Hey, Thag. Wall of ice look closer to you, today?
After years of relatively dry (or at least, snow-free) winters, it would appear that the northern blizzard spirits have decided that my locale has been neglected for far too long, and we're forecast to get over a foot of the stuff between now and Wednesday morning, preceded by some wholesome freezing rain. "Ah, you piker," scoff those north of the Missouri border, "you don't know what snow is until you've had to dig a tunnel just to get to the mailbox." Thankfully, they don't add the customary 'uphill both ways, naked' to that statement. We also don't usually have exploding taxis. Anyway, they're calling for whiteout conditions for part of this time, so if I don't update for some reason (and don't manage to fix the problem in a day or so), I might be without power or be trying to thaw out my internet connection with an acetylene torch. I'm just thankful that the two extremes of our weather, snow & ice and tornadoes, haven't hit on the idea of joining forces in a kind of all-star game of weather disaster. Though "snownado" kind of has a nice ring to it, like a bad SyFy Original Movie(TM) or a rather obscure Pokemon.
"Fringe" got a big visit from the continuity fairy this last time around, giving us a fully-assembled person-powered doomsday weapon, Walter trying to get his missing brains back via DNA-based drugs, and a bunch of mercury-blooded shapeshifters. We also have Peter apparently becoming 'weaponized.' This means he gets a nosebleed from being too close to the aforementioned weapon and suddenly becomes a stone cold killa, at least for the time being. Putting on my cynic's hat, I'm guessing that this emotionless state (which will probably drive him to think using the weapon is a boffo idea) will be broken by his partner, Olivia, professing amorous feelings for him right in the nick of time to prevent the apocalypse. But anyway, with an interdimensional Sword of Damocles hanging over everything and William Bell coming back at some point, I think this show is going to be well worth watching, especially since it appears that the ongoing theme of people finding even more wildly fantastical ways of killing people is going to continue. And much like in vampire movies/novels where I have a theory that if a fanged immortal wore a Hawaiian shirt instead of leather he'd become invisible to anyone who'd hunt him, I think if a group in "Fringe" just used mundane bullets or knives to kill whoever they wanted gone, our heroes would never bother to investigate.
Speaking of vampires, it appears that they are no longer cool (and by that I mean, the market is oversaturated). Nor are werewolves. And the latest monster to get the nail in its coffin (so to speak) is zombies, as the CW network is seeing the ratings for 'The Walking Dead' bringing out its own zombie-based show. Sure, authors and filmmakers can still do decent undead/monster fare with well-worn creature templates, but I think the problem is that they've merged with superheroes. As we've discussed before, being a vampire is no longer really a curse, the way it's portrayed. At worst, you're an eternally young and immensely powerful being with a manageable substance abuse problem. Werewolves (as well as any occasional appearances of Mr. Hyde) have usually been turned into the Hulk, and eventually the transformation and subsequent "monster form" are fully under the character's control. Plus, as supernatural but not 'undead' supernatural beings, werewolves are harder to make into a modern monster (in my opinion) thanks to forensic science (even if they think it's a wolf killing everyone, they're still hunting for something instead of dismissing bite marks on the neck or what have you). While these ideas can be fun to play with, they're less 'monster' now, I think, if one thinks of a monster as a hard-to-stop killing machine. I shudder to think that zombies are currently being reworked so they can be somehow sexy. Now, technically, that's scary, but not in the way I like to be scared by horror films/TV.
NBC is also looking to do a cop-procedural drama set in a world where fairytales are real. I know that might sound familiar to a lot of us, and it turns out NBC did take two runs at bringing a "Fables" TV show to air in the past decade, but they fell through. Hmmm...
And we have a new Superman in the form of Henry Cavill. He certainly looks the part, especially with the cleft chin. Once again, someone from the United Kingdom is comin' over 'ere, takin' our jobs as portrayin' our own icons... and probably doing a bang-up job of it. However, given the past outings of Superman on the silver screen, they could have cast Crispin Glover and that still wouldn't be my biggest concern. The script needs to do several things: Skip the origin story, we all know where Superman came from. Give Superman a decent threat to challenge his abilities. If you have Lex Luthor in the movie, make him the guy that runs LexCorp, not the real estate scam artist and wacky-scheme guy of the earlier films. There are more, of course, but those are the bigger pitfalls that made "Superman Returns" such a disappointment. The next nut to crack on DC movies is to get them to open them up to a wider continuity and let other heroes/villains show up for a visit...
Oh, and one other reason I'm jealous of you chaps across the pond: You get the chance to buy really cool classic cars for peanuts from the "Captain America" movie (which painfully adds to the irony). Maybe I can trade in the ol' Civic for a S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle after they make the sequel, right?
I'm really not upset at international actors, by the way. For movies, I'm a big proponent of "the best person we can afford for the role." In fact, I get more upset when a character like John Constantine of the "Hellblazer" movies is portrayed by Keanu Reeves, as he's not a blond British guy with a talent for decent monologues and witty patter about demons and what-not. And while Brits often get cast as villains in American films, one only has to look at most of the bad guys in "Blade 3" to see why that might not be such a bad idea. :)
"Young Justice" actually featured subtitled Spanish in its last episode, "Drop Zone," which amazed me given the usual attitude towards subtitles a lot of my countrymen appear to have. We also got Bane, the Cult of the Kobra, and some nice development of the team. We also got another utterance of "Hello, M'gann, it's so obvious!" If anyone involved with the show is reading this, please go back and edit that stuff out of every episode, aired and unaired, el pronto. I'd almost rather it be one long bleep, because imagining she's swearing is preferable to that sad, artificial-sounding catchphrase. Anyway, lots of combat and a nice instructional moment from Batman made it a really fun time. I think this series has serious legs, and I hope it gets at least as many seasons as the "Teen Titans" show did.
While I await my eventual entombing in powdery doom, I'll share some items I found interesting:
- If you have a phobia about ski lifts, this next film clip probably won't help. It's what happens when the lift is loaded up with cement blocks to simulate riders during maintenance, and things become interesting for all involved.
- I have to say, the show "The IT Crowd" tends to hit a little close to home sometimes. Besides, I'm told glasses make me look sophisticated, and my mother says I have a nice personality.
- I'm kind of amazed there isn't a real church with icons that really do this kind of thing. Las Vegas should have one, I think.
- An infographic of the original Transformers and the cars that inspired them has been making the rounds. Turns out, a lot of the art came from DeviantArt and other fanart sources, uncredited. Not to mention it was sponsored by an insurance company.
- This is more of a flash toy to leave running in the background (or on a spare monitor in your Mad Science Lab): Using 'genetic algorithms' this program tries to construct a successful 2D car.
- So are the red-eye effects in this video of a demonically possessed cat a trick of the light or from the ever-burning fires from whence it came?
- Glory be and kiss today's productivity good-bye. It's another "Grow" game, this time Grow Cannon shall be your distraction of choice. Click a 'sector' to aim where your cannonballs of 'Level Up' will land.
- From the "huh, interesting" files, it would seem that the first usage of the word 'nerd' was from 'If I Ran the Zoo' by Dr. Seuss.
- Anyone remember "Ryan Vs. Dorkman," one of the better lightsaber fan-films out there? Well, there's a sequel: Ryan vs. Brandon.
- The legality of this weapon is still in question, but it would seem that someone's built the next best thing to Hellboy's gun, 'The Samaritan.'
- A small violent imagery warning on this next clip. It's from the game series "Dead Space," which is full of zombie-mutant alien things that have lots of gory bits. Okay, now even if you don't play it, you have to chuckle at this Ultimate Weapon. I almost wonder if they have an 'I'm Crushing Your Head' gun somewhere to go with it?
- More looks at the new Spider-Man costume in action, showing that there's going to be a lot more live action than CGI in the movie than I'd reckoned.
- Finally, Arm of Revenge is a side-scrollin' fightin' game, anime-style. A bit like the classics "Final Fight" and "Bionic Commando."