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Date-Based Archive Recommendations

I recommend the following things!

1. Listening to this podcast of comic book geeks listening to old cartoon theme songs. They talk through the songs a bit, which is sometimes irritating and sometimes enlightening. There's a link on the blog post to places you can download the themes.

2. Caramel flavored tea as sold buy Revolution tea and served at Beard Papas.

3. Listening to this clip of the Monster Raving Loony Party's election results.

Posted by erin at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Episode III - Trading Spaces in Space

I think the coolest thing about being a Sith has got to be your Confirmation name. You might be Harry Winklesteinwiener now, but when you become a Sith you get renamed "Darth Grievous Damage."

I learned a lot from watching Episodes I-III. For example, I learned that George Lucas is not the creative genius I used to think he was. Filmmaking is a collaborative process. Lots of people's creativity, blood, sweat, and tears get poured into any given movie - perhaps none more so than the original Star Wars trilogy (eps. IV-VI). I used to think movies by "auteur" filmmakers were the best kind of movie, but thanks to Episode III, I know that's not always the case.

Episode III begins with a long pan into a space battle. There are no cuts as the camera bobs and weaves and moves to follow a spaceship in a longshot that lasts several minutes. You can tell, instantly, that this is the type of movie George Lucas always wanted to make. It is the movie a technophile obsessed with special effects and a videogame tycoon would make. It is a movie made by a man who hates actors. Episode III might be a movie that George Lucas wants to see - but it's not really the kind of movie I'd like to see.

Episodes I-III resemble their predecessors only insomuch as the costume designs happen to be similar and they are all scored by John Williams. Apparently everything I loved about episodes IV-VI can be credited to Joseph Campbell, Lawrence Kasdan, and whoever else did the dozens of necessary rewrites. They may have worked from Lucas's original idea, but it turns out Lucas has good ideas that he executes very poorly.

In the end Episode III has some very good scenes. There are some good ideas buried somewhere in a crappy script and hidden behind those throwback optical wipes between scenes (why not a star-wipe? Throw one of those in there while you're at it). If your friend wrote Episode III and handed you the script, you might say, "There are certainly some good concepts here. I think another dozen rewrites and it'll be an awesome film." Apparently Lucas doesn't have friends anymore, only Yesmen.

A friend would tell you, honestly, that calling Jedi understudy youth "Younglings" is retarded, and it's embarrassing to see actors say the word "Younglings" on-screen. I guess maybe you could say it once, and it could kind of slip by - a tiny, cringe-able moment we could all forget about, but instead, we get to hear the word "Younglings" spoken at least three times. Seems like you would've caught the ear-grated qualities of that particular word if you read the script out loud to yourself, or say, did a table-reading with the actors... or maybe after the first take you'd realize it sucked. Or hell, in the editing room, hearing the editor put together scenes using the word "Younglings" you'd notice that it's pretty fucking embarrassing. But nope, not George Lucas.

In the Harry Potter novels, first year students are called "Firsties" and sometimes, "Ickle firsties." That's fine, in a novel. In a movie, it sounds pretty lame, although a bit less lame with a British person says it. Thank god they only say it once in the movie. Not like "Younglings."

While "Younglings" is a minor complaint, I think it is indicative of overall problems with Episode III.

I have often said that there are three types of movies: all-bad movies, all-good movies, and movies that fail to live up to their potential. All-bad movies can include anything from MST3K fare to regular B-movies to consistently bad Hollywood features. An all-bad movie can be enjoyable on a certain level for it's cheesiness. An all-good movie can be thrown into mediocrity with some sub-par scenes. But a movie that fails to live up to it's potential is truly the worst kind of movie. Moments of brilliance shine through occasionally, reminding you that the director could have made an all-good movie but failed. Inconsistent movies are the most disappointing.

I think we can all agree, as Star Wars fans, that Episode II - Revenge of the Clowns (ahem - Clones) was a really crappy movie. Yes, 20 minutes at the end of Episode II were really cool. We all wanted to see Yoda fighting and a big battle with elite Jedi forces. But this doesn't really make up for being visually and aurally assaulted for the first 100 minutes by some of the worst romance scenes in all of cinema history. After Episode II I vowed to buy metal spikes to drive into my eyes and ears during Episode III, just in case it was as bad or worse.

Well, the romance scenes in Episode III were just as bad. Or nearly as bad. I chickened out and didn't buy metal spikes. For some reason it didn't hurt nearly as bad as watching Episode II. I think it's the equivalent of getting sucker-punched vs. tightening your abs in preparation for someone hitting you in the gut. I was blindsided by Episode II's crappy romance, but Episode III's crappy romance did not take me by surprise.

I'd like to break here to conjecture that Padme wears like a thousand freaking outfits in this movie, and all of them are distracting and annoying (up to her traveling clothes, which are OK). But these non-stop elaborate costume changes are a real break from the narrative. For the love of god, it's like a Japanese dating sim where you can pick out what the girl wears! The most fetishistic of manga (like Chobits) will purposefully break the narrative flow for excuses to show the characters in different ridiculous costumes (a French maid outfit, junior high school uniform, a pastry store employee uniform, a swimsuit, etc.) Padme's outfits change in the same way.

Come on, people! How many outfits did Leia have? Like three or four? She dressed in all white, in Boba Fett's outfit, in speederbike gear, and as Jaba's memorable love slave - but that's four or five outfits across three movies. Padme wears a zillion outfits, just in this one movie. I don't even think it's to sell toys!

I have a laundry list of complaints about this movie. Most of the flaws are really obvious, so instead I'll focus my criticism on anyone who claims Episode III was a "good" movie, that "stands up to the originals." Episode III is a bad movie. A good movie doesn't have cringe-worthy scenes that punch you in the gut with how crappy they are. In a good movie the actors at least care about what they're doing, at least most of the actors - whereas in Episode III Ewan McGregor has given up. He's actually acting at cross-purposes with the director. In a GOOD movie most of the actors are giving their all, and there are some stand-out performances in the cast. In Episode III even Ian McDiarmid's (the Emperor) performance is kinda weird.

A good movie doesn't hurt to watch. A good movie can be watched more than once. I would watch Return of the Jedi again, in its entirety. In fact its inevitable that I will watch Return of the Jedi again someday. You know what I'm not going to watch all of ever again, or bother to purchase? Episode III. I guess it might be worthwhile to pick out some scenes on the DVD to watch again, but I wouldn't watch the whole thing, beginning to end, unless it was in an MST3K episode. There's a lot more to re-watch than in Episode II, but there are still huge chunks of Episode III that I never want to see again.

Episode II lowered our expectations, and we have to keep that in perspective. If a student gets an 'F' on an assignment, and on the next assignment he gets a 'C', sure, you could say that's a big improvement. But it's not an 'A'. All of the A and B papers in the class are still better than the C paper.

The New Yorker's reviewer says it most astutely:

"The general opinion of 'Revenge of the Sith' seems to be that it marks a distinc improvement on the last two episodes, 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones'. True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion."

To Episode III's credit - yes there are some good scenes. Some very good fight scenes (I wonder who choreagrapged them? I bet the initials of that fight choreographer are not G.L.). But some good scenes don't make up for the whole movie. It's like a broken clock. A broken clock is right twice a day. Episode III is like a used car where some of it's parts have been replaced with new parts. The owner proudly says, of the car,

"Sure, this car's a lemon, but the axles are brand new, the hub caps are new, and check out my kickass new stereo..." It doesn't really help when the car stalls out on the highway. A good car doesn't stall out on the highway. A good movie doesn't have scenes that hurt to watch.

Posted by erin at 07:21 PM | Comments (5)

Date-Based Archive Water Buffalo Yogurt Review

So if I keel over and die in the next 48 hours, you'll know it's because of this Water Buffalo Yogurt that I got from the new Whole Foods on 14th Street. Maybe I'm deathly allergic. Who knows?!

The yogurt was pretty good although high on the calorie count and fat. It was thick and kind of like that delicious Greek yogurt you find around the city sometimes.

Other links of the day include how the Japanese are getting ruder and this guy built a Gundam-esque mech that he's selling for only like US$380,000 a pop.

A while back N. and I were scoping out ratemyteachers.com and ratemyprofessors.com, both of which had teachers/professors we actually remembered on it - with appropriate ratings by students. These links were sent along by my mom, who didn't find herself on there, despite having taught a few classes in her day.

Posted by erin at 06:10 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive My Poor Baby!!

My poor little computer crapped out on me Tuesday night! I bought my awesome 12-inch G4 Titanium Powerbook (with SuperDrive) last June, and it's done me well all year up until Sunday night, when it started having trouble booting and hanging at random times. I think maybe the fan busted, considering the machine worked better when cool, and I can't remember the last time I heard the fan kick in.

So I took the poor little thing to Digital Society. I haven't heard back from them yet as to how long it will take to fix, but they're supposed to call me.

Fortunately my computer is still under warranty. Waaaaay fortune, since I didn't buy Applecare, since it cost like, a hajillion dollars for a G4!!! Also fortunately I was able to back up my stuff on my kick-ass firelite portable drive.

It's annoying that my computer freaked out when it did because I'm going to Anime Central in Chicago this weekend and N. kinda wanted to be That Guy Watching AMVs on His Laptop While Waiting in Line for Stuff. Also we could watch crap on the plane. And in the airport. Or I could at least add new music to N.'s ipod. But noooooooo.

Posted by erin at 05:58 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive Business Cards

I've been thinking about making business cards for awhile now. Sometimes interesting people tour the studio and I'd like to have something to give them - and sometimes I just meet people who might be good connections later.

Next week some Cartoon Network people are coming and I want to give them a business card. I don't have company-specific ones with my name on 'em, and it's safe to say that I might not always work at this company. In the future I might work at some/all of the other animation companies in NYC.

When I go to Korea this fall and tour the animation studio there I want to have nice formal business cards to give them. Meanwhile, for the CN people I'll meet next week it'd be useful to have slap-dash temporary business cards to give them.

The idea here is to achieve a career goal I have: To attend a big Cartoon Network party. I know they have these parties. I know important people go to them. I know many of the animation people who's work I admire attend said parties.

There's a second problem - I hesitate to put my current job position on my business cards because I know I won't always be a Production Coordinator. I don't want to limit myself to just the production side. I can't put "Animator" because technically I do not animate things. I figure a funny slogan or a non-serious byline might be the way to go.

So here are the ideas I have for slap-dash-ready-by-next-week litte cards to make up:

Go to Livejournal and take the Poll.

Posted by erin at 05:45 PM | Comments (4)

Date-Based Archive I've Got a Bad Feeling About This

Star Wars Yaoi Doujin - the title of the book (?) says it all:

Here's a sample page:

These are images taken from Mandarake's online store. It's not a link for the faint of heart. After you verify that you're 18, you can look at the Star Wars category here. There's also a Lord of the Rings category. This isn't work safe.

Anyone want to translate that page?

In other news I spent most of today listening to one of these new-fangled podcast by a trucker named Tom. It's interesting to hear non-standard American accents on the sort-of-radio! Tom actually says at one point, in reference to his sponsored links on his page, that he will always tell you when he's part of an affiliate program because he's "not trying to snooker you." I also enjoy listening to Dawn and Drew's Wisconsin accents, which are somewhere between a Michigan accent and a Minnesota accent (think of Fargo).

Posted by erin at 01:22 AM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive Anime Boston 2005

Anime Boston ruled! I can't tell you everything about it just now, but check out my pictures here, and Euralis's pictures here.

I missed a lot of cool stuff while I was out of town, though, like KND winning an award at AISFA East, the Family Guy Live (on stage cast reading), some other animation event that was huge, the Sakura Festival at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and most regrettably, Nina's going away forever party.

Even at the con I missed connections with people and panels I would've liked to have seen. I guess you just can't be everywhere at the same time.

Posted by erin at 06:40 PM | Comments (1)