Some Great TV to Watch
There has been some cool tv on lately and a couple episodes really stood out in my mind as being above and beyond the normal and I thought I would take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to share them with you. I’m going to embed the videos from Hulu. They will eventually be taken down, so don’t wait till later to watch some cool TV.
First off is Community : Modern Warfare. A paintball tournament gets out of hand when the a secret prize is announced, turning the whole episode into it’s own action movie. Keep your eyes open for lots of movie references.
The other show I wanted to share is Fringe : Brown Betty. I admittedly don’t normally watch Fringe. But they were doing a Noir episode and I wanted to check it out. It turns out to be more then that when Walter is telling a noir story and his love of musicals and personal feelings over his missing ‘son’ bleed into the story.
Thanks for the distraction and we shall return with a new daily photo tonight.
Horror Pin Ups – Jason : In 3-D
I’ve been doing this ongoing series of horror pin up with girls taking the place of horror icons. They tend to be a little few and far between, but it’s fun stuff. Today we have Jason. I really couldn’t think of a girly variation of the name Jason that still identified the character. This shot seemed inline with the 3-D horror tends that are currently plaguing movies. And it looked nifty. Enjoy.
I’m With Coco
One of the artists I enjoy watching on DA, Mike Mitchell, has put this graphic out for people to show their support for Conan with. I thought I’d post it out here, cause I feel Conan is getting a raw deal.
You can find more of his art here.
Read Conan’s Statment on the show here.
Bad Movie Night – Chihuanhas
Every so often I like to gather the friends over and have a night of watching terrible movies. Here is a contender for the next night.
The plot: A school/pack of vicious, cross-bred Chihuahua and Piranha are unleashed upon a pristine Mtn Lake and quickly consume summer campers before a team of misfits, led by the lake’s ranger, evade and destroy the evil little critters .
You can also visit the official site here.
Bad Movie Night – Snow Blind
Every so often I like to gather the friends over and have a night of watching terrible movies. Here is a contender for the next night.
Venture Bros. – Season 4
Ok, I’m a big fan of the Venture Bros., and I can’t help but share the preview for the new season of the show. The 4th season starts in November, so there is a lot of time to try and figure out what all this insanity means.
Vampire Preparedness
Even though I haven’t seen the show, I’m really getting a kick out of the promotions for True Blood they are using out in New Zealand. It has a cool feel for the vampire show. If only Sunnydale had these posted around town then Buffy’s job would have been a lot easier.
The Middleman is Coming to DVD!
Things have been kinda on the crazy side here lately. I’m directing a play, and do a bit of freelance, so it hasn’t been leaving me much time to shoot. So there will be a lack of posts until the show is over. But I’ll still be making some updates on the play and I do I have new shoot completed that I’ll be posting soon.
But first the Middleman….
It was announced on the Middleblog that the Season 1 DVD will be coming out this summer. So save your pennies for Middleman goodness.
No word yet on if there will be a Season 2, but lets be optimistic since this is a Season 1 DVD and not a “Entire/Complete Series” DVD
NCIS Tidbits
While back I did some crime scene shoots, I was very much inspired by NCIS during the shoot and did acquire an NCIS hat for the shoot. I did not have her wear the hat during the main part oft he shoot cause I didn’t want to mess up her hair. Later on we took images of her with the hat, but I never did anything with them. Here is one of them.
I contemplated trying to pass off the photos as a new character coming to the show over the summer, but I just couldn’t find a good NCIS forum. Also her hat is kind crooked with irks me a bit. But that’s that way it came to me.
Also last night on the show (Ep “Caged”) one of the girls I went to high school with had a good sized guest spot on the show. Honestly I’m always glad to see people from my home town go on to do bigger and better things, and she did a pretty good job on the show. Although it was rather distracting seeing someone I knew on the show.
10 Best DA Art for 2008
Every year I like to look back at all the artwork that other people have made on DeviantArt and choose my personal 10 favorite pieces to help get some more attention for these talented artists. This year I decided to post it here on the blog. Also It helps me stall until I get new artwork to share. Hope you enjoy.
Marcelo Di Chiara drew this great rendition of Bizarro from the Superman comics. It has some great lines through out it, as well as some nice damaged textures in the background. Also Bizzaro attempting the classic Superman glasses disguise is just amusing.
Visit Marcelo’s Deviant Art page – http://dichiara.deviantart.com/
Visit Marcelo’s Blog – http://www.dichiara.blogspot.com/
I featured this artwork from Jose Johann Jaro (aka lazeedog) earlier in the year for Halloween and I still really love it. The expressions on the kids faces are priceless. The details in this work really stand out to me, like the Star Wars Pillowcase, and the poor knock off quality of the Wonder Woman costume.
Visit Jose”s Deviant Art page – http://lazeedog.deviantart.com/
8. the Horrible and the Hammer
Visit Jeffery”s Deviant Art page – http://lastscionz.deviantart.com/
Visit Jeffery’s Blog – http://chamba-lang-ito.blogspot.com/
Visit Jeffery”s Deviant Art page – http://lostonwallace.deviantart.com/
Visit Nate’s DA Page – http://raede.deviantart.com/
Daniela Uhlig just
Visit Daniela”s Deviant Art page – http://lolita-art.deviantart.com/
Visit Daniela’s Web Site – http://www.du-artwork.de/
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes
As a photographer I don’t tend to look at that much photography as much as I look at comic books, drawings and paiLea Biljman here. It has a great mood, great colors and light, and has something beautifully retro and classic about it as well.
Visit Mariana”s Deviant Art page – http://marinshe.deviantart.com/
Visit Mariana’s Web Site – http://www.marinshe.com/
Pirates vs. Ninjas has been one of those ongoing internet debates/memes. I’m endlessly amused on how detailed an illustration Roboworks makes of the whole things. It takes a lot of time to makes those details so be sure to click to look at it in full size.
Visit Robo”s Deviant Art page – http://roboworks.deviantart.com/
There is seemingly nothing extraordinary about Dan Panosian’s Superman. But it’s crisp lines, bold colors, and pure elegance in it’s simplicity (thank you Middleman for that line!) that really make this image stand out and a great work of pop art.
Visit Dan”s Deviant Art page – http://urban-barbarian.deviantart.com/
Visit Dan’s Blog – http://www.urbanbarbarian.com/
I love the mix of the very unique hand drawn creatures interacting with real word objects in this photo by Lora (whom’s last name I can’t seem to locate. ) I had it up as my wall paper for a long time. It kinda creeped out some people who saw it.
Visit Lora”s Deviant Art page – http://lora8.deviantart.com/
Visit Lora’s Blog – http://www.bananca.co.uk/
1. Wolverine vs. T-Rex Parts 1 & 2
Ok, so the number 1 piece is actually two paintings, but they come together well as one work. Andrew Hou admits to painting the first one on a whim not really having any idea how Wolveirne could win. A while later the second image appeared on his site. I’m very amused by both and the quality is suprub. I’d personally love to be able to get a print to hang on the wall.
Visit Andrew”s Deviant Art page – http://njoo.deviantart.com/
Freeze Ray. Stops Time. Tell Your Friends.
I’ve been watching this first (and most likely only) season of The Middleman on ABC Family. The show is ripe with nerdy fun. Every week the show seems to pick a theme and hide references to certain topic (or two), or show, or movie throughout the episode. Typically they are do dense and so fats that even when I know the topic I can’t follow them all.
This last week was the season (series) finale. While some references where easy, like the evil twins of people having a beard ala Star Trek. Some were insanely hard, like the coordinates of the black hole given by the middleman correspond to the constellation serpens – the snake – a VERY subtle homage to snake plissken of “escape from new york”. One big one this week was entirely unintentional.
Yep the gun used by the “evil” Middleman is the same prop used by Dr. Horrible in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long blog. Just happen stance of them using the same prop.
Back to the Middleman!
There is a new show on ABC family called “The Middleman”. It’s based off a comic book series by Javier Grillo-Marxuach. It is about the straight-laced Middleman, a freelance fixer of “exotic problems,” which include mad scientists bent on taking over the world, and his artist sidekick (and middleman-in-training) Wendy Watson.
I’ve been enjoying the show a lot the last few weeks with it’s weird and geeky sence of humor, and strange adventures fighting super intelligent mafia monkeys, or ninja Mexican wrestlers. (Not the mention the shows obsession with overly complex run-on sentences.) But last night they won me over with a load of reference to my favorite movie, Back to the Future.
The Middleman must keep his identity secret, so here are a list of aliases used in this weeks episode that are characters from the Back to the Future movies:
Doctor Emmet Brown of the Hill Valley Institute Chaplin Buford Tannon Sister Clara Clayton Agent Strickland of the Department of Fish and Wildlife*
Also the call letters of the local television station were KBTTF.
In other Back to the Future references this week, an other new show, In Plain Sight, used Back to the Future to help explain the plot.
*I’m going on a limb and assuming the Department of Fish and Wildlife was a shout out to an other Scifi show The Invisible Man who would claim they were from the department of Fish and Game.
Wizard World Chicago Costumes – Part 3
Over the weekend was the Wizard World Chicago 2008 comic book convention. I decided to bring the camera along and take of photos of all the people who dress up for the show. There were a lot of great costumes so I’m going to need to break this up into several posts throughout the week.
Part 3 is here! This final part will cover movie characters, mainly Star Wars.
 Darth Maul |
 Jango Fett |
 3-CPO |
 Obi-Wan |
 Violet Parr and Syndrome |
 Werewolf made my Miss Monster |
Leia, Anakin, and Two-Face
Wizard World Chicago Costumes – Part 2
Over the weekend was the Wizard World Chicago 2008 comic book convention. I decided to bring the camera along and take of photos of all the people who dress up for the show. There were a lot of great costumes so I’m going to need to break this up into several posts throughout the week.
Welcome to part 2! This entry will feature the people who dressed up as TV characters
 Doctor Who |
 Doctor Who and Rose |
 Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Serenity) |
 Zoe and Inara (Serenity) |
 Green Hornet and Kato |
 Carmen Sandiego |
A Tour of Wizard World Chicago
This past weekend one of the largest comic book conventions in the country took place in Chicago. I’ve attended the Wizard World Chicago convention for the last 9 years. 5 of those years I was attending as a fan and the other 4 I was attending as an exhibitor selling my comic book and photography. Most of my family and friends know I go to this show, but they don’t really know what goes on over the weekend. This past show I decided to take my camera with and take some images to help give an idea of what the Wizard World convention is like.
I’m going to start at the beginning. Here is an image of what you would see when first entering the show.
All of the big comic books companies (Marvel, DC, Image, etc.) set up booths right at the front doors to promote any upcoming movies, large comic events, and hold signings by some of the most popular artists and writers who work on their books. Farther in the distance are smaller booths for independent comic book publishers and an autograph area with minor celebs like Lou Ferrigno, Johnny Fairplay and any number of former pro wrestler and/or star wars actors.
The next major area at the convention are the vendors. Half the show floor is dominated by a variety of booths selling comic books, movie posters, toys, swords, knives, bootleg movies, patches, collectibles, t-shirts and much much more. The show tends to not focus on comic books, and covers pop culture, science-fiction, and cult tv/movies.
Fans looking through boxes of comics.
Variety of t-shirts on display.
Pez at one of the collectible booths.
The last section on the main floor is Artist Alley. This is where a variety of professional and aspiring artists come to sell their art, comic books, prints, and to do commissions and sketches. Personally this is my favorite area of the show. There is wealth of talent here, and a great opportunity to chit chat with the artists and find new things.
By now you’ve walked around for a couple hours. Hunger is setting in. There are several places around the show to buy over priced, poorly cooked food that’s been sitting out under the heat lamp too long. Best to bring your own food.
Ok, I’m bringing up the food just to show that photo of storm troopers eating. We thought it was amusing. At any show you can pretty much expect to see a small army of storm troopers walking the floor.
Along with the storm troopers there are lots of people in costume. Just an other reason I love to go to this show. I’ve gone in costume several times in the past. It’s a blast. Although it’s a bit difficult to get around the show if you have a really cool outfit because people will stop and take your photo every 20 feet. There are a lot of people dressed up this year. I took a ton of photos of people I saw in costume this year, and I’ll be putting those up in the next few parts.
After all of this we have more show! In an other section of the convention center there are a lectures, discussion groups, and movies held in a series of ballrooms. I didn’t take any photos of these, I don’t normally head to this area of the show. Outside the ballrooms is a signing area. this is where they hold signing for some of the top names in the comics business. The line of people waiting to get a signature from painter Alex Ross is below.
In Plain Sight : Paul Ben-Victor
USA Network has a new show, In Plain Sight. It’s a pretty good show. It’s only had one episode, but there seems to be a lot potential. One big reason I started watching the show is because of Paul Ben-Victor. Paul was the star of one of my favorite shows, The Invisible Man, So I’m glad to see him get some more work.
One of the things I was wondering after the first episode is “How long till they get Paul’s Invisible Man co-star as a guest star on the show?” The answer – the second episode. Vincent Ventressa makes an appearance right away on the show, and it’s aways great to see the two of them on the same show. Although the two actors don’t really share a scene.
More Invisible Man stuff with In Plain Sight, here is Paul Ben-Victor’s thoughts on his new TV Role:
Every character’s different and they’re also very similar in many ways. A while ago, I did a show called The Invisible Man on the Sci-Fi Channel, and a friend of mine said this now is like Bobby Hobbes older brother. It’s kind of like Bobby Hobbes has grown up a little bit, been given a raise, and now he’s working at another out-of-the-way, off-the-wall, obscure office in the middle of nowhere. It relates to that character I think a little bit. And the writing is terrific. It’s definitely something that suits me, I think. I’m looking forward to doing more of it.
Question- Can you tell us more about what you meant about Stan being Bobby Hobbes older brother?
Paul- Alright. You’ll have to see for yourself, but it rings true a little bit of Bobby Hobbes, a little bit of he’s not completely grounded all the time. But he’s definitely a good cop, he’s a good marshal, he’s a good boss.
To read more of the interview click here
To watch In Plain Sight online, click here
Venture Bros – Season 3!
First off before I go into all things Venture Bros., I need make mention that I missed the last Photo Friday. I was working on some projects and just never got around to it. A double Photo Friday will be up this Friday.
And now, On to the Venture Bros!
This upcoming weekend, June 1st, will be the start of the 3rd season of the Venture Bros. It’s currently one of my favorite shows on right now. It’s a ongoing and complex parody of Johnny Quest mixed in with general superhero and cartoon fun. An added bonus for me is that lot of people involved with The Tick work on the show including Tick creator Ben Edlund, The Tick actor himself Patrick Warburton.
As a special promotion the show will be selling weekly T-shirts. Every week a T-shirt will be available online that specifically coincides with that week’s episode. Seems like a fun idea for me. For more information on that, click the link below.
Works of Others : Indiana Jones
The brand new Indiana Jones movie opened up today and I thought I’d share some nifty Jonesian artwork I spotted out on the interwebs.
The first one is by Ethan Beavers. It was drawn for a cover of a Indiana Jones magazine.
The other image I wanted to share is by an artist from Spain named Jamie Posadas.
Discovery Channel Ad : Video
I watch a lot of the discovery channel. I really didn’t realize how much I’ve been watching when I saw their great new commercial featuring several of their hosts singing along with a very sweet song “I love the whole world”. It warms the cockles of the heart. Maybe even the sub-cockles. Enjoy.
Robot Chicken : Mutant Enemy
Ok, I’m really off topic here, but I saw this last night at the end of Robot Chicken and I wanted to share. It’s a parody of the Mutant Enemy closing credits normally seen at the end of Joss Whedon shows, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly.
Enjoy.
The Invisible Man on DVD!
I thought I’d be nice and say something about easter today, but then I saw that one of my favorite TV shows of all time is finally coming to DVD, The Invisible Man! What? You’ve never heard of it? Ok, I can’t say I’m that surprised.
The show ran on the SciFi channel for a couple years, back when they actually had science fiction programming on the SciFi channel. Ventresca played Darien Fawkes, a thief facing life imprisonment who was recruited by a low-rent spy organization and given the power of invisibility via the implantation of a special “Quicksilver gland” in his head. The gland lets Fawkes secrete a light-bending substance called “Quicksilver” from his pores and follicles. The substance quickly coats his skin, hair, nails and clothes and renders him invisible. He can consciously release the Quicksilver, which then flakes off and disintegrates. The Quicksilver gland was sabotaged at its creation by scientist Arnaud DeFehrn, to release a neurotoxin that accumulates in his bloodstream and causes intense pain, followed by psychosis and antisocial behavior. He requires regular doses of “counteragent” to keep him sane and healthy, which is controlled by said government agency. This series lasted for two seasons, before being cancelled due to cost issues and internal bickering between the Sci Fi Channel and its then-parent company, USA Networks.