Happy Holidays and show changes

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hope you are all stuffed with turkey or ham or whatever it is you're eating during the holiday season.

No complaints here.

Just wanted to post an update for those of you who aren't on the facebook group.

After some discussion, we've decided to tweak the format of the show a little.

No, Adam is still going to be an asshole and yes he will still be saying things that will make his wife wonder why she married him and yes I will still be the glue to hold the show together.

But a good chunk of you have been talking to us about how we could improve the show and we took a lot of the comments into consideration and here's what's going to be happening.

1 Hour Episodes
The first thing we're changing is shortening the length of the episodes. Instead of going a whole two hours, we're going to one hour. Now this change won't necessarily apply to "special" episodes like Anime North or Fan Expo. We are currently debating whether special episodes will be posted in one or two parts but we'll climb that mountain when we get to it. Shortening the episodes will hopefully allow for:

More Episodes
We are hoping that by shortening the episodes, it will allow for us to do more of them. Now Adam and I are also going to be trying to set up a regular schedule for when we would tape. The idea at the moment is to record every second weekend and in the instances where this isn't possible, we'll tape two episodes in one day.

Now keep in mind, these changes won't occur until the taping of our next regular episode. But in the meantime, here's what we've got in store for everyone.

Next Episode: One Year Extravaganza!
Next up to the plate is our one year anniversary episode. We taped this back in November, live at the Fox and Fiddle downtown and honestly, if it sounds good, it will be an episode of awesome. Nerds with Guitars was our house band for the entire night and guests included Jason Agnew from Bite TV (best known to nerds as the guy with the glasses from The Conventioneers), David Poulsen from D.Ace Games and Mike Nicolas from The Anime Round Table. We gave away prizes and it was a crap load of fun.

Up Coming Interviews:
I can confirm that I will be doing a phone interview with Juliet Landau sometime in Janurary. Juliet is probably best known for playing Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv show) but has just wrapped production on a small documentary about the creative process of Gary Oldman (yes THAT Gary Oldman) called Taking Flight. Last word was we'd be talking the doccumentry, Buffy and the fact she appeared in the best movie Tim Burton has made, Ed Wood.

Also coming up is an interview with Alex Gamble. Alex is one of the organisers and editors on the fan made Nine Inch Nails' dvd project Another Version Of The Truth that Adam and I discussed about a year ago.

Conventions
I can also confirm the fact that Adam and I will be appearing at Wizard World Toronto thanks to the wonderful people at Comic Book Daily. We will NOT be doing a show from the event but we will be trying to gather interviews and such and recording around what we get back at the studio.

We will also be attending Anime North and we will be taping a show or two there. We have planned a new segment that should be pretty good.

Put it this way, if you liked "Alex Talking to Hot Chicks" from Fan Expo, you will definitely enjoy something that we're trying to set up for this convention.

Mystery Asshole Theatre Xmas Special 2009 - He-Man & She-Ra - A Christmas Special

You don't need to tell me what an obscenely long title that is. I'm aware. I just typed it.

This year, the Two Assholes (plus Guesthole #2, Alex Krueger) decided that we should do something a little special for our readers/listeners this holiday season. So, we give you the closest thing we can manage to an ugly Christmas sweater.

We managed to dredge up the campiest, oldest, cheesiest Christmas special from our childhoods that we could manage, and did up a commentary track to it. Believe me, this commentary is going to make the whole thing go a lot smoother.

Now, we understand that finding this particular video might be a little difficult, but we're fairly certain that with a little hard work, and some appropriately applied moxie, you'll figure out a solution to that particular problem.

So, pull up a nice refreshing Rum n' Nog, and enjoy yourselves some Assholes n' 80's Campiness for the holiday season.

Download Mystery Asshole Theatre Xmas Special 2009 - He-Man & She-Ra - A Christmas Special

Christmas Music That Rocks #6

I have no idea where this is from but it is Sum 41 teaming up with Tenacious D in a song called "Things I want" and despite the fact that Sum 41 is involved, it kicks ass.

Episode 16

Due to the unique nature of the production of Episode 15 (primarily in that it took 2 attempts at it), our productions continued unabated, and the Two Assholes were left with not one, but two live shows that had yet to make it to air.

So, here's the first of them. On October 31, 2009, the Two Assholes, with special guest Pete DeCourcy (from Comic Book Daily), attended at the Blue Beetle Comics, in Barrie, Ontario, to do a show in the middle of the store. So, we all did our thing for a good hour, discussing comic books, scary movies, Astro Boy, and nudity on cable TV. Everything went off without a hitch (except for banana-time), and Pete fits in very well with our usual schtick. Unfortunately, because this is a live show, Pete hasn't yet earned a Guesthole number. Feel free to email him and pester him to make an appearance on a regular episode so that he can earn that coveted prize.

Download Episode 16 - iPod Enhanced Version

Episode 16 (High Quality)

Due to the unique nature of the production of Episode 15 (primarily in that it took 2 attempts at it), our productions continued unabated, and the Two Assholes were left with not one, but two live shows that had yet to make it to air.

So, here's the first of them. On October 31, 2009, the Two Assholes, with special guest Pete DeCourcy (from Comic Book Daily), attended at the Blue Beetle Comics, in Barrie, Ontario, to do a show in the middle of the store. So, we all did our thing for a good hour, discussing comic books, scary movies, Astro Boy, and nudity on cable TV. Everything went off without a hitch (except for banana-time), and Pete fits in very well with our usual schtick. Unfortunately, because this is a live show, Pete hasn't yet earned a Guesthole number. Feel free to email him and pester him to make an appearance on a regular episode so that he can earn that coveted prize.

Download Episode 16 (High Quality) - iPod Enhanced Version

Avatar Review

This may get very film nerdy very fast so bare with me.



Only out for a few days and Avatar is already getting a lot of interesting reviews. They seem to range from awesome to meh.



This review will probably be no exception.



To sum up my opinion on Avatar in a quick bite sized line, it's very used story done so spectacularly well that you forget that you've seen the same story (more or less) dozens of times.



...that may not make as much sense as it did in my head... maybe I should explain.



For those of you who don't know (from what I gather in the theater I sat in, a lot of people are going to see this with no clue what the film is about) Avatar is about a guy named Jake (Sam Worthington). Jake is a marine who was paralysed in a conflict in Venezuela. Unfortunately while technology got better in this future, health care didn't. Jake could get his back and legs fixed but doesn't have the cash for it. In the meantime he had a twin brother who was a scientist. Said brother had signed up for the Avatar program on the jungle moon of Pandora.



Unfortunately, Jake's brother died and the company is left with a very expensive avatar that was grown for him. Being a twin, the company figures Jake is a good second place and brings him out to Pandora.



The company and a group of scientists are using avatars (human hybrid Na'vi clone thingys) to study and communicate with the local aliens, the Na'vi. The company in order to try and move them out of an area that is rich with Unobtanium (a mineral that sells for a crap ton of money on Earth) and the scientists to study the people.



Jake is made a deal by Col Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) that if he can get intel on the Na'vi and get them to move, Quaritch will get his back and legs repaired.



But while Jake is in his avatar he becomes kind of the chosen one for the Na'vi and then starts to see all of the awesomeness of being a Na'vi and living on Pandora. He even takes a liking to one of their women, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who is teaching him in the ways of the Na'vi.



This does not jive well with the company and well you can probably take it from here.



James Cameron has always been really good at taking stories we know and turning them into something fantastic. If you look through his resume of films from Terminator to Avatar, none of them have an original concept at their core. But it's the details that he throws in the scripts that make them great.



While you can easily compare the story for Avatar to Dances with Wolves and Ferngully (I'm serious, Avatar shares a lot with Ferngully) the details that have been added in the screenplay make it a bit more unique.



And then we get to the film itself.



WOW.



Now I only got the chance to screen it in 3D not in IMAX 3D (I got to the theater around 2pm, all IMAX showings were sold out for the day) but as I said, wow.



The recent rise of 3D has worried me a bit. Everyone seems to want to use it these days and I'm all for it if it is used well. The problem with the technology is it can sometimes hamper the rest of the film. My Bloody Valentine (the most recent one) is a great example. Great use of 3D but I probably won't ever watch the film again. Certainly not in 2D.



Avatar uses a lot of 3D and a lot of CG but at no point does either feel gimmicky. A lot of the 3D for instance is background and set. The CG feels very much "real" as you forget that these things don't really exist and you just dig the whole thing.



But most importantly, it feels like a Cameron directed film.



The problem with CG usage on such a heavy scale tends to be the fact that director's voice gets lost. James Cameron's previous films have a distinct look and style to them. Camera moves, lighting, etc, when you see one of his films, you can usually tell it's his work. I'm happy to report that Avatar feels the same way.



And the cast isn't crappy either.



A pretty awesome ensemble cast was created for this film and I was impressed by most of the performances. Standouts include Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang. And I'm not just saying this out of fear of Lang coming to kick my ass. Worthington is quickly becoming an actor that I will go to see.

Yes I saw Termiantor: Salvation and yes I liked it. So there.

Overall a fantastic film experience from top to bottom (with the exception of the concession staff at Colossus but I can't blame Avatar for that). I may check it out again in IMAX in a few weeks to see how it rates in IMAX and for a second viewing.

I'd even go so far to say as it almost makes up for Titanic.



One more awesome movie should about do it.

Christmas Music That Rocks #5

We've heard various versions of Run, Run Rudolph over the years.

But this one features Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Lemmy (Motorhead)!

Christmas Music The Rocks #4

I'm not familiar with the band Fucked Up.

I know they are somewhat of a local outfit, they are pretty much DIY punkers for the most part and they won the Polaris prize this year (and for any band named Fucked Up, winning any kind of award where they have to announce you is pretty awesome).

But needless to say I did become intrigued when they decided to gather a bunch of musicians and...um...er various other people to do a rocking cover of "Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?"

The line up includes The GZA, Andrew W.K., actor David Cross, Tegan and Sara, Bob Mould and more.

And most importantly, the proceeds from the song go to a number of charities dealing with aboriginal women and issues that have not been significantly looked at by the powers that be.

Justice for Missing and Murdered Ingigenous Women
DTES Power of Women Group
Sisters in Spirit

If you can spare the buck, it's worth the download on itunes.

Don't believe me?

Check it out below.

Dan O'Bannon RIP

Please excuse the myriad of spelling and grammar errors that might end up being in this piece but I felt it was pretty important to get this out fast as I don't want this death to go unnoticed.

Dan O'Bannon is a name that probably isn't too familiar with a lot of newer sci-fi and horror fans but it should be. Take one look at his career and you'll notice a lot of places that birthed something amazing.

During his time at the University of Southern California, O'Bannon met and began working with a young USC student, John Carpenter on what eventually became Dark Star.

Quaint by our standards, at the time, Dark Star was very impressive for a low budget sci fi film. Dan wore a lot of hats during the production but specifically was an actor, co-screenwriter and special effects artist on the film. His work even garnered a Golden Scroll award in the special effects category (The Golden Scrolls are now The Saturn Awards). It was on Dark Star that O'Bannon met designer Ron Cobb.

From here Carpenter went on to Assault on Precinct 13 and Dan went on to Dune.

The Dune that never was.

As you can tell by my previous article on the aborted Alejandro Jodorowsky version of Dune, while the film could have been fantastic on many accounts, the one legacy it did leave was introducing Dan O'Bannon to H.R. Giger and french comic book artist Moebius.

When Dune came to a screeching halt, O'Bannon found himself back in California, broke and living on his friend Ron Shusett's couch. Dan began getting back into screenwriting and began working on a sci fi script he had been tinkering with. He also began helping Ron with a short story that Shusett had got the rights to by Philp K. Dick but before that would really get going, Dan took a detour back into special effects in order to pay some bills.

George Lucas had seen Dark Star and impressed by the effects, grabbed Dan to help with the computer/animation effects on Star Wars. It wasn't much work, basically brought on to help them through the crunch, the money from the job set Dan up with an apartment and a little time to work on this pet project he'd been writing at Shusett's place. It was kind of a re-write of Dark Star but instead of comedy in space it was more of a horror film. And instead of a beach ball monster, it would be something a little scarier.

The script was titled Alien.

Now it's been disputed for many years who wrote what on Alien with law suits and accusations flying every which way but the fact remains that Dan O'Bannon wrote the intial scripts, fostered the story along with Shusett and brought in the idea of having HR Giger, Ron Cobb and Moebius working on various production designs on the film. Even taking out the conjecture of who wrote what, Dan O'Bannon was essential to what we saw on screen.

Period.

And Alien much like Star Wars before it, was a game changer. It ended up influencing a whole generation of writers and film directors not only in sci fi but horror as well.

He then wrote segments for the classic Heavy Metal animated film (specifically the segments Soft Landing and B-17) as well as cult helicopter film Blue Thunder and vampire space film, Lifeforce.

In 1985 O'Bannon finally got a chance to direct as well write with Return of the Living Dead.

Return of the Living Dead was on off shoot Night of the Living Dead. Producer John Russo had split retained the rights for using Living Dead in the title of his films and brought Dan on board as a writer and director.

O'Bannon did two things. The first thing he did was incorporate more humor into the zombie film. The second was make the zombies faster.

Two little things that have now helped spawned a sub genre (known as Splatstick) and a style of zombie that is used in everything from film (28 Days Later, the Dawn of the Dead remake) to video games (Left 4 Dead being a prime example).

After Return of the Living Dead, things began to heat up on the other script he had been working on with Ron Shusett. Based on Dick's short story, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", Total Recall had gone through long stages of development and developmental hell. Richard Dryfuss was attached to appear in it at one point. Another version had David Cronenberg directing. But eventually Arnie came walking in and got film company Carlco to buy it then brought on Paul Verhoven to direct.

It went on to be a box office hit.

While some of his later works are not so memorable or deviated from his original treatments but there is no denying the impact Dan O'Bannon made to film and pop culture.

Rest in peace Dan O'Bannon.

Christmas Music That Rocks #3

If you've listened to the podcast a couple of episodes, you've probably noticed my taste in hip hop is more or less old school.

So what better way to celebrate another day of Christmas Music That Rocks by seeing how Christmas is celebrated in Hollis.

Christmas Music That Rocks #2

Remember how yesterday I mentioned that doing a holiday themed album was usually the start of the downward slide of your career?

Well one of the exceptions to this rule has been Twisted Sister.

Yup, the "We're Not Going To Take It" guys.

While not a one hit wonder (they had at least two or three), Twisted Sister was pretty much out the door and disbanded by the times Nirvana kicked the door on top of hair metal. But a couple of years ago they quietly reformed and then shortly after that, they recorded a Christmas album... which not only wasn't bad, it garnered a fair amount of attention (for whatever reason) and actually helped resuscitate their career.

Guess the 4th gift Jesus should have gotten is hairspray.

Without further ado, Twisted Sister with their version of I'll Be Home For Christmas.

Christmas Music That Rocks# 1

Hey guys, going to do this once a day until Christmas.

Once a day...crap, hope I don't run out of ideas.

Anyways, as a rule, unless it is the standards (Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, etc) I generally despise Christmas music. In fact it's of my opinion that 97% of the time, if you release a Christmas album, you are in it for the money. A single is okay, a whole album is just usually crap.

Tori Amos, I'm looking at you.

But the season does occasionally lead to um..er.. interesting tunes and first up is a brand new one from my favorite Uncle, Al Jourgensen.

Got to give the man credit, he has written tons of great industrial material as well as a theme song for The Chicago Blackhawks and now a Christmas tune for his wife and Ministry's departed base player Paul Raven.

The tune was created along with Mark Thwaite (The Mission U.K., Peter Murphey amongst others) and to be honest, rather catchy.

Be forewarned, the start of the following video, not very work safe.

Episode 15 (Super High Quality)

It took a surprisingly long time to get this one finished, but the latest episode is now ready, and you now get to watch the Two Assholes, plus the full complement of Guestholes, killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. As seems to be standard with our video game episodes, this one is long. In fact, it's approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but I assure you that you'll enjoy all of it.

We had some technical difficulties with this Episode, given that it should have been ready to post nearly a month ago. Originally, Episode 15 was supposed to be a Beatles Rock Band episode (which you'll often hear referred to as the Beatles Rock Band debacle, fiasco, or disaster). Accordingly, we got Guestholes 1 and 4 together, and threw down. For a number of reasons, the audio cut out, and sounded horrible, so the whole thing had to be scrapped.

By the time we got everyone around to doing another video episode, we had already recorded two more audio episodes (which will arrive shortly as Episodes 16 and 17). To make matters worse, the video and audio of this episode (which are always recorded separately) somehow managed to get de-synced, with the video being slightly faster than the audio. To fix this, I had to spend all week trying to find the perfect tempo for the audio so that it would properly match the video. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. You won't be confused by the audio content, in any event.

So, without further ado, let's kill some fucking zombies!

Download Episode 15 (Super High Quality) - iPod Enhanced Version

Episode 15 (High Quality)

It took a surprisingly long time to get this one finished, but the latest episode is now ready, and you now get to watch the Two Assholes, plus the full complement of Guestholes, killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. As seems to be standard with our video game episodes, this one is long. In fact, it's approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but I assure you that you'll enjoy all of it.

We had some technical difficulties with this Episode, given that it should have been ready to post nearly a month ago. Originally, Episode 15 was supposed to be a Beatles Rock Band episode (which you'll often hear referred to as the Beatles Rock Band debacle, fiasco, or disaster). Accordingly, we got Guestholes 1 and 4 together, and threw down. For a number of reasons, the audio cut out, and sounded horrible, so the whole thing had to be scrapped.

By the time we got everyone around to doing another video episode, we had already recorded two more audio episodes (which will arrive shortly as Episodes 16 and 17). To make matters worse, the video and audio of this episode (which are always recorded separately) somehow managed to get de-synced, with the video being slightly faster than the audio. To fix this, I had to spend all week trying to find the perfect tempo for the audio so that it would properly match the video. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. You won't be confused by the audio content, in any event.

So, without further ado, let's kill some fucking zombies!

Download Episode 15 (High Quality) - iPod Enhanced Version

Episode 15

It took a surprisingly long time to get this one finished, but the latest episode is now ready, and you now get to watch the Two Assholes, plus the full complement of Guestholes, killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. As seems to be standard with our video game episodes, this one is long. In fact, it's approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but I assure you that you'll enjoy all of it.

We had some technical difficulties with this Episode, given that it should have been ready to post nearly a month ago. Originally, Episode 15 was supposed to be a Beatles Rock Band episode (which you'll often hear referred to as the Beatles Rock Band debacle, fiasco, or disaster). Accordingly, we got Guestholes 1 and 4 together, and threw down. For a number of reasons, the audio cut out, and sounded horrible, so the whole thing had to be scrapped.

By the time we got everyone around to doing another video episode, we had already recorded two more audio episodes (which will arrive shortly as Episodes 16 and 17). To make matters worse, the video and audio of this episode (which are always recorded separately) somehow managed to get de-synced, with the video being slightly faster than the audio. To fix this, I had to spend all week trying to find the perfect tempo for the audio so that it would properly match the video. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. You won't be confused by the audio content, in any event.

So, without further ado, let's kill some fucking zombies!

Download Episode 15 - iPod Enhanced Version

Hogan on The Surf on Dec 8th 10pm Bite Tv!

Hey guys.

As is been made public many times, We at TATANS are fans of Bite Tv and we love the friendship we've cultivated over the last year with the station.

It's also pretty evident that I am a rather big wrestling fan. So when Jason announced that they were going to have Hulk Hogan on, I was rather impressed and happy for The Surf.

Despite many factors, Hogan is a rather big deal. Love him or hate him, Hogan is the reason pro wrestling is as big as it is.

I'm sure wrestling fan or not, Agnew's interview with Hogan will be interesting to watch.

And you never know, a familiar voice to TATANS listeners may be chiming in with a question.

So tune in Dec 8th, 10pm on Bite Tv!

Ninja Assassin review and why it ain't getting the love it should.

Yeah I know, probably a little late to the review table on this one but I do have a life.

Sort of.

Anyways, finally got to check out this flick and well... it's about a good ninja that kills a lot of bad ninjas.

How could that not be awesome?

Alright, alright, I'll go a little more in depth.

Raizo (South Korean entertainer Rain) is a ninja. Been raised from birth to be a ninja. He's pretty damn good at it. Unfortunately due to a female ninja, Raizo is a ninja with a heart. And when you kill dozens of people with throwing stars, having feelings is not a good thing.

So Raizo goes off the reservation, betrays his clan and starts knocking them off.

Mika (Naomie Harris from Pirates of the Carribean and 28 Days later) is a Europol agent (more less a librarian) that has discovered ninjas exist and they kill people.

Coincidental, the most bad ass of the clans she learns about is the same one Raizo was from.

Bad ninjas go after her, he goes after them.

The movie ain't rocket science.

But it is awesome.

The best way to explain it is it's like watching a live action anime. It's like a live action modern Ninja Scroll but with better English dialogue. People not only get cut up they get vivisected. Kudos to everyone involved in the film for somehow getting the ratings people in the states to give you an R. You made Quentin Tarrantino jealous.

I enjoyed the crap out of this film.

So why am I alone here?

I'm surprised by the fact that the geek media hasn't embraced this film as much as I have. Aint It Cool seems to be the only one who has really acknowledge it and the reviews have been mixed.

I know this movie is not high art but it's a lot of fun.

I think part of the problem is the Wachowski Brothers.

While they are only producers on this goreific title, their name is floated around more then director James McTeigue and quite frankly, they've got three bad movies to their credit that they have yet to make up for with the Fan Boy public and I think it's being unfairly taken out on this film.

Yes the two sequels to The Matrix were crap but you can't blame them if you thought that Speed Racer was going to be awesome. If I've said once, I've said it a dozen times, you can't turn shit into chocolate. Speed Racer was never a good cartoon, why did you think the movie might be?

Beyond that, the Wachowski's don't suck up to the fan boy crowd. They don't do interviews (for various reasons) or press of any kind and while I agree they have a right to privacy, I think this overall lack of communication from them is starting to hurt.

Their last batch of films (and while better received, V for Vendetta had it's detractors) have gotten reamed by critics on all sides and due to their press stance, it almost appears they don't care. If they really believed in a film wouldn't they at least come out with a press release saying "Fuck you Entertainment Weekly!"?

And it's not fair.

For an action film, this movie is great. It's not too long, gets to the point and you get exactly what you order.

So if you are a fan of anime or of action in general, highly recommended.

And in the meantime, here's a dance off between Rain and Colbert.

080505 Rain dance-off with Stephen Colbert
by lunaluna_rain