To kick off your long holiday weekend, I made you a nice, long list of links. Enjoy. Oh, and don’t drink and drive and stuff, stay safe so you can click on more links next week!
If this is what it looks like when you get behind the wheel, give your keys to someone else.
- I’ve been on a comic kick lately and my pencil hand is starting to get itchy. One of my great unrequited dreams was to be an illustrator; while I spent much of my adolescence drawing comic book characters, my original love was fantasy and extinct creatures. That’s probably why I got a kick out of this tutorial on how to draw prehistoric mammals.
- Speaking of that comic kick that I’ve been on, I was pleased to be introduced to Daniel Clowes through this Cracked.com article, which is also a great exploration of the douche-tasticness which is Shia LaBeouf.
- This weeks Zen Pencils features a surprisingly poignant quote and story about The Ultimate Warrior (yes, the pro wrestler).
- Other things I’ve been obsessing over – the new Godzilla and upcoming Star Wars movies. Segueing from the comic thing, here are some really cool alternative Godzilla movie posters.
- Before I go on about the new Star Wars stuff, let’s harken back to the original trilogy with this interview with Roger Christian, the man responsible for the iconic, authentic look of the original film. Reading stuff like this really inspires my DIY, do-the-best-with-what-you-got mojo. As a bonus, there’s the neat side story of Christian’s directorial debut, a short film shown before The Empire Strikes Back, at least in Europe and Australia.
- Now, forward to the upcoming J.J. Abrams’ directed sequels – it looks like we’re going back to the old school, practical effects, as opposed to the glorified video game that was the prequels, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m growing more and more confident that the new movies are in the right hands.
- I actually didn’t hate the prequels, well, not as much as some. I’ve justified a lot of it’s shortcomings – I mean, of course Anakin Skywalker was a whiny douchenozzle. If he was awesome, he probably wouldn’t have become Darth Vader. And if Vader wasn’t a douche, things like this wouldn’t keep happening.
- And, to tie the Star Wars and Godzilla stuff together, it looks like Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone Star Wars movie, though we don’t know what yet. Rumors point towards Boba Fett, though there are, literally, a galaxy of far, far away possiblities.
- There is lots of angst about the U.S. space program, especially with Russia being a bit of a twit these days, but there is still some really amazing science going on at NASA. Check out Project Morpheus. Also, when people get up in arms about us not having a way to ferry astronauts to the ISS, please remind them that we’ll probably have that capability from Space X within the next couple of years.
- More cool space stuff – if I can’t ever get get to Mars, I’d love to at least see a supernova in the sky within my lifetime.
- WARNING: Time waster, right here (just keep clicking the random button to fall down the rabbit hole).
- Wait, don’t I usually talk about sports around here?
Oh, yeah…so, per this post on Canal Street Chronicles, some aren’t quite as enamored with new Saints wide receiver Brandon Cooks as I am. Not that Stephen White isn’t complimentary, my thinking, hopes and desires are just more in line with the writer of that post. - Meanwhile, here’s a nice story about sixth round draft pick, tackle Tavon Rooks, who took a circuitous route to the NFL. So much so that, when he got the call that he’d been drafted, he thought it was a prank. I could see him spending a year on the practice squad, but I’m going to be rooting hard for him (not in the Australian meaning of the word).
- With the big league club still a bit of a mess, a lot of Cubs fans focus has been on the prospects. While Kris Bryant has been destroying AA pitching, Javier Baez’s slow start has caused a lot of hand wringing and second guessing. But, don’t look now, he’s on a seven game hitting streak, with the latest being last nights 4-5, 2 2B, HR extravaganza that finally pushed his batting average over .200. I have a feeling the next few weeks of the Baez watch are going to be fun.
- The other big news is that Tom Ricketts has finally taken off the kid gloves in regards to the rooftop owners impeding the planned expansion and improvement of Wrigley Field. I know for some it’s “about time”, but I have no problem with how he’s played this out. I think he did everything he could and made sure to keep the high ground in the debate, but I’m glad now we’re moving forward.
- With the Wizards season finally over, let the recaps and grading begin. Truth About It kicked it off with a 5-on-5 set of off-season questions and, well, let’s just say that the post-season run didn’t make the TAI staff any more enamored with Ernie Grunfeld or Randy Wittman, though overall they gave the season A’s and B’s. I don’t mind Wittman getting another spin, as I think he’s shown improvement as a coach, unless the replacement is a legit great coach (cough, cough, “George Karl” cough, cough). I’m also a little higher on the chance of Martell Webster and Otto Porter to contribute more next year if Ariza walks, plus I am very (very, very, very) leery of the contract year performance spike the skinnier Trevor had.
- Bullets Forever thinks Grunfeld should go after some big names this off-season, though I’m not sure who is available to make a big splash with. This rundown of top 5 available players at each position isn’t exactly impressive.
- The other avenue to make a splash is through a trade. But to get quality, you have to give quality. Would you trade Brad Beal for Kevin Love? I guess the answer to that question is, what shooting guard could you get for Nene?
- I ran across this review of the new Coldplay album on Myspace, of all places, and discovered that I actually do disagree with Chuck Klosterman on something. Wow, he reaaaaaally hates Coldplay. I get that they’re not some people’s cup of tea, but, man there are soooooo many bands that are soooooo much worse than Coldplay.
Low blow, dude, we don’t even exist anymore!
- With that, here’s your song of the week (suck it, Klosterman…I still love 99.9% of everything you write).
