Hey guys and gals.
Over Valentine’s Day weekend I attended the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days
2016 with my bestie, where we decided to go in costume and attend the speed
dating event hosted by SciFi Speed-Dating.
Ah, Nerds in Love! The headline
practically writes itself.
Meet a life size Ninja Turtle is off my bucket list.
“Do it for the story!”
I urged my also single, best friend.
“We will go in costume! It’ll be
hilarious.” I promised. This seemed to me to have all the potential
in the world to be the best meet-cute scenario in the history of
adorkability.
Over the weekend I went day time drinking with some strangers at a dive bar, attended an art gallery showing with my sister, and lost my mind over the new Game of Thrones episode. Oh and also my taxes and the new Master Splinter.
On Saturday I decided to attend an unofficial "Meet A Yelper" event, which just consisted of about 12 to 15 people meeting at a local dive bar for a couple round of drinks. I don't know if you guys use Yelp or not, but in short it's a user generated website, in which you can submit reviews about any restaurant, auto garage, nail salon, bar, etc. Yelp hosts several "Official Events" in which you can attend to sample local food but I usually wind up going alone to someplace in Downtown Dallas. I wind up all nervous and sweaty because it's hard meeting people when everyone else is part of a couple or group. So this "Meet A Yelper" event was a chance to meet people, one on one, for a change. I was stoked. Until I got to the parking lot. Then I panicked. "What if I can't find them?" "What if no one is there?" "What if I'm overdressed?" "What if I'm overdressed". I had to take a deep breath and get out of the car. I walked in like I belonged there and lo and behold, there was a group sitting out on the patio. I said hi, they made room for me and I was small talking like a mother f*cking champ. Then someone asked me if I had ever seen the show "Heroes" and then I quickly sucked them into my nerdy gravitational force. It was awesome, and I had like four Tang-flavored margaritas.
At the gallery showing for my sister's friend I met another blogger. ANOTHER BLOGGER! Brittany Burke runs Ravishing in Plaid, a fashion and lifestyle blog. She is so fresh and young that I would have never guessed she is married and a full-time working mom of a three year old. Meeting people in public is on the opposite end of the same spectrum as writing a blog. You get instant feedback, which is a blast! Brittany and I gabbed about our frustration about not being able to take awesome DIY project pictures during the day, since you know we both work at a office and we were so envious about those light, white and bright photos you see on EVERYBODY'S blogs. We exchanged business cards and promised to send each tips or news. Go check her cute blog when you've got time.
Sunday I was going to go to the Fort Worth Main Street Art Festival but it got cancelled due to the super-strong winds. I wasn't too upset, seeing as I still needed to do my taxes and I really, really trying to save some money. Before that I thought I would pop down to Walmart to pick up some dog food. Yes, I said Walmart. I did some price sourcing for their plants and Terra cotta pots, when I stumbled across some succulents that been spray painted. Have you ever seen this before? Painted plants? Does this not kill the plant?
They were very colorful but seemed like plant cruelty. Not my thing.
So after my little shopping trip I was still in a procrastinating mood so I sat down to watch Game of Thrones, yeah the Purple Wedding episode, and a new episode of Bob's Burgers, and the new The Bletchley Circle episode. Suffice it to say, I did not watch MTV or Mad Men because I have long since stopped caring but I DID make it a point to see the newest Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlestrailerwhich showed a sneak peek at the new version of Master Splinter.
A Fu Manchu ??? He's supposed to be Japanese.
You know those Bounty Paper towel commercials? Where the mom uses Bounty and another off-brand paper towel to wash a pile of grapes or whatever, suspending them over the kitchen sink? That wet paper towel, straining under the weight, is my suspension of disbelief, like right before this trailer ever happened.
I don't remember the pool balls, I somehow remember them being grapes, probably because it makes more sense.
I can somehow believe in man-sized turtles, I can handle a white Shredder, I can believe that turtles can be taught ninjitsu. What ruins it for me? What makes my paper towel collapse in the middle in a jagged hole? Splinter wearing a FU MANCHU BEARD! There is no plausible reason why this should exist. Plus his character will be voiced by Tony Shalhoub, yep the nebbish guy from Monk. Tony Shalhoub is an amazing actor, but Splinter he is not. That rat already looks like Ben Kingsley's the Mandarin character so why not add him to the cast?
Now it's just curtains for me. I have zero desire. My anticipation has been sucked out of me faster than a crawdad at a crawfish boil. I hate this movie already.
So how was your weekend? Awkward transition, I know. Drop me a line in the comments!
Smells like Teen Spirit.....and uhh ninjas....and tur...tles???
Ever wonder why, my dear readers, I will sometimes greet you as "my ninjas"? This is because I have a deep affection for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, as most adults my age do. (Yes we're Adults now!) The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or TMNT for short, were four brothers that worked as a team. This use of "Ninja" became a term of endearment at my work, since I work so closely together with my co-workers. We have each others' back. We are a TEAM!
Now as the oldest sibling, Leonardo aka the Blue One, is the leader of the team. He's not the strongest, that's Raphael. He's not the smartest, that's Donatello. He is definitely not the funny one, that's Michelangelo but he is the boss. He's a little serious, a little bossy but he leads because he loves his family and his brothers. As a kid, I GOT Leo. As the oldest sibling myself, I understood his struggle to lead, especially whenever he doubted himself or became frustrated that he was held more accountable than anyone else. Growing up, my parents told me it was my job to protect my two younger sisters whenever my parents couldn't be there. I got in trouble if my sisters got in trouble, because I knew better and failed to keep them in line. Yep, I was Leo just without the sweet swords, ninja training, and turtle DNA.
I went to see the last TMNT animated movie at the movie theater by myself. I actively watch every episode of the current TMNT animated tv series on Nickelodeon. So yeah, I gonna judge the hell out of the new trailer for Michael Bay's live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
My verdict? This looks a whole lot like the Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy. Like shot for shot. Let's break it down, shall we? Please be advised, none of these images are mine but that's kinda obvious.....right?
So first up in the trailer we see overhead shots of a big city, I assume it's New York but really it could be Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, anywhere. This is followed by a shot of a terrorist shooting a gun, dressed in black, then followed by a helicopter hovering over the city. Fair enough, this is the same setup for any action movie trailer or drama these days. Then we see a large radio tower get destroyed. Large scale destruction appears in most action movie trailers but consistently appears in the Nolan Bat-verse.
Gotham City Bridge....Bane prefers blasting bridges to burning them
During these shots we hear a white male's voice-over describe the decline of honor, justice and heroes. Again no real surprise here, it's been done before.
In the Dark Knight trailer it's Michael Caine.
In TMNT it's William Fichtner, apparently he plays Shredder AND he was also in the Dark Knight.
Next up in the TMNT trailer we see armed criminals being ambushed in a subway station. Literally being thrown against the walls. We do not get a glimpse of the attackers. Seem familiar? That would because the first scene in which Batman fights in Batman Begins takes place in a shipping container yard. He too, ambushes armed criminals while remaining unseen.
Okay well eventually he is seen.
I guess the Turtles get seen by April O'Neil too. On her digital camera, in the dark., while my camera can't even take a decent concert photo.
We see more city destruction in the trailer, the masses panicking, cop cars forming a blockade and then Leonardo leaps from a building donning ninja weapons and gear. Ninja weapons....hmm.......
Oh right,....
Yep, got it.
Then comes my favorite part, the turtles can be seen sliding down a snow-covered mountain, because their shells are like natural sleds, baby!
He did not clear that obstacle...at all...
THIS too appears in Batman Begins, when Bruce Wayne slides down a snow-covered mountain to save Liam Neeson's character.
Okay nerds, I know this scene occurs earlier that the mountain scene but I needed to show a lil context, so slow your roll, okay?
He (Bruce) had to literally slow his Master's roll (off a mountain)
I'm not saying the comparisons between the TMNT reboot and the Nolan Batverse is unfavorable, far from it. I realize this is just the very first trailer but I feel as though I have already seen a movie like this, Batman Begins, and I do not believe TMNT can top it at this point. This trailer just gives rise to too many questions. Where is Master Splinter? Who is the bad guy, the antagonist? The Foot Clan, the Kraang, Shredder? What does Raph or Donnie look like? What does Leonardo sound like? Is Casey Jones going to show up? What the hell happened to Mikey's face?
I mean, LOOK AT IT!!!!
I feel like the current animated series is totally hitting it out of the park, providing an updated version of the Turtles that includes all of the above elements,(Master Splinter, the Kraang, etc.) and yet wisely skip any Vanilla Ice references and "Cowabunga, dude!" What purpose would the live version hope to accomplish? A watered down version of Batman Begins? At this point, I'm not buying what Michael Bay is selling and I even buy the TMNT Lego sets, people! I guess, I'll just have to stay tuned.
What are your thoughts, my ninjas? Which turtle was/is your favorite? Are you excited for the reboot? I wanna know!
