Reel Media

It seems that the movie and television industries has shit on its brain lately. They seem more interested in delivering crappy sequels to cult classics, shit remakes of classic movies and unimaginative shows than original and thought provoking media. Beverly Hills Cop 4? A Robocop remake? A FUCKING MOVIE BASED ON THE GUITAR HERO GAME??? A SHOW PREMISED ON A GUY’S HUGE PRICK?????? WTF?? MATE!!! Surely the industries can serve us media junkies better. To end this preoccupation with shit ideas, the industries should examine comic book series for getting their creative juices flowing again. I am not talking about X-Men and other steroid abusing super freaks in latex, but the dark, macabre and thought provoking adult comic series published by companies such as Vertigo, Icon and Dark Horse. Series such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man, DMZ, 100 Bullets, Scalped, Fell, The Exterminators and The Walking Dead.

If I were given a budget, director, crew and all the other tools needed to create a movie or serialized series, I would bring The Walking Dead to the small or big screen.

Robert Kirkman’s, The Walking Dead, is about a group of survivors trying to forge some kind of normal life in the midst of a worldwide zombie holocaust. The group experience threats and attacks from both the dead and the remainder of the living. Last summer, I had the pleasure of reading 47 issues (issue 47 was the most current at the time) and became enamored with the series. Character development is central to the series’ success. While the whole zombie holocaust aspect of the series is unoriginal, Kirkman does an excellent job at humanizing getting readers to empathize with the characters. I’d have George Romero (like, duh!) to direct and sell the show to Showtime or FX for airing (HBO blows).

To be fair, the movie and television industries have made or in the process of making television and movie adaptations of mature comic series. Sin City and its pending sequels, The Spirit, 30 Days of Night, The Global Frequency, The Watchmen and Constantine (Hellblazer) to name a few. I also read that Showtime expressed interest in creating a show based on Vertigo’s The Exterminators series. HBO pussied out big time by dropping the serialized version of Preacher because the new chief thought it was too controversial…………… Isn’t that why people pay that extra $10-$15 bucks for HBO? To see controversial subject matter that networks will never touch? They would’ve have probably ruined the genius of the series and censored the hell out of it anyways. Hopefully, Showtime will green light it.

Crooks and Liars

With the presidential election coming up in 2 months, do you think the decision will come down to whether the Republicans or the Democrats take the "moral high ground" with regard to the media? What do you think the primary issues are in this election?

The time is nearing for enfranchised Americans to exercise (or have stolen) their exclusive right as a citizen, the right to vote. The choices are fake progressives promising the world and some neo con Jerry Springer type shit.

As to the question, I am really not sure how either party taking the “moral high ground with regard to the media” will play a part in the upcoming election. Politically, the country is split in half and many receive their news from partisan sources. Those folks (myself included) have already made up their minds and no humility expressed by either campaign during the remainder of the election season will change have them switch sides.

It is no surprise that the media has already declared Obama the victor. His life story is marketable and fascinating. His biracial ethnicity also helps. It is quite a feat for a man of color to have a real chance at becoming president of the United States. After the failed attempts by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the prospect, well, will become reality. The Obama camp’s humility and sensitivity so far may have also played role in him being a media darling. I recall they dismissed Samantha Powers from the campaign because she called Hillary a monster. Also, after the news of Palin’s daughter broke out, Obama declared it was a private matter and not pertinent to the campaign (Let it had been a teenage Malia or Sasha that got knocked up by some thug or wannabe thug. The Republicans would exploit the fuck out of it. Go into bankruptcy to score political points).

Conservative Republicans constantly disdain the media (not sure which they hate most, gays or the media). Every time shit goes wrong from them, blame the media. Stole from Native Americans? Blame the media. Get busted in an airport restroom trying to give some head? It’s the big, bad liberal media. This persistent bitching by the right against the media is one of the reasons the media favors Obama over McCain. Also, McCain is old and boring. His time was during the 2000 election and possibly the 2004 election. Adding Palin to the ticket didn’t help at all. This woman has too much drama and is not worthy of the position. She’s nothing more than a Republican talking points puppet. Not only did McCain select her to garner support from disgruntled Hillary supporters and those PUMA bitches (male and female J), but should he miraculously win the election, he doesn’t want a vice president that will overstep his or her bounds ala Cheney and Bush. He wants to be the sole decider.

The primary issues in the elections should be the economy, the War on Terror and accommodating the nation’s energy needs since the three are all interconnected.

The next president must regulate the current economic system. It wouldn’t be fair to call it capitalism since we bail out large corporations that are “too big to fail”.

The War on Terror must be scaled down so that we don’t go the way the Russians did after they fucked up Afghanistan, but that won’t happen since both McCain and Obama wants to push harder there. How can McCain promise a balance budget when he wants to stay in Iraq 100 years, “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” and start another Cold War with Russia? Obama’s hawkish positions are totally antithetical to his campaign constant proclamation of “change” and a departure from the last 8 years.

We need to become energy independent so that we don’t have to fight a prolonged war on an idea. Becoming energy independent revolution will not be cheap. Ending the Iraq war and scaling down the War on Terror would free up billions of dollars to invest in developing alternative energy sources and improving our energy infrastructure.

Death! Death!! DEATH!!!

If you could find out the exact time, day and means of your own death, would you want to know?
Why or why not?

Indeed, the only certainty in life is death. I know, I know, CLICHÉ’, but it is the essence of truthiness. It is the only state where we are all truly equal. With that said, I am torn between wanting to know the exact time, day and means of my own death. Finding out the time and cause of your demise ranks up there with other colossal truths such as who killed Kennedy, MLK Jr. and the real motives of 9/11. You are dying to know (no pun intended I guess, shitty implementation If it is indeed a pun), but it will scare you shitless to some degree.

I would want to know the exact time, day and means of my own death because it would be the catalyst for a drastic change in my personality. I would be more expressive and less subdued and robotic. More than likely, I’d stay in my room popping anti depressants and downing old bitch wine for the duration of my life. Another reality is that I’d go crazy and broke trying to find a cure or avert death. A favorable reality is that I’d have myself euthanize before the deed is done. Give a big FUCK YOU to destiny, fate or whatever. There is no need to live with the nagging preoccupation of knowing that information. One admirable reason for knowing the time and circumstances of my demise would be the possibility to save a life or lives. If I told I was to going to die during a terrorist attack, I’d wear a big sign alerting folks to stay the hell away from me on that day.

I would not want to know because there is no point in knowing. We will all succumb at some point unless you’re a mutant or a Terminator. As one of my classmates would say, such is life. No matter how many precautions you take, how many hours your work out and pray, death will come and take you away. Sobering, but true.

I Do Want To Set The World On Fire

For the causal and hardcore gamer alike, the final five months of the year is what we all look forward to. It is the time of the year that the video games industry releases its flagship titles. Last year, Halo 3 adorned the crown as king of Q4 (fourth quarter, fall – winter season of release schedule). This year, the sequels will battle it out for dominance. Gears of War 2, Fables 2, Saint’s Row 2 and Fallout 3 are to be released within mid October to early November. As an intermediate gamer, I will purchase all four games, but the only title I am anxiously anticipating is Fallout 3.

The series was created by Interplay (creators of Descent) and released on September 30, 1997for the PC. Fallout 2 was released a year later on the same date. Admittedly, I have never played Fallout 1 or 2. As a long time geek, I was aware of the series, but around the time of Fallout’s popularity, I was exclusively into first person shooters (Doom, Counter Strike). After Interplay declined, the Fallout intellectual properly or I.P., was up for sale and acquired by Bethesda (creators of Oblivion). Bethesda decided to take the game in various new directions.

Bethesda abandoned PC exclusivity and created XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game. The geographical location of the game changed from Southern California to Washington, D.C... The game’s interface radically changed from the aerial, overhead look of strategy games to the options of playing the game in third or first person perspective. Bethesda also omitted some themes that were featured in the previous two games such as murdering children and nudity. Graphically, the series experienced a major overall. It is powered by Gamebryo, the same engine used for Oblivion.

Keeping with the series conventions, the post apocalyptic, ghastly, nuclear holocaust setting remained. The games RPG elements remained as well. Since you begin the game as an infant, if the race of your character is of African descent, naturally, your father (mother dies while giving birth to your character) will be of African descent as well. In creating the physical characteristics of your character, you will also be able to assign abilities and attributes. Like the pariah dog in Fallout 2, at some point your character acquires a canine companion to explore the outside world.

Although Bethesda pussied out and excluded child killing and nudity, Fallout 3 still tops my list of games to purchase this year (Fables 2 is second). I do not advocate child killing and have no intention of killing a child, but I just hate it when themes that were once present in a game are censored. It just butchers the legacy of the series. I cannot wait to explore a nuked D.C., kill virtual mutants and meet interesting survivors along the way. In these times of terror threats and government fear mongering, I’m surprised the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t banned it on some bullshit reasoning that it has the potential to inspire terrorism.

Rage Against The Donald

Is there a significant difference in the P.O.Vs put forth by these two different news sites? Do you think Trump's argument that he's an environmentalist who wants to help the local economy might be plagiarized from this?

Yes, there is a significant difference in point of views from both articles.

The article from ABC News was classified as international news. The tone of the ABC article painted Donald Trump as some savior entrepreneur coming to modernize this discarded area of Scotland. It described Trump’s attitude as “bullish”, battling against the pesky pinko environmentalists and indigenous commoners obstructing freedo…er… capitalism. The article is quite disparaging of Michael Forbes’s property by describing it as “run-down”. This observation was unnecessary for what should have been an informational piece and exposes ABC bias towards Trump. The article describes Trump’s plan for the area in concise details, but neglects to mention the environmental and ecological consequences of commercially developing that area and the concerns of the opposition.

Simon Jenkins’s article is an opinionated piece where he placed the public good above commercial gain. Trump is like a gorging, arrogant, pseudo intellectual, rich prick coming to ravage a pristine Scottish landscape. He hinted at Trump having ulterior motives of using this golf course idea to further expand his real estate empire. Although Jenkins’s article favored Michael Forbes’s and the environmentalists’ positions on the issue, he is allowed to take that stance since the article was written for the opinions section of The Guardian. The article was not classified under News, Business or Money sections.

I truly was not able to find much of a connection between Trump’s claims he’s an environmentalist and the clip from Wall Street. Both articles revealed he did not read his own commissioned environmental reports and how can he claim a concern for the environment when he wants to destroy it to build some mini Euro Vegas? The one connection I do see between Trump and Gordon’s speech from the clip is that they’ll both spew as much bullshit as it takes to justify their greedy agendas.

Me Gusta!!

Find 3 online news sites you personally find objective, honest and worth reading. Create a link to each along with a few sentences or paragraph on why you find the site valuable.

The Huffington Post

While far from objective, I value the information and opinions offered at the Huffington Post. The news blog was created by Arianna Huffington, former Republican commentator turned liberal democrat. Although the site has an overwhelming liberal bias, the day to day news is presented informationaly since its just a direct copy or slight re work of the what was reported by the AP or Rueters. I would admit that in some instances the editors of the site have given bias titles to certain headlines, but it depends on the story. It is usually employed for a sort of shock and sensational effect.

Readers of the Huffington Post represent all sides of the political specturm. The site attracts a small, but vocal conversative republican audience (probably just paid GOP propagandist anyways). Sometimes, the commenters provide that additional context that is missing from the informational pieces that'll enable you to better understand what's being reported on.

Aside from the news and reader comments I value the opinion pieces from other journalists, authors, activists and enterntainners. From the Huffington Post's Op-eds, I was exposed to the role market speculation may have played in the rising the cost of fuel this summer and the Chinese government's use of surveilance technology from American companies for the Summer Games and beyond. Issues that the mainstream media outlets won't touch or slow to examine.

McClatchy DC

McClatchy is what all American news outlets should strive to be. It is the paragon of fine journalism and news. McClatchy presents pure, unaduterated news. No entertainment, sports, lifestyle or bullshit fad news. Just the information you need to better the understand the world you are in. I became aware of McClatchy after watching Bill Moyers's PBS program in which he prasied them for there pre Iraq war coverage. Since then, I read them everyday.

One story that blew me away was that on crime and military vets. It was quite ballsy for an American press outlet to report on an issue that cast the military in a negative light. CNN, CBS, ABC and all others would never do such a story out of fear of boycotts from chickenhawks and arm chair generals.

IGN

As an avid gamer, IGN satifies my gaming news needs. The site is parititioned by gaming platform and includes coverage of movies and technological gadgets. The site has a simple yet effienct image viewer and media player where users can easily view meida for the products showcased.

I truly value the video games reviews the site offers. Their analyses are spot on and have saved me from wasting money on shit games.