My Golden statue of Joss Whedon reaps it's rewards.(Dollhouse overview)

Last night's episode of Dollhouse gave us great stoner dialog, lots of backstory and another reason to hope it doesn't get canceled. So far it's not likely that we'll see an supposed pilot episode yet but you never know.

Friday's dive into the rabbit hole that is Dollhouse is good, but doesn't reach the heights of last week's episode. Topher went from uneffective at the start of the series, to amusing, and adorable and finally somewhat annoying in this episode. The psychological breakdown of our favored cast members is delightful to watch, complete with stunningly inspired LSD-esque dialog. Without giving too much away, seeing Dominic treating his suit like a lost kitten made up for the slightly annoying intro.

Yes, the flashback were a bit hard to swallow and the sense of urgency seemed to be missing but ultimately, there were sufficient threads sown and connected that you cared enough for to see it through to the end.

If it turns out to be true that there are multiple dollhouses everywhere in the world, this one that we're watching has yet to blossom into the tumor that will rob our species of it's meaning. But it's one step closer.

Change the re re re re re re re re re

Well, the guys at sell!sell! recently did a post about conformity in the advertising industry and how a lot of us are a part of it. This is relevant. To most everyone. Yes, it's a regurgitation and paraphrase of what Paul Arden said: "don't try to win awards."

But yeah it's a bit more than. Samey me too advertising is popping not just everywhere in the street, but everywhere in the award books and annuals as well.

Now I don't know if I'm lunatic enough to take back the asylum, but I'm definitely guily of doing samey-looking-wannabe-hipster ads. For the book. This is of course, unacceptable. Changing the record requires a lot more than just picking out another record from the shelves.

Well currently as it stands, we're going some distances. Maybe we're finally tipping the point of no return. Right into employment. Now that's something to look forward to.

New Stella Advert campaign.

Funny. Off-target definitely, but funny.

I'm interested to see how many beers this will sell.

Unemployment.

I find this funny, and sad, and ironic, a host of other things I can't really express.

sell sell

Sell Sell is a great new blog about design advertising, and any things in between.

Fat. Broken chair. Made of metal. Flimsy metal but metal nontheless.

In my room the two newest pieces of furniture are a chair and a table I got for cheap at poundland or whatever before I left back in February.

Yesterday I broke the chair. Or at least I think it was me. It could have been any of the other intruders(jkjk) that have used my Room for lodging while I was away. I don't know. What I do know is that the chair is now fucked. The welding at the bottom snapped off and the legs have started to bent. If I continue to sit on it it will bend even more. Eventually, if I am vigilant in my efforts to fuck the chair it will become a deformed piece of metal resembling something out of a modern art museum.

But I am not fucking up the chair further. I think it reminds me of how much I need to lose weight. I'm a sensitive guy like that. Can't afford to get hurt(har har har). I might weep with tears of inadequacy and no human being should need to witness that.

That said, I do have to lose weight and today's football session served well. How well I played didn't matter(not well) but I came back feeling a slight sense of accomplishment. Despite my performance.

The room now needs a new chair. Sitting on the bed while typing does not help my posture. Or my typing for that matter. And I should really lose weight.

Out.

Dollhouse. Thoughts and musings. Spoiler free. Whedonites rejoice.

It's been a rocky career for Joss Whedon. With the cancellation of Buffy and angel and most recently Firefly, one can say he has not had the best career in television. But what the man does have is a legion of fans. The exploits of whedonites and the more prolific Browncoats are well documented, with Serenity being the most remarkable.

His new show Dollhouse has been going on for 6 weeks, and although early criticisms have rung true, we're told that the show will hit it's stride and be totally awesome from the 6th episode onwards. Early reviews of episode 6 have been positive.

I'm here to agree. The show so far has been freak-of-the-week-type of affair. Having an engagement as the A plot and Paul Ballard's FBI agent shticks as the B plot. Mostly. The show has had six weeks worth of world-building and this is where it reaps the fruits of it's labour.

Without giving away too much, this episodes turns what has been status quo for six weeks upside down and gives us a whole new ballgame. The new seeds sowed in this episode blows our preconception about the show out of the water. It was called a flawed, but intriguing concept before but this week the flaws are taken out of the equation.

Every scene gels together so well you'll wonder what has been going on the past few weeks if you haven't been reading the blogs. The studio's decision to give up interfering with the direction of the show has proved to be for the best. This episode is easily the best hour of television I've seen in a long time.

For those who have followed Dollhouse out of a sense of loyalty to Joss Whedon, the time is now. Time to tell your friends and family how freaking awesome this show will be. Because after watching episode 6, there's no way that you can't.

Discard your preconceptions. Nothing in this show is what it seems. If you have been interested but haven't checked it out, now's the time. Sad to say, I fear there won't be a suitable jumping on point for new viewers in the future. Because Whedon has said he's not a fan of "reset television", in which every episode is self contained and does not have a large, overarching plot. Episode 6 feels very much like the payoff we've been waiting for. We sat through the pilot and the faux suicidal Britney episode(which actually sounds kinda cool written that way) for this.

Critics have slammed it since the pilot, calling it a flop, wasted opportunity, and having untapped potential. Well the tapping has begun. There's no better proof of that than episode 6. The DVD release better sell like gangbusters.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let there be a season 2.

This astonishes me(Fun religion bashing)

From the official website of the Institute for Creation Research;

"Plants do replicate within their kind, but so do certain crystals and some chemicals. They replicate within kind, but they are nowhere said to possess chay (life) or nephesh (soul), the Hebrew words for living things. Job 14:8-10 is cited as evidence that plants die like people die, but that passage most certainly does not use the words for life."

Wow.

Just. Wow. Note that this little gem was taken from the "evidence" section of the site. While quoting the Bible for evidence is nothing new to creationists, this is the first I've heard of plants being "not alive."

More choice quotes.

"Our solar system appears to be near the center of the universe. Galaxies look the same, and are moving away from us in the same way, in all directions. The cosmic microwave background radiation comes to us very uniformly from all directions. These and other data strongly indicate we are located at a very special location by design."

Wait, didn't we discard a similar model of the universe when we decided Copernicus was right? We can't even see the whole of Universe due to limitations of our light-based perception. For all we know it might be infinite(Which we don't, yet). In which case there is no "center" of the universe. How can something that has no boundaries have a center?

Aaaaand my favourite so far...

"The universe is only several thousand years old.

Comets are an example of a natural clock within our solar system. With each orbit around the sun, comets lose considerable mass. They cannot be very old because they cannot survive many orbits.

To get around this problem, many astronomers assume there is a vast cloud of comets out near the edge of the solar system, which releases new comets every so often. This imaginary cloud is called the "Oort Cloud," named after the astronomer who proposed it. The problem is that there is no observational evidence such a cloud exists at all.

Each year our knowledge of astronomy increases with new evidence concerning the origin of our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe. While it is possible to make assumptions beyond what can be observed and verified, the heavens continue to bear witness to recent creation."

I can't believe they mentioned observational evidence, or any kind of evidence for that matter.

Oh silly Creationists. And you wonder why they didn't let you hand out Science Degrees.

a link to icr.org if you're interested in more.

Trott Grilling

Today we went into cst advertising, looking for Dave Trott, and we found him. He gave us a proper grilling. We went away energized, hungry, and eager.

He sent me away with a souvenir. Sort of. A copy of "how to get your first job in advertising" with a quote written on one of the blank pages.

"You can have what you want, or you can have reasons for not having it."

I showed it to Lyn.

"No excuses, basically."

Yeah. That pretty much about sums it up.

No excuses for not having what you want.

No excuses for not doing what you need to do in order to get what you want.

No excuses for failing.

Right now what I want is a job.

Street Fighter 4 and job interview

Apparently the Street Fighter 4 arcade cabinet arrived in Trocadero London right after I left the UK. When I found out I was so disappointed because that meant I would have to wait a about one and a half month before I got to try it out.

Well today is that day. After all that waiting, the sight of two HD linked Street Fighter 4 cabinets felt like a dream. I had to mentally slap myself for a few seconds before I put down my coin to finally, finally try out the newest iteration of the seminal fighting series.

Nothing disappoints. Except maybe my own skill, but even then I played a lot better than I expected myself to play. I still couldn't pull off Ultras but boy did it feel good. Smooth as silk and controlling like a dream. Street Fighter 4 is the very pinnacle of 2D fighting games.

Maybe I'm still starstruck, but I spent quite a bit of cash (I'm not saying how much) in that arcade, and I left wanting more. This just makes that interview tomorrow that much more important.

Which brings me to this. Job interview. Tomorrow. Finally. Luck has smiled upon me and tomorrow is my first official book-crit. It's make it or break it. Lucky too. Second day in the UK my partner tells me he's got an appointment with Adam&Eve London tomorrow and has invited me along. I couldn't be happier.

Look at you, jw. 23 year old and gushing over Street Fighter. Hoping to land that jon/paid placement just so you can play more Street Fighter 4. How much lower can you sink?

Bastards. I shall not give in. Loving Street Fighter 4 is nothing to be ashamed about.

Tomorrow's the big day.

Now's the time for rest.

Air Asia X: London review (bring your books)

Perhaps the biggest failing of Air Asia X is that it does nothing to exceed expectations. Everything you've come to know(and hate) about Air Asia is present here in full force. Low price, rubbish service, ridiculously overpriced food labeled as "reasonable", somewhat uncomfortable seats, the whole package. For better or for worse.

For some people, the low price(if you are lucky enough to get it) is forgivable for everything else.

Take the rather expensive comfort kit for instance, which is just terrible. Consisting of an inflatable neck pillow and a blanket, my coat served as a better blanket, the back of my scalp a better pillow than the sorry excuse of a kit that is supposed to provide comfort.

Food, is of course, as previously stated, abhorrently expensive, but is passable. The Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala they served gave me chuckles, for which the reason I know not. Just be sure to pre-book unless you don't mind getting the leftovers of the pre-bookers. Contrary to the in-flight menu and catalog, there doesn't seem to be any savings involved when you pre-book a meal, curiously.

While the subpar service other bollocks are permissible on a short distance flight under 4 or 5 hours, a 13 hour flight is a different beast entirely. Not to say that there isn't entertainment, just that it will cost you. Like everything else on the flight. The upside is that you can see in advance if the stuff provided is to your liking before you blow RM30 or so on a screen roughly the size of an average notebook.
If you're not planning to spend extra money, just be sure you bring a book or two. Your PSP or NDS will not last you 13 hours. That I guarantee.

another surprise for you.

Kevin Smith on Watchmen.

Reviews on the Watchmen are split half and half. Bloggers and fanboys generally love them, and snot-nosed-holier-than-thou mainstream journalists except Roger Ebert generally hate it.

I've always been a fan of Kevin Smith. Despite whatever people think of him these days. I think he's a great guy, has an impeccable ear for dialog,and always always tells interesting stories.

He's also a huge comic geek and it's no surprise he loves the Watchmen movie.

Here's a humongous 1hour35minute review/discussion/podcast he's done with 4 other guys on slashfilm.

I am starting to feel that he's mostly right about this movie, especially from the point of view of a fan.

Watchmen fans, be grateful. The movie is awesome, the original ending wouldn't have worked on screen anyway, and I'm going to see it again soon. This time without looking out for what they have cut etc.

note: this was not the thing that I forgot which I was going to write about. I'm still bummed about that. It's like an parasite eating at my brain, causing it to itch constantly. Man I hate that.

For the life of me

I can't remember what it was I wanted to write.

AGAIN.

4 more days

and I leave for the UK again. My friend over there has told me that shit is not good. Market getting worse.

Gloomy gloomy gloomy weather ahead. Dark clouds, thunderstorms, warts and all. Why am I going back there? Probably because I really wanted to work there. Even just for a little while. Just to say that I have(how naive). Also the pound is still 5 times stronger.

amazon.co.uk. 10 mbit internet speeds. None of this streamyx one mbit but not even that kind of cockery. Nice people. Weather is shit but everything else kind of makes up for it. Football matches. Humour. BBC.

Still, I give myself a maximum of 6 months. Come back after that. No point otherwise. Even though it's not like the market here is getting better anyway.

I have to be hopeful. Tomorrow is printing and tidying up portfolio day. 3am now. Sleep.

this made me smile today

And not just because I'm a fan either.

my name is Zack Snyder, look on my works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!

(spoilers ahoy)

I've watched Watchmen.

Zack Snyder did a good job, but the movie breaks under the crushing weight of the book. This is probably as good a Watchmen movie we're ever going to get.

The sheer depth and detail of the world the graphic novel has built up proves too much for the movie to handle. Even a 2.5 hour long one.

Even though many plot-lines are cut and scenes butchered, the film stays true to the book in that the crux of the movie, the moral question at the end, remains intact. It'd no secret where Alan Moore's sympathies lie when he wrote this book 20 odd years ago.

There are moments of greatness flashes of genius in this film, among the rushed conclusions, the fanboy-rage inducing ending and the missed opportunities. Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Rorschach will slowly but surely etch itself squarely into the mind. By the time of his pivotal arctic scene the Rorschach character will have left an impression not easily shaken by even the most ardent of fanboys. For other signs of brilliance we look at the origin story of Doctor Manhattan. Even though rushed, it makes the blue god such a relatable character, despite his supposed distance with humanity. His change of heart on Mars however is another story entirely.

Most of what bothers this viewer about the movie is situated in the latter half of the movie. It felt like the editors really tried to compress this behemoth of a story down to it's current theatrical running time. It shows. It really does.

A lot of the scenes felt rushed, Ozymandias in particular gets the brunt of the shafting. He's more distant, more arrogant and more of a prick this time around. His moral ambiguity still present but lacks impact, mostly due to the cutting down of his backstory. Manhattan's going away also suffers, for some reason. His lines and sudden change of heart can be sometimes hard to swallow, his decision to maybe create life in another simpler, less complicated galaxy loses it's emotional punch due to Billy Crudup's rather toneless delivery, which worked well for the first part of the film, but seems empty when Manhattan finds value in life.

In the end what we lose are nuances, little details, that make the book come to life. Ozymandias' doubt for his actions and his revelation on how the comedian brought him enlightenment, Rorschach's sugar cubes, Laurie's ciggerettes, Dan's belly Hollis' death scene, Russian fast food chains in America, almost all of the minutemen's minute details revealed to us only in prose, and so on.

Nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.

Going in one cannot expect the same emotional impact that the book delivers, that much is certain, but the film succeeds on it's own merits by delivering a compelling mystery, and an equally compelling conclusion. This may not be the film everyone wanted, squidless or not, but at least it's closure. Closure for those who thought the movie will never see the light of day.

So here's to Zack Snyder, who did the once thought impossible, unfilmable; look on his works, Ye Mighty, and despair.

Hulu ad

Watch and tell me that last line isn't genius. I dare you.