And the Obvious Yet Overlooked Question Is…

…so where in Vancouver is this place?

Two Items of ‘Watchmen’

1. In this poster for the movie, the clouds in the background suggest the giant squid monster. (Above and to the right of the blimp is the squid’s central eye, and below and to the left of the blimp is one of its mouth tentacles.) So the squid did make into the movie, in a subliminal way.

2. There’s going to be a Watchmen prequel. Two sketches (by Andy Kubert and J.G. Jones) have surfaced on comic news blogs, only to be removed by D.C.’s lawyers. But they’re still floating around out there on the Web if you do an image search. It would appear neither Alan Moore (obviously) nor Dave Gibbons (less obviously) is involved, so the actual project would have to be a fuck of a lot better than what’s in the sketches before I’d read it.

Did Cable Start Off as a Comedian Clone?

Look at the famous cover of New Mutants #87. Black-and-white hair that’s thinner at the corners and thicker in the middle and sides; big shoulder pads; scar; big scar over one eye; big gun; hairy body; sarcastic expression.

Huh?!

Bernie Sanders: “I believe, from day one, if the Democratic caucus has 60 members already in the house. We have a Democratic president, while we of course want bipartisanship, but if you have the Republican party stone-walling without one Republican in office in support of the public option then finally you have to say to the Democratic caucus and the Senate is: ‘We got 60 votes. Let‘s say no to Republican filibusters and let’s come up with strong legislation.’”

[Credit: Nation of Change]

This Modern World: ‘Consumer’

It would actually be comforting if this Tom Tomorrow cartoon were true.

Comic Strip: ‘Fort Knox’

I wonder if this guy was trying to draw Brendan from Home Movies?

In other news, thanks for the wintery banner behind my menu, LiveJournal. It goes well with the white hyperlinks and makes them delightfully hard to read.

Closing Logo Discovery

Here’s one for scary closing logo fandom: Cheri Sundae Productions. I saw this at the tail end of a police-chase show that was on right before wrestling. Click the image to go to a video.

Warning: potentially nightmare-inducing

Awesome Thrift Store Find of the Week: ‘Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time’!

1991. Starring James Avery [Shredder!], Michael Berryman, Sarah Douglas [mmmm], Wings Hauser, Marc Singer [Donovan!], Kari Wuhrer, Robert Z’Dar [hell, z’yeah!], and Frank Welker.

Also purchased this week:

Showdown in Little Tokyo [1991; starring Dolph Lundgren as a weeaboo and Brandon Lee as a banana]

Death Warrant [1990; starring Jean-Claude van Damme as an undercover Mountie!]

Secrets of the Unknown (AKA Secrets and Mysteries) [1988; hosted by Edward Mulhare (Devin!)]—the Jack the Ripper episode

Lionheart [1990; starring Jean-Claude van Damme and Brian Thompson]

Raw Deal [1986; starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Wanamaker, Darren McGavin, Ed Lauter, and Joe Regalbuto!]

This Guy Gets It

“It’s admirable to want to apply the same standards to both sides, but straining to manufacture false equivalencies doesn’t accomplish that; sometimes, honestly applying the same standards to each side will result in a finding that one side, at least in that regard, is actually worse.”

He happens to be talking about Jon Stewart, but I think this is an important distinction in all disputes. It never helps when someone enters a flamewar and says “How about if everybody just admits they’re wrong?”

Sure. How about if rape victims take half the blame? After all, “it takes two to tango,” right?

[Link] Hollywood Is Dead

An artist zombifies movie posters.

Example: The Empire Strikes Back. (Warning: SFW, but gory.)

[Credit: Tommy Lee Edwards’ Twitter]

The Cracked Guide to Fonts

As you might expect, I don’t agree with one or two things on the list, but still: hee hee!

Future Rockstar Games

I just recently learned of the existence of Grand Theft Auto expansion missions set in London 1961 and 1969. And then today I saw a TV commercial for a Rockstar game set in the Old West (I assume the phrase Grand Theft Horse will be in many reviews). It looks similar to Gun, a game I saw Amos playing on his Xbox at his place.

I look forward to seeing various historical eras covered as Grand Theft Auto worlds. Being able to drive around really fast in cool cars and talk to colourful characters is a fun way to explore the period and soak up the nostalgia.

This opens the door for setting it in the future, either in a future history they build themselves, or in borrowed futures such as Shadowrun. Imagine Grand Theft Auto: Shadowrun! Granted, there aren’t any cool cars in Shadowrun, but they could make some. And it’s already a game where you play a sort of criminal, operating outside the law and trying to become rich and powerful. Only instead of being Italian or Bosnian, you’re an elf.

Alternatively, if Rockstar isn’t interested in doing GTA: SR, the Shadowrun people (is it still FASA?) could get a license to use Rockstar’s driving physics code and incorporate it into their game.

Also, provided they stick to the 1980s version, Grand Theft Autobot.

Of Whom Does John Dingell Remind Me?

Monday night’s Daily Show guest was John Dingell, one of the longest-serving congressmen alive. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. His quiet, relaxed confidence in his progressive views was refreshing.

Anyway, he kept reminding me of someone, but I couldn’t think who. I thought I had figured it out just now, but it’s semi-unflattering, so there’s going to have to be a disclaimer afterward.

He reminded me of David Bowie in the early stages of progeria from The Hunger, when he first goes to the clinic to talk to Susan Sarandon.

Disclaimer: Despite reminding me of a rapidly-aging vampire, Dingell is still pleasant-looking, and at his age (83) one could do a lot worse than to look like David Bowie (one of the prettiest men ever) under aging makeup. I figure Dingell must have been really good-looking as a young man, and this photo from Wikipedia supports that hypothesis. He’s better looking than the other person in that photo, and that’s JFK, who was no slouch himself. Also, a Google image search of “David Bowie” and “Hunger” shows that his character, John, actually looks nothing like Dingell—though in fairness to me, I can’t find any images from the middle of his transformation, only from the beginning (young Bowie) and end (scary bag of old flesh). If only YouTube worked on this computer. Then I could see if there’s a video clip from the movie.

So now I’m back to square one. (The best of part of which was Mathnet, according to fruvous.)

Damn

They didn’t rehire the original voice actors to play the 1980s Turtles in Turtles Forever.

Mondrian Sighting

There’s a Mondrian-like painting in Kyle MacLachlan’s office in The Flintstones. It’s the Stone Age, so the lines aren’t perfectly straight.