I saw this link and then suddenly I had money in my hands and I was throwing it at the screen in hopes that I would have this in my hands sooner. My geek side says that I must have this. But my other geek side says that I still have to pay for the softball league and kickball league. I must not give in the the dark side.
Powerful it is…
Later!
Mark
After finding out Sunday night that “The Loop” season one was finally out on DVD I immediatley put in on the top of my Blockbuster Que. It arrived yesterday… oh the glory! For those of you that don’t know, The Loop, is legend around the Sausage. Even though it was on Fox last summer, no one seems to know about it. I mean my group of friends are the perfect target for the show and even most of us have never heard of it. But everyone I show it to loves it. Unfortunatley it’s either been cancelled or cut short or something. I think it was originally scheduled to air this January, but was pushed back until summer where it can drown in a sea of other half promoted shows.
But that’s not worrying me. I figured we would never have any more episodes anyway so this is a bonus. Just put this in the long line of great shows that I have liked that were cancelled too early… Firefly, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, The Zak Galifinakis Show. But I guess that’s better than going on too long and ruining it? right?
I’ll be looking forward to watching what I’m going to call “The Encore Season” June 10th at 9:30.
“When I was your age I was knee deep in Krauts trying to stab Johnny with a longknife”
In a recent post I talked about buying several new graphic novels and getting a new book that I was really excited about. Well I was so excited about it that I actually finished it, which brings my average up to about 70%. (damn that wine book!) I’ve also finished most of the graphic novels. But I’m starting to think that reading 3 series at once is going to get expensive, with them going for about 10 bucks each. I only like the Trade Paperbacks (TPB) because I like to collect them.
Well anyway, here’s the reviews.
Fables: I like it, but it seems a little forced, maybe that’s just because it had to introduce so many characters it didn’t have time for a strong enough story. a little like the first X-Men movie.
DMZ: A strong first book. It drops you in the middle of an occupied NYC and just hits the ground running. It has certain cinematic elements, so much so that I can really see this being made into a movie at some point.
Transmetropolitain: Spider Jerusalem is one of the best characters to come along in a long time. The book has certain elements that also made DMZ a good read, like the city setting. But being a futuristic novel it takes things to the extreme. Spider reminds me a lot of Tank Girl, which is exactly why I hope they never make a movie out of this comic. Well live action movie anyway.
World War Z: This book was absolutely amazing. Well for me anyway since I love Zombie / Post-Apocalyptic movies. But I don’t think the zombie genre has ever been done on this scale, I should know, I’ve seen a lot of those movies. It’s always set in some small town, a single farmhouse, or at most you get to see the story of one group of survivors from all over the place. The notable exception being Land of the Dead, but for some reason that movie really didn’t do it for me. just something wasn’t there. But I digress…
In this book you get to see the story from all sides. The narrative is set up as the author interviews survivors of the war 10 years after victory has been declared. Most of the interviews are only a few pages long, he uses them to widen the scope of the story. Not that it doesn’t have some of the cliched zombie movie parts, rich people paying for protection, greedy people looting. But those are balanced out by the depth of the story.
But what really makes this book different is that the author (Max Brooks) has thought of everything. I mean what would happen if the US army set up in New Jersey to fight the 10 million Zombies that came pouring out of NYC? (it doesn’t end well for us) How would the governments of the world really respond if their people started dying and returning to life? Japan? China? North Korea? Cuba? Russia? You get a glimpse of all those places through the course of the story. What happens when zombies walk/fall into the ocean? (They just keep walking) The story also goes on after we start to win the fight against the zombies, on to the cleanup and reclamation of the world.
What I’m really interested is that this book is being made into a movie. But the problem is that they’ll never be able to get all this story into one movie. I trust the writer that they have in charge now, J. Michael Straczynski who wrote the show Babylon 5. He has a history of being able to weave in a lot of details in one story.
Here’s my final word on the book. I like it so much I might start reading it again.
Later!
Mark
So the other day I was reading some posts on Boing-Boing about new/old graphic novels that are supposed to be good. I was looking to get into another one because I’ve caught up to ‘Y the last man’ and I hate to be waiting 6 months in between sets. (yes I know I could get the individual issues, but they wouldn’t look as good on my shelf.) So I went a little crazy on Amazon and ordered issue one of 3 titles. DMZ, about a second civil war in america set in present day. Fables, about famous fairy tale characters living in NYC in present day. Transmetropolitain, which I honestly forget what is about, but it looked good at the time. I’m about halfway through the Fables book, it seems to be written well. I’ll get to the others sometime.
But the book I really really like, doesn’t have pictures in it at all (shocker!). It’s ‘World War Z : An Oral History of the Zombie War’ and it is totally bas ass. It’s set 12 years after VZ (Victory over Zombies) day, this reporter is traveling around interviewing survivors, through their stories you learn how it went down.
I’ve always been a fan of Zombie movies, it’s no secret. The George A. Romero ones have always been my favorites, even the remakes. The difference in this book is the scope, this is the Gettysburg of Zombie stories. After watching the original ‘Dawn of the Dead’ I always wondered how other places around the world/country would react to the coming of the UnDead. Even though it was mostly terrible ‘Land of the Dead’ did shed light on some of those things. So far I’m only about 1/3 through the book and every chapter brings something that I’d never thought of before. For instance: How the plague was partly spread when zombies fell off boats and then eventually just walked out of the water hundreds of miles later. How ineffective conventional military strategies would be against an horde of a million zombies pouring out of New York City.
Every chapter in the book would make an awesome scene in a movie, luckily for me I also heard that they’re going to make it. I wouldn’t want to be the one deciding what parts have to get cut. But at this point with Brad Pitt in talks to star, hopefully they’ll have the budget to keep the good ones.
I read book!
Mark
Thank you, Anson Gregory… the man who invented the hole in the doughnut.
I was watching Modern Marvels tonight, one about snack food or something. (I don’t know what reall they all seem to blend together.) It’s kind of like guy porn… oh wait, that’s real porn. Well that phrase goes so well with everything else, I guess you’d call it porn for fat robots. But I just love the little doughnuts travelling on their little journey, on little conveyor belts, on to a little lazy river… of boiling hot grease. But then they hit a bump and flip. I love watching repetitive mechanized equipment, but the doughnut line is the best.
Like that monkey in the commercial…I’m Tried
Later
So even though Greg had an Xbox 360 in the house for probably 6 months now I was never really excited about it. It’s not that I didn’t think the games looked great. It’s just that graphics aren’t the biggest selling feature for me. I needed a great game to make me want to spend the money on it. When Brian brought over Gears of War I thought it was the game I needed. (and really it was, because Jesse and I went halvsies on one)
I think that Microsoft has been coasting this whole year on brand name and mediocre games. Which is kind of amazing because they’ve sold a lot of consoles. With Sony and Nintendo coming out I think they’re really bringing out the big guns. G.O.W. is the first game that I really think looks next-gen, and plays like it too. My pick Xbox ftw over PS3.
But what really gets me excited is Tony Hawk’s project 8. This probably won’t figure into the console wars because it’s coming out on both consoles. But DAMN SON, this game is amazing. There hasn’t been an innovation like this in THPS since they learned how to manual in THPS2. It’s called NAIL THE TRICK, it’s like a skateboarding simulator. You click both thumbsticks and it goes into this slow motion mode where all you see is your feet. The thumbsticks then control each foot independently. YOU HAVE TO FLICK THE TRICKS YOURSELF! I can’t emphasize this enough, this is so awesome. This impression is from 30 minutes in the demo, instant classic.
I for one welcome our Next Gen overlords.