I’ve been approached recently about reviving my comic creating with more of a political flare. Submitted for your approval is a test cell, enjoy! Click for larger size :D

I’ve updated and improved the state of my Kitchen. This is a part of an ongoing progress to upgrade every room in my house, one room at a time. I plan on getting a few more things, namely a Panini Maker and an end table for under the Van Gogh, but other than that it’s done. Next up is my living room.

Final Grade: A

I Am Legend is a movie that seemingly everyone and their mom wants to see. This is evident by the couple hundred people lined up outside the theater, in the cold and rain for the free screening I attended, hoping to get a precious seat inside. Typically, these types of come one, come all movie fests, based mostly on commercial hype, usually end up being enjoyable (i.e. Transformers). They typically don’t end up like the “I should know from the trailer this is going to be boring and artsy” films (i.e. No Country for Old Men).

This film is based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name. For the curious, this is the same novel the Charlton “Cold Dead Hands/Moses” Heston movie Omega Man is based on. In this adaptation, the apocalyptic catalyst is still a super virus, with a twist. In the first few minutes of the film, we are treated to a news interview with scientist that uses a biologically engineered version of Measles to kill cancer cells in her patients. She’s awfully proud of killing cancer. Too bad that isn’t the only thing her research kills . . .

Will Smith plays the scientist Robert Neville, who is the last uninfected human in New York City. Most of the movie is following Robert through his daily life, which consists of various daytime activities. These include hunting in time square, with his dog (and last friend) Sam, and trying to find a cure for the virus that all but destroyed humanity. Once night starts to fall, he locks up every door and window in his house. When he sleeps, he has nightmares about what tragically happened to his wife and daughter.

The shots of a deserted NYC are incredible. There are weeds growing though the streets, thousands of abandoned vehicles, deer and lions (I’m guessing from the zoo) roam the area. These images are believable and must have been a challenge for the special effects crew. The creatures can best be described as a Zombie and Vampire mix. These “Night Walkers” can’t survive in UV light, but lack the intelligence and sophistication of the Bram Stoker or Anne Rice definition of Vampire. The only intelligence they do posses is in the hunter and gatherer area. There is a great scene that takes place in a dark warehouse with these guys, with our hero’s only light source being a flashlight.

The story of what exactly happened to humanity is told in flashbacks, and various paper and magazine articles in the background. This made for a fun exercise of trying to read everything (note: look for a billboard for a certain superhero movie in “development hell” in time square). Different people may get more or less of the back story this way, although some might find it frustrating, because everything isn’t explained up front. There is somewhat of a left turn at the end that shows up at Neville’s lowest point, that some might consider a cheesy plot turn that includes the line “I like Shrek.” That is up to the viewer though. The ending is very heroic, without saying too much, following the trend of horror movies lately.

Although there have been criticism of Will Smith’s acting ability, his performance here is stellar. The audience can place themselves in the situation; it would be extremely lonely seemingly being the last human. Our audience laughed during his comical initial interaction with mannequins in the video store (not in a Dane Cook way, sicko).However, due to the circumstances of the story, the same interaction that made everyone laugh before became cry inducing. There are some sad moments in this movie.

Overall, this is a great movie, it’s touching when it needs to be, scary, funny, all number of things. The only really bad thing I can say about the film is this, and it’s just a technicality really: the run time is only an hour and a half. I wanted more. Maybe I’m just greedy. My final grade for this movie is a big A.

My Birthday was earlier this month, and I thought I would spread some Thank Yous to all the people that helped make it special this year! So find your name, get a reminder of what was given, and read your personalized message. :: Deep Breath ::

Family:
Mom, Dad, and Kari: A delicious chocolate cake, a Pickup Stix Gift Card (Yummy), a gift to buy Ray’s Pizza, a Texas Roadhouse Dinner, three Spider-man Ornaments, a Nightmare before Christmas Ornament, Spider-man Halloween basket, and a Spider-man holiday statue. Thank you for everything! You guys are the greatest! I love you!
Atteberry Family (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jerry, and John): Light switch Spider-man card and gift. Thank you! I have used the gift to purchase “Dane Cook - Harmful if Swallowed.”
Grandma Porter: AMC Gift Card. At the rate we go to AMC Mesa Grand 24, it is much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Friends:
Meghan: A delicious Banana cake (w/ chocolate frosting), beautiful decorations (and balloon :D), Spider-man 3, a calzone dinner at BJs. Thank you for making my birthday extra special this year, I love you baby!
The Wade Family (Glen, Linda, and Kendra): Best Buy gift card. Thank you so much, I’ve used it to buy half of “The Orange Box” and “Dane Cook - Retaliation” so far, and I still have some credit on it! Awesome gift! I can see where Meghan got her generous and kind nature!
Oscar and Emily: The wonderful movie romp that was Beowulf in 3D, not just my ticket, but Meghan’s too! That was awesome guys, thanks for a great night. Now get Captain America out of your house! He’s a lazy bum!
Tom Z.: Setting up a $0/person Sunday Halo LAN extravaganza! One of those events that doesn’t happen too often! Thank you tons, it was this or have everyone drop unnecessary amounts of dough at Dave and Busters for an equivalent experience!
Jason and Abe: Barnes & Noble Gift Card. I have not had the opportunity to make it to a B&N, but I plan on using this to buy some of the books published by The Onion. Thank you!
George: Dinner with him and his family in the near future. Thanks guys!
John and Ryan: Best Buy gift card, with specific instructions to use to buy half of “The Orange Box.” So I did. Thanks Johnny Q and Rybo! My life just got that much more awesome and a lot more first person shooter filled.
Sean and Yancy: Thank you for the dinner at Garcias, and for leaking the info to them about Sean and my birthdays so they would sing and give us deep fried ice cream.
Erich: Target Gift Card. Better late than never, I always say! I have not spent it quite yet. Thank you!
Scott, Jess, Brad, Wilmer, Lew, Mel: Thanks for coming out to the Halo 3 LAN on Sunday!

Working though making this list, I now realize how special I am to have so many wonderful caring people around me.

Late!

So two weeks ago I was moving a second couch into my house with my dad. I, for whatever reason, thought I was superman and used mostly my right shoulder muscle to try to support the weight. Maybe it’s all the lifting I’ve been doing, maybe I thought I could do it. It doesn’t take too much logic to figure out what ended up happening.  After a sharp pain, I knew the gig was up.

Now here I am, after given some cortisone shots from my doctor, still in pain. Meghan is over, and she is preparing lunch as I type. I love her so much.

Late!

Oh Futurama, how I miss thee. It looks like things are back in full force for the all new direct to DVD movie.

Trailer within:
YouTube
GameTrailers.com

“‘Bender’s Big Score’ coming any second now on DVD”

Actually, it’s due out Nov. 27th [Amazon].

After much searching, and a little help from my friend Jon, I found the Deluxe edition of “The Across the Universe” movie soundtrack. Amazing stuff. One song is missing from the album. “A Day in the Life” which is instrumental in the film, is MIA.

I ran some analysis on the songs, and if your are a Beatles fan, here are the Beatles studio albums you would have to acquire to get the original versions of every song in the movie:

Meet The Beatles!
a02. “Hold Me Tight”
a03. “All My Loving”
a04. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
a06. “It Won’t Be Long”

A Hard Day’s Night
a11. “If I Fell”

Rubber Soul
a01. “Girl”
a07. “I’ve Just Seen a Face”

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
a05. “With a Little Help from My Friends”
b02. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
b16. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
00. “A Day In The Life”

Magical Mystery Tour
a14. “Flying”
a15. “Blue Jay Way”
b01. “I Am the Walrus”
b06. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
b15. “All You Need is Love”

The Beatles (White Album)
a10. “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”
a13. “Dear Prudence”
b08. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
b10. “Helter Skelter”
b11. “Happiness is a Warm Gun”
b12. “Blackbird”

Abbey Road
a09. “Come Together”
a12. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
b03. “Because”
b04. “Something”
b05. “Oh! Darling”

Hey Jude
b07. “Revolution”
b13. “Hey Jude”
b14. “Don’t Let Me Down”

Let It Be
a03. “All My Loving”
b09. “Across The Universe”

You can cheat a little bit and get a few of the Beatles compilations that have been released over the years. However, a lot of the songs are only on the studio albums listed above. I wish Apple Records (not the computer company, the record company) would just let the digital versions of the songs be available online already. Geeze, The Rolling Stones finally did it a while back, and I’m sure they’ve seen the benefit. Or maybe Apple Records will get the great idea to throw these song onto one album for the increasing fan base of this movie. Hint Hint, nudge nudge.

I just found a piece of comedy gold I thought was lost in the wayside of the internet. Story to follow.

There is a site called MP3.com. In the early part of this decade, it was a hotbed for independent artist to make money, get known, etc.

I liked the music of an artist known as “Radio All Pro Cavalcade.” This guy did some funny stuff, one song in particular was a favorite. “Not the Real Slim Shady” was an acoustic version of the popular song “The Real Slim Shady” by rapper Eminem.

You cannot believe how hilarious the lyrics of this song are when they are sang slowly by a guy that sounds more apt to be on a lite rock station. Add a nice acoustic guitar background and you have a classic parody song.

I had my copy and all was right in the world, until I somehow lost the file. I thought nothing of it until I was talking to Meghan and remembered how funny the song was. I was trying to explain it, but felt it better to play it for her. Whoops, no file, no play.

I panicked, in the way that you feel you’ve lost something you probably won’t find again. I scoured the internet looking at the search terms “Radio All Pro Cavalcade” “Not the Real Slim Shady” and found nothing. Sadness. As a last resort, I decided to try The Web Archive and I actually found the old artist page circa 2003.

That site is a link to the artist’s website. Turns out the song was done by comedy, parody actor Brian Sack. The archived page lead me to his homepage and a link to the his blog. A quick search produced:

PAYDIRT

Booyah Grandma, Booyah! Go there and take a listen, highly recommended (warning: strong language).

Goes to show that nothing is ever really lost on the internet.

In Other news…

Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D is having another theatrical release October 19th. A new trailer is online for it [LINK].

Nice to see this movie becoming a yearly tradition. As a rule, I’ve watched it at least once every year since 94′.

According to The Big Picture this morning, X3 “director” Brett Ratner is attached to direct the remake of “Escape From New York.”

As you can tell from my headline and the quotes I put around the work director, I don’t think too highly of his ability to direct movies. I can only imagine what he’s going to do to one of my favorite Kurt Russell movies.

Who is going to play Snake? Hell, why not go way out there and put Chuck Norris in the role. Have him scream “I’m the Snake Plissken, bitch!” ala the sad excuse for Juggernaut in X3.

Why do I have the feeling this is going to be a disaster?

Source: The Big Picture

Also take a look at the new Iron Man poster, freaking awesome:

Okay so I added that comic bubble. Click source for the untampered goods.

Source: Yahoo!

 

Is this legal?

Drinking Pepsi from a Coke Glass . . . I think I just broke the universe. My B.