[Comics] Geek Titles of Interest

I'm at a weird point in my life when I'm not actively following any Marvel or DC Comics. I pretty much quit DC after The New 52 (and yes I tried to give it a decent shot) and Marvel just hasn't really hooked me until the peak of Marvel's cosmic-related titles as penned by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Since then, things just haven't been all that engaging.

Beyond my continued following of the various IDW Transformers comics, I have recently fallen in love with two newer titles with very different flavors. One is the fantasy science fiction comic, Saga, and the other is the alternate history science fiction comic The Manhattan Projects. Both were launched by Image in March 2012 and since then have provided me a rich source of entertainment and enjoyment in the comic book sphere.

One has to be thankful for truly original stories to come along. It's a little harder to discover such titles given most geek circles endlessly discuss the Marvel and DC stories and characters more than anything else. But thankfully these titles have generated a similar degree of interest over time, and thus the reason both Tobie and I have become rather engaged with the books.

[Movies] Iron Man 3 (2013)

When a movie reaches its third installment, eyebrows tend to rise as expectations drop. Let's face it - sequel syndrome is rarely kind on movie franchises, but there are times that you get lucky.

When the first few trailers came out for Iron Man 3, I have to admit that I wasn't at all excited. I had definitely enjoyed the first movie and the sequel was still entertaining even if the villains weren't too amazing. But this third movie, well, I was more than just surprised. I was definitely impressed.

What has worked the most for this entire movie franchise all the way to The Avengers movie is Robert Downey, Jr. What started out as a rather amusing casting choice turned into an unforgettable role that I doubt anyone else can truly bring to life the way he has. So it didn't really matter how some of his past adversaries have been a little or even lackluster, this Tony Stark was more than ready to talk his way through (or even out of) every challenge.

And should this become the last Iron Man movie for Robert Downey, Jr., well, it's certainly a good way to cap off his run.

[Technicolor Musings] Goodbye, Bed Malate

Words and image are the copyright of Louie Cano

Local pink author Louie Cano put together this quaint little poem to say goodbye to BED Manila - in Malate at least. And while this isn't BED's final curtain call as a bar (they're moving somewhere greener, they claim) it is the end of a significant chapter in Malate's history as a center for the queer party scene here in Metro Manila.

I feel bad BED is going away. But at the same time I guess "my" BED disappeared a long time ago. Ever since the post-fire renovation. the bar never felt the same to me. It was too big, too empty and just felt wrong in so many ways. Plus my Michaels seemed a lot more watered down than I remember them to be.

But still, this is about closing the book on a significant part of my personal queer history as well. It feels like ages since the last time I went since I know my home these days is O Bar Ortigas. But there will always be that feeling of regret that Malate will never be the same without this particular bar. And thus it sort of connects to my overall sentiments that gay Malate is pretty much dead.

Goodbye BED Manila in Malate. You will be missed. Hope you find your feet in your new home soon enough.

[Movies] The Graduate (1967)

After watching the Repertory Philippines staging of the play, I figured it was more than overdue to finally get around to watching the movie version of The Graduate. While I had seen snippets of the movie over the years whether on movie awards shows or on movie channels on HBO, I had never really managed to find the time to just sit down and watch the whole thing from start to finish.

At times it feels tricky to watch older movies like this given our more "modern" sensibilities. The way that they used to make movies before is worlds different from how they come together now. And it's not even a question of one style being better or worse than the other. They're just very different and it works for some movies and it won't work for others.

I think this is what makes remakes such volatile topics of discussion and criticism. They deliberately try to translate an older vision into the more current style of things and more often than not you end up with a completely different product. Thus the reason I tend to advocate more original stories as opposed to remakes given how these attempts to reimagine older stories leaves you with a new movie entirely.

But this movie, well, this is truly a classic.

[TV] Beast Wars: Transformers - Season 2

It didn't quite happen right away for many Transformers fans, but for the most part I think it's safe to say that Beast Wars: Transformers in its first season helped win us over and continues to hold a special place in our hearts. In many respects, the recent shift in the Transformers Prime toys with their Beast Hunters line is clearly an attempt to recapture some of the enjoyment that came from animal-derived alternate modes as opposed to vehicle ones. And before some of you old school folks start to argue that trucks are better than monkeys, we have to note how some of the most popular characters from the G1 era were dinosaurs, insects. and whatever Sky Lynx is supposed to be.

Beyond how fun the toys were and some of the quirkier CGI involved in the series, the show actually had a pretty tight storyline and quite the interesting host of characters. The end of the first season helped cement its connection to our Earth and thus the entire G1 storyline. This season helped cement that even further and started to take full advantage of having the G1 mythos at its disposal to enrich its own unique breed of stories and adventures.

[Transformers] Hasbro Masterpiece Grimlock

Aside from Soundwave, Grimlock is one of my favorite characters from the original Transformers series, as juvenile as that sounds. Sure, we all know that the Dinobots tapped into that classic kid mindset that "dinosaurs are cool" and thus a robot dinosaur, despite his lack of intelligence, is still "cool"

But Dinobots are a little hard to come by these days - at least those from the Generation 1 period. Takara has not re-released any of the Dinobots as part of their Encore series of toys and instead we've contented ourselves with the alternate incarnations in other toylines.

But Masterpiece Grimlock is a different story.

I had long been searching for this particular variant of Masterpiece Grimlock as opposed to the two versions that Takara has released thus far. And I admit that I picked up this particular piece because of the silly little crown accessory. And while other Masterpiece Grimlocks have come with a lot more accessories, this one was just enough to meet my needs.

[Books] A Feast for Crows

My continuing adventures in Westeros through both the Game of Thrones television series and the A Song of Ice and Fire books. It's a weird experience keeping pace with the show as I read the books, although I try to ensure that my book-reading remains ahead of the show more often than not.

A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in the series, and a bit of a narrative annoyance. Because of the author's claims that the book was just too long for a single volume, he opted for a narrative split across characters instead of a chronological one. Thus the book only follows the stories of some of the major characters that we've been following for three books now.

That wouldn't be too bad had it not been for how Martin had been structuring the books thus far. Each chapter places us in close proximity to one of the key characters. Thus if you cut out that perspective, you won't know what's going on.

I'm kind of grateful that I didn't get into the books early on. Needing to wait years before finding out what the heck is going on with some of the more favored characters would have been maddening for me. But given there have only been five books released thus far, I don't really have much road left in this journey.

[Movies] Lawless (2012)

In order to meet my personal commitments to this blog, I end up watching a lot of movies just for the sake of having something to review. My Friday reviews are easier to deal with since I can dredge up any older movie that I've seen but have not written about. But on Monday I do my best to feature relatively "new" movies, as limited by what movies may have appeared this year and the one prior.

Lawless is one such movie - the kind of movie that we didn't opt to see at the theaters and just watched over the weekend. I only agreed to this movie since it's a fairly new one that fits my Monday blogging category. Plus it seemed to include quite a diverse cast of interesting actors that I hoped would make it a pretty good movie.

The movie is set during the period of Prohibition, which is a period of interest for me at the moment since I've finally gotten around to reading Empire State by Adam Christopher.

But this movie taught me that I'm probably more amenable to Prohibition stories told from the perspective of organized crime as opposed to moonshine runners.

[Movies] Little Boy Big Boy (2009)

It has been a while since I saw down to watch an LGBT movie, what more a local one. But I was in need of content to post for today and so I dug into my archives and randomly pulled up Little Boy Big Boy from the directory.

Given the poster image, I sort of hoped that the element of a kid in the story might make it a more sensible movie compared to most of the smut flicks we release. However that wasn't the case and I think I was subjected to more bad depictions of gay sex here than in some other films that tried to be a lot less pretentious about their overall goals.

The movie clearly had something that it wanted to say, but I don't think it was able to express itself efficiently or effectively. The end result is a movie that tried to juggle two main plot ideas but never really knows how to marriage or even balance things to any degree. Instead it's another senseless skin flick that seems even worse than some others because they dragged a kid into the mix of things. And that never really helps things along.

[Movies] GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)

As much as I have been a rapid Transformers fan ever since I was a kid, I'd be lying if I tried to claim that I didn't try to give the GoBots a chance. After all, I was a bit of a sucker for robots in general - thus the reason that The Mighty Orbots continues to hold a special place in my heart.

As much as I tried to give the GoBots a chance, they never really grew on me. Sure that had a rather diverse cast and had way more female robots than the Transformers ever did (yay diversity!) but beyond that it was hard to appreciate their quirky antics.

When in doubt, I guess we can blame Scooter. What was up with that guy anyway? He will never be anything close to Bumblebee in the human companion game.

The main role of this movie - like most cartoons in the 80's was to launch a new toyline. While the GoBots were already being marketed by their own television show, this movie hoped to leverage their relative popularity in order to help the Rock Lords make a mark on the toy market.

But seriously, they turn into rocks.

[Theater] The Graduate (Repertory Philippines

This year Tobie and I had experimented with getting season tickets for Repertory Philippines. That meants that we got somewhat discounted rates in exchange for committing to watch all three shows of Repertory's regular season. And the experience has certainly been interesting with the two other shows Boeing Boeing and No Way to Treat a Lady.

Now I have to admit that I originally committed to the season tickets because of this play - The Graduate. And the big reason was that it was originally advertised to feature Cherie Gil in the infamous role of Mrs. Robinson. But one thing led to another and there was a casting change before the show could even start rehearsals and so Tobie and I ended up with tickets to the show but with a different actress.

Still, the show must go on and so did we and the end result wasn't that bad. There was the minor issue of both of us inevitably imagining what the play would have been like had Cherie Gil pushed through with her performance, but for the most part we tried to stay focused on the actual cast in order to come to a more informed decision about it.

[TV] Dollhouse: Season 2

Whenthe news broke that FOX had cancelled Dollhouse, I have to admit that I was rather disappointed. Admittedly it wasn't quite my favorite show at the time, but it certainly showed a lot of potential. The core premise of the show was both disturbing and fascinating at the same time and I certainly wanted to learn more.

Plus it was a Joss Whedon show, and such adventures are nicely character-driven and rewardingly complex, provided you invest enough time in the show. And that may be one of Whedon's opportunities with respect to the small screen - he takes a while to really build up his stories. And that would help explain why the network executives could not wait around for the show to get where it needed to do.

In turn, I admit that I didn't exactly rush into watching this second and final season. After all, once we finished this, there wouldn't be any more episodes left for me and Tobie to enjoy. And so we sort of rationed this out for a few, well, years.

[Games] Candy Crush (iOS / Android / Facebook)

Candy Crush is evil.

Yes, evil is the best word to describe it. It's a game that is devilishly simple in terms of its core concept but the way it was implemented transforms a casual game into a vile challenge against a horrible candy-filled board. And even when you're on the brink of throwing your mobile device across the room, you'll find yourself shaking off the red rage in your heart just long enough to give that particular state another go.

So how does an evil game like this one manage to become so popular for so many different people? Well, therein lies the true genius of this game.

[Comics] Trese 4: Last Seen After Midnight

Since I had managed to win a social media contest run by local book blog Ron Reads, I found myself with a copy of Trese 4: Last Seen After Midnight. I had been rather curious about the whole Trese series given how much attention it has gotten in local comics book circles but for one reason or another never got around to acquiring copies of any of the books. And while the 4th compilation in the series may not have been the most ideal starting point, but thankfully the independent story format of the whole series lends itself well to easy pick-ups.

Admittedly I was rather expecting that the comics would be in Filipino, but they're not. It's an English-language comic, but it's solidly set here in the Philippines. And there's always going to be something fun about seeing places that you know in a comic book, which is probably part of the overall appeal of the comic book series.

So did I actually like the comic? Well, not quite so much. I can see how it's fun and I appreciate the general value of the series. But I'm not sure if I'm the core audience in this case.

[Movies] Dredd (2012)

In 1995, Sylvester Stallone portrayed the titular character in the movie Judge Dredd, as based on the comic series. And while the movie had its positive points on its own, a lot of folks felt that it had been a bad adaptation and a bad movie overall. And I have to admit that I didn't really like that movie either.

That older adaptation ended up being more like a prior Stallone film, Demolition Man, given all we had was a lot of Stallone being, well, Stallone. Sure he's a badass action star, but then our knowledge of him as an actor can often override whatever his character is supposed to be.

So when they announced that they were remaking Judge Dredd with the movie Dredd, I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to feel about it. Normally I instinctively hate remakes and reboots since I have some degree of affinity for the original production. But in this case, I didn't like the original movie, but that still didn't necessarily make me automatically open to the thought of a remake. And that may be more due to the fact that I continue to advocate for Hollywood and other movie makers to just focus on telling original stories instead of constantly looking for existing work to send through the meat grinder.

But maybe this one wasn't too bad.

[Technicolor Musings] What Gay Movies Represent

It is interesting that "LGBT movies" are a genre unto themselves. We know that these movies end up being group together on video store shelves since it's a somewhat targeted - like English-language movies sold in Hong Kong or something. In many ways, one can't feel a foreigner in your own country given how these movies are marketed separately - if at all.

And within the umbrella definition of LGBT movies, we have all the classic movie types like comedies, romances, horror movies and dramas. But they still typically get grouped together as a separate section instead of being with their similarly-themed friends. It can be at times convenient - at least we know where to go. But on the whole it tends to represent how much further we have to go in terms of changing the perception of the LGBT community.

Movies that try to cater to our segment of the population - that try to tell our stories - are segregated also as an exclusion factor. Some people see such content as being sensitive in nature since they don't want their kids being exposed to it. People don't just happen to enjoy a comedy that has a predominantly gay cast or gay scenarios involved. We just don't do that!

In time, I know we'll reach that point when they stop being "gay movies" and just go back to being plain old movies. LGBT cinema will in time no longer be a genre of its own. Just like how one doesn't exactly have to look for a separate section for black movies, pardon the term. And thus filmmakers like Tyler Perry happen to be just another director out there.

[Movies] The Hunt for the Red October (1990)

I was channel-surfing recently and was surprised to bump into an HBO screening of The Hunt for the Red October. As much as I love science fiction and fantasy more than most other genres, just political / military thrillers continue to hold a special place in my heart. And for this I can only blame my family for being a bunch of nerds about these things and of course my limited debating career back in high school.

Amid renewed threats from North Korea this week, it seems a tad odd to go back to a movie that depicted another period when we felt we were dancing around the threat of nuclear war - the Cold War era. But quite frankly, a good movie can stand on its own feet regardless of the modern day context and this will always be one such movie for me.

But on a side note, I don't foresee North Korea somehow finding the resources (let alone the supposed nuclear armament) to make good on their threats. But I do foresee that any gestures of strength will inevitably affect South Korea. But that's a no-brainer, really.

[TV] Beast Wars: Transformers - Season 1

Like many long term Transformers fans, initially I didn't quite know how to appreciate Beast Wars: Transformers. While I was happy that the Transformers were making their TV comeback after the weird rehash that had been Transformers: Generation 2, I was also weirded out by the show's animal-centric premise. After all, how could animals be cooler than various vehicles and machine alternate modes, right?

But over time, Beast Wars won me and many other fans over. And it's not just because they were Transformers in principle - but more because the show was actually pretty darned good. I've recently been re-watching the series on DVD, thus the sudden resurgence of this review.

Initially I thought it might make more sense to just post a single review for all three seasons of this show given the rather serial nature of the storytelling involved in this production. But I changed my mind in time and figured that this show deserved a lot more love, and thus I will still take the time to post individual season reviews to cover things better.

Plus it's not like I'll ever really tire of writing about Transformers, right?

[Games] Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Back in the day, I used to play a lot of Magic: the Gathering. It remains to be a very well thought-out game which allows for a lot of different strategies and thus a heck of a lot of fun. But over time I found the game a lot less fun since they kept releasing more and more cards and thus the game become more about how much money you had instead of just how well you played or something. That was just crazy.

I came across this game on Tobie's iPad, since I continue to exist outside of the iOS universe. More than just a card game, Ascension is actually a deck-building game where players use the cards at hand to create a deck as the game goes along. This may sound a little strange but it does make for a lot of fun. And annoyingly enough, the makers of the original card game only have an iOS adaptation available at this time so Android users like myself are unable to play the game.

[Books] Luka and the Fire of Life

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is one of my favorite books from my college Humanities courses. It was part of my assigned readings and I had enjoyed the book so much that I made sure to have a better copy of it later in life. While I never finished reading The Satanic Verses, I found this forray into young adult writing turned out quite beautifully.

I don't think most of us Haroun readers would have ever expected Rushdie to return to this Magical World with a sequel but, but that's exactly what he ended up doing with Luka and the Fire of Life. But that's exactly what this book is, in essence, although it written in such a way that it's not exactly required to have read the first book in order to enjoy this one. We're just brought to a generally familiar world with some of the familiar characters from the first book.

As is the way of sequels, I didn't quite enjoy this book as much as the first one. This is not to say that it's a bad book on its own - but in comparison with the first, it wasn't quite there. Then again, one also has to recognize that  Haroun has had more time to peculate in my fading memory and thus may only seem better through the tinted vision of hindsight. It's hard to be compared to a book that has already taken a special place in your heart, after all.

[Movies] Oz and the Great and Powerful (2013)

With the recent passing of Roger Ebert, renowned film critic, my partner and I decided to head out to watch a movie at the cinema to sort of celebrate his passion for movies. But options were rather limited for the past weekend and since we weren't into watching the big local romance dominating the theaters now, we ended up watching this movie. Admittedly, it was a bit of a surprise that the movie was still showing at all and so it seemed worth investigating.

Feedback about the movie had been rather mixed, so it's not like we were particularly excited about the movie to begin with. But hey, such movies are bound to be a little special effects heavy and we figure that this might do better in a full theater versus just watching it on home video.

In the end - it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that amazing, but at least it wasn't that bad. But it certainly could have been a lot better had they tweaked a number of elements to give the movie more direction. Or something along those lines...

[Pink Scene] LoveYourself's Platinum HIV Testing Returns This April

This April, LoveYourself is once again offering its Platinum HIV testing service for those of you who are still in the closet about getting tested. Taking place at a discreet location near Makati's central business district, the Platinum Testing Service ensures that the fact that you're getting tested HIV remains completely confidential. All they ask is a minimum standard donation of P500.

The testing event will take place on April 19 and 26 between the hours of 06:00pm and 09:00pm. The exact location will be revealed later on through your personal coordinator assigned to assist you with your testing. All you need to do is to pre-register for the event in order to set your appointment.

On a personal note, I don't entirely agree with the concept of the Platinum testing idea since it sort of indirectly supports the notion that we should be ashamed of getting tested for HIV and other STDs. Then again, I know that HIV/AIDS awareness still has a long way to go in this country and a lot of education work needs to be done in order to wash away the stigma of the mere act of getting tested.

And a the very least, the P500 donation is sure to go to a good cause in continuing to fund the various advocacy efforts of LoveYourself, which has recently expanded its movement to include Cebu as well.

So be smart and get tested. It's the best decision you'll even make. And if Platinum isn't for you, there are a lot of FREE testing options still available.

[Movies] Celebrating Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

Earlier today, the Chicago Sun-Times published a brilliant obituary for longtime movie critic Roger Ebert. He had died at the age of 70 and had been working with the paper for just over 46 years now. His last blog post, A Leave of Presence, published just a few days ago, already indicated that he needed more of his time and effort to focus on his on-going struggle with cancer.

I post movie reviews 2-3 times a week here on the Geeky Guide - the account for more than any other content that I post here. And while I've loved the movies most of my life, Roger Ebert helped me better appreciate good movies and acted as an inspiration for my own movie reviews. I'd go as far as saying that I actually calibrate my reviews with his from time to time just to see where our opinions would differ. I know that I will never become a writer quite as good as him, but I do try my best to do him justice.

More than just a critic, he was a man who genuinely loved movies and it showed in his writing. He has always had a rather savvy way of expressing himself whether in his reviews, his books or even his social media interactions (and he was quite active on the web). Heck, he would faithfully submit entry's to the New Yorker's cartoon caption of the week contest. I have never met him, but all signs point to him being quite the genuine individual and a newspaperman at heart. And that's pretty inspiring.

So today we celebrate all that was Roger Ebert and the impact he's had on the movie-watching world at large. Two thumbs up, sir! We'll see you at the movies.


A few links of interest:

• Roger Ebert's TED Talk: Remaking my voice
• Remembrance piece by Steven S. Duke, one of Ebert's former editors
• The importance of Ebert's thumbs piece by James Poniewozik, TIME TV critic
• Farewell piece by Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine movie reviewer
• 2007 piece by Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine movie reviewer

[TV] Star Trek: The Animated Series

Being the completist that I am, I recently ventured into finally watching the complete 22-episode run of Star Trek: The Animated Series. I had seen a few still images of the show over the years but for one reason or another I had never found the time to actually watch any of the episodes. And given the lack of an active Star Trek TV show at this point in time, this Trekkie is happy to watch any Star Trek series in the hopes of new stories.

What I wasn't expecting was for a generally serious attempt at a science fiction cartoon that was largely at par with the original TV series. And while some of the aspects of the cartoon were clearly toned down given the younger target audience, the rest of it was very much classic Trek - and that's a very good thing.

And of course the animated nature of the series meant that it could explore more exotic locations and stranger aliens without the limitations of a FX budget, which helped expand the Star Trek universe even further.

[Social Media] Lucy of Fully Booked

The social media sphere is filled with a wide variety of internet personalities. You have your Twitter celebrities that seem to exist solely on that one platform. You have the pro-bloggers whose words are treated like journalistic fact. And you have the hordes and hordes of company profiles that are still trying to figure out how to handle the medium. Some merely use it for broadcasting updates. Others have ventured into marrying their customer service to this platform. Others are just there, essentially twiddling their thumbs.

Fully Booked, a local bookstore chain, has taken things to the next level and are a prime candidate for a social media case study on how to use social media channels effectively. Being more than just brand, Fully Booked has given their social media presence not just a face, but a complete personality in the form of Lucy.

[Comics] Realm of Kings (Marvel)

The events in War of Kings left the Marvel Universe with a new state of affairs - at least for the more cosmic-scale / space-related characters. This next crossover event, Realm of Kings tried to add onto those developments, tie up a few more loose ends and of course set the stage for the next epic tale.

But this also felt a tad forced, in some ways, with other aspects of the overall narrative in need of a bit more development. It probably wasn't too big a coincidence that the end of this storyline was marked by the Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova comic books being put on hiatus indefinitely. While this story arc did help set the stage for The Thanos Imperative, I can't shake the feeling that this was more about doing the best with what was available as opposed to this being a story that the creators really wanted to tell.

To be fair, it's not exactly a bad story. But it could have been a heck of a lot better.

[Movies] Upside Down (2012)

Romance movies don't always get mixed in with science fiction - you have to admit that the two movie genres are a tad different from one another. But every now and then the two come together and it can either be quite a mess or a beautiful new creation.

Upside Down is a most interesting movie that I feel was born out of an idea for a visual more than a story. And that may not be a bad thing - there are just those moments when the science fiction aspect to things sort of falters from an internal logic perspective. But that doesn't distract you from the core story that drives this movie - two lovers who are as separate as separate can be.

I don't think this movie has gotten a local release date as of this time, which is rather disappointing. I know I've seen a poster for the movie at least once or twice in the Coming Soon section, but that's about it. Then again, there's always the internet at large to help drive things alone and resolve such distribution challenges.