Big Blue Arndt: August 2006 Archives

Every so often, on a presumably regular basis that I don't pay attention to, I get e-mail from "Star Wars Homing Beacon" which is the Official free fan service connection, as opposed to HyperSpace, which is the Official fan club that people pay for.

Take from that what you will.

Regardless in my most recent issue (#168 Behind the Bikini) there was a story of how they discovered the creator of Princess Leia's metal bikini from Return of the Jedi. The creator is a sculptor named Richard Miller. Since it's not a real bikini it has to be sculpted. Since it is scuplted, a mold of the wearer has to be made. That mold is made by a man. The part of the story that cracks me up is as follows and is told by Lorne Peterson, veteran ILM modelmaker.

"An interesting aside is that one of the moldmakers, when he realized he was going to get to do the body-casting of Carrie Fisher... he talked about it every day," recalls Peterson. "And somewhere in Production, at the last minute, they changed and had another moldmaker do it, much to his chagrin. If he had just kept his mouth shut and not been so enthusiastic, they would have let him go through with it!"

Essentially he knew where he was empowered to put his hands and if only he was more tasteful about it...

I am sure that there is a more moralistic meaning to draw from it, but I can't really see it , considering the moldmaker's primary interests.

It's been said in the Beatles' last years performing live in concerts (and this legend is true; don't doubt it) that you could never actually hear the rock group, them singing their songs, or their music... over the roaring, cheering noise of their numerous, collected fans.

In a way, that describes my experience with the Sneak Peek (because the opening night, and opening day is Friday the 18th!) of Snakes on a Plane! The movie is good. That audience was terrible. It was horrible. What a bunch of idiots. I want a refund. From them.

Essentially Samuel L. Jackson has some great lines, and there is some other good dialogue, too. Too bad I don't get to here it. That's right, when Sam Jackson first appears he sets off this wonderful line, that appeared in a great vintage action flick way long ago in my childhood, and I knew what his first line was... just as I could not here him utter his first line in the flick because the audience cheered, and laughed! There is that one great line? The one they inserted when they upped the film's rating from PG-13 to R with new scenes by fan demand? That one great line? I didn't get to hear it! Well, I got to hear the words, I got to hear the line. I never heard Sam Jackson over the combined simultaneous reciting of the cult crowd in the front rows.

Thanks a lot, jerkwads!

I hope you go to that special hell reserved for child molesters... and people who talk at the theatre!

I liked the movie a lot. The movie was good regardless of what I think or feel. It probably wasn't the "best movie ever made" as Samuel L. Jackson speculated in that wonderful series of electronic invitations he helped craft for promotional purposes. It was however, at least three times as good as X-Men 3, if not much much much superior to our first summer movie. This movie was the movie of the summer, what I waited a good deal of time to see. Right after Superman this made my summer. This was the anticipation. This was what God made anticipation for! Why is that? It is because the concept is so pure! What is the title of the movie? What is the movie about? It's the same thing!

This movie lives up to its name...

At least, he never played one in Brokeback Mountain.

What brings this up is simply that I was watching History Detectives. You would think a program dedicated to researching real life history and priding itself on accuracy in its answers.

They did a brief spiel on "Cowboys". I quote

From Gene Autry to John Wayne to Heath Ledger, the cowboy is a staple of American culture,

the image used for Autry was a photograph and I believe John Wayne was a stamp and definitely an illustration. Heath Ledger's image is from the Brokeback poster.

Let's be absolutely accurate here and now. Not all ranch hands are cowboys. Ledger played a sheep-herder. A sheep-herder is certainly and definitely not a cowboy.

I would not care if it wasn't that History Detectives has a premise promising historical and factual accuracy.

From that same page as the Connor Hawke interview...

D. Blake is one annoying red herring here.

In actuality, D. Blake is an anagram of another famous Marvel character, who has returned from the future and will play a part in Civil War.

The last time Thor was missing (in a non-Heroes Reborn manner) it was during the Eric Masterson saga that Tom DeFalco wrote. Donald Blake was red herring in that one too. In that story Eric Masterson had all the powers and most of the physical form of Thor, more or less. Thor was banished; Masterson went looking for Thor. Masterson found Donald Blake and gave him the hammer. Dr. Donald Blake was someone else and Eric Masterson looked stupid. Now, what could "D. Blake" be if he's a famous Marvel character with a name that is an anagram of "D. Blake"? I don't know. I took out the period, ran the letters through an anagram generator and got about four sets, none of them belonging to Marvel characters that are actually famous. "Bad Elk"?

There are also Spirit preview pages, words from Marv Wolfman explaining how Nightwing will not be in a rut any longer, and Peter Milligan is doing a Namor story where he is being hunted and is not quite the main character.

Connor Hawke not available, Chuck Dixon was interviewed instead

Can't see it? Scroll down; look under "Man of Action".

What's really fascinating is that we discover what Mr. Dixon would have done with the Return of Oliver Queen had Kevin Smith not interfered.

Ricochet Rob would know what that means immediately.

My question is, in his copy of the game, is the edition released within his nation modified to use the units of measurement that are common for his people, or was the game disitributed without modification or translation?

I am, of course, referring to Spider-Man 2, the game releasef for Xbox and Ninento Gamecube but was ported from the Sony Playstation 2. The game is based on the movie.

It's one of those open end free-roaming games without non-linear requirements for what to do next....

Regardless one of the fun thing is that it keeps "Game States" and keeps track of acheivements and progress like that, including the farthest height dropped within the game, without landing hard and going splat. That is called the "Big Drop". I love it. The Empire State Building is the tallest in the game and the trick gets more and more difficult to acheive the highest height you as Spider-Man can reach above the skyscraper and then drop to the streets far below... and then get to the closest to the ground as you possibly can before shooting out your web, catching yourself, and not hitting the ground. Both aims must be acheived to increase your record, as your own Big Drop records get higher and higher and then level off....?

So my Big Drop is One thousand five hundred eighty-seven feet.

Thus far. I do not believe I can get much higher.

Rob will tell me his.

Then.... I hope anybody else who has played the game will tell us their respective records.

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