I'm lovin' me some Torchwood!

Since I don't have the BBC America channel that is included in the overpriced, uber-cable TV set up that the local cable company overcharges it's customers for, I didn't get to check out the wonderful little Dr. Who spin off that a lot of my fellow geek friends have been bantering about for a long time.

Finally I rented the first DVD of Torchwood out of my rental club and got my first look at the debut and second episode. Within the first 20 minutes I was frellin' hooked! The best way to describe it would be if you took The X-Files and melded it with Dr. Who. Then you took a dash of adult humor and content and a whole lot of excellent writing and characterization and you have Torchwood.

Set in a secret base under Britain's Millennium Centre there's a small secret society of investigators looking into intergalactic, paranormal and otherworldly phenomenon. This small band of detectives are led by the energetic, roughish and darn charming Capitan Jack Harkness. He's apparently an immortal who runs around in a cool military trench coat and has some great snappy repartee. He's played by actor John Barrowman who supposedly has family here in my home town and has actually been spotted here in the Brew City from time to time (though I could be horribly mistaken as I see that he's actually from Scotland)

Then you also have the naturally sexy-as-heck-girl-next-door-with-Betty-Page-hair-beauty, Gwen Cooper. She's the "newbie" who fell into Torchwood acting as their police liaison. She's the Alice Through the Looking Glass character that the viewers relate through while she experiences the new sites and situations that the Torchwood Institute has to offer (like a live tyradactile that flies around in the Torchwood underground base - WTF?!?!?!). Gwen is played by the wonderful Eve Myles who I developed a bit of a crush on after the first episode.

The outrageous creatures, aliens and oddities that the Torchwood gang come across seem secondary to the characters and good smart, adult writing. It's good to be living in a TV age where smart writing is being fused with genre TV (Battlestar Gallactica, Lost, Dr. Who, The Sara Conner Chronicle.... I'm not gunna Wiki link all of these. Google 'em yer damn selves). Sadly, there's a rumor amongst the Torchwood fan sites that the BBC plans to dumb down the show to get a wider range of viewers. This includes the ousting of lead character Capt. Jack (WTF?!?!?!) perhaps due to his omni sexual preferences, a highlight of the adult nature of the show.

So you better check this little gem of a show out before it goes all "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" on us. The first season is available on DVD for rental or purchase. I believe the second season is being shown in England and BBC America. The third season has yet to be shot, but is rumored to be the season where they start messing with the characters and story lines so dumb people will like it as well.


I had a great Easter! Easter really isn't my bag when it comes to holidays, but my family ended up having a really good time. We started with an excellent brunch at a really nice, East Side cafe. I had an excellent Bloody Mary followed by a great Eggs Benedict dish that wasn't only tasty, it was affordable also. Then we all motored over to my sister and bro-in-law's house to walk their two dogs, Pipen and Frodo. Though, we had just had the worst snow storm of the year that Friday, the weather was nice enough for me and my bro-in-law to enjoy some beer and cigars out on the front porch. My first cigar of the spring/summer season was hurffed up with great enthusiasm and it actually puffed quite well despite the slightly cold weather and the fact that it was a bit dried out. I can't wait to hurf some more in the coming months!


We're still waiting on more tests to find out if my relative's health issue is something more serious. I don't want to slag the medical community because I know they do their very best, but for the money we pump into the medical community and health care, you'd think they could be a frack of a lot quicker with these things instead of the back and forth and waiting weeks for the next appointment /test! With medical bills as astronomical as they are due to corporate greed that has infiltrated the medical world, we should have had this all figured out and taken care of already. I don't think I'd be quite as critical if medical treatment was affordable. Until it is, I'll be quite skeptical.


I took a break from Mass Effect and Bioshock and went back into my catalog of games and started to play some more Crackdown. I've now incompletely beefed up my agent character to his most superosity. So jumping around town, destroying things and tossing thugs off of high rise buildings isn't anywhere near of a hassle as it used to be. Very Cool!

I'm also greatly anticipating this little ditty that's coming out the end of next month!


Well, I'm off to ejoy another Saturday afternoon with movies, Zangz's Killer Chili and a good long session of Mass Effect.

Let me leave you with this little spew of wisdom.... gap toothed chicks can be pretty friggin' sexy and cute as hell, also!

Zangz.

God Is Dead, All Hope Is Gone and Evil Reigns Yet Another Week....

It's the second day of spring. The second FRIGGIN' day of spring!!! Did it start with birds chirping? No! How about a beautiful sunrise? Nope! Was it a semi-warm day? The kind that makes you anticipate what a great summer it will be? The kind of day that when you get home in the evening you can go outside and enjoy a beer and cigar. Oh, hell no!!!

The day was met with vertical flying snow that slowly, but surely, built up into several inches of heavy snow throughout the day. I left work a half an hour early, and it still took me 2 and 1/2 hours to get into my cozy apartment and have a beer in hand. The sad thing about it was that even though the roads were rough, it took me under an hour to get home. It was the shoveling myself into my own parking spot while getting myself out of two snow drifts that took up the majority of time. Finally by 6 PM I was in my apartment cold and soggy, yet enjoying a nice frosty, Friday evening brew.

"F" Mother Nature and "F" Al Gore! Lets see that bloated ding dong live through this winter in the upper Midwest and then see him whine about global warming (and I'm a moderate progressive)! Jeeze, I must be into full S.A.D. mode! Someone, get me one of those generic lamps! If it doesn't get spring-like in a short amount of time, I may just go nuts!!

On top of all of that my favorite Idol contestant was booted off the show by the majority of idiots that actually vote. I haven't even seen one full episode this season and know that the winner will be some generic, mindless turd that will be owned by the American Idol corporation and will find themselves in eternal enslavement 'till kingdom come. You might be thinking to yourselves, "But if you don't really watch the show, how can you pick a favorite singer, Zangz?"

It's because I'm a lonely, dirty old man-geek, OK! There! You've pulled it outta me! Are you all happy now!!!!!!!


Let's move on to some movie reviews I've been holding back on for a few months....

Star Trek: Nemesis - This wasn't exactally the movie that should have closed out the Next Generation chapter as it felt more like a 2 hour episode of the TV series rather than a full bloodied Star Trek motion picture. It deserved a hell of a lot more that what was given to it, both script-wise and production-wise. It was a nice effort, but the cast and fans deserved a frell of a lot more! And where the frack was Wil Wheaton, fercissakes? Frack you, you Wesley Crusher haters!

Doom - Have I reviewed this one yet? I rented it quite a while ago and thought that I might have done a review of it. If not, here goes. This is basically a marginally fun filled rental. If you went to the theaters to see it, consider yourselves about $5 out of luck. If you rented it you're only about $1 out of luck. If you got to see it for free, then you're pretty right on the money! Not quite up to par with what it could have been had it really been a full blown homage to the revolutionary video game, it was still a bit enjoyable. I love Karl Urban and Rosemund Pike in this movie. Even The Rock is ok. But, like most video game to movie screen films, it comes up short. It is VERY predictable. Could have been better, yet not a complete waste of time for us Sci-Fi video game geeks.

Hannibal Rising - Disturbingly good. It's not anywhere up to par with the original Silence of the Lambs. But, it is a very interesting introspective to where serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, got some of his traits. The film takes place during WWII and takes Hannibal from the the war that destroyed his family to his obsession with his hot Asian step mother as well as his obsession with revenge. I didn't think I would, but I actually enjoyed it. If you're a big fan of the Hannibal Lecter series of movie and/or books, it's worth a peek.

Sunshine - It was supposed to be the next generation's 2001, but it didn't quite make it to that level. The first half of the movie I really enjoyed the hell out of. The set up was great, characters were awesome and story seemed to flow well. However, it got a little convoluted toward the end. Rather than the characters dealing with an out of control computer, they have to deal with this quasi-ghostly entity that may or may not be what is left of the captain of a space ship that was formerly sent to help revamp the sun's power to save the earth. The current group of astronauts that are on a very similar mission (since the last one failed) have to thwart this wacky, blurry entity to reach their goal. It is never really revealed what happened to this omnipotent character and why he's so.... blurry. It's definitely a good watch , though. Not quite up to par with 2001, but a fun Sci-Fi watch still the same. Check it out!!!

Premonition - I love Sandra Bullock and feel that all of the performances of this movie are spot on, especially her's. However, If you're into unhappy endings that have a slight glimmer of hope, then this might be up your alley. I, myself, was hoping for something that was a bit of a paranormal thriller. It had hints of that, but in the end, didn't deliver. If you knew your lover was going to die and could travel back in time to stop it would you? Or would you be resigned to the fate that no matter what you did, your future with said loved one was frelled up the whazoo? That is what the move explores. OK rental, but if you like unhappy endings with slight glimmers of happiness, rent it. Otherwise stay the frack away! Sandy rocked the hizzhouse but.....

Zodiac - this could have been a real awesome thriller about the Zodiac Killer murders in the 70's, but it got a bit long in the tooth for me. It was done well and, again good acting chops throughout. But, it was till missing that feeling of real mystery, serial killer, thriller that it should have been.

The Last Mimzy - Not anything particularly out of this world, but when it comes to kids films that are inspired by the genres of Sci-Fi/Fantasy it blows the roof of of the funeral dirge that is known as Disney's The Bridge to Teribithia. Not a milestone in Sci-Fi, but a fun enough film for families!

Ok kids. that's enough for my saltiness and bitter attitude. Ive got a lot to do this weekend. More movies, more Mass Effect, bills to pay and more snow to shoveling to do (An Inconvenient Truth, my left nard! Howzabout An Inconvenient Parking Space That Takes You An Hour And A Half To Shovel Out Because Of The Massive Snow Storm That The Global Warming Has Not Gotten Rid Of? Why isn't Leonardo DiCaprio falling all over himself for that potential documentary?)

To attempt to end on a happy note. Above is a picture of the stamp a friend used to send in her annual tax return check. Enjoy!

All right. I'm outta here before I blow a gasket and go all hard core coronary, ballistic on ya all.

Zangz is outta the hizzhouse.

Zangz.

Zangz's Saturday Afternoon Chili to Eat as I Watch My Saturday Afternoon Movies

Another week gone by, another 7 days of yearning for gaming, action figures.... and love. Pathetic? Perhaps. But, this wouldn't be called my Blog of Geekdom if there weren't some awkward moments of pure silliness. And this is the place for just that!

Though, not a heck of a lot has really taken place since my last entry, I'm sure there's something I can dink around with here in the Blog of Geekdom.

I know! I can talk about tomorrow's events. There's yet another birthday party that will be taking place. It will be for the ever-so-lovely Iris VonBeaverhousen. There's already been some plotting and planing and all sorts of behind the scenes Tom-foolery that Roberto, her ever faithful man-servant and husband, has been dealing with to get this puppy off the ground.

Today I went out and got her a few presents since she was the one who was the mastermind behind my James bond themed 40th Birthday festival. I know she never friggin' reads this thing, but I still wont divulge what I'm getting her.
A mini-manga Boba Fette toy and a Nintendo DS game.
Tomorrow, I'll be cramming a lot into one weekend day. First there will be the getting up late (about 8 AM - 9 AM). Then I'll shuffle off to the living room couch and turn on the TV while I lay there lazily contemplating if I should continue watching crappy Saturday morning TV (usually consisting of paid programming and news shows) or should I get off my lazy ass and pop in a movie. I have three of them rented for the weekend and have little to no time to watch them. Then I'll contemplate if I should watch the movie or pop in a session of Mass Effect on the ol' '360. This will take another hour or so as my waking mind is still glued to the paid programming and crappy Saturday morning TV.

Finally it will be noon and I'll decide on a movie. But, I'll also be hungry by then and will make my famous "Zangz's Saturday Afternoon Chili to Eat as I Watch My Saturday Afternoon Movies". Here's the recipe for those constitutionally gifted and adventurous. It's comprised of Hormel No Beans Chilli. Pour a little beer in there. Preferably a Bock or Lager, something with a bit of dark flavor. NOT a light domestic! Then we put in a dash of chili pepper. Then a dash of curry powder. Then a tad of Tabasco sauce. If you don't have that, any hot sauce will do. Then I shake in a good dose of shredded Parmesan cheese. Then its a squirt of Sweet Baby Rays Hickory brown Sugar BBQ Sauce. Now mix thoroughly. After mixing put on a secondary layer of Parmesan cheese. Do not mix this layer as it is going to be kind of the equivalent to the crust of sugar on Creme Bru Le. Except it's going to be a cheesy goodness that tops off a carcenergenic meat monstrosity. On top of the layer of Parmesan cheese you'll place slices of sharp cheddar cheese that will cover the entire circumference of the bowl. Put in micro on high for 2 minutes. Then take out and let settle for 2 minutes. If it doesn't try and bite you after that, it should be fine to consume. (Consult you doctor before digesting. Zangz's Saturday Afternoon Chili to Eat as I Watch My Saturday Afternoon Movies may cause one to spend their entire day clenching up their butt cheeks while in public. DO NOT taunt Zangz's Saturday Afternoon Chili to Eat as I Watch My Saturday Afternoon Movies as it may strike at you without warning.)

Then I'll sit back enjoy my chili and watch whatever movies I've rented. But, tomorrow, I'll only fit in one as I have to make a clandestine rondevue (that's French for secret meeting) to retrieve something for Iris's B-day function. That will take up a portion of the afternoon. And I'll have to figure out if I'm going to head straight to the party afterward or have time to do a little Mass Effect or another movie afterward.

Then I'll head out west to the party where food, drinks, and gaming will commence in grand celebration of the birth of Iris Vonbeaverhousen. God Bless Her!

I may crash at Roberto and Iris' establishment. But, I may high-tail it home afterward as I've been crashing at their establishment a bit too much each weekend this past month and their probably sick of washing the Zangz crust out of the sheets of the bed in the guest bedroom.

Sunday is reserved to paying taxes in hopes that my return comes quick enough to put into the nasty gas increase that G-Dubya and his Oil Barron croonies have planed for us as the summer hits. Cucking Funts!


On a bit of a sad note (yep, another) one of my favorite artists died this week. His name was Dave Stevens. He did a killer job on the comic that inspired the movie Rocketeer. He could draw up a Betty Page like nobody's bizznezz! He was also married, at one point, to one of my favorite scream queens, Brinke Stevens. Take a peek at some of his artwork HERE and bask in the glory of a real artist, rather than some turd who throws paint on a canvas and calls it art.


Anyway, I'm heading out of here and maybe getting a head start on the movies for this weekend. See's ya.

Zangz.

Day of Loss......

I really had to pop in here and chime in on a couple of unfortunate milestones that took place today.

First, the announcement that Brett Farve is retiring. I heard about it in the lunch room at work at about 1:30 pm . Honestly, I thought he was going to give it just one more season. Though, it's disappointing, I'm more worried about the fate of the Packers for the seasons to come. Farve had become a bit of a crutch to them. Hopefully we have some hidden talent in that team that will persevere in the future.

This being a blog of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror as well as video games and RPGs, I know it's odd that you'd find a sport related topic sprouting up. But, I have to tell you that I've been following the Packers for the last 15 years. I'm not a big sports fan at all, but the Packers were something I found myself rooting for every Sunday afternoon of the fall and winter season.

I don't think we should be upset with Farve for his decision. He's given us Packer fans over a decade of great and exciting games. He also took us to the Superbowl twice with one win out of the visits. Though, the very end of his last season ('07-'08) wouldn't be what most players might want to end their career on, I think that the we have to look at the whole picture of Farve's career with the Packers to really get a feel of completion and a saga coming to an end. Let's let him do some relaxing and enjoy his life and be thankful for his input into the history of the Packers!

You can read about Brett Farve's retirement HERE.


Then I come home and find an email from a friend telling me that Gary Gaygax died. If you have to ask who Gary Gygax is, then you need to educate yourself in the geek culture. Check this out HERE. I briefly met this man once at a big gaming convention. He was at a booth promoting the movie Dungeons & Dragons (yikes). He was very friendly to all who approached. This man's great legacy to the realms of Fantasy and imagination shall live on forever. Let's raise our Swords of Everlasting Flame (+30 damage, +70 damage to ice beasts) in the air and hail a great innovator of imagination! HAZAH!

Read the Yahoo News article on Gygax's passing right HERE.

Will Wheaton (Star Trek:TNG) does a nice job of lamenting Gary on his blog HERE.


FYI, the Billy Joel concert was pretty excellent. I forgot how Rock 'N' Roll he originally was! He even had a roadie come up and sing AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" as Billy backed him up on guitar. Joel also had a pretty awesome light show on this tour. The only problems were getting there and leaving there. Apparently the Bradley Center parking lots leave a lot to be desired when it comes to organization and brain power. But, again, Billy rocked the hiz-house.


I'm still waiting to hear the outcome of my relative's health issue. Please keep those good thoughts coming.

Until next time, stay verticle!

Zangz.