcers really know how to hype the fight as it goes on. Good for them, I like it. Cotto is making the fight his again, careful game. Mayorga feels slow again this round. Coming out strong for the last ten, but it doesn't seem like he had the juice. Maybe he is picking his flurry?

Round nine. Looks like the start of another Cotto round. Mayorga with some brutality! Dance, flurry, dance Mayorga! The one thing that's really confusing me is the weird hammer fists that Mayorga is throwing. I think Mayorga just took this one, he looks like he's in round one again.

Round ten. Slow start, it's like they're starting the feeling out process. Cotto seems to be on defense this round. Neither fighter seems to be landing much, but... did Mayorga do more? I don't know.

Round eleven. Cotto is excellent defensively. Mayorga still showboating comes off a bit desperate. Cotto's round for sure.

Round twelve. Mayorga's corner knows what's up. I like the good advice. Holy shit! Mayorga came out wild and was caught hard! Fight is still on! Cotto rallies again, Mayorga calls the fight off! Speculation that Mayorga broke his hand, wow!

Fun fight!

A little bit about 100 Bullets, with iPad typos!

2011-02-24T03:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone dies in the end. This is my favorite rule in crime fiction. When done properly, it's always shocking even if I know that the rule exists and that it will very likely come into play, I still find myself caring about these brilliant doomed sons of bitches.

That was the lead, do you feel complied to read further?

I just finished reading 100 bullets by Brian Azzralleo and Eduardo Rizzo, which is still blowing me away. I read the entirety of it in a little over a week, which, in my mind is the perfect way to read a book like that. I can't imagine what the monthly crawl was like for people. Though, I suppose I must apologize to Mrs. Azzarello and Rizzo for not supporting them in a monthly format, but, I knew I wouldn't be able to do that to myself.

I'm not ready to go into the details of the story right now, I'm pretty sure I need to reread all 100 issues first to fully absorb the work, I feel like I owe it that. I just want to comment on how beautiful the plot is, and how wonderfully developed the characters are, and how I love how some of the most important parts of the story happen between the panels. This book won't work for you if you're not paying attention. But don't worry, it demands that you respect and admire it.

There aren't, to my knowledge, any lazy issues. There is one that I don't believe is fully plot related, but I could be wrong about that. There's also a plot point that I'm not entirely sure I understand, but I'm confident that if I was paying better attention to a particular scene I would get it (note: I do know what scene that I think I need to go back to).

This book is rich and enriching. It's about betrayal and secrecy. Their are wheels within wheels and I'm confident that getting to know these characters again and revisiting their world will be a terrifying delight.

Partial on Dead Space 2

2011-01-31T04:01:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing much blogging lately. There are some things I would have liked to review, a few 360 demos, maybe a movie or two, but I've only been thinking about one thing: Dead Space 2. I'm a big fan, so it's kind of been consuming me. Not even in a healthy way.

I purchased the Collector's Edition of Dead Space 2 when it was released last Tuesday. I played around with my replica Plasma Cutter (it now serves as a chair for my Isaac Clarke action figure [the old one, I don't have the new one, yet]), and checked out the contents; soundtrack, DLC, advertising material, instruction booklet.

Then I sat down to play the game. By Friday morning I had finished my first play through on Normal.

Thursday was the most intense bit of my play through. I had a full day to myself. I spent 8 hours, pretty much straight, playing Dead Space 2.

This is a horror game. It will make you jump, it will make you paranoid, and it will set off a massive adrenaline dump in when the action kicks in.

By Friday afternoon I was exhausted. I really, legitimately was exhausted, and it was all from putting myself in Dead Space 2. A fantastic experience, that the game was engaging enough to wear on me a person both physically and emotionally makes me very appreciative of the work that the design team put into it.

I might actually review the game at some point.

Bones 1/27/2011

2011-01-27T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of the show Bones. It has great characters and good enough writers to consistently put them into interesting situations.

Tonight's episode of Bones was masterful. I'm nearly at a loss for words. I'm searching for an adequate way to try and describe how moved I was, both by the mastery of the plot and it's impact on the characters.

What did we have tonight? We had my favorite character going through something of an uncharacteristic crisis of self, we had others discussing tricky morality questions, we had an exploding head (which was awesome), and we had the first glimpse of what will likely be a recurring villain.

And I'm missing things, of course. Tonight was crammed with good. So much so that I might actually watch this episode again, which is something I've never really done with television outside of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes.

Kudos to the whole team on Bones.

Why I Love Dead Space

2011-01-13T09:33:00.001-08:00

WHY I LOVE DEAD SPACE

I love everything Dead Space. I love the comic books, I love the movie, I even love the averagely written but wonderfully plotted book. Most of all, and really, c’mon, you knew this was coming; I love the two video games the series has produced.

Dead Space, the video game, is remarkable in every way. It tells an engaging story using the video game medium in a way that I find revolutionary and it creates a universe that is fairly fleshed out and incredibly interesting. We get to deal with all of the great horror tropes: slashers, zombies, psychology and freaky religion.

The slashers and zombies are mashed into one excellent creature: the necromorph. Created from the dead, these bastards transform into living weapons. Instead of arms, the base necromorph have limbs that transform into bone scythes. Instead of a headshot taking care of business, you have tear the limbs off of them; increasing the gore and brutality level than what a mere decapitation can deliver. It also takes a few shots to get rid of: taking off its head just means that the creature will charge at you blindly, take off an arm it has another, take off a leg and it will crawl at you. Fantastic. And that’s just the base type of Necromorph, there are a handful more, including little monster babies! Who doesn’t love a little monster baby?

In each Dead Space tale you’re guaranteed to see someone go insane, in many instance, you’ll get to see several people go insane. In some very special parts of the games, you get to be the one going insane. Most noticeably, in an early part of Dead Space you find yourself walking around the space ship that the game spends most of its in time. As you walk you start to hear a thud repeating itself over and over again like one of those annoying tocking clocks. Then you find the source of the noise, it’s a person bashing their head into the wall. You don’t get a chance to save the person; they end up dying in a splatter of brain and blood. It’s creepy every time. There’s also a noticeable point in Dead Space: Extraction when you play as an insane person hallucinating. That was one of the few moments I’ve really gone from tense to terrified since I watched the Alien trilogy as a child.

I’m not going to talk about the religion. Not because I’m lazy, but because I think it might deserve its own space. I think there’s a lot I want to say when it comes to religion as it relates to insanity, paranoia and fear in fiction.

Sounds like fun!

Comic Books 1/5/10

2011-01-06T05:08:00.001-08:00

COMIC BOOKS 1/5/10

Ultimate Captain America #1
I’m never sure how to feel about issues like this. See, there was nothing surprising in this issue for me, I knew the punchline before I heard the joke. Was it a good issue? Yes. I enjoyed it, I like the characterization of the major players in the story, and I like the general direction that the plot is going to head in. But I knew the gist of all of this beforehand, because I really like reading interviews by Jason Aaron. It was good, and I’m excited for #2, but the setup issue seems like it has lost its oomph with writers giving the setup in interviews.

Steel #1
A good comic. It was nice in that it had a few ups and downs, but when you pit Steel against Superman’s murderer you know the end result of the plot. Not that this issue was all about the plot, it was pretty character driven in terms of setting up Steel’s fall, constantly referring to him as a normal man who surpassed his means. It was good, not great, but it doesn’t really serve to get me interested in the Reign of Doomsday event, though, I’m not really sure what could serve to get me interested.

Superboy #3

This series moves! I love this book, I really do. A fantastic mix of character development (and a lot of it) and a nifty and interesting plot that involves time travel. And this is just the third issue! If the books keeps moving like this it will easily have had more actual content than entire trades worth of other comics. I’m a fan.

Batman Beyond #1
Another set up issue. We meet the antagonist; we learn the situation that our hero will have to deal with in future issues. There really needs to be a way to do these issues in such a way that the plot really moves beyond the very opening stages so that they feel like more than an opening paragraph. Good issue overall, I’ll check out #2, but it felt like there was something missing.

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #4
An action packed issue with plot development! YES! We learn the reason for the mutant babies in Africa, and it’s appropriately sci-fi. We learn of a new threat based around, I believe, some old Alan Moore stories. We get to see a number of the X-Men actually put into some kind of realistic danger that had me worried that they might get injured in some capacity. Good time.

American Vampire #10
I’m probably biased, because I love this series and I love the art and I think all of the characters are quite fantastic, but this was a setup issue done right. We’re introduced to several elements that our protagonists are going to be dealing with in upcoming issues and we get a good sense of where some of the main characters are now. I think part of what really helps this issue is that we get a full plot thread open, get to a middle, and close, yes, we get a full story, and then we get to see that plot open up again into something new. There’s also the slight hope that my favorite character will appear, but I’m thinking that this short 2 issue story arc might happen without them.

Millionaire Matchmaker: The Best Episode Yet

2011-01-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I watched the best episode of Millionaire Matchmaker I have ever seen. Considering that I've seen all of them, and find the show to be generally entertaining, I'd like to think that says something.

To start, if you're unfamiliar with the show, Millionaire Matchmaker airs on Bravo and features the struggles of an extremely energetic (and loud and opinionated) professional matchmaker named Patty. Patty is not someone you would want to fuck with, to put it lightly. Anywho, what she does is find love for her clients, clients who have to have a net-worth of at least one million dollars. I can imagine finding perspective matches for such clientele is easy, cast a wide enough net and you're bound to find a handful of prospects just waiting for the chance to marry into money.

It's the finer points that make the show really interesting. Most of the time the millionaire or millionairess (which is apparently a real word, I was expecting my spell check to red-line that one) has a reason they have yet to find love: work, generally anti-social, not sure what they're looking for, etc... So Patty grooms them and coaches them and sends them on their merry way. Being very successful people, they butt heads with the person they're paying, I can only assume, decent bank to provide them a service and Patty explodes all over them. It's fantastic television and it can happen several times an episode. Love it.

Onto what made me happy!

And there's more! I strongly recommend you seek out the full episode, which is probably located on the Bravo page.

Now, I've seen superficial, hell, I thought I was fairly superficial myself, but DAMN, that woman makes me feel humble and modest. If you note, there is not one thing that she brings up on her own that does not have to do with that man's body or wanting to give him money, or wanting to bang him. He makes no bones about finding her unattractive and not much more than a pretty pink piggy bank, and she makes no bones about him being nothing other than a piece of meat. It's fantastic! In a perverse way they are made for each other. God can only hope that they don't procreate like she promised him. It's amazing that they're honest with each other about being horrid people looking for nothing more than status symbols to make them feel better about life. Just shocking in a way I don't think I've ever been shocked before.

Wow.

On the flip side the other couple featured on the show (every show has two millionaires looking for love) were perfect for each other and adorable. The juxtaposition was brilliant, it's almost like it was planned.

Get Your Babies Off My TV!

2011-01-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

I have had absolutely enough of this horrid awful trend of using babies and their idiot parents as a form of entertainment on my television. My television is meant for one thing and one thing only: interesting and thoughtful entertainment. I accept procedural dramas, because those have been stepping up their game with interesting characters as a means to distinguish themselves from other procedural dramas. I accept reality television even, reality television is a group of consenting adults who have opened themselves up to be exposed as either slack jawed idiots or scheming bastards who will do anything to win a competition or some notoriety. Right now I’m watching Professional Wrestling that I had to DVR because I was busy reading comic books when I could have been watching athletic body builders risk serious harm to every part of their bodies in a cheesy soap opera. Putting barely aware, practically fetal tiny humans on my TV and expecting me to be anything but outraged (in the wrong way, there is an art to making me feel outraged in a way that I can respect you for doing it) and disgusted in these “parents” for a) exploiting their children and b) for being crazy enough to go to extreme measures to have kids as if kids were some kind of status symbol.

And that is all I feel like saying on the matter. I wanted to write about the terrible shows in some detail, but there is no need to. They can all be summed up in one filthy sentence, and I think I’ve written than one filthy sentence.

Dead Space 2 Demo

2010-12-29T17:35:00.000-08:00

So I finally got a chance to play the Dead Space 2 Demo.

First, let me gripe.

I didn't finally get a chance to play the demo because I was busy and couldn't find the time to play the thing. I couldn't play the demo because I wasn't a Gold Member on Xbox Live. That annoyed me. That annoyed me a lot. I was really looking forward to the demo, and on release day I ran to my XBox like a small child runs to the tree on Christmas (Merry Christmas, BTW) to play the game as soon as I possibly could. Then I had to read all the Facebook posts asking me how much I enjoyed the game. I was truly a tortured soul.

That last part was embellishment. I was a smidgen annoyed in truth.

The demo itself is very fun. It exists to give you a very small taste of what the game is going to be. A very small taste. You can probably run through the level in 15 minutes or so.

You get to check out a new weapon, the harpoon gun, and figure out how to use the thing. It's pretty nifty. When it would normally kill an enemy, it sends them flying back into the nearest wall (or floor, depending on the angle of the shot) and pins them to it. Then, you can press the alt fire button and enemies near the harpoon will get zapped with a fairly powerful electric burst. This comes in handy, especially against the new enemy type.

The new enemy type is called, I believe, The Pack. Basically a bunch of zombie children who run at you screaming and hungry. They're terrifying. Not hard to kill, but they just keep coming, and coming, and they're children, and the animation for their kill on Isaac is straight out of the most terrible imagining of Lord of the Flies. It's awesome.

Theirs also the new suit that Isaac wears. I'm not in love with it. The old suit was perfect for the game. Kind of rugged looking. Mid-evil in a futuristic kind of way. The new suit is very streamlined, like a modern Gundam. It's not bad, but it doesn't say horror to me, it says action. I liked the Engineering suit because, even without the other bits of atmosphere in Dead Space, I really felt like I was in trouble in the game.

The story bits are nice as well. Isaac is still insane, probably moreso than he was last game, and you get one awesome hallucination scene that really drives that home. Apparently the government is after Isaac as well, which makes perfect sense if you've read the Dead Space book, and Isaac is working with someone new, whose motive I was left unaware of. Good stuff.

While it was a rather short experience, I was extremely happy with it. It felt very true to the first game, and that's really all I want out the new experience. There's no need to reinvent this wheel.

Dead Irons and the Zombie Cowboy Epic

2010-12-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

I was walking through Newbury Comics the other day and it came to me: conceptually the idea of a zombie cowboy is awesome. I'm willing to bet the idea popped in my head because I glanced the trade paperback for Dead Irons (Dynamite Entertainment, written by James Kuhoric, art by Jason Shawn Alexander) as I was walking out. Being a responsible consumer of ideas and entertainment, I decided it was high time I read Dead Irons, since the gorgeous Jae Lee covers had been calling to me for some time.

So I read the book later in the day.

In hindsight, it's a good read with an interesting an engaging storyline. The characters could have used some fleshing out, but that wasn't entirely needed when one considers that Dead Irons is primarily a revenge/redemption story. However, my problem with Dead Irons, the problem I had while I was reading it anyway, was that it wasn't the kind of Zombie Cowboy story I wanted to read at the time. No, that's not fair to the book. I don't care about being fair in my judging of entertainment. The book was good enough that I was happy with it even though it didn't give me what I wanted, take that as pretty solid praise. (This paragraph is a mess, but I'm comfortable with that too, it sums up my thoughts on the matter pretty well, I think, being a mess.)

I wanted to find an Old West Clint Eastwood style protagonist who just happened to be a zombie. Think about it. The quick draw wouldn't be quick. He couldn't be quick, he's a zombie. He would lose the quick draw every time, but unless you shoot him in the head (and let's be fair, quick draws usually ended with a chest shot [bigger mass]) he's probably going to kill his opponent. There wouldn't be much in the way of sweaty men squinting in the sunlight, zombies don't like the sun. I think the lone supernatural element would work wonders. I guess you could think of it as a slower version of the backup story in American Vampire (Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquerque), less attitude, since we're following a hero, and slower paced action, since we're following a corpsier corpse.

Dead Irons focused a bit too much on the supernatural for what I was looking for. Both the protagonist and the antagonists as well as the thrust of the plot were steeped in the paranormal. Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all, just not what I wanted at that time.

Speaking of all this, I really need to play Undead Redemption. But that's going to have to wait until I've played Red Dead Redemption. I think that would really add to my education on the concept. The perfect concept.

Bits and Pieces, November was Pretty Awesome

2010-12-07T18:02:00.000-08:00

There was a lot of stuff that I missed writing about in November. Bummer. It was on my mind the whole time, but, hey, I was busy... weak excuse. Anywho, in sexy list format, here's the awesome that dropped in November:

Kanye West's Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Fantastic album. I am a Kanye West fan. Absolutely. I like the way the man carries himself and I love the way he stays motivated and interested in his craft. This album is well worth a few listens. It's epic, and not in the way that the word is overused nowadays, it's epic in the actual sense of the word.

Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer - I don't have any real basis for this comparison, but this album feels like the bombastic sexy 70's to me. It's romantic and soulful, loud and playful, and goddamn can Cee Lo sing.

Super Meat Boy on XBox Live Arcade - The most difficult and fun platforming game that I have ever had the privilege of playing. The levels take no more than 30 seconds to beat... if you don't factor in the insane amount of death that you will experience. If you have any kind of competitive edge, you'll want to play this game until you hurt. It's happened to me plenty of times.

There's probably more, but, I'm kind of lazy, and they aren't rolling off the of my head like they should.

Potential new direction

2010-12-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

I've given this much thought, I really have.

I'm thinking of a bold new direction for my fun little blog here. And by bold new direction I simply mean an expansion of the content which I choose to write about. Make this bad boy into a real E and N blog, because god knows the world needs one more of those, am I right?

This is by no means a referendum on the initial goal of this blog. It got me to a place that I needed to be in, so I'm very grateful for that. I'm not going to stop writing super-happy-fun-shine articles about entertainment. Oh no. I really do enjoy the hell out of that. I just want to not feel limited. Which I do. I've limited myself in a way.

I just want to write stuff and pretend that other people read the stuff that I write.

Thanks!

N.E.R.D. - Nothing

2010-11-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

I love the new album by N.E.R.D. I was pretty sure I'd like it going in, The Neptunes making music for themselves has been awesome since they started doing it (there's something creative in N.E.R.D. that I normally only find in film and comic books), but I wasn't aware how much the album would move me.

Mix up soul beats, party jams, and the quirkiness and experimental standard that the group sets themselves to with a sense of sheer FUN, and I'm in love. The album makes me happy, almost gleeful. It makes doing the dishes a dance party, playing with the dog a dance party, and writing this blog entry a dance party.

...

I've probably been reading too much Andrew W.K. blog.

Whatever. I'm happy, and you can be as well, here, listen to this:

I came to sweat, I came to sweat, I came to sweat.

GOOD Fridays

2010-10-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

On the off chance that you aren't addicted to the internet like I am you may not have heard about Kanye West's GOOD Friday project. What, you're not addicted to Kanye West? That's silly, don't play. Every Friday, until December, Mr. West is going to be releasing a new track online, for free! He already has 10 free tracks out there, and it's crazy how good this stuff is. It's not like you're only getting Kanye for free, you're also getting Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Raekwon, Common, Kid Cudi, John Legend, and more!

It's not even like Kanye is just slowly releasing a new album online for free, like some artists have done, he's also developing a new album at the same time. Are some of the GOOD Friday tracks going to be on the new album? Probably. But, who cares? I've always wanted artists to give me more, an album every other doesn't do it for me. If I love your music I want to have something new to listen to all the time. I could use a new EP every month from every artist, and that's pretty much what Kanye is delivering here.

Shit, I just think it's really cool. The man has a real love for what he's doing and his fans. I can get behind that.

Check it out at www.kanyewest.com

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

2010-09-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

So this is somewhat topical if not a smidgen late. See, Dead Rising 2 came out today! Yay! New video game. This right here is a review for Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, which serves as a prequel to the new game. If it's any indication by it being on this blog, I dug Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, certainly enough to purchase at some point when I find a good enough deal for it.

So how did I get into this game? A really great strategy by the creators of the game, that's how. First of all, DR2:C0 was available as a demo download on XBox Live. I download almost every single demo that gets put out, so bam, I'm instantly going to be playing this game. Second, the game is $5. That's a solid price point. Sure, it only take 3-4 hours to beat the game, but it's $5. And the game has pretty solid replay value. Killing zombies is fun, what can I say?

That last paragraph should convince you to buy the game. It really should. Now the following is why I enjoy playing the game.

First of all, there are hundreds of zombies to murder. Every time you enter and exit your safehouse they all respawn, so you'll never run out of little beasties to beat down. Heck, one play through I decided to see how many zombies I could kill before time ran out (see a paragraph below if you've never played Dead Rising [I think, I really don't know since I've also never played Dead Rising, but this is what I've been told]). I killed 2000 of the bastards and I still had time to go. I just got hungry and a little drained from the slaughter.

On top of the slaughter is the ability to CREATIVELY slaughter. There are a ton of fun weapons to choose from: baseball bats, swords, guns, cacti, sledge hammers, chain saws, cardboard cutouts of Proto Man (seriously). That list doesn't even count the customizable weapons which range from a spiked baseball bat (baseball bat + nails) and the Boom Stick (Shot Gun + Pitchfork) which are just a ton of fun, and really increase the carnage. Custom weapons deal more damage and give out more xp. Whenever I play a game that requires leveling I turn into a bit of a munchkin, so there's that.

There's also the point of the game. Ya know, the storyline. Your daughter, yea, you have a daughter, has been infected with a zombie bite and you have to find more of this miracle drug, Zombrex, which delays her transformation into the undead. Oh, and you have to escape from the little town you're in because the government is on the way and you just know they're going to take your little girl away. This means you have a time limit on your activities. I thought this was annoying at first, very counter-intuitive for a sandbox game. However, it really heightens the tension come end game. You're all busy getting parts for your getaway vehicle and rescuing hostages that all of a sudden you have 20 minutes before the military comes and you lose! You don't want to lose, so you best hurry your ass up!

So yea, go buy this game. Then go buy Dead Rising 2. I've heard that all the problems people had with Dead Rising have been solved here, so yay!

Weekend Dining

2010-09-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Upper Crust

Canadian Bacon and Banana Peppers Pizza!
Very tasty slice of pie. I knew going in that I would enjoy this, so it's not like I was pleasently surprised or anything. The Upper Crust always delivers what I want. There's just something incredible about their tomato sauce. I imagine it's the chunky pieces of super fresh tomato, but I'm hardly an expert. I'll let you know when their slice of the day let's me down.

Stephanies on Newbury

Tuna Tartar (w/ Avacado, crisps, and wasabi horseradish, all wrapped in a sliced cucumber)
What part of heaven did this come from? The tuna, a heaping portion, rests on a bed of Avacado and is begging to be dipped into the wasabi sauce. It's quite a bit like eating a giant piece of sushi, but even better! The tuna was amazingly fresh and the whole dish felt like eating a nice Summer day. Which is exactly what I was looking for on a chilly start of Fall day.

Clam Chowder
Thick, creamy and rich... what else can you ask for in a Clam Chowder? The seasoning was right on and the crackers came stuffed with cheese for an extra bite of flavor. Fantastic.

The Stephie Slammer
Have you ever wanted to get drunk quickly? Try this. It's a martini glass filled with bourbon and garnished with lemon, lime, and some drunken cherries. Wow, packs one heck of a punch.

Rino's Place

Pumpkin Ravioli
An interesting appetizer. It wasn't what I was expecting, since most pumpking things this time of the year are sweet as all get out. This wasn't. It was like eating the meat of a pumpkin... which had been stuffed inside of a piece of pasta... So they got that down :) It was good. I'd definitely have it again, but I can't say I love it yet.

Vitello Marsala
Rino's always has excellent pasta and meat. This was no exception. Everything was cooked to perfection and the marsala sauce was to die for. I ate every last bite happily, even after I should have stopped eating.

Kung-Fu Girl Wine
I like a tasty white, and I have no shame about saying this. What a fantastic Riesling!

The Beehive

French Toast
This is the best French Toast I have ever had in my life. Apparently the secret is that the toast is covered in some kind of fried brown sugar/ corn flake mix. Simply amazing. I'd eat this every day if I could.

Machete

2010-09-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Remember when I wrote a review of Shank? No? I wrote it two weeks ago. What has society come to? I'm shaking my head here, seriously. When I reviewed Shank I pretty much told you to watch Machete. And I wasn't wrong, Machete is a fantastic movie!

Machete stars Danny Trejo in the role of Machete, a former government agent whose life was ruined by evil drug lord Torrez (played by Steven Seagal, clearly too busy to be in The Expendables). The plot is straightforward: Machete is wanted dead by a handful of bad people (Tom Savini, Don Johnson, Jeff Fahey) who are all peons under Torrez. This means Machete gets to kill a lot of people with various bladed instruments. Yay!

Helping Machete out with the mayhem is Luz (Michelle Rodriguez) and Sartana (Jessica Alba). Luz and Sartana play out the morals of the border debate while showing that women both kickass and cannot resist Machete (as though the latter was ever in any doubt).

There's an amazing soundtrack (think porn rock), ridiculous action, and over the top everything. If you're looking to have a fantastic time, go watch Machete.

Ya know, there really isn't that much more to say that is important. I find that to be fantastic. I got to watch a nice straightforward piece of cinematic gold and there isn't any kind of real thinking that needs to happen. It is what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything else or even give the impression that it could be something else. Not that I have an issue with films that make one think, I just really appreciate solid entertainment.

Under Armour Boxerjocks

2010-09-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you read that title and immediately thought, "Dang... what is this kid writing about now..."

No, you didn't think that? Liar. You did, I made you think it by typing it.

I'm writing about these:

These boxerjocks are FANTASTIC!

I've taken up running recently. Very recently. So recently that I've only done it twice, but I really do plan on sticking to it, so we can say that I've taken it up. For purposes of this little article, I've taken up running.

And these boxerjocks are FANTASTIC!

As you should be able to tell from the picture, these bad boys are snug in all the right places. They hug your thighs and waist perfectly. This is important for someone like me. I have pretty meaty thighs, and when I get moving they can rub together quite a bit and it just does not feel right. These boxerjocks prevent that chafing feeling, and on top of that they're made from the smooth as silk Under Armour material, so when they do touch your exposed leg it feels nice, welcoming but not quite erotic.

Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself (you're asking yourself a lot of questions while you're reading this. I appreciate an active participant, thank you!), "Isn't snug not always a good thing... ya know, in the package area?" Do not worry about that. If you look closely at the pouch area of the picture above you'll notice some seems (and possibly a dick, but you have to look pretty close for that). It's not really clear here, but the pouch area, as indicated by the seems, is actually made out of a different, looser material. This pouch holds your package just right. These boxerjocks are made for comfort, and they work.

On a related note: They also make me feel a little bit like professional mixed martial artist and fellow Under Armour enthusiast Georges St. Pierre. That's just a mental thing, but sports are, in great part, a mental game. If I feel like GSP, then I feel like I can PERFORM like GSP. When performance is everything, it's absolutely imperative that I get every edge that I can.

I really can't recommend these boxers enough, for sports and recreational use. Heck, I spent a full day just sitting around in them. I bet Georges does it all the time.

Demo Review: Shank

2010-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Shank!

Stop reading now if you don't like Mexploitation films.

I don't think I can talk about Shank without thinking about the upcoming mega hit super summer smash film Machete. It's not that I haven't seen other films in the genre, it's just that the name Shank is so reminiscent of Machete. It's almost like I would accuse the makers of Shank for ripping off and cashing in on the clear popularity that Machete is receiving. If I cared. I don't. I think derivative works are great.

Our hero, Shank, was recently beaten close to death and had to bear witness to listen while his lovely girlfriend was raped by a giant lucha libre guy named The Butcher. Strong start. The animation and character design are all there. We have giant beefcakes looking menacing. Throw in a bar scene that's clearly evocative of the opening to Desperado and a shadowy figure, and we're good to go.

Alright, it's not THAT awesome, but you get the idea.

The game play is pretty solid and engaging, especially for a 2d beat'em up, enough that upon a replay of the demo I was still entertained trying new things. Shank starts his vigilante career with a chainsaw, two knives, and two handguns, all of which he gets to use in interesting ways to savagely murder his opposition. Clearly we're looking at strong, light, and ranged attacks. For our added depth we're given the grapple and leap options. Both are pretty self explanatory, but the key in their use is timing. It seems like other enemies can't, or won't, attack Shank when he's holding onto someone.
And you can shoot the guns in two directions at once! COOL!

As far as the environment is concerned... it's pretty standard fare as far as backdrops go. You've got your run down desert city that looks like it would be a nesting place for scum and villainy. However, there was one bit that blew me away:

Now that is some cool stuff. I just enjoy the heck out of the shading and the badassery it contains. It's just a short part of the demo, but it really elevates the experience.

For breaks between busting the skulls of a seemingly endless wave of goons, you get to fight mini bosses and boss battles. Mini bosses are a lot like the normal goons, except that they deal more damage, have specialized attacks, and are harder to damage (harder to grapple specifically.) They add a healthy amount of thought into what could be hack and slash game. The first boss battle was solid as well. You fight against a guy who is easily four times your size and only a very limited range of attacks are effective against him. While the first boss wasn't entirely complicated, I remain hopeful that other boss battles are more inventive.

I'll probably get around to buying this someday. The promise of more levels, more weapons to play with, and more of the story has me pretty hooked.

Demo Review: Monday Night Combat

2010-08-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Monday Night Combat!

Before we get started, let's keep in mind that this is a Demo Review. Since it's a demo, that means I can't play this game like I imagine it was meant to be played: online multiplayer. I can only imagine what this badboy plays like on line... so that's exactly what I'm going to do!

Monday Night Combat is a pretty simple game. Simplicity, when it's well executed, can breed the heck out of fun, and this is exactly the case here. You have six classes to choose from, each varies in special abilities and combat prowess. You have one goal: protect your moneyball (flag) from the hordes of robots (online you can play against other live opponents, I imagine this is more fun than beating back the robots) that are attacking you. To help you with this goal, you can build up a handful of turrets for some automated defense.

I'm going to rock this backwards.

Turret defense is huge. In fact, it's the only thing you need to use in order to beat the demo. I'm sure this is less of a giant advantage in multi, but just against the bots it's an auto win. Get yourself a few Level 3 Laser Turrets and you can prop your feet up as you watch bits of bots fly. Did I not mention there are 4 kinds of turrets that you can build? There are. I only played around with the Laser Turrets. I saw the word Laser and was completely satisfied.

The object of the is to protect your moneyball. Think capture the flag, except replace "capture" with "destroy" and "flag" with "moneyball". FYI, the moneyball is a big yellow orb (or ball) that hovers in the center of your arena. Fortunately, it takes a bit of damage from the bots before the ball's shields are lowered and the ball itself can be damaged. I haven't lost yet, so I can tell you the ball can take a solid amount of damage before you lose.

Here we get to the fun stuff, character classes! From left to right we have: Gunner, Support, Assassin, Assault, Sniper, Tank.

For your general combat purposes you're going to want to use either the Gunner or the Assault Class. With the Gunner you have a class that's all about overwhelming power. You're going to be slow, but you have a big gun that shoots a lot of bullets really fast. The Assault class is more well rounded, in that you can run and gun effectively, but you make up for the speed with a softer punch. Both are fun to play, for my time I'd go with the Assault class. While I do love overwhelming power, I enjoy options a little bit more.

If you want to get up close and personal, pick either the Tank or the Assassin. The Tank is great for getting all up in someone's grill. Damage doesn't really faze him and he packs a nasty punch. He even has a great area attack that will hit anyone in a complete 360. Solid damage, solid damage reduction. He's slow as heck, but when you catch up to your opponent he's going to pay. The Assassin is just like the Tank... when it comes to close combat prowess. She tears through machines with her katana and has a nifty Predator-esque cloaking device to get in close. The problem with her is that she folds quick. I can see her doing well online, but for the demo...

Lastly, we have the Support and Sniper classes. I'm sure both can be interesting when it comes to online play, but for purposes of the demo... Support is all about healing turrets and hacking opposing turrets, which I'm sure is fun, but here he just doesn't do anything. The Sniper will likely play a lot like the Assassin in multiplayer, just, ya know from range, cause he's a Sniper. Here, his rate of fire sucks, so he's not going to help you with anything.

As it stands, I'm sure if I had 1200 Microsoft Points and a Gold Status membership I'd buy the heck out of and play the heck out of this game. As it stands, I'm not huge on Online gaming, so I don't have it. Maybe I'll change my mind at some point.

DC and Marvel November Covers

2010-08-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Every month I get all kinds of excited when the major comic book publishers release their upcoming solicitations. Not that I read what's going to be happening, but I love looking at the pretty covers. Here are my favorites from Marvel and DC.

Here is the cover to Sweet Tooth. I'm a sucker for stark contrast, and the blood covering the man really brings a visceral brutality to the cover that is nicely shocking.

X-Files finally crosses over with 30 Days of Night! Alright, I wasn't thinking that would ever happen, but I really enjoy the gritty feel of this one.

Superboy is getting a new ongoing, and it looks like DC is going to be focusing on the fun parts of being the Boy of Steel. I get a great positive vibe coming from this one, coming largely from the smirk on Connor's face and the bright yellow background. The whole piece feels really warm and welcoming.

Scalped pretty constantly has my favorite covers, but this one is significant for me thanks to, largely, the "desk". I like the smug sheriff, but the juxtaposition of his conceit and arrogance with the fruits of his labor is striking in a way that alters the sheriff into something sinister.

Sam's hat and hand make this.

I'll always enjoy an Usual Suspects homage, combine that with this excellent art and the attitude of the DV8 team, I'm happy. The carrier brings this home, showing the viewer that there is more to this crew than just a caper.

I love the grittiness and collage like feel to this image.

Jae Lee is a wonderful artist. Everything he draws grabs my eye. Look at Namor's face here. He's staring down a monster that would scare the pants off of anyone, but Namor looks at the creature with disdain.

This cover perfectly captures the feel of the book and manages to tell a story in the process.

I love the juxtaposition here between the artsy painting and the sketch. "Dream Logic" just seems like a perfect title.

Adorable.

The Expendables: Great Movie or Greatest Movie

2010-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

I had the immense pleasure of watching the new smash hit movie The Expendables this weekend.
In case you're a terrible awful person and are unaware, The Expendables is the brainchild of Sylvester Stallone, Starring Sylvester Stallone, Written by Sylvester Stallone, and Directed by Sylvester Stallone. Aside from being a sweet Sylvester Stallone joint (which, frankly, is more than enough to get me to the theater, that man has great credentials [Rocky, Rambo, Cliffhanger, Cobra, etc]) the film also stars/features the esteemed likes of: Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and Mickey Rourke. I've been in love with this film since it was announced, no, I've been in love with this film since I thought of it in 5th grade while I was supposed to be doing something or other at school.

I need to say it: The Expendables exceeded each and every one of my expectations. I thought it would be a fun action flick. I like fun action flicks. There is an absolute need for them. Not every film should be a testament to the capabilities of the medium, some should just be a testament to the insanity of the over indulged adolescent male brain. Stallone, despite being 40 years my senior, can tap into that little hyper active boy far better than I could hope to. As far as I'm concerned, that makes Sly a national treasure. For a good two hours I was on the edge of my seat watching brutal fist fights, massive gun battles, and explosions galore.

Watch this film.

Demo Review: Dante's Inferno

2010-08-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to go hog wild downloading demos off of XBox Live, wow, what a fantastic experience. I'm going to be playing little 15 minute vignette's of video games for quite some time. It's going to be a nice little time running through them and then agonizing over whether I'm going to buy them or not. Knowing me, by the time I'm done thinking about it we'll be on to a next gen system (XBox 1080?) and the games will be at a price so negligible I won't hesitate to purchase them.

Anywho...

The first game that I previewed was this little gem called Dante's Inferno. It's made by the same people who made current all time favorite video game experience Dead Space so I figured it had to be some sort of quality. And it is! Yay!

The game is some sort Streets of Rage/Devil May Cry kinda thing set during the Crusades so it has this interesting pseudo religious bent. The atmosphere is pretty sexy. The main character, Dante, is all kinds of overly serious, which I guess you have to be if you're running into Hell chasing after your dead wife who is accusing you of committing some kind of heinous crime which you're unaware of. Women, am I right? So it's interesting, because you get to run through these crazy settings and kill these crazy monsters in crazy ways. But the best part of the game, for me, was the first boss you fight. Oh yea, it's a goody. See, after running around murdering what appear to be some innocent peasants that you had locked in jail, you get to go toe to toe with this guy:

That's right kids, the first level boss is the Grim Reaper. I think it takes some serious stones to fight the embodiment of death. Is everyone going to do it? Probably. I certainly don't want to die, and if Death showed up at my door I'd probably try and have a little conversation with him about the worth of my life and the value that I bring to the lives of others, but I don't think I'd engage the man/entity in fisticuffs. Which is exactly what Dante does here. Moreso...

Dante steals the Reaper's scythe and jams him in the face with it! That is so awesome! "Oh, what's that Death? You want to take my soul to some kind of afterlife? Really. No, I'm gonna stay here, I've got some business to handle." So you murder Death. Then you get to use his scythe for the rest of the game. I imagine anyway, since it harvests the souls of the things you kill and you use those souls as currency for power ups. I'm calling badass.

So I love this bit of the game. I do. But I'm not sure if I want to buy it. I've never been all that into the button mashing beat 'em up games. There's something about the timing that I'm off on or the combo memorization. Will I pick this up? There's potential. But I think if you enjoy these types of games it's a must buy. The atmosphere is far too fun to pass up on.

Coming up next...

2010-08-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

Limbo: Four Hours of Dying Happy

2010-08-09T17:49:00.001-07:00

I finally got around to playing Limbo on Wednesday and I loved every minute of it.

My love for the game has nothing to do with the graphics. Even if they are lovely, making the absolute most out of what a 2d platformer can offer.

It's not about they story, which may or may not exist, come to your own conclusions, I've read some interesting thoughts on the matter.

It's not about the music, which is sparse and helps to really set the tone and immerse you in the game play.

This game is 100% enjoyable because of the dying.

Oh the dying. It happened so often and it was glorious each and every time. There wasn't one time I was frustrated with the game; it was so forgiving, I'd restart play moments before my most recent death. Dying is the way you learn in Limbo, it's trial by error, but you'll find that there are very few errors that don't end in cartoon death.

Are the traps and puzzle hugely innovative... not if you've played a good amount of puzzle games. Again, the unique point of the game is the glee in my characters death.

As an aside, for whatever reason this game reminded me of Portal (a unique cult classic puzzle game, remind you of anything?), so I felt the need to replay that before writing this. I'm not sure why I needed to do that, but it made both experiences feel all that more rewarding, I recommend it highly.

Limbo: My Woman on the Side

2010-07-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

I've struggled with writing this. No, that's not fully accurate, I've struggled with sitting down to write this.

I've only played the demo for Limbo, a new XBox Live Arcade title. I haven't been able to pull myself away from Fallout 3 to dedicate the five or so hours that it takes for a play through of Limbo. The problem here is that I kind of need to play Limbo, even if I deny that I do, because it's seriously killing my enjoyment of Fallout 3! Oh, I'll go in, explore for a bit (Operation: Anchorage really helped me to focus in) but then I'll start to think of Limbo. Oh, Limbo, you with your simplistic game play, your deep and dark moody atmosphere, your so simple it's revolutionary 2d platforming experience... and then a Super Mutant or some other such creature murders me because I was daydreaming about my other love. I think I might be cheating on Fallout 3 like Cyclops cheated on Jean Grey (nerd).

Maybe this isn't an article about how I love Limbo. I think this is really an article about how I love the taste of Limbo that I've had. Maybe I don't want to buy Limbo because I love it like I love the idea of that cute girl at the bar who flirted with me that one time (this is an example sweetie, I don't remember her, I swear).

I think it's time to take the plunge so this affair can be over. Monday. Look for an update here on Monday. Unless Limbo and I spend all day doing dirty, dirty things.

True Blood's Crazy in Love Romeo

2010-07-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

I had never watched True Blood before this weekend. As a premise, I can't say that the show interested me. And I certainly do not have HBO, so it's like I could watch it even if I was inspired to do so.

Of course, one promise of casserole and brownies later, and I'm at my good friend Abby's apartment with her second favorite couple Torgan watching a solid marathon of episodes 2-5 of True Blood's third season.
And boy, am I glad for that promise of casserole and brownies (thanks Tara, totally delicious) because I was introduced to one of my brand new characters in fiction:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Franklin Mott

The first time we are introduced to Franklin he is a pair of leather shoes sneaking around the home of one of the shoe's main heroes. That's all the character we get. He's fashionable, clearly, and he has some kind of agenda, an agenda that is surely nefarious in some manner.

The second time we see Franklin he's saddling up to, apparently, the only bar in town. Tara, the bartender, is having some kind of a troubled time, and he throws a little bit of game her way (this is the gun introduced in the first act, for real). On Tara's way out of the bar gets into a fight with a few hillbillies, and Franklin, much to my personal delight, holds one of them while she pummels the drunk idiot.

Then they have awesome vampire sex. Which is apparently much, much better than normal people sex. I was aware of this, because Tara's eyes did a really weird flutter thing with the whites, good times. For her.

Do keep in mind, throughout all of this, Franklin is a gentleman. His English accent is used to it's full charming extent, and his witticisms are strong.

This is where we get fun.

Franklin shows up at Tara's house, mesmerizes her to let him in, forces her to tell him everything she knows about the main characters of True Blood and then ties her to the toilet while he sleeps. We knew Franklin was bad news, but this was straight nasty. We're treated to a good establishing shot of Tara, tied up and crying, struggling and unable to free herself from her bonds.

So, naturally, Franklin brings her roses.

And professes his love for her.

Seriously.

The next handful of episodes involve Franklin's steep, steep decent into love and madness, which is a joy, absolute joy to watch.

He buys Tara a wedding dress. He gets jealous when her cousin texts her ("Who is this!" I'm paraphrasing, "I thought you said there was nobody in the picture, I'll kill him!") whom he quickly learns is gay (to a complete turn in personality, from angry jealous to delighted child) and tries to get rid of (watch the video, but take the super speed part and watch it five or six times [that's how it is on the show! Franklin is SO damned impressed with himself]).

When Tara tries to escape and fails, he beats himself up because SHE hurt him so bad. His poor emotions. He literally throws himself against the wall. Poor Tara has to calm him down by telling him everything will be alright, and that it's not HIM she's afraid of, it's everyone else. Right.

I love this character. He has the perfect mix of dark comedy and damn seriousness. He's believable as a cold hearted, conniving killer because that's what he is. But at his heart, at his core, he's fucking crazy and in love with anyone that will show him a touch of decency.

I might be romanticizing that last bit.

Fallout 3 and my love affair with the Side Quest

2010-07-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased an XBox 360. I know, I've always been a Nintendo man (even though I did dabble with a PS2), but I finally caved, new games are so cool.

So I went ahead and purchased this one game, Fallout 3, you have to know this, it's in the title.

I wasn't really aware of what exactly Fallout 3 was, all I knew was that it was highly rated, my good friend Matt said it was cool, and it took place in a post-nuclear war retro styled future. What I didn't know, and should have going in, is that it is a massive RPG that not only looks beautiful, but has so much style and cool it's silly.

But I'm not here to review Fallout 3 for you, that'd be silly, I haven't even finished one play-through of it yet.

I blame Bryan Wilks.

Do you see that face? That is the face of a really long and amazing side quest.

- Could you find my dad?

Sure kid, let me murder all of these fire ants for you. Oh, snap, I found your dad, he's dead :(

- Could you murder all the fire ants?

Sure kid, clearly I can do that. I just spent two hours or so wiping out an entire city filled with them.

Then you run into a random scientist...

- Could you murder these really strong fire ants for me? Oh, but leave the Queen fire ant alive.

Oh, sure, yea, that won't take me any time at all.

Then you run into a religious zealot wearing power armor...

- Hey, could you murder these giant mutants for me? We'll save my friend!

Of course I can, that won't take me an hour or so while they brutally kill me over and over.

Then you return to the kid...

- Thanks for killing all those Fire Ants for me... could you find me a new home?

And I haven't done that yet, because his new home is in a city that is really far away, and I had other Side Quests to do. I can't even begin to imagine how awesome the actual game is once I start playing it.

Predators Day!

2010-07-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I watched Predators.

To more completely describe the experience I need to fill you in on a tradition that I've been creating with a few of my friends. When a sequel to a film comes out, a sequel such as Predators, take a day and watch all of the films in the series, in this instance, we watched Predator and Predator 2. Just spend a good day and a half hanging out and watching some old film with good friends. It's a classy idea, and I recommend that everyone at least try it.

On to Predators, and why I loved watching it!

Let's start out with the concept for the film, because it's a good one, and it lends itself wonderfully to making a great action flick. Toss a handful of diverse and interesting characters into a foreign land (in this case an alien planet), give them a common goal (survival), and a common foe (Predators!). It's a simple formula, really simple, but it gave me exactly what I was looking for, and I love that. It also helped to set the pace of the film early. We open with Adrian Brody falling out of the sky, he barely hits his parachute, and takes a bumpy landing. The first bit of the movie doesn't slow down from there. We're introduced to our cast and concept wasting absolutely no time. Fantastic!

Then there are the scenes I'm going to carry with me, the bits that were clearly minor labors of love and genius.

Laurence Fishburne played a survivor of the alien planet. This is one of those tropes for like movies that you generally have, or at least I feel like it's a trope (I'm thinking Battle Royale here). Of course, Fishburne continues the trend of characters in this film, everyone in the film is a terrible person. Fishburne is no different and you come to realize HOW it is that he has stayed alive for so long. Lovely bit there. That he was either crazy to start with or developed an imaginary friend is an added bonus. His scheming mania was a real high light for me, there was some nice humor in the film anyhow, what with Topher Grace playing a guy who "wasn't supposed to be there" and Walton Goggins' fairly worthless in combat serial killer, but the madcap over the top element always makes me happy.

I'm a fan of Japanese cinema, or at least, what I've seen of Japanese cinema, so the ridiculously classic shoot of a Samurai battle between a Yakuza and a Predator filled me with pure delight. Is it ridiculous in context... maybe a little. Why would the Predator not shoot the Yakuza, why go one on one? Why not! Either the director loves Samurai films like I do, or he gave a fantastic homage because he knew it would be fun, it doesn't matter. The outcome was brilliant.

And of course we have spectacular performances from every one involved, a script that flows smoothly, and direction that shows love.

My hat is off to the cast and crew.

Manifesto

2010-07-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

What I think is fun:

I'm fascinated by entertainment in all mediums. I think about it all the time, and I'd like some kind of outlet to share those thoughts with others. That outlet will be this blog.

However, I'm not interested in discussing the normal things here. Craft, while it will likely have some place, is not the focus; the focus here is fun. We're here to talk and think about what makes a work fun. If it ain't fun, it don't belong here.