swench: 6/1/08

Monday, June 30, 2008

Movie stuff and shirt

Dark Knight is a "masterpiece"

300 sequel/prequel?

Ironman 2 really coming in 2010

Transformers 2 info

Vehicle Geek shirt

Fly Me to the Moon - Trailer

the douchiest phone message in history

Thanks Michal!

the-douchiest-phone-message-in-history/

Best moment ever. A few years ago I saw Ben Burtt returning a toy lightsaber at the Skywalker Ranch Store complaining (jokingly) that the sound was off. Classic!

Two SF Gate interviews, found @ pixarplanet

What the hell?

Children’s rights were violated when they weren’t invited to birthday party

More LEGO goodness from Gizmodo

Read on @ Gizmodo

New Bond 22 Trailer - Quantum of Solace

- found @ filmdrunk

Monday stuff

Dear Ingo Lamp

Voodoo Envy 133

ICANN domain weirdness = www.crap.crap

Moria Orc - 19" Premium Format Figure

Predator on Horse Statue

Walt Disney Showcase Collection: Nautilus Studio Scale Replica - 2008 Edition

65 Pac-Man look-a-likes

SEGA ad now NSFW-ish

Nintendo Plush Series

wresting back flip to a pin (WOW)

65-foot-high LEGO storage room

Photographer Vincent Fournier

Splash Dipping Bowls

Friday, June 27, 2008

Early look at J.J.'s Star Trek

Read the whole thing here. Looks like they liked what they saw.

"SO – WHAT DID YOU SEE HARRY?

Not much. Maybe 7 minutes in all. He showed me a scene of Ben Cross (Sarek) & Winona Ryder (Amanda Grayson) cradling a baby Spock on the surface of Vulcan. A baby with Spock ears is kind of amazing to look at. But there was no dialogue here, and Vulcan wasn’t really there yet – what was there was a great rock formation that kinda reminded me of that wonky mountain/cliff thing from ARENA / BILL & TED. That said, it wasn’t the ARENA formation – and JJ said that zero effects had been done on this yet – so the lighting wasn’t right, the sky wasn’t right and there were no angry volcano type things or structures in the background, but he assured me… it’ll all look very Vulcan when it is done.

The next scene was a really nicely completed visual effects pass of a pre-Enterprise Federation ship from about 25 years before the Enterprise. I’ve no idea how this fits into the larger story, same with the Spock baby stuff. But this effects shot had a completely different space feel than anything I’ve seen before from STAR TREK or STAR WARS. The shot began on a small part of the ship, then craned back and over to reveal the ship coming into a larger shot of the ship seemingly orbiting a really angry sun. The shot was absolutely dynamic as the star was seemingly raging – and we cut to the interior of the ship – it was very shadowy and very much like that of an old diesel submarine – JJ told me that the look was an evolving look for Star Fleet – so that you could get a sense of the passage of decades here. Once again though – I didn’t see the end of the scene or really get a sense for what was going on.

I really like the dynamics and tone of this Space shot – very much not like something I’d seen before – although it was Star Trek, because the ship was a saucer, with a nacelle above and below the saucer. It just felt aggressive and frankly… badass.

After that – He reiterated that the effects were nowhere near done, blah blah blah – but it looked damn good.

After that shot, JJ wrestled with what else he had that he could show. Talking with his partners in the room – he didn’t know quite what to show. Yoko and I just looked at each other – we were kinda like deer in the headlights – just waiting to absorb whatever was shown. At this point I was a bit anxious because while I liked the first two clips – they didn’t really show anything recognizable to the timeline of Trek that I knew.

That’s when JJ had his “EUREKA” moment – he didn’t actually say “EUREKA” – but he knew what he wanted to show. He went over to the big Editing computer thingamabob and was trying to get something up, he pulled up a scene that looked like it was shot in an enormous hanger – There looked to be well over a hundred Starfleet graduates standing in the center of the room – with a couple of shuttlecrafts (old school) that looked like they were ready for boarding… the voice over was basically assigning cadets to the ship they would be serving on. The shot was huge, but oddly sparse… that’s when the editor said they had a newer version of the scene and then worked with JJ to pull it up.

Oh Wow.

..."

DVD Boxset releases

TONS of DVD box set release info @ The Digital Bits

More Friday stuff

The Tale of Despereaux Trailer

Bond 2 footage

Clash of the Titans remake

New and extended Dark Knight trailer (no new spoilers if you've seen the previous trailers, but still AWESOME!)

No Indy 5

Vespimo's scooter helmets

Friday stuff

"Bolt" trailer

Back to the Future inspired NIKE shoes

one of a kind Blade Runner "Spinner" LEGO vehicle

great Microsoft then and now picture

stormtrooper high heels

world's largest pool

Band of Brothers on Blu-ray (YES!!!!!!!)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Kung Fu Panda SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

This is a comment found on Cartoon Brew (topic: writer ranting about Dreamworks). Classic:

You know, I felt kind of sorry for the leopard in Kung Fu Panda, and couldn’t quite figure out why, because I knew I’m not supposed to. But I DID. And now I know why, thanks to Mr. Harmon’s rant. I mean, I like Po - he’s hard not to like - but how does his “suffering” - stuck working in a noodle restaurant for a kindly father goose while dreaming fanboy dreams of kung fu glory - compare to Tai Lung’s suffering - being trained relentlessly, promised the pain and effort will earn you a great honor and destiny, and then when the time comes for your hard-earned reward, some old fart turtle shakes his head and walks away? And then your slavedriving master doesn’t defend you? I imagine he WOULD get pissed. And then he’s thrown in prison and treated like crap for 20 years. Gee that totally wouldn’t mess with his head, right?

I also wondered why the character I liked the least was the kung fu master. I couldn’t figure that out either, because I knew I was supposed to feel sorry for him. But now I know it’s because, when you get right down to it, he’s kind of a dick. Thanks again, Mr. Harmon! KFP’s eye candy overwhelmed my brain in a way that not even the second Star War’s trilogy did - I realized right away that *it* was crap. Yet it made money too. I guess eye candy is enough for some people…

Thursday stuff

Shooting Dark Knight with as little CGI as possible (oh yeah)

Ralph McQuarrie Galactica concepts

Awesome Brendan Fraser Interview about GI Joe

Huge spoiler filled Andrew Stanton interview about Wall-e and more (SPOILERS!!!!!!)

Star Wars USB hubs

Orbino Aira MacBook Air Case

HP Touchsmart

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Wednesday stuff

Goonies on Bluray???

American Werewolf in London on Bluray???
A remake coming???

James Cameron's "Avatar" going to suck???

Dark Knight early review is good

Eagle Eye - Trailer

Jim Morris Q &A

Dreamworks Animation writer ranting

Ouch, wonder how long that post will be up.

http://www.channel101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117862#117862

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Clothing stuff

Planet of the Apes shirt

X-Files "I want to believe" shirt

Trekkies Support the WGA

Corazzo retro motorbike/scooter jackets

S is for Stanley

Luxuria Music Shag

Tuesday Stuff

Skate it for the Wii might be board peripheral

Ballgirl viral video explanation
video here

Spaceman Oval watch
more pix

Starfleet uniforms

Happy Happy

Espoirs de L'Animation

Goofy Faces

Youngme Nowme

Beast With a Billion Backs - Futurama

Knight Rider GPS video

LEGO Vault with all the sets

T-Rex Poster

Johnny Lee Wiimote ideas

Monday, June 23, 2008

Nintendo Channel - DS demo updates

Demos

WALL•E DS Demo (Expires 6/29)
The Incredible Hulk (Expires 6/29)
Kung Fu Panda DS Demo (Expires 6/29)
Contra 4 (Expires 6/29)
Cake Mania 2 (Expires 6/29)
CrossworDS Demo - Anagram

- found @ GoNintendo

Monday stuff

750'000 piece LEGO Kennedy Space Center set

melodramatic youtube fame

"awesome meter" shirt

Creepy snow globes

Survivor : Rambo vs Commando - Sly vs Arnie

Full Trailer for Mummy 3

Awesome t-shirts

www.atomictarantula.com/

thanks Michal!!

George Carlin, the Comedian, Is Dead at 71

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television," died in Los Angeles on Sunday according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Writer's Strike Numbers

Don't know from where but someone sent this:

the strike cost the state of California more than $2 billion and 27'000 jobs.

Well done writers, well done. Now that you got your new deal, are you paying back and helping the ones that lost their job? What about those that lost their job outside of the U.S. because of the strike? Hmm?