Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Funny Comic Panel Of The Week, Part 654

Dick Cheney, yesterday


From The Mighty Thor #358. Some dastardly bank robbers have found out that their boss is in fact a nasty Communist villain.

Monday, June 27, 2005

I like to move it...


If you only see one Christian Bale movie this summer, make it Howl's Moving Castle.

No longer twice-nightly


Richard Whiteley died. Blimey. I'm not a fan, particularly, and I never got into that student-chic thing Countdown had, but the show is one of those things-I-miss-about-home-but-probably-shouldn't, and Meg was watching About A Boy (is Hugh Grant the "boy" or is the floppy-haired youngster the "boy"? Or are they both the "boy"? It's so profound!) the other night, and Whiteley was in that, so the news is a bit weird.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

You will obey!


Everywhere I go on the intervirtualmatrixweb, there are spoilers for the final episode of the mighty Doctor Who. The whole lot of you are evil demonic temptresses of the worst kind, and I shall avoid you until I've seen it myself. Do not tempt my wrath...

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Naked Video


I really don't understand these things, but Rob batonned* me, so...

Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
Not a lot actually, I only started to collect films in the dying days of VHS, and haven't really caught up on DVD yet, especially since we're moving to another region at some point in the nearish future. Let's say about fifty.

The last film I bought:
Um... it's been a while. Titan A.E. I think, for something silly like two dollars. It's not worth much more than that, but it's fun enough.

The last film I watched:
That's a bit easier. Finding Neverland was on in the background the other night, and I occasionally took a peek, but the last film I actively watched was Meet The Fockers the night before that. Dustin Hoffman is brilliant in it. The rest of it is shite.

Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

Much easier to answer than the music one. I must be a visual person.

Transformers: The Movie (1985/1986)
Optimus Prime kicks the collective arses of the entire Decepticon army, then dies. The hero dies. In a kid's film. Akira is great, Miyazaki is a genius of godlike proportions, but nothing touches this movie. Nothing. Plus it's the only kid's cartoon referenced in Boogie Nights, which has to be a sign of quality.

Halloween (1978)
The Best Film Ever. Anyone who tells you anything different is a liar of the worst sort, and probably also an imbecile.

One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)
Disney's finest hour-and-a-bit, I don't actually get to watch it a lot because the only place and time you can see it in this infinite cosmos is on ITV on Bank Holiday afternoons, but it mixes martial arts, a spy thriller, dinosaurs, and Victorian nannies all up in one film, which is the closest we're getting to a big-screen pirates vs ninjas vs monkeys vs robots movie in my lifetime.

Throne Of Blood (1957)
One of Kurosawa's second-tier movies that gets overlooked by people searching for the origins of Star Wars or The Magnificent Seven, this minor epic is an absolutely wonderful adaptation of my favourite Shakespeare play.

Batman (1989)/Spider-Man (2002)
I know, I'm cheating, but I can't decide between these two. The two best superhero films ever made by mortal hands. Probably the only thing that could shift these would be a full on epic Simonson-flavoured Thor movie done on a near-unlimited budget, or a similarly funded Avengers (no, not those Avengers) film, and those are unlikely to be made any time soon.

Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal/blog:
No. Although it'll be interesting to see what Rad, BilLy and Liam come up with. That's almost five isn't it? Well, let's chuck Nagl and the chaps from areyougoingtoeatthat? in there too to make up numbers.


*"batonned" is not a word. Do not use it in pedantic company.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

It's like Elite, but with chickens...

I had a SNES, but I obviously wasn't amazingly enthusiastic about it. Yes, it had the best version of Street Fighter II, the best Mario platformer so far, and the One True Mario Kart, so it certainly wasn't neglected. But I don't remember ever buying a single Nintendo-specific magazine, whereas I still have piles upon piles of Sega, Amiga and C64 magazines taking up space in a loft in East Sussex. What this means is that in these days of emulation and retro gaming, I'm discovering a whole new world of gaming delights on Nintendo's plucky little machine. Ogre Battle was the first surprise; a superb strategic wargame that I'd never heard of, apparently because it had no Sega or Commodore presence. And just this week, I discovered the delights of Harvest Moon, which is nothing but a farming simulator.
Yes, I understand that it's a tiny tomato patch, but I've only just started...

You buy seeds and/or animals from a nearby village, take them to your farm and set about putting up fences and tilling fields, and hope that you turn a profit at the end of the day. You milk your cows, pull up your turnips and collect your chickens' eggs, and that's it. It's slow, but amazingly compelling and addictive, just like plain old space trading is in Elite, which is why it reminds me of that classic game, even though they have almost nothing in common. You don't get to engage in piracy and theft in Harvest Moon, or go on murderous rampages in order to boost your Elite rating, but it's close enough. It's the complete antithesis of Grand Theft Auto while remaining within the same broad reality-based gaming genre. Wonderful.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Sunny Day...


When I said "no one comes here" in the previous post, I wasn't fishing for sympathetic testimonials. I honestly didn't think anyone read this blog. Now, of course, I know that to be incorrect, and I have to provide some content for my "legions" of "adoring" "fans".

How about this?

Team Spirit, page one

Yet again, I'm less than impressed with the final product, but you can decide for yourself by reading the rest, and some other fun stories too, in Sunny For Girls #2.

I really need to get a website sorted for all this stuff.