Santa Rocked my World Again!

I'm going to plop in here quickly tonight as I have a boat load of geeky activities planned for my New Years weekend. I've rented a couple of movies as well as The Darkness for the Xbox 360.

Speaking of games for the Xbox 360, some very good friends got me Bio-Shock and I'm already into the thick of it. I have to tell you that it certainly is a wet dream (pun intended) for those that have a love of both FPS games as well as survival horror games since it merges the two. The decrepit undersea city of Rapture is not only beautiful, but also a wonderfully creepy seascape to traverse through! Especially since it's ridden with lots of crazed zombiefied nut jobs that need to be extinguished. Then with some Santa money I was given I went out a got myself Mass Effect as well as the 4 disc director's cut of Blade Runner, something I've been wishing they'd come out with since I bought the lame ass director's cut that came out years ago. The one that was just a transfer of the wide screen film version with little to no extras.

So Santa was good to me once again! That fat bastage will have a hard time toping the last two Xmas' next year! He better start planning a head of time!

I told this would be a quick plop!

Zangz.

'Twas Zangz's Blog Before Xmas.....

.......And all through his room, he sat at his computer nursing a head cold of doom. With few presents wrapped and little holiday cheer, the one thing he could count on later was a nice cold Holiday Spice Beer.

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda and whatever-the-hell else-you-want-to-put-in-there.

Despite another huge head cold and the immense crevasse that my credit card bill did to my bank account this month, surprisingly I'm actually in slightly more festive mood than I was last year. I'm not sure why. Christmas is designed for three different types of people, 1) People with big families, 2) People who are quite religious and 3) The Rich and Wealthy. I fit into none of them. But, still I'm not quite in the holiday funk I was last year. Actually, I think it was the Xbox 360 that my family put in for me last year that tore me from the funk.

Ah, yes. It's always good to know that material things can always bring me closer to the joy of Xmas.

There are a few Xmas parties that I am looking forward to. Good food, good friends and a good cold lager. Isn't that what Xmas is all about? Oh yes, there's always that kid in swaddling clothes story that's bandied about. (I'm going to hell.)


Anyway, I've been a little behind on reviewing some of the movies I've been renting lately. So here are a few.....

Spider-Man 3 - A lot of my friends saw this before I did and were quite disappointed. Personally I found it enjoyable, but not quite reaching the same level of the previous two. Perhaps it was the fact that there were too many characters and plots going on at the same time. Or maybe it was the out of place and just plain goofy dance and musical number right in the middle of the story. One more than welcome component was the always fun Bruce Campbell cameo. His French restaurant host was pure genius. It's a fun ride, but not quite up to par as the last ones.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - This other Marvel comic book based movie had a bit of the opposite effect on me. Where I found the first FF film just "ok", Silver Surfer was quite a bit better, both in action and story. Still, not something I'd go out and buy or rent again, but a fun romp, none the less.

BloodRayne and BloodRayne II: Deliverance - These movies were based on the character from the semi-popular video games that came out quite a few years ago. They featured a striking female Dhampire ( half human, half vampire) who would battle against Nazis. There are no Nazis in either movies though. The first movie takes place during the Renaissance of Western Europe and the second movie follows our heroine to the wild west of America. Both these movie were directed by notoriously slammed director Uwe Boll. He's not well regarded by the fanboy community when it comes to his films. Mostly becuase he directs straight to video movies based on video games. Most of them are darn near unwatchable. I do feel that the BloodRayne movies are a little more tolerable than some of his other endeavorers (ever see House of the Dead 2?). Unless you're the ultimate BloodRayne fan, you may want to steer clear. By the way, does anyone know how they actually got Ben Kinglsey to be in the first movie? Oscar winner, Sir Ben Kingsly?

Wing Commander - This movie is based on the popular computer games of the '90's. It's basically your "military in space" type movie. It's also a complete waste of time. Nothing happens in this movie. Nothing. We've seen this all before in other military movies. The movie doesn't even acknowledge the bad guys until the very end of the film. WTF? Not worth it. Go watch Battlestar Galactica instead!

Six String Samurai - I've been itching to see this film since the website Ain't-It-Cool-News was touting how incredibly wonderful this post apocalyptic, 1950's inspired, Kung-Fu-esque flick was. Well, after several years of searching for it, I found it through my on-line rental club. After viewing it for the first time, I have to say that I have mixed feelings about it. Perhaps my expectations were a bit on the heavy side. This is probably the cheapest movie I've ever seen. Shoestring budget is an understatement. The sets, effects and wardrobe were slapped together pretty quickly. Now, there are some upside qualities to this movie. Some of the dialog is pure fun! There are some really good lines here! Some of the fight scenes are decent, yet not shot well. The main character, a Buddy Holly wannabe, armed with both a guitar and samurai sword, traversing the post apocalyptic desert to reach Las Vegas grew on me. However, his annoying little brat of a sidekick who did nothing but shout and moan throughout the whole flick, DID NOT. If you're into quirky independent cult films, then this little diddy is probably more your speed.

The Time Machine - Now this one I enjoyed. It wasn't in the theaters too long and if memory serves it was due to the movie being released at the same time a few other blockbusters were. So, sadly, it kind of fell to the wayside. But, it certainly was a decent effort to bring H.G. Wells' Victorian time travel tale back to the big screen. Though, not as epic as it could have been, it was still and enjoyable escape from reality. And there's nothin' wrong with watching Samantha Mumba run around in a loincloth.

Pathfinder - Here' one I really enjoyed! A young Viking boy is brought up in ancient North America by an Indian tribe. As he grows to into manhood, both his Indian and Viking skills are put to the test when the returning Viking invaders destroy his village and hunt him down. It's First Blood meets Braveheart meets Dances with Wolves. I really got into this one and my pick it up for my own collection. A good manly geek movie! Long live Vinland!

Apocolypto - This movie had a very parallel plot to Pathfinder. But, instead of it revolving around Vikings and Indians, it features the story of an ancient South American tribe's village being invaded by the aggressive Aztec Empire. Of course, there is one young tribesman who escapes his captives and unleashes some serious pain on them. I know a lot of Mel Gibson haters will want me to trash the film, but I really enjoyed this one also, even though Mel pulls no punches when it comes to violence in this film. It's pretty darn bloody. The weapons of that period were rudimentary and brutal. The wounds and scars certainly reflect that. The cinematography was incredible and the wardrobe and settings were quite the sites also. Especially when they get to the Aztec city. I may pick this one up also.


That's it for films for now. Now on to another geek media love of mine.... Video Games!

I'm currently playing through he single player portion of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Where the first three COD games take place during WWII, this storyline is brought up to today's military times. You find yourself in places like the war torn middle east, war torn Russia and other war torn places around the globe. Pretty much everyplace you visit is war torn. The game play is pretty good, but it can be confusing at times as to what you're supposed to do in an immediate and stressfully situation. You don't get many hit points either. Two or three shots from the opposition and you're toast. So cover is incredibly important here! The graphics are the best I've seen to date on a next gen counsel! It is THE MOST photo realistic graphics I've experienced yet. It boggles the mind of what graphics will be like within the next 10 years. I don't know if it's a game I would by (like Mass Effect or Bio-Shock... for those of you who still haven't gotten me a Xmas present), but so far, I'm pretty impressed.

And speaking of Mass Effect, I did have a chance to play through some of it over at Roberto DelAmorte's place. This is one epic action role playing game! It plays great and looks awesome, but drags a little with all of the dialog you have to sift through to get to the meat and bones of the story. But, still, it's one I'd like to have in my own personal collection (hint.. hint... Santa).

Since I have a few days off this weekend, I'm getting reacquainted with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I haven't watched them in a couple of years and remember how they were released right around Xmas. So for me they're a big part of my Xmas celebration.

HEY! That reminds me of some really great news I heard recently! The boneheads at New Line Cinema have finally come to their senses and have worked out some legal wrinkles between Jackson and themselves that had banned Jackson's involvement in the Hobbit movies. Though he won't be directing them, he will be producing them.

So I'm off to finish The Two Towers right now. Then it's off to Mom's to help decorate her place. Then it's off to Roberto and Iris' place for a small casual Xmas get together.

So, a very merry Zangzmas to all and to all, a good night!

Zangz.

An Ozztastick Zombiefest!!!!

The weather around here has been the poops. Lots of cold and snow followed by both cold and snow with more snow and cold that will most certainly follow. If one day isn't snow filled, it's sure to be deathly cold. Old man winter is getting quite abrasive early in the season.

Then there's the fact that I just got home from Xmas shopping. Figuring what to get who and wondering if they have it already really blows!

But, despite Mother Nature's hatred toward mankind and the huge Xmas dent in my wallet there was one wonderful moment this week.

Thursday afternoon I'm checking my phone messages on my lunch break and there's one from my podcasting buddy, Double A Man. He tells me he has a couple of free tickets to go see Rob Zombie and Ozzy Osborne in concert. Now who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. It had been about 10 years since I saw Ozzy last (on his first farewell tour) and I've never seen Rob Zombie in concert before and have always heard it's quite the spectacle!

I have to say the show was awesome!!! We got there just a Zombie was about to take the stage. Once we got seated the lights went down and 6 or so video screens started playing the faux movie preview that Rob Zombie produced for the two Grindhouse movies. Then the giant devil's head that was at the center of the stage and doubles as the drum platform opened up and Rob Zombie walked out from it as the band drove into the Zombie tune "American Witch". the show featured a lot of fun schlocky, horror induced multimedia as well as lots of fireball pyro effects, dancing girls and Mr. Zombie strutting and hopping around the stage. The only disappointment was the fact that his set list was exactly the same as his new live album's. So if you have the album, you know exactly what he's going to play and in what order. You'd think he'd surprise us and change it up a bit. In any case it's great to see that showmanship and imagination haven't been totally killed off by the god awful grunge music scene of the 90's.

You'd think that it would take a while for the roadies to change the set up for Ozzy after Zombie. It literally was like 15 minutes, the quickest change over I've ever witnessed in all of my 20 plus years of concert going.

The lights went out once again as a vignette of pop-culture spoofs with Ozzy edited into them played on the giant curtain and two side video screens. Some of the little skits featured were from Pirates of the Caribbean (Ozzy is Capt. jack and bites the head off of a parrot), The Office (Ozzy relieves himself in ????? office) and The Queen (Ozzy.... Ozzy... well, Ozzy has intimate relations with the queen of England). This led to the infamous Ozzy intro music of ???????? Then the Zack Wilde's guitar starts ripping through the speakers and next thing you know the curtain drops and Ozzy and the boys are pluggin' away at his latest single, "Never going to Stop" Ozzy was in fine spirits and many times during the show he sprayed foam out of a fire hose into the first few rows. Of course the giant monitors up and around the stage caught all of the foam covered goofs banging their heads with nary care in the world.

Ozzy stuck to much of his solo repertoire while ending the final song of the last encore with Sabbath's "Paranoid". During the final bow, a plethora of fireworks blew up over the heads of the band as they did a mock fall to the floor schtick. It was the type of big huge rock show that I hadn't seen in a long long time. I enjoyed it throughly!


I've also been doing a lot of video gaming as of late. I recently blew through Medal of Honor: Airborne. This was a fine addition to the line of MOH WWII FPS games! It took me about 9 hours total to get through and much of it was pretty challenging. It could have been slightly longer, but still a good game.

Another one I rented a bit back was TimeShift. This puppy looked darn good and was real challenging! At times it was darn right frustrating. The look took from a sort of not too distant future meshed with a bit of steam punk in an alternate history. A lot of the plot we've seen before (was very reminiscent of Half-Life 2). One of the main features touted for this game was the fact that you can manipulate time by slowing it, traveling back in it and speeding it up. This sounds like it would be awesome, but it kind of falls short as you're only given a few seconds ot time travel capabilities each time you use it. This leads to some frustrating deaths as you'll need to master the time travel techniques to get through many traps and puzzles.

I've also been playing the Shivering Isles add on to Oblivion. It's great to be able to travel in a whole new realm of the massive RPG. There's some pretty creepy and odd quests, areas, creatures and NPC's to deal with. So far it's very cool!


I know what most of you are asking yourselves, "What the frack should I get Zangz this Xmas?" Well, here are a couple of ideas.

- Money towards my new computer.
- Bioshock for the Xbox 360
- Mass Effect for the Xbox 360.

Well, I have a busy week ahead of me (so if I don't get in here before the holidays, here's wishing you and yours a very geeked out Holiday Festivus!

Until next time, Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

I Smite Thee, o' Blue Screen of Depair!

There's a nasty snow/sleet/wind storm outside right now... Evil Kneivil died yesterday... and Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot passed away earlier this week. So what's there to celebrate, you may ask?

Well, it's taken a little bit of time and a good chunk of change, but my new "Command Center of Geekosity" (aka: new computer) is up and running. It took most of the day to pull out the old one, set up the new one and load as much as I could onto this little beauty. It's so nice to be able to run more than 3 applications without the computer freezing up!!!

There were a few programs that wouldn't load and a few things I couldn't import. I'm no computer geek, sadly. So I had to take up much of my time re-entering my entire address book for the email system. My photo manipulation program wouldn't load off of its disk, so I may have to invest in a new one. As I type this out I'm reloading as many of my CD's as I can before I pass out from hunger. It's called multitasking, folks. Look into it. I also have to find all of my old favorite websites since the list I saved to the flash drive refused to have itself recognized by my new computer. I've visited and saved as many as I could so far. I can still open them from the file, though. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get up early (bahahaah) and start saving some more.


In other goofy news. Remember a month ago I went to go see Type O Negative at a local music club. The venue posted photos of the show that can be viewed HERE. You can witness the debauchery for yourselves. Here's a fun little game you can play. Take a closer look at this picture HERE. I'm actually visible somewhere in that picture. Good luck finding me. It's kinda like a pathetic version of "Where's Waldo?", except it's Where's Zangz?


Ok, I'm getting something to eat before I hit the hay. I promise that I'll write a few better blogs in the weeks to come, once I've settled things out with the new system. Until then, Stay verticle!

Zangz.