Black, White & Bloody Grey

Yushu Earthquake

2010-04-18T04:25:00.000+08:00

We take a short time to look at the recent cataclysmic disaster that hit Qinghai, China.

Yes, while we here at The Daily Zombies, fully relished in more than occasional sardonicism and mockery on the strange ways of the human kind, there are at times, some issues that any living human can't afford to simply turn a blind eye and look away.

On April 14th, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu, Qinghai, China, at 7:49 am local time, with the epicenter located at Rima village (日玛村/日麻村), Upper Laxiu township (上拉秀乡) of Yushu County, in remote and rugged terrain, near the border of Tibet Autonomous Region. The epicenter is about 30 km from Gyêgu town, the seat of Yushu County, and about 240 km from Qamdo, and is in fact a sparsely populated area on the Tibetan plateau that is regularly hit by earthquakes.

Sparse indeed, but nonetheless populated. What touches me in particular is the above picture of a nine-month-old child child who was injured in the earthquake and is now awaiting rescue and evacuation (on the cover of the April 16th edition of Singapore'Straits Times. As of now, 1,484 people have been confirmed dead, 312 missing, and 12,088 injured of which 1,394 are severely injured.

The scale of the calamity and fears of disease has forced a break from the traditional Tibetan "Sky Burials" in which corpses are left on mountaintops to decompose or be consumed by vultures as massive cremation were conducted.

The Huffington Post has put up an article on how help can be rendered to aid the victims. Do be mindful of the regular donation fraud that always appears whenever a major crisis arises.

Survivalism

2009-10-20T03:00:00.000+08:00

A great display of survivalism.

Officials in Melbourne, Australia have just released CCTV (Closed-circuit television) on Friday, depicting an incident in the Melbourne subway where a baby were being hit by an incoming train. The baby rolled off the edge of the railway platform when her mother inadvertently release her baby stroller just as the train were approaching. The baby, strapped into the stroller, were reportedly dragged under the train for 100 feet before the train came to a stop. Fortunately, and rather incredibly, I must add, the child suffered only very minor injuries. Paramedic on site confirms this..."Fortunately the train was slowing as it pulled into the station. The baby received a bump to his head and was distressed when we arrived Luckily he was strapped into his pram at the time, which probably saved his life.Luckily he was strapped into his pram at the time, which probably saved his life."

Disney Acquires Marvel

2009-09-01T18:38:00.000+08:00

Excelsior!

Brave yourself, Marvel Zombies! For when Marvel boldly go where no superheroes had gone before, you gonna need all the war-cries there is out there.

It's official. Marvel Entertainment, affectionately known as "The House of Ideas" has been acquired by Disney.

For those who actually cares about the details and figures behind the stellar deal, here's an excerpt from the Official Press Release from Disney:-

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

In summary, copyrights of all 5,000 over Marvel characters are now at Disney's disposal, notwithstanding, amongst other subsidiaries, the toy division, Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), the comic publishing wing, Marvel Publishing, Inc., the animation wing, Marvel Animation, and, yes, where the money are... Marvel Studios, the film producing studio, of which its joint production with Paramount Films, Iron Man had generated half a billion by its own. That, is a cash cow the size of Galactus.

Nevertheless, Disney had earlier indicated that they have every intention to respect Paramount's distribution deal with Marvel and the ongoing Avengers franchise, but honestly stated that it is in their best interest, overtime, to become the sole distributor of Marvel Films. Likewise for existing licensing and distribution deals.

In assuring the gun-carrying Marvel Zombies, Disney references the Pixar deal (which Disney bought in 2006 for $7.4-billion) and will manage Marvel in the very same vein of hands-off relationship they had with the avant-garde animators. Additionally, much praises was handed out by Disney to Marvel towards the licensing in all aspects, particularly the video gaming and film adaptations. Incidentally, the Disney cable channel Disney XD is already running about 20 hours a week of Marvel content currently, which expectedly will be going much higher moving forward.

All seemed to be in bliss with the killer merger, with Stan Lee's full endorsements, Joe Quesada, the current Editor-In-Chief of Marvel twittering happily and the fact that Pixar’s John Lasseter has already met with key Marvel creative executives and are looking into potential partnerships.

Marvel, with its fairshare of hardships(changing hands of ownership in the 80s, enduring the bankruptcy in the 90s, etc), is now entering the next stage. This is not unlike DC Comics' purchase by Warner Bros back in 1969. Back then, Warner Bros already owns Looney Tunes and its assorted cartoon characters but still reaches out for the comic characters. And time had proven that deal a most fruitful one. I am not concerned with Marvel's future hampered with X-Men getting all High School Musical, Hannah Montana joining the Avengers (Dark, Mighty or New) like what most of the online communities are murmuring about. That is not going to happen. Marvel will grow with a much steady hand at helm. Makes Stan Lee's welcome comments all the more resonating.

However, there are indeed some killer crossover that you gotta keep an eye on, say, the final battle between the ducks... I'm sure comic-reading folks are pretty much familiar with the single and very much long-standing feud between Howard The Duck and Donald Duck? Let the Ducks duke it out...

Howard The Duck VS Donald Duck!

For further reading, check out the industry reaction to the merge covered by comicbookresources.

What Horror?! Japanese Film Festival

2009-08-26T06:40:00.005+08:00

Unimpressed by the affectionately coined J-Horror, being the self-proclaimed daredevil that you are? Well, we'll see what you are made of.

Go be awed by the pioneers and truly, the masters of horrors who inspired the current ever-so-copy-friendly J-Horror stereotype, at the Japanese Film Festival in Singapore this year from 25th to 30th August 2009 exclusively at the Singapore Museum with half the screenings up for free admission.

Featuring Onibaba, a 1964 noir classic made in Japan, that had always remained an unseen film in my never-fulfilled to-watch-list and was released in its most appreciated condition in the Criterion Collection DVD that displayed brutal humanity in all its raw beauty and ugly facet.

All kinds of frustration already ran wild here for missing out "House", a 1977 film that was written by the director's then 7-years-old daughter, with all kinds of timely weirdness in the late 70s.

Check out the official site for more screening details and information pertaining the event.

Be disturbed, I'll say.

That's the single most unspoken element in modern horrors.

The Storm Warriors 風雲II Preview

2009-08-18T01:50:00.011+08:00

With the summer blockbusters season behind us, the general cinema-loitering public can only look forward to the Christmas season for big budget blockbuster. And it's not just the Hollywood.

Scheduled to open this Christmas, The Storm Warriors (風雲II) (see my previous entry) had just released their full trailer, in an untimely coincidence with its box office rival, Sherlock Holmes, which will also be released on the 25th of December 2009.

Looks decent, what with the very much graphically pleasing shot of Nameless Wu Ming (無名, with 何家勁 Kenny Ho brilliantly cast)'s sword moves and relatively cool (but otherwise very much reeks of 300) film tone, check out the full trailer.

For the fans: This last screen is here just so you know how dedicated the film is following the source.

Brian Bolland Coming To The Singapore Toys, Games And Comic Convention

2009-08-15T10:40:00.005+08:00

Some free-of-charge advert here...Living in Singapore and being a fan of toys, games and comic, after all...

This year's Singapore Toys, Games And Comic Convention definitely seem promising, what with the obligatory Cosplay (always a good source of hilarity) and toy design competition, exclusive movie trailer screenings (courtesy of local cinema giant, Golden Village) and one additional event unprecedented here: a Walk Of Fame meet-and-greet autograph session featuring... Drum roll please, one of my all-time favourite artist, Brian Bolland himself.

For the uninitiated, other than his be-all-end-all "Killing Joke" with the almighty Alan Moore, Brian is arguably the best cover artist around with his massive body of work (especially so for Wonder Woman) churning out from DC on a regular basis, genre-defining stuffs on 2000 AD (especially Judge Dredd with his creation of Judge Death) and his alternate riff of epic Arthurian saga, Camelot 3000.

So pardon the Fanboy tone here.

"I Find Your Lack Of Humour Disturbing."

2009-08-05T01:12:00.000+08:00

Unbeknownst to the general public, and more importantly the Star-Wars fanatics out there in particular, Disney actually organized their very own Star Wars Weekends event amongst employees. And to the absolute horrors for the fanboys, they actually created sets of posters on an annually basis to promote awareness of the events, away from the eyes of the public!!!

Very much tongue-in-cheek ones, though... Check it out.

Freedom To Lead

2009-07-31T10:41:00.002+08:00

Shepard Fairey, creator of OBEY GIANT and lately, made even more famous for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster, has conjured up another piece of illustrated portrait poster in his typical starkingly stylistic method.

While the aforementioned Obama poster was created in support of Obama's presidential camppaign (and arguably, it did more than its predicated part), this latest piece, a strikingly colorful portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi, with dove imagery at her heart, propaganda-esque sun-rising background and “FREEDOM TO LEAD” as the slogan, actually serves to, in Shepard's own words, "to raise awareness of her on-going house arrest and the oppressive nature of the military regime ruling Burma".

Prints of this poster are available for download and purchase at the OBEY GIANT site at thirty five bucks and the proceeds from the sale will go to benefit the Human Rights Action Center and The U.S. Campaign for Burma.

For more on the background of Aung San Suu Kyi's ongoing predicament, check out The U.S. Campaign for Burma, Human Rights Action Center (where a letter template addressed to both the United States House of Representatives
and the United States Senate, written to effect the passing of the Renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act )and Causecast.

Robert Downey Jr Is Sherlock Holmes

2009-07-26T10:16:00.001+08:00

Coming your way later this year, are the Sherlock Holmes Double Bill, with Guy Ritchie at helm on the serious re-imagined version featuring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson, respectively, while the whacky version will reunite Sacha "Brüno" Baron Cohen and his Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby co-star Will Ferrell as Holmes and Watson in an unsurprisingly comedic version.

Check out the first character poster featuring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes himself.

Thomas The Fucking Angry Transformer Tank Engine

2009-07-20T08:41:00.003+08:00

In another homage to and in the vein of all things Transformer in light of the disastrous disaster movie sequel, Thomas The Tank Engine gets a little overtly anthromorphic here.

Courtesy of glennz.

No New Tale To Tell, 31 Years On My Way To Hell

2009-07-19T07:19:00.002+08:00

...Happy Birthday

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies And The Literary Circle At Large

2009-07-18T10:50:00.004+08:00

“One day I was talking to my agent about the publishing industry and one of us said, ‘You know, the only thing selling right now is Jane Austen and vampires. We could do this book and call it Jane Austen Sucks.’” - Michael Thomas Ford.

The same Michael Thomas Ford, as introduced in his wiki entry as "a gay writer of primarily gay-themed literature" and incidentally, the author of the upcoming novel, Jane Bites Back, the first of a three-book series about Jane Austen living as a modern-day vampire. So they did ditch the aforementioned godawlful title, after all. Not that there's much room for improvement, given the subject.

Anyway, the opening quote is just an entry note on an undoubtably peculiar yet gradually emerging mentality amongst the publishing industry. Surely, crossover between peers and now genres are almost certain to be a success depending on the fanfare of the subject materials but we need not be reminded of the body count of the bastard son that neither parent would ever give their blessings to. Well then, at least Jane Austen has been dead for almost two centuries and probably more used to turning around in her grave given her upcoming turn as a vampire herself. And this title we have at hand are much more literal than one would have expected.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Quite possibly, that title itself is already a cash generator. First published in April 2009 by Quirk Books in America, the, somewhat quirkily mashed-up fiction fantasy combining (in an extremely literal way, much like its title) Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with modern zombie elements. How could it possibly work> Writer, Seth Grahame-Smith says it best.

“You have this fiercely independent heroine, you have this dashing heroic gentleman, you have a militia camped out for seemingly no reason whatsoever nearby, and people are always walking here and there and taking carriage rides here and there,” he said. “It was just ripe for gore and senseless violence. From my perspective anyway."

Featuring the "dashing heroic gentleman", Fitzwilliam Darcy, Monster-Hunter and "fiercely independent heroine", Elizabeth Bennet, well-versed in the sophisticated ways of Martial Arts and Zombie-bashing together with her four fellow sisters, and the stars of this show, an entire legion of our dearest departed undead zombies.

And yes, mashed-up genre crossovers might be the way to go, judging by the warm reception towards this self-styled Zombie Classical. Ever the silent predator hiding in plain sight waiting for its potential preys in this cruel jungle deprived of originality and creativity, an undisclosed Hollywood studio had already won the bidding battle for the filming rights.

Hell, even the cover is a "zombification" of William Beechey's 19th century portrait.

Where Graphic Art Meets Dismal Science

2009-07-09T00:21:00.001+08:00

"When comic books and economics collide, Ecocomics is Ground Zero. And we have charts."

That's the tagline of this blog of particular nifty and gradually interesting reads. Covering dismal topics blurring the thin fabric between reality and comics, ranging from Superhuman Escort Service (okay, superhuman sex industry); the impact that fictional countries (such as Wakanda, Latveria and Kahndaq) can have on world economy; detailed analysis (complete with charts!) on Batman's Rogue Gallery chances of getting the job done (what Heath Ledger famously said in The Dark Knight, "It's simple. We, uh…kill the Batman."); and attempts to answer the question on who is the richest comic book character!

Some crazy excerpts below...

Now, let's assign the probabilities. I'm going to assume that each Batman rogue has a 2% chance of killing Batman alone (and this is being very, very generous and neglecting the individual skills of each rogue for simplicity). You would then think that adding villains to the scheme would increase the probability of killing Batman by 2% with each new rogue. Except, this ignores the economics law of diminishing returns, which states that as you increase the factors of production, the marginal benefit of those factors decreases. Usually, this applies to outcomes which are continuous (such as production of goods) rather than binary (to kill or not to kill Batman), but we can apply diminishing returns in this case to the probabilities. The theory is that as you add villains, working together will prove more difficult and planning more arduous. Therefore, the probability of getting Batman will increase, but by a marginally smaller amount with each villain added.

Thinking of probability as output, let's assume that in each state,
p = 2*y^0.9, where
p = probability of killing batman and
y = number of villains involved in the scheme.

Hence, we have a diminishing returns function. If there is only one villain involved in the scheme, the probability of killing Batman is 2%.

If there are 2 villains involved in the scheme, the probability becomes:
p = 2*(2)^0.9 = 3.73% (the probability increased by 1.73 percentage points)

If there are three villains involved, then:
p = 2*(3)^0.9 = 5.38% (probability increased by 1.65 percentage points)

And so on and so forth. Now armed with the knowledge of probabilities and utilities, let's conduct an analysis of whether it makes sense for the Joker to team up with Two-Face and the Scarecrow. We must analyze the expected utility of each scenario (teaming up and working alone).

First let's calculate the expected utility of working alone for the Joker. The equation is:
EU = p * (Uk) + (1-p)*(Unk) where
EU = expected utility
p = probability of killing Batman
Uk = utility of killing Batman.
Unk = utility of not killing Batman

We know that for the Joker, the utility of killing Batman alone is 10 and the probability of killing Batman by himself is 0.02. Hence:
EU = 0.02*(10) + (0.98)*0 = 0.2
Hence the expected utility of the Joker killing Batman on his own is 0.2.

Now, we analyze the expected utility of the team-up. We know that the probability of the Joker, Two-Face and the Scarecrow killing Batman is 0.0538. The utility would be 3.33 each. Hence:
EU = 0.0538*(3.33) + (0.9462)*0 = 0.179
Hence the expected utility for the Joker of the trio killing Batman is 0.179.

Johnny Depp Is The Mad Hatter

2009-07-08T10:02:00.004+08:00

Yes, it's Tim Burton's magnum opus, Alice In Wonderland, set ten years after the original adventures with Alice almost a full-fledged adult now.

And yes, that's Johnny Depp alright. You would kinda half anticipated a probable romance between Alice and the good ol' Hatta by looking at that cast.

Tekken 6's Alternate Outfits By Famed Mangaka Revealed

2009-07-01T01:04:00.000+08:00

It was long announced that following Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection's crowd-pleasing alternate outfits for almost every characters, Tekken 6, hitting the third-gen home consoles and PSP, promised to be bigger and better by inviting more high profile Managka into the fray.

And the first reveal (conveniently sourced from Japan's Gamespot site) is quite a kicker, featuring Clamp, the famed all-female Mangaka group, taking on the main protagonist/antagonist, Jin Kazama.

Comfortably glam by the standards of Clamp, the indisputable larger-than-life brought shades of Lars Alexandersson's in-game alternate superhero-esque outfit to mind but surpassed it by having that uniquely cold, blue-blooded Mishima's villainous aura to it. Aptly so since Jin is officially turning heel this time round.

Speaking of Lars Alexandersson, word is another high profile Managaka, Masashi Kishimoto of Naruto had a run on the alternate costume for him. Courtesy of sdtekken.com, we have a scan of it.

CHANGE... Into A Truck

2009-06-24T00:38:00.002+08:00

Just in time to "coincide" with "Revenge Of The Fallen".

We all knew back then that this pop art portrait of Obama gonna be iconic. And in this time and age, getting parodied, spoofed or what ever you want to called it, is just part of the trial for any pop culture remnants to reach iconic status.

This cheeky image done by Tom Doyle is available for sale as an art print here.

The Life And Passion (And Shameless Rip-off Of Batman) Christ

2009-06-20T06:34:00.000+08:00

Batman begins.

Christ follows.

Well, that's a more polite way of saying plagiarize, rip-off, swipe or steal, that is.

Love Is...Loath. Apparently.

2009-06-15T08:34:00.001+08:00

Salvaged from my junkbox of drafts is this little animal.

This was, as I vividly remembered, back in 2005 mind you, originally from an independent.co.uk article. Double damnation that I even have the exact link which is now dead and will lead you to the main page of independent.co.uk.

Fortunately, thanks to the immortality of internet memes, I found a blog devoted entire to this subject, complete with the quoted text I had from the original article. Goes a long way to show you the relentless way one abuses the free blog system.

Anyway, have fun.

The good people syndicating 'Love Is..' comics recently ran a contest where fans of the long-running strip could submit their own takes on this time-honored classic. This was taken by some to mean that there was an interest in changing or at least shifting the sensibility of the comic, one of the great one-panel strips in cartooning history.

This notion was mistaken. In fact, contained herein are some stabs that very narrowly skirted legal action.

What happened to this post that it remained in the Draft junkbox for more than four freaking years deludes me.

Pope Does Yojimbo

2009-06-13T05:17:00.000+08:00

Behold.

The reputedly multi-award-winning comic book illustrator, Paul Pope, fully capable of injecting his jab at the core of pop culture given his previous works on churning out not one, but two alternate Batman that proves to be thought-provoking and nonetheless artistically fulfilling, had move on to produce a bold new rendition of Akira Kurosawa's timeless classic, Yojimbo.

The print, available at the nakatomic site as both a normal poster and a special wooden one, is definitely not your run-of-the-mill mundane jam art.

Flag Of Earth

2009-06-12T06:33:00.001+08:00

Earth does have a flag all its own, so it would seemed.
The rationale and history behind the flag can be found via the official site and here's an excerpt on detailing its obvious design.

The Flag of Earth symbolizes the Earth (the center blue disk), the Sun (the yellow disk on the left), and the Moon (the white disk on the right). The Earth and its most important celestial neighbors - the Sun and Moon - are overlaid on a backdrop of the darkness of space.

R.I.P. David Carradine And Shih Kien (石堅)

2009-06-06T15:49:00.007+08:00

Amidst this tumultuous day (being the twentieth 4th June since 1989, after all), life proves that tragic news still got a way to upstage otherwise pointless anniversary.

If I'm less respectful, I'll call this entry R.I.P. Double Bill, in lieu to the its Grindhouse B graded film's origins for both the departed actors, David Carradine And Shih Kien (石堅). Incidentally, two of the most iconic villains of the silver screen, what with the role of the titular "Bill" in Quentin Tarrantino's Double Bill Classic Homage to B Actioner, Kill Bill;

and one of the best-known B Actioner arch-villain, Han (the one with cheapskate Wolverine's claws, most famously in the last mirror sequence), from Bruce Lee's equally iconic high octane "Enter The Dragon".

A noble, genuine pugilist perhaps more suitable than anybody else to play the role of Wong Fei Hong, the legendary righteous Kung Fu Master, Shih Kien, instead found fame or rather infamy in playing Wong's opposite number, the villainous Kien.

A short intro of him from Wiki as below:-

Shih Kien (石堅, Shek Kin; 1 January 1913 - 3 June 2009), sometimes credited as Shek Kin or Kien Shih in the Western order, was a veteran actor of Cantonese wuxia movies in Hong Kong. His name has become synonymous with villain, as he tended to play evil characters. In Hong Kong, there is a slang expression that compares people's evil deeds with Shih Kien's, despite the fact these deeds were committed by the evil characters he played, not the actor. He was actually well-respected within the Hong Kong motion picture industry and recognized as a very kind and passionate man. He was found dead from kidney failure on June 3, 2009 at the age of 96.

In the meantime, David Carradine, finding fame in "Shane" and to a much more extent later, in "Kung Fu", the TV series, after (reportedly) Bruce Lee reject the role back then, was found dead from a sex act that went wrong after his body was discovered Thursday morning hanging from a wardrobe rail in a Bangkok hotel room, naked and with ropes attached to his neck and penis. The official release for the cause of death is autoerotic asphyxiation. That sounded something straight from an episode of CSI, eh?

Happy Chinese Internet Maintenance Day

2009-06-04T23:24:00.003+08:00

Today, 4th of June, is...

Why yes, many Chinese online communities (some obediently while some in retaliation to the latter, did it with their tongues firmly in cheek) had come to call it the

"Chinese Internet Maintenance Day".

But more importantly, and really, the core of the day, today is

the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989.

Earlier this week the government blocked access to a number of popular western websites, in what was widely seen as way of controlling access to information about the events at Tiananmen Square. Among the sites that were screened out were photo-sharing website Flickr, Microsoft's Hotmail email service and the popular online messaging site Twitter.

A number of other sites appear to have gone down over recent days, however, in a move that may be part of an ad hoc anniversary protest online.

According to Chinese media blog Danwei, the music-sharing service VeryCD has been taken down, as well as Fanfou, a local version of Twitter. But rather than simply fail to load, which would be typical for websites blocked by the firewall, many of the sites are now carrying messages saying that they are closed for maintenance.

It is not clear whether any of the sites took down their services as a result of government pressure: most have had previous trouble with the authorities in Beijing, and reports suggest that many sites were told that they would face serious consequences if they published anything relating to the events of 4 June 1989.

But it was also suggested that the phrasing used by some of the websites indicates a subtle attack on the government.

While deliberate government action cannot be ruled out, more than 300 Chinese sites appear to have posted increasingly blasé maintenance messages on the anniversary.

"The Fanfou server is undergoing technical maintenance. Service is expected to resume before dawn on 6 June," said one message. On dictionary website WordKu.com, its owners said they had taken the site down for Chinese Internet Maintenance Day.

Blog hosting service Bullog.org, meanwhile, says it has gone "on strike" for the day, and Wuqing.org carried a message saying: "I, too, am under maintenance!"

Internet users in China often deploy subtle methods to criticise the government without falling foul of the law.

For the kids who knows shit about the ordeal, the gates of wiki is always there for you, with one of them held right open in the link up there.

In retrospect, one can't help but feel the bewilderment at "the times they are changing". Months ago, I've been picking up the mutters and whispers at the back alley of many Chinese Forums etc, some tell-tale legends about how wearing Sport Jerseys sporting the number "20" will get them detained by the Chinese Authorities.

Is it real?

Guessed we might have a hard time verifying that, but seeing how the internet generation launched their very much subtle yet bogglingly effective digs at the Chinese Authorities, it seems that the Chinese, a sure-fire representative of the World-At-Large (what with their sheer population), though none the sensible than anybody everywhere else, are showing their collective consciousness.

And it glows.

In the meantime, let's take a quick peek at the "affected areas".

Swallowed by the very flag that you are raising. How meaningfully ironic..

In the rowdy streets of Hong Kong, a "Toy Soldier" reminds all of the military might.

Photos via telegraph.co.uk

Attack Of The Killer Bs

2009-05-30T02:53:00.000+08:00

Rejoice yet, yer faithless, heartless (a prerequisite for any known fans, I'm afraid) fan of the infamous B action flicks!

(If you have a problem recognizing this genre, think Steven Seagal with his 60s' Batman moves (yes I know he's a black belt master...doesn't make any difference to the lame & tame action sequences) and Jean-Claude Van Damme and his body of works, of whom absence here is best explained by the very much self-parodied JCVD, where he plays himself caught in an actual B Action Flick situation. Well, all in all, another story for another time.)

A gathering of the B Flick stars, directed, written and starring in a lead role by the Undisputed Emperor of Bs, Sylvester Stallone himself!

Let's roll with the ensemble...

Jason Statham... Forget Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or Vin "The Pacifier" Diesel, the one true heir to true blue B...

Jet Li... A bone fide grade star in Asia, but sadly, made to suit B' Flicks in the West, but nonetheless beats good ol's Jason Statham when it comes to top billing...

Dolph Lundgren... If Stallone is indeed the Emperor, he is the Darth Vader...with his terrifying horrendous work rate at churning out the Bs..

Stone Cold Steve Austin... Not much Bs to offer, what with his mediocre offer to Hollywood, headlining the WWE film, The Condemned and, uh not much else.

Here's the poster. A Vintage...B poster, I must add.

Watch for it!

Houston, We Have A Codec Problem!

2009-05-29T00:48:00.002+08:00

From Slashdot.

Atlantis astronauts fixed the Hubble Space Telescope so it could beam cosmic pictures to Earth, but playing DVDs on their laptops is proving too difficult.

With an unwanted off day Friday because thunderstorms prevented their scheduled landing, the astronauts intended to pass the time by watching movies they brought on the mission. But when they tried to play them, they found out that their laptops didn't have the proper software.

Engineers on the ground tried to troubleshoot the problem - just as they did when a hand rail almost prevented spacewalkers from fixing one instrument in Hubble. After more than an hour with no solution, the astronauts gave up.

Astronaut John Grunsfeld radioed to Earth that they'd have to wait to watch something at a terrestrial movie theater.

The proud makers behind vlc probably had an epiphany after reading this. Pretty sure every average joe on the street had the very same frustration before...

Screw Rocket Science! Screw cosmic picture! I just want to play my video!

Blinding Image Of May

2009-05-28T01:35:00.004+08:00

We are indeed living an age of being basked in the golden ray of the golden age of comic book-to-movie adaptation. Or so it seems, with this delicate compilation of some sorry excuse of cosplaying Superhero wannabes.

By the by, I'm being kind here.... The original title of the source were "some fags dressed in super hero costumes". And if you think this is indeed blinding, check out the original.

Antichrist

2009-05-27T01:10:00.002+08:00

Lars von Trier.

Almost synonymous with weirdo art house flicks. Now picture this: He actually just churned out a movie on one of the favourite niche repeated ad nauseam by Hollywood.

The Antichrist.

Cue Slayer's metal classic's riff....

Uh no, it's not Satanic. It's Lars von Trier. So it can only be worse than that.
It's probably more evil than Satanic. And that, is good.

Watch for it.

Agreed that the poster above was pretty nifty?

Check out the trailer then.

Lars von Trier's Antichrist - Official Trailer from Zentropa on Vimeo.

Blood: The Last Vampire

2009-05-26T18:19:00.008+08:00

Aside from its slightly awkward title, "Blood: The Last Vampire", an original anime feature film produced by the impeccable Production I.G back in the year 2000, an aspiring time in anime industry where the western otaku crowds had finally started marching out in hordes (and many in their mostly pathetic cosplay get-up), was quite a mini phenomenon so to speak, spawning a fifty episode anime series (Blood+, set in an alternate reality mirroring the film), some Japanese novels, the obligatory video game, and inevitably now, a live-action feature film.

The official site seemed to be under the title of "Last Blood" (probably in lieu to the earlier mentioned awkwardness in the original title) but it has been confirmed that it will remained as "Blood: The Last Vampire".

The opening of the trailer seemed like a blast from the past right out of the Shaw's 70s kungfu flicks with the funky ninja types but gets pretty promising (for an actioner bill, that is) as it moves on, what with the extended gratuitous gore and the cool moves by Koyuki (famed in the west for her role in "The Last Samurai") as the very cool-looking villain.

Incidentally, the film will be staying true to source by being filmed primarily in English, though marketing probably had more to with this decision, if you ask me.

Newcastle United Relegated

2009-05-25T01:01:00.004+08:00

Newcastle United, just got relegated.

This happens to be one of those times that, if I had not grown up at all, I'll be getting down on my knees, put my little hands together and say a little prayer and it sounded like this, "Dear God, I just want a draw, one goal's all it take!". Well, I do recalled such prayers happening back in 1987, rooting for Michael Jackson to sweep all the puny awards available with his "Bad" album (in retrospect, an awfully corny piece) in 1987, and to a lesser extent (not having to be physically getting down on my knees, that is) in 1990, realizing that I actually rooted for Ultimate Warrior when he issued the "Ultimate Challenge" to Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI. (And if that prayer happened to sound familiar to you, please take the time to congratulate yourself for being such a wrestling geek.)

Why yes, I was a wimpy kid.

Back to the topic, after 16 glorious years in the Premier League and finishing at the runner-up position not once but twice, the much beloved Newcastle United crash and burn out in equally glorious fashion, under arguably their greatest hero ever, Alan Shearer's helm.

Nonetheless, I salute and thanked Alan for this noble act taking helm with eight games left and the club that, I dare say, entertained soccer fans everywhere much more so than the so-called great and of course, rich clubs, with their attacking play, which is probably a point of ridicule at this times and age.

And to the guys at Lock Stock & Barrel Pub, rest assured the mighty Toons will be back.

With a vengeance.

Gone Insein

2009-05-21T01:36:00.003+08:00

Will be in Yangon, Myanmar from now till weekend.

Particularly, the aptly named Insein Prison.

Not that there will be lots of posts anyway, but there definitely won't be any, for now.

Be right back after these messages.

Some Decoration

2009-05-10T06:37:00.004+08:00

Stumbled upon some decently done digital art that is just nice for your silly dumbass desktop wallpaper. Check out all forty of them, here.

Porn...SFW

2009-05-09T06:01:00.000+08:00

With the advancement of times and technologies, now mankind get to enjoy something they thought they can never get...

Porn, Safe For Work!!!

NIN Live In Singapore

2009-05-08T03:19:00.000+08:00

Got too excited when I saw this poster and took the pic almost immediately... After the Slayer concert back in 2007, now we get to have Mr. Nine Inch Nail, Trent Reznor himself doing his retirement impression here as well...

Check out the real deal...

What A Basterd

2009-05-07T01:03:00.005+08:00

The tagline on the poster could have been just what the tabloids had been telling you(in their pseudo semi-hypnotic way), but then again, it is not Brad Pitt that made Inglourious Basterds one of the can't miss flick of this pathetic movie year.

The (Red) Devil Made Me Do It

2009-05-06T21:41:00.001+08:00

An Arsenal fan in football-mad Kenya hung himself following his team's 4-1 aggregate drubbing by arch-rivals Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, police said Wednesday.

Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29-year-old Kenyan living in the capital Nairobi's Embakasi neighbourhood, hung himself in his Arsenal shirt late Tuesday after the match, police said.

"We were watching the match at Bamba 70 pub, and when Arsenal was defeated, Suleiman just walked out in protest and he was crying," Calvin Otieno, one of his friends, told AFP.

"We didn't know he was going to hang himself until this morning when we received the reports and came here to find his body at the balcony," Otieno said outside the deceased's home.

Arsenal slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, capping a disappointing season for the Gunners who were already out of the Premier League title race early in the season.

Men At Work

2009-05-01T05:30:00.013+08:00

In the spirit of Labour Day (AKA May Day AKA International Workers' Day), I bring to you the merry men of the Dragon Tiger Gate Comic World...at work, with their name card, courtesy of tuku.cc....

Yeah, right, Evil Punch Dojo...There's almost some kind of a timeless resonance in that name...

Mace/Off

2009-04-29T00:54:00.001+08:00

Really should stop yakking about how awesomely brilliant Empireonline.com is with their "50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves", as I already had my shot in the earlier post.

Too bad this one's way too neat to be left out.

Part of the all-consuming hype for Attack of the Clones focused on the dust-up between Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu – at last getting something to do other than nod meaningfully – and Temeura Morrison’s Jango Fett, father of Boba. Finally, it was on. Jango – he bobs! He weaves! He shoots! Mace deflects! Jango shoots again! Mace deflects again! Mace cuts off Jango’s head! Interesting move – what will Jango respond with? Oh, nothing. Damn, that was short – yet, in establishing Mace’s tough guy credentials, the brevity of the fight is all-important.

Then comes the kicker.

Especial kudos to Lucas for the blackly comic image of a distraught Boba picking up his dad’s helmet. Hands up who wanted Jango’s head to fall out, scarring the young lad for life? Shame on you!

Nailed

2009-04-28T00:00:00.000+08:00

From Reuters.

Australian police released Friday a shocking x-ray photo showing the skull of a murdered Chinese immigrant shot 34 times in the head and neck with a high-power nail gun.

The body of Chen Liu, 27, was found by two children last year in marshland in south Sydney, wrapped in a carpet and bound with electrical wire.

Detectives said the weapon used was a standard gas nail gun widely available and used in construction, firing nails up to 85mm (3.3 inches) long.

We will be back with more violent crimes after few messages...

Atheistic Motivational Poster

2009-04-27T00:27:00.006+08:00

As much as I loathed those pretentiously boring Motivational poster (what with those brain-dead one-line-puns), a handful of these turned out to be genuinely effective.

Motivational, that is.

Over to Scott Klarr (who tirelessly compiled them here) for more atheistic fun.

For All The Zombies Out There...

2009-04-25T02:56:00.012+08:00

...An Eternal Exercise

...Office Chat

...Ronald on the fast one

Just three of the many uniquely humorous (Damn do I sounded like the Singapore Tourism Board) would-be t-shirt design coming out from the very creative Glennz).

Church Of Hell

2009-04-22T23:13:00.005+08:00

Though this was released at the same time as "The Dead" (featured in an earlier post), which turned out to be quite the standard fare of a zombie tale, I just finished the first issue of this (courtesy of the free download available at the official site. Won't call it mediocre, but it's pretty standard "Burn in Hell tales" (The type I'll happily get from Garth Ennis) with the primary gimmick being the face of the protagonist/antagonist. Notwithstanding, the potential for this to be good is certainly there, which means I'll stick by it for now (which means I'll be buying issue two).

Mercy Is For The Weak! The 50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves

2009-04-19T07:00:00.002+08:00

Heath Ledger’s Joker had already made his entrance in The Dark Knight, in that opening bank heist. But in terms of establishing his fearless psycho credentials, this moment is priceless. Having gatecrashed a meeting of mobsters – whose money he’s just stolen, remember – The Joker bamboozles everyone by ramming a pencil, point down, into a table. "I’m going to make this pencil disappear," he says and, as one of Michael Jai White’s goons approaches him, he stays true to his word by grabbing him and smashing him face-first onto the implement. "Ta-daaaaa!" cries The Joker, and suddenly everyone is taking him very seriously indeed. Rumour has it that Paul Daniels is thinking about doing the same thing in panto

Just one of the many entertaining reads from the ever-resourceful Empireonline.com, "The 50 Greatest Movie Finisher Moves". Worth your puny little time browsing through.

旋風小飛俠 AKA Science Ninja Team Gatchaman AKA 科学忍者隊 AKA Battle of the Planets AKA Eagle Riders AKA G-Force

2009-04-14T06:23:00.001+08:00

A walk down memory lane, why, yes.
With my earlier entry, I posed the question,

Gatchaman anyone? Problem connecting that name? How about Battle of the Planets?

Indeed. How about Battle of the Planets, of which under this title, the series was recently remolded and relaunched as a comic book series released by Top Cow, which with the help of Alex Ross rekindled many forgotten collective memories.

Interestingly enough, I remembered them all too well enough (despite being close to five or six years old back then) but under a different name, 旋風小飛俠 (a Taiwan representation). One definite contributing factor for my uncharacteristically great memory would be the fact that the number two guy 大明 AKA Joe Asakura AKA Jason AKA Dirk Daring AKA Joe Thax AKA Joe the Condor (too many version, too many AKAs) was revealed to be a Robot (or Cyborg or Android or something along that line) in the episode right before the finale and sacrifice himself to save the team in the grand finale. This might sound inconsequential but it is indeed my first encounter with Death for a major character. Probably the Powers That Be in the company shared my sentiments to this second fiddle character which is why during the advert they made in 2000 to promote Japan's Telcom Giant, NTT, they got the Japan top sensation boyband, SMAP, to portray the five team members respectively (yeah, even the girl) and with the most famous Takuya Kimura as 大明. Check out the ad by the way, courtesy of good ol' youtube.

Global Warming Rocks

2009-04-10T00:46:00.001+08:00

Browsing through the illustrations from MYDEADPONY, this particular image detonated an earlier entry that got rigged back in 2007.

I happened to chance upon this poster in the corporate alleys of SINgapore.

"Let's Put A Smile On That Face!"

2009-04-09T00:50:00.007+08:00

It's Wrestlemania Week, after all.

WWE Superstar, Rey Mysterio, Jr., famous for his highflying Lucha Libre style of wrestling, must be grinning all the way before stepping on aisle of the (very incorrectly titled) 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania (Technically, it's 24th) before his match.

The week before the Wrestlemania Sunday, Marvel.com had an entry on how Mysterio has been putting on his wrestling garb with a Marvel Comics twist, a'la Ironman, Spider-man, etc.

Then they wondered what Marvel Hero he will be emulating this Wrestlemania.

Will the Master of the 619 bear the colors of yet another 616 super hero this Sunday at "The Biggest Spectacle of Them All," WrestleMania – the arguable birthplace of the Superstar's Marvel influenced garb?

Well...Guess what.

In case you'are still wondering, it's not fucking Doink The Clown.

My Dead Pony

2009-04-06T00:23:00.004+08:00

Just a couple of the psychedelically luscious illustrations from MYDEADPONY, a self-taught illustrator from Brussels, Belgium. Check out the link for his delicious gallery.

陳綺貞太陽音樂會 Cheer Chen's Immortality Concert 2009, April 4th

2009-04-05T06:29:00.012+08:00

Pictures taken on Cheer Chen's Immortality Concert 2009, AKA "陳綺貞太陽音樂會 ", held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on the 4th of April 2009.

The Storm Warriors 風雲II

2009-04-04T22:21:00.005+08:00

The Storm Warriors (風雲II), sequel to the 1998 film The Storm Riders (風雲), AKA the semi-disastrous comic-to-movie adaptation that helped to usher in even more freakish HK comic-to-movie adaptations like "A Man Called Hero (中華英雄)" and the one that finally dropped the ball on the genre, "Dragon Tiger Gate (龍虎門)". The above sentiment might prove to be debatable to many, as common consensus dictates that sacrifices to the source material are somewhat mandatory while conducting the transition, with examples like Peter Parker developing his webshooter as another manifestation of the radioactive spider effect or Wolverine having his claw laced to his knuckle in a distinctly different manner. On both accounts, I agreed and thought of it as stylistic indifference. However, in the case for these Chinese Manhua adaptations, the alteration seemed to fit no one but probably the Costume Designers (to justify his existence) , the Writers (for exercising his forte by running wild with their creativity on the source materials) and the Directors (for banking on the source material's existing fanbase to cash out the cheque).

It's 2009, and we have seen "Sin City", "The Dark Knight", "Ironman" and "Watchmen".

With the Pang Brothers at helm (right after their abysmal Hollywood outings) and a seemingly sound plot line to follow, can HK's adaptation of their proud culture relic, Manhua, keep up?

Judging from the snippets, I'm afraid to say that keeping fingers crossed seemed to be an optimistic way of looking at it. The trailer seemed okay notwithstanding the fact that it 's not really showing much, but the snippets are indeed worrying, to say the least. A cheap knock-off of 300 if you ask me.

Nevertheless, with stroke of genius like the casting of the Nameless Wu Ming 無名 (何家勁 Kenny Ho, who successfully portrayed Hero Hua in the 1990 TV Drama adaptation of "A Man Called Hero (中華英雄)" and its 1991 sequel) and one of the best storyline in Hong Kong's Manhua history, Let's keep that finger crossed.

"Between A High, Solid Wall And An Egg That Breaks Against It, I Will Always Stand On The Side Of The Egg."

2009-03-28T01:26:00.003+08:00

An excerpt from the infamous yet brilliant Award Recipient Speech delivered by Haruki Murakami, one of the greatest writer of our time, when he collected the much coveted Jerusalem Prize in Israel last month.
"I have only one thing I hope to convey to you today. We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called The System. To all appearances, we have no hope of winning. The wall is too high, too strong - and too cold. If we have any hope of victory at all, it will have to come from our believing in the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others' souls and from the warmth we gain by joining souls together."

Behold...The Coblah Commander!

2009-03-27T00:55:00.004+08:00

And yes, it is ugly.

As usual, many thanks to toy industries' seemingly magical top hat where they legitimately spoil all conceivable spoilers (in terms of character's design, Que The Dark Knight's Joker, etc)...The Cobra Commander, from the upcoming “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”, courtesy of MTV Movies Blog.

Tokyo Tower Orgasm

2009-03-26T00:06:00.004+08:00

It seems like an anime adaptation is inevitable for the hit manga-to-movie adaptation, Detroit Metal City, mentioned in the earlier entry.

And it turned out to be...nifty stuffs.

Guessed the source material is too hard to let down. Check out this clip...Gut-bustingly hilarious stuffs.

三国第一武将竟然是“他”

2009-03-22T00:41:00.001+08:00

A ludicrous piece which is, obviously for those understanding Mandarin and particularly those with a reasonably sound knowledge of my favorite historical era, The Three Kingdoms period in Ancient China.

"吕布说：“我是当仁不让的三国武将第一，却还有那么多人来闲言闲语，真不爽！”

张飞不服：“老子跟你吕布单挑从来没落过下风，你看到老子醉酒都还不敢来碰老子，老子才是天下第一！”

马超不服：“哼，你张飞和我锦马超单挑时不是你大耳哥鸣金鸣得快，我早挑你于马下了，你还是轻装上阵，明显我要强于你，我是三国第一！”

许褚不服：“马超算个球，上次看到我家主公后面站了个我，就不敢来碰我主公了，还老是说要报什么杀父之仇，明显就是怕我，我才是三国第一！”

徐晃不服：“若说你许褚敢称三国第一，我徐晃和你挑了两次，又哪里输了你来？我不服！”

颜良不服：“哈哈，你徐晃也敢在这里插一脚？手下败将！”

文丑不服：“颜良，你挑过徐晃，我还挑过徐晃和张辽两人呢，我明显比你强，敢称三国第一的舍我其谁？”

关羽不服：“你们两个无头之鬼，你看到我站在这里了吗？，鬼叫什么？”

庞德不服：“老关，我庞德可是射中你一箭的啊，打架也不在你之下，我才是三国第一。”

黄忠不服：“射中关羽有什么稀奇，他出了名的靶子王，老子可是做到想射他那里就射他哪里。”

赵云不服：“你要真的厉害在汉水上就不要我来救了撒。被困了自己跑出来撒，我在长坂坡可是一个人跑出来的哦。这种程度谁能做到？”

姜维不服：“你还不是怕我？嚣张什么？”

邓艾不服：“你打我儿子都打不过，呵呵，我儿子只有我七成战斗力。”

邓忠不服：“老爸放屁，我二十一岁时就超过你了。
......................................................

Check out the original post from 三国志online中文网论坛 for the startling ending where one will be crowned the titular "Number One Warriors of The Three Kingdoms".

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

2009-03-21T06:00:00.010+08:00

Tatsunoko?

Like myself, I'm pretty sure many a regular gamer will find themselves stumped by the name but however, if you happened to also be a longtime hardcore Anime freak (and when I mean "longtime hardcore", I meant being one ever since the 80s), then you probably stands a good chance knowing what it is.

Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. (株式会社竜の子プロダクション or 株式会社タツノコプロダクション ,Kabushiki gaisha Tatsunoko Purodakushon?), often shortened to Tatsunoko Pro. (竜の子プロ or タツノコプロ ,Tatsunoko Puro?), is a Japanese animation company founded in 1962 by acclaimed anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida along with his brothers Kenji and Toyoharu (Toyoharu adopted the pen name Ippei Kuri to distinguish himself from his brothers).

Enough rambling. A look at its portfolio of Anime series speaks best. Okay, Gatchaman anyone? Problem connecting that name? How about Battle of the Planets?

For those not so nostalgic, you might be aware of the recent Anime series, "Casshern Sins", a remake of 1973's Neo-Human Casshern (新造人間キャシャーン ,Shinzō Ningen Kyashān?), which incidentally was adapted into a movie in 2004.

But either way, you must have heard of Karas, a brilliant groundbreaking sixth part animation produced to commemorate the company's 40th anniversary of anime production. (The titular character's dark origin kicks the collective asses of all the billionaire orphan's clones out there)

Well, it seems that Capcom are indeed getting a little carried away with their "Versus" series of crossover games as the latest title in their long-running crossover series, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, turned out to be a genuine genre crossover. Available at Arcades and Wii exclusive, platform-wise, this can be quite a monster to market given its source material's longstanding (albeit diverse)credentials. Apparently, Capcom USA is working to resolve Tatsunoko's licensing issues outside of Japan in order for an international release.

Top Ten Banned Jargons Most Used (By Yours Truly)

2009-03-20T01:24:00.001+08:00

According to the Times Online News Blog, the Local Government Association (a body for advancing the interests of local authorities in England and Wales, according to Wiki) has published a list of 200 jargon terms that councils should avoid.

Yes, even Jargon are being monitored in this Authoritarian state. What a beautiful world we are living in. Rejoice.

A brief browsing at the 200 selected "Jargon", though, seemed to displayed the fact that yours truly, is indeed a repeat offender.

So, here goes my very own top ten list. Out of the 200, of course.

Capabilities

Cohesiveness

Facilitate

Functionality

Guidelines

Initiative

Interface

Parameter

Priority

Utilise

Predator X VS The Monster

2009-03-19T00:08:00.005+08:00

The title of A C-Grade Monster Flick?

Not by a long shot. At times I really wonder how scientists tweak their brain juices to come out with names like this? Especially when even such lame name had already been taken by a C-Grade X-Men villain.

Anyway, this is not an ad of the upcoming History Channel Feature that will unveiled the prehistoric creature, though I do find both the Predator X and "The Monster" relatively intriguing creatures.

A marine monster described as the most fearsome animal ever to swim in the oceans boasted a bite up to 11 times as strong as that of Tyrannosaurus rex.

The fossil remains of the huge pliosaur were dug up last summer from the permafrost on Svalbard, a Norwegian island close to the North Pole.

Analysis revealed that it was a turbo-charged swimmer. Its front flippers allowed the creature, dubbed Predator X, to cruise along comfortably but when prey came into range the power of its hind flippers kicked in to provide extra acceleration.

Measurements of its jaw and the killing power of its dagger-like teeth have shown that it could bite down with a force of 33,000lb per square inch compared with T. rex’s 3,000lb per square inch. Alligators have the strongest bite today with about 2,500lb per square inch.

Researchers have been astonished by the size of the reptile, which exceeded even that of another pliosaur, called The Monster, which was found at the same site a year earlier.

Predator X is thought to have been at least 50 feet long, perhaps more, and measurements of its bulk suggest that it would have weighed in at 45 tonnes.

Its discovery was announced yesterday in Oslo by Jørn Hurum, of the University of Oslo, who led the expedition to dig up the remains. At least 20,000 fragments have been recovered including most of the jaws, which were 10 feet long. Dr Hurum said: “It was the most ferocious hunter ever. It’s like a turbo-charged predator. This is a very, very large carnivore.”

He added that Predator X was smaller than the biggest marine reptile yet known, a 75ft ichthyosaur from 210 million years ago, and was about the same length as the largest fossil shark to have been identified by palaeontologists. Predator X, however, was armed with much bigger teeth and, with its ability to close in at enormous speed, would have been much faster and deadlier than either of them.

Dr Hurum believes that Predator X and The Monster are likely to represent the same species of pliosaur. “Its anatomy, physiology and hunting strategy all point to it being the ultimate predator — the most dangerous creature to patrol the Earth’s oceans.”

The Dead Cover Collection

2009-03-16T23:57:00.004+08:00

Stumbled upon a gif featuring the various variant covers of the Bisley/Grant series, The Dead, of which was covered in my earlier entry.

For those desperately in need of more Glenn Fabry Goodness, do check out his Official Site. Some nifty gallery of one of the most prolific illustrator in our time.

Alan Moore's Thoughts On TV

2009-03-14T17:58:00.006+08:00

Commentaries from the Maestro himself, Alan Moore, on the Idiot Box. Check out the original article on Wizard Universe.

Here's an excerpt with his thoughts on "Battlestar Galactica" and the recent state of TV series, by and large.
"I have seen the first half of the final series of 'Battlestar Galactica.' It's well done, but I'll reserve judgment until I've seen the final episodes, because it could, as with so many of these things, end up as a bit of a mess. It seemed that they got a bit self-conscious about making some kind of political analogies that ended up being a bit confusing and ham fisted and perhaps spoiling. I feel that the big problem with most of these programs is that people start off with the good beginnings of an idea. That is disastrous because that is enough to get a show commissioned. So you've got the beginnings of a good idea and if it's not brought to its conclusion properly, it won't be a good idea at all; it'll be a waste of everybody's time. It'll be a waste of the creator's time, and more importantly it'll be a complete waste of the audience's time. I mean, if you have been following a show expecting it to have a kind of payoff and you've been following it for three or four seasons and then at the end, it turns out Bobby Ewing comes out of the shower and one of the characters wakes up and says, 'Oh, Bobby, I've just had the most strange dream!' You know? There's a lot of hours, days of your life that you're never gonna get back again, you know? So if people are gonna invest this much time and enthusiasm, genuine enthusiasm, in these shows, I really think that they ought to pay off. The writers ought to know what the end is; at least the important parts of it before they start and not do anything that is gonna turn out to be irrelevant, pointless or just a confusing red herring."

Oh, and not to forget his very brief remarks on the fan-favourite "Lost".
"I saw the first few episodes and there were already so many inconsistencies where all the writer would have had to have done was check back to the previous episode. I have no confidence in them knowing where they are going. I think they're just thinking of weird things week by week."

Detroit Metal City: The Movie

2009-03-12T23:53:00.005+08:00

Seems like the Japanese Movie Scene does indeed had a lesson or two to impart, to Hollywood and the World Cinema at large. After churning out several brilliant film adaptations from TV Series (the likes of Bayside Shakedown, Hero and the latest Galileo: Suspext X; so eat yer hearts out, the "X-Philes"), they are now cornering the market of film adaptation from Manga/Anime, with hits like "Death Note" and this entry in particular.

Looks like fun, especially when you get Gene Simmons as the antagonist known as Jack ill Dark, the Demon God of Rock and Roll, which is fittingly in an ironic sense since the original manga name were actually a variation of Detroit Rock City, one of the many Rock Anthem from Gene Simmons' former band, KISS.

Check out the trailer.

小流氓 & Sigmund Freud

2009-03-08T09:37:00.005+08:00

In the very same weird fuck absurd vein as my earlier post featuring excerpts containing the hidden connections between Doraemon and Socialism, North Korean style, apparently, now we have theories about the connection between Freud and...小流氓, better known to all as the 龙虎门 (or even better known in the West as the failed movie adaptation Dragon Tiger Gate.).

Do check out the full article. Here's an excerpt...
政治動盪與社會不安的七十年代，香港正在繼承著根深蒂固的傳統文化的同時，並在享受著西方文化帶來的衝擊與快感。那時候，西方文化對性和思想的解放猶如脫韁野馬，令香港掀起一陣春潮泛濫的電影文化，激流洶湧下，色情電影紛紛湧現。

當時社會充斥著這種不良風氣，令風化案上升。色魔橫行，單身女子不敢夜歸的社會現實，被黃玉郎借題發揮，改篇作飛天豹一段（即『小流氓』第六期『大戰飛天豹』）。在黃玉郎的設定下，飛天豹所用的武器是一柄削鐵如泥的寶劍。淫賊……寶劍……筆者似乎看見黃玉郎向佛洛依德微笑。對了，廣東人喜以劍比喻男性性器官，男性間以陽具互作比較俗稱「格劍」，所以黃玉郎在這種俗文化下潛移默化，就將劍設定為善於以性征服女性的飛天豹的武器。也許，當時黃玉郎並未看過佛洛伊德的著作，但這一段正好切合了佛洛伊德的「夢之解析」(Interpretation of Dreams)。

有說漫畫工業是漫畫家的夢工場，並盛載著每位作者的願望。佛洛依德：「夢是一種在現實中實現不了和受壓抑的願望的滿足。」他更大膽地認為這些實現不了和受壓抑的願望多半是和性有關的。比方說，他認為夢裏出現呈棒狀或凸出的東西都象徵男性性器官，凹陷的地方則象徵女性性器官，騎馬、攀山、開門等象徵性行為。所以，劍，對飛天豹來說，是一種性徵﹔削鐵如泥的寶劍，更是一種無堅不摧的性崇拜。這是飛天豹的慾望，亦是作者自我意識反射的彰顯。

自飛天豹陣亡後，寶劍落入王小虎手中。到了「龍虎門」時代，王小虎與金詩詩相戀，在一次決戰前夕，王小虎出征前將寶劍交給金詩詩傍身，可惜不幸地，金詩詩被玄難所擒，並將她污辱﹔事後，金詩詩悄悄地取出寶劍，向胸口自刺而亡。這一段，作者顯然是想帶出女性貞潔不二的聖願，同樣亦是作者渴望伴侶對感情忠貞的嚮往。引用佛洛依德的說法，劍是象徵男性性器官，凹陷的胸膛傷口是象徵女性性器官，自盡則代表性行為，這是反映她對被性侵犯後內心充滿懊悔及自責，亦暗喻她有盼望將初夜獻給最愛男人的遺願。

作者對女性有忠貞的要求，同樣認為她們應該崇拜男性性器官。王小虎母親媚娘，徐娘半老，風韻猶存。她在舊著「龍虎門」中有不少男伴，早有王伏虎，後有東方無懼、大羅仙，自她與王小虎重逢後，開始加入「龍虎門」與黑幫對抗，雖多次被歹角非禮、冒犯，但她終覓真愛，先後與劍痴及劍魔共墮愛河。為何媚娘總是喜歡用劍的男人？在黃玉郎的漫畫世界裡，劍和男性性器官是有間接掛勾。根據佛洛依德的說法，潛意識的活動中的主要內容被壓抑的願望並非是直接表達於夢中，而是通過扭曲變作為象徵的形式出現。劍是性器象徵物，讓媚娘先後戀上劍痴和劍魔，完全是作者壓抑渴望女性對男性性器官有一種莫名崇拜的心理反射。

I Will Be Watching The Watchmen

2009-03-06T23:55:00.003+08:00

Happy Learn From Lei Feng Day

2009-03-05T01:09:00.006+08:00

Today, 5th of March, is...

"Learn from Lei Feng Day"(学雷锋日), since 1963."

Interested in the intrigue art of propaganda?

Meet the grandfather of political propaganda mascot, Lei Feng (雷鋒).

While Captain America will always be remembered as the outright propaganda mascot(they called it "Patriot") who don't just literally wear his ideals to his sleeves but his whole freaking costume, Lei Feng is the Out-And-Out real freaking deal, a living, kicking personification of Maoism and Communist Socialism. Or is he? Talks of Lei Feng being an utter creation to promote Mao's Cult of Personality had been around since way back.

Born in Wangcheng, Hunan (near the Town of Leifeng, Changsha, Hunan, named in his honour), Lei was orphaned at an early age and raised under the wings of the Communist Party. He became a member in the Communist youth corps when he was young and joined a transportation unit of the People's Liberation Army at the age of twenty. Lei died in 1962 at the age of 21, when a telephone pole, struck by an army truck, hit him while he was directing the truck in backing up. After Lei's death, his diary was published, and Lei was built up as a good example to the Chinese people to be cheerfully selfless and noble in thought.

That is, on the basis on the strength of this particular propanganda, which in short, equals to most probably make-believes. Even if this figure did existed, the background must had been heavily edited.

While fanfare had most definitely diminished in this time and age, there are still many serious following, judging from my earlier entry where an online game was actually created.

By the by, check the man out in his favourite past-time activity. Damn this is a Wacko who seemingly gets a kick out of wiping a car bonnets.

High Kick Girl

2009-03-04T21:23:00.007+08:00

You seriously just can't get more literal than this. Presenting to you what Warren Ellis called, THE GREATEST FILM TRAILER EVER.

Merlion Lightning Struck

2009-03-03T23:56:00.006+08:00

The first premonition of the ever-impending Apocalypse?

You decide.
"SINGAPORE'S iconic Merlion statue, a popular tourist attraction, was damaged by lightning on Saturday afternoon during a thunderstorm, according to reports.

No one was hurt.

The Merlion was struck by lightning between 4 and 5 pm local time, causing parts of the statue to fall near a group of startled visitors."

Apocalypse. Wow.

2009-03-02T01:02:00.003+08:00

From the beginning of time, the mind of mankind had always been fascinated by tales of ...what else, The End.

In all its possible forms, Doomsayers, Cassandras, Chicken Littles are all different facets of the same ideals. And so it seems that the fascination has reached its fever pitch, where man are fulfilling their very own prophecies when they all but live through every prediction of impending cataclysm, world-ending Ragnarok, asteroid hcatastrophe, nuclear holocaust.

Here is where we take on the role of Eschatologist, analyse the prophecies, poke fun (that's a must here) at the jabberwocky, in the meantime while we continue the long fall downward spiral.

Who Wants to Be Filthy F#&%ing Rich?

2009-03-01T06:55:00.008+08:00

In light of the real life's all-consuming "Final Crisis" and the heavily acclaimed film, "Slumdog Millionaire" that is all the rage these days, one can't help but brings to mind Rage Against The Machine's iconic music video in 2000, Sleep Now In The Fire.

Directed by then relatively-unknown (pre-Bowling For Columbine) Michael Moore, the video interweaves scenes from a caricature of the then-popular TV game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", aptly named, "Who Wants to Be Filthy F#&%ing Rich", with footage taken when the band played right in front of the New Year Stock Exchange with Michael Moore and cinematographer Welles Hackett in helm. The infamous performance resulted in the detainment of Moore (for an hour and slapped with threat for arrest) and the unprecedented impromptu lockdown of the NYSC's Doors for fear of crowd gathering.

Oh, and there's a real cute quote by Gary Bauer (a Republican Politician doing their routine shit-stirring) at the end of the video,

"a band called 'The Machine Rages On' - er - 'Rage Against the Machine', that band is anti-family and it's pro-terrorist"

The Dead: Kingdom Of Flies

2009-02-28T14:27:00.007+08:00

From the team that brought you tons of Judge Dredd's classic tales and revitalized the DC Comic's Oddball, Lobo, the self-made "Last Czarnarian".
"THE DEAD ARE ON THE MOVE!
Most of Britain has fallen to an invasion of zombies. There is no
escape from their insatiable appetite for living flesh.
But in Oxford, city of the dreaming spires, an unlikely alliance
between a crew of firefighters and a pair of misfit soldiers has
allowed them to survive.
Now, with the city virtually overrun, it's time to strike back!!"

A perfectly straightlaced title with an apparently conventional zombie tale to tell judging from the synopses, but with Alan Grant and Simon Bisley at helm, it would be only right to expect the unexpected. And all the more so as this is the launch title of Alan Grant's very own comic publishing line, Berserker Comics. Which explains this charitable spirit of giving at their Official Site where they are giving away free download of the first issue.

The Original Cover Art to Issue 1 that can be found on the Official Site is notably less sanguine... (Incidentally, this version is available as a Jetpack Comics Exclusive Cover...Damn this age of Variant Covers)

Pandamen VS The Super Inframan

2009-02-19T00:25:00.005+08:00

Jay Chou just unveiled what according to him, the "first Chinese Superhero ever".
"為什麼有《熊貓人》這個想法？首先以愛為出發點，這個熊貓超人的爸爸之前是一個慈善家，做了很多公益活動，也是帶著熊貓的，你知道就像那些玩偶在發糖，在遊樂園給這些小朋友吃。因為也是一樣樂於助人，所以有一天有一個綁匪挾持了這個兒童，熊貓爸爸跑去救他，犧牲了自己的生命。於是這個小孩用他爸爸的頭，以熊貓的姿態，當他未來的精神。所以之後他穿熊貓裝，在社會上打抱不平。

另外一個角色是在動物園打工的這個，在動物園做清潔工，其實我真的講太多了。"

With unquestionably annoying naivete displayed from his interview (rant on and on about how he managed to strike first by launching a media premiere and how that meant he is the winner), I'm sure he know nuts about the real deal.

I'm sure there had been a handful, but for starters...

Hell, I know. The "S"logo. Anyway, the Super Inframan movie, released in 1975, featuring the titular character, a Tokusatsu-style superhero that managed to rip off not one but two Tokusatsu Icon, Ultraman and Kamen Rider. But that was then, and all things considered, it was rightfully deemed as a bold move in what were still a relatively new movie industry back then. Hell, even the great Roger Ebert gave three stars out of a possible four for it.
"Mighty Peking Man is very funny, although a shade off the high mark of Infra-Man, which was made a year earlier, and is my favorite Hong Kong monster film. Both were produced by the legendary Runme Shaw, who, having tasted greatness, obviously hoped to repeat. I find to my astonishment that I gave Infra-Man only two and a half stars when I reviewed it. That was 22 years ago, but a fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that film. I am awarding Mighty Peking Man three stars, for general goofiness and a certain level of insane genius, but I cannot in good conscience rate it higher than Infra-Man. So, in answer to those correspondents who ask if I have ever changed a rating on a movie: Yes, Infra-Man moves up to three stars."

Which makes my point: Ripping off Kamen Rider back in 1975 was an understandable shame. But ripping off the same source in this time and age and having the cheek to boast about creativity?

射鵰英雄傳EAGLET

2009-02-18T06:09:00.000+08:00

Another comic adaptation of Jin Yong's classic, The Legend of Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳) , and this time round, it's from the hometown of all Manga, Japan.

Interesting makeover for Guo Jing, though.

The Uncler - A Parody Of "The Wrestler"

2009-02-17T05:32:00.000+08:00

Were just talking about how MTV Movies Awards and etc are gonna poke fun at "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" and "The Wrestler". And true enough, and soon enough, along came this. Well, at least you get Alyssa Milano as "Cassidy".

The Uncler w/ Uncle Sam and Alyssa Milano from Alyssa Milano

Death By Dethronement

2009-02-16T23:06:00.001+08:00

Talk about pain in the ass.

Basically, another case of unethical product from, yet again, China, strikes again.

This time round, it's furniture. Several Office Chair made and sold in China literally exploded and had caused at least one death when a 14-year-old teenager died of severe loss of blood due to the "grenade effect" of the explosion as many parts of the metal chairs had blasted many blood vessel of his organs, while the condition of an elderly man at sixty-eight-year-old are still unknown after many of the metal pieces and screws injected into his organ from the anal. Authorities are on the case right now. As always.

For more gruesome pictures, check on the link on the pictures but if you understand Mandarin, much elaborate details are here.

This Friday The Thirteen...

2009-02-13T23:57:00.000+08:00

... A news, with rhyming numbers.

By the way, the tiny head at the right bottom corner happens to be the 15-year-old mother of the child.

And for all the interested inspiring parents out there, feel free to check out the link to The Sun's (probably subconsciously cynical though) unintentionally humorous follow-up piece to the headline.

Surely we can't count British's Prime Minister Gordon Brown as one of the inspiring, but boy is he interested already.
"I think all of us would want to avoid teenage pregnancies."

Mickey Mouse Transformed And Roll Out

2009-02-03T23:59:00.001+08:00

More bizarre crossover ensues. Coming soon to Singapore, the "Optimickey Prime", complete with transformation features and stuffs.

Capcom VS Jin Yong

2009-01-30T05:15:00.000+08:00

Ryu versus Linghu Chong(令狐沖 Reikochū)?

Vega versus He Tieshou(何鐵手 Teiran)??

Ken versus Hu Fei (胡斐 Hiko)???

Eat yer heart out, Jin Yong just got "Capcomed" in the upcoming Online game that feature one bold step away from the Fighting Game Genre. Mouse. The action will be purely controlled via mouse, thus the namesake, Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation.

Talk about bizarre crossover. The preview ain't too warm, though.

Check out more of the character design with all the close-up shots here.

R.I.P. 梁羽生 Liang Yusheng 5th April 1926 – 22nd January 2009

2009-01-27T11:35:00.001+08:00

Liang Yusheng, a pioneer in Chinese martial arts novels, has died, news reports said. He was 85.

Liang died at his home in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 22, the Australian edition of the Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily reported Monday.

Luo Fu, the former editor of the now-defunct Sin Wan Bao newspaper, which hired Liang to write his first kung fu series, was quoted by Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News on Tuesday as saying that Liang had died.

Liang, whose real name was Chen Wuntong, has been in poor health in recent years, diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2004 and suffering a stroke when he visited Hong Kong in 2007, Ming Pao said.

The Veteran Scribe who bought to us "Romance of the White Haired Maiden (白髮魔女傳)", "Seven Swords of Mount Heaven (七劍下天山)" (both being adapted into considerably respectable film adaptations, respectively) etc, who is though relatively lesser-known as compared to Jin Yong in their respective iconic role in Chinese literacy, but nonetheless helped shaped the Wuxia Genre into its highly regarded status as a literature form has left the Building.

Who Watches The Watchmen? We Now Know That The Japanese Will.

2009-01-22T23:18:00.008+08:00

A truly interestingly alternate (in every sense of the word) take on the trailer for the upcoming "Watchmen", courtesy ofTrailerAddict, featuring many sequence that is unseen on the official trailers and teasers like, for starters, the death of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, if I guessed/remembered correctly.

Guan Yu VS Space Invaders!!! 关公大战外星人

2008-11-16T02:08:00.009+08:00

Wikipedia Is Wicked!!!

Another Blast From The Past, courtesy of our good ol' Wikipedia, a pretty much ancient (1976!) Taiwan production with one of wackiest funky genre fusion movie concept ever!!! Cross-breeding Japanese's very own Daikaiju with Chinese Folklore/Fairy Tale, We see The Original God Of War (eat yer heart out, Kratos), Guan Yu (more well-known lately for his role in the Dynasty Warriors Series from Koei) emerges, Ultraman style, to defend Earth from puny space invaders, battling over Hong Kong's cityscapes!

Unfortunately, no English Wiki page, but a Mandarin one is available for those who understands Mandarin to check out its absurd plot synopses in all its glory.

A brief plot synopse extract from the mentioned Wiki page.
中国影坛有史以来耗资千万金元，第一部特技神怪灾难电影！赵老先生是位已失明的雕刻家，一生一直是在雕刻中渡过。虽然，他每天所刻的不过是一块木头，却好似成为一种心灵上的寄托，一心一意要刻好这一座关公雕像。经过四年的时间，他一直不持续雕刻关公神像的工作，并且认为神像完成之时，将会产生无比神奇的力量。

但是，他的儿子赵超群是一位杰出的科学家，所以无法接受父亲对着木刻神像发呆，所以两人虽为父子，却在思想上是截然不同。然而，赵老先生的心中也生气儿子长了这么大，还培养他读书，竟来责问他的事情，因此，父子双方造成极大的冲突。

某日，天空突然出现飞碟在地球上空，并降下外星人任意破坏，众人完全束手无策；同时，赵老先生咽下最后一口气前，他点出木雕神像的双目时，心中所信仰的神力出现了。最后，幸获武圣关公显灵，手持青龙偃月刀下凡，双方历经一场激战后，关公总算剿灭外星人，拯救万民于水深火热……

"Remember, remember the 5th of November."

2008-11-05T05:55:00.005+08:00

"Remember, remember the 5th of November. The gunpowder, treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

"But on this most auspicious of nights permit me then in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet to suggest the character of the dramatis persona. Voila! In view a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity is a vestige of the vox populi now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance, a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain for the value and voracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Heh heh heh, verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."
- V

Doraemon VS Resident Evil

2008-11-04T23:39:00.007+08:00

You had to see it to believe it, and hell, it sure seems like a kick-ass 2D game... if it's an actual game, that is.

Fear(s) Of The Dark

2008-10-19T02:57:00.002+08:00

One of the numerous outstanding animation films amongst other selection in the upcoming Animation Nation 2008, featuring the impeccable Charles Burns helming one of the five stories in this anthology film.

A brief synopsis from the official site.

Different black-and-white animation techniques tell several scary stories. There's a story of a teenage boy who meets the wrong girl. Another tale deals with a small community where people disappear and are never seen again. Then there's the narrative of a little Japanese girl who suffers from horrible nightmares followed by a tale where a man doesn't get the rest he hoped for in an old not-so-abandoned house. These stories are connected by the story about a man with a devilish smile and four enormous dogs from hell and by a woman's monologue about her fears.

"Sex Spy"

2008-10-18T16:16:00.005+08:00

Something to stimulate the hearts and minds of all pornographers in Korea.

She arrived as a refugee, one of tens of thousands to flee the world’s most oppressive regime and, for seven years, Won Jeong Hwa was a model defector. She toured South Korean military bases to lecture on the evils of the homeland that she had escaped, the totalitarian Communist state of North Korea.

Ms Won had a secret however. According to a confession made to South Korean police, she was a spy who seduced the military officers she met, and plotted assassinations with poisoned needles. Now she faces execution for treason in a case reminiscent of the most tense days of the Cold War.

“She used sex as a tool for her spy activity,” a statement by the Suwon prosecutors’ office said.
Perturbed over the obscured photo in the article? Fret not, this is the interwub. At your service, a gallery of the clumsily dubbed "Sex Spy", featuring six unobscured images, including the one in the earlier image.

Love Is Blind

2008-10-11T09:11:00.001+08:00

"How long will it take before I can't remember memories I should forget?
I've been burning since the day we met."

My ZENith Moment - Currently Listening

2008-10-05T06:28:00.002+08:00

Been listening to the outstanding cover of Massive Attack's now-classic Teardrops in particular after watching the literally heart-breaking season finale of House's Season 4.

R.I.P. Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam 1926 - 2008

2008-10-01T01:05:00.006+08:00

"I get my strength from somewhere else, if you know what I mean," Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam said in an interview with AFP in 2006. "I refuse to conform to the world."

Veteran Singapore opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam, who died Tuesday, waged a long and lonely campaign for greater political freedom in the tightly governed city-state.

He was attempting a fresh political comeback when he succumbed to heart failure.

The 82-year-old British-trained lawyer and former MP was the nemesis of Singapore's iron-fisted founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, 85, whose People's Action Party (PAP) will celebrate 50 uninterrupted years in power in 2009.

"I haven't got very many more years," Jeyaretnam said in July at the launch of the new Reform Party, which was to be his vehicle for a comeback after years in the political wilderness.

Will you miss the old man, who is always at your favourite neighbourhood MRT Station, selling books and touting "the truth"?

It's the end of an era.

Fuck Rain

2008-09-28T03:15:00.005+08:00

Many thanks to Art.Lebedev for acting out my little personal note to Rain.

And no, I don't mean the liquid precipitation of natural cause.

But that pretentiously named Korean grunt.

Thinks this gonna be a real hit with Anti-Rain Clubs...Pretty sure there's lotsa them.

Source: About Colon Bank

The Fuwa's Rejects

2008-09-27T02:36:00.001+08:00

A peek into into Fuwa's creator, Han Meilin's sketchbook with all the rejects that failed to make the ranks of the Fuwas...

Thank God (if there is one), there's only five, no, six of these creatures...

The Sixth Fuwa (Represented Crisis Not Sold Separately)

2008-09-23T22:10:00.002+08:00

Just when you thought the highly touted Beijing 2008 had moved on, and that the Fuwas (mind you, i do like them very much), together with all its much-talked-about secret identity being the foreboder of crisis, will be behind us now....

Along came another crisis.

For those unknown to the theories...a little refresher, courtesy of wikipedia.
In the months leading up to the Olympics, coincidental similarities between the characters and several events became were noted on the internet blogs under titles such as "Curse of the fuwa". Some Chinese have taken to calling the characters "Wuwa" (witch dolls). Online criticism of the dolls has frequently been censored.

1) Beibei, a Chinese sturgeon of water/sea element, for the 2008 South China floods.

2) Jingjing, a panda, for the Sichuan earthquake. Sichuan is well known for its pandas.

3) Huanhuan, representing the Olympic flame, for the Summer Olympics torch relay protests.

4) Yingying, a Tibetan antelope, for the 2008 Tibetan unrest.

5) Nini, a swallow thought to be a kite, was blamed for the "kite city" of Weifang T195 train accident. Nini was also believed to be a locust, and associated with a locust plague that infested Inner Mongolia in June 2008.

Done the math already?

Five crisis, five Fuwas. The up side of this theory is, if it is indeed true, that means no more crisis for China anymore (well, at least till next year), the down side is, there's no down side, it's just a intentionally mean joke at best.

Then came the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. Almost like some freak of nature's way to ensure that 2008 won't just be engraved on the general consciousness with just the Beijing Olympic.

But we have run out of our ever-so-lovely Fuwas to pin the curse on, isn't it?

Well, not quite so, I'm afraid.

2008 Summer Paralympics.

I'm sure you remembered Fu Niu Lele (roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'")?

The association game is elementary from this point on.

Monkey: Journey To The West

2008-09-14T03:26:00.009+08:00

Remember the previously post on Gorillaz Meets Monkey God? There is now a full-fledged website for the musical as the original soundtrack was out last week. Do check out the galleries page for some interesting take on the Chinese Folklore.

The album cover.

The End Begins...

2008-08-16T02:36:00.002+08:00

With the divergent continuity explores itself in all its glory (in TV's Sarah Connors Chronicles), will it still interests you on whatever happened to our good ol' original suppposed messiah, John Connors in the story proper?

Probably, you should, with the TV series dropping subtle nods to the movie's ongoing continuity and that reportedly, the latest sequel gonna drop some not-that-subtle nods back.

Why So Serious Shirt

2008-08-11T02:11:00.002+08:00

A Dark Knight Tee I got from the DC Universe. A cool reversible tee that served as a homage to both The Joker and the late great Heath Ledger.

It's That Time Of The Year Again, Jackass!!!

2008-08-03T16:28:00.006+08:00

Wobbly wriggling while withering in the ever-as-efficient-as-it-is-goddamn-overloaded morning train to whore myself yet again, I find myself incapable of wiping that silly smirk off my face when I saw this ad.

Wondering what time of the year had delighted this merry family of three generations gathering in front of the X-Box 360?

Wonder no more.

Ahhh, the delights of drunk driving, are just one of the many vices that you can indulge in Grand Theft Auto IV, a fact made famous
by a stark-raving organization with a strangely appropriately named acronym, MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Watchmen's Trailer

2008-07-30T00:23:00.002+08:00

In this post-Dark Knight era, is everything else remotely "okay"?

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Fake Crystal Skulls

2008-07-10T22:49:00.005+08:00

Less than three months after the Quai Branly Museum in Paris discovered that a crystal skull once proclaimed as a mystical Aztec masterpiece was a fake, it is now the turn of the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution to find they were victims of skull-duggery.

Scientists from those two prestigious institutions on Wednesday said their crystal skulls were cut, honed and polished by tools of the industrial age, not by Mesoamerican craftsmen of yore.

"The skulls under consideration are not pre-Columbian. They must surely be regarded as of relatively modern manufacture," they say.

"Each skull was probably worked not more than a decade before it was first offered for sale."

The skulls became star exhibits in all three museums long before the Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," hit the movie screens this year.

The superstitious deemed them part of a collection of 12 skulls, endowed with healing or mystical powers, that dated back to the ancient culture of Central America.

Reuniting all 12 skulls, together with a putative 13th, would conjure up a massive power that would prevent the Earth from tipping over on December 21 2012, the "doomsday" in the Mayan calendar, according to one fable.

Legend-lovers had a bad day on April 18 when the Quai Branly said it had found grooves and perforations in its 11-centimetre-high quartz skull revealing the use of "jewellery burrs and other modern tools."

Super Cop Killer

2008-07-02T22:37:00.000+08:00

Gaze into the eyes of the Super Cop-Killer!!!

Another officer stabbed in a knife attack at a police station in Shanghai has died, raising the death toll to six.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau says the officer died in hospital late Tuesday, several hours after the attack.

Police say an unemployed 28-year-old man stormed the police station and started attacking officers with a knife.

Five officers died at the scene and four others, along with a guard, were injured in the attack.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that the attacker, only identified by his surname Yang, was carrying a knife, a hammer, a mask, aerosol spray and homemade explosives.

Police are still investigating his motive.

Yang, who is from Beijing, initially told police he was seeking revenge after officers at the station in Shanghai's Zhabei district investigated him last year for allegedly stealing bicycles.

When he reached the gate of the police station, he lobbed eight Molotov cocktails at the entrance, injuring a security guard who tried to stop him.

Yang made his way into the building, stabbing four officers he caught by surprise in the guard room.

He then forced his way through to the 10th, 11th, and 21st floors of the building, wounding another five officers. He was finally captured by a team of special police on the 21st floor.

Spain The Pain

2008-07-01T22:03:00.000+08:00

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

- one of England's most profilic striker in history, Gary Lineker.

Eat yer heart out, Germany.

2008-06-19T22:01:00.000+08:00

"Ever have a bully pick on you in school?
I knocked the bully out. That's what it feels like."

- Boston Celtics'Kevin Garnett, right after humiliating the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in the second-most lopsided blowout in NBA Finals history, capturing their first National Basketball Association title since 1986 in record-shattering fashion.

A Monk In Akihabara

2008-06-16T21:59:00.000+08:00

A Japanese monk making prayers at a makeshift altar in the midst of downtown Akihabara one week after the Akihabara massacre 秋葉原通り魔事件, Akihabara Tōrima Jiken.

Codename: Roadrunner

2008-06-09T21:57:00.002+08:00

An American military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

The new machine is more than twice as fast as the previous fastest supercomputer, the I.B.M. BlueGene/L, which is based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The new $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner in a reference to the state bird of New Mexico, was devised and built by engineers and scientists at I.B.M. and Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in Los Alamos, N.M. It will be used principally to solve classified military problems to ensure that the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons will continue to work correctly as they age. The Roadrunner will simulate the behavior of the weapons in the first fraction of a second during an explosion.

To put the performance of the machine in perspective, Thomas P. D’Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that,

"If all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day."

My City Screams. She Is My Lover. And I Am Her Spirit.

2008-05-01T23:46:00.003+08:00

Frank Miller really does The Spirit. After all.

Love the deeply atmospheric poster though.

The Spy Who Love Us

2008-03-31T15:35:00.001+08:00

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like." - Justice William O. Douglas.

Well-quoted by the Torrentspy at their closing address.

A bitter farewell to Torrentspy, the spy who love us.

RIP Sir Arthur C Clarke

2008-03-21T06:45:00.000+08:00

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,"

- Sir Arthur C Clarke recalled recently,

"I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these, I would like to be remembered as a writer."

And that will be how he shall stay in the collective consciousness of the living.

Sinners Burn In Bloody Hell. SAVE YOURSELF, REPENT NOW!

2008-03-09T05:46:00.007+08:00

Being a long-time fan of Li Xie (李邪) AKA 宝宝, the infamous DJ who challenged the oh-so-vulnerable authorities with her commentaries on current news (back then), this is one advertisement I can't help but coming out with...

Then again, I find the tagline verily funny...

Catch it.
Anyway, I'll be.