“Coco” is Coming to a City Near You
Conan O’Brien announced today that he will be taking the remains of his canceled “The Tonight Show” on the road. Beginning April 12th, Conan and co. will embark on the 30-city “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” in Eugene, Oregon, visiting 20 states and Canada.
“It was either a massive 30-city tour or start helping around the house” O”Brien quipped to the associated press.
Eric Cartman Poker Face Coming to Rock Band
That’s right, next weeks Rock Band DLC is the best in a loooong time. Also, if, for some strange reason, you want to download the Lady Gaga version, you can do that as well.
The Ettatorial for the Week of 3-3-10
For a whopping fifth record week here at the Ettatorial, we’re going with a trade paperback review instead of a book released this week. I only had a total of 3 books purchased this week, and honestly the quality was a bit lacking. So, as with weeks past, here’s something I can recommend.
Your pick this week is Human Target: Chance Meetings. This actually reprints the first mini-series and original graphic novel that lead into the regular ongoing series, making it a bargain considering I originally bought both the trade and OGN seperately. One of my favorite series in the last decade, Human Target is a deep exploration of self, identity, and the psychological ramifications of being someone else. Granted, it had more than it’s share of action as well, but the series really was something more, something definitely meant for mature readers, but one that really succeeded in it’s concept and execution. Christopher Chance is a man who actually becomes someone else, actually taking on their identity, in his job of protecting (or sometimes other things for) a person All that is to say, when Fox announced that they were adapting the character and the series into a television show (the second for the character, but the less remembered about the Rick Springfield show the better), I was thrilled. Thrilled that is, until I saw a bit of it, and realized that the show was just the Human Target in name alone, lacking any bit of what made the comic series work. Fox turned the show into an action piece, avoiding any of the deep psychology that actually made the comic great. They would have been better served to make their show with another name, because it would have been much cheaper for them saving on buying the name rights from DC/Warner Bros. I do understand, at least from a creative standpoint, as a show where the lead would be required to be portrayed by a different actor all the time would be costly and difficult, and that does make sense. But that doesn’t excuse it in my mind, as I feel the source material deserves more. All this has been a long winded version of why I’m posting this recommendation. Any of you who were let down by the show, or those of you who appreciate a deeper read, need to give this one a try.
There you have it folks, your pick for the week. I’ll see you back here next week, same time, same channel.
Japanese People Sing Weezer
I think I speak for everyone at Project Silence when I say we’re Weezer fans. If this video doesn’t put a smile on your face I don’t know what will. This could have easily come across as mean spirited, but thanks to some great editing, and the fact everyone involved in clearly having fun, it doesn’t. From Boing Boing:
From Joe Sabia comes this wonderful rendition of Weezer’s Can’t Stop Partying featuring random people from Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. Sabia took a trip to Japan in November, and over the course of six days, showed the below note to folks he met on the street.
“It basically says hey, how are you, I’m doing a project and I’d really like for you to repeat what I say in English,” he tells me. “A United Airlines stewardess translated it for me just before I got off the plane.”
Almost There…
McFarlane’s Halo 3 figures are pretty excellent. It’s a shame they don’t provide an method to acquire just the pieces you need instead of buying random packs and trying to patchwork your characters together, but I’ve been able to do it. Here is Silence, Etta1791 and JediJason78, perfectly accurate. Next step is accurate paint jobs, thanks to the talents of Mr. Jason Walter.
Planet Earth: 57 Universe: 0
OK Go’s Rube Goldberg Machine
I’m not a huge fan of OK Go, but they sure do seem to impress me a lot. It seems every time I turn around they are producing or lending their music to some creative video. Not to mention this is a pretty excellent song. When you see the end of this video, you may be like me and say,”fine, OK Go, call me a fan.”
Like We Need More Great Looking Games, Giant Bomb Shows us Blur
The last thing we need this year is more games that look excellent. I’ve mentioned Blur a few times before, and how I thought it had serious potential, now Giant Bomb has been able to visit Bizarre Creations and show us more of the game than we’ve seen before. I’m gonna be so poor by the end of this year.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 Announced
It’s been a hell of a week. First someone stole my GamerTag (Yup, I’m not Silence, for now, Microsoft is investigating), so I can’t play Xbox. My copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2 arrived from Amazon looking like it was used by the UPS driver to soften his hard seat (to Amazon’s credit they are overnighting me a replacement). So things haven’t been going great, but maybe things are looking up! Today Atari announced the long awaited, oft-rumored Test Drive Unlimited 2. Details are sparse but the always intuitive people at Neo-Gaf have discovered that the location looks to be changing to Ibiza, yet another island paradise. Color me excited, Test Drive Unlimited was easily the best time I’ve had with a racing game this generation, and it was hampered by also having to have a PS2 version, which meant Eden had to cut corners and not use all the power something like the Xbox 360 could throw at it. Now it will be very exciting to see what they can do with a truly current gen title.
The Ettatorial for the Week of 2-24-10
Another decent-sized shipping week for me, with a total of six books. But yet again, nothing really jumped out at me. Nothing was wrong with any of the books, I enjoyed them pretty much equally. But I just didn’t feel like recommending any as a pick for the week. So for a record fourth week in a row, I’m going with a tradepaperback/graphic novel selection instead.
Your pick for the week is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This most recent telling of the classic is brought to us via Marvel, with noted Oz fan/historian (and Age of Bronze author/artist) Eric Shanower on writing detail and Skottie Young on art duty. Now most (if not all) of you are familiar with the Wizard of Oz. Usually that means from exposure to the classic film, though some have read L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. The film is the most familiar, and while I love the movie (it’s a personal favorite), it does take it’s liberties as most films (should and usually) do. This telling of The Wizard of Oz actually takes from the source, and as such, is that much richer for it. Things like Dorothy’s slippers not being ruby for example, or an explanation of the Flying Monkeys allegiance to the Wicked Witch are some key details to the story, as are so many other wonderful pieces left out of the film. This collected edition of the story is spot on in it’s telling, and it’s distinctive art is what elevates it even higher. Young’s art is a very youthful style, reminding me of a mix of graffiti, manga, European, and modern western art styles. That is to say, some might not immediately love the art style chosen for the project. I however would say those detractors are dead wrong, as Young’s research and personal vision for the material actually enhance the story much further than other adaptions in the past have, and make this version actually closer to Baum’s original intent. With the writing and art being so well done, I would normally say case closed and pass on the recommendation. But Marvel went the extra mile, and it’s production values and choices made in it’s printing make it that much better. Things like no chapter breaks in between issues, paper stock and even coloring, all of these things have been thought out to make the collected edition a complete package. With a nice introduction, cover gallery, sketch material, and so on, this is truly a terrific version of Oz. I’m looking forward to the creative teams’ follow-up on The Marvelous Land of Oz to see more. I highly recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed Baum’s classic masterpiece, and encourage even those that haven’t or are too jaded to the material to check out this version of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
There you are folks, your pick for the week. I’ll see you back here next week, same time, same channel.
