I commissioned an Oni-related piece a while back, but haven't heard back from the artist since. And it's been a while, so if anyone feels like picking up this project: feel free!

This is the mock-up. Intended characters are not myself with my umbrella(s), as seen above, but rather the two tough guys on each side, wielding a weapon of choice in the pose portrayed (or a somewhat similar one), with Konoko in the lead (preferably looking a bit more tattered); all surveying the dystopian wasteland surrounding.

Could be pretty cool no? I still hope they'll make a sequel for this game. Or a remake. Some day. Until then commissions are the next best thing.

Nope, no Austin Powers reference here, just a direct translation of the gold tier I now hold here! At SF theaters. It comes with some cool features. I keep learning too: movies are my teachers. See ten movies in 365 days and this is what you face. What's your taste? They probably have some: have some faith. Get out and see some greats! I mean films. Go on. Begin.

Woah (click woah for full story). Instantly, the thought of a very cheap, possibly free, surplus of colorful bicycles enters my mind.

A mountain of bikes.

If I could import these to Sweden... or if I lived in China... and yet wouldn't it be even better if the world wasn't such a strange and wasteful place? If I didn't want more than I needed, and others didn't either, and bike production never spiraled out of control like this? This certainly stirs up a mixture of emotions. Envy. Anger. Surprise. Joy. Fascination.

Though I really wouldn't mind one of these bikes.

So a while back we went bowling again! Same place. Last lane. Whole room to ourselves. Tools on a shelf. Great game. I got some...

and a few of these!

Also some of these odd ones,

and unfortunately also these.

It was at this place again:

4 games (and a very small part of another start). 498 points. 124 average. 151 tops. Though some were a fine line... I won 3/4! Good time. If you want to see all scores here you go.

This was just a one hour session btw, if you're comparing. And why it's been over half a year (!) since the last bowling session I have no idea! Probably... other stuff.

I'm off again! It's not really summer again but: it's still here right? Sort of? Not autumn at least. Not until my next vacation.

I never got around to fixing that mistake I mentioned in my last summer post, so I'm now making that previously public note a mental reminder for future rainy days instead.

I did try, but with a surplus of metadata, revisions, and other unnecessary bits of information in the table all showing up as individual changes it proved an all too time-consuming task after all. Better just skim through the archives and check my posts one by one some time, as I have planned to do regardless - as there's probably a great deal of other issues and updates those older posts are in much need of too.

As for that dose of The Offspring - and other concerts I managed during my recent return - I'll get to that. Been too busy drawing grounds and going to those additional concerts to make significant headway there, though I am caught up on old reviews!

And watched another bundle of greats. If you haven't seen The Fall, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Wind River you're missing out.

Not much is going on with the NGAP15 VA group, but I checked in again, and now I'm checking out again. But just for a short while this time. Plants are watered again, freezer's up and running this time, and my bag is packed with apples, so here we go. I'll see y'all in a week or so.

In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story of five mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality blurs as the tale advances.

This movie was something else! It really reminds me of that thriller I recently watched with J-Lo: The Cell, and guess what? Same director. Tarsem Singh plays a part in the movie too. I think I've found a new favorite.

Both the cover and plenty of elements within this movie remind of the other. Especially the power of the mind. And that ever-re-occurring desert... it feels homely somehow.

The movie's a fairytale unlike fairytales, that moves between real world and the imagination of the characters therein in an appreciatively spontaneous way, but often goes from the story you wanted to hear to a much darker, and depressingly merciless such.

You feel for Alexandria: the little girl who's there listening, and it comes to the boiling point you'd expect when she slips on a bottle, when Roy's conscience comes into play and they finish the story in a crescendo of tears.

Their chemistry is perfect. Both Catinca Untaru and Lee Pace are so much better than I expected, and Daniel Caltagirone the ever-so villainous. He looks like he always does, but as for the rest I wonder if Tarsem Singh maybe brings out the best in everyone - or is an impeccable judge of character; always chooses the right one for each role.

The sceneries are amazing. You can see they're not all real, that some things are modified, but the way they morph - the way the desert turns to grass, to forest, to jungle - the way the face turns to mountains, the way the guards appear in the Indian water well of old, marching up and down the stairs in unison - it's a work of art.

I love the costumes. I love the authenticity of their reality, and I like the fantasy within their fantasy. I like the bright and beautiful, yet the darkness is appreciative too, in how it seems to says that: this is life. This is what happens. This is the true story.

I bet you won't expect the ending either. Question is: was his name really Roy? Supposedly it's shrouded in mystery. You never know. I feel like Catinca's voice and character changes in the epilogue, as does Roy's (he's not the perfect look-alike), like they're moving to a third world - away from the movie - as if it's a commentary on the movie itself.

If there's anything I didn't really like it's that ending. It breaks the spell.

Well, maybe there was more. Small details I'm sure I noticed but didn't pay much mind, overwhelmed as I was with the good things. The way they spoke. The bonding. The angle of the cast. The story, most of all.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome