Thursday, July 29, 2010

Victory to the Prole-Harry-et

Harry Puppet Potter has become sentient to announce, much to my joy, a new channel solely for Potter Puppet Pals. Huzzah! I still think my favourite PPP video will forever be Snape's Diary, though.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Darth Vader, what are you doing in this galaxy far, far away? Building a third Death Star? If so, you can't be Anakin Skywalker because Luke burned his dead body. Are you a clone? Hmmm, the world wonders... (Yes, I can be this nerdy sometimes. I play D&D for chrissake.)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Putting the Books Back on the Shelf

I finally updated The Book Shelf with a post that is more a review (the original intent of my creating another blog). I also spent a little time dusting the Shelf. I used the new template designer to rework the blog design. It's now much more fun (I added the book covers to the posts). It's far less stuffy than the original design. Any feedback would be appreciated, as always. Enjoy, and look forward to more posts on the Shelf and here, your one-stop shop for all things John Nero.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Special Day

The Wikipedia entry about today, July 13, my birthday. Enjoy reading.

Countdown to Castrophe

Gee wilikers! He's still alive. Cuba's former figurehead, Fidel Castro, is still kicking, though without much of his former gusto. Read all about his resurgence into the world here. What strange news to discover on my birthday.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Melodies & Desires

I've become addicted to this song. It's really not even a song; it's a poem set to a beat. A beautiful poem set to an enchanting background orchestration. Lykke Li is fantastic. Her album is just fantastic. It's danceable, loveable, and beautiful. Enjoy.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Obvious Outrage

Today, I went to a showing of The Last Airbender, a movie based on the critically acclaimed Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender (They had to drop the Avatar part because of the blue-people epic by Cameron). I was thoroughly excited for this. I have anxiously awaited the arrival of this film since it was announced while the television show was still airing. I am saddened to say I left the theater sorely disappointed. It was a catastrophe. The production team failed to cast not only Asian actors for the leads, but also actors that could act. After the initial fan outrage due to the white-washing of the leads, one part was recast; Dev Patel was signed on to play Zuko. This was the only proper casting. Patel channeled his character and delivered his lines with emotion. The other actors were flat, robotic even. But who could blame them? The script was so poorly written. Dialogue sounded as if it were read through a computer's speech function. Actors mispronounced the characters' names. Important information was prattled off, sounding as if it were straight from a reference volume. Transitions were non-existent, giving the film a fast pace with no time to breath. The most frustrating mistake in the film, however, was the abandoning of the theme, mythology, and martial arts of the television series. The idea of the Avatar was quickly explained, and the Avatar state went completely unexplained and was warped from its source. The original basis of the bending arts was almost completely abandoned. Benders went through many motions to do the simplest of bending, completely disregarding the martial arts form by which each bending style was inspired. In the end, Shyamalan created a clunky, loose adaption of a intelligent show containing tremendous depth.