Confessions of a Dangerous Hand

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Reunion



Last night, the former Questor gang met up for a much needed reunion. It was good to see the people I've been with everyday when I was still working. It's good to see how they've changed or if they haven't at all. It's funny how there was never an awkward moment from the first minute we saw each other. Everything was still the same, sure, we are now a few pounds heavier, but how we talk to each other remained the same. And that was really pleasant. Anyway, I'd be glad to see them again in the near future, hopefully, it won't take a year.
I got these Clone Commanders from Robinson's Galleria. It's the first basic fugure purchase for me on the ROTS line. Weird, huh? I usually go for the big ones, the Unleashed lines and 12" figures but I can't resist not having these two great commanders on my collection. These are Commander Bly (Felucia) and Commander Gree (Kashyykk), my favorite commander. Anyway, these two are more articulated than the usual basic figure so I'm happy.
The other picture is about a drink called the Leg Opener... I wonder if it works... hmm...

Monday, December 19, 2005

Kong Isn't King

My family and I watched King Kong yesterday. I was almost sure I'd love the movie considering its from the now slimmed down Peter Jackson. But still, I had my doubts... I loved LOTR:FOTR, but TTT and ROTK wasn't really that good for me. I would never ever watch those movies on DVD repeatedly. That would be insane. Anyway, after the movie, I was really disappointed. Kong himself was very well done, the movie had its fun moments, thrills, etc. But coming from WETA, the effects were poorly done. The integration of real actors with CG were just laughable, you would know that the actors weren't interacting with the scene or the CG characters. Naomi Watts was brilliant, so's Andy Serkis... some scenes were unnecessarily long... it could've been an hour long movie and I would have enjoyed it more. Weta needs more lessons on bluescreening. Still, it was an enjoyable movie, even though I was about to fall asleep during the first quarter of the movie. Being King Long, it's still worth your time.

Gifts for the Holidays





These are gifts I got for Christmas, the Darth Vader and Sidious vs. Yoda Unleashed figures were from my Mom and Dad and Sister. The ArtFX Sandtrooper was if I remember right, originally sold for P5000 but at Toy Kingdom, it's now only P1,500. But don't expect the box to be in mint condition. Still, its a bargain. I always wanted to have one of these... actually, I now have 2.

But the best gift for Christmas or my lifetime would be my girl, Guia. Seen here with the smile that won my heart. So to you, my dear, Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 16, 2005

Wishlist

I was surfing the channel yesterday and while doing so, caught a horrible, horrible film on HBO... Street Fighter The Movie. When it was being shown in theaters, I was a fan of the game. I was excited to see the characters brought to life in the movies but boy, was I disappointed after seeing that one. But it gave me an idea, how about making another movie!!! Wouldn't that be something?! C'mon, we all played SF2 at some point in our lives... I'm sure everyone knows how to throw a hadouken... okay, my mom doesn't but would that stop us from enjoying a good movie?! If done well, of course. One flaw of the movie was trying to cram all the characters in the movie while forgetting who really matters... Ryu and Ken. Their friendship certainly is the most human and most intersting of all stories in SF2. Individually though, I think Chun-Li's was the best. Another flaw of the movie was bad casting... Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile, 'nuff said. So that gave me an idea... how about casting the new Street Fighter Movie!!! Yay! I can see that only I am excited about this so here goes...
Ryu - Takeshi Kaneshiro, not as rough as Ryu but since he has worked with Capcom in Onimusha, it'll be good.
Ken - Owen Wilson?! Hahaha! No idea yet.
Chun-Li - It was a toss up between Zhang Ziyi and Kelly Hu. Both have different looks... Zhang has the childish quality and Kelly, the more mature side of the character.
Sakura - Why is Sakura in this list? I just thought Yukie Nakama would be great as Sakura. But with short hair... I'd rather not destroy Yukie's great Sadako hair.
Blanka will be CG. We dont want another disaster like what we saw in the first movie.
Zangief - Ron Perlman, body will be CG
Dhalsim - the Dalai Lama, if he accepts.
Guile - no idea yet for him... Van Damme has left me scarred for life.
E.Honda - Yokozuna, of course
M. Bison (boxer)- Micahel Clarke Duncan, who else?
Balrog - cast a beautiful woman and paste the head to a man's body, that'll work perfectly
Sagat- hmm...
Vega - I wanted someone really good and famous for this role, so as not to dishonor the late Raul Julia so I'll choose Jean Reno.

Ahh... I wish I had the power to get this done. Hehe!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

UltraelectromagneticJAM

What a sick country we live in. Heh!

Last week was a tough week for me. Pages don't seem to come out the way I like them to. Hours are being spent on pencilling and inking a page but in the end, the results were not how I imagined it to be. Hopefully, this creative drought won't last long. Bad timing, that's all.
Meowok beat me to posting something about UltraelectromagneticJam. Covers of Eraserheads songs by various new bands (and Rico J. Puno). I won't post a review here but in my opinion, it is a very enjoyable album to listen to. I was even teary-eyed after listening to the last song, it transported me back to my high school days and it felt like a friend died.
Ahhh... nostalgia.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

2ngaw Timeline

Tagged by Meowok for this... and I just had to try it out. December is always a good time for a little nostalgia.

10 years ago --
I was 16 and got my first work experience. I was spending my summer vacation in the province and looked for something to read. I came upon a local comic anthology, Terminator Komiks since Marvel was nowhere in sight there. And there ws this contest where kids design their own superheroes and I created "Zero Hour". I was heavily influenced by Jim Lee then and the style showed through. The editor probably loved it and I won a Nintendo Family Computer. While there, I threw a little joke about working and that was the start of my first job as a comic artist. Quite young, dont you think? Child labor. Heh!

5 years ago --
I was on my 3rd year in Advertising, UST. I first took up Architecture but after 2 years, I decided to chnge course, partly because a friend of mine, Gem, convinced me that I'd be better off in Adver. And she was right.

Yesterday --
After working on NML Volume 2, I took a break to get myself a haircut and met up with a DVD seller. Ate lunch and went home after that.

Tomorrow --
Will work on manga, hopefully, it'll be finished this week.

Today --
Looking forward to watching the Garcillano hearing. Although I kinda know what'll happen (Invoking right to privacy and technicality issues come to mind), I still wanna hear what he has to say. Work on manga.

There you go... a look into the past, present and future of 2ngaw.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Movies and DVDs


A few minutes ago, I was watching a special feature on Philippine movies. I have never watched a lot of Pinoy movies since I became sort of addicted to watching movies in theaters, vhs and now, DVDs. Reason is, I never found them to be stimulating, impressive or exciting. I watched some of them, especially during Film Festivals since there’re no foreign films to se seen. I remember some of them, Dekada ’70, Crying Ladies, Feng Shui, and a couple of Montano pics, but none really stood out. One gripe I have with Pinoy movies is the sound mix. Almost all of them are still in MONO… that’s why most of them are hard on the ears and incomprehensible. Dekada ’70 from what I remember was in stereo or surround, I noticed, and some Revilla pics (that I haven’t seen). Another thing, they try to be super artsy with their shots (this blame is now being passed to independent DIGITAL film directors), this is quite evident in Pinoy music videos (exception is Kjwan’s DALIRI). And what’s the big deal with digital filmmaking?! A lot of people seem to have created a new movie genre which is digital filmmaking… but for me, it’s just a tool, a means to making your movies. I don’t think in other countries, they made a big deal out of digital filmmaking, Americans use it, Koreans and other Asian movies use it and we never hear anything about it. Here, it seems traditional film producers are just bitter with digital movies that actually earn more money than their products. The secret is the content. That’s where they should be focusing their funds, talents, etc. I agree with what Director Jose Javier Reyes said, the producers here are utak-biskwet (biscuit-minded), they make films for the country only, not expanding their market abroad. That’s why they don’t put out a lot of money for the films because the target market is small… well; the term utak-biskwet really was lost to me. I actually didn’t get the connection of the term… but it sure was funny. These are just my thoughts… I know I can’t do a better movie than them, watching the special features on my DVDs made me realize how hard it is to make a good movie, a lot of planning and stuff, but these are just my thoughts as a moviegoer. So just relax… MAKE a movie!

Anyway, earlier I got these DVDs. House of Flying Daggers (in Plexiglas packaging from Korea), Batman Begins Deluxe Edition. Last week I bought Saving Private Ryan 60th Anniversary D-day Edition (Korea also) from the same seller. Cool! HOFD wasn’t as good as Hero but it was pure eye candy for me. The way they threw those daggers was uber-stylish and dramatic. Having Zhang Ziyi really sold this movie for me. Hehe! SPvtR, in DVD is indeed filled with great sound effects that it gives your home theater its much needed exercise. And Batman Begins DE… oh, how long have I waited for this. I had the 2-disc edition but luckily, I found someone who sells DE for a cheap price. Again, happy bunny I am! This could be an addiction.