Archive for January, 2009

Notorious Movie Review

Monday, January 19th, 2009
Notorious Movie Poster cred IMBD

This weekend I had a chance to take in the movie  Notorious. This movie is probably the first ‘hip hop’ movie seen in theaters (skipped hustle & flow can’t remember any others). It’s also the first biopic I have seen at the cineplex.

Going in to the movie I was fairly neutral, I hoped for the best but was prepared for the worst.

The theater was packed, which is generally a good sign, one that meant good or bad this movie was going to make money (opened 4th in the box office at $24,000,000).

The movie itself obviously follows a straight forward story arc: Biggie goes to school where he is a good student, grows up sells drugs and starts rapping, does a bid, has adult relationships with his baby Mamma, Lil Kim and Faith, meets Puff, sells a lot of records, becomes friends with Tupac, then enimies with Tupac, gets in a car accident, makes moves to spend more time with his family and friends and work on a new album,  gets shot in LA. The end.

If you are going into this movie expecting more information than what’s already out on the internet about the life and times of Christopher Wallace, don’t.

Most things are where they should be (although a few people are absent) and the ending is wrapped up into a nice little package.

Most of the movie is spent on his love triangle (Faith, Kim Biggie) and build up and break down of the relationship with Tupac which lead to the rise of the West coast East coast rivalry. Outside of musical relationships the movie also does a good job of establishing the solid relationship Big had with his mother, and his friend D-Nice.

The actors playing the big roles in this movie did their homework and the portrayal of Little Kim and Puff being pretty well bang on.

Angela Bassett and Jamal Woolard also do a great job of being a believable mother and son.

The set crew for this movie also did a great job in making it period correct. The cars, clothes, gear and music were all period correct. (I had completely forgot about Mecca Clothing! There was also an e30 in the movie which is always good.)

My only gripe with the movie would be the clean gloss over one Sean Combs. Puffy comes off as someone who could do no wrong and was a guiding light in Biggies life.

A person who helped him turn it around for the better. Maybe this was indeed the case but I find it hard to believe that in their time together they didn’t have one rift in the relationship or not see eye to eye on an issue. A lot of people have been saying Diddy used Big, and that he is career poision so with Diddy having a heavy hand in this movie I suppose I should have known he would come out glistening.

All in all the move was enjoyable and I do recommend it to Biggie fans and non Biggie fans alike.

I didn’t feel it was a waste of time or money and it was great to get a little bit more insight into the life of Biggie Smalls.

Slightly more emceeing couldn’t have hurt though.

If you have not yet, find this, its dope:

Ten Great Cartoon Anthems

Friday, January 16th, 2009

I have been on nostalgia kick lately, well more than usual, and I got to thinking about how back in the glory days of cartoons (80s and early 90s) cartoons didn’t have music. They had anthems, anthems that got kids kool aid filled blood pumping and ready for the show.

So with this in mind I figured a run down of ten I deem ‘great’ are in order.

10. Jace and the Wheeled Warriors

Let’s kick this off with Jace and the Wheeled Warriors. This one takes a bit to get going, but be patient and you will be rewarded by some decent 80s rock and inspirational lyrics. Reach for the light.

9. Megaman

What this song lacks in overall creativity (it’s two lines in total) it makes up for the basic tempo being faster than most intro songs of the time, which is really saying something.

8. Jem and the Holograms

Had to include this one since from what I can tell it was about an accurate representation of what I have been led to believe 80s MTV was. I would actually rather listen to this than anything by Britney Spears, cause the music is contagious and their songs are better.

7. M.A.S.K.

The green and black grid shots and electrically synthesized voices (Ma Ma Ma Mask) in this intro mean it probably could have doubled for a music video in the early 90s. The lyrics are not to bad either, I wouldn’t mind working overtime if I was fighting crime.

7. Thundercats

Thunder cats HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The guitar work in this intro makes it a fairly powerful rocker. I wonder who performed these songs was it all one amazing cartoon cover band?

6. He-Man

I don’t really think this intro song is all that epic. But green lantern sampled it for a Ludacris song so it can’t be all that bad.

5. Alvin and The Chipmunks

Dave realized early that he had the first child hit performers living in his house and put them to work. The chipmunks basically set the ground for real people like Miley Cirrus/Hanna Montana.

Did they ever explain how he got those chipmunks anyway?

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The drums don’t stop hitting through this whole song, the lyrics are fairly well rounded, and it starts out loud, and ends with a triumphant “Turtle Power”.

2. Wild Cats

Starts out hard rock, little rap interlude (sort of) then back to hard rock. This intro is pretty well flawless.

1. Transformers Movie Theme

I maybe should not include this one, seeing as how it has an unfair advantage being the only one that is a full length song from a full length movie and credited to some band (LION). However as I have stated before my blog my rules. This just screams 80s hair metal, their is a killer guitar solo that starts at 2:07 seconds in.

Things I always wanted – January 15th 2009

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

This weeks object of perpetual desire is more a class of device than something brand specific. It was the child size vehicle. Sure bicycles were cool, and much faster, but everyone had one. Not everyone had a child size vehicle.

The hierarchy of child sized vehicle went like so:

Home made deathtrap, know known as a Box Cart
Pedal car
Power Wheels
Go Cart (not bloody likely and will be omitted for this blog)

I made a few skateboard or wagon based Box carts as a youngster and every time they were used someone got hurt. Picking rocks out of your knees sucked but none of us had anything better at the time so we kept making them.

That was until some kid’s (I think his name was Corey) dad bought him this:

General Lee Pedal Car from dukesonline.com

Corey was instantly pedaling driving around in the damn holy grail. Every kid on the block, including myself, was super jealous at this point. However when anyone asked to try the pedal car, Corey responded with he child equivalent of fuck off and get your own.

I forget exactly what he said in response but the long and short of it was unless you killed him, pried his cold dead fingers from the wheel, and drove this thing off some sweet jumps before getting hauled off to jail you were not getting a turn.

As karma goes, Corey swiftly got his popularity jacked when Brandon from round the way rolled up with his girlfriend on one of these bad boys:

power wheels jeep

You see, Brandon had his cooties shot, room for a passenger, and didn’t need to pedal. This meant he got all the women little girls and the pedal car General seemed silly in comparison. I mean, scroll back up and look at the wing on the back of it the real general didn’t have that, stupid in accurate human powered pedal car.

No matter how slow and loud power wheels were as they were rumbling down the sidewalk I wanted one. Actually I would have taken the Barbie Countach and called it “salmon” and rocked that.

Sadly though I never got one and once I got my license I never really thought about it again. I figured, sure, I missed out on a little bit but all and all I didn’t miss that much.

Until….

Wait a minute here… you can modify power wheels?

Nobody told me!

Now I defiantly feel like I missed out. I am sure if I had one my dad would have modified it for me.

Actually he most defiantly would not have.

But a guy can dream right?

Anyone reading this, if you have a kid and they have power wheels I would like to borrow them for an afternoon. I promise the power wheels will return in better shape then when you gave it to me.

The child is your problem.

Wordless Wed January 14th 2008

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Not too much this week, but all pictures and videos. No crazy news articles really caught my eye this time around.

Im A Shark
wow

Photoshop Ad Busting – Wooster Collective

Hip Thurst mp3 player

MP3 Belt Buckle Activates With Hip Thrusts – Sparkfun

Beautiful and Creative metal art sculptures

Beautiful and Creative metal art sculptures – Toxel

Crazy Basketball goal

Sports Videos, News, Blogs

New Czech Republic BMX video

Ondra Šléz DC videoprofil from jara.bmx on Vimeo.

KFC/Taco Bell Rats



Old ytv interlude



Idiot.

My First day with PlayStation 3

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

After wanting one for quite awhile I finally manned up and got a PlayStation 3 (ps3) last Saturday (January 10th), below is a recount of my first day with my ps3.


Girlfriend is not a nerd disclaimer: Lyndsey is worried that this rundown will make her look like a nerd, I would like to formally say that between the two of us if anyone is going to be dubbed a nerd it is surely me. Although I do try to hide the fact by amazing feats of strength.


9:30am Wake up, urinate, shower, and get dressed. I seem to have slight headache, I am buying a ps3 today and I don’t like spending money this is probably the cause.

I have some running around to do first, so I get to that.

12:30pm Finished running around, it’s snowing, should be good for snowboarding later

1:00pm Pick up Lyndsey, and we head off to EB games to see if I can pick up a used ps3 controller and Metal Gear Solid 4 to save some money, it’s going to be an expensive day.

1:20pm Rummage through used controller bin, all ps2 or ps1 controllers and microphones, weak.

New controllers are 51 bucks, used MGS4 69 bucks, crikey! I buy neither.

1:40pm We go to Futureshop, their deals suck, warranty packages and what not but no games. However I find MGS4 for 59.99 new, which is cheaper than EB and I have a gift certificate so I buy it, stoked on this game.

I ask for Little Big Planet, but they are all sold out. Oh well. Lyndsey grabs some cheap girly dvd’s (Devil Wears Prada and something else I forget).

2:00pm Stop off at Quiznos for lunch, I get a large 5 meat stack and try to purchase a bottle of sprite to wash it down, the clerk informs me that its $2.50. F that noise, I get a fountain root beer instead.

Lyndsey asks what kind of meat is in my sandwich to which I reply “5 kinds”. I am so clever.

I can’t finish the sub, too much food. I fail.

2:30pm We arrive at Toys R Us. Came here to get a deal on 2nd controller only to find out that flyer is over but some Baby’s R Us flyer is out now I think that’s non child owning discrimination. Maybe I will start a class action law suit.

I Purchase ps3(80gb) and Little Big Planet. Rings up $519.00 my headache is a bit worse, I hate spending money.

3:00pm Arrive at Lyndsey’s we have about 2 hours to play before we go snowboarding.

3:10pm We had to switch around Lyndsey’s TV setup so that everything could be hooked up, ps3 has to run through VCR, and digital cable had to be set up different.

I had to run a power wire has to run across the floor to reach a different plug, I made a point to tell Lyndsey not to trip over it, can’t be to careful.

3:11pm Discard instructions.

3:12pm Video game time! Wait, no, PS3 tells me to plug in remote. I figured it was wireless would work magically some how, stupid me.

3:12.5pm Video game time! Wait, no, initial setup required. Input time, alias, date of birth, and earths rotation.

3:13pm Video game time! Wait, no, now updates need to be installed for Little Big Planet. Hrm.

3:20pm Video game time! No more waiting, let’s get awesome.

3:25pm At this point we get introduced to Sackboy, pretty cool guy, I put some red stripped boxer shorts on him and a crash helmet for safety and off we go into LBP.

sackboy

4:00pm Game looks beautiful, and the learning curve is great allowing both Lyndsey and I to enjoy playing, we work out alternating level system since I only have one controller.

4:30pm Someone in the room mentions we should go snowboarding soon, maybe the cat.

5:00pm Snowboarding canceled, video games: 1 other activities: 0

6:00pm I go to the computer to pay off Visa, headache subsides some but I still hate spending money.

On the way back I trip over the power cable, the same one I told Lyndsey not to trip over…

No damage done, but I make mental note that I am stupid.

7:00pm Food we need food, orange tic-tacs are not food.

7:10pm After Swiss Chalet was too expensive we agree on Dominoes. Food we are getting food.

7:40pm Food arrives, pause ps3 and listen to driver talk about storm, I look outside, see storm, note storm as problem for later, note needing food as a problem right now, so I dig in.

7:45pm We watch John and Kate plus 8 while eating. I comment on Kate not looking bad for having 8 kids, Lyndsey agrees, however we also note that John is getting balder as seasons go by.

They took the kids to see Thomas the tank Engine, I like Thomas.

I work up a plan to create bootleg ‘Tomas’ the tank engine and take kids on rides, but not owning my own railroad foils this plan. Stupid logistics.

8:00pm Video Game Time again!

8:15pm Lyndsey likes stickering and decorating our pod (room in the game), fish are on the floor and flowers all over the roof. All those home decorating TV shows are deemed useless as a result.

9:00pm Lyndsey has made Sackboy look like a fairy. We play like this for awhile before making him look like a Globe Trotter, much more awesome.

9:30pm There is a level involving hopping low riders, whoever designed this game knows me quite well apparently.

10:00pm I encounter a level that’s pretty hard. Near mega man for game boy levels of frustration, but I finally beat it. I really hate Mega Man for game boy.

10:30pm I am starting to get tired and looking to tomorrow and start reading MGS 4 manual, looks sweet, this game is going to be great.

11:00pm My playing skills seem to be declining, Lyndsey seems to be getting better though, that’s cool I am comfortable with that.

11:30pm Room is filling up with cotton candy, I hate cotton candy, I have to eat my way out. What the hell is going on? Why is the room filling up with cotton candy??

1:45am I wake up, apparently I fell asleep, I am also chewing on a pillow the cat likes to sleep on, explains the weird dream and cotton candy like texture. I hate cotton candy!

1:50am Lyndsey is still playing, safe to say she really enjoys the game. She has beat quite a few levels and our pod is full of more crap. Oh vey.

2:00am I pack up ps3 and drive home (almost ending up in the ditch in the process) to get some sleep so I can go boxing the next day. Then come home and play MGS4 until hockey.

4:40am Sleeping, room is free of cotton candy.

BMX Vs. Cars

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Ride BMX did this feature asking a bunch of BMX pros questions about their cars. Since I love cars and BMX I really enjoyed it (bmxboard did not). I am vain enough to assume that if I answered the same questions the pros were asked someone, somewhere would like to read it.

Since I am sort of a big deal.

First off, what sort of car(s) do you have?

Currently a 2004 Mazda 3 GT. Previous to that I had two: a 1985 BMW 325e and a 1992 Chevy S10 Blazer.

What made that car appealing to you?
Price, modifications, and storage space. After my blazer/mini truck project got wrecked I didn’t want to make my BMW a daily again so I was looking for a hatch or wagon.

I was originally looking at Protege5’s and Subaru’s but p5’s have rust issues and the Subaru’s I wanted were out of my price range. After being denied from test driving a few Protege 5s I found this mazda3 at p5 price and scooped it up.

I had a no white car,  no previously modded car rule but once I saw how clean this car was I decided it would work. So far so great. (Other than their own rust problems sigh)

The typical situation is: kid rides bikes, kid gets car, kid quits riding bikes…Why didn’t this happen to you?
I love BMX way to much for something like a car to take me away from it.

Everything fun to do in a car is illegal or expensive anyway.

What sort of stuff are you into with the car? Drag racing, road racing, wrapping it around a pole, etc.?
I’ve always just loved modifying cars and then cruising around and meeting other people who are into them, I think I got the interest in cars from my dad, but he hates cars now since his mechanics son stole his turbo  Volvo and wrote it  off. Thieves are really good at taking passion away.

I want to get into auto crossing this year though hopefully it will happen, but I have issues scheduling in all my interests as it is.

What all have you done to the car?
I don’t want to get into specifics because I don’t trust people anymore but it’s got suspension, intake, and exhaust mods all done the right way just how I like it.

No stereo though, which is a first for me and a little depressing, oh well.

Who has the best car in BMX?
Dave Mirra has a really nice collection. A nice e46 m3 and a dope scoobie. So I will say him.

Who has the fastest?
Rumor has it Scotty Cranmer has some Mitsu evos so probably him. Locally Steve  Moxley’s brother Kirk has a surprisingly quick turbo focus hatch.

Any future plans or goals?
Keep it running, keep it  from rusting and keep it clean. I want to keep thieves out of it also. My next car will hopefully have a snail.

Any shout-outs/thanks/call outs for people?
I will just drop some board url’s cause I am not big time:
maxbimmer.com
torontomazda3.ca
mazda3forums.com
jdmrides.ca

TV shows you should remember

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Transformers, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles are all great shows but everyone remembers them.All great but all really easy to remember. What about the old obscure TV shows with classic 80s metal sound tracks? Or the ones you might have been to old to watch? Most people pretend these shows never existed, not me though, I put them into a bad ass list.

12. Bots Master

What’s not to like about this show?

Robots? check
rap intro? check
Cool toys? check.

The only downfall was this show had parts filmed that took advantage of 3D glasses and I never had any around when it was on.

11. Wild C.A.T.S

Rock intros make any show good. Proof.

10. Mummies Alive

This show was pretty ridiculous…ly awesome! Brendan Fraser only started making money from Mummies after this show laid the ground work.

9. Big Guy and Rusty

I have a good feeling I was ‘too old’ to watch this show. But age is just a number, and robots are great.

8. Samurai Pizza Cats

This show was a big parody of itself other popular cartoons out at the time, which was pretty clever. If you listen close they make fun of the Ninja Turtles in the intro.

7. Street Sharks

With the success of the Ninja Turtles it was not uncommon for show creators to make all sorts of animals bi pedal and fight crime. In this case it was Sharks. But it has also been ducks quite a few times:

6. Gargoyles

This show was actually fairly original for the competition at the time. It got popular enough for a game to be released for Sega Genesis that was quite enjoyable.

5. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

I actually think I had more books on this show than anything, I should find those books. Anyway this show looks pretty awesome.

4. Biker Mice From Mars

Lyndsey hates when I bring up this show, but this is the only show on the list that was brought back for new audiences. The older show is far, far superior though.

3. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs

Big wig round table discussion:
Boss: Hey guys whats awesome
Worker #1: Dinosaurs!
Boss: Ok, and what else?
Worker #2: Cadillacs!
Boss: Well gentleman we can take the rest of the day off, lets send this one down to the art department.

2. M.A.S.K.

This show is essentially G.I. Joe and Transformers mixed together, sounds good to me. 80stees.com needs to restock this so I can buy it already.

1. C.O.P.S.

I almost didn’t include this one since my gf remembers it so it can’t be that obscure, however after watching the intro I had a huge smile on my face so it made number one. It’s crime fighting time!

Honorable Mentions

Tranzor Z

I put this under honorable because its so obscure that very few people actually remember it. It took me about 10 years just to remember the tittle.

Bobbys World

Perhaps the best thing Howie Mandel ever did.

Brave Star

Cowboys + future + some crazy shit = This.

Tail spin

I know you wanted to be able to surf behind a plane on a boomerang as much as I did.

My Pet Monster

Again, I was probably too old but whatever.

I could do this all day, and I really shouldn’t. So that’s it for now… maybe.

BMX In Action – 1987

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

I have had this book for a very, very,  long time. If I recall I purchased it at a book fair at my elementary school in grade 1. Which would put the year about 1989, which was 8 years before I raced my first race.

I figured since this book was publish in 1987 making it over twenty years old it would be pretty interesting to scan it and post it online for everyone to see.

Enjoy.


























The next book I need to scan is also pretty interesting. I won’t scan all of this one though cause its pretty big.


Things I always wanted – January 8th 2009

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

This is going to be the first of many, many, remote control devices I wanted over the years. These things were like crack to me, electric wheeled crack. I wanted as many as I could get, and as soon as I got one I got a custom to it and then bored and wanted a newer faster better one. My suppliers tended to be Tyco, Radioshack, and New Bright as they put out the most gimmicky eye catching toy quality RC cars at the time, and my dealers were my parents.

One of the cars I remember wanting really bad was the XRC Ricochet (Tyco had a similar one called the Rebound).

The car was a 2 sided remote control car with big tires that allowed it to run upside down, right side up, on its side, basically as long as a wheel touched the ground this car would orient itself in a way where it could move. What the video doesn’t clearly illustrate however, was that for a toy it was fast as hell.

I remember one day running my mouth of at Jr high saying I had a car that could beat anyone’s and my friend Erran challenged me to a race. So we both ran home and charged our cars and four or so hours when our ‘quick’ chargers finished (whoever thought making kids wait 4 hours for 20 minutes play time is sadistic) the race was on.

I got crushed, ruined, destroyed, humiliated, and emasculated all at once. It was a sad day for my playground ego.

I quickly deemed whatever piece of junk I had at the time inadequate and used up whatever occasion I had coming up (birthday, Christmas, chore completion, passing marks whatever) to acquire one.

As was often the case my parents screwed up and bought me the wrong thing normally I would be devastated however, just this once what they did buy me happened to be better than what I actually wanted.

Ricochet Stunt Cycle

Instead of getting me the car they got me the bike version I didn’t even know existed. I scoured the Internet wide and far for a photo of this marvel but all I could find was the damn instruction manual.

The bike, like the car, had big tires went fast and could bash off anything and keep going. The big wheels made it stable enough to go on and off road, which was something most remote control motorcycles of the time could not do.

This thing was so much fun that not only did I hold onto it for years, but I also distinctly recall playing with it as recent as 5 years ago before giving it to a neighborhood child who lived near me at my last dwelling.

That kid no doubt soon broke it as after years of punishment at my hands it was starting to show some cracks. The thought of kind of that kind of sucks but I probably started his electric crack habit and the thought of that is kind of awesome.

Wordless Wednesdays – January 7th 2009

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Terminator Salvation Action Figures – Bamkapow

Wearable Toilet – Gizmodo

Modern Electrical Outlets – Gizmodo

http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/2009/01/inaugural-obama-and-hope-obama-action.html

Obama Inagural and Hope Figures - ToysREvil I like toys

Iphone Boob Application

My Car was stripped in my own driveway

5 Drinking myths that can kill you