Everyone needs something ridiculous to strive for, right?

That's Jason Statham in Death Race, btw.

I'll try to keep it as spoiler free as I can. Not that you won't be able to figure this movie out before all the characters are even introduced.

James Cameron takes all the creativity that could have gone into developing a unique story in a fantastic setting and dumped it all into art direction and presentation.

15 minutes into it (and I'm being generous here), the whole movie could have been figured out by anyone with an IQ slightly higher than a fork's. There are no surprises. Some scenes can be called foreshadowing but they're really not. They're just cliches. Cameron doesn't even try to disguise it.

Even in a children's film like Wall-E, Pixar gave kids enough credit by making the obvious villain something only most adults would be able to figure out right away had they seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. Did any one of you see the big red sensor in the captain's wheel and NOT think "oh shit, it's HAL" as soon as it started speaking? Didn't think so.
BTW: if you really really like a girl that you've only just met for the first time, it's PERFECTLY okay to drag her unconscious body around, feel her up w/out permission and stow away in the trunk when her family takes her home. Cuz DATE RAPE AND STALKING IS CUTE! Fucking hate that movie... anyway, where was I? Oh, right.. Avatar.

The Navis (big blue dudes/Native Americans/Iraqis.. take your pick) come with built in USB devices in their hair that they use to jack into creatures to ride them or into plants to communicate with them. Thank you James Cameron, for clarifying that they have a close bond with nature. If they can jack into the forest and talk to it, how the hell is it such a surprise when the bad guys show up to a place it took them THREE MONTHS OF BULLDOZING ACROSS THE FOREST to reach?

There isn't a single creature in the movie that's not a derivative of something we already know. Wolves, horses, rhinos, dragons, etc. My favorites were a take on the shy plants, big red swirly red plants that shrink and shoot into the ground if touched and creatures that seemed like dragonflies that flew with glowing wings shaped like DaVinci's helicopter.
Shy plants: Freakin' awesome.
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This is where, in my opinion, the movie shines. Art direction and presentation. The 3D elements were a nice touch but not overwhelming. In fact, I'd watch this movie again w/out 3D. There are no instances of the tacky overused 3D trick of something coming toward you off the screen where dumb ass audience members try to reach out and touch it. The 3D effects are a dressing, not the main course.

The overall design of the creatures, the plants, and even the native Navi of Pandora are done very well. It's a bit difficult for me to formulate my thoughts to describe this into words because I'm not very well versed in the intricacies of the English language. But here's my best try.

James Cameron knew that he'd be using CGI to create these creatures, these alien people. They'd have to look different enough for the audience to be able to tell them apart by face. But they'd also have to look real enough for the viewers to be able to connect with them as if these tall blue creatures were people, not just animals.

A couple of days ago, because I have no life, I decided to watch the whole Matrix trilogy in one sitting. What I noticed is that I could totally believe that those mechs, ships and the sentinels were real. The people piloting the mechs, Neo and Smith during the scenes when they were rendered with CGI on the other hand were a different story. At the time of their release I thought they looked great but the scenes haven't aged well.

James Cameron had enough foresight to realize that if he's going to go for realism with CGI, it had better be in a way that doesn't allow the viewer to fall into the uncanny valley years from now when the technology is much superior and we've gotten desensitized to photorealism much like we have now since 2003 when the Matrix sequels came out. From where I sat, it appeared that he had succeeded. After 5 minutes or so of seeing the Navi on screen, I got used to them as if they were any other actor or actress on the screen. The only time anything looked out of place was when the Navi avatars wore human clothes. I couldn't help but think of this guy from space jam:


Avatar should be seen for the spectacular visuals and creativity that went behind them and nothing else. If you think you're going to get an original story, original dialogue or some kind of plot twist out of that movie, you will be sorely disappointed.

Did I miss anything?

Oct 02 - Appetite For Destruction - BB Kings
Oct 03 - Infected Mushroom - Terminal 5
Oct 06 - Dragonforce - Irving Plaza
Oct 18 - Moonspell - BB Kings
Oct 22 - Type O Negative - Nokia Theatre
Oct 29 - Dethklok and Mastodon - Hammerstein Ballroom
Oct 30 - Dethklok and Mastodon - Hammerstein Ballroom
Oct 31 - Misfits - BB Kings
Nov 03 - Powerman 5000 - Gramercy Theater
Nov 14 - Metallica - Madison Square Garden
Nov 15 - Metallica - Madison Square Garden
Nov 17 - Skinny Puppy - Nokia Theatre
Dec 01 - Rob Zombie - Hammerstein Ballroom
Dec 13 - GWAR - Irving Plaza

Contact me for any additions and/or plans that need to be made.
AIM: MrFlashbax

My goal isn't to go to every single one.. just every single one possible.

Aired during a hockey game earlier tonight in Canada. It's not technically available "Everywhere." Just everywhere in Canada (anywhere outside the US to be specific). In the US they have an exclusive deal with Best Buy.

And here.. we.. go! ;-D

I wonder how small the average Texan penis is since everything needs to be overcompensated for....

But this does look like a lot of fun though

http://www.nbcdfw.com/around_town/the_scene/Dallas_Breaks_World_Record_With_Big_Beach_Ball.html

....what? you think they were kidding? =P

...I think I'd miss the sunset a lot. The lack of anything substantial to do this evening drove me to the beach earlier. For two hours I stared at the sun on its descent into the horizon over the water. The sky was completely clear of any clouds. In the middle of it I got to notice a huge sunspot go across the orange/yellow orb. Gazing at just how majestic this star is above our heads was a very humbling experience. We all go about our lives as if we're so important. We worry and stress about the pettiest things. We're hung up on ridiculous notions and beliefs of self-importance to the point of arrogance. People will come and go, live and die, and look upon the sun until the world does end and none of it will mater even in the slightest to the stars. All in all it was a very humbling and calming experience. I wish I did this more often because once the sun had finally set, I had the urge to get in my car, take out a pen and paper and jot down these thoughts right away in the parking lot at the beach so I don't lose them. I never do that.

i love driving around for hours on end and having good music to listen to while i'm doing so is very important. every cd i burn ends up having some song(s) that i'll just skip. until today. i had to go back and forth from the city and surprisingly enough in the 22 songs that i burned, i didn't once feel compelled to skip a track. even the last song which is the worse song in the world (youtube 'my world' by gnr) but i needed to fill the last minute and a half of the cd. i feel good about that, as small an accomplishment as that may be.

the cd consists of a bunch of songs from the FF7:Advent Children soundtrack (the electric badass dramatic ones that make for great driving/dancing music), otherworld from FFX (fuck the haters, that song's badass), no rain by blind melon, chinese democracy and if the world by gnr, thinking of you by apc, overloaded by bumblefoot, adios by rammstein, supermassive black hole and knights of cydonia by muse, paradise city (gnr) and ABC (jackson 5) mashup, smells like teen spirit and billie jean (michael jackson) mashup, sweet dreams (eurythmics) and seven nation army (white stripes) mashup (the mashup songs are hysterical and should not be knocked til heard), and my world by gnr. the last one's a terrible song but it only lasts a minute and half and can be tolerated.

===>>>If you don't give a fuck about my gnr fanboy ramblings, you can click somewhere else and fuckoff ,,|,,(*_*),,|,,

For those of you that don't know (or care for that matter), there have been new leaks (9 to be specific) from the GnR camp. If The World (Would End Today), and This I Love being 2 that were never heard before. Now, I don't post journal entries often at all. But the thing is that a little while ago I was driving around and it started to rain for about 15 minutes and thunder and all that jazz. It started to pour for a bit and If The World Would End Today came on my speakers and I saw streaks of lightning flying across the sky for as far as I could see lighting up the pitch black clouds. The 5 minutes that the song lasted, I had never before in my life wished SO BAD that I were even the least bit poetic JUST so I could actually put down in words how I felt. But, a poet I'm not, so fucking blog post will have to suffice. Here's the song if anyone's remotely interested: If The World (Would End Today)

...unless it's Frank Miller's badassery.

Axl Rose saves Malibu woman's house from fire


I stop keeping up with Guns n Roses news for a few months because there's dead silence in the GnR camp regarding any real news... and Axl Rose turns into a fucking superhero.. WHAT THE FUCK?!

so clearly, if I want the Chinese Democracy album to come out, I have to forget what GnR is all together. Ok, so I need someone to bash me over the head with a blunt object until I forget... any volunteers?

So we go up to the corset lady in the dealer's room and I ask her to let me try on the smallest corset she had. Her response was "we only have a women's size 18 and it won't fit you because guys' ribs just don't do that." I tell her to give it a shot anyways. 5 mins later all she says is "I hate you. I can make it tighter but I won't because my fingers hurt"

So appearently Dr. Pepper recently promised everyone in America (except Slash and Buckethead) a free soda if Guns n Roses releases Chinese Democracy in 2008. I thought it was a stupid April fool's joke but when I looked into it, it was real. Even more surprising, Axl Rose made a press release responding to that saying that he appreciates the support from Dr. Pepper and that he's willing to share his soda with Buckethead since bucket's shredding will still be on the album. This made me wonder.... What the fuck?! confusion ensued and I went to sleep because that made my head hurt.

PS: HAH! you TOTALLY thought this would be a Dr. Who related post, didn't you? =P

just..... why?