Further updates

Due to some extenuating circumstances, the film project I've been waiting to announce has unfortunately been put on indefinite hiatus. The issues were out of our hands and while we intend to pick the film back up later, it's still somewhat frustrating to have lost the opportunity to work on it now, especially given the effort already put into it.

On a slight upside, this does clear things up for me; I'll have more time available for fitness training and for a few one-off video projects I've been prototyping in my spare time. My short story seems to have fizzled out, unfortunately, it just isn't at the level of quality that I want it to be, but i'm fine with that, I know how I need to grow as a writer and it's just going to take time and effort, so it too is on hold. I'm attempting to write some music for a single to be recorded later in the year, but as I don't know what my work/school schedule is going to look like in that time of year I won't commit to a specific time frame; I can record whenever I need to and release it when I need to as well, so i'm not too worried about that just yet.

Tron: Uprising - early opinions

Having been a fan of Tron for quite some time now, I was pretty excited by the prospect of the animated series announced in 2011. It was set to debut summer 2012, and based simply on the voice cast alone I held high hopes for it. Bruce Boxleitner, Lance Henriksen, Elijah Wood, Tricia Helfer, and a few other notable names such as Mandy Moore and Reginald VelJohnson make for a pretty strong cast.

First airing in May with a half-hour premiere episode titled Beck's Beginning, we were introduced to a vastly expanded version of The Grid, which is more or less the world of Tron. While in the original film, everything seemed to come across as people simply doing the functions of computer software/hardware, in Tron: Legacy this approach was largely abandoned in favor of simply making a world based inside a computer, with people doing people things and just being people, except they're in a digital world. This was much more believable and makes it a lot easier to give the inhabitants of the world room to grow and have character. Tron: Uprising continues this approach and gives us the impression that there actually many cities on The Grid and it that it is a vast world filled with millions and millions of people.

Specifically though, the series focuses on Beck, a mechanic at Able's Garage who fixes light-cycles and apparently all manner of machines (we see him messing with a 4-wheeler of sorts and helicopter, as well as some other stuff throughout the world), and enjoys some Disc fighting in his spare time with his buddies at the garage. Well, Clu and his crusade come to Beck's home town of Argon City and decide to annex the place. When one of Beck's friends gets himself killed harassing one of Clu's soldiers, Beck decides to fight back, has a close run in with a top agent named Paige, and ultimately runs into Tron, a super-soldier thought to be dead (turns out, he survived his little scuffle with Clu, but just barely). Tron tries to convince Beck to fight back, but with little success until once again, things get personal for Beck. Risking life and limb to save his friends, he is finally convinced to fight back.

It was a good episode. The artistic style they took with the series is kind of weird, reminiscent of late 90's/early 2000's video games with rather blocky features, but it looks good and despite appearances the characters actually move quite well. Good thing, too, considering there's a fair bit of action in the series thus far. Tron's face is definitely the weirdest; having seen Bruce Boxleitner in many shows over the years, it's just a little strange seeing his face stretched out like this. But the art and animation are of good quality, and that some people look kind of goofy in this show is part of its charm.

The voice acting is very good too, and no one thus far disappoints (though after two runs as EDI in the Mass Effect series, i'm sure Tricia Helfer would love the opportunity to stretch her voice a little). Lance Henriksen sounds quite sinister as usual, especially when he puts power into his voice and really projects into the microphone; he sounds downright scary at points. Bruce Boxleitner brings his usual vocal qualities, commanding and firm, and Elijah Wood is able to put some good emotion into Beck. Tricia Helfer is the voice of The Grid itself, essentially serving the same role as Majel Barret in all the Star Trek series as the computer. Not that she's bad at it, but after hearing her as EDI through two Mass Effect games i'm sure she'd like to branch out a bit. I wouldn't mind hearing her flex her vocal muscles either. So far we haven't heard much from the other characters, but I really have no complaints about them at this point.

The series second episode is the first half of a two-parter, The Renegade, Part I (love the Roman Numerals, you never see enough of those). Opening with an interesting sequence of Tron showing Beck a few light-cycle tricks, we then listen to Beck's little self-doubt rant. For a guy who successfully fought off numerous soldiers, a high-ranking officer, and one of Clu's top generals (the latter of which is no mean feat), he really doesn't believe he can do much more than be a mechanic. After making a quick escape attempt from a Recognizer (are they still calling them that?), he ends up getting stuck in the games. He has a big downer moment before a big epiphany moment that leads him to another escape attempt, recapture, and more games. A small subplot is going on with some of Beck's mechanic friends too, which really isn't much right now but should hopefully be expanded on in the second half of the episode. 

While the main storyline in this episode is plenty good, the subplot almost seems like it's just filler, there's not much to it in the first half of the episode. I understand that these other characters need development as well and they can't always share screentime with Beck, this could have benefited greatly from other some better dialogue or a little more time on the air getting developed better. It was nice seeing a bunch of throwbacks from the original Tron though, having Bit make an appearance was a nice touch. The music is also consistently good, very close to Legacy but with its own flair. The effects are good too, certain voices feature some very slight distortion to them for a subtle effect, while others are more severe, but even the worst aren't illegible and everything/everyone can be understood clearly.

For only being two episodes in, i'm fairly optimistic about the series as a whole. There are supposed to be eighteen episodes according to Wikipedia, and episode three airs tonight, June 14th. Hopefully my fears about the subplot will be laid to rest. The main plotline is quite attention grabbing, and with luck it will continue to be as the series progresses. Should it be successful enough, we may even see a sequel to Tron: Legacy. And frankly, I don't see why we shouldn't. It had a notably smaller budget than John Carter of Mars and made notably more money, and seeing what they were able to do in Legacy, I don't see its budget skyrocketing either like The Lone Ranger's has.

Quick updates

I've made the commitment to get back into shape and start training and lifting weights again, so I'll be making some reports and maybe even some videos on that. I'm also reading C.S. Lewis's book, The Great Divorce and am also watching Ken Burns documentary, The Civil War, so i'll be drafting some reports on those. I'm also trying to finish a short story submission for The Black Library, which publishes books, shorts stories and novellas in the Warhammer universes. There's no guarantee that it'll be accepted, but I do hope that it does.

Wish Upon A Blackstar

Celldweller - it's a name that either has a serious impact, or no meaning whatsoever. But you've heard his music. Unless you've been living in a subterranean bunker constructed beneath a Ford Galaxie for the past fifteen years.

Klayton, the man himself, got his start back in the early 1990's, working under a number of different projects, such as Argyle Park, Circle of Dust, AP2, and a few other associations before settling on Celldweller for his major breakthrough album. That debut release in the early 2000's, I still hold, is one of the greatest albums made; it was an incredible mix of rock, electronica, trance, and a few other genres all combined into one fairly groundbreaking project. Two songs of his (Shapeshifter, a single with Styles of Beyond, and an instrumental of One Good Reason) made it into Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Switchback was remixed into one track for the game Enter The Matrix and a trailer for the action horror film, Doom (which frankly was the best part of the whole movie, and after years of watching it I still can't figure out why I like it. I just wish I that version of the song had been released). The Last Firstborn was featured on NCIS in one of its earlier seasons. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

Since then, he's released a few singles, a soundtrack intended for licensing for game/film soundtracks, and even a mashup of two Metallica and Black Sabbath songs with a dash of dubstep thrown into it. The success of his album and singles has allowed him to found his own studio and opened the door for a significant number of electronic artists to become known, through remix contests and also through distribution from his studio, FIXT music. After a while, including what seemed like a series of false starts and endless delays, Celldweller's second album, Wish Upon A Blackstar was finally announced and initially began as a series of two-track releases. After five of these two-track releases, the album was finally released in whole on June 12, 2012.

The album is an entirely different beast than his self-titled debut; while there's still plenty of more rock oriented music, trends have changed over the years, and there's a dubstep influence in a lot of the album. Several tracks are, in fact, more dubstep than anything. Whatever your opinions on that genre are, Klayton has figured out how make dubstep not come across as horribly boring or repetitive, which happens frequently with that style. With all his years of experience in music, he knows a lot about how to make a track enthralling and enrapturing. I mentioned in my review of Ghetto Metal that having an entire album flow together is good thing, but is rare; Klayton does that here to phenomenal effect, and while his individual tracks are quite good, the best way to listen to Wish Upon A Blackstar is from start to finish. It almost sounds like one song that lasts for over an entire hour, which is a rare and good thing.

Several tracks do stand out from the rest though, in a good way. Eon is possibly my favorite track on the album. It's definitely the most rock/metal influenced track, but with the electronics backing it up and its powerful lyrics, it's easily one of the most epic tracks Klayton has done, being poetic but not whiny or perhaps stereotypical, aggressive but not illegible and simultaneously ethereal at points without being trippy or outlandish. The track is a perfect synthesis of styles, musics, sounds, and vocals, the likes of which are only seen once a decade. Another that stands out personally to me is It Makes No Difference Who We Are, which is a beautiful track, slow and haunting with lyrics that flow and rhyme with a very powerful harmony. What got me about the song though, is its opening riff. It reminds me very heavily of some of the music in Donkey Kong Country 3, one of my favorite video games on the Super Nintendo (old school, I know) and definitely one of my ten favorite games ever. As soon as I heard that I was hooked.

As a whole, the album is somewhat lighter and more relaxed than Celldweller was; the best way to describe it I think is that it comes across more as a jam session than a rock session. Like he was concerned about making good, quality music, but it feels like he was having more fun making this one than his previous efforts.  It's still unmistakably Celldwller/Klayton, but I liken it to the difference between Soundgarden and Audioslave - same guy (Chris Cornell), same genre, but Soungarden comes across as more relaxed than Audioslave. This isn't to say Wish Upon A Blackstar is a slow album with no kick; Eon and I Can't Wait for example are pretty hard hitting songs, but as a whole the album is easier-going than was Celldweller.

In closing, I very highly recommend giving the album a listen. It's extremely well constructed, the songs and lyrics are very well composed, and even after being in the business for over 20 years now he still has a clear and deep passion for what he's doing. So (and this is the only time i'll tell you this) stop reading my blog and go check it out! Now! Go! Seriously. Stop reading already.

The Alien Invasion

When one thinks of a classic horror film, what are some of the first images that come to mind? Most typically you have Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers invading your brain. They are the most instantly recognizable horror icons (though Pinhead is certainly up there). You've also got your vintage horror icons like Vincent Price and Bela Lugosi, who all represent more traditional horror films than the aforementioned slasher icons but probably aren't thought of as front runners anymore.

The problem with Freddy and Jason and Michael movies is that they all follow a very similar and very distinct formula - promiscuous teenagers getting killed in horrible manners is the point of all these movies, more or less. Sometimes these teens are so annoying that we actually cheer for the guy killing them and doing us the favor of cleansing the gene pool. I distinctly remember hearing cheers in the theater during several death scenes when I saw the remake of Friday the 13th.

And believe it or not, this is a problem. Or at least, it may be a problem, depending on the creator's intent. Typically, aren't we supposed to be supporting the humans? Aren't we supposed to fear the murderer? That's generally the way it's supposed to be, everyone fears the murderer and tries to team up to kill him, or at the very least to try to survive. The problem is that the supporting cast of victims waiting to happen has the annoying tendency to be bland and annoying to the point that we would rather they be dead. They spend most of their time being a bunch of melodramatic whiners and having sex and doing all sorts of things that lead us to think they're just not good people (in a cruel irony, many teenagers actually do everything the victims do in these movies and then complain about the victims and call them annoying. Hypocrites).

This is part of the reason these films may end up being cult classics - there are lots of people out there who absolutely adore horror/slasher films - they will never end up being true classics because frankly, they just aren't very good films no matter how much fun they may be or how much people may enjoy them.

That is, until Ridley Scott came along.

Alien, that great sci-fi/horror epic that Ridley Scott created oh so many moons ago, took a vastly different approach. The human characters had the distinct advantage of being an older bunch, most of the actors were in their forties actually, and being a group of better than average actors with a highly skilled director commanding them they made a far more believable bunch than a bunch of high school students snorting cocaine. What's the first thing they do when they wake up from cryo-sleep? They eat. Hey, i'd be hungry too after sleeping for a few months straight. And they talk. They just talk, bicker a little, and then they go to work. And they chat and bicker some more too. And then as we know, they run into the Space Jockey, John Hurt meets with a facehugger that leaves a vicious little punk in his ribcage, and everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Speaking of which, the most nifty thing is the alien itself. Unlike the other murderers we typically deal with, who are particularly wicked or demented men with an unnatural level of strength, here we have an animal, a beast. There is nothing human about this thing (except for the fact that it's a man in a suit, but we'll forgive them that one); it cannot be reasoned with - a bear is going to do what a bear is going to do, after all. It cannot be understood. It acts out of pure instinct. It is strong, it is fast, it is stealthy, and even in death it is still dangerous thanks to its acidic blood. As Ash said it is, in many respects, a perfect organism.

There are other aspects about Alien that make it such a standout film. For example, Captain Dallas, the big, strong, square-jawed man in charge, seems to be set up to be the hero. And then he goes and gets himself killed. So who steps up to take his place? Ripley. The cute young woman who looked a little dainty for a miner. Yep. She's the heroine. That was a huge break from trend, and Alien was the first movie to do something like that. With the bigger budget Mr. Scott was working with, the sets and the alien itself were of much better quality than most contemporary horror/slasher flicks, which helped him create a very intense, suspenseful atmosphere, giving the film far more effect than relying on cheap jumps and lots of blood.

Alien was just such a well executed movie; it's incredibly hard to imagine how anyone else could have done it. Ridley Scott is an excellent filmmaker, one of the very best. He put some good thought and a lot of time and effort into that movie. It honestly didn't have a very high budget, right around ten million dollars (still way better than most slasher movies ever get), but thanks to careful planning, good writing, good acting, and phenomenal editing, we ended up with an all-time classic film. Which, frankly, is something that rarely ever happens in the horror genre. The Freddy movies and Jason movies all have their place in society and in our hearts, but Alien has a place too - in the Academy Awards.

Ghetto Metal - a review

Stereo Assassin, a noted drum'n'bass artist, recently published to his website and social media a new 4 track EP, named Ghetto Metal. He describes this new EP as “Toxic, violent, caustic, and powerful.” Some people would tend to think such wording is simple marketing hype, that he's trying to make himself sound cooler. Were he Justin Bieber, these people would be right. However, in Stereo Assassin's case, such wording is adequate.

The opening track, Anti Social, opens with a brief voiceover, and then opens up with some rather ominous-sounding synth and bass. The drums come in slightly muted and give you a feel of where the track is going, but it quickly explodes full-force and hits your ears like a cannonball of broken glass laced with necrotoxin. Almost as quickly as it hits it slows back down, but the sounds never stop being ominous, daring you to drop your guard.

After a good five minutes of that, we segue into Boom!, a somewhat easier going track that won't leave you breathless and with bleeding eardrums, but still retains a lot of the danger and suspense that the opening track left us with. However, the track does impressively change its pace and tone in about the last fifty seconds; it is no mean feat to do that in any song of any genre, and that he does it so well here is a testament to his skill.

The third track, Solitary Funk, drops some of the suspense of the last two tracks for some solid drum'n'bass, heavy and thick. The track never loses your interest, despite being the longest on the EP at five minutes, thirty seconds in length. A few ups and downs, a few changes in pace, this remains a steady track for the most part and it's a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.

He ends this EP with a remix of a song, Pyretic, from a band called Fear the Dawn. Both are good songs, though the remix is most definitely more aggressive and faster paced. In fact, all attempt at sounding ominous and sinister and dangerous is replaced by guitars, screaming vocals, and a lot of attack, similar to the level what befell Omaha beach.

In a nice touch, all 4 tracks on this EP flow together very nicely; one gets more enjoyment listening the whole EP straight through than by just listening to the tracks by themselves. This is a somewhat rare trend in mainstream music but seems to be more common amongst indie artists and is very welcome here, giving the whole album a slightly more organic feel, like you were actually listening to him play live. That said, this is not rave or club music, not by a longshot. If you're listening to this, you probably like more aggressive music to begin with (I mostly listen to metal, myself; I listen to anything I think is good and catches but I tend towards metal genres). To an extent, his Pyretic remix actually reminds me some of Klayton's (of Celldweller fame) older projects such as AP2 and Circle of Dust. And no, that's not a bad thing at all.

In the end, I would highly recommend any good fan of the D'n'B, Industrial, and Metal genres give it look here http://soundcloud.com/stereoassassin/sets/ghetto-metal-1 - I greatly enjoy listening to it, and i'm really looking forward to Stereo Assassin's next release. One final recommendation - it sounds great coming through your headphones, but if you get a chance, run it through a sound system with at least one subwoofer and 300 watts of audio power. It will NOT disappoint. 

Strength of character

What is it about some characters that inspires us? What about characters makes us fall in love with them? Think about some of the more iconic characters of film and television, and there's one thing you tend to see, one commonly recurring feature among some of the worlds favored characters, and that is that they're all just generally good people.

This is something that seems particularly common in science-fiction, whereupon typically regular and ordinary people are thrust into extraordinary circumstances and are then challenged, by other characters around them and by the stress of the situation they are in. It is these challenging moments that make or break a character, and make us love or loathe them. Of course, there's more to it than that, all of the small moments in a show or movie, the quirks and quips and the subtle, little actions that the actor just throws in all go towards helping us fall in love (or in hate) with someone, but by and large the big, defining moments are make or break time.

Since this topic is about character, I want to talk now about one of my favorite shows ever to grace the airwaves, Babylon 5. It began airing right about the same time as one of my other favorite shows, Deep Space Nine. Both shows are about a space station and revolve around the crews and life on a space station in deep space, far away from colonized worlds, but in the end both shows were radically different. Deep Space Nine focused much more heavily on the characters and was in many respects a Star Trek show like The Next Generation, just somewhat more grounded and stable (at least for the first few season). Babylon 5 had a very distinctly organized plot planned out from its inception, and also had a focus on politics and morality (as well as war and peace, sacrifice, and its fair share of other topics)

What does this have to do with character? The fact that the people on the station were (for the most part) just such good people. It seemed that no matter what, when called upon, they would always do the right thing without even giving it a second thought. It's that trait which makes the characters so admirable. It seems that we find ourselves in an increasingly immoral world, with fewer and fewer upstanding and ethical people; solid, upstanding characters resonate with us, tell us that there is still good out there and remind us good people still exist, and it's something we can take comfort in.