"The Man in Charge" It's up!!!

Here is the Trailer.



See the Movie page and watch the movie from here.

Also coming soon ...

"I'm Looking for a Monster"
The new book for young readers from my good friend Tim Young over at Creatures and Characters.

Coming SOON!!!

We're almost ready to release our first film. We test screened it for some friends and family recently and the feedback was really positive.
Sundiata is working on the final edit and various media formats right now.
I can hardly contain my excitement at getting this done.
Not that we have any really great expectations, but I'm pretty happy with it and very proud just to have it finished.
We're already looking forward to our next project.

Weekly Quotes

Patrick: on the band KISS: "If you take all their songs, and only take away the bad ones, you have nothing. They are a bad band."

Patrick: on asking Rudy Giuliani about foreign policy: "That's like asking a physics question of a guy who fell off a building."

Collins: on me: "It was either the cure for cancer or the name of the alternate Andorian first officer from the animated series. Guess which won? It wasn't cancer."

Me: on re-watching Star Trek the Animated series episode "Yesteryear" which Patrick bought me: "Apparently the Guardian of Forever has been taken over by Marley's Ghost for some reason."

Gina: random quote: "Lady Clairol - Bitchy Stepmother - No. 5"

HULK SMASH!!!

Marvel Entertainment has (FINALLY!!!) found the right formula for their movies.
I was going to write a review of their latest effort but Brigid Fitch beat me to it.
Here is her review and then some more noise from me.

"Wow. Almost as good as Iron Man, but that's just
because Robert Downey, Jr. is that much better an
actor (and he's got more of a fun character to play).
I was watching the movie, though, and realized that I
know much less about Hulk than I did Iron Man. We all
know the back-story because we watched the TV series,
but other than that, there's not really that much
substance. (Bill attests to this, calling the Hulk
comic book a "monster of the week" kind of thing.
Banner finds sanctuary in some mid-western town, gets
found by General Ross, Hulks out, escapes, and moves
on. Rinse, repeat.)

What I REALLY liked about this movie (other than the
Bruckheimer/Woo-like fight scenes & explosions) was
that there's a LOT of references to both the comic and
the TV series (they even play the "Hulk walking-away"
music from the series at one point. Oh, and not only
does Bill Bixby make a cameo, so does Lou Ferrigno.
He has a part in the movie AND does the voice of
Hulk.) Doc Samson is in it, Tony Stark makes an
appearance--it's a fanboy's dream. Oh, and did I
mention really cool fight scenes & explosions?

Try to ignore the Hulk CGI, though. That's the only
downside. Otherwise, it's well-scripted, Ed Norton is
phenomenal, and Liv Tyler is--well, it's not her fault
that Betty Ross has always been pretty 1-dimensional
in the comics. But she does get a couple of really
good scenes.

The best I can describe the movie for this group: Ang
Lee's version was like Star Trek: The Motion
Picture--Artsy & sentimental. This version is like
Wrath of Khan--suspenseful, gripping, action-packed,
but still pauses for brief emotional moments.

Go see it. Really."

- Brigid Fitch

That was everything I was going to say anyway, except that she fails to mention that we get to see what looks like the birth of the Marvel villain 'The Leader' but otherwise she's on the money.
So consider the rest of this a bonus.
Marvel seems to have finally cracked the code on how to take these character from their existing medium and bring them onto the large screen. It's really exciting to see them putting this all together and I'm really looking forward to "The Avengers".
Will they take on Thor? If they do will they show Asgard?
The fundamentalist will love that!
I think that in the Hulk we saw a little bit of what Captain America might look like when they get around to him. I'm really enjoying and looking forward to talking seriously about the various comic book legends and how they will be re-imagined this time around. I know I have some friends who really hate all this, so let me just warn you now; when the conversation turns to such weighty issues as the virtues of Vibranium as opposed to Adamantium, or the true history of Mjolnir - Thor's Hammer, or the nature of the Silver Surfer's 'power cosmic' I will not back down. I will wade into the conversation like Hercules wading into an alien bar fight.

'nuff said!

Impeachment!!!!

Really listen to these charges and while you do it, think of all American the families that have lost loved ones. Then think of all the families of any nationality who have been devastated by this needless war.
THANK YOU, Mr. Kucinich!!!

Holodeck 1.0

Check out the article here.

Or the main site: http://www.holografika.com/

Imagine the next generation of video games with this technology built in. Users interact directly with the objects in the game. No clumsy game controllers, no mastering the interface or game mechanics over the game play.
To say nothing of the potential educational value.


More than that, I can easily see designers using sophisticated software to extract complete virtual worlds from existing media. A computer scans "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (for instance) and builds a complete, interactive, virtual world from the images and characters. Then programmers set up simple, but increasingly complex, tasks within the world. Users are sent on a quest to retrieve some artifact from some specific location within the virtual world and must travel there and interact with other player characters and non player characters along the way.
The fun potential would be unlimited.

When this is available you can find me in either the LOTR or the ST:TNG simulations but not the Harry Potter sim.

I am STILL HERE!

In your face universe!

Another lap around the sun
On your marks and raise the curtain
Another year of endless fun
On your marks and start again
- Original

How to say 'Hope' in Japanese,

Kibo!

This is some damn exciting, final frontier stuff, happening right here.

The Japanese Space program has certainly had it's share of set backs, but this project looks like a real winner. There should be some very exciting science coming out of this lab over the next few years.

"YES, WE CAN!"

Thanks to Brigid for the image above.

Well, here we are. I am going to have a drink, or six, continue to watch the returns and reflect on how happy this makes me. Patrick and I are making plans to go down to DC for the Presidential inauguration when the time comes, if anyone else is interested.




"We have been told we can't do this by a chorus of cynics. We have been told to pause for a reality check. We have been warned against offering false hope. But in the history of America there has never been anything false about hope."
- Barack Obama

And this from Patrick:
"Now I know how people must have felt when they heard Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. speak. I literally have goosebumps.

I made my peace with his nomination a few weeks ago, but tonight I'm on board, win or lose. Tonight I saw speeches from two senators, and a president.
Obama '08."

- Patrick
**********

We all feel in our day to day lives that occasional sense of hopelessness, of helplessness, of fighting a losing battle that we can never win. There are other times however when the stars align, the world spins our way and everything falls into place. The happy among us are those of us who can savor those moments.

For me, this, is one of those.
-F.

12:21 AM - Frank sleep now.

Update

This past weekend was probably one of the best weekends of my life.
Don't ask why, just take my word for it. I've had a great few days.

Here is a shot from this weekend of myself, Gina, Pete, Vince and Barbara having dinner at Nagasaki. Much food and Saki was consumed, much fun was had by all. Thanks again!

On Sunday I got together with Sundiata to work on "The Man In Charge" and I have to say I am really excited about the post edit cut. We were able to really tweak it and, because we had so much to choose from, we were able to cut it down to just the good stuff. What we are left with is a fifteen minute short and, particularly for a first time effort, I am really surprised at how well it has come out. As always, with these kinds of projects, it has it's flaws. It is far from perfect, make no mistake, but we learned so much and the final project is so much better than I had come to expect it would be, that I'm all excited about it.