“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
― Isaac Newton
Seriously, you guys, I am freakin' super hyped about the Deadpool movie project! Since seeing footage last year and the shaky cam Comic-Con stuff I am on-board and I love how aware the project is of the past blunders with Ryan Reynolds and uses Deadpool's breaking the fourth wall shtick to poke fun at stuff like Green Lantern and how the Merc With a Mouth appeared with his mouth sown shut in Wolverine: Origins.
Fox has released the official green and red band trailers and both are just fun, especially how the green band trailer pokes fun at you for not just watching the red band version. The trailers also reminded me that I once liked DMX.
Here are both trailers and the trailer from yesterday with Deadpool narrating the debut of this official trailer. Sonic BOOM!
So Comic-Con 2015 has come and gone and as per usual we were teased with comicy goodness that had us salivating for more and now we have to wait for all that good stuff to come out. But being the industrious geeks we are we will spend the next few months speculating about every little detail in all the trailers we saw.
Here are some of the stuff I thought was cool and look forward to:
Well, Star Wars is obviously going to be the biggest deal for me because that's how my geekiness was born. I have a love/hate relationship with the old movies but I constantly returned to them and I always wanted more of the stories and often read up on all the non-canon lore to get my fix. The Phantom Menace is rather silly but I still watched the nonsense out of it and collected the posters and figurines. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were okay for me but the old movies were still the most fun, especially The Empire Strikes Back, I love that movie. Looking at this reel from Comic-Con it looks like The Force Awakens is really a labour of love for everyone working on the film. It also looks like J.J. Abrams and his team are making Star Wars fun again, which is great because that's what Star Wars should be. Nobody cared for Anakin's pained facial expressions, what when we had cool shit like Boba Fett, R2-D2 and Chewie dammit!
Marvel have become so big with their Marvel Cinematic Universe that they don't even need to bother showing up at Comic-Con anymore. This gave DC a great chance to show off some things they have planned and although it was not the best showing (they really should have gone bigger with Marvel not being there to hog all the attention) this trailer for Batman V Superman has me a little excited. Man of Steel was more of a miss than a hit and lots of people don't have much faith in the whole Batfleck situation but this trailer gives me some hope. Zack Snyder is good with the darker and more serious stuff, which is why Man of Steel didn't go down so well but add a Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns sort of Batman to the mix and maybe that dark tone can work. I love what Snyder did with Watchmen and the political stuff happening with Super Man in this trailer is very reminiscent of that. Then we also have Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and we know Snyder is not the greatest with how he represents female characters so that could really go any way. I'm really hoping this one is good though, we deserve a good movie with Superman in it. Do good for us, Mr Snyder and crew.
Then there is Suicide Squad and from what I can see in the trailer I'm sold. I can roll with all this silliness. People seem not to be reacting so well to Jared Leto's Joker but I think it can work. Really, this whole thing looks so ridiculous that I can't wait to see it. I'm also pretty much cool with how the members of the squad turned out. Margot Robbie looks fun and sexy as Harley Quinn. Will Smith makes for a decent Deadshot and we have the wonderful Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. I have always thought that in a world of ridiculous villains Captain Boomerang is still quite silly but it works for him and Jai Courtney looks quite cool as the character. The way Adewale Arkinnuoye-Agbaje's Killer Croc looks reminds me of the character in Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Joker graphic novel. So, yeah, I'm pretty hyped about this one.
The official trailer may not be released yet but from the leaked versions floating around the interwebs Deadpool was probably the coolest thing at Comic-Con this year. I'll dare say that it was even cooler than Star Wars in some regards. The Merc With a Mouth has always been a fan favourite and it's good to see that it looks like 20th Century Fox will be doing right by him.
Those are my Comic-Con highlights and there were loads of other stuff to see and love that will be all over the interwebs by now. All I can say is cheers to the next few years of geeky goodness :).
Ladies, gentle-Sirs and beautiful puppies, as an update to my last post, I present to you all of the TEDx Table Mountain 2015 videos in one nifty playlist. These are hot, right off the presses!
I attended the 2015 TEDx TableMountain event at the Artscape Theatre here in Cape Town on 25 May, which is Africa Day. The event's theme was Journeys of Excellence and showcased some of the great work being done by Africans to create a better society for all of us.
Here are some videos of some of the speakers and performers of the event.
Whispers of Wisdom (@Whisperzofwiz) delivering a performance that inspires Africans, especially the youth, to dream bigger than is expected of them.
Dr Tindile Booi’s talk/performance was my favourite of the evening and her way of telling stories, singing and dancing is a thing of beauty to behold.
Dr Gubela Mji spoke about her experience working as a researcher collecting data about how to improve the lives of disabled people but then seeing that research just being stored up in shelves and never being used for anything.
Shadreck Chirikure is Associate Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape Town and he addressed the negative view that people have of Africa as never having produced any technology.
Dr Llewellyn Padayachy, a paediatric neurosurgeon spoke about his research into non-invasive techniques to diagnose and guide the treatment of critical conditions affecting the brain.
Derek Gripper (@derekgripper) translating great African composers whose music is passed down for generations but never written down.
Joseph Wamicha, a young man after my own heart, spoke about how the idea of deeper space exploration and eventually colonisation is not just the stuff of science fiction but something we can work on right now.
Paul Mesarcik (@paulmesarcik) showed a device that he and his team created to detect shack fires before they spread and leave many people homeless.
I hope you guys are well. I haven't written in a while. I've been busy living, dying and questioning everything. Here we are now, though, and I want to speak to you about loss. I love Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as you know and I feel like a loser in the sense of Peter Quill's speech near the end of that movie. I am someone who has lost a lot of things. My friends and family are losers in this sense too.
Loss is a large part of the human experience. We lose things like keys and cellphones and that can be annoying. We lose friends and lovers and that can be heartbreaking. We lose people to you, Death and we succumb to grief for ourselves left behind and for them and whatever mysterious end or new beginning you offer. As humans we cannot avoid loss; it seems to be one of the prices we pay for the gift of Life.
Loss has been on my mind a lot lately. I look at my life up to this point and realise just how much I have lost and when I weigh it all up against everything I have gained I'm not sure how I feel. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for everything I have and my life is rather charmed in its own weird way. It seems that I've had to lose quite a great deal to get to where I am now. Life seems to be very much like a game of chess in which you sacrifice pieces to win the game. I have been thinking about those pieces lately, the things we lost in the fire as Bastille puts in their song. I miss my sacrificed chess pieces because I loved them and I'm a mildly OCD hoarder. Matter matters to me. I miss all my old books, video games and people.
My reference point in life is always stories, especially in the form of books and like any reader worth their salt (I prefer pepper though) I collect books and fill them as much with memories and emotions as they fill me with good stories, bad stories or just outright weird ones. I have lost many books on my journey. I left some of them with good people that I know will love and cherish them and I have left some of them with people I'm sure won't even care what happens to them. I don't know, I'm just feeling nostalgic and sad for my old things and friends.
To tell you the truth, guys, I'm really just scared of what the future holds for me. I'm almost 30 and have not even achieved half the things I dreamt about when I was 18. I live in limbo, I avoid my family as much as possible except now people are dying and I feel guilty about avoiding them and the girl I love lives on another continent. So, yeah, I'm a little scared moving forward. Life, your fire is hot and I don't know whether I will be consumed or refined by your flames.
Lots of people are doing so much better than me and I won't lie, I hate those people. Fuckin' hard working, intelligent, never-give-up-guts assholes! Lots of people are doing worse than me and I'm lucky that I have a job that I like (and seems to like me), my family still tolerates my shit, I have money for food and beer, I have a girl who loves me, I have friends that like me or at least are nice enough to pretend to like me (pretending goes a long way) and though I have moved a million times in the last two years I have a place to sort of call home. Still, fuck you guys a bit for being so demanding! Life with all your shit, Death with you crazy efficiency (you're probably German) and God for all your silence. Fuck me a bit too, though! You guys are not the biggest asshats to me. In fact I'm a huge asshat to myself in many instances.
Anyhoo, that's just what I'm thinking and feeling at the moment. I just feel like a loser right now and just wanted you guys to know and maybe get a hug. I like hugs.
I like cool things as much as the next person . . . okay
maybe a little more than the next person and last week Thursday I got to go see
a pretty cool thing. I was at The Waiting Room on Long Street to see two bands
that I’d never heard of before but sounded interesting so I gathered my
entourage (I have them just lying around) and with the promise of beer and good
music we headed for The Waiting Room to see TheCITY and Tholakele. I’m glad to
report back that my promise of beer and good music was fulfilled because both
bands blew me away and I had a rocking good time. You should check both bands
out some time.
The Waiting Room is the sort of grungy and intimate place
that draws in cool and artsy people and the crowd consisted of these kinds of
individuals. The setting was cosy with comfy chairs placed facing the small
stage and there was some space for people to dance it up should the music move
them. This was the sort of gig where people get to chatting with each other and
the bands, making friends and just having a good time jamming to some cool
sounds.
Tholakele were first to grace the stage with their African
Jazzy sound. Bronwen Clacherty is the leading lady and vocalist of the band and
her voice is just amazingly rich and with the band performing songs like Ngqo Ngqo Ngqo, Nozimama and Nyemamusasa
they really are an act that is representative of South Africa’s linguistic and
cultural diversity. Bronwen also showcased some remarkable usage of traditional
instruments like bows and something that I’m 93.4% sure is a mbira in adding an
African flavour to their music. Bronwen studied at The South African College of
Music, University of Cape Town and explored musical areas such as Jazz
Vibraphone, Classical Percussion, Cuban Percussion and African Instruments focusing
on South African bows. You can catch some of the songs Tholakele performed on
the night on her Facebook page. You can also catch her hanging out
in the Twitter streets: @Bronwenclack.
TheCITY closed off the night on a very high note with their
heart pumping Future Afro style. The band is made up of Bonj Mpanza on vocals and her voice is powerful and
downright haunting.Clement Carr works magic on the keys, Ryan McArthur rocks out on bass and Ruby
Crowie drives the truck on drums. I was looking forward to this performance
after I had their song, Long for You
stuck in my head from listening to it the previous evening on PopsicleTV.com.
These guys are the epitome of cool and every single song they played had me
singing along, tapping my feet and bobbing my head along to the music. My
favourite three were Long for You, Nguwe and Something Sweet. You can download their EP on iTunes and it’s
pretty damn amazing!
TheCITY and Tholakele are two rocking bands and my entourage
and I had a great time at their gig. As I’d said before, if you have time and
they are in the area it’s well worth your while to pop in and listen to some
good music.
Africa is the continent that gave birth to the human race, it
is a place of abundant natural wealth and it is a place of great beauty. By
rights Africa should be the Eden of our planet but, alas, it is not. When the
rest of the world thinks of Africa they think of war, poverty, laziness and
people who are late for appointments. The rest of the world either looks down
on us or sees us as some sort of charity case. South Africa, like many African
states is a place of vast wealth and crippling poverty all in one place. TEDxTableMountain, like all TEDx events all over the globe, is an independently
organised event that looks to get people together in the spirit of nurturing ideas worth spreading. TED is a
non-profit organisation devoted to spreading good ideas. It started as a
four-day conference in California some 26 years ago and has since spread to the
rest of the word, even darkest Africa. The idea is that thinkers and doers are
asked to give a talk in 18 minutes that will share a great idea. Independent events
are organised under the TEDx name with support from TED. So although Africa has
many problems there are many individuals working hard and working smart to
address our problems. TEDx TableMountain hosted their second event on Monday
night, 25 May and the theme was: Journeys of Excellence. 25 May is also Africa
Day so what better way to celebrate the continent than listening to a great
line-up of speakers explore ideas that can help ease some of our problems or at
least start a conversation that will pave the way to solutions.
This year’s TEDxTableMountain event took place at the
Artscape Theatre and curator, Candice Pelser (@CandicePelser) and her team did
a great job organising the event. I’m a super nerd for any event where people
share ideas and dragged my ever suffering girlfriend with me to the event. We
were welcomed with a ‘passport’ to the talks each and some other cute freebies
and it was all rather cool. The crowd was massive and everyone looked excited
to be there as they stood around chatting. We had to wait a bit longer than
expected to be seated because the previous Africa Day event ran a bit longer
than anticipated. Once everyone was inside the theatre and seated we were ready
to go. Some important and somewhat familiar looking people could be seen in the
front rows, the most recognizable being Premier of the Western Cape, Helen
Zille. I made a mental note to take a selfie with her later.
Our Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was the beautiful,
delightful and super enthusiastic Chi Mhende (@chi_mhende). The evening saw
some powerful performances by the Ikapa Youth Dance Theatre (http://ikapadancetheatre.co.za/trai/youth-dance-theatre), Derek Gripper (@derekgripper)
translating great African composers whose music is passed down for generations
but never written down and the group, Whispers of Wisdom (@Whisperzofwiz)
delivering a performance that inspires Africans, especially the youth, to dream
bigger than is expected of them. The overarching theme on the evening was that
even though South Africa and the rest of Africa are facing serious and very
large problems Africans can step up to the plate and through individual and
collaborative journeys of excellence we can rise above those problems.
The speakers were made up of Dr Gubela Mji who spoke about
her experience working as a researcher collecting data about how to improve the
lives of disabled people but then seeing that research just being stored up in
shelves and never being used for anything. She formed a network with other
researchers and like-minded individuals to take all the data just sitting
around and started exploring ways to make the date accessible enough so as to
actually be useful in improving the lives of disable people. Paul Mesarcik
(@paulmesarcik) showed a device that he and his team created to detect shack
fires before they spread and leave many people homeless. The device is called
Lumkani, which loosely translates from Xhosa to English as everyone beware. Dr
Llewellyn Padayachy, a paediatric neurosurgeon spoke about his research into
non-invasive techniques to diagnose and guide the treatment of critical
conditions affecting the brain, especially in poor communities in which many
people can’t afford expensive surgeries for diagnosing such conditions. Dr
Tindile Booi is a qualified medical doctor and now works in a psychiatric
context and helps children from difficult backgrounds and teenagers affected by
HIV cope with their situations and helps them believe that life is worth
living. One of the ways she does this is interactive storytelling. Dr Tindile
Booi’s talk/performance was my favourite of the evening and her way of telling
stories, singing and dancing is a thing of beauty to behold.
Shadreck Chirikure is Associate Professor of Archaeology and
Director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape
Town and he addressed the negative view that people have of Africa as never
having produced any technology. He explored some old findings to the contrary
and showed that Africa has produced some advanced technology through its
history. Continuing with the technological trend Prof Robert van Zyl showcased
the CubeSat he worked on with his students. The CubeSat is a nanosatellite in
the shape of a cube that can be sent into Space at relatively low cost. Joseph
Wamicha, a young man after my own heart, spoke about how the idea of deeper
space exploration and eventually colonisation is not just the stuff of science
fiction but something we can work on right now. The Earth’s resources are
finite, as we know very well here in Africa, but if we could look beyond the
Earth and tap into the bountiful resources of the universe we could solve many
conflicts here on Earth.
What I took away from the evening is that Africa is more than
just a place of darkness and backward thinking. Yes, we have problems but
Africans are more than capable of surmounting those problems with the wealth of
resources we have. Not resources in terms of gold of silver but rather our
human capital. Africans know hardship but this is also what makes us more
resourceful and think outside of the box. Africans can be excellent and be a
force of good change in the world. Events like TEDxTableMountain are very
important because they provide us with the platform to get together and discuss
our problems and our ideas for solving them.
I finished reading JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy earlier this year after avoiding it for a while but then Christmas happened and I got book vouchers as a gift and the book was on sale at the local bookstore. Christmas made me do it! I enjoyed the book though, it was lots of fun to read. Nothing like Harry Potter, of course. JK Rowling is allowed to write other things, you know ;). It was more like Game of Thrones lite with more normal seeming crazy people (they are all batshit certified). The Casual Vacancy is the story of a small English town largely populated by petty adults and petty school children, all of them preoccupied or affected by petty small town politics in some way. Everyone in this story is downright crazy on some level. JK Rowling knows how to tell a good story, she's not popular for no good reason. Anyhoo, I see that The Casual Vacancy made it onto TV in the form of a miniseries as a joint production by HBO and the BBC. The series consists of three 60-minute episodes and was aired from 15 February to 01 March this year. The series is directed by Jonny Campbell, who has directed a few episodes of Spooks, Doctor Who and the film, Alien Autopsy. The screenplay is by Sarah Phelps who writes for the soap opera, EastEnders.
Some of the names that comprise the cast are Rory Kinnear as Barry Fairbrother, Emily Bevan as Mary Fairbrother. Michael Gambon who played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies plays the rather sinister Howard Mollison in the series. Julia McKenzie plays his equally conniving wife, Shirley Mollison. Keeley Hawes plays Samantha Mollison. Lolita Chakrabarti portrays Parminder Jawanda and Silas Carson her husband, Vikram Jawanda.
From the two trailers I saw the show looks like it could be fun and I will be getting my mittens on it soon.
I was at Tech Talk Cape Town on Wednesday night and wrote a little something so you can go see what a great and informative time you missed out on. Shame on you!
