Keanu Reeves "acts" like a Thunderbird with Aspergers Syndrome

... but that didn't stop me thoroughly enjoying CONSTANTINE. They take enough from the comics to make it really cool. A young Alan Rickman (amongst maybe a dozen others) would have made a better John Constantine, but somehow it's still cool. I think it's the good dialogue and script. Even though the delivery is appalling, it still shines through and wins you over.

XIAO XIAO

Yes, I know you've seen them, because you're a dork, but this link has a page with all his stuff linked at the one place. Cool!

Game-style short CG film

I haven't seen the short yet myself but looking at the stills of the character and reading about it, sounds rad.

"My dick just grew a million times bigger!"

Monster Magnet - Superjudge

Their best album in my opinion, and the only band to my knowledge to ever record the lyric in the title of this post. Other albums come closer, with usually a few great tracks each, but this one is good from start to finish, on repeat.

ROBOT CHICKEN

ROBOT CHICKEN SERIES LAUNCHES STOP-MOTION STARS FEB. 20. Get ready for ROBOT CHICKEN, an ambitious sketch comedy series done completely in stop-motion, which debuted Feb. 20, 2005, at 11:30 pm on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Creators actor/producer Seth Green and Matthew Senreich spare no one and run through many toys as they bring slightly mean-spirited pop-culture parodies to life in the 15-minute weekly series.

Named ROBOT CHICKEN, because that was the only title they could get cleared out of the 60 submitted, they use legions of action figures to spoof everything from Quentin Tarantino's blood-spattered epics to THE REAL WORLD, in which a cast of superheroes takes the place of drunken 20-somethings. while Green and a number of celebrities provide voices, including Scarlett Johannson, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Ryan Seacrest, Mark Hamill, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Macauley Culkin.

A team of some 50 artists and technicians create miniature sets, tiny costumes and props and intricate action scenes for sketches skewering popular entertainment, politics and celebrity culture. Green and Senreich, with co-producers Tom Root and Doug Goldstein, lead the writing staff of the fast-moving weekly series, directed by Seamus Walsh and Chris Finnegan of Screen Novelties in Santa Monica, California, which did the stop-motion series CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH.

Green has played dozens of movies such as WITHOUT A PADDLE, THE ITALIAN JOB, SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED and the AUSTIN POWERS films. He has also appeared extensively on television, starring in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and as the voice of Chris in FAMILY GUY. (FAMILY GUY creator Seth McFalane does a guest voice appearance on Robot Chicken.) He also is an avid toy buff, who even memorizes tags about toys they are attached to.

Senreich began his career working in comicbooks (starting as an intern at Marvel Comics) before joining Wizard Ent., a publisher of magazines covering comicbooks, action figures, anime and collectible card gaming. Senreich became editor of TOYFARE, and then editorial director for all of Wizard's publications.

They met when Senrich interviewed Green who is also a correspondent for TOYFARE. Later Green called Senrich about doing an animated short. When word got out they wanted to produce a stop-motion short of their toys saving the world, Sony's website asked them to do shorts based upon their original concept. They premiered SWEET J. PRESENTS on Sony's Internet site, SCREENBLAST, in 2001. The duo pitched the pilot show and found the right home on Adult Swim which greenlit 20 episodes.

Each script has a complicated system of approvals to clean before they can start filming. While they frequent toy stores and scan ebay for toys, nearly 80% of the puppets are created from scratch with posable foam and wire bodies, customized to look like toys. About 50-300 puppets are generated per episode in roughly 10 days.

The creators are in love with sketch comedy, pointing to MONTY PYTHON and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, as influences. The format allows them to do really short skits in six seconds while some take 10 minutes. The variety and subjects they hit are varied. You won't see re-use of characters and sets, which makes this show an incredible undertaking, given the time and labor intensive art of building models and miniature sets, let along the animation and camera work.

The models and sets look good, the lighting and movements are well executed while the humor is perfect for the Adult Swim crowd. About the only shortcut is computer-animated, clumsy lip-synch, to be expected in this quick turnaround production schedule.

Green and Senrich are exec producers on ROBT CHICKEN while Alex Bukleuy and Corey Campodonico are producers with Jeannine Rohn line producing.

Production designer is Jed Hathaway, Kevin Pawlak handles storyboards, Scott Tom is puppet fabrication supervisor and toy wrangler is Hugh Sterbakov. Set construction supervisor is Ross Shuman while Bryan Garver supervises lighting.

Visual Effects editors are Shanno Gold and Efram Potelle, supervising sound editor is Jonathan Miller while sound effects editing is by Randy Babajtis. ADR Miser is Alana Freedman, foley mixer is Jeremy Blako and post-production sound is by Sonic Magic.

Music is by Michael Suby, Chris McKay edits the show with Gavin Barclay and Lori Slomka as post-production supervisors.

ROBOT CHICKEN should satisfy the stop-motion, humor desires of fans hungry since CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH stopped production.

Akihabara...

I thought I had blown in excess of my airfare in the first hour. I kept going to the counter of one shop with armloads of stuff and gesticulating until they realised not that I didn`t want to pay, but that I was going back in for more. Then they just smiled and said `otaku` to one another.

I think I paid their annual rent, and I spent about a tenth of what I thought I had.

The electrical shops are a little cheaper than home, especially when tax free. But not enough to merit many purchases. Most of the mp3 gear isn`t worth it, sorry eightball. I think they`ve figured it out and the distributors have hiked prices accordingly.

However, when confronted by every toy I always wanted as a child, I find myself to be quite weak of character and simply crumble under the pressure. T-shirts too, oh god the t-shirts.

I remember a news article a few years back about some kid getting arrested for wearing a t-shirt that said "FUCK" on it. It`s quite possible that I will be in jail shortly after my return, not for rude language printed across my chest, but probably because I`d be teaching everyone who saw me more than they wanted to know about female anatomy and this blogs namesake....

buzzComics

Skaffen is in Japan, lucky, lucky bastard. In a feeble attempt to pretend those of us he left behind can still be happy, check out this resource for online comics.

Dawn of War: Winter assault

Shouldn't it be called Brekky of War or something now ? (sorry - that makes mean groan even though I typed it, but I'm sad enough to leave it here).

Penny Arcade article. I agree with the comments - hopefully single player includes the other races. Awesome multiplayer game, but only having one single player campaign was a bit fucked.

Dear TML advice column

Dear TML,
There is a fucker at my place of employment who has chosen to take up whistling in his trips around the office. The problems with this are:

He can't fucking whistle.
He is tone deaf.
If sounds fucking horrible and makes me want to punch him.

I've told him that it is the worst attempt I've ever heard at whistling. He still keeps doing it. Punching him might have an unwanted effect on my career.

I've only thought of one other way to deal with it - an automatic e-mail every minute with the subject "stop fucking whisting, cos it isn't actually whistling and it shits absolutely everyone". This seems way too nerdy and it would be obvious who set it up.

Can TML's brains swing into action for some suitable punishment and supression advice ?

Rocketing shit-powered bikes

Has anyone seen this, I've spent exactly 4 seconds looking at this so I don't know if it's a published comic or online. if it IS online then I think it might be the best looking online comic I've ever seen.

Sony XPLOD kicking my ASS

Went to Reece and Ali's today and Reece who is a sound and TV installation dude who plugs in rich people's plasma screens for a living put in my new MP3/CD head unit in the car. Acheball and I gave it a shot and managed to get as far as ruining the aircon controls, but it turns out it was for the greater good that we didn't get any further as it involved drilling new holes in the mounting brackets and manually identifying, stripping and soldering each wire in the back as the plugs are different. Took about 4 hours, with a break for coffee and later BBQ lunch. Only cost me a slab, instead of $130 Strathfield quoted, and he lent me TOOL's Anemia for the drive to work as I didn't have any decent CDs in the car (apart from EBOLIE's debut, that shit Sydney grind band who supported EXHUMED on their tour. No way I'm breaking in the XPLOD with THAT gay-assed shit.)

Still running factory speakers but found out from Reece that I can get new speaker housing for the front doors to fit my mammoth ear-raping 6x9 Sony XPLODing motherfucker speakers. Which I'm happy with. So I'll just leave the factory 6" rounds in the back, (can't hear them back there anyway) and then I dont have to cut any carpet. I want those big puppies right there next to my head thankyou very much.

Liberated Games

If you haven't found it - enjoy!
You might need a Linux box to build some of the games from source.

Google Maps

Bored? Check the link out above if you haven't already seen it. There's only the northern americas there so far but FUCKME it's an impressive application.

The searches they provide as examples aren't too bad, but whacking in a 'from lax to jfk' trip planner is pretty damn impressive.

| insert credit |

I have a new favorite website:

Storm Riders Online

Yep, it's true. I am getting happier and happier and happier. Someone bring me some tissues.

"Axe*Synth" the most fucking awesomest thing ever:

Click on the awesome thing for happiness.

Bored? you betcha

But the good thing is I'm drawing.



The not so good news is, I'm only drawing winged skulls on fire.

If it were the 80's & I worked for a skateboard company I'd be fucking set baby!

I just got down Splatterhouse 2 and 3 with Sega Genesis emulator to run them. It's not the arcade version, but 3 is cool. 2 sucks.

UPDATE:
I just read a review of the arcade ROM (lost the link sorry) which got me all excited so I hunted down the arcade ROM - the original and the best. A lot of the gore satanic imagery and general radness were toned down for the console versions.
ROMnation
has what might be the Jap version,
ClassicGaming
has a shit review and ROM link, might be the same ROM but I'm getting both down in case - I would prefer the Jap and ENG versions both if I can get them.

OK:
The ROMnation one is the go, and use their link to the MAME32 emulator. Put the Splatterhouse unzipped directory (whole folder) in the ROMS folder in MAME32, and it shows up.

Mame32 is misleading the first time you open it, it looks like you get a million games with it, but "all games" is selected. Change that to "available" and you'll see you only have Splatterhouse installed. I think we better start a TML retro ROM compilation. I want Alien vs Predators and the Metal Slug series.

I am a little bit excited right now. It's the real Splatterhouse arcade game, not a megadrive derivative.
"What are you doing up there?"
"Working!" Hack! Behead! Jump zombie vomit!
I just died 15 times in 2 minutes. I LOVE THIS GAME!!

The Internet is boring

Ever spent so long with nothing to do that you run out of stuff to look at on the internet?

Every day I come in to work and manage to blow away a certain amount of time looking up inane rubbish and really cool shit. The problem I've found is there's a syndrome whereby each day the volume of stuff you can wallow through becomes less and less, until your brains dribble out your nose.

Now, with exactly zero (0) work to do, I have hit rock bottom. I've worked my way through several past weeks of Slashdot and The Register, plus I've 'window shopped' my arse off at Lik-Sang and Think Geek.

I've browsed through ridiculous numbers of off-shoot link trees from each of these sites and every gaming forum, community and company site I can think of.

I'm fucking BORED. The internet has nothing left to offer me (except pr0n of course, but I want to get paid for the rest of the week, not walked from the building.)

Help me, please, help...