I know I promised proper blogging with words and everything, but I found this video for Aqualung's 'Pressure Suit' and I just had to post it. Ben Hales is a Meanwhile... favourite and has made the blog a few times in the past, so it should come as a surprise to no one.
And for those of you still paying attention Stars have released a sneak preview of their new album, In Our Bedroom After the War, with this track called "The Night Starts Here".
Download, preview and enjoy.
And now, Aqualung...
mike
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
One Last Addition to the Love In
I know my last two posts were both Indy-related and lacking in what could be termed 'original material' but I'm still feeling the buzz from that pic earlier this week and with no other outlet...You get the picture.
Anyway, Shia LaBeouf (soon to be on big screens in the new Transformers movie) chats briefly about being cast in the new Indy movie courtesy of, who else, IndianaJones.com.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.
mike
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
It Just Gets Better and Better
Browsing around the IndianaJones.com site I stumbled upon this video of the first day of shooting.It's gonna be a good year.
mike
Monday, June 25, 2007
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Monday, June 18, 2007
Besson to Un-Retire?
A little while ago I talked about Luc Besson's comments regarding his retirement from the directing business. As a big fan of his films, this was not a great thing to be reading or hearing, but according to an April article on Sci-Fi Wire that may change. Besson claims to have another Sci-Fi project in mind, a la The Fifth Element, only better.Fingers crossed, and knocking on wood that he'll not only write this one but direct it, too. Nothing against Ronny Yu or Pierre Morel, but I'd just like to see him back in the saddle again, you know?
mike
Saturday, June 16, 2007
He's a Demon On Wheels...
I'm not sure if I'm going to get a chance to post today seeing as Friday sort of got away from me, so I thought I would leave you with this:
Click through for the story.
mike
Click through for the story.
mike
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Things I've Been Reading
I've had the opportunity to do a little bit of comic book readint in the last week and I thought I would post some thoughts here.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: It was awaited with much anticipation, it was greeted with much adulation, what soon followed was a brief capitulation which ended with some grand celebration. That pretty much sums up my experience with the first four issues of the series. I was thrilled with the first issue, found the middle two a bit lagging and loved the conclusion. For a while there, I honestly thought I might not be keeping up with this revitalized version of the comic book franchise, but I'm happy to say Joss pulled it off in the end and I happily await Brian K. Vaughan's 4-issue Faith storyline. If they manage to keep the quality up and the other TV writers revive the magic, this could earn it's way up to 'top-o-the-pile' reading like its predecessor.
John Constantine Hellblazer: I had been absent from this series for a very long time (I bought 6 issues during Mike Carey's run and quit somewhere during Azzarello's) but the coming of Andy Diggle caught my attention. I liked some of his work in the past and I really wanted to see where fresh blood would take the character since the previous writer left a bad taste in many poeple's mouths and I was sure that there was very little left to do with the guy after years and years of the same-old same-old.
His first issue was simple, predictable John but a nice read overall. It featured a guy who wants to do nasty things to our John that suffers an enjoyable Tales From the Crypty sort of bad end. The second starts off seeming redundant, continuing the story from the first which you thought was completed, but ends with a nice hint as to where Diggle will be taking the series for the immediate future. The third has some big things happening but I think on first reading it lacks the satisfying build that the first two had.
Overall, I'm enjoying where this book is going more than the stories themselves so I'll stick with it for a while.
Ultimate Fantastic Four: My favourite new book, really. I've been catching up on back issues and picked up the latest, #42, because I liked the art and wondered how they'd introduce the Surfer into the Ultimate Marvel U. I find this book endlessly entertaining and Mike Carey does a great job of continuing what Mark Millar, Warren Ellis and others have set up before him. The ideas are big, the science is wild, the threats are interesting and the characters are, arguably, better and truer to their roots than their adult counterparts. I think I'll be picking this one up monthly from now on.
Loners: Cebulski and Moline continue making me happy with their retired super-hero support group tale. Cebulski's writing is very real and the dialogue comes off as effortless and individual to each character. I honestly wouldn't care if these guys had no previous connection to the Marvel U, I find their story interesting and truly hope that they get a monthly book out of this mini. It seems to be selling well so who knows.
That's it for today, probably more to come.
mike
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: It was awaited with much anticipation, it was greeted with much adulation, what soon followed was a brief capitulation which ended with some grand celebration. That pretty much sums up my experience with the first four issues of the series. I was thrilled with the first issue, found the middle two a bit lagging and loved the conclusion. For a while there, I honestly thought I might not be keeping up with this revitalized version of the comic book franchise, but I'm happy to say Joss pulled it off in the end and I happily await Brian K. Vaughan's 4-issue Faith storyline. If they manage to keep the quality up and the other TV writers revive the magic, this could earn it's way up to 'top-o-the-pile' reading like its predecessor.John Constantine Hellblazer: I had been absent from this series for a very long time (I bought 6 issues during Mike Carey's run and quit somewhere during Azzarello's) but the coming of Andy Diggle caught my attention. I liked some of his work in the past and I really wanted to see where fresh blood would take the character since the previous writer left a bad taste in many poeple's mouths and I was sure that there was very little left to do with the guy after years and years of the same-old same-old.His first issue was simple, predictable John but a nice read overall. It featured a guy who wants to do nasty things to our John that suffers an enjoyable Tales From the Crypty sort of bad end. The second starts off seeming redundant, continuing the story from the first which you thought was completed, but ends with a nice hint as to where Diggle will be taking the series for the immediate future. The third has some big things happening but I think on first reading it lacks the satisfying build that the first two had.
Overall, I'm enjoying where this book is going more than the stories themselves so I'll stick with it for a while.
Ultimate Fantastic Four: My favourite new book, really. I've been catching up on back issues and picked up the latest, #42, because I liked the art and wondered how they'd introduce the Surfer into the Ultimate Marvel U. I find this book endlessly entertaining and Mike Carey does a great job of continuing what Mark Millar, Warren Ellis and others have set up before him. The ideas are big, the science is wild, the threats are interesting and the characters are, arguably, better and truer to their roots than their adult counterparts. I think I'll be picking this one up monthly from now on.Loners: Cebulski and Moline continue making me happy with their retired super-hero support group tale. Cebulski's writing is very real and the dialogue comes off as effortless and individual to each character. I honestly wouldn't care if these guys had no previous connection to the Marvel U, I find their story interesting and truly hope that they get a monthly book out of this mini. It seems to be selling well so who knows.That's it for today, probably more to come.
mike
Saturday, June 09, 2007
I Owe It to Meryl
I've always been a watcher of people. There's something about the behaviour of people I know and people I don't that just gets the gears in my head turning. Some things are so very particular to one person while others are more generalized, some are cute, some are odd, others are downright perverse.
The reason I mention this is because I was at work the other day when one of the ladies from the administrative offices upstairs walked by me in one of the paint aisles while I was stocking the shelves. As she passed I noticed her hand go to cover her back end and she sort of waved it to and fro as if to brush away something. Normally I wouldn't even give it another thought but an interview I saw many years ago with Meryl Streep where she was talking to Gene Siskel about her career, and The Bridges of Madison County in particular, has permanently made me aware of this odd bit of female behaviour.
Siskel commented to Streep that he loved the scene where she was talking to Clint Eastwood on the porch because as she walks away and out of the scene, she brushes her hand behind her and ruffles the back of her dress. He thought it was a cute affectation and symbolic of how her character must have felt like a young girl at that moment, flirting with Clint and all, and that was an impish, youthful sort of thing for her to do in that situation. He wanted to know ehere the impulse to do it came from and if he was right in his assumption.
Meryl shyed away from answering at first but admitted that it had nothing to do with feeling youthful and instead was the byproduct of her character not wanting Clint, who she was flirting shamelessly with at the time, to see her fat ass as she walked away. That's what the impulse was for her to add that little moment to her character. They both had a laugh about it and life went on.
Almost immediately after seeing this interview, I was aware of this sort of thing going on all the time. Whether it was someone I knew, or a complete stranger walking down the street, probably 9 out of 10 women would do the little hand flap behind them as they passed you by. Probably assuming that you're, as a man, going to stare at their behinds anyway, it may not even be a conscious thing. Still, every time I see it (which is a lot) I get a chuckle and it always makes me think of Meryl and that ridiculous movie which I don't think I'll ever bother watching.
People, though, people I'll always bother with.
mike
The reason I mention this is because I was at work the other day when one of the ladies from the administrative offices upstairs walked by me in one of the paint aisles while I was stocking the shelves. As she passed I noticed her hand go to cover her back end and she sort of waved it to and fro as if to brush away something. Normally I wouldn't even give it another thought but an interview I saw many years ago with Meryl Streep where she was talking to Gene Siskel about her career, and The Bridges of Madison County in particular, has permanently made me aware of this odd bit of female behaviour.
Siskel commented to Streep that he loved the scene where she was talking to Clint Eastwood on the porch because as she walks away and out of the scene, she brushes her hand behind her and ruffles the back of her dress. He thought it was a cute affectation and symbolic of how her character must have felt like a young girl at that moment, flirting with Clint and all, and that was an impish, youthful sort of thing for her to do in that situation. He wanted to know ehere the impulse to do it came from and if he was right in his assumption.
Meryl shyed away from answering at first but admitted that it had nothing to do with feeling youthful and instead was the byproduct of her character not wanting Clint, who she was flirting shamelessly with at the time, to see her fat ass as she walked away. That's what the impulse was for her to add that little moment to her character. They both had a laugh about it and life went on.
Almost immediately after seeing this interview, I was aware of this sort of thing going on all the time. Whether it was someone I knew, or a complete stranger walking down the street, probably 9 out of 10 women would do the little hand flap behind them as they passed you by. Probably assuming that you're, as a man, going to stare at their behinds anyway, it may not even be a conscious thing. Still, every time I see it (which is a lot) I get a chuckle and it always makes me think of Meryl and that ridiculous movie which I don't think I'll ever bother watching.
People, though, people I'll always bother with.
mike
Saturday, June 02, 2007
The Descent
I thought I would make a couple of comments on this movie/DVD since I slapped it up there on the sidebar in my 'In the Spotlight' section.
For those of you who don't know, this movie was made by Neil Marshall, the same director who put together another fabulous horror flick, Dog Soldiers. Originally, I had no interest in seeing it despite my absolute adoration of his werewolf vs. SAS soldiers free-for-all, partly because of the poster (which makes it look like every bit of torture porn out there) but mostly because of a mention on the IMDB that referred to Marshall as a member of the unofficial "Splat Pack", lumping him in with the likes of Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Greg McLean, Eli Roth, James Wan, Leigh Whannell & Rob Zombie.
Not a group of writer/director/producer/actors that I have a lot of respect for.
Anyway, I'd changed my mind somewhat when I heard Joss Whedon give this movie some major kudos in an interview he did with The Word Balloon. He, like I, is sick to death of all these Hostel and Saw movies and was just about ready to stop watching contemporary horror movies altogether until the lights dimmed down and he went on this journey with this group of women.
I sat through the first hour of the movie absolutely engrossed in their dark descent into an unexplored cave where the physical dangers and hardships mirrored those going on within the group. Watching these women start to fray at the seams and deal with the loss of supplies, direction and ultimately hope had me to the point where, if a creature never bothered to grace the screen, I wouldn't have cared. I wanted to see what happens tho these guys, first and foremost.
Like any good horror, Marshall saves the actual creature reveal until very late in the game and from that point on it is a roller coaster ride to the end of the film's 100 minute running time. The big moment also got a hop off the chair from yours truly, something which almost never, ever happens to me while watching one of these movies. But there I was, my brother and I, jaws agape and sitting on the edge of our seats as all hell breaks loose.
I've since purchased the movie and started to delve into its array of bonus features. There are a couple of commentaries, some featurettes and a making of documentary which is both informative and fun. Marshall is an interesting to guy to listen to. If I ever get the chance to interview him myself one day, I'll consider myself lucky.
I have yet to listen to the commentaries, but if they're half as good as the one on Dog Soldiers then it's all good.
In a nutshell, I loved this movie like I haven't loved a show in a long while. I highly recommend it and would be interested to hear what you think about it. SOme of the comments I see on other sights are indicating that a lot of people aren't getting the ending or even understanding the idea behind the whole movie.
I'm going to go back and watch some X-Files now. I need to plough through Season 2 so I can get to some of the juicier parts of the series. The end of 2 and the beginning of 3 is where things really start to kick off, as any X-Phile will tell you.
Onwards and upwards!
mike
For those of you who don't know, this movie was made by Neil Marshall, the same director who put together another fabulous horror flick, Dog Soldiers. Originally, I had no interest in seeing it despite my absolute adoration of his werewolf vs. SAS soldiers free-for-all, partly because of the poster (which makes it look like every bit of torture porn out there) but mostly because of a mention on the IMDB that referred to Marshall as a member of the unofficial "Splat Pack", lumping him in with the likes of Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Greg McLean, Eli Roth, James Wan, Leigh Whannell & Rob Zombie.Not a group of writer/director/producer/actors that I have a lot of respect for.
Anyway, I'd changed my mind somewhat when I heard Joss Whedon give this movie some major kudos in an interview he did with The Word Balloon. He, like I, is sick to death of all these Hostel and Saw movies and was just about ready to stop watching contemporary horror movies altogether until the lights dimmed down and he went on this journey with this group of women.
I sat through the first hour of the movie absolutely engrossed in their dark descent into an unexplored cave where the physical dangers and hardships mirrored those going on within the group. Watching these women start to fray at the seams and deal with the loss of supplies, direction and ultimately hope had me to the point where, if a creature never bothered to grace the screen, I wouldn't have cared. I wanted to see what happens tho these guys, first and foremost.
Like any good horror, Marshall saves the actual creature reveal until very late in the game and from that point on it is a roller coaster ride to the end of the film's 100 minute running time. The big moment also got a hop off the chair from yours truly, something which almost never, ever happens to me while watching one of these movies. But there I was, my brother and I, jaws agape and sitting on the edge of our seats as all hell breaks loose.
I've since purchased the movie and started to delve into its array of bonus features. There are a couple of commentaries, some featurettes and a making of documentary which is both informative and fun. Marshall is an interesting to guy to listen to. If I ever get the chance to interview him myself one day, I'll consider myself lucky.
I have yet to listen to the commentaries, but if they're half as good as the one on Dog Soldiers then it's all good.
In a nutshell, I loved this movie like I haven't loved a show in a long while. I highly recommend it and would be interested to hear what you think about it. SOme of the comments I see on other sights are indicating that a lot of people aren't getting the ending or even understanding the idea behind the whole movie.
I'm going to go back and watch some X-Files now. I need to plough through Season 2 so I can get to some of the juicier parts of the series. The end of 2 and the beginning of 3 is where things really start to kick off, as any X-Phile will tell you.
Onwards and upwards!
mike
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