Universal Dork

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  • HIGLEY : Re-Mastering Old Skool Pop Punk!

    I love old pop punk! Especially the stuff from the late 1980’s and early 90’s like The Descendents/ALL, Big Drill Car, Chemical People, The Hard-ons & The Doughboys. I’ve posted here several times about the upcoming Descendents documentary “Filmage” and just how excited I am to see it finally released. So naturally I am super stoked on Higley, who just released their first two songs to the public last week!

    I know, I know who the fuck is Higley?! Well it just so happens to be some people from a couple of my favorite pop punk bands of all time namely Kevin Carl & Duane Keiner of G-Whiz along with Bill Stevenson of Descendents / ALL & Black Flag. G-Whiz has been a fave of since the early 1990’s and I’d go on record to say that they’re one of the best pop punk bands of that era hailing from Tempe Arizona. My old punk band King Friday had a split record with them back in the day and currently I have an EP’s worth of material recorded with Kevin Carl for our long distance band The Davis Baby. Higley however has been a work in progress for Carl who recorded the tracks years ago with Bill Stevenson at the Blasting Room (Stevenson’s studio) in Fort Collins Colorado. However the songs had been demo’d with several singers over the years (the first I am told had Stevenson on vocals) but finally found the perfect fit in Kris Roe, known better for his band The Ataris.

    Some might want to call this a super group but at it’s core it’s the baby of Carl who wrote all of the material with a little help from his friends to execute it. What we have here are two new songs, the first of many that are already recorded (I have heard eight more tracks, without vocals yet) that will become the bands first full album. Check these out below, if you’re a fan of any of the groups I mentioned you’re sure to love this. If you like what you hear go buy the songs on their bandcamp page as it will help get the full album out of the studio and into our ears….

  • August in PDX: A Trekkie’s Dream!

    So yeah I am going to take a minute to brag a little bit here about living in Portland Oregon. To a Star Trek fan August is the time to be here, no not for the beautiful weather but for “Trek in the Park”! Yeah that’s when you can can go every Saturday & Sunday to Cathedral Park in North Portland to witness a live Star Trek episode re-enacted before your very eyes in full costume! For FREE!

    This has become somewhat of a Portland tradition over the years and it’s grown more popular every year. This year it moves to an even bigger location with an ampitheater. Some feel this could make the show less intimate than previous years. Either way it’s going to be a lot of fun.

    “Returning this year is the long-standing and talented crew of actors that fans have grown to love, including Adam Rosko as James T. Kirk (and director of the show) and Jesse Graff as Mr. Spock. But this year, they will be joined by a cadre of Portland’s most gifted artists, writers and performers including Kaebel Hashitani of Sequential Arts (sequentialartgallery.com) and the pirates of PDXYar (pdxyar.org) portraying some rabble-rousing Andorians and Tellurites. In the roles of Mr. Spock’s parents, Atomic Arts is quite pleased to welcome the husband and wife team of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennet (bigredhair.com), adept multimedia artists best known for their work on the handsomely-designed Boilerplate and Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention.” Hey this years episode “Journey to Babel” is a true classic and if you live here in PDX you best be in attendance.
    Get more info here!

    Here’s some footage from 2010:

  • Comic Book Cover of the Week! Iron Man Battles BOOZE!

    This weeks cover is not a Spider-man battling the Green Goblin high above the city or Superman battling Brainiac to save the world. Nope it’s Iron Man battling a demon in a damn bottle!! BOOZE! I love this cover and this era of Iron Man. Tony Stark was a complete fuck up for a while and I love that they gave him some real life problems to deal with in the eighties. You can see from this cover alone why Robert Downey Jr. was chosen for the role, he goes down in history as the Iron Man much like Christopher Reeves will always be the most perfect Superman of the silver screen. Bob Layton did an amazing job of portraying Tony Stark at his worst!

  • Can’t Wait For Machete 2? Check Out “BAD ASS”!

    It makes me so very happy that at 68 years old Danny Trejo is finally getting the respect he deserves! He really hit the top thanks to Robert Rodriguez finally casting him in his most iconic role yet “Machete”. Now I also want to take this opportunity to ask Rodriguez what the hell he was thinking when he cast Adrien Brody as the lead in Predators? Think how more awesome that movie would have been had Trejo been cast as the lead instead of a side character that gets disposed of early on in the film. Hell I think it could’ve rivaled Arnold’s role!

    So anyway I wanted to recommend a new Trejo film where he takes the front and center. “Bad Ass” was just released to DVD and it’s a helluva lotta fun! Now it’s no where near as epic as Machete but it does play as more of an awesome 1980’s style action flick. The story is very very loosely based on true events. This movie tells the story of a Veitnam vet who stands up for an elderly man (Trejo is considered a senior citizen also, the movie’s tag line is “They just messed with the wrong Senior Citizen” ) on the bus from two nasty foul mouthed neo-nazi’s. By stands up I mean, kicks ASS. Someone records it with their phone and Trejo soon is an internet sensation. This begins a string of events that pushes him, or should I say “Bad Ass”, as he is renamed that sets this vet on a rampage of full on butt kicking for the movies duration.

    Yeah this movie is cheezy as hell and it knows it. It’s got a ton of great one liners, a high speed bus chase, Ron Perlman as a crooked mayor and lots of drinkin’ between the action scenes by Trejo. Hell Danny pretty much puts everyone in place in this one. Everything about this one a throwback to films like Commando & Rambo. It’s a bunch of dumb fun and a delight seeing Trejo deliver an ass whooping again and again…

  • Live action CG ALF Movie…….LAME!!!

    Hey everyone it seems word on the net today is about the possible ALF reboot / remake full length feature film! Sounded good to me when I first heard about it, I mean you have to have no soul to not like ALF! I am certain there are some youngsters out there are like who the shit is ALF? But all of us 1980’s kids need no introduction, his name stands for Alien Life Form. He’s a furry smart ass alien who loves to dine on….Cats!

    It was also one of best 80’s sitcoms around & Alf was brought to life entirely by puppetry. This version boasts a CG Alf. Uggh…hey Hollywood did you see the latest installment of The Muppets movie? Do you think that would have been any good if Kermit and Co were CG? It’s no wonder that this is the direction the movie is taking as Jordan Kerner the “genius” behind the latest Smurfs movie is Alf’s producer. This movie could be a completely nostalgic & delightful throwback for all of us. Somehow I have a feeling this new version of Alf will be a bunch of watered down Hollywood Schlock. Only Hollywood could ever be accused of something as atrocious as watering down Alf. But they are already en route to doing so. The good news is that original voice of Alf, Paul Fasco is on board at least! Maybe I am being too hard on Hollywood? But hey Alf was never broken, he doesn’t need to be fixed….in the meantime puppet ALF is saying F’ off to CG Alf via this ALF Metal, this isn’t the first time I posted this here because it’s goddamn amazing!!!

  • Silver Screen Supermen: The Blog of Steel by Chris “Optional” Gray

    Hey folks, its Chris “Optional” Gray here bringing you a guest piece for Universal Dork. This blog was promised to Mr. Saturday long ago, and much like the topic this blog is covering there have been many set backs, production delays, casting issues, wardrobe disputes, you know, the typical things that can go wrong with writing a blog. My original idea was to compare and contrast the film making efforts between Marvel and DC, but that subject is for another time and day.Today we will be focusing on the Man of Steel himself, Superman and his adventures on the silver screen.

    The first time Superman was brought to the big screen was in 1941 with the Fleischer Studios animated shorts, bringing the Caped Crusader to life for the first time. These shorts are absolute classics and have endured the test of time so much to be readily available on Netflix for your viewing pleasure.They perfectly capture the Superman of that early era.They feel like your reading a short comic in a newspaper fun,fast and a feast for the eyes especially if you love old animation.

    The next time Superman graced the screen was in 1948 when Alan Kyrk starred in the theatrical series, which were very similar in style to George Reeve’s later television series. Unfortunately, Kyrk really lacked any kind of screen presence to pull off the roles of Superman and Clark Kent. The most entertaining aspect of the shorts comes from the lack of budget that prevented them from actually showing Kyrk take flight, those segments had to be animated which while distracting is still very entertaining. It makes even the worst modern day CGI look glorious in comparison, but the shorts still come off as enjoyable.

    Now we come to George Reeve’s debut as Superman in the little known B-Movie Superman and The Molemen (more…)

  • Zero Dark Thirty: Cinematic Bin Laden Propaganda?

    We all knew that it wouldn’t be long before we got a “hunt for Bin Laden” movie which chronicles the United States search for the evil doer and the “capture” carried out by the Navy Seals. Now to me the way this story has played out in the news makes for a perfect movie! It’s right out of an eighties shoot em’ up! I have had a hard time with this whole story from the get go however, it’s very similar for me to “United 93” as it’s actually very unclear what happened on that flight as many speculate it was actually shot down by our government. The movie however spins it one way, that the people on board beat the terrorists. It was actually an entertaining movie but as I watched I kept really wondering if the film was a big load of propaganda to help fuel more war?

    So now we have “Zero Dark Thirty” the latest from Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Point Break, The Hurt Locker). Yeah folks now we’re all going to get “the real story”. Ugghhh…I am not sure about you but didn’t anyone think the whole Bin Laden killed and dumped / burial into the sea immediately because we didn’t want to upset any muslims thing was a little off? No pictures of his body and a Navy Seal story of his killing that changed a half a dozen times? Whatever the case when I heard the news my bullshit detector immediately went off in my brain, watching Obama tell us what happened didn’t sit right with me. Aside from the fact that we assassinated him instead of putting him on trial for the world to see, Bin Laden was never even indicted with a crime by the USA.

    Now this is all beside the point that Bin Laden wasn’t ever seen on video for almost ten years after 911. What we did always get were “confirmed” audio tapes of his voice during that period of time spouting off his evil deeds. Seemed a little off to me. It was also claimed several times that Bin Laden had died of kidney failure in 2001. Was Bin Laden actually dead all these years? Has our Government been hiding things all these years about Bin Laden and the true story of 911? We all know Governments never lie to their people right? Well rest assured it’s good to know now all us Americans are now finally gonna get the real story with Zero Dark Thirty….whoopee…..

  • Comic Book Cover of the Week! Brian Bolland is the Master!!

    Here’s one of my favorite covers drawn by quite possibly the best cover artist ever-Brian Bolland. He won me over completely as a kid with his incredible art on The Killing Joke, which is arguably the best Batman story of all time. Well Bolland also did some jaw dropping artwork on the covers for The Flash in the early 2000’s. Here is one of my faves, Bolland immediately gives Captain Cold the Killing Joke treatment. Cold has never before looked so sinisterly AWESOME!

  • Walt Simonson What Happened?!

    I have done several posts here about how the “old dog” comic artists need to come back and show the young’ins how it’s done. I have ranted about John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Barry Windsor Smith and Walt Simonson. Well I guess I am going to eat my words here as I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. Walt Simonson’s latest artwork well kinda….SUCKS. There I said it. It’s out there on the table. I was initially thrilled to find out that him and Bendis were teaming up for the latest running arc of The Avengers but upon initially seeing the artwork I was stunned at just how terrible his skills have gotten over the years. So what gives? Did he just forget how to draw? Was he rushed and didn’t give a shit? Or am I crazy and maybe he always sucked? Lets take a closer look…

    New Simonson 2012 (these are random images I found online, perhaps I can scan some soon that may really get my point across, however if you are reading Avengers currently you know what I mean) :

    Walt Simonson 1980’s:

    Well Walt all I ask is that you put a little more effort into it dude! It’s clear you got the skills still, maybe you don’t think you need to prove anything? Well I’ll be watching closely for a return to form

  • The Golden Age of Superheroes!

    This always puts a smile on my face!