December 30th, 2007 by Brack
I got myself a twitter account so I can IM random thoughts to it as I see fit.
The latest posts to it should appear in the Awesome-Engine.com side bar or you can go to http://twitter.com/awesome_engine and follow it/RSS feed it to your heart’s content.
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December 29th, 2007 by Brack
Neil Hamburger
I think it was Graham Linehan’s currently sleeping livejournal that introduced me to the anti-comedy of Neil Hamburger, coincidentally just before he suddenly became a lot more visible via supporting Tenacious D, appearing in The Pick Of Destiny, appearing on TAEASGJ, having a regular role on that Tom Green internet thing, having a track on that Comedy Death Ray CD and so forth. This years “Hot February Night” album is a good starting point, with Neil in his best element - performing in front of a hostile crown who isn’t in on the joke (in this case a Tenacious D crowd). Also check 2005’s “Great Moments at Di Presa’s Pizza House”. It’s a great example of creating a fictional world just through audio and is a fine example of audio storytelling.
Kanye West - Graduation
The lyrics can sometimes border on the naive and clumsy, but the quality of the production and sometimes the sheer force of his own ego can drag the songs past that. And he’s kept up his great eye for a music video. The Akira-homaging Stronger, the Zach Galifianakis /Will Oldham farm-based miming of Can’t Tell Me Nothing and the can’t-beat-em-join-em Jonas & François/So Me video for Good Life (Jonas & François/So Me created the Justice vs. Simian video that Kanye threw a hissy fit over when it beat his video at some MTV award thing. They also did the DANCE video for Justice, which uses similar So Me animation to the Good Life video. Both DANCE and Good Life owe something to Michael Jackson’s track P.Y.T.).
Psych
I’m not sure I’ve properly said how much I love this show. I think it’s my favourite current television show. The concept of a fake psychic detective had me hooked from the start and the chemistry between James Roday, Dule Hill and Corbin Bernsen made it fun from the get go (I took a little longer to come around to Timothy Omundson and Maggie Lawson’s cop characters). And unlike Monk, it’s mysteries are whodunnits rather than a Columbo style howsolveit. And the technique of zoom and freeze when Shawn Spencer spots a clue is great for playing fair with the viewer. Plus the comedic quality of the performances and script actually give it rewatching value (not to mention when you rewatch it, you invariably see how the reveal is properly foreshadowed in the story).
Mononoke
Kenji Nakamura’s spin off from his Bakeneko arc of Ayakashi was a tour-de-force in direction. And the stories it told weren’t half bad either. Easily the most visually interesting show this year (Gurren Lagann and Denno Coil both had better animation, but Nakamura did far more interesting things with shot composition and visual storytelling than those two shows).
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
All I needed to know was that they were a band who sounded like Wowee Zowee-era Pavement. And I wasn’t disappointed when I heard them. Why not check the proper music video for the title track they recently had made? Ramshackle country tinged indie can still bring a smile to my face in ‘07.
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December 28th, 2007 by Brack
The female lead (Teru Nanba?) in this show looks incredibly sassy. Is the show as awesome a mix of The Avengers, Sonny Chiba, US detective shows and superheroes as it looks? And is there a book that collects Yoshitaka Amano’s Tatsunoko character design work?
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December 28th, 2007 by Brack
Burn Notice
This was fun little throwback to the action series eighties where people operating outside the law would stick up for the little guy. Jeffrey Donovan plays Michael Westen, a covert operative who finds himself with a “burn notice” against his name - i.e. he has been declared unreliable or dangerous, and cut out of the world of international espionage by persons unknown. So he finds himself in Miami, using his skills as a freelance spy/detective/bodyguard to earn money to fund his own investigation into who burned him. Gabrielle Anwar plays his ex-girlfriend Fiona, a former IRA operative (who has a terribly exaggerated Irish accent in the pilot ep, thankfully she toned it down after that), Bruce Campbell is Sam, a friend of Michael’s, ex-Navy SEAL and the character who feels most like he’s walked off the page of an Elmore Leonard novel (middle aged schlub who survives by sleeping with rich Miami women) and Sharon Gless play’s Michael’s hypochondriac mother who inevitably finds her house acting as a safehouse for whoever Michael is helping. It’s another fun show from the USA Network that fits nicely in the same niche as Monk and Psych. The only weaknesses are occasionally dodgy gimmicky direction and when the character of Fiona borders on the irritating, otherwise it’s great stuff.
The Skull Man
Takeshi Mori and Yutaka Izubuchi’s take on Shotaro Ishinomori’s dark version of Kamen Rider was BONES best anime production this year. It moved seemlessly from a detective to action adventure genres culminating in a downbeat epilogue that makes you want to see the same team produce a Cyborg 009 series.
The Shape Of Broad Minds - Craft Of The Lost Art
2007 found me liking new music a lot more than I have the past few years. There was more music that sounded genuinely new and this slab of hip hop from the future is definitely up in there. Is it Space Rap? Probably, though it doesn’t actually sound like Space Rap of yore. It sounds like some kind of psychedelic jazz future.
Captain America
Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins work on this title has been my favourite new superhero comics material this year. I never really liked Epting’s art when I encountered it in the 90s but I love it now. He and Perkins have a realistic style that reminds me more of the war comics I read as a kid (Battle and Commando) than superhero comics and works wonders on Brubaker’s script. The realistic Arnim Zola was particular efffective, making him more unnerving and creepy than the more familiar four colour version.
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s follow up to Tom Goes To The Mayor was another nail in the coffin of the Cartoon Network’s original animated content, but at the same time it was a great, albeit frequently sinister, sketch comedy show. The episode “Forest” which aired a few weeks ago was the pinnacle of the series so far, bringing together a number of the greatest elements of the series (Uncle Muscles, Steve Brule and a Zach Galifianakis guest starring spot).
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December 25th, 2007 by Brack
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December 24th, 2007 by Brack
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December 21st, 2007 by Brack
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December 19th, 2007 by Brack
Sounds like tomb doors opening. Can I get a refund on the last 5 days of my life?
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December 18th, 2007 by Brack
I’ve been laid out with a cold since Sunday afternoon. All things being well (well maybe not all things, I’d just settle for this cough to go away) the Awesomevent Calendar should be back on track tomorrow.
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December 15th, 2007 by Brack
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