Forever Geek |
- 2010 Anime Saimoe Tournament Preliminaries
- Firestorm the Firebreathing LEGO Dragon
- You Will Be Obsessed With ‘Plot Device’
- Angry Birds Obsession
- Classic Comic Books Look Stunning as Stained Glass
| 2010 Anime Saimoe Tournament Preliminaries Posted: 01 Aug 2011 04:00 AM PDT It's that time of year again when anime fans from all over Japan get together to decide on the next moe (pronounced mo-eh) queen of the year. If this is your first time hearing of saimoe, it is basically a popularity contest between all of the female characters in every anime that has aired in the past year. The tournament works by first having people nominate the characters they would like to see in the tournament. The rules for nominating a character are that she has to be female, and she has to have come from an anime that has aired on Japanese television or released on DVD in the year since the previous saimoe tournament. All of the nominees then go through a preliminary round to decide on which ones are actually worth putting in the tournament. This involves first splitting them into 16 groups and having people vote for their favourite characters and entering the top 12 into the tournament. Characters that place between 13th and 36th are placed into 6 groups and voting begins again. The top 16 characters in the second set of groups also get to enter the main tournament. While voting for the first set of 16 groups in the preliminaries is still under way, it's still interesting to see the results for the groups that have finished voting.
Looking at the rankings in the first 14 groups, it seems that the girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are dominating the others. Of the four main girls that have appeared so far, all of them have placed 1st in their respective groups. I would be surprised if the title character doesn't rank 1st in group 16 once voting ends. Other series that seem to have a strong following are Ore no Imouto and Hanasaku Iroha, both with two characters placing first. Former heavyweights like the K-ON girls and the girls from Index/Railgun seem to have fallen to the side, but still have a strong showing. I guess it might be time for new girls to take the spotlight. If Madoka does rank first in her group, it might foreshadow a sweep of the top spots in the tournament by puella magi. While minor characters like the girl with the teddy bear didn't make it past the preliminaries, when you consider that another minor character, Charlotte, has made it into the tournament, it's not that hard to believe.
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| Firestorm the Firebreathing LEGO Dragon Posted: 01 Aug 2011 04:00 AM PDT I have always been attracted to LEGO creations (who hasn’t?), but I have never been one to spend hours playing with LEGO bricks. Neither do I go out of my way to examine LEGO creations unless they totally stand out; and boy, does this LEGO dragon stand out! Created by akama1_lego1, the unique creature is called Firestorm. Not totally unique but definitely appropriate. For sure, countless dragons have been created using LEGO bricks, but this LEGO dragon is way ahead of all the others. Aside from the fact that it looks really cool and imposing, Firestorm actually breathes fire. End of discussion. Here are shots of this hot, hot, hot LEGO dragon.  Firestorm It’s the real deal, folks. Fire really does come out of this LEGO dragon’s mouth! And it’s even more impressive when the lights are out.  Firestorm Night The fire may not be the billows of flames I always have in my mind when I go to my dragon dreamland, but hey, I am sure the creator took a lot of care to ensure that the LEGO bricks don’t get damaged when Firestorm wreaks havoc!  Firestorm Back This is Firestorm from the back. Whether or not you are an AFOL, you won’t be able to help but admire the the work. And yes, I think the colors are just perfect! For the last shot, take a look at Firestorm up close.  Firestorm Close Up And if those photos are not enough for you, here is a video of Firestorm showing off. Someone once made a proposal to me – to create a LEGO pond to put koi in. While I think that that is a cool idea, it just didn’t really get my blood pumping. Now if a LEGO dragon – something like Firestorm but bigger and meaner – were brought up, I would not think twice! AFOLs, what creature/object would you NOT hesitate to build if you have the time and money? (You already know my answer to that!)
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| You Will Be Obsessed With ‘Plot Device’ Posted: 01 Aug 2011 01:00 AM PDT If I wasn’t already married to the most wonderful woman in the universe, I would want this 9-minute short film to bear my children. I’m not kidding.
Plot Device, co-written and directed by indie filmmaker Seth Worley, was made as a concept film to show off a piece of professional visual effects software called Magic Bullet Suite 11, by a company named Red Giant. What could have just been a nifty piece of viral marketing for Red Giant, in Worley’s hands is instead a brilliant love letter to the magic of moviemaking. The story follows a young filmmaker who finds the world around him altered every time he pushes a magic button he purchased on the Internet. Nearly every modern film genre is touched on, from the “buddy cop actioner” to the “alien invasion thriller” (complete with an impressively realistic flying saucer) to the “Wes Anderson dramedy,” and more. Worley’s brother Ben stars as the main character, and one of my favorite parts of the movie is watching Ben’s wry, off-the-cuff reactions to the craziness happening around him. As if his charming acting chops aren’t enough, eighteen-year-old Ben also wrote and conducted the orchestral score used in the film. Many of the other actors appearing in the film are relatives and friends of the director. His co-writer and collaborator on this project was animator Aharon Rabinowitz. Seth Worley is a burgeoning director who’s written and directed several Internet short films, but I believe that Plot Device is going to rocket his career to a new level. After watching this genius little movie, we should all be watching with baited breath to see what he does next.
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| Posted: 31 Jul 2011 02:36 PM PDT
I have to be honest: I don’t get why Angry Birds is so big. It’s a perfectly enjoyable video game, and I can enjoy slingshotting birds across the screen as much as the next guy. But is it really worthy of the incredible superstardom it’s achieved? To find out, let’s look at some of the ways that Angry Birds has taken a bite out of pop culture.
TV & TheaterAbove: a tongue-in-cheek trailer that imagines a live-action Angry Birds movie as directed by Michael Bay. It perfectly sums up my own feelings. Angry Birds has made Finnish developer Rovio so rich and so popular that the company recently hired a Hollywood bigwig to oversee transitioning the games developer into a full-fledged entertainment powerhouse. Have you ever heard of anything so audacious as a casual games developer trying to become the next Pixar? David Maisel, Rovio’s new “special advisor,” last worked for Marvel Studios, shepherding the introductions of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America to the big screen. At Rovio, he’ll guide the creation of a big-screen motion picture based on the wildly popular casual game. But what on earth will the movie be about? Rovio will need to create an entire storyline around those little birds and their pig enemies, since there’s not really a story there now. And that’s only where the complex issues facing the studio begin. There’s also been talk of a web-based TV series in the cooker, as partnered with the Roku player. Is Rovio biting off waaaaaaaay more than it can chew? I guess we’ll find out, but color me skeptical. Late NightSpeaking of television, this March, Conan O’Brien “honored” Angry Birds by building and playing a bigger-than-life-sized version of the game on his TBS talk show. (Conan made quick work of the pigs, as you can see in the video above.) Usually a video game has to be a triple-A console title before it breaks through to the cynical land of late night talk, but Angry Birds proved the exception to the rule. And it even got exposure one of the “cool” late-night shows. (Would Jay Leno even know what Angry Birds is? Doubt it.) Books Angry Birds Cookbook Yep, there are books on the way, too. As you can easily imagine, a line of children’s books are no doubt being dreamed up right now, but you can also look forward to a cookbook full of egg recipes coming soon. MashupsPerhaps there’s no greater sign of dominance than when fans put their favorite character (or group of  Alfred Hitchcock's "The Angry Birds" [Source]  Harry Potter Angry Birds [Source]  LEGO Angry Birds [Source]  Angry Birds in Minecraft [Source]  Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Angry Birds [Source]  Angry Sesame Street [Source]  Angry Zombie Birds [Source] It seems clear that Angry Birds is taking over the world. But I still don’t get it.
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| Classic Comic Books Look Stunning as Stained Glass Posted: 31 Jul 2011 02:31 PM PDT
Comic books are tremendous, classic comic books even more so. Comics still hold a soft spot in the hearts of many with films featuring comic book characters released seemingly every month, the recent conclusion of another Comic-Con, and new methods for sparking comic cravings. The books themselves (the good ones) are works of art, with one artist, Brandon Michael Barker, taking iconic comic book covers, envisioning them as art, using stained glass.
Barker’s pop art using stained glass and comic books as inspiration are truly splendid. The colors are superb and are no doubt even more so when hung in a window so sunlight can illuminate them. Action Comics #1 (above), looks incredible, but there are others equally as great (see below). Many of the pieces are available on Barker’s site for $300. Would you purchase one of the pieces? If so, which one(s) most appeal to you?    
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