Getting up to Speed

Greetings from a very sunny Dumfries, especially so considering its just after 10am that I’m writing this.

It’s been a while since my last post we’ve got a lot of stuff to cover in this one.

First off; my following of Queen of the South continues with our European campaign. Snapey and I headed out to Airdrie to see the first ever game that QOS played in Europe and while that would be a piece of history in itself we also scored during the game making it our first ever goal in Europe thanks to Sean O’Conner.  When we arrived we were told by many that, due to flooding, they were unsure if the game was actually going to happen and fire engines were called in to drain the pitch.  While we did score it should be noted that my post match analysis, much like those in the Scottish press, are pretty negative.

Airdrie Stadium... it's no Hampden

  Defensively we were abysmal, slippery conditions making things worse, conceding a goal in the first 50 seconds is unforgivable.  The final score was 2-1 and going by the away goals rules we will have a mountain to climb in denmark next week and while I’ll be unable to make the away game, I’ll be watching on BBC.

Moviewise my cinema-goings have become somwhat lax as of late.  With the exception of Hellboy 2, there is nothing that interests me currently showing that I feel I definately have to see.  Now I know what you’re thinking; “But Mark, what about Star Wars: Clone Wars!?”

I’m really aggrivated by Clone Wars and it’s not for the reasons you might expect.  While many are pissed at Clone Wars for being a blatant exploitation of the franchise, the thing is actually the first 5 or 6 episodes of the new TV series combined to make a movie – something that every single one of the mainstream press apart from Empire havent grasped.  My gripe with Clone Wars lies in the fact that this is not the first iteration of ‘Clone Wars’ a few years back 2 seasons of “Clone Wars” aired on Cartoon Network as a 2D animation by the same studio and creator of Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls and Dexters Laboritory; Gendy Tartakovsky. 

The Clone Wars mini series

 

 The series won awards for its art syle and animation, the same art style that appears in the CG movie… yet Gendy has had no mention in any of the interviews with Lucas, who claims it as his own, and as is my understanding Gendy has no mention in the credits either.  What the hell!!  It’s like Lucas wants me to hate him, between this and the last Indiana Jones, all I need to do is see Clone Wars and I’ll have enough ammunition to write a hell of a scathing rant.  So if one does actually appear then you know I’ve got nothing better to do.

As I mentioned earlier I have also seen Hellboy 2, I might get round to writing a review this week once I’ve seen it again but I can tell you that the movie is visually stunning in both artstyle and GC.  Expect somewhere in the region of around 4 stars.

I’ve also got more write-ups coming this week too.  I’ll post my report on SPW’s first show from last night, either later tonight or tomorrow and next weekend I should get my Too Human review up too.

Mark

“…all you need is a little push”

I actually just started writing this thinking that I actually wouldn’t have much to talk about but there’s a flood of things bubbling to the top of my mind pool.

first up, I guess a general update is in order.  Since E3 there’s not been much to talk of, when I’ve been in the mood to play some games, which is a rare occurrence these days,  W.o.W has been the flavour of the month and I’m nearly up to level 28 – again shows how much I’ve spent playing.  “Why?” you ask, full-time employment over summer coupled with the complete lack of competent management has left me extremely frustrated and (due to recent elevator problems) completely exhausted.  I’ve also noticed that full-time employment is turning me into a complete dick and it’s something that’s alarming me, I’ve never wanted to be in that catagory.  So if things continue to get worse I may actually leave.

Artists impression of a very angry Mark

The only repsite from ‘Mad Mark’ (as I’m now known in various circles or after today ‘gimpy penguin’) seems to be during the many trips to the cinema over the last few weeks.  Cinema Sunday has been a regular thing and I’ve seen ‘Kung Fu Panda’ and more recently the excellent ‘Wall.E’ and ‘The Dark Knight’.

I cant recommend Wall.E enough, it has taken my top spot on my list of favourite Pixar movies.  Considering the amount of dialogue in the movie and the fact that the main protagonists are robots the emotional connection that’s made with characters is delightfully suprising, so much so that I felt myself almost welling up at the end of the movie.  Almost.

I'm not crying! There's... something in my eye! *sob*

The Dark Knight on the other hand is the years opportunity to do some major geeking out.  It is awesome!  I’ve seen it twice so far and I’m also seeing it in Imax tomorrow night.  Hells yeah!!  Heath Ledger plays a fantastically chilling portail of the joker that could have been literally taken from the pages of ‘The Killing Joke’, there also seems to be a bunch of easter eggs thrown in there – not quite as many as the hulk (Captain America talk anyone?) but there’s a few in there.

Should probably mention that I’m actually listening to something outside the genres of metal or rock music at the moment too.  Right now I’m listening to band called ‘Flowbots’ which could really be described as a more varied version of Rage Against the machine and listening to the album a few times now, there are striking similarities to them.  I’d urge you check it out.

No word yet on my postgraduate course, but I’ll update as appropriate.  however, that could be a while seeing as I’ve now just realised that I’ve got a 3 day weekend with Soul Calibur 4 being released on Friday.

Oh shit!  And before I forget, a massive that you to my neighbour (and awesome cinema buddy) Rhona who showed up at my door at 6:30am on my birthday with a homemade brownie.  That was the sweetest thing ever… no pun intended.

 

Peace

Mark