"Thanks for your concern"

For the better part of my high school life I had one show to turn to. One show that put my fear of the government and its many conspiracies was the The X-files. Ok, so I didn't really believe that there were government cover up about event that may or may not have happened. For sure, it's fun to pretend, but at the end of the day, there is nothing there. Or is there? Ok, so maybe there are some things that I believe in, but not as many as I used to.

It definitely had one of the best theme songs ever. The moment I heard this, goosebumps would begin:

To look up and see it all

I often look up at the sky and feel exactly how I should feel. Small and insignificant. The millions upon millions of stars that I see will make a person just feel so lost. Imagine all these stars, all these planets, all that potential for life and new discoveries that I will never see and never experience. The universe is too big to even comprehend in my mind, but it is beautiful to look at and take in. Even the just seeing the moon lit at night shining in the night sky is amazing. Space is wonderful.

Here is a video that shows just this. If you don't feel floored by what the universe has to offer outside our world, then you should after this.


The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

--MGS

The Prequels: a look back

1997.


Florida.


The AMC movie theaters, at the Disney West End.


It's a crowded theatre, but one filled with electricity. On the screen, the orginal Star Wars has been re-released. As the anticipation grows, up through the trailers of coming attraction, including those of the next two Star Wars movies to be released soon, people are becoming more and more restless. Then the lights go out, the cheers starts and the music booms to a louder applauds and yelps! The moment has come! For those of us too young to have watched Star Wars on the big screen, the moment is finally here. I am surrounded by others who have also dreamed of this for years. The moments go by one by one, and we couldn't be happier! Quietly we quote along, knowing the dialogue by heart. We are that kids who watched it when we little, playing along with our action figures and homemade costumes. Those kids were once overwhelmed at the sheer joy of watching Darth Vader enter the ship in dramatic fashion and the wonderment of seeing Obi-Wan take out a lightsaber and slash the air around him. And the greatness of seeing Greedo shoot first. Wait, that's not right. Han shoots Greedo, argument over. Did that really happen? Oh well, it's still Star Wars and we are all still super excited in our chairs. This was a moment of pure magic for the geeks.


And then, that weird Jabba scene happens. You know the one, right after Greedo is killed, we get a scene that says exactly the same thing that that previous one just said. It shows Han talking over things with Jabba the Hutt, who is CGI, and looks odd. He sounds different and even a bit smaller than he looked in the original Jedi film. It's weird. The effects look weird. The scene just doesn't work. Even after all this time, and with updated effects, it still is out of place and seems ridiculous.

Maybe this should be an indicator. Maybe this should be the inkling that something is amiss, and yet, we are so excited to see this film that we let it pass! After all, the SW: Special Editions are still the old movie, just added with something more. We are so excited that it passes us up that there is a problem looming.


It's 1999. The year has finally come. The rumors had swirled for years that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lucas was going to finally give us those prequels, giving us the back story about Darth Vader and his downfall as a Jedi. And now it's true. After all this time, we are going to see just how awesome Darth can be. This is going to be epic.

The Long Halloween

Batman has been through a ton in his life. He's lost his parents, his companions, and his life. He been broken, destroyed, and left for dead. He's faced villians that have ripped him mentally to shreds and others that have left him confused and scared.

With The Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sales gave him a villian that was challenging for him to deal with. This was because the clues didn't just lead to one person. Unfortunately, as the story goes on, it does appear that a trusted friend is the culprit. This disturbs him, above all other things. The mystery is engrossing and keeps you guessing up until its ending.

One thing that I must start off with is that this is considered to be noir in both its art and its storytelling. It does have a very old style to the art, with loads of shadows, and, of course, the murder mystery of who is killing these people. The images have hard edges and colors that are both muted and vivrant at the same time. There are some odd decisions made in regards to the character designs, so the art is a bit off putting, taking time to get used to. So, with this knowledge in place, I will say that noir is not my favorite type of storytelling, and this could have been a detractor for this book.

However, I really like this story. It's never dull, making you want to find out who the killer is.

(Spoilers follow)

"The Octopus was very scary" *

The Goonies.


In 1985 two movies came out that rocked my world. One was the afore mentioned Back to the Future. The Goonies has the honor of being the other film.

Sure, it's not perfect. It has some terrible moments of acting, blue screen work, storytelling, and character development. Sure, it's unbelievable at the best of times. Sure, its ending is the great and sappy happy ending. But you know what? None of that matters, because these kids were just like me. They wanted to go on an adventure. The only difference was, they did it!

"Be sure to drink to drink your Ovaltine"

Here were these kids, not too much older than me, and they were looking for lost treasure. Each one of the kids had a wonderful character trait, Mikey, the leader, had asthma. Mouth talked too much. Data was an inventor who didn't have working inventions. Chunk, the heavy kid, was the butt of jokes. 


But these guys weren't alone. They brought along Mikey's older brother, Brand, who wanted to stop them, the cute high school cheerleader, Andy, who Brand liked, and her friend Steph, the semi-plain looking, but fun companion. 
Unfortunately, the Goonies, named for the place where they live, the Goondocks, houses were being bought out by a wealthy land owner (and let's be honest, is there any other type?) . Living their last days in their homes, the Goonies found a map, a map to the lost treasure of One-eyed Willie, a local pirate legend story. This set them on their new adventure, for better or for worse. 

A look at "Marvels"

"Marvels," is one of those graphic novels that snuck up on me. I was at the library one day, and happened to see a book with the art of Alex Ross staring back at me. I liked it enough to actually pick it up, assuming it was just a drawing book of his work within the Marvel Universe. I didn't expect to do much than to leaf through it, be impressed and then put it back. 


My surprise came at the fact that there was a real story here. It wasn't just a bunch of reflections by Ross about his time and effort into doing these pictures, and about how great he is. No, instead, it has a story that is both engaging to read and enduring. This is powerful stuff by author Kurt Busiek, mixed with an amazing amount of art that helps illustrate it. 


"Marvels" is about just that. It's about when the Marvel Universe came to the world. It tells the story from the perspective of Phil Sheldon, a working man who is trying to make it in the newspaper business as a photographer. He is young and just beginning to get into living his life, getting married, moving into a new house, even going to war to do his time required of him. It all changes suddenly one day, however, when the superheroes of the Marvel Universe appear. It starts off small, but before long, they are everywhere. Phil will spend this time taking and gathering pictures about these people, giving him a reputation for having an eye and a gift for this sort of thing. 

hetalia (ugh... again?)

Today I will talk about South Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

South Italy was taken care of by Spain most of his life. He was almost sold by Spain to France and was kidnapped by France.

 Greece is really laid back and chillaxes all day. He sleeps a lot of the day and is super obsessed with cats. He tries to renovate but he keeps finding ruins.

 Turkey is super mysterious and wears a mask. That's it.

-adevlupes