#April2011
Anonymous Threatens Sony, Hours Later PSN ‘Down For Repairs.’
Oh shit! Anonymous is totally cheesed off with Sony for suing George ‘GeoHot’ Hotz for releasing the PS3 root key into the world. Today they threatened to slap the taste out of Sony’s Collective Mouf in one of their typically creepy videos. A couple of hours later, PlayStation Network went down for ‘repairs.’
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Warren Ellis To Take On ‘Secret Avengers’ With Jamie McKelvie.
Omega Level favorite Warren Ellis is taking on six issues of ‘Secret Avengers’ starting With August’s #16, and I’m fucking stoked. Here’s Ellis explaining it himself.
Insidious? More Like In-Silliness!
From director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell (the duo behind the Saw franchise) comes their latest horror outing, Insidious. While I’m not a fan of Saw, I LOVED Wan’s last film – 2007’s brutal Death Sentence. And yeah, Dead Silence is a pretty damn fun piece of camp. With Insidious, Wan and Whannell present a ghoulish haunted house flick that relies heavily on the jump-out-and-scare-you technique. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. And Wan is really really good at making doors creak and floors squeak. The first two-thirds of the film are solid with plenty of tension, ominous atmosphere, and some genuine scares. I admit it – I jumped a few times.
In the final chapter the film, sadly, the film treads heavily into some goofy shit. The demons/ghosts/whatever go from being agents of terror to just annoying set pieces that don’t respect personal space. It sucks because honestly the first two-thirds are great. A lot of reviewers are comparing it to Poltergeist – especially Insidious‘ otherworldly realm known as The Further. Remember in Poltergeist when that the mom goes into the Other Side to bring back Carol Anne (waaalk into the liiight)? Insidious has the same deal, only the young Dalton’s father, Josh, travels into The Further and we unfortunately go with him. Shit gets real hammy from then on.
Source Code Gets Déjà Vu As It Quantum Leaps on Groundhog’s Day
There’s an early episode of Quantum Leap, it might even be the pilot, where Sam Beckett leaps into the past and, despite being warned not to by Al, calls his dad. In Source Code, director Duncan Jones delivers an obvious nod to this heavy Leap moment – even having Scott Bakula voice the dad of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Colter character. That great little moment in the film is just one of the reasons to give up an hour and half of your life and go see Source Code – despite it’s flawed final minutes.
Jones’ sophomore scifi effort (his first being 2009’s bitchin’ Moon) also features a male protagonist who should stop trusting “the man.” Colter is an army helicopter pilot who awakens to find himself on the Chicago commuter rail, sitting across from a woman he’s never met who keeps calling him Steve. Manic and confused, Colter tries to make of sense of his Twilight Zone plight…and that’s when the train blows up.
VIDEO | Four Minutes of Green Lantern From Wondercon.
Apparently the reaction at Wondercon to ten mintues of Green Lantern footage was so hot that WB decided to drop some of it on our collective asses. They’ve released four minutes of the footage, and you can check it out after the jump.
Earth Eats The Sun In The Solar Eclipse.
Enlarge. | Via.
Oh shit! The motherfucking Erf is hungrrrrrrrry. Check it out as it takes a bite of the Sun. Munchin’ on plasma gets the heart beating like you wouldn’t believe. In all honesty, this is a picture snagged by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, and the reasons for it appearing the way it does is beyond me.
But not Phil Plait.
WEEKEND OPEN BAR: Nick Carra-Gay?
[WEEKEND OPEN BAR: The one-stop ramble-about-anything weekend post at OL. Comment on the topic at hand. Tell us how drunk you are. Describe a comic you bought. This is your chance to bring the party.]
When it comes to the pantheon of classic American literature, it’s hard to argue against the inclusion of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s seminal novel is an uncompromising examination of class divisions, the promise of the American dream, constructed identity, and the power of love. Who among us can’t sympathize with Gatsby’s yearning, his desire to become something greater than what he is? Is there anyone who hasn’t at least contemplated throwing caution to the wind, casting off the shackles clamped on at birth, and chasing the unattainable?
I fucking hope not.
Every time that I read The Great Gatsby, I feel as though I have a firm grasp on the title character — poor kid dreams of a life beyond his means, seizes the rare opportunity to move beyond his station, falls in love with a girl beyond his means, stops at nothing to fine tune a new persona, gets tangled up in crime, can’t acknowledge that his aspiration has been reduced to mere nostalgia, and is murdered for his inability to forfeit impossible ambitions. And while I’m absolutely enthralled by the transformative journey of James Gatz, I can’t say that he is the character most capable of piquing my interest.
It is Nick Carraway that I see as the most fascinating figure. And maybe the most enigmatic.
As the narrator, Carraway is responsible for taking us through The Great Gatsby’s alternately glamorous and sordid adventures. Between his actions and exposition, it would at first seem as though Carraway can be trusted as an objective, reliable narrator. In fact, the novel opens with a declaration of just this sort:
“In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” (5)
Right from the get-go the reader is led to believe that Nick will be presenting his story without bias, prejudice, or exaggeration. Which is sweet, I suppose, as these misdirections can lead one astray when traveling on the path of Truth. When a story is recounted, isn’t it of the utmost importance that all the facts and figures be in order, quotes presented verbatim, images recreated without blemish?
So if we want to, it’s easy to let Nick Carraway mollify our skepticisms — this is exactly what I did when I first read the book. After all, it’s both comforting and easy to take words at face value, never rousing suspicions that there may be an element of deception abound. But when one keeps a keen eye turned to the page, it’s a bit more difficult to invest complete faith in the absolute veracity of the narrator’s yarn.
For me, a turning point comes at the end of Chapter III. While recounting how he has been sending weekly love letters to a girl back home, Nick also expresses his physical attraction to Jordan Baker. He then states,
“Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” (63)
As I read that line for the first time, I saw all sorts of flags go up. My knee-jerk reaction, off-the-cuff thought was, “What type of person feels compelled to constantly assert their honesty?” The answer I settled on?
A liar.
Face of a Franchise: James Bond
[face of a franchise presents two individuals that’ve fulfilled the same role. your task — choose the better of the two and defend your choice in the rancor pit that is the comments section]
James Bond is the most popular fictional secret agent of all time. And why shouldn’t he be? After all, the dude has pretty much set the archetypal standard for the Suave Spy character. He’s that perfect balance of gorgeous yet gritty, cutthroat yet clever. He’s a man capable of accomplishing any mission, whether it’s securing nuclear secrets or banging a smokin’ babe.
Of course, with nearly fifty years worth of movies under his belt, James Bond has been portrayed by a few different folks. In my experience, any Best Bond Debate usually comes down to two choices: whoever is currently portraying the agent and the precedent-setting Sean Connery. But truthfully, I think that this discussion can, and should, extend beyond Daniel Craig and Forrester.
For most of the 1970s and 1980s, Roger Moore helmed the James Bond franchise. Moore’s 007 is noted for being a bit campier and more lustfully-minded than other portrayals. Movies like Octopussy give us a Bond with gadgets that are kooky and dames that are sexy. Audiences ate up this depiction, and by the end of his tenure Moore would be known as the actor with the most Bond-years.
On the other hand, Pierce Brosnan reinvigorated the stagnant franchise with 1995’s Goldeneye. Some might argue that Brosnan injected new life into James Bond, giving the character a sensibility and usefulness in a post-Cold War world. The Brosnan-Bond could also be credited as having tempered the character, bringing him back to the idea of a man with a license to kill. Moreover, Brosnan’s involvement in the series also made possible the greatest first-person-shooter of all time.
So who’s the better Bond? Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan?
STAY AMPLIFIED.
It’s fucking okay to get pumped up. To smile. If the Brothers Omega and P. Coop are to be known for anything, it’s hopefully our bridled hammer-fist enthusiasm for existence. One of the things I try to carry through by example! is a genuine excitement on the website.
Sure we piss and shit and sometimes smear the old fecal blast across the nose of someone who has annoyed us. Here’s looking at you, Zack Snyder! Yet, by and large, I’d say we’re the smiling goofball fuck-faces of the internet. Three working dudes who whittle away some time on the internets desirous of spinning the yarns de bullshit with people who share likeminded interests.
