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Sunday, February 29, 2004
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Linked to in Edge, but as I don't *think* anybody who reads this reads Edge... Mecha Poduction Facility. "Opening 01-03-2004" apparently.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 13:52
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Broadband? Check.
New copy of PS2 Fantasvision for £4.99? Check.
Latest Lambchop (double) album? Check.
Shallow as I am, these things make me happy. Proper posts on the second and third items due soon.
Immediate response on one hearing of the first half of one of the two Lambchop records? Very, very happy.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 22:32
Hold the front page: Conservative MP in "racist" shocka.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 03:46
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
How long have I had those Hectic Planet collections and not noticed the URL in the back?
Which link, happily, leads on to Dorkin's blog and the news that he's working on a project with Mike Allred. Now that's got to be good readin'.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 23:45
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Weird. I'd forgotten all about this, a basic site I knocked up with beginner's info on the Xbox as part of a multimedia module last year. Figured I might as well link to it here as somebody's just emailed me asking some questions about importing. When I say it's basic, I mean it's *really* basic, but there are a few links in there that someone, somewhere might find useful.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 19:29
Eye Rainbow Dinosaur - Now with added comments.
For those disappointed that it's not a Japanese porn site after all.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 17:14
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Ah. Just found more info on this. Various Internet sites tell me that there's a tiny interview with the Executive Producer of the film in Anime Insider, in which he says that the current draft of the script ends halfway through the anime series. On the surface, it's a remarkably sensible decision - quite apart from anything else, it means that the film can set the scene for the meatier events to take place in a sequel. The downside is that it makes it easier for the meatier content to be dropped entirely and for this to become simply a story of big robots kicking the shit out of each other.
Mind you, seeing as said Exec Producer also mentions that there's a chance that the film might not be completed until 2010, if at all, there's not much point worrying about it.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 15:38
Lots of Weta Workshop concept art for the forthcoming Neon Genesis Evangelion film.
I wait with nervously baited breath for a director to be officially linked to this. The concept art is promising, purely because it follows the designs of the anime to the letter (well, "copies images from the anime even down to the character's pose" might be more accurate), but concept art doesn't really mean a huge amount. Miscast actors, a director with no understanding of or respect for the source material, a complete abandonment of Anno's heavily philosophical and religious story in favour of big robots kicking the shit out of each other, a running time far too short to allow for decent pacing or narrative... all these things and more remain serious worries.
I don't normally care about these things - LXG, for example, passed me by like a fart in a hurricane - and I don't tend to have a huge amount of time for fans of original works bitching about how Hollywood has fucked them over by releasing a shoddy film with little resemblance to the material on which it's based. If you care that much about something, why the hell does it matter if it gets a shitty retelling? You've still got the original, and it probably tells the story far better than any live action film could. When you come out of the cinema and all your friends are saying what a terrible film it was, take the opportunity to push the original work into their noses.
This just strikes me as a bit different. For one thing, digital tech means that there's not any good reason why anime can't be translated into live action film. We no longer have to worry about the original's imagination outstretching the technical ability of special effects people, providing the right team get the job. For another, the source material has got so much depth that a successful translation would not only be any absolute joy, but might actually manage to help other licenses to be treated with the respect they deserve. One more thing: most people nowadays would be prepared to give a graphic novel a chance, if you pointed them towards it. That's always been the case for non-graphic novels, so when you do decide to push the original under their noses, they'll probably give it a go. Unfortunately, that's not too likely to be the case for a twenty-six part cartoon series in a foreign language.
Here we've got the promise of one of the best science fiction films of all time. This is proper SF, where big ideas - reflection on the human condition, meditation on belief systems, proposals for real change in thinking - are at the forefront. And nobody with decent resources has done a proper SF film for fucking years. In fact, I'm not even going to try and think of the last one to appear, because its age would, no doubt, just depress me.
In other words, the moment Tom Cruise is attached to this movie in any way, shape or form, is the moment at which you might as well forget it.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 03:15
Friday, February 13, 2004
Friday, February 13, 2004
Amazon have got the Dave Pajo/Papa M singles compilation, Hole of Burning Alms, down for release on the 23rd of this month, although there's no mention of it on either Pajo's official site or Domino yet.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 17:52
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Finished reading the third part of Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk trilogy, Felaheen. There's a decent review of it here, which saves me the trouble.
I do take issue with a couple of the things mentioned in that review, though. Firstly, the narrative jumps that occur are there because that's how the main character experiences life - some moments are captured in memory perfectly, others pass by unnoticed. The most noticable time it happens here is during Raf's escape from his cell - one chapter he's chained to a wall, the voice in his head trying to get him to dislocate both shoulders in order to free up his movement, the next he's staggering across barren land, bloodied and bruised. We never get to find out what happened in the missing time. Now, some would consider that lazy writing, but for me it fits perfectly with the style of the series and the character. Plus, of course, there's not really any need to go through the process of his breaking out. Similar escapes have been covered in the previous novels - we can fill in the blanks for ourselves and allow Grimwood the freedom to play with the pace of the story as he sees fit. If it works for writers of comics, it can work for writers of novels.
Similarly, Raf's eventual transformation into a djinn, bringing justice and vengeance, is hinted at earlier on in the story, but in such a way as to leave the reader unsure as to precisely what's happened. It's the sort of thing you'd expect Grimwood to expand upon in a further entry in the series, although I kind of hope he resists the temptation to do so. Some things shouldn't be explained, you know? The reader should be allowed to create their own explanations as to what's going on.
If it's a final visit to the world of El Iskandryia, it's an effective one. Some of the wider plot elements remain slightly out of focus, but the characters feel like they're finally in the places they've been moving towards throughout the three novels. The precise nature of the voice within Raf's head - previously a toss-up between an AI interface for his various physical improvements, a spirit guide or a splintered personality - is finally revealed (possibly), the question of his parentage solved and, for the first time, he appears happy with where he is and who he is. There's a nice piece of foreshadowing towards the end, but it's foreshadowing that's meant to suggest that things will come around and begin again, not that a fourth entry in the series is forthcoming. A slightly ironic twist, but one that feels right and only alters the lives of those involved depending on how they choose to deal with it. In the end, it's left up to the characters themselves to determine how their lives pan out.
And if that's not the most perfect way to round off a trilogy that's largely been a success because of strong characterisation, I don't know what is.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 17:24
Monday, February 09, 2004
Monday, February 09, 2004
Hey, check it out - a near-immediate response to something that's only just finished. Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this blogging thing.
BBC4's Trigger Happy was really rather good, in the end. I was wondering if it was going to be something to do with Steven Poole (the title also being the title of his book and of the column he writes for Edge) and, sure enough, it was. What it meant was an intelligent, well thought-out presentation, with a depth of knowledge and understanding that TV shows about videogames don't normally manage (or even try) to achieve. Peter Molyneux, Charles Cecil... pleasing to see some of the medium's most eloquent faces and commentators on a decent program. And, if I may be excused a sudden rush of unreasonable chauvinism, it's always nice to see Emily Newton Dunn.
As feared, though, the remit was far too broad. Getting rid of barriers to entry, the introduction of actions with moral consequences, the evolution of the format and parallels to that of cinema... each of these could and should have had its own program. As I said before, I'm hoping that this marks the watershed when the television industry ends its purposeful ignorance of gaming and starts to deal with it seriously and fairly.
Missed the show on the history of Tetris, but it's repeated tomorrow.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 23:21
I realise that my television recommendations are getting posted a bit too late for them to make a difference to anyone's viewing. Sorry about that. You've got a couple of days for this next one, though.
Rob Brydon's Director's Commentary started off quite poorly, in my opinion. For one thing, the premise is somewhat tired. We're given an old show (the first episode covered an episode each of Bonanza and The Duchess of Duke Street, to which Brydon provides, well, a director's commentary, DVD-style. It's an old idea, one that's been done to death in comedy sketch shows and a few full-on series (The Amazing Adventures of Ferdinand deBargos springs to mind).
And, sure enough, the first episode didn't appear to bring anything new to the table. Some obvious jokes based on the stilted acting and clumsy camerawork in the original programs, nothing more. A couple raised a laugh (the explanation that the reason you never see the actors' mounts in the Bonanza titles was because the actors were sitting on each other for budgetary reasons), but it was, by and large, nothing special.
Then I watched the second episode, and it started coming together. Brydon's strength, as commentators on this kind of thing never tire of telling us, is as a comedic character actor. Marion and Geoff was one of BBC2's best programs last year - a program which consisted entirely of Brydon sitting in a car, talking to camera. It worked because the comedy came from the entirely believable character that he'd built up. The writing and performance were both completely spot-on.
That's how you've got to view Director's Commentary. It's not a program taking the piss out of old TV shows at all, it's a character-driven show which uses these old clips in order to flesh that character out. Brydon's Peter De Lane is the driving force behind the comedy, and it gets funnier the more you get to know him. The self-congratulation, the self-belief in his art in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the terrible lack of humanity. The Mutley laugh. The clips provide the foundation for that to exist. That's why the first episode didn't make a decent impression on me, I guess - I wasn't coming at it from the right angle and there wasn't yet enough character to De Lane to make him stand out as the motivation behind the series. If it continues to improve in the way it has in the space of two episodes, this could be a real gem.
Wednesday, 11:00PM on ITV. I suggest you watch it. Well done, Peter. Ss ss ss ss sssss.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 19:53
I have to take my hat off to whoever's responsible for coming up with some of these spam email subject lines. I've been getting some recently that have your usual gumph at the beginning, then conclude with three, apparently random, words. They are nothing short of works of surrealist genius. Today's have promised
Dripping Wet pussy, slide your C0CK in. twisters Ukrainians stapler
and
T33ns Git Fukked - D0wnl0ad Th3m N0w! fanaticism heckle lanes
I hope my spam guard doesn't start to filter them out - they make opening up the old inbox an absolute joy.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 19:34
Couple of programs on BBC4 tonight which could be quite good. AT 9PM, they've got one on the political games that surrounded the sale of Tetris outside the USSR (which, as anyone who's already aware of the story will know, is extremely interesting stuff) and at 10:30PM there's a show looking at the impact that the rise of the videogame has had on other areas of contemporary culture.
It's disappointing that the second of these is only a half hour show - it's a subject which could easily fill out a small series - and the tag-line for the Tetris show isn't exactly promising ("And you thought it was just a computer game" - bleh) but it's just nice to see videogames being given a bit of serious attention. Let's hope it starts a trend.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 19:19
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
No proper 'Net access until next Monday.
The week after? Broadband! About fucking time, and all that, but still... broadband! Huzzah!
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 22:49
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Losing the fight against mediocrity for the last few years. Fire a volley |
