Christopher Lee has a lot to answer for.
I refer, of course, to his appearance (after so many cancellations) at the London Expo on the eve of his 85th birthday, this last Saturday/Sunday. The whole event (or the Saturday, when I attended, at least) was a bit of a debacle.
It would probably be unfair to blame the whole thing on Mr Lee, considering things were going wrong before the show even opened, but his performance as the frontman for a heavy metal band was where things started to affect my enjoyment of the show.
Let's start at the beginning. The show was due to open at 9am and, by sheer chance (ahem), I happened to be staying nearby, so getting there for opening time was no problem at all. As my companion and I walked toward the ExCeL Centre in London's Docklands, I pointed out a small guy with a camcorder, who happened to be Lloyd Kaufman, president of Troma Studios, and one of the show's star guests. He was recording his arrival at the show, either for posterity or for extras on the DVD release of one of his movies... Who knows? He seemed very focussed on his recording, and trundled merrily along with a suitcase in tow. At the steps leading to the entrance to ExCeL, he stopped to record a long monologue.
"Let's head over that way," my companion advised, darkly, pointing at the far side of the staircase. "I don't want to be in his video."
At this point in the morning the place seemed quiet, with very few people milling around outside. Inside was a different matter. Still not 9am, and the queue for the London Expo had already reached the ExCeL's entrance and doubled back the other side.
The ticket booth was opposite the entrance (still shuttered when we first arrived), affording a good view of the full length of the queue. I was despatched in search of bacon sarnies, while my companion snagged a pair of Fast-Track Entry tickets. The queue for tickets was short enough that our entrance was secured long before the sandwiches were ready. As it turned out, the sandwiches were ready before the Expo's doors opened... and that really set the tone of proceedings.
When I rejoined my companion in the queue, it looked very much as though the Fast-Track Entry queue was quite short, running alongside a staircase down to the lower level of the centre. As it turned out, the queue ran most of the way back to the main entrance, then back down the opposite side. Yes, the queue we passed on the way in was the Fast-Track Entry queue. Doors opened late, the queue took ages to filter round and so, by the time we actually got in, the place was already quite crowded and the concept of 'Fast-Track Entry' was a bit of a joke. Compare to something like Memorabilia, where Fast-Track gets you in at 9am, and Standard gets you in at 11, the difference between Fast-Track and Standard at the May London Expo can only have been a couple of minutes. Strike one for the organisers.
First order of business was to snag a couple of tickets for the Sanctuary panel. Sanctuary is a new internet-based series starring Amanda Tapping of Stargate SG-1 (which, by the looks of things, has become - ahem - 'sanctuary' for at least two refugees from Farscape - Ben Browder and Claudia Black). I had little idea what Sanctuary is 'about', save that it features all manner of monsters and things. Due to something going wrong with my computer lately, I'm unable to watch much computer video. It stutters and lags and generally annoys me. Still, the idea of what is essentially a TV series being created for the internet is interesting in and of itself, and I wanted to learn more. I was faintly perturbed that the panel was to feature the world premier of 'webisode' 2 without showing episode one, but figured that wouldn't be a massive problem.
Tickets in hand, my companion and I began the all-important task of sizing up the retail opportunities. I've been to enough of these things - London Expo, Memorabilia, Collectormania and the London Film and Comic Con - to start recognising most of the regulars. Some are consistently interesting, others are just consistent. I don't tend to go in hoping to see anyone in particular, though I do feel disappointed if a good stand I've seen at previous shows is absent. That said, while many of the stands are good for standing around gawping, there are only a few I ever buy from.
Spacebridge seem to turn up at just about every convention going and, after a very poor performance from them at my first Memorabilia, they seem nicer and more helpful every time I see them. At Memorabilia recently, they had some movie toys on show (marked "Please Do No Touch!") but this time, they had Blackout and Ratchet on sale for £25 each... that's about £5 over the predicted street price, but a good week or so before they hit the streets. I bought both, and felt satisfied that I'd paid a good price. Spacebridge always have a selection of Botcon exclusives lying around in their bags, but these seem terribly overpriced. The more I see them, the happier I become that I'm now a member of the TransFormers Collectors' Club, and could still buy the 2005 boxed set at its original price, if I wanted to. I could buy parts of it from Spacebridge, and the total cost of those parts would exceed that of the complete boxed set from the Club shop. That said, they have many classic pieces (Gen 1 Shockwave for a mere £300) and reissues as well as the more contemporary pieces.
While I nosed around on the stand (agonising yet again over whether or not I want to buy Gen 1 Ratbat) and earwigged on a conversation about the movie and its toys, my companion got out of the way of the crazy masses who thought nothing of barging through her to reach the stand. She later told me that for every guy who passed by and exclaimed "Wow, TransFormers!", there was a girlfriend who'd tut loudly and roll her eyes.
The next order of business was establishing the where and when of the Sanctuary panel, so we'd be there in good time. Along the way, we took in the wonders of Activision's TransFormers movie game (looks staggeringly unoriginal, but beautifully done) and Hasbro's own display of movie toys.
At this point, I have to say "Hasbro UK, what are you thinking?" About two months away from the release of what should be the most important movie in the company's history, and you show up at the London Expo with one small glass cabinet containing a paltry assortment of first wave movie toys. Are you insane, or just stupid? Was this not the ideal opportunity - not to mention the last before the movie goes on general release - to showcase the toy range that goes with the movie? Do you not have more than five toys in the line-up? Could you not afford a second glass cabinet to show us all Leader class Optimus Prime and Megatron (for example)?
Hasbro are one of the Expo's sponsors, and regularly throw in all their tabletop RPG things. Considering that, in the year the TransFormers live action movie is released, there are NO TF-specific conventions in the UK (Auto Assembly - Cancelled; TransForce UK - Cancelled), Hasbro's UK branch should have been pulling out all the stops to ensure the entire country knows that TransFormers are back (though they've never really been away) and bigger than ever, with powerhouse names like Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay and Industrial Light & Magic behind the brand... Had it not been for Activision's stand and the trailers running back-to-back on Spacebridge's portable DVD player, one would have been hard pressed to see any movie promotion... and the TransFormers-branded Robot Wars area was tenuous at best.
They should also have encouraged all UK TransFormers specialist webshops to attend, perhaps even subsidising them... but Spacebridge were the only ones there.
Sad, but oh so typical of Hasbro...
But back to the event.
On the whole, in terms of stalls, it seemed rather emptier than many of the others I've been to. The show was in a large hall laid out in quarters, but the front half seemed very crowded compared to the back (apart from the Manga Alley, which was quite tightly packed). There were quite a few whopping great open spaces, and a couple of insanely tight corridors. Bizarrely, the organisers had chosed to place Amanda Tapping and her Sanctuary co-stars in the first retail 'road', meaning there were snarl-ups almost right at the entrance to the show. As my companion and I struggled past, one of the stewards was barking at a group of people to either join the queue for the signing or get out of the way. Strike two for the organisers.
After a brief wander round to get the lie of the land, we trotted back outside for a short break, and an opportunity to sup fruity drinks whilst gawping at cosplayers. I'll say one thing in favour of even this Expo - it's drawing in more cosplayers every time, and the costumes are still quite varied... Apart from the vast number of people wearing exactly the same (ie. shop-bought) black robe trimmed with red cloud patterns.
The event seemed far more crowded with people than any of the previous London Expos and sadly, as became quickly apparent, attendance seemed to have outstripped the organisers' ability to cope.
To cut a long story short, sometime before the Sanctuary panel was due to start, we saw a long queue forming outside the stage area. We joined it... but it soon became apparent that this was actually the queue for Christopher Lee's foray into rock stardom, which was running behind schedule because they wanted to perform a sound check. So far, so normal... but the Expo's organisers hadn't seen fit to set aside the time for this, meaning it was eating into his performance time because the sound check started late. Not quite strike three yet... but that's not the end of this sad little saga.
We left the queue and wandered some more, popping in on the Stikfas stand, where they were promoting a Guyver-related stop-motion animation competition. Many years ago, back in the days of the Amiga, I played about with stop-motion animation. I've always wanted to do more, particularly after seeing the work of the Eyeson team so, when one of the stallholders mentioned freely-downloadable stop-motion animation software, my ears pricked up and my wallet opened. They didn't have the Stikfa I really wanted - the gangster - so I opted for a pair of ninjas, and my companion bought a cute little teddy bear. What fun one can have with a pair of ninjas and a teddy.
When, having popped outside for some fresh air (somewhere amongst the throng of frantically puffing smokers) and more gawking at those crazee cosplayers (not to mention bearing witness to far too much 'glomping' whatever the hell that is), we returned to the halls, we got there just in time to see the queue for the Sanctuary panel being lead out of the hall. Evidently having the stage area at the back caused the queue to mess up the flow of people not waiting for the Sanctuary panel.
The queue seemed quite orderly when we joined it, but it didn't take me long to lose track of how it wound round an alcove before heading off down the ExCeL's central promenade. After a fair old wait in the queue, it was announced that they were hoping to get us all back in for 1.45 (a whole forty-five minutes after the panel was originally scheduled to start). At 1.40, there was still no movement, and the 1.45 target seemed highly dubious. My companion - tense and headachy because of the general shambles of the show, not to mention utterly bored of waiting - implored me to get her out of the queue. Since everything seemed to be running late (eventually meaning one or more of the day's scheduled activities would have to have been cancelled) I agreed. Strike three, in a big way.
Of course, the show was still crowded and my companion was still in no mood to be jostled, so I suggested she wait outside, in the relative calm of the café seating area, while I had a final browse.
I didn't buy anything more, so I've probably set a new record for Money In Wallet vs Money Spent at this sort of thing. My total spend was less than sixty quid in the end.
After the Expo, I had suggested a (slightly) more sensible shopping trip near where we work, but we ended up detouring to Brent Cross instead. Much the same sort of shops were available, with one notable exception, but most of the shopping we'd intended on was done nevertheless. While wandering around, I saw a nice looking shirt, but balked at the £100 price tag. Serves me right for looking at designer shirts. We also popped out to the French Market, where I grabbed almost £15 worth of various flavours of Turkish Delight.
When we left, it had started to rain, marking the change in weather than had been predicted for the weekend. It wasn't a downpour, but considering how summery it had been during the week, it was enough of a change.
Once home, the remainder of the day was spent killing time before Doctor Who (a decent start to a two-part story) and, frankly, I spent so much of Sunday sleeping it barely counts as a day.
Today, a Bank Holiday, there were so many things I wanted to do that I only got round to in the most half-arsed way. I scrabbled around to get a webcam up and running to try out the stop-motion animation software, only to find my computer's performance is so laboured these days it just wasn't worth trying... It was also somewhat disheartening that the 'freely downloadable' stop-motion software mentioned in the competition brief was anything but freely downloadable - any movies you make have 'Trial Version' splashed across them. I started repainting my second Cybertron Armorhide into an approximation of Classics Huffer, using paints I'd bought during the week, but felt so uninspired I didn't get very far. I did lark about with movie Ratchet and Blackout, enough to see that they're rather cool toys, but didn't even try to photograph them because the light was so poor all day.
While I managed to get through the day without sleeping, I honestly can't recall much of anything worthwhile happening... and right now it seems my allergies are kicking in, as my nose has been running constantly for the last couple of hours.
Just how I like to start a short week.
On the upside, the sales manager for my Wednesday magazine is off on holiday... At least, I hope that's an upside. He tries, but he's pretty ineffectual for the most part. Better than most, but still not great.
I'm getting so tired of work right now... But I'd better sign off, or I'll end up tired at work, which is never good.
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Stereoscopy revisited
This last weekend, I had another go at 3D Photography, using the method detailed in another posting, but actually getting it right this time.
As before, I selected a bunch of my models (Masterpieces Starscream and Megatron, Alternators Rumble and Ravage, along with my custom Soundwave) on the usual flat white background. Paintshop Pro makes this sort of thing a real trial because it doesn't seem to allow position adjustment to specific channels the way Photoshop does, meaning I spend however long nudging one channel over by so many pixels, then so many more, only to find I'd been nudging in the wrong blasted direction (or with the wrong channel). It's a pain, but I live with it... Perhaps PSPro does allow the sort of fine tuning I need, and I haven't discovered how just yet. I have precious little time to investigate.
The end result, on screen, is pretty darned good. I used Megatron as the mid-ground, Starscream and Soundwave as the background, with Rumble and Ravage in the foreground. I also emailed the final image to myself at work, and today I printed it out.
Well, blow me if the printed result - even on our next-to-no-tonal-range (to be fair, because it's not properly calibrated) HP Colour Laserjet - isn't ten times better than the on-screen version. I'm half tempted to cheekily squeeze in a high-definition inkjet print via our large-format proofer... That would be stunning. I could frame it...
Eventually, I want to do this sort of thing with something other than a plain white background... but that's some way off yet.
In other news, Boss paid a visit on one of the other offices today with Publishing Director (yes, my employers make up job titles on a regular basis. Probably because it makes it easier to later make people redundant if their job title is meaningless). The purpose of the visit was to view a new system we may be using to make life easier in Production. Boss and I had already seen it last tear, but Publishing Director wouldn't hear of it. She had to see it with her own eyes. That, and she seems to believe the company didn't exist before she arrived.
She's not entirely keen because, at £30k per year, this system may necessitate a certain trimming down of staffing levels (personally, I reckon we could easily save that much by, oh, getting rid of a Publishing Director, maybe?). She doesn't want this as she 'developed' a 'system' of running Production that would split the department in two and give each of our designers two magazines to work on in their entirety, with three designers (and therefor six magazines) per team. Buying in Expensive Software should, theoretically, mean that we could drop a designer or two, as the workload would be dramatically decreased (assuming the clients buy into the opportunities presented by Expensive Software). Dropping a designer or two would mean we couldn't work in two teams, and couldn't distribute the work evenly as two magazines per designer.
And that's not the only promise she wouldn't be able to keep to Production.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of Look Before You Fucking Leap," says I. The single most important thing she should have learnt during her witch hunt earlier in the year was that the company has promised much, and utterly failed to deliver... Soon enough, she'll realise she'd just started to live down to everyone's expectations.
In other, other news, it's my mate Paul's birthday today. I meant to deliver his present yesterday, but had a splitting headache. Couldn't reach him today as he'd taken the day off work and left his cellphone off. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to deliver it later in the week... if not, at the weekend, after visiting the London Expo... At which I could, conceivably, find his Christmas present. Hurrah!
As before, I selected a bunch of my models (Masterpieces Starscream and Megatron, Alternators Rumble and Ravage, along with my custom Soundwave) on the usual flat white background. Paintshop Pro makes this sort of thing a real trial because it doesn't seem to allow position adjustment to specific channels the way Photoshop does, meaning I spend however long nudging one channel over by so many pixels, then so many more, only to find I'd been nudging in the wrong blasted direction (or with the wrong channel). It's a pain, but I live with it... Perhaps PSPro does allow the sort of fine tuning I need, and I haven't discovered how just yet. I have precious little time to investigate.
The end result, on screen, is pretty darned good. I used Megatron as the mid-ground, Starscream and Soundwave as the background, with Rumble and Ravage in the foreground. I also emailed the final image to myself at work, and today I printed it out.
Well, blow me if the printed result - even on our next-to-no-tonal-range (to be fair, because it's not properly calibrated) HP Colour Laserjet - isn't ten times better than the on-screen version. I'm half tempted to cheekily squeeze in a high-definition inkjet print via our large-format proofer... That would be stunning. I could frame it...
Eventually, I want to do this sort of thing with something other than a plain white background... but that's some way off yet.
In other news, Boss paid a visit on one of the other offices today with Publishing Director (yes, my employers make up job titles on a regular basis. Probably because it makes it easier to later make people redundant if their job title is meaningless). The purpose of the visit was to view a new system we may be using to make life easier in Production. Boss and I had already seen it last tear, but Publishing Director wouldn't hear of it. She had to see it with her own eyes. That, and she seems to believe the company didn't exist before she arrived.
She's not entirely keen because, at £30k per year, this system may necessitate a certain trimming down of staffing levels (personally, I reckon we could easily save that much by, oh, getting rid of a Publishing Director, maybe?). She doesn't want this as she 'developed' a 'system' of running Production that would split the department in two and give each of our designers two magazines to work on in their entirety, with three designers (and therefor six magazines) per team. Buying in Expensive Software should, theoretically, mean that we could drop a designer or two, as the workload would be dramatically decreased (assuming the clients buy into the opportunities presented by Expensive Software). Dropping a designer or two would mean we couldn't work in two teams, and couldn't distribute the work evenly as two magazines per designer.
And that's not the only promise she wouldn't be able to keep to Production.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of Look Before You Fucking Leap," says I. The single most important thing she should have learnt during her witch hunt earlier in the year was that the company has promised much, and utterly failed to deliver... Soon enough, she'll realise she'd just started to live down to everyone's expectations.
In other, other news, it's my mate Paul's birthday today. I meant to deliver his present yesterday, but had a splitting headache. Couldn't reach him today as he'd taken the day off work and left his cellphone off. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to deliver it later in the week... if not, at the weekend, after visiting the London Expo... At which I could, conceivably, find his Christmas present. Hurrah!
Monday, 14 May 2007
Geek much?
So, yes, there I was, at work, describing this Star Wars Exhibition to one of my colleagues. I happened to mention that there were a bunch of aliens on display with familar names. I couldn't be certain whether they were species names or individual names, but I certainly saw a Nikto and a Klaatu, and I'm pretty sure I saw a Barada as well.
Funny thing: Those three words are a reference to the 1951 Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the alien visitor played by Michael Rennie asks the human woman who's helping him to memorise the command "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto", which evidently translates as something like "Gort, Klaatu has been killed. Please find and retrieve his body and bring it back to your spacecraft to resurrect him."
Who knows that sort of thing? Seriously?
Great movie, by the way... And I've been saying for the last couple of years that it's ripe for a remake. Of course, now I know a remake is in progress, I'm wondering why...
Funny thing: Those three words are a reference to the 1951 Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the alien visitor played by Michael Rennie asks the human woman who's helping him to memorise the command "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto", which evidently translates as something like "Gort, Klaatu has been killed. Please find and retrieve his body and bring it back to your spacecraft to resurrect him."
Who knows that sort of thing? Seriously?
Great movie, by the way... And I've been saying for the last couple of years that it's ripe for a remake. Of course, now I know a remake is in progress, I'm wondering why...
There goes another weekend
Quite a lot to report.
For starters, my replacement Masterpiece Megatron arrived last week and, two days later, I plucked up the courage to attempt to transform it. It worked. No bits fell off, nothing broke... The right shoulder is a little weak, and cannot support the fusion cannon... but then, that damned thing feels heavier than the robot, so that's no surprise. Perhaps with the electronics removed, it would be a more reasonable weight.
Megatron is reasonably poseable, even managing to sorta pull off a pose from TransFormers: The Movie, where he holds Hot Rod as a shield while shooting Optimus Prime. I really need to sort out some kind of light tent, and then think through some poses to try out for all the Masterpiece models.
It's vaguely interesting to note that I've bought three of the five Masterpieces - all the odd numbers - and it seems very likely that I'll skip on number six (Skywarp). One wonders what they think they're going to do by way of repainting Megatron. Perhaps the black version with the brown grip with blue, as opposed to red, as its secondary colour? Part of me hopes they stop this annoying trend toward reusing Masterpiece molds, as the second one invariably devalues the first.
Some might argue that the reverse is true for MP-03 Starscream and MP-06 Skywarp, since the latter is in 'show accurate colours' and the former is not, while others might argue that MP-04 is better than MP-01/02 because having a trailer, however basic, 'completes' Optimus Prime/Convoy. I'm tempted to agree about that, but MP-o1 hardly suffers from being without.
Went to see Spidey 3 last weekend, and completely forgot to write about it. I can see why it's been criticised. Frankly, the franchise started going the way of the Tim Burton/Joel Schumaker Batman movies with number 2... The third tries to cram far too much into one movie, and so the storytelling suffers by necessity. They could quite easily have turned it into a two-part movie (like The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3), with a compelling cliff-hanger ending to one, and a stronger conclusion to the other. As it was, the story came pretty much full circle, and ended on much the same note as the first. It had more than its fair share of flaws but, frankly, the jazz club dance scene was worth the price of admission on its own. Tobey Maguire did a very good job of portraying Peter Parker's descent into being a bit of a prick, even going as far as to adopt the old Star Trek trick of wearing eyeliner to emphasise his turn to the dark side.
Since I went to see it uptown, I naturally popped in on Forbidden Planet, ostensibly to see if they had any Chevalier D'Eon in stock. They did, but I didn't stop there. I also snagged the first of two DVD boxed sets of Cowboy Bebop, and a large book/box relating to (Ghost in the Shell 2) Innocence. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I needed it. As it turned out, it was a book containing the complete storyboards and script, and possibly interviews (all in Japanese, so it's impossible to tell) and a large box containing a small PVC model based loosely around two different scenes from the film. Very cute, but perhaps a bit too collector-y even for me. If I'd known exactly what was in it (or, more accurately, if I'd know the movie was not included), I probably wouldn't have shelled out for it.
I very pointedly did not visit Orbital Manga, because they have plenty I'd like to buy, and I just don't have the spare cash right now.
This last weekend, I went uptown again, to visit the Star Wars exhibition at London's County Hall. Much bigger and more impressive than the similar exhibition at the Barbican some years ago (around the time of Episode 1, I'd imagine), it was nevertheless a rather dry experience, and somehow lacking in everything. The blurb for the exhibition made it sound much better than it actually was, and I have to say that the building occasionally overshadowed the items on display. The large, circular room containing the full-size Naboo Starfighter was far more stunning than any of its contents.
The Jedi Training School was, perhaps, a little underdeveloped. Put on for the kids, it featured a couple of Jedi who, on the run from the Empire, have popped in on Earth for recruitment purposes. While his Padawan spouted dire prophesies about the Sith, the master sought out the six kids in whom the Force was strongest, taught them a single manoeuvre ("Strike left, strike right, duck, strike left") before proceedings were interrupted by Darth Sidious (aka The Emperor) and his pupil, a certain Darth Vader. Each of the six pint-sized Padawans went up against the Dark Lord of the Sith, and the last had to banish Vader using the Force Push. After Vader's less than confident entrance (well, his field of vision wouldn't be up to much in that helmet, and he had to walk down stairs to get to the kids), I kept hoping that one of the Padawans would ignore their training and swipe wildly at their enemy's knees. No such luck. There were laughs to be had, though, when the Force Push weakened his resolve, and he seemed to walk off in a huff.
With Vader gone, everyone in the room had to tell Sidious to 'talk to the hand' (OK, we all did a Force Push) and, with I final threat of "I'll get you next time!" he was gone.
...But he'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for them meddling kids.
The exhibition also had a green screen room, which probably accounted for much of the £16 price tag on the tickets, but the queue was unfeasibly long, so I gave that a miss. The so-called merchandise area consisted of a mobile shop (think burger van, but with t-shirts, lanyards and little bendy rubber figures instead of unhealthy foodstuffs) outside the building.
It was decent... and just about worth the money... but I couldn't help but be disappointed with it. Considering how much space they had available, they didn't really make adequate use of it. Many rooms were very sparse, or had the most random collections of incongruous props you could possibly imagine.
That said, I couldn't help but smile when little kiddies burst out crying as Darth Vader proceeded from his dressing room to the chambers in which the Jedi Training School was held. Aw, bless.
For starters, my replacement Masterpiece Megatron arrived last week and, two days later, I plucked up the courage to attempt to transform it. It worked. No bits fell off, nothing broke... The right shoulder is a little weak, and cannot support the fusion cannon... but then, that damned thing feels heavier than the robot, so that's no surprise. Perhaps with the electronics removed, it would be a more reasonable weight.
Megatron is reasonably poseable, even managing to sorta pull off a pose from TransFormers: The Movie, where he holds Hot Rod as a shield while shooting Optimus Prime. I really need to sort out some kind of light tent, and then think through some poses to try out for all the Masterpiece models.
It's vaguely interesting to note that I've bought three of the five Masterpieces - all the odd numbers - and it seems very likely that I'll skip on number six (Skywarp). One wonders what they think they're going to do by way of repainting Megatron. Perhaps the black version with the brown grip with blue, as opposed to red, as its secondary colour? Part of me hopes they stop this annoying trend toward reusing Masterpiece molds, as the second one invariably devalues the first.
Some might argue that the reverse is true for MP-03 Starscream and MP-06 Skywarp, since the latter is in 'show accurate colours' and the former is not, while others might argue that MP-04 is better than MP-01/02 because having a trailer, however basic, 'completes' Optimus Prime/Convoy. I'm tempted to agree about that, but MP-o1 hardly suffers from being without.
Went to see Spidey 3 last weekend, and completely forgot to write about it. I can see why it's been criticised. Frankly, the franchise started going the way of the Tim Burton/Joel Schumaker Batman movies with number 2... The third tries to cram far too much into one movie, and so the storytelling suffers by necessity. They could quite easily have turned it into a two-part movie (like The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3), with a compelling cliff-hanger ending to one, and a stronger conclusion to the other. As it was, the story came pretty much full circle, and ended on much the same note as the first. It had more than its fair share of flaws but, frankly, the jazz club dance scene was worth the price of admission on its own. Tobey Maguire did a very good job of portraying Peter Parker's descent into being a bit of a prick, even going as far as to adopt the old Star Trek trick of wearing eyeliner to emphasise his turn to the dark side.
Since I went to see it uptown, I naturally popped in on Forbidden Planet, ostensibly to see if they had any Chevalier D'Eon in stock. They did, but I didn't stop there. I also snagged the first of two DVD boxed sets of Cowboy Bebop, and a large book/box relating to (Ghost in the Shell 2) Innocence. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I needed it. As it turned out, it was a book containing the complete storyboards and script, and possibly interviews (all in Japanese, so it's impossible to tell) and a large box containing a small PVC model based loosely around two different scenes from the film. Very cute, but perhaps a bit too collector-y even for me. If I'd known exactly what was in it (or, more accurately, if I'd know the movie was not included), I probably wouldn't have shelled out for it.
I very pointedly did not visit Orbital Manga, because they have plenty I'd like to buy, and I just don't have the spare cash right now.
This last weekend, I went uptown again, to visit the Star Wars exhibition at London's County Hall. Much bigger and more impressive than the similar exhibition at the Barbican some years ago (around the time of Episode 1, I'd imagine), it was nevertheless a rather dry experience, and somehow lacking in everything. The blurb for the exhibition made it sound much better than it actually was, and I have to say that the building occasionally overshadowed the items on display. The large, circular room containing the full-size Naboo Starfighter was far more stunning than any of its contents.
The Jedi Training School was, perhaps, a little underdeveloped. Put on for the kids, it featured a couple of Jedi who, on the run from the Empire, have popped in on Earth for recruitment purposes. While his Padawan spouted dire prophesies about the Sith, the master sought out the six kids in whom the Force was strongest, taught them a single manoeuvre ("Strike left, strike right, duck, strike left") before proceedings were interrupted by Darth Sidious (aka The Emperor) and his pupil, a certain Darth Vader. Each of the six pint-sized Padawans went up against the Dark Lord of the Sith, and the last had to banish Vader using the Force Push. After Vader's less than confident entrance (well, his field of vision wouldn't be up to much in that helmet, and he had to walk down stairs to get to the kids), I kept hoping that one of the Padawans would ignore their training and swipe wildly at their enemy's knees. No such luck. There were laughs to be had, though, when the Force Push weakened his resolve, and he seemed to walk off in a huff.
With Vader gone, everyone in the room had to tell Sidious to 'talk to the hand' (OK, we all did a Force Push) and, with I final threat of "I'll get you next time!" he was gone.
...But he'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for them meddling kids.
The exhibition also had a green screen room, which probably accounted for much of the £16 price tag on the tickets, but the queue was unfeasibly long, so I gave that a miss. The so-called merchandise area consisted of a mobile shop (think burger van, but with t-shirts, lanyards and little bendy rubber figures instead of unhealthy foodstuffs) outside the building.
It was decent... and just about worth the money... but I couldn't help but be disappointed with it. Considering how much space they had available, they didn't really make adequate use of it. Many rooms were very sparse, or had the most random collections of incongruous props you could possibly imagine.
That said, I couldn't help but smile when little kiddies burst out crying as Darth Vader proceeded from his dressing room to the chambers in which the Jedi Training School was held. Aw, bless.
Sunday, 6 May 2007
Mania
Collectormania, to be precise. Not a psychological condition, exactly... more a small-scale Memorabilia, set in a whopping great shopping centre in Milton Keynes.
Going by the website, I was expecting far more... but in actual fact there was quite a bit squeezed into a comparatively small space ("More celebrity signings on the opposite side of John Lewis"). Many of the usual suspects were there (Spacebridge - from whom I finally purchased the Japanese Armada Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime - Tokyo Toys and even Genki Gear), along with a fair few Cosplayers. As a convention-type thing, it falls down in two areas: Firstly, it's just not big enough - it has far outgrown its venue. Secondly, because of its venue, entrance to the 'show' is free... meaning everyone who'd normally be milling around CentreMK of a weekend will be there along with those who are there for Collectormania. Still, not bad... and the convenience of the other shops was quite useful, too...
My companion and I were supposed to be joined by one of her friends and the friend's daughter but, owing to communication problems over the last couple of weeks, we weren't able to contact either. The worst part of this is that my companion's friend is a huge fan of James Marsters... who was signing at Collectormania. Ho hum.
After an initial sortie, to establish what was where, and what might be worth buying, we wandered about the CentreMK, grabbed some lunch, and browsed the normal shops. While there is a branch of The Entertainer, they never open on Sundays as they are part of the 'Keep Sunday Special' brigade. That was a real shame, as it's a great shop. The whole centre, in fact, is quite impressive... bigger and more open, with vastly more natural light (not to mention resident wildlife!), with a wider variety of shops than even the likes of Brent Cross.
With lunch and the sensible browsing out of the way (and parking time fast running out!) I ventured back into Collectormania for a couple of lightning strike purchases (the aforementioned Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime and Energon Towline from Space Bridge, then a Revoltech Patlabor Ingram 2 from Tokyo Toys (sadly missing the usual pair of cosplaying Japanese girls), before packing up and heading out by way of the frozen yoghurt stand. My companion picked up a Totoro coin purse and a couple of other bits of Totoro merchandise (some to be given away as gifts, I was assured), so it was a fairly successful day overall... And the revelation that the CentreMK has a shop selling imported sweets and other foodstuffs has given both of us good reason to head back sometime soon. Jolly good fun... if a little crowded ;)
Going by the website, I was expecting far more... but in actual fact there was quite a bit squeezed into a comparatively small space ("More celebrity signings on the opposite side of John Lewis"). Many of the usual suspects were there (Spacebridge - from whom I finally purchased the Japanese Armada Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime - Tokyo Toys and even Genki Gear), along with a fair few Cosplayers. As a convention-type thing, it falls down in two areas: Firstly, it's just not big enough - it has far outgrown its venue. Secondly, because of its venue, entrance to the 'show' is free... meaning everyone who'd normally be milling around CentreMK of a weekend will be there along with those who are there for Collectormania. Still, not bad... and the convenience of the other shops was quite useful, too...
My companion and I were supposed to be joined by one of her friends and the friend's daughter but, owing to communication problems over the last couple of weeks, we weren't able to contact either. The worst part of this is that my companion's friend is a huge fan of James Marsters... who was signing at Collectormania. Ho hum.
After an initial sortie, to establish what was where, and what might be worth buying, we wandered about the CentreMK, grabbed some lunch, and browsed the normal shops. While there is a branch of The Entertainer, they never open on Sundays as they are part of the 'Keep Sunday Special' brigade. That was a real shame, as it's a great shop. The whole centre, in fact, is quite impressive... bigger and more open, with vastly more natural light (not to mention resident wildlife!), with a wider variety of shops than even the likes of Brent Cross.
With lunch and the sensible browsing out of the way (and parking time fast running out!) I ventured back into Collectormania for a couple of lightning strike purchases (the aforementioned Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime and Energon Towline from Space Bridge, then a Revoltech Patlabor Ingram 2 from Tokyo Toys (sadly missing the usual pair of cosplaying Japanese girls), before packing up and heading out by way of the frozen yoghurt stand. My companion picked up a Totoro coin purse and a couple of other bits of Totoro merchandise (some to be given away as gifts, I was assured), so it was a fairly successful day overall... And the revelation that the CentreMK has a shop selling imported sweets and other foodstuffs has given both of us good reason to head back sometime soon. Jolly good fun... if a little crowded ;)
Saturday, 5 May 2007
Achey
There is a certain pattern to some weekends... I get headaches. Because I never think to track these things and try to properly determine the cause, there are still three possibilities:
1) I don't drink enough water - this could be true any day of the week, because if I get engrossed in something, everything else gets ignored. There have been many occasions, not just at work, when I've missed eating because I've been too busy. Yeah, I know, that just makes me stupid.
2) I don't take in any caffeine - it's an addictive substance, and I certainly used to get serious headaches if I went on a caffeine binge then stopped abruptly... That's why I stopped drinking Coke, etc. These days I drink Diet Coke fairly regularly during the week, so a 'withdrawal' headache over a weekend shouldn't surprise me... except it just doesn't happen every weekend.
3) Somewhat bizarrely, I have noticed that I frequently develop a headache an hour or two after eating fish and chips from whichever local place my folks patronise these days. Again, it's not every time... but I sometimes detect something odd while I'm eating (can't figure out exactly what - it's not the flavour, it's not the texture), and then go on to develop a headache.
Weird.
So, another Doctor Who... and not a terrible episode this time. My main objection would be the hideously overengineered monster. Supposedly some genetic throwback, an evolutionary direction Nature chose to discard but which, nevertheless, remained in potentia... Sorry, folks, it just didn't convince. Sure, the CGI was good... but the monster wasn't remotely believable. The Doctor managed to avoid being shouty for the first time ever, preferring attempts to calmly reason with the mutation... and then kill it off using a Sonic Screwdriver-enhanced church organ. Hum. There was some intrigue, in the form of a mysterious man who claimed to know The Doctor's true identity, so I'm sensing this series' recurring motif. "The Doctor is dangerous... Keep away from him..." Blah. The preview of episodes to come (since we have, in effect, a mid-season break thanks to next weekend's Eurovision Song Contest) featured Captain Jack (hurrah!) and Derek Jacobi in his 'shrouded in mystery' role.
Please, Russell T Davis, let him be The Master.
1) I don't drink enough water - this could be true any day of the week, because if I get engrossed in something, everything else gets ignored. There have been many occasions, not just at work, when I've missed eating because I've been too busy. Yeah, I know, that just makes me stupid.
2) I don't take in any caffeine - it's an addictive substance, and I certainly used to get serious headaches if I went on a caffeine binge then stopped abruptly... That's why I stopped drinking Coke, etc. These days I drink Diet Coke fairly regularly during the week, so a 'withdrawal' headache over a weekend shouldn't surprise me... except it just doesn't happen every weekend.
3) Somewhat bizarrely, I have noticed that I frequently develop a headache an hour or two after eating fish and chips from whichever local place my folks patronise these days. Again, it's not every time... but I sometimes detect something odd while I'm eating (can't figure out exactly what - it's not the flavour, it's not the texture), and then go on to develop a headache.
Weird.
So, another Doctor Who... and not a terrible episode this time. My main objection would be the hideously overengineered monster. Supposedly some genetic throwback, an evolutionary direction Nature chose to discard but which, nevertheless, remained in potentia... Sorry, folks, it just didn't convince. Sure, the CGI was good... but the monster wasn't remotely believable. The Doctor managed to avoid being shouty for the first time ever, preferring attempts to calmly reason with the mutation... and then kill it off using a Sonic Screwdriver-enhanced church organ. Hum. There was some intrigue, in the form of a mysterious man who claimed to know The Doctor's true identity, so I'm sensing this series' recurring motif. "The Doctor is dangerous... Keep away from him..." Blah. The preview of episodes to come (since we have, in effect, a mid-season break thanks to next weekend's Eurovision Song Contest) featured Captain Jack (hurrah!) and Derek Jacobi in his 'shrouded in mystery' role.
Please, Russell T Davis, let him be The Master.
A Complex Stand Alone
Last weekend, when I went uptown, there were people outside Forbidden Planet handing out flyers for Sci-Fi-London 6, which looked rather interesting. Of course, with it being over a series of week nights, and concluding today, there were a few things I'd have liked to see, but wasn't able to (Paprika being a prime example). What I did get to was the Production IG Special, featuring the UK Premier of (deep breath) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society.
It's a movie based on the TV series based on the movie, if you follow. Movie GitS and TV GitS never quite seemed to occupy the same reality - at least, I'd always thought that the events of series one were effectively running parallel to the original movie - but the guy who introduced the feature described the TV series as being a prequel to the original movie... Weird.
Originally, the movie was slated to start at 10pm but the schedule changed at some point this last week, and it was listed as starting at 8.45... Little did I know at this point that it was a Production IG Special, not just Solid State Society, that I'd be seeing. The full presentation showcased the studio to the full. Beginning with a (mercifully short) episode of Cromartie High School (described as Monty Python does Grange Hill, but really only funny if you take it as a pastiche of bad anime crowbarred into a high school setting) and the first episode of IG's newest TV series, Le Chevalier D'Eon (exactly what you'd expect if Alexandre Dumas collaborated with George A Romero - period France, fancy swordsmanship... and ZOMBIES!), along with several short clips from their other productions, to demonstrate the studio's incredible range.
Cromartie High School seemed like a demo reel for their special effects or for what they can do for videogame cut-scenes. It only had a plot in the loosest sense and, for a comedy, it really wasn't that funny (except for Freddie... Freddie was funny). It included elements of just about every bad anime show you could name (kids argued about who, among them, was the most 'badass', and the school had a gorilla and a cute robot in residence), so perhaps IG were simply taking the piss. The audience reaction was difficult to judge, but a couple of guys in front of me seemed to find it riotous... No accounting for taste... I found it rather dumb.
On the flipside, Le Chevalier D'Eon had quite an original and compelling story to it. In some ways, it was like a cross between The Rose of Versaille and Hellsing - supernatural violence, conspiracy... and what could be considered cross-dressing. Kinda. It follows the story of D'Eon, working in the secret police in the employ of King Louis XV, and his search for his sister's killers. Court politics must be observed at all times, and yet suspicion falls on the Duc D'Orleans... and things become even more complicated when the wandering ghost of D'Eon's sister takes possession of his body. I must admit that, while I was impressed enough to want to look up the series, while the setting is significantly different, and while the production values seem significantly higher, Chevalier did remind me of Hellsing all the way through.
The main feature of the evening, though, was Solid State Society. Kind of like an extended episode of the TV series (or, more accurately, a compressed version of the story arc of an entire series!), it follows the team at Section 9 (minus the Major, who's gone walkabout on the Net) in their investigation of a rash of suicides in a terrorist group, a series of child abductions, and something fishy going on with the healthcare system for the elderly. Of course, it turns out that all of these things are connected, but the denouement held another surprise - that of how it connected to Section 9 and, most specifically, to the Major. Strange as it was, just like the TV series, Solid State Society was much easier to follow that either of the original movies. The original wasn't overly bogged-down with philosophy, but the slow-burning sequel, Innocence, could be quite ponderous. SSS even manages to be very thought-provoking, once the true (intended) fate of the 'abducted' children is revealed... Was there truly a crime committed, or was a greater morality at work? If I had a complaint about this movie, it would be the extent to which music from the TV series was recycled - all the music, except for the opening and closing themes (both, if I remember correctly, sung largely in Russian by Origa) - had been used repeatedly before. As a member of the audience who has seen Stand Alone Complex and Second Gig, I found it easy to follow - though the characters seemed subtly different, suggesting that either there's a third series wedged in between Second Gig and SSS or, at least, that much time has passed since the Individual 11 case - but I could see many elements that might make it seem obscure to a newbie.
In other news, it seems I was quite timely in deciding to order my Iacon (non-attendees') Package for this year's BotCon... the boxed sets have now sold out, almost two full months before the convention! Interesting, considering the variable reaction this year's Seeker set has received. Last year's 'Pre-Beast Wars' set made it up onto the TFCC's store (albeit briefly), and the 2005 set is still there! Perhaps I should snag one of those... There are a couple of models I like, but the updated 'Deathsaurus' is pretty poor...
Hopefully, I'll be off to Collectormania in Milton Keynes tomorrow... and then Spider-man 3 on Monday... Bank Holidays are all well and good... but it's really going to mess with my deadlines next week.
The Boss has proposed that I come up with an 'Image Adjustment Masterclass', because I've been complaining so bitterly about the rubbish that's been getting into the magazines lately. It's nothing I didn't see coming, and will probably be quite useful for me as well as for the monkeys. I'm fed up with their shoddy work, and I'm fed up with their "we don't have time to learn the software (but we do have time to chat)" attitude, that has them running QuarkXPress 6.5 as if it was still version 3. The problem is, as I've always maintained, no matter how much training you give someone, it won't help if they're inherently lazy.
Speaking of lazy, I still haven't got anywhere with my website...
It's a movie based on the TV series based on the movie, if you follow. Movie GitS and TV GitS never quite seemed to occupy the same reality - at least, I'd always thought that the events of series one were effectively running parallel to the original movie - but the guy who introduced the feature described the TV series as being a prequel to the original movie... Weird.
Originally, the movie was slated to start at 10pm but the schedule changed at some point this last week, and it was listed as starting at 8.45... Little did I know at this point that it was a Production IG Special, not just Solid State Society, that I'd be seeing. The full presentation showcased the studio to the full. Beginning with a (mercifully short) episode of Cromartie High School (described as Monty Python does Grange Hill, but really only funny if you take it as a pastiche of bad anime crowbarred into a high school setting) and the first episode of IG's newest TV series, Le Chevalier D'Eon (exactly what you'd expect if Alexandre Dumas collaborated with George A Romero - period France, fancy swordsmanship... and ZOMBIES!), along with several short clips from their other productions, to demonstrate the studio's incredible range.
Cromartie High School seemed like a demo reel for their special effects or for what they can do for videogame cut-scenes. It only had a plot in the loosest sense and, for a comedy, it really wasn't that funny (except for Freddie... Freddie was funny). It included elements of just about every bad anime show you could name (kids argued about who, among them, was the most 'badass', and the school had a gorilla and a cute robot in residence), so perhaps IG were simply taking the piss. The audience reaction was difficult to judge, but a couple of guys in front of me seemed to find it riotous... No accounting for taste... I found it rather dumb.
On the flipside, Le Chevalier D'Eon had quite an original and compelling story to it. In some ways, it was like a cross between The Rose of Versaille and Hellsing - supernatural violence, conspiracy... and what could be considered cross-dressing. Kinda. It follows the story of D'Eon, working in the secret police in the employ of King Louis XV, and his search for his sister's killers. Court politics must be observed at all times, and yet suspicion falls on the Duc D'Orleans... and things become even more complicated when the wandering ghost of D'Eon's sister takes possession of his body. I must admit that, while I was impressed enough to want to look up the series, while the setting is significantly different, and while the production values seem significantly higher, Chevalier did remind me of Hellsing all the way through.
The main feature of the evening, though, was Solid State Society. Kind of like an extended episode of the TV series (or, more accurately, a compressed version of the story arc of an entire series!), it follows the team at Section 9 (minus the Major, who's gone walkabout on the Net) in their investigation of a rash of suicides in a terrorist group, a series of child abductions, and something fishy going on with the healthcare system for the elderly. Of course, it turns out that all of these things are connected, but the denouement held another surprise - that of how it connected to Section 9 and, most specifically, to the Major. Strange as it was, just like the TV series, Solid State Society was much easier to follow that either of the original movies. The original wasn't overly bogged-down with philosophy, but the slow-burning sequel, Innocence, could be quite ponderous. SSS even manages to be very thought-provoking, once the true (intended) fate of the 'abducted' children is revealed... Was there truly a crime committed, or was a greater morality at work? If I had a complaint about this movie, it would be the extent to which music from the TV series was recycled - all the music, except for the opening and closing themes (both, if I remember correctly, sung largely in Russian by Origa) - had been used repeatedly before. As a member of the audience who has seen Stand Alone Complex and Second Gig, I found it easy to follow - though the characters seemed subtly different, suggesting that either there's a third series wedged in between Second Gig and SSS or, at least, that much time has passed since the Individual 11 case - but I could see many elements that might make it seem obscure to a newbie.
In other news, it seems I was quite timely in deciding to order my Iacon (non-attendees') Package for this year's BotCon... the boxed sets have now sold out, almost two full months before the convention! Interesting, considering the variable reaction this year's Seeker set has received. Last year's 'Pre-Beast Wars' set made it up onto the TFCC's store (albeit briefly), and the 2005 set is still there! Perhaps I should snag one of those... There are a couple of models I like, but the updated 'Deathsaurus' is pretty poor...
Hopefully, I'll be off to Collectormania in Milton Keynes tomorrow... and then Spider-man 3 on Monday... Bank Holidays are all well and good... but it's really going to mess with my deadlines next week.
The Boss has proposed that I come up with an 'Image Adjustment Masterclass', because I've been complaining so bitterly about the rubbish that's been getting into the magazines lately. It's nothing I didn't see coming, and will probably be quite useful for me as well as for the monkeys. I'm fed up with their shoddy work, and I'm fed up with their "we don't have time to learn the software (but we do have time to chat)" attitude, that has them running QuarkXPress 6.5 as if it was still version 3. The problem is, as I've always maintained, no matter how much training you give someone, it won't help if they're inherently lazy.
Speaking of lazy, I still haven't got anywhere with my website...
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Neither empirical nor anecdotal, for that matter...
A short while ago, back when this year's Budget hit, one of the wags in my department tore off the front page of a newspaper with the headline 'The Gord giveth... ...and the Gord taketh away", referring of course to our esteemed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Brown. More recently, sometime today, to be precise, the page's photo of a grinning Mr Brown was replaced by a picture of me. Smiling.
Where the hell did any of them get a picture of me smiling?
My enquiries were met with oblique responses like "We have our ways and means..."
So anyway. Before I left today, I added a caveat to the bottom of the page:
*NB: There is no empirical evidence to corroborate the claim that 'The Gord giveth'
Let it never be said that I take myself too seriously.
Of course, the Boss asked how many people did I think would understand the word 'empirical'.
"The ones that matter," was my tart retort.
Where the hell did any of them get a picture of me smiling?
My enquiries were met with oblique responses like "We have our ways and means..."
So anyway. Before I left today, I added a caveat to the bottom of the page:
*NB: There is no empirical evidence to corroborate the claim that 'The Gord giveth'
Let it never be said that I take myself too seriously.
Of course, the Boss asked how many people did I think would understand the word 'empirical'.
"The ones that matter," was my tart retort.
A pinch and a punch
It had to be said, OK?
Things at work are closer to 'normal' now. Boss is back, Senior Copy Controller is back, worthless gobby so-called Senior Designer is back. Joy in abundance.
Against all the odds, in spite of precious little work being done in advance last week (and I'm particularly upset about an Estate Agent template which should have taken about an hour to rework, but is still not complete because the - normally very keen - designer I passed it to decided not to focus on it until the client's designer sends us high-res artwork to play with), we're not doing too badly. In fact, my deadline tomorrow is looking like a piece of cake and Friday's, far from being a disaster in the making, looks quite healthy.
Of course, it hasn't been without its dramas. I learned today that the aforementioned 'normally very keen' designer took last week's Boss-free Zone opportunity to complain to our Publishing Director about money. Cue one seriously disinterested Publishing Director. There's also the small matter of the long wait I had for any of the monkeys to decide on their training, and the fact that most of it seemed to be to help them outside work, rather than at work. Also, the other Production Manager (yes, let's just emphasise that: I'm a Production Manager now, and I'm talking about the other one) feels that having one of our largest magazines editorialise three ways is too much work for him. I'd agree... but not for the same reason. He asked Boss to share some of his pain, and she politely declined. Then there was the point where Boss found herself suddenly conducting a job interview because Commercial Manager North fancied a barmaid and wanted to give her a job in Publishing. The twat.
There's more, but frankly, who gives a monkey's?
I've registered for this year's BotCon, but as a non-attendee... About a month after the convention, I'll receive the boxed set of Thundercracker (repaint), Dirge (repaint), Thrust (remold), Bugbite (repaint) and Dreadwind (hopefully a remold of Classics Jetfire, rather than just a repaint). Shame I can't get my arse in gear to go to the convention, and thereby gain access to the cool hinted-at attendee-only extras like Springer (repaint of Cybertron Defence Hot Shot/Exigeyser), Huffer (repaint of Cybertron Armorhide) and Elita-1 (remold of Cybertron Thunderblast/Chromia), but travelling on my own just seems dull... and daunting. There, I said it, OK? Still, Rhode Island looks like it could be a lot of fun...
It occurs to me that I've not mentioned the new Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero. Now I've got it, I have to admit I'm not entirely convinced. It's good stuff... It showcases Trent Reznor's skill in composing and arranging this kind of music just as well as any of his previous output. Honestly, it only falls down in the way that all Concept Albums fall down: Taken individually, out of the context of The Concept, none of the songs are really that good. There's such a huge emphasis on the politics that, unless you (a) agree with 'The Message' or (b) are easily indoctrinated by political rhetoric in song form, there's probably very little appeal. That said, it does have moments of astounding beauty and, while 'The Message' is really nothing new, it's interesting that it found a new voice in Nine Inch Nails which, on the whole, has been Trent Reznor's navel-gazing project since its inception.
In other news, I popped uptown with my old mate Paul this last weekend, and came back home with (take a deep breath) THS-02b Hybrid Style Convoy Black Version, Revoltech Megatron, and Takara's Reissue Hound ("a popular boy today" according to the girl in the shop). Hound, as a model, is seriously cute. I picked up eHobby's Junkion Mercenary Detritus because I thought I'd missed out on Hound, so it's nice to have the original (with chromed parts and weapons) for comparason. Revoltech Megatron joined him because I already have Revoltech Convoy and, if I have one, I've gotta have the other. Almost got the Patlabor Griffon, but managed to restrain myself that far. Of course, it probably doesn't count as restraint because I snagged THS-o2b ("the last one..." wailed the girl in the shop, almost plaintively)... Yes, it's just a black repaint of the same THS-02 that I got ages ago, and it's not even a Nemesis version... but it still manages to look pretty darned cool. Some photos have been taken... More will follow.
And then I really must sort out my website.
I'm not quite sure what to make of Orbital Manga yet. It's a nice shop - certainly a classier-looking establishment than the old comics dungeon on Tottenham Court Road - and has some good stock... But am I alone in being extremely irritated when shop staff spend more time yapping with people who are clearly only there to chat with the staff rather that to buy anything, instead of... y'know... running the bloody shop and assisting potential customers?
I'm definitely feeling that my annual 'spring crazies' are over. I'm sure I need not explain this any more than by saying "hormones". I woke up yesterday and just felt different... Not exactly calmer or clearer of head, but something akin to both. In some ways, it's always a relief when I get to this part of my annual cycle, but it always seems to leave me temporarily worried that something's gone terribly wrong.
Things at work are closer to 'normal' now. Boss is back, Senior Copy Controller is back, worthless gobby so-called Senior Designer is back. Joy in abundance.
Against all the odds, in spite of precious little work being done in advance last week (and I'm particularly upset about an Estate Agent template which should have taken about an hour to rework, but is still not complete because the - normally very keen - designer I passed it to decided not to focus on it until the client's designer sends us high-res artwork to play with), we're not doing too badly. In fact, my deadline tomorrow is looking like a piece of cake and Friday's, far from being a disaster in the making, looks quite healthy.
Of course, it hasn't been without its dramas. I learned today that the aforementioned 'normally very keen' designer took last week's Boss-free Zone opportunity to complain to our Publishing Director about money. Cue one seriously disinterested Publishing Director. There's also the small matter of the long wait I had for any of the monkeys to decide on their training, and the fact that most of it seemed to be to help them outside work, rather than at work. Also, the other Production Manager (yes, let's just emphasise that: I'm a Production Manager now, and I'm talking about the other one) feels that having one of our largest magazines editorialise three ways is too much work for him. I'd agree... but not for the same reason. He asked Boss to share some of his pain, and she politely declined. Then there was the point where Boss found herself suddenly conducting a job interview because Commercial Manager North fancied a barmaid and wanted to give her a job in Publishing. The twat.
There's more, but frankly, who gives a monkey's?
I've registered for this year's BotCon, but as a non-attendee... About a month after the convention, I'll receive the boxed set of Thundercracker (repaint), Dirge (repaint), Thrust (remold), Bugbite (repaint) and Dreadwind (hopefully a remold of Classics Jetfire, rather than just a repaint). Shame I can't get my arse in gear to go to the convention, and thereby gain access to the cool hinted-at attendee-only extras like Springer (repaint of Cybertron Defence Hot Shot/Exigeyser), Huffer (repaint of Cybertron Armorhide) and Elita-1 (remold of Cybertron Thunderblast/Chromia), but travelling on my own just seems dull... and daunting. There, I said it, OK? Still, Rhode Island looks like it could be a lot of fun...
It occurs to me that I've not mentioned the new Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero. Now I've got it, I have to admit I'm not entirely convinced. It's good stuff... It showcases Trent Reznor's skill in composing and arranging this kind of music just as well as any of his previous output. Honestly, it only falls down in the way that all Concept Albums fall down: Taken individually, out of the context of The Concept, none of the songs are really that good. There's such a huge emphasis on the politics that, unless you (a) agree with 'The Message' or (b) are easily indoctrinated by political rhetoric in song form, there's probably very little appeal. That said, it does have moments of astounding beauty and, while 'The Message' is really nothing new, it's interesting that it found a new voice in Nine Inch Nails which, on the whole, has been Trent Reznor's navel-gazing project since its inception.
In other news, I popped uptown with my old mate Paul this last weekend, and came back home with (take a deep breath) THS-02b Hybrid Style Convoy Black Version, Revoltech Megatron, and Takara's Reissue Hound ("a popular boy today" according to the girl in the shop). Hound, as a model, is seriously cute. I picked up eHobby's Junkion Mercenary Detritus because I thought I'd missed out on Hound, so it's nice to have the original (with chromed parts and weapons) for comparason. Revoltech Megatron joined him because I already have Revoltech Convoy and, if I have one, I've gotta have the other. Almost got the Patlabor Griffon, but managed to restrain myself that far. Of course, it probably doesn't count as restraint because I snagged THS-o2b ("the last one..." wailed the girl in the shop, almost plaintively)... Yes, it's just a black repaint of the same THS-02 that I got ages ago, and it's not even a Nemesis version... but it still manages to look pretty darned cool. Some photos have been taken... More will follow.
And then I really must sort out my website.
I'm not quite sure what to make of Orbital Manga yet. It's a nice shop - certainly a classier-looking establishment than the old comics dungeon on Tottenham Court Road - and has some good stock... But am I alone in being extremely irritated when shop staff spend more time yapping with people who are clearly only there to chat with the staff rather that to buy anything, instead of... y'know... running the bloody shop and assisting potential customers?
I'm definitely feeling that my annual 'spring crazies' are over. I'm sure I need not explain this any more than by saying "hormones". I woke up yesterday and just felt different... Not exactly calmer or clearer of head, but something akin to both. In some ways, it's always a relief when I get to this part of my annual cycle, but it always seems to leave me temporarily worried that something's gone terribly wrong.
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