OOOOOOOOOOOH.

fantasticar
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Wow. They did a damn good job on the Fantasti-car. DAMN good. Let's hope they spent the same amount of time on the design for Galactus.

No iPod for You! One Year!

Kim Jong Pod
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Looks like the iPod Nazi has struck in North Korea. (it is this small thing that makes me hope that he really is crazy-in-love with Hollywood, so maybe he'll nuke another city when he does eventually nuke us.)

Venom edited out!

Venom shots
Originally uploaded by macslost.

After the Spidey 3 trailer came out, there was an unfished one with animatics and an ending that was cut running online for about 2 minutes. The last 2 seconds were this!!

Decepti-snack

RunTyrese
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Decepticons like their meat dark and pretty! Run Tyrese, run!!!!

Alex Ross is Awesome

GROVERarlitho
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Didn't really need to go into it on this one. He just is.

Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction of the Innocent
Originally uploaded by macslost.

An super-awesome treat before Thanksgiving. Explore the unintentional (yeah right) naughtiness of classic comic book covers and panels. This one is probably my favorite, though there's some great Archie ones, too.

UGH! How much longer til Christmas?!

panslabyrinthint1.jpg
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Enter the Labyrinth.

Remake this, remake that

Joshua John Miller.jpg
Originally uploaded by macslost.

In the wake of recent remake announcements, including The Thing, (which I think is blasphemy and I would be much more upset about that except it's being written by the guy that did the new Battlestar Galactica) there's talk about remaking a favorite of mine, the little-seen Near Dark. It's a GREAT take on the vampire-nomad theme and stars Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton as dirty vampires and Adrian Pasdar (of Heroes) as the, well, hero. Also it starts creepy-kid Joshua John Miller.

What ever happened to him, I wonder...

Pixar! ILM!

DSC02980.JPG
Originally uploaded by macslost.

There are some sucky parts of my job. Stupid thinks like going to Hawaii for LOST or Las Vegas for SCRUBS and such. Well a few weeks ago I HAD to go to the Pixar Studios to promote CARS. On Halloween. Now, Pixar is a damn cool place anyway and people there LOVE their jobs, so getting to be there when they actually have a costume contest on Halloween was pretty dope. There were a lot of great costumes, but my three faves were the Tetris group...



...12 people that all shaved their heads and wore glasses, dressing and acting like a coworker (he didn't know ahead of time)...



...and Peter Pan's shadow, which was pretty ingenious.

After suffering through a miserable day at Pixar, I HAD to go to ILM, where we learned all about the FX for Pirates of the Caribbean 2. First off, I'll tell you this: ILM has the most kick-ass digital theater I have ever seen. MIND blowing. And their offices kick ass because they have all the random props and models from some of the hundreds of flicks they've made. My fave: The full-size bad guy in his mini-shuttle from Inner Space. Awesome.

The coolest tidbit was this:



Davy Jones ('played' by Bill Nighy) was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CGI. NOTHING was real. Not the clothes, not the hat, makeup, not even his EYES. And I would swear a million times over that those were Bill's real eyes. Incredible stuff. Plus, they learned how to shoot without a green screen and still do backgrounds. Awesome.

Oh, right, like I said. My job blows.

You gotta have goals.

pooltable.gif
Originally uploaded by macslost.

We 'finished' the house last year. There are still some tidbits to be done like paint touch-ups and curtains and such, but the house is done. The house. Not the garage.

The garage is my next project. It will be home to that which I have coveted for decades. A pool table. I WILL have it.

In fact, for my birthday, Dinah got me a set of balls...hm. Main elements of pool? Balls, sticks and racks. Huh.

Anyway, I got some racks and some balls (and a custom cue ball with a scorpion on it!) and gonna get some sticks. Needless to say it'll be a fun weekend.

Next step: painting with Killz again. Ugh. I don't look forward to it and I've been procrastinating but I want that damn table. BADLY.

And then these lame online games will be no more.

Also, when I'm playing with my stick and balls, I'll leave a pile of cash on the edge of the table to make it more interesting. Wait, you're not a cop are you? You know you have to tell me if you are.

Dead?

Jack Palance
Originally uploaded by macslost.

I doubt it. He's gonna be cranky as hell when he wakes up in a box.

Better. Faster. Stronger.

Better. Faster. Stronger.
Originally uploaded by macslost.

The time is upon us. Once they can make them able to crush metal in one hand, I'm opting for elective surgery.

Next I expect legs that can run 60 mph. I might actually start running then.

The best thing is that for two legs, and arm and an eye, it might only cost $240,000!!!

Legion of Super-geekoes.

Time to nerd out for a few seconds. Or pages.


Robert Downey Jr. cast as Iron Man! This totally works on the genius/womanizing/substance abuse level. You can't get better casting than this. And THANK YOU John Favreau for not casting some kid. I don't need to see that douchebag from John Tucker Must Die starring in an Iron Man movie. Not that he was, I'm just saying. And! And! And! Terence Howard has been cast as Rhodey! Aw, DAMN, this is gonna be good.


CHECK IT! Spidey 3 trailer's been updated! No sign of Venom yet, so the Topher teaser pic will still have to do.


And as an added bonus? Looks like Bruce Campbell is gonna be playing Mysterio in the 'Spider-Man' movie within the movie! Awesome.


And since we're on the subject (and use of the toy medium) it looks like Moon Knight is getting a pilot for next season. He's like reverse-colored Batman. Who gets some karate powers from Egyptian gods or something. Throws little moon-throwing stars and crap. Oh, come on, it's not like it's lamer than little batarangs. Only he doesn't call them moonarangs.


And the new Ghost Rider trailer has premiered! Looks pretty damn sweet, too. At least visually. Could be as lame if not lamer than Daredevil, but the casting's pretty sweet.


"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?" It's 300! You wanna see some wicked-ass comic-book trailer action? Check THIS out. It'll blow your MIIIIND. Like Sin City meets Gladiator.


Also, if you liked the movie Unbreakable but wished it moved along the powers stuff a bit quicker, check out HEROES on NBC. It's pretty damn good. And it's got a super-powered serial killer that freezes people and also removes their brains. Mmmmmmm. Good stuff. You can download them all on iTunes, too, so catch up!


In video game news, I just finished both Justice League Heroes and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The Marvel one is WAY better, but JLH was fun, too. In JLH, you only play two people at a time and have a limited selection of characters (I really wanted to play Plastic Man, dammit!). Oddly enough, the 2 I had the most fun playing were Zatanna and Green Arrow. You get to fight Braniac, Gorilla Grodd and a few others, but no Lex, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Black Manta, Sinestro, etc. What really sucked was that every hero that you could play had different powers but the three Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner) all had the exact power. Now, I understand that all Green Lanterns HAVE the same power, but my problem is that all 3 did the same thing with it. Which sucked. I wanted Kyle to have a big Manga suit, Hal a boxing glove, etc. Plus, you rarely got to choose who you were going to play, it just assigned them.

In Ultimate Alliance, they took the same game engine from X-Men Legends, but where that game grew old because it only existed in the mutant world, MUA goes across all worlds and allows you to play up to 20 different characters. Of course, in the end (or even half way through) you just end up using the same power players that you've built up. So Iron man, Wolverine, Power Man and Ghost Rider pretty much got the run of the game. What's REALLY awesome is that each character has 3-4 costume changes you can do. So I got to have War Machine, brown Wolverine and Luke f#*$&in Cage in a yellow silk shirt and chain belt. You can also do any of Spider-Man's costumes from Black to the new Stark Armor one. Switching all the costumes around from the different eras is GREAT. You can even use Thor as Beta Ray Bill. Anyway, I barely used Blade, Nick Fury, Elektra, Daredevil, Black Panther etc, because really, they're only human. And when you're battling Galactus and the Kree/Skrulls, Mephisto, Loki and Dr. Doom and the full Masters of Evil (Mandarin, Baron Mordo, Fin Fang Foom, Dragon Man, Rhino, Scorpion, Arcade, Crimson Dynamo, Bullseye, Guardian, Super Skrull and on and on and on...) the more power the better. Anyway, after battling through a giant TriSkellion, and Omega Base, Asgard, Atlantis, Hell, the Skrull Home World, Arcade's Murderworld, the Shi'ar armada and Dr. Doom's castle, you feel like you've seen it all. Which was extremely satisfying.


And lastly, Scene It? the awesome movie DVD game has made a MARVEL edition! All of the clips are from the dozen or so live action films, but the trivia cards and other DVD segments range from ridiculously simply things to guessing characters by their silhouette or guessing which obscure character name is correct out of a list of ridiculous ones. All in all, it's pretty sweet. And of course the playing pieces are pewter logos/emblems for Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc.

OK. I'm done.

For now. I have to go play outside now and get some sun.

HEE-HAAAWWW-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA

donkey
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Zombie Vs Shark

Behold. The GLORY. It consumes me.

Must. Keep. Waiting. (why do they hate me so?!)

planet_terror.jpg
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Aw, yeah. If I still worked in a cubicle farm...

Aw, yeah. If I still worked in a cubicle farm...
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Your face would be a fine red mist next time you peeked over your wall. It'd be like those Texas Prairie Dog hunts! (OK, maybe it would be a fine red circle that would disappear in 2 seconds and maybe there wouldn't be so much dirt and chewing tobacco, but you get the point.)

Behold! The Nerf Longshot! It's a Nerf SNIPER RIFLE.

I might get one anyway. Could keep Moneypenny from digging holes in my backyard. Little miscreant.

SithBook

black_macbook.jpg
Originally uploaded by macslost.

It arrived a few weeks ago. Sleek, black, 80GB, DVD burner, glorious. Picked up a new sling bag for it along with a Lacie back-up drive.

I'm a happy, happy man.

The book, however, runs on hate and has some scarring. (I did get it refurbished.)

The Price of Freedom

cubicle.jpg
Originally uploaded by macslost.

Outside of the threat of pain and death (physical or emotional), you probably see the most panic from people when their money is messed with. Specifically, a muck-up at work and the threat of losing that safety net that provides you with that (bi)weekly paycheck that allows you to live outside those cubicle walls. Those without that net tend to scramble to find a new one to get caught up in.

I haven't had that feeling in quite some time. I have worked for the same PR agency for almost 8 years. 8 years. That's basically right-out-of-college. (though not really, since I was a drop out and spent a few years in radio and the concert industry instead). That all changed as of October 18th (I know, I know, October was a PSYCHOTIC month. It's the only word that fits.)

Quick recap: Got back from Australia, first day back at work my client says "um, we're moving agencies. wanna come with?" "uh, uh, ooookay." Cue frenzied panic. Work at another agency? Drive to Melrose instead of Burbank 8 minutes away? Lose 3 weeks of vacation and a kick-ass 'Director' job title? And breaking up with a company after 8 years of ups & downs, though basically a great place for me? And I have to decide RIGHT NOW?

Long story short, met with the new agency, no room for new hire but would pay me part-time as a "senior consultant" and leave me to get other jobs on the side. Cool! Got another gig pretty quick, too, just have to keep it up. Anyway, there was an uncomfortable moment of "the break up" where I say "It's not you, it's me, I need to be with myself for a while. I feel like the walls are closing in on me." But that went really well and my company even had a few thoughts on some jobs they could hire me for in the future, so that was cool.

So I'm free. Free to do whatever I want. I work from home. I bought a new laptop and printer, all-wireless network, so I can do whatever I need from anywhere in the house. Got a new work e-mail (mcleanpr@mac.com, clever, huh?). Switched all of my press over, created work invoices. Now I just need business cards and I think I can make some cool movie-scene ones off Flickr, so I might try that.

So what's all that gonna cost me? Fear. Maybe a little cash. I gotta keep finding clients to keep getting paid. I gotta pay BIG taxes. Benefits? I'm married, so I can just hop on Dinah's plan. Title? "Senior Consultant" and THAT applies to all companies I work with, so that's cool. Vacation? There's a problem for later. I don't have any travel plans for a while, so that will be a bridge when I come to it. Luckily, this IS the future, so crackberries are prevalent and since my entire job is done from e-mail, I can do it from anywhere in the world. That and my thumb drive is all I need.

In the meantime, I can do my job while watching bad action movies and taking a quick break to wipe out a level of bad guys in Black on the XBox. So I can't complain. Life's good. (it'll be better once Mercury gets out of retrograde, though, this past week was BRUTAL. ugh)

So! If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

(by 'problem', it's specifically film-PR related, preferably of the online variety. 'them' is me. A-Team, well, yeah, that's me. Bum, bubum BUM, bum-Bum, bum, ba-da-DA-da-DA-daaaaaa...and yes, I do have a box of M-16s in the back of my van, er, Malibu.)