Sin-Eater

Some of us eat for satisfaction, some of us eat for sustenance. It's a mental thing. I honestly believe some people are just born one way or the other (or at least raised one way or the other).

I know I fall in the fatter category.

There are days when I can go all day with just a cup of coffee, stir-fry, and chicken for protein. Then there are "stress" days when I want a F@c%!ng MCGRIDDLE!!!!!

MSN had this to share about Breakfast fastfoods (coincidentally, my favorite gluttony of the day):

http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100216490&page=1

Wonders never cease...

Word-Vomiting:


BLEEGHH!

Despite my Samurai Flick-level gushing over ALL STAR-SUPERMAN, I am not a DC fan. That said, a Wonder Woman film is starting to seem more and more like a no-brainer. Too bad, the non-brains of Hollywood can't get their act together (Seriously, WB? You're gonna kick Joss Whedon off the project?)

BLLLLLLURRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!

I mean, look how many actresses have jumped at the opportunity to throw their Baker Boys and Trilby hats in for consideration. She clearly, resonates with the female audience. She's a fashion statement and an icon for female empowerment. And, well, anyone who wears the costume is going to be HOT!

HOUCK!

There isn't a man-alive who wouldn't want his chick to dress like Wonder Woman for Halloween ("c'mon, baby...choke me with the lasso of truth...yeah, that's it...why are you asking me who was I with last night? Ow! Grk! GASP!")

I'm telling you Warner Bros. This rumor that Diablo Cody and/or Gail Simone are writing it...is interesting You've got a potential Titanic on your hands with all the girls who'll bring their boyfriends and BFFs to see this thing (not to mention Lesbians). Robert Rodriguez's RED SONJA will be your guiena pig.

PTUI!

I don't even care that much. I just thought this fan poster was really clever...

[Comic book Reviews] All-Star Superman

Years ago, when comics were still young and the industry generated so many avenues and possibilities, Superman rose from the ink and newsprint as a creature that personified his industry: An American original made relatable by the fact that he was soaked in the immigrant struggle (or at least the desire to overcome it all).
Superman, like all things mass-produced and consumed by an insatiable public, lost his way. A fact that was defined by cynical, changing times and well-intended yet misguided editorial decisions. Newer heroes overtook him. The type that late-Century readers could relate to. Superman became irrelevant (Me? I always thought DC should treat Superman like Disney does Mickey Mouse. Only break him out for special occasions).
Through the soul-selling magic of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, we have ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. A reminder of not just the Man of Tomorrow…but us as humanity.
Let's be honest, every person, place, or thing that has inspired people has been made fictional. Martin Luther King. Ghandi. John Lennon. Jesus. While evidence proves them to be real, to most observers they are bigger than life. Made surreal. Made fictional. So why wouldn't Superman join their ranks as a motivational figure? His impossible-feats can be compared to walking on water....on paper, of course.
Like all great stories, it's a simple yet emotional story. Technicolored with painstaking detail and depicting a Superman decaying from solar over-radiation. Ironically enough the sun, his power source, is killing him. Lex Luthor had a little something to do with it (naturally) but the Man of Steel's greatest challenge isn't megalomania, it's the guarantee of his earthly legacy. Have we learned anything from him?
Humble as always, even SuperMan doesn't know in the end. He’s too busy crossing off his list of final things to do.
The closing issue (#12) of the Eisner-stealing, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN arrived this week. WOOSH-ing anticipation with its cape. This is the book to beat for the foreseeable decade…if not more. (Hm. I like that. “ALL-STAR SUPERMAN: The Decade-Beater”). In a quiet way, It is the Fantastic Four #1 of the 1960s. It is the Giant-Size X-Men of the 1970s. It is the Watchmen of the 1980s. It is the Action Comics #1 of the 30s. A book that, to actual comic fans, has turned the industry in yet another direction (if only the world still weren't too cynical to notice it).
To understand ALL-STAR SUPERMAN is to understand the creators. Writer, Grant Morrision must’ve waited for this moment. Morrison, a walking, talking Sci-Fi/Fantasy himself, has been writing since he was 17 years old. This man with his ability to make you believe every word he writes has fortunately made his home in comics. Yes, he uses "magic" in his projects. I don't know if I believe in the stuff...but it works.
Frank Quitely is a bit more elusive (honestly, they both are). If you guessed, that's not his real name. Mr.-Play-on-Words, like Morrison, is also a Scot. His penmanship allows him to create Pop that talks, breathes, and swells. There's movement in the way Superman sits on gold clouds of issue #1's cover. When Clark Kent stumbles into the Daily Planet's main office. When Supes gives a non-verbal "F*ck you" to Hercules in an arm wrestling match.
Their collaborative efforts (NEW X-MEN, WE3, and now, ALL-STAR) are about to allow them to join the ranks of Superman: Bigger than life and fictionalized.
You can almost hear John Williams' horn section.

Gotta love Tina Fey...

I just want to rest my head on Tina Fey's lap so she can tell me it'll be okay.


NOTE: Urban Dictionary, strategically, sent me a definition of FLIRJ today. Here:

FLIRJ

An acronym for "First Lady I'd Rim Job", and a reference to Hilary Clinton. Made famous by the 9/13/2008 opening skit of Saturday Night Live dialog:




Tina Fey as Sarah Palin: "Don't refer to me as a 'MILF.'"

Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton: "And don't refer to me as a 'FLIRJ.' I Googled what it stands for and I do not like it."

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings

I know this movie. It’s a rite of passage repeated every generation. For my generation, groomed on Rap/Rock and the WB, it was CAN’T HARDLY WAIT. For previous generations, groomed on, (I dunno) The Cure and some John Hughes movie, it was --- some John Hughes movie. You know it too. The basics are always the same: Geeky, ridiculously clever, high schooler played by some actor with a latent version of Turner’s syndrome meets a girl (played also by someone not high school age). A party is involved and it takes place over one evening populated by random events. All this leads up to the inevitable kiss. This time, instead of John Cusack or Katie Holmes, it’s, the comically punctual, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings who get all star-crossed.
NICK AND NORAH’S INFINTE PLAYLIST is the classic boy meets girl journey but powered by a dinky yellow Ugo. Guitarist, Cera isn’t over his cheating girlfriend and, music lover, Dennings is just misunderstood. They intersect on a NYC night in pursuit of a secret concert of their favorite band. When Norah (the sexually sarcastic Dennings) loses her intoxicated friend during a pre-party, Nick (Cera) opts to help locate her again. There are drag queen performances, female rivalries, rooftop tonsil hockey, bus depot shenanigans, turkey sandwiches, club-hopping, Gray’s Papaya, and Jesus.
NICK AND NORAH’s a dirt simple premise that never over-extends itself despite it’s familiarity. Director, Peter Sollet (working off of a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan) manages to keep these faux-High Schoolers at the appropriate pitch. Along the way he incorporates some well-timed visual gags and a breezey soundtrack. It ain’t a classic (SUPERBAD scooped that memory) but it rides enough on the awkwardly adorable charm of it’s two inevitable lovers that it works.

God, I love the internet!

Indian-White argument over genitals leaves three killed
Friday, 12 September , 2008, 08:28




Durban: Three men were shot dead and two left injured after an argument between a group of Indian and white visitors to a bar here, allegedly over the size of genitals.
Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu of the South African police confirmed that five people were arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning in connection with the shootings, which erupted after a confrontation between white and Indian patrons of the bar late on Wednesday evening.
Two of them were in possession of firearms believed to have been used in the killings.
A worker at the bar, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said a customer of Indian origin had remarked to a white customer while they were both at the urinal in the bar that his penis was bigger than that of the white customer.
"After both men returned to their friends, the two groups began swearing at each other before the group of five Indian men left the scene and all returned with firearms. They opened fire and three guys died on the spot. The other two were rushed to St. Augustine's Hospital, where I am told they are critical."
Mngomezulu said the argument is believed to have been racially motivated, although he could not confirm the incident at the urinal.
Durban is home to two-thirds of South Africa's 1.2 million Indians, with the unique Indian accent there often being the butt of jokes by comedians and arguments sometimes erupting over it in social environments if it is maligned by other groups.

-Sify News

Gamestop Conspiracy

I worked at Electronics Boutique for a year. Fed up with the year-round Madden Zombies, the regular late-night inventories and 12 year-olds purchasing GTA 3, I quit on New Years Eve...

Easily one of the worse jobs I had.



Thanks, Pierre (seriously and sarcastically).

Playing with Sarah Palin's Twit

I think I officially love Twitter.

I'll be here awhile:

http://twitter.com/FakeSarahPalin

Pop Star murdered in Dubai

About a year or so, a friend of mine convinced me that the smart rupee (or whatever the hell they use) was on real estate in Dubai. Apparently, the very mention of the emirate was an ear-perker amongst the suit and tie/cigar shop-types. People were clamoring for land to build the next Las Vegas!

Y'know, the real estate business has always put me off. Too much money exchanging hands...too much robbing Peter to pay Paul. I'm just not that saavy or that interested.

I find it interesting that in such a short time since it's re-development, Dubai has had to really combat corruption. The irony is so thick you could build a city with it.

The most recent casuality of this monarchy/oil-city had her throat slashed by a hotel-tycoon.

Just interesting.

Before. After.

From www.BamnCan.com:

Jay wanted to share some "compare and contrast" images on the page. Here is page 19 as an early layout/sketch and here is it's older brother ready for print (minus dialouge)...

Our process (ever evolving) is kinda Marvel-methody. I write a plot synopsis, Jay starts sketching image ideas while I actually script and then we edit it accordingly (facial expressions, angles, etc).

I recall Warren Ellis saying he hated this approach. I can't blame him but it's had some advantages (more collaborative between artist and writer) and disadvantages (certain character emotions get lost in translation).

We'll try it again for issue #2

-Troy

Monday...

Five minutes into my cube at work and I already want to deficate on my keyboard and throw it into the atrium!

Nobody has done anything to me (yet), just the realization that my weekend has ended and I spent most of it unsatisfactorily.

Thank God for the internet...


Thanks, Jorge.

A List of American Filmmakers (Who Aren't White)

There are days when I think I'll just abandon the whole notion of being a filmmaker. Comic books are a happy medium and they've always appeared more willing to embrace diversity than Hollywood has. As a "Black/of African descent" diversity is an important thing to me. It shows an open door when, admittedly, my first assumption is that there is not one.

Regularly, I toy with the idea of just dropping the film-thing. It's too hard, it's too time consuming, it seems like a closed door industry, it's over-populated and it's not very fair towards other races. Then I start to think of the Robert Rodriguez and Spike Lee's of the world. Filmmakers who forced Hollywood to notice them in spite of it's ignorance.

Below is a list of, in my opinion, every quality non-white filmmaker in the American moving pictures medium. This includes directors, producers, and screenwriters.Y'know, the key decision-makers. If you're not listed here then your name is probably Tyler Perry or you make predominantly white films.

Is the list too long or too short? You tell me.

Robert Rodriguez - Sold his body to science to fund his first film. Wrote a great book about it called "Rebel without a Crew."

Michael Schultz - Something of a cult director, Schultz not only has the longest track record of anyone on this list but he's the man responsible for Car Wash, Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon and Krush Groove.

Spike Lee - Probably THE most known black filmmaker of any generation. His Academy Award nomination for "Malcolm X" in 1992 was ignored, a stigma the academy hasn't shaken since.

Guillermo Del Toro - Might just be the closest we will ever come to a sci-fi/fantasy director on par with Steven Speilberg and the like. Of any race.

Gina Prince-Blythewood - Female director of "Love and Basketball."

Alfonso Cauron - Directed, the brilliant, Children of Men and, what many consider, the best Harry Potter. Questionably dubbed by the media (along with Del Toro and, the overstuffed, Alejandro González Iñárritu) as "The Three Amigos."

Justion Lin - Directed the preppy, Asian crime film "Better Luck Tommorow." Also responsible for the Bruce Lee mockumentary "Finishing the Game." Apparently he's made it his life's mission to fix the, inherently flawed, "Fast and The Furious" franchise.

Kasi Lemmons - Director, writer, actress. It seems Kasi has figured out that she can act her way into directing feature films.

Jordan Walker-Pearlman - Not too familiar with this one but the director seems to be gaining some critical notice. Too bad he seems to be able to make films sporatically.

Jessica Yu - With 2 documentaries and an upcoming feature film, Yu shows promise. Watch her Ping Pong Playa trailer (the guy wears a Free Comic Book Day shirt!)

Fred Durst - Doesn't belong on this list but I'm curious about the frontman of Limp Bizkit (a staple of my late-teens that I still stanby 'cause nobody else will) directing a true story about a black person who was the first female to participate in the Pop Warner Football tourney. Fred's always been labeled as a bit of a Wigger, I say, "F&*% 'em! Prove those haters right."

This is the best I could find after 3 days of Google, Wiki and IMDb searches. My only pre-requisite is that you didn't suck and you work in American film (apologies to Takeshi Kitano and other fantastic overseas filmmakers).

I'll keep searching...

REVISED:

Damn! My e-mail came alive for this one! Maybe I should do more public interest blogs!

"jaymwilliams" dropped a Native-American documentarian named Chris Eyre.

"roberta.buckberg" provided me with Charles Burnett, whose student film "Killer of Sheep" was re-released in theatres about a year ago.

HONORABLE MENTION: The recently passed, Gordon Parks. Simulataneously a Renaissaince Man and a muse, Parks, was an intimidating force in black film. Unfortunately, he isn't with us anymore and therfore cannot be included on this list.

Don LaFontaine

Courtesy of John "New Father" Holmes @ Bloodrose Industries:

Don LaFontaine
(August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008)

Donald LaFontaine was an American voice actor famous for recording over 5,000 movie trailers and (according to his website) over 350,000 television commercials, network promotions, and video game trailers. His signature voice was perceived as being both ominous and sonorous. His nicknames included 'Thunder Throat' and 'The Voice of God'. He became identified with the phrase 'in a world...', which has been used in movie trailers so frequently that it has become a cliché. He also parodied this cliché several times, most recently in a commercial for GEICO insurance.

LaFontaine was born August 26, 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota to Alfred and Ruby LaFontaine. He began his career as a recording engineer at the National Recording Studios, where he had the opportunity to work with Floyd Peterson producing promo spots for Dr. Strangelove. Peterson incorporated many of LaFontaine’s ideas for the spots, and not long after, they went into business together. While working on the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine had to fill in for an unavailable voice actor to finish a client’s presentation. Not long after, the client bought the spots, and LaFontaine’s career as a voice actor had been sealed. Prior and into the 1970s, LaFontaine developed his signature style of a strong narrative approach, and heavy melodramatic coloration of his voice work.

LaFontaine’s signature voice commanded a busy schedule. He is said to have voiced about 60 promotions a week, and sometimes as many as 35 in a single day. It has been said that his voice-over added prestige and excitement to what might otherwise have been a 'snoozer' movie. Most studios were willing to pay a high fee for his service, thanks in no small part to his rigorous efforts and golden voice. His income was reportedly in the millions.

In a 2007 interview, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind his signature catch phrase, 'in a world where...':

'We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to. That's very easily done by saying, `In a world where ... violence rules.' `In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene.'

Famous for being driven to voice-over jobs in a personalized limo with a full time driver, so as not to waste time parking and going from job to job, he began recording many promotions from his own palatial estate in the Hollywood Hills, saving the time from traveling to many high-profile recording studios. This was due to the advent of ISDN technology that allows voice-actors to communicate with high clarity in real time to studios around the world, and to the Internet where a file can be recorded and e-mailed to a studio within seconds.

Similar voice actors Ashton Smith, Hal Douglas, and Peter Cullen have all been categorized as being a close copy to the style of LaFontaine, and are sometimes confused with LaFontaine. LaFontaine was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California with a blood clot in his lungs on August 22, 2008, and was reported as being in critical condition the following Tuesday. His family made a public appeal on the Mediabistro.com site. LaFontaine died September 1, 2008 following complications from pneumothorax.

LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters Christine, Skye and Elyse.

The very Faster and The even more Furiouser

God, help me. I actually want to see this...



Making excuses, I spent a few lazy summers doing Car Shows in one capacity or another, so I have a passing interest in this stuff.
Anticipating a location-move, I did a massive DVD purge a few weeks ago. I've never been a pack-rat. I hate clutter and constantly toss what I don't need. Clothes, DVDs, CDs. You name it. If I have no use for it, then it goes in the trash or I trade it in (Y'know, gas prices ain't going back to $1.25 per). I couldn't bring myself to part with "The Fast and The Furious" DVD.
I should be ashamed of myself. I know.