The Geek and Inkwell

Because of Christopher Nolan's Batman films, over the past seven years, I have gone from caring only marginally about Batman, to wanting to name my future son Bruce. I believe that "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight," and finally, "The Dark Knight Rises" ought to belong to the canon of films that deal with the age-old subject of good and evil in depth and with intelligence. Bane and Batman go head-to-head Nolan (at least with his Batman films) always throws in a character with all the trappings and demeanor of a seedy criminal who then surprisingly makes a selfless sacrifice. Or vice versa - he throws in a character we want to trust and has that winning smile, but becomes twisted and then serves up the most breathtaking of betrayals. I don't think this is intended to deconstruct the idea of good and evil. Rather, I think the artists behind the films want us to more deeply explore what it means to be heroic, especially in a world where...

If you aren't already following  The Hobbit Blog  - the official production diary of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" - you should go ahead and begin immediately. You can start by watching the tear-inducing production video below, which The Hobbit Blog has recently posted, in which Peter Jackson lets those of us who, unfortunately, weren't able to attend Comic-Con this year in on all the action. I love hearing the actors and crew share about how close they've become in the process of creating this film, just as I loved hearing it while watching the special features for Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. It makes me wish Tolkien was fully aware of how many people he has brought together and affected through his work. Who knows? Maybe he gets to look down from where he lives now and is aware of it after all.

Some songs just lend themselves to all kinds of amusing modifications. They are catchy and running through our heads all the time whether we like it or not, and pretty soon, they begin to develop entertaining new lyrics. I've seen some excellent parodies lately (two of them today, courtesy of a couple of my best friends who are very clear on the type of subject matter that I will enjoy), and I thought I would share them here at the Inkwell. Enjoy! 1. A parody of Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" 2. A genius Star Wars parody of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" 3. A very adept Star Wars parody of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know"

So, though it is a sore subject with me right now, I can't go this whole week without giving a shout out to the geek Mecca to which I should have been making a pilgrimage this past Tuesday - San Diego Comic-Con International. My sob story is as follows: my usual Con buddy and I were, of course, prepared to click the "secret" link for Comic-Con passes right when the clock struck 8:00am on March 3rd. Unfortunately, said link did not work properly, and by the time my pal and I had the opportunity to purchase passes, only Thursday and Sunday were available. If we lived in beautiful San Diego, or had unlimited funds, we would have gone ahead with purchasing passes for those two days. However, neither of those things are true for us, and being far from the Con, it is difficult to swing the expense (time-wise and money-wise) of travel only for the first and the last day of the event. I usually don't attend on Sunday anyway. So my Con buddy and I had to make the decision ...