My Precious.... Sequel

 

This article is about Andy Serkis discussing an Apes sequel

(Bad title, I know)

Perhaps the most under appreciated actor in all of film, Andy Serkis, has been many different things in his illustrious career. He's like the Orson Welles of motion capture technology (I know you like that connection Mr. Cullen), not only playing some of the most well done and famous examples of the tech, but also showing that mocap is a serious form of acting. He has played one of the most deranged creatures in fiction three times, that being Gollum of Lord of the Rings fame, with an additional two films based off J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit in which he will be reprising his role. He also seems to love monkeys, playing the titular character of Peter Jackson's King Kong (in which he was the most redeeming part). In addition to Kong, this year he played the ape Caesar in my favorite movie of the year, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

In the article, they discuss the new sequel to the blockbuster hit to the classic Charleton Heston series of films, and many of the hints the film throws at us indicating a sequel, like the same space vessel that Heston's films used to transport the three astronauts to the "new" planet, disappearing in the film. Also, the (hopefully) real possibility of Serkis actually directing the next film. I think this would be a great move for the hopefully continuing series, as I think Serkis has the technological prowess and mind to bring about a grander, more epic direction for the next film. Even if that doesn't happen, Wyatt did a very good job with Rise, and, fingers crossed, he probably will with the sequel. If it turns out to be crap at least we all have The Hobbit to look for our fill of Andy.

Napster Ready For Its Final Slumber

 

This article is about the fall of Napster 

For anyone who has just downloaded the latest number one hit off of their favorite torrent site, please, a moment of silence...Napster is officially dead. For those of you who don't know, Napster was the original pet peeve of Lars Ulrich. For those of you who don't know who Lars Ulrich is, get a better taste in music. Napster made it possible for every person with a decent internet connection to have an unlimited amount of music for nothing, and in the process give the middle finger to every record label in the world. In other words, a win-win. They were the original Pirate Bay, Limewire and Frostwire. It was a website that nearly single-handedly jump started the digital music revolution, similar to the invention of the vinyl, cassette, and CD.

As a person who illegitimately acquires music (not torrents; Youtube converter, yo), it's a bit sad to see the website finally be shut down. After an extremely infamous beginning, they made several attempts to try to stay relevant by making people pay, but unless you're iTunes or Amazon, it won't work. After record companies had ruled supreme with an iron fist on the entire music industry for the past fifty years, Napster came along and broke all the rules, making music about the music and not about the money. Anyone who enjoys a band enough, they will eventually buy merchandise/concert tickets/physical copies of music, so the argument that the band doesn't make money is off-based. Napster was the kick in the butt the industry needed, and it's kinda sad to see it go.

The Grammys have DECENT nominations?! owait, nevermind

This article is about the credibility, or lack thereof, of the Grammys

Last year, one of my favorite bands, Arcade Fire, won the self-proclaimed (by the Grammys, not AF) biggest award in music, Album of the Year, for their superb album The Suburbs. After seeing that last year, I suddenly had some hope for the awards. Maybe they'll stop catering to the most popular artists in a futile attempt to try to attract a younger generation to their boring-as-hell award show. Well, after seeing the Grammy nominations this year, it seems like only half of them got the message.

I am a big indie fan, so after AF won last year, I was hoping to see more indie acts in the awards this year. The Grammys came through, albeit only a bit. Radiohead are nominated for five awards for their latest album The King of Limbs, with my personal favorite album of the year, the self-titled second album by indie-folk band Bon Iver, receiving four nods. When I came across this article in Pitchfork, I was obviously expecting them to be nominated for Album of the Year. Instead, it's only record, song, best alternative album, and best new artist. BEST NEW ARTIST. For those of you who don't know (which is probably everyone reading this), Bon Iver released their first album almost three years ago (which was almost as good as their latest). I swear, I try to give the Grammys a fair chance, but when I let my guard down after Arcade Fire, they promptly proceeded to kick me in the nuts while laughing about it while laughing about Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry are better artists than Bon Iver and Radiohead.

ESPN - The Worldwide Leader in Hypocrisy

 

 This article is about ESPN's negligence of Bernie Fine's sexual abuse of children

(Sorry about the lack of article, but I couldn't find an actual article of this, and I thought it was a really good blog topic, I hope the video will suffice.)

Well, lookie here. Not even a month ago, the story at Penn St. broke, and ESPN was at the forefront of the circus. They were also the ones to initiate the witch hunt of Joe Paterno, and were one of the main reasons he was fired as quickly and as unexpectedly as he was. They accused him of sweeping the child molestation crimes under the rug, when in reality, he may not have done the best thing, but he certainly wasn't guilty enough to force him out. He contacted the VP in charge of the campus police. In one day. Now, it seems like ESPN themselves have been sweeping the broken pieces of children under the rug for almost a decade. 

For those of you who don't know the Bernie Fine story, here's a summary: after the Penn St. scandal, two former ballboys at Syracuse came forward with allegations of sexual abuse by assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine. One of them was Bobby Davis, the man in the phone tape speaking with Fine's wife. ESPN had that tape for EIGHT years, and did not come forward with police because "it's not their responsibility to come forward to authorities". A much worse action than what Joe Pa did or didn't do in the Penn St case, which they were at the head of trying to demonize Paterno. It's sickening to think that a television network has the absolute lack of morality to not only continue allowing a man to abuse young boys sexually, but to also initiate the firing of Joe Paterno is comprehensible. 

DA-NA-NA NA-NA-NA

Pretty Much Dead Already

This article is about the mid-season finale of the Walking Dead

The second season of AMC's critically acclaimed series The Walking Dead wrapped up for the year with last Sunday's mid-season finale, entitled "Pretty Much Dead Already". The series has taken a drastic turn from its first season, focusing more on character building rather than the grand, apocalyptic feel of the first. Many fans have attributed this to showrunner Frank Darabont stepping down from the series after the first season. It has also divided the fans of the series, with many leaving the show because of the "campiness" it has displayed. Though I have been disappointed by the second season thus far, I have decided I will stay with the series (at least until Daryl is killed off).

 However, as a noob to the series (I started watching it during the first season marathon AMC played before the premiere, I like to think of myself as having a less biased mind toward the show. Although it hasn't been as good the first season, it is still better than most shows on television right now. I also have to attribute the degrading quality of the series to the absence of Darabont, who gave the show the epic scale that drew so many people to it, but also to the thing people don't like talking about: the budget cut AMC delivered to the series after the first season, a debilitating blow that took away the hordes of zombies we grew used to in the first season.

Also, the people need to stop calling them "Walkers" already. We all know they're zombies, you don't need to hide it from us.

Goin' on into South Park...

This article is about the new South Park game

A new South Park videogame has been recently announced by Game Informer. The new game will be published by THQ, and developed by RPG veterans Obsidian, who have made highly acclaimed games such as Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. The new game will be fully written, voiced, and overseen by show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, avid gamers themselves.

This is a move that has been a long time coming. Though there were several early N64 games during the 90's, those were mostly considered to be cash-in by Parker and Stone, the new game will be much fuller. The duo will also be a major part of development, and will have a huge role in the actual gameplay of the game, which has been compared to such series as the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi rpgs series. After taking on Broadway, it was only a matter of time before the two gamers could resist dipping their hands into the gaming world, after showing their gaming awareness in such episodes of their show as "Make Love, Not Warcraft", a parody of the the World of Warcraft, and "Guitar Queer-O", a parody of the Guitar Heroes series, amongst others.

Tiger not getting the Wood

This article is about Tiger Woods remaing EA's cover athlete
Tiger Woods' recent fall from grace has been a well-publicized circus. Countless rumors of him cheating on his ex wife with hookers, pornstars and various other ugly slags, and falling from the number one spot for golfers in the world to fifty-fifth, his name has been something of a poison for companies, as evidenced by several sponsors pulling him from their ads and dropping him from their brands. EA, however, will not take that route (at least not completely)
The last issue of their sports sim Tiger Woods' PGA Tour 12 did not feature Tiger as the cover athlete for the first time ever. Instead EA opted for a flag. Many fans of the series wondered whether Tiger would be dropped completely form their brand, but EA has announced they will not take the easy way out. Instead, they held an online vote for who will be joining Tiger on the cover art of the next PGA game.

The Android Acting Like An Android

This acticle is about the new Android software Iris

I guess now that Steve Job's is dead, people are even less shameful about their copying of Apple. The Android, hanging onto the coattails of the iPhone tighter than Luigi, now has a "new" software for its phone called, creatively enough, Iris (in case you don't realize, that's Siri spelled backward). The software was created in just eight hours by the development team at Dexetra.com.
 Now, before any of you Apple fanboys get up-in-arms, the devs did announce this new software was directly influenced by Siri. More like completely stolen, by hey, Apple can wipe their tears with their billions of dollars. This is just another example of a great idea being mainstream, and the eventual hyenas coming and tearing at the bloody scraps.

Person of Interest - Summary

After three episodes of the wildly anticipated Person of Interest, I can't seem to get a good grasp of the show. The action is great, but this isn't built as an action show. The dialogue can get a bit preachy at times, and Reese is a one-dimnesional character who isn't very interesting to listen to. Finch is the saving grace of the show, but even he feels stale. The past episode gave me some great hope, though, in the form of M. Elias, who seems like he will be the major antagonist of the series for a while. The show needs to stop holding its viewers hands (it is supposed to be an intellectual drama), and let people figure things out for themselves. I will continue to watch it, as I'm still interested in where the series will go, and it still has great potential overall.

Person of Interest - Mission Creep

The third episode of the best new show on TV premiered, and continued the strong start to the new series. Mission Creep is an episode following Reese as he infiltrates a bank robing gang in order to save one of its members. The gang is a unit of soldiers from Afghanistan, led by a former Marine. The man who's number came up, Joey, is in the gang because he feels guilty of letting one of his fellow soldiers do his partol, which ultimately led to his death. Joey feels guilt, and he is using his share of the money to pay for the soldier's daughter to be put through school. The episode continued the upward trend this show has been producing the past three episodes. It had a great mix of action and drama, and a heartwrenching story of a man who is in over his head, dealing with bad people for a good cause. At the end of the episode, the show gives us a thread that can later be built upon, the name M. Elias, who has a connection to the deaths of the gang.

Blockbuster returns - with a whimper

This article is about the return of Blockbuster

Blockbuster was run out of business for failing to keep up with the changing landscape of movie rentals. Netflix was the primary reason for the fall of the once iconic company, but its own doing may bring them down. When Netflix raised the prices of its services, it lost many of its once loyal fanbase. Now, with those people searching for a new service, Blockbuster rises from its ashes like a sickly phoenix about to keel over again.
Dish recently bought out the name of Blockbuster and is now using its renown to fill their own wallets. They claim Blockbuster's new service plan is the most comprehensive entertainment package ever. And it really would be, if Dish weren't such idiots. With their new plan, customers can get unlimited DVD, Blu-ray and videogame rentals and unlimited streaming, all for under $10 a month. However, the one huge catch is you must be a Dish subscriber to get access. Yes, so in order to get the best entertainment package eve,r you must bear with the worst cable provider of the "Big Three". Nice going, Dish.

Person of Interest: Ghost

The second episode of Person of Interest premiered Thursday. The episode, entitled "Ghost", was a much greater improvement earlier than I expected in the season. The episode started off fast, with Reese protecting a man from two hired assassins in an elevator, and that was only the prologue.
The crime this week was trying to prevent the murder of a girl believed to be killed by her father with the rest of her family two years ago. A land developing company had been trying to get land off of Teresa's father, and in the process hired a man to kill him and his family, and framed it as a murder-suicide. More flashbacks about Finch's past was a great change of pace from the action oriented episode, and introducing an antagonist, albeit only for this one episode, gave Reese someone who he struggled to beat.

How Fast Will He Spend It?

This is an article about Charlie Sheen's lawsuit against Two and a Half Men

Charlie Sheen's lawsuit against Warner Bros. has come to an end. After being fired from the show, he filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. The inital details divulged he will be making $25 million from the lawsuit, and will continue to have money come to him due to syndication of his episodes. After premiering the first episode after Sheen's departure, this can be seen as a move by the show to completely cut ties from Sheen and his antics.
However, they continue to make money off of him from the seasons involving his character, and anything he does will still have (however minor) an effect on the show, as he will continually be associated as the star who made it what it is. However, the real mystery is how long he'll actually have the money to spend on prostitutes, porn stars, and drugs.

Person of Interest: Pilot

The pilot episode of Person of Interest was premiered last Thursday, and it definitely impressed. The premise is a unique spin on the rehashed-to-death crime drama genre, and the writing is a superb compliment to the phenomenal acting of Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel as Mr. Finch and John Reese respectively.

The episode itself was surprisingly well-paced and interesting enough for the premiere. Well written dialogue and fast-paced action are blended seamlessly that appeals to a wide-variety of people. Most of the supporting acting was well-done, with the exception of the ridiculous corrupt cop and persecutor. The crime itself in the first episode was fairly boring, but that's expected for it's first time. The series looks to bring an intense paranoia that comes in post-9/11 New York, which is instantly engaging. Plus, the surveillance footage is cool to look at.

Why I chose Person of Interest

The show Person of Interest is a new crime drama on CBS. The reason I picked it was for several different reasons. Everything I've seen about this show from the commercials has made it look as though it has potential to be one of the best shows on television. The premise is unique to the often stale crime drama, in that it seemingly has a major intelligence about it.
It has also been the recipient of some of the biggest hype I've ever seen from any form of media. It's been getting more attention than any other show premiering this season, and probably more than even the most hyped show I remember, Lost. That turned out to be one of the greatest shows of all-time, and I'm hoping Person of Interest has the same, if not more, appeal.

Hannibal Lector coming to the silverscreen

This article is about a new Hannibal television series

A prequel to Hannibal Lector's life as an outed cannibal is in development by French-based Gaumont. The series will follow Dr. Lector and his relationship with the protagonist of the book/film Red Dragon, Will Graham, and his different cases of serial killers. Fans of Sir Anthony Hopkins will be dissapointed, as, similar to Hannibal Rising, this Lector will be a younger version.

As a personal fan of the Hannibal Lector storyline in both film and books, this will be an interesting endevour. Hannibal Rising was a bit of a joke, so I hope that the television series will be able to make up for the lack of Hopkins, who basically made the film series.

This article is about various pop-culture refrences in the videogame Dead Island

Videgames have come a long way since their inception in the 1950's. Before games like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero became popular and regularly accepted amongst the masses, gaming was a niche hobby that branded one as a social outcast and loser. The "nerdiness" of gaming is still prevelent when playing 'hardcore' games meant for a certain audience. Such is the case with Techland's new survival horror rpg Dead Island.

When playing the game, one is bound to come across a certain weapon, quest,  or achievement that will bring a smile to his or her face. Here are my favorites: From Tenacious D, the Pick of Destiny is a rare pickaxe refrencing the only (albeit hilarious) movie the faux rockers have made. Several quest names also have refrences to famous examples of media. Welcome to the Jungle and Family Matters are two of the more obvious ones, and the quest My Precious can remind everyone of their favorite bi-polar deranged Hobbit.

This is an article about the organization GLAAD criticize MTV for praise of hip-hop artist Tyler, the Creator.

During the recent MTV Video Music Awards, hip hop artist Tyler, the Creator won the award for Best New Artist, with his video "Yonkers" off his second full length LP, Goblin. The budding OFWGKTA star's nihilistic, hate-filled, and often times humorous wordplay has been as much a catalyst to his success as his tendency to attract controversy. In May, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation called Tyler and his fellow Odd Future membersfor "violent misogyny and homophobia in his lyrics", as well as claiming media outlets who play their music give a platform for the hate.

After his win, Matt Kane, the group's Associate Director of Entertainment Media wrote that Tyler "writes some of the most violently anti-gay and misogynistic music currently enjoying mainstream recognition." On that point, he's correct. However, the issue of free speech and censorship suddenly come into play. Whether or not MTV is in the right to play his music, even though it is heavily censored, is a topic which the heads of the company need to decide on. MTV needs to realize that many kids (whether it's appropriate or not) watch their network, and need to be proactive in educating their younger (and perhaps even older) viewers to not emulate or respect the lyrics Tyler and similar artists spew, as it's simple music like this that can teach impressionable young minds that hate and bigotry are alright.

T.I. Released from Prison

This article is about rapper T.I. being released from prison