Monday, March 16, 2009
-Yo! So the past couple of weeks have been all over the place, don't know exactly where to start. Given it being March in North Dakota, I shouldn't of found it all that surprising last week to start the week off with a blizzard and several inches of snow and subzero temps, and by the end of the week have highs in the 50s with a majority of said snow melted.
-A couple days before the Blizzard hit I made the trek down to Fargo to hang out with Matt & Danielle. Now whenever I head down there I'm use to checking our local weather online to make sure there's no incoming bad weather, and all that the report stated was "snow developing overnight." So it's early Monday morning when I decide to take off, and I noticed some sleet on the ground which transformed it to pure ice, and the snow was starting to really come down. I hit the interstate ASAP, but the visibility is starting to turn to hell, and after just a mile I decide not to risk the hour drive back in my non-4 wheel drive truck not knowing how bad it really is outside. Turns out the Red River Valley was going to get a double shot of suck on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a winter storm, with mostly a ton of snow, but Tuesday Fargo got hit with a bad blizzard, complete with insane winds and all that fun. Interstate got shut down for a good portion of the day too.
So as a result of all that craziness, I ended up staying in Fargo for two and a half days, and ended up missing my first day of work in over two years. Mega thanks to Matt & Danielle for letting me crash out at their place. We did make the best out of a bad situation though and watched a few flicks and played a ton of old school Genesis games. I watched Matt annihilate the final boss in Super Mario RPG, and we teamed up and romped through TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist to make it game #3 completed for the year! Did have a lot of fun playing the beat-em-ups, we failed again at Captain America and the Avengers, again making it all the way up the Red Skull. Other notes of that marathon game session was being shocked at how much damage the final boss in Robocop vs The Terminator can consume, how incredibly lame defusing the bomb is in Spiderman vs the Kingpin and how sinister the controls are in Beavis & Butthead.
-Speaking of all these old school games, the latest On Tap podcast is the first part in a multi-part installment of looking back at old school comic book videogames. We're shooting to cover all the console release, so part one features everything that came out in America on the NES and 2600, and also some noteworthy releases on the PC and Arcades. Essentially, this episode is a roast to the awesomeness of LJN/Acclaim, along with a few gems sprinkled throughout. Download
The episode prior to that we discussed the latest videogame film to grace us with its presence with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Like most of the other videogame films we covered, we gave Street Fighter its just deserves too. Download
-Luckilly I caught a lot more than Street Fighter recently.....I also watched the recently re-released "Extreme Edition" DVD of the 1994 Van Dam/Raul Julia Street Fighter! You can hear all about both Street Fighter's in the previous link above, but the short version is that in both are awful(surprise), but at least the first got a majority of the Street Fighter roster in and gave the fans some good costume designs. Legend of Chun-Li.....not so much.
Also saw Watchmen, which is easily one of the best film I saw this year so far with Taken. I didn't read the book, and avoided as much hype/trailers as possible to go in with an open mind. I understand how there is a big mixed reaction with Watchemen currently, which I understand with people probably went in thinking "hey another popcorn comic book flick with explosions......wait, it's two and a half hours!" I dug the alternate 1985 reality, the story and its pacing was very well done, which resulted in the film not seeming not be as long as it was. Some other little bits that went a long way for me was the opening credits and the costume design. I try my best to not let the over latex-y or super cartoony looking costumes in most other superhero flicks get to me, but something about the design in Watchmen really nails it for once. If you go into this not thinking of it as a typical superhero flick, maybe you'll come out as floored as me. 9.5/10
Also saw the films Catch and Release, Midnight Meat Train, Fido and Role Models. I'll admit to watching Catch and Release after reading about it in Kevin Smith's book, but hey I ended up liking it too, so bonus! Midnight Meat Train had some of the worst storytelling I have seen in awhile, but at least had some interesting fights and gore to redeem itself. Fido was zombie hijinx like most other zombie flicks. Role Models surprised me too, previews made it seem a little too hokey for me, but Matt insisted I rent it yesterday and it didn't disappoint. I think that film sets a new bar for best use of double connotations.
-Last weekend the family made it out to Montevideo to visit my sister. On Friday just Joey and I made it down. We went over to Sherrie's boyfriends who had a very nice place. Best of all he had a karaoke machine and a decent selection of tunes. I sang four or five songs myself. Actually sang an Elvis and Johnny Cash song for the first time ever, and I think I may have pulled them off, but that was probably the alcohol that made me think better of my efforts. Even saw Joey rock the karaoke mic for the first time ever which was awesome, as he belted out a creative rendition of "Black Betty." Next night there was a Heart tribute band playing at a local bar, they played at the Rock the Park event at Montevideo last summer too. Had a lot of fun jamming out to them throughout the night, and playing some of the worst pool known to man with my brother and Ann's boyfriend, Greg. Had a blast down in Montevideo, everyone is so hospitable there, can't wait to go back there for Rock the Park again this summer!
-All for now, latez!
-A couple days before the Blizzard hit I made the trek down to Fargo to hang out with Matt & Danielle. Now whenever I head down there I'm use to checking our local weather online to make sure there's no incoming bad weather, and all that the report stated was "snow developing overnight." So it's early Monday morning when I decide to take off, and I noticed some sleet on the ground which transformed it to pure ice, and the snow was starting to really come down. I hit the interstate ASAP, but the visibility is starting to turn to hell, and after just a mile I decide not to risk the hour drive back in my non-4 wheel drive truck not knowing how bad it really is outside. Turns out the Red River Valley was going to get a double shot of suck on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a winter storm, with mostly a ton of snow, but Tuesday Fargo got hit with a bad blizzard, complete with insane winds and all that fun. Interstate got shut down for a good portion of the day too.
So as a result of all that craziness, I ended up staying in Fargo for two and a half days, and ended up missing my first day of work in over two years. Mega thanks to Matt & Danielle for letting me crash out at their place. We did make the best out of a bad situation though and watched a few flicks and played a ton of old school Genesis games. I watched Matt annihilate the final boss in Super Mario RPG, and we teamed up and romped through TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist to make it game #3 completed for the year! Did have a lot of fun playing the beat-em-ups, we failed again at Captain America and the Avengers, again making it all the way up the Red Skull. Other notes of that marathon game session was being shocked at how much damage the final boss in Robocop vs The Terminator can consume, how incredibly lame defusing the bomb is in Spiderman vs the Kingpin and how sinister the controls are in Beavis & Butthead.
-Speaking of all these old school games, the latest On Tap podcast is the first part in a multi-part installment of looking back at old school comic book videogames. We're shooting to cover all the console release, so part one features everything that came out in America on the NES and 2600, and also some noteworthy releases on the PC and Arcades. Essentially, this episode is a roast to the awesomeness of LJN/Acclaim, along with a few gems sprinkled throughout. Download
The episode prior to that we discussed the latest videogame film to grace us with its presence with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Like most of the other videogame films we covered, we gave Street Fighter its just deserves too. Download
-Luckilly I caught a lot more than Street Fighter recently.....I also watched the recently re-released "Extreme Edition" DVD of the 1994 Van Dam/Raul Julia Street Fighter! You can hear all about both Street Fighter's in the previous link above, but the short version is that in both are awful(surprise), but at least the first got a majority of the Street Fighter roster in and gave the fans some good costume designs. Legend of Chun-Li.....not so much.
Also saw Watchmen, which is easily one of the best film I saw this year so far with Taken. I didn't read the book, and avoided as much hype/trailers as possible to go in with an open mind. I understand how there is a big mixed reaction with Watchemen currently, which I understand with people probably went in thinking "hey another popcorn comic book flick with explosions......wait, it's two and a half hours!" I dug the alternate 1985 reality, the story and its pacing was very well done, which resulted in the film not seeming not be as long as it was. Some other little bits that went a long way for me was the opening credits and the costume design. I try my best to not let the over latex-y or super cartoony looking costumes in most other superhero flicks get to me, but something about the design in Watchmen really nails it for once. If you go into this not thinking of it as a typical superhero flick, maybe you'll come out as floored as me. 9.5/10
Also saw the films Catch and Release, Midnight Meat Train, Fido and Role Models. I'll admit to watching Catch and Release after reading about it in Kevin Smith's book, but hey I ended up liking it too, so bonus! Midnight Meat Train had some of the worst storytelling I have seen in awhile, but at least had some interesting fights and gore to redeem itself. Fido was zombie hijinx like most other zombie flicks. Role Models surprised me too, previews made it seem a little too hokey for me, but Matt insisted I rent it yesterday and it didn't disappoint. I think that film sets a new bar for best use of double connotations.
-Last weekend the family made it out to Montevideo to visit my sister. On Friday just Joey and I made it down. We went over to Sherrie's boyfriends who had a very nice place. Best of all he had a karaoke machine and a decent selection of tunes. I sang four or five songs myself. Actually sang an Elvis and Johnny Cash song for the first time ever, and I think I may have pulled them off, but that was probably the alcohol that made me think better of my efforts. Even saw Joey rock the karaoke mic for the first time ever which was awesome, as he belted out a creative rendition of "Black Betty." Next night there was a Heart tribute band playing at a local bar, they played at the Rock the Park event at Montevideo last summer too. Had a lot of fun jamming out to them throughout the night, and playing some of the worst pool known to man with my brother and Ann's boyfriend, Greg. Had a blast down in Montevideo, everyone is so hospitable there, can't wait to go back there for Rock the Park again this summer!
-All for now, latez!
Comments:
Post a Comment
