Friday, August 27, 2010

Mobile Databasing

I downloaded a new app for my iPhone which is a database for my DVDs and BDs that I can take around with me. It's not a really important thing to have on me at all times, but I am asked often enough about my movies (a collection that is 1500+ unique titles strong) when I'm not at home that I thought it might be nice to have something like that available at my fingertips. I also kind of loved the fact that I can use my camera to scan each and every one of my movies and it automatically adds them to the database. So far, I've only run into a few that have stumped IMDB and those are easy enough to add manually. I was kicking around, relaxing and listening to some Fringe commentary and scanned, like, 100 discs into the database in the time it took to finish one episode. Not too shabby.

A lot of other stuff was done today, but for whatever reason the database app is the one thing standing out to me right now, so that's what you get on the blog.

Later!

mike

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Image Worth a Thousand Words



This image and cover makes me ridiculously happy.

mike

Thinking of DS9 Again

Just started watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine again and decided to look back at some of my earlier DS9 posts from, like, 2005.

Originally I made the decision to watch the series in its entirety, since I never had before, and since I was probably looking for content at the time figured I would do reviews of the episodes as I watched them. Looking at them now I'm actually happy with what I was doing at the time but I also noticed that I stopped reviewing episodes after Season 1. I'm sure that it had something to do with nobody commenting on them at the time and me deciding that it wasn't worth the time and effort, but I'm considering going back and doing Season 2 and catching up to where I currently am on Season 3. Right now I am, literally, in the middle of watching episode 17, "Prophet Motive", so there would be a bit of catching up to do, but I am finding that every time I come back to this show after a lengthy hiatus it never gets stale, I'm never not in the mood, and the stories and characters keep getting better and better.

I was just talking to my wife about guilty pleasures or junk food TV (she watches Grey's Anatomy and Friday Night Lights for her silly fix, for example, while I have been known to occasionally watch Smallville) and I also mentioned how I used to consider DS9 just that. But the quality of the show (despite dragging along 30 years of franchise history and the baggage and clichés of two previous series) and my enjoyment of it elevates it beyond that, I think.

So, I'll give it some thought, maybe revisit the idea as I continue to run through the series. If anyone has any opinions on the matter, feel free to voice them.

Until then...

mike

Monday, August 23, 2010

Cleaning Up

I noticed that I have a crapload of links that I've snagged and left in my bookmark folder and decided to clean a few of them out with a good ol' fashioned linkblog. Haven't done one of these in a while so I'll just get started and perhaps there may be something of interest to someone herein:

This post by Valerie D'Orazio is from her blog Occasional Superheroine. It's a couple of years old but I always loved the story and the punchline is gold.

A few months ago I was on a big Hannah Georgas kick and this Q&A grabbed my attention for some reason. It might have been the description of the song meanings or perhaps the story about the children vocalists. Either way, if you're a fan or a curious observer, there may be some tidbit of interest there for you.

This link will take you to a Rian Hughes video where he talks about his career in design and comics. If you're interested in graphic design, comics, typography, that sort of thing, it's worth checking out.

After The Golden Compass hit theatres, I found this interview with the author of the Northern Lights trilogy, Phillip Pullman. I quite liked the interview at the time and thought Pullman was an interesting subject.

The Cerebus: A Diablog site is the brainchild of Laura Hudson and Leigh Walton where they read and discuss each issue of Cerebus from #1 on. It's pretty interesting to read, to be honest. I think they are at #11 or #12 at the moment, I could be wrong. I suppose I could always click on the link to find out, couldn't I? Well, so could you if you were so inclined.

This is an article from RodSerling.com discussing the adaptation of Planet of the Apes from novel to film. It discusses changes made and what-not. I was on an Apes or Twilight Zone kick a bit ago and dug this up around that time. Kind of interesting reading for those interested in the film series or Serling. I also remember digging up Pierre Boulle's script for the proposed sequel, Planet of Men or something like that, but that's another link for another time.

The Magic of Shazam! blog was created by Mark Kunkel to document his experience while creating the first 5-or-so issues of that series. It's a good read if you care about that series or Kunkel in any way, shape or form.

io9 gives you 13 Alien Languages You Can Actually Read. 'Nuff said, I think.

John Adcock wrote an article called "Runyon on Herriman" which, if you recognize any of those names, is worth a read.

On a more recent note, Bryan Singer talks Matthew Vaughn and the upcoming X-Men: First Class movie over at AICN.

Eddie Campbell interview with Forbidden Planet International. He talks about the big Alec book and other stuff.

Hmmm, that's a few of the links that are cluttering up the ol' PC. I hope some of them are of interest to people. At the very least, they're not taking up space on my end and I can hit the blog whenever I want to check one of them out, which is the whole purpose of doing this anyways, isn't it? Perhaps I will attack with another set in the near future.

Cheers!

mike

Monday, August 02, 2010

Kudos To Red Hood

I gotta give credit where credit is due here, and the bulk of the success of Batman: Under the Red Hood lies in Judd Winick's screenplay which he adapted from his own work on the Batman comic books (I think it was in Batman but it could have been Detective, I don't know). I mean, sure, the show looks good, and has some good action sequences, and decent art direction, and great sound design, and pretty good music, and the cast is not bad, but I honestly think it's the pacing and structure of the story that really makes this thing work better than most of the D2DVD Warner/DC animations to date. Everything from Superman: Doomsday to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths suffer in one way or another and never truly feel like a fully fleshed out and complete story. Every one of them, with the exception of Green Lantern: First Flight and Batman: Gotham Knight because of its anthological nature (is that even a word), feel compressed, rushed, and squeezed into their limited running times.

Despite my previous misgivings, I have to concede that Under the Red Hood was an entertaining experience and had many good moments in it. The only weak points it really has stem from some lame CGI and my own lukewarm reaction to the Red Hood storyline when I first read it a while ago.

Anyway, disjointed and rushed though they may be, those are my thoughts on the movie and I'm moving on to work on some other stuff. I just wanted to sound off while this was fresh in my mind.

Take care!

mike