Luphawk’s movie recommendations part 1: The Man From Earth

As the title states this is my first movie recommendation (I call it a recommendation and not a review because I’m only going to recommend movies I like) and I’m recommending one of my favorite movies that almost none I’ve mentioned it to had heard of “The Man From Earth”.

Despite the lack of action this movie is thought provoking and has a good plot, it is currently on netflix instant where I gave it five stars.

BTW:  for the star trek fans out there this movies was written by Jerome Bixby, writer of, among other things, 4 episodes of star trek the original series (including Mirror, Mirror) and stars 3 actors who have been on star trek.

Warning: I have seen devout Christians who can’t tell the difference between fiction and “mocking god” as I’ve heard some idiots describe it get very upset by this movie.  I put off showing it to my grandmother because I thought she might react similarly to Edith (the “christen literalist” as john calls her) and not only did she react similarly (causing me to pause the movie and calm her down before continuing), she reacted at the same time.  After calming her down we continued the movie and she still didn’t like that part but said it was a good movie.

Marry Christmas

First let me apologies to anyone who was actually looking forward to my blog, I’ve had some stuff happening in the real world and haven’t had time to post but that will change soon, I should have the first movie suggestion (still open to suggestion on a name for that) up by the first of the year.

Now the point of this post, Marry Christmas.

Oh and Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter Solstice (I know some wiccans) and Happy whatever  else you might celebrate at this time of year, general good will and happy wishes to man…….and women…….and children, especially children.  I don’t know of any other holidays in the latter part of December (other then new years, so happy new year as well) so if you celebrate something other then what I listed above let me know in the comments.

Oh and BTW, it accrued to me that if there is anything to the idea of the world ending in 2012 (and I’m not saying there is) this could be that last Christmas so make it a good one.

Cool stuff 1: the top 10 crossover pics currently in my DV fave

So I know I said “cool stuff” would be 5 things each post but now I’m dropping that, it will be a random number.  For this first post I chose to do the top 5 (in my opinion) crossover pics in my deviant art favorites list (my DA account predates my use of the name luphawk so the name on there is samuricore).

To star hear are 2 honorable mentions I just felt like sharing because they are funny.

 

 

Now for the actual list.

At number 10:  I’m your dingo berry

We have Grifter, who has been image, Wildstorm and is now dc, along side marvels punisher, gambit and dead pool (who you know has to get a funny line).


At number 9:  A Kaiju battle that never was, Godzilla VS. the state puff marshmallow man.

What can I say about this other then state puff’s face look creepy and Godzilla would kick his ass (I mean come on, he is mad of marshmallow, A. Godzilla’s claws would rip right thru him and B. even missing, the heat breath that close would melt him).


At number 8:  Saturday night in NYC

2 of my favorite shadowy defenders of new York (gargoyles Brooklyn and TMNT’s Raphael) meet on a roof top and appear to be ready to pounce on some bad guys (maybe a meeting between foot and quarry men).


At number 7:  five swards of the kick ass

For anyone who can’t tell:
Thundarr the Barbarian
He-Man
Snake Eyes
Lion-O
Link


At number 6:  Buffy and Hellboy

Both dark horse but that doesn’t make it the same world, them working together makes cense though, after all they both fight demons and they just look good together.  Reminds me of beauty and the beast.


At number 5:  predator VS. storm troopers/Vader VS. aliens

I decided to count these as 1 because they are part of the same crossover and done by the same guy.  My only real comment, a light saber really is the perfect weapon for fighting Xenomorphs(aliens), not only dos it catteries the wound as it cuts so the acid blood doesn’t splash but the blade can’t be eaten thru by said acid.

At number 4:  Aliens VS. the Guyver

As a huge fan of Guyver I would love to see this as a move or a book.


At number 3:  Heroes commission

Basically a few dc big names in a crowd of marvel, for those who can’t name them all:
Thing, Thor, Dr. Strange, Namor, Wolverine, Spider-man, Iron fist, Hercules, Iron Man, Nova, Silver Surfer, Dr. Fate, Beta Ray Bill, Hulk, Vision, Hawkeye, Captain America, Deathlok, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Batman, Superman, Wonderman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Moon Knight, Dare Devil, Colossus, Longshot, Ghost Rider and Gambit.


At number 2:  Battle Royale

In a seen worthy of the ultimate showdown we have Space Battle Ship Yamato targeting Tiamat from D&D, grape ape between the pillars of the hall of justice, Voltron (who looks like he is kicking inspector gadget) fighting devastator in front of the technodrome, the mystery machine racing in to the fray beside “speed buggy?”, Capitan cave man and dark wing duck apparently aiming there attacks at bot from Robotech, loin-O attacking rumble, a care bear who looks like someone just hit him and he is in the process of falling down, Hong Kong phooey who seams to be fighting racer X next to bandit who seams to be growling at danger mouse who is driving a little car out from behind cobra commander who has a smurf aiming a slingshot at him and lastly, he-man and gizmoduck fighting bebop.


And at number 1:  Star Trek VS, Dr. Who

This one is just awesome, it was actually my desktop image for over a month.  You have the 11th doctor, Amy pond, Kirk and spock coming out of the T.A.R.D.I.S. on an alien world surrounded by Klingons, Romulans, Daleks and Cybermen while in the sky above the enterprise (TOS) battles a klingon bird of prey and a romulan war bird (TNG).

New adventures 1: Gargoyles

As stated in “sneak peek”, this is the first in an ongoing series I’ll be doing about shows I’d like to see come back.  And my first show is Gargoyles.

My all time favorite cartoon and still listed among my 5 favorite shows, Gargoyles was and still is just awesome.  This Disney show created by Greg Wiesman was darker, more series and more realistic then most cartoons while still managing to be very kid friendly.  They had actual character development, realistic, believable problems (alongside unbelievable ones) and though they had energy weapons they didn’t use them in place of real, bullet firing, guns.  On top of that, the show featured a large number of characters either from or based on both myth and the work of Shakespeare (most notably Macbeth and a mid summer nights dream) and many of the voice actors had been in star trek (not really a selling point for the show so much as a cool fact).

What I might do, given the chance:

Reboot:  I wouldn’t really want to do a reboot, as I said the show was so good I wouldn’t want to risk messing it up, I‘d much rather see a continuation and/or spin-off(s).  If I had to do a reboot I wouldn’t change much, mostly updating it by having them wake up in maybe 2012.

Continuation:  I would set this in the present and add a few new clan members, some may have come from Avalon, others may have been strays, gargoyles without clans, maybe razed by humans, who came to new York in search of there own kind after the clan went public.  I think I would have one of these strays arrive in new York in the first episode and we are reintroduced to the existing clan and introduced to the new members thru this characters eyes (always good to have a noob on the show, gives you a in story reason to explain things that fans of the old show would already know but new viewers might not + easy flashback opportunities to tell some of what happened in the years between shows).  I won’t get into what I would do with each character but I will say that Goliath and Elisa would be together (maybe even married, but I’m thinking some kind of legal battle over there right to get married could be an interesting ongoing sub plot), I’m also thinking they would some how have a kid (probably a human or gargoyle they adopted).  Another thing, Greg has said that if the series had continued he may have suggested Lexington was gay, I don’t have a problem with this, I think it could be interesting but I doubt Disney would allow it.

Spin-off:  Greg actually had plans for 6 spin-offs (Timedancer, Pendragon, Dark Ages, Bad Guys (all of which have been fan written at http://tgs.gargoyles-fans.org/ along with 3 additional seasons of gargoyles its self), Gargoyles 2198 (which was visited in the latter parts of the fan written Timedacer), and The New Olympians), I would love to see any or all of these (though preferably as spin-offs from a continuation) but if I could only pick one it would be Timedancer.

I also had my own idea for a spin-off in which the Manhattan clan has grown too large with an influx of small groups and lone gargoyles so they split the clan, the new group would move to a Xanatos building in Chicago (modified for them with a 3 stage roof and castle battlements) where they would find new friends and enemies.  This show would mainly be new characters (maybe 1 or 2 existing characters if I could get the original voice actor to do it) and have existing characters make occasional guest appearances.

My 2012 theory

I will be posting the stuff I promised but it got a little delayed so in the mean time hear a theory I came up with for 2012.  I’m not saying I’m a diehard believer in this, its just something I thought of that kind of made cines.

Many people believe the Mayan gods were extraterrestrials (and yes, I do happen to be one of them), there gods descended from the sky in what we would know today to be vehicles and gave then advanced mathematics and knowledge of the stars.  If my gods were tangible beings, they were leaving and they told me when they expected to return I would have some kind of countdown.  So that’s my idea, in 2012 the aliens that were the Mayan gods will return and make contact.

I’ve told this to a few people before and while I don’t think any of them believe it to be true (not sure I do, would be cool though, much better the world ending, unless they enslave us, that wouldn’t be so cool) but they all agreed the logic was sound.

Sneak peek

Just having it random isn’t really working so I decided to do a few series within the randomness.  I will try to post each at least once a month.

The first (which I’m working on now and should be up in the next few days) I call “new adventures”.  In each installment I will pick a TV show (live action or animated) that I would like to see come back (either as a continuation (like doctor who and more recently voltron) or as a reboot (like He-man, TMNT and most recently Thundercats).  I’ll say which I would prefer (continuation or reboot) and how I would do each.  I was going to do it in order first by genre then by premier date but in researching my first genre (American cartoons) I found so many that It would be well over a year before I got to another genre so now (in the spirit of this blog) I’m doing it in random order (though my first show dos fit in to American cartoons).

In picking the shows I decided on 4 rules.
1.  Must be fiction of some sort.  (no game shows, talk shows, reality shows, news, sports………………………)
2.  No shows based around celebrities.  (Reba, Roseanne, everybody loves Raymond, Jackie Chan adventures)
3.  Must have had no franchise activity in the last 10 years.  (no new episodes, spin-offs or movies. If there was a spin-off it too must have aired its last episode at least 10 years ago.)
4.  I intentionally avoided shows based on marvel and dc comics.  (sorry my fellow comic geeks, while I would really like to see a new justice league show set shortly after “epilog” I won’t be writing about that because it brakes 2 of my rules,)

In the second (which I have yet to name (open to suggestions)) I will be recommending movies I like and giving a brief (spoiler light) review.  It will mostly be older movies (though I may do a few that are in the theater at the time) and I’ll try to do them while they are on netflix instant.

And lastly (for now) is cool stuff, in each installment I’ll highlight 5 things I think are cool or funny (the majority will be youtube videos and pics from deviant art).
I’ll still be doing random stuff in between and may come up with more series latter but for now this is what I’m working on.

Pointless warning systems

They just tested the air raid/tornado siren again where I live.  They test it at least once a week but not at the same time.  Its gotten to the point that peoples first thought when they hear it is just another annoying test.  I (and many people I know) don’t even check the local channels to see if something is up anymore (unless it the middle of the night.  Once it gets to that point the siren it self is almost pointless.

Make your mark

Historically the term make your mark referred to signing with an X rather then your name, usually because you were illiterate and didn’t know how to sign your name but I’m clearly not illiterate (I’m writing this blog after all) and the other day I “made my mark” at the pharmacy.

Why, you might ask?  Because signatures on the electronic card readers they use are never legible and its not just me, I don’t know if anyone besides me is making there mark but I’ve talked to the pharmacist many times and they have told me that they have rarely seen a legible signature, to which I usually respond “I might as well sign with an X”, so the other day I did.

I assume as time passes people will get better at it, or maybe they will be fazed out in favor of biometrics, but for now I’ll keep making my mark.

Gotham high

A while back I saw some concept art (seen above) for a show called gotham high that never got made.  To me it seams like they were trying to mix the popularity of batman with shows like 6teen and stoked.  That said I actually do like the concept (if it was done right) and at the time I kept coming back to it and thinking how I would do it so hears my version of how to do it “right” (at least in my opinion).

So I’ll start with the characters in the pic and then go to some others I added.

Burce Wayne (Batman):  He hasn’t attended public school for several years, at his own insistence Alfred has home schooled him while he was training to become batman (thou he hasn’t come up with the name or gimmick yet).  Now in his late teens Bruce thinks he’s ready to start actually fighting crime but Alfred, worried Bruce is to anti social, insisted that he finish his last 2 years of high school at the local public school (gotham high).  He’s promised Alfred he won’t become a vigilante until after high school (Alfred wanted him to promise college but decided not to push his luck) but ends up sneaking out to patrol on accession.  I can see varies school teams wanting him to join but he refuses, not because he doesn’t want to but because he knows that if the rich guy who’s parents were murdered also happened to be a big high school athlete it would make him an even more likely suspect for the batman.  He would be a junior and I wouldn’t change much about his look other then taking the bat off his shirt.


Barbara Gordon (Batgirl):  Jim gordon was a friend of Bruce’s father so Bruce and Barbra know each other but she hasn’t seen him in a few years.  Alfred told jim what he was doing and he told Barbra to show bruce around.  She is a sophomore and has a crush on bruce that she won’t admit to.  I would keep the bat on her shirt but have it be a bit more stylized and say it was the symbol of a band she likes.  I would also change her hair (I just don’t like the way it looks).


Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin):  being from a wealthy family Oswald and bruce have seen each other at fundraisers and other “rich” events so I see something much like what played out between harry and draco in the sorcerer’s stone happening between them.  Oswald will try to buddy up to bruce and at first he will go along with it because he happens to be one of the only people he already knows but unlike bruce, Oswald is in public school because he has been kicked out of to many private schools and bruce soon realizes he doesn’t want to be associated with him.  After that I’m thinking he wants revenge on bruce for turning his back on him.  I would make his over shirt black to hint at the penguin motif and I would give him fingers (the flipper thing only became popular after batman returns and I never liked it.


The rest will be in the order they are in the pic from left to right.


Matt Hagen (Clay-Face):  The embodiment of the art geek, matt is practically failing all his classes except sculptor and spends most of his free time in the school art studio, he got the nick name clay-face because he always has clay (or some other art supplies) on his face.  I don’t see him and bruce being friends but I also don’t see much conflict between them (maybe something about graffiti).  I’m thinking lower middle class family, maybe some problems at home.  Not sure what year he would be in but I wouldn’t change a thing about his look.


Harvey Dent (Two-Face):  I like the idea of him already being in politics, running for student body president I would make him a senior and I’m thinking this is where there friendship starts.  I’m thinking upper middle class.  I like the 2 color shirt but I would make it the school colors (based on croc’s jersey) black on one side, gold on the other but I wouldn’t continue this into the pants.  I also would make the half-n-half skin more sutal, have it be a sunburn/tan and maybe joke about how over the summer he kept falling asleep on a deck chair that was only half in the shade.


Waylon Jones (Killer Croc):  I wouldn’t even have him in the show because his background as a circus freak REALLY don’t fit with this but if I had to use him he would come from the slums, I would lighten his skin (not to much, he is supposed to have a skin condition) and give him a nose (even if it was just nostril slits) and regular teeth (in most cases his teeth are sharp because he files them, hear I would say he hasn’t don that yet).  I’m thinking he would be a junior and as the pic suggests he would be on the football team.  Killer croc could be a name given to him by a football announcer. 


Edward Nigma (Riddler):  An uber nerd, he is a straight a student in all but PE.  Nicknamed nerdma by the bullies, I’m thinking bruce saves him from one of them early on leading to them becoming friends and him eventually working for Wayne industries before becoming the riddler.  He would come from a middle class family and the only thing I would change about his look is to get rid of the brief case and give him a back pack.


Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow):  I think I would make him older so he could be a first or second year English teacher and for that reason I would also get rid of the noose and the ratty gloves.


Selina Kyle (Catwoman):  A sophomore from an upper middle class family, her and barbara have been friends for years but have drifted apart somewhat.  They were friendly rivals on the gymnastics team freshmen year and now in addition to that they have started competing for bruce.  Barbara thinks selina only wants bruce because she knows she dos and at first that was true but she soon found a real attraction to him.  She is into animal rights and has attended a few protests but hasn’t don anything illegal yet.  I really like the look they gave her and wouldn’t change it.


Jay (Joker):  on orphan often moved from one forester home to another (but somehow always in the same school district) jay has refused to take any last name and even the teachers accepted this after a while.  Mostly known as a loner/trouble maker at school, only socializing with harley (and her friend when they are around her), outside school he runs a gang (maybe called the jokers or the clowns).  Harley knows about this gang but in a possible sign he actually cares about her he usually keeps her out of anything illegal.  The only thing I would change about his look is his skin, it shouldn’t be so pail, he hasn’t been dropped in the acid yet.


Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn):  a junior cheerleader from an upper middle class family, harley (as jay calls her) is a bit ditsy but for the most part acts a lot dumber then she is and she is completely devoted to jay.  Again, I really like the existing look for her and wouldn’t change it.


Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy):  another joiner cheerleader from an upper middle class family pam is Harley’s best friend and is always telling her she needs to get rid of jay because he’s nothing but trouble.  Obsessed with plants she can often be found in the schools roof top green house and has been to a few pretests herself (but in the name of plants), like salina she has yet to cross the line into illegal activity.  I would make her skin a bit less green but otherwise leave her as she is.


Bane:  another junior (with exception to Harvey I avoided making any of them seniors in case there was a second season) from a pore family, bane (a name he earned on the football filed because he was the bane of the other team is pam’s boyfriend.  Most of the time he is a nice guy but like a split personality, when he puts his hat (actually something like a ski mask) down he gets mean.  he is NOT on any steroids yet and would be on the football team.  I wouldn’t change his look.


Victor Fries (Mr. Freeze):  this is another one I would make older to be a teacher, specifically chemistry.  There would be mention of a fiancee named Nora but we would never meat her.  He hasn’t had his accident yet so his skin shouldn’t be pail and maybe some hair.


A few others I’ve added:

Lucius Fox:  I’m thinking that once bruce agreed to go to school Alfred poled some strings to get lucius on the faculty, I was originally thinking principal but physics teacher seamed more plausible.

Leslie Thompkins:  the school nurse.

William Tockman (clock king):  principal.

Hugo strange:  guidance consoler.

I was also thinking that during a food fight in the cafeteria some guy could get up on the table with ketchup and mustard bottles and yell “I am the condiment king”.


So that’s what I came up with, any thoughts or opinions feel free to comment.

How do you define a cult?

    Kind of a funny (and true) story.  Back when spider-man 2 first came out I went to an afternoon showing on opening day by my self.  I was waiting for the previews to start and a group of people sitting behind me were having a conversation I couldn’t help at least half hearing.  I don’t remember what prompted the question but one of them asked “well how do you define a cult?”, without thinking I blurted out “what the big congregation calls the little congregation” and they all laughed but at least to some degree agreed with me.

    A few years latter I was attending the live oak experiential church (a nice little place with a unique view and a belief in respecting and studying all religions) and realized that by my own definition I was in a cult.  A cult by my definition wasn’t a bad thing so to me that was just funny.