Matt Jukes

How To Make It In America is a HBO show from earlier this year that is from the same team that does Entourage.

Now Entourage was one of my very favourite shows but it jumped the shark a while ago and the current season isn’t great.  It isn’t bad, just not what it was.

How To Make It In America uses a similar format - it follows a few friends and family through their day-to-day lifes.  Like Entourage it lives and dies on the banter between the characters as there is little in the way of plot - it also lacks the ‘Hollywood’ factor that Vince, E and the boys benefit from.  That said the setting on the edges of the cool set in the Lower East Side of New York and a sound track dominated by NYC hip-hop makes a winner for me..I hope it gets a second season.

Two major highlights - Luis Guzmans’ character Rene - a reformed gangster struggling not to (completely) regress is brilliant and also Shannyn Sossamon has a small role and I think she is stunning (shallow? moi?)

(via HBO)

R is for Random

I guy called Kyle Starks has drawn this hilarious (if you were a comic book collector in the 90s) A-Z of rubbish Marvel villains.

I picked this one as I’m pretty sure I have the original issue Random appeared in somewhere hidden at the back of a longbox..

(by starr226)

Covert Affairs is not a bad watch - it is always a bit misleading with pilots as they often front load everything good and then its down hill from there (yea Reaper I am talking about you!)

It is all a bit Alias-lite so far and attractive as she is Piper Peraboshe is no Jennifer Garner (not that she is bad I’m just a bit of a fan of Mrs Affleck) but I’ll stick with the show for a while as it has some nice touches..

Tim Minchin’s Ode to Jane Goldman..

I don’t watch Wossy and I have no real concept of who the hell Tim Minchin is but this gave me a bit of a giggle - nice to see Wossy on the receiving end and taking it on the chin..plus I agree with the sentiment - Mrs Ross is not without her charms :)

Tim Minchin’s Song - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross - BBC One (via BBC)

BRISTOL WALL OF FAME & REMO & RORY TIME LAPSE (by Remo Camerota)

Brilliant time lapse video of a painting down on Moon St in Stokes Croft - much as I’m not really a fan of the stencil graf this is nice work and I’m a sucker for these videos (didn’t hate the soundtrack for a change either!)

R.I.P. Al Williamson, legendary galactic artist

Every comic book fan has certain writers and artists who define their tastes early in their comic buying life.  For the older generations it was Ditko, Kirby and the people like Neal Adams but one of the greats for me was always Al Williamson - I loved his art before I ever thought to check he drew the books I bought and his passing is truly sad news :(

Jedi Master Snoop Dogg

OK so it is obviously a very expensive attempt to get something viral happening but Snoop as a Jedi is a total winner - I’ll even forgive the Noel Gallagher appearance..

Also, lets be honest, I’m going to be buying the trainers!

adidas Originals - Star Wars™ Cantina 2010 (via adidasoriginals)

The Return of Alias?

Seems like the US TV rumor mill has kicked in and that in a post ‘Lost’ world ABC are thinking about relaunching JJ Abrams’ ‘Alias’!

The first 2 years of this show are amongst my all time favourite geek TV shows and my love for Sydney Bristow/Jennifer Gardner knows no bounds (I even forgave her marrying Ben Affleck!).  It seems a bit of a long shot bringing it back but who knows - if Abrams was involved it would likely be decent…

On a side note if you think they go to extreme lengths to find reasons to put Amy Pond/Karen Gillan into short skirts just check out the outfits they had our super-spy heroine wear in Alias :)

Alias - Sydney Bristow action montage (via eon57)

Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC: The Musical (100th Video)

Really very funny video and to be fair it also gets it pretty spot on.  Marvels focus on building a shared universe for their movies is alot of geeky fun but I’m not sure how much non geeks get out of it and if they don’t get the rights to Spidey and X-Men back then its always going to seem a little weird.

(via ItsJustSomeRandomGuy)

Underbelly: The Golden Mile is the third season of this Aussie series that dramatizes real life organised crime stories from the big cities in Oz.

I really enjoyed season 1 set in Melbourne - particularly as I had been to some of the places featured and the characters were an amusing mix of idiotic and terrifying.

I missed the 2nd season but Season 3 which is currently showing down under is brilliant TV and I’d highly recommend it to any fan of the Sopranos or the Wire (I’m not saying its in that league but in the absence of the greats the above average will do!)

Nine Network - Underbelly: The Golden Mile (via MediaNine)

I seem to be in the minority this week but I didn’t really like this weeks Dr Who.  Didn’t think it was anywhere near as clever as it obviously thought it was and I just didn’t get sucked in to it like I have with previous episodes.

I guess it built up the relationship between Amy and Rory and once again showed that the Doctor has a bit of a dark side but generally I thought it was a bit dull.

Oh well - I like the look of next weeks episode :)

via i.dailymail.co.uk

This is pretty fun - the A-Z of Geekery..

Kind of looks like one of my presentations :)

You can see the who thing at Geeks Are Sexy..

True Blood: Season 3 Trailer #1 (HBO)

Not quite sure how in the hell they can top the crazy (and sexy) factor from Season 2 but it looks like they are going to give it a good try.

(via HBO)

Praça Cantão, A new Favela Painting in Rio de Janeiro - via the Wooster Collective 

Another bit of Bristol hip-hop nostalgia.  This was one of 3Ds very early pieces of graffiti and it used to be opposite the entrance to the Tropic Club down an alley in Stokes Croft (as an aside a few years later the Tropic Club would be where I ended up most weekends and was even where I had my 18th birthday party - discovered the twin joys of Red Stripe and ear bleeding bass there!). 

It is a pretty simple piece compared to the elaborate work 3D would go on to do but I love it all the more for that - I love the old school styles and have never really liked the stencil stuff that dominates today.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Vampires in Venice was another fun episode - the humor seems to have kicked up a notch again this year and I have to say I wonder if having a straight showrunner has anything to do with the increased…well to put it in a Carry On stylee..sauciness!  The female ‘vampires’ in tonights episode were certainly fetching and I think at this point my admiration of Amy/Karen is well established!

Rory feels a little Mickey 2.0 (but with a country boy slant) though he had a couple of nice lines and the continued build towards the ‘crack in time’ stuff is well handled - it feels like a part of the story but gives continuity/story arc geeks like me something to get excited about..

Anyway really enjoying this season so far - in a way I probably haven’t since the Ecclestone episodes - I never really warmed to Tennant I’m afraid..

via static.guim.co.uk

Inception - Official Trailer

Haven’t really been tracking this movie but anything Christopher Nolan does is bound to be interesting and DiCaprio is actually a good judge of projects (if you blank out Titanic).  I read someone describe it as a thriller version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the trailer certainly looks mind bending enough!

Continuing my Bristol nostalgia trip - the 1st single released under the Massive Attack name - though I’m actually pretty sure it was just Grant (Daddy G) and Carlton involved at this point rather than the full group..

I am pretty sure I still have this 12” somewhere - I bought it from a stall in St Nicks market along with an Inkie graf t-shirt and tickets to a night at the Tropic Club…glory days :)

Massive Attack- Any Love (via ashevm)

The Wild Bunch Crew - Original 1985 Promo 

Sometimes you really do have to love YouTube.  This promo video shot back in 1985 is just an amazing reminder of just how amazing the hip hop scene in Bristol was back then.

The ‘Phase II’ piece of graf by 3D that is featured in this video was probably the first ‘real’ piece of graffiti I saw - it was just around the corner from the old children’s hospital on St Micheals Hill and when I was 12 I was there all the time and made my mum let me walk around to see it every time…brilliant to see it again..

(via visionfactoryuk)

Recent piece by Cheo on Stokes Croft - might be my favourite thing he has done to date - I think his stuff looks amazing at this scale - in fact most ‘proper’ (i.e. not stencil stuff) looks best when it is HUGE…but maybe that just shows how old school I am and the fact that for me the ‘whole-car burner’ was peak of this art..

mr big stuff (by CHEO_BRISTOL)

Piranha 3D - finally a movie that is using the new fangled 3D stuff for something useful - remaking crappy, cult ‘B’ movies..

Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Lloyd and Elisabeth Shue just how far have you fallen :)

Piranha 3D - Official UK Tease Trailer - In UK Cinemas August 20th (via EFDFilms)

Just watched the latest Dr Who - pretty good again.  My initial misgivings about Matt Smith have pretty much gone now and I am enjoying his take on the Doctor.  The Weeping Angels are a nice, creepy monster of the week and I’m enjoying the slow burn of the bigger story arc - where it appears Moffat is going to try and make sense of some of the more extreme elements of Russel T Davies’ era..

Alex Kingston was pretty great as River Song again - she is an actress I’ve been a fan of since ER and once again the lovely Karen Gillan was…well..lovely (and offers another excuse for a picture of her..)

via www.ghostofaflea.com

Watched Iron Man 2 yesterday and have to say it was pretty damn good.

I didn’t have great expectations as some of the reviews have been a bit poor and to be honest I can see where they were coming from.  There are too many big explosions, the plot does make some pretty insane leaps even for a superhero movie and some of the smarts and heart of the first film are lost in the mix.

That said Robert Downey Jr is brilliant again, Don Cheadle is impressive as Rhodey,  Favreau gives himself a couple of fun scenes as ‘Happy’ Hogan, Mickey Rourke actually downplays his character and comes across as genuinely menacing at times (though I think that is that tats as much as anything!) and Scarlett Johansson is hot as ever when she goes into Black Widow mode.. I didn’t even completely hate Paltrow!

Plus the Nick Fury stuff, the hints about the ‘Avengers’, the Captain America shield and the sneaky post credits scene with Thors hammer are all geek gold..

via images2.fanpop.com

No excuse for this pic at all but figure a weekly Amy Pond pic might be a feature of this site :)

Apparently this a costume check for an upcoming episode called The Well..

Karen Gillan, The Well cont2 (by Web Nemesis)

The ‘Art From The New World– a big brash exhibition of the new American art scene’ show at the Bristol museum actually looks like it might be really interesting - more so than the overhyped Banksy nonsense anyway ;0)

Wonder if I can blag an invite to the launch party with Dita Von Teese!

Bristol City Council: Museum events and exhibitions: Coming soon - Art from the New World at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery

Crossroads Blues by Ace Atkins was an unexpected pleasure - I picked it up from a second hand book store to kill an hour why waiting for someone and it pulled me in almost immediately. 

I admit I am a sucker for these pretty straight forward old ‘pulp’ style detective style novels and I also love the mythology of the Blues and New Orleans (and this book plus 2 episodes of Treme have me planning a trip back to Louisiana!).  It isn’t literature but it is good fun and with Dennis Lehane starting to try and write the great American novel and George Pelecanos busy with TV there is space on my shelves for a new author (plus even his name sounds right!)

via img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk

This Invisible Circus documentary looks like its going to be pretty interesting - which I guess isn’t surprising given the subject matter!

Invisible Circus: The Trailer!! (via naomidv)

I really hope some comic book publishers are looking at this video - this is just the tip of the iceberg I think of what could be done with something like the iPad and illustrated stories - particularly digital comics!

Alice for the iPad (via AtomicAntelope)

I love these ‘re-imagined’ comic book cover designs - I think many comics would benefit from more interesting design decisions.  Warren Ellis (as ever) has been experimenting with this with some of his titles.

Comic Book Classics, Re-imagined as Dime Store Paperbacks - This is awesome - io9

I haven’t watched this weeks Dr Who yet but it has to be said this snap just makes me love Amy Pond all the more :)

When Doctor Who Companions Have A Little Drinkie Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors

Dr Who rap by nerdcore rapper Dale Chase - not as funny as that Star Wars/Jay Z track but still pretty damn good!

Digital Blackbook - really very cool digital tagging video (I’d be uncomfortable calling it graffiti if I’m honest!)

Graffiti Analysis 2.0: Digital Blackbook on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

I love the fact something like Upfest happens in Bristol - it further cements our place as the place for street art in the UK (and beyond).

It is taking place on the 5th and 6th of June this year and fingers crossed the weather will be OK for it.  I need to do a better job of seeing all the walls this year rather than just hanging around the Tobacco Factory - to be honest I only go south of the river a couple of times a year and it throws me off my stride :)

Upfest Home : Upfest

This event looks like it could/should be alot of fun.  I actually read a surprisingly small amount of fantasy or sc-fi fiction these days - though I am still a fan I just find much of the current stuff not to my taste. 

I am a massive fan of Paul Cornell though - his Captain Britain stuff was the best Marvel series I’ve read in years.

I am thinking that November probably would give me enough time to organise some kind of Pecha Kucha night all around appropriate geekery the night before in a local bar or something.

Secret Six - Depths: Secret Six is one of my favourite titles currently available as an ongoing book.  Alongside Birds of Prey this is the best work Gail Simone has produced (and all of her stuff is pretty great).  It has a nicely dark and twisted attitude to the rest of the DC Universe and take a cast of pretty ‘B’ list characters and makes them shine.

This collection is particularly strong with some great comedy moments and some well used cameos from ‘A’ list heroes.  The ‘double-date’ story and the slight cross-over with the Bat books are very cool.  Recommended.

Teen Titans - Child’s Play: When Geoff Johns and Mike McKone relaunched Teen Titans a few years ago it was very much my favourite book (like the Wolfman/Perez stuff was years previously) but I felt the book lost its way and with the loss of Kid Flash and Superboy it lost me as well.  I have continued to dip in over the time since then but nothing has ever really grabbed me and this collection is no exception.  The current cast is light on legacy and doesn’t do much for me though it is nice to see Static settling into a mainstream DC universe slot.  The sacrifice of Kid Devil was nicely handled as was some of the in-fighting dialogue but all in all I thought it was pretty average.

Justice Society of America - Thy Kingdom Come Book 3: This sequel of sorts to the brilliant Kingdom Come graphic novel by Mark Waid and Alex Ross has been a great read and this concluding chapter maintains the high standards and offers some nice twists as well.  I am a huge JSA fan and love the place Johns has created for them within the DC Universe - particularly the focus on the idea of legacy - I am a sucker for the way DC has built the idea of passing the torch for generation to generation of hero (maybe that is why the current Teen Titans cast doesn’t work for me).  The continuing rise to centre stage of Stargirl is well handled - it is clear that she will end up being a leading light at DC as long as Johns has any power creatively and I am looking forward to seeing how that evolves.  I’d recommend this trilogy - but on the assumption you have read Kingdom Come and either have a decent background in DC history or a willingness to use Wikipedia.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Issue 34:  No idea what to say about this issue really.  It mainly consists of Buffy and Angel having sex while flying and creating sonic booms and crashing into mountains.  The slightly more safe for work pages seem to suggest that Angel and Buffy have evolved into something ‘new’ and by doing so will open the door for all sorts of bad stuff to come streaming through.

To be honest since the issues when Buffy went forward to meet Fray not alot of this has made sense - Angel as Twilight seems to be a stunt more than a real plotline.  There have been some nice touches still - the Xander/Dawn stuff is nice and well done and the creeping certainty that Willow has a very different path to follow is building nicely and occasionally the humor in the dialogue does ‘sound’ right.

Guess I’ll stick with it but roll on Season 9.

Seriously cool stop-motion graffiti video..I’d love to see something like this done for some of the Stokes Croft painting.

(cheers Nic for the link..)

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Reasons why superheroes aren’t online more often

via http://www.agent-x.com.au/

Four episodes in and I am ready to declare that Justified is my new #1 show.  Raylan Givens is a brilliant character and I choose to believe he is the direct descendant of Sheriff Seth Bullock from Deadwood..

Justified Trailer #2 New FX Drama Coming March 16th 2010 (via justifiedfans)

Not sure how I feel about this one - Andres Lincoln bloke best remembered for (1) being a shite lawyer in This Life (2) being an even worse teacher in Teachers and (3) being the worst best man in history in one of the worst chick flick travesties of all time Love Actually is going to star in the TV series based on the Walking Dead comics.  Which if you didn’t know is a brutal multi-part story set in a world where flesh eating zombies have taken control.  Love the fact the show is getting made - nervous about the guy they have chosen to trust to carry it…fingers crossed.

Love Actually Star Will Slay Zombies In Walking Dead - walking dead - io9

Finally got to the cinema today and watched Kick Ass (and weirdly had an entire cinema to myself!).  It was great fun - especially the Banana Splits moment and even Nic Cage being in the film didn’t ruin it for me (though he was a little annoying).

The action scenes were brilliantly staged and the soundtrack was very amusing in its use of music from other movies Tarantino style.

On the downside the film did bottle out of two of my favourite elements from the comic - namely the ‘real’ Big Daddy origin and the consequences of Dave revealing he isn’t gay to Katie.

Also as usual it is distracting with so many UK actors in bit parts (Tamer Hassan popping up was just weird!).  That said Mark Strong was brilliant as usual as the big bad.

Oh and the jet-pack?  That really was rubbish..

Still a great film and I’ll grad the inevitable special edition when it is released on DVD..

via tengossip.com

I thought this was just an April Fools joke I missed but apparently not - they really are going to further destroy my memories of Star Wars and create a sitcom spin-off..

Just watched Harry Brown - pretty brutal movie that doesn’t exactly paint the youth of today in a positive light!  Taken just as a standard vigilante movie though it is pretty fun and Caine puts in one of his better performances.  Plan B is pretty impressive as the main local scumbag as well..it is close to what I thought Gran Torino could have been before it wussed out.

via www.filmshaft.com

I’m going to try and write short reviews of the comics/graphic novels I pick up each week here.  For those that don’t know a ‘pull-list’ is essentially a standing order at a comic shop - the staff put all your books aside for you and you come in and collect them and occasionally have a small heart-attack at the size of your pile!

Spiderman: The Complete Clone Saga Epic 1 - ok so it is both a saga and an epic?  Must be great!  Actually this storyline is one of the most derided in Marvels history but I have never read any of it so I picked this up.  To be honest apart from a reprint of Spiderman: The Lost Years with art by John Romita Jr the rest is pretty dull.  It also doesn’t do well out of context and requires more awareness of what was going on in the Spidey universe at the time.  Won’t be bothering with Volume 2.

The Brave and the Bold: Demons and Dragons - this is the final volume of Mark Waids run on BandB and like the rest of it it is fun in a lightweight old school kind of way.  I enjoyed the portrayal of Deadman and Nightwing but the fact that this collection includes filler stories from 20 years ago is rubbish.  Shame on you DC.

Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth - I am shamelessly a fan of Wonder Woman and still have a complete set of the Perez reboot of the character post-Crisis (right up until John Byrne made a mess of it) and I’m also a huge fan of Gail Simone whose run on Birds of Prey is some of the best mainstream comic work in 20 years in my opinion (and I can’t wait for it to start again!) so you would have thought this would have been a no brainer.  However despite some nice art, super-intelligent albino gorillias, a quite nice use of Beowulf and a nice cameo by Donna Troy it never quite clicks for me. 

Green Hornet 2 - based on an unused movie script that was intended to kick off a Green Hornet franchise this book is nominally by Kevin Smith - though in reality they have just taken his screenplay and adapted it for comics without his direct involvement.  Issue 1 was pretty ponderous but this issue showed signs of life.  Some decent father/son dynamics and it is always good to see the classic ninjas crashing the party scene!  Still I think it needs to step up a gear in Issue 3 or it will lose me.

Blackest Night 8 (of 8) - the finale of the latest (and greatest) big DC crossover event.  I am a sucker for the mythology surrounding the GL Corps and have really enjoyed this expansion of that universe with the new categories of ring-bearers and the newly fallible Guardians of Oa.  I am also a huge fan of Geoff Johns and he is a big part of the reason I am still a DC guy.  This series had taken a bit of a dip I felt with the last 2 issues and on first read this is a bit of a mess story wise.  It takes a couple of looks to really make sense of things and if I am honest isn’t all I had hoped for to end this brilliant story.  That said it is BEAUTIFUL - the art is just out of this wold (appropriately enough!) and it had a couple of lovely moments.  The panels when Superman welcomes back J’Onn are a lovely moment and the return of Maxwell Lord and how he plays Guy Gardner is also ominous (in a good way).  Can’t wait for Brightest Day to kick off!

Not long now til Iron Man 2.  The first movie was a bit of a revelation - though I always had a feeling it would be decent as I really rate Robert Downey Jr - but a film that could make me not hate Gwyneth Paltrow was startling!

I think if anything this movie will be even better and if nothing else Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow is going to be worth the price of admission..

Iron Man 2 Trailer 2 (OFFICIAL) (via MARVEL)

Boing Boing video review of the Marvel iPad app.  The video isn’t great and the sound sucks but it does give a useful preview of what the app offers and at first look I think it will be a major success.  The ability to view page by page or frame by frame is nice as is the in book navigation.  It also looks like they have spent some real effort on the ‘store’ element of the app.

The big factor for me will be the decision about when digital versions of recent issues become available - at the moment there is a massive delay and that doesn’t suit me (though it won’t bother newcomers).  Also whether graphic novels and longer form collections will be included is a big question for me.

Anyway all in all it looks the part - so now all I can do is hope that DC gets their act together as I’m not really a Marvel guy!

Marvel iPad app: Boing Boing hands-on review (via boingboingvideo)

Blogpost from Warren Ellis - the majority of which is about the effect of the iPad on the comic industry.  Very interesting stuff and this quote in particular stood out for me.

I’m probably going to be covering alot of iPad/Comics stuff over the next week or two.  Sorry.

Warren Ellis » Post-Dead

Slightly off topic for this site but I think this is an amazing glimpse into the possibilities that the iPad brings to things like magazines online - and by association, hopefully, comic books.

I’ve written elsewhere about the fact I think that it will take something more than just reproducing comics digitally or the almost-animations of motion comics for digital comics to really take off and hopefully things like this will help people think about it.

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Rory Doona is an artist based in Bristol who followed me on Twitter yesterday.  Being a curious sort I followed a link and discovered a blog full of stunning art.

I’m not usually a fan of the ‘manga’ style - in fact of all the 1000s of comics I own I bet there are less than 10 in that format but this work is really lovely.

 I even liked the political posters.

via www.athility.com

The 80s Action heroes are back…and they brought their guns with them!

Stallone wrote, directed and stars in The Expendables alongside Jet Li, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny Trejo and maybe most exciting of all (well for me anyway!) Charisma Carpenter..

‘The Expendables’ Trailer HD (via hollywoodstreams)