The incoherent bloggings of a die-hard Star Wars fan.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Coheed and Cambria - A Favor House Atlantic
What the hell? In the past few days alone, my Friendster account was suddenly flooded with friend requests, all from devout-Christian Asian girls of age 18/19 with atrocious spelling. These girls share none of my interests, aren't closely connected to me, nor are they friends of each other. Is this some sort of prank? Did any of you put my name on a list of eligible friends of total strangers for that specific grouping?
AAARGH!!! FUCKING MICROSOFT!!!
*sigh* Ok, so the Automatic Updates feature in Windows XP set it up so that I could download the new Windows XP Service Pack 2 with new Windows Firewall and Security Center. Figuring I could use some virus protection for my ransacked harddrive, I downloaded it. Upon installation, I lost all access to the following programs: AOL Instant Messenger, any online gaming, Outlook Express, Explorer, and partial access to RealOne Player. That's right. I can't go on AIM nor play Gunbound, and I can't access my files nor check my email except through the goddamn internet browser.
Clearly these programs, which require internet connection to run (apart from Explorer... I dunno why the hell that isn't working), are being blocked by the firewall. To solve this problem, I simply have to access Security Center through the Control Panel and individually allow access to the programs. A cinch, right? Not exactly, as somehow access to the Control Panel is blocked. I've been rendered a sitting duck by Windows XP SP2.
I've sent an email to Microsoft, which should reply within 24 hours. At least Firefox works, so I can still surf the web. I haven't checked yet, but I'm sure IE has been blocked too. Thank God for Mozilla.
Apple is looking more and more enticing by the minute.
I've reconfigured the Drew Struzan posters into the complete composition it's supposed to be, which I think looks spiffy keen. And check out what I found thanks to one of the Welcome Week vendors at CSUN: the out-of-print, coveted, 30-bucks-at-Roswell "I Want to Believe" poster from Agent Mulder's office. I know you're jealous.
(I had to access my digital camera through Mozilla... pfft)
Happy 19th birthday Spazmataz and Mopar Man! :)
21 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
Busta Rhymes featuring Flipmode Squad & Mariah Carey - I Know What You Want
Actual conversation from work, verbatim:
*Josh and I are talking about ninjas while Mark walks up and interrupts us*
Mark: HONOR, man, it's all about HONOR!!! *we stare at him, silence*
me: What the hell?
Hero kicked ass. Every single shot in this film is beautifully crafted and every scene excellently choreographed and edited. Watching this movie was like strolling through a stunning art gallery, plus spectacular swordfights and that special kung fu genre touch. The thematic color schemes of the different stories being told was both beautiful and genius. And the score by Tan Dun with solos by Itzhak Perlman, arguably the most famous violinist alive... amazing. Wow, what an awesome movie.
Considering how this movie is constantly compared to the previous wide-release Hong Kong film in America Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which do I think is better? Crouching Tiger still by far, mostly because I don't really consider CTHD to be just a kung fu film as much as it is an all-encompassing drama. Nonetheless, Hero is the kung fu genre at its prime.
For the first third of the film, I was actually quite unimpressed by the shallow characterizations, but I my opinion immediately changed as the plot became more complex. See it and you'll see what I mean. And if you haven't seen it yet, I'm very disappointed in you. I mean come ON, how often do we get wide-release foreign films in America? They even had to smack Jet Li and Quentin Tarantino's names all over the ads for this film to get it to release in the States, not to mention rename the film "Jet Li's Hero." I heard a radio ad for the movie and all it had was some announcer talking about awesome swordfights, Jet Li, Quentin Tarantino, and blaring rap music.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE IGNORANT: QUENTIN TARANTINO HAD ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO PART IN THE MAKING OF HERO. STOP TELLING PEOPLE HE MADE THIS MOVIE. Sheesh, I've had to correct at least a dozen people into thinking that this movie wasn't directed by Tarantino.
Yesterday while I was working at the Palace Arcade, I saw some very familiar lady with her kid and I couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen her before. Somehow we started talking about Star Wars. Then she mentioned she had attended San Diego Comic-Con this year, and I told her that I had too. Then she asked me if I got the Comic-Con exclusive Revenge of the Sith T-shirt, as she was working there maintaining the line for it... and then it hit me. She was one of the panelists running the San Diego Star Wars Society trivia contest, the 150+ person contest in which I won second place. When I mentioned this, she suddenly recognized me too. Lol it was funny, we went on and on chattering like the freakish Star Wars nerds we were, and she turned to her son and said, "Remember him? He was the guy who won second place at Comic-Con!" Apparently, as she told me, the San Diego Star Wars Society is a division of Fanforce (the largest unofficial organization of Star Wars fans), which, along with the 501st stormtrooper legions, is going to be holding nine overnight televised line-up/bashes on the night of September 20th at particular Best Buys around the nation, one of which is in Westwood; she invited me to come along. This is so gonna rule. Star Wars may no longer hold the coveted #1 spot at the highest-grossing film of all time, but it will most definitely become the fastest and best-selling DVD of all time.
On a different note, I send my condolences to Tim and Sam and their family. Hang in there.
23 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
Anyone who's been listening to KROQ or checking iTunes lately has probably noticed the returning popularity of Green Day. Since the introduction of the digital medium and the return of legal music purchasing, Green Day has stepped back into the spotlight with their iTunes-exclusive single "I Fought the Law," and their new single "American Idiot" from their upcoming album of the same title is currently the eighth most downloaded song online.
I've realized that there are a lot of similarities between the albums of Green Day and the films of George Lucas. Observe:
1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours - THX-1138 Green Day's debut album and George Lucas' debut film. Both sport 4-digit numbers in their titles. 1039-SOSH is like proto-Green Day with its sappy lyrics, love themes, and grainy sound quality. THX-1138 is heralded as a vastly underrated sci-fi masterpiece despite its low quality. Both go highly unnoticed.
Kerplunk - American Graffiti Both have noticeably improved their game and taken their first steps into the public eye. Green Day follows in the footsteps of the great Operation Ivy with this more mature album, and George Lucas shows the range of his abilities with a well-executed film of a completely differant genre.
Dookie - Star Wars Mindblowingly immensely popular. Dookie's "Basket Case" becomes the number one single of 1994, and Star Wars becomes the highest grossing motion picture both domestically and worldwide. Dookie is by far my favorite Green Day album and Star Wars... well, you already know that. :)
Insomniac - The Empire Strikes Back A little darker and more grim. Not as initially popular as their immediate predecessors, but still really great. Audiences were put down by Green Day's explicit lyrics of wasted lives and drug use, and The Empire Strikes Back shocked moviegoers with graphic images and a twisting storyline.
Nimrod - Return of the Jedi Ever so slowly beginning the downward spiral. Flashy and cool, Nimrod had a few fantastic singles and Return of the Jedi a handful of great scenes, but... Ewoks?!
Warning - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace People were just so desperate for more Green Day and more Star Wars that it took them a little while to realize that they had just been force-fed a pile of crap. Billie Joe starts singing with voice filters (two words: BRITNEY SPEARS) and TPM introduces Jake Lloyd and Jar Jar Binks. 'Nuff said.
Shenanigans - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Ok, now this is just unfair. As much as I may dislike AOTC, it should never have to be compared to the monstrosity that is Shenanigans. EVERY single on this album SUCKS and then some. The only song that isn't painful to listen to is "Espionage," their instrumental single that they had already written before for the Austin Powers 2 soundtrack and smacked onto this album. And AOTC isn't exactly Hamlet.
American Idiot - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Well, who knows? Green Day's new single "American Idiot" isn't half bad (for one thing, Billie Joe's finally cursing again, but then again he's still using voice filters), and for what we've seen so far, ROTS looks to be a kick-ass movie. Here's to hoping they won't disappoint.
Revenge is a dish best served with webspace.
Hero releases today! No midnight showings within 30 miles, so I'll be seeing it in about 9 and a half hours. And apparently its 100% run on RT has finally been stopped by a couple of unimpressed critics.
25 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
Finally got to go down to Irvine on Sunday with Liz and Jen to see Garden State and check out Tim's new apartment, having had to work nonstop since Hawai'i. As for Garden State...
I was surprised how very funny it was. This movie has a lot of delightfully irresistable humor, and I was practically laughing out loud half the time. But of course it had its dramatic moments as well, and I was impressed how well fleshed-out the characters were. Zach Braff is a master cinematographer as every scene in his film is masterfully shot and edited. Natalie Portman was amazing as the charmingly quirky Samantha (it's such a relief to be reminded that she can actually act). Peter Sarsgaard as a drug addict was very different for him, but he was great nonetheless. Interesting to note that both Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman's recentmost acting roles have been of habitual liars. Anyways, Garden State did have its flaws and I won't go into them, but overall it's a definite recommendation.
As for Tim's new apartment, it's surprisingly really nice. It's clean and spacious (maybe due to the lack of furniture, lol), and Rem will be living there soon which will be cool. Yep.
Alas, my sophomore year of college is officially under way. My two new art courses look promising; I have ART124B with Ken Jones, my previous drawing professor, who's a totally chill guy. And I also have ART141, a.k.a. 3D Design with Professor Ripple. Nice to see a few familiar faces from 2D Design. Hopefully I'll be able to dish out some more cool projects from these classes. My locker at the CSUN art college is 97 (tried to get 94, but it was taken... *sniff*).
Work tonight got a little freaky. I was working at the Palace Arcade, the only arcade where you can redeem tickets for prizes, when a couple of guys came in with an enormous amount of tickets. When we noticed the large majority of their tickets weren't perforated (the machines are supposed to perforate the tickets), we called up Ronald at Arcade 1 and asked him to check if any of the tickets in the employee room were missing. He then noticed four stacks (over 6,000 tickets) were missing. These guys had over 7,000 tickets; no one else had come in that day with any more than 1,200. As they decided what prizes to get, we called up security to check the videotapes for proof that they had sneaked into the employee room, but apparently no such proof could be found. In the meantime, I was given the uncomfortable position of "stalling them." Carrie, who was working with me at the time, was kinda freaking out. Without video proof that it was them, security couldn't arrest them. All we could do was take their tickets away. One of the guys then told me he was going to "call his lawyer and file a discrimination lawsuit" and left. But of course, that was a load of bull as this had nothing to do with their being black, and we were only acting on procedure. I don't know why security couldn't find proof, but whatever.
Sorry, as this entry is long, it will remain image-less.
28 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
I finally finished reading Michael Crichton's recent-most technothriller Prey on the flight home from O'ahu. Telling an entirely fictional but not unbelievable near-future tale of a nanotechnology experiment gone horribly wrong, Crichton illustrates that while evolution in nature may be an initially slow process, it progresses exponentially as competing species co-evolve; however, if mankind were to ever manufacture a "living" creature, it may evolve faster than we may find a way to control it. The nanoparticle swarms of his story evolve by the hour, growing more and more intelligent, learning new ways to become more efficient predators. By the end of the novel, things got really frigg'n creepy. Prey conveys a powerful message of the dangers of the ever-increasing power of technology in the hands of a flawed mankind.
The 7th of his 13 fictional novels I've read, Prey, with its intricate storylines and fascinating concepts, is easily one of my favorites. I find Crichton's stories utterly compelling; no other author has grabbed my attention so well as he has. I remember how Jurassic Park was my favorite movie as a kid (before I ever knew of Star Wars), but ever since I read the worlds-better novel I've only really had an interest in reading Crichton's work. Think I'm biased? Read Sphere or Congo and see for yourself.
Which brings me to the topic of the inevitability that in a few years, Prey is gonna be made into a super crappy movie. All but one of his previous fictional novels were made into movies, so it's more than likely they'll do it for Prey too. Jurassic Park was a good movie; Sphere and The Lost World kinda sucked; Congo, Rising Sun, and Timeline were literally painful to watch. I don't think anyone's even heard of all the other ones. *sigh*
"Just because Michael Crichton keeps writing books doesn't mean Hollywood should keep turning them into movies."
-- Gary Thompson, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Next up, Disclosure. State of Fear releases December 7th.
A hibiscus flower fresh after a light rainfall at the Polynesian Cultural Center in O'ahu, Hawai'i.
31 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
Actual conversation from work, verbatim:
Nick: Hey Bryan, what are you?
me: What do you mean?
Nick: Like, are you Buddhist?
me: Atheist.
Josh: Oooh, you're going to Hell!
Engrish put up yet another one of mine, one most of you haven't seen either.
Wtf...
34 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens are well under way. I got to watch the opening ceremony in our hotel room last Friday. It was nice (as well as a relief) to hear cheering as the US athletes came into the arena. I know anti-US sentiments have been on the rise as of late, but I don't think it was entirely necessary to tell the US athletes not to carry around the big flag at the closing ceremony like they always do. We'll see what happens. And for the first time ever, North and South Korea compete in the Olympic Games as one country (but mind you not in every sport). At last they seem to be making progress: North Korea first competed at Atlanta, both Koreas walked into the stadium together at Sydney, and now they'll compete together. Someday, they will be one country. Someday...
Engrish put up another one of mine. You guys haven't seen this one, as I didn't blog it way back when.
Black construction paper on 8.5"x11" card stock paper. This was a project for my 2D Design class intended to help us better understand the relationship between positive and negative space. Beginning with a 4" black paper square, we had to cut out shapes without cutting off the corners so as to maintain the order of the square. Every shape cut out had to be used. One of two collages, this piece had to be asymmetrical. Once I was done making this, I flipped it upside-down and realized that it looked like a fish, so I kept it that way. This piece was on display at the Art and Design College in CSUN for a couple weeks. I've increased the contrast by 25%.
Mike, on deviantART:
lowbacca1977: i got more feedback in 24 hours than i got in the entire period of my life before
36 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
Johann Sebastian Bach - Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major BWV 1068 "Air"
Sigh, alas I have returned to the continental United States having spent the last week in O'ahu, Hawai'i. Somehow I wasn't surprised that my voicemail was filled with bizarre messages, one of which was several minutes of loud snoring. Anyways, 'twas a lot of fun and now I'm rather exhausted, despite the eastward jet lag. But I have pictures I need to show you all!
Upon landing in Honolulu and meeting up with Grace (whom my parents haven't seen in a year) and Ruth, we drove to our hotel on the northwestern ridge of the island, which was about an hour away. Sporting the best view I've ever seen from any hotel I've been to in my life, our 15th-story westward balcony overlooked a bay, the hotel itself being 20 yards from the beach; and right on the other side of our hotel room was a balcony that overlooked a magnificent vista of a huge valley as well as another bay.
All my pictures turned out crappy and backlit so none of them do it justice (not to mention the view was far to large to fit in a single shot), but here's a shot anyway.
And here's the Dole plantation, where we had plenty of pineapple to eat, and home of the Pineapple Garden Maze, the world's largest maze. Even while using a map to cheat our way through, it took us 46 minutes to finish it. Yeah, it was pretty damn big.
Hey Tim, check it out! Apple store, Honolulu! I loaded the Batman Begins teaser trailer on a 15" Powerbook they had on display, which later drew a crowd.
On a more somber note, here's a shot I took as we approached the USS Arizona Memorial. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 claimed the lives of 2390 Americans. A crew of 1177 sank with the USS Arizona. Built directly atop the sunken warship itself, the memorial has all of their names inscribed upon a stone wall.
A performer dances with fire during a show at the Polynesian Cultural Center. In this shot, he's spinning a stick burning on both ends. He later used two at the same time and was joined by half a dozen others, but as luck would have it my first memory card ran out of room right then.
Um, Ruth using pool noodles to imitate a bug.
On the last night, Ruth took this picture of our family at the balcony with a Hawai'ian sunset as a backdrop. Kinda looks like a matte painting, doesn't it?
On the flight home today, I got this shot of downtown Honolulu. That's Diamond Head crater in the foreground, and to the left is world-famous Waikiki beach.
Anyways, I have tons more photos than these, and I predict that many of them will end up on my deviantART page in the near future. 'Til then, I have work tomorrow, so I should go to bed. G'nite.
38 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
So I was duped with a counterfeit $100 bill the other day. While working at Arcade 1, some guy handed me a crumpled $100 bill and asked for five twenties. It's our duty as arcade attendants to thoroughly check large bills, but seeing as which I was already pretty busy fixing coin jams for a bunch of different kids at the time, I hastily held it up to check for a watermark and handed him the change. I failed to notice that the watermark was of Abraham Lincoln, not Ben Franklin. See, apparently this guy bleached a $5 bill and printed the image of a $100 bill on it. That way, it would pass the black pen test and still have a watermark. Regardless, my apron was a hundred bucks short that night once cash control identified the counterfeit bill, and it was put down on my record. Couple more screwups would be easy grounds for getting me fired, but granted I'm gonna be a hell of a lot more careful with large bills now.
Anyways, I'm off to O'ahu for the next 8 days. I'm aware that I've only really told like... 3 people about it. It wasn't intentional; sorry if I didn't get around to telling you. Anyways yeah, I'll get to see Grace and Ruth again. And dude, O'ahu. Honolulu. Waikiki. Likely to be a lot of fun. And I'll be taking pictures. :)
And once I'm back, I'll be needing to see Garden State, Donnie Darko director's cut, and buy the Kill Bill: Vol. 2 DVD.
And on a final note, I'm now at long last a member of Hyperspace, the totally revamped new Official Star Wars Fan Club ever since I registered at Comic-Con. Now I have access to some totally kick-ass stuff on the official site. Check out what I found on the transcript for the Star Wars Spectacular:
Audience Member: So Hayden, is the Dark Side stronger?
McCallum: I can tell you yes, definitely.
Christensen: You've seen the films, haven't you?
Heh heh. Coolness. (btw for those of you who weren't there, I'm "Audience Member") It appears Yoda was lying. From a certain point of view.
And even though this is probably violating the Hyperspace terms of use, I've decided to share with you an Episode III production photo of Tarfful, a new Wookiee character, choking Creature Shop Creative Supervisor Dave Elsey. We will be seeing Chewbacca as well as the Wookiee homeplanet of Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith.
45 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
No, you may not have a quarter. No, I will not give you a refund for claiming to have put money into an out-of-order machine that's been taped up so as to make it impossible for anyone to put tokens in. No, quarters will not work in a token-only machine. Neither will nickels. Nor dimes. Nor pennies. Stop jamming quarters into the games. Yes, the token machines gives you tokens. No, putting two quarters into the token machine at the same time will not make the tokens come out faster. No, you may not cheat on the basketball or skeeball games. No, you may not steal the skeeballs or the air hockey pucks. Stop stealing the skeeballs. ARGH.
People ask the stupidest questions. And they won't stop stealing. What the hell are you gonna do with an air hockey puck?
"Frog, Snowboarder, and Gorilla." Magazine clippings on 8.5"x11" card stock paper. A project in manipulation of scale and focal points in my 2D Design class. We had to make a photomontage that showed an object very out of scale, thus becoming the main focal point of the completed image. In this case, the primary focal point is the frog. We also had to determine and control a secondary focal point. That's the snowboarder. Furthermore, we had to include a hidden object by making it very small and/or blending it in its surroundings. That's the gorilla. Can't see it? Tough luck. See this image a lot larger on my deviantART page.
50 days until The Star Wars Trilogy releases on DVD!
