Current Configuration

  • Good Question

    I was taking the 1 train back to the office from a press check today and next to me stood a trio of 15-ish year-old girls, dressed in a punk-esque manner that simultaneously communicates an unsettling worldliness and a certain degree of naïveté, chatting about something or other. They had the appearance of the kind of subway chatterers I try to tune out. But as I queued up closer to the door for my upcoming stop, their conversation came into focus. They seemed to be discussing graduation requirements of some sort, as well as graduation ceremonies generally.

    The first comment I distinctly caught was, “They said that we’re the future,” to which one of the others responded, “I hate it when they say that.” She laughed and they all agreed, continuing, “I just want to say: what does that make you?”

    Indeed.

  • Shamed But Seeking Redemption

    I’ve been shamed by Greg Storey. Oh, I don’t know Greg personally. And he doesn’t know me. But last month, I was reading a post of his and was confronted by my own delinquency. I had known what I should do, and I had even known when. Heck, I had even tried to do it, but I lost sight of my goals and let things slide. It took a stranger’s account of that glorious moment, that laying bare of the state of things, to remind me that I forgot to order my copy of FontBook.

    I’m happy to say that I once was lost, but now I’m found.

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  • 300, the Film

    The title logotype for 300, done in a strong, red, splattered brush lettering.

    Frank Miller’s 300, the comic, is a gorgeous fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. It is a hyper-epic, in the way that Sin City is a hyper-noir. The battles are visual essays on unrelenting force, the grace and power of a body forged to fight with weapons deriving their energy from human motion, and the waves of absolute oppression crashing against the rocks of self-determination. It is a stylized homage not to the specific ideologies of the Spartans, but to their truly staggering will and strength, obtained through a cultural dynamic of constant, brutal testing of the self. To read 300 is to marvel at the possibilities contained within humanity, to witness the raw harshness of human existence forge societies and soldiers of unparalleled might. 300 is an ode the magnificence of human spectacle, as manifested by the players on the stage of the Battle of Thermopylae. The forces at work on both sides of the battle are both horrifying and magnificent. 300 the film builds upon this base, pushing all of these aspect further and amplifying them beyond reality. Miller never shies from hyperbole to convey his message, and the film gladly obliges.

    Spoiler warning: While I don’t give away much of the film, or its ending (which is a matter of history, by the way), I show a lot of content, which may give you an inkling of how things go. All images are from the trailers.

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  • Make God Laugh

    I have a handful of delicious posts planned for you to mentally munch on, most of which were meant to be up by now. But we all know how that goes. In the meantime, feast your eyes on Hevlticake.

    I have about 11 hours of train ride ahead of me over the next two days, so I expect to get a lot of blogestry done. And you, the consumer, will be the winner! If you ask nicely, I will say hello to Boston for you.

    Update: To further my understanding of hubris, the powers that be have decided that our laptop hard drive should fail, taking with it about 2 weeks of data. So, please forgive me for not delivering on my promises. It has been an un-fun week. God must be cracking the hell up at this point.

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  • Hotel Dusk Not as Good as Fla-vor-ice Pop

    So, I have a DS Lite, the first portable gaming console I’ve owned since my Game Boy, and I love playing it. It’s a great little system, but that’s a whole other saga. Right now, I’d like to discuss a particular game I picked up a while ago, based almost entirely on the discussions and reviews from these guys. The game is Hotel Dusk: Room 215. And to put it simply, Hotel Dusk fails where Fla-vor-ice pops succeed.

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  • This is How It Should Work

    I just heard on NPR about scientists questioning Gore’s documentary An Incovenient Truth that says, basically:

    …after the talk, a couple of [the scientists] came up to me and said, you know, “He didn’t exactly get the science right.”

    And this is exactly what should happen in a scientifically-oriented, scientifically-conscious society.

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  • Casino Royale Titles

    James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, pointing his gun at the camera, as seen down the barrel of another gun.

    As promised, now that I’ve gotten my mitts on a copy of Casino Royale on DVD, here are some screen caps of the title sequence, designed by Framestore CFC.

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  • Know Your Comics: Frank Miller’s Sin City

    An interior spread from 'The Hard Goodbye', showing Marv.

    Sin City is one of the two series that brought me back to comics. After several years’ hiatus, in part a result of the Image Comics-driven collectors’ market spike and crash, I dipped my toe back in the water. I’d heard about Sin City, and I knew that Frank Miller was a name to be reckoned with, but I had no idea what was in store. I’d walked out of the comic shop with the collected trades Sin City and A Dame to Kill For, and I read them both in one sitting. I was blown away. From the story to the script to the art, Sin City was succor for my starved eyes and mind. The hyper-noir tales, drawn in a unique stunning style, opened my eyes to a new world of comics that could compete with the sophistication and satisfaction delivered by films and novels. Along with Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Miller’s tales of desperation, violence, honor, sex, and love set the bar higher for every comic I’ve purchased since.

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  • ::Cough::

    More posts coming this weekend. I’m recovering from the longest illness I’ve had in probably 7+ years. In the meantime, ponder this: my early birthday present from Alisa this year was old man slippers.

    And I dig the hell out of them.

    The mind reels.

  • Upgrade Complete

    As promised, Steve Laniel delivers. Hopefully, the spam will be diminished. We’ll see. Either way, MT version 3.34 is cooler. And faster, even.