Month: June 2002

Couple of very minor changes down the bottom of the page, mouseover for archives.

and I am so tempted to add the words I’m Spider-Man right now….

So interesting territory time and yes there is a reason behind this posting but I’m gonna have to wait for a while before I talk about it even if it happens.
Lets talk you and I, about the internet and in specific about anonymity on the internet. Let me show you a cartoon, a very famous cartoon by Peter Steiner published in The New Yorker in the early nineties (July 1993 to be exact).

Its a very simple thought. On the net, you really don’t know who is on the other end. I read about 15 blogs these days, out of those 10 I know 6 of the people in question in person. So that leaves 9 people who for one reason or another I choose to read their blogs, something once caught my eye and I keep coming back or in general they interest me. But at the end of the day when I read one of those blogs I could just be reading complete and utter bullshit. For all I know what I read in the blog is all made up and it is not in fact Wil Wheaton writing on WWDN, its some crazy stalker who pulls off a good act.* So what do I know?

The point being that on the internet you can be anyone who you want to be and if you put enough effort into it you can create this entire persona and carry on a life for them. (It’s worth noting that I believe everyone does this in some way on the net, but that is a post for another time). It’s pretty easy to get an email address with a name that you choose, if you try Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL you should be able to get some combination that you can pull off as being your name, get that for instant messaging and you have yourself a new person.

Why would you do that? Well, I can think of several reasons. One of which I may have talked about on and off over the past few months. Privacy. Take this blog, have a look at the url across the top, its pretty clear who is writing this blog. I don’t go out to much effort to hide this but I don’t advertise and I certainly don’t advertise to specific people. I would not really want my parents to be reading this, I know it would involve grief at some stage and I don’t really want people I work with to read this. Having said that I know that a few do and the ones that I know who know about it I don’t mind. Ok, so I have drifted a bit but you get the point. Another side to that would be I want to talk about something that I just don’t want anyone to know came from me. I have a thought or an opinion that you know I’m just not comfortable discussing or letting be attributed to me. Work stuff would be a prime example of that, you know I work for an internet company (yah yah I do) and there are some internet savvy people there, my boss found this through a google, lets say he did and the very first post he saw was a rant about something he had said and what I thought of him.** Things like that have to be born in mind (and yes I’m drifting, just work with me here). So you start your blog on blogspot and you make up some name and you go for it. I know some people who just won’t use their name on the internet. They are not comfortable doing it and you know I understand that and I don’t have a problem with it. I’m happy enough to use mine, I certainly didn’t use to be but then I a) grew up b) realised I didn’t really give a fuck and c) started using it.

However lets say for the benefit of this conversation that I’m a wannabe writer.**** Lets also say that I actually go out and write something and I get to a point where I think it is ready for other people to see, but at the same time I don’t want to post it here because I’m afraid it is really bad and everyone will hate it. So I get another name or blog or whatever and I post it somewhere and ask for opinions. That is a joy of the net right? I don’t have to stand up for my work, I can go and get some feedback and take it from there. It also means my friends are not going to suffer me asking them their opinions.

To sum up:

pseudonym
t noun a fictitious name, especially one used by an author.—ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French pseudonyme, from Greek pseudonymos, from pseudes ‘false’ + onoma ‘name’.

I’ve as usual completly lost track and am unsure what exactly I wanted to cover with all this. But hopefully I’ve not bored you to tears. I found my passport. It took me less than two minutes. I’m gonna go make a phone call.

Notes
* It is Wil, this was just the best example I can think of.
** It’s not happened, he does not know about the top secret blog in which I bitch about him all the time***
*** ah nevermind its not really that funny to begin with. Can you have notes on the notes?
**** I am, but lets be realistic here, wannabe is the word

Sixth Sense didn’t really do all that much for me, it was way over hyped. Yes, it was well made but it just lacked anything to interest me.
Unbreakable however is a pretty damn good movie. I first saw this in the cinema, and I was given the special edition DVD as a birthday present last year. I just never got around to watching it until this afternoon. It just works for me on all levels.
The concept was really well executed, the slow realisation by David Dunn that he has never been ill. The scene in the basement as he works out the awe and indeed fear on his sons face as he backs away as far as possible while his father lifts impossible weights. We don’t need to see anymore than this or to see any further evidence, this makes the point.

The scene in the pool where one moment he is drowning and then as soon as he is helped out of the water he is good to go and get the job done is very well shot. It covers his weakness (water) and then goes on to show his “powers”

Sam Jackson unsurprisingly gives a great performances as Elijah, the fact that the character is so well written can only add to that. The realisation of everything that Elijah is in no way takes away from the character, in fact it adds to him. One of the deleted scenes has Elijah with the line “I’m going to be very very sad if this doesn’t turn out the way I think”. It is a damn shame that was cut, it would have opened Elijah up a little more and given the ending that little more feeling.

One of the other deleted scenes, Elijah as a young kid going on a ride at a fair starts off as this really sweet little scene that suddenly becomes not only hard to watch but painful to watch because you know what is going to happen and that its not going to be good.

If you have not seen it, go and see it. I doubt you’ll regret it.

I was looking forward to Kevin “Clerks” Smith writing Spider-Man. I enjoyed his Daredevil and his Green Arrow, so when it was accounced he would be writing Spider-Man / Black Cat: The Evil that Men do all was good. The final product however wasn’t really very good. The basic story is what seems to be a gritty crime drama…last time I checked that wasn’t Spider-Man teritory, and it doesn’t work. Daredevil yeah I could see this working for DD but not for Spider-Man. Given the high standards on the other Spider-Man titles (JMS on Amazing, Bendis on Ultimate and Paul Jenkins on the under appreciated Peter Parker) I expected more. I’ll stick with it for another but we’ll have to see again then.

I was however very impressed with Bruce Wayne: Murderer, the first collection of the recent series running through the Bat titles. I’ve always liked Batman and in particular the darker side where Bruce Wayne is a cover and just a cover. The Batman is the only person who matters. That pretty much was where the entire story lead to and it worked. It flowed pretty well in most places for something that is 8 titles or so combined together and left me wanting a lot more at the end.

I have a dirty love for this movie; The Three Musketeers
Guard: Do you intend to resist?
Porthos: Oh don’t be so stupid, of course we intend to resist!

I saw it in the cinema when it first came out and I’ve seen it quite a few times since then. Yes its kinda childish in places but its a fun movie. ITV are showing it at the moment so I’m half watching it.

Friday 5, yes I know it’s Sunday, your point?
When was the last time you

1. …sent a handwritten letter?
I don’t remember years and years for sure.

2. …baked something from scratch or made something by hand?
Again years and years

3. …camped in a tent? I went away with the scouts when I was 12ish I guess so 10 years

4. …volunteered your time to church, school, or community?
Uh…probably just before I left Dublin 2 + years ago. I did some collections for charity.

5. …helped a stranger?
Holding open a door count? Her cuteness level count?

OK so I was already a comic book fan, but after a second viewing I want to read Spider-Man stuff…good thing I got some earlier today.

Some more thoughts on the movie.Toby Maguire was an excellent Peter Parker. He really nailed the role spot on in every single way. I don’t have a single complaint about his performance. James Franco was also excellent as Harry Osborn, George Lucas turned him down for Anakin Skywalker, thats a great shame he did a damn good job in this. J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson stole every single scene he was in. Willem Dafoe was an excellent Norman Osborn but his performance suffered as the Green Goblin entirely due to the mask. There were a couple of scenes where he has quite a bit of dialogue and you can’t see anything but the mask. It didn’t work, it was just not holding my attention at all. Other than that top marks. Kristen Dunst as M.J. gave a great performance (and looked damn good) but never really had all that much to do. One outstanding scene was when she admits to Peter where she works, that was an excellent piece of work. While I like the fact that the worked in “tiger”, it just wasnt done well. It holds a lot more meaning than that for them in the comics.

The ending just plain rocked. It was not what I was expecting and it just worked. One of the better endings a movie can have. I really do like the fact that they set up Harry Osborn to move ahead, while you may cry out sequel setting up, do also note that in the comics Harry goes on to other things shall we say. The nice little touches to name
check some people in the Spidey universe (Doctor’s Connors and Octavius), and the stuff with the Bugle. I really hope we see more of the Bugle in DareDevil next year.

Is this as good a movie as Batman? No I don’t believe so (even if they did try and reuse its’ score but that is a minor point). I have a deep love for Batman and as much as I enjoyed Spider-Man it does not top Batman.

Sleep now, more later.

Oh and yes re this entry about NPR’s linking policy, they have now changed this. Story at Wierd

And now they play one of my favourite songs of al time live.
“Local Boy in the Photograph”. I wish I was home alone so I could up the volume.

So tonight alongside my boss, his wife and another friend from work I saw Spider-Man again. It was just as enjoyable as the first time, and the music at the very end cracked us up once again. Great film, if you have not seen it go see it. Do note that I have no intention of mentioning the fact that Dave managed to book tickets for Sunday night and not Saturday night. It was of course an internet fuck up 😉

Afterwards were a couple of pints in Waxys and good fun. Shame it wasn’t a few more but probably for the better. I really like some of the people the work with, they are good people.

I am now watching The Stereophonics performing Just Looking live from Glastonbury on BBC 2. Gonna read some net stuff, read some comics and then go sleep. Lots I have been meaning to talk about for a while, but not really in the mood to.