This posts featured photographer is acam. Visit his flickr site. Beautiful shoreliness and skylines. In this post, I cover some Rocketboomgate, some Big Brother, a Superman Returns review, vlogging, blogging, a Memoirs update and more!
Amber MacArthur tipped as the next Rocketboomer! Rumors are spreading like wildfire that Amber Mac is going to be Amanda Congdon’s replacement on Rocketboom.
I have recently discovered a few very interesting blogs. They are Marc Fawzi’s Evolving Trends and twopointouch from Ian Delaney. Really nice and complimentary, if you are interested in AI research and web 2.0 theories, go ahead and indulge. Marc’s latest posts dwelves into microcrowds and Ian’s writes about social news.
Update on The Memoirs
I am pleased how this blog has evolved over the last few weeks. It seems that it evolves by each week, each post that I write. I am influenced by a variety of sources, from comments from readers and things that I read in paper to blogs I like. I have shifted away from the initial premise of my blog towards some more interesting and actual topics, from political and social issues, to robots and concentrating on news from the blogosphere. Inquiries, sponsors, comments and questions are welcome, memoirs [dot] on [dot] a [dot] rainy [dot] day [at] gmail [dot] com. The blog has consistently moved up WP ratings, toping at #23. Page views are up, between 300 and 500 each day and new posts are finally viewed as much as some older ones, like my coverage of the TV show Lost. During the whole Camillagate incident from BBAU, I had as much as 1200 views per day. In the next few weeks, I look forward to making a weekly vlog and podcast, a nice addition to The Memoirs. If successful and if time allows, I will probably move up the frequency of the vlog to a few times a week.
Also, in each post I feature a photographer. I have received good feedback on this and will continue to feature new photographers on each daily post. I have also made my daily posts longer, between 1500 and 2000 words, and covered a lot of subjects in each. I find this is what I enjoy doing and readers like to read. My short science-fiction story “Galactic Rim” is still a work in progress, I have continued to write chapters, they will hopefully be published this weekend. I find myself writing a lot more than I did before, which is a good thing because I need the practice. I vary between 20000 and 50000 words a week.
Dreamlog #7
I am on a beach somewhere, looks to be Australia. There are a lot of surfers around and I seem to see clones fot BBAU contestants John and Gaelan. I have a muscle car and I am hanging out. I am looking forward to do some surfing. I am not that good, but I am able to surf okay.
On the beach, there is a strange dike. I am searching for people. It is like some sort of university or college. I can not find the people I am looking for. I only see people who resemble them. Again, I am running around searching for somebody, though I do not know who.
This are all jumbled and things happen, I do not know what this means.
Big Brother news
In Big Brother UK news, Lea was finally evicted yesterday night. There was some tension in the last few days as well as a lot of crying, which I skipped, thankfully. Before it was Aisleyne, now it’s Lea. Thank God she’s out.
The 45 year old porn star, self claimed 35 year old, finally got the boot. Hopefully Pete will be able to recover, with some psychological counseling. She is one nasty piece of work, and it’s not just the boobs, it’s the disgusting perverted mothering that she did.
Towards the end she got so paranoid, that her way of working things out was to accuse everyone of being different or changing. Her limited vocabulary was showcased in her exit interview, boils down to shit, dogs, swearing and wicked.
In Big Brother Australia, Darren won FNL games. The housemates are also seeing that Darren and Dave are having an alliance. Of course they do, it’s Big Brother! They will have alliances, just like the cool and in crowd did before them.
Vlogging
Second weekend of July and I am ready to do my first Vlog. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I’ll have at least one vlog. I have prepared myself a bit and written a few things down which I would like to talk about. I have been keeping abreast of Mr Angry’s vlog with a most interested eye. I’ve also looked into FilthyWhore’s vlogs and Brookers. However, I don’t see myself performing for my viewers, it will be more in a news format.
The impeding move to BC is coming up pretty quickly, and my realtor is even quicker. I met him this week, signed the papers and he has already scheduled a visit for today. I am quite impressed with him. This will be my first experience as a real estate seller. I might have already found a buyer for my car. Things are moving along well.
Superman Returns
I finally watched Superman Returns yesterday. I was expecting a lot of this film. What I got was something else. There are good parts and bad parts to this movie. Superhero movies are in vogue nowadays, since X-Men and Spiderman came onto the scene a few years ago. With my last review of X-Men 3, I stirred up a bit of controversy. Having watched hundreds of movies and having reviewed them for different media, from print to radio, I have some experience and have developed a critical eye to movies. There are a lot of stupid movies I love, don’t get me wrong. I like Arnold Scharzenegger, he reminds me of my youth and I liked Terminator 3. I did enjoy the Spiderman movies the most of all the superhero movies. X-men 1 and 2 followed closely behind in that genre. Electra and Daredevil were the worst. But for movies adapted from comics, Sin City ruled, it was a movie in a class of its own. A movie in its own right, that anyone could enjoy, and so faithfully reproduced, that it looked like the pages had been magically animated.
Having said this and warned you, the readers, I will go about my review of this movie. First of all, just a bit of history. Bryan Singer and his team were recruited to do this movie whilst preparing X-Men 3. He jumped at the chance to do the next Superman. The director of the old movie was then recruited to finish X-Men 3, which I didn’t like that much. I’ve come to expect a lot from Singer, because of his past success with great movies such as The Usual Suspects. Also, I did enjoy the 1st Superman a lot with Christopher Reeves and Marlin Brando. It is still a good watch. I always remember the parts on Krypton itself as being very memorable.
Superman has been the subject of a multitude of movies and series, from Lois & Clark to Smallville. Personally, I did enjoy Superman in his animated series as well as his presence in the Justice League. That is the epitome of Superman, the über protector of Earth.
Casting wise, I didn’t see any problems except with Lex’s acolyte Ms Teschmacher, who was missing in this movie. Well there was someone playing her but her names wasn’t Teschmacher. I was pleasantly surprised with Kate Bosworth interpretation of Lois Lane. Interesting, I had her picked for the blonde bombshell type, but she valiantly performed in this role. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was a good casting move, but his lines were delivered a bit dryly. He could have been better. Brandon Routh as Superman, well he did fill out the role as Superman quite well. However, his geekiness as Clark Kent was sorely missing. He looked like a hunk disguised as a geek, badly at most. He should have done more research and worked the geek angle more, because that is what Clark is. Just look at the original movie again and you see what Reeves put into this role.
Also, the whole premise of Lois being married was interesting. However, like some critics, I do agree that the whole legend of Superman could have been modernized with this movie. Making Lois a single mom would have really been interesting, it would have fed into her constant need for rescue by Superman and showcased a part of her persona that was missing. Naturally, like all movies based on comics or books, there is a chance to alienate the existing fan base by doing this, however Superman needed this. Just look at the Ultimate comics from Marvel. They redo the myths and are exceedingly popular with comic book fans. That was the sort of thing that Superman needed through this movie.
The lack in this movie was the plot. I won’t get too much into the details, but the whole crystal and Luthor was a bit too much. The big danger in this movie is… Crystals? Come on, Superman needed an enemy, a nemesis, one that he could beat up and incarcerate. Someone like Brainiac, or Doomsday, or Metallo or Darkseid. The cast is quite big. And one of those was needed. A villain preferably from outer space, not someone local to Earth.
The DC universe is quite rich with interesting villains and stories, too bad that Singer’s team didn’t pick up on any. Or maybe the fault doesn’t lie with Singer, but with the people behind the plot, the screenwriters and those who came up with the story. Through IMDB, I came up with Dan Harris, Bryan Singer and Michael Dougherty. Well, hope the sequel is better.
The special effects rocked, what did you expect with a 290 million USD movie? Incredible, they must be awe-inspiring to see in IMAX. One of the best parts was early in the movie, when Superman saved the plane. The whole action sequence was phenomenal.
Production, post-production were all good. I have no beefs with either of them. Musical score by John Williams, well doesn’t get any better than this. Just look at Lex’s super yacht in this movie, incredible.
This movie is good entertainment. A fun night out with the guys or the kids. Remember that it is quite long, 2 ½ hours. Good entertainment, good fun, but don’t look for something better than the original Superman. In my book, the original from 1978 is still the best interpretation of Superman.
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