Urban Dead Update

Well it has been a rough few days for Alfonso Durant in the world of Malton. The other night I was left standing around all evening in the middle of the street. Obviously one of the un-dead saw me and decided to take a chunk out of me and nearly killed me until my hero a mister "AI Zombie" came along and not only took down the living dead piece of shit but also went to the trouble of healing me back up. Then yesterday I almost did the exact same thing again after taking down a zombie and building my points up I have two action points to make it to a building and just about made it. Today I took a couple of swings at a zombie but alas, no kill and I easily made it into St. Christopher's church in Shearbank.

Hopefully the barricades will hold out until tomorrow...

Doing Something Different...

I love street art (NOT Graffiti) and always have, always will. No matter what other people say, in my opinion it will always be the most accessible form of art for everybody. I especially love it when new artists enter the scene with something brand new that has never been done before.

This piece was created by a very clever lady named "Anna" from Baltimore but placed in Manchester. I have to say that the use of textiles within the street art world is a very rare thing but this is absolutely genius. Like good art it looks great and gives you something to think about.

Lets hope that she keeps up with this and comes up with some more pieces. The bad thing about any art is that someone can create an amazing piece but then disappear as quick as they came about.

People Ask Me Why Adi Granov Is My Favourite Comic Artist of the Moment ...

See for yourself.

Rocket Science

Could this be the next "Rushmore" or "Squid and the Whale" or just another cheap imitation? Watch the trailer and hazard a guess yourself...

Urban Dead Update

So it has been a few days since the last update and not a lot had happened until tonight. I logged on to start exploring more of the map and moved from Rolt Heights into another green area of the map, Pashenton. Here I killed my first zombie which moved me up a level and left me with enough XP points to buy a new skill. I decided to go against the advice of Rich and Stu who told me the "Free Running" skill is the best to buy first and purchased the hand to hand combat upgrade which gives me a 40% chance of hitting someone with my axe. I then moved into the suburb of Earletown which is yellow on the wiki-map. Here I attacked my second zombie of the day but alas no kill this time. With 5 moves left I decided it was time to set up camp but every building I tried to enter was strongly barricaded so I couldn't enter! I'm now waiting for my points to build back up and I hope I get enough soon otherwise I'm stuck standing in the middle of the street all night!

It could be game over for Alfonso Durant!

When Does Buying Become Collecting?

I was thinking about this after we had a conversation at work the other day. When exactly do you become a collector? Now I buy and own A LOT of shit including DVDs, Comics, Cd's and Toys amongst other things. Even though I buy and thoroughly enjoy all of this stuff I wouldn't refer to myself as a collector of the bulk of it.

For a start I own well over 4 short boxes worth of comics but I really wouldn't call myself a comic collector more of a comic reader.

I say this because I'm not trying to have complete runs of stories, characters, appearances etc. This to me is the behaviour of a collector. I'm a massive fan of Ironman but it is not one of my missions in life to have every comic with an appearance from Ironman in it. I just happen to have the comics that I have because once I have read them there is nothing for me to do with them. I suppose I could a) sell them, b) throw them away/give them away or c) just wait for the trade paperbacks. Now both options a and b would just be me wasting my money and I like the fact I have the opportunity to re-read things. Option c is better but some things take ages to be realeased as a trade or never get released. I also like reading my books weekly as I know there is always something coming.

I am exactly the same when it comes to my DVDs. I do not buy new releases just down to the fact that it is too damn expensive.

I only buy films that I like (or get given ones I don't) and I only get them when they are cheap enough. Now for instance I have wanted both "The Departed" and "Children of Men" for ages and when they were new they were £22.99 and £17.99 but the other day I got them both along with "Garden State" for £20. If I were a collector surely I'd be double dipping all the time for the best version of the film?

The only thing I would really class myself as a collector of would be toys. This is really strange as well considering the fact that I don't actually own that many.

I rarely buy toys nowadays and I have to be really, really impressed with them but when I do I am reminded of why I do buy them. I suppose it is kind of like buying a piece of art that you can have to look at, enjoy and keep. Again though there is this conflict of whether I am a collector or not because most of my toys come straight out of the packaging and go on display. Don't collectors keep them in the boxes?

So when do you become a collector of something? Let me know because I really have no clue whatsoever.

Roll On Monday...

Because the new "Beastie Boys" album is released and personally I cannot wait. Titled "Mix Up" this is the groups seventh studio album and first completely instrumental album. Joined by Money Mark and no sign of Mix Master Mike this could be amazing and will hopefully be a return to form of "Check Your Head/Paul's Boutique" proportions. No words, no samples and no scratching just twelve tracks of pure quality. Already with two brilliant singles released here for your pleasure is the video to the brilliant "Rat Cage".

Not Bad Meaning Bad But Bad Meaning Good

"Superbad" is the new movie from Director Greg Mottola who is a newcomer when it comes to movies but he did direct three fantastic episodes of the fantastic TV show "Arrested Development". The movie stars Michael Cera (Again of "Arrested Development" fame) and Jonah Hill. This looks like it could be pretty funny with some very silly humour and Cera playing more or less the same character he does in "Arrested Development" even if it is a little more rude! It could go under the radar so here for your viewing pleasure is the "Red Band" trailer meaning that there is some swearing. Enjoy!

Urban Dead

Following the rave reviews this game has received from my good friends Rich and Stu I have joined Rich in defending the city of Malton in the fantastic Urban Dead. A very basic but fun online game that to be fair is just a huge map of a city that you explore while trying to survive a zombie outbreak. Limited to 50 moves per day it limits it but keeps it fun and very addictive at the same time.

Move through the street into buildings to search for items and camp out or go out on a rampage and try and find and kill as many zombies as possible with your available action points to build up your experience points. Use these points to build up the attributes of your character to make him harder than a stale loaf of bread.

In the last two days I have attacked a zombie, ran away from a zombie, camped out in the fire station, killed a zombie and now after searching a local police station and finding two pistol clips, a shotgun shell, another radio and a flak jacket I have no action points left so I'm left camping out at the cop shop.

I'll keep you up to date on my movements in the city of Malton and exactly what is going on with my character Alfonso Durant.

Go on give Urban Dead a go you know you want to!

Toy Tailoring

Isn't it amazing exactly how far we have come when it comes to toys? Take something as simple as giving an action figure real material clothing and look at what we used to get (and what still seems to be the norm now)

Badly fitting, saggy and disproportionate clothing and body parts. Spidey looks like he lost a good few stone since he started rockin' these new black digs! To be fair these two toys are aimed at completely different markets but just look at this

This is the new RAH Bruce Lee from Medicom and it is simply fantastic. High quality materials that fit the figure perfectly. Now this could just be me being anal retentive but in stuff like this its the details that make something nice to look at or can have the opposite effect and can make it look like a turd.

Like I said the two figures are aimed at different people but what difference to the manufacturer would it make to have the Spidey's clothes fit better? It wouldn't cost anymore in fact it may even end up being cheaper as they would be using less material. Sales may even go up because the real cloth version would look just as good as a painted figure. Maybe its for nostalgic purposes as all figures used to look as cack as this back in the olden days?

I can't wait to get my mitts on one of these Bruce Lee figures!

Oh Ebay How I loathe Thee...

This is due to the fact that I lose countless minutes/hours/days sitting here watching and waiting for auctions to end. The most recent one?










A full run of volume 2 of Daredevil from the Smith "Guardian Devil" arc to the most recent issue. 97 issues of mostly great comics. This is among other Daredevil issues including the first appearance of Elektra. Outbid by a pound by some scum who probably thinks he can make a bit of profit. Oh well it is my own fault I suppose down to the fact that I never put in my highest bid as soon as I should.

Thanks to Pappy though I now own all of the variant covers to the first ten issues of the New Avengers. This then lead to an interesting conversation at work. More on that next time though!

Job Done!

So on Thursday myself and my classmates recorded our live studio programme. All of the worries of the last few weeks disappeared and I have to be honest it went really well. People laughed when they were supposed to and everybody had a lot of fun. Our lecturer more or less told us that our programme would get us a pass which was very relieving.

On Friday the entire class had to come in so we could view everyone's programmes together and write our evaluations. There were four programmes to be viewed and ours came first. I was really pleased with how the programme turned out and most people laughed at the segments that I had directed and shot with my friends so I was pretty chuffed at that! A lot of people went for a comedy orientated piece but to be fair our programme seemed to get the best reaction.

After the lesson everyone congregated outside of our building as people said their goodbyes. It didn't feel real to be honest as everyone kind of dispersed fairly quickly. A lot of us also went out on Saturday night for a friends birthday. Everyone had a really good time (some more than others!) and then we said our proper goodbyes at about 4 in the morning. This felt real as it got pretty emotional at times and took over half an hour before everyone went their separate ways.

I've had a great first year but to be honest I'm glad its over as I really need a break from it all. I'm going to spend my summer working at the shop, savings lots of money, buying stuff and hopefully going on holiday. I've made loads of new friends at Coventry and have passed the year fairly comfortably (I think!) and I'll definitely be going back next year.

One Down

And one deadline to go. Both are for the exact same module but the Friday just gone was the hand in date for the written work aspect of the module meaning I had to hand in my workbook. For those that don't know a workbook is a book that we have to keep that we put in all of our ideas and work as we go along through the module. This includes notes on lessons, sketches and the work that I put into the module. I always leave these till more or less the last minute which is just a stupid idea meaning I have to type up and create around forty pages of work usually in about three or four days. Forty is more or less my average page count but this one I bumped up to around fifty three pages. Obviosuly its the quality not the quantity but I think thats usually bullshit because the more bases you cover the more chance you have of a higher mark.

This weeks deadline is the actual creating of our piece of work. Working as a whole class has pretty much been a lot of fun at times but has took the piss at others. I get the feeling we could fail but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Until next time...