SDCC Boxing

No, not hitting each other,  although that could happen over the Batman Jim Lee Exclusive, you never know. This post is about storing and retrieving your comic-con gear. We're going to share with you an the idea that we implemented 2 SDCC's ago...

Marian Call and the Space Weird Thing

You might recognize Marian Call as the main figure in the above image. She's one of our favorite people on Twitter and in our earbuds; we've even had the pleasure of hanging out with her at SDCC and ECCC. You might also recognize a younger David Bowie in the inset of the above image. And, maybe, you've correctly identified it as coming from Bowie's 1969 music video for "Space Oddity." However, unless you're on Marian's mailing list, or connected with one of her loyal fans, you might not know just what the two nearly mirror images have to do with each other.

Well, I'm going to tell you.

Several days ago, I received Marian's latest newsletter email. It contained info about upcoming appearances, a new album in the works, and a video oddity. Regarding that last item, it seems that Marian got together with Alaska Robotics, Molly Lewis, and Seth Boyer to make a video. And they didn't do just any ol' video. No, they went and sweded the aforementioned music video for "Space Oddity"! Oh, and on top of that, they redid the lyrics so as to use only the 1000 most used words in English (see Randall Munroe's Up-Goer Five on xkcd.com).

Now, in case you're not familiar with the concept of sweded films, it refers to the recreation of popular pop-culture films using limited budgets and technology -- mainly a handheld camcorder and whatever odds and ends you can scrape together as props. It has been heralded as "the end of Hollywood as we know it," and the term has its roots in the 2008 film, Be Kind Rewind. And, lo, a pop-culture phenomenon was born!

But back to Marian Call and the point of this entry...

If you see only one music video this month, or one sweded film this month, it really should be this one. I mean, c'mon, even David Bowie's website is promoting it!

See also:

• Alaska Robotics
• Molly Lewis
• Seth Boyer

The Property by Rutu Modan

So Brainwise left a book/graphic novel(?) on my pile to read - The Property by Rutu Modan. I honestly don't remember what he told me about the book that made him want me to read it. But I left it in my pile... for quite awhile. Today I decided to read it.

It turns it out it is about a Grandmother and Granddaughter who travel to Poland to supposedly reclaim some property. Now here is the weird part, I have always had an affinity for Jewish culture and history. I am not sure why but I am always drawn to Jewish things. So I assume this is why Brainwise gave me the book. I wonder though, if he recalls that my Grandmother's name was Regina, the same as the Grandmother in this book. That hit home and then as I read the book all I could think about was what my Grandmother had gone through in her life.

In this book Regina was sent away from her first true love who had gotten her pregnant. He didn't know what happened to her and she was always hoping she would get back to him. Well, she does get back to him although I am not sure he realized it at first. It turns out Regina's true plan for the trip was to meet up with this man. She wanted to tell him that their son had passed away two months before. The son is also the Granddaughter's father. The Granddaughter had no idea about this story but she does learn it through the various people she meets while trying to find the property.

They are in Warsaw for Zaduszki and it plays a major role in the story. I honestly can not recall this "holiday" but I will say I wish I could have travelled to Poland with my Grandmother for this "holiday". I wish so much my Grandmother were here now so I could ask her more questions about her life. The Granddaughter in this story was very lucky to learn all the secrets of her family and to finally meet her Grandfather.

As for the property, it turns it out it is where the Grandfather lives. He "bought" it from the Regina's parents to protect it during the war and he was to return it once he received Regina's address of wherever she was at the time. Well as we already can guess, this does not happen, as Regina turns up at the door instead. She does not want the property, only the closure of the relationship with her first true love.

This is quite the story with many intersecting parts. It is beautifully drawn and a very easy read. There are also lots of funny things that only Polish people will understand. So if you have any affinity for Jewish tales or Polish heritage you will want to check out this book.

I give The Property 4 paws: 

-Dangrdafne

Game of Bloggers Meet-Up at SDCC 2015!

For our fifth consecutive SDCC, we will be part of the Game of Bloggers Meet-Up hosted by the one and only Crazy 4 Comic Con! If you're going to SDCC this year, and you're free on Preview Night (Wednesday July 8th), come join us and more cool-and-nerdy bloggers than you can shake a sonic screwdriver at!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

So we finally got out to see Avengers: Age of Ultron. It seemed a very appropriate movie for Memorial Day. Although this movie has been out since May 1, and even though you've had every chance to see it before we did, we still feel the need to post a little warning: Our review is filled with SPOILERS. If you're OK with that, you can read more after the break.

Edge of Tomorrow or Live, Die, Repeat

dangrdafne  says: So we finally got around to watching the Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise feature originally called Edge of Tomorrow but then released on DVD/Blu-Ray as Live, Die, Repeat.

Whichever name you call it, I call it great. I admit that I always seem to like Tom Cruise movies but this time I hardly remembered he was in it. Emily Blunt stole the show for me. She was amazing. She was strong, vulnerable, smart and cocky. I loved her character and her portrayal of her. I have never read the manga this movie is based on but I definitely didn't need to in order to follow along and enjoy the story. I was worried how many times I was going to have watch certain scenes but that went away quickly as the story moved forward without distraction. It is a very clever premise and the movie told the story well.

I did call this a mini Pacific Rim, however I didn't really like Pacific Rim but I definitely liked this movie. It is great eye candy for the action and I definitely enjoyed watching Emily's character have to shoot Tom's character quite a few times. She definitely seemed to enjoy this aspect of the movie ;)

Overall I give the movie 4.5 paws:



brainwise says: Of the two of us, I'm the only one who read the source material: All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Er, actually, I read Takeshi Obata's manga adaption. Still, that slightly influences my impression of the film with Blunt and Cruise. But only slightly. I'll focus on three of the differences.

The biggest difference between the novel (or manga) and the film is also its most creative: Writing the 50-year-old Tom Cruise as the jaded and cowardly PR hack, William Cage. This was a good way to get around the fact that Cruise was three decades older than the 20-year-old aimless and anxious protagonist, Keiji Kiriya, who actually appears in the novel. And although I always tend to see "Tom Cruise" rather than the character he is supposed to be portraying, I actually found him pretty entertaining in this role. Cruise's Cage also has far more interaction with Rita Vrataski than Kiriya does in the book. But that works because we, as the viewers, also get more time with Rita.

Speaking of Rita Vrataski, Emily Blunt's portrayal in the movie is also very different from the novel or manga. For one, Blunt is older than her novel's counterpart, and the Rita she portrays has not been involved in as many battles. Still, as dangrdafne said above, Blunt was pretty damn amazing in the film and I couldn't take my eyes off her whenever she was on the screen. Her Rita was powerful, sure of herself (for the most part), and able to handle the chaos of battle, almost bending it to her will. I do wish she would have had something closer to the axe used in the book instead of the sword she had in the movie, but the sword worked fine. Unfortunately, in the movie, we did not get the scene where we learn why Rita uses a bladed weapon (instead of the rail gun) which then encourages Kiriya to get his own -- the reason being, the axe doesn't jam or run out of battery power.

The movie version of the enemy -- the unrelenting mimics -- is also very different from that of the novel. And here, as in the script change to accommodate Cruise's casting, the change is successful. In the movie, the mimics are somewhat amorphous, tentacled killing machines. They are so much scarier and impressive this way! The battle scenes have enough action, tension, and humor to keep them interesting (which is good because the time-travel/reset angle means you have to view some of these scenes over and over), and the deadly seriousness of the mimics portrayal definitely provides the correct sense of the stakes involved.

There are a few other differences in plot and characters, but you can find other sites that will take you through all of those changes point by point. Besides, if I do that, I'll spoil the ending of the film (or the book) for you, and I don't want to do that. Suffice to say that the movie looks great, the main characters are acted well, and I was entertained. I would definitely watch it again!

I give the movie 4 paws!

(If I had not read the manga, I would have rated it 4.5 paws)

Loot Crate May 2015 Unboxing

Look what's here! It's a Lootcrate box!!

We've been subscribed to Loot Crate for roughly a year now. And the latest one arrived this week, so why not blog about unboxing it? If you're interested in what we received and how we rated it, read on after the break.