Cereal Will Never Be the Same

Yesterday, at the store, when asked what kind of cereal she wanted, Samantha replied excitedly, "Cinnamon Toast Crunk!" Ashley and I's amusement with this is never ending.

Perry DeAngelis 1963 - 2007

Perry DeAngelis of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe has died. He's missed the last few shows due to being ill but still called in each week to give the weeks' skeptical quote. Apparently no one else on the show had fears of Perry being gravely ill, but I guess surprises happen. I didn't even realize it until I checked the site today for this weeks episode.

Here is the official statement from Steven Novella, Host of the SGU and president of the New England Skeptical Society (NESS):

"The Skeptics Guide is very sad to announce the passing of one of our rogues, Perry DeAngelis. Perry was the inspiration for the formation of the NESS and so we owe our existence to his vision. His distinctive wit and humor and his larger than life persona, which he lent to everything he did in life, helped forge the Skeptics Guide into what it is. He will be sorely missed.

Goodbye, dear friend. "

Perry was sort of the goofball of the show, and sometimes taking on the role of the straight man asking devil's advocate type questions. I always looked forward to his skeptical quote of the week, which he would end with the phrase "...of some note". My favorite example was when he gave a Thomas Jefferson quote and said, "This quote of was from Thomas Jefferson, a United States politician...of some note" The show won't be the same without him.

Here's a link to the condolences thread on the official SGU website.

Fight School Site

We finally got our Fight School website up. Downloads section has a few free tracks for download or listen right off the site. Check it out: fightschoolmusic.com

Over-Hyped Movie Review: Akira

After nearly 20 years of hearing here and there what a great, mind blowing movie Akira is, I finally had a chance to see it the other night. I'll start by saying that my mind was not blown. I kept waiting for my mind to be blown, but the mind blowing never ensued. I'm not sure if this says more about the movie, or if it just says something about all the people that insisted to me that it was some kind of religious experience. I'm not saying that this isn't a good film, I just don't feel that it rises above or stands out among other good Japanese Animated films.

Click here for the plot summary on Wikipedia

I'll start with the film's strengths; The animation is quite good. Doing a little research on Wikipedia informs me I'm not alone in this position and in 1988 when it was released was hailed as a major breakthrough in Japanese Animation and even animation as a whole. It raised the bar. Since then I've seen many animes that look better than this, but I can't say that I remember seeing any made before 1988 that look better.

The story is an interesting concept with multiple messages including evolution, ambition, power fantasies, and even a little coming-of-age-adolescent angst. Though I have to say I'm a little tired of seeing science fiction films with a "Man shouldn't meddle with things it doesn't understand" messages.

One of the weaknesses come in when the filmmakers try to make the plot more complex than it really is. At it's core, it's a very simple story, but at times it seems like they're just trying to fill out 2 hours of run time for the sake of it. The shame of this is that they could have spent that time explaining more to me about who the main characters of Kaneda and Tetsuo were. Instead, we're offered this very fuzzy framework of their friendship throughout the whole film, and the entire dynamic of their friendship is supposed to be explained at the very end with a series of flashbacks during Tetsuo's out-of-control psychokinetic rampage. The ending would have been more effective if going into it, we knew how deep their relationship was. The whole movie would have been more effective if we were presented with a more complete picture of who the characters were as individuals. Instead we're offered a series of awkwardly delivered lines from the main players, because each scene's dialog doesn't seem to be a natural evolution from the last.

At times, the story just seems like a vehicle to show off these cool powers that these kids have, much in the same way the matrix's story at times just seem like a vehicle for its' characters super-wow-awesome powers. I'm guessing the writers of the original Manga had the idea of these kids with these powers and simply used that to build the story's messages around.

All in all, a pretty cool sci-fi flick, but no where near the mind-trip it's been hyped as.

Yet Another Reason Why Myspace Deserves Death

More 24 Production Delays

I'm starting to think season 7 isn't going to start until season 8...

"The seventh season of Fox’s Emmy-winning "24" is facing another production delay.

The real-time drama starring Kiefer Sutherland that was scheduled to start filming Aug. 27, will now begin shooting Sept. 10 so that the writers can complete enough scripts for the new seasonlong plot.

Production start on 20th Century Fox TV/Imagine TV’s "24" originally was pushed from late July-early August to Aug. 27 when the producers’ original set-in-Africa story line fell through and they went back to the drawing board.

There has been only one new casting on the show so far — Cherry Jones as the U.S. president — with a couple of other deals at different stages.

"24" is going through a major revamping this year after coming off a lackluster sixth season."

My Movement 2007 Video

Fight School Video