Daredevil Review (Some Spoilers Ahead)


Man without Fear. But not without Flaws.

Despite getting held up longer at the office than I intended, I was able to make it to Megamall for the premiere showing of the latest Marvel Comics' movie adaptation, Daredevil. The movie stars Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clarke Duncan. Daredevil is the story of Matt Murdock (Affleck), the son of an aging boxer who gets stricken blind by an accidental burst of radioactive material. While the tragedy left him sightless, it also enhanced his other senses, particularly his sense of hearing and smell. Eventually, young Matt learns to hone his physical skills to become an acrobatic whiz and a high-flying martial artist. But of course, in the tradition of these vigilante superhero types, even more adversity strikes as Matt's father, on the return road to success as a boxer, is murdered by gangsters because he refused to throw a fight. After this traumatic event, young Matt Murdock swears to continue fighting against the scum that makes life hell in the place called Hell's Kitchen. He becomes, in effect, a guardian devil. Daredevil, the man without fear.
This first movie about the blind superhero shows us the origin, as well as the popular story threads and characters that made the comic famous; The Kingpin (Duncan), a massive crimelord who controls things from secret; Bullseye (Farrell), a hitman with an almost unnerring ability to kill with throwing weapons, and Elektra Natchios (Garner), a Greek beauty and martial artist who captures Matt Murdock's heart (Love at first Smell?). The movie basically mashes a lot of stuff which spans throughout many issues in the comic book series into an hour and a half, and it results in a mixed bag that viewers may love or hate depending on how much they love the source material.
I have to say that I was never a big Daredevil fan. I mean, I never really like these lone vigilante-types. DD, at his heart, is Batman. Or Spiderman. What sets him apart? Well, he's blind for one. He's a lawyer (with a tendency for pro bono cases and the tendency to be a bad sport since he takes out those he can't convict. Heh) by day and crimefighter by night. DD is without a doubt the darkest Marvel Comics' movie yet (if you discount that old, old horrible Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren), and perhaps as well the grittiest. Despite having a face like Ben Affleck, Matt Murdock is blind and has to struggle to keep his practice (good thing he has good ol' Foggy Nelson, who is played quite excellently by actor Jon Favreau) since he takes the leaner, straight and narrow road of innocent clients. He has to sleep in a sense-deprivation chamber at night to block out the noises of the world (thanks to his super senses), and he has to constantly wrestle with the morality of being a vigilante AND being a good Catholic (he goes to confession regularly). DD also has quite a surprising amount of blood and violence that's a lot nastier than past Marvel titles, in particular scenes where Daredevil lets a small-time criminal die, and a ton of scenes of people getting impaled by stuff thrown by Bullseye.
Despite all the heavy drama and violence, DD still tries hard to throw in stuff like a love story (between Murdock and Elektra), which is made pretty silly by a totally over-the-top foreplay/martial arts duel in PLAIN SIGHT that would be more at home in The Matrix or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than here. Well, Affleck and Garner do have chemistry onscreen, and I think that despite the short time and lean development period, the love angle kinda worked. Still pretty silly though.
And back to the over-the-top martial arts. It's got the expected wirework and CG combos, which makes for some slick stunts and fighting sequences, though a bit too MTV-ish in editing too many times. Suffice to say you will have to accept that many people in the movie will start flying around sans Green Destiny swords. If you get past that, you will be fine. All in all though, there was really no fight in the whole film that 'did' it for me; everything was short and truncated and didn't have the feel of a Darth Maul fight... kinda like Spider Man and X-men, I guess. None of the Marvel films, despite being solid entries and moneymakers, actually had good climaxes. Oh well.
Anyway, I kinda liked the way the story was presented. I liked the performances of Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock, Garner as Elektra and in particular, Colin Farrell as the maniacal Bullseye- actually, he stole the show. Heh. I liked the gritty atmosphere and texture of the film, which was pretty uniform throughout. Loved the way the 'radar sight' was done. Cool.
I did NOT like the uneven fighting and trippy editing. I did not like the hurriedness of the plot (a result of the mashing of various plots and characters), and the revelation at the end by an overconfident enemy (Daredevil isn't too much of a detective in this one). I did NOT like Elektra's costume (BRING BACK THE RED OUTFIT, DAMMIT!!!!). And I did not get the sudden morality at the end (kill the small fish, and not the big Fisk?). Weird.

In all, Daredevil is a dark, heavy adaptation of the blind superhero saga which captures the atmosphere of the setting and character, but falters a bit on some execution issues. I know several fans who either hated it or just were disappointed. I did not have much ties to it, but I found it... okay. Not bad, and I am actually looking forward to a sequel. And Elektra's red outfit.

Vampire Hunter V

Sometime next year, we'll be treated to Van Helsing, a monster-hunting action-fest starring Hugh Jackman as the titular hero. I've seen images posted on Aint It Cool News, and Van Helsing looks straight out of the Yoshitaka Amano anime, Vampire Hunter D. The enemies include the Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster and a very batty Dracula. Apparently, in all his incarnations, this is probably the first time Van Helsing has been portrayed as a bad-ass action hero. We'll have to wait till May 2004 before we can see this though. Hugh Jackman will of course be appearing in X2, or X-Men 2 this coming May.

Simply Extraordinary!

Yet another comic makes it to the big screen with the film adaptation of the somewhat obscure title The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The titular group is an unusual alliance of various literary heroes which include Allan Quatermain, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde, Mina Murray (Harker), Tom Sawyer and Captain Nemo. For the good of the world (in particular, Merry ol' England), the LXG battles deadly villains with their legendary powers and abilities. The cast features Sean Connery as Quatermain. So far, the production values look incredible, with amazing special effects and oh, so cool touches onscreen. This one looks... well... extraordinary.

View the first trailer of LXG here.

I'm BAAAAAAAACK....

Sorry I wasn't able to blog yesterday... the tourist center where the internet place was located was just too far away and my feet hurt from the stoopid slippers I bought (in contrast, the Mojo sandals were great, and I used them exclusively for the rest of my stay). Anyway, the second day was mostly spent as free time; we never did get to follow the itinerary, so I took the time to walk around, buy souvenirs and pasalubong for home. I also splurged a bit, eating at a Mexican-themed eatery called Manana (didn't think the Taco meal I tried was worth the P300 price though). I bought several brightly-colored sarongs, bead necklaces and bracelets, and some thatched little bags. After that, I headed back for the hotel. My office group met and we spent about an hour discussing what we would share with the rest of the department, after which we chilled at Jonah's, which pretty much became our default place of drinks, meals and gatherings. Thankfully, I was able to slip in several swimming sessions, wading and splashing around along the shore. This is what Boracay is all about. At least for me. Heh.
Early evening saw our entire group finally meeting and finishing the work we set out to do. After that, we were FREE! We freshened up and then en masse congregated at The Talipapa, which was sort of the island swap-meet/wet market/cheap prices area. We settled in a restaurant called Honey Bee and dined on sea food and other native viands as a treat from our boss (although I have to say the kinilaw was inferior to the dish I had at Mikay's). Afterwards, we scattered to the four winds. After getting a beautiful bead-rosary as a gift, I headed back to my hotel room since I felt dead-tired. The rest of the night I spend watching cable; in particular, a channel called 'Z' which seemed to show exclusively wrestling shows (Japanese and WWE) and kinky phone sex ads in Chinese. MY KIND OF CHANNEL! There was even a Japanese pageant/model search show which seemed to specialize in upskirt and kinky sex stuff. I will miss Z. Sigh.
Anyway, the next day we basically had all the time to ourselves as we waited for the ferry to come and pick us up. At about 2PM, we were headed for Caticlan, and at 3:30 or so we were flying towards Manila. An officemate gave us a ride all the way to Quezon City, where I had dinner with a friend and then... I was HOME!

No more white sand. No more lovely waters to wade in. No more native souvenirs. No more sweet breezes and nice beach scenery.

But I have my room back. Nice, lighted room with all my stuff. My computer with the good Internet connection. Games and anime (unfortunately now one week delayed since I missed my Greenhills foray yesterday). Water that lets soap sud. Fresh clothes. WOOHOO!

And of course... work tomorrow. Oh well.

I am back home. Back to working at the office. Back to working on Angel Ace and Hinirang and other stuff. Back to romping around with my friends. Back to blogging. And boy am I glad.

Greetings from the Beach!

Hello from Boracay! Well, as luck would have it, the local tourist center has an adequate Internet center where I can surf and blog. So here is my first day on Boracay and confirmation that I am really a cyber-addict. Sigh.
Anyway, I got up at about four in the morning after having about two hours of actual shut-eye. A taxi which we contracted would be arriving at about five to take me to the Manila Domestic Airport. On the dot, the cab came and I was off after saying goodbye to my parents and locking up the sanctum. The drive was pretty fast since it was abysmally early; no traffic at all. I arrived at the airport at about five-thirty, paying the cab fee and giving the driver a tip that made him thank me for his Valentine's Day expenses. Heh.
Once the group was all together, we readied for the flight. We were flying on SEAIR, or Asian Spirit, I think. Since it was a domestic flight, the plane we were taking was a small plane with 2 propeller-driven engines. The interior was spartan, and there weren't even any stewardesses; the only crew was the pilot and copilot. We were all hyped to go until we realized little by little that the plane was refusing to start. Apparently, the left engine (which was right outside my window; I was seated at the front, right behind the pilot) wouldn't ignite; and after about ten minutes the pilot taxied to the back part of the airport where we were herded into another (and older) plane. The explanation was that the engine's battery was dead. Oh-kay...
Anyway, the back-up plane started up fine and we were off. The thing about planes... I always feel that the darn thing is really exerting itself to take off. You know that feeling that you're lifting up and you feel like you could just drop at any second... but thankfully, we didn't. Soon, after the ear-popping climb we were cruising towards our destination: Caticlan in Aklan province, where we would take a ferry ride to Boracay. The flight took about an hour, and all I can say is that during the last fifteen minutes or so my right ear hurt terribly. Argh.
After touching down on Caticlan's small airport, we got on a coaster for a three-minute drive to the beach where our bangka-ferry awaited. We piled in, donned makeshift lifejackets and waited as the men pulled and forced the ferry out to sea. The boat ride took about 20 minutes, which I enjoyed since the day was cloudy, the salty sea spray was cool and the scenery was magnificent. The last time I saw Boracay was several years ago, and the feeling of arrival still makes me calm.
Our group would be staying at the Pearl of the Pacific Hotel, which is odd to me since the last time I was here I didn't remember big structures or buildings (or maybe I just didn't walk around too much). There are loads of small but lovely buildings, resorts and even a place called D' Mall which is the island's version of a shopping center. Cool, in a beach sort of way. Anyway, as I said before, this wasn't a vacation so after arrival we met up and discussed SHOP talk. Advertising and all that jazz. The most I can say about it is that it didn't last too long, and we soon had free time after a nice lunch at a place called Jonah's (which serves killer shakes! The best on the island, they say).
I slept for a while and came out during the sunset; some of the guys and gals were playing beach volleyball, which made me remember DOAX. Heh. Actually, my gamer genes were piqued as I looked about and saw traces of the PC game Beach Life AKA Spring Break and other little details. Sigh. Well, I was able to get in some wading and floating in the cool waters of the beach, and watched the sun go down and the lights slowly twinkle along the various shops, restaurants and resorts along the coast. Beautiful. Things like this make me glad I came. Despite the sand. I hate sand... ahem...
Me and several of the guys passed eating at a posh bar to go and look for more economic surroundings. We found a small eatery called Mikay's where we pooled our money and got a nice native dinner of Bistik Tagalog, Kilawing Blue Marlin (DELICIOUS and SPICY!) and some barbecue. After the nice meal, I went off and walked along the length of the beach, and eventually found myself in the Tourist Center (which is probably at the opposite end of the island from my Hotel!). And then, I blogged.

Tomorrow promises another round of sessions for talking and hopefully more chances for me to get souvenirs for the gang, and a sarong for my mom. And maybe the odd knick-knack. Who knows what I can find? Anyway, I'm having a great time.

Still, it doesn't excuse the fact that there's no TechTV on our cable... and no Disney Channel. I WANT MY KIM POSSIBLE AND EXTENDED PLAY FIX!!!

Heh. Later then.

Off to the Beach!



Tomorrow morning, I leave for the sunny shores of Boracay, a world-reknowned beach paradise located in the Western Visayas region of the country. I've been lucky enough to see the white sands of the place twice before; now I am going to spend my Valentine's weekend there. However, it won't be a vacation; it's a work thing, called an 'Away Day'. This will probably mean some seminars, talks and rah-rah sessions designed to make us work doubly harder when we come back to hum-drum Manila. Heh.

I am not a traveller by nature. I have spent too much money, effort and time to make my sanctum comfortable and filled to overflowing with things that give me pleasure and interest. So I only leave it grudgingly. But I can't say I am not a bit excited going to Boracay. I actually went out early after work to get myself a brand-new pair of Mojo-type sandals and new slippers (since my old slippers are far too raggedy to show outside of my room) to use on my trip and beyond. I went to Megamall and went along with Mike to buy groceries; mostly snacks to bring along for the trip.
Aside from clothing, personal effects and snacks, I am bringing along a load of paper, a sketchpad and my own drawing implements. Who knows... maybe I might get inspired. Or it may pass the time. But will I really be drawing comics when I could be running along a beach or swimming in crystal clear waters..? Aside from that I am also bringing along a brand new copy of Protoculture Addicts and an issue of Newtype USA (both anime mags) for reading. Wow. I am armed. I wonder if the hotel has cable? Maybe I can get Extended Play and Kim Possible there... Argh...

Anyway, unless there is a good internet cafe there, or if the hotel I am staying at has a decent business center, I might not be able to update until I come back on Sunday. Till next blog, then. Later!


Yay! Marc's taking us to Boracay. Let's do a swimsuit special! Heehee...


Mmm. Sand between my toes. Nice.


Two words. No GAMES. This sucks.

Early Bird gets packing early.

Before I finally left the office, I made up my mind to eat my much-delayed dinner at Wendy's along Kamias Avenue in Quezon City. I could almost taste the Wendy's spaghetti on my lips when the bus I was riding overshot my destination. Rather than stopping at a Nowhere Zone and having to walk some dark length of highway, I got down at SM North EDSA. From there, I took a taxi to Philcoa, near my alma mater, University of the Philippines Diliman. I went into McDonald's, only to find out they only had fried chicken, spaghetti and apple pies left in their menu. Oh well. I finally settled on Gotoking, and had myself a pretty heavy meal with Tapsilog, (marinated deep-fried beef, garlic fried rice and egg), arroz caldo (chicken rice porridge) and puto (rice cakes). How's that for going Pinoy? Oh well, actually I was quite satisfied by the meal but I found the food pretty bland (I guess they were short on MSG since it was kinda late).
I had the impression that the whole of Katipunan Ave (a university area) is pretty dead these days; there were hardly any, if any, restaurants open. It was all DEAD. Particularly at the junction between Aurora and Katipunan, there are NO eateries, the one lone convenience store closed down, and even the new Jollibee doesn't seem to be doing that well. Maybe the area is just unlucky.

I arrived home a bit later and soon after started packing for my trip on Friday for Boracay. I piled up several shirts, shorts and underwear, a towel and some more knick-knacks. I tend to overpack, but I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. Later today I will have to see to getting myself a cheap pair of sandals or sneakers I can use to slosh around with. I don't think I should bother with sunscreen... probably won't be spending that much time idly walking around in the sun. As I said before, it's an office thang, not a vacation.
I switch on the TV on HBO and see Colin Farell on TV as Jesse James in the film American Outlaws. With luck, when I get back to Manila I'll be able to see him taking another role, this time as a Marvel Comics villain, in the new movie Daredevil. Cool. Heh.

A Late Dinner

Still at the office. I will probably be able to get out in a while, to have a somewhat-delayed supper. Yet again, Chowking beckons since it is the only place open at this time in Cubao. Or maybe I should just buy some instant snack at a convenience store for later?
All this overtime has sapped away time from drawing pages, and this will most probably delay my Immacolata update; I still plan to finish it and have it submitted to Hinirang sometime next week though. I will just add a couple more pages to make up for the delay. Heh.
The day after tomorrow, I will make for the beaches of Boracay with my whole department from the office. It won't be a vacation (DARRNNN!!!), but rather an office thing. Which pretty much sucks since it is going to eat away my whole weekend. No TechTV. No games. No anime. No DVDs. No comics. No Kim Possible. No malling. AAAAHHH!!!

Nothing but sand. I hate sand. It's course. And rough. Gets everywhere.

Thinking like this can move one to the Dark Side...

DVD Picks

On my way home I was able to snatch up some choice new discs. One is an anime; Sakura Taisen OAV3: Kanzaki Sumire Intai Kinen ('Retirement Commemoration'). The other is X-Men 1.5, a somewhat enhanced version of the Marvel Comics movie adaptation which will see a sequel later this year.
The Sakura Taisen or Sakura Wars series is all about the adventures of a group of opera actresses/secret mecha pilots who battle demonic threats to a steampunk Tokyo. Though the rest of the world probably only knows the Sega games and the anime about the series, the actual Sakura Taisen franchise extends far more- into TV series, live concerts, radio/CD operas and drama shows, manga and stories. The series apparently ends with the retirement of Sumire Kanzaki, one of the principal members of the Opera Troupe. The Intai Kinen OAV adapts this curtain fall to the series.
To commemorate her exit from the stage, her teammates and friends hold a special performance. It's a very emotional episode which will be more character-based (as most of the Sakura Wars anime tend to be), and I wonder if I will be touched by it. I have seen a lot of Sakura Taisen anime, and consider myself a fan of the franchise (I DO own a DVD of one of the Sakura Wars live concerts...). Despite this, I know that I have only scratched the surface of the series relative to any Japanese otaku. It is a fine addition to my collection though (which consists of the TV series, the movie, and the first two OAVs).
The X-Men 1.5 DVD is a two-disc set which includes the movie with deleted scenes and commentary by director Brian Singer. The second disc holds a lot of extras, featurettes and Making Of snippets. Predictably, there are sneak peeks at X2, the sequel to X-Men, and a Daredevil trailer. It's a nice set and should tide me over until X2 hits theaters in May. Daredevil should be here by the time I come back from Boracay next week.
Cool stuff. Now if only I can find time to actually watch these things... Argh...

Taxi Talk, Security Guard Libido and a Neat Surprise on my Way Home

After leaving the office, I was easily able to get a cab (lucky for me, they wait around outside our building during late hours) for my way home. The taxi I got was one of those cars equipped with a CB radio, so I felt pretty safe. I sat back and relaxed as I listened to the taxi drivers' garble. One driver (not mine) was commenting about how he had to refuse someone a ride since he wanted to go to an especially remote location.

"Tell him we're all looking after our own safety these days. Times are tough and there are lots of Iraqis out there (translated from tagalog)." said the Taxi Dispatcher.

The conversation between the driver and dispatcher went on for a bit, even reaching a point where they were talking about how they could handle would-be attackers or hold-up men, as long as they were alone or didn't have a gun. Hmm. Unpleasant stuff. Well, the CB died after a while, and the sounds of the radio came up to the fore.
The radio was on an AM station, where a DJ named Doctor Love was talking with a caller who worked as a security guard. Apparently, the guy had a live-in partner, but had a new love interest in a twenty-year old girl. The new love was apparently from Cebu, and was out of touch with her parents. The guy said he was 'conflicted' on which one he loved more. For his part, the DJ firmly told the guy to try and NOT wreck the twenty year-old's future by getting her pregnant or something.

How that radio story ended, I do not know since I got down shortly after. I disembarked from the taxi near the still under construction MRT, and to my surprise, I heard the sound of a train coming down the tunnel! I looked and yes, there it was...
An MRT car!
I guess that what I saw was the first or so new MRT car being delivered finally on site on the tracks. The new MRT is probably many months away from total completion, but seeing an actual train present and running on the tracks was a good sign. This new MRT line would be my ride home often when it is finally finished someday. Cool.

Anyway, that's that. My ride home was pretty interesting so I just had to note it down. Tomorrow's another day, and will hopefully bring more odd rides. Later then.

Good Burger

It's almost 11PM and I'm still at the office. At the very least though I got to eat a free (albeit late) dinner from Good Burger, which delivers in Makati. They of course specialize in burgers and, unlike their namesake in the Nickelodeon comedy skit, they serve really good burgers. There's a wide variety of toppings and extras to go with your chicken patty (they serve only chicken meat patties though), and the burgers come in GOOD, BETTER and BEST variants (I guess that translates to size). I got a sticky concoction called a Bacon Mozarella Melt burger, and it tasted divine to this hungry copywriter. Oh well. I hate to eat and run, but it's almost midnight and I have to run. Run home that is. Signing off then.

So Bad it's Good: On Deadly Ground.

Early this morning I caught the first thirty minutes or so of On Deadly Ground with Steven Seagal. I know Seagal got to do some pretty horrid movies during his stint as the ponytailed action man, but this one stands out like a bad... um... ponytail. It's all about a demolitions expert named Forrest (Seagal) who works for an oil magnate named Jennings (Michael Caine, who plays a cartoon here). He was called in to check out some incidents and malfunctions at Aegis-1, an oil rig in Alaska owned by Jennings. But soon after he arrives, he finds out that his employer has some pretty nasty plans to take over the whole region's oil resources, and he doesn't care if he destroys the environment in the process. Bad luck for him though, as Forrest turns out to be a bad-ass, dark dream turned reality-in the flesh former special forces something. Soon, Seagal's armed himself with his convenient weapons cache, allied with the local Eskimos and ready to shut down Jennings and Aegis-1 for the greater good of Mother Nature.
The funny thing about this quite violent and bloody rampage-fest for Seagal is that it's actually a very preachy environmental message. That is, if you can catch the casually-mouthed infobits and facts from Seagal in between his single-handed extermination of Jennings' army of hired thugs, mercenaries, oil workers and accounting staff (yep).
The film makes Seagal's character not only look or feel bad-ass, it has to actually make the bad guys orate minutes-long monologues saying how terrifying Seagal's character is. The fighting scenes though are inferior to fights from his better films, such as Under Siege, and border on the ridiculous. In one scene, Taft pretty much saunters into a darkened area swarming with camouflaged, hidden and dodging enemies and takes them all out without breaking a sweat. In another scene, a mercenary leader who acts like a prudent, wily veteran gets the drop on Seagal... only to waste his time blabbing his mouth and getting stupidly in range for a predictable gun swipe.
Yep, it's a cartoon, with some of the preachiest and incredibly violent peace-lessons I have seen in a movie; watch Seagal bitch-slap an obnoxious oil worker to a gibbering, bloody mess, swearing to be a better man. You just have to see it to believe it. Heh. And then there's the ending... where Seagal does a long speech on the environment and how we have to take back our world from destruction by the corporations. WOOHOO!!!
I have to say, despite being SOOOOO bad, if there's nothing on, it's better to just watch On Deadly Ground than turn off the TV. Almost makes trash like Exit Wounds and Half Past Dead look good. Almost.

Immacolata Update



I will be submitting an update for the Hinirang webcomic Immacolata: The Fury of Hinirang, later this week. When last we saw Imma, she had just blown up an entire kuta (fortress) of beast men all by her lonesome. Unfortunately, she got knocked out in the process and was last seen sinking to her apparent death in dark waters. Of course, she'll probably survive... but will she be in any shape to take on the owners of the fort she just destroyed? Especially when the said landlords are the infamous and powerful Camorra family! The first of the comic's villains- unica hija Adele Solera Perfecta Coronades Camorra- makes her debut. She's young and pretty... pretty maniacal, and has a penchant for dark magic, puppetry and sharp objects. I'm sure you'll all love this bratty little senorita. Heh. Look for an update on the Hinirang website soon.

Heroes for the Text Generation

The Textmen are here! This superhero team/manga-style comic was created by Dynatica's Jason Banico (Baylans) with art by Armand Canlas (Armored Troopers), story written by Nikki Alfar and Filipino translations by Dean Alfar (Kestrelstudios). It's all about super-powered youths wielding incredible powers through their cellphones, and nefarious villains who are out to conquer the world through text! If it sounds like a blast, try it out! Textmen #1 is available in full color at a bargain price of P60.00 and should be available at National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Filbar's and Comic Quest. So what are you waiting for? Start texting your friends about it now!

A Devil of a Good Time

Today I parlayed my Greenhills foray to judging a Daredevil On-The-Spot Drawing contest sponsored by a radio station, 89.1 WAVE. I was there with Mike, Carl, Jason and Cams. Unfortunately, Carl had to leave early, so it was left to Jason, me and Mike. There were nine contestants, the youngest being 7 years old, and the oldest being 29. Yes, it was a gross difference in age and expertise in art (unless the kids were somehow art geniuses), but we were able to convince Mike and the event organizers to award the young 'uns special prizes. Anyway, after about 45 minutes we went around and decided on the winners. They were hardly professional artworks, but we were quite satisfied in deciding on clear winners. The prizes included cash and some gift certificates, and a lots of gift packs. Afterwards, the WAVE people treated us to dinner at Max's Restaurant. I enjoyed a chicken dinner with extra orders of rolls and butter. Mmmm. My only complaint is that the chicken wasn't crispy like the old Max Fried Chicken restaurant did; but then again, these days the 'House that Fried Chicken Built' has changed quite a bit. Oh well, still a nice meal.
We met Dean and Gig later at UCC Coffee, having a nice chat with the Alfars telling us about their travails in Hong Kong and stuff like weird Chinese medicines and foods. We called for the bill after midnight, and went home. Mike and I went over to the sanctum where he finally saw DOAX and sampled Panzer Dragoon Orta. Tomorrow I will have to make up for my Greenhills trip... I fear for the cosmos if I should fail to do so...

GGGYYYYYAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

I wanted to scream this out loud today as I spent over THREE HOURS sitting in a bus on the way to work. The traffic today from my house in Marikina to Cubao was thicker, more viscous and unmoving than Rugby rubber cement. A couple of times I really just wanted to quit and go home, but duty called. Luckily I actually was able to make it to a presentation just in time. Oh well. Looks like I have to finish some stuff before the work this week ends, but I am glad this cycle is pretty much over. Been a short but paradoxically LONG week.

Late to Dinner, Early to Bed

Today was a long, hard day. I spent most of the day writing radio commercials and thinking up creative ideas to sell very mundane items and promotions. My eyes and head hurt but I stayed into the night to finish stuff. When I finally was on my way home, I realized how hungry I was. On the bus, images of fried chicken floated in my mind. I thought of the safe choice for such a meal in Cubao- Jollibee. There were two branches of Jollibee, but for some reason I opted to have a meal at Chowking.
Chowking is the country's Chinese fast food place. The menu is odd, and whenever I eat there I get the general mood of mismatching in the selection. There are rice meals, pseudo-Pinoy-slash Chinese meals and other odds and ends. They don't normally have congee, or rice porridge; what they have to pass for it STINKS. Their dimsum are all bland, cheap, charbroiled imitations; edible crumpled origami dumplings which have no taste. BLAH. Despite this, what I can say is that they serve the food piping-hot since they cook only when ordered to.
Anyway, I ordered fried chicken, which is really a food that is hard to get wrong. As far as I know, the crispiness of fast food is achievable only by special, industrial-strength ovens (I learned that from a client in advertising), and cannot normally be done in home kitchens. Anyway, the chicken was good but not Chickenjoy-great; and the side dish I ordered with it- wanton soup- was just wrong. Bad choices, I guess, but it went with the mismatching atmosphere of the place.
After the unspectacular but filling dinner I walked over to Aurora Boulevard to catch a ride home. It's pretty irritating though to see a bus, with lots of empty seats, to be just pulling away while you're hopelessly too far away to catch up. Happens a lot to me. Heh. Anyway, I got on another bus and soon was home.
Finally, the week's over again. I only worked for a little over half the week, but I am dead tired. Need rest to recharge. Don't think I even have the strength to watch the DOA girls lounge by the poolside. Sigh. What's on TV... ah, a classic stinker: Steven Seagal's On Deadly Ground. Wonderful. To bed then.

The Animatrix in online!

The first animated short based on the world of The Matrix is now online and available for free download at www.theanimatrix.com. The first online episode, The Second Renaissance Part 1, is directed by Mahiro Maeda of Blue Submarine No. 6 fame. This first Matrix anime delves into the Zion archives and reveals for the first time the beginnings of the war between Man and Machines which started the whole Matrix nightmare. It's a hard-hitting feature, and pulls no punches for graphic violence several times during the show; pretty mature stuff.
It's all well and good, but what I am actually waiting for is Final Flight of the Osiris, the Square-produced CG feature that stars a hottie named Jue, which takes place apparently some time after the first Matrix movie. It also has a 'training room/dojo' sequence between Jue and her mentor which supplies skin and sex appeal where the original scene with Neo and Morpheus did not (gladly). Heh.
The Matrix anime episodes will fill in the months leading up to Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. All will eventually make it onto The Animatrix dvd, which will be released on June 3. Mmm. Nice birthday present for me. Heh.

Reactivated

Today I finally got out of my term of captivity and returned to active service. I went back to the office in a cloud of Job Orders and pending requirements. Ah, life. Anyway, I was able tor fulfill the most urgent stuff with little problem. I was actually able to get out of the office just a little past six to try and catch up to a Hinirang interview being conducted by a local magazine. On the way to Megamall, I saw a sight that amused me; a bus with a TV inside was playing an anime. I saw it from another bus, and I strained to see what the series/feature being shown was. I eventually saw it was an episode of the sci-fi gender war series, Vandread. I doubt that the bus had cable, so it was probably a tape... wow. That bus has class to show anime. Heh.
I arrived to catch the tail end of the interview, which looked like it went well. However, now I am pressured to move faster with updates and pages for the Immacolata online comic. Aeeei. Oh, well. I work best under pressure.
Oh right... along after the interview and a nice after-dinner chat at Country Waffles with the Hinirang gang, I took home a stash of loot from the weekly bloodletting at Comic Quest; the latest issues of Official Xbox Magazine (with their review of DOAX; they gave it an 8.4/10), Mystic and Xin. I also got the latest Electronic Gaming Monthly and a copy of the new PS2 action game sequel, Devil May Cry 2. The crowning piece of the lot is the 2nd DVD of the Ghost In The Shell TV series. Should make sure to get a taste of it all before I go off to the sunny beaches next week.
Yep, and when I mean beaches, I don't mean having an overdose of playtime with DOAX... I actually AM going to a real beach next week. I am going on a company outing to Boracay with my whole department over the Valentine weekend, so expect SRM to go dormant from February 14 to the 16th... that is, unless I find a good internet cafe on the island.
That's for next week though. The rest of this week looks to be busy both on and off work. Ah, 'tis good to be back in the loop again. I think.

Kim Possible EXISTS!


Buffy meets Bond in Kim Possible.

YES! Thanks to another day of being downed by a stomach flu, I was finally able to watch an episode of Kim Possible, the hit Disney spy girl series. I've been missing the joy of seeing this action-packed series for so long, I almost thought it didn't really exist... well, I'm a believer now!
I really enjoyed the animation, the snappy dialogue and the cool martial-artsy action. Everything was perfect, even down to the character of Kim herself, whom I found really likeable. I actually prefer KP more than the blatantly anime-ish Totally Spies, which I find more heavy-handed. The only trouble is, now I KNOW what I am missing every day. ARGH. Oh well, I guess I will just have to make sure I catch episodes on the weekend for my Kim fix... There just has to be a DVD or VCD of this series somewhere...

Cartoons of my Youth


Music-loving teen cyborg heroine Megan AKA Rock-One from The Bionic Six captured many a youth's heart in the 80s.

Speaking of cartoons, I remember years ago my favorite cartoons on TV. They weren't anime either... these were all from Hanna Barbera, Ruby Spears, Filmation and Rankin Bass. I liked mostly adventure cartoons, with human characters rather than humanized animals and creatures. I remember the many Superfriends cartoons, based on the DC Comics' characters. My personal favorite was the Challenge of the Superfriends, which pitted the Justice League against the Legion of Doom. This was really an excellent series with lots of action and the cool DC heroes fighting it out with their nemesis archvillains. Where else would you see obscure villains like Solomon Grundy, Bizarro, Giganta and Captain Cold animated? The best episode just has to be the one where the heroes all get 'killed' when the Legion of Doom finds a special crystal that contains all their weaknesses. It had a pretty funny and overly-simple resolution (they were all robots!), but the drama of seeing Batman's headstone in the cemetery just made this one a classic. Heh.
The other Superfriends' cartoons were also cool; There were the episodes with Zan and Jana (and their space monkey, Gleek), and the one with Marvin, Wendy and their 'wonder dog'. The Exxor twins' episodes were always against real villains and aliens, while the human sidekicks' adventures were always against some benign genius-turned rogue, and always seemed to involve some real-life principle or scientific phenomenon (like the White Dwarf or the Jetstream). Cool stuff all around.
Then there were the rarer cartoons, like adventures from Filmation that were actually GOOD! There was Super Seven, Web Woman and Super Stretch and Micro Woman, all of which had excellent adventures and character designs. And who could forget The Adventures of John Blackstar? The Power Sword and the Star Sword (put together to form... the POWER STAR! Genius!!!). Heh. These were the best of afternoon/morning cartoon fare. Simply classic.
Later series I came to love were of course GI Joe and Transformers. Briefly the excellently-animated and very anime-like Bionic Six ruled my world (Spiky-haired sprite Rock-One was the crush of all my classmates). Then came Visionaries and Inhumanoids, which were all the more memorable due to their catchy spells/poems and the fact that they were translated into tagalog. HAAHAHAHHAAA!!! Oh my. So many good cartoons.
These days, I can't identify with most of the stuff on the tube. It's mostly anime now, dubbed in tagalog, or some few exceptions and stuff on the Disney Channel. I kinda feel sorry for kids today for missing the coolness of Saturday Fun Machine (a whole morning of cartoons! Can you imagine?!), but if you don't know it, you won't miss it. I'd pay a lot for DVDs or tapes of all these classic cartoons of my youth... and actually I will be soon. A Challenge of the Superfriends DVD is available for order, and I jumped for a copy. Perhaps in a couple of months, the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom will battle it out on my TV once again. Sigh. Makes me feel all tingly. Heh.

Sick like a Dog

I stayed at home today, experiencing a weird stomach bug early this morning. For a while I had to work like mad over text and e-mail to fix up some office work that required my attention. Thankfully everything was under control (I hope) after lunch. Anyway, I took the time to just lie down. Couldn't draw crap, so I just watched TV and the odd DVD. Funny thing... I once again missed seeing the much-talked about Kim Possible on the Disney Channel. I've missed it almost every week, and now I am doubting this series actually exists. Heh. I hope a DVD or VCDs of this spy cartoon eventually show up somewhere. Anyway, for dinner I was planning to have something delivered, but for some reason I could not- I was pretty much tired of Shakey's and the number for the nearby branch of Jollibee was nowhere to be found. Plus, the Domino's number was unresponsive. Oh well, at least I guess I was able to save money by making do with canned sausages and some Campbell's soup.
I hope to get back to work again tomorrow. Being forced to stay indoors sucks, no matter what anyone thinks. Later then.

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball Review


A vacation with the ladies of Dead or Alive? Count me in!

Anyone who has been reading my blog will probably know that I am a humongous fan of the Dead or Alive fighting game series, so it should come with no surprise that I have been waiting for the bizarre, sexy spin-off ever since it was first announced last year. Much of the fame (and infamy) of the DOA series stems from it’s cast of lovely lady fighters, and of course their bouncy breast action. So it was only natural for a game that exclusively stars the DOA babes to appear. The odd thing is that DOAX is not a fighting game, but a volleyball game. Scratch that- it’s a volleyball sim/dating sim /RPG/girlwatching game… something that I think has NEVER appeared before in the history of gaming. Leave it to the DOA series to start a trend, eh?
The story behind DOAX is pretty far out; Zack, one of the male DOA fighters, breaks the bank at a casino after Dead or Alive 3. He uses his newfound wealth to buy himself an island paradise, naming the place Zack Island. He then presumptuously declares it the setting for the next DOA fighting tournament. Invitations are sent out and soon, the competitors start arriving. Two things become apparent; one, only the women were invited, and two, there isn’t any tournament at all. So now, the beautiful ladies of DOA are stuck on a remote island paradise with Zack obviously watching them pleasurably from the sidelines. So, what do the girls do? They start wearing their sexiest swimsuits and get down to having some serious RnR, of course! Soon, heated matches of beach volleyball begin, with Zack supplying tons of cash for the winners. Teams start coming together between the normally-hostile rivals, and a new round of battles- this time on the volleyball courts- begin.

The funny thing is, while the game may be called DOA Volleyball, the actual sport element isn’t the only thing you can do in the game. In fact, the bulk of what will occupy players (at least in the main single-player Go To Zack Island mode) will be seeing their chosen DOA girl through her two week vacation, making friends among the other DOA girls, shopping for new bikinis, accessories and other items at the island stores for herself or for others, gambling at the casino and generally playing virtual swimsuit model for the player.
Adding color to the relationships is that several of the girls hate each others' guts, and are more used to striking each others' faces than volleyballs. The relationship-management game, where you try to overcome the girls’ natural hostility to each other, is quite compelling and entertaining, though it is really just a glorified “match an item to the correct girl” kind of thing. However, the presentation is nicely done, with well-acted voice samples (in Japanese with English subtitles) communicating the girls’ personalities quite excellently.
And you will have to master the relationship game since only a strong, closely-bonded team will perform well on the volleyball court. You only have direct control over your chosen main character, while your partner is CPU controlled. If your partner isn’t at her happiest, she will be prone to letting balls pass her by without nary a care. To remedy this, you will have to continually give her presents such as her favorite dessert, swimsuits and accessories in her favorite colors and so forth. Talk about high maintenace.
Anyway, DOAX’s volleyball engine is simple enough to pick up and play, but is fast, fun and addictive. It really helps that the animation and physics are quite good, with reactions to the ball and the various spikes, digs and dives looking quite excellent. Ambient animations like the girls’ adjusting their bikinis or limbering up before and after a match add to the game’s visual charm.

Of course, visual charm is what this game is all about. Frequently you will be given chances to just observe (okay, ogle would be the better word) the DOA girls as they lounge around the poolside, practice their martial arts, exercise or just plain hang around Zack Island’s venues. During these exquisitely-animated sequences, you have extensive control over the camera, so you can look over the girls’ physiques more… um… intimately. As testament to Team Ninja’s mastery of the female form, DOAX’s character models are some of the most gorgeous yet seen in videogames. Fans of eye candy, this game may give you diabetes.
For all this, DOAX is really just harmless, juvenile fun; more Baywatch and Swimsuit Illustrated in videogame form rather than anything else. There is no real nudity or sex; just tons of cheesecake, fan service and innuendo which, thanks to outstanding graphics, production values and addictive gameplay, lets the game retain class where other titles just devolve into crass. In particular, fans of the series get to see their favorite videogame vixens interact in a wholly new and different genre, giving welcome depth to some well-known but enigmatic characters.
Any flaws? The volleyball engine may be too simplistic for hardcore sports enthusiasts, along with the lack of alternate play modes, tournaments or even four-player modes. The animations of the girls, while many, may get repetitive eventually, with only changes in swimwear to add something new (though there are literally hundreds of bikinis to unlock). The soundtrack, which is a cheesy mix of Pop and Reggae, may have you squealing… good thing you can substitute your own CD music thanks to the Xbox CD ripper option.

So what do we have in the end? A simple, easy-to-play but solid volleyball game with gorgeous character models. A collection game with literally hundreds of alternate swimsuits, accessories and items to unlock. An oddly compelling relationship-dating sim game that will bring to mind ‘Temptation Island’ crossed with Victoria Secret. And of course, there are some gambling minigames to squander your hard-earned cash to round things off nicely.
Perhaps DOA Xtreme Beach Vacation or DOA Xtreme Babe Voyeurism would be more apt for this game. As a whole though, DOAX is an entertaining, inexplicably addictive bit of relaxing, juvenile fun that Xbox owners will want to take a peek at.
And it’s probably the sexiest and cheapest beach vacation with gorgeous babes you’ll ever find. Heh.


Mmmm I feel sooo relaxed... if only I could get rid of that nagging feeling that I'm being watched...

The Carver's House now open for business.

Speaking of new blogs, my good friend and compatriot in the comics field, Carl Vergara, finally has a blog! Check out The Carver's House for a look into the life and mind of a very talented artist and multi-faceted personality. Go, Carl!

Wow! I have a blog!

Heh. Checked Blogger.com's homepage and saw STARK RAVING MAD on the list of recently-published blogs. Wow. Haven't I been doing this thing since September last year? Wow. Holy Backlog, Batman... Heh.

The Weekender Report

After a long week of work, I thankfully sank into the bliss of a restful weekend. Friday night I had dinner with the Mike, Dean, Gig and Carl at a restaurant named Basilique near Pearl Drive. Mike’s been recommending that place forever but we’ve always resisted going there… until tonight. We were all apparently quite tired so we just went along without resistance. That was a mistake, of course, since the food turned out to be not special and exceptionally expensive. I ordered something called Chicken Nikolai; basically fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy which cost about two hundred pesos. I would have been better off buying a two-piece chicken meal at KFC. BAH.
The next day I spent most of the daylight hours hard playing my new Xbox acquisition, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. I’ll post my review on this sexy sports/dating sim/girlwatching videogame very soon. Was it worth all the wait and posts here on the blog? Well, suffice to say that when I finally realized I had to go out, it was already six in the evening. I had to forego my weekly trek to Greenhills and go straight to Megamall. There, we idled away our time as we waited for the store to close so we could meet up with Dean and Gig later. Along with us was Noel ‘Flim’ Lim who had a bit of déjà vu since he and Mike went out a lot years ago. After closing Comic Quest, we decided on having dinner at North Park. We had our usual orders: salted fish fried rice, spareribs, garlic squid and of course, my favorite ‘gwailo’ food, sweet and sour pork. Heh. Along with the good food came good conversation and lots of laughs as Dean regaled us with his experiences and travails as an artist dealing with ‘artistes’.
We eventually transplanted to Country Waffles and stayed there until the staff pretty much threw us out at 2 AM. Apparently, the no longer operate 24 hours. Hard times. Oh well.
Today, I finally went out to Greenhills and came back with some picks: DVDs of Shaolin Soccer, Femme Fatale (the questionable thriller starring Rebecca Romjin-Stamos and Antonio Banderas) and Simone (the Al Pacino-starrer about a virtual actress). Lastly, I was able to get a copy of the new Xbox shooter, Panzer Dragoon Orta, which looks great. I almost got a copy of Jet Li’s Hero, but not quite. The film’s showing this week, so maybe I’ll catch it with Mike and Dean at the theaters before getting a home copy.

That’s that. I should end the day by trying to draw some more art and pages for several comic projects, then finish it all up by trying to write my DOAX review. The weekend’s over once again and I hit the salt mines early tomorrow. Ah, life. Nothing like it. Heh.

I HAVE IT!!! I HAVE IT!!! MAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!


DOAX is now in my hands... (Note: Photo not of my actual hand or game copy)

YES! After an annoyingly long wait and several delays, I finally got my grubby paws on a copy of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, or DOAX. This sexy spin-off from the popular Dead or Alive fighting game series stars all the lovely female fighters and none of the men, so this is made specially for male DOA fans. The premise is that the ladies were tricked into coming to a tropical paradise for the next martial arts tournament. What they find however, is nothing more than a convenient excuse to have them dress down to the bare essentials and prepare for a serious bit of bikini-clad action on the volleyball courts. So far, I've logged almost ten hours of play, so I guess I can venture a review very soon. Was it worth the wait? Is it the next gaming masterpiece? Or is it just a Baywatch episode or an issue of Swimsuit Animated magazine? Find out my thoughts soon...

All Your Bandwidth Are Belong To Us

Regulars may probably have noticed that we were down for the past couple of days. This was due to my homepage, angelace.com, being shut down due to excessive traffic bandwidth. How THAT ever happened is beyond me... I mean, nobody goes there, right..? Heh. Anyway, i'ts a new month and we have a fresh new GIG of traffic to feed on. Let's hope nothing like this happens again... hope, hope.

Working for Food

During those times when you're forced to be a grown-up and take responsibility, when you must put others' interests before your own, when you have to do freaky OVERTIME... there's only one thing to look forward to... Free food. Over my years in advertising I've gone through many night sieges and stakeouts... I've had quite a lot of delivery food. North Park for Chinese food; love those crispy cone-shaped dumplings with the red sauce. Singkit or World Topps for rice meals; I really like those paper containers that give it an authentic Chinese takeout feel. Then there's of course Yellow Cab for pizza; big discs of yummy toppings that go down great with ice-cold Mountain Dew. Just no anchovies please. Never accept McDo or Jollibee for overtime food. That's TABOO.
This night we had a classic and a never-fail-order... A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hot and crispy and smothered with gravy and all the rice I could eat. Crunchy skin, tender meat, spiced to perfection so much that I have to recall those rumors of The Colonel putting some secret addictive ingredient into the chicken. Heh.
Sigh. Will finish in a while, I hope. Got to get home soon... get some shut-eye since work continues tomorrow... but not after some payback time. Heh.

We Don't Need Another Hero...

WAAAAAHHHH!!!!
I should be at Megamall right now, getting ready to watch the premiere of the new Hong Kong period action/fantasy/martial arts epic Hero, which stars Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.
Instead, I am stuck at work doing overtime. AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! There is no justice in this world.

Bah. I'll just catch it on DVD.

Matrix Reloaded Superbowl trailer LOVE!

I just saw the Superbowl trailer of Matrix Reloaded. All I can say is... WOW! You've got some more scenes of real world events as we see the human city of Zion. There's a great scene of a car chase on a freeway where an agent leaps onto a speeding car, SMASHING it like it was made of paper. Then there's the return of Hugo Weaving as Agent Smiths (yes, that's 'Smiths' as in lots... apparently Weaving's stint as Elrond the elflord gave him magic... Smith can now duplicate himself). There's a scene with Neo battling dozens of Agent Smiths with a pole that is reminiscent of large battle scenes from Jet Li's Once Upon A Time In China films. Then there are scenes with Trinity, Neo flying through the city and... it ENDS. Darn. Go see it yourself at the the official site.

A Little Catch

I was able to sneak in a jaunt to Megamall and score a couple of game picks: the Xbox Shenmue 2 and Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends for the PS2. Both are improved versions of previous installments, so I thought I'd try them out. I was able to successfully give in the KC Strange pages; I also got to look at the pages from Arnold, Jason and Mike. Looks great! This second issue of Ab Ovo (the comic thing where all of our stuff will be appearing) looks to be even better than the first one. Can't wait to see it next month.

KC Strange


Here's a sample of the KC Strange story coming out next month...

I DID IT!
Finished the 4 pages of KC Strange! Now it's all a matter of delivering it later today. The adventures of the feisty and attractive paranormal investigator are quite fun to do. I hope this isn't the last time I get to draw her. Who knows what can be possible in the future though? Anyway, with KC finished, I can move back to doing Angel Ace and other stuff. This week's looking to be very busy though. Will just have to hope everything goes well. DAMN! It's THREE O' CLOCK ALREADY?!?!

Star Carrot

I worked on the KC Strange pages since after lunch, fully prepared to spend the rest of the day in the house. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess), I realized that I had no more CD-Rs in the house. Since submission was tomorrow, I had to go out and buy some. I decided against going to Megamall or Greenhills since I would inevitably be sidetracked. Heh. So I opted instead to go the opposite direction: East, towards Sta. Lucia East mall.
Well, as I rode the bus towards the more... provincial... place, I suddenly realized how long it has been since I went there; there was a whole MALL that I had never seen before! It was Robinson's Place East, and I decided to check it out. Oh well, it was your average small mall; lots of fast food places (the requisite McDo, Jollibee, Greenwich combos), clothing shops, sports and furniture and odds and ends. In other words, useless to me. There was a Gamelandia and an Astrovision, which had little to no games of note. The only computer shop didn't have the brand of CD-R I trusted. Sigh.
I got hungry after a bit, and for some reason I decided to try a steak place named Star Carrot. Yep, Star Carrot. It boasted a menu of 'pepper' meats; pepper steak, pepper pork, pepper beef, pepper chicken... all of which served to you sizzling on a small skillet. Maybe I took pity since there was NO ONE else in there, so I sat down and ordered the Pepper Sirloin and an order of Caesar Salad. Yep, Caesar Salad.
Well, the Sirloin came, and it was of average size, coming with some corn on the side and garnishings of a few mushrooms and star-shaped carrot slices (where the place got it's name, of course). But what made me bristle was the size of the RICE. Unlike 99 percent of all eateries which served rice in cup-mold form, they serve it flattened on a wide plate... the serving looked PUNY. Were they serious??? Well, they were since the waiter just served it to me and then stood back. I shrugged and started eating. The steak was pretty good, and was tender and had a distinct pepper taste. The corn was good and ripe too. However, I had to order extra rice (which they served only after I finished the first serving). The side soup was good, but the CAESAR SALAD turned out to be lettuce, CUCUMBER and tomato with almost tasteless Caesar dressing- Shakey's Mojos with Caesar dip tasted more like Caesar's Salad than that tripe. Bah.
Anyway, the steak was fair but these people have nothing on Steak Joint. Horribly puny rice serving and bad Caesar Salad... I fear for their future...
I finally headed to Sta. Lucia, and after some wandering I found a Columbia computer shop and got some more CD-Rs. After getting lost a bit (It's been awhile) I got onto a jeep for home.

Should finish KC Strange tonight, and I guess I will have to leave it at Comic Quest at noon or leave the office early evening. Have work ahead of me yet this night...

Today's Agenda...

I plan to head for this afternoon on my usual expedition. Who knows, I may find GOLD in the Philippines... On the gaming side, I'm quite fixated on DOAX so I don't expect any other game to catch my eye unless I see bikinis; I saw Panzer Dragoon Orta at Toy Kingdom last night, but I just couldn't stomach dropping almost 4K for a shooter (albeit a highly-rated one) game. I have to say the main draw of this for me are the cinematics and Orta's story. Maybe I should pass on that one. I will try to look for neat new DVDs and stuff, or maybe even a copy of DOAX if it suddenly shows up. I might have to pass on a prolonged evening outside though; need time to do my requirements, namely KC Strange for Dean and Nikki. But who knows what I can slip in today...

The Week Ends...

This whole week I've been working and trying to just get by depsite having the knowledge that DOA fans like myself in the US are playing the latest DOA game ahead of me. AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! Sigh. The game is all the rage across various gaming sites and forums, despite pathetic attempts by forum trolls to try and killjoy their way into the countless discussions on what's the sexiest bikini or how you can get a DOA girl to team up with you. Darn. Well, I'm hoping to get a copy sometime next week. We'll see...
Anyway, I had lunch out today with some officemates again, which seems to be turning into a nice tradition. Instead of a high-profile fancy-pants joint like MYLK though, this time we just had chow at the Glorietta 3 Foodcenter. I had a nice Katsudon and California Maki from a Japanese restaurant named Shin Kanzen (apparently named after the bullet train). The neat thing about the design of the stand is that it seems to be made to look like a Japanese train station (I think that Dean will probably get a chill of fear out of that. Heh), and there are even models of Japanese trains on display. Cool.
Anyway, we had a nice lunch and I told the girls all about what will happen to the LOTR cast in The Return of The King, based on the books and the animated films. I tried not to give away major spoilers and stressed on how Peter Jackson's final film would probably be very different in execution. That made me think of course of how ROTK will eventually be. Darn. One year away... Sigh.
Will be a bit busy this weekend; have to finish the KC Strange pages as well as start a new project and continue Angel Ace. No rest and no time for gaming... good thing too... I get DOAX next week. Heh.

My precious...


Sexy volleyball-vacation sim DOAX is now in US stores.

Right now, at this very moment, gamer dudes all over the US are enjoying the newly-released Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox. The game was released yesterday and is now trickling into stores. Reviews are beginning to appear on major gaming sites as well; IGNXbox gave the game a flying colors score of 9.2 out of 10, while Gamepro gave it a hearty 4.5 of 5. Gamers.com gave it an 8/10, similar to the recent GMR magazine score. A curveball review comes from Gamespot, which gave the game a 6/10. However, in general, remarks point to a game that boasts gorgeous visuals, a simple but surprisingly addictive volleyball engine, tons of extras and eye candy up the wazoo.
Of course, it will take a bit of time for a copy to make it's way here, but we're doing our darndest to get one ASAP... Expect a review then...

Leader under Fire

I learned an interesting tidbit on LOTR last night from Arnold Arre; Actor Bernard Hill, who played the noble King Theoden of Rohan in The Two Towers, also played the doomed Captain Smith in the James Cameron blockbuster, Titanic. Quite interesting; he looked a LOT older and less formidable in Titanic... well then, he was a ship's captain facing dishonor and an iceberg. In TTT, he's a formidable warrior king facing an army of 10,000 rabid Uruk-Hai. Cool. Plus both TTT and T were blockbusters. Perhaps the dignified Hill is a lucky charm for films where he appears in? Heh.


Captain Smith of the Titanic, King Theoden of Rohan. Actor Bernard Hill seems to fit very well in roles of embattled leaders.

A Long-Awaited Party

Last night, I finished off a long day with a night in a rented condo in Ortigas with the gang. It was a joint birthday celebration for both Mike and Carl, and lo, the whole gang was there. Even Arnold and Cynthia were able to make it, so it was a cool time. I arrived a bit late so the food was kinda cold and half-eaten but I was so hungry the single piece of cold KFC chicken I ate tasted even better than that ostrich meat salpicao I paid over 300 for at MYLK in Greenbelt 3. Later, we played games of Apples To Apples (which is all about word/phrase association) and Cranium (Intellectual/creative competitive race game). Amidst all this, Arnold and I kept mouthing out various quotes from the Lord of the Rings movies at random. Heh. Later, there was an odd pastry/cake called Brazo de Mercedes with indelible blue icing that Arn and Cyn brought... odd but yummy. Also, Carl brought steamed oysters. Which I didn't eat though. I was pretty tired but me and Carl still managed to win a close Cranium game. Nice one!
The night ended for us a little after midnight since work was still on for tomorrow, but Mike, Carl, Ralph, Jason and Cams stayed overnight. Great stuff. Happy Birthday, Mike and Carl!

DOAX released today.


Fighting girls go on vacation!

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, or DOAX, is released today in the US! Of course, that isn't for another 12 or so hours since we're in Manila, but what the hey! We've been waiting for this game for over a year, so you can't blame us for being impatient! TV spots of the game are already making the rounds on US television, featuring sexy footage from the game along with a gang of gaping youths whose eyes are positively glued to the screen. That's actually an improvement over their yucky 'She kicks high' ad for Dead or Alive 3 last year... at least now they're not insulting their target market. Also, the official site has been launched, so it appears that the seemingly endless delays that plagued the game since November of last year are now over. This game is arriving on top of a wave of hype, with DOA fans in both the US and Japan getting the game almost at the same time. For the record, this game will probably sell at a 1:1 ratio with Xbox in Japan... that's how popular it is there in the Land of the Rising Sun! Many are even saying this game may just revive Xbox's prospects in Japan... we'll see...
Anyway, on the local front, we're expecting copies of the game to arrive here perhaps in a few days or maybe even a week or so... who knows? But judging from the hype of this game with Pinoy Xbox owners, gameshops here will surely stock up on the title.

Well, that's that. It's almost four and I am still awake. Probably that extra-heavy coffee I drank yesterday afternoon and the glasses of Coke I had a while ago. Go figure. Heh.

The Return of the Return of the King (Animation)

I was walking around Glorietta during lunch when I saw the old Rankin Bass version of The Return of the King playing on a widescreen TV in one of the shops. It's just as I remembered it, with the very cartoony art style (orcs and goblins actually looked kinda cute). The part I saw was during the siege of Minas Tirith, with a huge battering ram being brought into play against the gate as the Witch King of Angband (the leader of the Nine Ringwraiths and the one that skewered Frodo in Fellowship) arrived. It amazes me how much I see Ian McKellen in Gandalf and even Elijah Wood in Frodo now, and how even the cartoon versions reflect the present movie cast. Great casting... I wonder if the LOTR crew looked at the Rankin Bass animations as well in their research?
I remember that aside from the animated LOTR by Ralph Bakshi (the one with weird rotoscoped animation), there was never any Two Towers cartoon. I know that the Bakshi feature encompassed quite a bit of TTT, from the start of the quest to the Battle of Helm's Deep. The Rankin Bass Return of the King is a favorite of mine since the action is pretty cool.
I wonder now how the ROTK movie will handle Minas Tirith, Pelennor Fields, the Tower of the Teeth, the Black Fleet, Shelob and the finale? Can it all fit in just three hours? Boggles the mind, but from what Fellowship and Two Towers has shown us, the crew behind the LOTR trilogy is up to the task.
I know of one shop in Greenhills that sells VCDs of ROTK. I wonder if I should get it? Just to tide me over before the finale of Peter Jackson's trilogy hits next year... Next year... NEXT YEAR.... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Sunday Punch

Yesterday I went to Greenhills and got myself a bunch of knick-knacks; clear DVD copies of The Ring and The Two Towers, a couple of Xbox games (Hunter the Reckoning and Crimson Sea). Yes, now I can watch TTT at any time, with a super-clear home copy. The video quality is the same as the bootleg Fellowship DVD last year, with somewhat uneven sound though. It's great though at a certain part there seems to be some glitching; still watchable though. Plus, of course, at some points a 'for your consideration' subtitle appears onscreen, leading me to believe that this bootleg was copied from a review copy sent out for Oscar voting/nominations.
As for The Ring (US version) DVD, it wasn't as crisp as the TTT disc, but it was clear. Plus, there is a glaring 'Property of...' subtitle onscreen the whole time. Oh well. Anyway, I plan to buy both titles on original DVD since I like them pretty much.
Later in the night, my friend Pot came and we ordered Pizza Hut. There was a cool promo which gave us two servings of spaghetti, a family-size Super Supreme pizza, a bottle of Pepsi Twist and a container of 4 chocolate heart desserts. Mmmm. We played The Ring dvd as we ate, but we eventually turned it off since Pot was bored to death with the pace of the story; the only good thing he saw was the fact that the actresses in the film were simply gorgeous. Heh.
I spent the rest of the night fiddling with my computer, loading programs and later surfing. I sketched out some panels for the 4-page KC Strange comic, which is due this weekend. Ah, work looms once again. Bring it.

Lara Croft Returns!


Lara Croft is getting ready for a new adventure...

Did anyone here love the Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie? I mean, it had it's flaws... okay, it was a boring story with a few but far-too-sparse action sequences, but I have to say Angelina is a goddess. I really can't comment on her english accent, but she was gorgeous. She's recognizable as who she is since she's a relatively big star, but she was able to stamp her imprint on the character, so when I see her we can say, 'It's Lara Croft', and not 'It's Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft!'... Hmm... Okay, she has the full lips of the videogame vixen, at least. Heh.
Anyway, despite the shortcomings, Tomb Raider was a hit, so a sequel is in the works. It has actually been in production for some time, with location shoots in the Mediterranean, Greece and even Hong Kong. Plot details on this second adventure are scarce, though the subtitle Cradle of Life has been added to the Tomb Raider 2 name. The movie will co-star Djimon Hounsou (who played Maximus' friend and ally in Gladiator).
As for Miss Jolie, she's reportedly looking as fine and trim as ever, though reportedly she's going for a healthier, curvier and slightly fuller physique for Lara (and judging from the photo above, I can believe that). Which is a bit of a deviation from the toothpick-limbed videogame character. But I like it. Heh. Anyway, TR2 is set for a July 25 release... trailers are said to hit the Net in the next couple of weeks.

Once Again, Into the Breach...

Last night, I watched The Two Towers for the fourth and probably my last time in the theaters (I've watched it with all of my close friends). This means that the next several times I watch it will be on DVD. Heh. Anyway, Mike, me and Emrys had a chat about TTT afterwards at Country Waffles, basically stating the film's flaws and differences from the book. Overall though, we all agreed it was a fine movie and just made us more excited to see MORE. Darn, one year to The Return of the King. Sigh. Well, moving on, moving on...
Finally got my new Epson 660 scanner installed, and as promised the process was painless. I can finally do computer artwork again, so I will have to rush headlong into projects that were delayed by the technical downtime I had last week. I can finally get all this tech stuff and frustration behind me and get on with my life. Ah.

I Am Alive Again.

Yahoo! The new modem works perfectly... even better than the outdated, weird internal modem in my old computer. Lovely! Lovely! Hahahahahahaha! Ahhh...
Anyway, what's in for today? I will be staying at home for a while, probably to think out the KC Strange comic pages, whose deadline has been moved up a bit. I will also have to work on some other stuff. I think I will have to postpone a trip to Greenhills... hey, is that thunder? Hmm.... probably just my imagination, but the sky darkened... anyway... Oh, yeah. I will have to postpone my weekly trip to Greenhills and stay home until late afternoon, when I go to Megamall. Gotta look for a new scanner. Plus, the fifth box set of the Inu Yasha anime series should be available for me today... which is amazing since I actually haven't watched the fourth box fully. Amazing. That will be great. Later tonight we're set to watch The Two Towers with Mike after closing down the shop. It will be my fourth watch of Peter Jackson's second part of his epic movie, Lord of the Rings. Three hours, and I still want to see it. This should be a fun weekend, and restful too. On other fronts, my long-awaited Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox is set for release in the US next week. Of course, it will probably take a bit for a copy to appear here in Manila, but I will be checking the game shelves for it come Monday. Heh. It's nice to have things to look forward to... no matter how petty or silly. It's what we live for. What makes us glad to be doing stuff and just being us.
Happy Weekend, everyone. The world is at our oyster! Heh.

The Thing is POSSESSED!!!

I came home after an evening at Chili's with the gang. It was kind of late but luckily my brother, Jun, was still awake. I needed his help to install my new modem. The current on, a Smartlink modem, had been totally unusable these past few days. I literally could not load even my homepage. Nothing. Nada. So it was with considerable surprise that I saw Jun log on and then proceed to surf on various image-heavy pages with startling quickness. WHAT THE HELL?
I surfed myself. I went to other pages loaded with pics. I tried downloading a Quicktime video. I went on large pics. It went smooth as 56k silk. DAMN! What was going on? How come in the past two days this thing acted like crap... then suddenly when Jun arrived, it was all peachy? So when my brother left, I thought of something. I disconnected the connection and started again.
It was molasses slow once more. Was I right? Was the damn modem playing around with me? Was it showing it's good work only when my brother was around? I watched the slow count of bits. The page would NOT load. I called my brother again to come to look.
I swear this is true: The moment he stepped into the room, the damn page LOADED. The thing was working fine again. FREAKY!!!!

Well, that was the last straw. I had Jun take out the possessed modem and slip in the new one. I didn't need this kind of madness. So far, the new one works well, and at least one problem has been taken care of. BAH! Now... what will I do with the stupid, capricious Smartlink monster? Take it back, or just smash the thing with that staff Jason gave me...?

A Taste of MYLK

Today I had lunch with several of my lady officemates at Greenbelt 3 (Hmm. Yet another 'power dining' foray). From the large repertoire of posh gourmet restaurants on offer, we eventually chose to dine at MYLK (the name is apparently from the acronym MY Little Kitchen). The place has a really classy 1940s American gourmet restaurant look, with large mirrors on the walls, black and white furniture, and bottles of wine and Chianti on the tables. I half-expected a Warren Beatty-esque gangster in a three-piece suit to come along and get gunned down at any moment. Anyway, what actually drew me into the place was the chef's special- Ostrich Meat. Now how did they manage that? Well, there were three available ways to have your big bird: as a salad, or as one of two main-course preps. I chose the second, which had the meat cooked ala salpicao (tender strips with sauce) on mushroom rice.
When it finally came, I was kinda surprised at how... um... puny the amount of rice was. The meat was pretty abundant though. Anyway, I bit into the saucy morsels and found out that... ostrich meat tastes just like beef. Yes. If you told me I was eating beef, I would not have known the difference. No special texture. No special aroma. No aftertaste. I can't really say if I was disappointed or not... I wouldn't have wanted it to taste weird, but at the very least I wanted ostrich to taste like something that would make me say, 'Say, that DOES taste like ostrich." It should have, for the price I paid. Sheesh.
Anyway, overall it was a nice lunch with nice conversation and ambience. A good way to spend a Friday afternoon. Cue in nice American Jazz music here.

Thus Endeth the Week

Last night, we went out after work with our Indonesian mates to watch The Two Towers at Power Plant Mall in Rockwell. We had dinner at Cibo which I described as 'power-dining' to the consternation of my CD (who eats there often). The thing is, the food's looks fancy but frankly, I prefer steak at Sizzler. It was infuriating to have slivers of tenderloin and not have gravy. Well, it WAS Italian after all... Anyway, we ate a fast dinner with our friends from Jakarta, and discovered to our amazement that Indonesians DO NOT EAT DINNER. They don't eat sweets, either! WOW! Then again, that was probably just the one guy... Heh. Of course, we had a laugh over this. Seriously though, it was nice to discover that we share many words in Filipino with Indonesia (Sayang, Kambing). Not surprising since our Indon friends Bambi and Vita could almost pass for Pinoys anyway.
Anyway, owing to the fact that the wall clock at Cibo was a bit late (unforgiveable seeing that the darn thing was bigger than most WALLS), we had to rush off to the movie and entered missing about five to ten minutes. Oh well...
Even though I had seen it twice before, The Two Towers is still a marvelous watch, and I am raring to watch again (as it was with Fellowship of the Ring)... something I did not feel with any of the new Star Wars flicks. One of my officemates was so moved by TTT, she was literally in tears as we left the theater. I have to admit, the movie has some really dramatic points, and even though it was flawed, Peter Jackson's middle part to his 9+ hour LOTR movie is a success.
I have to say I'm not easily moved by film. I can probably count on a hand the times that a film has made my eyes water. In fact, I remember that one film that actually made a tear roll down my cheek... Rocky V. Yep. Weird, eh? It was that flashback-memory scene of Rocky and his manager Mickey (played by Burgess Meredith) that did it. Watch it yourself if you want to see what can make a Madman cry. Heh. It will scare you. Hahahahaha...
Anyway, the week is almost done. There are a few kinks here and there, but I seem to be weathering it out. Got a new modem which hopefully will give me back decent to good net capability at home once I actually get it installed. I will get a new scanner over the weekend as well, so I can finally get back to doing art and comic pages.
Hah. Mopping up, mopping up...

Fusion Cuisine

Yesterday as part of the work thing with the regional crew, we ate out at the new Greenbelt 3 Mall. The restaurant we went to was Uvo, which specializes in power-dining, fusion food. Fusion is apparently this kind of New Age cooking which uses unusual combinations of foods and ingredients. Not really my cup of tea. The most memorable thing for me there is the Mashed Potatoes, which at 600+ pesos is easily the most expensive mashed potato meal ever. Well, I guess the price is justified because the meal comes with Black Angus steak on the side. Heh.
Anyway, this is the last day of this regional thing, so by tomorrow I should be back to the usual scheme of things. I will be looking for a new modem since the Smartlink 56k modem I got recently is CRAP. Also need a new USB scanner. Sigh. I have a lot of catching up to do. Delays are bad, bad...

Workload

The job came in hard today; had to spend the whole time brainstorming and thinking about ideas for TV commercials with people from the Indonesia office. We had free food and nice company, but of course it's still work. Anyway, hope I can get in proper blogging time tomorrow.

Tech Shopping

I feel like such a computer freak. I went out and bought myself a new keyboard, a new mouse and some CD-Rs. I settled for a simple Genius keyboard, resisting the temptation to buy one of those new-fangled 'Internet' keyboards (they come with extra controls and hotkeys for surfing and using media) or hi-tech cordless keyboards. I was slightly interested by the 'bendable' keyboard, which looks like a deflated rubber pool toy for nerds. Heh. I got a new wheel mouse, which should be cool for scrolling down easier (and for zooming in nicely for various games). Finally, the CD-Rs are for backing up my tons of data, so I can ease the burden of my poor Hard Drive.
Am still conflicted on whether I should just give up and buy a new scanner or keep on trying to figure out why my old one is acting up. Are the ghosts of the countless ants finally wreaking their revenge? We'll see. The fact of the matter is that I can't let the scanner be a bottleneck for me for too long, so I have to decide before the end of the week.
Darn. I am actually excited to start using my mouse and keyboard. How's that for acting like a geek? GAH!

Kinji Fukasaku passes away...

An acclaimed Japanese director of many, many films, only one of which I have watched to my knowledge, died on Sunday, January 12, 2003, at the age of 72. This is news to me since that one film of his that I saw, the black comedy/social commentary/survival-action film Battle Royale, became one of my favorite films the first time I saw it. Director Fukasaku had been working on the sequel to his notorious, critically-acclaimed hit, literally working from intensive care. Fans and film buffs can lay their worries to rest though; before he passed away, Mr. Fukasaku turned over direction of Battle Royale 2 to his son, who wrote both chapters of the film.
Toei of Japan has set up a website for Battle Royale 2, and it has a trailer and previews of the much-awaited sequel. Click here. Before Battle Royale, Director Fukasaku had directed over 60 films, including mainstream movies like Tora!Tora!Tora!, numerous yakuza and samurai films and the odd sci-fi cult movie. He will be missed.

What Price Power? Part Two...

Last night, my brother found a wholesale way of bypassing the bugs and glitches caused by my computer 'upgrade'. Now my files have been transferred to another computer wholesale, so we can possibly escape any incompatibility and conflict issues. The good news is, the system is FAST. It can probably run a lot of programs better (I will have to re-install a lot of programs) and work well in the long run. Plus my internet connection is working again, as well as the speakers. The Bad News... My scanner STILL won't work. And since the PC's system is Windows ME, it seems some items like my video capture card (configured for Win 98/95) won't work unless I find ME drivers. Oh well. The biggest problem is the scanner, so I will have to work on that. Another thing is the fact that the machine is LOUD. Oh well. I'm glad that things are beginning to look better though. This is cramping my style, having a half-working workstation. At least, it's a nice-looking half-working workstation though. Heh.

X-Men 2 Trailer LOVE!

Have you seen the X-Men 2 (X2) trailer? No, not that sorry excuse for a teaser which just showed silver CG X-Men logos... the REAL first official trailer of the sequel to the film that made Marvel Comics a bankable movie property again. This has it all... Most of the old crew like Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue... as well as Gandalf, er, Magneto and Mystique (YES!!!). New characters shown include of course Nightcrawler, Stryker and a slick-looking Deathstrike. Lots of action too, with scenes of commandos storming the Xavier School, Wolverine going berserk, Mystique and Nightcrawler doing acrobatics (not together though), Wolverine and Deathstrike going at it, Storm piloting the Blackbird through a tornado/hurricane, Magneto being assaulted in his cell and MORE.
Download the trailer now here. X2 is set for a May 2, 2003 release. That's going to be one sweet mutant-fest.

Freaky Taxi Ride

Had things to do at the office, so in my rush I took a cab from home all the way to Ayala, Makati. Fortunately I was able to flag down a cab willing to take me all the way easy enough. However, several minutes into the ride I got uneasy. It was the driver. He was sniffling and making weird noises in his throat like he was trying to clear it or had a stuffy nose or throat. I tried to ignore but soon I realized that he was jerking and twitching his head and body about spasmodically; almost as if he was suffering withdrawal symptoms or having an epileptic attack! Despite this, he drove pretty well though... but it just looked so... odd! His convulsions were rocking the whole cab! Somehow I managed to refrain from commenting... I was afraid he'd rotate his head towards me ala Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Actually though, I didn't ask the taxi driver why he was twitching, convulsing and jerking around since he may have answered something like...

"Oh, this always happens when I forget my drugs at home."

"I am no driver... I am the LORD OF DARKNESS!!!"

"It's... it's trying to come OUT..."

"Does not compute... does not compute..."

Or worse of all...

"Twitch? What twitch?"

Anyway, obviously we got to my stop safely, and I paid and left. Yet another weird experience in my travails as a dedicated commuter. What was that all about? Don't know. Don't want to know, either. Hey... is that a twitch I feel in my neck??! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!
Freaky, freaky, freaky.... FREAKY!!!

What Price Power?

Yesterday, I finally got to upgrade my computer thanks to my brother. He let me use one of the hi-speed PCs he had lying around, and helped me transfer my Hard drive. Now my PC is an AMD Duron 750 Mhz machine, which SHOULD be a lot better and faster than my earlier Pentium III configuration. It also came with a great videocard and upgraded memory- 256K SDRam in total. With this increased power I was so pumped I finally bought myself a new computer desk, which looks simply neat.
Unfortunately, the transition has been plagued by several disturbing effects to performance. The speakers break up in sound quality seemingly at random. Using the Finder makes the machine crash. The system can't detect my scanner (so I am currently paralyzed in my art stuff) and worst of all, I am all but dead with my internet. I don't know if the new modem I got is the problem, or if it's all in the configuration settings.
On the bright side though... I finally got to play Neverwinter Nights. Way cool.
ARGH. But the rest of the current situation sucks. I hope I can get the PC back and running well again ASAP. This is cramping my style. I want to keep the upgraded power and settings though... just need the scanner and internet connection back and running well, somehow. Sigh. Why aren't things like this EVER easy?

Watching the OTHER Ring movie...


No-brainer tip: Don't watch cursed... Bah...they never listen anyway...

Last night, me and the gang attended the premiere showing of the US version of The Ring, even as the majority of Manilenos trooped like Uruk-Hai to lay siege to theaters showing The Two Towers. Cams had treated all of us to free tickets, so naturally we all jumped to it. I had already watched the original Japanese version, and I have heard good things about the Hollywood remake. So despite an outward facade of disinterest, I was actually looking forward to seeing The Ring.
Anyway, the film basically follows the general plot of the original. A cursed videotape, a thing of rumor and urban legend, supposedly causes death in seven days to those who see its contents. When a teenager named Katie (Amber Tamblyn) does indeed die after seeing the tape, her reporter-aunt Rachel (Naomi Watts) investigates the circumstances behind her death. In doing so, she comes across the video, gets her life measured in seven days, and starts on a gauntlet of terror as she struggles to find the secret of the tape before time runs out.

There are some things that I accepted before seeing The Ring; that it would be changed a lot for the American audience; that it would have MUCH better production values, and a different treatment to the original. Which made, as I pleasantly found, for an enjoyably tense suspense-horror movie. As I have already seen the original and generally knew what was going to happen, I can't say I was 'scared''... but the more atmospheric and all-pervasive music, the much darker and atmospheric locales and settings, the closer and more intimate camera angles and shots of the actors made for a very visceral experience. Of course, there are the expected (but still maddeningly freaky) uses of sudden sounds to jar and unnerve you... the creepy images of the video itself (which contain some new elements from the original video)... and some changes in treatment that go either way for better and worse. The script changes much, such as the treatment of the force behind the curse; in a way it is made less scary because we actually see a human side to the equation, while the original film gave us a more sinister, almost alien, figure. Kudos though to young actress Daveigh Chase for still being able to freak us out after getting us to feel foolishly sympathetic to her.
The links to psychic powers, Japanese myth and legend give way to a more abstract origin of stark, pure evil in the US version. I have to say that while I have some reservations, the script works well... even excellently at times. The US version also uses more overt visuals to creep us out along with the original's subtle freakiness, along with a bit more action and tighter pacing than the Japanese film. The Ring's incredible climax, one that I will not spoil here, is impressively done and still makes for a simply incredible handle-of-your-seat-grabbing moment of fear. Love it! Heh.


Actress Daveigh Chase (Samara) was the voice of Lilo in Disney's Lilo and Stitch.

I can then say that I loved The Ring. The performances are fine, and the movie's visuals are quite beautiful and scary when they need to be. Like The Ringu, the actresses are very easy on the eyes as well.Heh. Was it better than the original? I have to say, in some ways, yes. In general though, It perhaps just reflects how good the basic story is; the sinister premise, the mystery and the building up of fear and suspense leading to a terrifying climax. Intelligent, entertaining and thoroughly absorbing stuff.
I liked The Ring so much, I want a my own copy... on DVD. Keep those VHS tapes away from me.

Some interesting bits about some of the actors... Brian Cox will next be seen in X-Men 2, as the main baddie, Stryker; he was also the original Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the film, Manhunter. Daveigh Chase was the voice of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, and played Chihiro in the english version of the anime movie Spirited Away.

Hanging with a dog boy and enjoying the weekend.


Inu Yasha and his demon-slaying band.

Ah. The first work week of January is over, giving way to the first weekend. Bliss. Well, I still have to make sure I mix in play with some playful work. Have to start working on several comic projects I have on my plate, including the KC Strange pages and Angel Ace. Gotta make sure I get in an hour or twelve of Suikoden III though. Speaking of that most-beloved of games, we spent probably the whole night's dinner and after-dinner chat talking about it and other RPG videogames. Jason and Mike were probably alienated by our references. Dean, Gig, Dino and me should get them to play more games. Heh.
Anyway, last night I finally got to start watching episodes from the latest DVD collection of Inu Yasha TV series. IY is an anime series set primarily in Japan's Feudal Age. The titular character is a half-dog demon, half-human boy who is looking for the pieces of a shattered mystical orb known as the Shikon No Tama. At his side is Kagome, a Japanese teenage girl from modern times, who got involved via a magical time-travelling well and the fact that she is the reincarnation of the deceased priestess who originally protected the orb. Basically, the series is all about their adventures to recover the pieces of the orb (which was shattered in the early episodes), their battles against a powerful and malevolent enemy who is also after the Shikon, and of course, Inu Yasha's and Kagome's growing love for each other. Awww.
Rounding out the cast of good guys are Miroku, a somewhat lecherous but good-hearted priest with a black hole in his hand; Sango, a beautiful monster-hunter who has a big chip on her shoulder (along with a HUGE boomerang) and Shippo, a kawaii little fox spirit. Aside from the TV series, there is are a couple of anime movies, the latest of which was released in Japan just this past December.
IY is based on the popular manga by Rumiko Takahashi, the same manga-ka (creator) behind Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura. Anyway, the TV anime is over 100 episodes long and STILL going strong in Japan (Takahashi titles are always long, long affairs). Have to keep watching lots of those. For an in-depth and detailed view of the Inu Yasha anime, click here.
The rest of the day is filled up to. Of course, I have my regular expedition to Greenhills, and a premiere showing of the US version of The Ring later with the gang. Looks like a fun weekend. Got to enjoy it all!

Me, My Shelves and I.

The sanctum is getting crowded. Every cabinet, shelf compartment and drawer is full or near-full. I'm getting near the capacity level... a result of my pack-rat ways. On top of the shelves have been consigned my old books and fantasy novels... stuff I have turned my back on since turning to the digital realm for most of my recreation. Now that I think of it, I really should take them down, dust them off and take care of them better. Sure, I will probably not be reading those old Dragonlance novels again anytime soon... but they did give me endless hours of reading fun years ago. Note that down...
A problem for me are the sheer huge number of stuff I can't throw away. First among these are the old VHS tapes I collected years ago. I remember buying the bulk of these anime tapes from CATs in Virra Mall, Greenhills. I spent a fortune on those tapes! Sheesh. I've actually sold quite a lot to Jason, keeping several because I don't have them yet on DVD or VCD, and for sentimental reasons. Maybe I can find a compartment somewhere to put them all into. Another large percentage of space is taken up by old VCDs and CDs, and CD cases. These are particularly hard to move since they are hard plastic and can actually cut me if I'm not careful. At least they don't take up as much space as the tapes. Anyway, I have to sort through them... a LOT are stupid throwaway VCD movies, but there ARE a few gems. And stinker gems, like a clear VCD version of that ludicrous Dungeons and Dragons movie... I will NOT buy that in DVD, but I just have to keep a copy as a reference for sheer disastrous handling of an otherwise incredible franchise.
Then there are my magazines. I started collecting gaming mags back in college, and never really stopped. I could go through the piles and find some issues that still focus on Super Nes and Genesis reviews. DARN! Reading through them, you'd never have thought you'd eventually have the capability to play better-than-arcade quality games in your own home. I just can't bear to get rid of these vintage documents.
And then, there are my comics. I have two large drawers full of comics, and the relatively new issues are fill up two spaces on the cabinets. New additions come in every week. Darn. Gotta find space for that too. I am contemplating on getting plastic cabinets to store the comics in, safe from dust and insects (though I think the house is termite-free anyway).
Ah. Maybe space isn't really the main problem... perhaps it's more of organization. Despite the chaos of my sanctum, I want order. I want my room to be aesthetically pleasing in an organizational way. I want to just be able to stand back and say, 'All is well in my realm.'

Then I will shed a tear for there are no more worlds to conquer. No cabinets to tidy. No drawers to fix.
Cry, cry.

Maybe I should ask Jason to spend the day over. That should get the room fixed up quick. Heh.