Sunday, November 20, 2011

Angels and Airwaves "Love" review

Awhile back, Tom DeLonge of blink 182 formed a band called Angels and Airwaves. The music from the band itself was a far departure from the usual blink 182 and Box Car Racer, both bands that DeLonge belong to. The band plays music in a more grandiose and epic style and have released four albums thus far, the debut We Don't need to Whisper, the sophomore release I-Empire, and the two part Love, and Love: Part Two. Love: Part Two was released recently in the beginning of November, more notable perhaps is that Love: Part Two's release coincided with the release of the feature film Love, the directorial debut of William Eubank. Angels and Airwaves were the producers of Love. 


In a world of multi-million dollar productions that focus on effects and not much else, it is refreshing to see a movie that focuses more on story and character but can still deliver eye-popping visuals. Love was reportedly made for $500,000, and much of the sets were build in Eubank's parent's house. The storyline often jumps in ways that can confuse most, but if you like films that you need to think in order to fully understand, this is for you.

The story starts out with a civil war solider who, already surviving the destruction of his old regiment is given leave from the impending destruction of his current regiment to view an extraordinary discovery. Just what it is won't be revealed till near the end of the movie, but it is rather easy to guess. The setting then moves to the near future, where, having not been in space for 20 years, a space station is re-opened for one person, Gunner Wright's astronaut Lee Miller.   For most of the film, the only person on screen is Miller with the occasional dialogue with mission control, so the space station often becomes a secondary character itself. This is important as Miller loses contact with earth, and has to struggle to keep his sanity. The film is inter spaced with interview segments that offer insight into the need for connection, much as Miller is beginning to lose his with the world.

As Miller is cut off, he watches the world below him go dark and experiences dreams and hallucinations until finally, the discovery from the beginning of the film is revealed. Miller soon goes on an journey in a sort of homage to 2001, a trip that few will understand on the first viewing.

There are a few problems with the plot, mainly the unlimited life support, and the addition of gravity to the space station, neither of which are explained in the film. None of this, however takes away from the nature and the story of the film, exploring the need for connection and interaction.

Eubank seems to mix parts of Moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and even bits of Solaris to create an intelligent film that seems to reveal more with each repeated viewing. The soundtrack was culled from Angels and Airwaves, laying a minimalist score, keeping in the isolated nature of the film. The ambiguous nature of Love will leave many scratching their head, but the overall package will delight many. The effects are overall amazing considering that the film was shot on a limited budget.

If you're a fan of Angels and Airwaves, Moon, 20011: A Space Odyssey, and any movie the requires you to think to fully understand what is going on, check out Love. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Protect IP and Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA)

I am Canadian, I do live in Canada, so this should have little effect on me, but it will, eventually. The current Canadian government is very conservative in nature, and seems to have the interests of corporations above those of the people. If the USA does adopt the Protect IP and SOPA, it stands to reason that Canada would soon follow. 

This would be very bad for the Internet and the economy in general. With the internet, a whole world of communications and entertainment has been opened. It wasn't long ago the only way we heard about new bands or TV shows was from print media, radio or our friends. Now we can have constant updates as to new and exciting bands, get reviews from the latest episodes from people the world over, and be informed the instant something happens. The majority of these items, blogs, can be shut down just because a corporation things it infringes on their copyrights. The wording of the act itself is vague enough that nearly anything, even making a video where a song is heard in the background from somewhere else, could be a copyright violation.  This fear of being accused and charged is enough to stop many innovators from doing what they do best, being creative. Many sites will be shut down or threatened with being shut down if they do not remove what some lawyer thinks is a copyright violation. 

We have already seen governments taking the rights of corporations over the rights of people with the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement(ATCA). With the ACTA, random boarder searches of electronic devices for pirated software and media will be allowed, violating several freedom acts, including the Fourth Amendment. 

While I do agree that piracy is a problem, it is not as big a problem as the media makes it out to be. The majority of people are willing to pay for music, movies and TV show downloads. The success of iTunes has proven this. The fact that Google is also set to release their own music service just further reinforces it. 

A new approach to copyright is needed. One that takes fair use into account, among other things. I don't pretend to be an expert in any of these issues, but all I ask is dialog, so that people can be informed, and stay informed, and let their voices be heard. 

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Nuit Blanche 2011

 So last night was Nuit Blanche. I wandered around for a bit, but I didn't stay out as late as I wanted to. I was still sick, I've been sick for the past week or so. But I pushed on and stayed up till past 3. Here are a few of the photos that I took along the way. I didn't do as much as previous time I went out. We arrived at these spinney things, for lack of a better word. The over all effect was pretty cool. 
 Here's a shot from inside. The flash didn't work well on this one but the effect is still prety cool.

 And of course the manditory sepia shot.
 They turned a streetcar into a movie theatre. I didn't get the chance to go inside. The outside itself was lit up amazingly
FLAMES AND SCORPION
GET OVER HERE!

Friday, September 30, 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

Engage the warp drive!

Apparently scientists at CERN have made neutrinos go faster than the speed of light. The holy grail, faster than light speed  exisists only in the minds of science fiction writers, readers and watchers. If this is proven to be true, then the laws of phyics will  have to be rewritten. Well, at least partially. The results still have to undergo peer review, so we don't know for sure if this is groundbreaking news or false.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Marty McFly's Self Lacing shoes are coming!



Marty McFly's shoes from Back to the Future II are coming!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Sometimes, all you need is a hug



Do you really need to translate?

Dalek!



For all you Doctor Who fans out there!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Crab Walking!

I took this when I went to Virginia Beach a few weeks ago. Damn it looks tasty!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Bike

Something I worked on a while ago. I like to play with colours and saturation levels with these tyopes of photos.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Depeche Mode

Yes I listen to Depeche Mode, among other things. Here's one that I've been listenting to alot lately



As always, Martin Gore doesn't talk about the meanings of his songs. With this one, listening to the lyrics, especially the one line "With the wrong tune playing 'til it sounded right, yeah" is about in our lives we accept our bad choices or bad things that happen as fate or luck, refusing to change things because we are stubborn. We keep listening to the same song over and over till we like it.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Poem?

Been working on something for a while, dunno how to finish it off

We speak for the dead
The dead have no voice
We sing their praises
and we tell their sorrows

We speak for the dead
and give a voice to the unheard
we speak for the dead
and give a name to the unknown

Saturday, June 25, 2011

New York allows gay marriage.

The New York Senate recently passed law that gay marriage is now legalized. The amount of negative reaction this is getting is surprising me. It's funny how people seem to think that because the bible states that gay marriage is immoral, that gay marriage should be banned. But these same people forget some parts of the bible, like you can't have two different plants in the same garden, it also states that people shouldn't cut the hair from the sides of your head or clip the edges of your beard. As always they select what they want to preach.

I think Keith Olbermann says it best


"So I be written in the Book of Live
I do not care about that Book above;
Erase my name, or write it as you will,
So I be written in the Book of Love"
~Omar Khayyam

Monday, June 20, 2011

petals

Surgery?

So this past Friday I had some surgery. There was a small cyst or something in my back. It didn't really bother me, but the doc still wanted it out, so I had it removed. I had a few days off of work because of it. I didn't really realize just how much you rely on your back  muscles for every days events. My back is still sore every once in a while!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Summer time in the void!

So it's almost summer time, this weekend the boat and dock will come out, I am so excited!

Monday, May 2, 2011

VOTE NOW!

So I hope you all voted today, all you great Canadian folk. It is our right and our responsibility to vote for. Just hope we don't have a Conservative majority government. My (hopefully) future career is based on the Internet. If the Conservatives get in power, then the Conservatives will enact some of the worst Internet laws ever.

I could say alot, but Michael Geist is a Canadian Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce law at the University of Ottawa would say it better

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5733/125/

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

AWOLNATION!



Been listenting to this song for a while now. Love the almost screaming lyrics. The video itself is kind of meh, but the slightly distorted sounds are sweet. People keep thinking the band is called Allnation.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Exam Time!

It's time for exams, what the hell am I doing on my blog? I might stab my eyes out if I have to stare at dreamweaver anymore. Oh well, it's getting warmer(somewhat) so that means it's time to get the bike out, as well as get the garden started. That's right, I have a (semi)green thumb. I like to grow, food. I'm thinking some peppers and tomatoes this year, as usual. Hopefully I can get some good ones this year. last year I wasnt able to grow because I knew that I would be busy, so I didn't grow anything. The summer before was cold, nothing grew. But this year I want to buy a scotch bonnet from the store, and see if I can grow the seeds

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Benny Hill!

So, Benny Hill is going to be back on TV. The Benny Hill Show is going to be back on Vision TV Thursday Nights. So in prep, here is some Yakkity Sax!



I bet most of you didn't know that was the name of the song, huh?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Beach



Here is a video from a friend. Hope you enjoy it!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Wait for it

Here's an interesting ad, yes it is an ad. You'll get to the product at the end, but for now, enjoy the sounds

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Boys of Summer Time!

It's time for the Boys of Summer! That's right it's time to smell the field, the glove, hear the crack of the bat. The cold beers and tasty dogs, yes it's time for baseball!

As your true Toronto fan, I follow the Blue Jays. We got a good team this year. We might not win the AL East, but there's a good chance that we'll have a good, exciting season. The fun of this season is the unknown. We have so many unknown qualities that have the potential, its fun to guess just how far we'll go.

First off, the pitching. Pitching has been this team's strength for a while. From the heady days of the World Series with Keys, Hentgen, and Cone, to the down times with Halliday, and somewhat with Burnett. With the current season, we have a good core of younge pitchers who have the talent to prove to be the best in the AL East. With Romero we have our ace. He's been consistent for the past couple of years. In the #2 slot we have Drabek, if only because Morrow is on the DL. Drabek is an unknown quality. He has only a handful of major league starts, no wins, but his numbers are inpressive. If he can show any sort of form from the minors, we have a future ace in our hands.

Normally in the two slot we have Morrow. Morrow has the stuff of legends. He has a high 90's fast ball and one of the dirtiest sliders around. His problems are his control and injuries. If he can stay healthy, and the pitching staff has been working wonders on his control, he can easily challange for the Cy in future years. How can any Jays fan forget about August 8th, 2010 where Morrow flirted with a no-hit. One out away from matching Dave Stieb, one strikeout from matching Clemens. He posted a 17 strikeout gem that arguably was the best pitched game from 2010, despite it being the year of the pitcher, with 6 no-nos, including two perfect games. Morrow just dominated the Ray's hitters.

Cecil is another solid pitcher, nothing grand but good for the money. Reyes and Litsch round out the five. Reyes' is new and if Litsch can stay healthy, he has a chance to shine.


There is alot of if's on this rotation, but there is plenty of possibility!


We'll talk more about this team soon!

Mike

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Canadian Music!

So the Junos were on the other day, showcasing the best of Canadian Music. Yes, there is good Canadian music. The darling of the night would have to be Arcade Fire(no, not The Suburbs, as some of the people in twitter world would have you think!) I watched a bit of the show, Arcade Fire played Rococo, decent showing, if not their best stuff. They really are coming into their own, huh?

I'm really digging the (semi) new Broken Social Scene album. It's eclectic to say the least. Every song seems to come from somewhere else. Which is to be expected from people like this. The band itself seems to be made up of Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning and who ever else happens to be in the studio at the time. Some songs have 6 people banging out whatever, some have over a dozen. Many of the members of BSS have their own bands in the Canadian indie scene, some are (now) famous, as Arcade Fire will tell you. So it stands to reason that each musician would bring their own sound, and on several of the tracks it seems like it.

Overall, give The Suburbs and Forgiveness Rock Record a listen to. If you don't like them, well, fack off!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Yonge and Dundas


So I have a DSLR. Yes I am Chinese, wanna make something out of it? huh? HUH?

So anyways, I took this here photo in Yonge and Dundas Square. My good friend Malia helped me with the idea. So if you like it, comment, if you hate it, shut up, and go somewhere else. Or comment. but as long as you play nice.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Neverending White Lights



Neverending White Lights is a frikin' amazing band/person. I love this new song with JDiggz. The video is pretty cool as well. The new album from Neverending White Lights should be out near the end of the year, it's called Act 3: Love Will Ruin.

If you don't know who the Neverending White Lights are, a gentleman by the name of Daniel Victor created Neverending White Lights as a collaboration project. Basically Victor writes the songs and plays most or all of the instruments. He gets other musicians to help him out or to sing. He often provides backing vocals for his band.

If you can check out his debut album, Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies, specifically the song The Grace, with Dallas Green on Vocals.

Experience

So who am I? I am your typical 20 something year old, back in school. I worked a couple of jobs. Some of them I liked, some I didn't. In nearly every place though I found something I could do, relate to and understand. The first of these jobs was at Costco. The job itself was crap, but the people made all the difference. Working with some of those people made it fun and enjoyable. I am still friends with some of these people to this day, over five years ago since I left.

Experience makes the man, that much is certain. How the experience shapes you and what you take away from it depends on everyone

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

First Post!

Whats up world? I finally decided to post something to my blog. I think I made this for a class some time ago, can't remember, the memory is a bit hazy.

Mike