It’s very strange seeing Billy Connolly in a serious role! Here’s the tease copy from Fox Movies:
“In grand “X-Files” manner, the film’s storyline is being kept under wraps. This much can be revealed: It is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits. In theaters July 25.”
My parents loved me way too much to give me Tang, so I had to live with the hardship of drinking primitive orange juice every day of my earth bound childhood. The faux sugar fueled orange power was first sold over the counter in 1959 by General Foods. However the drink didn’t take off until 1965 when the above ad campaign tied it to the Gemini program which forced astronauts to risk their lives in more than one way.
Here’s a pre-space race commercial for Tang starring Bugs Bunny from 1959:
However this cute animated spot from the 70s is the one I grew up with (which came after the space race was over):
Editor’s Note: My long time friend and fellow Asian cinema fanboy Sean sent me this wonderful email giving his critique on the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival:
Films I’d Like to See
Accuracy of Death: All I have to say is “death and his telepathic dog” – Sold!
Dainipponjin, aka Big Man Japan: Okay, as someone who grew up watching Godzilla movies this fake documentary about a bumbling super guy who fights Tokyo’s giant monsters appeals to me.
Dead Time: Kala: Okay, more than one person has compared this film to Dark City a film which I think had such great unrealized potential! I will go see it just for that fact.
L: Change the World: I’ll admit it, I saw both Death-note films and thought they were okay made for TV movies (but they weren’t made for TV), and a result I am interested in seeing this film which is part of the Death-note Phenomena…
Love On Sunday: So this one looks like a chick-flick but it’s directed by former soft-porn director Ryuichi Hiroki. I saw his first “commercial” film Vibrator (named for the fact that the protagonist leaves her cell phone on vibrate, but also a reference to her depressed feelings of no one being able to ‘hear’ her – so get you minds out of the gutter!) and very VERY impressed, plus the reviewer compares it to a John Hughes film. For those reasons I am willing to face what appears to be a chick-flick.
Mad Detective: Sounds like TV show House meets a HK gangster film!
Sukiyaki Western Django: I know it’s not going to be good, but there has been so much hype over Miike’s Japanese Western costarring… Quentin Tarantino in his first Japanese acting roll, my curiosity has gotten the best of me.
This World Of Ours: The review of this film really piques my interest. A manifesto written by a hikikomori (literally an anti-social individual who locks themselves in their room and won’t come out) ! How can I pass it up?
We’ve got everything here: the official uniform, gas pistol, shoulder holster, hat, Hornet face mask, signal watch, string ray, gas mask, phone adapter, shoes and the official ring! So who is Captain Action? He was launched in 1966 by Ideal as competition to G.I. Joe — but unlike poor Joe the Captain had outfits so he could be Superman, Batman, Captain America, Flash Gordon and even the Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet version came out in 1967 and is one of the most in demand by collectors of the ill fated action hero series. Here’s a commercial from the original Captain Action sans his Green Hornet or Lone ranger uniform:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2008 in Animation
Big Buck Bunny is an “open movie project” which was produced by Ton Roosendaal, the author the 3D software tool Blender. It’s exciting to think that these tools for doing high quality 3D character animation are getting out there, so far these films are just shorts — but we could see a full length indie 3D film one day in the near future.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2008 in Star Wars
My best guess is that this photo is either from 1980 or 1983 when either The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi came out. Although if you forced me to place a bet I’d say that with her hairstyle and the t-shirts with the iron on lettering the photo is from 1980.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 13, 2008 in Comic Books
As a nerd I’ve always hated the character of Conan who always seemed like the poser child for stupid. Shown above is my improved version of the upcoming cover of Conan the Cimmerian #0 which will hit the street on June 25th from Dark Horse Comics.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 12, 2008 in Videogames
Yeah get him LEGO Batman! I like how they always have to have the ESRB rating at the front, as if we couldn’t figure out that LEGO wasn’t real or something. Anyway plenty of action here, the game is due out September.
When you look at the science fiction from any previous era you get an insight to what they thought was modern and thus futuristic. You also get an insight into how they looked at the future itself: This RCA Victor album cover from 1958 views modernism as a moonscape (this was the dawn of the space age after all) and the dancer shows a certain amount of humor — and with a booming economy there was good reason to be optimistic at the time.
Just look at how American Greetings has ruined poor Strawberry Shortcake — don’t get me wrong she looked tacky back in the day (she was really a pink rip off of Holly Hobby) but this modern makeover has taken out all of the character out of the character. The modern version misses the point that a shortcake is a cake, and poor Strawberry must be allergic because her cat is out of site:
“Strawberry Shortcake was having an identity crisis. The “it” doll and cartoon star of the 1980s was just not connecting with modern girls. Too candy-obsessed. Too ditzy. Too fond of wearing bloomers. So her owner, American Greetings Properties, worked for a year on what it calls a “fruit-forward” makeover. Strawberry Shortcake, part of a line of scented dolls, now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops, appears to wear just a dab of lipstick (but no rouge), and spends her time chatting on a cellphone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard. Her new look was unveiled Tuesday, along with plans for a new line of toys from Hasbro.”
And here is a berry blast from the past from 1980:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 12, 2008 in Science
Frankly until we’re able to see a few more planets outside of our solar system up close it’s a bit early to make judgement calls on what is and isn’t a planet. I say we go to the Star Trek model and start to classify different types of planets by letter:
“Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made.”
Shown above is a wonderful photo by Inga P. of Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I love the way Inga set up this photo, and the cute touch of the cat makes the photo. Inga looks after the biggest English speaking Pinky:st community at pinky-street.com and she’s based out of Nottingham, UK.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2008 in Animation
These distorted caricatures are great because Javier Gonzalez Burgos has taken these well known Disney icons of the 20th Century and added that extra special touch of 21st Century anxiety with just a dash of information overload. Javier is an illustrator based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 11, 2008 in Star Trek
The Good News: CBS now has all of the original Star Trek episodes online!
The Bad News: You can’t embed them into your blog!
Old media just doesn’t get it — and the “it” is economics. On the web page views equal cash, so if nobody can find your video you won’t do so well. You’d think with an army of Star Trek fanboys allowing embedding would be obvious, but to me it’s just another sign of old media not understanding the medium. I also wish that CBS had done a deal with YouTube — as a brand CBS is dead to me because it’s a TV network which is something I make it a point to skip when channel surfing (and I’m an old guy!). There’s something quite sad when a show about the future is married to people stuck in the past.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 10, 2008 in Comic Books
Yes I know perfectly well that the character seen above is in fact a giant hippo and not an elephant, but that doesn’t take away from the high quality of this gritty cover by Rob Steen and Ladronn for Elephantmen #12 which will be released this Wednesday by Image Comics.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 10, 2008 in Science
This is an interesting article: It seems that since we are in the middle of the galaxy it’s very complex to reverse engineer what we’re seeing — until now that is thanks to computer aided astronomy. And it seems that the results are changing the way we think about the shape of the our galaxy, it seems that the Milky Way is two large spiral arms rather than four:
“Astronomy concepts are always changing as new information comes to light. The latest theory to undergo revision is our concept of the structure of the Milky Way. As we reside in the thick of it, it’s tough to see the proverbial forest for the trees. New findings may make a compelling case that the Milky Way has two major spiral arms, rather than four that have been theorized in the past.
A team led by Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin used the recently completed Spitzer Space Telescope infrared survey of the Milky Way, spanning 120° of sky. Previous studies led astronomers to conclude the galaxy has a pronounced central bar and four major spiral arms named for the constellations we see in their directions: Sagittarius-Carina, Scutum-Crux, Perseus, and Norma-Cygnus.”
Quick Robin! Stop him with the Batscope! Ah yes the good old days when for a $1.49 you could battle an evil doer with your never-miss powerful Batscope that shoots darts as far as 50 feet. My favorite part of the packaging is the back which features Batman and Robin taking on everyone from the Joker to a cute fuzzy monster:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
I think the best part of MoCCA 2008 was getting to shake the hand of comic book legend Gary Panter who played a major role in putting RAW magazine on the map in the 80’s. He was showing off a limited edition model of his famous character Jimbo:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is a photo of Craig Yoe at MoCCA 2008. Craig was asking me why more folks weren’t buying Comic Arf? And looking inside the latest book to tell you the truth I was stumped, it was crammed with all sorts of goodies by some amazing comic book legends like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. So if you’re a true comic book fanboy do yourself a favor and order a copy:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is Brian Wood at MoCCA 2008, I follow Brian on Flickr so it was nice to see him in person! Below is a sample of his graphic approach to illustration:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 9, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above are Hyeondo Park and Jeanette An at MoCCA 2008. Jeanette was showing her comic book The Side Story of Mei-Lan and below is an illustration by Hyeondo Park:
? And looking inside the latest book to tell you the truth I was stumped, it was crammed with all sorts of goodies by some amazing comic book legends like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. So if you’re a true comic book fanboy do yourself a favor and order a copy:
