shah_4434: hai
shah_4434: as’kum
beatzophreniac: and who might you be?
shah_4434: hmmm
shah_4434: awk kat ner ni?
beatzophreniac: faris hta
shah_4434: hmmm
shah_4434: asl pls
beatzophreniac: slp lsa
shah_4434: 24 m kedah
shah_4434: u
beatzophreniac: hadek m 42
shah_4434: k cauuuuuuuuuuuu
beatzophreniac: uuuuuuuuac k
The End.
Word of the day: Syllogomania.
I bought a shelf for my comics, and unloaded some of the crates. Had already unpacked the manga in the CD cabinet, and the TPBs into one of the wall shelves.
Did you know that The Complete Don Martin is about to be released in October?
Another Marvel comics character dies. Captain America. Yawn! Now to wait for some unknown character to return to the Marvel universe, beat up a lot of people wearing a mask and finally, be revealed as …Captain America! I am betting this will happen by the time the next US Presidential elections happen. Folks who’ve been asking me about Civil War and whether you ought to read it, my answer would be “No”. It’s dreadfully boring – not bad storytelling, but pretty much pointless stuff. P.S mikester‘s heartwarming reaction to this event.
Stendhal’s Syndrome is a term that I learnt about this weekend, in the magnificent Paintings quiz conducted by kvk. (To all those who missed it, you missed it, boo hoo. ) Most people wouldn’t realise that I suffer from Stendhal Syndrome almost once every week, when I make my way here and here.
I found a Mario Bava movie at National Market! Woo Hoo Hoo!!!
The movie I found, after hours and hours ( or so it seemed) of flipping through the crap that lands at NM following the latest Oscars, was La maschera del demonio – on the DVD cover, it said Black Sunday, which was the name under which it was released in the US. My trip had been made! This one happens to be the very first horror movie directed by Mario Bava, and had been banned in the UK until recently.
Also found this movie called Shatter Dead. I hadn’t heard about it before, but the plot at the back of the DVD case was convincing enough. The keywords used in IMDB for this movie are “Gun In Vagina / Zombie / Independent Film / Cult Favorite / Psychotronic”, and if that doesn’t prove that I was right, well, go figure.
Other movies of note: Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, Little Miss Sunshine ( the only piece of post-Oscar flotsam I am interested enough to watch), Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower, the unrated director’s cut of Hostel, which I had promised myself I would buy, the extended edition of 28 Days Later, Khubsoorat and Chupke Chupke – the Hrishikesh Mukherjee versions, Gulzar’s Mausam. DOA: Dead or Alive, about which I will talk about in a minute. Some other titles I don’t really remember.
Right, so today morning, I decided to watch a bit of some movie while sipping on my morning tea – and put on DOA: Dead or Alive. In a couple of minutes, the tea was forgotten, as DOA seared my eyeballs with twenty thousand volts of unadulterated pleasure. Fuck, this was moviemaking – this was the kind of visual spectacle I want from my films. Four Ass-kicking leading ladies, one of them Devon Aoki, who played Deadly Little Miho in Sin City ( and I think I know now why she was cast in the role of the silent Miho – the moment she opens her mouth, her onscreen appeal reduces by 40 percent), and the others Jaime Pressly, Holly Valance and Natassia Malthe. And what’s this? Natassia Malthe played Typhoid Mary in Elektra? I need to buy Elektra then, and fast! Quick searches also reveal that Skin Walkers and BloodRayne II: Deliverance are movies in which Ms Malthe’s delicate ( NOT!) Norwegian frame will make an appearance, hence buying budgets adjusted accordingly.
DOA: Dead or Alive is a movie based on a video game, which would make a normal Oscar-watching snob turn up his nose at it – but trust me, this is a movie made by a man who respects good cinema. Consider the opening sequence, a pan through a huge courtyard covered with soldiers, an establishing shot that goes up the stairs of the royal palace and into the courtroom, where princess Kasumi is indulging in histrionics-with-an-English-accent. The scene is a tribute to the universality of cinema – the shot itself is a ripoff homage to Zhang Yimou’s Hero. Erm, ignore for a moment the fact that Hero is Chinese while Kasumi is a Japanese princess – and that Ninja clans don’t really stay in palaces. She escapes, and her kimono expands itself into a hang-glider, and all of a sudden, a spinning shuriken whirls into Princess Kasumi’s hand. “You are invited to DOA”, the shuriken says, apparently a hi-tech courier object that finds its destination by tracking the DNA of the invitee. We then shift to the other protagonists of the movie – a master-thief and assassin called the Bride..er…named Christie (Holly Valance) who knocks the wind out of the Hong Kong Police dressed in a towel and her panties, and then gets the Chief Inspector to hook her bra while she points a gun at his lower abdomen. Dude, I love Female Empowerment!
The whole introductory sequence establishes what the whole movie will be about- hot women kicking arse, with multiple sub-plots thrown in. Just to show you how much this movie rocks, here’s a checklist of what I expect in a movie and what I got in DOA: Dead or Alive.
while in a state of semi-undress – check
and who manages to get one of the hot women for himself – Whaddya think? ( That’s wish fulfilment for 90% of the core audience for the movie)
Do yourself a favour and watch the movie. Forget all that Oscar stuff, it’s movies like DOA: Dead or Alive that makes you feel…er….alive. Makes you want to skip office, buy a PS2 and play all possible versions of DOA released so far.
The Move is done. The living room still resembles an obstacle course, but it’s now possible to enter the kitchen without pole-vaulting over cardboard boxes. Settling down is in progress even as I speak.
One of the primary tasks to be done is to buy a book case. Or two. There are indeed shelves aplenty in the new house, but I need the bookcases for the comics and GNs. I even took the audio CDs out of their cabinet, arranged them in the TV stand and used the cabinet to stock manga. Loads of crates of comics abound, and I don’t want to leave them stored like that in this house, at least. Maybe I will hit one of those “buy one, get another free”-furniture houses. There seem to be quite a few of them in town, but I have no idea how it works – do they jack their prices up and shite?
Another priority task is to get the art pieces framed. Including the Mandala. The new house has extreme galleria possibilities, muhuhahahahah.
And did I tell you the bathrooms have sensor taps? Sensor taps! I wave my toothbrush at them every morning like a mad wizard, and finally give up and submit to getting my hand wet.
This was the first time I moved into a new house and was simultaneously in another part of the country. My flatmates rock.
More Ultimate Spider-man news. Issue 100 was released recently, and Marvel comics teamed up with the HERO initiative ( which is a trust of sorts for comicbook creators) came up with the idea of a 100 sketch covers. 100 issues of Ultimate Spider-man #100 were produced with a blank white cover, and 80 artists were commissioned to sketch on the covers – basically creating a 100 unique covers of Ultimate Spider-man #100. The covers are being auctioned off in batches. Artists contributing include the likes of Todd McFarlane ( who does his first work for Marvel after he split from them and founded Image comics with Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld sometime in 1992.), Frank Quitely, George Perez, John Romita Sr, Sergio Aragones, Alan Davis, John McCrea, Chris Bachalo and well, loads more. You can check out the complete press-listing and the images here.
The first two batches have already been auctioned. As it turns out, the first 20 in Orlando raised 6000$. While the 20 auctioned in NY made over 16k. Why the difference? Because John Dolmayan, the drummer for System of a Down and well-known comic-book fan bought half the lot. Gaaaaaaaaaaaah. Did you know the guy had A-level artists do artwork on his drumkit for FREE? Why does he need to increase prices in an already-inflated market? Why? WHY?
The ones that have sold so far are listed here.
