T O S H I S T A T I O N

T O S H I S T A T I O N http://www.toshistation.com Nerd Weblog en-us Copyright 1996-2007, Toshistation.com http://www.toshistation.com/images/88x31-toshi.gif T O S H I S T A T I O N http://www.toshistation.com http://backend.userland.com/rss Collecting Headquarters (www.collectinghq.com) Vid-e-oh-rama
The Walkie Talkie Dead
More Glove and Boots "video blog" hi-larity. No point in clickin' if you aren't down the The Walking Dead. A great show, despite some really drawn-out plot lines. "Take your finger off the button, Rick!"

130 Episodes of the The Simpsons. At the Same Time.
The first 3:20 of 130 epsiodes (see also: every single Itchy and Scratchy episode stitched together in a single 50 minute orgy of violence).

The Dukes Of Hazzard All About Jumps
Supercut of every jump the General Lee ever done jumped (seasons 1-6 only, for whatever reason). The Internet was born for such spectacle.

Functional Akira bike
Additional photos (and Japanese details) right here. Read all six volumes of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga late last year. Fantastic stuff. Stupifyingly detailed artwork with a story far more accessible than the confounding animated movie of the same name. Pacing was a little slow, however. Felt like the story could've been wrapped up in 2,000 pages instead of 12,000 pages.

Gato Jedi vs Gato Sith
Cat fight, with lightsabers.

The Daly Show: Episode 7 "The Daly Superheroes"
Nathan Fillion joins Bruce Campbell as one of those actor guys who should be way more famous than they are. Stupid Hollywood.

Turkish Star Wars
Why pony up for fancy special effects when you can splice Star Wars into your movie? You really need only endure a few minutes to appreciate the absolute depths of the terribleness at work here.

Happy Birthday David
Another Ridley Scott Prometheus "viral" video. Good stuff, though completely unnecessary - our anticipation for this movie could not possibly be higher. Just saw Michael Fassbender in Shame a couple weeks ago. Arty, thoroughly depressing, and entirely too much Fassbender (if you catch m'drift).

Looper
Who didn't love a time travel movie? Plus that Joseph Gordon-Levitt guy has some chops.

Primer
The time travel made-for-the-price-of-a-sandwich independent movie Primer is now available on Youtube in its entirety. One of the Movie Manifest Top Five of 2005.

Drive-Thru
"The only thing more intense and serious than the Ryan Gosling movie Drive is this story about one man trying to navigate the shadowy world of fast food drive-thrus."]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Videohrama_144736.asp Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:50:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Videohrama_144736.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog They Have a Plan Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome trailer that was shown at Wondercon last weekend is now available to the masses. From the BSG wiki: "Blood and Chrome is a television pilot (in production as of February, 2011) that follows the exploits of a young William Adama during the First Cylon War."

The soundtrack - that sets the pace of the editing - is Trent Reznor's Reznorified "Immigrant Song" cover, originally done for the opening credits (and trailer) of David Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

No word if this is a series or movie or what. I do know, from what my eyeballs were able to harvest out of the frenzied split second clips, it's looking better - and entirely more exciting - than my expectations. Hopefully Blood and Chrome will live up to this trailer, despite the lack of BSG mastermind Ronald Moore.

It's not just regular science fiction. It's actually good.]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/They_Have_a_Plan_144421.asp Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:05:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/They_Have_a_Plan_144421.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Your Prometheus Trailer Has Arrived Prometheus trailer up at the Apple.com trailer park. Holy mother of monkeys, June 8 cannot possibly arrive fast enough.

There's a UK version as well that's likely worth your 2 minutes 30 seconds - I assume they dub in common Brit phrases like "bloody brilliant" and "innit?" and "'ello wot have we 'eer?".

See Also:
Official movie website
Weyland Industries
Our Family is Growing (Prometheus Viral Video)
Peter Weyland's 2023 TED Talk]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Your_Prometheus_Trailer_Has_Arrived_144376.asp Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:16:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Your_Prometheus_Trailer_Has_Arrived_144376.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Universal Studios 100

Good stuff. Appropriately over the top. No more Copperplate Gothic, which is fine indeed. Also now, apparently, "A Comcast Company".

Weta also worked on the visual FX for the Walt Disney Pictures logo back in 2006.

See Also:
Official Universal 100th Annv site
Hollywood Reporter logo PR
The Weta Workshop]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Universal_Studios_100_144243.asp Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:59:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Universal_Studios_100_144243.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog I take it I've told you about my condition? Greg Burney cranked out this very spiffy timeline for the movie Momento. Don't click if you haven't seen the film (one of our Top Five for 2001). Sounds like Burney is looking to turn it into a print for the Guy Pearce fans to buy.

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/I_take_it_Ive_told_you_about_my_condition_143991.asp Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:23:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/I_take_it_Ive_told_you_about_my_condition_143991.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog DC Logo Review Lando, it's quite a departure from previous efforts. Here's the official press release. I was a fan of the 2005 effort, which really grew on me. The new logo is not Super:

The Good

Simple design.
The literal representation of an under-cover secret identity type thing is clever enough.
Looks terrific in the upper left corner of the funny books, resting directly against the spine.

The Bad

The letter "D" is almost invisible.
The curl effect, in this and any application, is a little played out.
The new deal completely lacks any sense of the heroic - a quality we've enjoyed since '76 (the star, the sense of motion, bold lettering, etc).

The Ugly

As seen below, the logo can appear in various colors, revealing fancy doo-dads and what all. The potential for dumb is high. Case in point: the Watchmen version. Absolutely painful.

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/DC_Logo_Review_143483.asp Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:34:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/DC_Logo_Review_143483.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog 2011 Year End Movie Review
The overall score for the year was 69. While slightly above average, that's a disappointing number. Far from the goal of two-per-weekend. Must focus on less work, more relaxing in '12.

Top Five: The Fighter, Harry Potter Deathly Hallows 2, Winter's Bone, Drive, and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (which should probably be unseated by The King's Speech, but sheer amount of fun we had watching Tucker and Dale must be recognized). Runner-ups include the Swedish Girl with the Dragon/Fire/Hornets trilogy, Super 8, Hesher (a "boy movie", the ladies tell me), Monsters, and No Regrets for Our Youth (super early Korusawa).

Bottom Three: In Time, The Hangover Pt. II (despite appropriately low expectations), and House (incomprehensibly bizarre Japanese horror from 1977). That ugly trio held off The American, Source Code, Arthur, and Bellflower (the independent movie that isn't nearly as good as you may have heard).

There was a hope we'd be polishing off the rest of the Akira Kurosawa portfolio in 2011. Dreams killed that hope. Mustering the desire to watch that film is proving insurmountably difficult. Still, we're down to the final two of thirty-two. Gonna power through it, and knock out the final movie - The Quiet Duel, which features Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune and is the only Kurosawa film not available on Netflix.

The most anticipated for 2012: Hunger Games (still need to read the books), Moonrise Kingdom (despite the over-the-top Wes Anderson-ness of it all), Dark Knight Rises, World War Z, and, to cap off the year, The Hobbit: A Highly Anticipated Journey.

Update: Somehow skipped Prometheus when assembling that "most anticipated" list. A horrible oversight, now corrected. That movie looks positively magical. Thanks, Erica!

See Also:
2010 Year End Review
2009 Year End Review
2008 Year End Review
2007 Year End Review
2006 Year End Review
2005 Year End Review
2004 Year End Review]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/2011_Year_End_Movie_Review_143306.asp Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:57:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/2011_Year_End_Movie_Review_143306.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog I can see it in your eyes

Reminds me of a flyer I found on a bulletin board in the cafeteria at the Borders World Headquarters a week before they closed their doors for all eternity:

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/I_can_see_it_in_your_eyes_143088.asp Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:03:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/I_can_see_it_in_your_eyes_143088.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Mario Kart IRL

"West Coast Customs is known for TV shows such as the classic Pimp My Ride on MTV and the current show Inside West Coast Customs on the Velocity Network. The company has re-created two vehicles from Mario Kart 7: the classic Mario Standard kart, complete with glider attachment for soaring through the air, and the Luigi Bumble V kart, which resembles a bumblebee and features a rear propeller for underwater navigation."

Additional photos and details.]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Mario_Kart_IRL_142342.asp Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:35:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Mario_Kart_IRL_142342.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Bat Skins Batman: Arkham City (Xbox/PS3 game all the cool comic nerds are playing these days) has released a $5 "skins" pack that allows players to don a variety of crime fighting bat-fashions.

Pretty stellar. That Dark Knight skin (despite the erroneous pupils) makes a man wish he both an Xbox and the time to partake in such activity.

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Bat_Skins_142343.asp Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:42:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Bat_Skins_142343.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog The 3rd Annual Toshi Station Halloween Banner Retrospective Star Wars costume contest back on the 13th of October (natch).

Scope the complete costume contest banner retrospective:

2011	2010	2009
2008	2007	2006
2005	2004	2003
2002	2001	2000
1999

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/The_3rd_Annual_Toshi_Station_Halloween_Banner_Retrospective_141421.asp Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:23:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/The_3rd_Annual_Toshi_Station_Halloween_Banner_Retrospective_141421.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Nike Mags, at Last Back to the Future II - Marty McSuperfly pulls them on and they self-tie. While the 2011 versions do look the part, with the straps and loops and lights, the self-tying feature won't be available until 2015.

"Famed Nike designer Tinker Hatfield and footwear innovator Tiffany Beers have returned to recreate the footwear legend. Based on an original movie prop used in Back to the Future Part II, the 2011 Nike MAG shoes have been entirely rebuilt and perfected."

"They feature an electroluminescent outsole, space-age materials and a rechargeable internal battery good for 3,000 hours. And while they are not recommended for playing sports, these highly limited shoes will very likely command attention wherever they are worn." Indeed.

According to Popular Science, there are great minds out there working diligently on this whole self-tying issue.

Not really related but kind of related, Reebok made Alien Stompers (the kind Ripley wore in Aliens) some years back. Proceeds went to Reebok.
]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Nike_Mags_at_Last_140507.asp Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:42:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Nike_Mags_at_Last_140507.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Is Childs an Imitation? The Thing, part one and part two. Pretty terrific. (thanks, Jay)

"They" are working on a prequel, also (for reasons unknowable) called The Thing, that takes place three days before the original. Great concept. Difficult to execute. Set expectations to "low".]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Is_Childs_an_Imitation_140180.asp Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:14:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Is_Childs_an_Imitation_140180.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Lightcycling Check this street-legal Tron Legacy lightcycle. Only $55,000. No need to check with your wife - she'll understand.

"This is the illuminated, street-legal motorcycle inspired by the computer animated cycle from the 2010 film Tron: Legacy. Designed for casual cruising and slow ride-bys at shows, it is made from a steel frame covered by a fiberglass cowling that replicates the sleek look of its computer-generated imagery counterpart. Electroluminescent strips built into the tire cowlings, wheel rims, and body illuminate the cycle."

There's a video of the bike in action. Almost no point riding that thing during daylight hours - it looks chunky, uncomfortable, and fairly ridiculous. The Little Woman won't be laughing as you roll out of the garage at night, however, when the electric blue stripes and glossy sleekness are in full effect, the Daft Punk is thumping, and you can't roll ten feet without bumping into a leather-clad Olivia Wilde.

On a related note: Duct Tron!

]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Lightcycling_140177.asp Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:32:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Lightcycling_140177.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog Darth Dryer Concept

Rear view over here.]]> http://www.toshistation.com/story/Darth_Dryer_Concept_139303.asp Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:00:00 CST http://www.toshistation.com/story/Darth_Dryer_Concept_139303.asp Toshi Station: Geek Weblog