|
|
This is what I saw last night.  Yeah, it was a giant concert of just Star Wars music, spanning all 6 episodes, and it was amazing. As great as the music is in the films, there's nothing quite like hearing it being performed live. Anthony Daniels, sporting a shiny gold jacket, told a condensed version of the story in between songs. He was very clever and funny, and would often embellish C-3PO's role in the story to make him out to be more of a hero, much to the impatience of the orchestra. It was a really phenomenal show. There was even a choir who did a fantastic job with " Duel of the Fates". I didn't even think of bringing a camera, which I now regret. There were lots of great costumes there. Several Stormtroopers, rebel pilots, Jedi Knights, a Clone Commander, Boba and Jango Fett, and a fully functional working R2D2 with all the sound effects. Most impressive! The place was packed. I barely saw any empty seats. People of all ages and of all walks of life were there, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It's going to be a traveling show, and will be in Cincinnati next weekend, so I totally recommend that any Star Wars fans go and check this show out if and when it's held near you. An unrelated note for my fellow animation fans in Canada. Last Friday YTV played the incredible season finale of Justice League Unlimited, but somebody totally screwed up and the first few minutes of the show were replaced by an episode of " The Shopping Bags" (a show that doesn't even air on YTV), and then some terrible clay animated snail show called " Snailympics". It was a hideous display of ineptitude by YTV, but I am happy to report that, apparently, they plan on replaying this episode again tomorrow. Second chances like this don't happen very often, so if you are a fan of Batman, whatever you do, do not miss out on this episode. It's a brilliant piece of art that brings the entire DC Animated Universe around full circle. Sayonara.
I bought the Samurai Jack Season 1 and 2 DVD sets recently and have been watching some episodes. I've already seen them all on TV, but taking the time to watch them now is almost like a brand new experience. I'm noticing things that I've never seen before. I am thoroughly convinced that Samurai Jack is the greatest cartoon ever made. At the very least, it's the best cartoon in the past 10 years, or the best non-comedy cartoon. But besides Jack, what else is there? I love Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League, but these shows are based on established material, and part of what makes Jack so great is that, while it is admittedly derivative of several movies and other cartoons, it's an original concept. I love anime, but things the budget concerns, merchandising, and muddled plots often get in the way of some of the truly great shows. I don't like Disney and while I can respect the talents of the individual artists that have worked there, I don't believe they've ever made anything as awesome as Jack. The only thing that I can think of that would be a worthy comparison are the Looney Tunes classics, especially the brilliant " What's Opera, Doc". But those are comedies and Samurai Jack is not, and I think that animation should be more than just something to make people laugh. The only fault that Samurai Jack has is that the story doesn't really go anywhere. There is no real continuity between episodes. Each episode sees Jack face a new challenge on his way to get home, and when it ends he really isn't any closer to reaching is goal. But even that I have a hard time seeing as a flaw, because it lets any new viewer jump in and watch any episode without missing anything, and it shows the strength and determination of Jack's character. At any rate, Samurai Jack is a modern classic. It wasn't even that long ago, but I don't think people realize that when Jack first debuted, nobody had ever seen anything like it. Not only was the visual style unique, but so was the pacing, the way the story was told. Now we take that for granted. It's often a dark, violent, sophisticated show, and yet it's perfectly suitable for most children. This is what North American animation should strive to be more like. And people can't see what I'm talking about, well I'm sorry to say it, but... You don't know Jack.Sayonara.
Someone at the electric company must have known how much I enjoy sneaking around in the dark, because they saw fit to give me a great big power outage on my birthday. It started just before 10:30 pm and lasted until 3:45 am. That's 2 blackouts within 4 days. What gives? Yesterday was the last day of the Spring session at Comic Book Masters. I am mostly happy with the way it went, All of the students really enjoyed themselves, though some of them improved more than others. It's hard to tell when some of the beginners really aren't doing the things that they were taught and don't seem to get it despite my best efforts, but I can only take them as far as I can, and at the very least if they are having fun then I've done my job. I'll be teaching a 4 week Anime Colour Techniques class this July, provided enough people sign up for it. There always seems to be interest, but some people have other things to do in the summer and are unable to take the class, and others just don't follow through for whatever reason, so I probably won't know if I'm working or not until the day before. My goatee has grown back as it was originally, so I'm back to looking normal again, whatever that means. Funny, when it was gone, hardly anyone really noticed except me. Really seemed like something was missing. Sayonara.
Today is my 25th Birthday. I am old. It is also the 8th anniversary of the original incarnation of SykoGrafix. My website is old. I've been doing this for a long time now. It has often been a tough road, but I think I've come a long way. I've also been thinking that it may soon be time for a new evolution. Earlier this week I got a truly amazing present from my cousin JP. He had a black T-Shirt made with my "SykoGrafix" logo stitched on the front and my skull logo on the back with "Ninjatron" lettered underneath, and a black cap with my skull logo on the front and "sykografix.com" on the back.  Freakin' awesome. Shout out to JP for kick ass gift. Sayonara.
Saw Batman Begins tonight. You can read my review right here on the message board. Post your own thoughts too. My birthday is on Friday. This movie was a great present. I got some other interesting things too. I'll share very soon. Sayonara.
There was just a big power outage. It lasted a few hours. It wasn't really very widespread, only half the town was affected, apparently. But of course that half just so happens to the be one I'm living in. Good thing I wasn't working on anything at the time. There was a lot of thunder and lightning. Tornado warnings were issued just moments before the lights went out, so it wasn't really the kind of situation where you'd want to go hang out on the patio to pass the time.. Luckily there doesn't seem to be any harm done. Though it was really dark and boring. This is why the great will of the cosmos invented GameBoy. Not only is it entertaining, but the GameBoy Advance SP's built in light helped to illuminate the way. Not that I mind the dark or anything like that. I just didn't want to stub my toe. Sayonara.
I don't really like webcomics all that much. I think webcomics are the most inane and over rated thing on the entire Internet. There are a few that I find mildly amusing, and some others that have there moments once in awhile, however, in my opinion, the overwhelming majority of webcomics out there are softmoric, amateurish, lowbrow, crude, uncreative, uninspired, and just not very funny. But there is one comic out there that has, in its short existence thus far, proven itself to be a work of brilliance. iNFIDEL REGIME, created by my friend Shawn, is a crazy webcomic that stretches the idea of what a webcomic can be. It employs various artistic media and often contains cerebral gags that seemingly come from nowhere. Shawn decided that he'd hold a week of strips by guest artists, and asked me to participate. I was happy to oblige, and decided to use my comic as a form of sarcastic commentary on the state of webcomics today. It is now available for viewing. Please take a look. OMG Webcomic!!!111It's to the EXTREME. Sayonara.
I'm still really sick. I guess that I am better than I was before, but I'm still coughing a lot. I looked like a complete mess last week. My nose was all red. I hadn't cut my hair was getting long (comparitively, for me, at least), and I had grown a full beard since I didn't shave at all durring that time. The facial hair was really getting in the way, esspecially since my nose is so stuffed up all the time. So today I decided to cut it off. That's right, all of it. That means I am temporarily without a goatee. Unbelieveable, I know. Here I am. I have become my own non-evil twin.  Don't be too shocked, though. It'll be back to " normal", whatever that means, very soon. It won't take long to grow back. For now though, while I'm suffereing through this cold or whatever it is that I've got, this should be a little bit easier. Sayonara.
I don't know what happened exactly. I guess I partied too hard at Anime North or something, because now I'm really sick. I had a really sore throat for most of the weekend. I suppose it was because of too much talking and laughing, two things I don't do often enough to the extent I did there. I didn't think too much of it at the time, thinking it would pass, but yesterday I woke up with a sharp pain in my throat. Now it seems like I've caught something, because I'm coughing a lot and exhibiting cold-like symptoms. My voice is pretty much thrashed, leaving me to communicate with only a primitive series of gestures. This sucks. I've got all this stuff to do and now I'm not going to get it done when I want to. But all I can do about it is rest up, so that means that this entry is over. Sayonara.
|
|
