Coulda sworn I posted this on Saturday. Ah well. Essays, Not Rants! 167: I’m Going To Use The Word ‘Intertextual’ Because I Want To Intertextuality is a fun word to say. It’s an even funner concept: it’s the idea that one text will reference another. And I'm on a vacation of sorts this week so I'm gonna write about it. See, when intertextual literature lets its world be informed by the outside. Chuck, for example, uses it to inform characters. Characters’ references to Tron or Back to the
Essays, Not Rants! 166: Obligatory Fury Road Entry I haven’t seen any of the old Mad Max trilogy, more for lack of bother than anything. Pop culture osmosis ensured I knew what it was about, though; post-apocalyptic wasteland, lots of leather, cars, machismo. So Fury Road flew below my radar during much of the lead up to its release. That is, until the press surrounding it started to discuss how it was surprisingly feminist and was [annoying] a lot of Men’s Rights Activists. That got my atte
Essays, Not Rants! 164: Let’s Talk About That Whole Black Widow Thing People are mad on the internet. As usual. The hubbub recently, though, is about choices made regarding Black Widow in Age of Ultron. Now, I’m a big fan of Black Widow. I’d really like her to get her own movie and Nathan Edmonson’s run on the comics has been fantastic (issue #13 is framed on my wall). And I’ll be the first to admit that a character beat in Age of Ultron did throw me off for a bit. But I didn’t realize the fur
I recently learned that I have access to a 3D printer through NYU. That I can use. For free. Because I don't have the time yet to find the plans for an Iron Man gauntlet, I decided to do some digging. Despite losing all my files, I managed to find some old
that I'd emailed Motago so he could render something. Then I decided to start small. Folks. I have a PHYSICAL VERSION of a model I made OVER NINE YEARS AGO. THIS IS THE FRIGGING FUTURE
Caught a 7pm IMAX showing (for the poster!) It's, it's good. Makes a lot of really bold choices. Choices that I like for the most part. Lots of fun character beats. And dude, it feels like a comic book. There are a lot of those really cool HOLY SNAP moments, which, y'know, is fun. 'cuz that's what you want in a comic book movie. Also it's interesting to watch it as someone who now reads comics. Characterization works and there are some cool set ups too. Man. Now to see it again sometime so
Brother and I signed a lease on an apartment today, as neither of us wanna live in dorms next year. It's very much a dinky New York apartment (sixth floor walkup, no sink in the bathroom), but we figure it's got character (also: actual two bedroom, a living room [!]) and it's near our usual haunts (few minutes from some decent bars, not far from my favorite dollar pizza place, near Trader Joe's, near campus), so, yeah, it's a win. Holy [censored] this is what growing up is. My name's on an a
Essays, Not Rants! 162: How Do You Make An Avengers? Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out here in the States in a few days, which makes me realize that we now live in a time where time can be measured in Avengers movies. Which makes me think about three years ago when I was eagerly waiting for the first one to come out. It’s important to look at just how sharply The Avengers affected the current blockbuster landscape. The idea of a bunch of characters from separate films coming together in one
Essays, Not Rants! 161: Chewie, We're Home Every so often on this blog, I am liable to nerd the flip out. ‘cuz as a general rule, I like liking things. Also, I’m a huge nerd, and when what was basically the first thing I was a nerd about does something cool, I”m gonna be there. So let’s talk about The Force Awakens. Again. Though this time it’s less recapping and more analysis. Based on the trailer, and also what was said at Celebration, it’s really sounding like Daisy Ridley’s character Rey
While browsing Twitter after class I realized that Celebration was happening now. And there was a live stream. Couple minutes later Dylan and I had it playing on the projector in the Gallatin lounge. Then they announced that they were about to show the teaser. One of the grad students turned off the lights in the room (because who cares if a couple people are studying, this is Star Wars). Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. There were cheers. There was swearing (hey, that opening shot of the crashed S
Do we call 'em pilots? Like is the first episode of a Netflix series a pilot? I mean, by virtue of the way Netflix does their shows it wasn't commissioned to see if the show worked so...? How much of classic television parlance carries over into new distribution methods? Anyway. Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. Lot to say. Action is impeccable. Dude. Also really digging the very different tone; how it's gritty and dark, but not overbearingly so. It's doesn't feel washed in grimness, there's st
Essays, Not Rants! 160: A Manic Pixie Dream Problem You know the story. Boy’s stuck in the doldrums of life. Girl shows up. Is quirky. Her quirkiness brings boy out of the normal world. They fall in love. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl has done her job. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a term to describe a female character archetype whose purpose is to bring a male character into a more interesting existence. Also they usually fall in love. But this is a little broad. Is Wyldstyle from The LEGO Mo
So Monday and Tuesday night I took part in a study wherein I was put in an MRI and sometimes given mild shocks while watching a screen. For money. Woo science! I have no clue what they were studying and may have dozed off once or twice (staying up till 4 writing an essay on Ulysses will do that to ya), but hey! Science! And money! Not the first time I've done this. Well, the MRI is new (least for sciencing), but the shocks and studies aren't. Hey, gotta pay for them Legos somehow. And booze.
Essays, Not Rants! 159: Sorry Nate, There’s No Princess In This Castle Let’s talk about damsels, because the idea of the damsel in distress goes way back and ‘cuz damseling female characters (especially in video games) kinda has to stop. So what is a damsel in distress? Anita Sarkeesian succinctly describes it as This has been a staple of video games since very early on. In Super Mario Bros, Mario quests to save Princess Peach. This wasn’t necessarily bad, but it becomes a problem when the
Essays, Not Rants! 158: Another Boyband Saving The World So Final Fantasy XV is finally coming out ‘soon,’ with the demo dropping recently. The game’s been on my radar since the debut trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII (as it was called then) was released almost nine years ago and as a fan of the Final Fantasy series — mostly because I plain love a good JRPG (there’s something fun about Japanese melodrama and saving the world) — I’m quite eager to see how this game works and if it’s any goo
So this is my late post-Spring Break entry. For the first time in my college career(?) I left the City during Spring Break, this time to visit my girlfriend in Paris, where she's studying abroad (because she's super smart and writes essays in French when she's not sciencing in English). Now, despite the whole growing-up-on-a-ship thing, I'd never actually been to mainland France (Martinique, yes, but that's practically a different country sorta), so going to France made country 55 for me, a
Essays, Not Rants! 157: On Finales So Parks and Recreation ended a few weeks ago bringing an end to a particularly great show that I got into far too late. The finale was especially wonderful, elegantly tying a bow on seven years of stories. Rather than having some big hoorah, though, the episode has the former Parks Department take on an utterly inconsequential task (getting a swing in a park fixed) before going their separate ways. With the whole season serving as an effective wrap up to t
And then... And then... I'M ON FRIGGING IMDB. I have an IMDb page. This is real. This is actually happening. Part of me can't believe it. Now let's get this sucker screened at a festival.
Holy mess, I'm in love. I'm usually a fan of bands changing their sound (see Barcelona's three projects, or Relient K's Forget and Not Slow Down versus Mmhmm), and as much as a departure as Believe is from everything else Mumford's done before, holy crud I really like what they've done. I cannot wait for Wilder Mind.
Essays, Not Rants! 154: Manners Maketh A Genre Spy movies are old hat. Well, least the slick James Bond ones are. Movies like Goldeneye have either been deconstructed by the Bourne movies (or even by more recent Bond flicks, to an extent) or lovingly lampooned by the likes of Chuck and Archer. Now, this isn’t bad (I love Chuck and Skyfall). Spies aren’t the sort to smoothly enter in a suit with a myriad of fancy gadgets, they’re gritty people in dark, realistic worlds. If you aim for a more li
Only one I can afford in good conscious at the moment. Doing Mechanical Turk work and signing up for psych studies here at university so I can buy more. LEGO®: So Addictive You'll Let People Science On You To Buy More
Essays, Not Rants! 152: Not Another Peter Parker I’ve had a relatively busy couple weeks, which means less time to see movies and play new games, so more yammering on about recent events (either that or wax on about Agent Carter again, but I’m waiting on that one. So let’s talk about new news, comic book news. Namely, Spider-Man’s going to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as opposed to standing alone. Which is cool, because we’ll finally get to see Spidey swinging on the big screen w
Essays, Not Rants! 150: The New Western The superhero genre – since it’s become a genre unto itself and not a subset of science-fiction or action – is really taking off, in case you haven’t noticed. Between Marvel Studios putting out two movies a year, DC’s big plans to do big things, and the companies Marvel sold characters to over the years trying to make good on their investments. It’s big. Some articles I’ve read online have likened the superhero genre to the western. It sounds a touch f
