The Hiatus... Explained

So you may have realised something of late. Ever since the 16th of April, there has been virtually no activity on here. Some have been worried, some have been overjoyed and a few have been heartbroken. Or, most likely, you've shrugged it off and merely moved on. Well, there's a few reasons for the distinct lack of stuff to be read/skimmed/mocked for the previous 6 weeks, of which may contain at least some justification for my sheer absence.

Reason 1: Exams
It's exam season, pretty straight forward. Me + Revision = Good Exam Grades. Me + Blog (-Revision) = Bad Exam Grades. Whether or not the exam grades will in fact be good is yet to be seen, but if so, I'll be sure to process the correlation of no blogging and lots of A's.

Huh, well I guess there really was only one reason. How 'bout that? So this leaves the whole part of next. In approximately 3 weeks' time, I'll be faced with an arduous 11 week Summer, whereby the sun shallt shine and the waft of the great outdoors will be wholly resistible as I sit at my desk thrashing away at the keyboard for some hopefully quality articles (and other projects too...). It'll play out kinda like this, but you know, lonelier and probably with more singing/dancing:


Yep, that sure was a fearless High School Musical reference and drop-in.
If you stick around long enough you may even hear a song or two of my own, catch a 4-minute short film or perhaps simply enjoy the delights of some stories I've written. None of which happen to involve Zac Efron (yet!).

Now if you don't mind, I need to get back to doing everything under the sun to delay revision.

Ciao amigos. (What? I don't speak European!)

ATR

The Sunday Supdate: 21/08/11

So I've been away for some time now, and while I could just easily write it off to you as me being on holiday or something, I won't because that would be lying. And you know what they say about liars... "That they will burn in a special kind of hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the cinema?" Uh, no I was more referring to - you know what, it doesn't matter... So no, I haven't been training with monks in the Himalayas or assembling a team of the greatest bloggers ever known or playing Volleyball in Tanzania with Rolf Harris or even hunting down Nazi sympathisers in Finland. However, if you really want to know why I haven't been blogging lately, then you can watch this rather pointless vlog I attempted yesterday, in which I murder myself. Or if you don't want to know, save us both the embarrassment and skip past this 3 and a half minute video of awkward silences and gargantuanated "Uhm"'s.

 
It's funny, whenever I have a great month of hits (>1000), the next is always a rapid decline. Perhaps I have this subconscious fear of not reaching there by trying, so I just naturally shy away. I should really stop paying so much attention to the Stats really, and that might stop this autonomous cycle.

Alright, enough about me, here are some new (I use that term loosely) movie stills:
SORT OF SPOILERS AHEAD... BUT NOTHING MAJOR... UNLESS YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE REALLY PEDANTIC FANBOYS... IF SO GET LOST... OR DON'T BECAUSE I'M DESPERATE... BESIDES, YOU'LL SEE IT ALL IN THE TRAILERS...

Henry Cavill stands... hunched as the new Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel (2013). Looks like Snyder had some of the 300 costume parts leftover, with Supes' long, flowing cape. You can also see that his costume looks like the "Basket Ball" material that the new Spider-Man is sporting (The Amazing Spider-Man), which I've got no problem with (though some do). The classic S is still emblazoned nice and wide on the chest, but there's no sign of "over the tights" pants, although that could be a trick of the (utterly atrocious) lighting at work here. And hopefully his face won't be this menacing throughout the whole movie when it drops 14th June 2013...

And here with have the lovely Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.  The costume's looking very latex-y as per usual with such a character known for her tight leather duds. Seen here on the Bat-Pod, it would seem our feline friend has pinched it from good ol' Bats, either that or she's using it under his digression (perhaps he's in trouble?). Whether those goggles are part of the costume or just simply for when she's zipping round Gotham on the bike, has been the source of many an internet (read: fanboy) debate. I'm a little on the fence on this one... Although if there were alternatives for a face mask, I'd like to see them. Flowing hair's cool though, I'm down with that. For the most part, it looks like they're keeping the costume clean and simple, ditching the cleavage-y look that comes clichéd with Catwoman, and keeping Hathaway's boobs tucked away in there. (But if you happen to want to see them untucked, I suggest Love and Other Drugs). The Dark Knight shall Rise on 20th July 2012.

Yay! It's The Hunger Games! Nothing too overwhelming here, mind. You've got Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class) as our hero Katniss on the left there, a headstrong girl who must fight for her life in the savage Hunger Games against 23 over kids in this dark dystopian future. Then on the right is Liam Hemsworth (Uhm... He's the brother of Chris Hemsworth (Thor (Oh snap! Double bracket. Wait know it's a triple! This is like...(INCEPTION! Que the giant horn music! BWOARRRRRRRRRR!(Okay, getting a little off topic now... So how many close brackets do I need to put to end this now?))))) (I think that's enough...) as one of two romantic interests, Gale. Now Gale is Katniss's bud from back home, the guy she used to (illegally) hunt with, and both were crack shots with a bow. So this little scene must be before the games starts in their home "District" of 12. Both are very well interpreted from the books, particularly for how I pictured them. My only issue is that Gale looks too shiny, if you know what I mean. A guy who lives in near-poverty and spends his days running through forests shouldn't look so perfect. Where's the rugged edge to him? Anyway, The Hunger Games will be in cinemas March 23rd 2012 and may the odds be ever in your favour.

Well, I'm all "stilled out" after that (not to be confused with "stooled out"). Yeah they're 3 weeks old but who cares?! They're sweet aren't they? 

Happy 99th post by the way! The next one will be celebratory of course, although I've got no idea what it might include. 5000 hits would always be nice... But so would the knowledge that you're all happily reading this and being at least an inkling amused by my internet musings. Ta-rah for now friends, but come back soon, won't cha. Cause if you don't it'll be like leaving me hanging on a high five. Just standing there for hours, hand raised waiting for a sporting clap - that fractional touch that let's me know "Yeah, we cool.". So, are we cool?

ATR

The Sunday Supdate: 29/05/11

The Return.

Yes, I'm back after a week of un-supdated-ness. Apologies if you missed me, but don't be too worried because you're in luck with this considerably monster-sized update! (Assuming that I can find enough things to talk about - I do make this up as I go along, after all.)

  Okay, so "WHERE THE CHEESE BALLING THUMPER CATS HAVE I BEEN!?!?!"?. In short, nowhere. The lack of a Supdate last week was in fact wholly unnecessary, and should be blamed solely on my shoddy, uninterested brain. In even shorter terms: CBA. No matter, comrades; I will work harder!

  Anyway, here's the first picture of Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson) as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises:

Pretty sweet, huh? The mask design looks very contemporary and thankfully non-camp (ala Batman and Robin)and director Nolan's style is flawless, as ever. I know it's a bit old now, but absence is absence, and I really wanted to include it; especially for those of you who's eyes haven't graced its presence as of yet.

           On the topic of movies, I saw Pirates 4 (after a bit of a Hangover 2 cuffufle)  today and was pleasantly surprised by it.  Depp was as good as ever, and there was a great showcase of  recognisable faces on screen (Richard Griffiths, Stephen Graham). In all honesty, it was far more enjoyable than I had expected and reminded me a lot of Indy's The Last Crusade, what with the "hunting down of a mythical object" angle of the plot line. RE:View? Stay tuned...

  I also seem to be getting really into Joss Whedon's works at the moment. As you know, I expressed interest in his sci-fi/western series, Firefly, a couple of weeks ago (of which I am now in love with) and have since expanded into some of his other stuff. Namely: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Possibly the only good thing to come out of the writer strike of 2008, this delightful tragi-comedy musical web-series has been stuck in my head for the last two days. Here's a taster: 

Yep, it's the openly awesome Neil Patrick Harris!

You can actually find the whole thing on YouTube if you want to check it out in its entirety, which I implore you to. Seriously, you'll thank me. You may even want to buy this after:
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The Book 

          Now I know the hits have dived this month, and you can't blame really blame the little guys. There's been very little activity and nothing new has flourished yet. But hold onto your savoury snacks, because I'd like to (try to) introduce the new WTF (What The Fridge) weekly feature. It could be a picture, video, track or generally anything that makes no sense and just makes you question humanity, the world or even yourself. Suggestions would be nice too, if you ever have anything in mind. And the best thing; it's not going to be restricted to a certain day of the week! It could be anytime! Okay, so maybe that's not the best thing, but it certainly helps me out having no commitment deadlines (Tuesdays can be a tough squeeze).

Stuff like this? I think so.

  That's all for now, so come back in the week for the first WTF, a new trailer, maybe an RE:View and if you're really lucky, perhaps a special feature. Stay safe now.  

The Sunday Supdate: 08/05/11

Well, the word of the week was absence (not to be confused with abstinence). I'm aware that there hasn't been much movement this week, and I apologise to those craving some ground-breaking weekday blogging. Why, I hear you ask? Well, I don't know to be honest, just haven't had the time or the ideas. But don't go expecting a sudden surge in activity now though, as I've still got various exams and the like to be dealing with, and you know how priorities go. I'll still keep the Trailer Tuesdays and occasional RE:Views in, and the odd piece if I have the time.

But I am still endeavoring to keep it all fresh, and recently brain-stormed some ideas. I'm toying with the idea of a couple new weekly features that could or couldn't go ahead in the coming weeks. There's also this field-study/research thing I want to kick off if I can get the commitment for it in. But I must keep my silence on it all if I wish to pertain the dramatic hype or whatever you want to call it. Stay tuned...

Attack The Block invades cinemas this week, and for those who don't know what it is, check out this trailer here. A friend and I have been disputing whether it'll be any good throughout this week, me saying yes and him saying no. However, I hope to prove him wrong come this Wednesday(opening day!) when I go see it. After all, it has been described as the next Shaun of The Dead, so I have high hopes. RE:View? You'll just have to wait and see.

What do you think about ATB? Have a say on the poll >

Also started watching Firefly last week, the hugely popular sci-fi show from 2003 which gained a cult-following for it's inventive combination of the sci-fi and western genres. However, the SOBs over at FOX cancelled the show after one season for some bizarre reason, but it's a mistake many fans will not forgive them for. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about and even though I'm only a couple of episodes in, I am loving it. Everything is just so bang on, from the characters and dialogue to the sound and action. Pure awesome. So, taking inspiration from a HSSS video, what shows were you pissed to see cancelled? Vote on the poll to the right.

Yay, more polls! Good to see them return after a little hiatus. Right, that's all for now, so here's a song I've been listening(and playing) to recently. Enjoy!