An attempt to create a blog detailing my Favorite YouTube videos. One day, one Favorite video, many hours of filtering through bad ones.
You can subscribe to My Favorites at http://www.youtube.com/jkwong111
It's the Tourettes guy again... this is one of his episodes that didn't make it into the "best of" clip show that I previously featured. If you think the Tourettes Guy is a jerk, then this video is for you. You'll see his very inappropriate behavior in response to a sad story from his ex-wife, and then you'll see him get his just desserts when a bird shows up in the house. Needless to say, hilarity ensues.
Some people have commented that Tourettes Guy is a fake... that nobody curses that readily and is willing to have it caught on tape. I guess it's possible that he's just acting or something... trying to make it big on the internet. I, for one, would like to believe it's the real thing... that we're really getting a glimpse into the life of a seriously disturbed (but funny as hell) individual. There are these reality shows on TV featuring "celebrities" like Gene Simmons, Hulk Hogan, and Ozzy Osbourne. They wouldn't hold a candle to a reality show based on the Tourettes Guy, that's for sure.
Today's video is probably the most popular fan film of a comic book character...in this case, Batman. There's good reason it's such a hit. Unlike the multi million dollar movies depicting the Dark Knight, this short film features Batman AS HE IS in the comics. In particular, the costume is how Batman's costume should look like. No spandex, no rubber molding, no fake muscles or body armor, and most importantly, NO BAT-NIPPLES!
They get the characters of Batman and Joker pretty right on... almost exactly like they are in the 90's animated cartoon, which in itself is probably THE definitive version of the characters. Batman is portrayed as the hard-boiled avenger of the night and he actually looks pretty scary. And the Joker's grin here is not the latex implant that Jack Nicholson put on. Rather, it's the manic smile coming directly from the actor himself. I really don't know what to think of Heath (Brokeback Mountain) Ledger as the Joker in the next Batman film, but he'd be wise to look at the Joker in this fan film.
As for the appearance of the Aliens and Predators... yeah, it's a bit random. It's not out the realm of the comics, however. In a few miniseries with the crossover companies of D.C. Comics and Dark Horse Comics, Batman has fought against the Aliens and the Predators on multiple occasions. It's not completely unrealistic, either... well, I'm speaking in the realm of the comics, again. After all, if the Aliens got beat by Sigourney Weaver, and the Predators got beat by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover, then what chance do they have against Batman???
You know those Razzie Awards? They're the ones that are given out right before the Academy Awards each year. Instead of celebrating the best cinema can offer, the Razzies represents the worst in the world of motion pictures. If they were to give out an award for the...absolute...worst...acting scene in any movie, it HAS to be this one from Troll 2:
It's so bad, I can't stop watching it. It's so bad, it can't even be considered to be something that's "so bad that it's good". Oh, my gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhd.....
Tucson, Arizona is not exactly a large city... you can pretty much get to any destination in town in about 20 minutes. It is growing, though, as evidenced by the arrival (finally!) of our very own In-n-Out Burger. This gave me and my cousins a chance to exercise our gastronomic muscles with their custom burgers. The three of us tried our hands at three 5x5 burgers...animal style! Yes, that's 5 pieces of meat and 5 pieces of cheese. So good...
Unfortunately, we probably could not progress to the next challenge of a 6x6 because the 5x5 itself was not an option on their register and we had to ask the manager to do a special order for us. While that's disappointing, it's not as bad as having all the Krispy Kreme stores in Arizona close down. They had such a promising start, too. I remember having to go to Las Vegas or Phoenix in order to taste that hot glazed goodness... and when they opened shop in Tucson, folks from small Arizona cities would come down here for the donuts. Then there was that STUPID Atkins diet fad that made carbs evil and Krispy Kreme bankrupt. Dr. Atkins, I hold you personally responsible for ruining my young adulthood!
Without a Krispy Kreme here, I can't try out the recipe in this video: replacing the buns of a Carl's Jr. Six-Dollar Burger with Original Glaze Donuts! Gotta love the creativity of this guy, even though he's quite the slob.
I used to own an Etch A Sketch in my childhood. It was a strange drawing device that allowed you to control an internal pen with two knobs, one for vertical movement and one for horizontal movement. If you made a mistake, you would have to start over because the only way to clear the screen was to shake it so that the entire screen is erased. In order to draw anything more complex than stick figures, you have to master the diagonal and circular movement with the pen. And to make really good drawings, you have to be creative in camouflaging the connecting lines because you can't "lift" the pen... it all has to be done in one continuous stroke.
I got pretty good with my Etch A Sketch... I could draw faces and duplicate drawings or photographs in front of me. But what is shown on today's video is something I would never even attempt. This guy is an Etch A Sketch god. If you were to look at the final result, it looks like a really good drawing by itself. But knowing that it came from an Etch A Sketch... damn.
I didn't get into playing the Legend of Zelda games until I bought a used copy of A Link to the Past. It was a good, thing, too... the first Zelda game was hard as hell, and the second one just sucks (IMHO). I had subscribed to Nintendo Power and saw that LttP was voted the #1 game month after month (I think it was up there for at least three years!). I kept putting off getting the game because I thought it was just another RPG or a maze-type game, both genres of which I was not fond of. Boy, was I wrong!
A Link to the Past was the first game in which I became "addicted" to... and when I use that term, it doesn't mean that I would play it over and over. It's sort of an obsession I feel when the game is unfinished, a boss is defeated or an accomplishment achieved, but something else is unlocked in the process, forcing me to investigate further. And that is, in essence, the beauty of the Zelda games. They plunge you into a world where you use your dexterity AND your brains to get past certain obstacles only to have other obstacles appear.
Some people call A Link to the Past Zelda III because it was released after Zelda II: Link's Adventure, but according the text on the game's box, the story of LttP took place long before the first Legend of Zelda game. So, in essence, the game is a prequel to the first two games. The game that would follow in the series would be Link's Awakening for the Game Boy. But was this game a sequel to the first two, or a sequel to the prequel, or a prequel to the prequel? Things were getting more confusing. According to the manual, Link's Awakening takes place months after LttP, which makes sense, because the nightmare boss at the end of the game takes the form of some of the bosses in LttP. So after four Zelda games we have this as the "official" chronology: LttP, Link's Awakening, the original Legend of Zelda, and finally Zelda II. Everybody got that?
Then we come to the game that totally messes things up: the Ocarina of Time. Whenever you have a storyline that introduces time travel, you know you're in for a world of hurt when trying to keep a timeline straight. I'm not sure if it was in the manual, or the box, or in Nintendo Power, but OoT is supposed to take place even before LttP. Yes, that's right... a prequel to a prequel. I really have to ask now... WHY? Why obfuscate such an epic storyline by continually putting out games whose major releases are prequels (LttP, OoT) and then release minor sequels to those games (Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask respectively)? Why can't it be like the Mario games? Each game in that series is a direct sequel to the game before it. No prequel BS!
Well, the folks at GameTrailers tried their best to come up with their own Zelda timeline, trying to use the story elements as a guide while ignoring the "official" sequence as stated by various instruction manuals and boxes. They even go the Back to the Future Part II route by splitting the timeline to fit their concept. Note that this was postulated before the release of Twilight Princess, which I believe ruins their best laid plans...
So, one day after the big iPhone launch, and what becomes the most popular iPhone video on YouTube? It's of this guy, carelessly dropping his iPhone during the unboxing of it:
So why did this become so popular? My guess is that a lot of people out there are a little sick of hearing about the iPhone. Interestingly enough, it wasn't Apple themselves that generated all the hype. It was mainly the tech blogs and constant speculation of a product that was announced 6 months in advance that drove the iPhone frenzy. Really, all Apple did was put out 4 or 5 commercials of the iPhone during the last month. And yet, the anticipation for it was constant... leading some, especially those who read tech news and blogs everyday, to wish that the launch day would pass just to get on with their other business.
Also, there are those who have a bit of iPhone envy. Not everybody can afford the $500/$600 to get one and then pay AT&T at least $60/month for the pleasure of having the latest and greatest from the folks at Cupertino. So when we, the "common folk", see somebody drop and possibly damage their shiny new gadget, there's a little bit of satisfaction in the form of schaudenfreude that we experience. I know, it's bad... but we're all human.
