Essays, Not Rants! 146: Concerning Hobbits I finally saw The Desolation of Smaug Thursday night, and with that out of the way saw Five Armies yesterday. So it’s time to talk about them as a whole, since the trilogy’s so interconnected you’d think they were supposed to just be two movies and not three. But first, it has to be said that what the movies do well, they do well. Any scene with Smaug is wonderful; he looks great and Benedict Cumberbatch turns in a fantastic performance. The bits in
Essays, Not Rants 145: 2014 in Review 2014 is a few days from being over. So once again it’s time to go through my rants essays from this year and pick out the special ones. All statistics are based on essaysnotrants.net, since, y'know, I don't wanna count through the views on BZP. Five Most Popular/Viewed Posts #5: Relationship Advice from Scott Pilgrim The thing about Edgar Wright movies is that they work on so many levels. I was… off put the first time I watched Scott Pilgrim vs The Wor
It's been eleven years since I joined BZP. Woah. That's over a decade. I was in Peru, the day after Christmas — or was it late Christmas night? — looking for stuff on 2004 sets when I decided to go back to BZP and register. Actually, I registered Christmas night but decided I wanted a more contemporary username so, um, I registered again (this time not capitalizing what came after the Ta-, oops) on the 26th and now here I am. Did a lot those first couple years. Made Metru-Nui Adventures
Done with the Fall of my Junior year! Yes, this is late, but that's because I've been busy with people who are leaving for winter break (though why they'd wanna leave the city is beyond me). In any case, this means time to relax and work and make money. Celebratory fistbump with celebratory-purchase-Iron-Man-in-Space-Armor! (Celebratory mixing-alcohol-with-video-games comes after I clean my room)
Essays, Not Rants! 144: Of Movies and North Korea I have a strange fascination with a certain North Korean dictator. Maybe it’s because he’s barely eight years older than me, hangs out with Dennis Rodman, and tyrannically rules a country of 25 million people with a combination of a cult-of-personality and sheer terror. Like I said, fascinating. So naturally I was really looking forward to The Interview. I had passes to a preview of it on Thursday and was all set. Only, it turns out, North
Now kindly unclaw yourself from my cork and let me at my Inspiration Juice*. Filed under: Creative Uses for Skull Spiders *TMD's Creatively Named Blog does not support the unwarranted use of Inspiration Juice for paper-writing as it is a delicate practice and takes a great deal of skill to arrive at the optimum level of Inspiration.
Essays, Not Rants! 143: The Mustache of Self-Actualization I use this blog to hash out ideas for papers sometimes. Writing weekly helps me get ideas sorted or even just to keep churning out 600-800 word rants essays keeps me on my toes. One thing I’ve found myself needing to work on recently is zeroing in on one aspect of a work rather than only looking at the big picture. So I thought I’d do that. “All great men have mustaches,” says Andy Samberg’s character, Rod early in Hot Rod, hence his
Essays, Not Rants! 142: Of Belchers I hadn’t seen an episode of I Love Lucy until last year when I had to binge-watch it for a Writing for TV class. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and at the end my overall feeling is one of ‘meh.’ I mean, it’s notable for what it pioneered, but I guess it’s not so much up my alley. One of the things that I noticed about I Love Lucy, especially in comparison to The Honeymooners, a contemporary show I also had to watch, was how the conflict among the coupl
Essays, Not Rants! 141: That Teaser I saw The Phantom Menace for my eighth birthday. It wasn’t the first Star Wars film I saw, nor was it the first I saw in theaters (I have the vague recollection of seeing A New Hope when it was rereleased in Singapore). But it was a new Star Wars movie and I loved it unaware of its flaws. A teaser for the new new Star Wars dropped yesterday and I am so freaking excited. First off, it’s a new Star Wars, which, has had me pumped for quite some time. But se
Essays, Not Rants! 140: The Pay Off I liked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when it first aired. Its potential was a big reason, as was, well, bits with characters. There was little else like it on tv and hey, I’m always on board for something science fiction, especially if it’s in the Marvel-verse. Granted, the show meandered for quite a while, but I enjoyed it all the same for what it was. Monster-of-the-week and decent characters, so hey, I was in. Then the show got good. Really good.We’re a solid
Essays, Not Rants! 139: Representation, Big Hero 6, and Me I saw Big Hero 6 last Saturday, a couple days after Interstellar. They’re very different movies, different beasts. I’m not sure yet which one I like more, but there’s one thing that makes Big Hero 6very special. But first let’s talk about me. I’m one of those weird people who can claim two races. No, not the mix of mayonnaise and sour cream that is the 1/4 Irish, 1/4 German, 1/8 Polish, 1/3 English, 1/24 Swedish mixes, I’m Asian an
Essays, Not Rants! 138: Where No One Has Gone Before Let’s talk about space, because of Interstellar. Now, it’s hard to discuss the film because so much of what makes it Interstellar is because its based so fundamentally on the curves and turns of the plot. So for the sake of avoiding spoilers and ruining everything, we’re not talking about Interstellar’s story. Instead let’s talk about the set up; about the initial question asked by the film, the question of space travel. Many of the early
Essays, Not Rants! 137: THEY’RE MAKING A CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE Marvel announced their upcoming slate of movies this week and I am very excited for one very important reason: Captain. Marvel. Now, of course I’m pumped for the other announcements. Captain America 3 is officially Civil War, which bodes very interesting the MCU at large. Black Panther’s also showing up in Civil War and getting his own solo film a year later. We’re getting a second Guardians and another Thor, which is cool (especi
CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE! I DO NOT HAVE A GIF FOR HOW EXCITED THIS MAKES ME
Ghosts That We Knew is officially funded! As in all production costs are covered! I owe this to a couple of you for helping with the movie; expect to get a link to see it when it's done sometime in December. Still want a chance to get in on this? Any additional funds will enable me to go bigger with post-work for a more polished finished product. There's one more day for it! Again, thank you all.
Essays, Not Rants! 136: Let’s Talk About My Movie In case you haven’t heard, I’m making a movie. Not just that, but I need your help to make it happen. Here’s why. “Ghosts That We Knew” is a story about not being alright. Becca, the protagonist, isn’t where she thought she’d be in her life Things haven’t been going the way she’d hoped they would and she’s stuck. With all that comes the nagging doubts in the back of her head, voices that remind her of how life’s not working out. I wanted to
Essays, Not Rants! 135: Superhero Overdose If you haven’t heard, DC recently announced their cinematic plans for the next six years. We’ve got a Justice League movie, a Wonder Woman movie, one with the Flash, one with Aquaman, a Green Lantern movie, and so on. It’s DC’s answer to Marvel’s Avengers. They’re looking to emulate Marvel’s formula, releasing two a year. Not only that, it looks like most of the Justice League roster from the cartoon is getting their own movie (except Martian Manhunte
Essays, Not Rants! 134: Financial Teamwork One of my favorite things about the internet is the democratization of media. Anyone can do anything and put it out there for a wide audience. Where once upon a time either no one would see it, now you can put it on YouTube and spread it around. There’s not just an audience, there’s a mean to one. Recently, it’s also meant the ability to do bigger projects. This is crowdfunding, where a project is funding by a, er, crowd. Because hey, if there are a
There was a moment tonight, at the Lego Store Event, when the Bionicle folks said "anything you build tonight you can take home." Deevee's face lit up and all of us made a mad dash for the pieces bin. Some people built part hogs (I have never seen so many ball joints on a technic axle before), some built multi-armed multi-weaponed multi-headed beings, I... well, I did this: I even added gear functionality! I wasn't near the actual sets, hence some of the not-rightness in comparison to the
I'm skipping class on Thursday. ...to go to New York Comic-Con, particularly the LEGO panel. I'm fairly excited, especially given that I didn't go last year (and wasn't this year until Good Stuff Happened), so, yay! Also there are a couple other interesting panels happening that day I wanna go to, so score. Of course, I'm missing out on Narrative Investigations and Militaries and Militarization, two classes that are absolutely fascinating. But hey, as a friend of mine told me; make New Yo
Essays, Not Rants! 133: Metanarrative, Cervantes, and The Princess Bride The Princess Bride is (probably) my favorite movie. It also happens to be based on a book, which I first read in my mid-teens. Now, the book caught me off-guard. It was far more cynical than the film and there was this whole mess about William Goldman’s personal life. I read it again a few years later and finally understood it. See, the novel The Princess Bride is a postmodern exploration of metanarrative wrapped in with a
So last week I got a location (friend of mine's apartment) and we're gonna shoot there. So that's settled and that's awesome because now I have a place to make my movie. Great. Most of my preproduction paperwork is squared away, so that means I just have to wait for approval from NYU so I can shoot on the 18th/19th (holy frappe that's in two weeks). I also got to fill out my pick sheet - I'm renting a DOLLY. This is exciting. Crew is also coming together. I've got a meeting with the art depa
Essays, Not Rants! 132: Yet To Do it Again I’ve only played The Last of Us once. Well, only played it through all the way once. I started a New Game+ about a year ago, but still haven’t finished it. It’s odd, I know, considering how much I write about it (plus two final papers and counting). Oh, I play the multiplayer every now and then and I do look up cutscenes for reference, I just haven’t played it through again. Don’t get me wrong, I want to; it’s just a big commitment. Not time-wise (t
