Not Your Average Geeks
Entertainment
Stream your music library anywhere with Subsonic
Jul 22nd
I’ve stopped carrying my old 80gb iPod classic ever since I got my new phone (HTC Hero on Sprint). Between Pandora, Slacker Radio, podcasts on Google Listen, and the 8gb MicroSD I installed, I was never really hurting for music, so carrying that extra gadget and it’s associated USB cable just seemed like a waste.
Things were great like this, but every so often I’d have a craving for a particular song. I was also annoyed by the roughly 50gb of hard drive space my music took up on my laptop’s hard drive. I could always just copy it all to my desktop’s larger drives, but I wanted to have my music library available while I was on the road, so I just tolerated it. That was until I learned about Subsonic…
Giant Robots set to duel to determine the fate of the far East.
Jul 20th
Mat Cat
Japan’s recently constructed RX-78-2 Gundam mobile suit, which is standing guard over Shizuoka, Japan has some competition in Beijing. The Chinese have built a 6 ton, 40 foot tall Optimus Prime, taking the massive robot arms race to a new level. I’m hoping the United States will respond to this escalation by constructing a 100ft tall Mad Cat battlemech to ensure we remain the world’s foremost superpower for years to come. Listen up Congress, stop wasting our tax dollars on tanks and airplanes! They’ll be no use against towering mecha like these!
Optimus Prime
- Gundam Mobile Suit
Inception = Incredible
Jul 19th
Pancho and I, on an impulse, decided to catch Inception early (9:40am early!) Saturday morning. I have to admit that I was incredibly surprised the theater had an IMAX showing that early; and I was even more surprised at the number of people in the theater. Settled in my seat, it was time for the movie.
We showed up a bit late, meaning we missed the previews (sad face) and I think the first 5 minutes of the film. I don’t think either were super important as we were able to get up to speed very fast. Spoiler free review after the jump. More >
I want one of Weta’s Rayguns to hang over my mantle
Jul 19th
I also want a mantle. But when get a place that has one, one of these will hopefully take the place of honor above it.
Based in New Zealand, the Weta Workshop is a, “multi-award winning conceptual design and physical manufacturing facility servicing the world’s entertainment and creative industries.” They have been creating props, costumes, and creatures for movies like Avatar, King Kong, the Lord of the Rings, and District 9 for over a decade.
A couple of years ago they started making these awesome retro rayguns. Some of the coolest are one-of-a-kind, so you’ll have to act quick. The guns aren’t cheap, (they seem to run anywhere from $600-1500 for most), but they ooze sci-fi style, and if I had the spare scratch, I’d have to look long and hard at getting one to spruce up the living room and increase my geek-cred. For now though, I might just try my hand at making a DIY version…
A short time ago in a subway not very far away…
Jul 14th
The boys and girls from Improv Everywhere have put together another great video, this time featuring a well-known rebel princess being apprehended by stormtroopers. Seeing something like this on my way to work would just make my day!
Shark Week, it’s the most important week of the year
Jul 14th
Second only to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, and your birthday combined.
Shark Week 2010 is Aug. 1-4 in the Discovery Channel. This will be the 23rd season of Shark Week, bringing us four more days of fascinating programs about one of the planet’s greatest predators (not to be confused with Predators).
Growing up, whenever we lived in a place that we had cable I would make it a point to glue myself to the TV during Shark Week. This also applied to the Discovery Channel Phenomethon, which doesn’t exist anymore, but was essentially a nonstop buffet of Unsolved Mysteries and all manner of scary stuff.
Unlike a lot of people it seems, I was never afraid of sharks. I would love to scuba dive with reef sharks or similar sometime, or with Great Whites (in a cage of course). Watching the documentary Sharkwater bummed me out, realizing how so much of the world views Sharks. The Discovery Channel is definitely guilty of sensationalizing the danger of sharks somewhat, but I hope that the attention they draw with shark week will outweigh the negatives.
Sharks are some of the most fascinating creatures on earth. Check out this video from the BBC Planet Earth series on the Great Whites around Seal Island after the jump.
Are you a bad enough dude to make a video this cool?
Jul 13th
Videogame villans have invaded the mountain and the skate park! Check out this awesome video by Knife Show, featuring Scott Stevens, Micah Hollinger, Chris Beresford, Tim Eddy, Ben Bogart, and Casey Wrightsman. I love stuff like this, it reminds me of the Cardboard Warfare clip. Something that could conceivably be shot by someone with some practice, but kicked up into the range of awesome with special effects!
Predators hits the mark
Jul 13th
I probably saw Predator when I was 10 years old or so. Everything about that movie was awesome. Arnold at his best, ol’ painless, “Get to da CHOPPA!”, it had it all. I also loved Alien and Aliens, and had a stash of Colonial Marines comic books (I remember this one specifically) that I read over and over again. All of this only served to make Predator II, AVP, and AVP 2 that much harder to watch.
When Predators was released last week, I heard all the reviews say that there was finally a sequel that stayed true to the original, and I was cautiously optimistic. When a couple good friends backed up those claims, my hopes grew a little more. When I saw Predators Monday night, I was sold.
From start to finish, Predators stays true to its roots and evokes the same 80′s action movie emotions that the original did. It also incorporates references and homages to the original without being ham-fisted about it.
I was a little nervous about Adrien Brody playing the action hero, but he pulls it off convincingly, as do most of the rest of the cast in their roles. The death row inmate and doctor (Walter Goggins and Topher Grace respectively) provide some much needed comic relief in a few scenes, and the Yakuza enforcer played by Louis Ozawa Changchien is silently menacing. The only dull spot is the Russian Spetsnaz trooper, who is played competently, but whose background is awfully stereotypical.
Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios did great with the predator’s effects, with my only complaint being the explosion visuals in a certain scene involving a claymore. All in all, I definitely recommend seeing Predators in the theatre if you were a fan of the original. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Zombies done so well you’ll be looking for a shotgun
Jul 12th
Looking for some light summer reading? What could be better than the story of hardsuit divers fighting zombies at the bottom of the ocean. Or perhaps the tale of the astronauts that were on the ISS when zombies attacked, and spent years up there waiting to return to earth. Maybe the experiences of an American infantryman, from being overrun by the undead horde at Yonkers, to finally pushing east from the Rockies to retake the United States? If any of those sound interesting, I’d recommend picking up a copy of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks.
World War Z is one of my favorite reads, and I read a lot of books. Max Brooks is the son of comedian Mel Brooks, and author of both The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
If you don’t have time to read, you are in luck, as there is an excellent audiobook available as well. Read by an all-star cast including Alan Alda, and Mark Hamill it is almost worth a listen even if you’ve read the book.
Concept image for World War Z movie
World War Z is also headed to the silver screen, courtesy of Paramount and Plan B Entertainment. There is no information on the release of the film yet, but it is categorized as “in development” on IMDb.
MC Frontalot, Nerdcore savant
Jul 11th
MC Frontalot’s latest album Zero Day was released April 6th, but I just now got around to giving it a listen, and it’s definitely a winner. If the MC Frontalot name doesn’t sound famiiar, it’s probably because he’s a leader in a relatively new genre (coined by Frontalot himself in 2000) called “Nerdcore hip-hop. Rapping about everything from D&D to the Commodore 64 to blogs, Frontalot’s ryhmes are clever and unique. Just check out the newest single from Zero Day after the jump!