Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Number to Heaven

From the makers of Treevenge I present you with The Number to Heaven!

What? You don’t know what Treevenge is?!?!!??! Well watch this then!

The full film is available, just Google it or go to the official website TREEVENGE.COM. Rene, Zeke and I got a chance to see it at Sundance this last year and it was AWESOME! Take the time to find and watch this fantastic short film.

Hope you’re not easily offended!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under monsters, movie trailers, movies, videos

Mobile Blog: The Crystal Cave Incident

I am in the Sequoia National Park with Nene enjoying gigantic trees and the fresh mountain air.

I've never been to the sequoias before so this was a new experience for me. It really is an amazing feat of nature that these trees grow the way that they do. It looked like a Disney theme park trick or part of a themed land. The bark is so thick that when you know on parts of it the tree almost sounds hollow.

We also climbed to the top of Moro Rock, 4,000 vertical feet above the floor of the canyon and over 6,500 feet in elevation. What does that really mean? Really winding roads! Thank Zeus for not getting car sick!

There aren't a lot of attractions in the sequoias. There are the trees in general, and they are truly awesome in the actual meaning of the word, although they are so big it is actually difficult to grasp the scale of it all. When we visited the sequoia museum we saw a tree they call The Sentinel. It is a tree that stands over 257 feet tall and is about 28 feet wide – and this tree is used to illustrate an AVERAGE size of these amazing plants! When we got to General Sherman, the biggest living thing in the world by size (check wikipedia for a breakdown of how this record works), it stands over 275 feet tall and has branches that are as big as other large trees. Just amazing! There are also very large rocks, like Moro Rock (really part of a mountain), beetle rock and Tunnel Rock which you used to be able to drive through before they rerouted the road.

I have been feeling pretty out of shape and, when you see the pictures you'll see, I've totally got a gut. I'm all skinny fat right now. It's noticeable enough that I have to do something about it (as if a whole day's worth of hiking isn't a good start) but, even still, I found that it was really easy to run, jump and climb all over all kinds of stuff! It was a big relief since I was worried that I'd be huffing and puffing all trip.

All of these elements culminated when we got to the park visitor's center. One of the few major attractions that we planned to visit today was Crystal Cave. It requires tickets so we went to get them, but the Cave was closed. When asked the rangers would only reply that there had been an "incident" and the cave would not reopen until tomorrow. Naturally I, being a fan of solving mysteries, wanted to know more. Information was not freely given, but we did notice an awful lot of ranger activity, and a few arrests happening around the park. Being with family meant that I couldn't go completely Sherlock Holmes, but we plan to head to the cave tomorrow where I plan to solve a major crime, write a book and then get Robert Downey, Jr. to play me in the film adaptation.

I'll keep you in the loop!

See you tomorrow!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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Missing an office?!?!


So you read that title and you must be thinking, “Curtis has lost his mind! He never liked an office job! He’s been dropped on his head or perhaps been replaced by a pod person! Dear God, the zombie apocalypse is upon us! We must flee! FLEE!!!!”

While a completely reasonable reaction, no this isn’t true.

I don’t miss office jobs, what with their W-2 earnings, regular hours, paychecks and possible medical & dental benefits. No, what I miss is actually having an office to work in. A building separate from the place where I live where I can show up, work, and then go home. It helps to separate work-life from life-life. Right now there is no separation. I wake up and, whether in PJ’s or business suits, I’m working. I end up working until I fall alseep. The breaks that I take are for food and to run errands or when I just need to get out for a while. It gets very difficult to tell just how many hours you are actually clocking when you need to run to target for deodorant or you go see a movie with your lady. There are days, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when I can literally run my day like a regular office day and seeing what gets finished in those 8 – 10 hours gives me a real sense of accomplishment that I don’t feel on other days – even if I’m technically more productive.

I think it’s a weird socialization that goes along with the modern work environment. I would like to postulate, without being able to back it up with any scientific evidence whatsoever, that we get used to out school days, with the structure and timing that goes along with it, and even college where you may pick up a bit more autonomy but are still forced into particular hours for particular things. There’s a world wide acceptance of what “business hours” should be and so we get used to getting things done in that time. I can tell you from experience that the entertainment industry does NOT operate on a schedule, especially when you need to speak to people internationally, but we all still work on a kind of “business” schedule.

It is now 4pm. I started this blog at 10:45am, but have been distracted by work and phone calls. Even though I feel like I could write more I have to stop so I can get ready to teach tonight.

To conclude, I would like to have an office again.

Thank you.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, general, making movies, money

Doctor Who Special 2 of 5: The Waters of Mars

Hey Who fans! We have to wait until NOVEMBER before the next of the specials comes out from the BBC, but I just can’t wait so I’m posting the first promo to whet your appetite! A geeky two days worth of blogs, but It was a particularly tough day today so I’m gonna’ post stuff that makes me relax.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under doctor who, geek, special episodes

Comic Review: All Things Iron Man

It’s been a really long time since the last comic blog and I finally got over to The Realm to pick up my stack. The nice thing about not reading too many titles is that even after almost two months of not picking up my books I only had nine in my box.

I won’t be reviewing all nine in this blog – that would be insanity!!!!! Instead I’m going to break them up over three blogs:

  1. All Iron Man! Invincible Iron Man #16, War Machine #8 & Iron Man Armor Wars 1 of 4
  2. Unsung Comics That Are Awesome! (That title may change) It will cover the final issue of Captain Britain & MI13 #15 & Agents of Atlas #8. This will be up in a couple days.
  3. A Bunch of Avengers Books: The New Avengers #55, The Mighty avengers #27, Avengers: The Initiative #26 & Young Avengers: Dark Reign 3 of 5. This will be up a few days after the last.

So let’s get down to it!

Eisner Award Winner For Best New Ongoing Series The Invincible Iron Man #16: I love this creative team! Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca continue the “World’s Most Wanted” storyline exactly where it left off last issue: Pepper Potts was tied up after being tortured by Madame Masque, Tony had been knocked to the floor and incapacitated, and Masque was forcing Tony to tell her whether or not he had truly loved her back when they were an item. She’s completely obsessed going so far as to try and blow them all up just because Tony no longer loves her. It’s the little details that make me enjoy this run so much. It was, literally, decades ago that Tony Stark and Madame Masque were the most conflicted couple since Batman and Catwoman. Her father was Count Nefaria – yes as in “nefarious” – who was a MAJOR Avenger’s villain. Madame Masque was a major player in the Iron Man books from issue number one back in 1963. In the late 80’s, during the dark times of editor negligence, she fluctuated between being a clone, going completely good and becoming a bad guy again – she (or her clone) even joined an Avengers team for a short while. I’ve been really pleased as Fraction digs deep into the Iron Man mythos to bring these characters back. Right now every major player in this story arc either got their start in, or was a major player in Iron Man comics: Madame Masque, Pepper Potts, The Black Widow, The Controller(!), The Crimson Dynamo, even Maria Hill – a new character but one who is explicitly linked to Iron Man’s current situation.

Speaking of Maria Hill and The Controller, it is so impressive to see how scary this character is now. Maria is still suffering from the effects of The Controller’s slave disk and she is not well. We’ve never seen the effects of a slave disk represented so well and it continues to be good story telling. Whatever demons are in her past seem to be coming to the surface. It is really rounding out the Maria Hill character making her someone that I care and want to read about.

Now on to my complaints.

Story wise I feel like this is being “written for the trade.” Although I really enjoyed this part of the story, it was just that – a part of the story. I was left wanting more and not in the “Oh boy! I can’t wait for next month!” more like, “Really, we leave off here? Couldn’t we get just a bit more?” Also, I think a couple scenes were re-ordered. If they weren’t then I feel like the story telling was clunky. I refer you to the scene’s with Black Widow and Maria Hill. Did anyone else think that the shower scene was intended to happen before the table scene? It also makes more sense since the Black Widow left then to go have the hard drive examined.

By the way, I’m writing down this prediction right now – although I’ve assumed this since it was first mentioned: I think that hard drive is a back up of Tony’s brain a la the “Hypervelocity” mini-series. Just putting that out there.

My remaining complaints are art related and really just seem like the proof reader was rushing the job. The first is a clear error when Madame Masque takes off her mask. It looks like her eyes are attached to the mask and can also be seen correctly positioned on her face in the same frame. To me it looks like a Photoshop mistake. And on the last page, as Iron Man flies away in the classic armor, his shoulders are colored red even though they shouldn’t be and weren’t just a page before. These are minor, but I noticed it and I don’t want to notice it. Still, over all, the emotional impact and characterization in this story are fantastic and I’m so looking forward to seeing how it all plays out!


War Machine #8: I know, I know I said I would drop this title. I still might. I’m really conflicted on this book. Greg Pak writes and Leonardo Manco on art. I had a small discussion at my LCS about how Greg Pak is usually really good about coming up with things that are new and different on the titles that he writes however, although this is new and different, I’m really not a fan. The West Coast Avengers show up in this issue to stop Rhodey from going after Stark in a jumbo jet. Yes, I said the West Coast Avengers – even though Ronin, Mockingbird, Tigra and Wonderman are tossed to the four winds in continuity right now. And they show up in a Quinjet! The Dark Avengers barely have a Quinjet and none of the other Avenger teams do for sure! All geek bitching aside, it was nice to see the West Coast team back together. Maybe when the Dark Reign is over that might happen for good?

So the Ultimo storyline continues, still, in this issue. Turns out it was MORGAN Stark not Tony Stark who was responsible for the whole Ultimo fiasco. Morgan is the “evil” Stark cousin who was all kinds of annoying back in the 60’s and 70’s. Every decade or so they try to bring him back, but he never proves to be much of a villain. Even in this he’s just a red herring who then turns into the Ultimo – spoiler – and then blows up – another spoiler. What really turns me off from this series is the fact that two other characters are flying around in War Machine armors, Bethany Cabe and Jake Oh. I know where Jake got his armor (issue #7) but where’d Bethany’s come from?! So, yeah, things blow up, Rhodey gets compromised by the Ultimo stuff and Norman Osborn shows up on the last page in the Iron Patriot armor acting like he’s going to save the day.

I don’t want to sound like a petty fan boy, but I don’t have a lot of extra money so the next issue needs to impress for me to keep picking this up.

Iron Man and the Armor Wars 1 of 4: Written by Joe Caramanga, art by Craig Rousseau and covers by Skottie Young. I found out about this book by accident. I actually thought it was the Ultimate Comics Armor War that will be coming out in a month or two and was surprised that Skottie Young, who just finished up a great version of “The Wizard of Oz,” was doing the covers. When I finally picked this up I thought it was cool that it was a 616 Iron Man story from back in the late 80’s when Stark Enterprises was in California and Stark was flying around in the Neo-Classic armor. It really felt like one of those old stories when Tony was still both a playboy and on top of the corporate world. There were a few changes, though. Where was Mrs. Arbogast? At that point in Stark history Pepper and Happy Hogan were off on the East Coast. What about the rest of the supporting cast from back then? I’m hoping they’ll show up in future issues. The conflict comes when all of the Iron Man armors are stolen by the Russians led by Crimson Dynamo and then Doctor Doom shows up. I know, totally confusing, but that’s what issue #2 is for! The art is fun and cartoony, like the old Marvel Comics Presents they used to do in the early 80’s. This is a series for the Iron Fanboy more than the casual reader, but if you are a long time Iron Man reader I suggest checking it out.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under comic books, iron man, reviews

Bonus Video Blog: Apache O.G. & Oh No!

Two versions of the song “Apache” originally recorded by The Shadows. I’ve included their video from a TV appearance in 1960. The video after that is of another group who covered the song in the 70’s with some of the same spectacular dancing you have come to expect from the videos I’ve posted.

Enjoy!


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Shmimprov at The Improv

It isn’t often that I like to talk about individual shows in this blog. Ideally, in my head, I see this as a recorder of thoughts and ideas that are supposed to be more timeless than timely. I know I don’t always keep to that, but in my head that’s how I see it. Especially when it comes to improv shows, they are created in the moment and it is so hard to articulate what happened or how it happened. It’s a visual medium and reminds you why there is the phrase, “You had to be there.”

In the case of the show at The Brea Improv you SHOULD have been there! Not to toot a horn, but I think a bit of history is in order to help put the excitement of the evening in proper context. Improv Shmimprov has been a very successful improv team for a long time. Cast members have come and gone, but Shmimprov as a product has always remained strong. This year the company has started expanding beyond the bounds of our home at The Maverick Theater in downtown Fullerton, CA and have been seeing great results. In addition to the improv conference in Colorado and a great run of challenge shows Shmimprov was invited to play at the Brea Improv to help cover the Thursday night lull that has proven a difficult sell. In the Maverick we reach a maximum sell-out – standing room only – show at 100-120 people (but don’t tell the fire marshal, if they ask we peak at 69! Shhhhh!) as we planned the show we expected that we would probably pull about the same number. The Improv seats 300 and so we fully expected that half to 2/3 of the theater might be empty, but we’d still pull a pretty good audience. I’ll be frank, the thought of a small audience in comparison to size kept me from getting to nervous about the whole thing. To me it was going to be a regular show in a different theater.

I was wrong. We were all wrong.

When The Improv has a big show they line-up everyone outside in front of the building. They make a break for the doors of other businesses and guide the line back toward the parking lot. They have to do this for crowd control on all of their big acts.

They also had to do it for us!

I arrived at the theater and saw the line wrap all the way around and into the parking lot! It was amazing! I cannot put into words the level or amount of gratitude that I feel for all of the folks who came out to see the show! The theater was about 3/4 full, over 200 people according to folks that we spoke to after, which was way beyond expectation! I also cannot describe how shit suddenly got real and, for the first time in a while, I got nervous. Really nervous.

The show was tight and fun and funny, like it should be, and hopefully I’ll be able to post pictures and some video we got as they get up loaded.

Because of the fantastic turn out we have been asked back! Mark your calendars for Thursday Sept. 17th! It’s gonna’ be awesome!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under Improv Shmimprov, shameless self promotion

Mad Scientists are real and they are building freaky weapons in the United Kingdom!

Some of you may not know but I have recently been struggling with the idea that I might be headed down the path of Super-Villaindom. In this pursuit I have been searching out new weapons to use as I plan to conquer Earth. Here is my first terrifying purchase.

I’m comfortable sharing this with you because it is the WEAKEST of my growing arsenal!

*Evil LOLZ*

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Filed under evil plan, science, video, vortex cannon

Shameless Plug Post!


What good is a blog if you can’t help your friends? Well, actually I’m sure there’s lots of good a blog can do but this post in particular is nuthin’ but links to my stuff and my friend’s stuff.

If your stuff isn’t on here and you want it to be then post it in the comments.

Yay for shameless self-promotion!!!

Curtis Plugs:

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Filed under 7k, general, Improv Shmimprov, music video, shameless self promotion, video, videos, Wiggy VonSchtick

GIANT VERSIONS OF SIMPLE CREATURES!!!!!!!


Please follow the link below.

It’s gonna’ FREAK YOUR ASS OUT!

In 2012 all creatures will look like this except humans.

Humans will be their food.

TERRIFYING!!!!!!!!

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Filed under animals, freaky, geek, musings