Paper Man

I watched this movie on Netflix instant the other night and I rather enjoyed it. Jeff Daniels seems to be all into the weird indie movie roles these days, but he pulls off the messed up, but in an indie movie way, characters pretty damn well. Neurosis seems to be his forte in these Sundance darlings (which I don’t know that Paper Man actually is, but, whatever.)

Captain America: The First Avenger made me care about Captain America

And that is no small feat. I’ve never really cared for Cap, not because I thought he was a bad hero, I just always thought he was a bit… stale. Quite a bit like Superman, actually. The character itself I never found interesting, it was the way that they affected the characters around them that was interesting. Lex Luthor is interesting because of Superman. The way that Captain America influences other heroes in the Marvel universe was also interesting, take Iron Man for example. The problem with Cap is that all of his villains are all either neo-Nazis or actual World War II Nazis which, at this point, are played out and kind of boring. I’m not making light with the atrocities that Nazis have been responsible for, but as comic book or movie villains, they’re kind of played out and boring.

I Love the ForceCast, but I Don’t Really Like It Right Now

Just to get this out there at the beginning, I’ve been listening to the ForceCast for a good 4 years now. I fell off for a little while when the Karen Traviss thing soured my opinion of, to be honest, Star Wars fandom in general. I love me some Star Wars, but the loudest voices within the group of people I enjoyed sharing that love of Star Wars with had turned into the very internet trolls they themselves had been so angry about not a year before.

The State of the Star Wars EU

The Star Wars EU has been the source of much debate amongst nerds on the internet (I use nerds affectionately, as I count myself amongst their number. I am, after all, writing a blog about the Star Wars EU), especially after a blogger claimed that Luke Skywalker, who many consider the face of Star Wars, must die in a Star Wars EU novel. This prompted some very heated discussion amongst many people on podcasts and internet forums, especially on the ForceCast which caused a couple of people to completely stop listening to the podcast and swear off one of the hosts of the ForceCast, Jason Swank, has a name calling hack who has no right to host a Star Wars podcast.

I personally think that calling someone a name calling hack is a bit of an oxymoron; however, it does make me realize just how touchy a subject like this is. I can’t promise I’ll tread especially lightly, but I promise this is only my opinion and in no way do I think it invalidates yours. Just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean that you’re wrong, just that we disagree. With that said, I’ll get onto the actual post.

The Dark Knight Ruined Comic Book Movies

So I went and saw Green Lantern opening weekend. The showing that I went to, about nine on a Saturday night, was empty. Like really empty. Granted, I went to a 2D showing of the movie, but given what appears to be the continuing trends in movie going, one would think that the 2D showing of the movie would be the more popular one.

If that showing was the popular one, I’d hate to see what the unpopular showing was.

I think part of the relative financial failure Green Lantern was partly due to the fact that maybe a crazy sci fi superhero movie is maybe not as accessible as DC and WB were hoping, but I think these days, when the mainstream audience or critic sees a DC logo in front of a comic book movie, they think The Dark Knight, and anything that isn’t that tends to disappoint.

LA Noire and Why It’s Great

So I hadn’t planned on picking up LA Noire originally, as I’ve purchased other Rockstar games in the past and while they’ve been good, they lacked the kind of focus that made them a game that I would ever finish. For example, GTA IV took me about 2 years, all told, to finish.

Yeah, I know, right?

From the Fortress of Solidude

Yeah, so that’s what my roommates and I have taken to calling the basement in the house that we rent, mostly due to the giant TV and pool table and comic and Star Wars art on the walls.

Anyway, we’ve taken to recording a podcast, after a bunch of time spent talking about recording a podcast. As servers cost money, I think I’ll mostly just be posting the things on the YouTube as videos without any actual video, for now anyway.

I’ll be setting up the requisite blog to go along with the podcast some time later this week and both me and the other two regulars on the podcast will post there occasionally.

I think tomorrow we’re going to be recording the first official episode of From the Fortress of Solidude tomorrow after we go to the midnight showing of Fast Five.

See you then.

-WC

It Turns Out Augustana’s New Album is Pretty Good

So yeah, Augustana put out a new self titled album out this week that I, being a fan of their last two albums, naturally picked up. It turns out, it’s pretty good. I listened to it in its entirety on my walk to and from work today (the weather has finally turned a Montana version of nice and gas is expensive) and I think it’s rather good.

They seem to be a bit more produced than they were on their last album, but definitely not as much as the first one. I find the people that call this album evidence that the band has sold out to be rather amusing, as Augustana’s first album, All the Stars and Boulevards felt way more produced and “pop”-ish than this thing is. There’s a bit less of a focus on piano lines here, in that there are hardly any at all, but the guitar driven sound isn’t a bad thing, and it helps maintain the sound they’ve had in the past. I always felt like they were two twangs and a pickup truck away from a country band, and this puts a little more emphasis on that sound, but I still enjoy it. The more jam band sound of the last album is more or less gone here for more structure in each of the songs. The lead vocals also feel a bit more polished than they have in the past.

All in all, it’s another Augustana album, so if you’ve liked the stuff that they’ve done in the past, you’ll probably like this, as such I’d recommend it.

-WC

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Why It Makes Me Sad

So there’s this thing that people have been calling the PSPhone for forever (and a bunch still are because, hey, it’s a phone with PlayStation gamepad buttons on it) and it finally got announced as the PlayStation Certified Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. It’s an Android 2.3 Gingerbread device with a kind of PSP Go form factor with the screen up top and a slide out gamepad below with a full set of PlayStation buttons. Pretty exciting right? Not so much.

Attack of the Album

Yeah, so I found out this morning that I have a week less than I thought to get this EP for my capstone project done. Or at least the song I’ll be playing in the recital completely done. So I’ll be spending a ton of time tonight and tomorrow mostly working on the thing to get everything in order. Luckily, the majority of the recording is done with the exception of vocals. I’ll probably record those on Wednesday and finish mastering over the weekend. Either way, I’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of me, so it should be interesting.

WC