Archive for March, 2008

Local comic strip Dead Days reaches No. 400

Like the great philosopher Xzibit once said : Procrastination like masturbation, your fucking yourself. I don’t think I’ll ever reach 400 of anything in my lifetime (maybe pounds?). That just reeks of dedication and hard work. Fuck that, I’ll stick to my dragging of feet. So to hear that local artist John Rios has hit this milestone just kinda pisses me off. This guy has the focus and talent that I wish I did and has used it to create a wonderful world of funny characters, cool as hell artwork and witty dialogue …..well that just angers me. His stuff is good and consistent! I don’t know what witch doctor this guy went to to get his gifts but I need to go to that guy. To bad about him being a jerk in real life. Yeah, he’s an angry drunk who like to kick dogs…no, no, PUPPIES! Yeah, that’s it….kick puppies. True story (gotta do something to level the playing field, right? And what better way than to defame his name). Check out all his stuff over at his blog Dead Days and maybe he’ll come on here one of these days and answer for his puppy kicking atrocities! Battle! Check out the 400th strip over at deaddays.net and be sure to leave a kind (or not so kind) word!

The DUmb #3 • Requiem For A Podcast

Two podcasts in one week?! Crazy, yeah. But we’re here to provide you with solid entertainment, right? This week we have special-special guests to help carry the topics:

• Bryan Harley – writer/director/creator of AMF Productions
• Adrian Rodriguez – publisher of lateupdate.com
• Robert Anaforian – writer, The Dumb/creator, onepicturesworth.com

This edition’s topics include all things film, summer movies, the Academy Awards, the future of movie theaters, digital distribution and we offer free technical support for our friends over at Fresno Famous. BTW, swing by their site and don’t forget to vote for us under the “Best Blog (or Blogger)” and “Best Podcast” categories. Voting ends this Sunday, Mar. 30th. Thanks for your vote!! Special shout out again to lateupdate.com for hosting our podcasts! They are currently starting a promo where you can win free Grizzlies tickets when you register at the site so check it out! Everyone likes free shit, right?

 
Download The DUmb here!

Those wacky Swedes…

So Michel Gondry’s latest film, “Be Kind Rewind” was (thankfully) playing in Fresno, for a couple weeks at least. Mediocre reviews might have pulled it before you were able to check it out, which in my opinion at least, was a bummer. I think it was a fun little flick to sit and watch. this isn’t a review, however, but a little rumination, and maybe a challenge to some of our readers.

The legacy of the movie isn’t going to be the film itself, but the widespread idea of “Swedeing”. A Swede is an ultra-low budget/effort replica of a film (or a scene from a film). You could go on to Wikipedia and learn more about what a Swede is, but what would you rather have done in school: read a book or watch a movie? Yeah, movie…

Isn’t that guys TIE fighter sound effect awesome? Anyways, I know there are a couple filmmakers who read this blog (and one who writes for it), and who knows how many lurking or aspiring filmmakers otherwise, so why not a little friendly competition? At best, maybe Fresno natives can generate a Swede or two and we can feature them on this site. If not, well…scour YouTube a bit, or go here and see what you come up with. Maybe someone has already Sweded your favorite flick!

Dem Trailers: Vote stuffin’ edition

The Tracey Fragments
If you don’t like Ellen Page for any reason, you better just duck out right now. After Juno (I would say Hard Candy) she’s quickly becoming a Hollywood upstart (isn’t everyone?) and this next film of hers looks pretty good. The trailer is definitely cut differently and it works, music by Broken Social Scene…..yeah, lets hope the film works as good as the trailer does. Check it out here.

The Hammer
I listen to Adam Corolla every morning on my way to work and he definitely adds much cheer to my commute. His film has finally been released and we’ve got it here in Fresno (I guess since we’re one of the markets his show is broadcast into) and I plan to go see it real soon. Just the fact that we got it here is reason enough (not really) but the reviews has been surprisingly good and he’s on a roll with the film PLUS he’s on Dancing With The Stars so he’s adding to his millions in cash. Check out the trailer here.

Who DOESN’T loooove giant robots blowing shit up?

Voltron WAS tight (until you see the show again now and realize it IS shit). Never got into Robotech, although the design were dope. Of course the Transformers make up the true source of my mech-lust but these latest years, the developers from From Software have been the ones filling that hole for me (tee-hee) with their Armored Core series. The games are cool but their artists creating all the CGI are the real superstars. Every cut scene makes my eyeballs bleed and leave me wanting a live action or CGI anime film to be made this way. Amazing. Check out the From Software wiki page here for more info on the developer.

Roque gets lazy; recruits new guy

Well, not so new but rather merely someone else. Fellow blogger Robert Anaforian (One Picture’s Worth.com) & The DUmb podcast regular guest has joined Team Dumb Drum and will be contributing content for your eyes & ears. You see that article down there? The Fanboys one. Yup, that was his first posting so welcome him here and leave him some comments (try to keep it clean, people). So now it won’t just be my words you be reading here as we have kinda switched focus from reporting on my stuff (which was my original intention) to reporting on everything cool. Just like that, reporting on cool shit! That’s our motto. Be it film, video gaming, comics, advertising, art, design….WHATEVER! Being based out of Fresno, California, we will definitely be involved in the development of our local scene and try to enrich locals, as well as outsiders, to the gold we harvest here in the Central Valley. As time goes, we might be encountering more and more change but for now, just bear with us and we will continue to bring you stuff like we have been for the past couple of months. So please continue to join us in this journey into the blogosphere and we’ll continue to provide you with content to make you smile, ear to ear!

P.S.—If your see what you like and would like to join the team, participate in one of our podcasts or just have comments on any of our stuff, please feel free to email us at brodiemash@gmail.com

Whatever, Fanboys.

Well a storm’s a’brewin, and geeks from coast to coast are flexing their pasty, atrophied muscles at the big guns of Hollywood in a showdown for the right to have cancer. Sorta.

Apparently Weinstein, or the freshly dubbed “Darth Weinstein” has used his powers of control to have bits of the film “Fanboys” re-shot and spliced up to remove a cancer subplot from a film about some geeks who try and break into Skywalker Ranch to catch an early glimpse of Phantom Menace (which is so unbelieveable. They would have committed mass suicide upon viewing Jar Jar after all that trouble. C’mon, at least make it realistic!). One character being diagnosed with cancer is what sets off the trip, but Weinstein, who wants to market the film to a teenage crowd (because Star Wars fans are all teenagers, not people born in the 70′s-80′s) thinks that cancer is a total teenage turn-off (that’s called alliteration, kids) and cut out a few scenes and re-shot ‘em while riding past in his convoy of rightness and flipping the bird to the producers.

Angry, cancer-loving Star Wars fans respond by promising to boycott “Superhero Movie” and in general creating an online ruckus while posting pictures of Weinstein in drag and wearing a Darth Vader helmet. PR people have given out little tidbits of there being two versions of the film released, but no solid promises yet.

So how much power rests with the fans on this one? Is a die-hard group of Sci-fi rebels going to be able to bring down one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and force up a change? 300,000 emails have hit the Weinstein company asking for the cancer-cut, so there’s no telling what might happen. Still and all, it’s refreshing to see that even if a small, dedicated group hasn’t been able to knock out the production giant, at least it’s bloodied the nose a bit.

Get the full story here!