End of the year...

Well, unfortunately, I didn't quite blog as often as I thought I was gonna. The last 2 months went by without much updates here even though there were things to blog about...

It's about a half hour until midnight and the new year. I will make a more concentrated effort to be a bit more consistent and keep up with this next year. Round 2, hopefully year 2 I can see if I can keep up.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, I fell really behind this month and will only be able to get this one blog in...

Kinda busy overall though which is a good thing. I hope to finish our "Project Kikaida" today before heading out to Waikiki for our annual Halloween walk. Bert is going as Kikaida 01 and I'm gonna be Kikaida. I'll probably post some pics up later.

My Batmobile guardian...

Sadly, this little Batman figure finally broke today. The years of heat and sun finally took its toll on the string that held it onto the windshield of my car and it snapped and fell.

It had lasted 17 years and 3 cars. I had gotten it shortly after the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie came out but no where to hang it. After I got my first car in 1993, I placed him on the front windshield and there he swung...guarding my car, swinging back and forth.

I may try to repair it and put it back up or I may retire him and try to find a new one.

Falling behind!!!!

Yikes, I really wanna stay on course with this thing but it is difficult sometimes. I give the guys who do this regularly credit.

Anyway, I got my real estate sales person license a little earlier this month and I just finished joining the Honolulu Board of Realtors today. Things are picking up and I'm getting a bit busy. Which is good...

With Halloween a little over a month away, Bert and I are gonna try to finish our Kikaida brothers costumes. Project Kikaida is underway!

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse came out today. I enjoyed the story and the animation was top notch as always. It had a very Mike Turner(ish) feel to the art style and it's always great to hear Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly together on projects like these.

Like many people have been kind of complaining about, it was really a Supergirl centric story but since it was based on the Superman/Batman story from a few years ba

ck, it has the Superman/Batman name attached to it. Still, a great animated movie.

The bonus Green Arrow animated short was awesome as well. I'm really liking these shorts, the stories are good for something short, they are animated well and they give us a chance to see characters we might not normally get to see brought to "life".

Next up is All Star Superman...

More Batman: The Brave and the Bold! The DS game was pretty fun for what it was, although a bit easy but thats probably because it is targeted at a much younger audience. The game plays like an older SNES generation type game and doesn't really make much use of the touch screen.

The first 13 episodes of the Brave and the Bold animated series came out on DVD after WB put out 3 volumes with about 4-5 episodes. I hope they come out with the following compilations soon. It's a fun series to watch, a different take on Batman, not the Dark Knight.

My friend from Japan sent me this image of a Batman mineral water bottle he found. DC seems to be licensing some pretty cool stuff overseas.

Turtles, Eddys' and Batman!

I saw the finale of two animated shows I enjoyed in the early 2000's. The TMNT movie: Turtles Forever was great...a teleporting mishap causes a rift in the dimensions and the 1988 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet the 2003 TMNT turtles. They were able to animate the 1988 turtles in pretty much the way they were animated back in the day and the characterizations were spot on...cheesy jokes, indulgence of pizza and constant breaking of the fourth wall. The interactions with the past and current turtles was awesome and it culminated with a meeting with Turtles Prime. The original Eastman and Laird black and white comic book turtles!

There was even a scene where they talked and showed photos of pretty much all the incarnations of turtles there were in the past 25 years. From the comics to the animated ones and even the live-action ones. The movie ended with a live-action scene of a panel from the original comic being drawn and Eastman and Laird having a conversation about taking a break and going for pizza. They hope that their comic will do well...LOL

The second series ending movie was Ed, Edd and Eddy, a series I really enjoyed during the early part of the new millenium. I didn't even know that the movie existed and was lucky enough to change the channel to it just as it started. It was nice seeing the Eds' in one final adventure and Eddy's brother for the first time. The ending was also a really nice send off for the show.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold was just released for the Wii today! Haven't played it yet but it looks like fun. I've been playing Arkham Asylum a lot again recently so I have this and the new Spider-man game to hold me over till DC Universe online comes out in a couple of months.

While picking up the game, I was lucky enough that the nice guys at Game Stop Pearlridge gave me the Batman promo items for the upcoming DC Universe Online game.

An embroidered Batman cap, a bunch of bumper stickers and one of those flash-lights that shine the Bat-signal!

Looking forward to the game in November...LOL, we have been waiting for this game since 2008!

And finally, after almost 20 years, I finally have this Batman jacket that I've been chasing for the since 1993.I was sniped out of a medium sized one earlier this year but I was able to win it this time for $13 and no challengers! I got the large sized one in 1993 from Gecko's in Kaimuki, the small sized one off of eBay a few years ago but both of them didn't quite fit. Large one was too large and the small sized one was a little too small. So like Goldilocks, the medium sized one fits...just right!

Video?

Just thought I'd try posting a video here, maybe start posting "Where's Scott" episodes here as well as on Facebook.

I know that posting video here is possible, my concern is how much all the pictures and potential videos will affect the space for my Gmail use. I think I'm up over 25% used already which isn't a whole lot yet but if I keep going and keep posting pictures and videos, will I cap my gmail use and end up having to pay for it?

WWE!

A few of the guys and I got to go to a live WWE event at the Blaisdell center last night. It's always a good show when they come to town but this time...we got FRONT ROW seats!

Some highlights of the show:

Evan Bourne pinned Ted DiBiase, 2 members of Nexus beat the Hart Dynasty, The Miz beat Mark Henry, Randy Orton beating Sheamus by a DQ, a six- Diva tag match with Eve Torres and the Bella tiwns beating Jillian Hall, Alicia Fox and Maryse, Chris Jericho beating Yoshi Tatsu with the Codebreaker and John Cena making Wade Barrett tap out to the STF after Randy Orton rushed in to get rid of a Nexus member who came down to interfere in the match.

Cena came by after and shook hands, accepted a lei from a kid, commented on Lance's hat (!) and gave a wrist band to some kid behind us.


A lot of the photos were blurry or washed out in one way or the other. As good as camera on my phone is (it's decent), I think I may have to get a real P&S camera at some point...it will just add another thing to carry on my belt though. Probably a good one that does video as well.

Anyway, I hope they come again next year.

Movies!

Man, I gotta start keeping up with this thing if I wanna make the one year thing. It's already half way through the month and this is my first "real" post.

CBG night at the movies this past Saturday night was a showing of the new action movie the Expendables. A lot of big name action stars showed up in the movie and while there was close to no real story line, it was a kind of fun, summer movie. The action scenes were fun and it was a blast to see so many big names on the screen at once.

There was a great scene with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzennegger, something that you kind of thought about seeing back when you were a kid...Family Guy actually joked about a movie with Stallone and Schwarzennegger a while back.

I wanna check out Scott Pilgrim next. While on the subject of movies, I 'rented' my first movie on my phone yesterday. The Joneses was an interesting movie, one that I'm glad I rented and got a chance to watch. A story about a new family that moves into a new neighborhood. They seem like a nice typical family with everything you could want but you soon realize that they are all sales people posing as a family to get people to buy products they carry and use. They always seem to have the newest thing.

The bigger thing for me though, was the fact that I felt like watching a movie and used the blockbuster app on my HTC HD2 to browse through a selection of movies, choose it and hit the rent button and watch it.

It took about 12 minutes to download the movie before I could hit play but the quality was good and the fact that it was there pretty much when I wanted it was even better. I haven't tried renting or buying a movie on my PS3 or the "on demand" service Oceanic Cable offers but if I wanted to watch it on a bigger screen or with more people, the option is there. The HTC HD2's screen is actually pretty large and it wasn't a pain to watch it there.

I think I'll try the next movie I rent from the iTunes store directly to my iPod touch. The iPod touch's screen isn't as large as the HD2's but it's acceptable plus, I think the selection there might be larger (at least for the older movies).

test

testing to see if it is possible to blog from my phone.

tested with pocket internet explorer. seems like I can blog but can't upload images through here.

Tokusatsu Picnic 7

The 7th Tokusatsu Picnic was held last Sunday, July 18, 2010 at our usual location; the key hole at Ala Moana beach park.

This years theme was Ultra 7 with a special memorial for our departed friend/hero Mr. Shunsuke Ikeda. It's always nice to be around your friends on such a beautiful day. Good food, good friends and a fun day overall.

We had a little memorial tribute for Mr. Ikeda at about 2:30 and most of us said a little something about him and what we remembered about our times with him.

Chris and Mara also brought their new 3 month old son Greyson to the picnic. A little future CBG member in the making. Jackson and I had a good time hanging with the little guy.

Contemporary Museum & Kikaida!

My pal Jon J. Murakami had a special showing today at the Contemporary Museum up in Moilili. There was a special exhibition from the Manga Bento guys for an event called Manga Meyhem.

The traffic to get inside was crazy for the event but while waiting to get inside, I saw the Ecto-1! Unfortunately, by the time I got a parking space, the car had left and I didn't get a chance to take a better picture.

A huge turn out for the event and I was lucky enough to get Jon J., Audra Furuichi and Deviin Oishi to do some Kikaida drawings to put up on the GK site/Facebook page.





















While there I realized that once again, I said that I would 1)attempt to blog regularly for one year, 2) get 1 clip of "Where's Scott?" out a month for at least a year and 3) do 1 drawing a month for a year. I've been good about getting 1&2 done so far but other than the January drawing, I haven't completed one yet. I have to get back to work on that...

Ultraman

We were cruizin around a bit the other day while the cave was being bombed for fleas. We ended up in Kapolei and checked out the Target store there. I've seen the Ultraman DVD at a few other places before but Target had it for $5! I"m not sure if this is the same one as the others I have seen because this one is season one, volume one and the others may have been for the complete set but for $5 how could I pass it up?

I have vaguely remember anything about the show, I remember how Ultraman looked and his cross arm finishing pose (as seen on the cover) but not much else. I believe I also had a Ultra 7 pocket LCD game when I was a kid but didn't realize that there was an Ultra Family until I was a bit older.

We got back tot he cave and popped in the DVD and had a marathon of the first 10 episodes! A bit corny and hokey but tokusatsu fun none the less. The Japanese theme is as catchy as any great Japanese hero theme and fun to hum/sing along to...of course, the American/English version of the same song is a bit corny but if you were introduced to that version first it may not be so bad. Kinda like how I enjoy the US Speed Racer theme as well as the Japanese one because I was introduced to the US version first.

Anyway, the DVD was fun to watch and we just gotta find some time to pop in disc 2 and watch the next 10 episodes.

Star Wars dress up...

Well...this is the least number of posts I've had in a while. It's been an up and down month and a busy one too. Anyway, this past Saturday, as a member of the Oahu Fan Force (Oahu's Star Wars fan club), the club got together to take a group photo. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any photos but some should be up soon at the website Oahufanforce.com. I wore an old "Han Solo" costume I put together when I worked at the movie theater for the re-release of Star Wars episode 4 back in 1996. I think I may use this as my Star Wars costume if I ever need it again, with some improvements along the way.

Speaking of which, I was wondering if I needed a back story because I wasn't actually Han Solo, just kinda dressed with him. I forgot where I put my blaster and I didn't have the holster for it anyway. I was thinking maybe I could get a utility belt together and he could be a smuggler with gadgets and doesn't like to use the blaster. That and I think that I'm the only guy in the group without a lightsabre so no Jedi for me. Not that it's a big deal, I'll let the other guys be the Jedis.

On a quick side note...Reid got us ring side seats for August's WWE event! More later!

Farewell Mr. Ikeda pt. 2

We had our own little memorial for Mr. Ikeda last Saturday (June 19, 2010). It was a sunrise memorial on the other side of the island.

Sam organized the event that took place at about 5:30 in the morning out at Laie point. It was actually a pretty nice morning and we got to see the sun rise out over the ocean.

Cooler than that was the fact that for a little while it started to rain. At first we were thinking it was kind of a damper on the nice morning but the rain brought with it a FULL rainbow.
One that went end to end.
It seemed like a nice way to end the tribute...

Kinda made you think of Iz's Somewhere Over the Rainbow song. Seeing as how much he loved Hawaii, I think Mr. Ikeda would have liked it.

Farewell Mr. Ikeda

Last week Thursday, one of my childhood heroes, Mr. Ikeda Shunsuke passed away (6/10/11). It came as quite a shock as earlier in the evening some of us were talking about him and I said last I heard, he wasn't feeling well, he was sick but he seemed ok. Two hours later, I get the bad news that he had passed on earlier in the evening.

I was fortunate enough to meet him for the first time back in 2001. The All Collectors Expo at the Blaisdell featured Mr. Ikeda and Mr. Ban in an autograph session. For many of us fans, it was the chance to meet them for the first time. Little did I know that I would not only get the opportunity to work with them in the years to come but get to know them as more than childhood heroes. Can I say as friends?


The following year (2002), I was asked to be a part of the "Generation Kikaida" crew. First in January when Mr. Ban came down to help with the New Years festivities at the JCCH. I along with another kid got the opportunity to bring Kikaida to life for the fans of Hawaii.

It was in April though when both Mr. Ban and Mr. Ikeda came back to Hawaii for an event called Gill's Gala. A three day Kikaida event, it was also the first "show" that we as the new Generation Kikaida crew had to do.
I'm not sure about the other guys but I was nervous because not only were we performing an action show but I got the opportunity to work in a show with two of my childhood heroes. I remember Mr. Ikeda and I trying to have a conversation...me with my limited Japanese and Mr. Ikeda with limited English. I stopped the conversation and was going to get a translator when he told me that "No...don't worry. We are doing fine.". He always made an attempt to make you feel at ease.

I remember during the show, I kinda messed up but we were able to recover and continue and after the show as I attempted to apologize to him for my 'snafu', he laughed and said don't worry, he thought he was the one that messed up.

In 2003 he and Mr. Ban came down again for a stage show called Kikaida Brothers Live. The first stage show with dialog and action that the Generation Kikaida crew had done. Most of us are not actors or stunt men/women so it was exciting for us to work with Mr. Ban and Mr. Ikeda in this capacity.

A few months later a few of us CBG guys got the chance to go to Japan. The first time there for many of us. We were lucky enough to meet up for lunch with Mr. Ban and Mr. Ikeda. During lunch, Mr. Ikeda gave me a autographed photo of me Ban and himself. Mr Ikeda also took us around town and played tour guide.

We were fortunate enough to get to hang out with Mr. Ikeda over the years. From working with him at various Kikaida events to him and his wife coming to the islands for a vacation, he would always make sure he spent some time with us. And not just spend time but make an attempt to connect with you.

In 2004, on a non Kikaida related visit to the islands, we got a chance to have dinner with the Ikeda's. After dinner we all went out for a little bit of karaoke. We had secretly brought a cake to the karaoke studio. Mid-way through the evening in between various tokusatsu theme songs, we played Happy Birthday and brought the cake in along with a card we had all signed. He was so thrilled and happy. Mrs. Ikeda began to cry. He joked about not wanting to have to cut the cake when someone cried out "01 cut!".

2 years later in 2006, he returned the favor and surprised me on my birthday by appearing on a birthday video wishing me a Happy Birthday. He also wrote me a nice little birthday note and gave me his special 01 Spel Delfin mask.


Sadly, as much as he wanted to come down to do a show with us or visit, he wasn't able to the last 2 years. We last saw him in 2008. He was in good spirits then and oddly Ban was sick at the time. As Ban's health returned, Ikeda's slowly declined. I heard some stories that he had gotten sick but didn't know how serious it was. In some pictures I would see, he was thinner but looked happy and energetic.

The night he passed away, I was talking on the phone and for some reason, the subject of "how Ban and Ikeda were doing?" came up. I said that Ikeda was kinda sick but I wasn't sure...last I hear, he was ok. Two hours later I get the sad sad news that he had passed 3 hours before my conversation.

R.I.P. Mr. Ikeda. Thank you for all the memories. As sad as this is, with all of the memories you have given us, you won't be forgotten and will be with us always...

Birthday...well...a bit late though.

Falling behind...It's been about 2 weeks since I updated here...I need to get on the ball with it. Hopefully this one will make it into the May month for blogs. It was my birthday last week Tuesday (May 25th). As usual for the past I don't know how many years, my mother made the annual Batman birthday cake. Always the best!

My friends got together for a nice birthday dinner at Hifumi restaurant in China town on Saturday May 29, 2010. Got a bunch of great gifts but the best gift was having so many of my friends show up to help celebrate my birthday. The food was good and so was the company. The only minor drawback was that this guy came up to us after while we were hanging around after talking story asking for money for "food". Lawrence was nice enough to take him to a restaurant and buy him some egg rolls but a few minutes later he came back asking for more money before somebody told him to beat it.

On Sunday night May 30, I got to go to the Oahu Fan Force's screening for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Classic movie but I missed the best part! I went to the bathroom and returned right after Vader said "I am your father!".

Kikaida!

For the 6th year in a row, the folks at the Maui Matsuri have asked the Generation Kikaida crew to go up to Maui and participate in the annual festival that celebrates Japanese culture on the island of Maui. The event took place on May 15, 2010 ( I note this because I haven't updated this blog since the 13th and today is the 24th).

Mr. Ban came down along with Mr. Miura for the event. It's always great to see these two guys. Unfortunately, Mr. Ikeda couldn't make it down for the event this year. It was a good turn out, and the audience got involved. It's always a better show when the audience gets involved. The GK store did really well too. We sold out of most things...we probably should have brought more but it's hard to judge before hand.

The following week (May 23) we had an appearance at Shirokiya. Again, it was a really good turn out. The show was scheduled to go from 2:00-3:30 but I think we went till 4. The crowd was there and didn't really slow down until the very end. The number of kids that showed up too was really unbelievable.

It's amazing that a 36 year old show that hasn't been on the air for years continues to draw not only a following but it seems that a new generation of kids are showing up all the time. These young 4-6 year old kids are excitedly going up on stage and singing "Go! Go! Kikaida". A cult following in Hawaii.

Law & Order

Thought this was pretty interesting...

Law & Order: UK. I found this while wandering around Target last night. This is supposed to be the UK's version (duh) of the Law & Order series. The opening monologue is a little different in that the wording and the narrator as well as the opening theme. I watched a clip of the opening on YouTube and was a little disappointed that the opening theme wasn't a UK/British version/take on the US L&O theme. I mean we have the same recognizable theme for each show, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and even the short lived Law & Order: Trial by Jury whose theme is now the CI theme so a British version of the theme would have been awesome.

From what I've read though, the infamous "chung chung" sound as well as the location and time fade overs are still there.

Speaking of which...I've enjoyed this past seasons Law & Order: SVU. Last years one wasn't too bad either, considering that seasons 8&9 were what I thought were so bad I thought they had jumped the shark. A bit of redemption the past two seasons though season 6 is still my personal favorite.

And Jeff Goldblum as Zac Nichols has renewed my interest in the CI series. I don't know if it will ever be as good as the first 4 or so seasons of CI was but it is keeping my interest so far.

Ipod, Iron Man, Free comics and a bunch of catch up!

Well...a quick update on the Batmobile. Initially, I thought I would only need to replace the rear windshield before the girl at Safe-Lite pointed out the dent that was made when somebody smashed my rear windshield. Because of the dent, I have to get that repaired and what was supposed to be a 2 hour job to be completed in less than a day has taken away my car for over a week and more money out of my pocket. The repair shop told me that they had to order a part to repair the dent and that the part wouldn't come in until next week sometime.

In the meantime, I got a rental car on Friday. A Ford Fusion that I'll hopefully only have a few days. I would love for a call telling me that my car is ready early in the week.

I joined the Oahu chapter of the Star Wars Fan Force a few weeks ago. It's a Star Wars fan club and along with Rebel Legion Hawaii, both clubs participated in Free Comic Book Day. Free Comic Book Day is an event held the first Saturday in May every year that various venues (usually comic shops and libraries) participate in and pass out select free comics.

Two Jedi Knights and General Han Solo made appearances to help celebrate the day. (I "borrowed" this picture from Oahu Fan Force) It was nice to see some of the people that came to the event. It's always nice to see the interactions with the characters and the kids but some of the adults that showed up and were excited to see the Star Wars characters too. The Rebel Legion Hawaii and Oahu Fan Force may be getting more members in the near future.

I have to remember to finish my membership in to the Oahu Fan Force by posting to the forums on the website.

I posted in February that I got a new iPod Touch. Because of the way I wear my ear buds (from my belt up my back) I knew that they would wear out after a period of time...usually 3-6 months. It's usually because they get twisted and kinked from time to time. Unfortunately, because the ear buds/headphones have a remote control in them and a mic, they usually cost about $30. I could get away with the $15 regular, any brand ones with my old nano but if I wanted to be able to control the iPod touch "remotely" I need to get the special Apple ones from the Apple Store for $30. So this past week, I went in and got a new pair and then a few days later the original pair that came with my iPod touch died. Luckily, I had the new pair I just bought and was able to switch it right away. The first pair lasted almost 3 months...hopefully this new pair lasts a little longer.

CBG night at the movies went to see Iron Man 2 at Dole theaters this past Saturday night. It wasn't bad but not great either. I loved the technology they made for this movie...Tony's cellphone/pda thing he used during the senate hearings was awesome. 6/10 IMO.

I used Fandango online to purchase our tickets. I love trying new technology to do things. I previously had been using the kiosks outside of the theaters to purchase the tickets in the past, especially when there was a long line at the box office. It surprises me sometimes that there aren't more people using those machines when the box office lines are long. Then again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As for the Fandango thing, we had to print out a receipt and take it down to the theater but unfortunately, the kiosks were out of tickets in the machine so we still had to take the receipt to the box office for them to print out our tickets for us.

Okole Puka!

I got a rude awakening this morning as my neighbor tells me that someone smashed my rear windshield. I go outside and find my car with glass all over the road and inside the back of my hatchback. Worse yet (not that it isn't already bad) is the fact that it seems more like some punk was out doing it for fun. Vandalism. Whoever did it didn't even bother to look in the car to see if there was anything valuable to take. Not that I'm glad one way or the other but...

I went to bed around midnight and was up by about 6AM so I figured it happened sometime between then but a young woman who lives around the block said that her car had it's driver's side window smashed around 2AM.

Anyway, the police came and I filed a police report but I'm not sure what they can really do. It's kind of infuriating that some okole puka can do this and get away with it. worse yet is the fact that it seems they smashed the windshield with a bat or pipe and hit the body of the car as well.
Initially it was just a windshield replacement, which was bad enough but after taking it to Safe-Lite to try to get it fixed, they pointed out the dent and said that they could replace my windshield but it not sit properly and there could be leaking problems if we didn't repair the body first.

So what was supposed to be a 2 hour job has now turned into a...well, not sure yet as the insurance company has to get an estimate for the repair now whereas it was already set when we knew it was only gonna be a windshield replacement.

The sky was an ugly gloomy gray color. It was not a great day but hey, they can't all be awesome days right? I got the news they announced the release date of the new Batman movie though...good news at least on this day.

Getting behind...Shake Down...and more...!

Yikes...got off track and went about 10 days without a blog...not really that big of a deal but I wanna keep this up for the year. So...Last Saturday, the CBG gang headed over to Kapahulu to catch Kerry's band Shakedown at OnStage. Even though we missed the first part of the show, they put on a great show. This was the second time we went down to catch their show and it's been a fun, foot tapping show both times. As always, Kerry is quite the performer playing to the crowd which was full of Hawaii News Now workers...

Found this interesting...I'm not sure what to call it. I found it over at Shirokiya earlier today. I like checking out some of the items they have in the back part of the third floor. A lot of interesting things back there. Anyway, this is a spray on, air conditioner in a can. My co-worker Yuko said that you "Shake and spray it on your clothes and it is supposed to help keep you cool". I can't read the complicated kanji directions but I was able to make out the 'coo-lah' from the katakana on the can. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet since I've only been in doors in an air conditioned office and a comfortable temperature room at home. It fits in my front pocket...I'm thinking about going back to more pouches on the belt but my back might not be too happy with that.

Anyway, I'll give it a try tomorrow if it's warm and see how much it helps. If it works, that would be awesome because then I would have the hand warmers if it gets a little cold and this "air conditioner" spray if it gets a little hot.

Kickin' Okole'...

So the CBG gang went to see Kick-Ass this past Saturday night over at Ward. The much anticipated comic book movie based on Millar and Romita Jr.'s extreme comic book played out pretty much like it's 6 issue mini-series.

On one hand, it was like the comic book, it was actually pretty enjoyable and a pretty good action packed movie. On the other hand, it was like the comic book and I think that the amount of violence and some of the swearing was gratuitous and unnecessary. Like the comic...haha...look at the amount of violence just for the sake of it we can put in and get away with. But I digress...

In a sense, Kick-Ass was very much like the old T.R.A.C.K. comics my friends and I did when we were teens. So much so that in issue 2 that we never finished, the light-hearted exploits of the kids in issue 1 that we had done in 1987 had turned into a violent bloody adventure midway through issue 2 when I took over fully in the early 90's.

But without getting too much into that, the concept was great. I loved it but like I said, I wonder if Millar and Romita Jr were laughing thinking look at what we are gonna get away with being away from a big named company. But perhaps that is the allure of it. Being restricted while working with the bigger named companies, you sometimes wanna do some of these more extreme things in comics that when you get a chance, you go full force and over the top. An enjoyable 7/10 for the movie that seems marketed for kids but is clearly not made for them.

I'm actually doing this backwards...because it was earlier in the day that the CBG gang went to the Kawaii Kon at the Hawaii Convention Center. Got to see our friends Jon J. Murakami and Gordon Chan over at the Gordon Rider booth. Jon was promoting his new Gordon Rider 5 Year Art Tribute book that Jackson, Bert, Myron and I got to do a drawing for. It was fun and nice to see our work in a book along other artists. Kinda like the calendar projects.

Sean had his Mecha Hawaii booth over at the dealer's room. Nice to see Sean there, I hope he had a profitable con. That kinda looks weird..."hope he had a profitable con" Kinda like I hope his "con" works and he is able to make money off of suckering a poor guy. LOL!

Sam Campos, Alison Kam and Mark Gould had a Dragon Fly booth there too. Too bad the Dragon Fly suit wasn't there to make an appearance and too bad that Alison wasn't "promoted" there...you know, 'Come See Star of Dragon Fly, Alison Kam!'

Doc Grant of Lime Media also had a booth promoting their latest project from the Hawaii Star Media Project. Nice to see them moving along as well as all these other local artists!

BTW, we got to wish both Sam and Doc a Happy Birthday on Saturday the 17th.

Adam West on the Tonight Show!

I try not to stay up too late now days LOL but I had to watch the Tonight Show tonight after hearing that Adam West was gonna be on it.

Nicholas Cage was on the Tonight Show promoting the upcoming film "Kick-Ass". During the interview, he talked about how he played his character Big Daddy like Adam West as Batman.

He also mentioned how he was a big fan of the '66 Batman show when he was a kid. Jay proceeded to go on and say that they were gonna have a Batman trivia quiz and then he brought out Adam West!

Adam went on to win the trivia contest (maybe Nicholas let him win) but I have some new respect for Nicholas Cage...I didn't know Alfred Pennyworth's full name was Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth.

How cool is this...Batman has his own collections category on the iTunes library! Movies, TV shows and music the character has enough media to warrant his own personal collection. Admittedly, not all of them are gems but if you are a fan, I think it's pretty cool and exciting to see something like this.

All of the titles for each sub-category also has more titles if you click on the See All button on the upper right corner of each section. I think I have almost all of the titles offered here...haven't picked up the motion comics yet.


Wow...this is the third movie I've seen in less than a week...Clash of the Titans last Saturday night, How to Train your Dragon on Monday night and She's out of my League tonight. It's your typical romantic/comedy...not necessarily a bad thing. Enjoyable for the most part, I give it a 7 out of 10...LOL. But seriously, I'm a sucker for movies like this.

Gotta stay away from the movie theater popcorn though...

Goodbye Detective Goren...

After a little over 8 seasons, Detective Robert Goren said goodbye to the Major Case Squad on last night's Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode. The second episode of season 9 saw him leave after (IMO) a steady downhill slide in the CI series since the end of season 5.

Personally, the first four seasons of Law and Order: Criminal Intent was actually a really good show. Vincent D'onofrio's Detective Robert Goren character took a bit of time to get used to but it was his quirkiness that added so much to the character. It seemed to me though that along with a change in the team leading the show going into the sixth season, the show kinda jumped the shark.

It seemed like a totally different show with different characters. D'onofrio put on a lot of weight but that wasn't the most jarring change. The characters themselves changed. IMO, Eames was always a weak character and was there to play off of Goren, someone he could bounce theories off of. She may have been the senior officer but it never came across that way. In season six, Eames suddenly became strong headed (not a bad thing) but it was a different character and the once quirky and insightful Goren was now suddenly...unbalanced, no longer quite insightful.

Anyway, another one of my favorite television characters has said goodbye. Detective Adrian Monk late last year and now Detective Robert Goren. I'll still watch CI for a while to see where it goes as Jeff Goldblum's character Zac Nichols has a quirky Goldblum quirk to him. It may be interesting for a while but seriously, I haven't really enjoyed the show that much in a while.

How to train your Dragon

Got a chance to see the new DreamWorks animated movie How to train you Dragon. Didn't see the 3D version but it was a good movie. One of the more enjoyable CG animated movies I've seen in a while, one that I wouldn't mind seeing again.

...I probably would write more but I'm not feeling so good right now so I'll cut it short...maybe I'll come back to this later...