Monthly Archives: November 2010

Even more music to make you feel epic – Beetlejuice

BeetlejuiceWell, this music might make you feel more manic than epic but it’s still some awesome music.

There are some composers whose work is extremely recognizable. For me, Danny Elfman is the one that I can pick out usually within a few notes. While I’d heard his stuff with Oingo Boingo growing up I don’t think I sat up and paid real attention to his music until I watched Beetlejuice. I remember being young and knowing that just the opening chords of the main title, complete with the creepy sounds of “Daylight come and me wan’ go home…” scared me even then but I loved the music.

“All Jedi had was a bunch of muppets.” – We’ll miss you Irvin Kershner

I got the news last night about Leslie Nielsen and while my mom wasn’t surprised I was floored. I’d had no idea he’d been ill for awhile…only that I hadn’t seen him in anything for a bit.

Then this morning I get smacked with the news that Irvin Kershner, director of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, passed away as well.

For me, though I saw Mr. Nielsen in many things (one of my favorites might have been his appearance in the show “Due South”) it’s Irvin Kershner’s death that hits me hard. As you all know, I love Star Wars with a passion and I adore Empire out of all of them for many reasons (it was the introduction of Boba Fett after all). My love of Empire might date back to when it first came out in theaters in 1980. Though I wasn’t quite in this world yet my mother did go to see it while in the last stages of pregnancy with me. She and I both blame that one movie viewing for my Star Wars obsession and I don’t mind in the least.

Irvin Kershner

Empire was memorable to me for its darker tone, music, intense character development and of course Boba Fett. I have always agreed with Dante from “Clerks” that Empire was better than Jedi. Don’t get me wrong, Jedi was also amazing and wonderful (and I much prefer Luke in Jedi) but there was something about the darkness of Empire that called me to when I was younger and still reaches out to me today as a 30-year-old geek girl. I have to thank Irvin Kershner for giving me that. While George Lucas had the vision, it was Kershner who brought it together with the cast and crew to make something so incredibly memorable.

As a bonus, Kershner also happened to direct a couple episodes of one of my “guilty pleasure” television shows, SeaQuest DSV. Don’t worry, they weren’t from the unmentionable season 3. Instead it was the pilot episode that he had a hand in and it’s obvious in the quality.

I’m always saddened by the loss of actors, musicians, composers and directors that I’ve grown up watching or enjoying their works. Today I find that I’m even more melancholy than usual. I think I’ll have to break out my copy of Empire and then Dracula Dead and Loving It (just for you, Leslie) and have a drink or two while knowing that though these men may be gone, their legacy will remain with us.

(this post brought to you by Elf who can, on occasion, wax poetic)

Must Watch TV – Misfits

This is one of my shows of the year without doubt.  For anyone unfamiliar with the show it was described as Heroes (before it got crap) meets Skins, season one aired in the UK last year and was just 6 episodes, season two is on air at the moment and is apparently set for 7 episodes in total.  The story is basically a group of youths on community service get caught up in a weird electrical storm.  After the storm they begin to realise they have developed strange and unique powers.  We follow the group as they encounter others who have been affected in different ways and we see them coming together as a group as they learn more about each other.  The first season uses a lot of flashbacks to life before community service for each of them; this gives you a really deep insight into each of the main characters.

Given this is a British Channel 4 TV series you can fully expect foul language, fairly graphic sex scenes, violence, drug use and borderline inappropriate humour.  The only one of these I have an issue with is glamorising drug use (in this case Ecstasy) but it is not a major part of the show thankfully, it just kind of happens in passing, unlike other C4 shows like Skins where all they do is get drunk, shag and insert any illegal substance they can find into their bodies.

As this is a recommendation I won’t spoil anything by telling you who has what power, I will however detail the cast of main characters below.

Delightful Downloadable Deals

Like many other gamers and geek aficionados I’ve had the “wait & see” mentality concerning buying DLC, games, and movies this year. It seems as though everything gets replaced, sequalized, or clearance so quickly there is no need or advantage to purchase early (unless you have a special interest in something, like Mass Effect lol). Well due to Thanksgiving weekend once again Microsoft and Sony are slashing the pricing on a lot of there digital content which will all be offered good through November 29th.

Five reasons for NerdRage!!

With so much going on with everything right now theres a lot of good stuff coming out, at the same time there is a lot of crap things happening in the world of geek.  I have a few lists on the go at the moment but this seemed to be the easiest so here goes.

Number 5:

World of Warcraft – Cataclysm

This falls under both good and bad, if you have played the game consistently at each level cap since the start of WoW you will have really seen the game evolve.  With so much controversy surrounding Wrath of the Lich King the WoW universe has never been so split,  How will Cata come across to the masses?  Will it be as charitable to the annoying 12 years olds as WOTLK was?  Will it be as much of a grind as Vanilla?  Personally I am hoping for it to be more like The Burning Crusade as that was the most enjoyable time in game for me where noobs were noobs, no one pugged end game content and there was a clear structure at max level.

Geek Love of the Day from TeeFury.com!

I have to admit, I love my friends that introduced me to the wonders of TeeFury.com. They offer a deal on a t-shirt design (that’s almost always geek related) for 24 hours. The deal is $9 plus shipping.

How can you beat that?

The only problem I have is remembering to check the site each morning.

I’m already the proud owner of a really cute Harry Potter Quidditch t-shirt and today I ordered another one. When you see the design it’s quite possible you won’t be able to resist it either:

TeeFury

Yep. Isn’t that great?!

The artist combined my eternal love for the Muppets with Battlestar Galactica and put it on a t-shirt. I’m in geek heaven and just biting my nails until that puppy gets delivered!

Keep in mind, the deal ends at 11:59pm Eastern time tonight (the 24th) so if you want to catch it, run over right now!

(Now fess up…how many of you just ordered one?)

Episode 24-Take 2

We are back and sorry that we didn’t have a show last week. Due to technical difficulties our recording was unusable. We bring you the topics from that episode with some newer ones in this episode. We touch on Gaming, Movies, Tech, and more in Episode 24. I am posting our show note topics with links to other sources for more on that particular subject that we discussed. If you would like to leave feedback you can leave a comment below, send us an email at TheGeeksFTW@gmail.com , follow us on twitter at TheGeeksFTW , or leave an iTunes review and be entered for our contest.

Show note related Links

Harry Potter-No link. Look below this article on our homepage for a great article about Thoughts before Harry Potter.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Whedonless reboot

Whedon’s response to the reboot(Not fully mentioned in show but good read for fans)

“First sign of madness, talking to your own head” – Thoughts Before Harry Potter

Harry Potter
I haven’t seen the new Harry Potter movie yet.

*ducks any flying objects thrown her way*

Don’t worry I do intend to see it. I’m even taking my mom who is also a HP fan. I am, however, extremely nervous about how well the film is done.

You see, I’ve watched the HP films with growing dislike. I’m a huge fan of the books. I’ve attended midnight release parties and waited in lines for ages. I’ve stayed up all night reading the just released book from cover to cover. I’ve devoured fanfictions set in the fandom and even written a few myself. Heck, I even entered (and won) a costume contest dressed up as Ginny Weasley in her seventh year at the last book release party.

And yet I can’t bring myself to like the movies. I’m currently rewatching them in hopes that I’ll be able to look past the bad taste that they put in my mouth and be able to enjoy the newest one. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.

For me, a self-proclaimed snob in regards to many fandoms, the movies simply leave out and change too much from the original source material. Yes, I realize you’re trying to cram larger and larger novels into a single movie not over 2 hours long but there are some things that are being left out that end up kinda crucial to the plot later on. Take the third book and movie “Prisoner of Azkaban” for example. In the book they reveal not only the authors of the Marauder’s Map (Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs) but also explain who those nicknames belong to. In the movie you see the author’s names on the map but you never hear who they were. It’s important to realize why each one of the “Marauders” had their particular name. In later movies, Pettigrew is referred to as Wormtail but there was never an explanation in the films about that name. Maybe they expect you to have read the novels. Maybe they expect you to just not remember the map authors or not question at all.

Maybe they just left out the wrong things in the movies.

As the movies continued I was more and more disappointed with the scenes they chose to leave out and the things they changed around. The fourth movie was especially disappointing with the complete lack of Snape’s scenes as he was rather important in the book. Now we’re to the final movie which has been split into two parts. The very fact that they split it into two full length movies gives me hope for it. Of course, I also had hope for the Star Wars prequels and we saw how those turned out.

I have friends that love both for being what they are. I sometimes wish I could share their views but I’m enough of a snob to be unable to separate the two. Instead I often describe the movies as being made by someone who just maybe glanced at the dustjacket of a Harry Potter book in the store.

So I’ll go see the new movie this weekend and that will determine if I’ll decide to see the final part in theaters next year or if I’ll wait for the DVD. (And I’ve done it. I didn’t see Revenge of the Sith until about a year ago.)

For those of you that might have seen it what were your thoughts on it? Did it do the final book justice? Are you looking forward to the final installment next year?

The End: The Incredible Hulk

When I first stumbled upon the comic series The End I was given a copy of The Punisher’s version. This turn into an obsessive and curious intent  to know how some of my favorite marvel characters meet their end. One unlikely hero (in my personal taste) stood out amongst the rest was that Incredible Hulk.

Free to Play Game Review – Elements The Game

Overview

I have been playing this game for the last few months and I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever enjoyed Magic The Gathering, Yu Gi Oh or other popular CCG’s.  The game can be found at www.elementsthegame.com

Elements is an ENTIRELY free to play browser based Collectable Card Game.  When I say free to play I actually mean free to play, not free to sign up for and join but to get all the good stuff you need to use an item mall to pay for the best stuff to pwn teh noobzors.  In Elements everyone starts the same, the only way to expand your collection or upgrade your cards is to play the game and win matches.  When you win a match you will get currency that can be used to buy more cards or upgrade existing ones, as well as currency you will also get to roll a slot machine style mini game which has your opponents deck in it.  If you match 3 copies of a card in a row you win a copy of that card.  When you lose or quit a match you lose a small amount of currency.  You can play against the computer (AI), other players (PvP) and take part in regular community run leagues, tournaments and competitions at all levels from noob to pro.

Starting Out

There are 12 Elements to choose from for your starter deck.  You will be provided with an overview of each Element before you make your decision during an excellent tutorial which will guide you through the early stages of the game.  There is also a lot of fantastic starter guides on the forums which I will cover later on to help you on your way.  You will start off using a mono colour starter deck but you can use multiple colours and customise your deck using cards from all 12 Elements if you wish as you collect them.  The Elements and a brief description are detailed below: