02:41 <@solios> hah. according to google analytics, people who go to deadcityradio.org read the comic more than the blog.
02:41 <@solios> two hits for "fuck the philly goth scene"*
02:42 <@_Lasar> Nice.
02:42 <@_Lasar> godo tagline :)
02:42 <@_Lasar> fagbot: doot godo
02:42 <+fagbot> BAM BAM BAM let's keep 'em coming, Scouts!
02:42 <@solios> one for "asshole golfers"
02:43 <@solios> one for "xeno orgasm"
02:43 <@_Lasar> hahaha
02:43 <@solios> :|

* I've never heard anything good about phillygoth. While my experience has been limited, it hasn't been positive: all of the cool people at the Skinny Puppy show I went to were from Pittsburgh. Or out of state.

Plasmapong is easily the best combination of techno and fluid dynamics, ever. And it will continue to be the best until Steve Taylor or his successor takes on Warlords or Asteroids. While either would be awesome, a plasmawarlords would make for a fantastic party game.

And Apple needs to talk to these guys about implementing their Photosynth technology in place of whatever it is that makes graphics handling in OS X (and iPhoto etc) so blazingly not-fast. I can't decide which is sweeter - the technology itself or just how damned fast the demo is. (src=adam)

New category. A few entries from static have been recategorized into it. I've also retconned in all of the non-ATC, non-pinup bits I've produced since DCR went online.

{Thank|Blame} xeno.

18:15 <@xeno> wheat beers should be 1. bready and 2. sorta citrus-y and 3. lightly malt flavoured and 4. yeasty and 5. not Too Bitter from hops and 6. cloudy
18:15 <@xeno> and 7. SOLIOS STILL HAS NOT DRAWN ME A NINJA YEASTIE.
18:15 <@xeno> solios: i'm comin' down there.
18:16 <@solios> sweet.
18:16 <@xeno> i'm bringing a whoscarf.
18:16 <@solios> :O
18:16 <@xeno> and i'm going to hang you with it.
18:16 <@xeno> BY YOUR NADS
18:16 <@xeno> and not let you down until you draw me a ninja yeastie
18:16 <@solios> can't draw upside down.
18:17 <@xeno> who said you'd be upside down?
18:17 <@xeno> oh, and i also require a yeastie in ww2 pilot's cap and goggles and whoscarf in gryffindor colours kthx
18:19 <@solios> xeno: [ link to above ]
18:19 <@solios> ARE YOU HAPPY NOW
18:20 <@xeno> qwefjl;asdkld
18:20 * xeno falls over
18:20 <@xeno> omfg.
18:20 <@xeno> <- dying
18:20 <@solios> xeno: a winnar is me.
18:21 <@xeno> solios: it's PLACEHOLDUHR's retarded little brother
18:21 <@solios> yes.
18:21 <@xeno> it is also my desktop
18:21 <@solios> I pulled placeholduhr and drew around it.
18:22 <@xeno> yes.
18:22 <@solios> >_>
18:22 <@xeno> solios: the scary thing is, that's pretty much EXACTLY what i was picturing
18:22 <@solios> same here.
18:22 <@solios> us++
18:22 <@xeno> us++
18:22 <@xeno> :D

Sunshine : It's good, it's decent, it's amazingly derivative, it's good, and then it's suddenly a zombie movie. In space. The Icarus exterior borrows heavily from the Pegasus and the Discovery; the interior looks like someone tried to build a Nostromo from parts purchased at a Sharper Image sale, and the space suit looks like it was designed for a Jidoon. It all hangs together fairly well if you're willing to overlook the usual production tropes that drive scifi nuts up the wall, and the cinematography is gorgeous - particularly the transit of Mercury and the docking and departure scenes. Definitely worth watching, though it's a coin toss as to rather or not you'll actually enjoy it. I did. But I'm hardly unbiased - I enjoy most well-produced science fiction, with a few noteable exceptions.

I enjoyed The Simpsons Movie a hell of a lot more than I enjoyed The Transformers, even if Transformers had better previews. The Simpsons was fantastic from start to finish - the only bad thing about the movie was the trailer for Alvin and the Chipmunks, which was terrifying. Possibly the worst thing I've seen this year.

If you haven't seen Meadowlands, then don't waste your time. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and implied tension, signifying nothing. The ending rips off Cemetary Man and does so quite badly - badly in that it's obvious that this was supposed to be some sort of mindblowing revelation. Still not sure why the brits think eyeball length bangs are so great, but I'm pretty sure that britgirl taste in haircuts is centered in the same part of the brain that allows them to tolerate Oasis. If you want a better version of whatever it is the production team was trying to achieve, go watch The Prisoner and Twin Peaks and blend them together in your head. You'll get better results, and better characters.

The Company is shaping up to be The Good Shepard, only with post-ww2 Europe and Michael Keaton in place of the Bay Of Pigs and a constipated-looking Matt Damon. The production has a strikingly similar feel to it. I do so wish that filmmakers would realize that you can, in fact, deal with a convoluted and complex subject like counter-intelligence without resorting to moody audio and nonlinear editing.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles takes a giant shit on the Terminator franchise. Summer Glau as robo-River does nothing to save it. What's missing from the pilot? Everything that made T1 and T2 great. What's it got? Robo-River and terminators disguised as high school teachers. I'm not making that part up - and trust me, I wish I was. If I could unsee one thing on this list, it's a tossup between TSCC and Meadowlands.

bda is right again : Brick is good. The protagonist reminds me of Adam, though I think it's more his jawline than anything else. Brick is well cast, well written, and very well shot. Out of everything on this list, it's the one you'll most likely have to actually look for, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

TMNT : Much better than I'd expected. Bonus points for Patrick Stewart, outstanding production design, and turtles with New Yawk accents. Hopefully it rakes in enough to earn a sequel.

While I'm still looking forward to the Battlestar Galactica TV Movie this fall, the trailer leaves my pants dry. The threat of more webisodes might have something to do with that.

Me, I want fewer webisodes and more Babylon 5. Voices In The Dark is a solid addition to the B5 universe (and a hell of a lot better than Legend Of The Rangers), the DVD extras are great, the new CG is fantastic, but the two stories on the DVD don't feel like the one-offs JMS claims they are : they feel like they're setting the ground for a potentially larger story. I want more B5. Much more. I hope the Voices DVD sells well enough for Warner Brothers to give JMS more money. A lot more money. Money hats, even.

And Flash Gordon (2007) will sterilize you. It will probably also give you brain-AIDS.

20:56 <@bda> [ IRC archetypes ]
20:57 * solios is the 50/50 guy
20:59 <@bda> I don't think you've ever actually talked about your toenails.
20:59 <@bda> But maybe.
21:00 * solios trims them with scissors.
21:00 < solios> there.
21:00 < solios> happy?
21:00 <@ejp> s/toenails/poo/
21:00 <@bda> Really? Scissors?
21:00 < solios> yeah
21:00 < solios> the little wee swiss army knife ones.
21:00 <@bda> Weird.
21:00 < solios> ime they work a hell of a lot better than actual nail clippers.
21:00 <@ejp> bda is Curiosity Killed The Cat Guy

11:11 <@xeno> the only thing FFT had going for it was the story afaic
11:11 <@xeno> which was pretty strong for a game
11:11 <@xeno> but the rest of it was >_<
11:11 <@solios> heh.
11:12 <@xeno> i slogged through it just to find out what happened
11:12 <@solios> FFTA pretty much didn't have a story.
11:12 <@solios> which I was fine with.
11:12 <@xeno> but it was almost as bad as the slog through ffviii
11:12 <@solios> what there was of a story was really good, imo.
11:12 <@solios> hah.
11:12 <@solios> dude.
11:12 <@solios> I thought the story for 8 sucked.
11:12 <@solios> which made giving up on it when I got Stuck a painless thing.
11:12 <@xeno> so did i, but by the time i realized it, it was too late
11:12 <@solios> if the characters hadn't been 2-dimensional plonks I might've cared.
11:13 <@solios> but it was the second FF in a row where you're saddled with an emo shit for a protag.
11:13 <@xeno> the thing i hated about it was that it was Yet Another Whiney Hero
11:13 <@solios> yes.
11:13 <@xeno> yep!
11:13 <@solios> see?
11:13 <@solios> GIVE ME A MAGNIFICENT BASTARD.
11:13 <@xeno> ffx actually got that part right.*
11:13 <@solios> just because the people who PLAY THESE GAMES are whiny insecure emo shits who read megatokyo DOES NOT MEAN [WE] SHOULD BE FORCED TO PLAY ONE.
11:13 <@xeno> because when Tidus found out he was Destined or whatever, and SPESHUL, he was like AWESOME!
11:14 <@solios> heh.
11:15 <@solios> can I have an rpg where the protag is Joe Jackass and not some goddamned Destined To Save The Universe Legendary Whiner?
11:15 <@solios> plz?
11:15 <@solios> oh, wait. Fallout.
11:15 <@solios> CAN WE HAVE FALLOUT FOR DS PLZ

* If he says so. I'm done with playing Yet Another Androgynous Young Male Protagonist, no matter how {awesome|tortured} the developers insist "he" is. That game's been made, remade, deconstructed and redeconstructed. It is old and it is tired and the developers keep pumping it out because it hasn't been made, remade, deconstructed and redeconstructed for THIS platform yet! Fuck fishing and fuck golf and fuck snowboarding. When do we get a shaving minigame? When do we get male characters that actually look like men? When do we get female characters that actually look like real women and not the injection-molded mannequins game designers seem to think represent the gender? This crap was great when I was twelve but I haven't been twelve for a really, really long time.

Congealed humidity, Museum Of Art back entrance:

   

Or rather, lack thereof. Scheduling brutality deprives me of Cyberwars VI and the opportunity to finalize (read : draft) the script for the next DCR scene in its native environment.

Oops.

It's one of those bits that was drafted the first time this thing was on deck, so the events exist in my head with some degree of clarity. Dialogue is another matter. Last year I would have invented any number of excuses to delay production in favor of getting the writing done in a public place, but this is the future and I am old and I'd rather spend the weekend working on the comic than playing civ3 waiting to work on the comic.

Two scenes left of the first chapter. Technically three, but the third is ridiculously short so it doesn't really count. Then it's tweaks, formatting and so on and so forth - at which point, the plot will have advanced to the point it had developed to back when production started.

Ph34r.

ATC TDL for the remainder of 2007:
(posted 20070805.03:36, bumped 20070808.11:34)

[*] Finish applying proofreader fixes to The Dualist. Complete 20070805 so far as I know. That or people are just looking at the boobs instead of the words.
[*] Apply cast/lexicon bits generated for hardcopy to ATC website.
[*] Submit The Dualist to comiXpress for hardcopy. See here for the initial nailbiting.
[_] If comiXpress doesn't print The Dualist, make whatever required adjustments to ensure hardcopy by 2007.12.
[_] Finish initial production of "Whitehouse" (DCR Chapter 1, ATC 1.1).
[_] Post-production of "Whitehouse" - extensive copyright removal, some dialogue tweaks, etc. All the hell I've gone through with The Dualist, only on a much much smaller scale.
[_] Collate DCR 1 for print, submit to comiXpress and post in its "final" form to ATC site.
[_] Tweak ATC website (specificially /comic/) for display of all three projects (DCR, Dualist, Transitional Voices)
[_] ??????????????
[_] Profit!

The happy bit re: production of ATC 1.1 is that DCR 1 already has approximately 17 pages done, with 3.5 scenelets remaining. Issue one (of an estimated 7) should be 24-28pp, give or take).

Notice a pattern? It's even more exaggerated when you realize that around 450 of the 2007 images are Martin's Airshow and B-17 pictures. So, why the dropoff?

1. The Upstage closed. Not only did this brutally destroy my so-called "social life," it also means I now have to take a bus to get drunk, and to get home from getting drunk. More time on the bus means fewer drunken photosafaris, which account for a good deal of the 2005 and 2006 image banks. The area of Pittsburgh between The Upstage and my house is practically devoid of pedestrian traffic, so it was great for this sort of thing - the area between any other bar and my house, on the other hand, is a veritable glut of meatsacks. Meatsacks who drop their pants or wag their middle fingers if they so much as smell a camera.

2. The intent for much of the non-drunken 2005 photography was to gather material for Dead City Radio. DCR quickly burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp - and since I've been focused on The Dualist for the last year or so (to the exclusion of all else during the past two months), DCR hasn't been moving - which means there hasn't been a need for additional location photography. DCR is what spurred me to try out iPhoto, actually - I need a shot of the Strand Theater and didn't feel like coordinating Preview against a few dozen directories of jpegs. Turns out I don't actually have that shot and will need to manufacture it tonight or tomorrow.

3. With the exception of additional Allegheny Center location shots and some supporting bits for downtown, I've shot the hell out of everything that's convenient to shoot. I got those bits out of the way early.

4. Given 1. and 2, I spend more time staring at a screen generating large amounts of pixels than I do making friends, drinking, getting out, etceteras these days. The upside is that I can now actually pay the damned bills. The downside is that there's no new fun/funky photos, no new friends, and a persisting low-level emotion that can only be described as a 40-30-30 blend of a sense of acomplishment, total soul-searing loneliness, and a vague sense self-loathing.

I need to do something about that, but I can't really afford to. Not without skewing a few timetables. The only good thing about this is that my current third-shift schedule keeps my nose at the grindstone instead of the bar.

Another yay thing about third shift - with some pre-planning, I should be able to do daytime/morning shots of any DCR-critical location. A dozen or so trips to 'gheny and downtown should give me enough. If it doesn't, it'll at least serve to get me away from the desktop.

Footnote: iPhoto does an amazing job of sucking ass at a few critical things - it's more steps than it should be to add "keywords," it still doesn't apply "title" changes to the filename for some reason, and - most annoyingly - in album view, it thinks "2" comes after "19." Even worse, it thinks "149" comes before 15 - a state of super-retardation that makes sorting sets of more than 9 images using the application's auto-numbering function an exercise in patience. The app can do what I need it to do - but it does it like a half-blind hippy who can't pull his lips away from the bong long enough to do basic QA testing.

Oh, and if you leave the "add ColorSync profile" tickybox checked, you won't be able to open any of your iPhoto'ed images in a Classic MacOS version of Photoshop again. Programmers these days.