Sympathy For Lady Vengence Poster Is Up

Classified under:Korean Cinema,movies
I had my Korean friend, Jung-woon translate the title. It's not called Sympathy For Lady Vengence" in Korea, but rather "Kind, Miss Kumja". I wonder how kind a woman can be in a Park vengence pic? Jung Woon also did some translating from this article and told me that the protagonist is in prison and that the movie is being filmed at the moment and will debut in Korea this May.

Tim Roger's 2004 insert credit fukubukuro

Classified under:gaming
I hate print video game magazine. Maybe it's because I haven't been reading the good ones, or maybe it's because I've been soured by the death of NextGen magazine. They're all the same. Gushy hype filled previews and reviews that rehash what you've read on the back of the box plus a score number. Boring. This leads us to Tim Rogers. Tim Rigers is my favourite games jouralist, bar none. Yeah, sure, he's long winded and takes pages to get to the meat, but he sure knows how to entertain while you wait. He's the only gaming journalist that got Metal Gear Solid 2, turning me onto Haruki Murakami in the process. He just posted his retrospective on 2004 which is full of gaming goodies. My favourite bit so far is his take of the Big Metal Gear Solid 3 Secret.

Know this: Hideo Kojima had considered, for the longest time, making Metal Gear Solid 3 impossible to continue. It was his deepest wish. It was more than his deepest wish that the game would not allow you to continue if you died. The game nearly ended up published this way. It would have been completely unknown to the players of the world until the game's release, at which point the "great spoiler" would hit the internet within twenty minutes, freaking the hell out of everyone about as badly as Raiden freaked everyone out. It was Kojima's trump card. It would have been horrible. It would have been terrible. It would have been brilliant. It would have been something else.


To a person who plays videogames more than semi-regularly, it very likely would have been the biggest feat of mischief ever pulled in game design.


It would have gone like this: you can save the game if you want to. After you save, the girl, Para-Medic, talks about a random old movie. When she's finished talking about the old movie, you're told it's okay to turn the game off. You do so. You turn the game on the next day, play a little bit, get careless, get shot, and you die. That's it. You can't continue your saved game; saves are immediately deleted upon being resumed. Play carefully, now.

Imagine would coulda been, eh? Gaming needs more journalists like him.

Nintendo Revolution Rumours

Classified under:gaming,Nintendo,Nintendo Revolution
Earlier last week, what could be the first details of the new Nintendo system, the Nintendo Revolution, were released. Although the first report did break potential news about the new Nintendo system having a hard drive, a la X-Box, it seemed a little less than revolutionary. One of the more interesting aspects of the new Nintendo system was that it would use gyration as part of the control scheme. The source cryptically said that one of the revolutionary aspects would involve "touching", sort of a nod to the head to the new Nintendo DS. 4 color rebellion broke some more news of the Revolutions, saying that the whole controller is pressure sensitive, enabling players to rub and control.

The rumble pack. Touch screen. Rubbing. It seems that they're on the fore-front of video game mastabatory aids. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo brought out a vibrator for the new system to enhance the gaming experience.

Music track of the day: Katamari Damacy OST-Katamari on the Rock

Classified under:mp3,Rob Andrews
It coulda been a contender. If it wasn't for the gaming industry's 1000 pound gorilla, Grand Theft Auto and Microsoft's marketing machine working it's magic on Halo 2, Katamari Damacy could have the game of the year. Why shouldn't it be? Katamari Damancy is easily the most inovative games of the year, a great usage of simple game design to suck the players in. And then there's the music.

In the post-GTA climate of gaming, many companies have opted to use licensed tracks to add emotional punctuation to the gaming experience. Drive-by's while you listen to "How I Could Just Kill A Man"? Sold! Katamari Damacy reverses the trend by creating it's own music, and what splendid music it is. Remember the good old days when you'd get those crappy lo-fi 8 bit symphonies stuck in your brain? Katamari Damacy is a time travel pod back to the past. Not only is the music incredibly catchy, but Katamari theme is continuously echoed througout the game, allowing players to connect with the emotional moments (like making the moon). I've gotten many a strange look from my friend Miwako while trying to sing the theme song.
"Rob, why are you saying "clump of strong mind" over and over again?" Then I showed her the game. She started to hum along too. The music is an infection. I dare you to rid yourself of the "la la la la" of the Katamari theme. It's damn tough.

Google Video

Classified under:google,television
Google has been unleashing lots of interesting tech lately. For someone that doesn't watch television, like myself, I find the idea of an internet based program that essentially recaps the show interesting. What I'm really looking forward to is when google is able to keep constant transcripts of television news and integrate it with google news. That'll be an interesting day.

The Oscars 2004 nominations are up.

Classified under:Oscars 2004,Rob Andrews
God, the Oscars can be so surreal. What's missing from the list? What's confusing?

No Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind as best picture.

No Best Actor for Jim Carey or Paul Giamatti.

Why is Jamie Foxx billed as best supporting actor for Collateral? He's clearly the lead of the film. I suppose it was a political move, so that he'd get an extra nomination. But still!

Oldboy isn't considered for best picture (which isn't that surprising, but still, I'd like to see a revenge film up there), as well as Wong Kar Wai's 2046.

Ghost In the Shell and Team America: World Police not being nominated for best animated film.

I am amused that the writer of Bats and Star Trek: Nemesis (John Logan) was nominated for best original screenplay, but after Akiva Goldsmith won, nothing shocks me.

I'm surprised that Collateral wasn't nominated for best cinematography. It was clearly the best usage of digital film I've seen yet. It managed to capture darkness incredibly well.

Hellboy wasn't nominated for best makeup? Huh. Very surprising.

I'm incredibly surprised that the Incredibles wasn't nominated for best score. Out of all the movies this year, it's the only one, next to Oldboy, whereI wanted to get a soundtrack right away. A great re-jigging of spy themes and superhero bombast.

No nods for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? I admit that the movie was incredibly souless, but c'mon, the movie is gonna be considered to be a turning point in special effects in the next couple of years. The least it could get is an Oscar nod.

Who do I think should win for this year's Oscars?
Best supporting actress: Natalie Portman-CLOSER.
Best supporting actor:Clive Owen-CLOSER
Best actress: Catalina Sandino Moreno - MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Best actor: Jamie Foxx - RAY (although I have a soft spot for Dicapprio peeing into a vaste line of milk bottles. Oscar gold, I tell you)
Best director: Martin Scorsese - THE AVIATOR
Best screenplay: Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Best adapted screenplay: Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor - SIDEWAYS
Best animated feature: the Incredibles
Best Feature: the Aviator

Music track of the day: the New Pornographers-Mass Romantic

Classified under:mp3,Rob Andrews
Before September 11th, the music scene was bursting at the scenes with the renaissance of Rock and an optimism that had been told in the late 90s. Call it millenium paranoia in reverse. Leave it up to a Canadian band to capture the sheer wide eyed joy as we entered the 21st Century. The New Pornographers, led by Victoria native Neko Casehad a killer single, Mass Romantic, that was played on all the college radio stations that year. What I dig about the song is the unrelenting cheeriness and the great keyboard in the background. Worth checking out.

OKCupid

Classified under:webjunk,Rob Andrews
One of the worst scourges that has hit the net has been the rat like proliferation of nonesense tests. What fruit are you? What colour describes your feelings? If a stranger asked me these questions, outside of a psycho-analytical session, I'd stay very, *very* far away from them. I can see the appeal. Internet tests are a fine time waster and you get rewarded with results. Can't fault that.

Hey, remeber the Spark and the crazy ass tests that they had? Solid gold, baby. The creators of the Spark have moved on and used their test technology for evil. That's right, they made a dating website, but don't let that frighten you. The cool thing about OKCupid is that it allows you to check your compatlibility with your friends and your sexual compatibility with prospective lovers. My friend from the hotel, Erin met her boyfriend, and she hasn't cut off his balls yet, so I guess that it does work. Not only that, but it has crazy details on stats, and I'm a huge stats fan. I get a kick seeing how selfish I am compared to the rest of the people my age.

Anyhow, I suggest that you go to the website and check it out and take a couple of tests. You can check out my profile here. For kicks, I compared myself with my ex-girlfriend Heather. I found out that we're 68% compatible as lovers and 67% as friends. It's interesting how close the two percentages are.

Music track of the day: DJ Riko - Whistler's Delight (Full version)

I'm not sure if I'm going to do this daily since my music tastes aren't nearly as refined as my movie tastes, but I think that I'll give it a whirl for a while.

For the last two years, I've heavily been experimenting with music by Dj's. I wasn't hooked at first. I remember listening to my bootlegged version of DJ Shadow's Private Press. I didn't know it at the time, but the version that I bootlegged was fucked up beyond recognition. What I thought were stylistic quirks of the genre turned out to be a bad transfer on the part of who ever ripped and uploaded it to the internet. The turning point to me where I started to really dig DJ Shadow and the genre was lisetening to Six Days for the billionth time. I was driving home from a long days work, and I finally GOT IT. It was a revelation. I was hooked.

This brings me to DJ Riko. He's not nearly a proficient artist as Shadow. Instead of making music from scracth, using samples ala Avalances or Rjd2, he remixes music. Nothing wrong with that, however. Whistler's Delight is a snipet that I stole from a longer mix of his, Later Day Taints. Whistler's Delight takes all the whistling that you've heard in pop songs for the last 50 years and mashes them up to a heavy drum beat. It loses steam about halfway through, but it's still worth listening to for the game of "spot the sample".

A simple guide to music blogging

I'm doing this mainly for the benefit of Mike and Stephen, just in case they want to upload music for Moon Karma Zero. What I'm using currently is YouSendIt, a program that stores large files online that you'd normally e-mail. I'm using it as a temporary stoage space since I don't know of any other way to store music online without having to pay for it. What you do is go to the website, select your musical file and e-mail yourself. In your inbox will be an address which will be the direct link to your music. Cut 'n' paste and voila! You're listening to music. There's a couple of downsides to this, of course. The link only lasts for 10 days and is deleted after 25 downloads. If your site doesn't have that many visitors, like mine, you should be okay. Otherwise, it's time to buy a domain.

Hope this helps.

Anson Wu: Counterstrike Player

A good percentage of the time, what Anson says is bullshit. I've heard many tales of him in China, always casting him in a positive light. These stories have been the ones that I end up ignoring. But there's some truth, among the bullshit. For the last year, Anson has been telling me that he's a professional Counterstrike player. I never knew how serious he was about it until I started living with him. This is Anson's schedule, as far as I understand it. He goes to school all day, comes home, has a nap, eats, does homework. Then around 10, he gets a phone call on his computer and he plays counterstrike until three. He told me that he's gonna get interviewed on the internet. Apperently he's the best Chinese player in Canada. The team is so good that they have sponsorship. His buddies, the Chinese Army that I met when I went to Vancouver this November are currently in Toronto competing nationally. Strange world, eh?

Where does this lead? My sleep patterns. One of the drawbacks of having a world class PC gamer in the apartment is that he spends a lot of his time yelling into his microphone. Somtimes, I wake up in the middle of the night to hear him yelling to his buddies to "rush, rush"! It's a strange mix of English and Cantonese swearing. If I go to China, I'm sure that my vocabulary will consist of the Chinese equivilent of leet speak.

l33t help

I think that it's an indication of how desperate I am, when I find the following useful when to comes to PS2 repairs.

the door on your ps2 .. (1)if u open your ps2.. firt figer that out ..VERY IMPORTANT...(2)then u sould have the ps2 apart it should look like it is cut in half .ther is four scrus take thous out and then u should see the lacer.then ther will be two very smoll scrus take thous out and pul the tray out and a just it untell it works rite this will work ki have done it three times but it dos get frustrating if u dont get rite but u will get it rite .. and just a hint u should put the wite thing that makes the tray move u should move it to the very side then it should make the thing that moves the disk all the way down .then it will work and just put the tray back on .. then make shour it opens and close and then your done!!!

For those of you who work in repairs, I suggest writing in English. It makes the job *that* much easier.

I am a fool

I've been infected by a weird bug, that's been going around. The disease makes me stupid. Last night, fed up that my PS2 has troubles reading DVDs and now, games, I decided to take it apart and fix it. Bad move. Now, right now on my kitchen table I have it in pieces, presumably having the problem fixed, but now have a disc tray that won't open all the way. Is there a moral here? Probably.

Rob's favourite creators: Richard Kadrey

When Moon Karma Zero started up, Mike would put up links of his favourite artists. Most of the time, they'd be painters or comic artists with a distinct style. Not being into art as much as Mike, I never really got into it as much as he did. My tastes aren't nearly as expansive as Mike when it comes to art, but I think that I'm far more expansive when it comes to the writen word. This brings us up to today.

Richard Kadrey is an incredibly talented writer. An escape from the cyberpunk movement. He doesn't write much about cyber mages or nonesense anymore. I suppose it's because the future came and lo, it was mundane. Who could have forseen that cyberspace would be powered by mothers writing e-mails to distant children or gritty reality porn? Not the techno-kings and their giga-bite subjects. Kadrey is hardened by this and changes. Things become stranger.

Kadrey writes self proclaimed "nano tales". Short stories that take place in an eye blink. One page, tops. They deal with the obscene, the strange and the unwriten. Marvels for your brain. Here's a taster: Magnetic Gardens. You can find the rest in the Infinite Matrix's archive. Do a Control F and look for Kadrey. You'll dig it.

Movies That I Want To See: Sundance 2005

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Mix CD reviews: Train of Thought

This Christmas, I asked all of my friends to give me mix CDs. I ended up with two; one from Mike called Train of Thought and one from Heather called Pink Thong mix. The latter had a sketch of a women in a pink thong on the cover. Clearly, Heather knows what I like.

Like the title, Train of Thought has the feeling of a long trip, a tour of Mike's musical brain. It starts with some punk ska, descends into a valley of politico-pop, flirts with indie darlings, mixes it up with lo-fi genius, visits the country and ends with some really weird avant-garde stuff.

Here's the breakdown for Train of Thought

Orange Alert - The Briefs
I gotta be honest, I'm not a huge fan of punk or ska, genres that Mike has a huge hard-on for. It's a pretty bombastic opening, and, after a couple of re-listens, it's a pretty decent song.

Vibrator-the Electric
Listen to the beginning closely. What's that? This song is done with dildonics? Yes, it's true, sex toys are making their way back into mainstream music. Not only does the vibrator serve as the beat that powers this fantastic machine of a song, it serves as subject matter. A double whammey. I dig this song, but I'm biased, I recommended it to Mike.

Oh Canada! - Five Iron Frenzy
A ska salute to Canada. Wouldn't it be great if someone used this song to promote to Canada in the USA. Imagine this song set to the imagry of lesbians getting it on. Our women are hot and they can marry. Take take, America!

Star-Spangled Banner - Rivers Cuomo
I never got onto the Weezer train, so honestly, Rivers Cuomo means very little to me. I'm a Canadian too, so I'm not big on the American anthem. Oddly enough, when I listen to the song, I focus on the chords in the background. Sounds like a mix of a mosquito plate and an organ put together. Music that kills insects.

America, Fuck Yeah (Bummer Remix) - Team America
America, Fuck Yeah as a cotemplative ballad. I'll be very disapointed if Trey Parker and Matt Stone don't get one of their songs from Team America for this year's Oscars. There's too much venom and wit in their lyrics to be ignored. But ignored, they will be, as Mick Jager will win for Alfie. Just wait, you'll see.

Kiss Me, Son of God - OKGo
Another odd pick for Mike. Not sure what I think about it.

Kissing the Lipless - The Shins
One of my favourite songs on the CD. The song has a frantic energy, reminding me of makeouts and drive-thrus. I think that it's the sharp chords after the corus. Or maybe it's the sheer simplicity of the music. Highly recommended.

Camaro - Frankie and the BJs
Another fave from mine on the CD. Mike's buddies made it, so don't go looking for it on Kazaa. A nice pastiache of hipster irony and gleeful earnestness. Clever and funny.

Wild Packs of Family Dogs (2004 remaster) - Modest Mouse
A nice little ditty from last year's critical darlings and Calgary fan favourites, Modest Mouse. Not nearly as good as Float On, decent none the less.

Breakfast at Denny's - Combusitble Edison
Martin Denny inspired lounge music. If the title is anything to go by, Breakfast at Denny's should feel like a trip through a jungle on Mars. Retro-futurism and pancakes. An interesting mix.

Bring the Rhino Across - Chris Lawson
My favourite discovery of Mike's next to the Arcade Fire. There's plenty to love in Bring The Rhino Across. There's the over the top use of the synth, the female/male duet near the end, and aself aware examination of the material, to name a few. An incredibly quotable song, one that can be used in casual conversation, if you're bold.

Monkey on Your Back - Clinic
Is it right for me to be reminded of Damon Alburn's involvement with Blur when I listen to this song? Because that's what it does for me.

Hockey Monkey - James Kochalka Superstar
James Kochalka reminds me of Victoria. I remember listening to Monkey versus Robot while high on mushrooms while looking at a pile of oh too bright froot loops that I had thrown across the room. Is Hockey Money as good Monkey Versus Robot? That would be like comparing Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes with the original. One's a satiral examination of man (or monkey) versus machine and the other is the musical version of MVP: Most Valuable Primate. A version of MVP that doesn't suck. No feces throwing or strange monkey backflips in this one.

Hit Me! - The Sounds
Mike says that it's a riot grrl version of 80's girl rock. Who am I to argue? Great garage rock with a twist of funk. You know that it's there. Another gem on the CD.

I've Got It All(Most) - Modest Mouse
Much better than the other Modest Mouse song on the CD due to it's polish and great lyrics. "How can someone so inconsistant mess up so consistantly?" Great quotable stuff.

Hand Springs - The White Stripes
Hard rocking plus the spoken word. It's like rap, but done by whites. Oddly, it reminds me of a car commercial.

GT400 - Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Another recommendation by myself.

Huun Huur Tu - Tuvan Internationale
Aboriginal throat singning from Australia, I think. Haunting, yet strangely beautiful. It stands out like a sore thumb, but a great song none the less.

Loop de Loop - Ween
Ween's version of a Fred Penner song. It's okay. Surreal.

Pickin' The Chicken - Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant
And then, out of nowhere, Mike throws in some guitar strumming. What the fuck? I guess that it's there so that we're easied into the country stuff. Technically sophiticated.

The Rodeo Song - David Alan Coe
Redneck roadrage, with *gasp* profanity.

Rodeohead - Hard n' Phirm
Remember when some country musicians from Canada redid Pink Floyd's the Wall as a country concept album? Looks like it was more influential than we hoped... and feared. Rodeohead re-imagines Radiohead as hoe-down music. Good country music, but better if you're aware of Radiohead's body of work. Admittedly, I didn't get it at first, but once I noticed the source, I enjoyed it much more.

Wayfaring Stranger - Jack White
Writen by Jack White once he started to fuck Renee Zelwiggerajigger. Jack White, why do you have the blues when you're fornicated with an Academy Award winner? My mind boggles!

Liquor and Whores - Bubbles
A song taken from Canada's answer to the Kids in the Hall, the Trailer Park Boys.

Whisky in the Morning-Buck Cherry
I thought that Check Berry did soul music. This sounds like hardcore rock. Is this song from a strange alternate universe, or am I missing something?

Garage Dayz Night-Beatallica
Everyone loves to mashup the Beatles. Danger Mouse mixed them with Jay Z to make the Grey Album. Some other smuck mixed them with the Beastie Boys to make the vastly inferior Beastles. What do we have here? The Beatles mutated into head banging music? I shouldn't like it, but I do... I do...

Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel - Barenaked Ladies
A couple of years ago, I worked the night shift in the boonies. My job was to chaufer a professional to a gas plant in the middle of nowhere. Our job was to watch water pumps and make sure that they wouldn't freeze. It was tedious, and I killed time having phone sex with Pearl. They played the song on CBC in the morning after a long day's worth of work. Morbid, and clever. One of my favourite Bare Naked Ladies songs.

Diary of an Unborn Child - Li'l Markie
Spooky pro-life song from the POV of an aborted featus. Imagine Alvin from the chipmunks warble "Why did you kill me mommy?" and you get the picture.

RoBlog 3.0

Lets try this again.

Thanks to a delibilitating bout of creativity, I've decided to revamp RoBlog. Think of it as a Tim Burton-esque re-imagining of the originial. Will there a wooden Marky Mark acting in front of ape people? That's still up for the jury to decide.

What's going to be different? For starters, I've decided to move all webjunk to Moon Karma Zero. Mike and Stephen have been pretty much keeping it alive for the last year and a half without my input, much to my eternal gratitude. I'm going to help them pick up the slack by (attempting to) post daily. If anything, it'll force me to go to MKZ daily instead of once a week.

I've also begun a writing blog, Broken Pornography, which I'll try to update every weekend. I'm using it as an online archive of whatever weird thought enters my head. Everything there is a first draft, so that's why the writing is so shitty. I'll probably end up harvesting everything there once my comic career starts.

Where does that leave RoBlog? I'm still figuring it out. It'll probably end up as a dumping ground for personal thoughts, movie reviews and other odd things. Think of it as an audio commentary for my life. An audio commentary where the director doesn't end up praising Chris Klein for his brilliant performance in American Pie 2. If I get lazy, it'll end up turning into a haven for my bookmarks on my computer.

And that's that. Enjoy the newest mutation of RoBlog.