While I’d be hesitant to say the movie was enjoyable, I’d be hard pressed to point out what I liked about it. As you may or may not know, Terminator Salvation is both a prequel and sequel. Terminator 1-3 took place in a present day world haunted by apocalyptic figures from a future we dutifully marched toward. Terminator Salvation is the first movie to take place after our “Judgment Day,” but hides safely snuggled between the piles of mythology yet to be turned into a movie. (Spoilers from this point forward) Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 22, 2009 in Japanese TV
This vintage Japanese commercial for Parliament Lights looks to be from the late 80s — in fact it feels so cliched that it almost seems like a parody ad from Saturday Night Live. This ad also interesting for me to look at this because cigarette commercials were banned in the United States in 1965, so even seeing a spot for smokes is somewhat surreal in any language.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 22, 2009 in Science
On this day in 1969 the fourth manned Apollo mission set a record in terms of getting as close as possible to the surface of the moon. Comic fanboys should note that the mission used the callsigns of the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, who became unofficial mascots of Apollo 10. In fact Charles Schulz even drew some artwork for the mission. So when you look back at photos from this 1969 endeavor every so often you’ll spot a Snoopy or a Charlie Brown hanging around: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 21, 2009 in Star Trek
Over the last year or two I’ve noticed that sneakers have upstages t-shirts as a self expressive fashion item, and these limited edition Star Trek sneakers are proof of my theory. The sneakers are designed by jeffstaple and are known as the “Enterprise Edition”. They’ll be on sale at jeffstaple’s retail shop Reed Space which is located in SoHo, NYC and will set you back $80 (but only $60 fora kids pair). Of course if you’re a real fanboy that will be $160 as you’ll need to own a mint pair and one for actual wearing. Here’s the official description: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 21, 2009 in Animation
This amazing fan made video from Japan recreates the opening titles to The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi using the cast of Lucky Star. I’m quite blown away by the quality of this!
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 20, 2009 in Comic Books
I was looking through the latest stack of Marvel covers due out in August and one artist leaped off my screen time-and-time again: Skottie Young! Most of the Marvel covers have that flat photoshopped color look to them, but with Skottie I love how the power of his drawing comes out to dominate the page. Also Skottie isn’t afraid to be cartoony, and his illustrations always have a small amount of humor that brings the characters to life without the need to show them in some super stretched position or battling to the death with some super villain. Shown above is a detail from the cover of Iron Man & The Armor Wars #1 (Of 4) — what’s great about this cover is that it’s a homage to every previous Iron Man character design: Read more…
This nifty looking Transforming USB Flash Memory Device is due to come out in September. Designed by Takara this robot lion will hold 2 gigs of your digital files including your collection of screenshots from the original 80s cartoon. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 19, 2009 in Comic Books
On the surface this cover illustration of Red Robin #3 may not look like much, but to me that’s why it’s so good. Every month I see tons of covers that are crammed with detail but have little graphic impact, however this artwork by Francis Manapul is a great example of “less is more”. Although his cover looks simple there’s actually a great deal of detail and though going on under the surface. Here’s a breakout of what I love about this cover: Read more…
In a previous article where I explored Japanese pop singers who sound like robots I mentioned Aira Mitsuki having a strangely trashed sound which has little to do with poor quality Youtube sound:
Posted by Guest Author on May 17, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation expert Joe Strike allows you to test your Pixar smarts:
Think you know your Pixar? Take my little quiz… You could probably get all the answers via 10 minutes on Wikipedia, but that would be cheating. (Not that I have a problem with cheating – it shows initiative.) And away we go…
1. Pixar’s very first computer-animated short was
a) The Adventures of André and Wally B
b) Fish Story
c) Ghost in the Machine
d) Tin ToyRead more…
