Your Regular Update
Once upon a time in the not-too-distant future (in distant days longing to sense it all so clear):
By the way, I just learned my parents read this: I listen to devil worshipping music and what is worse, I dance to it, I used to worship his dark beastly unholiness by the light of the full moon , I am now Buddhist/Hindu/Pagan/Death Fetishist/Whatever (but I am not atheist, not that there is anything wrong with that or even being Christian- just that you Jesus Freaks and all the other religious fanatics annoy the hell out of me)-I am also vegetarian and still spike my hair like the heathen that I am. And I wear nothing but black.
That said, I still listen to the Cure (although most of my musical attention lately has turned towards EBM/Future Pop/Industrial – and maybe the aforementioned Satan worshipping tunes). The Cure have just postponed their fall tour turning it into a spring tour. Whatever, Fat Bob- just play closer to Austin already and keep out the fratboys who just know the singles and annoy everyone else. And bring back Roger O’Donnell to your line up! And maybe Boris.
According to the special features on the movie Hot Fuzz, Austin is the geek capital of the world (presumably because of Aint-It-Cool-News). I just do not see that, living here. With all the fratboys, jocks, cowboys, holier-than-thou music nazis and other random folks fans- nah- no geeks here. Just one in a wheel chair with a website.
That said: Hot Fuzz is an awesome movie, but not as good as Shaun of the Dead.
Summer is over (technically on the 23rd, the first day of Fall). I have not gone to school for at least nine years now- so this schedule should not affect me, but still it does. It always seems like one kind of innocence goes into hibernation at this time of the year, replaced with a kind of naiveté and misguided hopefulness into this new period of the year.
The kind of hopefulness that will soon fall into disillusionment and you discover things are not what you expected them to be and finally we all fall into that zombie state where the same day occurs over and over again, no difference whatsoever until we had our fill of brains and it’s the Thanksgiving holidays and by that time we have long ceased to care about anything.
Or something like that.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is next week- and it is nothing to me than more traffic clogging downtown. It is not that I am now just another townie- it is because all the bands there suck- don’t believe the hype- they really all do suck no matter how much the sponsors and the music nazis try to tell you otherwise (well maybe except Bjork- but please, anyone who tells you the White Stripes have any talent sold their soul to my lord and master a long time ago (or in the immortal words of my biological mother Siouxsie Sioux, just sheep).
PREDICTION: The martial arts movies craze that began with the Matrix and brought to the mainstream with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the popularity of Jackie Chan will climax in 2008 and then just become another obscure obsession amongst film fans again. Which is where it should be. We never needed those dammed Charlie’s Angels movies, that Balls of Fury movie or that upcoming Kung Fu Panda Movie.
Yes- we are getting a new Chinese John Woo Movie- but that movie doesn’t involve guns. And we are getting an HK produced Bruce Lee TV show about his life but we are also threatened by the Enter the Dragon remake.
We will be up to our ears next year with chop socky flicks- but they will be nowhere be as great as the HK heyday of the late eighties and nineties. We still get an awesome and hilarious Stephen Chow flick, a bone crusher from Donnie Yen or a triad drama from Johnnie To, but those are the exceptions. Most Chinese movies nowadays try to capitalize on the aforementioned Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and fail. The HK film spirit is still there somewhere, out amongst the hopping vampires and we will see it again someday.
Just not anytime soon.
That said, I am eagerly expecting Flashpoint, Exiled, Stephen Chow’s next and maybe, just maybe Invisible Target. Blood Brothers is supposedly nowhere as good as the movie it is inspired by [Bullet in the Head- also the title of the movie made about my life] but it has action scenes by Mad Dog Philip Kwok- the dude who also worked on action scenes on Hard Boiled.
In the meanwhile, I consider Jackie & Jet’s movie a Hollywood production (and geared towards a younger audience), but still, Jackie and Jet in the same movie and that movie surrounds the Journey to the West tale? I am cautiously curious.
From Hong Kong to Japan: I looked over again the first eighteen months worth of Newtype USA- the premier magazine about anime Stateside. I am currently loving the character designs of Burst Angel (of which I have only seen the first episode), the anticipation of the upcoming Neon Genesis Evangelion movies (both animated and when-hell-freezes-over, a live version one), anything Yoko Kanno does music for and anything Kawajiri directs.
But I have got to ask you- where have all the good anime gone? We have the classics but since Evangelion, Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop have ended and anime was used in Kill Bill and the Matrix, the hype surrounding anime disappeared. It has become more available and more mainstream (and more and more kids are packing in volumes of manga) but there used to be a time when a must-see-anime would show up every fifteen minutes or so (purists take note- I have not seen Full Metal Alchemy yet or seen the second season of Ghost In the Shell; the last new series I saw to completion was Macross Zero- which I loved by the way).
For a while it was the quality of the shows- I hated Gundam Seed (the first Gundam I did not care for), anything else that Gainax has done since Evangelion (FLCL was absurdist fun- but animation wise, there was no quality) and all the other anime that looked like even I could have done better (and have you seen my doodles on deviant art? They’re crap!).
But aside from Full Metal Alchemy- are there any new series out there worth watching? I would watch a new Macross or give a chance to anything with the name Gundam, that Madhouse director Kawajiri or anything Yoko Kanno does, but the rest? Do they all just suck?
Here, in which I become more of a nerd (from Syfy Portal):
"Picture an incident that throws a group of Romulans back in time," Moriarty said. "Picture that group of Romulans figuring out where they are in the timeline, then deciding to take advantage of the accident to kill someone's father, to erase them from the timeline before they exist, thereby changing all of the Trek universe."
Apparently the Romulans choose the man himself, Capt. James T. Kirk. Why wait for him to fall off a bridge 100 years in the future when he can be taken out now, the Romulans reason.
That leaves Spock in a peculiar position because somehow he knows about the change, and is able to try and put it all back ... but it's not perfect.
"Evidently, the plan is to use this second timeline as a way of rebooting without erasing or ignoring canon," Moriarty said. "These new voyages of the Enterprise, they're taking place in whatever timeline starts with this story."
AKA: Another time travel story? An alternate universe that is not the one with the evil Federation with Goatee Spock? This move currently has suckage written all over it. They should have gone with that proposal that JMS and Bryce Zabel did some years ago.
And finally: for your own information:
Stop by CD Trader this weekend for big savings on CDs, DVDs, Records and t-shirts! Every item in the store will be discounted on Saturday and Sunday, September 8-9.
New CDs, DVDs, LPs & t-shirts will be 10% off
Used CDs & DVDs will be 20% off
99cent LPs will be 50% off
all other Used LPs will be up to 30% off
CD Trader is located at 18926 Ventura Blvd in Tarzana, between the Tampa and Reseda exits off the 101 freeway. Hours Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 11am-7pm. Hope to see you there!
________________________________________________________________________
By the way, I just learned my parents read this: I listen to devil worshipping music and what is worse, I dance to it, I used to worship his dark beastly unholiness by the light of the full moon , I am now Buddhist/Hindu/Pagan/Death Fetishist/Whatever (but I am not atheist, not that there is anything wrong with that or even being Christian- just that you Jesus Freaks and all the other religious fanatics annoy the hell out of me)-I am also vegetarian and still spike my hair like the heathen that I am. And I wear nothing but black.
That said, I still listen to the Cure (although most of my musical attention lately has turned towards EBM/Future Pop/Industrial – and maybe the aforementioned Satan worshipping tunes). The Cure have just postponed their fall tour turning it into a spring tour. Whatever, Fat Bob- just play closer to Austin already and keep out the fratboys who just know the singles and annoy everyone else. And bring back Roger O’Donnell to your line up! And maybe Boris.
According to the special features on the movie Hot Fuzz, Austin is the geek capital of the world (presumably because of Aint-It-Cool-News). I just do not see that, living here. With all the fratboys, jocks, cowboys, holier-than-thou music nazis and other random folks fans- nah- no geeks here. Just one in a wheel chair with a website.
That said: Hot Fuzz is an awesome movie, but not as good as Shaun of the Dead.
Summer is over (technically on the 23rd, the first day of Fall). I have not gone to school for at least nine years now- so this schedule should not affect me, but still it does. It always seems like one kind of innocence goes into hibernation at this time of the year, replaced with a kind of naiveté and misguided hopefulness into this new period of the year.
The kind of hopefulness that will soon fall into disillusionment and you discover things are not what you expected them to be and finally we all fall into that zombie state where the same day occurs over and over again, no difference whatsoever until we had our fill of brains and it’s the Thanksgiving holidays and by that time we have long ceased to care about anything.
Or something like that.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is next week- and it is nothing to me than more traffic clogging downtown. It is not that I am now just another townie- it is because all the bands there suck- don’t believe the hype- they really all do suck no matter how much the sponsors and the music nazis try to tell you otherwise (well maybe except Bjork- but please, anyone who tells you the White Stripes have any talent sold their soul to my lord and master a long time ago (or in the immortal words of my biological mother Siouxsie Sioux, just sheep).
PREDICTION: The martial arts movies craze that began with the Matrix and brought to the mainstream with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the popularity of Jackie Chan will climax in 2008 and then just become another obscure obsession amongst film fans again. Which is where it should be. We never needed those dammed Charlie’s Angels movies, that Balls of Fury movie or that upcoming Kung Fu Panda Movie.
Yes- we are getting a new Chinese John Woo Movie- but that movie doesn’t involve guns. And we are getting an HK produced Bruce Lee TV show about his life but we are also threatened by the Enter the Dragon remake.
We will be up to our ears next year with chop socky flicks- but they will be nowhere be as great as the HK heyday of the late eighties and nineties. We still get an awesome and hilarious Stephen Chow flick, a bone crusher from Donnie Yen or a triad drama from Johnnie To, but those are the exceptions. Most Chinese movies nowadays try to capitalize on the aforementioned Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and fail. The HK film spirit is still there somewhere, out amongst the hopping vampires and we will see it again someday.
Just not anytime soon.
That said, I am eagerly expecting Flashpoint, Exiled, Stephen Chow’s next and maybe, just maybe Invisible Target. Blood Brothers is supposedly nowhere as good as the movie it is inspired by [Bullet in the Head- also the title of the movie made about my life] but it has action scenes by Mad Dog Philip Kwok- the dude who also worked on action scenes on Hard Boiled.
In the meanwhile, I consider Jackie & Jet’s movie a Hollywood production (and geared towards a younger audience), but still, Jackie and Jet in the same movie and that movie surrounds the Journey to the West tale? I am cautiously curious.
From Hong Kong to Japan: I looked over again the first eighteen months worth of Newtype USA- the premier magazine about anime Stateside. I am currently loving the character designs of Burst Angel (of which I have only seen the first episode), the anticipation of the upcoming Neon Genesis Evangelion movies (both animated and when-hell-freezes-over, a live version one), anything Yoko Kanno does music for and anything Kawajiri directs.
But I have got to ask you- where have all the good anime gone? We have the classics but since Evangelion, Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop have ended and anime was used in Kill Bill and the Matrix, the hype surrounding anime disappeared. It has become more available and more mainstream (and more and more kids are packing in volumes of manga) but there used to be a time when a must-see-anime would show up every fifteen minutes or so (purists take note- I have not seen Full Metal Alchemy yet or seen the second season of Ghost In the Shell; the last new series I saw to completion was Macross Zero- which I loved by the way).
For a while it was the quality of the shows- I hated Gundam Seed (the first Gundam I did not care for), anything else that Gainax has done since Evangelion (FLCL was absurdist fun- but animation wise, there was no quality) and all the other anime that looked like even I could have done better (and have you seen my doodles on deviant art? They’re crap!).
But aside from Full Metal Alchemy- are there any new series out there worth watching? I would watch a new Macross or give a chance to anything with the name Gundam, that Madhouse director Kawajiri or anything Yoko Kanno does, but the rest? Do they all just suck?
Here, in which I become more of a nerd (from Syfy Portal):
"Picture an incident that throws a group of Romulans back in time," Moriarty said. "Picture that group of Romulans figuring out where they are in the timeline, then deciding to take advantage of the accident to kill someone's father, to erase them from the timeline before they exist, thereby changing all of the Trek universe."
Apparently the Romulans choose the man himself, Capt. James T. Kirk. Why wait for him to fall off a bridge 100 years in the future when he can be taken out now, the Romulans reason.
That leaves Spock in a peculiar position because somehow he knows about the change, and is able to try and put it all back ... but it's not perfect.
"Evidently, the plan is to use this second timeline as a way of rebooting without erasing or ignoring canon," Moriarty said. "These new voyages of the Enterprise, they're taking place in whatever timeline starts with this story."
AKA: Another time travel story? An alternate universe that is not the one with the evil Federation with Goatee Spock? This move currently has suckage written all over it. They should have gone with that proposal that JMS and Bryce Zabel did some years ago.
And finally: for your own information:
Stop by CD Trader this weekend for big savings on CDs, DVDs, Records and t-shirts! Every item in the store will be discounted on Saturday and Sunday, September 8-9.
New CDs, DVDs, LPs & t-shirts will be 10% off
Used CDs & DVDs will be 20% off
99cent LPs will be 50% off
all other Used LPs will be up to 30% off
CD Trader is located at 18926 Ventura Blvd in Tarzana, between the Tampa and Reseda exits off the 101 freeway. Hours Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 11am-7pm. Hope to see you there!
________________________________________________________________________
posted by Catterpillarboy at 9:52 AM
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