New York Comic Con 2012 Preview: Friday Panels Part I

Posted on 10/01/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Here in my second Preview article for NYCC 2012 I focus on the panels for Friday morning to early afternoon.  This is ONLY about the scheduled panels, not press hours, signings, booth events, etc.  These do not reflect my own possible schedule, especially with the overlap existing here.  It is is meant to help promote panels which I think are worth going to and if I could I would go to all of them, and do everything else too.  Understand Con is again all about making decisions and sacrificing and compromising to get the best possible experience due to circumstance and situation and if you’re anything like me, that gets harder… so here we go.

Setting the Score: Composing for Film & Television
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
1A01
One of two panels focusing on the music and composition of genre orchestral/instrumentals. This one focuses on Television and film with the following talented musicians:
Dino Meneghin (MTV’s Teen Wolf)
Frederik Wiedmann
Jay Vincent
Kevin Manthei
and Will Bates

Adam West and Burt Ward Spotlight
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
1A23

When I was much much younger I entered a costume contest with a seriously ridiculous prize at a convention held in New Yorker Hotel. That place where the Big Apple Cons take place now and stuff. I was 14 years old and Batman Returns had just come out. I had heard that Adam West was going to be the judge and I came up with the idea of working up a Batman TV show costume. I used a Mask from the Batman films, but cut the mask up and stitched the bat emblem on it onto a gray sweater and I put together a cape and a batbelt even. I even built my own old school batarang. I won. I don’t know where I placed, but about 65% of my comics collection as it exists. Anyways, here’s a photo from that.

How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry with Capcom
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
1A14
This sounds like it might a really indepth panel with focuses all ALL elements of the industry. Not just the jobs that require a background in computer science, programming skills or artistic talent, but the jobs I’m qualified for but don’t completely now how to pursue such as Public Relations, Advertising, and Producing and there’s a chance after to meet with the panel and network. This will be a great opportunity for young programmers, concept artists, etc as well to do the same.

Maestros of Horror & Sci-Fi Music
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
1A01
The second of two panels focusing on the music and composition of genre orchestral/instrumentals. This focusing on developing for video games in genre. It features the following talented award winning music writers:
Jason Graves
Kevin Riepl
Sam Hulick
Sascha Dikiciyan
Tom Salta
and
Cris Velasco
On top of that though, the disco king, electronic genius, master producer and living legend, Nile Rodgers, shall be in attendance, having done the lead production on Halo’s soundtracks.

Christopher Lloyd Q&A
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
1A10
“What are you supposed to when you are are asked a weird question at a panel?”
“Slow down”
“What…are… you… supposed… to…do… when… you… are… asked…

You get the point. Honestly I’m not sure what brings Christopher to NYCC. I mean he will always be Doc Brown, between 2011’s NIKE Mag promotion and the Telltale Game’s BTTF, the character is alive and well, but that isn’t enough is it? I mean maybe it is, but he does a horror film coming upand a children’s supernatual adventure called Mickey Matson so he has plenty to promote, but it doesn’t seem like he’s promoting anything specific… still, it’s Christopher Lloyd, I’m not complaining.

Debuting the Vision Machine iPad app!
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
1A21
Greg Pak’s Vision Machine is one of the coolest and best projects I’ve seen in forever. Drawn by RB Silva of DC Comic’s Jimmy Olsen and also The New 52 Superboy it’s a free comic that is excellent and NOW it’s an iPad motion/animated comic. Vocal actor Phil Lamarr is part of it and the comedy music genius Jonathan Coulton is as well and if you’ve missed your opportunity at a free copy of the Vision Machine GN, this is is another opportunity.

Sir Terry Pratchett introduces…DODGER
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm
Unbound Stage
This probably will be one of the final times Pratchett will ever appear in public. It’s even possible that this Charles Dicken’s inspired Young Adult novel will be his last book. I am a huge Discworld fan, but have also loved Good Omens and his Johnny Maxell series.

As you can see the three above panels is where overlapping becomes a real issue. All three panels excite me for different reasons and I don’t know what to do… but for some fans, it’s the next overlapping that is truly insane!

Dark Horse Presents: Yoshitaka Amano
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm
1A21
The genius behind the artistic design of Final Fantasy who has also done his share of comics work and other films is in America, a real rare treat in promotion of his Dark Horse published art collection and his panel is booked against the following.

Grant Morrison Spotlight
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm
1E13
One of comics favorite writers, the man behind The Invisibles, Flex Mentallo, All Star Superman, Batman Incorporated, etc. etc. etc. and who just had his own comics convention has a one hour sitdown retrospective. I’m shocked this isn’t in the IGN theater!

Sean Astin Q&A
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
1A10
Sean Astin is at NYCC because his role in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, but a recent episode of SyFy’s Treasure Hunters showed that Sean has a great affinity and love for all things Sean Astin, from Goonies to Rudy to Lord of The Rings, the guy is as big a “geek” as his LOTR co-star Elijah Wood, so a sitdown talk with him should be quite entertaining.

To be continued in Part II with 4 PM – 9 PM!

Posted in New York Comic Con | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New York Comic Con 2012 Preview: Friday Panels Part I

New York Comic Con 2012 Preview: Thursday Panels

Posted on 09/29/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

 

The 2012 New York Comic Con is about 2 weeks away and while tickets are sold out, that doesn’t mean people going are clear cut on what to do or what they should attend. The panel listing are a maze to explore. Finding out what’s cool and worthwhile. Figuring out what’s a miss event, exclusive, giveaway or signing on the floor is even harder. As a proud press member for the last four years of the convention (year 1 and 2 I went as a consumer, years 3 and 4 I was with an exhibitor, different one, while 5 and 6 and now 7 I’ve been as a journalist but no booth) I feel it is partially my job to not only cover the conevntion but promote specific things that excite me in my own language that explains it and might sell it even more than it’s press releases or write ups.

This is the first of these. I’ll be breaking things down into Panels and since Friday & Saturday are super long days breaking them into Part 1 & 2 for reading ease. Here we go with the special Thursday night Preview though, open to Press, Pros, Ultimate Access, Special Access, and 4 Day Ticket Holders. (All those sold out so there’s actually A LOT of them).

THURSDAY
Comics Studies Conference: The Origins of Leaping Tall Buildings: Finding New Ways to Document the Creators Behind the Comics
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
1A07
One of the smartest comics scholars I know, Hannah Means-Shannon, college professor and contributor to Sequart, The Beat, Trip City and other places will be moderating this discussion with writer/journalist Christopher Irving, photographer/journalist Seth Kushner and designer Eric Skillman to discuss the history and making of their comics profiles book, Leaping Tall Buildings, in probably one of the more in depth, intellectual conversations of the show. Especially since it’s on the “education” tract in the Thursday sessions during Preview Night. It should be compelling and exciting AND there’s a flyer!

Justice Is Served
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
1A14
Amber Benson and Thomas Sniegoski are both on this panel about novelists who write books which are essentially crime novels with some kind of supernatural twist. I’ve read a lot more of Tom than Amber and I kind of just like looking at Amber. Can you blame me? Look at her. But I have read her books and she’s a really good writer.

My Little Pony
6:15 pm – 7:15 pm
1A06
I’m not a Brony, but I do like Friendship is Magic. Hasbro’s toy line is part of this as well. I wish I knew who the guests/speakers were and a bit more about what this was about, but the fact that exists piques my interest.

The Image Revolution Documentary
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
1A04
Sequart were able to successfully fund this much larger project than their more singular focused productions through Kickstarter. I’ve been following its progress and I’m interested in seeing where they are at in production. I know they just finished new interviews, so it’s becoming a great documentary hopefully. Curious to see what special Image guest they have show up as well. Could be anyone from While to Larsen to even Jim Lee (doubtful).

NYCC Kick-Off Concert with Ben Folds Five
Thursday, October 11, 2012
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
IGN Theater
I am all about this concert. You have no freaking clue how much I am into this concert. I don’t even want to get into it. It’s an entire article. I just hope they find a way to have the Fraggles on stage or draw some dicks on the wall. That is if they do just the new album. I wouldn’t mind hearing “Magic” or “Where’s Summer B.?”… Seriously though, if Chris Hardwick and Rob Corrdry aren’t on stage for a performance of “Do It Anyway” since it IS New York Comic Con I might actually call fail!

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New York Comic Con 2012 Preview: Thursday Panels

Brooklyn Book Festival 2012: The Sex Panel (and more)

Posted on 09/28/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

On Sunday I attended the Brooklyn Book Festival as I have done in years previous, but this year I didn’t get to attend it as rigorously as before. Last year I attended many panels, taking copious notes and providing tons of articles.

This year I only made it to one panel, titled “The Sex Panel” it was a discussion in comics in sex and featured an amazing array of talent moderated by comics journalist Heidi McDonald.

On the panel were Bob Fingerman (writer of the most excellent horror inspired novels BottomFinger Bottomfeeder and Pariah, writer/artist of Minimum Wage, From The Ashes and a collection from Eros called Finger Filth, as well as Monkey Jank and Otis Goes Hollywood), Leela Corman (artist/writer of Unterzakhn as well as the illustrator of various books pertaining to sex and sexuality), Gilbert “Beto” Hernandez of Los Bros. Hernandez/Love & Rockets fame (who also wrote/drew the hardcore porn Birdland, the first ever collection from Eros) and Molly Crabapple, (the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s and artist of Scarlett Takes Manhattan).

The panel started with slides showing the work of the artists. During the slides much was discussed and explained, but truthfully there were just amazing soundbites and quotes and I feel it best to share those.

Leela Corman
“It’s always fun to draw hairy men.”
“My editor thinks there’s too many breasts, I’m really in it for the lingerie”

Bob Fingerman
“No matter how hard I try, I always end up swimming back into the sewer.”
“If there are any furries here and I’m offending you… Good.” (on a story about confurrences, where a real bear crashes and has sex with everyone while they think he’s just someone in costume)

Beto Hernandez
“I messed up that bottom panel, I made his dick too small.” (on a Birdland page)
“That’s my furry story but I’ll never be able to top Bob” in which Bob replied “Don’t try.”

“I do sex comics because I can”
“I do boy sex comics because I can”

Molly Crabapple
“Boobs are awesome”

She also told a hard to quote story about being majorly influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec and achieving his career of working in a nightclub as an artist was an aspiration which she achieved working for burlesque club “The Box”.

————————————————————————————————————————-

After the slides came the first question “The first time you decided to work blue”

Leela Corman: “Sex is a commodity”

Bob Fingerman: “I was hardwired.”

Talked about how there was a neighborhood bully who would beat him up if he draw him a naked chick. He traced an image of a cave woman from a toy box and just took off her top. He also said he had a cigar box since he was six years old that was full of dirty drawings he would do.

Molly Crabapple: Her first commission was for Screw magazine, “if someone will let you do porn, then you can do whatever on the page”

Gilbert Hernandez: When Mario and he were kids (8 years old) they saw Playboy and started drawing naked ladies. Beto wanted to get them accurate, but he got caught and in trouble and stopped. Yet when they started doing Love & Rockets it just progressed till the point of Birdland. Beto sas he did no research for sex drawing, just pulling it out of his imagination. By issue #3 (Birdland was serilizaed as regular comics before being collected) he was bored with it.

Bob discusses working for a lot of men’s magazines and that he had a different experience than Molly in that they wanted porn and NOTHING but porn and any creative deviations were frowned upon.

Molly mentions that she also did work with Playgirl, but she went drinking with the editors and they liked her, so her history may be biased.

Heidi then presented the question “When do you go to far?”

Leela was told no penis because of international publication.

“Male Penis is the deal breaker”

Bob talked about cesnoring himself when he worked on Shugga which came from working for Cracked and made him need to do a huge purge, but he felt even on that book he went way too insane.

He proceeded to talk about toning down Minimum for the a new collection. He says a lot of readers only saw the book as a lot of sex and missed the actual story.

“Maximum Minimum Wage, now with less Naughty bits.”

“Violence & Sex is creepy, sex is a happy place, that’s why the tits are so big in my comics.” – Gilbert Hernandez

As this point in the panel there were many audience questions which intelligent and provided great insight but were both hard to quote or capture in context.

One of the final questions were to Molly Crabapple who had recently become a twitter trend through the efforts of major writers like Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman after being arrested and detained for 11 hours as part of an Occupy Wallstreet march. She was asked about the connections between her world of burlesque and OWS.

She talked about loving the image of a sexy woman in crazy heels marching changing the image of an activist.
“a sisterhood of the odd”

Before the panel closed out so the creators could participate in a signing, Leela Corman had the quote of the evening talking about sex in books and popularity of it, in context to everything.

“At least they’re reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and not ‘Left Behind’ “

After the sex panel, I joined Dean Haspiel on the steps of Borough Hall to listen to Jimmy “J.J.” Walker and BernNadette Stanis (of GOOD TIMES fame), which provided a great clip I’ll be showing sooner than later.

To end things, here’s a shot of Dean, dream chronologist Jesse Reklaw and myself.

(A special thanks goes to Hannah Means-Shannon and Josh Frankel as well)

Posted in Brooklyn Book Festival | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

memoirs of an imaginary friend: book review

Posted on 09/25/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

I have no memory of it unfortunately, but according to my mom I definitely had a clear cut imaginary friend when I was younger. There’s no way of knowing if he was a simple kind, the kind you’d see in Fosters for Imaginary Friends or maybe like the Family Circus. I am sure he was nothing like Budo in Matthew Dick‘s absolutely fascinating and captivating “memoirs of an imaginary friend” though.

If I had to guess at my imaginary friend I’d assume he was just as human as Budo though, probably taller than me and more athletic, someone to discuss cartoons with in the morning, because ya know… who wants to talk to themselves? Still I am sure he was nothing like Budo, but whose to know. There is a chance that Matthew Dicks has delved into something we’ll never be able to prove with this novel. Maybe they aren’t as imaginary as we think… maybe they just live in a different realm.

While Budo is the voice and perspective of “memoirs”, he is not the lead character , that would be Max, a very special boy, whose actual diagnosis is never completely disclosed. He shows signs of autism, and possibly Asperger’s. I am not fully aware of either disease. I have a friend who is a very low spectrum of the autistic bend and  my father used to work with special needs children, but my own real experience is minimal other than having an immense respect for any child or adult who doesn’t let it stop them achieving a regular life full of work, love, fun and friends.

We know Max doesn’t like to be touched, he doesn’t like people or at least most people, he is very stringent in his ways and he has trouble expressing emotions. When he faces something new or different he gets stuck, like an empty wall. I saw it in my mind sort of like Tommy staring at a pinball machine, the entire world shut out and focus almost seems non-existent and in Max’s case, it being actually completely non focus. He’s very smart when it comes to traditional learning, likes to read, playing with toys, military strategy, building things with LEGOs and of all things pop culture, Star Wars.

As Budo describes both his own life as an Imaginary friend who instead Imaginary as one would think and Max’s difficult life with his parents, teachers, school bullies and more the book grows and turns in very unexpected ways. We meet the teachers, fellow students, other imaginary friends and some of the local residents, all through Budo’s very interesting and eye opening viewpoint.

There are plot twists later into the book that take what was seeming like it a sweet and simple, but written with depth story about caring, love, understanding and growing up into a tense, suspenseful, adventure thriller. That may seem like a huge leap but in context it all comes together brilliantly and in the end you feel like you’ve truly walked away with a higher understanding of growing up as a whole. Dicks also doesn’t leave one hanging on certain conceptual threads, they aren’t clear cut final thesis into the reality (per se) of imagination, death, afterlife and more, but boy does he try and I commend him for it.

I must say I truly like the original ARC cover then the one used in the UK where the book is credited to Matthew Green or the final American cover. That is why it’s the image I chose for this review.

“memoirs of an imaginary friend” came out in the U.S. In August 2012, this review was based on a complimentary Advanced Reader’s Edition.

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on memoirs of an imaginary friend: book review

New York Comic Con 2012 is coming! Aghhhhhhh!

Posted on 09/12/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

It’s that time of the year again. In less than a month New York Comic Con hits Javits for the 7th year. I am not actually definitely going as of this time, that’s up in the air and won’t know till later in the month, but that can’t stop me from being excited nor can it stop me from anticipating and researching possible fun & excitement. Even if I don’t get to, people can look back on posts I make as a reference for possible things to check out and know about and knowing is half the battle. I don’t think the Joe’s ever revealed what to do after knowing though.

First and foremost is that opening night concert for VIPs and 4-Day Ticket Holders and well press & pros if we can fit in. Last year they set the bar high with the concert concept by having Tom Morello premiering his comic book series and performing as The Night Watchman. This year they raise the bar even higher as the finally completely really for reals reunited Ben Folds Five perform in the IGN on a special stop of their US tour for the soon to be released new album. The concert is at 8 PM on Thursday.

I have the word on a few panels popping up at the convention that may be of your interest.
My colleague in pop-culture media and information, Hannah Means-Shannon shall be moderating a talk with Seth Kushner, Christopher Irving and Eric Skillman on their book, LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS on Thursday at 4 PM.

Then at 6:30 also on that Thursday is a panel covering the Kickstarter funded documentary Comics in Focus: The Image Revolution that will feature the producers and filmmakers as well as unannounced guest. My guesses are Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio or Robert Kirkman.

On Friday, October 12th there’s a panel titled “Maestros of Horror & Sci-Fi Music”, scheduled currently for 12:15 will feature the composers of video games such as Mass Effect, Dead Space, and Halo. It’s the extra addition of Living Legend, Nile Rodgers that really catches my attention here though.

Also on Friday at 12:30 will be a panel on Greg Pak’s Vision Machine, this time discussing the new iPad app with voice-over work from Phill Lamarr, who will also be on the panel.

On Saturday, there’ll be a Quick Draw/Improv Draw  at 5:15 on the Variant Stage featuring the talents of Laura Lee Gulledge, Raina Tegelmeier, Dave Roman, John Green, Zack Giallongo and Ryan Sias.  LLG, Raina and Dave were part of one of  these at last year’s Brooklyn Book Fest and it was awesome.

On Sunday at 4 PM there will be a panel titled “Getting Graphic with Girls: Empowering Girls and Addressing Issues through Paneled Pictures” featuring  Colleen Venable, Cecil Castellucci, Laura Lee Gulledge and Lucy Knisley that will be moderated by Sheila Keenan, Senior Editor at Scholastic books.

These are the panels I was able to learn about from the people in them and on websites other than the NYCC official site.

Here’s some other information from both the NYCC site and other places that caught my attention:

The official launch of the MacGyver comic by creator Lee Zlotoff and Tony Lee with art by Will Sliney will take place.

Young Adult author Tahereh Mafi will be signing copies and ARCs of her supernatural superhero series SHATTER ME.

Here’s a few not the usual guests who actually caught my eye (certain artists and various celebrities are expected at this point, like DC and Marvel artists and people like Seth Green, but I want to focus on the “Wait, really?”):

Professional wrestler/sports entertainer Booker T, who recently had written a book about his time in prison before his wrestling career.

Manga genius and creator of Urotsukidoji, Toshio Maeda shall be tabling.

Square Enix and Dark Horse are pulling out all the stops, bringing Yoshitaka Amano, art designer for the Final Fantasy games.

Longtime TSR/Dungeons & Dragons Painter and concept artist Brom, who has also done his own comics, and artwork  for film will be appearing.

The biggest shocker is that on Kid’s Day (Sunday), Elmo and the third and longest running Gordon of Sesame Street will be appearing.  I hope Elmo also means that Kevin Clash will be there as well.

As the convention comes closer I am sure there will be so much news and information overload I won’t be able to handle it.

There’s no knowing why Bill Paxton or Christopher Lloyd are there.  Who knows what films will be presented or shown or discussed in IGN theater or what video game companies will bring or what secrets or surprises could come forth.  The show will be bigger than ever and that’s both a good and bad thing.   Either way I’m excited, no matter what.

Posted in New York Comic Con | Comments Off on New York Comic Con 2012 is coming! Aghhhhhhh!

A batch of AGS totally worth more than the price!

Posted on 09/10/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Indie game bundles have been the craze for a short while. There’s been Humble Bundle, Indie Royle, Bundle-In-A-Box and the first AGS bundle last year AGS Bake Sale.

AGS Bake Sale offered a ton of amazing exclusive games built in Chris Jones AGS. Primamrily designed for making point and click games developers have branched out and for that bundle, a shooter and a platformer were designed. Not every game in that bundle was gold, but it gave one some excellent work in Nine Months In and Fragment while the rest were excellent examples of how versatile the engine software actually is and how in many times it all comes down to puzzles, art and story telling… not how the game is made.

Independent publisher Screen 7 out of the UK recently published a brand new AGS bundle titled Summerbatch which features 5 games. Four traditional point n click games with varying art styles and story telling techniques and one very different type of game and a new one to AGS I assume in stealth action ala Metal Gear Solid.

In Barely Floating we are introduced to the best animated/illustrated of the works, with some work that looks way beyond indie, while some of the game mechanics still definitely are hobbled by AGS being capable of what it is capable. Extremely funny with some serious mind buzzer of puzzles invoking old school point n click where one must truly pay attention to dialogue and sentences, it quickly became one of my favorite of the games and it feels like there could be a sequel featuring the protagonist. Or maybe a prequel? It felt a little weird that the only thing we really discover about the lead character is his name while everyone else gets way more fleshed out.

Jailbreak is the stealth game I mentioned above. Of the five games I must admit it was my least favorite. While I really respect and appreciate the work of the developers in trying something totally new and different with AGS, the graphics and gameplay really felt short. Others might actually state this was their favorite game of the bundle and I actually really happy it is in there to add variety to the whole thing. I personally would be happy with the four point n clicks, more than happy, so this game is a bonus.

Patchwork is also impressively in its graphics and feels epic in scope, but is actually the shortest of the games and the only one with a puzzle type that I personally always hate finding. Despite that, it’s writing in top notch and it like Barely Floating and PISS and even Nancy The Happy Whore feel like they could be larger games with prequels and sequels.

Nancy is the most crazy of the games, but I even almost feel like it could’ve gone over the edge. Sure pixelized boobies especially in pixel art aren’t exciting, but they would’ve added some humor and fun. Even without the nudity, despite the Happy Whore title, there’s some very interesting twists and intriguing turns to this adventure which starts small and ends up maybe more epic than PISS even since PISS feels huge and epic from the start simply because of its world.

So now we get to PISS, which has been considered the gem of the batch by some. It is a very impressive sci-fi spiritual adventure fantasy, with some incredible writing and with every character being completely and totally fleshed out. Except for the lead who we get more questions than answers in the end about. If any of the games NEEDS a sequel it’s PISS. The others could have sequels. PISS needs one, the story needs to continue. Be it as a game or a book or a comic.

As a whole, Summerbatch is actually a steal at its “Name Your Price” price. Of course it’s worth at least a minimum $15, especially since it went to charity and the games were developed without budgets from the publisher. The deal started in August and runs till November. That’s a lot of time left, but jump on it sooner than later, there’s going to be some long nights for some players indeed.

Posted in Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Antoine Wilson’s Panorama City: Book Review

Posted on 08/16/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

When one grows up insulated and with not much world experience, you would assume that the world will both be an oyster and possibly swallow that person whole at the same time.

I personally can’t say that is something I’ll ever get to experience. Seeing the world for the first time as an adult, since my parents starts making me my own man at a young age, I learned the appreciation at a young age as well. The not knowing what you have till it’s gone or once having it realizing it wasn’t what you wanted. That all came to me young, long before I ever had to consider it or worry about it. Not to say I faltered here or there, but luckily I’m also quite smart. Not to try and sound egotistical even, I have a good brain. I catch on quick, I know what’s happening, I’m aware of my surrounding.

Unlike some classic fictional characters who have been both locked in their own world and not very smart till the world hits them head on. The most notable of these of course would be Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump, but to completely use him as a reference to discuss Antoine Wilson‘s PANORAMA CITY would give its protagonist disservice.

Oppen Porter is definitely not the smartest guy in the world, he’s quite naive indeed and it takes him awhile to process things, but he’s not completely a lucky clueless fool. In a shirt time he experiences what to some would be years of experiences. Love, heartbreak, religious awakening, spirtual founding, job promotion, switching careers, oppression, new friends, old friends, losing friends, death. All in less than two months, two tumultuous exciting months that he relays to his unborn child through tapes.

This device of first person narrative through what could be conceived as transcripts is a clever way to get pulled into Oppen’s viewpoint while also feeling like a listener who knows that it is only one viewpoint. This is a theme of everything Oppen tells his future son though, varying viewpoints and how no one way is right or wrong, they just are.

Life in many ways always seems to work in circles, but not perfect circles. Circles with spikes and protraction. I was reminded of this throughout PANORAMA CITY and yet it also gave me a feeling of hope. Antoine Wilson’s wordplay and semblance of sentiment and wonderment through Oppen causes one to see the world with new, more open (slight pun intended) eyes and a desire to live life to its fullest whatever that means for ones self.

The book also really made me want a bicycle more than ever.

Here’s an original drawing of a bike by the author Antoine Wilson.

The preceding review was based off an advanced galley.
PANORAMA CITY by Antoine Wilson is scheduled to come out September 25, 2012 from Houghton Miflin Harcourt.

Posted in Book Expo America, Books | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Antoine Wilson’s Panorama City: Book Review

Kickstarter Roundup for July 27th, 2012

Posted on 07/27/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these and there’s no enough stuff that holds my interested to shoot it out to you. I am not pledging all of these, actually I’m probably only pledging what I can afford, but know these are ALL things I want to be a part of.

Cans Without Labels-A Cartoon by John K.: The creator of Ren & Stimpy and founder of Spumco Animation wants to make a very different, more personal cartoon than anything he’s previously done. Still drawn and designed in his undeniable style it’s the kind of work that once seen will probably be loved and enjoyed and if shown for two weeks in a real movie theater in L.A. be nominated for an academy award, but before any of that can happen he needs to be able to make the cartoon.

Detective Grimoire Adventure: The first Grimoire game was made for flash and wa sonly PC with no vocals and minimal music. This is going to be a full ledged production available on iOS, Android, PC and Mac with a hilarious story, great art and reasonably priced. There’s some awesome incentives at the higher pledge tiers too. Go play the demo to get a taste.


Boxer Story – Animated Film: I love traditional short animation that attempts to tell real stories. There isn’t enough of it usually so anything that comes by is good and this is exceptionally different.

I Am Big Bird: A full lentgh documentary detailing the life story of Caroll Spinney. While he recently published a memoir, a film piece fully supported by him is a different thing all together. For a man who lived most of his life on camera, it seems it’s the way his life story should be preserved for everyone.

Two Headed Cop- Animated Film: As much as I love traditional animation I love funny CGI with quirky characters and ideas as well, so here’s Two Headed Cop.

Sirius Black fanmade Prequel: The majority of these fanmade Harry Potter prequels, sequels, sidestories have all been high quality, their fans are truly some creative types. JK Rowling has to truly be credited for helping creative people who were stuck find their inner artist. This project is no different.

AR-K Adventure Game: Yeah two indie adventure games. You know me. I like my point n click and I like it best when its done well. While the first episode now free of this series has lpots of animation bugs, the story, characters, voice acting and puzzles are really good. Give it a go.

Posted in Kickstarter | Comments Off on Kickstarter Roundup for July 27th, 2012

Movie/Trailer Watch Summer-Winter 2012

Posted on 07/27/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

This took me a long time to write as I tried to consolidate my thoughts on various films coming out and what information, trailers, websites had provided in a way to actually at minimum really interest me. There are a lot of films not listed that still excite me coming soon such as TOTAL RECALL, PARANORMAN, THE MASTER, ARGO, WRECK IT RALPH, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, GREAT GATSBY, JACK REACHER, and LES MISERABLES among others. So here’s others and why I might want to see them.

The Expendables 2: The first Expendables was lacking a bit in the end. It was fun and action packed, but a lot of it was too little, too late. I get a bit of a feeling that the character development here will also be lackluster, but we are guaranteed a few things. Tons of awesome action from Chuck Norris, a Stallone vs. Van Damme fight and Arnold Schwarzenegger quipping with Bruce Willis. The trailer showed very little of Crews or Couture so I’m going out on a limb and guessing that Helmsworth and Yu replace them early in the film. That’s just a guess though. There’s lots of explosions, fights and whatever, so hey, it has that.

Robot and Frank: This is the first full length feature for director Paul Schreier and screenwriter Christopher Ford, but not their first work. Previously Ford worked on the puppet cop comedy Fuzz and Paul has made some great commercials. For this near future story in which a retired crook teams with a robot meant to just get him out a slump they’ve been able to garner quite some major talent. Frank Langella is the Frank in the title and his possible girlfriend is Susan Sarandon. It’s hard to believe Sarandon is old enough to play a potential mate to Frank Langella, because she still looks fabulous. Liv Tyler and James Marsden are Frank’s children and Jeremy Sisto is the cop who suspects Frank is back to his old tricks. It all looks really fun and sweet.

Killer Joe : This will be the second time playwright Tracy Letts will have teamed with director William Friedkin to bring one one of his emotionally charged, extremely powerful productions to the “silver” screen and with it everything is amped up. As his last film was an adaptation of a confined room thriller, this is a large scope epic twist after twist crime drama. On top of having a disturbed Matthew McCouhney who has truly come into his own as a talent, the film also stars the amazingly sexy and talented Juno Temple, whom I have the hugest celebrity crush on.

The Campaign: Two completely unlikeable characters played by guys who know how to really nail that “fuck I hate that guy” in Will Ferrell and Zach Galifaniakis. The trailer is full of vitriol and bad humor, but I’m hoping that since it’s a Jay Roach film and a Chris Henchy script there’s way more than meets the eye. I just finally saw “The Big Year” which on paper sounded excellent, then trailers made it look so horrendous I avoided it like the plague and then I finally saw it and discovered that the it was one of the worst editing jobs on a film in forever. So yeah, this actually might have promise. Zach is playing a super flamboyant guy who might not know he’s gay and Will is doing his best Mitt Romney.

KILLING THEM SOFTLY: Andrew Dominik tackled another very difficult book to translate to screen, teaming up once again with Brad Pitt to bring Cogan’s Trade byGeorge V. Higgins to life. The last film based on a Higgin’s film is the modern classic Friends of Eddie Coyle, so with the track record of that and Dominik’s track record of CHOPPER and the very slow, but mesmerizing Assassination of Jesses James By The Coward Robert Ford. Pitt is joined by crime veterans Ray Liotta, James Galdofini, and Sam Shepard. I’m not too keen on the title change and like Gangster Squad and even Lawless these movies that grandioize crime and guns might get these films pushed back or who knows.

LAWLESS: This could be the secret best film of 2012, directed by John Hillcoat, who has proved his ability of making amazing modern westerns with The Proposition and The Road worked from an adaptation by muisician/poet/novelist Nick Cave of the “based on a true story” novel by Matt Bondurant, the ancestor of the characters in this film. It has a questionable lead in Shia Lebeouf, but with Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce as costars it should be a strong period piece about moonshine, guns and gang warfare.

GANGSTER SQUAD: With L.A. Confidential, the video game L.A. Noire, the upcoming TV show L.A. Noir, the more recent Public Enemies and plenty more, films about the Mafia in L.A. Might seem old hat. What makes Gangster Squad different then? Well, for one Director Ruben Fleischer. After Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less it’ll very interesting what he does with a script from a TV writer based off a seven part L.A. Times series of articles built in truth and fiction. The other major thing will be the first actor in over 20 years to tackle a major figure like Mickey Cohen will be an actor practically born for the role in Sean Penn.

Soldiers of Fortune: While the director is a complete unknown and it seemed to take three unproven screenwriters to develop this, the cast and plot sell it strong. The trailer shows it to have plenty of action, a good assortment of interesting characters who might be one dimensional, but rounded enough to know who they are when they’re shooting and being shot at. I don’t expect much from it, but one doesn’t ever expect much from self appointed action films. They’re action films, they know what they are and shouldn’t be criticized unless they have no good characters. That is the most important thing. Good characters and no plot holes (such as they mention no one has a gun and five scenes later they all have guns but there’s no scene where they finally find guns).

Anna Karenina: In what will be in my accounting, only the fourth and in by some merits only the third full scale adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy classic, in terms of current standards to the past, the most talented pairing and cast (well, no one can beat Garbo, but still), director Joe Wright uses a brand new adaptation by one of the best playwrights and screenwriters of the last 45+ years Tom Stoppard. With Jude Law and Aaron Thompson in the meaty roles there’s strength, so that even if Keira Knightly falters, her beauty and the talent around her will keep her up. I haven’t had issue with Keira personally, but I know people do, so I played Devil’s Advocate here.

LOOPER: I’m not completely sold on Joseph Gordon-Leavitt being Bruce Willis or Bruce Willis being Joseph Gordon Leavitt but espite that, the third original feature from Rian Johnson looks amazingly cool. After BRICK and THE BLOOM BROTHERS he is definitely becoming one of those type of directors who makes films you just feel like you need to see. He’s also not keeping it simple in terms of choices as a director. While all three films are centered around crime, they’re so different it’s even more interesting what he might do after LOOPER. LOOPER also might have the best chance of having an interesting novelization done for it by someone like Tim Lebbon, Terry Bison or Alan Dean Foster. Especially since this is the rare original scripted film here.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: After 10 years since it was published and its author experiencing the trials and tribulations of creating a TV show, having it canceled, saved and canceled again and even get a third season in comics, the highly touted and best selling book has been adapted from a screenplay by the author who also directed. This film has the major factor of being Emma Watson’s first major starring post Potter role and if the trailer is indication, she will be a force for years to come.

PITCH PERFECT: This might seem like a stupid comedy with singing, but I have a feeling it will actually be much more intelligent. Much like MEAN GIRLS seemed like it’d be lame then you realized that Tina Fey wrote it and boom it was awesome, this film is written by Tina’s best friend and a top writer on 30 Rock, Kay Cannon. She did base it on a real story, merging elements from college acapella competitions detailed in a book with the same name. On top of the writer though the director is Broadway’s Jason Moore, who has directed Avenue Q, Shrek and even Les Miserables. Then you have the cast who are actually talented actresses and singers Brittany Snow and Anna Kendrick are the main leads, but filling out on singing is worldwide pop music phenom Ester Dean and the Australia’s funny fat girl Rebel Wilson handles the stupid comedy.

(An interesting aside, Mean Girls was also based off a non-fiction book and merged concepts and elements from it to create the comedy)

(all images here are fixed remake versions based on the official marketing by the studios)

Posted in TV and Movies | Comments Off on Movie/Trailer Watch Summer-Winter 2012

iCookBooking PCS Style

Posted on 07/12/2012 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

 

Being a trained chef who prior to getting an expensive education read and studied cookbooks for fun means that I now infrequently use such books. Although I do turn to them when needing some new pointers, or a very popular or famous chef compiles their favorite original concoctions along with personal anecdotes and now as a technophile I actually checking out cookbook apps and software when I can or when offered a look.
I have tried out Better Homes and Garden’s, Cooks Illustrated and more, and the biggest issue I found in them was that you have to have an internet connection always running to get to the recipes. Yes, we are talking about iPhone/iPad apps so the idea that you’d be offline is pretty crazy, but what if you’re doing a barbeque in the Ozarks and for one second you decide… “Hey, this potato salad is so boring… what else can I do with potato salad?” and in this imaginary situation you have access to any food or food item you want, but no internet and you’re flavor profile mind isn’t just kicking in. So an app which you can download recipes to before you head to the Ozarks is best right?I’ve been sampling a few that were okay, but had many flaws I didn’t care for and have missed a few that fascinated me but were truly out of my price range and there’s some that haven’t come out yet. There are a variety of interesting celebrity sponsored apps such as ones from excellent chefs and television personalities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver and when looking for something very specific they come in handy. There’s even a version of Mark Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything”, but that is much more a guidebook to cooking and less so a cookbook collection.

 

That’s what the app iCookBook can help with. Although it’s much more than that. In terms of layout and design I’ve liked it much more than any of the others. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re the best of the recipes though, despite being many of them and I mean any. The collection is of all Brand name recipes, things from boxes of products ranging from Kraft, Hershey’s, Pace, Wish-Bone and more. Of course you wouldn’t have to use the name brand product if trying a recipe, you could use something similar and probably get the same results.

The app has monthly free downloads adding new recipes along with optional paid recipe options based on themes and styles.

The setup is as easy as many, you get your ingredient list and then follow very simple instructions. You can find recipes via filters such as method of cooking, theme, time of creating the dish, theme of the dish, and more. For someone like me I’d be using it as just a pointer, but it’s definitely a good pointer and much easier to use than any of the other apps as I said and more versatile.  I wouldn’t be surprised to discover something new and interesting too, with over 2000 recipes available on download and many more there’s going to be something I didn’t ever learn in school or post school studies.

It also has easy access to items such as conversion charts and substitutions, the ability to create a shopping list and offers customer service.

iCookbook is a universal app designed to work on iPhone and iPad equally and is available for $5 which is cheaper than any cookbook that would be on this collection. It is also available for Android, HP Touchpad and Windows 8.

(this review was based on a generously gifted iPhone review copy, but had no bearing on its review)
Posted in Apps, Food and Culinary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on iCookBooking PCS Style