Who was that Pointy Eared Bastard

I, like most of the civilised world, have seen the new Star Trek film and despite a sense of nostalgia for the classic and next gen crews I have to admit it was one of the best Star Trek films made. Ranking right up there with Wraith of Khan and First Contact. It is THAT good, in spite of its flaws.

One flaw is the Vulcans.

Back in the original Star Trek they were confident, logical people quite above petty emotions. Spock would endure one of McCoy's semi-racist rants with a cool look and then puncture the doctors ego with a witticism so sharp it could have been found on a page by Oscar Wilde. It wasn't that he didn't have a sense of humour, he just knew how to use it. Then, slowly, we met other Vulcans and could see just how unusual that was for them. many wouldn't even bother with the wit and just ignore the jibe. It showed Spock wasn't really the emotionless being he was supposed to be and gave him and the whole race a depth.

Over the years though that changed. No longer a coldly logical people the Vulcans became arrogant, even going so far as to sneer down on humanity. Just the odd Vulcan at first then more. Like an older brother laughing at the baby trying to tie his shoes for the first time.

Vulcans were once one of the most fascinating, well rounded and liked alien races out there. Now they just feel like a bunch of spoilt kids. Bullies that are as racist and cruel as the darkest days of the British empire, or the American 1960's. The very thing they were a rebellion against.

Turns out revolutions really do go full circle!

Now this is what the internet is for

Those of you who read this (there has to be one of you, somewhere... you at the back, no the toilets are to the left) and know me know that I'm a big fan of Transformers. I've written enough fanfiction about them at least.

Anyway a few years ago they announced a then new show. Transformers Animated. I saw the designs and along with a lot of people wondered what the hell had happened? These cubist nightmares were a hop skip and a jump from being the sort of thing you found scrawled on the back of a beer mat by an art student as a joke. Then I saw the toys (I would call them collectables, but they just weren't). While show accurate they were blocky, silly and so crammed with gimmicks it wasn't true.

Now in an earlier post I've praised the Animated legends figure of Bumblebee. He's fantastic and sits next to his G-1 counterpart blu-tacked to the top of my computer (the guitar I made it out of toothpicks is a bit bent but never mind). I love the little guy, I hope it shows. You see I looked deeper, beneath the gimmicks.

That is why I think Transformers Animated, as a show, is perhaps the best Transformers since Beast Wars. It knows exactly what it's doing and what other shows did wrong. First of all it has a set cast, the small team each have a chance to develop and a rich back story. It has far reaching implications, the actions of these few are pivotal  and seem to have effects all over the galaxy. There's humour, drama and real empathy with the characters, even the Decepticons and other bad guys out there.

This not only trumps the rampantly disappointing "Unicron Trilogy" but the breed of serious dramas like; The Wire, Heroes, the RDM Battlestar Galactica and Lost whose convoluted plots have gotten lost in a sea of undeveloped cameo roles and indecipherable arc plots.

This revelation forced me to look again at the animation. Now I've done my own bit of animation, not very good and I'll be posting some here as soon as I can. I know first hand the hardest thing is not what you would first think. The real difficulty is consistency. The animation has to be constant, in such you develop a style. A way of doing it that works for you. That style that becomes recognisable. While I don't think I'll ever be sold on the animated toys (outside of the legends line) I now think the unique design of Animated is one of it's best selling points. 

It's true beauty comes form the fact I can use like phrases like Cubist and Impressionist. I can analyse it as an art and design student and find something in it a lot deeper than the attempted realism of the 1980's cartoons like GI-Joe and it's stable mates. 

If you haven't seen any of Animated get out there and see it however you can. It is frankly stunning.

Work Work Work.

In this age of depression, economic upheaval and two skips from barbarism I am still looking for a job that pays. This is both fun and frustrating, although mostly the latter. The fun is, after searching high and low I can kick back and enjoy the fact I have nothing to do for a few hours.

The frustrating thing is everything costs money and that is something I'm missing. Ahh well back to the grind stone as it were

The cold and empty night.

There is a lyric in one of my favourite songs. "It's a hard load to love you, It takes all my time." The song is Shooting Shark by the Blue Oyster Cult. Well my good news of the week is my hard load is lifted. A hopeless, head over heels kind of love that has burnt my heart hollow for the better part of five years is gone. There's nothing left.

You see I can count on one hand the number of  girls I've been really interested in. Alright, more accurately if you want it; three. I'm not counting fantasy women here, ones you see on TV and think are stunning those are women you paint as perfect because you  don't know them. I'm talking people I've known and have known me. At least I hope they have

None have them have gotten past "Hi I like you". The closest I've got is a peck on the cheek one day after school and a couple of hugs. That's it, in my life. I'll give you a moment to digest that, and yes I am looking for pity. I seldom seem to get even that. 

This is the sort of thing that leads to mass murdering psychopathic tendencies and I need to vent. As no one reads this waste of time I can vent to my hearts content. 

Good moment's over. Now I was under no illusions that the girl I loved gave me a second thought. If she gave me a first one I would be over the moon. While I have spent many sleepless nights composing letters I never sent them. First of all she would think I was stalking her and second I didn't want to spook her.

She knew of course. It's hard not to, I can't hide my feelings. That and I told her. Five years ago she said no and only now can I look back and say to a door, half rusted shut and with the paint flaking off...

Well I don't know what to say. For all these years I've defined myself as the man she turned down. Sometimes trying to improve myself. Other times just trying to find out who I am.

Well this is who I am right now. A lonely, shirtless, young man trying to find his future when the best he has to look forward to is a couple of movies he'd like to see that are out this year. Spouting his thoughts on a blog no one reads.

Somewhere in there is a metaphor for life. I'm sure you can find it if you look hard enough...

Star Wars

As a massive sci-fi fan please note the importance when I say I think I've grown out of Star Wars.

When this come form a guy still obsessed with transformers, worry!

Maybe it's not that, it could just be Star Wars burn out. I started off with two Videos, the last half of Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi (the first half of empire was lost to the ravages of a broken video player in the late 80s). I watched them through and through and loved every minute of them.

I grumbled with the rest of hard core fandom when Han shot last and would talk about it to anyone and everyone who would listen. I refused to get the special edition versions because I saw them as sacrilege, eventually buying the limited edition DVD set with the "Original" footage bonus disk (I'm sure the elves in Lucasfilm's headquarters sneaked something in, they can't help themselves)

Back in the day Star Wars was fantastic, an occasionally fun well crafted story taking the classic fantasy fairy tale and transposing it into a space setting. Right down to the "long time ago, far far away" opening and the kidnapped princess in the evil kings tower. But the more I grow up the more I see it was just a gimmick, a clever one but a gimmick never the less.

No the burn out didn't come from watching it continuously as a kid. I watched the Classic Battlestar almost as much and I still enjoy it as much now as then. The problem and source of the burn out is the parodies; Family Guy and Robot Chicken's work to be precise. They are just so much better! More fun, better structured (coming from RC that's a first) and not limited to Star Wars.

They lampoon everything from horse racing to Dirty Dancing. Wonderfully disturbing and amusing at the same time. Take another example:- Lego Star Wars; the computer game. It's so silly an idea that it almost has to work and it does, brilliantly.

It takes wit and intelligence to craft these parodies the likes of these. Walking the careful line between insult and homage. I urge any and everyone to catch these things when they can and revel.

And, on reflection, I know why I can't watch the originals anymore. The scars on my soul from the prequel trilogy. I'm so used to tearing that crap to shreds on message boards and shouting at the screen that I can't look it in the eye without remembering how watching Episode One stole two hours of my life.

Say hello to Stubby (the stag) and Rascal (the fox).

The two of them are proposed characters for a comic strip I'm planning on producing for East Lancashire Camra ( eastlancscamra.org.uk ) If I'm given the go ahead I'll be making a strip for the quarterly newsletter Witch Ale. It's going to feature these ttwo and a cast of regulars in their local pub. Th' Henhouse. I will also be publishing the strips here.

Heck even if Camra don't want them they're being made and are going up here, so get used to seeing them. coming soon!

Legend figures

Hello there

Just out and about I found a selection of transformers legend figures. After a few internal debates I decided to pick up Animated Bumblebee. As a fan of the original I thought a transformer the same size as the G-1 classic that sits on my Apple would be a idea. 

I'd heard a lot of good things about the Legend Figures and I have to say from this one alone I agree with every one of them. Cheap, fun and fantastic detail this little collection is going to grow!