Fight or Flight? I'll just stay here and watch

This post contain nothing but spoilers.

I suck at witty references. The one in this post's title is a play on last night's Heroes episode, which was the best episode of this season. That doesn't mean it was better than decent, but hopefully it will set a trend for the episodes to come.

First of all, there was no Claire-stalker boy nonsense, finally. Teen melodrama is not what we're looking for in a show with super heroes. And be "we", I mean geeks. We want more superpowers, and better use of whatever powers characters in the show already have, no more recycling of the same ones. Seriously, how many more people can we have who are copying others?

On the subject of superpowers, it was great to see the writer's to explore telepathy on a deeper level that Parkman's usual, simple, mind-reading. The way his father uses that same power provided for the best, and darkest scenes of the season so far, as nothing beats a good mindfuck. Pardon my language, but it's true.

Naturally, this being Heroes, the writing was again pretty mediocre at places, with some scenes being so bad they hurt. So it takes two whole episodes for Peter to open that damn box, and when he finally decides to open it, what's inside? Nothing of importance, of course. Fantastic. And then his prophetical power kicks in just in time. How convenient. Writing like this really makes me cringe.

Still, Kristen Bell's appearance makes this episode worth watching (yes, I'm a fanboy) as she was kicking ass and taking names. Always good to see her again, as she's a great actress. Not sure about her being Electro, but at least she's not a flyer or copying other people and their powers.

All in all, as I said earlier it was a pretty decent episode, but there's still a lot of room to improve before they catch up with the quality of certain season 1 episodes, like "Company Men". I'll be sticking with the show for the time being, I guess. But I'm not going to call myself a "fan" or anything of the sort.

P.S.
That whole scene with the "Scary Door" in papa-Parkman's apartment reminded me of a certain Futurama video... Probably wasn't intended, but said video is hilarious so it's worth embedding it:



"Saw that coming."
Bender.

P.P.S.
Why was Taskmaster-girl watching Dragon and not an actual Bruce Lee movie?

Evo moment #37

No Daily Show video today, but since there's a lot of buzz about Street Fighter lately, it's the perfect opportunity to revisit one of the most memorable fights from the latest game of the series, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike.

During the semi-finals in Evolution 2k4, Daigo "The Beast" Umehara, perhaps the most recognizable Street Fighter player in the world, fought Justin Wong, famous for his turtling (read: highly defensive, low-risk taking) style. Daigo was playing Ken, Justin was playing Chun Li.

The result was perhaps the best example of "skill" in videogames, as Daigo's comeback parry-sequence/combo is just insane. If you've never played the game it won't impress you as much, but just think that between each parry of Chun Li's/Wong's super move (that flashy thing), Daigo had less than a second to react.



You can find the complete video of the fight here.

Bush V. Bush (Daily Show series #1)

Since I'm trying to hit 100 posts on this blog by this month's end, this is a perfect opportunity to post videos of some of my favorite Daily Show segments.

First video in this new series, what would a debate between first term Prez Bush and second term Prez Bush be like? Jon Stewart has the answer. It can be argued that Jon and his team have made an excellent mockery of this administration because, well... the administration is doing an amazing job with providing them with stuff to be mocked for, but videos such as this are so brilliant that you have to be talented in order to come up with it.

Anyway, enough babbling, enjoy the video:

I need a Hiro

Having just recently watched the fourth episode of the second season of Heroes, I feel the need to jump on the bandwagon. So far, this season has sucked. Royally. Imperially, perhaps.

Yes, it's only four episodes so far, so there's still a lot of time for its creators to get it back on track, but do you really trust them? Lost had sort of lost its touch for a while during Season 2 and parts of Season 3, but it was never this boring. Outside of Charlie-based episodes, anyway.

I should point out at this point that I was never crazy about Heroes, I've always thought it's a fun, if pretty forgettable show, with mediocre acting and uneven writing. And this is coming from a guy who grew up on Marvel comic books, so you should know what my standards are like.

I could never really understand how the show became so popular with the mainstream, especially here in Greece where any TV show/movie slightly removed from reality is labeled as "childish". I guess its simplistic, yet entertaining, nature made people overlook that, and that's definitely not a bad thing.

But these first episodes of season 2, good gods... It's like watching the O.C., only people can also fly and bore you to death with inane conversations here.

Hiro has always been the most interesting character in Heroes for most people, myself included, and having him stuck on his own in feudal Japan is probably one of the reasons why the show has been really dull so far.

Still, it's not all bad. As I said earlier, there's still a long time to go before the season ends, so I'm not giving up on the show yet. Plus, Kristen Bell (the star of the now canceled Veronica Mars show) is coming on the show for a few episodes, starting tomorrow, so that's a definite improvement. Here's hoping.

In other news, Kimi Raikkonen just won the Formula 1 championship, and even though I've lost interest in the sport in general, I've always been a fan of Kimi. I also like seeing Fernando Alonso lose, because he's an arrogant prick. Suck it, Fernie.

Early Easter!

My, oh my. Can you say Street Fighter 4 teaser trailer?

Too excited to actually make a real comment at the moment, but this is huge. It's ten whole years since Street Fighter 3 was released, and eight years since Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike (which I still play religiously.)

Exciting times to be a gamer, no doubt.

Early Christmas!

Yes, it's true, Christmas came early this year. The new Daily Show website launched yesterday, with a vast archive, going back all the way to early 1999.

This is amazing news for all the fans of the show, myself included, who love to rewatch certain parts of some episodes. YouTube provided that opportunity in the past, but Viacom actively took down every single Daily Show video in that site. Thankfully though, they decided to make up for it.

So far there are 7,128 videos available, with more being added every day. That, of course, means countless hours, just waiting to be wasted, by watching every single one. I'm especially interested in the Even Stephven segments, as I wasn't watching the show when Steve Carell was still on. That, and This Week in God, which is probably the funniest non-Jon part of the show.

Fans of The Colbert Report should not feel disappointed, as an online archive of the show is schedule to go live in early '08, and the same goes for the Graig Kilborn era of The Daily Show.

The layout of the site is pretty simple and easy on the eyes, unlike the Comedy Central one, so finding the clip you want with relative ease, and better yet, you can embed these videos to your blog/website.

Understandably, the site is getting hammered right now, so you may experience difficulties searching and/or loading certain videos, but I expect this to get better as the initial craze settles down.

Praised be the Internets!

Predictable

There are few things in life that are entertaining (though not necessarily on purpose) on a consistent basis. Greek sports newspapers definitely fall into that category.

A little flashback is needed in order to better understand the context of this story: Last March, on the 24th, the Greek team lost 4-1 to Turkey in our homecourt, the Olympic Stadium of Athens. This defeat was a huge deal, not only for purely sports-related reasons, but also for political ones, as Greeks and Turks haven't been the best of neighbors for oh, a few hundred years. The fact that this loss came on the eve of what is traditionally celebrated as the start of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman empire didn't really help, either.

The result of this disastrous defeat was a storm of public outrage against the coach of the Greek team, Otto Rehhagel, with the local press furiously calling for his resignation. This being the same coach that three years helped Greece win their first ever title, the Euro 2004. Even certain politicians expressed their disdain of coach Rehhagel in public, and called for his resignation.

Rehhagel though, being a cunning, calculative and just plain smart guy, said nothing but instead made a few subtle adjustements to the team, while retaining its chemistry. The result was that Greece became one of the first teams to pretty much secure qualifying a position in the Euro 2008 championship, even before last night's game in Turkey. The haters had to shut their mouths beforelong.

As for last night's game? Probably the best one this selection of Greek footballers has played yet, and an easy 1-0 victory over the Turks inside their homecourt. Not as emphatic a victory as the one the Turks got last March, but equally as important. With a little more luck, the Greeks could have easily scored a couple more goals, as well.

So how did the local press react to this victory today? Endless praise so exaggerated it's almost painful to read. First-page spreads speaking of a "Holy Victory", references to the concept of the Megali Idea and Byzantium, with pictures of the Hagia Sophia in the background... It's so ridiculous, it's enough to make you cry. With laughter. We only won a football game, guys, relax.

It's as stupid as those videos that circulated YouTube and other similar sites in March, with the Turks saying making a mockery of the 300 trailer and offering such colorful quotes as "the team that fucked the Spartans" and so on.

At least the Turks had the decency to applaud the better team last night, something I've still to see in this country (notable exception being the supporters of AEK, who have their moments.)

Going back to herr Otto Rehhagel, is there any mention of him in all the spreads about the Greek football "empire", that will retain its European champion's crown in Euro 2008*, in any of the 18(!) sport newspapers that circulate in this country? Just one, actually. The newspaper Gata (Greek for "cat") thanks Rehhagel for making them look like fools for telling him to resign in March. The rest seem to have completely forgotten about it, or they just don't care.

Of course, if the Greek team fails completely and utterly in Euro 2008, people will start calling him names and asking for his resignation again. I have to admit, there's some form of morbid entertainment to be had in witnessing such predictable reactions. Which is why I still follow them, after all.

I have decided, for a while now, to stop buying sports newspapers, though. Maybe if their financial gains started diminishing, they'd own up to their opinions a little more. This is my little puny form of protest, if you will. Their frontpages are usually more fun, anyway, and I can read those for free.

*Don't even get me started on that.

In Rainbows

By now, you most likely will have heard all about In Rainbows, Radiohead's latest album, and the story of how they decided to leave their publishers (multi-national giants EMI) and instead distribute their album on their own, through the internet.

Phew, that was a long sentence. Anyway.

The best part about this, is that you get to choose exactly how much money (or how many monies) you want to pay for the album. But I assume you already knew about this, as well. Yes, you can even get it for free. No, you shouldn't, though. And if you did, it does not make you cool, no matter how much you think so.

I finally managed to buy the album today, but I haven't gotten the chance to listen to it carefully yet, I do like it so far though, my favorite song being "Bodysnatchers". At this point, I should also confess that I am not the biggest Radiohead fan around, as a matter of fact, this is the first album of theirs I've ever bought. When somebody tries to do something so radically different, though, I believe we all have to support it as best we can.

For the curious people out there, yes I did pay for it. How much? Less than the special edition's cost (40 English pounds, coming out on December 3rd), more than what a bootleg copy would cost. Happy now?

Regardless of that, I do hope that Radiohead's decision to promote their album on their own, without the influence of their company, could become the starting point for a whole new era in music. After all, Madonna had already left her big-name publishing company as well, and The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince distributed his last album through a Sunday newspaper in the U.K. However, both these artists have been around for a long while, and their careers have been in decline for a while now (Prince's more than Madonna's, obviously.)

Still, it's a common secret a music artist's main source of income comes from live performances, not record sales, as the publishers take most of those. And how did the last performance of Prince in the U.K. go, you ask? It was sold out. And Madonna's tour was her most successful yet.

What does that all mean, though? For me, it means that there's the blind hope that after almost a decade where hardcore marketing-type people dictated what music we listened to, what movies we saw and what kind of games we played, this fad may finally be nearing its end. I may be a bit too idealistic, but I feel that moves such as Radiohead selling their album for whatever amount their customers are willing to pay, may mean that artists will be able to reclaim control over their work again, beforelong.

As I said, I may be a bit too idealistic in my assessment this. But after so many years in which music, art in general I'd say, had to conform to certain strict standards in order to be commercially successful, I am really glad to see such a bold move from a well-known band.

Certainly, cynics have a lot to downplay this for, but you know what? Fuck cynicism. There's too much of it around already. Just enjoy your almost-free album, suckers.

Anyway, I'd like to end this post on a more positive note, so I'll just post an image of the cover for In Rainbows, which I find very beautiful in its simplicity, as it reminds me of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in a way.




Wait, how did Stephen Colbert get in there? That guy is omnipresent, I swear.

P.S
A good read on the impact that In Rainbows could have to the music industry can be found here. The author concludes that "Unfortunately for the music labels, that change would only decrease their relevance and mechanisms to make money."

Boo-fracking-hoo, I say. Greedy bastards, the lot of them. Viva La Revolution, etc.

This can't be life

This is a couple of days old, but I just found out that publishing giants Electronic Arts bought up both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios.

This is terrible, terrible news. EA aren't joking around when they buy up a company, they completely reshape it to their needs, or even disband it if necessary. Just look what happened to some of the best gaming companies of the 90's, like Westwood and Bullfrog. Have no doubt that this will happen with these two companies as well. Which sucks, especiall in BioWare's case, as it's the one company that always provided us with top-notch Roleplaying games.

First Black Isle closed down, and now BioWare is gone, too. There's always the chance that the same people that made up this company will form up a new one, but in the meantime, you should look forward to seeing your favorite RPG franchises being milked dry by EA.

Excellénte. *sigh*

Success!

Relatively speaking, of course. The final score was 113-91 for the Tony Parker-less Spurs, which is a definite improvement from Friday's match, thought not by much.

Hey, that rhymes.

At any rate, Panathinaikos played a lot better this time around, and until half-way through the second quarter, both teams were pretty equal, with the score at 35-32 for the NBA champions. After that, Panathinaikos's players started missing some easy shots and making stupid turnovers again, while the Spurs kept their excellent field goal percentages up, and never looked back.

By the start of the third quarter, the Greeks seemingly gave up, with the Spurs going up with as many as 29 points. Unlike the Rockets, however, they showed more respect to their opponents and started slowing down their tempo. After all, Spurs' coach Popovic had welcomed the Greek team himself, going as far as to give them a tour of their training facilities. You'd expect him to show that level of respect in the game, as well.

The fourth quarter was actually really nice, with both coaches using their backup players instead of their starters, which meant that players on both sides were eager to play some good basketball. Panathinaikos tried to lessen the difference and got it down to 18 about 150 seconds before the end of the match, but a few more silly mistakes meant that the difference passed the 20 points margin again.

All in all, it was a pretty nice game, with Panathinaikos adjusting a little more to the NBA rules, even if the referees were still acting weird. At least they didn't call too many fouls this time, though they did call too many illegal defense violations, on both sides, which I found somewhat amusing. What troubled me yet again was the bad performance of 3D, Dimitris Diamantidis. Didn't score a single point, had too many fouls and turnovers. Maybe he just can't get used to the different style of playing. Generally, Panathinaikos's players had a lot more turnovers and missed shots than they usually do, they must have been really affected by the fact that they were facing the NBA champions, in their home court. Which is, of course, perfectly logical.

I'm reading a lot of whinning in the local media today about how these two games weren't really in Panathinaikos's best interest, with the local league starting only a week from now. I don't know. It's not like they went on a tour in Asia, where they know the opposition would be mediocre, or how Real Madrid, Chelsea etc go on a tour in the States in football, where, again, the opposition kind of sucks. While the players of Panathinaikos may have played two games under a ruleset which they won't have to deal with in at least several more years, it's always good to face a better team than you. Even if you get your ass kicked, as it were in this case.

Plus, it was just amusing to see coach Obradoviç, sitting at the edge of the bench, all grumpy and not saying a single thing. That's a rare sight, people! He gave the match up even earlier than his players, but it's no secret that he's not too fond of the NBA. Elitism? Perhaps. He did say in a later interview that these two games were a great experience for his team and crew, but the jury is still out on whether he was being completely honest or not.

He also did call out the Spurs, saying that it would be really interesting to face such a team in our own court with our fans, and with Euroleague rules. Ooh. Hopefully next year, when NBA Europe Live Tour '08 is supposed to visit Greece.

In other basketball-related news, young center Sofoklis Schortsanitis (Big Sofo, for short,) has reportedly only lost 5 kilograms from last June, and that's terrible news. Why? Because last June, he was 191kg. That's right, one hundred and ninety one kilograms. It's the reason why he missed the Eurobasket tournament, and the reason why his team, Olympiakos, is thinking of waiving him. It's a horrible, sad tale, as he is an excellent player of extremely high potential, and a very young man, as well. This isn't just about his career anymore, even his health will be at danger if he keeps acting like this.

Hopefully things will get better.

Taking your bets now

San Antonio Spurs - Panathinaikos starts in about five minutes.

Anything below a 35 point loss will be a great success if you ask me.

An Assassin and his Creed

These past couple of months have been great as far as gaming is concerned, with both Bioshock and Halo 3 being released, as well as indie adventure game Blackwell Unbound -which I will get around to buying later today, and the rest of 2007 looks to be just as good.

If there's one game I'm really looking forward to, however, is Assassin's Creed. There's just something about the level of freedom that this game appears to provide, I can't quite find the words to describe it, except that it's awe-inspiring.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW:

The game's setting is also very interesting, though some leaked media from the game imply that this... may change. I'm not sure I like this, as the medieval setting is just perfect for such a game, plus it hasn't been fully explored in gaming so far.

SPOILERS END HERE.

Gamersyde has posted tonnes of new screenshots and a couple of videos, definitely worth taking a look. Some people have been complaining about the gameplay, but I haven't seen anything worrying yet.

And what's with this rumor that Tim Schafer is making a new game? With Jack Black? Do want!

Win? What?

" If we do win, expect an update right after the end of the match."
Some dumbass, 11/10/07.

Ow. So much for that idea. The game was a blowout, with the final score being 107-70 for the T-Mac-less Rockets. Panathinaikos didn't even come close to challenging them for the win, in fact they gave up somewhere around the end of the first quarter.

Not trying to make up excuses for Panathinaikos, but as I've been saying for a while in this blog, the NBA rules and general referee attitude are very different than what we're used to in Europe. Essentially, this means that defense works completely difference than what PAO's players are used to. This was perhaps the main difference last night. Too many costly mistakes, such as violations of the three seconds in the paint defense, meant that the Rockets got more easy baskets than they should. Not that we would have won otherwise, but the match would have been a little more interesting.

It didn't help that some of our best players did so badly, either. Diamantidis played horribly, which is surprising for him, though I guess this game showed why he really has no place in the NBA; he is far too slow for the tempo of NBA teams. Jasikevicious was fairly mediocre too, perhaps he thought he had too much to prove against an NBA team, and that's never a good mindset to get into.

The Rockets weren't pulling any punches, either. They didn't even keep the unwritten rule of not attacking in the last 24 seconds if you're up big, which I thought was somewhat lame. But whatever. They do seem like a whole new team from last year's JVG borefest, however, and that's not a bad thing. Interestingly enough, their best player was Argentinian rookie Luis Scola, who was drafted by the Spurs, but was traded earlier this summer for... Spanoulis. Funny how life works sometimes.

On a final note, the referees were unecessary harsh for an exhibition match. Too many fouls called (at some point the Rockets had 19 free throws and PAO had... 2), too many travelling violations called, and they even called two technical fouls on coach Obradoviç, who was sent away during the fourth quarter. Alright, so Obradoviç isn't the most calm person in the universe so he may have had that coming. But still, it's an exhibition game you douchebags, let them play the damn game instead of destroying any sort of tempo that either team was trying to create, by stopping the clock every five seconds.

I'm tempted to say that the officials were trying to make a point with their general attitude towards Panathinaikos, but I guess they're just not used to the European style of basketball, as this is what happens with NBA teams in Europe, as well.

Hopefully the match against the Spurs won't be so painful to watch.

More fedoras and whips

A new image from the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been released, and that is always a cause of joy. Sadly the last image I posted here was taken down, hopefully this won't happen with this one as well.

Since the image is huge in size, I'll just post the link. Clickéz moi.

You can describe it with a mere two words: HELL. YEAH.

*ahem*

In other great news, George Lucas won't be writting the script for this one. Thank the gods.

As for recent basketball news, the NBA Europe Live Tour was completed last night, with predictable results. The Celtics were undefeated, though not as awe-inspiring as their roster would suggest, and yet another NBA team (the Grizzlies) lost to a European one (Malaga).

That's really not saying much though, as it's still the pre-season for NBA teams, and the Grizzlies are perhaps the worst team in the league. Gone are the days of the early 90's where the worst team in the league would easily defeat the European champions, the Nuggets and Toni Kukoc's Yugoplastica, respectively.

Still, there's one game I'm really looking forward for tonight; Panathinaikos against the Houston Rockets. Sadly, Vassilis Spanoulis, who last year played for the Rockets, was injured and he won't be able to play. This sucks, because former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy had no faith in Spanoulis last year and pretty much ended his NBA career prematurely. It'd be really interesting to see how V-Span would play against his former team.

Center Andrea Zizic was also injured and won't make tonight's game either. Doesn't look that good for my team, at the moment. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I believe we could defeat the Rockets, in a single match, during the pre-season, and with FIBA rules. Now only one of those three conditions will be true.

The game starts at 3.30AM local time (to be broadcasted on TV by ET1) so it's going to be a long night. -.- If we do win, expect an update right after the end of the match.

Irony is a wonderful thing.

This is a bit of old news, but it's too good to not mention it, even if it's been a while since it happened.

Those of you that have played / are playing MMORPG's know that the buying and selling of characters is nothing new. I remember seeing Jedis being sold for around 2,000 dollars in Star Wars Galaxies, back before everybody and his sister was a Jedi in that game. Same thing with high level characters in Lineage 2, Everquest 2 and every other major MMORPG.

Now in the case of World of Warcraft, since leveling is so easy, characters weren't being sold for that much. Perhaps if their items were good, but still they did not reach such prices.

But in the case of Zeuzo, Night Elf rogue of Sylvanas EU, and one of the precious few people in WoW to have both legendary swords of Azzinoth, which belong to one of the most famous characters in the Warcraft universe, Illidan, the price was much higher. Some nutjob paid seven thousand euros for Zeuzo's account. That's 9,909.09 American dollars.

I won't even begin discussing why it was a bad idea to give such items to regular players. Warcraft lore and the actual game of World of Warcraft are two almost separate entities nowadays, and Blizzard seems to be fine with it. They are, after all, swimming in seas of cash.

What's more interesting in this case is that due to the publicity that this buyout attracted, the new account, owned by the person who paid for it, was banned only a few days later after the event. So not only did he pay an obscene amount of money, he can't even use it to... well, show off to his online buddies, since I doubt he could do much more anyway.

Such is life. *shrugs*

I've also added a link to the deviantART gallery of a good friend of mine, and professional illustrator, Manthos Lappas. It's full of awesome goodness, you should go check it.

Sarunas Number Three

Yes, yes, finally the post about Sarunas Jasikevicious, the Lithuanian basketball player that recently joined the Greek team I'm rooting for, Panathinaikos. A 31-year old playmaker (PG), who excells in long-range shooting and assists. Funny story, in NBA 2K7, presumably due to his rather peculiar last name, the announcer calls him "Sarunas... Number Three." It's pretty hilarious to listen to.

At any rate, this story begun during the first months of summer '07, when Panathinaikos's arch rival, Olympiakos, decided to expand its budget and bring big-name players in the Greek championship. Their main target? Sarunas Jasikevicious, who had had a very mediocre year with the Golden State Warriors, failing to gain coach Nelson's trust. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring one of the best European players back in the continent.

However, Jasikevicious didn't seem all that eager to return, he liked living in the States, and his wife (a model) wanted to work there as well. And in most cases, wives get the last word in this. And in the end, it seemed that he wasn't interested in joining Olympiakos.

Due to that, Olympiakos decided to sign the young Serbian playmaker Theodosiç, a player for which the Panathinaikos coach Obradoviç had expressed a serious interest in. A few days later, Panathinaikos declared their interest in Jasikevicious. And by now, you know how that ended.

Was this move made just to spite Olympiakos? I believe it definitely played a role, but it wasn't the turning point. Panathinaikos may have already had one of the best European playmakers already, Dimitris "3D" Diamantidis, but it was no secret that beyond 3D, we lacked a good playmaker. Jasikevicious should bring a lot more options to Panathinaikos's game, as well as giving an opportunity for Diamantidis to finally catch a break, as he has been playing for more than 30 minutes in every game, for four years straight.

In this sense, Panathinaikos's acquisition of Jasikevicious may even help the Greek national team, for which 3D is also a key player. Fatigue is one of the main reasons why the Greeks played so badly in the recent Eurobasket, after all.

Going back to Panathinaikos, another reason which proves why this acquisition wasn't meant just as a nudge towards their arch-enemies, is the fact that Jasikevicious is perhaps the best playmaker in the world when it comes to organizing an offense based on pick and roll. And it's exactly this type of offense that Panathinaikos has been using for the last seven years, ever since coach Obradoviç came to the team, during which time they have won six national championships and two Euroleage trophies. Almost makes one wonder why they didn't try to get him earlier.

Of course, it remains to be seen if the best-paid basketball player in Europe at the moment (his wage exceeds even that of world-famous football player Ronaldinho) will really live up to his salary, but the potential is definitely there.

Another interesting story about Sarunas: Back when Team U.S.A. was still called the "Dream Team" and championship schedules were created with taking into consideration that they would win every single on of their games, the Lithuanian team lead by Jasikevicious were the first to challenge them. In the semi-finals for the Olympic Games of 2000, Lithuania was two points down with just a few seconds to go, and Jasikevicious went for the three. For a couple of moments, basketball fans around the world held their collective breaths as the ball spinned around the rim, and seemed to go down. At the end, it merely bounced out again, after having teased everyone like that. But Jasikevicious made the right call by trying a three instead of a two, even if he missed. When given the chance to kill a beast, you take that chance. Simple as.

I firmly believe that if he had made that shot, he would have been one of the best, if not the best playmaker in the world right now. Just by being the person responsible for the first defeat of an American basketball team would have been a tremendous boost for him. Just look at where Manu Ginobili is now.

Lastly, you just have to love this guy for having the guts to tell things as they are. It's no secret that the recent Eurobasket that took place in Spain was tailor-made to their needs (even though they still lost *snicker snicker*) and yet Jasikevicious was the only one to come out and say it first. Honestly, what's the point in taking the first place in a group if the second team gets more days of rest? I believe that a healthy and rested Lithuanian team would have won over the Spaniards without too much trouble, but that's all theorycrafting at this point.

Furthermore, a few weeks ago, Olympiacos's coach Pini Gerson (with whom Jasikevicious won a Euroleague trophy in '05 with Makabi Tel Aviv) said that Panathinaikos acquired Sarunas just to spite them, since they didn't need him as they already had better players, and went on to mention that Olympiacos has players just as good as him.

Jasikevicious's reply? "I love Pini, but he has a really big mouth."

<3

Coming soon: A continuation of the post on independent adventure games, a year or so later.

The exception to the rule

You may or not have noticed that this blog has turned into a collection of streamed videos. I sure did. It was for that reason that I decided not to post any other videos for a while.

But today was the day when the trailer for the upcoming, straight-to-DVD, Futurama feature film was released. Suddenly, all is good in the world again.

It may be somewhat poorly edited, in a mix-and-match sort of way, and some of the jokes seem a bit all over the place, but let's be serious here. It's Futurama, it's guaranteed to be really fracking awesome. Can't wait.

WoW machinimas part deux

Yeah, yeah. No updates, no nothing. They'll come, in due time. For the time being, my mind is still a bit messy, so meh.

In other amazing recent developments, Olympiakos finally managed to get a win in the Champions League in an Away match. Incredible, only took them 10 years. They had started to defy the law of big numbers, even.

Anyway, off to the real point of this entry a (surprise, surprise) movie, more specifically, a World of Warcraft machinima. In this case, a song, from the Resident Evil: Extinction OST, performed by WoW characters. The song is rather catchy, and also kind of shitty (especially the lyrics, if you think about them in a Resi context, they are teh lulz), but the editing is just... "Holy shit" good. I love the UT2004/Half Life 2 backgrounds too.

Enjoy:

Edit: So apparently the video kind of messes up my blog's layout, great. Still, I refuse to link a Youtube stream, the quality of this video is too good for that.

Madre de Dios

Been feeling unbelievably tired lately, couldn't really bring myself to writing yesterday, so the Jasikevicious special is postponed again, maybe later tomorrow.

In the meantime, one of the funnier scenes from Curse of Monkey Island, El Pollo Diablo:



Can you spot Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango?

Insanity

I had originally planned to make a Sarunas Jasikevicious special for this post, seeing as he just got to Athens earlier today, and it is sort of a big deal for Greek basketball in general, but something I heard made me change my plans. The Jasikevicious post will have to wait until tomorrow.

So what was it I read that made such an impression on me?

Remember the forest fires that destroyed countless forest acres in Greece earlier this summer? Especially the fires in August, in Peloponnisos, where more than 70 people died?

One of the places in Peloponnisos that was hit the worst was the prefacture of Ileia, where 45 people died.

It is in that very place where our story takes place, and more specifically in a small field, where a woman had gathered the stray dogs of the area. It was there that she fed them and gave them shelter, as stray animals do not live that long when left on their own, as you may know. Such a thing is common practice, after all.

Now, in our case, the neighbors of this woman begun complaining about the noise the dogs did during the night with their barking. Imagine that, dogs barking. Whatever will happen next?

It has happened before, people complaining about the noise that animals sometimes make, and in some cases these people end up poisoning said animals. Is this what happened here?

Nope.

They set the field on fire in order to kill the dogs, and of course it worked. The field burned to its entirety, and all the dogs burned alongside it.

Let us now assume, for the sake of the argument, that the noise the dogs were making was so terrible and so loud, that nobody could stand it. Let us also assume that the people in question could not, for whatever reason, talk to the woman and maybe find a more logical solution. This way, we reach the conclusion that killing the dogs is the most effective method of solving this predicament.

How the fuck do you decide to set an entire field on fire, when the entire region was almost annihilated by fires a mere month ago? I'm not even going to discuss how inhumane, how downright sick it is to kill so many animals just because they get on someone's nerves. There's pills that can help you with that, jackass. Leave the poor animals alone.

After all, it's always our fault that domesticated animals end up stray, it's us that leave them to their fate. But we always oh-so-conveniently forget that when we have to deal with a stray, don't we?

Though seriously, how fucking stupid must one be in order to do such a thing? Set an entire field on fire, a fire that could very well spread to a near forest and destroy what little acres of wood were left? Don't forget that you can never control a fire.

Honestly, words fail me. What's worse, nobody is ever going to do anything about this. I hate this country so much sometimes.

The start of a new season

Heroes season 2 debuted yesterday, and while I haven't watched it yet (read some mixed opinions, too) it does mark the start of the new TV season, at least as far as I'm concerned.

What's to look forward to? A revamped 24, the new 16-episodes per season format for Lost, the final season of Battlestar Galactica (in which I really got into this summer), and I also wonder if CSI: Las Vegas will have another main story arc, like last year, which was pretty damn awesome.

But another show I really got into this summer is House. I have to admit I was snubbing it at first, because, well, it's a show about a doctor and a hospital and well, zzz... I blame E.R. for making me think this way.

At any rate, I decided to catch a few re-runs of season 1 in a local Greek channel and oh my. A show devoted completely on a misanthropic bastard? Why didn't anyone tell me about this before?

Naturally, I fell in love with it. I also loved the CSI-esque episodes of season 1, but from what I've been reading, that changes in the next seasons. I've watched an episode from what I presume was season 2, and it was good, but not as great as some of my favorite season 1 episodes. I'll be keeping an open mind though.

And of course, Hugh Laurie is amazing. Incredible. Best misanthrope I've seen on TV since Bender.



Look deep into his eyes, as he erodes your very soul.

I was also surprised to find out that the girl playing Cameron on the show is Jennifer Morrison, whom I remembered from films like Stir of Echoes, and whom I always considered to be very talented (and cute.) Way to go Ms. Morrison.

Here's a preview of season 4, full of spoilers if you haven't watched season 3 yet (like me, arrgh!)

Blah di blah blah

Got too many things on my mind lately, yet I don't feel particularly inspired when it comes to writing. Make that "not inspired at all," actually.

So here's the intro to one of the best games ever, if you haven't played this one yet, you're going straight to Hell.

Raptors had wings?!

What's an update?

And here's a video of "epic lulz":

And Now For Something Completely Disturbing

As I'm writing this, Greece is getting bitchslapped by Spain in Eurobasket 2007. The score right now is 32-18 for the Spaniards, as we're playing even worse than Wednesday's game, not even our defense is doing its job tonight. 'Tis quite sad, as I'm quite proud of this team, but it happens.

But I'd like to discuss something different today. In June's issue of PC Master, a local magazine about PC gaming, there was an editorial piece discussing how absurd the MMORPG community has become. The gist of that article went something like this: Why are people spending hundreds of dollars/euros so their digital avatars will have better gear than the next guy? Why are Chinese people slaving away at some unlit basement so they can gather gold, which their "employers" will sell to the people mentioned above? This feels like something straight out of a weird cyberpunk novel.

(42-24? Make it stop!)

Seriously, if someone was talking about this situation ten or twelve years ago, people would never believe such things would happen.

Yet truth is stranger than fiction, and that was never more true than in the case of a certain girl, a regular World of Warcraft player. Her story is quite... interesting, and if you're observant, you should have noticed that I've already provided a somewhat hidden link to the whole story, including NSFW material.

So what's so interesting about this girl, who shall remain anonymous in this article, then? Well, at first glance it seems that she was using her gender as means to get some of the males in her guild to like her and help her in the game, with items and such. Now that is hardly original, especially given that there's a lot of adolescent, single boys playing such games. Nope, the girl in question was not the first to do such a thing.

What makes this story different is that she did not only send her boytoys the odd smile in-game, giggle in their TeamSpeak server or heck, even have some sort of cybersex with them. She actually sent them nude pictures of herself, and even went as far as to sent out videos where she masturbated in front of her camera! Naturally, the boys went nuts about her, and did all she ever asked for. Of course, massive drama ensued and their guild disbanded, which lead to this story going public after a while, along with the pics and videos.

Now what I find of special interest in this story, is the girl. No, not the guys that went crazy over her. As anyone who has ever played an MMORPG in their lives, you could totally see people acting this way over a girl that's willing to go naked, even if she's not that hot to begin with. What I honestly can't understand is why she would take of her clothes to make a few geeks online like her.

I mean, seriously, out of all the things people can whore themselves out for, she chose to do it so she would receive a few items of great quality in an online game, and for the admiration (to put it lightly) of some men she'll never ever meet nor really care for in her life? Sweet zombie Jesus. How fragile an ego must you have in order to do such a thing?

C'mon girl, others do it and get paid for it, not for a few "epixxx" (triple "x"'s have never been more appropriately used in this word.)

DISCLAIMER: I'm neither saying nor suggesting she would be better off by actually getting paid for getting nekkid. It's merely meant as a joke at the absurdity of it all.

At any rate, I'll be out of town for a few more days, so don't be surprised if updates are scarce again.

(45-27 at the third quarter. This is depressing.)

A change of plans

So Greece lost to Russia yesterday, after playing what was probably their worst game in like four years. Seriously, our offense was downright atrocious, and even though Russia played pretty badly, they won quite easily in the end.

I'm getting the idea that the Greek players are too tired from playing all year long since 2004. It would explain while they are so damn slow on offense, which makes them predictable, but also the defense is pretty static on defense as well. I mean, the defense is there and it's still difficult for other teams to score on us, but we don't get as many points from a steal and a fastbreak attack from our good defense, unlike what happened in the last couple of years. Fatigue is my best case as to why this is happening, but I'm hardly an expert on the subject.

For today's post I wanted to write a rant about how useless serving the army in this country is, as you only train for a month and then just clean yards and toilets, but... It felt a bit useless, as I would just be ranting, and its uselessness can be summarized in a single sentence.

So I would just be ranting for the sake of it, and while I've had a streak of bad luck lately, I think rants aren't good for much either. Plus I had decided when I started this blog that I'd stay away from the usual blog-gy rants you find on the Internets, so I'm sticking to that plan.

Instead, I'll close off this post with one of my favorite feel-good songs, from the show Animaniacs, called The Monkey Song. I always watch it whenever I need some cheering, it hasn't failed me yet.

Contrary to popular belief...

...I'm not dead. I just took an overlong vacation, as I tend to every August. This year is even more important, as this time next year I'll be serving my time in the Greek army. Trust me, it's not half as fun as it sounds. So I figured I'd spend extra time in my mountain village of Neraida, near lake Plastiras, this year, to make up for next year's.

What's more, with the recent atrocities that happened in Pelloponisos and in other parts of Greece lately, I'm starting to worry that the forests I love so much won't be around for much longer. Even without fires, the scorching heatwaves that plagued Greece this year took their toll on the plant and animal life of said forests. The only ones that didn't seem affected were all those fucking flies. My god, the flies. I swear there were at least a million around at any given moment, even at the deepest part of the forest all you could hear was a constant, loud, buzzing sound.

Still, spending your time in the mountains beats Athens and my hometown of Karditsa any day, so it's why I didn't want to leave. Having a few drinking buddies around never hurt, either.

So what's been happening in the world while I was away? Elections were suddenly announced for the 16th of the current month, but let's get serious, I'm not gonna bother with that one.

I was thinking of writing an article about all the disgracing forest fires of June, July, and August, but so much has been said about them recently that I have nothing really significant to add. Except of course for a big ol'"FUCK YOU" to all those that caused this, and all those who could have done something to stop it, but didn't.

At the end of the day though, nothing will say or do will change anything. Elections are a little over a week away, and after that (a month tops) nobody will remember about the forest fires of 2007, and naturally nobody will do anything to prevent such a thing from happening again. It's like this graffiti that's reportedly been seen around Athens lately, loosely translated by yours trully it goes a bit like: "This country is being torn apart by indifference, but what do I care?"

That's Greece in a nutshell for ya.

Anyway, I don't want my first post after so long to be a total downer, so on the positive side, Eurobasket 2007 has been very interesting so far. It's not that the matches that have been played as of today are awesome or anything, but they're really close for the most part. Like last night's game between Greece and Serbia, where Gurovic tied the game with a three-pointer from like nine meters away at the buzzer. I wasn't too happy about it personally at the moment, but in retrospect it helped an otherwise bad game become exciting.

Better yet was Slovenia's win over Italy, with the Italians taking the lead with a few seconds to go for the first time in the game, and then... Well, just watch the following video. Damn, that must have sucked royally for the Italians.



And now I must be off, the basketball match between Greece and Russia is starting any moment, last game of the first round for the Greek team so far, hopefully it will mark our third win. Oh and the Serbs managed to fuck up for the fourth year in a row in a major competition by losing to Israel and coming up... last. Heh.

Summertime...

And the living is easy. The leaving, not so much. I'm still stuck here in Athens for the moo, PC-less. So you, faithful readers should not expect much from this blog for the following couple of months, as I'm not getting a new PC for the time being. Spend my booze money on a new computer? Hah!

I am getting the heck outta here once the music festivals (including yet not limited to bands and artists such as James, Calexico, Tori Amos etc.) are over though. Spending the entire summer in Athens is a great way to perma-insanity.

"Wish you were here."

Hell, I wish I were there.

Buttmonkeys

Figures, I always say that if there's a sort of supreme power that directs the events in our universe, it's Cosmic Irony.

So when I went to the movies tonight to see Die Hard 4.0, a movie I had said I wouldn't watch in the movies, and definitely not on opening day, what happens? There's a black out and the screening is canceled. Friggin' figures.

I'll try again tomorrow. Although tomorrow by all rights I should be at the Chris Cornell concert.

Yes, this is a whine post. First one ever in this blog, but I feel it's justified. And I don't care if you don't agree. :P

Temptation

Must...
not...
give...
in...
to...
it.

No, I'm neither debating selling my soul to the Devil nor buying an iPhone. Is there a difference anyway? :p

It's quite simpler, Live Free or Die Hard opens up today here in Athens, in some of my favorite summer theaters too. Things were simpler when everybody thought this movie would suck, I was supposed to see it on DVD or perhaps go to the movies with some friends to make fun of it.

At the moment, it was the most logical thing to do. A whole twelve years later after the last Die Hard movie (which kicked ass, haters be damned), a fucking PG-13 rating, over the top action, a John McClane and Macguy? "Ugh" was the the first word that came to mind, and I'm not referring to the obscure platform game from the early-mid 90's.

Live Free or Die Hard sounded like it was a day late and a dollar short. Or several of those, perhaps.

But then the buzz started building. Early word on the movie is very positive, some people are even saying it's better than parts two and three. Sacriledge? Who knows. But over at Rotten Tomatoes, it's currently standing at 76% fresh, a really damn good percentage for an action movie. Surely all these people must be on to something?

Yet here lies the rub: Is Live Free or Die Hard a good action movie? It sure sounds like it at this point. But is it a good Die Hard movie? I'm still not sure about that. The reason the originals were so damn good is because John McClane wasn't the usual Hollywood (super)hero. He had too many flaws, he got his ass kicked, even if he did get the job done at the end.

Just look at his condition by the end of each movie. He is bloodied and bruised, nothing like the poster-boy heroes from other movies, which seem like they could walk from a nuclear explosion without a scratch. Yet that's exactly what this bald rendition of McClane looks like in Live Die or Die Hard. Too much of a badass for his own good. And this is the reason why I'm still not sold on this film, despite the positive reviews and word of mouth.

I am sure now, however, that I won't avoid seeing it today, on its opening day. Le sigh. I'll probably update later with my impressions when I come back from the movies.

Sex, Droga, Dejan Bodiroga

No big news lately, as this heatwave that's scorching Greece right now has pretty much killed my will to do anything.

So here's a small tribute to one of my favorite basketball players of all time, who retired a couple of weeks ago, Dejan Bodiroga.

One of the greatest players to come from that region of Europe formerly known as Yugoslavia, Bodiroga was one of those players that could easily fill any position on court, from playmaker to making shots in the paint. He also had amazing "Basketball IQ" as they call it these days, being able to almost always make the correct judgement at any given circumstance, not to mention being an excellent clutch shooter. He definitely bailed my team Panathinaikos a lot of times when he was playing for us.

At 34, Bodiroga's retirement may have been a bit premature, but I guess it's better to retire while you're still at your prime rather than just playing for a few minutes every now and then and having your averages drop too much.

Here's a vid of highlights, not the best around, but I couldn't find any better ones at the moo.

Snacky's journal

One of the best things to come out of this whole World of Warcraft craze is all the machinima videos that have been created with the game's graphic engine.

I plan on making a full list of the best ones, as they are really brilliant, but I won't be doing that now since my PC is still acting up. In the meantime, here's a trailer for the third part of what is probably the funniest series of them all, Snacky's journal.

Fedoras and whips, oh my.

Shooting has begun on the new Indiana Jones movie during the past four days, after years of rumors and speculations. We will find out if it's worth the wait on May 22, 2008. Or you will, I will probably be in the army then *raises his fist in anger*.

It's hard not to be skeptical with all these recent relaunching of various movie franchises lately, most of which were mediocre at best (Rocky, TMNT etc.). And let us not forget about Die Hard PG-13, I mean uh, Die Hard 4.0 which hits theaters next week. I'm still debating whether I should see it in them movies or just boycott it. I mean, it's PG-13. Yippie Kie-Yay Mr. Falcon? *shudders*

So far, I wasn't too sure about the new Indy movie either. The entire franchise (including the Indiana Jones adventure games) is really special to me, so I want to love this movie. But... It's been almost 20 years since The Last Crusade, Sean Connery won't be in it, and isn't Harrison Ford at 64 a little too old for the role?

But today, I saw the following picture:



While looking at it, the Indiana Jones main theme starting playing in my mind.

It just feels right. That's not an old Harrison Ford, that's Indiana Jones. A bit older since we last saw him to be sure, but that's our Indy alright.

I don't know, it could be just nostalgia speaking here, but I am really looking forward to it now. I mean, it's Indiana Jones, how can you mess that up? Even with the rumored plot going on around (don't ask, it's for the best if you don't know), it will take a tremendous amount of effort to make this a bad movie.

I am pretty sure that it would have been better if this movie had come out a decade ago, but it still has the potential to be really flippin' good. Please don't mess this one up, Spielberg. Our childhood/early teen memories have been raped enough already.

A midsummer night

Tonight was the summer solstice, one of the two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator, the longest day of the year. It's also called midsummer.

(I'm auditioning for the Captain Obvious '07 award, how am I doing?)

It's also one of my favorite nights of the year. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of my favorite plays. The loosely-related song by the Stranglers, Midnight's Summer Dream is also one of my favorite songs.

I have a strange fascination with all three, they have something eerie about them that I like oh so very much, even though I'm not sure why this is so.

I was planning on writing something deep and meaningful about the meaning of this night, but the immense heat, a damn headache, random PC crashes, and my own incompetence forbid me from doing so.

I guess this post is my very own Lost in La Mancha.

During the next three days I'll make some basketball-related posts I've wanted to make for a while now. I've found my love for that game again, after so many years, and football be damned.

Don't *ever*...

...Underestimate the heart of a champion.

(I don't take any particular pleasure in being so laconic, but my PC keeps crashing so I doubt I have time to post anything more. Gief my laptop back)

'Bout time.

'Nuff said.

Lord, why do you test us so?

I had heard that there was a Castlevania movie in the works. I had also heard that comic book writer Warren Ellis was behind the script, and I'm a huge fan of the franchise so I was trying to remain cautiously optimistic. And then I read this:

"Scripted by Paul W.S. Anderson ("Alien vs. Predator"), the drama begins as a Transylvanian knight leads his men into a gothic castle to seek refuge from the Turkish army. The knights soon discover the castle is controlled by the original vampire."

Why God, why?

More here, be prepared to weep. In great quantities.

Gentlemen, get your brooms

I wanted to post this since yesterday, but I couldn't log in for some reason.

At any rate, enjoy Brazil's "finest" at work. Shame he can't flop out of that one.



Hopefully the Spurs will end this parody on the next game.

Bars for Mars

Between Anneke van Giersbergen leaving The Gathering (am I ever glad I finally managed to see them live before this happened...) and Sean Connery announcing (hardly an official link, but it'll do) that he won't be in Indiana Jones 4, this day seemed to offer nothing but bad news.

Yet while casually killing time on the internets, I run into another campaign of loyal Veronica Mars fans trying to save their favorite show from cancellation. Being the cynical skeptic that I am, I usually treat this kind of campaigns with dry amusement, some people never realize when they've lost the battle. After all, when was the last time an online petition ever had actual results?

Yet these people are actually trying something a lot more creative, taking a leaf out of the campaign to save Jericho, which by the way was met with success. And if Jericho, in all honesty a mediocre show which I personally hated, can be saved, then Hellfire and Brimstone, why shouldn't this work for Veronica Mars?

The current plan calls for loyal viewers to send as many "Mars" chocolate bars to CW execs before June 15, when the final decision for the show's future is going to be taken. And for those that can't afford to send a Mars, you can even send a JPEG image.

The two main sites where you can find more info on this are BarsForMars.com and Save Veronica Mars, which also has a very comprehensive list of things one can do in order to help VM from getting cancelled for good.

I have to say, I also saw something in this campaign that managed to warm my jaded heart just a bit. Some people are offering Mars bars for $1.79 and with free shipping if you're intending to send such a bar to the CW execs. Definitely a very decent initiative.

Now I've said before (in too many posts) that I was actually content with the idea of Veronica Mars ending its run this year. It ended on a high note after hitting an all-time low in both ratings and quality during the mid-season (honestly, when the "Pizonika" incident occured I swear I could see someone jumping over a shark in the background, possibly Logan), with a wonderfully bittersweet ending that fit the series's themes perfectly. Also, I've always believed that it's better for things to just end than drag along, and this goes for VM as well. Three seasons are good enough.

However, the whole idea of Veronica in the FBI I had mentioned in an earlier post really grew on me in the meantime, and it's the one that we'll apparently get if the show does get picked up for another season. I could really see this working. Effectively, it would be a reboot, something they already tried to do with this season and the new college setting, but this one could actually work. No more teen relationship-drama, with V being all grown up and in the FBI now, gone would be most of the new and annoying supporting cast (fuck off, Piz), and so on and so forth.

If the last episode of season 3/the entire series, appropriately called "The Bitch is Back" showed us anything, it's the fact that the series is at its best when Veronica is a brooding, misanthropic outcast, indeed, when she is a bitch*. I could see that happening if she were to join the FBI, not many people would take a miniscule blond girl trying to be an FBI agent seriously, so she could very well be an outcast yet again.

And of course, the new setting would be ideal for the return of the Noir feel of season one. Darker, grittier storylines, moody atmosphere... if done well, it could be perfect. This would also be a great way to market the series to a new, more mature audience. My guess is that most people past their mid-twenties would much more easily take interest in a Noir-themed show based on an FBI agent rather than a high school/university student. Almost a win/win situation, if you ask me. We get the VM we fell in love with during the first season, and the studio gets a solid viewer base.

I am honestly contemplating writing a letter to the CW and joining in on this little campaign thing. It has to be a letter though and not a simple email, a letter is much more powerful, it would seem. I did it with the Sam and Max campaign back in '04, and that was a battle we won. I'm just worried that the letter won't make it on time, which kind of sucks. And I'm not going to send an actual Mars bar alongside it, of course. It will definitely go bad by the time it gets there, and that would not only be gross, but also rather counter-intuitive.

Lastly, I just have to post this image because I really love it. Amusingly enough, this was created two years ago, after season one had ended and people were demanding that UPN would continue the show for at least one more season. It's kind of funny to think how many near-cancellations this show has had. Let's see if it can survive this one as well.



*Interestingly enough, if VM were a male character the appropriate word to use in this context would be "badass". Food for thought, I believe.

Wait a sec

It's weird, I was certain I had made a post about the Stardust trailer that was released about two months ago, but it turns out I hadn't. Oh well, better late than never. Here's the trailer for those of you that haven't seen it:



(High-quality trailer here.)

I'm not really sure what to make of this trailer. Stardust is still my most anticipated movie at the moment, but this trailer is a bit... eh. Still, it's just a trailer, I have faith that it will be a good movie.

The original book is a quite simple, yet charming and enchanting, fairy tale. Hopefully the movie will have the same appeal. The visuals are there, and the cast seems solid too. Not too sure about Claire Daines, but hey, Sienna Miller's presence balances it all out.

The official site has also been updated with a lot of interesting content, and it's also really well designed. Worth a visit, I think.

Crazy in the coconut

I've wanted to post this video for a few days now, but I kept forgetting. Seems somehow oddly appropriate.

Scooter Libby also got 30 months. Probably too few, if you ask me. I'd give him more, for the nickname alone.

Anyway, here's the best music video in the history of music videos.

Ain't freedom of speech great?

I decided to pull my rant about Hugo Chavez as I found out I was missing some important information and came off harsher than I should. I'll reevaluate and repost it later. My point about the Art expo here in Athens, birthplace of "democracy" remains, however.

Last Saturday, policemen invaded the "Art Athina" expo and arrested its director, with the excuse that he allowed the showing of a short video that defiled the image of a national symbol, more specifically Greece's national anthem. The creator of the video was also supposed to be arrested, but luckily for her she was in Germany at the time.

If you're Greek you can read more here, and if you're not, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Also, if you're interested in seeing the video in question, you can visit this website, and then click on the gray "art-athina international art fair" button, the first fourty seconds is what you want to see. There is no sound during that time presumably for fear of further lawsuits, but as the subtitles point out, the only thing that was heard was the Greek national anthem. This being the internets, you can probably find it in a matter of seconds if you want to.

At this point, I should confess that I am no fan of what kids these days call "modern art". In most cases I find it pretentious, pointless, and more often than not just plain tedious. This is how I felt about the last piece of art that was legally persecuted here three years ago, a painting of somebody's cock cumming on (or near) a Christian cross, and this is also how I feel about this video.

I'm sure their creators have some explanation on why their creations should be taken seriously, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm more likely to chuckle at them than consider them as a meaningful piece of art, that's just me.

But that is not the point. A mere forty seconds of video, no matter what the content, are not enough to destroy the national pride of anyone, despite what the prosecutors are arguing in this case. Hell, people weren't arrested when they were singing songs praising the military Junta that ruled (and screwed up) Greece from 1967 to 1974. Yet it seemed perfectly fine to make an exception for a video of a girl playing with herself.

If anything, removing the video from the expo would be bad enough, but suing and arresting people over it? That's way too fucking Orwellian for my taste.

Seriously. This is getting scary.

Waiting for Godot

No, not that Godot.

It has been confirmed (for a bit now actually) that Phoenix Wright 3, the final Ace Attorney game to feature Nick Wright will be released in the States and Europe in Fall of the current year. It's also supposedly the best game of the series so far.

As a huge fan of the series, I'm really looking forward to it. #4 scares me a bit, but I'm prepared to love #3, even though I've read some spoilers I really wish I hadn't. >.>

And of course, playable Mia! Who can say no to that?

Here's the official trailer:

A match made in heaven

The title is referring to the recent(ish) interview of Richard Dawkins in "Papa Bear" Bill O'Reilly's show, the "O RLY Factor". No wait, that's not right. Anyway.

(I know O RLY jokes are so '05, but I couldn't help it. *shrugs*)

It goes without saying that Papa Bear is only good to laugh at, and is not to be taken seriously, but he was pretty entertaining in this one. Still pretty annoying, yet entertaining nonetheless.

On the other hand, even though I'm an ardent atheist, I'm not that fond of Richard Dawkins either. He comes off as arrogant, smug and sometimes annoying as well. Basically he oftentimes does the exact same things he's accusing Christians for. I do agree with what he's saying more or less, I just don't like the way he tries to shove his opinions down other people's throats.

At any rate, seeing two rather obnoxious people (especially two who like to force their opinions on others) fight is fun, so for those interested in watching this interview, click here.

Be wevy quiet, I'm watching Wabbits

For some strange, unexplained reason, I felt like watching David Lynch's latest film in the movies. I don't really like Lynch's films, and that's being kind. Yet I had this sort of gut feeling which told me I would like this movie. This was despite Lynch's confession that: "I don’t know exactly how this thing will finally unfold... This film is very different because I don’t have a script. I write the thing scene by scene and much of it is shot and I don’t have much of a clue where it will end."

And boy, does it ever show. Of course, you never watch a Lynch movie for plot or consistency, you watch it for the surreal, menacing atmosphere, the strange images and Angelo Badalamenti's amazing music scores. But Inland Empire suffers from a lack of any sense of consistency, even when compared to the rest of Lynch's movies. At this point I should confess that I've seen most of his movies, yes I'm glutton for punishment.

At any rate, while the plot is all over the place, what really hurts the movie in my opinion is the long length. I rarely complain about a movie's length, but in such a film where you have to search for clues in virtually every scene, three hours is a bit too much. I started feeling tired by the 150 minutes mark or so, and by the end I was outright bored, the movie had lost me. I still kind of liked it, but not as much as I expected.

Anyway, enough Lynch-bashing for one post. If there was something I really, really liked in the film was the little segments with the humanoid rabbits, which were in what appeared to be a set of a 50's sitcom, complete with an audience laugh track that was used on lines that weren't really funny.

The people in the movie I was in preferred to just giggle like school children, but something in those segments captivated me. There was an underlying sense of malice and dread to them, like something bad was going on but you couldn't even begin to understand what, which made things even worse. Lynch at his finest, in other words. Also it sorta reminded me of Silent Hill 3, my favorite SH ever, and that's a big plus. Of course, Rabbits pre-dated SH3, I wouldn't be surprised if I heard that it influenced Konami's game.

So imagine my delight when I found out that Lynch had made a whole series out of that concept. Originally it was only released on Lynch's official website in 8 episodes, and while it's no longer there, other websites now host at least a few of those episodes. Hooray for the internets!

I've watched the first two episodes so far, and well... without spoiling anything, I knew that whoever the rabbits were waiting for was up to no good, but I wasn't expecting that. I almost started yelling "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" during a very specific scene.

Also, if Wikipedia can link to Rabbits on YouTube, then heck, so can I. Here's the first episode:



The whole series can be found here.

Lastly... why are rabbits (at least humanoid ones) so damn creepy? I found them seriously unsettling in Silent Hill 3, and I felt exactly the same in Rabbits. I could make a joke about furries here, but I'd rather not.

I guess I jinxed it

So we have a new Champions League uh... champion. AC Milan defeated Liverpool 2-1 last night, my little posting trick didn't work this time around, I guess it doesn't work if you're doing it on purpose, as Liverpool was unable to recover from being 2-0 down.

All in all, it was a fairly boring game, in all honesty. Maybe I'm a bit jaded with football these days, but the whole tempo of the game was pretty tame. Milan just did their job well, scored a (lucky) goal as the first half was about to end, and then proceeded to lock down Liverpool's attackers with incredible precision, almost cold-blooded one could say.

Liverpool didn't do much, all in all. It was kind of disappointing for the club that managed to recover from three down just two years ago, this time around it felt as if they were lacking the willpower to win (eh, cliches for the loss). Perhaps it was Milan's excellent defense, but certain Liverpool key players like Gerrard where nowhere to be found all game long.

In the end, the better team won, so it's all good I guess. And I'm happy for this guy:



39 year old, Paolo Maldini. Milan's captain for so many years I've actually lost count, quite possibly the most complete defender or heck, the best defender ever. Also my favorite football player of all time. So it's all good in the end.

'Tis the time of the season

How did that go anyway, "the time" or "that time"?

At any rate, I don't have time to wonder about that. As I'm writing this, Liverpool is losing 1-0 to AC Milan in the Champions League final. That's soccer, if you're not from this continent. Two years ago, I was writing an email and Liverpool was losing 3-0 to AC Milan again. By the time I had finished the mail, they had tied the game up. So yes, I'm sorta hoping for the same effect here.

I know, I'm hopeless. So what?

Anyway, this week marks the season finales for most TV shows, at least the ones that didn't had their finale's last week. Hello, CSI. Thanks for that cliffhanger, it's gonna be a long wait till October. *grumbles*

(Damn, Liverpool almost scored just now, I told you people there's a reason why I'm doing this!)

Anyway, many people have been overly critical over the season finale of Heroes, which was admittedly rather awkward and with quite a few plot-holes. In all honesty, Heroes was never that good a show to begin with, and plot-holes were abundant all season long. Why change now?

As far as TV shows go, it's kinda dumb, but fun. Sorta like a superhero comic book, but even more cheesy. Sure, there were a few moments of greatness here and there throughout the year (Company Man, that "Days of Future Past" episode) but they were the exception, not the rule.

One major point of criticism was the final "battle" that was over in like three seconds. That was rather anti-climatic, but I never got why people get so fascinated over battles in TV shows. I honestly doubt I've seen a good one on TV. With the possible exception of Jin kicking that Russian Other's ass in Lost, but that was over in a few seconds too.

Speaking of Lost, season finale is on in a few hours and it should be fucking epic. Epic. This show has kicked so much ass in the last couple of months.

I haven't watched 24 yet, but by the sounds of it, I'm not missing much. (Pavlos, if you spoil anything for me again you won't live long enough to see season 7!)

And finally... on to my favorite show in recent years, Veronica Mars, which just had its series finale last night. The finale was completely anti-climatic, but that's to be expected, as it was designed as a season finale with a cliffhanger, rather than a series finale. Too many questions remain unanswered, there is no real closure, and the ending is definitely not a happy one.

But you know, for me, it worked wonderfully like that. For a show that was a massive success with critics but never with the actual audience, a show that went through countless near-cancellations, with Execs tainting it and almost turning it into a teen drama... It felt oddly appropriate to go on such an unhappy note, and definitely not with a bang. Not with a whimper either though, because the last two episodes aired last night reminded me why I fell in love with this show the first time. Brilliant writing, brilliant acting, just quality TV at its finest.

(And again, ahhh! C'mon Liverpool!)

It also made accepting the fact that the series is over a bit harder to stomach, as the suckfest episodes we got in the last month actually made me glad the show would end this year. But at the same time, it's good to see the show ending on such a high note.

Going back to the unhappy ending and how it feels appropriate, one of the main themes of the show since season 1 was the fact that whatever you do, how honest your intentions are, and how much you try... sometimes you'll fail, you'll fuck up, sometimes things will not turn out the way you want them to, no matter how much that might hurt you.

And exactly that is why this ending seems so fitting. Not only because things went south since Veronica and her dad messed up (not putting up any spoilers, watch the damn thing), but because this also works for the series itself. No matter how much its creators tried, no matter what sacrifices they made in order to retain their show on air, they failed. But that doesn't matter. They provided us with three years of quality TV, and that's more than enough.

Also, apparently VM has just been cancelled on Greek TV as well. Figures.

(Ass, 2-0. Grr.)

I'll admit to something here, I used to watch Gilmore Girls until season 6, which sucked all sorts of ass... is the series finale worth watching? Even just for the heck of it.

(Come on, damnit.)