The incoherent bloggings of a die-hard Star Wars fan.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Alien Ant Farm - Movies
Gunbound's servers were hacked and it's been down for days, which stinks. And speaking of Gunbound, they recently had an avatar contest, so taking inspiration from Jules, I threw together an avatar of an afro with Paint and Photoshop. I didn't win, so it wasn't made into an actual avatar, but I was a runner up so I got 100,000 gold for my entry. Check it out here.
Yesterday was my cousin Gina's graduation from Van Nuys High School, which makes for the fourth graduation ceremony I've seen this year. It was a pretty typical high school graduation ceremony, but I saw only one beach ball being tossed around, unlike Saugus High graduations. And then at the end of the ceremony, I was taken by complete surprise as full-on fireworks went off for a good five minutes. Apparently Van Nuys High graduations always have fireworks. I was almost jealous.
Spider-Man 2 kinda crept up on me, as it wasn't until a few days ago that I really started to take notice of its imminent release. All in one day, I managed to get 8 other people to join me at its midnight premiere. By the time we got there, it was a party of 18.
A very cool movie. Contrived, melodramatic, and a bit corny, but then again this is a comic book movie. I enjoyed the first Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe was absolutely fantastic as Norman Osborn, but seeing Spider-Man and the Green Goblin duke it out just didn't hearken back to the classic comic book for me. When I saw Spidey and Doc Ock battling onscreen, I got chills. And the scene with the people carrying Spider-Man was almost poetic, far better than watching New Yorkers throw trash at the Green Goblin.
Funny how in almost every cameo Stan Lee has had in a Marvel movie, he's in terror. Heh heh.
Friday night I saw Michael Moore's highly acclaimed and controversial anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Mann Glendale Exchange 10 with Mike, Tim, Karl, Andrew, Chris, and John. Recipient of the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Fahrenheit 9/11 will go down in history and join the ranks of previous winners such as Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, and Pulp Fiction.
I loved it. And not just because I agree with Moore's opinions but because he very thoroughly supported and validated his arguments, conveying sufficient evidence to substantiate a hidden agenda in the Bush administration to manipulate the American public and much more. However, it had its flaws. I won't go into detail, and I'm not sure if this documentary entirely deserved the highest honor at Cannes, but I still highly highly highly recommend you go see it. Tim vehemently disagrees with me though, saying that the documentary is largely ineffective because of its one-sidedness (well frankly, no duh it's biased, as well it should be). Then upon coming home, I spent most of the evening in a heated argument with Sam, a Bush supporter, on the necessity of the war in Iraq and the competency of Bush. He seemed almost happy to know that Tim didn't like the movie.
Ok ok. Let me put it this way. In classical rhetoric, one must always take one's audience into account in creating one's argument. Fahrenheit 9/11 is no different. Just because Moore didn't spend any time defending Bush and his decision to go to war in his documentary doesn't make it ineffective in convincing the audience that Bush is an idiot. In the court of law, a lawyer doesn't ignore any evidence that is harmful to his case because he is presenting a case to an uninformed jury. But Moore's target audience is the American public who have relentlessly been subject to arguments in Bush's defense. I mean, half of America has grown tired of Bush's pleas for support. And that is why Moore only shows us what Bush doesn't want us to know. That is why I find Fahrenheit 9/11 to be an effective documentary. Sure it's also designed to entertain and quotes are taken out of context, but is this not inherent in any documentary? Puh-leeze... Effective rhetoric isn't boring either.
And as for the stretched statistics Moore makes reference to, ladeefuckingda. Since when is statistical research (none of which is his own) absolutely perfect? It is inherently flawed.
God I hate it when people disagree with me. It makes me so angry that-- that I have no new images to post. Sorry.
The Star Wars Official Site has uploaded the new artwork for the individual DVD boxes within this September's highly anticipated Star Wars trilogy DVD box set. They're photographic collages so as to match the cover artwork of the existing prequel DVD's, and you can see that they echo the Special Edition release posters by Drew Struzan, most noticeably in color scheme. Check it out:
Pretty slick. The Phantom Menace, the Star Wars film most often labeled as the worst of the bunch, was the fastest selling DVD of all time. And now, the greatest films of all time release on DVD September 21st. I still can't wait. :)
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring... BANANA PHOOONE!!!
Tim's down for the week, which is pretty awesome. I miss the old times like in high school.
I finally joined a guild on Gunbound; I'm now a member of the Crazy88s. The guild master seems like a totally chill guy too. I grow ever closer to the rank of silver battleaxe. And I've apparently gotten Mike addicted to Gunbound. Heh heh. *devilish laugh*
Saw a couple movies lately. I went and saw The Terminal with the harem and Chris and a "double feature" that included Saved! with the twins. Both very good, both recommended. It's nice to see some good movies after having seen so much crap over the past year.
Now, I've been considering different options for what art classes to take for next semester. Granted I'm gonna continue on with the classes I need to get into the intensive Graphic Design courses, which means I'll be taking 3D Design next, but lately I've been keeping a curious eye on Photography. Maybe the semester after. I mean, all these art courses are three hours a class.
The entrance to the beautiful Art & Design Center on the northern end of the CSUN campus.
Wow, I haven't updated in well over a week, which really isn't like me. Usually if I haven't anything to say, I still find the time to post a load of crap. Heh heh. Anyhoo...
I've been making some minor adjustments to the blog. As link buttons are starting to get popular, I've taken what link buttons are already available to replace the text links. However, there remain some websites among those I've listed that either have large banners or no link images at all. I'll probably end up making my own and put them on my webspace so I can stop hogging their bandwidth.
Furthermore, seeing as which many of you have been complaining about the order in which I've linked to your blogs, they are now arranged alphabetically. Enough bickering, I don't rank my friends.
Lastly, as I'm no longer on AIM that often, Random Obscure Facts of the Week will also be appearing as my blog description. Elvis Presley was an eighth degree black belt in Karate.
Artwork from the twisted mind of Drew, updated daily:
Wednesday I went with Andrew, Jessica, Mike, and Jen to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the much-anticipated third installment of the Harry Potter franchise with new director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mama También). I'm not really a Potter fan (I've read the first and hadn't enough interest to continue, and when I hear people constantly comparing J.K. Rowling's style of writing to the great Roald Dahl, I heartily disagree), but I must say that was one kick-ass movie. Everything about this movie was better than its predecessors: it was far more compelling, funnier, and darker (even scary at times) than the first two films. Hell, even the music was much better. The acting on the part of the main characters has greatly improved. Filling in for the late Richard Harris' role of Dumbledore is Sir Michael Gambon, who pretty much nails a smooth transition, save for his voice which sounds a tad off. Casting Gary Oldman as Sirius Black was quite possibly one of the more brilliant moves of our age. And the visual effects... wow. When Harry was riding the CGI Hippogriff, my jaw dropped.
Yesterday was Jake's 6th grade graduation at Emblem Elementary and he invited me to attend, so I did. Wow, talk about nostalgia. Emblem's changed a lot in the past seven years and most of my old teachers have long since left, but it still brought back a lot of memories. I actually ran into a couple of Emblem alums who were there to see younger siblings, namely Chris Marchesan and Alison Davis, who I've not seen in years. We had some laughs looking at ourselves in the old class panorama photos up on the wall.
Jake looking all ghetto wearing Kailey's pink bandanna. And Kailey's head.
Last week, I finally got around to getting myself a copy of Léon on DVD (released in the States as The Professional), and I've already watched it twice since. Such an awesome movie and definitely one of my favorites. Rarely do you see an action movie that not only has awesome action but such vivid character relationships and emotional weight to it. Absolutely recommended, check it out sometime. If you do, see the uncut international version with nearly half an hour of extra footage. The American cut of the movie seems to lack half the emotion of the original French release.
Directed by Luc Besson (The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc) and released in 1994, Léon was Natalie Portman's debut as an actress, playing the part of Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl. The title character, played by Jean Reno, is New York's best hitman. He takes Mathilda under his wing when her family is slaughtered after her abusive father gets caught up in a drug deal. Personally, I find Natalie Portman's acting in this film to be far superior to anything she's done as an adult, and the chemistry between Léon and Mathilda is exceptional.
Tim, a deviantART member, suggested that I join too, so I started a new page at deviantART to showcase my artwork to the online art community. See, the beauty of deviantART is that not only do you get to share your artwork with tens of thousands of others and get comments on your submissions within mere seconds, but deviantART encompasses all artforms: drawings, paintings, doodles, digital art, political cartoons, sculptures, poetry, short stories, novels, AIM icons, emoticons, OS icons, cell phone art, flash, PC game screenshots, and more, so long as it is in some digital form (i.e. a scan, photo, or text).
You can do so many things at deviantART, and I keep discovering new things to do there, and I'm not even a paying member (there are more services available if you pay a set fee). You can personalize your page, create a gallery of completed works or a scrapbook of incomplete ones, start or join art groups, pick favorites among other people's artwork to increase their audience and vice versa, pick friends and be alerted to their new artwork, buy prints of your work, and more.
My page: http://hitokirivader.deviantart.com/ Right now, I'm just putting up some of the cooler photographs I've taken in the past year, primarily from Japan and Hawai'i. I have one of my drawings up, an abstract charcoal drawing I did this semester, and I'll have more up sooner or later. Check it out. And join! Let me know if you do! :)
A photo I took of lava oozing out of a crack in the cooling outer layer of rock. I put this up on my deviantART page and is currently the most popular in my gallery.
Saugus High Class of 2004's graduation ceremony was held tonight at COC. Having only learned of this on Monday during a casual AIM conversation with Andrew, I immediately set out to get Mike and Chris to come with me Wednesday evening to celebrate with our underclassmen. They too were unaware of the ceremony and both had to work. Then I decided to try my luck asking Karl thinking he probably wouldn't be able to what with Mudd and summer school, but Karl wholeheartedly agreed to come. Add to that two of Mike's clients cancelled their tutoring appointments in order to attend the same graduation ceremony, and El Lundo Mundo jumped onto the bandwagon. Andrew saved us three tickets, Karl got out the thong, and I purchased two beach balls in preparation.
We ran into a lot of alumni in the audience, including Kevin Kim, back home from the Air Force. Though upon our arrival, we were disappointed to learn that this year the graduates were arranged at the center of the field, far from beach ball range. Thus, most of the beach balls (which we all know are the only real thrill of graduation) simply bounced around the audience, while a few of the graduates smuggled some in. My first beach ball got snatched away by a security guard before it ever left my hands, and we didn't get around to launching the second. Oh well.
A ton of teachers are leaving Saugus this year. Pletta is retiring, Webb is leaving to pursue a PhD, and Bobek, Manalastas, Jolliffe, Potts, and Mr. Clark are all leaving to teach at other schools. I ran into Manalastas after the ceremony and talked to him for a while. Seems he won't even be teaching Anatomy at this new school. Manalastas not teaching Anatomy? What has become of this world?!
Anyway, after the ceremony we all headed to Andrew's house for pizza, pie, and Family Guy. Woah. It rhymed.
Congratulations Andrew, Jessica, Merrill, Sita, John Walker, John White, Kelly, Torrance, Leslie, Alyse, Akiko, Steve W., Steve J., and anyone else I've forgotten to mention on completing four gruesome years of high school! Except for Andrew, who graduated as a junior and is headed for Harvey Mudd (not to mention Jessica who's going to Princeton). Genius freakazoids. Next year, we celebrate Tom and Sean's graduation. That's about all of the Class of 2005 I know.
