New Podcast!

Just started a new podcast. We've been trying to record a podcast for a while but kept hitting this wall of what it should have been. We recently attempted one with Marina, Samantha's sister, but lately have had trouble finding time that we all could meet together. Working on finding something to discuss on a weekly basis. We just decided that the topic could vary but the context would be from our perspective of parents in the PNW. 

We went around with the title of the podcast. Originally with Marina it was 'Criminy', a word to express this 2020. Then we were throwing around 'Conversations at Bedtime', which sounded it little risque. We landed on 'Don't Wake the Kids'. Pretty safe explanitory, trying to record a podcast after bedtime whilst the kids get up another 10-15 times. Oddly, our first attempt had no interuptions. I also want to play around with getting others on the podcast maybe via Zoom or experiment with Anchor's call-in recordings.

Hoping, if nothing else, this podcast will be a way for us to process our lives and experiences and hope others can relate.

Here's a link to where you can listen to it: ANCHOR - DON'T WAKE THE KIDS

This sounds familiar

Have you ever noticed that certain things are all popular around the same time. Like two people with all-too similar ideas. It appears in most popular mediums. I think I first noticed when two rivaling animation studios came up with very similar films. Anybody remember Pixar's A Bug's Life and Dreamworks' Antz? I thought it was just so odd that the two largest animation studios at the time would come up with the exact same idea. Sure the style and story details were different, as different as they could be when dealing with anthropomorphic insects dealing with size issues. I'm sure there was a good reason for this, maybe a script leak of some sort.

The next one I remember was Finding Nemo and Shark Tale. Two undersea adventures by, again, the two biggest studios. Then Flushed Away and Ratatouille which both feature rodents as their main characters. Again the story my not be all that similar but just too odd not to notice.
Then there are just general swings of popular themes like dystopian-future based movies based off of books aimed towards teens. Hunger Games and Divergent. Not that dystopian futures are anything new but added to them both staring young adults and both from books. This may be attributed to the Hollywood machine jumping on the bandwagon of whatever trend is making money or maybe it's something more Jungian in nature. Also, I know I'm kind of stuck on movie trends but it's what I know, is it me or is it every time there's a new Bond movie it's around the same time as a Mission Impossible movie?

Comics would probably be my other main source of consumerism and they've always had similar trends as well not to mention similar characters. Aquaman and Namor, Thanos and Darkseid. Martian Manhunter and the Vision.

Characters aside their stories aren't all that different either. How about an event where the villians take over the universe? Dark Avengers and Forever Evil (granted those were years apart). Maybe something more recent like DC's Convergence storyline where the multi-verse collapse on each other and Marvel's Secret Wars where ... the multi-verse collapse on each other. Don't even get me started with the re-numbering, although I think Marvel has outdone DC with this one. All-New, All-Different anyone?

Now, as I said, I'm not sure if these similarities are more due to the large groups of people all being on the same wave-length or more the fact that it's where the money is at at the time but it does seem weird sometimes. Then there are the trends that make a return like the Zombie trend from the 50's along with the giant monster movies as well. Maybe it's just a sign that certain trends will never die or maybe it's that you can never have too much of a good thing. Either way color me interested.

Been a While but...

Hey All,

Been a while since I had a chance to blog. Thought I should get back into the game. To recap my life, there's been an addition to my family. My son Sebastian was born on April 16, 2014. Being a father is easily the best thing I've ever done. I feel like I could write novels on this past year's experiences. Maybe someday I will.

So many things to talk about and I'll probably try and touch on them in later posts. And since I don't want to cheapen the news of my son's birth I'll have to do just that. But I'm excited about what the future will bring and all the experiences of being a new dad. I feel truly blessed.

2013 Summer Movie Reviews

This Summer's movies have been more hit than miss for me.

Started off with Iron Man 3. For starters, I promised my wife that I would not watch a single trailer for this movie before seeing it in order to watch it spoiler free. So I did, even though I'm fairly familiar with the source material, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the same issue that most comic purists had with the Mandarin. Maybe because I was never a huge fan of that character so I enjoyed the joke and the extermis seemed way more interesting and fit better in this world that Iron Man lives in. One of the only problems I had with the movie was the removal of Tony's ARC reactor. But I have faith in the Marvel Studios movies that they will redeem the character for Avengers 2, or maybe Guardians of the Galaxy since Tony might show up there as well.

Then there was Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was a huge fan of the last movie and this one felt like more of that goodness. Not a huge fan of the original movies this franchise relaunch has me hooked. Love the look, sound and feel of these movies. The actors are really some of the best in my opinion and Benedict Cumberbatch was a fantastic addition. Can't wait to see this guy in future movies.

My pick for movie of the summer so far is Man of Steel. First off, I'll start by stating that I have never been a fan of Superman, in fact, I might got as far to say that he's my least favorite superhero. Superman was just so cookie cutter and blah. So I was really surprised that I loved this movie as much as I did especially over established franchises like Iron Man. This movie was beautifully shot and had some great actors in it. They tossed old trite Superman concepts like Lois not knowing who Clark is and kryptonite. Such a good movie. Lot of destruction but overall best movie this summer. If you wanna know more about it just listen to our spoiler review of the film on our podcast here.

Next would be Pacific Rim. Oddly this was the film I was kinda looking forward to the most. I just have an affinity for giants monsters fighting robots. It's the Godzilla fan in me. This movie was pretty much what I thought it would be. One of those movies where logic and plot hole checkers can leave their brains at the door and just enjoy some good old smashing. There weren't any really big actors in it but overall I left feeling entertained. You can listen to our more in depth review here.

And the most recent movie I've seen this summer would have to be The Wolverine. I had the lowest expectations for this movie since the last one was such a stinker. It sucks because I enjoy Hugh Jackman's performance as Wolverine but Origins was just a bucket of balls and really spat in the face of any Wolverine fan. The Wolverine on the other hand, although not completely accurate, felt like a more grounded Wolverine solo flick. I liked that they didn't flood the movie with random mutants that didn't fit (well almost, I'm looking at you Viper). This movie was based off of the Chris Claremont/ Frank Miller mini-series from the 80's and did more right than wrong. I was personally really attracted to the Japanese local and Wolverine's integration into that culture. Very reminiscent of Karate Kid 2. The action sequences didn't feel forced and flowed with the rhythm of the movie. And I ended up really liking the bullet train fight scene. We just recently recorded a spoilercast for the Wolverine as well, you can listen to it here.

There have been other movies that I've seen so far. Maybe I'll get around to reviewing them on the podcast. I personally enjoyed After Earth and GI Joe Retaliation. This Summer Movies season is the odd season for the most part. Next year's Summer is already sounding fantastic. Overall though I haven't come across a movie I really didn't like. I'd give it 4 out of 5 Summer Blockbusters for this Summer of 2013.

Podcast time!

Finally got a podcast out. Been wanting to make a podcast for a while now. I listen to them weekly and am kind of addicted. Feel free to check out my new podcast @ 2nerdsandagirl.blogspot.com and subscribe to it through iTunes if you really like it. Also let me and the the other hosts know what you think @ 2nerdsandagirl@gmail.com or twitter.com/2nerdsandagirl. Now I've got to work on music transitions for segments. So excited!

Some assembly required

So I saw the Avengers twice this week. Needless to say that I loved it. I was really worried because Joss Whedon has been hit and miss for me. It's just amazing that this kind of movie was even made let alone that it's this good. It's quickly become one of the classic movies along the same lines as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But it is also the first time ever that four different movie characters over five different movies combined to form one amazing movie like some giant Voltron of awesomeness. It's just such a hard feat to pull off. That they planned all this from the beginning. Marvel should get some award just for attempting to pull this off. It was a fanboy's dream seeing the team come together. The shot of the team as the camera pans around them was not just cinematic it was a dream come true.

 Now with Dark Night Rises on the horizon I'm left wondering what DC Comics has planned for us. I had the feeling that they were waiting to see with Marvel would succeed or flounder with there attempt at creating a world of heroes. With the exception of Batman I feel like they're not off to a good start. I think Green Lantern was meant to establish this world given Amanda Waller's appearance in the film. Her presence possible being the Nick Fury of the DC film kingdom. It's too bad about Green Lantern. I had really high hopes with that film since Green Lantern was my sole reason for diving into the DC universe. I'd like to know how much of a role Geoff Johns played in the making of that film. Now I hear that Christopher Nolan's brother is involved in the story writing of Man of Steel. I hope to just be entertained by that movie given the director but maybe it can save the character and the DC film franchise. I think the DC fans are really hoping for a Justice League movie although I really don't see that happening. As much as I love the Batman films I don't think the DC characters will translate that well into film. I'd like to see a really well made Wonder Woman film. Heck I'd love to see and superheroine film done well at this point and as DC has a larger list of strong female characters I hope to see them come to light.

Back to Marvel. Now that Avengers has been a success I think the following Marvel films will get that "it's not Avengers" feel to it but I really don't care. Although I can see the Avengers making guest appearances in the next wave of Marvel films I'm still just excited to see these characters on the big screen. I really want to see Black Panther in his own film maybe with a tie in to Storm, since Storm is my favorite Marvel heroine. I think we can safely skip the Wasp as she has never been a huge character. I'd like to see Marvel buy back their rights to the X-Men and other characters like Spider-man and Daredevil so that they can introduce them into this larger film universe they created. I kinda see the next wave of films building towards Avengers 2 or Avengers: the Infinite Wars. Thanos is an interesting villain for the next film but I have faith in the Marvel franchise. Perhaps they'll build off a Dr. Strange and introduce Adam Warlock. It's an odd route to be sure as I never got into those character but it is a route. I'd like to see the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver be the next additions, along Black Panther of course. That would be the first step into cementing the X-Men into the Marvel univ erse. I think that the Avengers could use another strong female character and Scarlet Witch could do it, although I'm still pulling for Storm. Well until 2015. Avengers Assemble!

God bless the 80's!

So I've been thinking about how everything from my childhood has stood the test of time. Having grown up in the 80's, I thoroughly enjoyed my childhood entertainment. I had the pleasure of growing up with the first cartoon used to market toys with He-Man. Transformers were amazing. And mutated Turtles that new ninjutsu and ate pizza were the pinnacle of entertainment. I got to see Batman get transform from Adam West into the emo Michael Keaton version. The 80's was a magical time when the most amazing thing you can imagine would get green lighted into a cartoon or movie. Do you honestly think that Robocop or Dinoriders would ever see the light of day had someone proposed it today? I got to witness Jim Henson, George Lucas, and Steve Speilberg at their prime. Does anyone born in the 90's even know who Jim Henson was? Do you remember when Yoda was a puppet who people wanted to nominate for best supporting actor? Where were you when some had the audacity to make a film with an entire muppet cast and David Bowie? And it was amazing! 

The toys and merchandise alone were entertainment in and of itself. The commercials each had their own jingle, even if it just consisted of basically describing the product through song. It was always, "Something, something, amazing... the most incredible something of all!"
I kinda wish they'd bring back that 80's style marketing. Kids looking too excited to playing with the toys that squirted slime or adults sweating as they engaged in a game of Battleship or Nuke.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to some of these 80's toy marketing meetings. "What's hot right now?"
"Robots!"
"Dinosaurs!"
"Lazers!"
"Hmmmm..... what if we took Robots + dinosaurs + Lazers and = Dinoriders!"
"Success! Let the money rain!"
"What about story or plot?"
"Just copy the Thundercat story and add a frog with the voice of Dr. Claw and call it good. Or should I say ... gold?"
Like were people in suits and ties the ones who decided that bears would shoot rainbows out of their stomachs or corvettes convert into aircrafts with working missle launchers? Really???
Or were the 80's just the rejected afterthoughts of the 70's? How else can you explain man sized talking turtles who are ninjas and when they get a case of the munchies they grab a slice of pizza with whatever topping hits their fancy. Strawberry, jellybeans in peanut butter with extra cheese!
But the best thing about the 80's had to be from the overall acceptance of this commercialization. We were a generation of people who were brought up to believe in all things and to make your wishes come true. Anything was possible. Aliens were not only nice but loved candy and glowed in the dark. I remember thinking I would love to have a robot as a friend. Do kids still believe this or is this current generation completely jaded by the world that they inherited? If so, I apologize to the current generation. I'm sorry you had to grow up with this sense of disillusionment and I got to experience a cat eating alien from Melmac.