We digress from our constant blather about caricature, cartooning and illustration to talk about one of our other favorite subjects… gadgets!

This year for Christmas The Lovely Anna got me the new Apple TV, Apple’s new incarnation of it’s “hobby” entertainment server for your living room. We have owned one of the original Apple TVs for a while now, and use it for The Animated Elizabeth‘s TV room where it works great for her demanding video needs associated with her autism.

The new Apple TV is a big departure from the old model on many levels, but first here’s a little history of the Apple TV:

The original Apple TV model was about the size of a Mac Mini computer, and had it’s own hard drive as well as built in wifi . It worked as a modified iPod for your TV… using wifi it would sync with your iTunes library (according to your choices for what would sync and what would not) on your computer just like an iPod, but it would also stream content from iTunes that was not saved locally. Thus, you had some content that you could watch even if your computer was not awake and/or iTunes was not open, but other content was not available unless you had your source computer on and iTunes open. This made the ATV a gateway to get your iTunes content from your computer to your TV, but it was hardly convenient. You could not seek out and rent or buy content FROM the ATV… that had to be done from your computer and then you could sit down in front of your TV and enjoy it from your couch.

Eventually Apple changed the software of the ATV to allow for all that streaming and syncing plus the added benefit of being able to access the iTunes store directly from the ATV, allowing your to purchase or rent content without needing to go to your computer. Later, they added the ability to access resources like NetFlix, YouTube, ect. for more viewing options.

Last year Apple took a much different approach with a new version of the Apple TV. Gone is the hard drive, and the unit itself became significantly smaller… it’s a little smaller than a slim paperback book. It’s output connections are as simple as it gets… one HDMI out (it also allows for optical audio out, so you can use the HDMI output as video only), an Ethernet port in case you want to use a hardwire solution to your internet connection as opposed to using the built in WiFi, and a USB port which so far is used for nothing. Like the previous ATV, you cannot use the unit with a TV that does not support HDMI video… no composite or component video outputs.

Since you have no local storage of media anymore, everything is streamed by the ATV to your TV/entertainment system. There is no syncing. You simply connect it to your home network and use the “Home Sharing” iTunes feature to access any content on any of the computers on your home network. “Home Sharing” is a simple sharing format where each computer with iTunes installed is able to choose any or all of their content to be “shared” over their network. There is no one iTunes master computer using this model… each computer that opts to be a part of home sharing through their iTunes program has whatever content they choose to share available for streaming to the ATV. The computers need to be awake and iTunes must be open for this to work, however.

More conveniently, you can quite easily browse the iTunes store right from your ATV to rent movies and TV shows for instant enjoyment. If they are available in HD (the 720p version, anyway) then you get them in HD. Most movies rent for $4.99 in HD or $2.99 if in SD, but a few “specials” are available for $1.99 or even $.99 and there are some films that get “previewed” via the iTunes store before they hit the theaters and rent for $10.99. You can rent TV episodes for $.99.

There is also an “Internet” menu where you can log in to your Netflix account and watch hundreds of movies instantly at no extra cost to your Netflix membership. This is an amazing deal… it’s almost unlimited how many films are available to watch instantly through your Netflix subscription. YouTube, Flickr and MobleMe content is also available through this menu if you want to watch that kind of thing.

The quality and speed of the downloaded content through iTunes is very good. HD shows look sharp and clearly “HD” quality with no noticeable artifacts or pixelation. It only takes a minute or so after you start the rental for the content to become available to play, and I have not witnessed a single moment when the show I am watching “freezes” because the buffering/download of the media cannot keep up with the running video. I have noticed some of the Netflix movies experience freezes and some pixelation at times, so that technology isn’t quite up to par with the native iTunes content… but it’s not bad and without paying extra to watch Netflix movies instantly on your living room TV a little pause now and then seems a fair trade off.

You cannot “buy” films or TV shows permanently via the Apple TV, as there is no hard drive to keep them on. You can still do so via your computer and then watch it from your Apple TV via Home Sharing. I’ve got mixed feelings about that. I’d like it if you could buy a movie you want permanently via the ATV and either always have access to watch it through iTunes or have it download to your computer’s hard drive for permanent storage, but it’s not a deal breaker. I still don’t like buying digital media and prefer physical discs for movies I want to keep.

The one thing I don’t like about this arrangement is the short time they give you to enjoy the movie you rent. Once you’ve rented it you get 30 days to start it. Once you start it, you only get 24 hours to watch it if it’s a movie, and 48 if it’s a TV show. If you don’t get to then end of it within that time, you are SOL. It expires and is deleted from your menu. I think that’s a little too short a time. It would be better is they could figure out how to make the program available to watch as often as you want for the first 24 hours, but it does not expire if you have not finished it after that period of time. Once you watch it through to the end, then it expires permanently. Maybe they can have a 36 hour expiration whether you’ve watched all the way to the end or not, just to prevent people from stopping it during the end credits and keeping it active forever. Usually I do watch a movie all the way through at home, but when I am traveling I often am forced to stop if my flight is landing and can;t start watching it again until I am traveling back home… and by that time the 24 hours have passed. The same rental model applies to movies you download for your portable device as the ATV.

Overall, though, I think Apple is on to something with the new Apple TV. It’s easy to use, has reasonably priced access to a gigantic library of content, allows even cheaper access to Netflix account content and is reasonably priced at $99. I’ve been enjoying it since Christmas.

Disclaimer: Spoilers clearly marked, and there aren’t many…

From “Botchmen” in MAD #499

The “Watchmen” and I go way back.

I can’t credit it as the reason I got interested in comic books again. That distinction belongs to Frank Miller‘s “The Dark Knight Returns“. However I can say that, even more than Miller’s masterwork, “Watchmen” showed me that comics can be as literarily relevant as any novel. I was given my first copy as a gift for being a groomsman in my friend and fellow cartoonist Mark Engblom‘s wedding. Having not read it before, I remember Mark’s general comments about it to me being the same sentiments I impart whenever I loan it out to a friend who hasn’t yet read it: “I envy you for what you are about to experience”. That is perhaps the highest praise you can give any creative work… to be jealous of someone who has yet to discover it and is about to.

Which brings me to the movie of the “unfilmable” graphic novel.

I tried to watch the movie with two different sets of eyes. One being the set that knows every nuance, panel, plot and subplot of the story intimately, and one that knew nothing about the graphic novel and the story. (more…)

Back in November of last year Wacom released a smaller, more portable version of it’s Cintiq line of monitor/tablet combo devices, the Cintiq 12wx. This was of great interest to me because up until that point there was no really viable solution to doing PhotoShop color work while “on the road” in the manner in which I am accustomed… i.e. using a Cintiq’s “draw on the screen” style of working. This and the Axiotron ModBook, a third party modified, tablet style MacBook were the two most promising solutions for this issue.

Before I go on, and before I get a lot of e-mails or comments about how this or that person “gets by just fine” and does great work on a regular Wacom tablet, let me just say this: Yes, I could use a regular Wacom tablet and my MacBook Pro. I have done this and for many years I did my line-and-color work in this manner in my studio as well… but once you get used to using a Cintiq you find going back to a regular Wacom tablet awkward and very inefficient. Looking at the screen and not at your hand is a skill that takes practice and more importantly continued execution to stay proficient at. Case in point, this spring I had to work on the color stage of this product illustration job while travelling and I did one of the product illustrations with a regular Wacom and my MacBook Pro, and then the other using my friend Ed Steckley‘s Cintiq 12wx. I did the second one in about half the time it took to do the first. For me, finding a truly portable version of the Cintiq experience was a worthwhile endeavor.

On another trip this summer, visiting Ed and his wife in New York City, I ended up having to spend one evening finishing the color work on the last of the images from the “Super Capers” movie job, and I again borrowed Ed’s Cintiq 12wx to do the job. I ordered one of my own when I got back home. I have now had occasion to use it several more times, and am finally getting around to doing an in depth review of the unit.

The Hardware

The 12wx is a well designed device that is both light (about 4 lbs) and easy to work on with gently beveled edges and a pop out stand. The screen is a 12.1″ diagonal TFT widescreen (16:10 ratio) display with a native resolution of WXGA (1280 x 800). Both sides have the newer design of the Wacom Expresskey/Touchstrip sets of programmable shortcut buttons.

The overall dimensions are 16″ W x 10.5″ H x .67″ D (40.64cm W x 26.67cm H x 1.7cm D). The unit also comes with a power brick, a “video control unit” box, DVI-I to DVI-D and DVI-I to VGA video cables, a Cintiq cordless, battery-less pen, holder stand and replacement nibs.

It is Really Portable?

That depends on how you define “portable”. If you mean can you whip the 12wx out at the coffee shop and start sketching on it… then no. If you mean you can pack it all up in a medium sized shoulder bag and set it up in your hotel room in a few minutes… then yes. The 12wx is not a tablet computer. It is a supplementary device needing a laptop with a secondary display output (most have these) to work from, and room to set it up. It’s not anywhere near as convenient or easy to set up as a regular Wacom tablet, which requires no power itself and only a USB cable attached to the laptop.

In order to make the 12wx unit itself as light and comfortable as it is, Wacom moved much of the circuitry out of the unit itself and into it’s “Video Control Unit”, a 6″ x 4″ x 1″ box that acts as a bridge between the laptop and the 12wx. In the full sized Cintiqs, all this hardware is inside the unit itself, and a very thick cable protrudes from the back center of the devices and extends to the computer it is hooked to, splitting into a power cord (that in turn hooks to a power brick) a DVI video cable and a USB cable. In the 12wx, the only cable coming from the unit itself is a relatively slim (about the thickness of a power cord) one that emanates from the top right edge and hooks to the VCU. Then the cable parade begins. The other side of the VCU is where you hook up the video and USB cables that go to the computer as well as the power cord that goes to the power brick that goes to the outlet. That’s a lot of cables. However the VCU can be placed out of the way and the only cable you have to contend with when working is the one coming from the 12wx, which isn’t that much bigger or less flexible than a typical USB cable. Still, you have to have the room to put all this together, plus plug in your laptop unless you plan on only working for a short time. That requires a desktop area with two power outlets… you won’t be doing that on the airplane or at the bus stop.

For me, this is not a problem. I never intended to use the 12wx to do spontaneous sketching at the diner. It’s meant to be a portable studio, and that’s just how it functions. I can carry the 12wx, all cords, bricks and accessories in a messenger-style shoulder bag or pack said bag into my suitcase and add only about 6 lbs or so to the overall weight. If I need to work on the road then I need to work, and setting up somewhere suitable to get it done is a necessity regardless.

Using the 12wx

Here’s another quick sidetrack: When using it in the Mac OS X environment, there are two ways you can use the screen real estate of the 12wx or any Cintiq: as a supplementary area of your main desktop or as the main screen of your OS X desktop (meaning your main screen becomes the secondary monitor). PC users have it easier because of the way Windows programs and menu bars work as opposed to the Mac OS. In PC programs, the menu bar (i.e. the “File, Edit, View… etc.”) of any program is embedded into the window of that program. In other words, if you have two monitors hooked up, you can move the window of any program from the main monitor to the secondary one, and the menu bar will follow along. With the Mac, the menu bar is always along the top of the main desktop window, and it changes with whatever program is active. The bad part about this is if you want to work on a secondary monitor, you can move the window of the files you have open to the secondary monitor but the menu bar remains on the main monitor. Oh, you can move all the palettes and everything from PhotoShop over to the Cintiq manually, and you can save the setup you created in PhotoShop itself under if you want to under Window>Workspace>Save Workspace so you can set it all back up that way again if you want to. I don’t like doing it that way, because I cannot move that handy little palette dock that reduces the palettes to small icons on the right for easy access but easier hiding, and screen real estate is important with the 12wx. I hate having to switch back and forth from the Cintiq to the main screen, even though the Cintiq’s “Display Toggle” makes that a little easier, so keeping palettes on the other screen isn’t very appealing. Also, I do use the menu bar when working and like being able to access it on the Cintiq rather than switching to the main screen. Therefore what I do is actually switch the Cintiq to be the main screen of desktop. That way I get all the palettes the way I want them plus the menu bar on my work screen, and by turning “hiding” on to the dock I can get that out of the way as well.

If you want to try it my way, here’s how you accomplish this:

First, you need to change the tablet’s focus from the Cintiq screen to the main desktop screen. This is easy to do, just open System Preferences>Wacom Tablet. Make sure you have highlighted the “Cintiq 12wx” on the “Tablet” window across the top part of the preference window, and then click on “Calibration”. Change “Monitor” from “Cintiq (2)” to whatever your main display (1) is. What will happen now is that the Cintiq will act like a regular Wacom tablet and moving around on it will move the cursor on your main screen. Do not panic, this is expected.

Now open System Preferences>Displays. You will see a window pop up on both monitors. The main one will be a little different, as it will have “Arrangement” and “Options” as choices not on the other box. Click “Arrangement” and drag the white menu bar from the left display square to the top of the right one. A red border appears on the display that is actively selected as the main desktop as you do this.

The result will be that now your menu bar and dock will be on your Cintiq, and the pen will again function correctly on the screen. Hide the dock if it’s in your way. Again, this is a personal preference on may part and does not affect the functions of the Cintiq in any way.

Back to the review…

Usablility

The 12wx is a true Cintiq. With 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt sensitivity it has all the functionality of it’s bigger brethren. In fact I feel no difference at all in it’s feel and use. You would think the smaller screen would be a hindrance, but I didn’t have any trouble working on it with any but the biggest of images. The 1280 x 800 resolution doesn’t give up THAT much to the 1600 x 1200 I get with my 21ux, and the 16:10 aspect ration of the 12wx helps. It give you a wider screen that allows the palettes to stay away from the work area, giving you the feel of more space than you actually have. Pressure sensitivity, surface feel, response time… it’s exactly like the full size units.

The rear of the Cintiq 12wx and the stand

I also thought I would miss the excellent rotating stand the full size Cintiqs have which allow for nearly 360 degree rotation of the screen instantly and is very stable. The 12wx has a static pop-out stand that keeps it at a stable angle from the table top but does not allow for rotation. There is a token “bump” in the center of the back of the unit that it can rotate on if the stand is folded in, but who works with it on a flat surface? This presented no problems, though, as the 12wx is so light and comfortable that it can easily be used in your lap or just turned as you need while working. The cord stays out of your way.

There is a vent located along the top edge for heat disbursement. There is some warmth that develops when it’s been on for a while but as many of the electronic guts of the 12wx are in the VCU, the heat is nowhere near as pronounced as it can get in the bigger, self contained units. In fact you can quite easily use in on your lap without getting uncomfortable (or sterile) from the heat.

The Expresskeys and Touchstrips also function in the same way as the full sized Cintiqs. I have the original 21ux in the studio, which is older and has the 4 buttons with the touch strip above configuration. Not the best design with the strips, as they are so easy to brush across and zoom your image in or out accidentally. The newer 20wsx has the 16:10 ratio and has smartly relocated the Touchstrips to the underside of the unit’s right and left edges, eliminating that issue. On the 12wx, the strips on on the surface of the unit on each side, but on the beveled part of the edge and therefore a little less likely to be accidentally brushed. The strips can be programmed for functions as well as each individual button. This is very handy. I have buttons set to increase and decrease brush size, switch to the “hand” tool for image panning, switch to the eyedropper tool for easy color picking, mode changes, etc.

One very welcome new feature with the Cintiq, and it’s with all the Cintiqs that have the latest drivers, is the “Display Toggle” feature. This is a drop down menu choice for any of the ExpressKey buttons that switches the control of your tablet from the Cintiq screen to your other screen and back. It used to be a real pain to have to access anything on the other screen, as I had to put down my pen and grab my mouse (another reason for my preference of making the Cintiq my main desktop monitor when working). Wacom used to make a “companion” mini tablet that connected to the side or bottom of the Cintig that would be set to control the other monitor, so you could just move to it with your pen to do something on that other monitor. Now with a touch of the “Display Toggle”, the surface of your Cintiq becomes like a regular tablet that controls your other screen. You can do what you need to do over there, then press the toggle again to switch back. If I can figure out how to move those palette docks I might eschew my switching-the-main-desktop strategy entirely thanks to this smart feature.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, for $999 this is a terrific device that could almost replace my studio Cintiq. Taking it on the road is not much of a hassle, and it truly allows me to be able to do the same type of work in the same way, and in the same amount of time, as I can from the comfort of my studio. If you are looking for a portable Cintiq-experience solution, or can’t afford the larger units but still want a Cintiq for your work, this is the ticket.

My home theater is my little oasis from the real world, where I can sink into a comfortable leather recliner and become fully immersed in a good (or sometimes not so good) movie via a dedicated, totally dark room and a setup of pretty high end audio visual equipment. Since the last time I wrote about my theater, I have upgraded my projector from a 720p Sim2 to the Marantz VP-15S1 1080p DLP projector, my pre/pro and video scaler from the Sunfire Theater Grand VI and a DVDO iScan VP-50 respectively to the awesome Anthem Statement D2 integrated Pre/Pro and scaler. Coupled with a 103″ screen and 7.1 James loudspeakers, the experience is as close to a real movie theater as you can get… minus the sticky floors and the smell.

Another recent acquisition for the theater is the Panasonic BD-50 Blu-Ray player. While I am still mourning the death of HD-DVD, which in my opinion was the most suited of the two high def formats to win over the general public is a short enough time to beat out downloaded media for the next generation of home media delivery, Blu-Ray has finally made it to the big leagues with players capable of all the features they promised home theater enthusiats back when it was introduced. The BD-50 is the first stand-alone Blu-Ray player capable of internally decoding both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA HD sound formats, accessing the internet via an Ethernet port for both firmware updates and BD-Live content as well as doing all the other Blu-Ray stuff like full 1080p output, 24p film-based refresh rates, etc.

It’s been frustrating that until now only the Sony Playstation 3 has been a fully Blu-Ray 2.0 (BD-Live capable) compliant player. The BD-50′s release was pushed back several times and is just now becoming available in the US, albeit on back order for more recent buyers. I got tired of waiting and actually bought a PS3 for a Blu-Ray player, and then received my BD-50 anyway. As a result, I got to compare the two directly to see which one really was the better Blu-Ray player. Reviews are always distorted by obvious bias either for or against Sony. With a cold eye, I compared the two using an equal setup. Here are my results: (more…)

I have to admit I was worried about this film’s chances this summer. This is a summer like no other for comic book based or flavored movies. “Iron Man”, “Indiana Jones”, “Hancock”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “Hellboy 2″ and now, “The Dark Knight”. Batman has been done so often on the big screen that I was afraid it would be either the same old same old or that director Christopher Nolan would take it in such a dark direction (“dark”… I am so sick of that adjective being used and overused with regards to Batman) that the film would be overshadowed or blown away by the other, brighter superherofests of the blockbuster season.

However being the giant bat-geek that I am I was still at a midnight showing Thursday night (Friday morning) with my critical eye ready to wince as it has done so often in a movie theater when Batman is on the big screen. I did like “Batman Begins” overall despite some problems with aspects of it, and so I was hoping Nolan would deliver a sophomore effort that would surprise me.

I was surprised, figuratively and literally. This film not only lived up to the hype but blew it away in almost every possible way. It is easily the best Batman film of them all and possibly the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen… and I said the same thing two months ago of “Iron Man”. This was no formulamatic comic book movie… this was something different. This was a great film that happens to be about comic book characters.

The familiar bat-movie elements are all there… great action, bat gadgets and vehicles, evil villain, damsel in distress… but Nolan turns it all on it’s ear and makes it all work for him instead of being the centerpiece as it too often is in these or any other comic book movie. How does he do that? How does he take all the elements of a comic book movie and yet make it not a comic book movie?

It’s called STORY. Oh, and a little amazing acting thrown in. The comic book elements in this film in no way overwhelmed the story, which was smart, sharp, well paced, exciting and surprising.

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first: Heath Ledger. A lot has been made of his performance as the Joker. His untimely and tragic death has cast a bit of a pall over “The Dark Knight”, and there has been a lot of press and hype over this role… including whispers of a posthumous Oscar. The Joker is one of those villains that works really well in the comics but just doesn’t want to translate into real life. Jack Nicholson‘s Joker was a caricature… played for camp and just a little creep. He was never really threatening or scary in 1989′s “Batman”. I had my doubts that there was any way that the Joker could be portrayed by an actor on film in any way that was not just a cartoon wearing real shoes.

Ledger proved those doubts unfounded. He is threatening. He is terrifying. He makes you believe that he is real. The makeup, the hair, the purple suit… it’s all there but it works because he makes it work, and the character is written that well. I’ve always thought that making the Joker simultaneously an insane, psychopathic clown and a criminal mastermind was a conflict of persona. How can you be both. This Joker is. He is mad, complex, unpredictable. He does things like infiltrate mob meetings and arrange assassinations he has warned police about ahead of time in ingenious ways that demonstrate his master planning but also his hunger for chaos. He kills when you think he has no reason and does not when you are sure he must. His motivations remain dense and unknown. Ledger fills this character with a terrifying disregard for the order of life that is not mere psychosis or megalomania, but something else. I kept thinking of Frank Miller‘s line in “The Dark Knight Returns” when the Joker dies and Batman observes “…whatever is in him rustles as it leaves.” Ledger portrays the Joker as if something is in him that makes him different than human. Something we can’t understand. It’s fitting and perfect that the Joker’s origins are never explained in this film. He simply is. A force of nature. It is a remarkable performance. Posthumous Oscar? I don’t know about the statue but he’ll get the nomination for certain. An Oscar nomination for portraying a COMIC BOOK VILLAIN. Unheard of.

Here’s the best thing about the movie: Ledger is not a one man show. Christian Bale‘s Bruce Wayne/Batman has a little less angst than in “Batman Begins”, but he finds other outlets for emotion and rides the razor’s edge of obsession without beating us over the head with it. This might be the first Batman film where I didn’t either have to wince at the corniness of the treatment or roll my eyes at the overblown “darkness” of him. He’s portrayed as a real hero who has accepted who he is and isn’t wringing his hands over the death of his parents anymore. In fact at no time are we subjected to the obligatory parent’s murder scene and the young Wayne crouching over their lifeless bodies. That moment set him on the path and motivated him to become the Batman… now he is the Batman, and that’s all the motivation he needs. It was refreshing to see the character unshackled and waging his war for reasons that are more than revenge. That was part of the lesson that “Batman Begins” imparted, and Nolan follows it through wonderfully. Batman’s character is played like he would exist in the real world.

Gary Oldman once again portrays Lieutenant Jim Gordon, and does a great job as he did in the last film. He and Nolan treat Gordan as the extension of the Batman persona that he is… without the insider help of Gordan there can be no Batman. His role is fairly substantial and even his home life is addressed in a very “Year One” sort of way. Oldman’s Gordan is not a burly tough guy nor a grizzled old veteran. He’s a relatively young family man trying to be an honest cop in a corrupted city, and who has embraced Batman’s vigilantism as a way to fight fire with fire in a police department ripe with mob informants and without anyone who he can trust. Oldman plays Gordan low key and realistic… a real cop in a surreal situation.

Aaron Ekhart‘s Harvey Dent is the weakest link in the movie’s triumvirate. I thought he played the hard charging district attorney pretty convincingly, and as long as he was Dent the DA he was believable. However I had a hard time buying his transformation into Two-Face… maybe he needed a little more unbalance as DA Dent, or a longer look in the mirror once his face was disfigured (which was awesome). I think it just happened a bit too fast. Anyway that’s a small complaint in an otherwise well paced and taunt plot. Ekhart’s role was also not just thrown in for color.. it was plenty meaty with lots of screen time. This isn’t Tommy Lee Jones.

Morgan Freeman‘s Lucius Fox and Michael Caine‘s Alfred Pennyworth were both well turned performances for the roles they had to play. Alfred of course had all the funniest lines, but he had some of the more emotional moments as well. Fox’s role was not as involved as it might have been, but the moments he had were pivotal to the film… especially at the end. Alfred and Lucius, like Gordon, are also extensions of Batman. Nolan understands that Batman is more than the guy who wears the cape. He is the sum of the parts. Alfred and Lucius are the conscience and the guidance.

Maggie Gyllenhaal takes over the role of Rachel Dawes from an underwhelming Katie Holmes. She doesn’t add much to the role as she isn’t given a great deal to expand upon, but she’s a far better actress than Holmes and it shows in most of her scenes with Bruce and with Dent. Unfortunately the supposed love triangle is a little clumsy as there isn’t much chemistry there. She fulfills her purpose in the film, however, and in a way I found quite a surprise.

Nolan does not play this film or this story by the book. He takes risks and isn’t afraid to do things that manage to elevate the movie to a higher standard than your ordinary popcorn action film. He does not rely on the tortured hero storyline nor drowns us in pathos, but he builds genuine tension and excitement with excellent pacing and a riveting, unpredictable storyline. this film is so good because it refuses to be a comic book movie, neither giving in to the camp and tongue-in-cheek of the earlier Batman films or stooping to the dark-for-darkness’-sake, Freudian overload of other treatments. Batman can be a hero and still exist in a believable world without being a totally unbalanced nutcase. He has obviously done his research, and he even throws in some references for the real bat-geeks in the audience, like the obvious tip of the cap to Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns” with the copycat Batmen gang.

So, is the movie perfect? Nope. Nothing is perfect. First thing is it went a little too long. I’d have liked to see it wrapped up maybe 10-15 minutes sooner. My time sense kicked in during the finale… that’s a sign it went too long for me. I also am not crazy about using Chicago as a double for Gotham. Chicago is too shiny and clean… too much glass and not enough gargoyles. I don’t want the noir silliness of the Burton Gotham either. Just a little more brick, mortar and dirt. I was totally distracted by Bale’s stupid, growling “bat voice” as well as his ill-fitting cowl. I like the idea of the helmet cowl and a more flexible suit, but the design still sucks. The tiny mouth opening makes it look like it’s crooked on his head all the time, and the eye openings are weirdly placed. The cowl isn’t threatening or scary either. That needs work.

Hard to find much more to fault, though. It was that good. Great stories makes for great films, and this movie has that in spades.

The most disappointing thing for me? The theater was packed and full of teenage/twentysomthing kids. During the previews they showed the trailer for the new Watchmen movie, which was stunning (will the run of kick-ass comic book films ever stop?) After it ws done… dead silence. No applause, no wows, no nothing. Indifference. Confusion. NONE OF THESE KIDS NEW A DAMN THING ABOUT THE WATCHMEN!! Now that was depressing and sad.

One thing I never really thought much about as far as my computer equipment goes is my keyboard… and what would I? Keyboards are pretty much the same all over, and there’s been little innovation with them since computers became a big part of everyday life. What little innovation they’ve seen has been in the ergonomic department (remember those weird curved keyboards with the keys separated into two sections?) and in adding all sorts of remote function or macro buttons like “one touch” email, play controls for your DVD drive, etc. Despite the fact that keyboards are used everyday and for some all day every day, the basic QWERTY keyboard hasn’t changed much since day one.

One thing I got used to back when I had a PC was a wireless keyboard and mouse. They required a USB transmitter about the size of a playing card and then I could move my keyboard and mouse about with nothing getting tangled up or in my way. That seems simple but when you are trying to use a Wacom tablet or Cintiq and do illustration on the computer, and you have references and sketches all over the working surfaces of your desktop, the freedom from wires becomes well appreciated.

One of the first things I got when I switched to the Mac was a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. My Mac Pro had an added bluetooth module and using the keyboard and mouse with it was a snap. At that time the Mac keyboard was a clear and white plastic monstrosity and the wireless version much the same. Worked well.

Recently Apple redesigned their keyboards from the traditional spring key format to a slim, low profile design that was more like oversized buttons on a calculator than those of a keyboard. The new technology allowed Apple to make these ultra slim and narrow keyboard not just for their line of notebook computers, but also as the main keyboards for all their computers. They looked pretty odd and flimsy to me, and with my big, plastic wireless one working fine, I was in no hurry to replace it. Then The Lovely Anna got an iMac and she needed a wireless keyboard due to the drawer setup it resided in. She didn’t like the new type keyboard, so I gave her mine and I went out and got one of the new bluetooth ones from the Apple Store.

At first I didn’t like it much. I took it out of the box and was somewhat shocked by the size. It was tiny… I mean really small. Almost too flimsy and insubstantial. It was not just the thinness and low profile, but it seemed half the width of my old keyboard. The tactile response of the keys was much less than a normal keyboard. It had an odd feel… like I was trying to type on the surface of my desk. When I started testing it out, I realized why it seemed so weirdly narrow in width… it was missing a lot of keys. No number pad, no second “delete” key (the one that really deletes and is not the “backspace” key), no “Home”, “Page” or “End” keys.

I figured I must have gotten the wrong thing… this is some kind of portable keyboard to use with a laptop or for people who need something to travel with. After all the same style keyboard that you get with a cord has all those keys that this one is missing. There must be a full sized wireless version and I grabbed the wrong thing. I went back to the Apple Store and asked about it. Nope. This is it. Apparently Apple decided that if a customer wanted a wireless keyboard they for some reason wouldn’t need a full featured one, some they made a truncated version instead. I kept the keyboard but left shaking my head. For $79 (I’m pretty sure I paid $99 for it around the holidays) I would thing they could spring for a few more keys.

I’ve been using the new keyboard all winter, and can’t say I recommend it. I have gotten used to it, but still miss those AWOL keys… especially the “delete” button, which I used a lot doing spreadsheets and which the backspace key is no substitute. On the other hand, it is so small I can easily find room for it even when I’ve got a desktop full of reference pictures. One thing I did find somewhat useful was that it makes for a good remote control when I am at the drawing board and might be listening to iTunes on my Mac 10 feet away. It’s also smart enough to recognize when it’s not in use and goes into sleep mode to conserve battery life.

Apple is a company that puts a lot of time and thought into how their products look. All things Apple are pretty and most of the time they combine form and function well, but sometimes Apple puts aesthetics ahead of functionality, which is counterproductive. This keyboard is one of those misfires.

I finally got a little free time and caught the “season premiere” of LOST and it’s second episode as well. I have to admit I was not in a hurry to watch the DVR’ed episodes… I just could not generate any enthusiasm for the show. Call it apathy after a great deal of disappointment last season and the incredibly long layoff.

I don’t know if the writer’s strike was the reason they waited until January 31st to premiere the first show of the season, but I don’t think so. I believe I read that the creators planned it that way so they could show all 16 episodes in a row with no weeks off. They believed that viewers would be happier waiting until later and not having weeks of repeats or no shows interspersed between new episodes. I have to say I disagree strongly. I am quite fine with having some repeats on here and there to stretch it into a full season… or a month off during the holidays. What I didn’t like was waiting almost 9 months for a new season. This show is too deep and intricate for that kind of layoff. Frankly I forgot a lot of stuff over that time, and I ended up watching the refresher episode before the new one. Like The Sopranos (which was far worse for time off in between seasons) LOST expects too much from it’s viewers to hang around and remain interested. I don’t understand why they can’t just do a 22 episode season like most TV shows have, then they wouldn’t have to fill so much to make it through the entire TV season.

I am sure that it will enjoy a good showing in the ratings, if for no other reason than the writer’s strike makes it one of the few shows on TV with a run of new episodes on tap. In fact, the strike is probably the best thing that could happen to the show, at least until they run out of new episodes.

One thing that I thought was hilarious was the promo they ran a few times saying “It’s never too late to get LOST“, trying to convince new viewers to drop in. Sorry, LOST is what it is… and that is a heavily serialize, very involved program that depends heavily on the viewer’s understanding of the previously developed mythos. No way can a new viewer just “start watching”… not without a DVD marathon about 50 hours long.

Be that as it may, the show is finally back on. I have to say that either the writers have finally gotten their heads around the ending of the series, or they learned some important lessons from the missteps of last year. This season has hit the ground running and is back to the great plot twists and story development that made it so gripping the first two seasons. So much of last year seemed like treading water… it wasn’t until the end that they got some traction. Not so in the first two episodes, where plenty of meaty storyline is being served up. I think the writers may have finally decided we know these characters well enough to trust us to understand where they are coming from and why they are doing what they do.

I love the “flash forwards” as opposed to the flashbacks of the earlier seasons. That is a very smart twist on the ‘jumping around time” storytelling that J.J. Abrams is so fond of. Locke’s character keeps getting more and more interesting. Charlie’s sacrifice was handled very well without too much mewling and mourning. The introduction of the “rescue team” and their different specialties is also a great foreshadowing device… especially the addition of Miles the paranormal psychic. Science just could not totally explain the phenomenons on the island. Even when you think you get one of the characters completely, they can still surprise you… I was shocked when Jack pulled the trigger on the gun he held to the prone Locke’s face meaning to kill him in cold blood only to find out the gun wasn’t loaded. That added a new layer to Jack, and Locke’s reaction was priceless. Watching these character’s grow as the island changes them is fascinating.

Damn shame about the writer’s strike. Not that I am missing TV much… 95% of the shows on TV are complete garbage. It’s just too bad that so called “Reality Shows” weren’t taken down with the rest of them. “American Idol” may be the biggest pile of steaming doggy doo ever to be a top rated show. But, there you go… it’s a top rated show and you only have yourselvs to blame, America!

At least we have several weeks of LOST and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which I am really beginning to like a lot) to look forward to.

Okay this is a little creepy…

Writer’s strike or not, it looks like NBC’s The Bionic Woman is in total system failure. I wrote about the show after it’s premiere, basically saying there might be promise but I would have to wait and see.

Who knew the mediocre first episode would be the best one, and it would be all downhill from there?

I wanted to like the show, but between horrible miscasting and even worse writing it needs to get it’s bionic plug pulled. Rumors have been flying about it’s cancellation while it is on hiatus during the writer’s strike, but unless they can do a bionic personality/acting transplant on star Michelle Ryan, or find the writers a clue, there is no point on bringing it back. NBC says it has committed to more episodes so it will return, but… why?

Last night another sci-fi show based on a previous series premiered, this time on Fox, and maybe this is the program that will what The Bionic Woman should have been.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a new show on Fox based on, you guessed it, the Terminator movies starring Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and others. The premise of the show is focused on Hamilton’s Sarah Connor character and her son John. Briefly, for the six people out there who aren’t familiar with the story, Sarah Connor was an ordinary waitress in 1984 who suddenly found herself the target of a cyborg assassin from the future bent on her death at all costs. Protected by a man from the same future, she learns that in the future an artificially intelligent US defense network declares war on humanity, and machines take over the world while nearly eradicating the human race. Connor is to be the mother of a son who grows up to lead the remaining humans to victory against the machines. Near defeat, they send back in time a “Terminator” to kill Connor before she can give birth to this son, John Connor, thereby preventing that future. The original Terminator fails but another turns up years later, then another years after that. In these cases Future John sends back a Terminator programed to protect his younger self and his mother. Death and many large explosions ensue. (more…)

When a major feature film is adapted from an iconic and much beloved source it is impossible not to compare the film to the original story. “The Lord of the Rings“, “The DaVinci Code” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” are some recent examples of film adaptations of classic or very popular fiction whose fans are legion and result in close scrutiny of the movies. “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith is just such a film.

Richard Matheson published “I Am Legend” in 1954, and the novel has become a standard of modern science fiction. It had already been adapted twice for film, once in 1964 as “The Last Man on Earth” starring Vincent Price, and also as 1971′s “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston. Neither film was a particularly close adaptation of the Matheson original (although “The Last Man on Earth” was not too far off). This latest “I am Legend” again takes great liberties with the story and in some cases completely changes the most basic premises of the original.

As I have mentioned before I have no problem with changes to the source material of an adapted movie if it means it makes it into a better film. Books are books and the dynamic of that medium are far different than film… sometimes you just can’t make the translation. There are several examples of that with this movie, but overall I feel that the horror that made the original so gripping was given up on early in the film in favor of a more conventional zombie post-apocalyptic flick.

Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a military scientist who was part of an anti-viral program to try to stem the spread of a mutanted virus that began life as a cure for cancer but is now wiping out the human race. The virus doesn’t neccesarily kill. Those it infects but who survive become enraged, ultra-violent zombies who cannot survive in sunlight. They are mindless killing machines who in turn wipe out the few who are not infected or have some natural immunity. Neville is apparently the last surviving unaffected human, living in New York City three years after the virus took over. He is hiding out in a fortified town home with his uninfected german shepard, where he continues his research to try and find a cure for the zombies. The story revolves around Neville’s efforts to both find a cure and stay sane in the face of incomprehensible loneliness. (more…)

I took a break yesterday and watched the second episode of “Bionic Woman” on my trusty TiVo. Actually it’s a DirecTv DVR and not a TiVo proper, but like “Kleenex” the name “TiVo” seems to be used for any TiVo-like DVR. But I digress…What is it about remakes that gets Hollywood on board to redo just about any TV show or film that had even a glimmer of success, or even a second life in syndication? My guess is that the reason is twofold. First, there is the recognizability of the property. “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman” were prime examples of 1970′s kitschy television, but they are genuine pop culture phenomenons. People still recognize the characters or at least the premise, and that recognizability is a shortcut to marketing the remake. The second reason is nostalgia. We 70′s children are going to tune in just to see an updated (upgraded?) Jamie Sommers getting bionic on someone’s ass, listen for the 70′s ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sound and see if slow still means fast. I admit that’s what got me to tune in, so I guess at least in my case it works. The problem is they still have to deliver something good to keep the audience watching, and with “Bionic Woman” they might have hit a soft blooper to right… it was surely no home run. I wanted to give “Bionic Woman” two episodes because frankly I wanted to like it and the premiere didn’t exactly grab me. I will say the second episode showed more promise, but overall I do not think this is going to be a very successful show unless the writing and acting really pick up.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

I expected the show to reinvent the origin and background of the original Jamie Sommers, and I was not disappointed. However I did not expect them to completely throw it all out the window and have virtually nothing in common with the original show. Other than the lead character’s name, and that her bionics were forced on her by a love interest (in this case one of the inventors of the technology, not Steve Austin) via a covert high tech organization, this is not your parent’s Jamie. I like the new premise in general… especially the idea that Jamie didn’t ask for this, yet she now has to deal with it. There is some potential there for some deep emotional upheaval. Certainly it’s better than her being a tennis pro hurt skydiving.

In this reincarnation, Jamie (Michelle Ryan) is a college dropout bartending for a living and raising her teenage sister in San Francisco. She’s a bit of a mess emotionally, and romantically involved with a professor and surgeon named Will Anthros (Chris Bowers). After revealing she is pregnant to Will at dinner… to which he responds with a marriage proposal… on the way home they are hit by a semi truck (we quickly find out it happened on purpose). Jamie is seriously injured. In order to save her life, Will brings her to the secret facility he works with and replaces both legs, her right arm, right eye and right ear with “bionics”, some form of biomechanical prosthetics. These are later revealed to give her superhuman abilities. Initially she’s horrified when she wakes up, and struggles with what she considers being “a freak”. The organization behind the bionics program, the Berkut Group, wants her to repay them for her new life by joining their cause as an operative. We are also quickly introduced to Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff), the first bionic woman, who is now a murderous escaped renegade (or is she?). There is deceit and secrets within the organization and between the players, as well as intrigue from Corvus and her apparent support group that is somehow connected to Anthony Anthros (Mark Sheppard), Will’s father and the originator of the bionics technology… an apparently dangerous man held secretly in prison. Will is killed by Corvus, leaving Jamie alone with her new abilities.

That premise sounds pretty interesting, but so far unimaginative writing and dialog, bad pacing and some pretty rough acting have brought the show down. Starting with Ryan, there is little pathos or connection with her character at all. Partly the fault of the scripts, we never got to know her at all before the accident, and since then she still seems cardboard deep. There is a chance for some real struggle with her sudden transformation, but other than some dirty looks and a weepy eye or two, we get no insight into her psyche. I don’t mind at all that she’s flawed (she gets drunk in episode two and goes into a bathroom to have sex with a stranger, only to accidentally break his ribs) but those flaws are not very well described either via storytelling or acting. She went from bartender to super-hero with barely a shrug. Apparently a 10 second shot of her crying in the shower is all the emotional reaction we get. I have no idea from what I’ve seen so far if Ryan is a good actress or not… she’s gotten little to work with.

The other characters fair little better. Katee Sackhoff chews the scenery so badly as Sarah Corvus I’m surprised she doesn’t have splinters in her mouth. Miguel Ferrer plays Jonas Bledsoe, the head of the Berhut Group very low key and straight laced with barely a pulse (would it have killed them to name his character “Oscar Goldman?”… just kidding). Will Jun Lee is Jae Kim, a covert operations badass. He does a pretty good job infusing some confusion and mystery into his character, who has a past with Corvus. Molly Price is Ruth Truewell, a high-ranking operative in the Berkut Group. She hasn’t had much screen time but seems to play a hardass with a lot of experience and a possible chip on her shoulder. Lucy Hale plays Jamie’s kid sister… and if she is supposed to make her character so annoying, whiny and lame that you want to slap her hard, then hand her the Emmy right now. Ugh.

The pacing on the show is so odd that it’s distracting. Everything happens too fast and we have no time to get to know characters, understand motivations or even let what are obviously meant to be key plot moments build any tension. One thing happens after another and sudden decisions are made or actions taken by the characters with no feeling of motive. They need to slow down and let some of the story and characters build themselves a presence. It sounds funny coming from someone who has been bitching about how we get nothing but character insight and no plot advancement in “LOST“, but here we have the anti-LOST… too little of the character empathy needed to make the plot advancements mean anything.

I’ve never seen an episode of “Alias“, but I’ve heard this show compared to that one… butt-kicking babe in covert agency, missions, sex, cat-fights and more butt-kicking conflict. It is shaping up to be like that. There are obviously conspiracies and dirty secrets that are in the wings. There are lots of unanswered questions about Anthros Sr., Corvus, what the Berkut Group really is and other plot lines. Hopefully things will slow down and we will get a chance to build some anticipation for the answers. Right now I don’t really care about any of it.

As far as the geek factor goes, the new bionics are very different from the 70′s robotic limbs. It’s not entirely clear whether the new prosthetics are machined or “grown” i.e. biotechnology, but there is definitely more to these bionics than just better, stronger, faster. As a part of the procedure, some kind of biomechanical nanites or something similar were introduced into Jamie’s blood. Presumably they act as a translator of sorts for the new bits, but they also add extras like healing powers and disease protection (Corvus reveals she can smoke all she wants… no lung cancer). It is also revealed when Jamie suddenly displays advanced combat abilities that some computer chips were placed in her brain and she has some hardwired skills she didn’t previously possess. They don’t always work, though… Jamie had a lot of trouble beating up a soldier in episode two, when she made quick work of a would be mugger and even Corvus in episode one. There are some real possibilities in that plot device, though. Corbus mentions how her murder spree might have been a result of being ‘hacked’. Jamie also gets a bionic eye as well as the traditional ear. The special effects are low key but well done.

So far the show has not lived up to the hype, but many a show starts out slow and then finds it’s legs, bionic or otherwise. Maybe the writing will improve and some of the actors will get a chance to make their characters more interesting and engaging. Time will tell.