dphayce's Xanga

Moving to a new site.

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:13:18 GMT

Reasons for leaving Xanga:
1. Horrible layout design and customization.
2. Bad Audio/Photo/Video interface.
3. No Twitter support.
4. No support for multiple blogs to one account.
5. Need a new start.

Reasons for wishing I could stay:
1. The 5 people who actually read my blog (and the 3 of those who actually comment).
2. It's my first blog home.
3. The Fil-Am Blog Ring (Admittedly, I don't think anyone on the ring actually reads my stuff)

I'll be moving to http://goodshipserenity.blogspot.com/ if you wish to continue reading my shit. It's not going to be a personal blog full of my life's ongoings and whatnot. Instead, it will be a space for me to review books, shows, movies and other forms of entertainment I like, and to inform the zero readers I have there about stuff that I found out that I'm excited about.

If you'd like to continue knowing what's going in my life, I suggest you follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/capntightpants. It's a mini-blog site that allows you to communicate your daily happenings through status-update-like tweets limited to 140 characters. It's like facebook/myspace updates minus all the cumbersome navigation. I'll admit, it's not as interesting unless you know more people who tweet, so I suggest inviting lots of folks along with you!

Fear not, since I'm not leaving totally. I'm going to continue subscribing to whoever I'm already subscribing to, and I'm going to comment on your blogs. So keep blogging my blogospherites! I hope you come join me on The Good Ship Serenity.

And without further ado, I bid you farewell.

In Defense of the Spanish Basketball Team

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:28:45 GMT

I figured it out. Really. The Spanish Basketball team was not trying to mock the Chinese. In fact, they were finally apologizing to us Filipinos! After they've oppressed the Philippines for years under their regime, they've decided that they would make amends by being more like us.

You see: Spanish + Chinese = Filipino.

Real talk.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:17:18 GMT

As a self-professed Whedonite, this week has been/will be awesome. I just received Angel The Complete Series in the mail (Amazon sale for $60). Aaaaaand... it's the debut of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog!!!! Neil Patrick Harris' delivery of Joss' Whedonisms are just plain fuckin' spot on, and then there's that certain Captain from Firefly that I was extremely delighted with. I only wished this was an ongoing series. Anyway, Act I went up at midnight on Monday (which I just happened to find), and Thursday and Saturday will be the subsequent releases of Acts II and III, afterwhich they will be taken down from the site to only be downloaded (for a price). So watch it while it's free! Pay for it when it comes out on DVD! This was all done for free, and Joss is paying the crew with whatever he makes from the sales.

Click here for the link: Dr. Horrible

Edit: A maaaaaaaan's gotta do what a maaaaaan's gotta do...

The Funnybook Initiative

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:32:23 GMT

Janine has been telling me since Day Negative (that's before Day Zero of my writing days), that I should be putting my story ideas to paper -- or rather, to digital. So finally, for the past couple of weeks, I've been putting aside an hour of my nights to put together and re-put-together a working story. I spent a good number of hours staying up late tossing and turning in bed wondering where I'd find motivation for my characters, how I'd want it to spin, and who exactly they would be. I'd come up with their voices, their jokes, the twists, and plotted their eventual developments (demises?). Walking on my way to work, I'd work out dialogues out loud to see if they would sound as good in real life as they do on paper (they don't, but it still looks good to me). It's a larger process than I'd imagine.

So here I am at almost midpoint, with 10 pages in the bag, ready for first preview for my editor-in-chief Janine (who else?) and my cheerleader Jen. I'm worried about what will happen, who I could convince to do the artwork, and whether the story is even worth printing. Nobody's first book is ever perfect right? But I'm reading these pages, and I'm actually glad with what I've got. Here's hoping for the best.

Closure

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:46:39 GMT

I was pretty smart in high school. I think I graduated 4th in my class. But there was this other kid, Alex, who came through around my senior year. He was such a freakin know-it-all that it kinda pissed me off. He knew like 5 different languages, got straight A's, and just gave off this scent of arrogance.

He challenged me to a basketball game and won despite sucking at basketball because his soccer training helped his stamina. He decided to try his hand at rapping despite his extremely limited knowledge of anything hip hop related. At the time I was just a budding lyricist. He also talked so much about how cool it was that he was Spanish, and how the Spanish kicked the Filipinos' collective ass that I just felt like smacking him a couple of times.

So yeah, he was smarter and more athletic than I was. To top it off, the cute girl that he pursued and constantly was rejected by in high school finally fell in love with him toward the end of the year. Even later on, I discovered he was doing awesome in college. Even though I never saw him again, our rivalry remained vivid in my memories. And I just felt like such a loser compared to him.

That is, until I heard his really crappy story from a friend recently. Turns out that he moved to Hawaii to live with his high school sweetheart, and lived in a tiny apartment with her and her family. He worked at Kinko's to make ends meet, and they ended up breaking up because of the growing tension of their situation. He's back in college with a new older girl now, but he's still in love with the ex. Very long and very sad story from what I hear.

The story changed my entire perception of him. The Invincible Alex actually had chinks in his armor. From here on out, I'm only gonna wish the guy the best of luck, even if he never hears from me again. I mean, yeah, he could be a jerk sometimes, but nobody deserves to be in the crap situation he's in after all the work he did to keep the relationship alive.

Wanted

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:05:40 GMT

Welps, I saw Wanted just now. I don't know how to describe how I feel about it. On some levels it kicked major ass, and on other levels, it just failed. I think the movie was trying to be too much, and the director just can't tell a story well.

Don't get me wrong, the director's action scenes rocked the house. You can definitely compare it to The Matrix, Equilibrium, Advent Children, and Devil May Cry cut scenes. But like the latter two, the balance between storytelling, characterization, and action was really uneven.

The beginning of the movie followed the book extremely close. We follow the Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a loserish office worker whose girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, and his boss acts like an annoying bitch. He knows he's a loser, and he just takes it. It's a lot like Office Space or Fight Club. However, after Fox (Angelina Jolie) shows up, he's shown how much of a badass he is. He learns he inherited his abilities from his father, and that daddy worked for a guild of assassins called The Fraternity. He finally grows some balls and stands up for himself. It's real good up to this point. You get humor, creative camera work, some good nods to his need to leave his life. However, after he turns, the movie loses focus. From here on out, it's a totally different movie.

At this point he's hunting for a dude who killed his dad. By the way, his dad left him when he was a week old. Other than The Fraternity's orders and some mysterious thing that tells him who to kill, Wesley's motivation to kill the dude is weak. At least Fox's backstory makes more sense. So we go through an hour's montage of him learning how to fight, complete with a bunch of amusing characters and cool tricks. The story? Oh, well, the director forgot to move that along with it. No real development in story, and our protagonist doesn't really push you to like him or hate him much. He's just some guy who got shitted on that now has powers. Somewhere along the line, it mentions stuff about him finding himself. But it's shown like it was an afterthought.

Once you hit the twist, the movie finally gets rolling again. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is that I think it ended much better than the book did. I'm just wondering why the hell they paced the film the way they did. It's kinda like "Transformers" where you're just waiting for all the cool stuff to happen because the middle bores you. So did he find himself? Meh. Did we get to see anything about what it's like to get superheroes after such a mediocre life? Nope. And that in itself lies the problem. Yeah, it's supposed to be a summer popcorn movie, but the entire first half presents itself as a deconstruction of a hero film, only to just leave that story by the wayside in favor of cool action scenes. And that's where it fails. If you're looking for fuckin balls out action, you'll be pleased. If you're expecting a balanced story to go with it, look elsewhere.

Inconceivable

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:40:17 GMT

In the Princess Bride, Vizzini uses that famous word a bunch: Inconceivable.

Examples:

Vizzini: As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable. No one in Guilder knows what we've done, and no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. - Out of curiosity, why do you ask?

[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]
Vizzini: He didn't fall? Inconceivable.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The definition of "inconceivable" from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
": not conceivable: as a: impossible to comprehend b: unbelievable"

Inigo Montoya's reply sparked a debate between me and Trish. Does Vizzini indeed not know what inconceivable means? If you were to replace the word with "unbelievable", it certainly would still make sense. Maybe that he did know what he was talking about.

I think he thinks the word means "impossible", which is not a valid synonym/definition of the word. From the context of my first Vizzini quote, it tells me he wanted to use the word in the same way as "impossible". I dunno. I'm not even sure how I came up with this.

Exactly How It's Supposed To Be Done

Wed, 28 May 2008 03:08:46 GMT

It’s May 27, and he’s back I’ve been waiting for this day because after listening to the Chris Browns, Omarions, Lloyds, and Ne-Yos of the world, I’ve always said that someone needs to come back and show the young guns how it’s done. Well, he’s done it, and it’s incredible. Nope, not talkin’ ‘bout Usher. His album came a little too mediocre for my tastes. I’m talkin’ about the one and only Al Green.

Right from the get-go, the title track "Lay It Down" does exactly what it says. The Anthony Hamilton-assisted song reminds us that Soul music could get you into a love-making mood without being crass. The guitar is the lace on the violins’ satin, and the horns ride subtly below, making it music to sway to. It’s lights-down-low music. All of this is due to ?uestlove’s (The Roots) production. Instead of updating the music with synths, he keeps it organic with live instrumentation. You can tell he’s listened to Al Green’s earlier albums and tried very hard to keep the spirit of his music intact. He’s done it with flying colors. With The Roots on back up, and the very talented Dap Kings (of Amy Winehouse fame, and the lesser known Sharon Jones) on horns, Al Green has a band any musician today would die for.

You might be wondering about the duets on this album. Maybe they threw Anthony Hamilton, John Legend, and Corinne Bailey Rae on because the label wanted to up the sales. Well, yeah, that’s what they did. But fear not, because they sound absolutely perfect for the album. It’s not just some thrown together tracks, they really help capture that sound and never outshine Al (who could?). Anthony Hamilton’s voice has always had that very old school gravelly voice meant for music old-school soul, and it shines on “You Got The Love I Need”. On “Take Your Time”, Corinne Bailey Rae and Al Green show us how the duet is SUPPOSED to be done. It’s sexy, sweet, and just plain lovely. And with all it’s subtlety, John Legend’s voice does more on his duet than he’s done on any of his own albums.

But the true star of this album, of course, is Al Green and his voice. He hasn’t lost a step. You’d think that he made this album back in the ‘70s. Everything from his full-bodied voice to his falsettos sound like it came from on high. Maybe it’s his preacher man status keeping him in good graces with the Almighty One himself that sustains his vocal chords. But the thing is, he never oversings. He doesn’t need to. He sangs it juuuuuuusst right. Like your favorite home cooked meal after pulling an all-nighter on your 15-page essay. It’s exactly what you wanted. Al didn’t do this just because he was afraid he was no longer on the map, and he didn’t do it for the money. He clearly did this because he loves it. You can tell that he’s having fun on every single track. And this makes for perfect Soul. Absolutely perfect. I’m calling this Album of the Year.

Listen to these tracks:
“Lay It Down”
“Take Your Time”
“Standing in the Rain”
…man, it’s too hard to pick favorites. Just buy this album!!!

200 People Frozen at Grand Central Station

Sat, 17 May 2008 19:30:35 GMT

Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station.
200 People Freeze In Grand Central - Watch more free videos
Man, I wish I thought of this, or at least wish I was a part of this:

Let Me Put You On Game

Thu, 15 May 2008 05:24:02 GMT

There's this 17 year old kid named Johann in my Tagalog class. He's a cool kid. I tend to make jokes at his expense because I'm funny like that, and 'cause that's how I am with friends. He's like a little brother.

Before class, I usually go to the local comic store and pick up my books for the week, and immediately then head to school. I bag and board them while i wait for class to begin, and Johann always asks what I'm reading and whatnot. I figured it's because he's offhandedly interested, because people always ask what I'm reading, then flip through my pages, and hand 'em back. By the way, I hate that. Comics aren't just pretty pictures (well, it's about half). It's like flipping through a book, and reading a couple words here and there. It's not really experiencing books as they should be. Anyway, I digress. Homey mentioned that he read a couple issues of "some book about fairy tales living in the real world", and I immediately got excited. He was talkin about Fables! I can cultivate another fan! Anyway, I put him on to a couple books: Fables, Scalped, and just to get him reacquainted with the Marvel U, I told him to catch Civil War. Hope he keeps up the interest.

It's always awesome to convince people about the wonderful world of comics. People usually think it's about action and capes, but there's a huge world of imagination out there for everyone. If you don't like comics, it's only because you haven't found the one that suits you. Just like you don't like every television show, you shouldn't judge the entire medium on it (tv isn't just made up of desperate housewives and dirty sexy money).

Anyway, you're my next project, whoever you are. I'm going to find you something good you'd like...