Figure:
Browncoat Buddy Mal

Series:
Firefly/Serenity

Recipe:
This figure was a repaint of a Hasbro Galactic Heroes Endor Han Solo, with his original blaster removed and DST’s molded Firefly Blasted glued in its place.

Accessories:
While the figure included no accessories, he was packaged in a take-out container inspired by the Chinese influences in the show.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
I had the extra Han, and I saw that a Mal could be made from him, so I figured, Why not?

Additional Thoughts
This is one of my best pieces to date. I’m very, very proud of it, and it looks as though it could be an official release. He’s gone, and I miss him; but he was a great piece. If I come across another extra Han somehow in the future, Maybe I’ll give him another go. (FIGURE COMPLETED IN SUMMER 2008)

First, We’re up north this weekend, relaxing with the in-laws. It’s good stuff.

Second, hope you guys enjoyed the first edition of Extrapodies. Please give me some feedback.

Movie Moment of the week: The training memories of Ryu and Ken in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Quote-of-week. “Cobra’s through, what do we do?” - Roadblock in G.I. Joe: The Movie.

REASONs-MY-WIFE-IS-AWESOME-OF-THE-WEEK: She

Song of the Post: music from the album, Memento, by David Julyan.

To those who love the Stunkpod and just can’t get enough, Dean and I have begun a little something extra, a little something called, “Extrapodies!”. What are Extrapodies? Well, they’re short bonus podcast conversations cut from the original podcasts that may or may not interest anyone but me and Dean. We try hard to make our podcasts substantive and interesting, but we take loads of personal tangents and off-topic discussions. Sometimes, they can form their own podcast, just not a full-length one. Thus, we have the Extrapodies. Frankly, they are self-indulgent and usually of or relating to personal stories or questionable content as opposed to our direct topic at hand, so they have not been put on the Itunes podcast feed. No, Extrapodies come exclusively from the stage, for the die-hards who just need a little more Dean in their diet (I already know you get more than your fill of me around here).

In this edition of Extrapodies, we get some more Chris Chandler in the mix, as Dean, myself and our game-crazy guest reminisce about the good ol’ days (and current days) of playing video games.

(Click the image to stream or right click and “save link as” [do not “save image as” as that will only save the picture.])

[!EDITOR’s OOPS!] When we originally uploaded this edition of Extrapodies, we thought the podcast with Chris was going to be the 8th episode. As such, this one is labeled “8a”. That is an error. It should be labeled “9a”. Apologies, all! If you want it in the correct order, simply change the filename at your own leisure once you download the cast!]

Figure:
Willy the Snitch

Series:
Buffy

Recipe:
This figure was made by placing the head and jacket of a DST, Time And Space Toys exclusive 1950’s Angel on the trso and legs of a Time And Space Toys Exclusive Xander. The head was then altered to better match Willy’s thinner face, and his skin was painted to better reflect his flush skintone.

Accessories:
Willy included a bottle, a bag of blood, a pistol, stake, cross, rat and base.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
Parts user but a good excuse to add a new character to my collection.

Additional Thoughts
I think we all know the story here. I liked the figure, but I didn’t love him, so I passed him off to a fellow collector who bought a lot of parts from me. Hopefully, that collector added him to their collection with pride; however, my guess is that he was scrapped for parts.(FIGURE COMPLETED IN SPRING 2008)

Check out what I had to say about the 2008 SDCC Transformers Panel!!!

Star Trek: Insurrection did not do much for me. It felt like no more than an overblown episode of the show, and it wasn’t one of the best episodes I’ve seen, either. That’s pretty much all I got from it. That it’s a season opener or a season closer–not a film. Unlike, say, First Contact, I really feel as though Insurrection added nothing new to the mythos either in terms of universal consequences or stylistic change. It just feels very banal, which is sad given the talented and charismatic crew.

I’m not really gonna say much on this. The story follows the Next Generation crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they investigate a planet of humanoids that do not age, as well as an alien group monitoring and somehow abusing the humanoids. I don’t remember all the details, I just remember it feeling very standard, like any episode of the show (and not a very memorable one at that).

So, I’m gonna just give Star Trek: Insurrection a 3. It’s not bad, but it offers nothing special in a long-running series full of other, better titles. Maybe I missed something since I didn’t watch the show religiously, and maybe there were excellent and important characters moments that I just “didn’t get.” Perhaps because of that, the movie is objectively better than I am giving it credit for…well, that’s fine, but this is a “meview”, so a 3 [out of 7] it is.

Serial Killers:The Real Life Hannibal Lecter is a 60 mintue documentary on serial killers that possibly inspired or were possibly inspired by the worst cannibalistic killers of the silver screen. It’s a cheap documentary, and it contains some terrible reenactments that are just freaking horrible. Not “horrific”. Horrible, as in blatantly watchable. On top of the poor production values of the dramatic reenactments, the 60-minute special tries to cover several guys in just an hour, and it just does not have the time to really delve into any of them.

Having made those criticisms, the small amount of information that was conveyed was fairly interesting. The four men on which the documentary spends time are Albert Fish, Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dhamer, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. There was also some time spent on Ed Gein.

I knew a bit about Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein; but Fish and Chakatilo were new to me. Albert Fish, the wolfman, was out of the world crazy, and his exloits were so absurd and disgusting they truly sound like exploitative fiction. He was a killer about whom I am afraid to learn more because he’s so disturbing. The Russian killer Chikatilo was equally insane and crazy. Apparently he ate a uterus, which is enough to put him on my “craziest killers ever list”; and like Fish, his exploits are so disturbing they feel fictional. Of course, the classic crazy is still Dahmer. Dahmer…What the heck was up with that guy. Research shows that he wanted to create sex zombies. However, unlike the others, Dhamer was very remorseful, and his life is considered an anomaly among killers of his level and kind. He is recorded as becoming a born-again Christian in prison, and I know the idea that he would go to heaven is enough to destroy the idea of the Christian faith for a great deal of people. I won’t judge his heart; that’s between him and; but I will say that his life, for the majority of it, was a collection of definitive horrors.

Overall, the doc tries to tie the killers together given MO and desire. The murdering is likened to the high of drug use, with Sadism and torture is a drug. Whether that’s accurate is open to debate; but I will say this, the doc provides enough introductory food for thought and ideas that’s its not awful. In fact, if you are into serial killers as a type of group in human history, this is fine starting point from which to choose who to study further. So, despite the style, the substance is fine for an intro into these oddities of humanity, if you’re into that sort of thing.I give Serial Killers:The Real Life Hannibal Lecter a 3 [out of 7].

One of the few “reality shows” that has won me over is Kitchen Nightmares, a short-lived restaurant-based program featuring Euro-chef Gordon Ramsey that was on Fox in fall 2007. Of course, because it was on Fox it was canceled only after half a season. Hulu has all the episodes and available for view, and I have chosen to share the first with you!

Once is the little film that could. Word round the campfire is that the film was made for only $150,000 (an amount which doesn’t cover the cost food on some films) and got rejected from Sundance only to be later put in the festival after a juror had seen a screening of the film during a trip to Europe. The film grossed $9 Million in theatres and won an Academy Award for best original song. It’s not this decade’s Blair Witch Project, but it is still a successful, little indie film that has gained a place in cinema history.

And you know what? It deserves it. Once is a very, very typical indie in many respects. It’s story of two hurting people coming together to create something beautiful is, well, about as old as the indie genre itself. The handheld, nearly-documentarian approach to the directing is indie filmmaking 101 kind of stuff. The poor lighting and shot running time are a staple of the indie genre…and yet, Once is a highly transcendent little film that runs circles around most indie features. Why? Well, because it actually has heart and a desire to be a piece of art.

I’m not a big “indie” film fan. I find most independent, “art house” features to be pretentious attempts by hacks to become the next Tarantino. Oftentimes I find the films to be hollow, vapid, banal, and–frankly–dull. Once, however, breaks this mold in that it “feels” genuine. It does not feel like the work of some talent-deprived imitator trying to reach for undeserved glory. No, Once seems to be the result of a filmmaker’s desire to create something beautiful, simply for beauty’s sake.

The movie is kind and gentle, with characters that feel real and make honest decisions. Nothing they say and do is meant to hit a particular action beat or create a manufactured response. Their actions and words are meant to show us who they are and how they operate. Then on top of that, the film’s music alone makes it worth a viewing. Many will recognize, “Falling Slowly”, the movie’s “single”; but plenty of brilliant songs fill the minutes of this neo-musical. I call it a “neo-musical” in that the music of the film truly drives the story and is essential to understanding its characters and purpose; however, unlike traditional musicals, Once does not attempt grandiose moments or over-the-top sequences; rather, it focuses on the power of musical and its creation in and of themselves. A giant musical number with 20 extras, stylistic colors or buoyant colors is not needed when the power of the music alone is enough.

Therein, I believe is the center of the gentle beauty of the film. Once has no pomp or pretense. It lets the characters exist in a world, then records an important moment in their lives. It is an open-ended slice-of-life picture that conveys all it needs to convey simply by documenting the events, not manufacturing them. It’s honest. It’s sincere. And it is the very definition of film as art. Once is one of my favorite new films, and I give it my highest rating, a 7.

First, I’ve updated my Amazon.com wishlist…it had been a long time…I went from 13 pages down to 2. Dang.

Second, I heard from a person who shares my affinity for Star Wars that Clone Wars is still worth catching for the hadcore fan…I still want to see it.

Third, thank you to Dean for directing me to the USA Network show Burn Notice, it is quite fun.

Fourth, congrats to my sister, Rebecca, and her husband Rob. They invited their daughter, Arden, into the world last Saturday evening, and I wish them blessing and good fortune at this time.

Movie Moment of the week: The Studio recording montage in Once.

Quote-of-week. “Dont’ swear in front of the boy–That includes Blasphemy as well.” — Big Chris in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

REASONs-MY-WIFE-IS-AWESOME-OF-THE-WEEK: She led us in redesigning our guest room, and it is looking wonderful!

Song of the Post: “Veracruz” by Santana from the album, The Essential Santana.