mean, but still funny….. 🙂

came across this earlier this week – apparently they spoofed Samurai Jack on the more recent Duck Dodgers series – you can watch it here on YT – just fast forward to the 10:25 mark….this still has Mako in it (voice of Aku in the original) – it was done the year before he passed away…..

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hoping the best for you and yours. 🙂

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it’d be funnier if it weren’t so close to the truth…..!

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In the effective winding-up of my recent ‘read all the John Scalzi books‘ quest (I tried Redshirts, but bailed out), I just finished Lock In, and really liked it.

This is a buddy-cop story with a number of interesting twists and nuances. Suffice it to say one is human and as always, the other is something else (modified human but fairly alien at the same time – this character, Chris Shane, is the central protagonist).

I won’t really discuss the plot because it would be easy to spoil it – but per usual with Scalzi, I liked the semi-regular doses of humor and humanity he gives his characters. And I liked the novel’s setup and back story – which I could easily see getting put into several sequels (hint).

Another angle on this book is that often in buddy-cop plots i’ve seen a tendency to have one be the sane one, one be the edgy one – but here, i’d argue there are nuances of each in both main characters. Clearly one is more edgy but it’s not the one you’d think and if there are more books, i’m confident Scalzi will explore this more as to the other. He’s usually not content to just treat things in a ‘Marvel Comics’ way where the super power makes up for or partially covers character flaws to produce a person we can still identify with – there’s more going on here, but it will take definitely more than one book to explore.

The pacing of the book is well done too, Scalzi is able to introduce the detailed backstory without bogging down in expository details for chapters on end (Dune sequels, I’m talking to YOU).

I guess a basic qualifier of a good book to me, anyway, is if I want to read more or hear more stories about these characters. Unlike Kerewin, I’m not as big a ‘cop story’ guy, despite keen interest in Ghost in the Shell and similar – yet here, I definitely want to read more. Bring on the sequels!

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So Kerewin and I recently watched the third of these BBC movies, Salting The Battlefield, to finish the trilogy started with Page Eight and then Turks and Caicos. These were BBC ‘tv movies’ – we watched them on PBS.org via Masterpiece, for those inclined to check them out.

So these are spy thrillers, in my view the first two are pretty good, the third not quite as. Bill Nighy is the star here but in each movie there are several around him definitely providing interest. Ralph Fiennes knocks another ‘you really want to hate him’ role out of the park, he’s such a good bad guy (not as over the top as Voldemort or Harry from In Bruges, but there are definitely elements of both in his portrayal of the British PM).

And these are a bit lower-key than say, a Bourne movie, and not as complex as Tinker Tailor was (not sure of any movie that fits that bill). Still, they are probably far more realistic as regards plot and setting by contrast.

It was also obvious that the writers are definitely making both a direct and indirect commentary on the increasing British spy state as having grown out of the Bush years and why it just keeps on growing to this day – most notably in the third movie. What ends up happening to Johnny and the others is not as predictable as you might expect – but then again, this isn’t Hollywood either.

Check them out!

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Asteroid Blues: The Lasting Legacy of Cowboy Bebop

What they said. And what we said.

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I’d likely be a crow – or a zanate! But i’d have a swank “pad”! 🙂

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the one rival to Nolan Bushnell for the ‘father of videogames’ crown…..RIP.

Ralph H. Baer, father of video games, passes away at 92

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