March « 2008 « geekent’s stuff’n things

31/03/2008

Review - Frisky Dingo season 1

Filed under: Reviews, TV on DVD — geekent @ 4:42 pm

Viewed: purchased (gift card)
Release Date: March 25, 2008
Date(s) acquired/borrowed: March 26, 2008

Killface is a skull-faced, demonic-looking behemoth of a man(?) lacking any sort of wardrobe or genitalia. He’s invented the Annihilatrix, a giant engine that, when activated, will propel the Earth right into the sun. Unfortunately for Killface, he’s run out of money and his project’s come to a grinding halt. So, Killface hires a marketing firm to help him market himself and either get investors or blackmail the planet into giving him the money.

Xander Crews, having survived the tragic murder of his parents, is a bored playboy and the head of a mega-empire worth billions. Or it was worth billions, until Xander decided to invest all the company’s money into making action figures of his heroic altar ego, Awesome-X. Unfortunately, he knows his action figures won’t sell until he has a villain, and Awesome-X just defeated the last villain in town.

30/03/2008

Review - Dexter Season 1

Filed under: Reviews, TV on DVD — geekent @ 10:32 am

Viewed: DVD rental
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Date(s) acquired/borrowed: March 1 (disc 1), March 4 (disc 2), March 29 (disc 3)

dexter+footer.jpg
I remember first seeing Dexter on a moving billboard at Yonge and Bloor in late summer 2006, having only heard little tidbits about this Showtime thriller (or so I thought) about a serial killer of serial killers. I suppose it was because I saw it at nighttime and the electronic billboards sometimes don’t balance their colours and brightnesses very well, but it looked like a grim and intense show. I was intrigued but knew I would have to wait for DVD. A few months later, Toast started watching it and telling me about it, and somehow it didn’t sound nearly as nihilistic as I had though. I was expecting more of an “American Psycho” but Toast didn’t give me that impression at all.

The DVD came out about a year after I first saw an ad for the show (and having been relatively inundated with Dexter ads on the sides of busses and whatnot), and shortly thereafter people started telling me I needed to watch this show. It’s not that I was any less eager to see it, just that, well, marriage and moving and getting settled and shooting my own tv show and the like kind of pushed it aside. But the wife and I caved this month and started renting (no buy DVD!) from our local media baron video store (which I’d rather not visit but my options are limited).

29/03/2008

Trouble at mill: a DVD player story

Filed under: DVD, acquisitions — geekent @ 12:09 pm

Well… five or six years ago I became rather fascinated with other-regional DVDs because some movies/TV shows are (were) only available in Europe or some movies/TV shows only had special features in different countries. Being a bit of a geek and, at the time, rather obsessed with bonus features, as well as harbouring a long-established fear of missing out, I bought some Region 2 DVDs long before I had a player that could play them.

I asked about where I could find a multi-region DVD player, and was guided to Chinatown, where cracked machines are available a-plenty. There I purchased a Shinco DVD player (with karaoke capabilities), and although the first machine I received broke within two weeks, the replacement lasted me for many many years. The only problem with the machine was the region had to be manually changed every time a different region disc was to be played. The change had to be performed using a photocopied code sheet. But hey it worked.

Until I lost the code sheet in the move from the Ronces to BOBTown back in ‘06. Grrr.
The Shinco was still a solid performing machine for Region 1 discs, but my plethora of Region 2 etc. DVDs were collecting dust. I tried numerous forums and internet sites searching for the code, but as far a I could discover the firmware had been cracked and it wasn’t really something that was made publicly available… I don’t know how these backroom operations work.

I found an extra cheapo “MAX” brand region free DVD player at a non-big box store (bringing a region 2 DVD with me and ensuring that the player worked, and at the shop they had to go through three machines before they found one that worked). The MAX player played everything without having to do any sort of remote code or region switch, so it was a good little multipurpose player, and surprisingly this $30 unit outperformed the Roomie’s name brand player. His JVC would get glitchy on some Region 1 discs but the MAX (and the Shinco) would play them just fine.

After getting hitched (boosh!) and moving in with the wife and stepson, the MAX was relegated to bedroom DVD player status, and since the wife’s Region 1 player (a Sanyo) wasn’t very functional (its remote had tanked out from being dropped too many times and the cheapo $10 multi-function remote didn’t work all that well with it) we replaced it with the Shinco as our main player.

Scant months after the Shinco became our main player it tanked, or rather, when you popped a DVD in it wouldn’t load. Taking it down to the dungeon, I cracked it open and realized that the player just has a hard time starting to spin the disc, so I kept it hooked up to the dungeon TV, hidden behind cabinet doors (leaving the top of the player off so I could help start the disc spinning) and still use it, however I don’t want an open system where the little guy can stick his hands into it in the main room. And so, the MAX became our main player for a few months, Aden’s portable DVD player becoming the bedroom player… until last week.

A while ago Aden’s grandfolks gave us their old VCR (us not having one and still having some tapes we theoretically might want to watch) only it didn’t have a remote, and so we actually never used it. Last week, returning from Aden’s folk’s place (a week after they completed a move to a new abode) we had a better VCR with a working remote, so I decided to replace the older, crappier, unused one. With The Venture Bros. playing in the MAX while I was performing the switch, I unplugged the old VCR and - boosh! - the MAX died. The power bar is not a cheap power bar and it’s meant for superior electronic performance so I’m not entirely sure how it surged and crapped out the MAX, but that’s what it did. Sigh.

With the Shinco unsuitable for upstairs use, the Sanyo made a brief return, until we discovered it won’t play any discs without glitching and pixellating… a lot. And so we were down to one useable DVD player, the portable, in the bedroom and we’re a little wary of using it too much since we’re going to need it for the little guy to entertain himself on the 14 hour car ride up to Thunder Bay this summer (call it a right of passage).

So the new DVD player hunt began but back to the usual suspects and all they had were cheap looking (and sounding and named) DVD players and I would much rather go with a name brand or at least something that looks quality and durable. If our main player had to be a name brand, quality product but stuck in Region 1, so be it. We could always buy another $30 region-free MAX for the bedroom if ever we ever desired to watch our Britcom discs.

But the internet, miracle that it is, presented us with another option, name brand DVD players that were supposed to be Region 1 only, but have weaknesses in the coding that can be exploited for us multi-region users. Using a website that specializes in selling region-free DVD players I began cross checking the model numbers they had with the on-line shops for Best Buy and Future Shop. One of them matched, the Philips DVP5982/37, which was in stock at the two most convenient Best Buys for me.

I then did a search for the model number + “region free” and found the following on an Amazon.com discussion forum:

how do you make the Philips DVP5982/37 DVD player multi-region?

Power Up the unit with NO Disc in the tray.
Open the tray
Press the SETUP Button on the remote control
Navigate to the PREFERENCES page using the Right Arrow Key
Press the DOWN ARROW one time to select
Press the 1 button on your remote control
Press the 3 button on your remote control
Press the 8 button on your remote control
Press the 9 button on your remote control
Press the 3 button on your remote control
Press the 1 button on your remote control
The current Region Code Setting will display
Use the UP/DOWN Arrow Keys to select the region required or ‘0′ for All Regions
Press the PLAY Button on the remote control

So this morning I bolted out of the house early for the Downsview Best Buy and an hour later was home with my new Philips DVD player… waiting for the little guy’s cartoon to end first before performing the above, and - boosh! - it worked.

So, we now have a quality, name brand, region-free, untamperedwith DVD player. This excites me so. (Special thanks to Mom for the timely easter money which allowed for the purchase of this player, making our family very happy).

27/03/2008

Acquisitions: March

Filed under: acquisitions — geekent @ 12:44 pm

Well, March closes up shop for 2008 in a few days, but the purse-strings have been pulled tight, the gift cards laid bare and store credit pared back to nothing. I’ve acquired all that I’m gong to acquire for this winter-turned-spring (almost) month. We’ll see what April has to bring me without forking over das cash.

Below the cut, comics etc. acquisitioned (yes, I know it’s not a real word).

26/03/2008

Review - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Filed under: Movies, Reviews — geekent @ 2:22 pm

Viewed: DVD rental
Release Date: January 29, 2008
director: Seth Gordon

Many a movie has tackled the figurative subject of David versus Goliath, routinely it’s the individual versus the corporation or institution, fighting the power as it were. There’s the Insider, Michael Clayton, Erin Brockovich, and dozens, perhaps hundreds of others. Though hardly “feel good” movies, they often end with the David triumphing, bringing down the corrupt government or dirty corporation. In documentaries, the little guy facing the huge obstacle ahead of them rarely is capable of bringing the institution to its knees, instead feeling satisfied by whatever little victories they can achieve. Michael Moore has built a career on being the little guy, and Al Gore has come to even bigger notoriety thanks to his cinematic achievement more than running for the US Presidency. If documentaries of this type have any happy endings, it’s usually the slightest glimmer of hope that the crusader is still on the job or that the movement is growing. It’s so unlikely in today’s world, given the anonymity, power, wealth, influence and control of governments and corporations that one person (or even a large organization of people) will be able to affect significant change.

The King of Kong isn’t your typical David v. Goliath story, in that the institutional Goliath is hardly one of much notable importance and the David hasn’t made it directly his mission to take it on. Dealing solely with the world of classic arcade gaming, and even more narrowly the game Donkey Kong, the film is surprisingly engrossing, tense and affecting. Even if you don’t care even a little about gaming, watching Steve Wiebe’s plight to get recognized as the top Donkey Kong player in the world is an infuriating and heartbreaking journey as he battles against a 20-year-old scorekeeping institution that seems more interested in supporting its tightly-knit geek-clique than actually administrating reliable and true rankings.

25/03/2008

What I won’t be buying (comics for June)

Filed under: The Want List — geekent @ 1:08 pm

Two weeks ago my store credit ran out, although I have some joint store credit with the wife after trading in the bulk of my JSA run and her Batman “Hush” issues. Conservation is at an all-time high and so I’ve pared back most of what I’m buying to finishing off mini-series and storylines. So for the first time I’ve come to realize that most of what’s in my two-months-in-advance look at what’s coming out I won’t actually be acquiring. It’s both saddening and liberating, in a sense.

Re-Review: Ravenous/ Massive Attack/ This Heat

Filed under: CDs, ReReviews — geekent @ 9:00 am

Albums Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman - Ravenous Soundtrack

Massive Attack - Protection
This Heat - This Heat

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife’s): purchased
Date Purchased: 1999/ 1994/ May 3, 2006
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Ravenous Soundtrack - In my last year working at the student newspaper, we received a press portfolio for the film, which itself was a pretty creative piece of work, with it’s paper looking pulpy and withered (oh it was high gloss but printed to look like it was old) and blood splatters and bits of flesh adorning some pages. The high-gloss photos of Guy Pierce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies and crew made this mid-19th century tale of cannibalism look bizarrely appealing. After seeing the movie, it became instantly one of my favourites. Darkly humourous and rife with flawed characters, curious supernaturalism and some brilliant twists. In lesser hands it would have been a cheesy splatterfest, but director Antonia Bird crafted a reserved, but highly suggestive work of ingeniousness. Upon hearing “Boyd’s Journey”, the track playing during the opening credit sequence, I knew I had to have the soundtrack, assembled by Blur’s Damon Albarn and master composer Michael Nyman. It’s as irreverent as the film, melding askew instrumentation with traditional score fare, and the score remains as beloved as the movie. (Aside: I can’t believe the film’s website is still on-line, but it’s awesome)

Protection - I’ve been trying to choose my re-review CDs at random, however sometimes I pull a disc off the shelf that I just don’t want to listen to. But then again, that should be all the more reason to force myself to pull it down and give it a go. That’s what happened with Massive Attack’s sophomoric release here, an album I played to death over a two year period between 1994 and 1996. My CD collection at that time was just beginning, and Massive Attack’s Protection was one of my crown jewels. I was agog over Trip Hop for much of the mid-’90s, taking elements of hip hop, dance, downtempo electronica, dub and jazz and blending them in a truly innovative way. Unfortunately trip-hop burned itself out by around 1998, or at least I was quite done with it by then. I haven’t really listened to this (or any other Massive Attack, Tricky, Morcheeba, etc) album for a long time and I don’t know how it’ll play anymore. I have a pretty strong personal attachment to it, since it was one of my formative albums, really defining my taste in music, but, yeah, I don’t really want to look back at it.

This-Heat-coverscan.jpeg.jpg This Heat - I bought only one album from New York’s Other Music store back in 2000 but have been receiving their new release emails every week since. Featuring audio clips, the Other Music Weekly Release email became my main source for a number of years at the beginning of this decade for hearing new music. It’s where I heard this, and from the basis of one track I sought out this album (finding it locally at SoundScapes a few weeks later) and was pretty nonplussed with it. The one track I heard, I kind of enjoyed, but the rest of the album is early-80’s (it’s a reissue) sparse avant-garde-ism, a mix of noise and silence. I didn’t really give it much of a chance, having pretty immediately regretted its purchase upon first listen. Wonder how it’ll do on fresh ears nearly 2 years later?

24/03/2008

Television Rubdown

Filed under: Tele — geekent @ 11:51 am

With Buy Nothing Year in full swing and my enthusiasm for re-reviewing as of late (obviously) waning, I thought I’d take a look at the goodly bits of television programming that I’ve been imbibing to keep me stocked in freshtertainment:

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (concluded) - I reviewed this earlier and stated that I quite liked it, and I continued to like it even though by episode four the show began to stagnate in the action department (having likely blown most of their budget early on to try and hook viewers) and a number of incongruities between the movies’ “rules” (of time travel or how the Terminators operate) and the show’s surfaced. Surprisingly the addition of 90210 Brian Austin Green as John Connor’s uncle actually didn’t turn out that bad, and Firefly’s Summer Glau turned out to be the second best Terminator next to Robert Patrick’s T-1000. The acting and production values were all above average, even if the show did sag in the middle from time to time, weighed down with its unfortunate need to establish its own supporting cast of characters. The show underperformed in the ratings (even with a writer’s strike leaving not much else new to watch) and thus isn’t likely to come back for another season, and who knows whether it will at all be tied into the upcoming movie(s) in production. The series’ final 2 episodes were unfortunately aired without much fanfare and many people, myself included, missed the first of the 2-part finale. The cliffhanger ending was pretty awesome and the varying story threads finally collided in an interesting fashion (something that really should have happened earlier). An entertaining series which, were it to continue running, I would definitely keep watching… alas…

Lost Season 4 (Thursdays at 9, ABC) - The wait for the latest season became rather unbearable over the 8 or 9 months since the end of the third, and I utterly devoured this season’s ready-made order (they had to stop mid-way through their 16-episode production this year due to the writer’s strike, meaning one more new episode this Thursday and a 3-4 week break before the final 7 episodes air). I would even watch the repeated episodes from the week prior with “pop-up trivia”, that’s how devoted I am. This season has been pretty cool, with the writer’s playing with the whole “flashback” thing almost every episode (sometimes it’s a flash-forward, or multiple flashbacks, or a time-displacement thing, or even a combo of flashback-flashforward). The last two episodes (the Sun spotlight and the return of …well, you know) have been the weakest so far, but still really intriguing leaving so many frustrating unanswered questions. As usual the writers can dump as many answers on us as we like and there’s still so many new questions raised joining those left over. If there’s anything to be said about Lost’s popularity, it’s that it’s forcing people to pay attention and juggle a lot of information, with more constantly being added every episode. The end of season six is still a long way off (32 episodes away), but the show is actually starting to feel like it’s working towards that finish without feeling like it’s just wrapping things up. Obsession inducing and gloriously maddening.

Extras Season 1 (Tuesdays at 10, Comedy) - Ricky Gervais’ big follow-up to The Office is somewhat reserved, being exceptionally character-focussed rather than gag-centric or formulaic (although the first two or three episodes seemed to follow a pattern that it did break out of). Gervais’ 40-something, trying-to-make-it Andy is differently charming, getting himself into uncomfortably funny situations either by his own honesty, the interventions of Maggie (Ashley Jensen) or his tremendously inept agent Stephen Merchant. Later episodes find Andy gaining a modicum of success, but definitely not on his own terms and its a wonderful portrayal of the struggle between spiritual and monetary rewards, as well as the effects of celebrity on the unsuspecting. Creating and starring in a TV show that spins into something resembling lowest-common-denominator television, Andy hates what he’s become and yet needs the reassurance of a fanbase or recognition from strangers to satisfy that what he’s doing isn’t a complete waste. The show is stocked with celebrities that usually get knee deep in discomfort, mostly British actors (Patrick Stewart, Orlando Bloom) but some American stars (Ben Stiller, Sam Jackson) as well. From race, to sexuality to gender to stature to class, Extras never avoids taboo, but rather thrives on smartly addressing it.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (Tuesdays at 10:35ish, Comedy) - The Adult Swim anti-cartoon is sketch comedy at its most oblique, just completely irreverent and often nonsensical. It’s easy to tell that the titular Tim and Eric create a show based on what makes them laugh and not any sense of what any audience might have expectations for. Enrolling a host of friends to assist (David Cross, Weird Al, John C. Reilly) the show is, bluntly put, a trippy, often disturbing festival of laughs and tears. Utilizing production effects that were last seen in the 1980’s, the show has an extremely low-budget feel which entirely works for it. There is no way to effectively describe the show, and either you’re going to be receptive to it or it’ll put you right off. It’s not that it’s (very) crass, like South Park (for instance) but it’s just so bizarre that it will likely hurt your brain. Every week after Extras, I ask my wife “Are you ready?” (she says no and lays her head down on my lap, curled in a semi-fetal position in preparation) as I force her to stay and watch it, which I think might be some kind of spousal abuse frankly.

The Jon Dore Show (Thursdays at 10:30 and various, Comedy) - Jon Dore, for many, is best known as that funny guy from Canadian Idol. Being any sort of actor or comedian in Canada is tough work, so you can’t blame the guy for taking the gig, no matter how soul sucking it may have been for him. I’ve seen Dore on stage at the Rivoli a number of times and he is an ingenious comedian with a great sense of timing and word play, and capable of executing conceptual jokes like few others can. His self-aware, juvenile, self-deprecating and wry sense of humour translates completely into The Jon Dore Show, quickly becoming one of the best Canadian comedy shows ever, certainly the smartest on TV today. Each episode follows Jon examining a particular neuroses, such as his fear of bats or his suspicion he might have an STD. Though he does a lot of bawdy and bodily humour, it’s rarely crass, more presented with a Zucker Brothers-style whimsy which blunts any edges it may have. Dore interviews real psychologists, doctors, weightlifters and other non-actors, often frustrating or shocking them, an aspects of the show that borrows from what the Daily Show has been doing for years, but Dore puts them together with produced bridges in such a fashion as to make a hilarious and unifying half hour. Not for the young or uptight.

“Reality TV” (various times, various channels) - Mythbusters, Survivorman, At The End Of Our Leash, ‘Til Debt Do Us Part, Maxed Out, Supernanny, America’s Next Top Model, Dirty Jobs, What Not To Wear and others cross our television screen from time to time, but none are religiously watched at any specific date or time on a weekly basis. Rarely intentionally anyway.

18/03/2008

BNY: A miscellany

Filed under: Uncategorized — geekent @ 4:40 pm

Buy Nothing Year is unfortunately not Pay Nothing Year, and Graig needs a haircut. So, in third person, Graig will be getting a haircut tonight of nights and following said haircut, charging on over to the Future Shop with the remainder of his Christmas Giftcard where they had better have Frisky Dingo in stock or there’ll be hell to p…. Oh, it’s not out until March 25th. Dang.

I’m just chomp, chomp, chomping at the bit to spend some money, even if it’s just gift-card money, on DVDs. Of course, after Dingo one that’ll be the end of it, at which point I don’t know what I’ll do. Going crazy between the end of March and 2009 wasn’t really part of the plan.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to GM series of campaigns for the gang. For those not hep to my D&D jive [Gygax RIP], it means I’ll be running a role-playing game for the group of friends the wife and I occasionally play with. The “universe” within which we play has been in operations for about 20 years, and so it has a rich, complex history which is also accompanied by a compendium bible to keep things straight. This is serious business and, until now, I’ve felt most at ease with playing but leaving it at that. But with our last game, a situation occurred and inspiration hit, and I’ve constructed a spiraling 8-part game which will be teh mega-kool. Plotting out this epic is taking a lot of my brain power the past few days, and couple that with the fact that I have no idea how to actually run a game means I’m both plotting and learning at the same time (last night, it did three test fights using the DC Heroes volume 3 system to get used to the way hits and damage and things are measured. The results of which were: Deathstroke over Hawkman; shark beat polar bear; and Captain Marvel beat Lobo, and then beat Darkseid (for real, after Darkseid’s omega-effect had a cataclysmic power failure). Yes, I am geek, full of ent, and proud.)

It’s fun plotting this thing out, as it’s not too far off from writing prose, in some respects, albeit, most dialogue is absent as that’s what the players fill in, and plotting to leave the resolutions up to the gamers to decide. I’m having fun with that kind of story construction though, as I’ve managed to build in a resolution that is totally dependent on the characters’ decisions and actions. Everything they do will affect the outcome of the story. It’s like a multi-player Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. It’s not quite getting back to writing as I’ve done it in the past, but it’s actually proving very useful, and the manner with which I’m constructing this RPG campaign I could easily apply to any story I wish to tell, because I’m putting all the pieces on the table, flipping them face up and deciding what fits where without actually knowing what the full picture looks like.

I have to, in advance, figure out all the beats of the story, and how each chapter relates to the others, and then I need to figure out who the characters are that come into play and what role they play in the story, and then I need to figure out how the story will move around the players so that they’re affecting change and not just doing what I want them to do. I was always so worried about running a campaign that was too linear and too restrictive, meaning point A meets point B resulting in point C. Thankfully, I’m much smarter than that.

Now I’m going to bug the wife to do some practice campaigns over the next few weeks before I run my first ever game in mid-April. I’m confident in my story but not my GMing skills so we’ll see how it all plays out (pun unintended)

During Buy Nothing Year, solid entertainment doesn’t come much cheaper (or rewarding) than this.

17/03/2008

Confession time

Filed under: Debt Spiral — geekent @ 1:02 pm

After all our hard work with The Show to learn about financial management and managing our money properly, well, we’ve let ourselves slip. Oh, I don’t mean we’ve gone crazy and started spending money everywhere, it’s just that we have instead decided to relax about the whole thing.

The Show gave us the tools we needed to help our situation, and they gave us lots of advice on best routes to achieving our goals, most of which we’ve taken quite to heart. Through the process, Aden and I also learned to be very open about our money and our spending and it’s really helped unify us on that front. So what do I mean when I say we’ve “relaxed”?

Well, for starters, we are not being diligent about tracking our spending…. actually, we’re not tracking it at all. Let’s just say the previous three months of keeping on top of recording every little expenditure gave us a pretty good idea of how we spend our money. One of the things Alison said on The Show was we should buy things using our debit cards so we can track purchases easily and only take, max, $60 a week out in cash. So, we’re doing that instead. Some weeks we don’t even take that $60 out, and we tend to pay for everything on debit anyway, what little we actually buy now. I think the initial months of paring back on our expenses, like eating out and pop-culture consumption (especially for me) was a little difficult, and we had to break the habit that we were into, but now, we’re really coasting well, and we don’t need to be too rigid about monitoring things. I’ve allocated the money every month to go towards debt, so anything left over after the bills I pay is mine to spend (what very little it is, however). Aden’s doing a good job of paying for most things and still banking a hefty sum in her chequing account, so whenever she wants to splurge a little on herself, like a new pair of shoes or a stylin’ yellow jacket, well, it’s certainly within her budget to do so.

The credit cards are all but dried out and brittle from non-use. We both still haven’t cancelled our extraneous $0 balance cards yet, but we’ll get to it. One card has been used, maybe twice in the past two months (for groceries, and even then only to collect points) and that we pay off in full every month now without problem. Of the two lines of credit, one is kaput and will too be cancelled, while the other is our(my) only source of debt, which makes it very convenient for paying things off. That puppy is still slated for the big payoff in full in July (expected bonuses and tax returns dependant) and after that, it’ll be time to take stock of our finances and make the big push towards home ownership.

That last push involves some heavy investing in RRSPs and our house fund, while managing bills, life expenses, (hopefully) vacation(s), and RESP contributions. So even though we’re not tracking daily how much we spend, we will still need our monthly account reports to see where our money is going so that, when the time comes, we can plan our money accordingly.

So even though we’re not spending as much time stewing over financial matters as we were in January or February, I think we’re both very comfortable with where we are today and where we’re going. It’s a lot of work (and even a little stressful) to be constantly monitoring your money, and I really think that it shouldn’t have to have such a hold over us, especially given how not-bad-shape we are in. I mean, even when we’re out of debt, we have our second goal of saving for the house to think about, so I’m sure for a month or two then we’re going to have to return to watching things closely and getting comfortable with our situation once more before returning to coasting mode.

13/03/2008

Re-Review - Earth X #0, 1 - 12, X

Filed under: Comics, ReReviews — geekent @ 10:12 am

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife’s): the wife’s
Date Acquired: N/A
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: It was the mini-series Marvels that launched both writer Kurt Busiek and painter Alex Ross into comic book superstardom. Though Busiek has gone on to write and create some of the best superhero comics of the past 20 year, it’s Ross’ star that has shone infinitely brighter, inescapably so (if you’re a comics fan at least). It’s undeniable the man has talent, but his overwhelming prevalence in the comic book community has earned him quite an unhealthy backlash. Over the years he’s worked with a few different writers — Mark Waid, Paul Dini, Geoff Johns — to also grip onto the story creation side, being more of a collaborator than just an artist. His most enduring pairing, though, has been with writer Jim Krueger who seems tasked with taking Ross’ ideas and turning them into something readable. Currently the duo are playing with Golden Age public domain characters in Project Superpower, and before that the 12-part Justice series. Preceding even that, however, was the grandiose re-envisioning of the Marvel universe in Earth X (which continued on in Universe X and Paradise X).

Earth X followed up Ross’ triumph on DC’s Kingdom Come (with Mark Waid) and he was riding high, and smack in the thick of the Wizard-era of comics this 14-part mini-series became the hot ticket item, even more so with limited edition collectors sets when it was printed in hardcover collections. I had always meant to get to it, to acquire the trades and see what all the buzz was about, but never did, and to be honest it kind of left my consciousness a few years ago. It wasn’t until reading Wikipedia’s entry on the series and it’s sequels that I realized the series no longer held the esteem it once did and that its continued expansion and spin-offs only diluted the initial work in many fan’s eyes. The fact of the matter is, of Ross’ early portfolio, Marvels retains a quiet dignity and Kingdom Come is the bombastic, egotistical celebrity that refuses to go away, Earth X has slunk away into the shadows, maybe not in shame, but perhaps a little embarrassed. While inventorying the family comic collection, I discovered the wife had a complete set of the series. When I (eventually) pulled them from the shelf to give them the read over, she informed me that she couldn’t remember any details about it, or ever actually finishing reading the series, even though she quite obviously bought them all. I was curious as to why she wouldn’t have completed it (and has no interest, years later, in doing so).

Re-Review - How do I put this gently? Earth X is not a very well constructed story. The ideas are interesting, Krueger does his best to support the concepts in their execution, and John Paul Leon’s art is pretty spectacular, but it’s all really for naught as this series is not much more than 14 issues of non-stop exposition.

12/03/2008

Re-Review: DJ Spooky/ Sloan/ Shadowy Men

Filed under: CDs, ReReviews — geekent @ 2:44 pm

Albums: DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] - Riddim Warfare/ Sloan - Action Pact/ Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Sport Fishin’ [The Lure of the Bait, The Luck of the Hook]
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife’s): purchased
Dates Acquired: 1998/ 2003/ 1994(?)
Original Reviews: Action Pact: “Action Pact is an album with forward momentum, each carried along with the strength of the strings, alternating between Jay Freguson and Patrick Pentland’s guitar in the driver’s seat. It’s twelve songs over almost as quickly as they start, and put together more tightly and consistently than any of the six previous efforts. Though this would be considered a plus with most artists, with this band it’s almost a detriment, considering how typically varied and diversified the song each member crafts usually are.”
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Riddim Warfare - I’m not sure where or when my love affair with DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] began, but I know it ended not long after I purchased this album, relatively fresh off the press (judging by its release date I can assuredly say I bought it at St. James’ Stereo, which was the only decent place to buy indie/alt music in Thunder Bay during the ’90’s (sadly, no longer) and either I came across Spooky on a compilation or on CBC’s Brave New Waves (where most things I bought in the ’90’s I became aware of). Anyway, this album I liked, I think, but after a few listens and an extracted track for compilation listening, I put it on the shelf where stayed, until it was occasionally dusted off to be moved to a new household. I still bought DJ Spooky albums in the years that followed, with depreciating returns, liking each subsequent less and less. To be honest, I just don’t think I understood them.

Action Pact - Oh, Sloan, after two albums I didn’t like much at all (I didn’t even buy that sixth album) here was one full of relatively short, catchy 80’s inspired pop melodies. I did come to respect Sloan again, but for my immediate pleasure with this album, it’s lasting power in my CD player was not long at all. Though I don’t have any sentimental attachments to this album, I do have quite the soft spot for the band.

Sport Fishin’ - It was at some point during my grade 12 year in 1993/94, during art class sitting next to this dude (who would later become one of my longest and bestest friends) that I learned that the opening and incidental music that was played on Kids In The Hall (still the second best sketch comedy show ever) wasn’t just ambiance, but actual music, played by an actual band. That’s when I learned about Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and life really hasn’t been the same since. As soon as I found out about them I had. to. own. music. And I did, finding their latest release (this very CD) at the record shoppe and going all agog over it. GAK and I both, with a long love of art, comedy, music and irreverence formed a long bonding (not bondage) friendship that somewhere at the heart of it is always playing a vocals-free sweet bass/guitar/drums (and sometimes keyboards) riff. (Though defunct for over a decade [RIP Reid Diamond], GAK still manages to unearth new Shadowy Men tracks we’ve both never heard from time to time, the latest can be heard on this week’s Radio Free GAK).

11/03/2008

What’s your dad like…

Filed under: Tele — geekent @ 3:35 pm

I’m a little busy right now, leaving notsomuch time for das blogging, in the meantime kids, learn the “Doo Dah Doo Doo” dance.

If you don’t get it, don’t worry, you’re not supposed to.
(From Tim & Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job!, on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim in the US, Comedy Network in Canada… the latter now broadcasting on broadband for the televisionless/cableless. )

08/03/2008

Never Go To Work

Filed under: Digital — geekent @ 6:42 pm

With BNY keeping me away from buying new music, I’ve turned to podcasts to help keep me in new and different music. My goodly buddy GAK has his very own radio show on CITR, the Radio 3 of CBC giving me all the indie slice of Canadiana I can cope with, and They Might Be Giant’s Family Friday Podcast because the little guy loves their kids albums (and even some of their non-kids stuff), which is where we found this gem.
For all my friends not working right now, for whatever reason, it’s a joyful mantra you can get behind, and for all us corporate drones and wage slaves, it’s a message of hope, or at the very least, a great way to kick off a vacation. My stepson and I have both declared this as our new favourite song.

Listen and love it, and if you can, live it.

05/03/2008

Re-Review: Peanut Butter Wolf/ Prince Paul/ Orbital

Filed under: CDs, ReReviews — geekent @ 3:37 pm

(I have about 600 - 700 cds [maybe?]) and if I’m really going to review them all [or, at the very least, one album from each artist in the collection] then I’m really going to have to step up these re-reviews. I mean at 700 CDs I’d have to do two reviews a day, which I really doubt possible, especially considering how much I dislike writing about music)

Albums: Peanut Butter Wolf -My Vinyl Weighs A Ton/ Prince Paul - Psychoanalysis [What Is It?]/ Orbital - In Sides
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife’s): purchased
Dates Acquired: 2000(?)/2001(?)/1996
Original Reviews: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:: My Vinyl Weighs A Ton - I don’t remember when I first encountered producer/dj/label mogul Peanut Butter Wolf, and I don’t even recall if I sought out Vinyl or if I found it at random. Anyway, I was a little disappointed with it, finding only a couple tracks (”Rock Unorthodox”, “Theme From Peanut Butter Wolf”) to be very engaging. I never did listen to the album much.

Psychoanalysis [What Is It?] - now this album I did seek out. Being a big De La Soul fan, and an admirer of the innovative (at that time) production on Three Feet High and Rising and De La Soul Is Dead, Prince Paul was a legend to me. This album came out first in 1996 with a small production run on an indie label and was more rumour than reality until I found a copy of the re-release shortly after moving to Toronto (I think, my time-frame may be off). The album wasn’t as catchy as De La’s stuff, but it was kind of warped and very unique. I liked it.

In Sides - I first came to love Orbital when I heard the track “Halcyon+on+on” on the Mortal Combat, and I’m still a confirmed fan 15 years later. In Sides was the first Orbital album I anticipated, purchasing it not long after it came out (all others I kind of found by chance well after their release), and to be honest I was disappointed at first. Eventually, however it did grow on me, but I’ve never been sure if it’s the apologist in me or if it’s actually any good.

04/03/2008

Review - Once

Filed under: Movies, Reviews — geekent @ 12:31 pm

Viewed: DVD rental
Release Date: December 18, 2007
writer: John Carney
director: John Carney

A tiny independent film made in Ireland for under 200,000 dollars, Once has become a bit of a cinematic darling since first making a splash on the festival circuit (winning the Audience Award at Sundance) and then going on to win (more than deservedly, especially given the competition) an Oscar for Best Song as well as Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. At a brisk 85 minutes, it a small pill, but a sweet one, focussed and free of distraction. Filmed on the cheap, shot on the streets of Dublin without permits, it does look dark, grainy, and, at times, like a student film, complete with awkward edits and some less than exemplary camera work, but the skills of the actors involved and the music (oh, the music) more than forgive the technical weaknesses.

The story of Once recalls Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, where a French woman (Julie Delpy) and American (Ethan Hawke) have a chance meeting in Paris, spending a long evening conversing and connecting, building towards a romantic encounter and an unavoidable destiny of going separate ways. Now Once has an Irishman (Glen Hansard, “Guy” in the credits) and a Czech immigrant (Markéta Irglová, “Girl” in the credits) meeting-cute on while he’s busking on the streets of Dublin. They too come together, establishing a powerful connection not through conversation, but song. The guy has created powerful and beautiful songs erupting from a failed relationship, and the girl provides the missing accompaniment that they need. She too has experienced the pain and difficulty of a relationship, leaving her husband behind and moving to Dublin with her daughter and mother.

Review - Justice League: The New Frontier

Filed under: Movies, Reviews — geekent @ 12:10 pm

Viewed: DVD acquisition
Release Date: February 26, 2008
writer: Darwyn Cooke, Stan Berkowitz
director: Dave Bullock

This is the second of DC Comics’ new direct-to-video features with Warner Animation (the first being Superman: Doomsday), here adapting Darwyn Cooke’s esteemed 12-part story DC: The New Frontier. While I know that I’ve read The New Frontier (the trade collections sitting on my shelf behind the New Frontier Action Figures is a constant reminder), to be honest I can’t remember much about it, except that it was set in the 1950’s, had a strong focus on Hal Jordan, and embraced the vibrant aesthetic of the 1950’s new America. The story itself was completely not retained. Watching the film adaptation, you would figure that at some point there’d be some moment that would seem familiar — an action sequence or a phrase that was recognizable — alas, the entire movie unveiled itself before me and I had to wonder, afterwards, how true it was to the source because I just couldn’t recall. Pushing New Frontier Batman and New Frontier Green Arrow aside to get at the trades, I flipped through the books and was surprised to find that the story moved virtually in sequence with the film. The rapid pace at which I was revisiting things obviously didn’t allow me to take in the finer details, but the comics version appeared like storyboards for the film. Of course a lot of the dialogue and character development was passed over, as were some ancillary text material that helped enrich the comic book world, and the comic, my memory of the story now coming back to me, was much more character focussed than story focussed.

For one of DC’s premiere graphic novels, I’m a little surprised at how… forgettable the New Frontier story has proven itself to be. True, I do read a lot of comics, but the ones I really enjoy tend to stay with me. Without re-reading the books, I can’t do an honest contrast and compare with the film, so I’ll discuss it as it stands on its own.

02/03/2008

This Week in Debt

Filed under: Debt Spiral, Shopping Boycott — geekent @ 10:33 am

When I decided last year that enough was enough and that my debt needed to go far, far away, I wasn’t sure exactly how I would (or could) get its bags packed and put it on the bus… I mean, I have needs, and wants. I’m a human being after all, desire is one of the seven great things about being such. I mean, with my robot friends, it’s all altruism all the time. They’re good guys but not so much fun when wanting to go on a spending bender.

Now, I know my robot friends, with their mathematical minds, can balance their books like nobody’s business, but us humans aren’t so lucky. We’re prone to impulsiveness and greed, and as a result sometimes we dip into the bad places, the debt reserves, all in the vain to make us feel better in the short term. Robots don’t know what it’s like to feel better, or to feel at all, so they don’t get the idea of a spending bender, it makes no sense to them.

Since I know they’re reading, dear robot friends, let me define “spending bender” for you… it’s when you go out and blow a large chunk of money on things you don’t really need that give you simple satisfaction for a few hours, and after your high wears off regret truly kicks in. Most spending benders involve dispensing of cash which you cannot afford to relieve yourself of, or heading deeper into debt justifying to yourself why it’s okay to do so.

Most spending benders take place when us humans are either a) upset or b) bored. Sometimes nothing relieves heartache or an unsatisfactory workday or a pathetic life or sexual frustration like a good old shopping spree. I’ve been there, I know. This past Monday (and Tuesday) for instance, work was unchallenging, mildly annoying, and at times boring. Monday and Tuesdays are the days the wife and I stay at work an extra 90 minutes to make up for the other days when we might leave a half hour early, and that extra 90 minutes, especially on a slow or annoying day can really detach the mind, causing it to explore random thoughts like “I wonder what DVDs came out this week” or “I think I need new shoes”. This is the type of thinking that leads homo sapiens to spending benders, since our pink, meaty mind is in a mood that’s receptive to spending money. When the workday is finally through, instead of going home and making a meal, exercising and watching a reality tv programme like most humans would, (or, leaving the workplace for your storage container, plugging yourself in and putting yourself on standby for the evening, as you electronic beings would) one leaves work for the busy downtown streets and malls of Toronto to “look for nothing in particular”, except to say there’s some money in that pocket there that’s causing a rash, if only metaphorically.

But there is a cure to the spending bender, dear robot friends, it’s called willpower. I know you know nothing of the will, but just download yourself forty year’s worth of Green Lantern comics and it’ll all make sense to you. I had to employ willpower this week, for the itch was there and I could not scratch it. On Monday, the worst day of the week (since new DVDs and CDs come out on Tuesday, new comics on Wednesday and new movies on Friday, nothing happens on Monday), the itch was the strongest it’s been since last November. Christmas tends to take care of the shopping itch rather handily. Anyway, the wife needing to buy the stepson a new pair of track pants was coerced into going to the Eaton’s Center to do so, and in the process I decided to look at toys for the little guy, and for myself. Now the wife and I have decided not to buy him any more toys for a while since his birthday came not long after Christmas and the kids up to his neck in Thomas, Cars, Mega Blocks, stuffed animals, and other things. But I’ve gotten into playing with the Matchbox Mega Rigs he was given over the past two occasions, and I love them I think as much as he does. Having spied a couple more sets he doesn’t have on Monday, I was so so so tempted to buy them, as much for me as him. Two things saved me 1) having left all my credit cards at home and 2) having no money in my bank account since it’s all gone on debt. My lovely wife, thankfully, was resistant to my coercion tactics and we left the mall with but some clothes for the child.

Tuesday, a different matter though, with new release Tuesday hitting and the wife wanting to buy the new Justice League: The New Frontier DVD. Well, she didn’t necessarily want to buy it on new release Tuesday, and thus she did succumb to my coercing then. We made our way to the Future Shop, where I had a $50 gift card (received from the in-laws at Christmas) and was searching for the new They Might Be Giants album Here Come The 1, 2, 3s, which wouldn’t be a break in the BNY moratorium on CD buying since it would be for the wee one moreso than for me (he loves No! and Here Come The A, B, Cs, the Giant’s previous albums which makes me happy… you don’t know what that feels like, do you robots?). Well the Future Shop sucks for selection and didn’t have it, and with the urge to spend-bend building over the two-day span, I had to buy something, so I snatched The New Frontier from Aden’s hands and said the gift card would take care of it (calculating in my head whether I’d have enough for Frisky Dingo, out later this March… I do). After departing the store, a little frustrated but also a little jazzed from the “purchase”, I asked Aden if we could go into HMV next door (just to see if they had TMBG), the most enabling store in town for a pop culture junkie. I hadn’t been in an HMV, nevermind the Yonge Street mecca since BNY began, and I got weak knees and the junkie shakes the second I stepped in the door. There it was… Flight of the Conchords (the TV on DVD I meant to buy before BNY started), finally in Canada, and it was everywhere… Aden ignored my whimpering and went off in search of Dylan, while I tortured myself perusing the aisles, looking at the miraculous 2/$25 and 2/$30 DVD deals, seeing CD after CD of things I’d totally dig, and just having a general good-thing-I-left-my-credit-cards-at-home meltdown. After nearly an hour of this self-torture (and noticing that Here Come The 1, 2, 3s was more expensive than on Amazon, we left, Aden with her booty of two 2-disc Dylan sets and me empty handed (and no further into debt). That, my robot compatriots, was a spending bender averted.

Let’s just say, I’m going to be staying away from HMV for a long, long while. I can walk down the snack food aisle and ignore things quite easily (okay, maybe not that easily… another thing you don’t understand, my robo-amigos, hunger, flavour, food cravings…) but being surrounded by colourful covers and vibrant sales tags makes me weak in the wallet. Now that the Ikea 6-month shopping boycott ends this week, I can replace that with a (an?) HMV boycott. Probably for the best.

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