Movie Preview: Surrogates [2009]

The Surrogates is a graphic novel in five issues written by Robert Venditti, drawn by Brett Weldele and published by Top Shelf Productions between 2005 to 2006. In 2009 a prequel called The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone was published.

The premise of The Surrogates is the virtualization of the real world. Not merely the internet but by something way beyond.Imagine a world where instead of people, their avatar's moved about in the real world, interacting with each other, working at offices and doing all the physical chores for their owners. The owners instead sit in the air conditioned comfort of their homes, plugged on to the feed of information from their 'surrogates' in the real world. See what they see, feel what they feel, but stay away from all the risks involved. Broke a bone? Get a new surrogate. Look at the positive side. No more AIDS, no more physical injuries, no more fear of getting mugged in the lonely alley.

And come 25th of September 2009, you can watch Bruce Willis as FBI Agent Greer on the large screen taking on the world full of surrogates and a surrogate killer on the loose. With Bruce Willis is Radha Mitchell in the lead role. The film is directed by Jonathan Mostow. Set in 2017, a year that is now within the coming decade, the movie revolves around a future in which humans live in near isolation. Sometimes these kind of movies sound too absurd to be anywhere near reality, but sometimes the thought of how quickly the computer changed our world keeps the fear of something like this happening alive.

Surrogates is a thought provoking comic and movie on the lines of the iRobot by Issac Asimov. Can a robot armed with intelligence be held responsible for murder? Now the question is a little changed. Can killing a robot without intelligence be considered murder? Is killing a surrogate equivalent to murder? What is the implication of this kind of virtualization of the world? Are the surrogates merely doing what we intended them to do or are we overdoing it all over again? We found petroleum and today we know the myriad ways in which it can screw up the world around us. We found the computer and we now have diseases because of the overuse of technological products (think CTS). So, what will happen if one day we do manage to perfect the art of creating surrogates? I used to feel that Artificial Intelligence could be our enemy, but I keep forgetting that in this little blue planet of ours, the only enemy is our intelligence. Thought provoking indeed.

What if? Would I like to live life through an expendable surrogate? Look my best every day? Maybe even be a woman for a day and see how people would react to me? Instead of just a nick name on chat rooms, I can now be my alter ego. Maybe a body builder at the beach? Hmm... I can almost see my private garage of Surrogates. That one is for going to the movies. That one when I want to flex some muscles. Oh, and that one for those special nights. But think about it for some time more and you will feel a disturbing hollow creep inside you. God help us, for we truly do not have any idea of what we want.

Catchy...
Technorati Tags: The Surrogates, Graphic Novel, Bruce Willis, Movie

"We will all laugh at gilded butterflies", says Megan Fox

One of the most famous writers of all times, said it. And one of the hottest chicks of today, sports it. How's that for being a famous one liner? Could I swap places with these 50 characters?

But when William Shakespeare wrote it for King Lear, little would he have guessed the canvas it will be flaunted on. It adorns the, now obscenely famous, skin over the right shoulder of Megan Fox, the superstar from Transformers. Actually, I think she was the only reason the sequel was made (in my humble opinion) and absolutely the only reason to watch the sequel (which I have not, at least not yet).

So, Shakespeare wrote it as a dialog jesting a stint in the prison. The characters must have realized that all grapes are sour from within the stone walls, no matter how you look at it. So, they decided to laugh at the gilded butterflies because they know the truth.

Really? What about this world that we live in is true anymore? Isn't everything around us, merely a gilding over our vulnerable and naked skins? Want a Ferrari? How about a Tommy Hilfiger? Evian anyone? So, does that mean we ought to be laughing at each other from the moment we are born till we die? Actually, if you think about it, Shakespeare could have been laughing at the rest of us. Maybe he is rolling with laughter in his grave right now. May his soul rest in peace.

Maybe Megan sports it because she never wants to forget that the shimmer and glitter of Hollywood is only a gliding over the already beautiful inner self. Or maybe she has some issues with her self image and she got this tattooed on her skin so as to never lose her sense of grounding. Or simply because getting a tattoo is the 'in thing' and makes you doubly famous in Hollywood (remember Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan?).

But all said and done, having a tattoo is cool and having it in plain English that anyone can read is pretty ballsy too. But then, that's Megan for you. Love it or leave it, just can't deny it.

By the way, here is the part from King Lear where the line appears. You can notice that the tattoo is not a word to word copy. Open to interpretation, like I said.

"We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage…
 so we'll live,
 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
 Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
 Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
 And take upon 's the mystery of things,
 As if we were God's spies…"
                                                    --King Lear, Act V, Scene 3


Technorati Tags: William Shakespeare, Megan Fox, King Lear

Myth or Reality Review: Michael Jackson mummified?

Just saw this picture of a 3000 year old egyptian bust that has an uncanny resemblance to the King of Pop right down to the disintegrated nose. This is not only a rare coincidence, but also pretty freaky. If there is a face in this world that is worth being legendary and remembered for many many years to come, it is Michael Jackson's. Of course, his first ,and might I add his only, call to fame is great music that divinely transcends all divides created by us mere humans. But the list of his call to infamy runs long, from the repeated plastic surgeries to the ever changing face and skin color to his tryst with the child molestation cases to over the top accessories and lifestyle. But if in death he gets another shot at being remembered, this man was born to be legendary. No questions asked.

I can imagine Michael Jackson now sitting with the Gods in heaven and singing and entertaining them. And watching the live telecast from earth and amusing himself at what a magical life he lived. Yes, as fellow humans we troubled him, we never let the spotlight off him for too long and we never understood his love for kids (at least the way he professed on an interview). But his life was magical and blessed for sure. And if a blessed soul comes on earth once an era, maybe they share a common face. Just a thought.

So, coming back to the bust in question (not the bust that I would like to be in question), is it possible that Michael Jackson modeled his face after this ancient relic? No one has an answer to that question to be honest. After all, how much about Michael do we know for sure? Not much, almost everything we have ever held him to has been speculation, including the reason for his death.

This bust can be found at the Field Museum at Chicago. A museum spokesperson agrees that the resemblance of the bust to Michael Jackson's face was quite astounding, but did not know if Michael had ever seen this bust. This bust has been identified to have come from the New Kingdom period (1550 B.C. to 1050 B.C.), the same time as Ramesses and King Tut.

Another thing that is striking is that Michael Jackson did the video for "Remember the time" with an Egyptian theme round about the time when his face was almost identical to the bust. And now, the nose of the bust is further disintegrating. Is there some connection between the disintegration of the bust's nose and Michael losing his nose? Though I think this last point is pushing it too far, the other things are pretty striking. Like the curator clarified that 95% of all Egyptian statues and busts were defiled (a.k.a. break the nose) by early Christians and Muslims because they were used for idolatry. Maybe Jackson did see this bust and wanted to be as pretty as it.

Unfortunately someone forgot to mention to him that this was the bust of a woman. Arrggghhhh.....

Here are some other blogs about this:
Did Michael Jackson model face after Egyptian bust? - By Micheal Sneed, Sun-times Columnist
Michael Jackson = Ancient Egyptian? - By Marcus Gilmer

Technorati Tags: Michael Jackson, Mummy, King Tut, Ramesses, King of Pop

Redefining HOT!!! - Davorka Tovilo - you got to see her to believe her

Saw this picture of Davorka Tovilo in the newspaper today and me liked it. So, I go to Google and do an innocent search. Mind you, my safe search is set to moderate and the set of images I get as a result for the simple name search of "Davorka Tovilo" is astounding. Me like it more.

And then I realized that she does not even have a Wikipedia page. Wikipedia does have a couple of her pictures in the creative commons media directory, but nothing written about her. The most I could gather is that she is Croatian born, 28 years old and an actress in German films and is living in Munich (mostly). And her picture gets splashed in an Indian newspaper halfway across the globe. My guess is her qualification were merely globular in nature that they travel the globe with such ease.

So, since me liked the whole Davorka Tovilo experience a lot, especially because of the inability of us mere mortals in hiding anything from Lord Google, and since Lord Google is so gracious to give us free access to all his visions (which include enough to make me sweat even with safe search set on moderate), here is a sample of what Davorka looks like (with very very little left to imagination).

I am trying to organize the pictures below in ascending order of sorts from what I think are lot left to imagination to a little left to imagination. So be warned that scrolling to the bottom of this page may not be appropriate for everyone. This post is almost like soft porn. Sorry! ;-) Who could have imagined an innocent encounter with a morning newspaper would lead to this?

























For more, click on the following links:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2495417/
http://www.zimbio.com/Davorka+Tovilo/pictures/pro
http://www.zimbio.com/Davorka+Tovilo/articles/2/Davorka+Tovil
http://www.platinum-celebs.com/models/davorka-tovilo

Comedy Show Review: The flight of the conchords in their 'Business Time'

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

I have just found out that the newest most hilarious way to spend my laughter is to buy a ticket on board the "Flight of the Conchords" and kick up my legs and let the stomach relax. Because soon enough the stomach will be bouncing and jiggling in all sort of funny directions. Sometimes trying to get over the torture of the funny, tickling yet delivered with the straigtest possible face comedy imaginable. "Aahhh Yeah... Baabyyy... Aahaaa...", as Jemaine would say while giving a hot chick the massage of her lifetime. And I presume it would be a wednesday and that is the night we all make 'Loveah'. What undeniable logic that is? Who could disagree that wednesday is the best day of the week to get laid, especially after marriage since there is really (and I mean really) nothing interesting on the television and your morale is on the verge of getting over this weeks hill that you need the little (2 minute?) push.

And then what better use to put your 'Business socks' to than as the best attire for enticing your lady love. "Leave her wanting more", he means to say in his sexed up voice while Bret strums on the guitar with heightened excitement, "leave her wanting more and she will remember you". Again, the logic is infallible. And conserves energy to get through the rest of the week, don't it? And after all, it is all about reading the signs right. When she says, "I have to get up in the morning and I have work to do", you need the clarity of Casanova to know that she means business, RIGHT NOW.

"Then she goes and sorts out the recycling, which is not part of the foreplay but is very important", means she wants me baby aah. Wants me in only my business socks and she wants my business sock with me in them, right about NOW. And to show her that you are all turned on by her, remove your jeans with your shoes on. And the stumble that slowly transforms into a sexy snaky dance will really get her woozy, on a wednesday night with work the next day. What else could work? And two minutes in heaven is definitely doubly better than one minute in heaven and then she goes, "Is that it", the work is done and done well, coz "Yeeeaaahhhhh, that's it bayhbeee... Yeahhhhhh"

Signing off for now in my socks, and you know when I am down to my socks, what time it is... 'Its business... It's business time... Business time for my business... my business... It's my business time... (3 INTENSE minutes later) ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... Business hours are over...

Click here to search for all Flight of the Conchord videos on youtube
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PS: And now imagine the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy sung by the flight of the conchords. Now, that would really be something to remember and pretty difficult to forget aah.

Technorati Tags: Flight of the conchords