This trailer looks even more impressive than the previous ones.
It seems that the release date has been bumped up to August 25th. I don’t have to tell you what my plans for that evening are do I?
Over the weekend, Ryan Reynolds was officially cast as Hal Jordan, the (greatest) Green Lantern.
I’ve got to say I am a little disappointed. I could see Reynolds as Deadpool (although he was horribly misused in the Wolverine movie). I accepted him in Blade Trinity even though he was kind of annoying. I was excited about the prospect of Reynolds playing the Flash; I could totally see him as Wally West… but now he is going to be Hal Jordan.
At least they look alike
I’m a little bummed out by this because I see it as a loss on two fronts.
- I don’t think he is right for the role of Hal Jordan. He’s not all wrong for the role, I just think there are better people for the job; Nathan Fillion comes to mind.
- I can say with confidence that Reynolds won’t be the Flash. There is no way DC & Warner Brothers will allow the man to play two flagship characters. That’s sad because he would be perfect for that role.
All-in-all, I’m a bit disappointed, but will reserve judgment until it debuts in 2011.
Better comic/ movie news:
Geek icon Natalie Portman will play Jane Foster in Thor (2011). Now that is a good casting call.
The bright side?
Neither of these movies will be as dreadful as Transformers 2.
This cracked me up when I found it on BoingBoing.
Most popular musicians have at least one “hit” by simple virtue of the structure of the music industry. I have a tremendous fascination with how different musicians deal with their hits over the years in live performances.
Some:
- Play them as they were recorded
- Reinvent the song – “Same song played to a reggae beat” or something like that
- Tweak the solo
- Pretend the song doesn’t exist
- Rage on fans for loving it
A lot of musicians seem to feel stifled and restrained by their “hits.” Like it’s a curse they can never escape. I’ve read interviews with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, where he has gotten all bent out of shape because he thinks he will only be remembered for “Immigrant Song” and “Stairway to Heaven.”
Southside Johnny has expressed a great deal of happiness over the fact that he never had a “hit”… as a consequence, there is a good chance you haven’t heard of him unless you really know your Jersey Rock, read this blog regularly, or were a fan from back in the 70’s.
However, my favorite take on the “hit” came from John Popper of Blues Traveler while discussing “Run-Around.” (For the life of me, I can’t remember where I heard him say this, so I am going to butcher his quote) He said something along the lines of, “I hated the song for a long time, but eventually had to come to terms with the fact that the song paid for my house, and allows me to make music for a living.”
Brian Setzer (formerly of The Stray Cats) embraces his “hits” in live shows, and plays puts different twists on classics like “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” however, he also creates tons of new music and experiments like a mad man.
Anyway, I wasn’t sure where I was taking this when I started writing, but I think I have a conclusion to pull out of this rambling post:
Damn near every job that anyone has ever had involved some uninteresting, or downright contemptible task. If taking four minutes to play a crowd pleaser with some heart is too much to ask, the musician that is refusing to please his/her fans is a jerk.
Riding the last train to New Jersey from New York Penn Station on a Friday night is always an experience. You are guaranteed at least one total ass in each train car; it says so on the ticket. My trip back this evening was no exception.
I spent my night with two friends that I hadn’t seen in nine years. It was a lot of fun because the last time I saw them we spent three weeks camping and sea kayaking our way through the Virgin Islands. Even after nine years, it was amazing to see them. So much had changed in all of our lives, yet I felt like no time had passed.
Anyway, back to my train ride home. I ended up sitting next to the ass of the car and his girlfriend. His green pastel button down shirt, designer jeans, greased-up faux hawk, and popped collar screamed “I’M AN ASS!!!” His girlfriend was barely clothed, and exceptionally drunk after a night of celebrating her 21st birthday. I can say with confidence that her jewelry was covering about as much of her body as her clothing. As a consequence, a number of people in neighboring seats were leering, or outright staring at her. Both her and her boyfriend, henceforth refereed to as Mr. & Ms. Ass weren’t pleased with the gazes, and proceeded to scream at the guys across the way.
I’ve got to say that Mr. & Ms. Ass were completely nuts. As are any other people who leave portions of their body exposed, and then become up angry, insulted, embarrassed, etc. when someone checks them out. Now, I have the utmost respect for women, and leering isn’t my style, but please hear out my logic.
When you go to a museum the objects on display are behind glass. This is specifically so that people can see the object.
When one wears clothing that reveals a body part, that individual is putting that part on display. If one doesn’t wish to have her parts viewed, she should wear something that is opaque and covers some area, or accept that parts on on display, and consequently inviting viewership.
If I didn’t want you to read my writing, I wouldn’t publish it in a public place.
After the screaming match with the staring men, Mr. Ass realized that Ms. Ass lost his car keys and they spent the rest of the ride raging on each other.
Microsoft released a commercial for the upcoming Office 2010 that is, well… high budget.
Here’s what Microsoft got right – They didn’t say a word about their own capabilities, they didn’t attack the capabilities of other more stable and secure platforms, and they didn’t have a woman vomiting at the sight of her significant other’s web history.
Mostly I am just happy that no one threw up in this one.
The man who’s signature guitar looks like this…
… is going to write a comic about Lobo.
He's the guy on the left in case there was any confusion.
Lobo is essentially a caricature of your typical comic book anti-hero (see Wolverine). He is super strong, has super sense, is immortal, and is a genius. He’s also a funny, nasty, and generally angry SOB.
I learned a long time ago that celebrity writers on comic books rarely work out well, but I have a good feeling about this one. Artist Sam Keith always does nice work; especially on dark and gritty books.
Then there is Ian Scott; guitarist from Anthrax.
I have no idea if the man can tell a story, but he his music is aggressive, and he was always funny on “I Love the 80’s” (my college roommate had that show on a continuous loop for about a year).
Aggressive, edgy, and funny are the basic ingredients s for a Lobo story. Only time will tell on this one.
One day, I will build a secret passage behind a bookcase in my home.
And a malcontent shoot in front of my desk, that drops people through a hole in the floor, and spits them out in my moat that is filled with crocodiles.
"I haven't had to evolve in eons because I'm already a perfect killing machine."
Seriously, crocodiles are scary as hell.
08
Jul
09
Where’s the Beta?
My world was off kilter this afternoon.
Google lifted their ever-present “Beta” tag from the Gmail logo. Basically all of Google’s cloud application had been labeled as beta for years, even though it didn’t really make sense; until today.
Where's the beta?
My browser felt off balance without the beta tag, however, I found a remedy.
In Gmail Labs (click the green beaker in the top right corner), they have a little option called “Back to Beta.” Scroll down to it, and select “Enable.”
Then click “Save,” and return to using Gmail as usual.
Ah… Back to the status quo! Usually I’m all about destroying the status quo, but this innocuous tag is strangely comforting to me.
07
Jul
09
Trust Busting AT&T & Apple???
The Justice Department is looking into the relationship between AT&T and Apple for possible violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Among the areas the Justice Department could explore is whether wireless carriers are hurting smaller competitors by locking up popular phones through exclusive agreements with handset makers, according to the people. In recent weeks lawmakers and regulators have raised questions about deals such as AT&T’s exclusive right to provide service for Apple Inc.’s popular iPhone in the U.S (The Business Insider).
I’m curious to see how this plays out. Either way, AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal is set to expire in about a year, and I can’t imagine Apple renewing it; AT&T’s network sucks. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have had a call from an iPhone on AT&T’s network drop.
Social Security is deeply flawed, and will ultimately go bankrupt… but that’s a problem for “future us” to deal with.
Today’s problem is that with very limited information (birth date, and the state in which one was born), researchers from Carnegie Mellon University were able to correctly guess the first five digits of their sample’s Social Security numbers in two guesses, with 60 percent accuracy (boingboing).
It’s not a far leap to imagine a botnet (malware infected computers that are having resources sapped, and redirected towards the goals of the malware creator’s goals) applying for instant credit cards.
As a first step, the researchers suggest that the Social Security Administration start randomizing the assignment of SSNs. But randomization is only a Band-Aid™*, Acquisti said.
“It can buy us more time, but it isn’t going to change the underlying problem,” he said. “These numbers are supposed to be secret, but your bank has it, your insurance company has it, even your doctor has it. As long as we rely on numbers that are used as both identifiers and authenticators, then we are a system that remains insecure” (Wired).
Even if the Social Security Administration starts randomizing new numbers tomorrow morning, it won’t do a damn thing to address the millions of citizens with non-randomized numbers.
I don’t have a single idea to remedy this problem on a societal level, but someone needs to figure out a solution.
In the mean time, I will research how individuals can protect themselves and report back when I have some answers.
For those keeping score at home, this is yet another big loss for government bureaucracy.
* The “TM” was not originally part of Wired’s article. You’re welcome Johnson & Johnson.
06
Jul
09
Pixels Are Recyclable
My father worked in the photo industry until it evaporated with the rise of hi-res digital cameras. As a consequence I grew up around cameras, photographers, and film. We had all of the film we wanted, but each roll had a finite quantity of shots.
Now I have an eight gig SD card in my camera, and for all intents and purposes, I can take as many photos as I want… but I usually forget that.
Many people, myself included continue treat pixels as a finite and rare commodity like film once was.
On the July 4th, I finally used my digital camera as a digital camera.
My parent’s neighbors always put on an incredible fireworks display. Every year they become more efficient, sophisticated, and spectacular; this year was no exception. I decided to play with my camera a bit and see what would come out. I set it to “continuous” and pointed it in the general direction of the explosions.
The initial results were mixed.
Then I made a mistake, shaking the camera as I crushed a mosquito that was biting my arm. It turned out that the continuous shooting, delayed exposure, and shaking of the camera created a really cool streak effect.
Then I started to experiment by shaking the camera in different directions, and at different speeds; I am delighted with what I captured.
The Riddler was here
I took about 700 images and maybe 275 of them are worth a second glance, but that’s OK, because pixels are recyclable.
It’s going to take me a while to crop all of these and make them look presentable, but when I do they will go up on Facebook & Flickr. I will post a link when they are available.
It’s been about two weeks since I reviewed Dream Theater’s new album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Over that span of time, I have listened to the album quite a few times, and still love it. However, I also think I was wrong about a few things.
- Wither is not a weak track. It’s actually very good.
- The Shattered Fortress is not particularly interesting. The fact that it is comprised of riffs from past Dream Theater songs has killed any chance it had at longevity. I’m pretty sick of it already.
- The Count of Tuscany is spectacular. The song runs over 19 minutes, but it’s like a time machine. I put it on and 20 minutes have gone by.
When I review an album I think I am going to try and follow up a few weeks later and report back if I feel the same way about it; see if it has staying power.
It’s kind of a joke in comics. No one ever stays dead.
Much like the peasant who was turned into a newt in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, dead comic characters get better.
Anyway, Captain America was shot and killed about two years ago, and I was sad. Steve Rogers was one of my favorite characters and I couldn’t imagine his book on without him.
I seriously underestimated Captain America writer Ed Brubaker. I shouldn’t have done that because the guy hadn’t written a bad comic in a long time. He is one of my “go to” authors.
So the book didn’t suck without Rogers; it thrived.
Now, it seems Marvel and Brubaker are bringing the late Mr. Rogers back from the dead in Captain America Reborn.
Roger’s return was inevitable. He’s a popular character and he has a big budget, live action movie due in theaters on July 11, 2011… so you know he will be alive and fighting the good fight in comics by then.
The first issue of Reborn wasn’t bad, but at this point it looks like they are going the route of time travel to bring Cap back. I’m not a fan of time travel stories. In fact, over the years I have grown to despise all but the best time travel tales.
But I’m not going to doubt Brubaker again. He gets the benefit of the doubt.
Have a happy July 4th and enjoy celebrating the principles that Captain America always represented.
Same Blog, Different Place
Tags: Blogging, Google, Facebook, Comments, RSS
You could be reading this in one of many places.
Some are viewing it on the site (The Geek Whisperer), others on my Facebook profile, some on Jason’s (TheLisnakFactor) Facebook profile, or perhaps you are reading on an RSS reader. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the people reading this on Facebook have never actually visited the main site.
Facebook is trying to build their own Internet kingdom where an increasing volume of information passes through their servers; servers that are beyond Google’s all seeing eye (Wired). Information is exceptionally valuable, and as targeted marketing becomes more prominent, information will become an exceptionally precious commodity.
The growing Facebook – Google conflict aside, this presents an interesting challenge for me because comments from readers come in from different places, and never touch one another.
Some people comment on the blog. Facebook readers never see them.
Some of my friends comment on my profile. Regular blog readers never see those, and neither do Jason’s friends.
Some of Jason’s friends comment on his profile. I didn’t even realize he was feeding the blog to his profile until he emailed me and let me know that one of his friends took issue with my take on the X-Man, Storm. Chances are that none of you ever saw the exchange that ensued; unless you are friends with Jason on Facebook.
It’s difficult to provoke dialog when those who are speaking can’t hear one another.
I wanted to use my Facebook Screw image again.
Personally, I prefer the comments when they are left on the blog where everyone can read and respond. However, at the end of the day, I choose to feed the blog through Facebook (Jason too) and I love receiving comments on any forum. I do this to inform and provoke dialog, it’s just awkward to reply to different conversations on the same post.
This is one of instance of Facebook’s lock & key control interfering with usability. I strongly suspect this will grow into a more significant issue as Facebook continues to expand.