This is the continuation of the last episode where I said I’d be back in a week…over a week ago (sorry) but the good news is that I will have yet another episode of the show ready for y’all by tomorrow! Hooray?

The cast this episode was Ryan Bez, James Helsby, Evan Burkey, and myself as we discuss the finer points of Mass Effect 3′s ending with spoilers so be warned! Anime expo news including Evan’s bout with a fursuit, and Bez recalling all of the weeaboo moments he’s been part of when it comes to conventions.

OPENING – Super Mario World
CLOSING – ICP “Miracles”
BGM – Macross Frontier

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post. If you’re an iTunes user who doesn’t mind giving a bit of honest criticism and feedback, we welcome your ratings and comments on iTunes! We’re dying to hear what you all think of the show.

RLR #118 – Brown Bag of Random Hentai

Subscribe via iTunes, because we’d hate for you to ever miss an episode of our finely crafted show.

If none of that works, or if you can’t figure out how to click on a few things…OR you just want to download a copy of the show to your computer the old fashioned way, RIGHT CLICK ME and click ‘save as’.

I know, it’s been 2 weeks since the last show, but we’ve found a way to space out the shows so that we can get them to you weekly, if I weren’t such a flaky host and producer.

Included in the panel for this week, besides myself, is James Helsby, Ryan Wilson, Evan Burkey, and The Bez

OPENING – Anberlin “Feel Good Drag”
CLOSING – Kamui Gackt “Vanilla”
BGM – Macross 7′s FIRE BOMBER!!!

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post. If you’re an iTunes user who doesn’t mind giving a bit of honest criticism and feedback, we welcome your ratings and comments on iTunes! We’re dying to hear what you all think of the show.

RLR #117 – They All Tuck Down Here

Subscribe via iTunes, because we’d hate for you to ever miss an episode of our finely crafted show.

If none of that works, or if you can’t figure out how to click on a few things…OR you just want to download a copy of the show to your computer the old fashioned way, RIGHT CLICK ME and click ‘save as’.

Yes we’re back for another bi-weekly episode, still not quite ready to commit to a weekly JUST yet, but it’s coming.

Included in the panel for this week, besides myself, is Jermaine Pulliam, James Helsby, Ryan Wilson, Evan Burkey, and The Bez

We’re still a bit rusty but we’re getting there people, however we do return with tons of listener questions and what’s our shit this week.

OPENING – GWAR “Let Us Slay”
CLOSING – Regina Spektor “Hotel Song”
BGM – Various NES tracks

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post. If you’re an iTunes user who doesn’t mind giving a bit of honest criticism and feedback, we welcome your ratings and comments on iTunes! We’re dying to hear what you all think of the show.

RLR #116 – The Hungy Games

Subscribe via iTunes, because we’d hate for you to ever miss an episode of our finely crafted show.

If none of that works, or if you can’t figure out how to click on a few things…OR you just want to download a copy of the show to your computer the old fashioned way, RIGHT CLICK ME and click ‘save as’.

“Encounter at Farpoint” was my first real taste of American science fiction at its finest (even though that episode does suck). Of course I was shown the occasional original Star Trek when an episode was available, and we had bootleg copies of the Star Trek movies, but seeing Star Trek The Next Generation was the real I WAS THERE moment of my life.

From that point on, it was a regular occurrence for us in the Reed family, we’d get ready for the show by making homemade pizzas and settling in for the episode without fail. This was a family tradition for all seven seasons of the series, all the way until May 1994 when the show went off the air.

This was no small feat either, being a military family, we were used to having to uproot and move every couple of years when the old man got reassigned to a new post. It’s just one of those accepted things that has to happen, no biggie. But fie on thee if we missed one episode of this beloved show, FIE I SAY! But, for those seven years, I grew from awkward pre-pubescence into awkward teenager preparing for high school. The NES was king when it came on TV, and the SNES was king shortly after. There were a ton of things that happened in that series’ run.

Now that I’m an adult and over 20 years has passed since the premiere of the series, I have the luck…or should I say we all have the luck, of being able to watch every single episode of the show and pretty much all other Star Trek shows at the click of a mouse or a touch of a finger to a capacitive touch screen. It’s a great time to be alive, no doubt.

I decided at the beginning of the year that I was going to make myself watch every single episode of the long running series from beginning to end. I’m talking Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and even the terrible Animated Series. I’m talking all of it.

I caught a few episodes, namely a season or so, of the original series and found myself falling in love with William Shatner on a level more than I ever experienced before. You see, I knew that I liked him from the movies and from his other television appearances…mainly Boston Legal being his highpoint in recent memory. But the James T. Kirk of the 60s was a vapor inducing swarthy kung fu hunk-o-man that was big-dicking it across the cosmos. I realized that as cool and collected that Picard may be and as fair and honest as Sisko was, none of them could hold a candle to old Kirk, the man is just a legend.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all my captains dearly, but Kirk is a force of nature that can’t be stopped, only slowed by his two faithful companions Spock and McCoy. A seemingly unwritten love triangle of humanity’s best and worst traits. On one hand you have Spock’s logic and cold calculating Vulcan side, and on the other you have the bleeding heart McCoy. There’s something about the cast of TOS that was just magic…and is evidently true due to how many movies they all filmed together. Anyways I’m getting off point.

After seeing The Original Series for a few weeks, I made the jump over to The Next Generation, especially focusing on the first season in order to relive those moments of my childhood and realized that the show, while inherently good, was mired in the in the time it was created. The set pieces were always of a taupe color (just look at the bridge again) and the design of the Enterprise model reminded me of car styles of that generation, overly curvy while also feeling obscenely obtuse.

In other words, it really didn’t age well.

There is just no words for how prolific this series has been to my development as both a geek and a normal human being. I was never one of those hardcore Trekkers who wanted to join Starfleet Academy, or even one of the many who went on the experience when it was in Vegas, but the show and philosophy of humanity becoming more than what it is, is something that I’m sure going to pass along to my “next generation” and hopefully will have even more amazing storylines to pass along to them…even though there are plenty, hundreds even, of quality episodes to show them when they’re of the right age. Oh I think around 7 will suffice.

Thank you Gene Roddenberry for helping bring together at least two generations of my family. You are missed.

What is this bullsh*ttery going on? Can it be? A new episode of RLR, are you kidding me?!?! Come find out why we’ve disappeared for the last quarter year.

It may have been a long time coming but we return with style.

Included in the panel for this week, besides myself, is Jermaine Pulliam, James Helsby, Ryan Wilson, and Evan Burkey.

We don’t follow the usual format that you may be used to but give us a break. We’re rusty as fuck.

OPENING – The Protomen “Vengeance”
CLOSING – Rednex “Cottoneyed Joe”
BGM – FFVIII

Want to get in-touch with the show? Have a listener question or a shout out? Have an opinion about why the panel is either right or wrong? Feel free to get in touch with everyone from the panel and continue the show long after it’s been played!

E-MAIL: RLR@WatchPlayRead.com
CALL/SMS: (347) 669-3377

That’s not all either…there are still two other ways for you to get your opinion known and stated to the RLR and WPR worlds. You can always leave comments on the shows right here in this post. If you’re an iTunes user who doesn’t mind giving a bit of honest criticism and feedback, we welcome your ratings and comments on iTunes! We’re dying to hear what you all think of the show.

RLR #115 – The Return

Subscribe via iTunes, because we’d hate for you to ever miss an episode of our finely crafted show.

If none of that works, or if you can’t figure out how to click on a few things…OR you just want to download a copy of the show to your computer the old fashioned way, RIGHT CLICK ME and click ‘save as’.

That’s neither here nor there, instead I’m talking about the only version of the story that I love more than the original, and that’s the rebranded Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, not the original Charlie and the Something Something you all would say I should share. Am I aware that this movie was nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell candy? Yes! Do I care? Not a bit, because by the time I was old enough to know better, Wonka had already become an established brand.

Alright, so the film from 1971 is a bit before my time but I like to affirm is timeless. The very fact that they set the movie in some nondescript Bavarian burg (I realize Munich isn’t nondescript, jokes people, jokes) makes the story that much more timeless because of the classic architecture and sheer history of that part of the world. The music and score by Newley and Bricusse proves to have lasted the test of 40+ years and is where my daughter got hooked on this cult classic.

When we sat down to watch the movie, my expectations were high that she would enjoy the experience, but I was also ready with the fast-forward button in case her three year old brain got bored with the scenes of extremely thick dialogue that might as well be slapping you across the face with a yardstick sized ass-paddle with the words “EXPOSITION” etched into it.

I knew from the smiles on her face that if she was already hooked on hearing “The Candyman Can” and “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”, that she was in for a real treat when Gene Wilder (who will always be MY Willy Wonka) and the Oompa Loompas would show up in the factory. Besides the somewhat boring segments where each of the nasty little children are introduced to the audience her attention never veered much from the movie.

Once the kids were being admitted entry into the factory, I could tell that I had done the right thing by sharing THIS version of the film with her first if for no other reason than the simple little bit of trickery that Gene Wilder threw into the character as he was doing his limped walk toward the factory gates. That one littler somersault had to be rewound twice in our viewing because she liked it so much.

From there, things took their normal course, I get misty eyed when Willy sings “Pure Imagination”, laugh when the tubby Agustus goes up the chocolate pipe, and sing along to the Oompa Loompa tracks…the whole time noticing that my daughter hasn’t turned away from the screen one bit.

The only part that required fast forwarding in that segment of the movie was the truly disturbing boat ride scene because I didn’t particularly relish having to deal with a little girl having nightmares that night. I contemplated going past Mr. Wonka yelling at Charlie and Grandpa about the fizzy lifting drinks but thought better of it because it’s less of a spooky scene but one where I was able to teach her something.

Nearing the end of the movie, while they’re riding in the glass elevator…there’s one piece of dialogue that Wilder says to Charlie that has never failed to make me tear, and that’s the whole “Man who got everything he wished for / he lived happily ever after”. No lie, it’s always Niagara Falls every time.

Of course, the biggest measure of how good a movie is with her is the time between the ending and when she asks if we can watch it again. I’m just thankful that I’ve seemed to kindle a love for classic movies like this even though there are those who argue that the new version is better. If I had my way, she’d never have watched the current version until much further down the road, but I love that she loves this movie as much as I did.

The album Moshi Moshi Harajuku (literally: Hello Harajuku) came out last year (2011) ago and was made popular for the track “PONPONPON” in which Kyary is just too damn cute and personifies the way that my mind is always working. You can imagine my surprise when I found that the EP was available through iTunes for the low asking price of $6. Seriously, I’ve spent upwards of $80 for the soundtrack for Bubblegum Crisis, so paying a sliver of that cost for some legit JPOP had me sold.

I’m glad to say that my investment was well worth it…as there’s not a bad song on the entire EP.

Before this EP was released, Kyary was a fashion blogger and model based out of the Harajuku district of Tokyo…and if you don’t know what that means, I’ll give you a second to google Harajuku and Japan. Please take as much time as necessary because it’s a fascinating part of the world.

As I write this, Kyary has released a new EP which is good as well, it fails to capture the charm of Moshi Moshi Harajuku, more specifically the tracks “PONPONPON” and her version of Capsule’s “Jelly” (keep an eye open for me gushing about them later). These two tracks are the heart and soul of the album, but if I had to pick one song in particular to share with you all, it would have to be “Chodo Iino”.

Editors note: Finding a legit Youtube Video while Xopher is asleep is HARD (RT)

On this track the real potential for Ms. Pamyu Pamyu to grow into a full fledged idol appears. I’m not talking AKB idol, I’m talking Megumi, Mayumi, and Ayumi Hamasaki levels of renown, she’s that damn good.

I could go on and on about this EP, but if you’re a fan of JPOP, especially the kind made my an amazing producing genius by the name of Nakata Yasutaka (of Capsule fame). It has the perfect blend of electro-pop that so many American groups try to create or mimic, but is all done without the slightest bit of fluff or grrl power. Get it, now!

You’ve been warned, so turn back now if you don’t care to know what happened this episode.

Point #1 of this episode: It’s getting cold

The series is headed into winter as America is headed into springtime and summer months which means that while we’ll be enjoying multiple BBQs and time in the sun, our faithful survivors will be holed up in Hershel’s house (some more comfy than others)…hoping to survive the harsh Georgia winter. Considering I live in Utah and have lived in the Great White North before, the thoughts of a southern winter being harsh just makes me laugh. This is hammered home by my years spent in the south and only seeing marginal snow and ice during the winter months.

Ok we get it, it’s getting cold outside and you need to get your asses indoors because not only will the survivors be hungry during the lean months, so will the roving hoards of walkers who have apparently taken a liking to beef the way I like to eat it.

Point #2: Dale is dead

The Jiminy Cricket of the Georgian wastelands is gone. Long live anarchy…or so I’d like to think. If it weren’t for the fact that everyone was pining the death of the grown up Gilligan’s Island survivor you’d think nothing had really been happening with the group. Well at least Carl feels bad about being a little dumbshit who caused his death. Regardless of how often these guys try to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, in my opinion it is his fault. If he weren’t fucking around with Mr. Lipless, we’d still have a voice of reason.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d have killed Randall myself on the charges of attempted murder and accomplice to many other crimes (if you really needed a reason to kill off a guy who could lead a band of rape to your front door)…but at least Dale felt like he was trying to remain human. Well, right until the point where the zombie pulled his testicles out from his stomach.

Point #3: Daryl is the best character this show has

Without his sick-ass older brother Merle, Daryl has come into his own. I’ll keep this brief but he really is the brains of the group considering he knows when to shut up and when to walk away…hence the scene where he “needs to take a piss”. I literally laughed at his brevity at that point.

Let’s not forget his tracking skills leading to Shane’s act which took us to our third act.

Point #4: Lori is fucking retarded

The most sure fire way that there is to drive a mentally deranged knuckle dragging ape of a man into a husband murdering rampage is to let him know that the times you had when said husband was soap-opera dead meant something to you and that the baby that you’re currently having, might just be his and that you think that “boy that must be hard on you”. Seriously lady, you know that he killed Otis and was capable of so much more, and you tell him shit like that?

Point #5: Shane was thinking with Shane Jr.

Thanks to the Lori pep-rally that happened at the windmill, Shane finally decided to once again take things into his own hands with the disposal of Randall…though he was merely using this as a pretext to killing Rick by staging an ‘escape’ of the prisoner.

Seriously Shane was the Dr. Tancredi sex that good? Good enough to kill your best friend? Don’t you know the adage of (and I choke to say this myself) “Bros Before Hoes”?

I kid, I kid, I don’t believe in that type of thinking, but I do think that Lori led Shane right to his own demise, even if she didn’t know it. Only if Mr. Psycho-pants would have taken a few minutes of forethought before releasing Randall and locking the shed back up, he might have gotten by a little better. Then again, anyone who would willingly smash their face into a tree to break their nose is insane.

Thankfully this episode gave us comic fans the release we’ve been waiting for, and that is the death at the hands of Rick Grimes with a knife to the heart…though many would argue he needed to go the way of the dodo about 12 episodes ago from his near-rape at the CDC and the willful slaughter of that portly gentleman Otis this season.

Honestly good riddance to a character that I loved to hate.

Point #6: Rick is stupid, stupid, stoopid

You never turn your back on a guy who has nearly killed you and/or left you for dead before, especially the guy who laid pipe with your wife and gave man-tips to your son while you were ‘dead’. How dumb and trustingly blind can Rick be to allow him the opportunity time and time again?

Point #7: Biggest bombshell this season

You don’t need to be bitten to become a walker after death, what does this tell you?!? EVERYONE will become a walker after they die meaning that at every loved one’s funeral, you’ll need to make sure they’re put at least six feet under OR given a ceremonial bullet to the brain stem. I didn’t think they’d reveal this detail so soon in the story, but I do think that this was what the CDC guy told Rick in a whisper before blowing the place to kingdom come.

This is all rampant speculation of course, but you gotta love a show that not only redeems itself with a triple WTF moment near the end but also gives you the promise of a zombie battle royale for the season finale.

I’m completely jazzed to see how the survivors hold up at the farm with the size of the zombie horde headed their way, even though I find it comical that the zombies have nothing else going on but to stand in the middle of the fucking woods like bowhunters doing speedballs, just itching for their next fix until they hear a gunshot or two.

I know I say this all too often, but when I started this website years ago, I never once envisioned being able to interview influential bands, or people who I adore. I picked up The Protomen at the insistence of our very own Evan Burkey and honestly didn’t know what to think of a band who used the Mega Man game series from Capcom as their base story for their music. I knew I’d like it because it was videogame related, but I had no idea I’d come to love them for their amazing styles of music and excellent production values.

So here it is, our interview with The Protomen that we promised was coming so long ago, I hope you enjoy!

WatchPlayRead – Gotta say, I’m a huge fan. After I discovered you guys earlier on this year, I have come to rely on your music to keep me entertained at work. Literally, I listen to one or both of your albums each night. Of course the highest rotation goes to “Breaking Out” and “The Will of One”, with a special 3rd place for “The Hounds”…though it’s always hard to pick favorites on two very differently themed albums. Was the plan all along to record a prequel album AFTER the first volume came out?

MURPHY – We always knew we had to tell the story of how it all went down. When the first record was done, we knew it had to be the next step.

WPR – The third album remains obscured by the fog of time, any chance you could let us in on a bit of a scoop and announce when/if we’re going to see Act III of this amazing Rock Opera?

PANTHER – Act III is coming. The story wouldn’t be complete if we stopped now. We can’t say when. Nor can we really go into any great details about it…but I will tell you that Track 9 is tentatively called “The Story of How Phil Collins Secretly Wrote Most Of Metallica’s Early Catalogue — And How It All Relates To Dr. Light.” …it’s a working title … It may change before the release date … I’ve said too much already.

WPR – I’ve read the production notes about your guys’ first album and the audio nerd in me just loses his sh*t, so to speak, about how you worked to shun the modern methods of sound production and the insistence on recording analog. I personally think that there is a certain bit of art in recording analog and editing the OLD WAY, that is lost when you have any kid with a laptop able to digital edit something into the realm of over produced. If you could, what was your inspiration for recording the album that way? Did you repeat any of the processes with Act II?

COMMANDER – There are just a shit load of benefits to recording analog. For one, it just sounds great. You can’t duplicate the natural noise and saturation that is inherent when recording to tape. We would probably record everything to tape if budget wasn’t a concern. But don’t get me wrong, digital has loads of benefits as well (speed, for one). I think the real key is learning to use them together. Everything we put out goes to tape at some point in the process. (and every cd that goes out has gone over to the digital darkness at least once).

WPR – While we’re on the technical aspect of the music, what gear do you guys all like playing on currently? We’ve got fans of this site who are dying to find out.

PANTHER – We generally don’t like using gear that isn’t older than we are. Not that we’re vintage gear snobs… It’s just how it’s turned out. I would say that one of the newest piece of gear we use is probably the VP550 vocoder keyboard that The Gambler uses. And probably one of the oldest is MURPHY… and his Roland Synth. Sir Robert Bakker and his brother have built almost all of his gear. There are, at any given moment, as many as 9 of us up there playing god knows what… our gear manifest is painful to look at. I’ll say that the best way to find out what we use is to come out to the shows and ask us about our stuff. (We’d much rather talk about our gear than which Robot Master would win in a fight, Metal Man or that dude in five that looked like a train…)

WPR – Some might say that you’re a videogame themed band, if for no other reason than the fact that you’re borrowing the names of Megaman/Protoman/Wily/Light. But in fact for those that havent listened to you, they might be shocked to know that the story you tell is night and day compared to what Capcom has been spoonfeeding us over the years. Those reading this right now and scratching your heads might be better suited by this analogy…The Protomen are the modern version of Battlestar Galactica while the games remain that quaint memory of childhood. The question I have for you is this: Why Megaman? Why specifically the Megaman of the first 6 NES carts?

COMMANDER – I like to think that we’re more First Blood the film while Capcom’s approach was First Blood the novel. Sure, David Morell’s book may have been great, but I want you to count how many times you saw Brian Dennehy while reading it. That’s right. Zero. What I’m trying to say is that we bring the Dennehy. But I think the real question here is, why NOT MegaMan? It’s very common for a band to write their music based on books and film. We were just the first generation to grow up with this new form of media and pop culture. Why wouldn’t we pull from it? We just had to use a little more imagination. And as much as we jokingly trash talk the later games, what we do isn’t specifically about the first 6. It’s about the core idea behind it all. The good and the evil. The right and the wrong. The ebb and the flow. The tit and the tat. The Lou Diamond and the Phillips.

WPR – Would you guys say that a big portion of your audience is comprised of members of the gaming geek culture? Now you can be seen at many of the big national cons, especially Penny-Arcade Expo in Seattle (which I sadly missed the last couple of years)…what’s it like to climb up on stage and feel that kind of love from your fellow geeks?

MURPHY – Those conventions/expos can be crazier than any dive bar show. Some of those “gaming geeks” really know how to bring the thunder. The things we’ve seen… But aside from conventions, we’ve also played at Bonnaroo, Free Press Summer Fest, SXSW, and quite a few other super awesome festivals, and it’s always nice to see people at both types of events get into it the same way. Either way, we didn’t really go into it thinking “there’s a whole world of crazy minded people like us, let’s entertain them.” We just felt that we could tell a story and make a great soundtrack to it, a soundtrack that would be enjoyed by us and probably nobody else. After releasing the first album, Nintendo Power approached us for an article, and aside from blowing our minds, it made us realize that there may be a lot of people who would be interested in what we do. One of our favorite things that happens at shows is when somebody will walk up and say, “This is the first rock show I’ve ever been to!” Our general response is “Great! Now get your ass to more rock shows. Rock and roll needs you.”

WPR – Does the rock opera aspect of your guys’ music ever make it hard to call up clubs and get bookings? Any future big shows we should know about?

MURPHY – We’ve lost many hours and suffered great tragedies over the years (oftentimes at the hands of Juliette Lewis) just trying to book small tours. We’re proud we’ve made it this long on our own. However, all that independent ass kicking finally paid off recently when we joined forces with The Agency Group, who handle booking for quite a lot of great artists all over the world. Now we can focus more on handling the new releases for this year.

WPR – Were all of you around during the golden age gaming during the NES years? If so, what would you say were your fondest memories of that system?

MURPHY – Yes, we are not what you’d call new models. We have memories of getting cartridges as Kindergarten graduation gifts, having our demands met using grey Zapper™ guns, and betting lunch money on after school Bad Dudes’ tournaments.

WPR – We’ve seen that you guys are MORE THAN able to do stuff that is not merely your own work due to the popularity of the cover songs you play during shows (as I was told by a friend who saw you somewhat recently). How goes the work on the album full of cover tracks?

PANTHER – It’s coming……closer….closer…and closer every day. It’s one of the hardest things we’ve ever done. Putting one of our albums together is a snap. We know the story we want to tell. But putting together a single album of all the jams that have kept our rock-n-roll hearts beating so far is quite a challenge. But I will say that it won’t suck.

WPR – Are you still working with Alan Shacklock?

COMMANDER – Yeah, he’s helping us produce the covers album, as well as working on other secret and not-so-secret projects with us.

WPR – So what’s next for The Protomen?

MURPHY – Working on figuring out how to bring Conway Twitty back from the dead.

WPR – I do a bit of facebook stalking and I really dig the current tshirts you have for sale. Where can people go to check up on you guys and pick up some merch?

MURPHY – Currently, there are two official online stores that ship our goods: soundmachinestore.bigcartel.com and theprotomen.zambooie.com. But, as always, the best place to get new stuff is at the shows. We just released a limited edition picture vinyl pressing of Makeup And Vanity Set’s remix of Act I. Get one before they’re gone!

WPR – Before I leave you to your respective lives, I have one question from a community member who wants to know…”how do they (The Protomen) Light Up the Night?”

PROTOMEN (in unison) – Roman Candles and Chicks.

Thank you all for your time and next time you guys are in Utah, drinks are on me.

MURPHY – COMMANDER is allergic to everything except juice boxes (in case you were wondering).

COMMANDER – It’s true.

It was the mid 1990s when a good friend of mine got me a gift that was vastly out of my age range, but I loved the hell out of nonetheless. That game was Pokemon Blue for my Gameboy, a game which I’d still play if I could find my damn handheld in the house somewhere.

Let’s face it…Pokemon, for those of us in our 30s, came at a crossroads between what could be considered part of ‘our generation’ (you know born in the late 70s early 80s) and what was to become the hallmark of the ‘next generation’ (kids born after us old farts). It was essentially a perfect game, it mixed the addictiveness of a collectible card game and the depth of a hugely stat based role-playing game and somehow twisted them into one of the strongest forces in gaming that we’ve ever seen.

The copy that I received featured the Blastoise on the cover, but not wanting to go with Squirtle or Charmander like the game’s Red vs Blue theme set out to do, I instead picked Bulbasaur as my Pokebud as we set off to “catch them all!” The only problem…is that I never did catch them all or made an attempt to do so.

Don’t get me wrong, I was about as addicted as one could be at the tender age of 16. I just found…OTHER…things to worry about. Like Digimon and the growing collection of PS1 games I was amassing thanks to the new job I got at that time. I never got back into the show or the games, but I held a fascination with people who were still so amped about each new version that came out, especially when the Pokemon Colosseum games debuted on the N64.

Now that I’m an older gentleman with children of my own, will I get them hooked on the Pokemans? Absolutely! What better way to whet their appetite for JRPGs and stat based gaming? First Pokemon, then they can run through my classic game library. I can’t wait.

We’ve all heard the idiom before, No News is Good News, right? I mean it is one of those annoying ass sayings that comes about when someone (usually less educated than you, because we know that you dear reader, are a goddamned genius) doesn’t really have anything to add to the discussion, yet they feel like they should say something.

In this case it happens to be true. No more news is great news for us and for you here at WPR.

Nearly 4 years ago, I started dabbling in Internets pretty hardcore and decided that I too wanted my own website. It was the success of many smaller sites that I was associated with (in the communities, not on the actual site itself) that led me to believe I could do the same. In that brainstorm, MediaWhoreNetwork was created.

It was to be a Mecca for wary Internet travelers who were sick of news, news, news, news. It was a glorious time even though the site’s looks sucked balls. I mean it was REALLY BAD. Having reviews, editorials, and just all around original content that you couldn’t get anywhere else drove thousands of people our way. With social networking sites like Digg, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook providing a platform for us to shout at the masses, it seemed that MWN was ready to become something big.

I only wish I would have had some forethought about naming the site because the URL with “whore” in it caught the eye of many work-based firewalls and content filters. Somewhere in the decision for MWN to become a new site with new looks and content, we lost our way when it came to original content and became another parrot news site with snarky ass news.

Thank Crom we’ve learned our lesson!

Starting today, we’ve turned over a new leaf. Well an old one really. We don’t want to be a news site anymore, there’s no soul in that type of work…in fact, it does nothing but crush the spirit and individuality of a site such as ours. We will now strive to bring you original content each day and articles that you might actually have to READ instead of gleam for information. We’ll most likely be providing less daily content (i.e. Derp News Posts) and will be bringing you actual meaty and delicious morsels of our collective geekdom.

Gone are the days where you get a dumbass one paragraph articles where we say “hey look at this trailer” or “this guy said something, now I say something”, nope…those posts are long gone in the new world of WPR. I can promise that we’ll still be doing reviews, but generally of products that we actually enjoy and use…which means that if something sucks, you can almost bet we won’t be looking at it, wasting our money on it, or talking about it here.

Most of us are kind in our reviews mainly because we’re fans of things and we don’t normally feel like mounting the soapbox unless we find something good about product X.

As the CEO, I am going to strive to bring massive amounts of podcasts to the site because let’s face it, I have the bandwidth, I might as well use it, and to be completely honest…this whole venture was originally meant to be a haven for my podcasts (which I promise more of soon).

We will also be starting up a fitness inspired portion of the site soon which we’re going to spin off into what we’re calling the No Hungy movement in which at least two of the fatassed people who run this site talk about what they’re doing to lose it for good. That’s relatively soon (as soon as I get off said fat ass and code the damn thing), and the podcasts are soon as well, but like I said, today is about us realizing that we don’t want to be THAT news site, we don’t want to do THAT type of writing anymore.

Welcome to the new WPR. We hope you enjoy what we’re bringing to the party, join us won’t you?

Another word from Ryan Thomason

Even though we’ve tripled our audience in the first year of WatchPlayRead bring in existence, we still felt like we were doing something wrong. In a mad drive to please the mighty PR overlords and media bigwigs to find that elusive advertising dollar, we felt like the essence of the foundations we built this site upon were being driven away. We’ve ditched every ad, and paid for the site for years in advance from our own pocket. Our focus is on giving you something original, something to make you think, something to make you come back. If somewhere down the line we get an offer we can’t refuse to put up an Ad, we might take it into consideration. For now, we’re just going to go back to having fun and talking about the things we love, and only the things we love. We get plenty of review products, but only the things that we truly believe are worth purchasing and bringing to your attention will make the website. We will write no less than a thousand words per article (with an exception for our “This week in Games/Comics/Movies features”), so prepare to sip a drink while you read from here on out.

We are in control of our destiny, just as you are in yours. Join us, have fun, and lets build the next phase in the continuous evolution that is this website.

It may be a week late but it’s back and full of piss and vinegar! The last episode gave me some great feedback and ideas on how I should be conducting this show. We’ve got your goals, my goals, questions, and other various forms of community interaction this week.

This Week’s Music
- Lo Fidelity All-Stars “Battleflag”
- Various Artists “Castle Crashers OST”
- Protest The Hero “Heretics and Killers”

NO HUNGY #003

You can always listen here on WPR or through the other options on the sidebar, but as always, this show is nothing without your support.

If the player doesn’t show up, here’s a direct link to the file —> RIGHT HERE

Welcome back again my friends. Join me on our weekly trek into the world of weight loss and how you too can begin to live No Hungy.

Alright, last week’s show gave me some great ammunition for this week in the form of listener questions and feedback…consider me INSPIRED! I hope you guys enjoy this week’s episode as I bring you a few recipes and some challenges.

This Week’s Music
- MegaMan 2 “FlashFire OCREMIX”
- Sheryl Nome “What ’bout My Star”
- Fire Bomber “Dynamite Explosion”
- Katamari Damacy “Lonely Rolling Star”
- Megurine Luka “Double Lariat”
- Axelay “Unkai”
- Bionic Commando ReARMED “Rise of the Albatross”
- Ayumi Hamasaki “Bold & Delicious”

As for this week’s recipe for Egg Muffins, it’s the following:

Egg Muffins
15 Beaten Eggs
(optional) 1 Tube Turkey Sausage (drain the grease) OR…
(optional) 1 Pkg Canadian Bacon (diced)
1-2 Cups Low-fat Cheese
(optional) Any veggies you desire (I suggest mushrooms)

Preheat oven to 375 and get a silicone muffin pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. You can use a metal muffin pan, but reduce the eggs to 12 instead of 15. If you’re using paper liners, you’ll need to double up on them AND spray with non-stick.

Place the cheese and meats (I suggest cooking them together) in the bottom of the muffin cup and pour egg over the whole glob until 3/4 full. Put in the oven for 25-35 minutes until the tops look a bit browned and you’re sure the eggs have set. Each muffin is about 190 calories and packed with 18 grams of protein! Two of them are a hearty enough breakfast for the day and will keep you going until your first snack.

NO HUNGY #002

You can always listen here on WPR or through the other options on the sidebar, but as always, this show is nothing without your support.

If the player doesn’t show up, here’s a direct link to the file —> RIGHT HERE

Alright everyone calm down. Yes it’s a new podcast and yes it’s about weight loss. But dammit it’s mine and it’s going to save your life.

Being the first episode of a new podcast, and the first time in a long time that I’ve done a solo show, admittedly the quality and clarity of it all may be like mud. However, this is a new podcast from yours truly and it may or may not be what you need if you’re looking to lose weight.

Here’s how it works, I give you a piece of my mind each week on weight loss, answer a few questions, and generally be your guide and best buddy on the road to losing weight. Shit, if I can do it, you sure as hell can too. Give it a listen and give me some honest feedback or leave some questions below.

NO HUNGY #001

If the player doesn’t show up, here’s a direct link to the file —> RIGHT HERE

Enter Operation: Red Retrieval, a bloody and exciting romp through the mind of Mark Cheng as he gives us the classic example of ‘playing with his toys’ in a way that any red-blooded child of the 80s can relate to.

Seriously, this flick was produced in a shoestring $2500 budget but looks like something that had serious studio backing. The cast of characters, which I’ll keep brief as I don’t want to spoil anything is: Beach Head, Snake Eyes, Roadblock, and a reeeeaaaaly surprising cameo about mid-way through.

The third film in the series finds our beloved Furyan anti-hero being stranded on a planet in the middle of nowhere after his people (the Necromongers) abandon him and leave him to die. What hasn’t changed is the fact that Riddick is a fugitive from a super max slam that has quite the bounty on his head, hence the introduction of Sackhoff’s character Dahl who is a mercenary going after Mr. Diesel.

That’s about the only word that I can use to describe the actions of Hollywood when announcing yet another unecessary remake.

The only bright point I can see is that the man who has been given the helm as director is Scott Zabielski whose only claim to directorial fame is that he was the man behind Tosh.0, which is pretty damn funny.

No word on casting in the remake, but seeing how the old cast is either too old, fat, or irrelevant (especially Bubba Smith who kicked the bucket last year), I don’t have any, I repeat, ANY hopes for this flick.

Trailer for the Original Movie, if you’ve never seen this you’re not old, so congrats?

The highly anticipated sequel the the original story of Hansel and Gretel has just been given a major delay. Instead of coming out this March, it will now be pushed aaaaaallllll the wayyyyyy back a whole year from today.

You read that right, it’s been given a push from March 2nd of 2012 to the 11th of January 2013! This does not bode well for me. I’ll watch just about anything that features Jeremy Renner and Famke Janssen, but if you delay a movie for almost a year and drop it off into the dead zone that is January movie season, I can only say one thing…stinker.

It’s too bad because I was really looking forward to this film as it was a take on the original story that featured the duo becoming bounty hunters that tracked down other supernatural beings after their brush with death at the hands of the witch in the gingerbread house.

What do y’all think, does this have the touch of death all over it or should we just stop worrying?

The Epic / ChAIR hit for the iOS platform, and easily one of the best looking series of games on the platform, has come out with a staggering number tied to sales of the games…and that number is $30,000,000. Not too shabby if you ask me.

You can thank guys like me who have spent the full retail amount for both of the games in the groups’ amazing series. Even though my pending review for Infinity Blade II might as well read like a copy/paste of the original review with how similar both games are, it’s a effing steal at $5.99. Honestly, anything that I get more than $1 and hour out of is worth it in my opinion.

I do wonder if they’ll ever step away from the iOS platform and bring this to the Kinect, Wii-U, or the PS3 Move? I guess they really don’t need to considering they’re doing JUST FINE where they’re at.

Considering the last time that I played the game, Girl had just barely reached Mars, she’s gone quite a bit further. I guess having kids puts you into one of those social and gaming black holes where nothing gets done. I am honestly surprised that she’s made it this far in such a relatively short time. Next stop Neptune!

If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, click here, or watch the video below.

We got a chance to sit down with one of The Minibosses’ founding members and guitar players, Aaron Burke, and had the following conversation:

WatchPlayRead: Aaron, I’ve gotta say, I’m a huge fan. You guys are near the top of the list as favorite bands go especially after the release of your second album a few weeks ago. I gotta ask, how does it feel to finally get Brass 2 out into the world?

Aaron Burke: It feels great. We really didn’t mean for there to be a 6 year gap between albums but, without getting too much into it, there were a lot of obstacles that popped up. So yeah, it feels nice…especially since we’re really proud of it and it was definitely the funnest studio experience we’ve had.

WPR: I noticed on the album that you’ve included one of my all-time favorite game soundtracks from Batman, the old SunSoft version that took *ahem* liberties with the movie’s storyline but was an awesome game. Did you EVER get the hang of the triangle jump?

AB: You know I’d like to say that I did, and maybe I did, but I can’t remember. Yeah that would have made a pretty messed-up movie if the movie had been the game huh. I think the last boss was Firefly? And I remember you don’t even fight the Joker, you just kill him in a cutscene or something. WTF.

WPR: I’m sure you get asked this all of the time, but what was it that made you say “Eff the Jenova Project, I’m going to do NES covers and call the group The Minibosses”?

AB: Well, certain things just happened as they always do in life, some of us moved etc etc, and the four of us couldn’t play together anymore because of location. But the idea to only play nes music had been festering for some time before JP broke up. Believe me I’d love to be doing both, I really had a great time in JP, it was fun and everyone involved in both JP incarnations it is a great friend. Second incarnation will still play here and there…last time we played was at the minibosses’ 10th anniversary show I think?

WPR: As I recall, the first time that I got an earful of your guys’ music was as opening music/return from break song on a podcast called The Video Games Show back in 2004, this was about the time that you guys were putting out your first EP Minibosses and your Live at the Middle East album…both of which have received HEAVY rotation on my playlists. If you would, could you discuss how it was to be one of the first successful videogame cover bands out there? How hard was it to get call up clubs and get booked, have you guys ever run into trouble trying to explain your act to the venues you’ve played?

AB: Hahaha, in the early days maybe a little. Nowadays with Power Rock Anthem and everything else, you can really get away with anything and no club cares what you are doing, just how many people will come see you do it. Not to say that it hasn’t always been like that, because it has, but back then I think clubs and promoters and the like had seen a little less…craziness. Every so often we will still be approached by someone after one of our shows who wants to know how we settled on our particular style of prog-rock or what have you, and then we explain it all and that person is usually left flabbergasted.

WPR: Once geek culture picked up on you guys, it had to be awesome. Now you can be seen at many of the big national cons, especially Penny-Arcade Expo in Seattle (which I sadly missed the last couple of years)…what’s it like to climb up on stage and feel that kind of love from your fellow game geeks?

AB: It’s an amazing feeling…especially at gamer cons like PAX or MAGFest (Music and Gaming Fest). I still get stage-fright from time to time, so it’s very scary sometimes to start a set in front of a lot of folks. It’s nice though…I actually really enjoy getting stage-fright when it happens. It’s terrifying, and it’s rare you get to feel something like that where you can’t do anything but just confront it. Pretty fun.

WPR: You’ll have to forgive me, I haven’t checked the site in depth in a while, but you used to have a FAQ and that I believe had a question along the lines of “What is your inspiration?” and you very simply had a picture of an original NES. Were all of you around during the NES heyday and if so, what would you say were your fondest memories of that system?

AB: Hahaha, I believe that pic is still up but like you I haven’t checked the site in a while so I’m not entirely sure either. Oh yeah, we were around!! We’re all in our low to mid 30s so we were around. My fondest memories from that era were – unwrapping it at xmas (I can still remember the wrapping paper and the feeling of tearing it to shreds), playing The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Wizards and Warriors, Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, playing those and many other games for just hours. Oh, and Nintendo Power. The days those early issues would arrive were seriously like crack. I would pore over the maps and read it front to back several times immediately. Ah those were the good ol’ days…

WPR: I recall my NES years were filled with me hooking the audio out from the NES into my tapedeck so I could record various songs to listen to later with my walkman (jeez, my age is showing). I guess what I’m trying to get at is this: How bad of a videogame geek were you as a child?

AB: Hah, that was too much work for me so I just held up a walkman to the speakers of the TV. Pretty funny. I can’t find any of those old tapes though!! I’d pay any amount of money for them now. Pretty sure in some of them you could hear me singing along or my mom telling me to do my homework.

WPR: The music that you guys create isn’t readily available with tabs or sheet music, what is the process that you guys go through to take something from 8-bit to real world audio?

AB: Back in the day we used the emulator Nesticle to isolate all the tracks and we learned them that way. That was a pain in the ass but it worked. These days it’s so much simpler, you just download the nsf file, play it with winamp and an nsf plugin like NotSoFatso, and voila you’re golden.

After everyone’s learned their individual parts we’ll come together and play the piece together until it’s more or less tight, then if we’re fitting it into a medley we’ll move on to the next piece. When all the pieces are ready we’ll throw them together in some sort of medley, taking ideas from everyone and maybe playing through several combos until we’ve got something workable. Then like any other band we’ll just practice the bejesus out of the finished product until it’s presentable. Presentable is very subjective though. Hahaha.

WPR: While we’re on the technical aspect of the music, what gear do you guys all like playing on, inquiring minds wish to know!

AB: Well, we’ve been called the MoochieBosses before, and that’s for good reason. We’ve got a multitude of amps and guitars that we use and we don’t always stick to the same setup, and a lot of times we will even play on borrowed or rented gear. I know that doesn’t help anyone out hahaha but we really do use whatever’s readily available and what will work. I can tell you that on the recording of Brass 2 we played mainly Hagstrom II guitars and mainly through modded JMP heads.

WPR: So what’s next for The Minibosses? A busy tour schedule for 2012? Anything lined up that you want to notify the world about?

AB: We’ll be playing MAGFest X in January, which is always amazing, and then we may take a little bit of time off since 2011 was pretty busy. We’ve got some other shows in the can but can’t really announce them yet.

WPR: We’ve seen that the Minibosses are MORE than able to do stuff that is not on the NES, especially after you did the Halo theme for PAX’s 2007 Omegathon. Is there any chance that we’ll see anything else like that in the future?

AB: Not sure yet…maybe. Hahaha. The NES list is so long though, it doesn’t look good. One-offs like the Halo theme are much more doable.

WPR: Aaron, it’s been a real pleasure, and before I go, can I make one or two requests? Strider and Codename Viper…that is all.

AB: Hah, Strider…I believe that’s on the list somewhere, but I think it’s down a fair ways. I don’t really remember the music to Codename Viper too much, but we’ll give it another listen :)

Depending on how well their face changes to a look of abject cluelessness or a smile, I know almost immediately whether I will get along with someone. You see, good ol’ Hank Rollins has been many people in his 51 years alive on this planet, from punk frontman to poet and all the way to inspirational speaker.

For me, the guy is and was a demigod. I had many of his albums, a good portion of his books, and hours and hours of his spoken word on CD. His work with The Rollins Band, independent of who was actually backing the aggresively shirtless and angry vocalist, remains in my mind some of the best workout music you can listen to. The way that Henry blares at the same tone on each song makes you feel like he’s doing all the yelling for you.

Today’s song is off of their successful Come In and Burn album and is titled “Starve”. This is a good way to get your Monday started no matter how you cut it.

It’s easy to do a year-in-review post. Hell, every big blog out there has done one either today or yesterday (depending on your timezone), but it takes a site that wants to have a bit of fun with the media we love to make a predictions post. Here is what WPR thinks we’ll see this year…maybe.

Keep in mind that when we wrote this we were hoping to portray it as satire, but as Ryan and I collaborated on it, some of it started to actually seem feasible. Read and let us know if we’re off our rockers or if it MIGHT just happen.

NEWS ITEMS

• Apple’s product line will falter and Microsoft Develops the new must have electronics device.
• Star Wars MMO Overtakes Warcraft as industry top dog.
• Nintendo Wii U is so amazingly awesome that Xbox and PlayStation are forced to exit the industry.
• Classical Music makes a comeback, a new age of Composers rises.
• Yanni decides to make a death metal album.
• Chinese food is renamed American food.
• Republicans and Democrats caught spooning in the Oval Office.
• Everyone gets over the “geek” fad and car mechanics are the new cool thing, ushering in a new age of gearheads.
• Reality TV shows cease to exist in 2012, then return in 2013 with herpes and infect the world with TV herpes, there is no stopping, mass deaths occur due to the outbreak.
• A gigantic Earth-killer asteroid breaks up in the atmosphere…Aerosmith sings their song from that shitty Asteroid movie, leaving crowds of people in post Kim Jong Il death state of weeping.
• Aliens make contact by starting their own tech blog.

HOLLYWOOD ANNOUNCES

• Fat Albert 2
• Ghost Dad 2
• Leonard: Part 7
• Apocalypse Now 2
• Masters of the Universe 2
• The Naked Gun 45.3
• Pluto Nash 2
• Kazaam 2
• Shaq Fu the MOVIE
• 2001: A Space Oddyssey (Extended mind rape edition)
• Star Wars: A New Hope (now with blinking Jawas! IN 3D!)
• The Matrix (Directed by Uwe Boll)
• An American Tale (Live Action – featuring Justin Bieber as Feivel)
• Short Circuit (This time with a more overtly racist use of an Indian guy by another not Indian guy)
• Predator (With “sexy” instead of brawn this time around)
• Willow (Without little people)

You’d better believe we’ll be there on Jan 1st 2013 saying we told you so if we happen to be right about any of these. Just remember, you heard it here first!

Ok pansies, you’ve made it through another year alive. Time to get back to what’s really important, and that my friends…is the Internet.

I sincerely hope you’ve all enjoyed your time off from WPR as much as us staffers, namely the Ryans and myself have, but like all good things it must come to an end. That is why I bring to you a solemn promise to shove so much great content up your poopers in 2012 that it’ll make Mr. Goatse blush.

On the horizon for this week alone, we’ve got a great interview (or two) headed your way, the inaugural episode of the No Hungy podcast which is poignant since all of the fatties of the land are starting programs to lose weight this week that they won’t be able to keep up with. We’ve got a solid week of Morning Cup o’ Music, all of my regular featured articles and maybe a few others.

I know Ryan T. is in the middle of some seriously cool shit that we can’t really discuss right now, but rest assured, you’ll enjoy it.

To wrap it all up in a pretty bow for you all out there, we’re going to be officially launching the beta version of our new community programs starting with the WPaRmy and the half-assed badge and achievement system that I’ve coded over the last week or two. I’ll also be launching the new community blogs section of the site where you can write about anything you damn well please…the best of the best there make it to WPR’s main page!

This is going to be one hell of a year for WPR and all of you delicious fans of our hard work. We promise to come correct with even more contests this year, swag closet blowouts, facebook prizedumps, and if you’re really lucky…actual WPR branded gear!

Thanks for all of your love and support over the last 4 years as we’ve made the transition from lulzy blog, to serious news blog, and finally falling into the comfortable general news and reviews geek site that you’ve come to enjoy. Let’s make this a year to remember!

Sincerely, the WPR version of Cobra Commander,

Xopher ‘The Shogun’ Reed

Don’t get me wrong, Luna Sea is an amazing J-Rock band and I’ve enjoyed them for any number of years…they’re just not quite on the epic scale as other groups from Japan that I enjoy. They’re perfect candidates for background noise and today’s song “Tonight” off of their 2000 album Lunacy is perhaps one of their best.

I know, ringing endorsement eh? Please excuse my blase attitude towards music right now. Hours of looking at code tends to wear on one’s emotions. Have a listen, and let me know what you think.

Today’s song, and the last one for the week of The Protomen is all about Joe coming to terms with the fact that he is in fact facing down a hulking assassin in the form of a robot with a giant knife and a holstered pistol.

The track “Keep Quiet” is titled that way because the people of Wily’s city have learned to not have any bad words for their leader or the glorious city they live in lest they be killed by Light’s Monster. Joe, isn’t having any more of that. Instead of backing down and accepting his fate, he decided to fight back and ultimately wins the battle against the robot.

I sincerely hope that you give these guys a chance because I haven’t been this nerded about a group in a long time. If they ever come to town, I plan on being there. Hell, I might just have to do a convention just to see them live…which I am willing to do.

I wish I had words to adequately describe the amount of time, effort, and energy spent on making a machinima like the one I’m sharing with you tonight.

Since I don’t, just get your ass into a comfy spot and enjoy the next 20 minutes of your life being consumed by this amazing piece of work. The voice acting needs a bit of work in some scenes, but hey…I’m not bitching one bit!

Joe was one of these children but didn’t want this life anymore and finally decided to get out of the city. Really, that’s all that today’s song is about, a guy wanting to get the fuck out of his station in life and trying to make a place for himself…to see what’s really out there.

The track is appropriately titled “Breaking Out” and doesn’t end there. Not being told through the lyrics is the story that the same robot that killed Emily is now stalking Joe for being a voice of dissent. To find out what happens next, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s MCoM.

The fine folks at Warner Bros. Pictures have finally released the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s upcoming film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It’s been 10 years since we were allowed into New Zealand Middle Earth and the Shire and without realizing it, I felt a longing to see this film…much stronger than any other movie has made me feel (except Avatar, I loves Avatar, a lot).

The movie will be out NEXT December 14th in the year 2012. Yes a whopping 51 weeks of waiting have commenced. It will be shown in 3D, 2D, and IMAX 3D. The second part of the movie titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again will be released in 2013.

We’ve been working off of their first album for the last two days, but today and the rest of the week, we’ll be hearing cuts off of their second album, Act II: The Father of Death. The album gets its name from the story of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily working to make a utopia for mankind through the use of robots. Little did Thomas Light know that his friend Albert Wily was planning to subjugate mankind.

Today’s song is titled “The Hounds” and features Dr. Wily telling the reporters of his city that the murder of a woman (Emily, Dr. Light’s main squeeze) that he’s conveniently forgotten the name of even though he ordered the kill via his assassin robot and pinned the blame on Dr. Light, will not go unavenged.

Meanwhile his rise to power is near complete as he assumes complete control over the information the people of his city receive. They now see him as a leader, if not a God.

Seriously, get this fucking album already so I can geek out with you too.

As bad as it was, Starship Troopers is one of those “I love how bad it is” types of movies, plus it has some epic bewbage and a giant brain bug. Oh I almost forgot, you do not need to remake anything starring NPH, ever.

It’s hard to believe that Starship Troopers’ original movie was made back in 1997, but like anything that sits around too long in Hollywood, it’s getting the ol’ remake treatment by producer Neal Moritz (the same derp who’s remaking Total Recall). The only ray of sunshine that I can see is the team doing the writing is the same crew who were responsible for this year’s smash hit X-Men: First Class, my favorite X-Men movie thus far.

As to when or what we can expect, you know as much as I do right now. All we know is that people are moving ahead with this project. I pray that it’s more like the book this time around.

I’m sure you’ve read the stories already of how Apple has been tightening it’s grip on any and ever manufacturer that deals in Apple branded hardware. Whether it be batteries, screens, or memory, Apple wants to own the entire process…or so it seems.

As a tech manufacturing and selling business, Apple has had their fingers in every single honey pot from the cradle to the grave. The company has recently purchased outright a company from Israel called Anobit for approximately $400 MILLION dollars. This means that Apple is starting to flex their giant cash muscles and attempting to have products that are Apple’s alone.

It makes sense really, if the company can be owned by Apple and is capable of turning out a product that the company can use and not have to leverage their profits against buying the finished raw product, in this case NAND memory…really fast NAND memory, then that’s even more money that they can pocket.

Right now, their SSD technology comes from Samsung who I can bet loves having Apple on their payroll for their solid state drives and flash memory (which is found in just about every Apple product these days). Just imagine the kinds of profits that you could reap if you cut out ALL of the manufacturing middlemen and had the ability to turn around and resell your own memory products for PC?

Things are going to get real interesting for Apple sans Steve Jobs. This is only the beginning.

SOURCE

After six years of development, $150 million spent, 280k lines of dialogue spoken by 1k actors, and a dizzying amount of gameplay (approx 1600 hours in-game) to go through, the EA MMO is now alive and ready for download and purchase.

The game will set you back $59.99 for the first month and $14.99 each month thereafter. Here’s to hoping that SWTOR will knock WoW off of its pedestal as king of MMOs because it’s time for sci-fi to conquer fantasy for once.

Me, I’m still waiting for Dark Millenium Online to drop before deciding what I’ll be spending my time playing…in all honestly I’ll still be playing this IRL game called Running WPR.

You might recall yesterday’s MCoM where Megaman was on the way to seek vengeance for the death of his brother Protoman…well today, you can hear it put to music as I bring you the next track off of their debut album.

Aptly named “Vengeance”, the chorus of Megaman demanding of Dr. Wily to send him the best he’s got is just AMAZING. I’m not even kidding when I say that these guys have shot up to my favorite group status on my iPod.

We’ve gathered a few links for you adventuresome folk out there that find yourselves victims of the amazing Valve service.

Publishers in the Sale

Pack Sales

If neither of those work, or if you find yourself with enough cash to buy even more, check out the actual SALE landing page on Steam for more great buys.

Yeah, this is essentially an unpaid commercial for Steam, but dammit the sales are too tempting. Also, don’t forget that you can buy gifts for other Steam users so if you know anyone who needs some new games, now’s the time to load up.

***UPDATE***

I managed to get past my web net-nanny at le Job, and found out that there’s a metagame going on right now on the site with the Grand Prize of…wait for it…

EVERY FRIGGING GAME IN THE STEAM LIBRARY

Just follow this link to get started.

The PlayStation Vita from Sony was released this past weekend to the tune of 320K units sold. How does this fare for the burgeoning new system and it’s nearest competitor?

320k is a pretty damn solid launch considering that there are already issues being reported from the Japanese users (and a few early adopters here in the US). For a comparison to units sold on launch weekends, the Nintendo 3DS sold approximately 371k units when it hit the stores. I wouldn’t put it past Sony this generation to take a good segment of the Nintendo crowd in the over 16 demographic. I say over 16 because that’s about the age where you start to gain your own income and a bit of independence over your purchases.

The big test will be the worldwide release of the new hardware (February 2012 for the US/UK/AU launches), as the throngs of Sony fans in the Western countries do their favorite company’s bidding. With everything that they cram into that small bit of hardware, $250 for the wi-fi only model sounds like a hell of a deal.

I’d like to say that I’m excited for this to come out, but seeing how 99% of my gaming is done via my iPhone/iPad I doubt I’ll pick this up any time soon. Sure, I think it’s pretty boss but my time for gaming is usually limited to toilet-gaming.

Do any of you plan on picking up the new system? If so, what excites you the most about the new handheld from Sony?

The patent that the US International Trade Commission recently ruled in favor of Apple dealt with the ability to click on a link, phone number, or address when someone sends it to you through a text message. You know, one of the most useful features of having a smart phone.

So just to be clear, the HTC hardware isn’t the issue, but the OS is. All HTC will have to do to bypass the import ban (HTC isn’t made in the US, but in Taiwan) is implement a patch to the Android OS that handles this little bit of UI differently.

However, if the problem isn’t fixed by April 19, 2012…you can essentially say goodbye to the following devices:

• Evo 4G
• T-Mobile G2
• Nexus One
• Droid Incredible

Not listed is any of their legacy phones that run on Android 1.6 -> 2.2. The funniest bit is that HTC actually came out and said that their losing in the court decision was actually a win. Check it out.

This decision is a win for HTC and we are gratified that the commission affirmed the judge’s determination on the ‘721 and ‘983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ‘263 patent and partially on the ‘647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.

You can’t make this stuff up!

SOURCE

If you’ve been on the website before you probably had already seen me fapping about these guys once or twice…or never because nobody should be subject to watching me fap. Well anyhow, The Protomen are a group from Tennessee who decided that they’d take Capcom’s Blue Bomber (aka Megaman) and give that character and universe the ol’ Battlestar Galactica overhaul, complete with dystopian future, robot assassins, and anything else you can think of to turn the usually fluffy series into something…METAL.

Today’s track is off their debut album, which is self-titled but known to fans as Act I, the song “The Will of One” is basically Megaman saying to himself and Dr. Light that he will not stand for letting Protoman’s death at the hands of Dr. Wily go unavenged, and he sets out on his mission to destroy the evil Dr.

What better way to send you on your way for the week than giving you one of the group’s most hardcore renditions of a NES classic. If you were around long enough to play games like Ninja Gaiden, then I’m sure you know what I mean when you would leave the Nintendo on just to watch the opening sequence over and over again. We didn’t have FMV or rendered polygons back then kids, about the only cutscenes we got were at the beginning of the game or in really horrible Engrish.

This track is also available on Brass like many of the other’s that I’ve shared this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed our little romp through the Minibosses catalog. Starting Monday we’ll be back with another week of MCoM, though I haven’t really thought of a theme just yet. Catch you then!

Not to put too fine of a point on it, but one of the most prolific games I can recall playing on the NES would have to be Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! <- those exclaimation points are part of the game’s title by the way.

Why prolific? Well, why the hell shouldn’t it be? It’s got everything a lad could hope for, racial stereotypes, questionable content, and some wickedly awesome music! This is yet another track that came off of their masterwork, Brass, an album that I think you owe it to yourself to own if you consider yourself a gamer.

This is precisely the case of the strange occurrence of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu which came to my attention last week as a friend and writer on this here website shared a video of hers with me on Facebook.

The video to the left of this paragraph is for the song Tsukema Tsukeru which is a track all about the singer putting on false eyelashes and how it makes her feel all pretty and confident. The song is the first single off of her upcoming (January I believe) album being released.

I was taken aback at first by the sound of the song, firstly because the lyrics are very tongue-twisterish even for me, a 12 year speaker of the language, and second at the amazing production value that was put into this silly song. The dancing lions are pretty much in-step the entire video and when the unmasking happens…well just watch for yourself.

Not wanting to leave well enough alone, I decided to find out what other tracks from the 18 year old fashion blogger from Harajuku turned pop star were out there. It’s then that I stumbled upon this.

To my left, you’ll find the prime example of what it’s like to have Japanese phrases and kawaii rolling around in your head all at the same time. PONPONPON is just one of those quirky songs that you can’t help but smile at, while being terrified at the same time. This came off of her first album Moshi Moshi Harajuku (lit: Hello Harajuku), which is a album that I plan on buying right after I’m done getting Xmas presents for my entire family.

I wondered at first how the hell could two of her songs that got the video treatment be so damn catchy, until I read who was the producer for both tracks. If you follow Jpop at all, you already should know the name Nakata Yasutaka as being half of the group Capsule. Turns out that he’s essentially the Will-I-Am or Timbaland of Japan. Seriously, to get these songs stuck in my head so bad that I had to pick up the singles from iTunes, you’ve had to sign a deal with Satan in the blood of a unbaptized child, these tracks really are that good.

Man, I love Japan for artists like her.

Calling Riding Bean a strange movie is nothing short of calling George Lucas retarded, it’s too easy to do so. Yes I used the word retard, deal with it.

I’m unsure as to what came into existence first, the OVA or the manga, but considering video being the last step when it comes to the life of manga, it’s safe to say that the manga probably existed around the same time or before this ever showed up. The idea of the series comes from the mind of Kenichi Sonoda from the time before many of you reading this were born, 1989…when i was still in my single digits of living. Those of you more adept at manga and anime probably picked up on the Sonoda name because he’s the same man behind Gunsmith Cats (which will show up some time later on WeaWed).

The plot of the OVA is that of a highly skilled, aggressive, strong, and arguably insane courier named Bean Bandit (oh Japan, you so funny with names) getting wrapped up in a crime in which he didn’t commit, even though he wouldn’t be adverse to crime itself…I mean, he IS a professional courier with a car that has more gadgets than a Bond vehicle. Joining him along on most of his jobs is Rally (sometimes spelled Larry by racist ass whiteys) Vincent who is adeptly proficient with firearms. The two of them find themselves being pursued by Chicago’s Finest for the kidnapping of a very rich man’s daughter while they attempt to solve the caper and clear their names, with hilarious results.

While this OVA is mainly an action-porn with all of the gunfights, fast car scenes, destruction of Chicago police cruisers ala The Blues Brothers, and a very tense couple of minutes in a parking garage, the basic premise to the story is that of a whodunnit. The audience knows, but the fun is seeing Bean and Rally make the connections.

The movie is a whole ton of fun, but when the protagonist (Bean) tends to be more powerful than any human alive and seemingly unstoppable, you lose the worry of “will they or won’t they survive”. Case in point would be the one scene where Bean is shot at point blank range in the forehead with a pistol, instead of caving in his forehead and all grey matter behind it, it only makes him dizzy. After which, he’s repeatedly bumper crunched before he snaps back to normal and decides that he’s going to shoulder-charge a moving vehicle…AND WIN. It’s fun to watch, but you begin to wonder how he’s so powerful.

The one scene that stands out in my mind is when Bean is attempting to unlatch a trailer from a semi, only to have a grenade dropped onto his hood…followed by multiple others. Like a said, fun, but completely unreasonable and crazy.

By all means, Bean shouldn’t have even survived the beginning of the movie, right after nekkid Rally dresses for the camera (^O^), because in order to wake Bean up…she puts a 3rd degree burn inducing hot skillet onto his face! Seriously, he gets handed the business from the beginning to the very end of the movie as he’s being taunted by a detective rival who uses the entirety of the police force to join in on the taunt. It’s such good fun.

I loved this somewhat short OVA ever since I saw it in 1994 and miss the quality of the animation that we got in the late 80s, especially from companies like Artmic. By Crom’s beard i miss that company’s work. If you haven’t seen it yet, by all means run out and pick this one up, it’s worth having on your shelf, you won’t be disappointed.

There’s something about the original Metroid game that came out on the NES…almost something transcendental about a style of gameplay that would continue to be one of the biggest sellers on any game system. Don’t believe me? Check out a little game called Shadow Complex if you haven’t already for the Xbox 360.

I’m not saying that Metroid is one of the best game series ever made, that’s pretty apparent from how well it’s sold over the years, but I will say that is one of the pioneers in gaming history for having free roam gameplay and completionist tendencies. I don’t think anyone here on this site or in history would disagree that Super Metroid is by far one of the best games ever made, but before it was Super, we had just regular ol’ Metroid and The Minibosses do a damn fine job of making me want to run to my basement to play this game.

Go to their website right now and pick up their album Brass which featured this stunning rendition of many of the game’s best songs. You won’t be disappointed.

Listen as the crew of Giant-Sized Podcast get together once again at Black Cat Comics and dispense with everything that needed to be talked about ever in the history of comicdom. Come on, you know you want to listen!

Most important detail for this episode is that it’s again late as shit but don’t pay attention to my half assed attempt at letting you know exactly what was talked about this episode, because there’s no way I could cover everything these guys do during their show. Go, listen, and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes.

GSP Episode XXXVII – Consummated Professionals

In the past 7 months, I’ve managed to drop almost 60 lbs of fat from my body by following the simple principles of No Hungy:

• STEP 1 – EAT LESS

• STEP 2 – MOVE MORE

I’ll be giving you stories for the week of my successes and failures, because as you may not know…I too am human and prone to failure. I’ll also include workouts that I’d like you to try that aren’t terribly difficult to do, and I’ll even provide you a soundtrack for said workout. Think of me as your fellow friend in fatness and a personal trainer without certification.

Keep an eye open next week for the first episode of what I hope to be a really really enlightening experience as this will be the most intimate podcast you’ll ever get with me talking directly to you. I’ve got another 80 lbs to lose to hit my target weight and if I can bring one or two of you with me, the all the better.

I’m just your normal geek with barely any time for weight loss and if I can do it, you sure as hell can too. Here’s your inspirational song to get you ready.

Machinima brings us the first trailer to one of the first big time must see movies for me in 2012. I saw the original in the theaters and besides the inclusion of a Wayans brother, I have to say that I enjoyed the hell out of the film. I’m sure that this movie will be just as good if not better if trailers have taught me anything.

For those that are video impaired, if you recall, Zartan replaced the US President and Cobra Commander escaped in a submarine and we never actually saw Storm Shadow die. The faux-president calls an airstrike against the G.I. Joe unit and their hidden base leaving only a handful of members of the elite task force alive including Snake Eyes (HNNNNG Ray Park!), Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Jinx, Duke, and Lady Jaye.

If you look extra close, you’ll see that Firefly (one of my favorite villains) makes an appearance in this movie! I won’t get all excited about it just yet, but keep an eye on this one.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation opens on June 29th, 2012. I’ll be there on day one.

Welcome to the inaugural helping of WPR’s newest feature article, Oldie But Goodie! My intent here is to share great things that came into existence before I ever did. Seeing how I was born in the first month of 1980, that leaves me the entirety of iniquity to 1979 to discuss things that you too should love.

This week, I’ve decided to go with the Disney’s classic The Black Hole, a movie that I love and hate relationship with mainly for the scar it left on my childhood. I’ll get to that in a minute, first up…why you should care about this movie.

The film was created by Disney in the late 70s, while everyone was hoping to cash in on the Star Wars sci-fi craze that spawned some of the most amazingly bad films WPR and other 30+ year olds can remember (*cough*ZARDOZ*cough*). It was the second movie in Disney repertoire to gain a PG rating due to harsh language, religious overtones, death, and other adult goodies, and was the first movie to ever have it’s score recorded digitally.

The basic plot of the story is that the crew of the Palomino happens upon a ship called Cygnus strangely seated upon the event horizon of a black hole. Upon investigation, the crew’s ship is damaged and is forced to land on the ship. They discover that the crew from the Cygnus is missing and the only human to remain aboard is Doctor Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) who has pioneered the null gravity field that has allowed the gigantic ship to remain safe from the tidal forces of the yearning singularity below them. But the question remains…what happened to the crew?

I’ve seen this movie in various stages of life, first starting when I was a mere child and had no understanding or patience for much of the great writing that this movie has. All I cared about was lasers, special effects, computer generated graphics, and robots. There were numerous scenes in this flick that caused me some turmoil as a youngin’, especially the lobotomy scene and the movie’s ending…which I have to admit as an adult is still quite strange.

We’re talking as obscure as 2001’s ending, but not done as well, because I can at least understand the ending of 2001 quite well. I don’ want to ruin it for you but I’ve included the video next to this paragraph in case you really want to see what a mindf*ck this movies ending was.

A neat bit of trivia for the movie is that the voices of the robots V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. were done by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens respectively…and both went uncredited. The craziest bit is that in the year 21XX ESP is a real thing, and even robots have it as we see in the film.

So beyond the plot, ending, and horrific scenes that scarred me, I found this film to be completely enjoyable and is highly recommended by me for the ‘twist’ that is discovered half way through the film and for the entire atmosphere of the Cygnus itself. There are some breathtaking interior shots of the ship that make you wish that CG wasn’t quite so heavily used anymore, as Disney had to create model shooting cameras much like the ones that ILM used in the Star Wars franchise.

There has been rumor about Joseph Kosinsky being open to the possibility of making a new version of this film, much like how he did with Tron: Legacy. I welcome this notion as I believe The Black Hole to be one of the most defining movies for Disney in the seventies. Considering we’re in a slump when it comes to ‘thinky’ sci-fi, a movie like this is definitely needed.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the 70s were the golden age of science fiction, but it was a great time for film making in general as we were introduced to directors who wanted to shake up the industry by implementing various new techniques and by challenging their audiences to actually have to think for parts of the movie. It’s just sad that we’re barraged by mindless sequels instead of actual new IPs. Where did all the creativity go?

I’ll admit, Kid Icarus isn’t that obscure, but finding people who actually remember it fondly and how hard it was to beat without the “ICARUS FIGHTS MEDUSA ANGELS” password is pretty rough. Thankfully there are enough who do remember and can carry on that memory.

With The Minibosses release of Brass 2, they’ve included the full track of Kid Icarus songs including the version that was on their original Brass album. The video we’ve snagged for you to watch is from a recent live performance @ Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago, IL. Just hearing this makes me want to grab my mirrored shield and my best eggplant dispatching sword to take on Medusa and her minions.

In the classic SNES SquareSoft role-playing game, there is a moment soon after beating the game and staying through the credits that you learn that a new game mode has been unlocked in the form of New Game + allowing you and your beefed up characters to have a second chance at kicking Lavos’s ass early on.

How early you might ask?

Well, if you recall the Millennial Fair, there is one piece of scenery that causes all of the fun in the game, Lucca’s telepods…You know, the reason that Nadia (err Marle) is transported into 600 AD and the game’s complex storyline begins. THOSE telepods.

Anyways, what normally happens at this point in the game is Lucca asks you to test out the telepod and you magically transport from one side to the other, then Marle gives it a try with disastrous results as her inherited necklace causes a malfunction that sends her 400 years into the past. What shows up in New Game + is a time travel portal on the right telepod where it essentially lets you bypass the entire game and makes you show up in front of Lavos himself.

In this fight, at least as I remember it, it was my sole Crono versus each form of Lavos. We’re talking the initial rock-covered-bug outside, the space alien inside, and the smaller alien behind that one. This wasn’t so bad when I was playing the game on my third playthrough considering I had Crono pretty well maxed out with the best gear and two great accessories. I do recall giving it a try on my second time around and just having my ass handed to me.

The reward for all of this hard work? Oh only one of the most memorable game endings of all time!

When you finally strike Lavos down for good, you’re transported to the end of time setting but instead of the usual suspects inhabiting the area, you’re met with a few new names, all of them had their hands in making Chrono Trigger a reality. This area acts much like the regular end of time with the area to the left providing multiple transports to take you to different areas, an area that Epoch used to take up is replaced with a black space that you can run through to…talk to a barrel.

Once you explore everything there is to see, the room that Spekkio used to inhabit is replaced with a room that contains the sprite versions of the big five people who made the game including Akira Toriyama and Hironobu Sakaguchi. The only one who doesn’t get his own sprite is Nobuo Uematsu who actually insults you with a backwards sentence followed by “Now get a life!”. I never felt right about that, I mean, the guy whose job I ensured just told me that I don’t have a life. Way to thank your fans, ass.

My favorite bits of this ending would have to be the mean ‘reset’ joke by Tetsuya Nomura (yes, THAT Tetsuya Nomura) that has him tricking you into a ragequit by making you think the game reset like when you’d do the L+R+Start+Select on most Square games, and the bit where the credits are shown at a fast forwarded rate to keep inline with how quickly you finished the game.

This is probably one of the most memorable moments in gaming for me if for no other reason than I REALLY felt like I accomplished something by getting this ending. The only thing that comes close to that sense of accomplishment was defeating the Emerald Weapon in Final Fantasy VII, but that’s another story for another Save Point down the road. I hope to see you there.

Before you get up in arms about letting my kid watch 5 hours of solid television, don’t worry because we didn’t actually see them in sequence in one sitting. Instead we split it up over a couple of days, or was it weeks? Time is a strange thing when you’ve got a three year old and a new set of twins.

Let’s get down to business shall we? I’ll go from worst to first.

First up is one of the biggest pieces of poo that I’ve ever watched with the name Disney attached to it, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. One of the rare holders of a 0% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes, this film is less of a movie sequel than a series of shorts set in the Cinderella universe.

I won’t focus on the crappy sections because they’re just terrible…in fact the whole movie is terrible and didn’t even hold the interest of my oldest daughter at all. There really isn’t much to talk about with this one besides the potentially interesting segment involving one of Cinderella’s stepsisters and her falling in love with a lowly baker and the redemption that comes from her finally understanding what it’s like to be a sister and to be in love.

I wouldn’t mind this sequel so much if it were actually pretty well done, but the story that interlaces each chapter is of the mice (with the Fairy Godmother’s help) creating a book for Cinderella, and is so hackneyed that even my little lady was more interested in what daddy had to suddenly get up to cook.

Seriously, avoid the second movie at all costs, there’s nothing good about it for fans of the original.

Second on the list is the third movie in the series titled Cinderella III: A Twist in Time which begins one year after the marriage of Prince Charming to Cinderella. As they head to a picnic one day, one that just happens to be near the property owned by the Wicked Stepmother and the stepsisters, Anastasia (the redhead) notices that the Fairy Godmother is adept at magic and that the source of her power is her wand, which she steals and from there, hilarity ensues.

Take the plot of the newest Star Trek movie and you have Cinderella III, or close enough at least. There are no black holes or red matter (at least as I recall) involved, but an alteration of the storyline and the fun that new universes being created as a consequence of time travel is always a good time.

Without getting lost in the details, this movie engaged both me and my daughter due to the high tension moments of Cinderella being put in mortal peril on multiple occasions, a few chase scenes, and some generally crazy moments in the story. The one bit that I really appreciated was the scene with a call back to the original carriage scene only this time the pumpkin carriage was created by the Stepmother to send Cinderella to her death and appeared just as sinister.

This is going to be a repeat offender in my house because of the emotion that my daughter displayed toward the ending as she had tears in her eyes, not from sadness, but from being happy for the storybook ending of ‘finally, a happily ever after’. Stuff like that sticks with dads as it’s one of those moments where we discover that even at early ages, our girls are more in touch with their emotions than we are.

Finally, we have the original Disney classic Cinderella. Really, what more can be said about this masterpiece of animation and film making that hasn’t been said already? The only thing that I’ll even bring up is that for weeks after watching the movie, my little princess would walk around asking her daddy to slip on her glass slippers and exclaim that “I FOUND YOU, MY PRINCESS!”…and the dancing, boy she was crazy about daddy ballroom dancing with her, complete with waltzing and dips. The giggles I got for doing that were absolutely priceless.

Disney isn’t wrong for wanting to profit off of old movies, in fact the trend is so ubiquitous these days with the trends of making movies that number into 7 or 8 iterations or even the filming of sequels and trilogies before even screening the original. It happens and it’s more accepted in 2011 than it was originally in 2002 when the first sequel came out for Cinderella. Call them insane but the fact that a $5,000,000 investment by Disney flipped around 24x to magically become $120,000,000 is no laughing matter.

As long as I have kids I will continue to like the Disney brand, no matter how money hungry they seem. For the most part I can at least say that for all three movies I was SLIGHTLY entertained…even with the 0% abortion that was Cinderella II. It made great background noise while I was making Thanksgiving desserts and thankfully made my daughter not care about the boob tube for a few minutes, which shows me that her sense of taste when it comes to media consumption is starting to fine-tune.