In news that surprises even me, my head hasn't totally exploded. That makes Bullet Sunday a bit easier...
• Eventful. In catching up with my mail, I discovered that I was invited to a kind of important event. It's one of those things where I have no idea how my name ever got on the guest list, and am certain that if I showed up that they would realize they made a terrible mistake and kick me out immediately. Fortunately, I won't have to risk having my ego crushed... I can't attend because I'm already scheduled for something else that weekend. Probably just as well. I couldn't really blog about it, so what's the point?
• Phooey. Speaking of pointless... Hong Kong Phooey as a live-action movie? Seriously?!? Nobody could come up with anything better to film than this? I'd say that Hollywood is now officially out of ideas.
• Characters. Speaking of Hollywood, it's kind of odd how small it really is. After a while you notice how the same actors keep popping up over and over again in shows and movies. Two of my favorites are Tim Guinee (from Strange World) and Margaret Colin (from Now and Again). They're everywhere...
Tim Guinee photo from Facebook. Margaret Colin photo from LIFE.
It's shocking that these two have never managed to do a project together. They appear in so many things that I suppose it's inevitable... probably as a Lifetime Television movie or something. Even so, I'd watch that.
• Shock. Speaking of shocking... how is it that I am still discovering 80's music? Groups like Blancmange and China Crisis completely escaped my notice back in the day, and I have no idea how. Oh well. It's kind of cool to be finding them now, because it's music that's all new to me...
• Battles. Speaking of new... I know that all the LEGO video games are made for kids, but I still like them. LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman, and LEGO Indiana Jones are all basically the same game with different scenery, but they're still a lot of fun to play. Now LEGO has entered the Real Time Strategy game genre with LEGO Battles for Nintendo DS. It's a drastically simplified version of RTS games like Warcraft and Starcraft, but still has enough going on to be entertaining...
The characters change depending on whether you're playing Castle, Pirates, or Space scenarios, but it's basically the same game over and over. Using builders to stock supplies so you can build soldiers to defeat enemies. It gets repetitive but still manages to keep me wanting to move forward to see what's going to happen next. About the only thing that I'd change would be to smarten up the AI that drives the characters. All too often they take wrong turns and get stuck, which means a big chunk of your time is spent herding LEGO mini-figures around. This gets to be really frustrating after a while, and it's so prevalent a problem that it's shocking nobody in development fixed it. Oh well. Until the totally awesome Warlords II FINALLY comes out for DS, I guess this is about as good as it gets.
And now I suppose I should go to bed... seeing as how it's midnight and I have to be up in five hours.
I am not fond of Mondays.
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I could go on for hours about ’80s music, but here’s just a couple gems to share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFWtPk0mFvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YumwwfjJW18
okay… one more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_JQrXNptgk
What’s stranger than constantly seeing the same two actors in a variety of different roles (yes, I’ve noticed them all over the damn place, too) is seeing the same actor in two different roles on the same show! This happened to me recently with Deadwood with actor Garrett Dillahunt playing both Jack McCall and Mr. W. Not enough actors to choose from in Hollywood?
I’m glad I have my son, so I have an excuse to play all the Lego video games… *ahem*
Those two actors aren’t ones I’d think of when I think of people you see everywhere. In fact, they guy and woman have only each been in two productions that I’ve seen in the last 30 years.
I wish Lego Battles merged the three Lego games into one battle game. That would have been fun.
Tim Guinee and I share a birthday.
That is all.
China Crisis?! Blimey that IS a blast from the past! Thanks for making me feel incredibly old all of a sudden ;o)
Ok, Blancmange was one of my favorite groups in the mid-80’s. I actually saw them live a couple of times and still have both “Happy Families” and “Believe You Me” on cassette. I’ve been trying to find their music in digital form for some time now, with nothing. Guess I need to go searching for their CDs.
As for a movie based on Hong Kong Phooey, that’s just plain wrong. I liked the cartoon back in the day, but I agree with you on the uninventive state Hollywood is in.
Just last night (just over 14 hours ago, really) I was on the phone with someone and had to Google for something. An image of a woman came up as one of the hits and I said, “There’s that actress I keep seeing in everything that I’ve no idea who it is.”
Seems it was Margaret Colin.
“Living on the ceiling, no more room down there.” Bloody love that song. Blancmange are awesome. Don’t Tell Me also a good song of theirs. Synth Pop for the win I feel.
We’ve been reluctant to try the Lego Battles; it just doesn’t look as though it has the same play as the Batman and Indiana Jones games.
Also, heard a rumor that they should be coming out with a Lego Harry Potter soon….