• New form of magazine reading?

    I think this is a pretty cool concept. I really like the idea of dropping the endless sea of the internet and get a full editorial package with a definite ending. I would imagine we could save issues on the device and browse them as we wish, and maybe have an internet connection or USB connection so we can purchase new issues immediately. I think this is the perfect closer of the gap between the internet and physical media, so I hope we see some devices soon.

  • My top albums of the 2000’s so far

    In no particular order:

    Lustmord – [ B E Y O N D ] (Extremely accurate and the perfect incarnation of soft moody dark ambient)
    Alva Noto – Xerrox vol 1 and 2 (Beautiful ambient with excellent associations)
    Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi (Their weirdest but also most nice album imo)
    Autechre – Draft 7.30 (Their most isolating and immersive album)
    Air – 10,000 hz Legend (Perfect melodies and nice beats)
    Goldmund – Corduroy Road (Amazing quiet piano)
    Hybrid – Morning Sci-Fi (Excellent cinematic and scifi breakbeats)
    Murcof – Martes (Nice strings and moody glitches)
    Plaid – Double Figure (Awesome melodies)
    Radiohead – Amnesiac (Better than Kid A)
    Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Beautiful songwriting and instrument use)
    Burial – Untrue (Nice atmospherics for late nights)
    Elegi – Sisteris (Perfect rendition of haunted shipyards and boats made of wood)
    Mira Calix – One On One (Innocence and beauty)

  • My top movies of all time (in random order)

    Cube
    The Butterfly Effect
    Alien
    Children Of Men
    Donnie Darko
    ExistenZ
    The Matrix
    Rules Of Attraction
    Star Trek (2009)
    The Crow
    Scream
    Hackers 2: Takedown
    In The Mouth Of Madness
    The Game
    Jacob’s Ladder
    Mulholland Drive
    Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
    Solaris (2002)
    Starship Troopers
    Traffic (2000)
    The Bourne Identity
    Blade Runner
    Hitman
    The Shawshank Redemption
    American History X
    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    Die Hard 2
    Independence Day
    Minority Report
    Groundhog Day
    Pitch Black
    Frailty
    Office Space
    The Next Three Days
    The Company Men
    The Breakfast Club
    Basic Instinct
    Taxi Driver
    Kids
    The Machinist
    Heat

  • FlashForward tv series thoughts

    Wow! FlashForward had a kickass start!
    It looks to be a dense mystery series where nothing is predetermined.
    They even tied it in a bit with Lost. Look at the screenshot:
    FlashForwardOceanicBillboard
    Yes, that’s an Oceanic Air poster, right out of Lost.
    Right now nobody has any idea what’s going on, and next year in February Lost’s secrets will be revealed. I’m glad we now have a new show to take over where Lost ends

  • La Femme Nikita Memorial (1997-2001)

    La Femme Nikita is one of those shows (along with The Outer Limits) that show how story telling and acting is more important than special effects and big budget production. With its unusual twists on the espionage world, along with intriguing core concepts, it’s undoubtedly one of my favorite shows of all time. The show is basically about an undercover government operation called Section One. The agency uses many immoral and brutal techniques to take down terrorists and other major league criminals. Torture, deception, exploitation of innocent people for a grand goal and extortion are all techniques used to reach the goal. The show features an excellent cast with brilliant deep personalities, and they are all acted well throughout.

    The show was created by Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran, of which both later created “24.” 24 is also another show that is extremely well written and executed, but it is quite different from Nikita even still. You can tell these guys are into politics, terrorism, espionage and such though, but just presented in two different ways. Nikita is in many ways more in fantasy land than 24, while 24 tries to be more realistic in how torture and such is handled. Section One is completely free of any responsibility for its actions. It can torture and exploit at will and nobody will come after them for it. My favorite character is Operations, which is the leader of Section One. He’s very charismatic, cold but can also show his empathy (which he did for Walter in a Season 3 episode.) This creates a very multi faceted personality where you’re not really sure what he’s thinking. Madeline is Operations’ second in command, and she is more cold than Operations. If she ever shows compassion it’s probably only a game played for personal or higher gain. The first 3 seasons are the best. The last two are a bit more lacking.

  • Defying Gravity (2009 TV Show)

    Defying Gravity is a show set in 2059, with 8 astronauts that embark on a journey through the solar system. The show touches upon many different things, destiny vs free will, science and some slight mindbend tendencies for good measure. There’s a sense of mystery all through, and this makes the show very open ended as far as story is concerned. It’s not your typical space adventure show like Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks. There’s also great humane characters in the show. Every character is ‘studied’ and I presume they will all be in the spotlight with flashbacks and focus in individual episodes. 13 episodes have been ordered apparently, but maybe if it takes off we will see more seasons. I do not know how this season will end, but I presume they can’t stuff 6 years into 13 eps. Highly recommended show.

  • Movie Review: In The Mouth Of Madness (1994)

    Warning: This will contain spoilers.

    John Carpenter has done some amazing movies. Some of them not as good as others, but when it comes to old school horror and pure atmosphere, Carpenter is the best. “In The Mouth Of Madness” is no exception, and in fact he has really taken it a step further this time.
    in-the-mouth-of-madness

    Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance fraud specialist who takes pride in the fact that no con goes above his head because of his keen eye and solid roots in reality. What he doesn’t know then is that all his beliefs about reality will be shaken and turned upside down. The story starts with John Trent and Linda Styles traveling to New Hampshire to find Sutter Cane, a horror novelist who has disappeared with the latest manuscript for his novel. The owner of the publisher sends Cane’s editor (Styles) and Trent off to find a town named Hobb’s End, which is a place in one of Cane’s novels. They drive by car there and when night falls, strange things begin to happen. At one point, they find themselves driving through a small tunnel at night, and end up on the other side in daylight. This is most likely a portal to another realm of reality, maybe an entrance to Cane’s novel, but this is never confirmed.

    They end up checking in to a small hotel with a weird old lady behind the desk. After some time they begin to realize that strange things are happening and that they might be in a Sutter Cane novel. One of my favorite things about this movie is how there is always a disbelief for the majority of the movie. You never really know if he’s in a Sutter Cane story or not, and the audience follows the same rationale and doubt that John Trent does. But then the end hits you, and everything you thought you knew is thrown out the window.
    mmbsab7

    Carpenter is great at the visuals, he has a surreal way of directing, and although some think he shows too much of the monsters, I found it suiting. There are many classic horror and science fiction concepts in here, all executed at a masterful degree, and when I came to the end of the movie, I felt there was a lot of mystery, but still a satisfaction given from the ending (not a feat easily achieved.)

    A highly recommended movie for any mindfuck movie fan.
    10/10<

  • New remake: V The Series (2010)

    Now this I’m really excited about; a new version of the 80s cult series “V”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahjPQjQGdbU

    The original 80s series showed a race of reptilian aliens masquerading as humans entering earth in a friendly manner. They insert themselves into the communities and politics of humanity slowly, and there forms a resistance over time. Later it is revealed what dark secrets they are holding.

    The original series had many interesting concepts, and was very well executed for its time (the hovering ships are awesome.) I hope they can bring some of that into the new series and not make it too mainstream. I also hope it has a reasonably high budget so we can see the aliens and ships in full glory.

    I’m not sure on the air date, but I presume it is this fall sometime since wikipedia says 2009-2010 tv season. Not much info or imagery has been released bar the youtube trailer.

    Check Wikipedia for the details.

  • V

    Great show.

    v_the_series_02

  • WordPress review

    I’ve been using WordPress for about 3 years now, and it ended up becoming all I needed to make my websites. WordPress 2.7 is the best version so far, and I don’t miss the old dashboard one bit.. The new dashboard is so much better laid out. With everything in the side it couldn’t get any easier to navigate all the sections, compared to the old ‘write, manage, pages’ layout. Another thing is it’s so easy to make a new theme. Just find one you like and edit to your hearts content. I’ve made about 20 themes in my time, which I also plan to post here later by the way. There’s also the media management, the CMS nature of the thing, the way it can be configured for just about any dynamic website and finally all the plugins. It just doesn’t get any better than this. All other blog software is 10x worse.