Spooky Surveillance Video

A short segment in TechTV's 'Cool Stuff' caught my attention a few days ago. A wrecking yard in Oklahoma City is claiming that it caught a ghost on camera. This creepy story made the local news and features a few seconds of the video surveillance tape showing a spectral, humanoid figure circling the yard, as if looking for something. According to some paranormal investigators, there were several cars in the yard involved in fatal accidents; the 'ghost' may be from one of these tragic events...
Hmm. Just goes to show that even in the US, they believe in white ladies.

Click here for a report and the spooky video! Realplayer required.

Sobering Realities

On my way to work, I'd always pass by an overpass to the highway. This morning, as I stepped down the stairs, there was an old woman there, sitting on the lowest step. She was dishevelled and looked a bit like a beggar, and frankly, was probably not in her right mind. She was talking to the air, gesturing with her hands. As I stepped down, she looked up at me and said, "Good morning, anak." (Anak is Filipino for 'child'). What could I do or say? I just kept walking. I could hear her still talking to the air behind me. It got me thinking how some people here in the country have dozens of cars and houses to spare while others have to live under overpasses and in trash heaps. The reason for much of this is because our government officials suck out millions for their own pockets, stealing from projects which should give our country's poor at the very least a roof over their heads and a hot meal every day. DAMN. Now that's really something that you can call MAD. Goddamn fricking MAD.

Weekend Roundup

Overall, my 'long weekend' wasn't all that bad despite a slight invasion by workload on Friday. We weren't able to catch a film as we did usually on Saturday, but at least we were able to spend a nice Chinese dinner at North Park with Dean and Gig. The choice of cuisine was inspired when Carl and I watched the Korean film Volcano High at Comic Quest. Okay, it was Korean... we didn't know any good Korean restaurants nearby, so we settled for Chinese. It was a nice meal, but after it seemed to affect us since we all went home immediately after.
Yesterday, Sunday, I stayed at home. I busied myself with finishing page contributions for the C3Con or Philippine Anime and Comics Convention that's being sponsored by Culture Crash. I did a spread for both my own comic, Angel Ace, and for our group's special website project. James Palabay, CC's head honcho and writer/creator of One Day, Isang Diwa, came to the house himself to pick up the CD with the images.
Anyway, after that I just basically chilled for the rest of the day and night. I was able to watch the third Austin Powers film, Goldmember, on DVD. All I can say is... DAMN it must be so easy to sell crap when you establish a franchise. The first two Powers movies were okay... but this third one was just a bit too much scraping the bottom of the toilet bowl. The new character, Goldmember, played by Mike Myers as well (he plays Austin Powers, Doctor Evil and the returning Fat Bastard as well), is simply not funny... just disgusting and odd. I wonder what people from Holland think of that character? Oh well. Die Hard Power freaks may dig it, but I just watched with a blank stare for most of it. Even the MOLE joke didn't get to me. Though the cameos of various stars was kinda neat.
If anything, I got to recharge a bit, which is always good. Still, I am looking forward to finishing off the whole advertising plate in the next couple of weeks for the Christmas vacation.

Retro-Gaming Picks


Games like DOA make my old PS worth keeping around.

Yesterday, me and Jason walked around Megamall looking for some old PS1 games. Apparently, he got himself a PSOne so now he's looking for stuff to play. Since he heard so much hooplah about Final Fantasy VII, we went looking for a copy. We went up and found mostly old or crap games. We thought about getting him some of the Final Fantasy anthologies, but they looked... too primitive. Actually, the funny thing is that we found it kinda embarrassing to walk into a gaming store crowded with kids and then ask for a game that's about six years old. We would probably have gotten the same reaction you'd get if you ordered milk in a western saloon. Stunned silence. Heh.
Anyway, I tried to recommend some cool games. Even in these days of CG quality Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube games, there are tons of PSOne games worth keeping. For RPGs, you simply can't beat the wealth of Final Fantasies (VII is the best, progressively getting slightly not as good with the succeeding games, VIII and IX). There are Resident Evils and Silent Hill for creep-out games. Action gamers have the original Tomb Raider I and II, and tons more. Medal of Honor gives you one of the best FPS experiences you can get on a console. Of course, in terms of fighting there's the original Tekken and Dead or Alive and tons more. I'd never throw away my beloved PS. Even after more than seven years, there's still great fun in the 32-bit wonder. Sometimes I think of getting a cute little PSOne to replace my old gray box. Who knows... maybe someday.

Portable Rain

I was walking around in Glorietta a few days ago and I came upon a row of stalls and kiosks selling native products and items. Amid the various ethnic trinkets and doo-hickies which I cared nothing for, I saw a Rain Tube, which is really cool. It's a big bamboo tube which has been decorated with enthic flavor and filled with... stuff. I don't know what is inside; it could be anything from beads to thumbtacks to little bugs. Anyway, the effect is that if you turn the tube over the stuff inside shifts, making a sound which is supposed to replicate the sound of rainfall. It's actually quite nice and soothing, and I would have bought it right there and then. Now thinking back, I may buy one for myself and another for a gift. I just hope it's still there when I pass by Glorietta the next time.

I want to be a Forensics Expert.

And I can be... by playing the PC game version of CSI: Crime Scene Investigations. This game, based on the popular detective/drama series by director Jerry Bruckheimer, will be coming out in March 2003. First it was a comic (which is still upcoming), now a game. Who'd ever thought that poking at dead bodies could be so absorbing? Ooh. Engrossing, or just gross? Heh. Anyway, it's still a ways off, but I may have a bit of ghoulish pleasure in a similarly themed-PC game I just got recently: Post Mortem, which puts you in the shoes of a detective out to solve a ritualistic murder case. Lots of creepy fun to be had on PC. On consoles, I can recommend games like Fatal Frame on PS2 or Xbox, and Silent Hill 2 for more creeps and freaks rather than gore and guns as in Resident Evil.

Salvaging a Holiday

Today is a holiday here in Manila, but I had to get up and work. On the bright side, I was able to get adequate sleep. Furthermore, instead of staying cooped up in the office, the creatives met up at the posh Rockwell Power Plant mall. We spent some time at the Press Cafe at the Bookstore formerly known as Page One. While the other guys worked on their stuff, I spent the time thinking up storylines for TV commercials as I munched on a Cheesesteak Sandwich and bottomless Iced Tea. All in all, it really wasn't that bad. Working outside the office, in a nice, relaxed and uninhibited setting makes for relaxed and uninhibited thinking. I got the storylines approved and I was free for the rest of the day!
Anyway, I decided to walk around Power Plant. Not Page One is pretty cool and I love the rack of comics and graphic novels (thought about buying Will Eisner's Graphic Storytelling book but eventually decided against it... for now). However, the rest of the mall is strangely barren for me. Lots of clothing and "grown-up" stores that I really have no use for. I don't know if there is a single electronics or gaming shop in Power Plant, but if there is I couldn't find it. BAH. Give me Megamall or Greenhills anyday.
Well, I will probably walk around to kill time before tonight's dinner and meet with Mike, Dean, Nikki, Jason and the rest. Looking forward to a nice night's discussion and laughs. Maybe I should catch The Ringu (The Ring Japanese version) at Mega? We'll see. Ah. My weekend looks safe once more. Hope, hope.

Insert Shameless Plug Here! (Yay, Carl!)

ANOTHER 'GAY' COMIC BOOK BY CARLO VERGARA

After his first comic book, the gay-themed One Night In Purgatory, garnered acclaim by landing a finalist slot in the recent Manila Critics' Circle National Book Awards and being mentioned in the Sanghaya Yearbook of the National Commission for Culture and Arts as the best comic book of 2001, Carlo Vergara is set to release his second book, Ang Kagila-gilalas Na Pakikipagsapalaran Ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

Zsazsa Zaturnnah tells about Ada, a gay man, who receives a mysterious stone that grants him the power to transform into a woman. As Zaturnnah, Ada defends his hometown from extra-terrestrial amazons. Joining him in this light comedy adventure are his sidekick Didi and his secret crush Dodong. Written in Filipino, Zsazsa Zaturnnah is for mature readers due to suggestive content and strong language.

The 65-page first part will be available in mid-December at all ComicQuest branches (SM Megamall, SM North Edsa, Festival Mall Alabang) for only Php120. The second part will hit the shelves in late-February.

For an 'Ispeysyal Preview' of Zsazsa Zaturnnah, click here.

Bikini Karate Babes



Okay, everybody here probably knows that I love the Dead or Alive fighting game series. Granted, this Tecmo-made game features solid gameplay, lots of martial arts action and simply the best graphics of the time whenever a new installment appears... but what keeps it close to me are the babes. Forget Chun-Li. Forget Cammy. Forget Lara Croft. If you want sexy game babes, the DOA series has them. Not that other games don't... but DOA simply has better girls in terms of graphics, animation and... personality. Well, whatever. Anyway, one of the cool extras in the original DOA for Playstation was the ability to unlock lots of hidden costumes, including sexy swimsuits for the girls. Opening up these new duds was really neat, and there are few things more appealing that a butt kicking girl in a bikini.

Well, apparently some enterprising programmers in the US thought that up too. So, they rounded up a bunch of attractive women who both looked great in a two-piece and could at least act like they know karate. Some photoshoots and programming later and... Voila! You've got the outrageously crass but intriguing game known as Bikini Karate Babes. This PC-only game (though there are rumors of a possible Xbox port) has been turning heads since the game's website was put up, clocking over a million hits in a few weeks. Reviews of the game aren't as pretty as the girls in the game though, citing poor controls and basically trashing the game as soft-core porn (there seems to at least some topless nudity, but no explicit images or sexual acts aside from some fondling; the violence is cartoonish).
Anyway, I've seen stills and movies of the game, and it's in the style of Mortal Kombat- digitized fighters against pretty basic backgrounds. The animation is exceptionally smooth and the visuals are vivid, but I question the amount of gameplay it could have; 2-D fighters are simply past their prime, I think. Still, this is really more novelty than serious fighting game. I'd love to get my hands on a copy, but so far it's still US-only. Maybe I should wait for the rumored Xbox version? Heh. Videogames. They are a-changing.

Galactic villain. Made in the Philippines.

Does anyone here catch the sci-fi series, Earth: Final Conflict on AXN? It's all about an earth caught in a struggle for survival against various alien races. In the five seasons the series has had, many characters have come and gone... but one player in particular has remained constant. The villainous FBI Agent Ronald Sandoval has been scheming his way through every season, played quite excellently by actor Von Flores.
Flores? Sandoval? When I first heard the names, I suspected. Lately, I confirmed it... Agent Sandoval is Pinoy! Well, at least Mr. Flores is. Von Flores was born and raised in the Philippines. He attended classes at the University of Toronto where he got bitten by the acting bug and started a career, which includes various roles in numerous TV series. His credits include roles in F/X: The Series, The Adventures of Sindbad, Night Heat, Street Legal, Lonesome Dove, Tekwar and more.
Compared to other Pinoy or half-Pinoy actors in the US like Rob Schneider, Tia Carrere and Lou Diamond Philips, Von Flores might not be high-profile but he has been working consistently. And I really find it cool to see a Filipino playing such an important and pivotal role. Okay, Agent Sandoval may not be a good role model, but he is a survivor. He's gotten shot, blasted, vaporized, possessed, burned, deformed and worse but still keeps on ticking... bad grass is hard to kill. At any rate, he shows that Filipinos aren't just world-class... they're universal!

Travails and Taxis

For the past few weeks, I've been taking taxis more and more. Some time ago, I only took taxis in emergencies, or for a special occasion (when I don't want to get to a party or something all sweaty or smelling of jeepney fumes). Then, I moved on to taking taxis every Saturday when I went to my pilgrimage to Greenhills. But these days, I've actually been taking taxis as a matter of course. I usually take taxis now going home, sometimes even right from my office in Makati all the way home in Marikina (which is quite a drive). I guess price has given way to convenience and comfort. In a taxi I can just relax alone (with the driver) in an airconditioned ride.
But now, I've often went to the office in the morning on taxis. I remember one time, it cost me about 130 pesos. On another day, in another taxi it cost just 70 pesos; either that day the traffic was very light or one of the taxis had a very broken meter. Hmm.
Though the irritating nature of many taxi drivers to insist on a specific or particular area to go to, or asking for a set price still pisses me off to no end. This is especially bad at rush hours (both in the morning and evening), so luckily I usually look for taxis in the off-hours.
Ah. I guess I am just getting a bit older now. I miss the days when I just squirmed my way into crowded buses, or hung on precariously outside the escribos of jeepneys, holding on for dear life as the vehicle weaved its way through traffic. I guess those days are over. I just want a nice, comfy ride going home; I don't want to drive home, mind you... just ride home. Maybe I should contract some taxi driver and make him my regular ride... like The Shadow does. But that would mean saving his life in some situation and having some special rings made to mark my coming. In return for your life, you must do a service for me. When someone approaches you with this ring... you must give him the assistance he requires...
I think I'll just have to spend a little bit more for my comfort.
But then again, I do know this cheap jeweler...

Gamer Heaven

I have to say that I'm happy as a clam these days, thanks to the fact that my favorite cable channel TechTV is now showing episodes of my favorite show, the videogame review program Extended Play, daily. Now I can see the entertaining and informative reviews of new games with cool footage and cinematics regularly. No need to turn to NOW anymore, which is good since they seem to have ditched the gaming shows I like in favor of those crummy Quake programs and replayed-to-death 10 Play episodes. Ah, bliss. I love my cable provider. Let's hope that doesn't change...

Counterstruck Out

Does anyone here like Counterstrike? It's all the rage in countless cybershops and cafes all over the metropolis here. FYI, CS is a mod (meaning, modification) of the original First-Person Shooter videogame, Half-Life. Whereas in HL you played a soldier out to foil an alien invasion, in CS you're simply a soldier out to survive a deadly squad-to-squad cat and mouse game of kill or be killed. Players take the role of either terrorists of counter-terrorists, bring together some friends for a squad, and just let go.
It's been around for awhile, but I confess to not being a fan of FPS games. I get dizzy easily from the fast movements and limited views, and well... I'm just not that great at it. I remember several months ago, I was in another ad agency... me and two of my officemates, Dino and Manny, went off to Glorietta one lunchtime to try a game. We found this cybershop at Park Square and settled down to get our feet wet in the world of videogame counter-terrorism.
Well, the situation was, we were all newbies. At best, we were experienced in playing Unreal Tournament at the office G4s, but Counterstrike's controls were alien to us. But we went in anyway... I mean, how hard could it be? We set up a simple field, had the attendant put in two bots (CPU opponents) and we were off.
To put it simply... we got our arses kicked. And then some. It was horrible. For some reason, we started off with handguns, while the bots had long, high-powered rifles. And they aimed with godlike accuracy. Picture this; we each were on opposite sides of the battleground. I peered out from a window. I could see the bot at the other side of the field, a small dark speck. He fired. I fell DEAD. What the HELL?!
This massacre continued as we tried various strategies. We stormed out, guns blazing. We fell dead. We hid in crevices. They found us. We fell dead. One of us would sacrifice himself to set a trap. We still got whacked regardless. I waited and actually got the drop on one of them, firing like a madman. He turned around. I fell dead. This went on for quite a while. Eventually we were actually able to kill one of the bots, but we still lost that round. Dang. As far as I know, every time you win in CS, you earn money for upgrading weapons and ammo. At the rate we were losing, I wouldn't be surprised if our enemy could afford helicopter gunships by then. We were that BAD. Sigh.
It's actually pretty funny. The physics of FPS games, CS especially, are quite fantastic. Good players will jump, not run, around, to become harder to hit. Can you imagine if you saw that in real life? It would be terrifying to see guys in balaclavas, jumping like kangaroos toward you, guns blazing. And they didn't even need guns. The scariest guys are the ones that come at you with mere knives, making you panic as fumble with your hard-won rifle, not wanting to die, gutted like a pig. That happened to me once. A bot came at me with a knife, and all I could do was at least try to empty my clip. Then, I died. Gah.
Maybe I'm not an FPS guy at all. It's not in my genes. Probably not an RTS guy either, though I love commanding armies. At heart, I'm probably a martial arts one-on-one fighting gamer. Fireballs over firearms, I always say. Give me DOA, VF or Tekken anyday.

Didn't help either than there are no babes in Counterstrike. Heh.

Smell That? Dead Cat.

These past few days, whenever I walk out of the office towards Ayala Avenue in Makati, I pass by an underpass. Near a spot by the stairs, I always catch the telltale stink of a dead cat. It's a hot smell; stuffy and decaying and simply disgusting. I can't tell where it is; on the roof? In the gutter? Can't be in a trash can else it would have been gone after a day. In the bushes? I really hope some Ayala maintenance person finds it and gets rid of it 'cause unless someone does, that stink won't go. The smell lasts for days and days. Believe me, I speak from experience.
Several months ago, I began smelling this subtle stink in my room. The sanctum is of course, a small chamber with one wall having the windows, and one door. I usually stay indoors with airconditioning on, and had been doing so for several months since I had the climate control installed. Anyway, the smell was musty but weak. I couldn't tell where it came from. I checked my bed mattress, sheets and pillows. Okay, modesty aside, I am a very neat person. I am a neat freak, actually. So you can imagine that if I smell something stinky, I find out what it is. Anyway, I really couldn't tell where that musty stink was coming from. After a while I even checked my feet. Nope. Dang, what was that damn smell?
Over the course of several days it was getting worse. I would ask my mom, and she'd come in and say it was my imagination. For some reason I believed her... until I eventually remembered that my mom has no sense of smell. I then asked one of the household help. They said they smelled it too. In fact, they've been smelling it for days. AAARGH. Well, I couldn't really blame them since I usually kept my room sealed up and locked when I left for work. I wonder now what they thought the smell was all about... for all I know, they probably think I killed someone and hid the body in my closet.
Anyway, It was finally deduced that the smell was coming from a cabinet near the ceiling, above where my clothes were kept. I remembered that I kept some old toys there, and a stack of magazines. We opened the cabinet and peered in. OH GOD, THE STENCH. The stink was strong, exhaling from the cramped closet in fetid waves. What WAS it? The maid who looked in told me that there were maggots. Fricking MAGGOTS.The HELL?!?
Apparently, the things were spilling from a crack which led to the inside of our house's roof. Whatever was producing the maggots was somewhere in the recesses above my room. We finally got some guy to climb up the roof and enter the compartment. He found a BIG, dead cat. Apparently, the animal climbed up there to die, and of all places chose the spot near my room. Well, the guy we sent got the carcass and loaded it into an empty rice sack. When he climbed down, I saw the sack... it was huge. A cat? From the size of the bulge it looked like a dog. I don't even want to imagine what it looked like. Gah.
Despite the removal of the cat corpse, the smell persisted for a few days. I emptied several cans of Lysol to try and deaden the smell (unsuccessful; the smell wafted out even worse), and tried taping the cabinets shut. After a few days I unsealed the cabinet to let it air out; a cloud of flies, each the size of a bat (okay, I exaggerate) came out- the remaining maggots that we didn't sweep out. After they were gone, it only took a few more days for the smell to weaken to negligible levels.
Today, I basically ignore the cabinet. I light an incense cone in there every now and then, and cast a spell of warding to keep the dead cat spirit from haunting it. But these days, I still twitch whenever I smell something fetid and musty. I read somewhere that sights and sounds can eventually fade from memory, but smells last a lifetime. If that is so, Dead Cat will haunt me for the rest of my life. Bad smells, bad memories. Sigh.

Ten Things you need to make your own Manga comic.


Later this month our group will be joining with others for the Comic and Anime Convention being hosted by Culture Crash. We'll be introducing stuff we've been doing these past few months, seeing some new titles released and in particular, imparting what little we know to budding comic creators. I've been told to submit what I'm going to talk about, and to tell you the truth, I had no idea until about, oh, a few minutes ago. Well, actually, things have been mulling in my head as to what I could share for some time, but I haven't been able to actually organize them. Well, now I have. Or at least, I have tried to. Here it is...
10 Things You Need to Make Your Own Manga.
1) You need your basic manga story. Which basically is, get a plotline and find some way to twist it to something different from the norm. Try to get cross-dressing or sex-changes into the storyline. Give something new and creative so when someone asks what your story is, they'll go, "Are you serious?"
If you get that reaction, you're on the right track.
2) Know the manga stereotypes by heart and be ready to use and abuse them.The genki, ultra-bubbly ditz of a heroine/hero. The comedy/American sidekick. The evil villain with the shoulderpads. The butt-kicking babe with the paper skirt. The BIG guy. Know when to use them, and when to twist and make your own unique stuff.
3) Know how to draw seriously sexy women. This is hard, and there's no easy way to this except by practice. Practice, practice, practice. Learn how to draw serious anatomy first before you begin to adopt a manga style. That way, your drawings don't look 'wrong'. When you know how to draw a sexy girl, dressed and undressed, from the top of her hair to her toes, you are pretty much set. Girls are vital in manga. It's a LAW.
4) Know how to do Fight Scenes. The Matrix was inspired by manga. Manga is all about detailed fights, acrobatics, slow-mo dramatics, weird angles, power-blows, blood-gushing from the side of the mouths, long speeches and novel-length duels. Don't go for the cop-out splash pages. It's all about the
fight.
5) Love stories aren't mushy. Love and relationships are what gives manga soul. Learn how to make sugary dialogue, dramatic pauses and heart-stopping confessions. Remember, manga heroes are never afraid to cry.
6) Big Guns are Cool. Learn to draw some sort of mecha. Mecha isn't just giant robots; it's every machine that appears in your manga. Arguably easier than anatomy, but it still takes practice.
7) Who's BAD? A manga is only as great as its baddies. Evil armies, secret organizations, dark demons... that evil beeyotch from the other class... the trick isn't just making them hateful and dangerous... but making them as cool (or even cooler) than your heroes.
8) Et Tu, Brute? Betrayals, turncoats, double-crosses and last-minute saves. Who's on who's side? Who's really evil? Who's on first? Who's on second? A great manga plot will keep you guessing until the very end. And then, there's the next season...
9) Don't sweat it! Know when and when not to use manga conventions like sweat drops, veins, SD and such. Too much can destroy atmosphere or mood. Unless it's intended.
10) Have FUN! Your manga comic should reflect YOU. Love doing it, love making it. Make it unique and true to yourself, and you'll find other people who will love it just as much.

Whew! That's the stuff I guess I will talk about, of course more in depth and extemporaneously. I hope I can hack it. Else, I'm going to look like a wonderful fool later this month.

Sharing old war movies...

Watching through the Band of Brothers DVDs, I couldn't help but remember those old WWII movies they used to show in the afternoon on Channel 9 (RPN). I don't remember them much, but I do recall images. American green berets battling German troops and SS were common themes; but unlike the recent films on the subject, I don't recall the old war movies to be particularly bloody. Guns fired with smoke and flashes. Bullets made furrows all around the targets, and men fell. We didn't see bodies with eyes wide open, or gratuitous amounts of blood seeping from their corpses. I certainly don't remember anyone with blown-off limbs lying about. I guess war movies were 'cleaner' then.
Saving Private Ryan reintroduced the era of the Last Great War, but was made with gritty realism and almost vomit-inducing blood and gore. The colors were washed-out as if you were watching an old relic from some old theater, and when men died, they died horribly, gurgling their last words in agony. Argh. Well, war is hell, and that made it clear.
However, it really isn't the violence which drew me to Band of Brothers. What engrossed me was the story of these men; the incredible ordeals they went through, the frightening but fascinating recreations of fierce encounters with Nazi troops, and the hope of seeing the men you come to like survive to the end.
I wonder if I will ever make a war-themed comic sometimes. I often portray battles and fights in my art and stuff, but I realize that I have exercised restraint in portraying death. I dislike gratuitous death scenes or death tolls. If I have to show death in my comics, I want it to mean something, whether it to prove the implacability and unmistakeable nature of evil, or a tragedy that could and should have been avoided. Or, it was simply a matter of self-defense. Pretty weird when you consider that many of my characters are assassins and professional fighters.
Hmm. Being quite serious right now. Maybe it was the apple I had a while ago. Or maybe because I've got a full day of work tomorrow that has to be finished. Pretty much like Captain Winters from Band of Brothers contemplating the taking of a Nazi-infested town...
Ah. Back to the trenches tomorrow.

New but not necessarily Improved

After watching Die Another Day last Saturday, me, Mike and Jason crashed at my place to simmer down and sample a VHS tape with several new cartoons, notably the new Transformers: Armada and the updated He-Man: Masters of the Universe. Well, I wasn't too excited, since it was pretty early in the morning (we were at the house at about 2 AM I). The new Transformers anime is, in my opinion, a traversty. It's been 'updated' with new little bots called the Minicons which Mike says are actually based on the Gobots. My generation will remember the Go-Bots as having their own series, with Leader-1 and the good Guardians battling Cy-Kill and the evil Renegades. In Transformers Armada, they've become a 'new' race of robots which can augment the powers of Autobots or Decepticons they merge with. Anyway, I really wasn't listening to the story; all I could see were the humans... now drawn in ANIME style. I just can't reconcile anime with the Transformers. It's just WRONG. I guess the old cartoons just still have a hold on me. Sigh. Anyway, Optimus Prime still looks pretty much the same, but Megatron on the other hand looks like an over-sized Insecticon. And he turns into a TANK! What the HELL?! This isn't my Transformers. Well, that's a given anyway.
The new He-man cartoon made me perk up a lot more. Instead of the realist but BLAND Filmation cartoon-style (which I loathe) of the old series, the new Masters of the Universe cartoon has a nice look which evokes but not screams anime influence. Where it has improved best is in the action; there are slow-motion scenes for drama, exploding blasts, powerful magic, clashing weapons, the works! Now THIS is what Masters of the Universe should be like! Most of the characters look a lot cooler and more formidable. Man-at-Arms is a real walking arsenal. Teela is a butt-kicking babe as she should be. Ram-Man still looks moronic, but at least he looks strong. Cooler still are Man-E-Faces, whose powers change with his look, and Stratos, the flyer. However, I have to say that Mek-a-Nek is still laughably ridiculous. On the baddie side, Evil-Lynn is both a babe AND awesomely powerful. Everyone else looks fiercer and more dangerous. Finally, Skeletor is a powerful fighter and a worthy leader of evil, though I found his new voice a bit too... weeny. Hmm.
One good, one bad. I'd love to see more of the He-man cartoon, but count me out of the Transformers. There are good changes, and bad changes. We take what we can get, I guess.

The Urge to Splurge

It's amazing how fast you can spend money. Over the weekend I bought myself a ton(well, not really... but it felt like it after) of stuff, thanks to a nice windfall. You have to love being an employee and being single. Anyway, I got myself the DVD set of Band of Brothers, that truly excellent HBO mini-series about American soldiers in World War II. I resisted getting the set early on when I found out about the set's release, but after watching an episode on HBO, I just HAD to get it. Engrossing stuff, really. All the grit and drama of Saving Private Ryan, but without Tom Hanks(well, at least not onscreen).
Aside from BOB, I also got a bunch of DVDs as well; The PowerPuff Girls Movie, Austin Powers: Goldmember, Signs and The Scorpion King (Yes, it baffles me why I got that). Afterwards, the spree didn't end when I got to Megamall. I was drawn into the anime shop Comic Alley where the 4th DVD Box Set of Inu Yasha was waiting for me. I also got a DVD of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which is the latest anime about Masamune Shirow's popular cyber-adventure. Finally, I got a couple of Love Hina anime art books for references.
I'm telling myself that these things are all my Christmas gifts to myself. Gotta remember though that I have to get gifts for other people too... Heh.

Die Another Bond.

Me, Mike and Jason went over to Greenhills after closing down Comic Quest to watch the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day. As with Chamber of Secrets, we got tickets beforehand so we could just zip in and watch without any problems. Watching at Theater Mall is pretty cool since the seats are comfy and new; the only bad thing is that during the last full show we always tend to miss the snack bar popcorn. No popcorn tonight, but we had Doritos to satisfy us.
Die Another Day sees Pierce Brosnan taking once again the role of our favorite secret agent. At the start of the film, Bond replaces an illicit diamond dealer to assassinate a North Vietnamese colonel named Moon, who is producing special weapons for use against the west. Everything is going smoothly until Bond's cover is blown, apparently by a traitor. After a hovercraft chase and battle, the prologue sequence ends with Moon falling over a waterfall to his death, and Bond getting captured by NVA troops and being thrown into prison! This somewhat perilous beginning made us all think that DAD would be a very different and perhaps more gritty Bond. Well, at least I thought that until the sexy CG intro title sequence came on with a horrid Madonna song. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?
Anyway, Bond spends the next 14 months in the North Vietnamese prison, but he is eventually released in an exchange with an NVA soldier and saboteur named Zao, who served under the late Colonel Moon. Later, Bond knows finds out that he is being accused of disclosing information to the enemy under torture. Disgraced and distrusted, Bond eventually goes on his own after Zao to get the only thing he has left... revenge. The trail leads Bond to a magnate named Gustav Graves and a plot that may threaten the safety of the world... naturally.
Okay, I've read several reviews which praised DAD as the 'best Bond in a long time', but I have to say... well, yeah... compared to trash like The World is Not Enough, I can accept that. On the one hand though, Die Another Day is enjoyable with nice scenes set in a ice hotel and sexy Halle Berry . However, it also has a lot of cons. It is yet again another stab at trying to be 'realistic' and true to the headlines (this time with the North Koreans as the baddies). There are some glaring scenes like Bond surfing that just screams BLUE SCREEN! Yet again, the villains are nowhere near as compelling as classic Bond baddies. Zao is no Oddjob or Jaws... he's just some Vietnamese soldier (albeit a good one) who tends to get his face messed up. You can pretty much see who the 'secret' traitor is a mile away, plus I have to say the secret behind Gustav Graves is a STRETCH. Some action setpieces, like the car dogfight is a bit clunky, and I have to say... why does Captain Amazing from Mystery Men suddenly appear at the finale? What the Hell?
All in all, I have to say DAD is the best of Brosnan's Bonds... but it demands LOTS of suspensions of disbelief... far more than we (Mike, especially) could muster before we just had to shake our heads and go, 'Silly, silly."
Heh. Whatever. We had a great laugh after the showing though. Heh.

The Long Walk Home

After work I hurried over to Saisaki restaurant in Megamall. The company was there; Dean and Nikki, Jason, Carl and surprisingly, Tony Bucu. They'd been there apparently since eight or so, so they had mostly finished dinner. It was a buffet-style dinner, and since I was famished I went off and tried samples from all the tables. I got some nice Japanese Fried Rice and some tenderloin, gyoza dumplings, tempura and lasagna. For dessert, I got a plate with samples of cakes and pastries... though I passed on the Creme Brulette. Pretty good and I was satisfied, though now I feel for the price I paid I should have eaten a LOT more. Oh, well.
We stayed at Saisaki until closing, the topic of conversation moving from favorite films ('What are your five favorite films of ALL time?') to classic (read: BAD) commercials and jingles. We resolved to go home immediately after, but the absence of taxis forced us (sans Tony, who left by then) to take refuge at Chibo for tea and coffee. We talked about a variety of topics again, ranging from how ridiculous Jason would look as Spiderman to how Matrix-like the restaurant's toilet was.
We made our way past St. Francis Square and eventually made it to Podium... Still no taxis. Carl remarked that at the rate we were going, we would probably reach home before we ever get a taxi. Dean and Nikki eventually gave up and opted to get a pricey taxi at a nearby hotel. We decided to stick it out.
We walked from Podium to Robinson's Galleria. There, Jason was finally able to get a cab to Makati. That left Carl and me. We made our way to EDSA, noting that the apparent Midnight Sale at the Galleria was the reason for the lack of taxis. AAARGH. Anyway, it turned out that we ultimately took the bus to Cubao. There, we lingered for a while at the front of the moviehouse at the junction of EDSA and Aurora Boulevards, looking over pirate VCDs and cheap porn. Yep, we were slumming. Well, we were tired, frustrated and irate. We needed release.
Eventually, we got on a jeepney headed for Cogeo. I got down at my stop, and that was it for the night. Or was it morning? There's a meeting set for the upcoming Comics Convention today, but I can't see myself getting up in a few hours for it. We'll see. Darn. Three o' clock in the morning and I'm still up. Is that a rooster I hear? DAMN...

Nude at Work

Today, we had something special at the office. As part of the company's special training gigs, a Nude Sketching Session was scheduled. The office hired a couple of models, one male and one female, and everyone in the company who wanted to try out sketching bodies in the buff were invited to have a go. As you'd expect, people were kind of squeamish at the idea of naked flesh, but a good number of people eventually showed up to draw, and from various departments aside from Creatives and Studio. The venue was an empty office space across from our own office. The place was bare, but several chairs and stools, sofas and even a beanbag were provided. Of course, you had to bring your own paper and pencils.
The session went pretty quietly and smoothly. Noticeably, a lot more people drew the girl instead of the guy, me included. Heh. Anyway, for anyone who's never been to a nude sketching or painting session, there's no room for horseplay or anything else aside from the drawing itself. Typically, the model will take up a specific pose, and remain in that position as long as they can. The poses are of course never scandalous, and actually you don't really see the models' privates (aside from the girl's breasts).
For the record, the girl wasn't beautiful. Wasn't ugly, wasn't gorgeous. Somewhere in between. Not enough to make me break a sweat or get me breathing hard. As for the guy... well, I didn't really care. Heh.

It was a change in pace from the usual creative thinking or strategic brainstorming or copywriting. Pretty cool, actually. What's next? Maybe we can do sculpting. Or maybe a cooking seminar. You never can tell what may they'll think of next...

Bloody Good Fun


Everyone's kung-fu fighting again in the latest Mortal Kombat game.

As I posted yesterday, I got myself a copy of the Xbox version of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the latest game in the controversial fighting videogame series. FYI, Mortal Kombat is all about a martial arts tournament held to maintain the status quo of peace between the realm of Earth (that's us) and the Outworld, a harsh and brutal dimension ruled by the evil immortal Shao Khan (which was so wonderfully brought to life by the second MK movie... note my heavy sarcasm here). Anyway, the game's subtitle refers to the 'Deadly Alliance' between sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, who become so dangerous together than they are able to eliminate both Shao Khan and Liu Kang from the picture. Liu Kang was the former champion of MK and until MKDA has been the series' main hero (played by actor Robin Shou in the movies); so you can tell MKDA makes it clear that this game is going to be different from previous games in the series.

Anyway, where does MKDA improve? Well, in almost everything. The graphics are full 3-D and sport excellent character models which have cool designs, a semi-realistic, semi-cartoony western style and fluid, lifelike animations. Furthermore, the cookie-cutter repertoire of attacks and palette swap characters have been nixed in favor of a balanced roster of fighters, each with unique moves and fighting styles. BTW, each character now has three different fighting styles, all of which are apparently based on real martial arts like taekwondo, escrima, Shaolin fist, crane-style kung fu and more. Included are weapon styles like sai, butterfly swords, bamboo cane, nunchucks, tonfa and more. Whew! That's a whole lot of fighting.
Anyway, this IS Mortal Kombat so there's a lot of blood and gore. Unlike Japanese fighters that shun heavy-handed gory effects in favor of more realistic animation, MKDA shows the red stuff flow freely and remain on the arena floors like garish paint. Plus, bruises, cuts and swellings will now appear on characters' faces when they get beat up. I have to say I don't really like seeing my fighters (especially the women) looking all black and blue after a fight, but what can you do? It DOES look more real, but I prefer the Japanese approach (you'll never see the DOA girls get so much as a chipped nail). And yes, the Fatalities are still here (though only one per character) so you can tear the heart out of your helpless victim, er, opponent, after the battle. Cool. Heh.
Anyway, another great thing about MKDA is the tons of secrets you unlock by earning money and buying 'koffins' in the MK Krypt. These goodies range from new characters to art to stuff swiped from some programmer's desk. Well, it's replay value.
I played quite a few rounds last night, and I have to say it was fun. There are still quirks and flaws, like questionable CPU AI that switches from moronic to godlike skill levels depending on the round, and the difficulty of some minigames. However, it's enjoyable, somewhat mature and yet juvenile entertainment and one of the better games available on the Xbox or Playstation 2. Recommended!

Plus, opening those koffins will help pass the time till the release of DOAX in January... Sigh...
For a full review, visit my game board here.

The Story So Far...


The Angel Ace Saga Cover Gallery

It's actually your typical story of boy meets girl. Except that I also put in some extras, like an ex-KGB foster father, a former best friend who's also a super-powered assassin, their all-female, all-beautiful secret organization, a mysterious and sinister megacorporation, a masked serial bomber and criminal mastermind, bits of sci-fi, fantasy, ancient civilizations, dark spirits, lots of action-packed fight scenes and liberal amounts of manga-esque comedy. Where will I take it next? Ever forward, of course. Ever forward and upward. The sky's the limit.

If you're intrigued about the series and haven't seen it, copies are available in Comic Quest if you're in Manila, Philippines. Otherwise, you can still get lots of info and stuff on Angel at our official website.

Trying to find my Angel a muse...


You can do it, Marc!

As pointed out in my blog heading, I'm a comic book creator. Well, I actually haven't been able to devote as much time as I'd want to on my personal creation, Angel Ace.
Angel Ace is my manga action-adventure series about a girl who can fly (in a nutshell). I've been able to release five issues (well, seven if you count the two issues of the original non-manga incarnation) of the story, completing the introductory story arc. However, I seem to have reached an impasse.
The reason for this is perhaps a conflict on what happens next? I've been working on a quiet, interlude-type story for the next issue, but it hasn't come together as easily as I'd want. On the other hand I could also just try to get into another action story right away, with lots of sexy girls and fight scenes. But I still feel there needs to be a segue before fireworks or another major storyline starts once again. I guess I'll realize it when the pages start getting churned out again.
I also think part of the problem as well is my decision to turn Angel into a webcomic. What do I keep as printed stuff, and what do I put online? Another obstacle is financial reasons; publishing in our country is expensive, and every such venture is a major operation.
Sigh. I've promised myself that I'd put out a book soon... not within the year, but soon. I'll get to it, mark my words... I'll get Angel flying again before long.

The Day's Catch

Despite it being a pretty busy week, I still managed to sneak out of the office for my literal round of Makati. I was able to get Mike a DVD of the second volume of Rahxephon, a somewhat high-concept but unquestionably high quality anime series which seems to meld mecha with a Matrix-hidden world theme. I was also able to get for myself a copy of the new PS2 wrestling game WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth!(Gotta love that title) and the Xbox version of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
I've got the games... question is, when can I play them since times are busy right now. Sigh. Whatver. Where there's a will, there's a way.

It's Newtype... but NOT.

Yesterday, I did the usual 'leeching' at Comic Quest Megamall for my weekly comic fix. I went home with only two items... but they made up in size and price (Damn you, Mike!!!) for the quantity. One was the latest Previews, which I get regularly as a matter of course. The other is the first issue of the english Newtype magazine.
FYI, Newtype is a Japanese 'Moving Pictures' mag which primarily deals with anime and film. It's quite large and very visually interesting, with full-page spreads of anime art and stills, and lots of articles... all of it in Japanese, of course. Well, I made it a point to buy Newtype issues whenever I could, simply for the art. Plus, they often came with great posters and giveaways like postcards and even DVDs.
Well, what can I say about the much-hyped english version? Well, it captures the look of the authentic Japanese mag. I'm just not sure about the content; is this the same as the Japanese copies, or is it more skewed towards US audiences? The ads in the english Newtype are obviously from ADV Films and other US companies; part of the pleasure in leafing through the Japanese mag is seeing what is actually in vogue in Nippon. That's kinda lost, I think. Otherwise, the content is pretty good though; there are J-Pop articles, interviews with seiyuu (anime voice actors) and even a translated manga (not the same Five Star Stories as in the Japanese Newtype though). Overall, it's not a bad buy; perhaps even an excellent pick for serious anime fans.
Well it has to be for the price... Pretty expensive. Anyway, with a DVD free inside, I am impressed. At the very least I can start reading my Newtype as well as stare at it.

Hot Stuff.

Oh-Kay... (trying to have an air of normalcy) I came home wanting to have a snack. My parents seem to have gotten a taste for microwave popcorn, and for every day for the past two weeks I've been coming home to a house smelling of slightly burnt butter. They always offer me some or tell me to make my own bag, but I've so far said "I will..." but never did. Well, tonight I wanted a bag of nice, steaming-hot, butter-basted, exploded kernels. Of course, there's none left. GAH. Anyway, I was forced to look for other sustenance. I was simply out of chips, candy or anything edible in the Sanctum caches. Luckily though, there were a couple of Lucky Me! Wok Noodles in the fridge. It took some time, but I was finally able to fix up a bowl of the extra spicy noodles.
I have to say, Lucky Me! simply cornered the instant Pancit Canton market in the Philippines (Far and away the most delicious instant soup-less noodles in the country), and their quality and taste extends to their new stuff. Delicious. And HOT. Good thing I had a half a bottle of Coke to wash it down. Still, I'm breathing lethal fumes at the time of this writing. Great. Better brush my mouth with toothpaste AND detergent to get rid of the smell.
Still, tasted great though.

Kick me. Please. HARDER!

If you haven't noticed, my blog looks like it got fricked and fracked. And it's all my own doing. Well, that's what happens when you try and mess with things that you don't fully understand. Anyway, I tried my best to at least get stuff to read back online. But I'm about as good at doing code as I am with deciphering heiroglyphics... so it's pretty grim. Hopefully we can get our webgoddess Cynthia to make things right... Sigh. What a day.

Word WITCHery

Can anyone tell me why the dialogue in the recent issues of WITCH comic/zine read like a badly-dubbed foreign film? The english and grammar are horrible. Nikki Alfar told me this a while ago, but I only now realized it when I scanned through some pages of the latest issue (I guess I really have been neglecting to read them). Some example of dialogue:
Will getting attacked by a water-creature:
"Aah! Let me go, you bad beast!"
Will leaving after an argument with her mom...
"Whew! I did it. I though mommy would follow me! She has such a bad characteristic."

The HELL..!? Someone call the Translation Police! Crime in progress!

"WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE?"

If you asked Conan the Barbarian, he'd answer,
"CRUSH ENEMIES, SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE YOU, THEN HEAR THE LAMENTATIONS OF THEIR WOMEN."
If you asked my old copywriting teacher, he'd say
"Scratching itches, talking about other people, and eating free food." (translated from Filipino).

My kind of TIME.

I went wandering around during lunch, walking from having lunch at KFC Greenbelt (sampling the new Cheezy Bacon Hotshots... Delicious but you have apply the cheezy powder yourself, like flavored popcorn) all the way to Glorietta Mall. I went to Park Square and got the latest issue of WITCH (which I collect solely for the art). Later, I passed by Bibliarch and picked up the new issue of TIME Magazine... because it has Lord of the Rings on the cover. It has a fair-sized feature on the second film, The Two Towers, and great pics. I'll have nice bathroom reading later.

Revenge is best served BLOODY.

I was just lying in bed flipping channels when I came upon two channels, Star Mandarin and VIVA channel, back to back, each showing Asian movies that have revenge themes. They are also both a bit old, and have pretty cheezy, over-the-top and crazy stunts. One of them is The Story of Ricky, or Ricky-Oh, a Hong Kong flick I first saw years ago. This is a category III movie, meaning it's been given a mature or adults only rating in HK due to extreme sex or violence. Ricky-Oh's content is mostly violence; bloody, meatgrinder-gory violence. Basically, it's the story of a young man named Ricky (whose huge muscles, long hair and black pants make him a perfect actor to play Lui Kang in Mortal Kombat) who enters a corrupt prison in order to find the source of an opium ring that killed his loved one. This pits Ricky against super-strong convicts who serve the literally demonic warden, including acrobatic kung-fu fighters and brutal thugs and armies of guards. A funny thing is that HK action actress Yukari Oshima (Cynthia Luster to Manilenos) appears as one of the enemies; and yes, she is supposed to be male in this film. Lots of bloody deaths, spattering gore and exploding bodies mix with trademark HK goofiness and humor to make this a bloody classic. I was fortunate enough to see an uncensored version years ago, when Star Movies Mandarin didn't censor their films on TV. Heh.
The other revenge movie of the night is an old Filipino film, Anino ni David Crusado (Shadow of David Crusado) It stars stuntman/action star (I refuse to call him an actor) Dante Varona in a dual role as a man named David Crusado (and his twin brother) who tries to resist the evil Don who runs the provincial hacienda. The Don of course has David killed... but that only seems to make him mad. The hero returns, apparently alive, and clad in shiny black robes (with pointy hood) and wielding a scythe. This spectre of Death then starts to terrorize the Don and his men, beheading his targets. The film then moves onto various hilarious duels as a hodgepodge of 'martial artists' and hired killers try to put David Crusado back into his grave. The sword/bolo/scythe duels are laughable, and David Crusado has got to be one of the most taciturn heroes ever. ALL of the extras who play thugs get to ham it out with adlibbed dialogue while the hero just stares at them silently. As Filipino films go, this has average production values (funny costumes; the final bad guy wears red shiny robes and a mask he could have bought from a toy store), so it naturally looks horrible. But it's actually entertaining in a low-brow way, with blind hermits, cave hideouts filled with booby traps, a main villain who rants like J.Jonah Jameson, a lady love in distress and a hero who wields a scythe AND a machine gun. What more can you want?
Ah, revenge. Base emotions portrayed in base films. Gotta love that. Heh.

Cherished Bonds

It's only a few days away from the Manila showing of the latest James Bond flick, Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan reprising the role of Agent 007. Noticeably getting considerable billing is Oscar-award winner Halle Berry, who plays the part of Jinx, an beautiful and fickle American NSA agent. I've read good reviews, calling DAD the 'best Bond film in a long, long time'. I hope so. The series has seen lots of better days... in fact, I have to say I became a lukewarm Bond fan since Mr. Brosnan donned the tux and started guzzling those martinis.
I don't blame Brosnan; I still think he DOES have the perfect look of a Bond, as much as either Roger Moore or Sean Connery (I still think Connery was the best Bond, with Moore second if only for his great, enjoyable films). However, the 'real-life' direction of the Bond films, which started with Timothy Dalton's tour of duty, really took away the FUN of the series for me (guess who my WORST Bond is...)
I don't care if that was the way of the original books by Ian Fleming. I want large-scale plots. I want armies of thugs. I want the evil, twisted masterminds. I want the scary henchman with the weird schticks. That's James Bond! WHERE IS SPECTRE!?! Bring Ernst Stavros Blofeld back to kick the ass out of Dr. Evil!
Anyway, the Dalton flicks were horrible. I HATE Dalton's dull, expressionless, monotone-voiced Bond. I hated License to Kill, with it's attempt at real-world plots. Colombian drug lords? BORING!!! The only good thing there was Carey Lowell in a swimsuit. Otherwise, CRAP. Don't even get me started on Living Daylights. Speaking of incomprehensible plots, can anyone tell me what The World Is Not Enough was all about? I can never watch that horrible excuse for a Bond film. Not even Denise Richards' tank top could save that stinker. And who was the villain? Looked like Mini-me, only taller and less dangerous.
I have to say those are my hated Bond films. Stinkers, the lot of them. Almost made me forget that I love this series. Of course, all I need to do is recall the golden moments of Bond.
The Spy Who Loved Me. Ah. Mad billionaires with underwater cities. Richard Kiel's Jaws was unforgettable. The battle in the tanker was action end-to-end (something that is matched only by the Moonraker finale). Another favorite is Goldfinger, probably the quintessential Bond film. Oddjob and that incredible hat. Pussy Galore. And how more classic can you get with a plot that concerns robbing Fort Knox?
Another favorite is Thunderball, if only for the definitive Spectre presence. Rounding the list off are You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only and From Russia With Love. Dr. No is an honorable mention if only for Honey Rider.
Bond is a legend. He's an archetype. You don't try to update and force-fit him into current events. He has his own world, dammit! GAH!
Anyway, the best new Bonds was probably Tomorrow Never Dies for an over-the-top villain in media mogul Peter Carver. Michelle Yeoh wasn't sexy at all here, though. Just doesn't do it for me. I liked Goldeneye's bad girl Xenia Onatopp a lot better. If only her fight scene with Bond was a lot more... involved. Heh.
Hm. Well, after all that, I guess I am really looking forward to the next Bond. I really hope I dig it, but I am lowering my expectations just in case. I still long for the old Bond magic back. Maybe someday. Someday...

Jolly Good Villain...

I was able to catch a few minutes of the Mel Gibson flag-waver, The Patriot, this morning on HBO. An apparent follow-up to his far more successful and far superior Braveheart, TP once again casts Gibson as a simple man with simple dreams who can turn into a killing machine when his loved ones are threatened. Once again, snotty and aloof Brits are the enemy, this time the redcoat troops of the American Revolution. As in Braveheart, there are tons of rousing battle scenes and violent fights, though now the weapons of choice are muskets and tomahawks instead of arrows, swords, axes and morning stars.
Providing the focus of the conflict and The Patriot's villainy is Jason Isaacs, who plays the brutal British cavalry commander whose vile tactics of going after the heroes' families marks him for a satisfying death by film's end.
Moviegoers who have seen the recent Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets should recognize Isaacs even through the white hair and black robes of his new villain role; that of the sinister and Nazi-esque Lucius Malfoy, sire to Harry's nemesis Draco and apparent new heavy in the Potter movies.
I actually have seen quite a few movies with Isaacs in it; He played one of the soldiers in Black Hawk Down, a somewhat sinister medic in the sci-fi horror flick Event Horizon (he gets shish-kabobed by Sam Neil though) and had roles in recent films like The Tuxedo and Sweet November (neither of which I had seen). He will next be seen in the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and in the next Resident Evil movie.

Some more extensions about the LOTR extended version...

Last night I was finally able to watch the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring in its entirety. I have to say that this is now THE true version of the film for me. The extra and extended scenes truly add depth to the characters, a lot of much-needed information on the story and simply a lot more kick-ass stuff onscreen.
The hobbits benefit greatly since right from the beginning, with the new title sequence and Bilbo's narration of hobbit life, we are shown just what kind of race the fur-footed little ones are. This makes the hardship they are thrown into because of the ring that much more terrible. I particularly liked the one scene between Frodo and Bilbo Baggins where we learn of the love between the two, and specifically info about Frodo's origins. That was a vital scene for me. How could they cut that out? Sigh.
Strider AKA Aragorn benefits greatly from his added scenes, which show him as a ranger and a capable warrior, and later as the true heir of Isildur that he is. The new footage reveals a lot, including his past with the elves (which is only hinted at in the theatrical cut). We also see his motivations and fears a lot clearer.
Boromir, the tragic member of the Fellowship, gets a lot more depth with his added scenes, and there re a lot of them. We are given more scenes of his friendship with the hobbits Merry and Pippin, and we even see a glimpse of the true Son of Gondor in a very good scene between him and Frodo. He gets to kick Uruk-hai ass a whole lot more in his finale, which is great at making his fate that more painful.
Gimli and Legolas get only a few new scenes, but I feel that they are pretty effective. We finally see the interaction between the gruff dwarf and the regal but kind elf, which should pay off in The Two Towers. Legolas' one-liners are cool, while Gimli's scene with Galadriel is priceless.
The Lady of the Wood really comes off as more powerful and influential with her new scenes, and any doubt of her being on the side of good should be banished by the new scenes and how she helps the Fellowship.
Other scenes slightly change things from the original theatrical cut for the better; generally they serve to add more detail and more information. We actually see Lothlorien from the outside, and the welcome the elves give to the embattled heroes is more logical and natural. During the lament for Gandalf, there's a touching scene from Sam as he gives his own farewell to the wise wizard.
In short (too late, I know) the new footage makes the heroes more of a fellowship, with more interaction and detail that now seems invaluable. I really can't go back to the original theatrical cut now.
Even at about three and a half hours, I feel that anyone who loves LOTR should watch the extended cut, if they can. While a lot more leisurely in pace, true aficionados and fans of the film will revel in the new aspects that are uncovered. I really hope local video stores release the extended set widely... It's just THAT damn good.
Now, all I have to do is watch it four more times for the commentaries. Hahaha... bliss.

Taste Bud Torture

Ah, a Saturday. I went on my usual foray to Greenhills and came back with a couple of DVDs of movies I missed in the theaters. Otherwise, it was slim pickings. The place was crowded with tiangges (streetstores) and traffic was horrible. No new anime or games this time. Anyway, I went to Comic Quest as usual. I had missed an After Eden book signing by our friend, Arnold Arre, at National Bookstore Megamall... the event was from 3 to 5 pm, and I was only able to leave the house at 5:30. Anyway, maybe they'll be able to join us on lakwatsa another time.
Anyway, Mike, Jason, Emrys and me went off to Makati after closing. We picked up Emrys's girlfriend, Rio, and went to classy Rockwell. I have to admit I never really go to Rockwell, so I was pretty much amazed at the bookstore Formerly Known As Page One. The selection of books was even better than Powerbooks, and I saw a lot of stuff which could be prospective gifts this Christmas. It may warrant a quick trip during the week. After what seemed like an eternity to me (and even longer for Jason and Emrys since they were starving), Mike finished his book hunt. Among the books was a copy of Harry Potter and the Philoshopher's Stone. "It's the British version of the Sorcerer's Stone." said Mike. Me, being the heathen that I am, said, "So... what's the difference? Does it read with a Brit accent?" Heh.
We had a late dinner (or early breakfast?) at Dencio's Rockwell, which I regret. I ordered boneless fried sizzling bangus (milkfish) and some bagoong rice (which is seafood-based). Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy my meal. First of all, the bangus WASN'T sizzling when it got to me. It wasn't too crispy. The bagoong rice was also hard as if they used yesterday's rice to make it. Another factor was that the mix was wrong; since both the viand and the rice was seafood, it tasted bad.
It reminded me of that episode in the anime Cooking Master Boy, where one of the heroes had a cook-off with an evil female cook. The main ingredient was crab. While the hero cooked heavenly crab cakes, the evil cook-lady made a crab soup and omelet. As fate would have it, the villain's food was tasted first. Good enough... then the hero's crab cakes were tasted by the judges. To the surprise of everyone, the judges declared that the hero's crab cakes tasted HORRIBLE. Soon though, the astute main character, Liu Mao Hsing (the titular Cooking Master Boy) found out the secret. Apparently, the crab soup of the evil cook was very thick and strong-flavored. After having that, the judges' taste buds were deadened to crab taste... so when they tasted the crab cakes of the hero, it became tasteless, and all they could feel was slimy, slippery goo in their mouths (otherwise, they tasted great though). And so it was that the good guys were sabotaged and lost that round (Don't worry; they win eventually though).
I guess that was part of what happened. I feel though that the Rockwell branch of Dencio's is perhaps the worst. The service was pretty blah and the food below par. BAH.
Good thing we were able to chill out later at my house, where I treated Jason and Mike to a viewing of some of the best parts of the Lord of the Rings 'making of' DVDs... really amazing stuff. It kept them awake even though it was about three in the morning.
Argh. Sunday. Then work again. Oh well. At least I had my Saturday.

A Job Well Done, Part Two

This week has been pretty exhausting, but it ended quite well at least for my day job. The company won several pitches, one of which I was directly involved in. Furthermore, me and my team finally ended the long process of creating and producing a TV commercial. We presented the finished, edited and complete final version of the ad to client this afternoon, and they gave a happy nod of approval. The commercial, which is for a female hygiene product, will be shown on Philippine television this coming Sunday.
The whole company, or at least most of the people I know at the office, celebrated at the bar/restaurant Con Fusion near our building in Makati. I don't usually like drinking parties, but I went anyway since my teammates insisted. I had a couple of beers, a lot of laughs, several samples of savoury finger foods, and then I was off. I met the regular Friday gang of Mike, Dean, Nikki, Jason and Carl at Salsa Rossa. We later moved to Country Waffles and had a couple of enjoyable games of Cranium. Fun game!
Ahh. I look forward to a weekend that's all mine. No shoots, no overtime, no jobs. Just all fun and personal time. Haaa... I am alive again.

Retro Cartoon: The Spiral Zone

Anyone here remember that old action cartoon Spiral Zone? It was set in an earth that was under attack by a guy named Overlord(not to be mistaken for the villain in Blackstar). Overlord was a former scientist who created the Spiral Zone; it was a kind of virus or field which caused people to become mindless zombie slaves. It was so named because the pattern of the Zone's swath across the world was, well, spiral. With his Zone Generators, Overlord was able to conquer many parts of the world, even making New York as his main headquarters.

Of course, there were good guys around to resist the villain; the UN put together a small but elite squad of troopers called the Zone Riders. The riders are highly trained and are the free world's best and last hope: Commander Dirk Courage, Katerina Anastacia, Hiro Taka, Max Jones and Tank. The Zone Riders could go where the rest of the UN military couldn't go since they were the only ones with anti-Zone suits (which kept them from becoming zombies). This of course left the Zone Riders quite outnumbered when facing Overlord's armies of Zoner slave-soldiers. Leading the Zoners were Overlord's Black Widows- his personal lieutenants who were given treatment so they retained their wills and consciousness even inside the Zone (however, they also got the deformed, fleshless look Overlord has). These baddies went by code names given by Overlord himself based on their backgrounds/natures: Duchess Dire, Reaper, Bandit, Razorback, Raw Meat and Crook. We actually see the last two Widows get recruited within the series; Meat was a wild, evil Cajun trapper, while Crook was a treacherous French ambassador or something.
The series distinguished itself as well with really odd vehicles; the Zone Riders rode one-wheeled armed and armoured motorcycles, while the Black Widows rode Sledgehammer Tanks that looked like a cross between a war chariot and a Lazyboy. Overlord himself of course rode a unique vehicle which looked like something from a tractor pull. Wild stuff.
Spiral Zone was full of action, drama and lots of explosions and lazer beams. Like GI Joe, it never showed deaths, but was oddly quite intense given the gravity of the threat (and how many of the heroes' relatives are prisoners within the Zone). It was a pretty cool and exciting cartoon. I'd give a lot to have these episodes in some DVD or tape. Relive the good Saturday fare once in a while. Ah. They don't make them like they used to.

A Pinoy Komiks Resurgence

Local Pinoy comics: Down for the count? Nope!

In the mid to late nineties, Alamat Comics made some heads turn with the release of locally-made comic books. I am pleased to say that I was part of this 'revolution', releasing my own title, Angel Ace, during that time. Within the past two years though, Alamat has seemingly gone into hibernation, with most members going dormant. I count myself lucky to be able to continue working with people who are very active in creative work in the comics medium, including Carl Vergara (One Night in Purgatory), Jason Banico (Dynatica Comics, Baylans), Dean and Nikki Alfar (The Lost, Kestrelstudios), Mike Simbulan (Isaw At Iba Pa), Arnold Arre and Cynthia Bauzon (Tala Studios, After Eden). Together, we've been able to continue thinking, creating and doing stuff that will hopefully continue to share the stories we have in our heads to as many people as we can reach.
However, it is heartening to know that there are many others also active in the Philippine local comic scene. Fans of western comic book styles may bristle though, at the fact that many of them are influenced or based on the now-popular Japanese manga style. There's of course Culture Crash, the highly popular mangazine which boasts high quality art and colored issues. There's CHIPs, a local manga with a distinct cutesy style and sensibility which recently released their first issue. In Comic Quest, we've seen the work of Armand Canlas, a mecha-combat/scifi manga by the name of Armor Troopers.
With so many young artists working hard to express themselves, it gives me the inspiration to continue where I left off and release another issue. Not this year, of course... but soon. I still have a lot of stories to tell, myself.

A Job Well Done

Yesterday, I attended the offline edit of the commercial we filmed last week. An offline, for those not in the advertising biz, is the term for the initial editing of a commercial. That means, the takes are just chosen and put together. There is no special effects, transitions or color grading at this stage. So what you see of the ad is pretty bare, basic and a bit rough. Me, my art director Itsy and our account person Mona went over to the production house. While we were waiting, we experienced more of the customary hospitality, in the form of a Sukhothai-esque Thai lunch. Pandan Chicken, bagoong rice with tasty sweet-sour-savory flavor, beef tenderloin and clam chowder was for the taking. But my favorite at that moment was without a doubt the flawlessly made Leche Flan. You could really taste that they didn't scrimp on the eggs on this dessert. I had two pieces and wanted more, actually.
When we finally saw the edit, I was initially disturbed by how jarring the takes were. Fortunately, we saw a good edit, and we were pleased. After us, it was client's turn. It took about two hours for them to get to the premises, but luckily, they approved our recommended edit right away. No problems. Great! Now the rough edit of the offline can go on the the online, which means more polished editing, scoring of the music and application of visual effects and color grading.
We ended the session with a merienda/early dinner of pasta with marinara or puttanesca sauce, garlic bread and roast chicken. I downed ice cold glasses of Coke to celebrate the end of another stage of the job. Barring any delays, the commercial would be airing within the month. That left a good taste in my mouth. Or was it the chicken? Whatever.

Innuendo

I was on the bus going to work today when I say a movie billboard of another one of those sleazy sex movies that seem to be the rage today in skanky theaters. The title was Masarap na Pugad, or in english, "Delicious Nest". It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's not talking about birds. At least, not the flying kind... Ah, the artistry of Filipino movies...

A Prisoner of the Flesh

Well, thanks to a weird stomach bug that had me in the fetal position this morning as well as my sore back muscles, I stayed home. I spent most of the day just lying in bed, watching TechTV and playing some Suikoden III. I just wandered aimlessly around the land, killing monsters to level up my heroes and occupying time by playing some funny minigames in the heroes' castle. One of the funny diversions involves staging a play in a theater. You can cast any of your 108 playable characters in various roles, and it's pretty hilarious to see how some of them act (or non-act). After playing the RPG, I rested some more.
A nice thing about staying home on a weekday is being able to watch TV programs you usually miss. I was able to watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a demon casts a spell that makes everyone burst into song every so often. The entire show was like a musical, and I think they all sang with their real voices. HILARIOUS.
After that, I slipped in Disc 4 of the LOTR Extended DVD Set and watched documentaries about the film that focused more on the cast, filming the epic fantasy adventure and then some. It's pretty funny to see and hear some of the interviews and how the actors and crew got to bond during the filming. I actually haven't watched the whole extended edit movie yet... I'll do that soon.
Despite having all this time for myself, staying indoors the whole day, having the airconditioning on for hours and hours and not being able to go out kinda sucked. Thankfully I think I can get back to work tomorrow.

Tired and Worn

I came home tired and having some muscle pains in my left side. Walking around with a limp and the muscle pain is more tiring and exhaustive than normal, so I just hobbled to the sanctum. No Suikoden III tonight... don't have the energy. I WAS able to pop in Disc 3 of the LOTR Extended Version set and watch the rest of the documentaries. Fascinating stuff all around, but I have to say the best parts were the WETA Workshop portions, which showed us director Peter Jackson's answer to ILM... the detail and work that went into the making of LOTR is mind-boggling; literally no shortcuts, they made a world! From armor to creatures to costumes and weapons... damn. This movie reeks quality. There are tons more drawings, designs and stills to look at, but I'll finish that in time. Very tired. Need to get some rest since tomorrow's another work day. Ah, the grind. I hope I have the strength.

Sunday Funday

It's Sunday yet I'm at the office, working on a pitch. It's not as bad as I thought since I was able to get enough sleep somehow. Hopefully we won't stay too late. Can't end the weekend without a last-minute Suikoden III game or some similar digital crack session. If I can, I'll try to pass by some shops and check out any DVDs or games worth a look. Yesterday, I managed to bring home some goodies: A copy of the new PC game Age of Mythology, the sequel to the best-selling RTS Age of Empires, and a Neo Geo library disc for the Xbox.
I was able to install AOM successfully; basically it is Empires with mythological creatures as units, and the gameplay is very similar to the previous game. The 3D graphics remind me a lot of Battle Realms though. The story mode, which seems to concern the adventures of an Atlantean hero, looks very interesting. It will take some getting used to the new elements, but it looks great.
As for the Neo Geo Xbox compilation, it's a mixed bag; several games won't play, but there are enough that do that satisfy me. It's great to see these old arcade games on the TV. The Neo Geo had cool games but was just too expensive.
Well, that's that. I'll try to post another entry later tonight.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Last night, me, Mike and Jason headed off to Hogwarts, er, Greenhills Theatre Mall, to watch the second Harry Potter movie. We've been planning this since two weeks ago, and our strategy was foolproof and meticulous. Our tickets were bought, seats reserved and food prepared for the two and a half hour show. Well, it turns out that we were worried for nothing since the theater wasn't at all crowded; we had great seats and the movie started on the money. Now, how did we like the Secrets of the Chamber?
First of all, I entered the film without any knowledge of the book. I had been able to read Sorcerer's Stone, which kind of spoiled the suspense. This time, I didn't know what would happen, which was pretty cool.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is all about the titular character's second year of weird classes and death-defying adventures in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, his return to school is filled with foreboding with the dire warnings of a mysterious House Elf named Dobby. This CG-creature warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts since terrible things would happen. Of course, if Harry did that there wouldn't be a movie so...
Once Mr. Potter makes his way back with a lot of help from his best friend, Ron Weasley, and his family. But his return is marked with mixed characters and events that echo the warnings of the House Elf; A vainglorious new teacher of Defense of the Dark Arts named Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), the appearance of Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs), the sinister father of Harry's rival, Draco, mysterious whispering voices, writings on blood on the walls and finally, students getting petrified by an unseen force. All this seems to be linked to a rumored 'Chamber of Secrets', an almost legendary spot in Hogwarts that is said to contain evil from the founder of House Slytherin. Evil has returned to Hogwarts...
Thanks to the bulk of story background and foundation being rooted in the previous movie, Chamber has the advantage of being able to get right into the action without too much baggage... and there's quite a lot of it too. There are lots of dangers that Harry and Ron have to face, including getting smashed by a moving tree, surviving a ride on a flying car, getting chased by hordes of giant spiders and tussling with their rivals from the evil Slytherine house. The Quidditch match gets upped in the wow factor thanks to the deadly appearance of a rogue bludger (an attacking flying ball) and the addition of Draco Malfoy as Slytherin's seeker and Harry's opposite number. I already loved the Quidditch sequence in the first movie... I enjoyed Chamber's game immensely.
Overall, thanks to more action, Chamber tops Sorcerer's Stone (whose high point was a chess game... hmmm...). However, it still mirrors the earlier movie in some stuff where it could have been better trimmed.
The cast seems to be really comfortable in their roles, particularly the leads Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. Alan Rickman's Severus Snape doesn't get as much screen time as he had in Sorcerer's Stone. He still perplexes me as to whether you should like him or hate him, but he's unmistakeably cool here. Maggie Smith and Robby Coltrane are doing the paces, while I think Kenneth Branagh is funny but not as effective as he could have been. Tom Felton as Draco gets more screen time, but I don't find him as dangerous as he could be... though he does smirk and act smarmy quite well. The best addition is Jason Isaac's Lucius Malfoy, who's about as villainous and imperious as you could expect Draco's father to be.
As for the plot, despite some leaps in logic, the overall story is better paced, and has darker and spookier atmosphere. Pretty good, though in the end the exposition kinda disappointed me. Maybe I was just expecting too much from a children's book...
There are lots of gripes though; again, with a somewhat plodding and awkward finale and an overlong, too mawkish 'happy-happy-joy-joy' ending. Also, Lucius is already sinister with Isaac's performance... why did they have to have the 'Dracula hypnotic stare' lighting effect? Also, don't Slytherin have lives aside from being evil and griping? You'd think that in their common room they can be evil as well as young boys as well. And why does Harry seem to hit and swing things more than cast spells? Hmm.
In the end, I found Chamber of Secrets quite entertaining, but again, while I like it, I probably won't be able to sit through it again. Once is enough.

Purple Fizz

I'm at home, letting Disc 3 of the LOTR Extended DVD Set run. I am watching the first feature, which is all about JRR Tolkien and the monumental task of adapting the epic to a movie. I bought a couple of cans of Welch Sparkling Grape Sodaand decided to open one now. Listen to me go 'aaah...' as I see the carbonated grape juice. Purple Fizz. Weird. I had wanted to take home a bottle of Pepsi Blue, but failed to find any in the stores we passed. I wonder if that would have Blue Fizz?

A Bleak Weekend...

Sigh. Haven't been able to post much this week since I've been busy on a pitch at the office. Furthermore, the TV shoot that got rained out last week is pushing through tomorrow, Saturday. Plus we're gonna be working on the pitch on Sunday. AAAAARRRGHHHH! There goes my weekend. I'll try to have a break on Monday after all this hell is over. Graggle-snaggle...

Dennis Rodman to star in Dead or Alive game!

"Dennis Rodman's gonna be here?! Swoon..."

Yes, we've all thought that the Worm looks cartoony and unreal... now we know that it is so! The controversial basketball star and Jean-Claude Van Damme's co-star in the classic action movie Double Team (Eew) is set to do the english voiceovers for the character Zack in the much-anticipated sports fantasy videogame, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Zack is the only male character in the game and owner of the island where the sexy, bikini-clad DOA girls will be spending time in. The casting is dead-on perfect, at least for the simple fact that Dennis Rodman IS Zack, at least in appearance (the character was apparently modelled after the sports star). Players will be able to switch between Rodman's dialogue and the original Japanese actor (Bin Shimada) during the game's CG cinematics at the start and end of the game. It's still a bit before this Xbox exclusive game becomes available (the date's been set sometime in January 2003), and every little snippet I get makes me want this game even more. AAAAaaahhhh... I hate waiting...

Top 10 scenes that were NOT included in the Extended Version DVDs of LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring

10. Frodo smoking a joint before meeting Gandalf

9. The baking of Bilbo's birthday cake

8. The SECOND cave troll.

7. Boromir putting on a band-aid on his cut finger

6. Orc and Goblin sex (Eeeeww...)

5. An Arwen shower scene

4. Elrond jumping up and down in a tantrum after Isildur leaves with the ring

3. A flashback scene showing Saruman and Gandalf in college. With afros.

2. Gandalf buying a new staff at the Rivendell convenience store.

1. A Legolas shower scene.

The Fellowship of the Ring Extended DVD Set Review: Disc One

Ah. Bliss. Before I get into the contents of the first disc, let me first describe the whole package. The Fellowship XDVD set comes in a really nice box packaging that mimics the look of a thick old, leather-bound book. The fold-out interior package contains the 4 discs, and comes with a 12-page booklet with the contents guide of the dvds (which is organized like a family tree as if illustrated by Bilbo Baggins himself). It just reeks coolness, which I can't say too often enough. Heh.
Anyway, I was able to get into the first disc so here goes. Disc One of the set contains the first half of the new extended version of Fellowship; all the new and extended scenes have been edited into the movie, with new scores so the watch is seamless. Early on as you watch the movie, if you've seen the original theatrical release, you will see how different the new edit is. Generally it is more leisurely as the film begins, and a lot more detailed. The new scenes are fabulous, and I am really astounded and thankful that this version exists just for the chance to see these scenes. They really are juicy and meaningful, and not just extraneous bits.

The extra sequences range from short new edits to actual previously-unseen footage, such as Isildur's flight and death, lots of hobbit life sights, the passing of elves and extended scenes for Aragorn. I have to say it's a treat to see a scene play out and then realizing that you're seeing something new. A bit like opening a birthday gift or biting into a Bavarian donut after just having mouthfuls of dry bread for a while... hmmm... you get the picture.

As for special features, the only other features on the disc are the audio commentaries, of which there are four: Director/writers/producers (which includes Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh), The Production and Post Production teams, and the Cast (of which most of the major characters except for Viggo Mortensen are present).
I listened to the cast commentary, and I found it quite entertaining; the banter of the four hobbits is particularly nice to listen to, with lots of humorous bits and pieces to pick up. Listening to them, you can really feel that they bonded during the months of filming. It's pretty funny to hear them talking about stuff like quirky people on the set, little bits about the other actors, various bloopers, Elijah Wood's eyes (ARE they digitally-altered?) and the various tricks used by the production to create the wonders we see onscreen.
My only gripe is that the cast wasn't recorded all at the same time; it would have been awesome to hear them all reacting to one anothers' comments. That aside though, the various comments they relate to you are interesting and in-depth. Great stuff.

I haven't listened to all the commentaries yet; I plan to over the course of the next few weeks. But this early I have to say that this dvd set is a must-buy for fans of the LOTR films. Damn great stuff. And I've only barely scratched the surface of the mammoth amount of content in the package.
A great buffer as The Two Towers is still months away... Aaaaarrrrhhh....

A Funny Coincidence

I was watching some parts of the LOTR Extended Version a while ago. I haven't yet committed to watching the whole thing, but I am really impressed by how it works from the beginning. I've watched the theatrical cut so many times, it's like seeing it all for the first time with the new scenes. I feel it all works so well, but at about three and a half hours, it may be a bit too long for some people. Good thing most of the people I travel with aren't that kind of people.
Anyway, from watching a movie with Sir Ian McKellen on DVD, I turned on to HBO and suddenly found myself watching the old Alec Baldwin comic book starrer, The Shadow (1994). And guess who's playing the befuddled professor Reinhardt Lane? Ian McKellen! Heh. I would NEVER have thought then that he'd eventually play pivotal roles in some of my favorite new movies (X-Men, LOTR). Pretty cool, actually.
Anyway, on The Shadow, it wasn't a big hit when it came out, and has sort of a TV movie feel. The action is pretty subdued but I think that John Lone's Shiwan Khan is a marvelous villain with a lot of great dialogue and scenes (and the stuff with the telekinesis I feel was just ahead of its time then). Lamont Cranston is a cool hero, and Baldwin nails him. I wonder how great an updated Shadow movie would do today? Whatever...

The Object of my Quest

The end came suddenly, and unexpectedly. I was wandering aimlessly around Glorietta, with my mind set on something else. I scoured the two shops selling videogames, but went away disappointed. As I decided to call it quites, I passed by Spectra AV Center at Park Square. I actually already passed it by, but for some reason I backtracked and entered the store. I gave a cursory glance at the rows and rows of VCDs. My gaze went from them to the racks of DVDs. Hmmm. Well now.
I made my way to the counter, where they kept a lot of good stuff. I knew they also had original US anime DVDs, but I really wasn't interested in them. I looked at the woman behind the counter and gave a half-hearted question.
"Miss, Do you have the Extended Version DVD Set of Lord of the Rings?" I said.
The woman replied, "Yes."
Te-na-neeeeen! (Expression of surprise sound effect)
I bought it on the spot. Well, actually I had to do a quick pass (actually more of a fevered brisk walk) to the nearest ATM. I HAD it. Didn't expect it today, but it was mine all the same.
Anyway, I am once again pleased immensely. I'll try to give an expansive review (perhaps on my forum at my site instead of here though) as soon as I am able.
Darn... How am I going to fit this in with my writing and art requirements, Suikoden III and all the ofther stuff on my plate??? Ah, exquisite torment. Gotta love that. Heh.

My precious... My precious...

Given that my much-awaited Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox is delayed until early next year, my obsessive desire at the moment is the Lord of the the Rings Extended DVD Set. This monster of a video contains 30 minutes of new footage/extended scenes (making it necessary for the film to be split between two DVDs), 4 different commentaries (director and writers, production crews, special effects and the cast) and well over 6 hours worth of added material (features, documentaries and other goodies). It's a LOTR completist's wet dream, and I have been salivating over it ever since I saw the teaser for it in the Theatrical Cut DVD.
Sadly though, it's not yet clear when the local video shops will have it in stock. I may have to be forced to rely on friends or relatives overseas to get it for me... But rest assured, it will be mine. It WILL be mine... Ha ha ha...

A Working Weekend

Yesterday, instead of having my free time and being able to rest and recharge, I had to work and attend the shoot of a new commercial. I guess I HAD to be there, seeing as I was the writer of the ad. Anyway, I got up early and was picked up by the production house's service. The shoot was on location at a college campus. When I arrived, I was reminded of how much goes into a TV shoot. The production crew was there in force, with cameras, lights, generators, cables and equipment aplenty. Several tents were set up to accommodate the Agency (me and my officemates), the lead cast and the extras. The good thing about TV shoots is that there is ALWAYS a ton of food around for the asking. Traditionally, production houses always provide more than enough to keep us happy, which is cool and makes me feel like a VIP.
Of course, I can't lounge around forever, so it was that when the talents were prepped and the camera angles set, the work began. Actually, all I had to do was make sure they got good takes... in other words, just watch. Which was not hard considering that the lead talent we had was a GORGEOUS 17-year old woman who I could just stare at for hours on end. Darn.
Unfortunately, while she had the look, it took work and lots of takes to get adequate takes during the more 'acting' heavy sequences. Still, all would have gone well if it weren't for the one thing that wasn't possible to control; The Weather.
First of all, since it was a 'ber' month, daylight hours are shorter than the usual; by three o' clock, daylight was already waning, making artificial lights to simulate a sunny day necessary. Even worse though, clouds began gathering and heralding a coming drizzle.
By five, rain has begun falling. You'd never have thought it would rain that day seeing as how the sky was all blue and cloudless in the morning. Soon, a light drizzle developed into heavier droplets. I worriedly observed how pools of water began gathering over the various cables and electrical devices of the production crew. Luckily, the men didn't seem worried. However, it soon became clear that the rain would not be stopping anytime soon. Despite this, the director still felt the need to wait, and perhaps even shoot some sequences even though it was now totally dark and still raining hard.
We eventually decided to pack up. We got onto the service vehicle which would take us to where we needed to go, whether it be home or somewhere else. Despite being tired beyond belief, I opted to go to the mall and meet friends for some dinner. Thankfully, the day wasn't all lost, so me, Mike, Carl and Jason still managed to have a good dinner at Lola's Cafe and Restaurant at Timog where the guys finally were able to taste the highly-recommended (by me) Black Pepper Spaghetti.
When I finally got home after, I didn't even have the energy to play even just a minute of Suikoden III. Sigh. It's good that shoots and other special events don't happen this often. Saturdays are sacred.

Totally Anime

I just managed to catch the last few minutes of an episode of Totally Spies on the Disney Channel. It's about a trio of high school girls who also double as secret agents. Anyway, after only watching it for a short time, I could easily see the anime influence in the way the girls move and act, particularly SD expressions. I also noticed that it's pretty close to the other Disney anime/manga-influenced WITCH.