Rent Analysis

After a second viewing last night, I have some more thoughts. In no particular order...

Songs that I like more in movie format:

- Rent: A slimmed-down version that doesn't shove too much plot down your throat. A focus on Roger, Mark, and Collins allows Joanne, Maureen, and Benny to introduce themselves at a more appropriate time. Also, with Mark and Roger singing in different parts of the world early on, it allows for a more inner monologue feel.

- La Vie Boheme: The blocking for this number always bugged me in the play. It's tough to do a good numberwhen people are at a table, as it can tend to become a jumble. Also, because so many people have so many different short lines from different parts of the stage, the eye has difficulty keeping track. For the film, the camera gives some sort of semblance to who's saying what, while also doing some funky cuts to keep it somewhat anarchic. If that's a word.

- Out Tonight: I was never a fan of this song on-stage because it didn't really feel like anything more than Mimi dancing on the fire escape. By transferring it to the Cat Scratch, the road, her apartment, and finally Roger's place, it gives it some more energy. I like the song now, but I like it more out of Dawson's mouth than the original Mimi.

There was also a few decisions that were made that changed some characters in a way that I didn't like too much.

First off, did April commit suicide in the movie? I don't think they ever say it. It just feels like more of a motivation for Roger to lock himself up and feel afraid to meet anyone else if her death was so sudden an unexpected, as opposed to dying of AIDS like they suggest.

And Maureen... Jesus Christ, the two scenes they added made her into a person with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Why should we even feel happy that she and Joanne are together at the end?

Anyway, yeah... those were nice and random, but I had to get em out.

Randomness Continues

What's the dividing line between resuscitation and zombification? Zombies are, by definition, the living dead. Dead that have been brought back to life. Does that mean that if a guy dies on the operating table and is revived through the shock paddles he is, in essence, a zombie for the rest of his life?

Is it motion without a heartbeat? Then we're all zombies after we die, because of rigor mortis, twitching muscles, etc.

Loss of brain function? Don't get me started on how many people are walking around as zombies, in that case.

Is it a rot factor? Does "This is gonna be laaaaarge!" Jack from The Zeppo be considered near-death-experience, while his friends are zombies because they were down there longer?

*sigh* This weekend has to happen soon, I have to shut my brain off.

Hmmmm...

When I become omnipotent one day, I'm going to change the name of a town to Chicgo, Illinois. I'll make sure it's a town as far away from Chicago as possible. Then I'll watch as the entire populace gets cheesed as people constantly mis-spell the name of their town.

A Ponderance

Is there a bigger waste of time than the rhetorical question?

Urge

I have an urge to write. Yet I have absolutely nothing new to report. No rehearsal last night. No word from my realtors yesterday.

I won a video game on eBay yesterday, WarioWare Touched. But that's bout it.

So, in the meantime, have a giraffe!

Two Of My Favorite Things

My favorite mainstream comic strip with my favorite lady. Combo!

The condo is entering the final stages of being in my possession. Going to be looking over some association papers tonight, then getting an inspector in there by the end of the weekend. I sign the paperwork on March 1st, then I'm in.

And from there, my dominion over all the earth! Mwahahahahahaha!

Wait, capital Earth. There we go...

Random Thoughts For The Day

- It's good to see my "namesake" get some cred. I saw an ad on TV for Absolut Vodka, listing off a bunch of "Absolutes." And their shot for "Absolute Anime"? Kaneda in Akira. Sweet.

- I watched Serenity's deleted scenes, with commentary, on Saturday, and Joss dropped a few subtle hints that could be taken as reference to future work.

First off, in a scene that shows Companion Training, he mentioned that he had also filmed a scene with the Companions learning to shoot bows & arrows, but it was cut because it was "too Wonder Woman." Does that mean Paradise Island is going to have the same feel as Inara's Companion school?

Second, Joss mentioned that there was a LOT of Inara cut from the final edit of the movie. When Morena Baccarin asked him about this, he told her that he'd make it up to her sometime. She'd be a perfect WW, could that mean he might want her for the role? We can only hope.

- In other, more frustrating, Whedon-related news, my latest issue of ToyFare had an interview with Seth Green about the DVD release of his Adult Swim show, Robot Chicken. He mentioned that the commentary is going to have a lot of actors who cameoed in the series, including Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Just a tad frustrating to see all of the commentary, all the DVD extras, every little thing on every DVD about Buffy, and to see just how little SMG ever wanted to contribute to the series. She did no commentary, never was interviewed for behind-the-scenes work, never attended any conventions, didn't even attend the flippin' wrap party for the show. But she's all for doing commentary for a show she has almost no relationship with beyond saying a few lines. Go figure.

- Scalpers suck. There's a KB in the area which had the only G1 re-release Sideswipes in the area. Many people on my Transformers messageboard went to the store to buy one, only to find out that a guy came in, bought every figure on the shelf, and proceeded to sell them on eBay for $40 a pop. With no promise that they'll ever be restocked at this store

Geez, man, kick our puppy while you're at it.

- I'm getting back together with my realtor tonight to get stuff done on the condo. Giddy.

To Own, To Rent, To Life, To Death

- I have made my offer for the condo. God, I hope it goes through, there are very few kinds of units I'd spend $800 a month on, between mortgage, taxes, assessments, and association fees. But 2-bedrooms, second floor, 900+ square feet. It's worth it. More on that as events develop, but if all goes well then it's mine in March.

- I just got back from seeing Rent. Finally. Damn good production. There's definitely things I didn't like about it, both in terms of additions and subtractions, but it was 90% true to its roots.

What worked? For one, the loss of very few numbers. There was only one song that I was a fan of that disappeared (Christmas Bells), one that I liked was gone (We're Okay), and one I really didn't like was gone (Contact). Everything else missing was translated into dialogue, but it tended to be the exposition stuff.

Also, the translation of songs to sets were, for the most part, done well. Setting Santa Fe in the subway, Out Tonight to the strip club, and I'll Cover You to the church (obviously) didn't hurt any of them.

In other instances, not so well. They added a whole Maureen/Joanne wedding, which just felt forced, since it was done only a minute or two before Take Me or Leave Me. Parts of What You Own felt like a Creed video. And adding Angel, Collins, and Mark to the end of Another Day when they were still at Life Support in the play (I think, I apologize if I'm wrong) made it seem like "all against Roger" instead of "Roger & Mimi fight."

And Over The Moon... man, I don't even know what to make of it...

But, yeah, otherwise they did great. One Song Glory, Life Support, Will I, Another Day (till the end, at least). They all blew me out of the water. And the All Cover You Reprise made me remember once again that I REALLY wish I could play Collins someday. Ah, well, there's always karaoke...

- I picked up Trauma Center for the DS last night. It's a hell of a game, but I've never played a game before that I have to add as many "conditions" to.

In order to play this game well, you need to:

1) Play on a flat, sturdy surface
2) Play in a well-lit area. But not TOO well lit, or else it'll muddle up the screen
3) Don't be too tired
4) Don't be too wired
5) Don't play while you have something else to take your attention

Basic premise: You're a surgeon. That's, um, all you really need to know.

- About 5 minutes before the movie, I was able to get one of the most gimmicky Pokemon ever. But he has the potential to absolutely kick ass.

Shedinja is the first Pokemon character to be created from the evolution of another. When you evolve Nincada, he becomes Ninjask, a wasp-style character. But the shedded skin of Nincada becomes Shedinja, a 1 HP Ghost/Bug type that can only be killed by super-effective attacks. Which basically means that, oh, 3/4s of all types of attacks will not injure him at all.

He should be fun.

So, this post should probably make up for the lack of posts the last few days. I could also talk about the new Transformer I bought, or the fact that the casting directors of Spider-Man 3, who cast a blonde in a redhead role for the first one, are casting a redhead for a blonde role in this one (Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy). But that could wait for another time.

Funny Stuff

So I'm adding a new link to the sidebar, if for no other reason than introducing me to one enlightening article.

I read QC and S&F, two comics over on my sidebar. And I knew about the "feud" between the two. But when Fleen decided to write an article on said fake feud, the article introduced me to the message boards for the sites. Which are infinitely more hilarious.

Good job, Fleen. After seeing how else neat your site is, and how many links you done got, I've added ya. English rules.

PS: Jeph's got better art, Sam's got funnier writing. At least until the past month or so, not enjoying the last few storylines. He also eats gerbils on his lunch break.

In other parts of the world, it's always nice to discover a cheaptheatre (it's become one word, btw) in your neighborhood. Maple Grove's old theatre has gone the $3 route. Which also means I can finally see Rent this weekend. Not because I haven't WANTED to see it, I just haven't had anyone who wanted to see it for more than $3.

Also, it seems like a really good cheaptheatre (one word), as it has some shows that aren't necessarily considered "second run" yet. Right now they're playing The Producers, which only came out a month ago.

Still waiting to hear back from my realtors about some god-awful assessments attached to the condo I'm looking at. I was hoping to make an offer by the end of the week, but the week's running out. MLK Day crossed a lot of wires.

So this weekend's looking like a big gaping chasm of What the Hell? I could be making an offer on a place, I could be out partying, I could be sitting around trying to get my Pokemon to level 25 and able to beat the Flight Trainer. It's one of those kinds of weekends.

Want Batgirl?

Have Batgirl.

More additions to yesterday's post:

- Rehearsals for Secret Garden have started back up again this week, with my time slowly being filled more and more this. Which I have no problem with. I've been sitting on my arse far too much these past few, well, months, and it's good to get back in the saddle again. Especially now that blocking has gotten underway, we can get to doing things more than sitting around and singing.

Also, it's a good cast to work with, one of the few casts I've worked with that contains no irritating people! Faboo!

- I've become re-addicted to Pokemon. Currently my Pokedex is up to 67 out of, um, not sure, 300? Missing quite a few, basically. I've decided that, instead of trying to trade for all the other characters that I can't pick up, I'm gonna invest $20 bucks into a Gameshark and fill up my 'Dex after I've beaten the Elite Four. That way I can get into the Battle Frontier.

And I might be picking up Animal Crossing or Trauma Center by the end of the month.

Friday, Huh?

Hmmm... yup, that's the last time I wrote in this thing.

And since I got bodyslammed here at work today I'm gonna make this one brief. Might get into more later, but, meh, whatever.

So, here's what's new:

- I checked out a few other condos this weekend, and have narrowed my choices down to two. Now I just have to decide how much I'm willing to spend.

They both cost the same, in theory. One is a one-bedroom, 700-some square foot, first floor unit. The second is a two-bedroom, 900-some square foot, second floor unit. But it also has a 14-year assessment of $1000 a year, which'll roughly translate to $80 a month more for the entire time I'm living there. So I have to decide if that's worth extra cost and the extra hassle.

Either way, there's a really good chance I'll be making an offer on a unit by the end of the week, with a move-in date around the end of March.

- I've read a lot of the Battle Royale manga in the last few days. I've come to the conclusion that, despite it being a decent stand-alone manga series, it takes too many liberties with the original story. Basically, they manga it up WAY too much. In the book, the only real surreal bit deals with Kazuo's childhood injury that leaves him unable to feel emotion. The manga has some battles, especially the one between Kazuo and Hiroki, getting the Dragonball Z treatment, complete with blurring punches, chi fireballs, and swirling cherry blossoms.

Also, one of my favorite scenes in the book is blasphemized all to hell in this one. The only scene in the book where you actually see a human side to Mitsuko, the only scene where she actually shows some emotion towards another, is turned instead into a lunatic's mental breakdown. Not good eats.

But, hey, they do add some good stuff. The "funeral scene," with Shuya giving the Lighthouse Girls a proper eulogy, tugged at my heartstrings, and his subsequent mental unbalance, teetering near the edge of insanity before bringing himself back to the game, was perfect.

And I love how no one reading this thing has any clue what I'm talking about.

Okay, more later...

Wow

Ever have one of those days where you have nothing even remotely interesting to say? Yeah, that was me yesterday.

I guess that's the whole point of blogs, where you can ramble about things even if you have nothing to talk about.

So what can I say?

Back to rehearsal tonight. With partying afterwards. I wanna.

I also started reading Wicked yesterday. It's gonna take me a while, though, since I'm not too motivated to read on the bus now. What with the Pokemon and all.

Bought Snarl on Wednesday. Pretty decent figure, despite the fact that one of his hands is the head (which I hate about Beast Wars in general). Still liking it a lot, though.

Timmy's Art Ahead

I came across the Bruce Timm Gallery today. He's one of my favorite comic book artists, and was also the producer and co-creator of the animated versions of Batman, Superman, and Justice League. This site has about 300 of his sketches, everyone from He-Man to Evangelion to, as you can see, Buffy.

Take a look, it's just fabulous stuff. But be warned, a lot of the work are nudes, so it's not exactly work appropriate.

Fan Service Insanity

Fan Service: Things in a manga or anime that are added purely to draw in the audience, and has little or no relevance to the story.

I just picked up the first three issues of the Battle Royale manga, which is a modern version of the novel which I raved about a week or two ago. After reading these issues, (they were quick reads) I'm into it, but it's also amazing to me how far they go into the fan-service realm.

The violence and gore is incredibly grotesque and in your face. The nudity and sex would make a tenticle monster blush. In both cases, scenes are added to the novel's storyline that don't really do any work in fleshing out the characters, it's just simply there to look cool or hot.

Sure, watching Kazuo beat people kill a man with a library book or a bowling ball is interesting. Or showing Mitsuko naked on so many more pages than in the novel (she's only naked once, near the end, in the book) is, yeah, pure fan service.

But I'm still enjoying it, just to see their interpretation of the novel. Like most manga that deals with teenagers, they've made some characters look more grown-up than others, even for 15 year olds (Shogo and Mitsuko stand out). And it's an odd double-standard where the artist goes out of his way to block some characters' skin (Yoshimi Yahagi, for example), while also going out of his way to show as much skin of another as possible, more than even your usual manga shows, even though they're both the same age.

Still, not bad. Not great as far as manga goes, but, then again, I'm not a reader of "horror manga" too often.

Quick FYI, I've added another webcomic link to the side. Press Start To Play is yet another video game-based webcomic, but it's well written, the drawing's great, and the guy's a Pokemon fan!

This Sucks

I just bought Obi-Wan Kenobi, by first Star Wars Transformer. Great color scheme, fabulous alt-mode, with the potential of being a decent robot.

Unfortunately he's looser than Paris Hilton on a three-day bender, and as such is really difficult to keep in bot mode.

Hmmm...

Lord, I apologize for that...

The wings are really floppy, the head has difficulty keeping up. So right now I'm thinking he's going to be in alt-mode more than regularly, and I can only hope that Vader (TIE Advanced X1) and Fett (Slave-1) are better robots.

Also, I'm looking forward to the Emperor, who's going to transform into an Imperial Shuttle. Has a lot of potential.

So I've mentioned on this blog before that I'm a fan of the Harry Turtledove Great War series. I've now learned, through Wikipedia, that I'm apparently not as big of a fan as I thought. Not only does the whole vast series have a name (Southern Victory) it also has a fan-named timeline. Timeline-191 is so named because of Special Order 191, General Lee's classified battle plans that fell into the hands of the Union in our reality. In T-191, the plans make it to their destination, the Battle of Antietam is never fought, and the South gains its independence.

Wikipedia has a lot to say about this series (and not much to say about his other series, Worldwar, for which I am not surprised), including a list of every actual historical figure mentioned in the series.

What surprised me most about this list was the historical figures I didn't recognize through reading. Highest above this is that Turtledove did something I would have previously thought, for lack of a better term, politically incorrect to do. He killed off a character who is still alive in our reality today in 2005. In the last book of the series one of the Union characters kills a soldier named "Jimmy." Later they mention the character's hometown and mother. Put the three pieces together and you find out that Turtledove killed off Jimmy Carter, in the 191 timeline a soldier for the Confederacy home to visit his mama. Ballsy, but effective.

Movie Review Summary

1) The Producers. Hil-Flippin-Larious. It's been a long time since I've laughed this hard at a movie. But maybe that's because I don't see many comedies. Anyway... yeah, great stuff, but it would have been better if the initial casting of Ulla had gone through, with Nicole Kidman in the role of Swedish-Nympho-Secretary-Actress instead of Uma Thurman. Kidman's better looking, and would have been infinitely more hilarious as it'd be a bigger stretch for her to play the role.

But, hey, it also had a song from one of the talk shows I listen to that I didn't realize was Producers. Guten Tag Hop Hop!

And for those Will Ferrell haters out there, don't worry, he's not exactly a huge role, or anything, he's only in three or four scenes, and plays the character very true to his film counterpart.

2) King Kong. It would be highly amusing, but not a huge stretch, if Jack Black was nominated for a Supporting Actor award this year. He did a good job showing off his dramatic chops as the villain of the piece. And Kyle Chandler, who plays the actor in the flick, would make a hell of a Green Lantern.

That being said, this comic (which Sucks) best summarizes what I thought of the movie. Two hours of some of the best action flick I've seen in a very long time. Unfortunately, it was a three hour movie. There's a lot of stuff that was pretty schmaltzy, and other stuff that was really schmaltzy (read: ice skating scene). Unlike LOTR, I'm not clamoring to get the extended edition of this film.

Also, I couldn't decide on how I felt about the relationship between Kong and Naomi Watts. The way she looked at him sometimes, I don't know, made me a tad bit uncomfortable. Sure, I could accept that she loved him the way you'd love a dog that protects you from burglars, but there's sometimes when she had a hint of romance in her eyes that was a little, um, yeah...

And, again, ice skating scene. The hell?

On a more personal level, the last 10 minutes or so freaked me out, too, because I'm afraid of heights.

Also, if you have a fear of bugs... ummm, there's a few minutes in the middle you might wanna skip. The scene that occurs after the cool fight with the dinosaur. Keep it in mind. Andy Serkis (who played Gollum, and was also the body model for Kong) gets it in a bad way.

itch itch itch

Okay, so, anyone out there have access to two Gameboy Advances and copies of Pokemon Ruby and/or Sapphire? Please? I really want a friggin Alakazam... *itch itch itch*

More Than I Thought

Considering if someone asked me, I would still think that I've barely seen the show, the fact that I recognize almost all of the characters in this doujinshi's collage kinda surprises me. I've apparently seen the B&M a LOT more than I had originally thought.

And, like the PPG Doujinshi was a highly-recommended webcomic for those fans of any Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon show (PPG, Dexter, Zim, etc), this new one, Grim Tales, is great for anyone who's a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, Spawn, and/or Billy & Mandy. Apparently the focus is that it takes place 20 or so years after the events of B&M, with Mandy grown up and becoming the queen of the underworld, with she and Grim hooking up and having undead children. Creepy, but still pretty interesting.

There's more stuff for me to talk about, having seen two movies over the weekend, but I gotta do some stuff. So... later....

Today's Belated Bookmark

www.whatbadgerseat.com

From the Simpsons. I just read about it on my Simpsons calendar, so there ya go.

Painful

So, okay, you've all heard of the Celebrity Dancing show. Not sure exactly of its title, but I think we all know it exists. Evander Holyfield, Mr. Peterman, that kinda thing. You couldn't pay me to watch the show.

There's a sequel starting up in a few days, with George Hamilton, Master P, and a half-dozen other people trying to look for a job.

But then they had to go and bring in Stacy Keibler. I know, I know, she's with the WWE, which is considered stupid in most people's minds. But that doesn't dismiss the fact that, to me at least, she's one of the most beautiful women in celebritidom.

Why? Why, ABC, must you give me a reason to want to watch this pile of crap? Stacy, I'm begging you, save me the pain and get eliminated, or voted off, or whatever the show does, so I don't have to watch it!

Or go all the way, and find out what happens when mainstream audiences get attached to a pro wrestler.

Well, I gave up on Kingdom Hearts yesterday. Not because it's a bad game, nothing like that. It's just that the last two or three boss battles have taken such a quantum leap in difficulty that I'm simply not prepared to fight them.

So I started on Pokemon Emerald. Oh, lord, I have to prepare myself for total absorption now.

Kartin Worldwide

So I found out last night that my DS works on my house's wi-fi connection. Now I can play Mario Kart with anyone in the world. Who happens to be playing at the same time as me. Still a fun idea, though.

Also grew my collection a tad with Pokemon Emerald. I won't have as much fun with it as with the other Pokemons, as 1) I don't know anyone who has Ruby or Sapphire or 2) I don't know two people with GB Advances. I can't trade through the DS. It should still be a hoot, though.

I'm doing some research right now on the internet for Secret Garden. Trying to decide what I'm doing with my face. You realize how difficult it is to find photographs of British soldiers pre-WWI? My director is trying to convince me to do a mustache but, as we all know, until there's some salt in the pepper a mustache gives the look of either porn star, child molester, or Jeff Foxworthy. So I'm trying to decide if I wanna go clean or go beard.

Well... yup...

I am inVINcible!

Well, I AM!

I started up on Lego Star Wars on Saturday. It's incredibly flippin easy to win, but a little tougher to master. The difficulty exists in uncovering the secret levels of episode IV. To do it, you have to finish each level with a certain number of coins. Unfortunately, ala Sonic The Hedgehog, you lose coins every time you die. And you die fairly often.

But, hey, I just paid 1,000,000 tokens for invicibility. So, yes, I am invicible! Which means no loss of tokens. I should have this game cleaned out by the end of the week, even with rehearsals.

(btw, for those who don't know, that's Alan Cumming as Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, still one of my favorite Bond movies. I was trying to find a pre-liquid-nitrogen version of him in celebration, but that's what we got. Try saying the title in a Russian accent, it's fun!)

It's a New Year (duh). Mine was pretty low-key, hanging out with an ex and a few of her friends (one of whom I'm interested in, but, of course, met someone else the night before. My life in summary). Also built up my mp3 player to its maximum capacity. I can see how some people can be hooked on it, I filled it and I'm already shopping around for memory cards.

Here's what I have, a capsule summary of my musical tastes. The full albums are nearly complete in most cases, with removal of either segue & intro stuff that don't work well in shuffle format (the mustard, Rent phone calls, etc). I also had to clean out a few songs that I just knew I'd be skipping by whenever they came up.

Anyway, here's my tastes:

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Offspring - Americana
Alien Ant Farm - ANThology
Disturbed - Believe
Trampled By Turtles - Blue Sky and The Devil
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling soundtrack
Green Day - Dookie
Evanescence - Fallen
Failure - Fantastic Planet
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Metallica - Garage Inc. Disc 1
Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
Mark Mallman - Mr. Serious
Rent OBC Soundtrack Disc 1
Saturday Morning Soundtrack
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Bush - Sixteen Stone
Pearl Jam - Ten
Flogging Molly - Within a Mile of Home
U2 - Zooropa

Plus individual songs to fill the blank spaces:

Soundgarden - Pretty Noose
Sufjan Stephens - Jacksonville & Chicago
Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight
Beck - Sex Laws
Dungen - Panda
Aerosmith - Hole In My Soul
Bush - Space Travel
Guns & Roses - Don't Cry
Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror
Social Distortion - Don't Drag Me Down & I Was Wrong