Well I'm still pretty knackered, as might be expected.
Last night I finished what's been labelled as the fourth BSG series here in the UK. It isn't really - due to the writers strike a while back the full season 4 got split in half.
However, the box set did include Razor. Razor was kinda billed as a movie, but it isn't really - it's much more like an extended episode. It's not like the miniseries, which is multiple-episodes stuck together - this is like a proper feature length episode.
But it is very much an episode. There's a commentary track on it, which is nice, where they discuss the origins. It seems the intent was for it to be stand-alone, but I'm not sure it would really work as a stand-alone thing. You'd need to have some background knowledge of the new BSG to really follow along.
This is best evidenced by the fact that at the front it has a "previously on BSG" montage. If you need one of those, then you're not stand-alone.
Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the episode as I did, just it didn't quite do what it said on the tin.
The main part of Razor was about Pegasus - the other Battlestar that turned up during the show. The basic idea was it filled in some of the background for Pegasus and some of the gaps between episodes of the main BSG.
To some extent this was good, although if you've been watching the show, you do actually know quite a lot of it. They didn't really re-invent or modify the back-story that was presented in the main show. There were a couple of fascinating tweaks, though. Plus the newer stuff was all, er... new.
In terms of the first 10 eps they're definitely up to the usual high standard. The only thing I would say is that things and people really change. The bravery I mentioned before goes into over-drive: people we've come to depend on as being certain things get all flipped around and half the show gets turned on its head.
This is really good, but it does also mean you really have to pay attention.
Weekend plans are nothing spectacular - there's the new mags to scan and more website update stuff to be working on of course. I'm tempted to finish the last box of BSG stuff, though.
Obviously I'm curious to see how it ends, but I'm also kinda aware how much of my time it's absorbed in a very intense way - I've really been going at it hammer and tongs and other stuff has been suffering a bit if I'm honest.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Thursday, 16 July 2009
tired
I've been working my nuts off this week.
The reason is that there's a proposal I'm working on that needs to go out the door this next Friday. What's made it difficult is two things.
First off, they only gave a very short period of time for the ITT to be written in - just a few weeks. But secondly, we've had to use some outside expertise to form a team and it's been like herding cats.
Even when they did eventually produce some stuff, it really hasn't been up to par, so I've had to rewrite a lot of it, which is never fun.
It's been really hard work.
And what's made it even less fun is that there's a much more important activity going on as well. We've been invited to interview for another thing we're bidding for and it's a really quite important piece of work, so a lot of attention has been focused on that.
Indeed, I've been working so hard that today feels like Friday - it's like I've done a full 5 days of work in a 4 day period. This effect is really confusing me, actually - I keep thinking 'tonight I can have a rest' type thoughts, when really I can't :(.
Newtype, animedia and animage turned up this week, but I've hardly had a chance to even look at them. One thing that was a bit odd was that Newtype came with a figurine. It's not a large figurine, but equally it's not small - maybe 4 or 5 inches tall?
She's actually a character in Evangelion, only she's completely new to me, and I've seen the Eva series and the first movie, so she must be a new character in the Eva remake movies. She's another pilot - at least she's dressed a bit like a pilot (the plug suit she's wearing is not quite like other pilot's suits) and I've seen her pictured with Rei so I'm guessing she's a new pilot.
Intriguing.
And speaking of figures, I had something of a surprise yesterday - a figure turned up that I wasn't expecting!
I've moaned before that I keep getting walloped for customs charges on figures I've been buying directly from Japan, well this figure was no different. I got a note saying a customs charge was due.
Oh, actually that reminds me - I decided to try paying online for it, rather than in-person. It was a mixed bag - initially, the website wouldn't accept any of my credit cards at all. It just would not play ball.
However, I retried it a couple of days later and it worked. But - and this was where things got a bit weird - there was no reference number on the note I'd been left. But I figured what the hell and paid the amount anyway.
A couple of days later and I hadn't seen any sign of the parcel so was thinking I'd have to go to the post office and argue about it, when it arrived. How they tied up that it was this parcel and I'd paid without a reference number I'm not sure, but success was had.
But what was the surprise? Well, I hadn't been excepting it - what I was actually expecting was a DVD, so quite where the DVD I was expecting has gotten too, I don't know. I did receive another note saying there's another parcel, with customs due, so maybe that's it?
Dunno.
But what I will say is that the figure is excellent. It's of Yoko from Gurren Lagann and if I'm honest, her face isn't the best - it looks a bit big and cute compared to how she is in the show. What makes up for that is all the details and extras in the model - her gun comes as loads of separate parts and you assemble it, but what this also means is you can assemble different options/variants too. Plus, you get a second facial expression, several different hair variations and some bits of clothes that are optional too (not in a rude and nude way!).
Plus, it's a really weighty piece and feels and looks like it's solid and well made. It's probably one of the best figurines I own - all that from something I wasn't expecting!
The reason is that there's a proposal I'm working on that needs to go out the door this next Friday. What's made it difficult is two things.
First off, they only gave a very short period of time for the ITT to be written in - just a few weeks. But secondly, we've had to use some outside expertise to form a team and it's been like herding cats.
Even when they did eventually produce some stuff, it really hasn't been up to par, so I've had to rewrite a lot of it, which is never fun.
It's been really hard work.
And what's made it even less fun is that there's a much more important activity going on as well. We've been invited to interview for another thing we're bidding for and it's a really quite important piece of work, so a lot of attention has been focused on that.
Indeed, I've been working so hard that today feels like Friday - it's like I've done a full 5 days of work in a 4 day period. This effect is really confusing me, actually - I keep thinking 'tonight I can have a rest' type thoughts, when really I can't :(.
Newtype, animedia and animage turned up this week, but I've hardly had a chance to even look at them. One thing that was a bit odd was that Newtype came with a figurine. It's not a large figurine, but equally it's not small - maybe 4 or 5 inches tall?
She's actually a character in Evangelion, only she's completely new to me, and I've seen the Eva series and the first movie, so she must be a new character in the Eva remake movies. She's another pilot - at least she's dressed a bit like a pilot (the plug suit she's wearing is not quite like other pilot's suits) and I've seen her pictured with Rei so I'm guessing she's a new pilot.
Intriguing.
And speaking of figures, I had something of a surprise yesterday - a figure turned up that I wasn't expecting!
I've moaned before that I keep getting walloped for customs charges on figures I've been buying directly from Japan, well this figure was no different. I got a note saying a customs charge was due.
Oh, actually that reminds me - I decided to try paying online for it, rather than in-person. It was a mixed bag - initially, the website wouldn't accept any of my credit cards at all. It just would not play ball.
However, I retried it a couple of days later and it worked. But - and this was where things got a bit weird - there was no reference number on the note I'd been left. But I figured what the hell and paid the amount anyway.
A couple of days later and I hadn't seen any sign of the parcel so was thinking I'd have to go to the post office and argue about it, when it arrived. How they tied up that it was this parcel and I'd paid without a reference number I'm not sure, but success was had.
But what was the surprise? Well, I hadn't been excepting it - what I was actually expecting was a DVD, so quite where the DVD I was expecting has gotten too, I don't know. I did receive another note saying there's another parcel, with customs due, so maybe that's it?
Dunno.
But what I will say is that the figure is excellent. It's of Yoko from Gurren Lagann and if I'm honest, her face isn't the best - it looks a bit big and cute compared to how she is in the show. What makes up for that is all the details and extras in the model - her gun comes as loads of separate parts and you assemble it, but what this also means is you can assemble different options/variants too. Plus, you get a second facial expression, several different hair variations and some bits of clothes that are optional too (not in a rude and nude way!).
Plus, it's a really weighty piece and feels and looks like it's solid and well made. It's probably one of the best figurines I own - all that from something I wasn't expecting!
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
death proof
Death Proof is the other half of the Grindhouse double-bill that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez attempted a few years back. Rodriquez's half was Planet Terror, which I reviewed a couple of weeks back.
It's kinda cool I've gotten to review Death Proof so soon afterwards - the system seems to have worked out well on this occasion.
I mentioned before that while I like QT's stuff, I'm not one of his uber-fans. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were very good, but I've had issues with all of his other stuff I've seen.
My main thing is with the dialogue, which, ironically, I think is one of the things people praise about his stuff. But anyway, my problem is that he sometimes ends up with these big, unwieldy monologues that the actors struggle to really say. Or at least, they can say them but they have to do it really fast, or the film would be an hour longer.
And because of that they end up sounding like QT himself. It's like QT has stepped into the film just to deliver this big monologue and it feels disjointed. What QT does tend to excel at is banter type dialogue - humorous back and forth stuff between characters.
Anyway, the point is that the same things happen in Death Proof, with some unwieldy monologues and some great banter.
However, I enjoyed Death Proof a great deal. I think it hits the mark much better than Planet Terror did. Where Plant Terror came across as being a John Carpenter film not directed by John Carpenter, Death Proof does come across much more as just a film within a particular genre.
It does have the same incongruous time elements that Planet Terror had - everything seems like it's straight out of the seventies until suddenly they whip out a mobile phone and start texting each other.
But the main point of the film - the car chases are really great. They're exciting, funny, scary - everything they're intended to be. It seems that QT has a definite flair for this type of action that was lacking in the Kill Bill movies.
In the Kill Bill movies he tried to 1) out kung-fu Hong Kong cinema and 2) out chop-sokey Japanese cinema. On count 1 he didn't quite out-do them, but made a good film in that category. On count 2, in my opinion, he failed miserably.
Death Proof was his attempt to outdo the car-chase genre and you know what? I think he just about did it.
It was certainly an enjoyable film. Although if I'm honest, I have to admit I found the ending a little disappointing - it just sort of stopped :/.
It's kinda cool I've gotten to review Death Proof so soon afterwards - the system seems to have worked out well on this occasion.
I mentioned before that while I like QT's stuff, I'm not one of his uber-fans. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were very good, but I've had issues with all of his other stuff I've seen.
My main thing is with the dialogue, which, ironically, I think is one of the things people praise about his stuff. But anyway, my problem is that he sometimes ends up with these big, unwieldy monologues that the actors struggle to really say. Or at least, they can say them but they have to do it really fast, or the film would be an hour longer.
And because of that they end up sounding like QT himself. It's like QT has stepped into the film just to deliver this big monologue and it feels disjointed. What QT does tend to excel at is banter type dialogue - humorous back and forth stuff between characters.
Anyway, the point is that the same things happen in Death Proof, with some unwieldy monologues and some great banter.
However, I enjoyed Death Proof a great deal. I think it hits the mark much better than Planet Terror did. Where Plant Terror came across as being a John Carpenter film not directed by John Carpenter, Death Proof does come across much more as just a film within a particular genre.
It does have the same incongruous time elements that Planet Terror had - everything seems like it's straight out of the seventies until suddenly they whip out a mobile phone and start texting each other.
But the main point of the film - the car chases are really great. They're exciting, funny, scary - everything they're intended to be. It seems that QT has a definite flair for this type of action that was lacking in the Kill Bill movies.
In the Kill Bill movies he tried to 1) out kung-fu Hong Kong cinema and 2) out chop-sokey Japanese cinema. On count 1 he didn't quite out-do them, but made a good film in that category. On count 2, in my opinion, he failed miserably.
Death Proof was his attempt to outdo the car-chase genre and you know what? I think he just about did it.
It was certainly an enjoyable film. Although if I'm honest, I have to admit I found the ending a little disappointing - it just sort of stopped :/.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
bsg s3
So I finished season 3 of Battlestar Galatica over the weekend and have now started on the final season.
Season 3 was good, although I think I preferred season 2 if I'm honest.
The main problem, I think, was that season 3 took a bit of an odd path with the Cylons. The basic set-up of BSG is that the Cylons are trying to kill the humans.
But, in S3, they sort of decide not to kill the humans. Ish. Instead, they sort of try to live n harmony with us. Only they make an appalling hash of the job. And for sentient machines it was a surprisingly big hash.
Don't get me wrong - I understood it, it just seemed like too much of a switch; too much of a back-peddle. Also, the main problem, was that after that things became unclear.
Once the humans had escaped, where the Cylons now back to killing the humans? Or... what? They didn't seem to state their new course of action, other than apparently deciding to have the same end-goal as the humans... for no apparent reason.
I dunno, it became a bit confusing and illogical if I'm honest. And if you make the main threat illogical and confusing, it sort of eases up the pressure on the good guys.
The other slight niggle I had was that there are now so many balls in the air that some of the plot-lines got short-shrift.
So, for example, a big chunk of the first half focused on Baltar, but then in the second half he virtually disappeared, apart from the very end, when suddenly it was all about him again.
This is sort of fine and the norm for episodic television, except that he was totally forgotten. There weren't even many little asides about "Oh, what are we going to do about him?".
But there is a slight problem that's a bit worse than that, and if I'm honest it's been throughout the show. It's that characters are a bit inconsistent week-on-week.
I can best explain this with Lee Adama (Apollo). So one week he's all fine and dandy - a super pilot killing Cylons.
Then, the next week we get an episode depicting him as emotional wreck, where he's trying to replace a woman he loved but hurt and lost with a prostitute.
Okay, fine - the first episode is perhaps showing his veneer of normality. Except that the second episode ends a bit badly and he should at least be a bit cut up and distracted the next time we see him.
But he's not - he's back to being a hero-type fighter-jock.
Until the fourth episode, when suddenly he's behaving like an insensitive love-rat type cad and a bounder.
Then he's back to hero-type fighter-jock.
It gets a little annoying. I mean it's not quite as bad as that makes it sound, but it is there.
I mean, another example is Dee and Billy. Initially, they seem to be a young couple in love, but then for some reason that's never really explained, Dee becomes interested in Apollo and basically jumps his bones. It would have been fine if they'd layered in that secretly she loved Apollo, but they didn't - it's more like a sudden change in her personality.
But as niggles go these are relatively minor things. I'm guessing if I'd been watching it on a weekly basis they also wouldn't have been so obvious.
Also, I think more time elapses between episodes than you would normally assume. I've been assuming episodes happen properly sequentially - like the next day, but I think actually it's more like a chunk of eps happen sequentially, then there's more of a gap, then another chunk.
Season 3 was good, although I think I preferred season 2 if I'm honest.
The main problem, I think, was that season 3 took a bit of an odd path with the Cylons. The basic set-up of BSG is that the Cylons are trying to kill the humans.
But, in S3, they sort of decide not to kill the humans. Ish. Instead, they sort of try to live n harmony with us. Only they make an appalling hash of the job. And for sentient machines it was a surprisingly big hash.
Don't get me wrong - I understood it, it just seemed like too much of a switch; too much of a back-peddle. Also, the main problem, was that after that things became unclear.
Once the humans had escaped, where the Cylons now back to killing the humans? Or... what? They didn't seem to state their new course of action, other than apparently deciding to have the same end-goal as the humans... for no apparent reason.
I dunno, it became a bit confusing and illogical if I'm honest. And if you make the main threat illogical and confusing, it sort of eases up the pressure on the good guys.
The other slight niggle I had was that there are now so many balls in the air that some of the plot-lines got short-shrift.
So, for example, a big chunk of the first half focused on Baltar, but then in the second half he virtually disappeared, apart from the very end, when suddenly it was all about him again.
This is sort of fine and the norm for episodic television, except that he was totally forgotten. There weren't even many little asides about "Oh, what are we going to do about him?".
But there is a slight problem that's a bit worse than that, and if I'm honest it's been throughout the show. It's that characters are a bit inconsistent week-on-week.
I can best explain this with Lee Adama (Apollo). So one week he's all fine and dandy - a super pilot killing Cylons.
Then, the next week we get an episode depicting him as emotional wreck, where he's trying to replace a woman he loved but hurt and lost with a prostitute.
Okay, fine - the first episode is perhaps showing his veneer of normality. Except that the second episode ends a bit badly and he should at least be a bit cut up and distracted the next time we see him.
But he's not - he's back to being a hero-type fighter-jock.
Until the fourth episode, when suddenly he's behaving like an insensitive love-rat type cad and a bounder.
Then he's back to hero-type fighter-jock.
It gets a little annoying. I mean it's not quite as bad as that makes it sound, but it is there.
I mean, another example is Dee and Billy. Initially, they seem to be a young couple in love, but then for some reason that's never really explained, Dee becomes interested in Apollo and basically jumps his bones. It would have been fine if they'd layered in that secretly she loved Apollo, but they didn't - it's more like a sudden change in her personality.
But as niggles go these are relatively minor things. I'm guessing if I'd been watching it on a weekly basis they also wouldn't have been so obvious.
Also, I think more time elapses between episodes than you would normally assume. I've been assuming episodes happen properly sequentially - like the next day, but I think actually it's more like a chunk of eps happen sequentially, then there's more of a gap, then another chunk.
Monday, 13 July 2009
lookit
Look, I actually updated my website - http://www.trismugistus.com/
There's a new review on there. Well, I say new. It's new in the sense that it's new to the website. It's actually a very old review - let's put it this way: the review in question covers four volumes of the manga Rosario+Vampire. I recently finished volume 7 of that manga, and they don't exactly release them every month.
Still, it's good to have an update on the site. I even did a bit of work on some more updates. Unfortunately, the appalling tediousness of processing images for the reviews meant I didn't get as far as I'd have liked. I always forget just how long it takes to do them.
The downside is that I've still nothing really to update on the walling side - indeed, I've little in the ways of genuine motivation to even feel particularly guilty about that. What it odes mean is for the foreseeable future, my updates are going to be entirely review based.
Something else I managed to do while working on the updates was listen to the new Green Day album.
I gave it a couple of listens and I have to say that so far, while I like it, it's not one of their best. The main problem I'm having is that it sounds very familiar - they seem to have pinched (or pinched and tweaked) a lot of riffs from other songs.
Saying that, I've noticed it before with Green Day and I don't fundamentally have a problem with it, because they normally add a big fat Green Day stamp to the songs too. But here, it feels more like they didn't bother so much with the big fat stamp and used a small one instead.
It's difficult to explain and as I say, I don't dislike the album, but still, it feels like it could have been more.
It also doesn't help that the production seems a bit off - it's hard to tell what the lyrics are in a lot of places, which is never normally the case with Green Day. Also, because I can't tell what he's singing half the time, it means the album doesn't quite seem to have a cohesive theme. I mean, it's presented like a concept album, but I can't really tell what the concept was - not like American Idiot or Warning anyway.
So a little disappointing on that front.
I was also disappointed that I didn't get more done over the weekend. It wasn't a particularly busy one, but I dunno, the time seemed to slip away from me a bit. For example, I didn't do anything e-bay wise.
Also, even though I watched quite a bit of recorded telly, I've still a massive list of stuff on my PVR.
Partly that's because of my obsessive BSG watching, of course, but also the BBC decided to do one of those 5-parts-in-5-days things with the 3rd season of Torchwood.
It gets on my tits when they do stuff like that. I can understand it in some ways, but for me it's a totally impractical thing - I'd need weeks of advance notice to keep up with that as a schedule thing.
Still, it's one of the big advantage of PVRs - you can record all of the stuff in great quality and watch it back when you have the time. You can of course record stuff with normal VCRs, but the quality is poorer and you'd end up with several tapes kicking about for ages, which is far less practical.
There's a new review on there. Well, I say new. It's new in the sense that it's new to the website. It's actually a very old review - let's put it this way: the review in question covers four volumes of the manga Rosario+Vampire. I recently finished volume 7 of that manga, and they don't exactly release them every month.
Still, it's good to have an update on the site. I even did a bit of work on some more updates. Unfortunately, the appalling tediousness of processing images for the reviews meant I didn't get as far as I'd have liked. I always forget just how long it takes to do them.
The downside is that I've still nothing really to update on the walling side - indeed, I've little in the ways of genuine motivation to even feel particularly guilty about that. What it odes mean is for the foreseeable future, my updates are going to be entirely review based.
Something else I managed to do while working on the updates was listen to the new Green Day album.
I gave it a couple of listens and I have to say that so far, while I like it, it's not one of their best. The main problem I'm having is that it sounds very familiar - they seem to have pinched (or pinched and tweaked) a lot of riffs from other songs.
Saying that, I've noticed it before with Green Day and I don't fundamentally have a problem with it, because they normally add a big fat Green Day stamp to the songs too. But here, it feels more like they didn't bother so much with the big fat stamp and used a small one instead.
It's difficult to explain and as I say, I don't dislike the album, but still, it feels like it could have been more.
It also doesn't help that the production seems a bit off - it's hard to tell what the lyrics are in a lot of places, which is never normally the case with Green Day. Also, because I can't tell what he's singing half the time, it means the album doesn't quite seem to have a cohesive theme. I mean, it's presented like a concept album, but I can't really tell what the concept was - not like American Idiot or Warning anyway.
So a little disappointing on that front.
I was also disappointed that I didn't get more done over the weekend. It wasn't a particularly busy one, but I dunno, the time seemed to slip away from me a bit. For example, I didn't do anything e-bay wise.
Also, even though I watched quite a bit of recorded telly, I've still a massive list of stuff on my PVR.
Partly that's because of my obsessive BSG watching, of course, but also the BBC decided to do one of those 5-parts-in-5-days things with the 3rd season of Torchwood.
It gets on my tits when they do stuff like that. I can understand it in some ways, but for me it's a totally impractical thing - I'd need weeks of advance notice to keep up with that as a schedule thing.
Still, it's one of the big advantage of PVRs - you can record all of the stuff in great quality and watch it back when you have the time. You can of course record stuff with normal VCRs, but the quality is poorer and you'd end up with several tapes kicking about for ages, which is far less practical.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)