Just forget the words and sing along

Monday, January 31, 2005

Hooray! Here's a really cool DVD announcment that I've been waiting for for a really long time. On May 3, just in time for Episode III, MGM will release an all-new 2-disc super special edition of...

Spaceballs!

True, Mel Brooks's classic Star Wars spoof has been on DVD for some time, but dudes! ALL NEW 2-DISC SUPER SPECIAL EDITION! It'll boast a 100% digitally restored picture and an all-new 5.1 channel DTS soundtrack.

For bonus materials, there's a running commentary with Mel Brooks, bloopers, an all new documentary on making the film called Spaceballs: The Documentary, three featurettes (a retrospective on John Candy, a new interview with Mel Brooks, and the film's design process), behind-the-scenes photos, costume deisgns, storyboard gallery, and the requisite trailers and TV spots.

Sweet! I can pick this up while waiting to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Next Issue...Funny, she doesn't look Drewish

Sunday, January 30, 2005

And here it is! This week's column is A Fairy Tale:

" Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince named Goji. Now, Goji’s parents had been after him for some time to get out and do something with his life. After all, he couldn’t spend all his time lounging in the royal basement playing ye olde Xbox. They felt it was time to teach Goji a little responsibility. So, on Goji’s 30th birthday, he was tossed out of the castle and put in charge of the Principality of Butteros."

Read it all!

Next Issue...Flop of the Zop
Before I kick back and write this week's column, I'd like to take a moment to address the employees of Subway.

Now, I know it annoys you every time I ask "What kind of bread do you have?" especially because you have that nice display showing the kinds of bread you have sitting right in front of where I ask this. But there's a very simple explanation as to why I do this.

I used to eat that the Drayton Valley Subway a lot, and there was this stretch when they had some really bad employees. It seemed we'd always have this covnerstation:

Clerk>> And what kind of bread would you like?
Me>> Hmm...I'll try the Parmesian Oregano.
Clerk>> Sorry! We're all out of that kind.
Me>> OK, then I'll have the Italian.
Clerk>> Uhh...we're all out of that, too.
Me>> Well, what kind of bread do you have?
Clerk>> Whole wheat.
Me>> Fine. I'll have that.

So, simply to save time, I started opening all my orders with, "What kind of bread do you have?" I'm sorry it annoys you, but it's best we get this done with up front, right?

next Issue...Next Colulmn
So, I'm flying my flags in my apartment.

For those who've never had the pleasure of visiting in my dorm room back in the day, or in my apartment in Japan, I have a Canadian flag and a German flag. They are always thumbtacked to my wall, cuz they look cool. On more than one occasion in Japan, I toyed with taking them out of my apartment and hanging them in my classroom.

Anyway, my parents came to visit me today and drop off my stuff, and Mom was looking at my flags. She had to make the comment that my time in Japan isn't represented. And I'm forced to agree.

I'd really like to get a flag of Japan to add to my collection. In my final month, when I was packing up and starting to do some serious shopping for souvineers for the family, I was t-h-i-s close to buying one for myself. I don't know why I didn't. I think I thought that I'd go back for one...but never did.

But I can still get one. I'm sure there's a flag shop in Edmonton that's sure to have one. It's now officially on my "to do" list!

My parents also brought the batch of DVDs I bought online back during
Christmas. I've just finished watching Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. I
think I told you about this. This was 2003's Godzilla movie, and a direct
sequel to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Essentially, what happens is the
ruler's of Mothra's island come to Tokyo and say, "You fools! By using the
corpse of the original Godzilla to build Mechagodzilla, you have tampered
with the natural order of things! Return original Godzilla's body to the
sea, so he can rest in peace! Mothra will defend you from Godzilla." And
then, it launches into all these spiritual considerations about the creation
of Mechagodzilla and if they really did disturb a grave. It ends with
Mechagodzilla once again going out of control (ie original Godzilla's spirit
re-asserting itself), and killing himself.

Granted, this subject has been dealt with a dozen better ways in a dozen
other movies, but it's heavy shit for a Godzilla movie.

And I watched the other DVD, Star Wars: The Ewok Adventures. This disc has the two Ewok TV movies from the mid-80s. I watched the second one, called Ewoks: the Battle for Endor. You can really tell with these movies that George Lucas was gearing up for Willow. They're a lot more fantasy-based than sci-fi-based. Magical little rock, that forrest moon of Endor. It was filled with giants, fairies, wizards and witches.

Ahh...Willow. That's a movie I like, but not love. I'll buy it on DVD someday...as soon as I see it for $8 in a discount bin.

Next Issue...Caravan of Courage

Friday, January 28, 2005

Designing a word scramble contest here at work. In order to scramble the words, I found this nifty anagram gernerator. Cool things I discovered:

"Cosmic Realm" is an anagram of "Commercials"

"Cipher Moon" is an anagram of "Mircrophone"

"Canon Rune" is an anagram of "Announcer"

these are all going to be characters in my epic fantasy novel some day.

Next Issue...Finding Work
Discovering the joys of apartment living...was woken up by some mysterious thumps from next door. We're not talking gentle knocks, this is sledgehamer-against-the-wall kind of stuff.

Anyway, here's some cool news. Famous Players is slashing their ticket prices by $4. Yup, for an adult to go to the movies, it's no longer $14, it's $10. Kids and seniors are still $8.50, though. Essentially, what they've done is roll back the clock to 1998. In a statement from president Bobb Chase, Chase says that they're doing this because, even though profits are up, attendance is down. And really, it's attendance that drives this business. As the Globe & Mail points out, just dropping the price by a buck or two really wouldn't have made a difference.

There's only one thing that really sucks about this. Famous Players is ONLY DOING IT IN ONTARIO. Apparently, we in the rest of the country don't like lower ticket prices.

Next Issue...Thump Back

Thursday, January 27, 2005

yay! This made me happy. I got the weekly Wizard Universe e-mail, and they're now taking pre-orders on....

The Best of Twisted ToyFare Theatre: Vol. 5

Yes! I love TTT! This volume will finally contain the first-ever TTT story, "Supervillain Jeopardy." I've been dying to read it!

One thing I've noticed about these "Best of TTT" compilations is that the creators have started going back and "special editioning" some of the older ones to remove any DC comics characters. Apparently, DC didn't like how they're heroes were being portrayed, so they sued ToyFare to get DC characters out of TTT. Some replacements were easy to do. Batman and Robin were replaced by Captain America and Bucky, the Teen Titans were replaced with Power Pack, and so on.

But there are some storylines that were so funny and so DC centred, that they'd never be able to reprint them. Like "Spider-Man joins the Justice League," "Spider-Man subs for Batman," and my all time favourite, "The REAL Marvel vs. DC." I'll never forget...

Archery: Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye

Green Arrow>> A boxing glove arrow should do the trick! Uhh...it seems to be stuck in my quiver.
Hawkeye>> Try an "arrow" arrow.

(Hawkeye shoots Green Arrow with an arrow.)

The winner: Hawkeye!

That's probably why DC went with legal action. Near the end, most of these stories just turned into Spider-Man ripping on how much DC sucks.

But yeah. Vol. 5 hits comic book stores in April.

Let's see...what else is going on? Ooo! Tune into Degrassi: the Next Generation on Monday night. It's part 1 of Kevin Smith's 3-episode guest shot! I think I've mentioned this before. Kevin Smith, as it turns out, is a huge Degrassi fan, and ever since they started "the next generation," the makers were trying to get Smith involved somehow. They originally wanted Smith to write and/or direct a few episodes, but to do so would have thrown the show's Canadian government cash into jeopardy. So, they finally figured out that it was OK for him just to do a guest shot.

But yup. 3 episodes of Degrassi with Kevin Smith. The plot: Degrassi is closed for summer vacation, so Kevin Smith comes there to do some location filming for his latest film, Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh?. Along with Smith, there are also appearances by Jason Mewes, Smith's wife Jen Schwalbach, and Smith's Dogma star Alannis Morisette.

Part I is Monday!

And finally, here's an interesting lawsuit. A class action lawsuit has been filed against the MGM movie studio. The lawsuit has to do with DVDs. They maintain that MGM has NOT been releasing DVDs in widescreen. Instead, they just take the square picture off of TV, crop into a rectangle, and sell that as widescreen. So, mislabeling of producting, duping the customers, blah blah blah. Whatever.

next Issue...Better Things to Do

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

At long last, the Alberta Provincial Election is over! Let me explain....

The most disputed riding in Alberta was Edmonton Castle Downs. After a lengthy election battle, the winner on the eve of November 22 was Liberal candidate Chris Kibermanis - by 3 votes. With a count that a close, a recount was naturally called. And again, Kibermanis won by 3 votes. Not wanting to give up, the Tories called for a judicial recount; a recount supervised by judges and lawyers and such. And again, Kibermanis won by three votes. Now that the courts were involved, the Tories asked for an appeal.

And, today, the Alberta Court of Appeal finished their recount. Now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the winner is...

Tory incumbent Thomas Lukaszuk - by 6 votes.

Yup, those Tory lawyers were able to argue that 9 ballots that were previously invalidated shouldn't have been.

Unlike the Tories, the Liberals have opted to let this go and not appeal the appeal. the Liberals were urging the Tories to let it go over these past few months, but those Tories just wouldn't give up.

However, the Liberals are calling for election reform, saying that the Alberta Elections Act needs to more clearly define what constitutes a spoiled ballot.

Naturally, my anti-Klein bias is working against me and keeping me from seeing the big picture. Help me decide. Is this a case of making sure every ballot is counted, or just whining and complaining until you get your way?

Anyway, the other big story today...the Oscar nominations were announced! As I do every year, I've got my Oscar picks up at the main site, Chaos in a Box. Check them out, why don't you?

Next Issue...Down by One

Monday, January 24, 2005

As you know, I saw Elektra a few nights ago. And I was wondering what everyone else was wondering. "Hey! Wasn't Ben Affleck supposed to have a cameo as Matt Murdoch and/or Daredevil?" Well, yes, he was supposed to. And yes, he even filmed it. But, as I'm sure you also know, Affleck is now dating Jennifer Garner. Once this leaked out, the panicky executives said, "Oh no! If the public learns that Ben Affleck is in a movie with his girlfriend again, it'll be 'gigli 2'!" So, the studio ordered that Affleck's cameo be cut.

It'll be interesting to see if this cameo makes the DVD, seeing as to how Elektra is bombing anyway.

Oh, and here's another DVD release to mark on your calendar. On March 29, Sony Pictures will release Astro Boy: The Complete Series. This 5-disc set will contain all 50 episodes of the classic anime - 25 of which have never been officially released in North America. I'm still trying to figure out which Astro Boy series this will be. Is it the original, B&W one from the 1960s? Will it be the one from the 1980s that I was raised on? Or will it be the new one that debuted last year? Or, dare I even speak it, is this a gargantuan set compiling all 3 series? I'll find out on March 29!

Next Issue...Atlas Attacks!

Sunday, January 23, 2005

First and foremost, latest column. Angst Piece #327:

" I hate starting over. I hate new beginnings. I hate being in the intersection, staring down the road, and taking that first step. Granted, most people find that to be a wonderfully exciting experience. It’s a chance for reinvention; an opportunity to dig deep and find out more about yourself; the overwhelmingly endless outcomes. But not me. I think it sucks. I think it sucks mainly because I’ve been here so many times before. "

All you can read!

God, I'm bored, what with no TV and all. I'm darn close to buying one of these TV Games. You've seen them. They're the joystick with about a half-a-dozen games built in. They originally started with the retro gaming trend. You know, it was an Atari joystick with 10 classic Atari games built in. Well, now they're doing original games. I've been very close to buying the Spider-Man TV Game. 5 Spider-Man games, all in one joystick.

Of course, if you just want to buy it for me, I wouldn't object.

next Issue...Sleepy sleep

Friday, January 21, 2005

Wow. For a guy who has no TV, you think he'd be spending more time writing in his blog to help pass the time....

Anyway, I've got to pass along these rumours. As you know, one of the films I've been patiently waiting to get a 2-disc special edition DVD is Batman. This first one, directed by Tim Burton. Apparently, a 2-disc special edition has been finished for some time and just sitting around Warner Brothers waiting for the right time to be released. Well, rumours say the right time will be May, right before the new film, Batman Begins, comes out.

But what I want are those bonus features! Rumour says that we'll get:

- running commentary by Tim Burton and a "special guest." (It's always been rumoured that the special guest is star Michael Keaton.)

- a feature-length documentary about the making of the film

- all new featurettes featuring vintage footage

- trailers, TV spots

Aww, man, is that all? I want my music video for Batdance by Prince!

But wait, there's more. As part of the Batman Begins hype, we're also getting Batman Returns with an all new Tim Burton and "special guest" running commentary, and Batman Forever and Batman & Robin with all-new Joel Schumacher running commentaries!

And, Joel Schumacher is also putting together a 2.5 hour "director's cut" of Batman Forever.

But I just want the first movie.

Next Issue...Day Off!

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Yay! Telus connected my phone line! I'm back I'm back I'm back!

And I'm bored as hell.

See, since I'm only going to be here until the end of April, I decided that I didn't need cable and that I could make do with farmer vision. Well, I don't know if it's Cold Lake in general or just my apartment, but farmer vision seems to consist of nothing but the french channel. It's driving me insane.

So, I'll probably be online a lot. And read a lot.

Anyway, I've got some DVD news to pass along. Pixar has finally officially announced that The Incredibles will hit DVD on March 15. As has become the trend with Pixar films, the DVD will contain an all-new animated short film. The short, entitled Jack-Jack's Attack, is set in the middle of the film. For those who haven't seen The Incredibles, when the family goes off to do their superheroing, they leave their baby, Jack-Jack, at home with a babysitter. When the family gets home, they find the babysitter all in a panic because Jack-Jack finally got his superpowers and just freaked her out. So, Jack-Jack's Attack shows us what happened between Jack-Jack and the babysitter.

Also, you'll get an alternate opening, some cut scenes, some bloopers (aww, man, I thought Pixar had retired this lame gag), and running commentary with Brad Bird, Craig T. Nelson (Mr. Incredible) and Samuel L. Jackson (Frozone). It'll be out in both fullscreen and widescreen editions. March 15!

And here's a little bit of movie news, too. Disney is actually going through their incredibly stupid plan of doing Toy Story 3 without Pixar. Disney has just hired Jared Stern to write the script. Stern is a recent graduate of Disney's "How To Write Animated Films" program, and Disney liked his take on the characters. This is Stern's first real job.

Boy, that just inspires confidence in this film, doesn't it? I can see the conversation now....

"Check it out. This guy wrote a Toy Story 3 script for his final project."

"Cool! Let's give him the film!"

And while I'm at it, did I mention that Disney's going to be re-making Tron? Well, they are.

Next Issue...Arise!

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Well, this is it. Today, I move to Cold Lake and tomorrow, bright and early at 9 am, I start my practicum. I'm a little bit nervous. I mean, this is only the thrid time in my life I've moved out to start my life. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. I hear the words of Mr. Anderson as I obsessed over every new thing I did at work in Japan: "Don't be such a drama queen."

So, yeah. No column this week because I was too busy finding an apartment and stuff. Now, I'm going to be packing up the laptop. And I'll probably be without Internet access until Friday or so, because that's how long it takes Telus to operate.

Next Issue...Starting Over (Again)

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Hooray hooray hooray! I just got the e-mail from amazon.ca that my DVDs have shipped! In case you don't remember, here's what I ordered about two weeks ago:

Star Wars: The Ewok Adventures - This disc contains the 2 Ewok TV movies that George Lucas made in the mid-80s. The first one, entitled "The Ewok Adventure," (also known as "Caravan of Courage," because that was its title overseas, where it actually came out in theatres!) follows the adventures of a little boy and a little girl marooned on Endor. And, with the help of the Ewoks, they rescue their parents from a giant. The second one, "The Battle for Endor," followed the adventures of this family as they teamed-up with Wilford Brimley and the Ewoks to save the Ewoks from an evil swamp witch.

Godzilla: Tokyo SOS - Ha ho! The official sequel to my beloved Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla is undergoing extensive repairs, given the climactic bout in GxM. But, Godzilla rises again to level Tokyo! In order to hold off Godzilla until Mechagodzilla is repaired, a few brave wizards summon up Mothra! It's Mothra vs. Godzilla until Mechagodzilla can join the fray! WOO! Giant monster 3-way!

Speaking of DVDs, here's a cool bit of DVD news. On March 22, Sony Home Entertainment will release Batman & Robin: The Complete 1949 Seriel Collection. This 2-disc set will contain all 15 chapters of the 1949 Batman movie seriel. This is actually the second Batman seriel, the first one having come out in 1943.

For those who don't have a clue about movie history.... Movie seriels were these action-packed films broken up into about 15 chapters or so. Each chapter was about 15 minutes long, making it a nice little short film. Way back in the 1930s and 40s, one chapter would run before the main feature. Each chapter would always end on a cliffhanger. To know what happened to the hero, you had to come back to the theatre next week to watch the next chapter! Pretty cool, eh? Lots of comic book characters got their first appearance on the big screen in seriels. Batman, Superman, Shazam!, and I'm pretty sure Captain America got one. Seriels kind of died away in the 1950s, when television provided the same thing, for free.

Oh, and one last interesting trivia bit. This 1949 Batman seriel was written by none other than Batman's creator, Bob Kane.

Next Issue...Ewok Attack!

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Don't bother reading this week's column. I've Got Nothing:

As with far too many of my columns, I find myself just sitting here, waiting for a brilliant idea to strike so I’ll have something interesting and compelling to write. That or I’m just procrastinating. I’ll go with that second one. I mean, I really don’t have to read The Best of Twisted ToyFare Theatre again. But it’s just so funny! I’ve got all four volumes, and they still haven’t re-printed some of my favourites. I hope that ToyFare can iron out something with DC Comics so they can reprint some of the Twisted ToyFare Theatres that had DC characters. Green Arrow had some great moments, and “Spidey joins the JLA” is still one of the best. That’s probably the one that led DC to launch their lawsuit, too. It’s really nothing but Spider-Man going on and on about how crappy DC superheroes are. But yeah. That’s why there are no DC characters in Twisted ToyFare Theatre anymore. DC Comics didn’t like how their characters were being portrayed, so they filed a cease-and-desist order.

Click here to read it all!

Having a little fun right now. As I'm sure I've rambled about in the past, the next generation of DVD players are in development. The big problem is we're going to have two rival formats. In this corner, we've got HD-DVD, developed by Toshiba. In the other corner, there's Blu-Ray, developed by Sony. The movie studios and major DVD distributors are starting to take sides, and it looks like we're going to have a format war the likes of which haven't been seen since VHS vs. Beta. And, it looks like the tie-breaker will be...the porn industry.

This is an article over at Yahoo! According to the article, it's the porn industry that's always driven the latest home entertainment technology. It was porn enthusiasts who first embraced VCRs, DVDs, and high speed Internet. So, whichever next generation DVD format the porn industry decides upon, that one just may be the dominant format.

Here's the whole article!

Actually, this article inspired me in the wrong ways, and I went window-shopping online for porn DVDs. Did you know that some porn movies actually get 2-disc special editions? Mind-boggling.

Next Issue...Going Blind

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Yay! I finally got to catch an episode of Birds of Prey. We're getting a bunch of free cable channels this month, and one of them is the all action channel. They show Birds of Prey in re-runs.

For those who blinked and missed it...Birds of Prey was the first attempt by the WB Network to duplicate the success of Smallville. Based on one of the lesser Batman comics, Birds of Prey is about Oracle, the Huntress, and the Black Canary teaming up to keep Gotham City safe. In the show, their nemesis was the villanous head psychiatrist of Arkham Asylum, Dr. Harleen Quinzell; the once and future Harley Quinn.

Anyway, based on the one episode, I could see why it died a quick death. Really offered nothing new in the superhero genre, or the kinda clever re-interpretation that we get with Smallville. Just hot chicks in tight outfits fighting crime, and filmed on a really low budget in Vancouver.

But still...hot chicks in tight outfits.

Next Issue...The Killing Joke

Friday, January 07, 2005

Wow. Today was the first time in my life that the neighbours called up to complain about me.

See, here's the story. I gave my Dad a laser level for Christmas, and I was playing with it tonight. I was shining it out the window, and I noticed that it was shining on the neighour's house. I went, "Woah, cool!" and showed that to my parents. After playing with the laser and shining it on my neighbour's house some more, I turned it off.

About 5 minutes later, the phone rang. Mom picked up the cordless phone and looked at the call display. "Let me guess," I jokingly said. "It's the neighbours, calling to complain about the laser." Mom's face went white. "Yes it is," she said. So, Mom took the phone call, from my very elderly, cranky neighbour as he complained about me shining this red light in his window.

So, I felt bad. And I wouldn't have made such a big deal about being able to shine the laser on the neighbour's house if it weren't for one fact:

This neighbour lives two blocks away. I was shining the laser two blocks down the street.

Needless to say, I'll only use the laser for one purpose from now on: pestering the cat.

Anyway, we're getting a bunch of free cable channels this month, including Lone Star - the all-Westerns channel. So, I've been re-aquainting myself with The Lone Ranger. You've got to love the Lone Ranger. It's the best of comics and the best of cowboys, all rolled into one.

Next Issue...No More Lasers

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Today's movie news:

Kate Bosworth is Lois Lane.

Bosworth is the young star of such teen fare as Blue Crush, The Rules of Attraction, and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! She joins the unknown Brandon Routh who's playing Clark Kent/Superman. Rumours persist that Kevin Spacey will be Lex Luthor.

Bryan Singer directs. Summer 2006 is the hoped-for release date.

Next Issue...The Caller
Had to do a little more research on Pokemon Housou, as I'm wondering why everyone's geeking out over this clip show. Turns out, it's a lot more.

See, occasionally, instead of a clip show, they drop in an exclusive new episode that highlights what one of the more popular supporting characters is up to. We occasionally go back to Professor Oak to see he and Tracey's latest research; we catch up with Ash's rival Gary to see what he's up to; and we pop in on Misty to see her latest adventure. No wonder I dismissed Pokemon Housou as just a clip show. I only managed to catch one of these original episodes.

Anyway, they've done enough of these original episodes now to fill a season of TV here in North America. So, looks like that's what they'll be importing under the name Pokemon Chronicles.

Now that's something I could get into.

Next Issue...Obsessed No More

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

So, tonight on the CBC, they re-ran their Talking to Americans special. Now, I do love it, as I loved the original segment, but seriously. This special is three years old now. Surely, they have enough material in the archives to do a volume 2.

Actually, it stirred up some old memories of Talking to Americans. I remember, after the whole "Jean Poutine" incident, Rick Mercer was actually interviewed on the American news show Nightline. On the show, Mercer said that he'd be retiring the bit, as he was now kind of letting the cat out of the bag.

But what I really loved was what I read in the paper about a month after this interview. One of those American morning shows wanted to get back at us, so they were going to start doing "Talking to Canadians." They went on up to Halifax to film the first ever "Talking to Canadians," but they had to give up by lunchtime. Far too many people were going, "Yeah, right!" and laughing at this American TV crew. They got absolutly no usable material.

And I'm all obsessed with Pokemon right now. Turns out, this fall, not only will Pokemon be starting its 8th season, we'll be getting the first official spin-off. It's called Pokemon Chronicles, and no one is quite sure what it's about yet. Some say that it'll be all about Misty. (She left the show at the start of season 6, you see.) Others say that it'll finally be an import of Pokemon Housou. I hope it's not that. I watched Pokemon Housou when I was in Japan. All it is really is a clip show where they highlight past episodes.

Oh, and there's going to be an 8th movie, too! Coming out on July 15, Pokemon: Mew and the Riders of the Waves features the long-awaited return of Mew.

And Pokemon: Emerald Edition comes out in April. Emerald Edition is the "special edition" of Ruby/Sapphire, much like Crystal to Gold/Silver and Yellow to Red/Blue.

And that's all.

next Issue...Getting a life

Sunday, January 02, 2005

First and foremost, latest column's up! I have So Much Left To Do:

"And another semester has come to an end! What a trip it was! Assuming you were actually interested in the trip. Let’s face it, ever since a few articles about Christians, women, and asthma-sufferers, this paper has gotten somewhat stale. Everyone in the Nugget office – well, no one, really, as editor-in-chief David Fester has been even more invisible than Colin Perillo – has been walking on eggshells, wondering what Big Brother NAITSA will approve for publication. The Nugget has become a pale, Disney-fied version of itself; our school’s very own equivalent of American overreaction to Janet Jackson showing a little nip."

Click Here to read it all

And, I'd like to take a moment to rave about the websites I've been frequenting lately....

Rebel Scum.com - What Yo Joe! is to to G.I. Joe, Rebel Scum is to Star Wars action figures. A complete archive of just about every figure ever made from that galaxy far, far away. They've got a pretty complete list of Star Wars comics, too.

The Official Hinterland Who's Who Website - In case there are Americans reading this, Hinterland Who's Who is this classic series of PSAs put out by the Canadian Wildlife Service, highlighting a certain Canadian animal. They were brought back about a year ago, with a new environmentalist angle. Now, they focus on endangered species, and what you can do to help save that animal. And, there's a whole website to go with it. What I thought was cool about the website was you can download all the classic Hinterland Who's Who PSAs, going all the way back to 1960!

The Official Pokemon Website - Yeah, I've been playing around here, mainly because they've finally put up a fully interactive pokedex. You can look up every pokemon from every game now. Forget the original 151 that started out. There are now 386. And they're all catalgoued for your convenience.

Next Issue...Two-Badd Strikes!

Saturday, January 01, 2005

It is the year 2005. Watch out, Cybertron! Unicron's a comin'!

I've already celebrated by scratching an itch I've had for a while. I watched Titanic. God, remember how crazy-popular that film was when it came out? I remember, I had just started following movie news online, and everyone was predicting that it would cause this huge trend of epic romances set against epic tragedies. But so far, we've only had one: the kinda lame Pearl Harbor. All I can say is thank God we were spared Jan de Bont's Hindenburg! (Seriously. That was a very strong rumour 7 years ago.)

Actually, it got me thinking. You see, I don't own Titanic on DVD. I watched it on video. When I first got my DVD player 4 years ago, I swore that I'd never buy a movie that I already had on video, unless a really sweet 2-disc special edition came along. So, I've just got to put down this list now.
Movies I have on video, and bought again on DVD

The Star Wars Trilogy
Star Wars: Episode I
The Iron Giant
UHF
The Transformers: The Movie
Star Treks 1 - 7
Independence Day
Jurassic Park
X-Men
Back to the Future (although, to be fair, I only own the first one on video. The DVD I got was the box set of the whole trilogy.)

And for completion....
Movies I have on video, and am still waiting for a good DVD special edition

Titanic
Apollo 13
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
Batman (The first Tim Burton one)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Matrix (yeah, I know it's out now)
The Indiana Jones Trilogy (ditto)
Armageddon (it does exist, but I've never seen it for less than $80)

I think that's the whole list

Next Issue...More DVDs!!