Chris finally recovers enough from ActionFest 2011 to file a report!

I got back from ActionFest late on Sunday afternoon. And I'm still whomp-boggingly exhausted from the sheer awesomeness of it! Part of me wants to crawl back into bed and try to recuperate some more. But being a responsible blogger, I can't do that!

So here's my report comin' atcha!!

(I said it during my live Twitter-ing from ActionFest and I'll say it again: the girl in the bumper that ran during this year's festival is cute as a button! :-P)

There was also a "30 Seconds of Action" competition for this year's festival. Here was the winning entry: "Action Figures"...

And here's another "30 Seconds of Action" entry: "Death Machine"...

I've been looking for the "Farmacide" clip, but can't find it on YouTube yet. If anyone else at ActionFest this year spots it, let me know at theknightshift@gmail.com 'cuz I loved it :-)

This was ActionFest's second year. And two things that I want to emphasize from the getgo: first, the festival's sophomore outing was MUCH bigger and extremely more well-attended than it was last year (and last year's was already pretty successful). Second, ActionFest has firmly cemented its purpose and reputation as being the only film festival in the world dedicated not only to action movies, but to the men and women who work to make them a reality and who unfortunately have gone all too unsung until now. And if it keeps to that, I can only see ActionFet getting bigger and bigger and better and louder and even MORE INSANELY UBERKEWL!!!

Okay, so here's what I saw that transpired there. Thursday night, April 7th saw the festival open...

Ironclad (2011, Directed by Jonathan English, United Kingdom)

This was the first time that this movie had been shown outside of Great Britain. And it's gonna remind everybody why that land will never, ever again have a king named John (the bastard!). Ironclad is an intense film about a little-known episode in English history: how King John attempted to go back on his word after the signing of Magna Carta and vent his fury on the barons who compelled him to agree to its terms. Very powerful cast in this one including James Purefoy (who already more than earned his action credentials in HBO's Rome), Brian Cox (one of my very favorite actors), Jason Flemyng, Kate Mara, and Paul Giamatti turning in a wicked performance as King John. The same folks who I saw drunk on Scotch while watching Braveheart back in the day are certainly gonna thrill just as hard or harder when they get to see Ironclad upon wide release. Darn good movie, in every way possible.

And after the Ironclad international premiere, we were treated to an impromptu Q&A session with Richard Ryan, stunt coordinator for Ironclad and who also worked on The Dark Knight and a bunch of other movies!

During the festival I was lodging with my filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed Woody. We left the Ironclad showing and went back to his place, and proceeded to wind down a night of British ultra-violence with my DVD copy of Ultramarines, the first ever Warhammer 40,000 movie. Which is also pretty good, especially considering that it features the vocal talents of Terence Stamp and John Hurt. Yah I shoulda written a review of that already. Here's hoping there'll be more 40K movies (personally I'd love to see a Caiphas Cain one with Johnny Depp as Cain, but anyhoo...).

So the next day we spent watching the Blu-ray set of Tron: Legacy (and also the original Tron) before heading back to Asheville and more ActionFest! Up next was...

Little Big Soldier (2010, Directed by Ding Sheng, China/Hong Kong)

Set around 200 B.C. during a time of civil war between the various independent kingdoms of China, Little Big Soldier has Jackie Chan as an older soldier who (accidentally) captures a young general (Leehom Wang) from the opposing army after a brutal battle. Chan's character has it in mind to drag the bound general back home, where he'll be rewarded with rich farmland and the chance to continue his family name. If only the journey was that simple...

Okay, it's pretty obvious in Little Big Soldier that Jackie Chan... well, he's had a long and good career, and unfortunately he's not doing the stunts that he was so spry to do thirty and more years ago. But you know something? That doesn't matter, 'cuz even though Little Big Soldier marks Chan growing older, it also demonstrates that he has kept growing and has grown considerably as an actor. And instead of being hindered by a lessening agility, Chan is playing up to that. The result? One of the best action stars of recent memory with a great role in a movie that is a positivalutely hoot to watch! We giggled and cheered through every minute of it... right up to its heartbreaking but perhaps inevitable conclusion.

After Little Big Soldier, Ed and I chilled a bit in The Powder Keg (the lounge for those with VIP badges) and then at 7 p.m. it was time to take in...

Super (2010, Directed by James Gunn, United States)

Last year we got Kick-Ass. I saw Kick-Ass and... I didn't like it. Now, I sincerely respected what that movie was trying to do: realistically depicting what it would mean to be a costumed crime-fighting vigilante straight out of the comic books. But that movie... was missing something for me. Just didn't satisfy at all.

Super however was everything that I had been hoping to see in this kind of a movie.

Rainn Wilson (The Office) plays Frank D'arbo: a pitiful and self-pitying chap who struggles to cling onto some chance of happiness in life, of which his beautiful wife (played by Liv Tyler) is one of his few bastions of joy. Unfortunately she's got quite a drug habit and winds up in the clutches of heroin-dealing lowlife Jacques (Kevin Bacon). The police can't help Frank. And then the finger of God touches Frank's exposed brain (not kidding) and Frank realizes that it's now his divine mission to become a costumed superhero and clean up the streets.

Super is at last the film that warns us about the insanity of the superhero life and why choosing to follow it... isn't something to be taken lightly. And I keep thinking of the character played by Ellen Page (who was previously seen in Inception). Without spoiling anything, well... let's just say that Page's "Boltie" has a sadder career than Jason Todd ever had.

Some will say that Super is a dark comedy. I disagree. There is very, very little "funny" about Super (apart from a hilarious "Christian superhero" played by Nathan Fillion). This is a serious perspective of comic book superheroes that to the best of my knowledge hasn't been done (or at least not done successfully). James Gunn has produced a very good film here and I'm looking forward not only to watching it again but also discussing it with others.

There's not a poster image for the next film that we saw, 'cuz it had just wrapped a few days before and we were the very first audience to see it! But this screening did have one thing: the presence of director and actor Michael Jai White!

So with White in the house, we came to...

Never Back Down 2 (2011, Directed by Michael Jai White, United States)

I said it twice during the Twitter-in', and I'll say it again: Never Back Down 2 makes The Karate Kid look like The Care Bears Movie! You don't need to have previously seen the original Never Back Down: as far as I can tell the only thing the two films have in common is that they involve the increasingly popular sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). Michael Jai White plays Case: a former MMA champion who was headed for great things before personal tragedy took him out of the game. White brings four young men from different backgrounds and trains them for "the Beatdown": an underground MMA competition run by a somewhat dorkish college kid named Max (Evan Peters). Never Back Down 2 also stars Alex Meraz (from the Twilight movies), Todd Duffee, Scott Epstein and Dean Geyer.

Okay, I really enjoyed the bejeebers out of this movie. This is Michael Jai White's directorial debut and I for one hope that he directs many more, 'cuz the man has some severe talent at directing hard action. But I'd also be remiss in my capacity as a journalist if I didn't also note that Never Back Down 2, as Rocky no doubt accomplished with many others, opened my eyes quite a bit on the realm of mixed martial arts. Until I saw this movie, I didn't think much of it other than it runs on Spike TV a lot and it looked pretty mindless and savage. "Savage"? Yes. But far from mindless. I also look forward to catching this again in wide release.

And after Never Back Down 2, Michael Jai White stuck around for a bit to sign autographs and get some photos taken! Here he is with "Weird" Ed and Yours Truly :-)

Good lord, I look hideous! Had barely slept and hadn't had a shower in like 48 hours. But Michael Jai White (who also played Spawn in Spawn, Gambol in The Dark Knight and a bunch of other stuff) always looks cool :-)

And speaking of cool, a few minutes later it was time for the midnight showing of a movie that I first discovered a few months ago, and had been looking forward to watching it with Ed to see his reaction to it. I speak of course about...

Black Dynamite (2009, Directed by Scott Sanders, United States)

This is a movie that demands to be watched during a midnight showing! Preferably with lots of other people too (and I don't think that will be a problem :-) Black Dynamite is already being called a modern classic and according to Michael Jai White himself, it's even now achieving cult status only afforded to such rare films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Hey, I can dig that! At the ActionFest showing people were screaming lines at the screen ("Cream Corn, NOOOOOOO!"). I need to buy the Blu-ray of this sometime, and not just watch it whenever it appears on Starz :-P

After that we went back to Ed's place to grab what few hours of sleep we could before a full day of Saturday at ActionFest.

Oh yeah, all during ActionFest there were clips provided by Trailers From Hell, featuring numerous well-known filmmakers giving commentary on classic (and some not so classic) movie trailers. Like this one f'rinstance: The Real Don Steele announcing that "RON HOWARD POPS THE CLUTCH AND TELLS THE WORLD TO EAT MY DUST!!!"

And this one for Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!...

Anyways, Saturday at noon and it was time for...

Bangkok Knockout (2011, Directed by Panna Rittikrai and Morakot Kaewthanee, Thailand)

Bangkok Knockout... is a movie that I can only best describe thusly: it is The Running Man meets Hostel with a gracious dash of The Mighty Ducks thrown into the mix. And maybe even fare like American Idol for good measure. I even heard some say that they were reminded of The Hangover (no I haven't seen that movie, and don't know if I will anytime soon but I digress...)

Bangkock Knockout is about a group of youthful performers take part in a martial arts and stunt competition, of which the winning team will be brought to Hollywood to take part in a major film production. Well, that's what they think they've won, anyway...

Yes, there is a plot (and a rather brilliant one) in Bangkok Knockout. But that is merely the springboard from which is launched some of the craziest stunt sequences that I've seen... ever, in the history of anything! Including a guy who fights with a flaming axe and a climactic battle in and around and under a moving tractor trailer. This was classic Asian action cinema in its finest form... and the audience loved it!

The next good while at ActionFest, we attended the panel discussions. And the first was a tribute to the recipient of ActionFest 2011's Lifetime Achievement Award: legendary stuntman, stunt coordinator, second unit director and actor Buddy Joe Hooker!

Hooker has worked on Blazing Saddles, First Blood, Octopussy, Scarface, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the television series Airwolf, and a ton of other movies and shows! Hooker's showbusiness career goes back to his appearing on the TV series Rin Tin Tin, and some other series before he went into stunts full-bore. The tribute ended with a clip from Clay Pigeon, showing a car Hooker was driving turning over and over and over and over nonstop down a hill: I found myself screaming "Oh Lord make it stop make it stop MAKE IT STAAAAWP!!!" But fortunately it did (and I'm happy to report that Hooker's two sons have also chosen to go into stunt performing :-).

After the Buddy Joe Hooker panel, it was time for The Art of Fight Direction panel, featuring renowned kung-fu movie scholar Ric Meyers, Michael Jai White, Richard Ryan, and Larnell Stovall (who was recipient of last year's ActionFest Award for Best Choreography). I posted the details of that in the Twitter feed and for sake of brevity I'll just say that it's all there. It was quite a good discussion, especially about the growth of fight choreography in the video game industry.

We also attended the ActionFest Awards ceremony. One movie that I didn't get to see is A Lonely Place To Die, and now I wish that I'd made the opportunity to see it 'cuz there was a lot of strong buzz about that film (it won the Best Action Film for the festival).

Well, at 7:30 there was a free screening of a film that Buddy Joe Hooker was involved with, and a movie that had one of the biggest explosions in cinema history.

It also stars Charlie Sheen.

Yup, from 1986 it's The Wraith

The Wraith also stars Sherilyn Fenn (a few years before playing Audrey Horn on Twin Peaks... what does that say of me that I knew that without having to look it up?), Nick Cassavetes, and Randy Quaid. This screening of The Wraith was a beautiful 35mm print and came courtesy of Destroy All Movies!!!: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film (published by Fantagraphics Books). Oh yeah, I learned something new from The Wraith: drinking hydraulic fluid isn't all that hot an idea.

Ed and I went back to The Powder Keg and waited a short while and then made our way to the 10 p.m. showing of the movie that has me feeling the most conflicted of any film that I've seen during two ActionFests thus far...

Bellflower (2011, Directed by Evan Glodell, United States)

I need to see Bellflower again. I honestly do want to see Bellflower again. Because... I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Bellflower.

I've been that way about movies before. Feeling obligated to give one the benefit of the doubt before making a final decision on whether I like it or not. I think if I had seen Bellflower at anything other than a film festival devoted to action movies, that I might have gone away with a more decisive mind about the matter. And toward the end of the movie I did feel a little twinge of "okay I get this now..." But it's not quite all there. Not yet, anyway.

Bellflower is about two childhood buddies who have watched The Road Warrior perhaps too many times than it probably healthy. These guys are now obsessed with the character Lord Humungous and have daydreams of ruling the wasteland once the Apocalypse comes. So Woodrow (Evan Glodell) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson) do things like build their own flamethrowers and trick-out a muscle car with armaments and smokescreens and set out to start their gang, "the "Mother Medusas".

I think the biggest disappointment I'm feeling about Bellflower (but that might change in time) is that, okay... it's like Chekov's Rule of Drama: if the gun is to be fired in Act 3, it must be shown on the wall in Act 1/if the gun is shown on the wall in Act 1 it must be fired by Act 3. Well we see a lot of cool homebrewed weaponry in Bellflower... but we don't really get to see it used to its maximum potential!

But as I said, I might change my mind about Bellflower. And based on the final moments of the film and what I was led to contemplate because of them, I do expect to do that. Probably landing in the margin of people that do think it's a great movie. But as things stand now, I want to see it and mull it over some more. And that's only fair.

And then, with a few minutes before midnight, it was time for a movie that I have been eager to see for a very long time...

Hobo With A Shotgun (2011, Directed by Jason Eisner, Canada)

Without a doubt, my absolutely FAVORITE film of ActionFest 2011! I have to say that because this movie has obligated me to ponder it more than just about any action movie I've seen in years. And some of what I'm about to say about Hobo With A Shotgun is going to have many readers going "Huh? Say WHAT?!" But just hear me out...

To me, Hobo With A Shotgun is as profoundly a Christian a movie as is A Clockwork Orange. This is a film about the world gone straight to hell, because good people have been intimidated into just letting the wicked run amok. Fercryinoutloud, that's a child begging for help in the car window of that mall Santa pervert... and nobody is bothering to even care! Everyone that is, except for the Hobo (Rutger Hauer), easily the greatest cinematic hero with no name since Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name.

The Hobo isn't out to be a bad-a$$. All he wants to do is save up enough money to buy a lawnmower and start his own landscaping business. This is a guy who wants to earn his keep. Who wants to be a productive and hard-working individual. Except that the world he's in won't allow him that opportunity. And then there are the innocent children that he sees around them. The children that, he knows he can't let them grow up in a world like this.

That is what the Hobo is, in my mind. He is the one shred of conscience in the ultimate town without pity. A place run by a lunatic named the Drake (Gregory Smith) and his demented sons, a city rife with murder and prostitution and drugs and worse.

Hobo With A Shotgun is the most brootal, most unrelentingly vicious movie that I have ever seen. It is also one with a surprising amount of heart and soul. And this movie absolutely makes Jason Eisner as a filmmaker to watch. His Hobo With A Shotgun began life as a faux trailer for Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse contest a few years ago. And if you've seen that trailer then you're likely knowing what to expect from the full-length Hobo With A Shotgun feature. Instead, Eisner has made it into something profoundly more.

And I can't wait to see it again with some friends when it hits wide release! I'll probably have a lot more to say about it then, too.

Well, the next day was Sunday, the final day of ActionFest 2011, and I had time to take in one more film before I had to head back home. So I ended my personal festival experience with...

Tomorrow, When The War Began (2010, Directed by Stuart Beattie, Australia)

I want to see this movie again. And again and again and again. That, and I want to find the bestselling novel series by John Marsden that this movie (the first of a planned trilogy) is based on.

And I also want to scream until my lungs are bloody ravaged shreds of tissue about why it is that this Australian movie shows more bluster and courage and sheer cajones than the ones here in the United States who are committing an abominable FUBAR of a travesty with the Red Dawn remake.

Tomorrow, When The War Began follows a group of Australian teens who go camping in the Outback, only to return home and find that their hometown has been invaded and taken over (along with a huge chunk of the rest of Australia) by "the Coalition": a group of Asian countries that is obviously dominated by communist Chinese forces. So the teens decide that whether they want to or not, that it falls to them to do what they can to fight back.

We were told that Marsden's series of books drastically outsells the Harry Potter novels in Australia and if this film is any indication, I can see why. It's a young adult mythos that chews up and spits out those "vampires" and werewolves from that other franchise (coughcoughTwilightcoughcough...). Incidentally, Tomorrow, When The War Began marks the directorial debut of Stuart Beattie, who's already written all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies for Disney. Yet another movie that I look forward to seeing in wider release (its ActionFest appearance heralds the movie's first screening outside of Australia).

And that was my ActionFest 2011 experience. My expectations were really set high after last year's inaugural festival, and this year wildly exceeded them! I just hope that the festival stays in Asheville: it really is the ideal town not only for action movies, but for appreciating the individuals who labor to make them a reality.

Bigtime props to everyone involved in this year's festival! Can't wait to attend again next year :-)

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Today is also 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle flight!

Wow. Lots of history to be commemorated today. Now I'm being reminded that it was thirty years ago today that the first Space Shuttle flight - which was the orbiter Columbia - took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Here's footage of the launch...

I remember watching that! 'Twas knee-high to a grasshopper as they say. It was supposed to have lifted off a day or two before, but the launch was scrubbed 'cuz of technical problems. And I was about to leave for school that morning and really hoping that it would take off without any more delay and then... WHOOOOOSH!!! It was the first manned spaceflight that I ever got to watch live on television.

In case anyone's wondering why the external tank is white in this clip, the tank was painted on the first three flights of the space shuttle, but after that it was left its normal fiberglass-y orange: not painting the tank saved a lot of weight (and subsequently, fuel).

And unfortunately as everyone knows, Columbia was lost in that tragic re-entry accident over Texas in 2003.

But on this day, this blogger honors its maiden flight, and the inauguration of the Space Shuttle system.

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50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space!

Longtime readers of this blog know that one bit of history that I'm particularly fond of is Russian space exploration. Say what one might about the policies of the Soviet government during those early years, I can't help but have huge appreciation for the engineers and pilots who took part in that endeavor. It wasn't politics that drove those men and women: just good ol' human adventure and tenacity.

So that said, The Knight Shift salutes the memory of Yuri Gagarin, who on this day in 1961 became the first human to journey into space... and not only that but became the first person to complete an orbit of the Earth! His flight aboard Vostok 1 would be his only spaceflight. And unfortunately a few years later Gagarin perished during a training flight in a MiG 15. He was only 34 at the time.

I don't look at it in terms of nationalities. I much prefer to see things on a larger scale. Gagarin was the first human to leave the confines of Earth's gravity and atmosphere. And just think: a little more than eight years later, we were walking around on the Moon.

Kinda makes you wonder whatever happened to that kind of gumption.

But on this day, we honor Yuri Gagarin: the first man in space.

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The American Civil War began 150 years ago today

I have heard many dissenting opinions during my lifetime as to who fired the first shot: the Union army that was holding Fort Sumter, or the newly-minted Confederate army (which is said to have initiated hostilities with a 10-inch mortar round from nearby Fort Johnston).

But there is no dispute about the fact that the bombardment of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina - an act which had no combat casualties - would lead to the greatest conflict in American history and the loss of more than six hundred thousand lives on both sides.

It was one hundred and fifty years ago today, on April 12th, 1861, that the North and South first clashed at Fort Sumter.

The American Civil War had begun.

This blogger pauses to remember those on both sides of th ewar, who fought only for what they sincerely believed to the best of their mortal minds was the right thing.

On that note, I think I'll pop in my DVD of Gods and Generals for the rest of the evening, if only for background noise.

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Have we learned NOTHING from Joel Schumacher?!?

As if the costume design for the Broadway trainwreck called Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark wasn't bad enough...

Here are the duds that'll be worn by the cast of the new touring Batman Live show:

Click on over to GeekTyrant for a couple more pics, including a close-up of what must be the most ridiculous Joker costume in the history of anything.

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Little girl turns to the Dark Side at Disneyland

This video made my day! While at Disneyland with her family Sariah Gallego got picked to jump on the stage of the Jedi Training Academy feature. But this was one girl who wasn't satisfied with being a mere Padawan learner! No, she wanted something... more. She wanted to follow her passion. Even if that meant turning to the Dark Side of the Force.

And so in front of everybody including no less a person than Mace Windu, Sariah swore allegiance to Darth Vader and became his Sith apprentice! Behold the video...

Don't know what else to say but... you go girl!! :-)

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Back from ActionFest!

I am... frazzled.

But then again, four nearly nonstop days of action movies at the world's only film festival devoted to action movies and the (largely unsung) talented individuals who make them happen, will do that to anyone. Heck, just back-to-back nights of Never Back Down 2, Black Dynamite and Hobo With A Shotgun is enough to pack a wallop!

Full report coming soon. I gotta decompress first :-P

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Sidney Lumet has passed away

I'm still in the mist of ActionFest (report coming soon) and without a digital rig of my own to publish when I wish. But even so, this sort of thing demands a moment to pause and remember...

Just read where Sidney Lumet, one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, has passed away. He directed Network, Serpico, The Verdict, and many many other classic films.

Think I'll watch Twelve Angry men when I get back home, in his memory.

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Gone to ActionFest in Asheville!

"The Film Festival With A Body Count" is back... BIGGER AND BADDER AND BLOODIER THAN EVER!

Yes faithful readers, in a short while I shall depart home for a few days and drive out into the dusk for the mountains of North Carolina. Destination: Asheville. The reason? the second-ever ActionFest! The inaugural festival last year was a huge success (here's the after-carnage report that I posted) and this year is gonna be even more honkin' sweet! It all kicks off tomorrow night, April 7th with Ironclad: a hack 'n slash epic set against the signing of the Magna Carta and starring Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Jason Flemyng.

And what else is playing at ActionFest? How about... Hobo With A Shotgun!

And Friday night at midnight... because this is soooo a movie that must be seen at midnight on the big screen... it's none other than Black Dynamite!

I am purposefully going in fairly blind to what's scheduled, 'cuz I wanna replicate the delight and discovery that I had at last year's ActionFest. Anyhoo, my filmmaking partner "Weird Ed" Woody and I will be there together and if you wanna hang out with us, shoot me an e-mail at theknightshift@gmail.com and we'll hook up or something!

And just like last year, I'll be Twitter-ing from the festival, so feel free to follow the action from your desktop or laptop or smartphone or iPad or whatever. But don't be content to follow it at all 'cuz... YOU OUGHTTA BE AT ACTIONFEST!!

More regular blogging when I return in a few days. In the meantime, try to behave y'all :-)

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Chris sort-of reviews TRON: LEGACY 5-Disc Blu-ray Collector's Set (which also includes original TRON on Blu-ray!)

Tron: Legacy came out on DVD and Blu-ray yesterday. I've been eager to own this ever since catching the movie this past New Year's Eve (click here for my initial review of the movie), not only 'cuz I thought it was a great film and worthy follow-up to the 1982 original Tron, but because I was seriously giddy to see how this flick would look on my high-def home entertainment rig. Tron: Legacy was the prettiest pushing of pixels that I've seen in the history of anything: say what one might of some of the film's weaknesses (I've read some say that it could have been a bit leaner, but we'll get to that), visually it was gorgeous.

And oh yeah: Disney announced a few months ago that the original Tron would be released on Blu-ray along with Tron: Legacy. Another reason to look forward to this release!

Well folks, I got Tron: Legacy 5-Disc Blu-ray Collector's Set yesterday and I've spun both of these movies twice in my player, along with the extras. And in spite of being unable to turn in a complete review of this package, I must heartily suggest it for your own personal library.

So why can't I review it all?

Simple enough reason: Disc 1 is Tron: Legacy on 3-D Blu-ray... and I don't have a 3-D Blu-ray player! And you ain't likely to see me own one anytime soon either. At least, not until 3-D high-def sets come out that don't require those funky glasses. And if there's any merit to what some are saying about glassless 3-D right now, that might be awhile longer yet. So for now Disc 1 of this collection is gonna remain a virgin.

Disc 2 however is positivalutely stunning, I can happily report! In fact, this might be the best picture quality of any Blu-ray that's currently in my collection. The details are crisp and sharp as a razor, and the colors of the digital realm - even the pitch black parts of it - pop out magnificently. The Blu-ray of Tron: Legacy maintains the aspect ratios of the IMAX 3-D release, so sometimes it fills up the entire 16:9 screen and others it doesn't. The sound quality is also superb: I don't have a Surround Sound setup, but despite that I was consumed by the audio, especially during the lightcycle sequences.

Disc 2 also contains the extras, including "The Next Day", a mini-feature about the underground "Flynn Lives" movement that has quite a few surprises for fans of the original movie (and is said to dovetail into the third Tron movie allegedly in pre-production). Incidentally, when you get to the end of it, feel free to play around with the arcade game screen that pops up. Especially with that high score (that's all I'm gonna say). Disc 2 also includes other stuff like the "De-Rezzed" Daft Punk music video, and a vignette featuring Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski and how he implemented a crowd cheering at Comic-Con into the arena fight scene. All in all, the bonus features that come with Tron: Legacy are pretty solid stuff.

Disc 3 is Tron: Legacy on standard DVD. Which I also played for a bit out of curiosity about its image quality. It's great DVD, but hey if you got a Blu-ray player you know what disc you're gonna reach for. Still, since I don't have a Blu-ray drive in my computer just yet, I'll no doubt be using this disc to rip Tron: Legacy for my iPod and iPad.

Disc 4 is the digital copy. Which every major DVD/Blu-ray release is including these days and I haven't used a single one. 'Cuz I make my own digital copies (only for personal use 'course) from the primary discs. 'Cuz that's just how I roll :-)

Awright, now we come to Disc 5: the original 1982 movie Tron, finally on Blu-ray! Not only that but beautifully cleaned-up and digitally remastered.

Okay, I gotta say this: it's the best that I've ever seen Tron (which was the first movie that I ever watched on a VCR, all the way back in 1983). Tron on Blu-ray looks like it was filmed just yesterday. However the Blu-ray presentation and restoration also makes obvious some things that have probably gone unnoticed for the most part of the past thirty years. Especially the matted elements, like when Sark's carrier is about to chase after the solar sailer (you can see the carrier right through the hangar building!). But rather than deflect from enjoying Tron on Blu-ray, I actually found it added a charming quality to the movie: artifacts of its time, when the use of computers in filmmaking was just then becoming a reality. So nothing really to get in a tiff about there. What I did want more out of this disc however were some more additional features. There are the original DVD features from the 2002 release, and some photos... but not much more than that (although there is a very welcome audio commentary with Tron director Steven Lisberger and others involved in making the film). Perhaps someday Disney will give the original Tron some more respect and laud it with the Blu-ray release it deserves (you can also buy Tron alone as a Blu-ray disc, something I've already had words about its lousy cover art). But until then, I'll be happy to have Tron itself looking the best it's looked since the summer of 1982.

Tron: Legacy 5-Disc Blu-ray Collector's Set is available in a regular box, or in a special "identity disc" package. Unless you wanna fork over some extra coin for what looks like a glorified coaster, you'll probably just want to get the standard box like I bought. It's quite a nice set, and I'm looking forward to watching it again this weekend (my filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed asked me to bring it when I go to his place for ActionFest in Asheville). Highly recommended!

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Light musings on a universal conflict

I most want to do what God would have me to do.

I also want to be happy, and I know that true happiness is only found in whatever it is that God requires of us.

So why doesn't He tell us in no uncertain terms what it is that He does require of us?

But then, if He did, then there would be no such conflict between the spirit and the flesh that each of us possess.

And then, life would become extraordinarily boring.

Could it be that God doesn't lay it all out for us perfectly clear, because He not only wants us to grow spiritually (which can't happen without times of trial and tribulation) but also because He does want us to live fully and vicariously as we grow in our relationship with Him?

Just something that I found myself contemplating since this afternoon. I've been weighing my desire to seek God's will for my life, against the fact that He hasn't been as forthcoming with that as I would like.

I guess, I'm consigned to constantly stumble and fall while seeking His will, and having to rely on His mercy and grace to see me through.

But then, that's the way it should be...

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Question for iPad owners (about Bible software)

Barring any crazy circumstance, I should be getting my iPad 2 next week! Looking forward to having it for... well, all kinds of good stuff :-)

So I've already been planning which apps I should buy for it: the list thus far includes iMovie, Garageband (I've waited five years for the chance to use that program 'cuz Apple doesn't make it for Windows), and the iPad/iPhone port of Doom ('cuz in my book it's not a real computer unless it plays Doom).

There's one more bit o' software that I aim to install on my iPad right out the gate, but I thought I'd pose this to my readers...

What's a good Bible app for the iPad?

It'd be great to find one that has multiple versions available. Other than that, well... I don't know what I should be looking for.

Suggestions? Any would be most welcome :-)

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Bipolar depressive episode: The next day...

Why am I writing about having bipolar disorder? Well, for one thing: I have it. And since this blog is about me and my thoughts and comments and adventures, the honest and genuine thing to do is to chronicle when my thoughts go full-tilt whacko beyond my control.

And I'm a writer. I write about what I know. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of me writing for publication. It sure didn't occur to me back then that someday I'd be running a fairly popular blog (I think the total number of websites on the Internet in 1991 were something like five or six) and that my most heartfelt topic was having a mental illness. But as a wiser person than I told me years ago: "Life is what God does to you when you're busy making plans".

And as I've said before: if what I'm doing now, can save others from any bit of the suffering and heartache that I have had to endure (and that others have had to endure because of me) then, this effort will have been well worth doing.

But a more personal reason is that, writing about having bipolar disorder is, in a very curious way, allowing me to fulfill my childhood ambition of... being a scientist.

What did little Chris Knight want to be when he grew up? An astronomer. A physicist. A biologist. A geologist. A geneticist. All of them at once! Especially astronomy: that's always been one of my bigger interests.

Unfortunately I had something called "discalculia" and it is to mathematics as dyslexia is to reading: it's a math disability. And math is the lingua franca of all science. Ironically it now appears that my having a mental illness all this time was one of the bigger reasons why my math skills have sucked so bad! I've been doing some experiments in the past few months and... well let's just say that for the firs time in my life I can comprehend quadratic equations. But I digress...

So I have a mental illness. A medical condition. And, I have chosen to document what it is like to have it, in an objective fashion but also what I like to believe will be characteristically my own... and that's part and parcel of having myself as the subject of study.

So more than twenty-four hours after the bipolar depressive episode that I wrote about in my last post, I am now feeling better. I am functional again, for however long it might last (and I pray it will last a long time). Most of last night I was unable to sleep because my thoughts were racing so fast, and the medication I am taking was unable in this case to quiet it down. I napped from 5 a.m. until 12 this afternoon, because my brain got too exhausted to keep up.

So right now I'm in a blissful state of creativity and productivity, and I'm about to go into Adobe Photoshop to work on something that I've had an idea for. A new product, you might say (that I might wind up selling through this blog soon).

I have mentioned her before on this blog, but now's as good a time as any to do it again: a few months ago I learned about Kay Redfield Jamison. She's a clinical psychologist who also suffers from bipolar disorder, and she has become renowned as one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. I found this page of quotes by Dr. Jamison, in which she articulates what it's like to have bipolar disorder. It's well worth a read if you're at all interested in what it means to live with this. I plan to finally read her books sometime soon, particularly An Unquiet Mind, which is all about her life with bipolar.

Hey, maybe someday y'all will see me writing a book about having this disease. Then I can hit the lecture circuit and Dr. Phil and all that jazz :-P

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Having another bipolar depressive episode

And once more I understand why some people are driven to commit suicide because of bipolar disorder. Because, death does seem a much preferable thing to what can only be called "anti-life".

I have been trying to compose the next installment of Being Bipolar. My mind has arrested me from doing that and from having interest in most of the other things that I enjoy in my life. My thoughts are on a seemingly non-stop cycle of nothingness, if that makes any sense.

So what am I doing to alleviate it? I've taken my medication and I've spent some time just trying to let my thoughts run their course (because eventually it does peter out enough to let me be productive again). Other than that, there's not much else that can be done.

I'm leaving Wednesday afternoon, for a short trip. Gonna be at that same film festival in Asheville that I attended last year. Knowing that something like that is on the horizon to look forward to, does help and it helps tremendously. If I know I have something to get excited about, it's like my mind can build up some momentum toward that, enough to be able to focus on that and escape the racing thoughts for a short while.

But in the meantime, I'm stuck with my thoughts holding me captive in a state of not living, not caring, not being empathetic or sympathetic to anyone or anything. I am currently alive and un-live.

And not for the first time, not for the last time, I am wondering why God would allow this to happen to anybody.

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A thought on a Saturday evening

We are to worship God. We are not supposed to worship our understanding of God.

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Look, new trailers for DOCTOR WHO Season 6, or Season 32, whatever!!

I've been in a horrible funk the past few days. Related to my having bipolar disorder? Yeah. But also, quite a bit spiritual. Depression and oppression together are a terrible, terrible thing...

But you know what cheers me up? And maybe this'll help cheer others up too if they need it: two new trailers for the coming season of Doctor Who!

And if these are any indication... well, good lord this next season is going to be EPIC!

"This is the day he finds out who I am." That line, spoken by River Song, gives me shivers. That and the "Fear me, I've killed hundreds of Time Lords", "Fear me: I've killed ALL of them" exchange between the Doctor and some new foe, and the Doctor saying "I've been running my whole life. Now it's time for me to stop"...

April 23rd can not get here soon enough!

And then BBC America has this trailer, playing up how this season will see the first episode of Doctor Who to be shot in the United States in the show's entire forty-eight year history!

Speaking of the new season of Doctor Who, rumor is that the title of Neil Gaiman's episode has leaked out onto the Intertubes. I haven't found it yet. Anyone know what it is? If so, leave a comment about it please! :-)

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On this day...

...ten years ago, I was given the most very wonderful birthday that I have ever received.

And on this day, today, all that I can think of, the only thing on my mind, is the overwhelming sense of regret for the people who I have lost. People who I cared for, and still care for, and would have done anything for.

To all who it may concern: I tried. I did my best. I never stopped doing what I could to seek God and what He would have me do. I am still doing what I can to seek after Him.

And, if you are reading this blog today, please know that I am sorry. I never wanted to hurt any of you.

Still thinking of all of you. And, I will never stop being thankful for each of you.

EDIT 4:14 p.m. EST: To everyone reading this, who enjoys a relationship with God and has never had to personally deal with having a mental illness...

You have no idea how blessed you are.

And don't you ever take that for granted!

It is only by His grace that I am here today, to have another birthday. And if I didn't have Christ in my life I wouldn't be here today. Don't think that I'm not thankful to Him that He has led me through the darkest valleys that a person can go through in this life.

And yet, I do still cry out to Him. Begging Him to give me some indication that He has heard me. That the things which I have lost because of a condition which no one would ever ask for, have not been lost in vain.

Yes, I have a relationship with God. But it is not the kind that I would wish on anybody. I'll never know during my lifetime what it is like to have a mind that is quiet enough to be content to simply listen for Him. I'll go the rest of my days carrying a burden from a person I was never meant to be, that the real me now has... and keeps asking God to make sense of it.

If you have a relationship with God, and have not suffered the misery and grief that comes with your own mind turning against you, then be glad. Be thankful. Never stop thanking God for that!

I don't want anything for my birthday today. Except to know that God has heard my cries.

That, and that anyone who reads this, might go away thankful for a blessing that they had never given any thought to.

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THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS coming to North Carolina! I'm finally getting to see my movie on the big screen...

...well, parts of it anyway :-)

The People vs. George Lucas, Alexandre Philippe's documentary that has won beaucoups of awards at film festivals all over the world, has just announced a whole bunch of new showings. And one of them is right next door in Winston-Salem! Beginning May 9th it'll be playing at Cine Club on 311 West Fourth Street.

So why am I especially stoked about getting to see this rave-reviewed film? Here's the second trailer for it...

And here's the first teaser for The People vs. George Lucas...

That's none other than Melody Hallman Daniel and Chad Austin from Forcery, the first film that I ever made. I've heard that quite a lot of clips from it wound up in The People vs. George Lucas. So I'm not only looking forward to seeing Philippe's work, but also my own blown-up extra-huge on a real movie screen! This is gonna be an absolute hoot to behold :-)

EDIT 6:51 p.m. EST: I have just been notified that the screening at Cine Club has been moved back to September, because of scheduling conflict. I'll post more as we get closer to the actual date. We just have to wait a little longer, that's all :-)

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Theatre Guild of Rockingham County presents CHARLOTTE'S WEB beginning this weekend!

For those who are wondering: I am not involved in this production. Between last April (when we did The King and I) and this past month (when we wrapped Gypsy) I was doing community theatre non-stop across four productions. Just needed a bit of a respite from the stage :-)

That said, I am exceedingly stoked about Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Charlotte's Web, which kicks off a six-performance run this Friday night!

Based on E.B. White's classic novel, Charlotte's Web is the timeless tale of Wilbur: a succulent little pig who should have been destined to become ham and bacon... until an unusually eloquent spider named Charlotte comes to his rescue. It's a great cast, and I've seen some photos of the sets and they look terrific! I'm hoping to catch this on opening night. Maybe even a few more times this weekend, Lord willing.

Anyhoo, Charlotte's Web will be at Rockingham Community College's Advanced Technologies Building Auditorium, in Wentworth, North Carolina. Come enjoy the show!

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It snowed this morning

Eight days into spring, and it snowed this morning here in north-central North Carolina. Not only that but it was coming down at a great clip and for awhile was sticking to the ground!

Here are some photos that I took around 8:45 a.m. today...

I was flying back from a wedding in Florida several years ago, in early April. It was snowing in Greensboro then as we touched down. And I've also seen it snow on the Fourth of July in nearby Caswell County. But this is the most snow that I've seen fall this late.

Pretty, ain't it? :-)

EDIT 10:45 a.m. EST: It's now a quarter-til 11 a.m. and the snow is still falling! Not as hard as it was earlier but, it still provides a nice ambiance.

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President Nixon in a DOCTOR WHO teaser!

"There are no monsters in the Oval Office."

Last season I didn't post a single review of any Doctor Who episodes. That was all my fault: had some things I was dealing with at the time and couldn't commit to giving this show the respect that it deserves.

So... what do I think of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor? He's become my favorite incarnation of the Doctor since the series was revived in 2005... and right up there with Tom Baker's and Jon Pertwee's versions as my all-time favorite Doctor ever. Smith has been a sheer hoot to watch in action! And this past season was the best yet since Doctor Who was brought back into production. Steven Moffat has not disappointed since taking over as showrunner.

The next season begins on Easter weekend. Supposedly this season will see the return of the Daleks, the return of the original Cybermen (not those mass-produced ones from the alternate timeline), an episode written by Neil Gaiman, and the first-ever Doctor Who episode filmed in the United States.

And it looks like Moffat and his crew are gonna play the American angle to the hilt. Check out this "prequel teaser", featuring President Richard Nixon talking on the Oval Office phone with a voice that is sinister, childlike and... familiar?

"The Impossible Astronaut", the first episode of the new season, airs on April 23rd on the BBC and BBC America! Time to start making room on my DVR :-P

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A thought on Christ and knowledge

Salvation is not achieved by the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge. Salvation is achieved by the desire for and pursuit of Christ.

Only then can we find the renewing of our minds that comes with the knowledge of Christ. For sake of God, and not our selves.

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Happy 80th Birthdays to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy!

This is a momentous week for two of the greatest pop icons of our generation... or any generation. A few days ago William Shatner turned 80 and today his fellow Star Trek shipmate Leonard Nimoy gets to enter his ninth decade!

Shatner and Nimoy: the men who brought James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock to life. May they live long and prosper!

Hey, let's celebrate with some music! How about Nimoy singing "Proud Mary"...

And who could ever forget (seriously, who can forget that this happened?) Shatner doing his cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"...

Truly going where no one has gone before :-P

Seriously though: Happy 80th Birthdays to Shatner and Nimoy!

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"Selah"

That is all, for the time being.

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"Do dogs chase cats?"

Saw this GEICO commercial for the first time earlier this morning and I've been cracking up laughing about it since!

It's like "Toonces the Driving Cat" from Saturday Night Live meets The French Connection!

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Discernment from Samuel Clemens

The War Prayer

by Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came--next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams--visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory--

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside--which the startled minister did--and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne--bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import--that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of--except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two--one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this--keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer--the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it--that part which the pastor--and also you in your hearts--fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle--be Thou near them! With them--in spirit--we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

"The War Prayer" was written by Samuel Clemens - known best as "Mark Twain" - in 1904. It was published in 1923, thirteen years after the death of the celebrated humorist and commentator.

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I said that I was serious

Most people took me at my word but there were some who said that I was "crazy", one even said "Chris this should make you happy".

No, I'm not. Nothing about this has brought me one iota of "happy". To those who have thought such a thing: there is something very, VERY wrong with you and I do pray that you consider what the @&$# it is that you are saying. Because as I said last time, I would NEVER wish this on ANYBODY.

A little over a week ago this blog passed along the news that Johnny Robertson has been diagnosed with colon cancer. This afternoon two phone calls and a bunch of e-mails have come in with an update...

Johnny Robertson's cancer is now at stage 3. That's the point where the tumor's growth is well advanced and begun to metastasize.

I am being told that Mr. Robertson's chances at recovering from this are not as well as anyone would appreciate. And that apparently he is due for emergency surgery on Wednesday.

This shouldn't need to be said, but I guess somebody has to...

It rains on the just and the unjust alike. And there is NOT ONE OF US who is alive on this earth, but for the grace of God. NOT ONE!!! And if anyone reading my words are somehow feeling glib about Johnny Robertson's condition then... whatever he has done, someone who is feeling that way toward him right now is far, FAR sicker in mind and soul!!

It's not left to us to judge the condition of another's soul. That is not something that any of us in this world are qualified for. And yes, I know: Robertson and his followers judge others constantly. They are... well, they have a reputation (and that's all that I'm going to say about their activities at this time).

Put that aside. All of it. Don't let that come between any of us and the better angels of our nature.

This is not an occasion for spite. This is an occasion for faith and for humility and for prayer. And yes: this is an occasion for love. Love just as Christ loved us first.

So I'm now reiterating what I asked for over a week ago: Please put aside whatever else you feel toward Mr. Robertson, and hold him up in prayer. Ask God to bring him healing. Ask God to bring the peace which surpasses all understanding to him and his family.

Johnny, if you are reading this: you are being prayed for. No doubt by many people that you would be genuinely surprised to know are doing that for you. And we're not going to stop holding you up in our thoughts and prayers.

And if anybody doesn't like that, well... tough!

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It's just me... and my Smart Cover

So after doing my best to find an iPad 2 at one of the many local stores purporting to carry it, to no avail, I bit the debit card and proceeded to Apple's website and ordered one. And I went all out!! Got a 64-gigabyte model in black, with Wi-Fi and 3G (the AT&T version). Looking forward to it arriving in a few weeks. Hey, then I can be blogging from anywhere! Like at iCoffee in Summerfield, f'rinstance. I guess then I could have Tebow sitting next to me whilst I write. Heh-heh, "Blogging with Tebow": sounds like a winner :-)

Well anyhoo, I just checked the status of my order and the iPad 2 is still due to arrive in mid-April. However, the Smart Cover that I ordered along with it is already en route and due to be delivered here on Tuesday!

That's a bit bass-ackwards. It's like priority shipping a pooper-scooper ahead of a puppy. Apple coulda saved wads of money if it had shipped them together, but I didn't see an option for that when I placed my order. Pretty lousy business sense, in my opinion.

But anyhoo, I'll soon have an iPad 2 Smart Cover, but no iPad 2. Guess I'll just have to use my imagination for the next four weeks. Sorta like a Calvin 'n Hobbes thing when you think about it.

Maybe I could put the Smart Cover on an Etch-A-Sketch and pretend that I have an iPad 2? :-P

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If President Obama bombs Libya...

...as there are plenty of indications that he is set to do, then Obama will have accomplished something that I never thought I would ever see.

He will have eclipsed George W. Bush as THE WORST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES in my lifetime.

Libya is a civil war. And it's never paid to be an outside party that chooses to become embroiled in one of those.

Considering that the U.S. is already locked in two OTHER wars - neither one of which has had any clear goal in mind - and is stretched thin as it is, would make getting involved in Libya even more insane.

Gas up now, folks. We could see five, six, or seven dollars a gallon gasoline by the end of the weekend. The way things are going now, I wouldn't doubt it.

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This WONDER WOMAN looks more like a BLUNDER Woman!

Somewhere this afternoon, William Moulton Marston is spinning in his grave.

Courtesy of the Entertainment Weekly website, here is our first look at Adrianne Palicki in costume for NBC's upcoming Wonder Woman series...

Bind me with the Golden Lasso of Truth: that looks HORRIBLE!!! It's like a cheap-o costume that you can find at those seasonal Halloween stores instead of... GEEZ IT JUST SUCKS DONKEY BALLS TO NO END!

I was kinda hoping for an interpretation of Wonder Woman like what Alex Ross and Mark Waid came up with for Kingdom Come. That Wonder Woman boasted all her Amazonian power but tempered with all-too-mortal failings and frailties. It's my personal favorite version of Wonder Woman ever. Heck, any previous version of Wonder Woman has got to be better than this... thing.

I don't know when the pilot episode airs. And based on this photo, I'm not caring to watch it either. If I want real Wonder Woman, I'll just watch the World War II episodes of the original series starring Lynda Carter.

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Upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows 1 (and going through EVERY Windows along the way)

Whilst I await the arrival of my iPad 2 (estimated shipping 4-5 weeks, ahhh the price I paid for trying and failing to score one locally) here is something that will make one appreciate Apple's biggest rival in a brand new light. For all the dissin' that Microsoft gets, I have to respect them anew after watching this clip: Andrew Tait's video "Chain of Fools". In it, Andrew upgrades to Windows 7... but he starts with MS-DOS 5.0 running the original Microsoft Windows, and proceeds to upgrade from there to every subsequent version of Windows until he gets to the latest release!

So how successful was his endeavor? Watch and be amazed!

Anyone else nearly shed a tear when they saw Windows 3.1 again for the first time in years? :-P

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The Knight Shift welcomes a new sponsor: The Detailed Decorator!

This is a momentous day for The Knight Shift! Yours Truly is proud to announce the very first business to contact this blog for advertising.

So without further ado, it is my great honor to direct your attention to The Detailed Decorator LLC, based in Atlanta, Georgia!

Owned and operated by Jaime Casstevens, The Detailed Decorator specializes in finding unique interior decor custom-tailored for each customer. In her own words, Jaime says that...

The Detailed Decorator was created with YOU in mind. Do you not know what accessory to buy for your home? Do you not have the time to go shopping? Let The Detailed Decorator do it for you.

From shopping in exclusive stores to just looking for something you couldn't find anywhere else, we are here to help. We specialize in personalized shopping to meet all of your home decorating needs.

The customer is our #1 priority. It's our goal to help you make your house a home.

Don't know how to get started, check out our online store and blog you just might find something you're looking for.......

We sale and ship to all of North America!

You can click here to visit The Detailed Decorator website and if you are on Facebook you can visit The Detailed Decorator's page there and see much, much more!

So here's a hearty welcome to The Detailed Decorator! And if you have a business (or some other legitimate operation) and want to advertise on a blog that serves up bunches of unique hits per day to a worldwide audience, contact me at theknightshift@gmail.com and we'll work something out!

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One blogger's support for nuclear energy

Like many people, I've been watching the developments in Japan since last week's earthquake (now measured at being 9 or possibly even 9.1 on the Richter scale) with keen interest. Especially with the drama unfolding at the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukishima: the one that has had a number of its reactor buildings violently explode (NOT "nuclear explosion" as I heard one CNN reporter claim but rather the result of too much of a build-up of steam).

And like many who are old enough to remember it, I'm led to reflect upon what happened even here in the southeast United States following the Chernobyl disaster twenty-five years ago next month. A week after that catastrophic meltdown there were slightly elevated levels of radiation measured in these parts. There was a sudden rush on potassium iodide tablets (as is happening now). A week and a half after the accident our Boy Scout troop returned to the volunteer fire department nearby after a camporee: we saw a dozen boxes or so of radiation-detecting equipment that had been dropped off. Where were they going to? I still don't know. But I'll never forget the radiation symbol emblazoned on those boxes: the first time that I saw such a thing.

And now, as then, there is a clamor to restrict and to consider even shutting down nuclear power altogether. I've been watching that steadily rise in recent days as I've watched the news or went looking for it online.

And that's what sent me way back into The Knight Shift archives, to a post that I made almost six years ago.

In July of 2005 I was asked to assist in the production of a training film that would be used at a nuclear power facility. We spent two days onsite at this plant. I can't say much about it or where it was even located (I was given permission to write about it in general terms but for the most part asked to observe a clause of confidentiality, and I am still honoring that).

But let's just say that I had confidence in nuclear power already, and I came away from that experience with far more confidence still.

I cannot recall ever being in a place that had as many safety and security measures as this nuclear plant possessed. We're talking redundant systems out the wazoo: backups on top of backups on top of backups. Every person involved in filming had to be given proper clearance before we even came close to the place. And going through the front door meant first negotiating a labyrinthine path discouraging even a brisk jog.

To be allowed to work in the nuclear energy industry in the United States, you have to undergo two years of exhaustive training and testing. And that's regardless of how much real world experience you might already have. Even if you were in the United States Navy and received the world's finest education in nuclear engineering, you're still looking at a couple of years of schooling before you're allowed to operate equipment in a civilian environment.

And then there is more training. And re-training. And more training yet. For every hour that a person works in an American nuclear facility, he or she receives an hour or more of study, testing and drilling.

There is a reason for what some admitted was the monotonous routine of training. I have a healthy respect for anyone who works in nuclear energy production. Because to be employed in this industry entails one undisputed fact that must be borne at all times: that nuclear power is a grim technology. Quite a useful technology. But still one that demands the uttermost respect and even reverence to wield. There can be no allowances for margin of error. "Cutting corners" is under no circumstance an allowable indulgence.

The men and women that we met at the nuclear plant were easily the most dedicated to their profession that I have seen in any commercial industry. They smiled and laughed with us a few times (because one of the things we had been asked to do was to make this training film a little bit humorous) but make no mistake: they afforded no laxity toward their work. They absolutely realized that their continuing employment wasn't the only thing hinging on their job performance... but also potentially the lives of hundreds or thousands of people well beyond the perimeter of the plant.

Nuclear energy is the most regulated industry in the United States. And the people who work within it are the most dedicated that I have seen in any work environment. Even if I had little faith in the nuclear regulatory system, I would have faith in the people who have chosen to work in nuclear energy.

And then there was the design of the reactors that this plant utilized. Which isn't even "cutting edge" by current standards, but we certainly realized how much thought and consideration had been made in the reactors' construction. Not a drop of water that was heated within the reactor made it to the outside environment. Instead that water was used to super-heat water in another set of pipes, which led to turning the turbines of the generators that produced the electricity. It was an extremely impressive system. And newer reactor designs had been developed which in case of a possible core meltdown, would basically "shut down" the reactor on its own.

It was very, very cool stuff.

The last nuclear energy plant that was built in this country came online in 1996, and it had been under construction for about two decades. With the increasing demand for more and more cheap energy, I don't see how we can afford to frown upon nuclear power. We are sitting on technology that makes nuclear-produced energy safer than has previously been possible... and we should be playing it to the hilt. At the same time however, there must be continuing and rigorous research into alternative means of energy production: from sources such as shale oil, nuclear fusion, and even such radical concepts as harnessing the energy of ocean waves.

"Chris, are you nuts?! What about what just happened in Japan?!" Hey, I agree: nothing is without chance of hazard and nuclear energy is definitely no exception. But from what I've been able to determine, the Daiichi plant was already designed to withstand a severe earthquake. It was built as well as any structure could be made "earthquake-proof". The quake last week was some order of magnitude greater than what the reactor buildings... or any other building for that matter... could tolerate. At the risk of coming across as crass and unsympathetic, what is happening now at the nuclear facility in Fukishima resulted from a fluke of fate and geologic roulette. The possibility of all those things going wrong at the same time were miniscule, to put it mildly. But, go wrong they did. And the engineers and workers at the site are doing everything they can to stem the devastation. No doubt, doing so cognizant of what happened to "the liquidators" and others who fought in vain to bring Chernobyl under control.

We aren't guaranteed total safety by any measure. Not during our life in this world, anyway. But we do what we can, as best we can, to most fully employ the minds, the knowledge, and the wisdom that Providence has bestowed upon us. The alternative is to shun our capability completely, at cost of much of human drive and determination.

I see nuclear fission power as a stepping stone to greater things yet to come. Things that are already being labored upon. In the meantime, we should appreciate that we have such productive and still clean technology... and be thankful that there are those among us who have chosen to pursue its availability.

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Congratulations to Heather and George!

In the wee hours of this morning, two people that I have been friends with for a very long time welcomed into the world their firstborn child: Laura!

Congratulations Heather and George! God has blessed you immensely this morning, and the two of you are gonna be the awesomest parents to this sweet little girl :-)

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I ain't got nothing

Not right now anyway. Have some stuff going on behind the scenes though.

But I don't like leaving my readers feeling like they wasted their time clicking on this blog.

So for the time being, here is an illustration of a jealous girlfriend killing her lover-boy with a basket of poisonous snakes, courtesy of The National Police Gazette...

For more classic depictions from a legendary American periodical, head on over to The National Police Gazette website! And be sure to tell proprietor William A. Mays that The Knight Shift sent you :-)

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Review of THE WALKING DEAD: The Complete First Season Blu-ray

When its first season aired this past fall I didn't write anything about AMC's mega-hit series The Walking Dead. Heck, I wasn't writing about much of anything at the time. But I had heard only good things about the show (adapted from the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel series of the same name) and tuned in to watch the premiere episode.

And like so many others, I got hooked on The Walking Dead.

This is not a story about a zombie apocalypse. Personally, I'm sick and TIRED of the whole "zombie genre". It's been done too much in recent years. Now I loved the movie Zombieland, because in my mind that was more of a comedy with some legitimate undertones of human drama. I can watch that movie a dozen times and not get bored with it.

And that's how I am with The Walking Dead. This is a series about real people and the depths and contradictions of human nature. It also happens to boast what might be the best use of the undead in pop culture history: the zombies in The Walking Dead are arguably the most gruesome creatures to ever hit television. But the zombies are merely the catalyst accelerating the foibles and weaknesses of its very personable cast of characters. Watching this show, it's very easy to empathize with these people (I myself am a huge fan of Jeffrey DeMunn's character Dale, the older dude who drives the RV). Heck, I was even on the verge of tears at the beginning of the third episode, "Tell It To The Frogs", gazing at Merle and how pitiful he had become.

The second season won't begin until this coming October but in the meantime, The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season just hit the streets on Blu-ray and DVD this past week... and it is chock full of rotting goodness! That is on top of the gloriously gruesomely amazing picture quality. I don't get AMC in high-definition, so I had to watch the first run of The Walking Dead in standard definition. Getting to see it in 1080P on Blu-ray was like an entirely new experience, and I picked out details that I hadn't noticed before (why does it disturb me so much that the little zombie girl in the very first minutes of the show is wearing braces?). The sound quality is also exceptional: the destruction of the Center for Disease Control at the end of the season finale literally shook a Darth Sidious action figure from his standing pose on my desk.

The Blu-ray of The Walking Dead Season 1 comes on two discs. Those include all six episodes of the first season, along with a considerable amount of special features. A half-hour long documentary gives a behind-the-scenes look at production of The Walking Dead. Each episode is also given a five-minute long mini-feature about that chapter's characters, themes, and place in the story. "On Set with Robert Kirkman" follows the creator of The Walking Dead comic series as he strolls around where the first scene of "Days Gone By" is being filmed. "Bicycle Girl" reveals what it took to bring the legless, hideous zombie woman in the series premiere to "life". For those who want to go against the living two special features stand out: "Zombie School" (chronicling how extras were taught how to walk and talk zombie-ish) and a fairly extended piece demonstrating how anyone can look like a zombie with common household items like gelatin and oatmeal. Jeffrey DeMunn takes us "Inside Dale's RV": the set piece that fast became synonymous with The Walking Dead's sense of human community. "Hanging With Steven Yuen" is the actor who plays Glenn giving a tour of the first campsite. But the most startling extra feature by far might be "On Set with Andrew Lincoln", focusing on the actor who plays main character Rick Grimes. I didn't know until watching this that Lincoln is British who normally speaks with a remarkable English accent. That he is able to turn on that Southern accent for his characer in The Walking Dead... it's just totally wild! Lennie James, the actor who plays Morgan (who found Rick after his escape from the hospital) is also British, and if you only watched the show you might have been none the wiser.

The Walking Dead is the one show on right now that I'm investing my time to watch and enjoy. And though Season 1 was all too short (but happily Season 2 is already slated for thirteen episodes) I will be enjoying even these few chapters on Blu-ray until this coming fall arrives. Highly recommended, even if you haven't seen the show during its run on AMC yet.

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Gonna postpone those new features

Things are happening behind the scenes with Yours Truly, that are gonna have me holding off on that "A Sermon A Week" feature. But one friend told me that I wind up doing plenty enough "preaching" (his words, not mine) as it is anyway that I don't nee to make it "official", LOL!

I am hoping to have the first "Movies I've Never Seen" article up sometime this coming week. Have been looking forward to that one for quite awhile now, it's gonna be lots of fun :-)

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