A Long Day

Early this morning I set off towards a university campus to attend the shoot for my new TV commercial. As before, the day would be mostly waiting for shots to be set up, meals and drinks to be served and more waiting. But this time however, at the very least I could look forward to seeing gorgeous models on camera. In fact, I have to say that our lead talent reminds me of an international star. Heh. Anyway, I took some pictures and hope to post some images soon. The day was long and I left the shoot at 10 PM. Sadly, I had to beg off from our gang's usual Saturday Night Out since I was tired, sleepy and still had ANOTHER shooting day tomorrow. Sigh. Got to get back my lost weekend somehow, someway.

Prepped for the Work Weekend

Tomorrow I go on location to attend yet another TV commercial shoot. I think I will have fun since the board is pretty cool and the talents are mostly gorgeous young women. Heh. Hopefully we finish the day early so I won't miss the nightlife. What I will miss though is my Greenhills Day. Argh... No new games or anime... Gotta make up for it on Monday. Yes, that's the ticket... Monday is my funday next week.

Serious blood loss... Ahh...

New stocks finally arrived just before closing time at Comic Quest, and so I found myself getting drained. Picked up the latest Newtype USA magazine, which once again impresses me with all the good stuff an anime fan would want. Also got the latest Blade of the Immortal (one issue to go to finish the current Fall Frost story arc) and the second issue of Thundercats Return, which maintains the cool art from the first issue. An unexpected purchase of the night is the small, 'traveller' sized TPB of the Crossgen fantasy-adventure, Meridian. I've heard good things about this title, with some of my friends telling me that it brings to mind Angel (Ace). I've procrastinated getting it, but now with a good opportunity and a nice number of issues (the collection has issues 1-7) it was a no-question buy. Cool!
Anyway, It was a long day at the office, divided between thinking up advertising copy and monitoring the TV for news on the ongoing US-Iraq conflict. How do they expect us to work when these things are happening?! Sigh.

"The war has begun."
- Magneto, X2

I left the house with the Fox News channel announcing that only fifteen minutes was left in Saddam Hussein's alloted time limit before the US-led coalition started their big push. I'm in the office now, and just a few minutes ago CNN, BBC and other news channels have reported that indeed, the war has started. There's talk of anti-aircraft fire being heard, and some 'precise' weaponry and munitions being employed to take out a possible member of the Saddam government.
I remember the images of Bagdad night skies lighting up with anti-aircraft flak and tracers. I remember the weeks-long air bombardment. It the allies had finished it then, this wouldn't have been necessary.

Just finish it quick, and thouroughly. And let's all get back to living normally again.

Buffy is MINE! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

While walking about at Park Square, I came by a video shop and got myself the boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season. I've always liked the show, and since the shop gave a pretty good price (at just over 2K), I decided to get it. One of the most absurd prices I've seen for the Buffy DVD box sets is Php 9000 (!!!). DAAAAMMMNN!!! Anyway, I would have wanted to get the first or second seasons first, but I think it's a good thing since the Third Season is supposedly the best.
The 3rd Season basically has Buffy returning to Sunnydale after some time of exile. The season highlights include the introduction of the rogue slayer, Faith, and the return of Angel. Of course, a fearsome Big Bad awaits the Slayer and the Scooby gang at the end of the stretch.
Personally though, I kinda enjoyed the high stakes 5th Season, and having a gorgeous evil god named Glory as the final boss was cool. Well, that's further down the road I guess. Again... gotta find time for this, since a couple of the gang has already expressed a desire to borrow the set. Heh.

Questforce II

I went over to Comic Quest and disappointingly, new stuff hadn't arrived yet. On the bright side, most of the gang was there. They played a word game while I drew away my time sketching out our superhero aliases from comicbook the movie. Afterwards, we set out to have dinner at Jia Yao restaurant. I had dumplings with fly lice-er, Yang Chow fried rice, and a bowl of steaming congee split with Mike. Really filling dinner despite being inflicted upon with a waiter whose brain was on the fritz. PAH.
Anyway, I got home to watch some WWE wrestling, a guilty pleasure I can now once again indulge in thanks to the Solar channel. I really ought to check out my new anime acquisitions, but watching the physical farce is just irresistible. Tired and feeling a bit under the weather, I just want to turn off my brain right now. Especially with the prospect of having NO WEEKEND this Saturday and Sunday. Yep. Got another TV commercial to shoot this weekend. Oh well.

Trailer for next Animatrix episode online!

Ain't It Cool news has posted an article with a link to the trailer of The Final Flight of the Osiris, yet another short film in the Animatrix series. Osiris introduces to us Jue and her crew as they race to warn the human city of Zion of an impending machine invasion. Animated in startlingly realistic CG animation by Square USA, this part is perhaps one of the most awaited of the Matrix anime.
With liberal amounts of sex appeal (Jue shows off her CG-perfect bod in the episode's hot training duel/striptease sequence), action and a gripping story, Osiris will probably give us more satisfaction in it's scant 10 minutes than the sad, sad and ill-advised feature film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

You can find the trailer here.

Ab Ovo #2 now available

The second issue of the Levi's-sponsored comics anthology, Ab Ovo (Black, White and Red) is now available at Comic Quest and Levi's branches. This time around, there are a lot more stories, art and literature to enjoy.
Participating artists/writers/creators in Ab Ovo 2 include Arnold Arre (Mythology Class, Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden), Marco Dimaano (Angel Ace, Immacolata: The Fury of Hinirang), Jason Banico (Baylans, TXTMen), Honoel Ibardaloza (Bagani), Dean Alfar (The Lost ), Nikki Alfar (The Lost, Ruin, As Snow As Blood, TXTMen), Vin Simbulan (Isaw Atbp.), Oliver Pulumbarit (Lex, Nancy & Argus), Carlo Vergara (One Night in Purgatory, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah) and Tony Bucu (P-Noise)
Get your copy now at Comic Quest for P50, or free with a purchase of Levi's jeans at Levi's outlets.

A Brand New Superhero Team!

My good friend, comic compatriot and weekend warrior Dean had some fun and submitted all our group's names at Comic Book the Movie to learn our superhero names. Some interesting results:
Dean became Doctor E., Nikki became Doctor Mayhem, Carl became Mecha Witch, Cams is Molecule Girl, Jason is Captain E.(Maybe Dean and Jason are part of the E-Team), Vinnie is The Black Baby, Noel is Mega Warrior, and Arnold and Cynthia are Doctor Danger and Captain Justice respectively.

And me? I am Commander X!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Together, we are the Quest Force! Seeking better dinners and gimmicks... for all mankind....

Heh-heh.

Treasure Planet

It’s been a long time since I watched the latest but not quite greatest Disney animated flick, but I decided to delay talking about it since I was saving it till after me and the gang watched it together. But since the sci-fi interpretation of the classic pirate story has come and gone as quickly as it did in the US (where it was a big flop), I don’t think we’ll be watching it any time soon. Oh well. Moving on…
Treasure Planet is a pretty close translation of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Basically it’s all about the quest for an almost mythical treasure trove of an infamous pirate. The main hero, delinquent youth Jim Hawkins (Joseph Levitt) comes into possession of a map to the said treasure. He, along with a family friend named Dr. Doppler (David Hyde-Pierce) set off on a ship to go find it. Unfortunately, the ship’s crew consists of dangerous mutineers, led by a cyborg named Long John Silver (Brian Murray). A bond of friendship has grown between Jim and Silver… but will this bond overcome greed and obsession for the richest treasure in the galaxy?
Of course, Treasure Planet boasts quite imaginative yet whimsical updates from the original novel. Islands have been replaced by whole planets and star systems, and sailing ships have now been given the ability to travel through space. Instead of going for a wholly sci-fi look, Treasure Planet is mixes high-seas with high-technology, for a very interesting look. Aliens as well as humans populate the film, with some funny designs. My favorite character has to be the beautiful Captain Amelia (perfectly voiced by Emma Thompson), a no-nonsense cat-like humanoid who just commands the screen everytime she appears (heh). Another clever design is Long John Silver himself, who sports a CG-animated arm that’s so cool, it almost made me want to have an arm amputated. Almost.
Anyway, as it does stay close to the original story, Treasure Planet has action, some off-screen deaths and some imagery and situations that may be a bit intense for very young kids. However, it does stay pretty comfortable within Disney safety zones. The friendship between pirate and boy, supposed to be the center of the story, is well done, but there’s really never any question of where Silver’s true loyalty lies.
Overall, performances are excellent, though Martin Short’s manic Ben (a robot missing a few chips) can grate a little. The visuals are awesome on the big screen, so that at least was worth the price of admission.

In all, Disney’s Treasure Planet was a serviceable, entertaining feature. Not incredibly great, but a sight to see and an imaginative take on a timeless story. Worlds better than crap like Titan AE, but it’s still irksome to know that it received more marketing support than the divine Spirited Away. Oh well.

Opening an old box o' chocolates

Forrest Gump, the Tom Hanks film about a loveable simpleton who traipses through life, love, success and heartache was shown tonight on HBO. I liked it then, I still like it now. Pretty nice film, though some of the 'events' and things that Forrest 'inspired' are just too contrived; such as him inspiring the 'happy face' and 'Have a Nice Day' symbol by wiping his muddy face on a T-shirt... or how he started the saying 'Shit Happens'. Still, it's nice to revisit this modern classic. I still think that his lifelong girlfriend/eventual wife with issues, Jenny (Robin Wright Penn) was kind of a mega-user person. Heh. Anyway, it was pretty funny to see Haley "I see dead people' Joe Osment in the film as Forrest's son, Forrest.

Alias at last!

The hit action/spy thriller series Alias, starring Jennifer Garner, hit Philippine TV quite some time ago. Horribly enough though, ABS-CBN put the show on their masa channel, dubbing it in tagalog. Alyas Alias? AAARRRGHHHH!!!! There's nothing more irritating than something like this. They didn't even at least put the show untouched on their more high-end channel, Studio 23.
Well, soon viewers can watch the adventures of college student/CIA agent Sydney Bristow as she tackles deadly missions, delves into double-dealing organizations and plots against national security... in english! AXN Action TV will be showing Alias soon. Woohoo! Now it's just a matter of time. I hope they replace Relic Hunter with it. Or that sawed-off Sheena. Long time coming.

In a hip and happening place

Last night for a change we decided to go to Eastwood. Luckily we all fit into Cam's car- Dean, Gig, Noel, Jason and me. The place was packed with a weekend crowd, from very young and attractive teens to older party animals. Like us. Heh.
Anyway, we decided on a restaurant named Mama Rosa. We ordered a range of stuff. I got a Lukban longganisa sandwich, while the others got dessert stuff. We then spent the rest of the evening people watching and talking about the entertainment scene.
Today I stay home and try to do some art stuff. I want to enjoy as well my latest acquisitions; anime VCDs and DVDs of some new series; Wolf's Rain, the live-action You're Under Arrest series and the collected Gatekeepers 21 OAV. I also got DVDs of some cool movies; Below is a ghost/monster story set in a submarine in World War II. So Close is a Hong Kong action flick with femme fatale assassins starring Su Qi, Karen Mok and Zhiao Wei.
Lots of stuff, and I gotta have time to enjoy them. That's the trick.