Electric Dreamstate

I haven't been updating this blog nearly as much as I should, but I'm posting here to say that I probably won't be updating much over the course of November.

In addition to purchasing a bunch of videogames, I'm also going to be preparing for my eventual departure from Edmonton and participating in the NaNoWriMo.

Speaking of the the NaNoWriMo, I've challenged several people to participate. The only person that I've challenged who came through was Chris over at the Crap Shack.

A notable on the cowardly list is Leah, whose blog I'd be in a blog fight with if she didn't post about three times as much as me and humiliate me. She was all about "I have so much work I'm going to die of stress as it is" and "I have a career!". Sorry Leah, that doesn't cut it. If you can't compete with an unemployed guy for writing a 50 000 word novel no one will ever read, well, I don't know what you can compete in.

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My American passport came in the mail today. No going back now.

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This sounds like it should be some sort of April Fool type prank, but it seems like it isn't. Marvel Comics and Guiding Light are doing a crossover. Hells yeah.

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The Departed

I don't know if I necessarily like this film better than Gangs of New York or The Aviator, but I could certainly like it more without trying. You rarely see escapist films put together with such care as was given The Departed and that level of quality spanned from the directing to the acting to the cinematography to the music to, most importantly, the writing. The script was obviously tight.

This is also one of the few recent mainstream films where you can't really figure out where everything is going after 10 minutes, which is nice. Of course if you've see the Infernal Affairs which the film is based off of (I haven't), you've probably spoilered yourself. Recommended without reservation.


Shortbus

Does the idea of seeing one guy use another guy's erect penis as a microphone while singing the American National Anthem freak you out? If yes then you shouldn't see this movie. Does the idea of a whole bunch of people getting all emo and whiney about themselves freak you out? If yes then you shouldn't see this movie. Personally, despite being a bit ground-breaking by showing the actual act of penetration a whole bunch, I didn't really like the characters enough to get invested in the rest of the film. Tentatively recommended against, unless this sounds like the kind of film for you.


Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut

The director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven, is an hour longer than the theatrical version (that's a full third extra) and fixes most of the problems the original cut had. On a very basic level, it fleshes out the kind of experience Orlando Bloom's character had before the film began, as to make his third act heroics much more believable. Further, it made the character of the Queen have so much more depth as to almost seem like a completely different character. It's truly the "real" version of the film (in a way that many modern director's cuts aren't) and is firmly now my third favorite Ridley Scott movie (bonus points to those who guess the first two).

There is a little bit of an Ivanhoe problem where the main character goes missing for a good chunk of time during the middle of the film (the reason the majority of the scenes that were cut were cut), but balanced against the amount of depth and texture added to the film, that quibble is inconsequential. In my experience where the two hour version felt too long, this three hour version almost feels like it isn't long enough. It still isn't exactly great history (it isn't trying to be), but it is a great epic. Recommended if you enjoy epics

(Also, there was some Islamic protest before Kingdom of Heaven was released. Ironically, if anyone comes out of KoH looking like saints it's the Muslims.)

Posted by Daniel Kaszor at 7:12 p.m. | Permalink | Comments

Space just finished showing one of the better Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes: "Darmok". "Darmok" is such a great episode for the same reason that many episodes of STNG excel, a simple concept, usually played out by Patrick Stewart, is such a powerfully good storytelling device that it transcends the rather silly Next Gen goings on and plot holes. Many of STNG's best episodes are like "Darmok", ("Inner Light" where Picard is zapped by a probe and lives another life is probably the best remembered) and that seems to be where the show ages best.

Seeing the episode again reminded me of when I first saw it, and how it made me fascinated with the myth of Gilgamesh, which I was sure was made up for the show. It also showed me how much faulty logic you can get away with on STNG and still succeed at having a memorable episode (I mean why would you go on a mission where you can't understand the other party's language without a linguist?).

Other episodes from the spin-offs followed a similar pattern, usually swapping in a well versed guest star where Patrick Stewart's acting chops lived before. Examples are "Sound of Her Voice" from DS9 and "Blink of an Eye" on Voyager.

.

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As I was cruising the interweb today I came across a rather strange promotion for the new Transformers movie. If you go to Transformersmovie.com you can submit a line that you want Optimus Prime to say in the upcoming movie (the teaser of which got an ovation when I saw it in Times Square in July BTW).

This is quite interesting to me for a couple of reasons. The first is that this is the first example I've seen of Snakes on a Plane type movie making beyond Snakes on a Plane. There, people on the internet suggested scenes and then those scenes were incorporated into the movie ("get this snake off my dick!" was one such scene). This gives the people of the internet a greater sense of ownership over the creative process of the movie and makes it more likely for them to see it. It also means that internet memes can make their way into mainstream movies.

This is fine and dandy for movies like Snakes on a Plane and Transformers where the artistic vision is inherently a corporate one and it doesn't really matter if some wank on the internet wants to see something stupid, but I really hope this doesn't move in and replace test screenings as a way to fuck up perfectly good movies. It probably won't though.

The second reason that this interested me was that when you go to the site you get to see some of the lines submitted, and some of them are absolutely hilariously terrible. Like: "We may be parts, but we have hearts!". Awesome.

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I remember back in late 2004 when I started seeing Battlestar Galactica episodes imported from the UK. It was an odd show, it was written like Sci Fi should be written about ideas and characters instead of unfeasible plots and stupid mcguffins. But it was hard to convince people to watch a show that they couldn't tune-in to on TV.

Skip to now; season three of the show is starting and a lot of people dig it. I'm going to a fully fledged "Frack Party" this (Saturday) evening to watch the season premiere.

Not much more to add beyond that. Just wanted to post something about BSG.

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Carrying a camera around with you is fun. I came across this in front of the Garneau Pub.

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This is just going to be the traditional photo post with little extra. This was at Avenue pizza last night during the 3-1 murderizing the Oilers gave the Flames.

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Ah, it's that time of year again. Or I should say that it's that time of year for the first time. Yes, I'm excited about the first Oilers game of the season in, pretty much, ever. I could be because of the boosterism over at Covered in Oil, and it could be the epic, if undeserved second place I took in the Gateway hockey pool (I deserved both a lower and a higher ranking there if that makes any sense), but it was probably the fact that the Oilers cast a little bit of playoff magic last year. It seems strange to boot up NHL 07 and see the Oilers and the Canes there as the the default teams because of the cup final. Not right somehow.

Anyhow, I'm going and watching the game as it should be watched ... in a bar over pizza and beer. If the Oilers lose and then lose again on Saturday I think I'll officially expose the fair weather nature of my fandom, but for now I'm a Oiliholic.

Goilers!

Posted by Daniel Kaszor at 2:48 p.m. | Permalink | Comments

Welcome to the blog formerly known as "Electric Dreamstate", it will now be known as ... "Electric Dreamstate".

Yeah, sorry about that, I really wanted to think up a new name, but as I thought about it more I was surprised how much "Electric Dreamstate" summed up my life. Either that or Adam Houston wanted to use the name and I'm a prick. But I'm pretty sure it was the first.

But I'm sure you don't care about my naming of the site, I'm sure that you want to know what to expect from the All NEW, All BETTER, Extra-Tasty Crispy ELECTRIC DREAMSTATE, so I whipped up a schedule for me to break. Here we go:

Regularly:
Mondays: I will post about the movies I've seen over the last week. This won't happen in weeks where I haven't seen any movies or I'm lazy.
Wednesdays I will post about popular culture.
Thursdays I will post about videogames.

Irregularly (but probably more often):
Sundays I will post pictures and junk of other people doing stupid stuff. I think I'm required to do this by blog-law.
Random days I will post random factoids. Dan-acdotes if you will.

Posted by Daniel Kaszor at 2:55 p.m. | Permalink | Comments