Absent With Out Leave

That time of the month for me again when I become AWOL from the "blog-o-sphere." My Army duties kick in and I have to disappear from the "Geek Grid" for a while until after the weekend. Saturday I received my mandatory flu shot and by today (Monday) I felt it working as I think I had a fever or something. This gave me the opportunity to stay home and catch up on some more Geek related things.

Today I watched Children Of Men. I have had a hard time summing up this movie but I realized as a Sci-Fi movie that treads old conceptual ground, this story is incredibly fresh. It's the "Saving Private Ryan" for future-fascist post-apocalyptic Brittain. The movie could even be told today from the streets of Isreal or Syria, but by combining the familiar trappings of "civilization," in London, with the harsh realities of war torn neighborhoods of Middle Easters cities. Children Of Men takes cues from all of this to create a setting that is as much a character as Kee, the first pregnant woman in almost two (2) decades. Brilliant stuff. The hand-held cinematography is never too jarring, and looks more real than most home movies. One of the documentaries on the disc described the look of the future as the "anti-Blade Runner," which occured to me early on as many scenes show some technical advancements but are never pushed to the "Blade Runner" extreme because society is about to end. It's fascinating and horrifying to watch the future unfold before you throught he eyes of Clive Owen who is quite believable, with incredible events thrust upon him he never shirks responsibilty once the stakes are understood. Even Michael Cain is a believable "hippy" off the grid that helps keep Clive Owen sane during this trying times. Another excellent movie in the pantheon of future dustopian story telling. I could see this being the precursor to the Mad Max series.

I've started reading a Manga that recently cught my attention, Hunter x Hunter. I would place this in the catagory of "pre-teen protagonist that has rediculous adventures" such as Pokemon, Yugi-oh, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Dragon Ball (Goku is 6), etc. I generally don't like these stories aimed at the "younger" crowd because I just can't suspend belief enough to think any of these kids could survive the tasks put before them in their respective Manga. Dragon Ball is a large exception in my book because the saga, told over 42 graphic novels, is writen by Akira Toriyama, a master story teller. And Hunter x Hunter (the "x" is silent, just say "hunter" twice) is closer in tone to Dragon Ball in the wonder and excitement of a strange new land to explore than what new card/creature can Ash/Yugi defeat the bad guy with this week.Yoshihiro Togashi wrote HxH after establishing himself with YuYu Hakusho (aka The Poltergeist Report) which aired on Cartoon Network a few years ago.

Hunter x Hunter starts on familiar ground, main character Gon wants to be just like daddy Ging who is a Hunter, by taking the Hunter test, even though his Aunt and Uncle tried to hide the truth of his father from him. Hunters in their society seem to garner much fame, money and responisibilty and Gon meets a couple other candidates, Kurapika and Leorio, who more or less begin to work together to survive the tests. These tests are brutal, and the first volume of the Manga details the 405 candidates that make it to the test and a countdown of the survivors and the numbers dwindle. Creatures in this world are violent and "messed up," like the human-faced monkey and the hypno-butterflies, that had me hooked. I want to know what world they're in and why the ecology of their planet is so scewed towards carnivorous behavior. That's the Star Trek scientist in me, but there is a lot to like in this story and I hope the anime comes to our shores if it hasn't already.

The other Manga I've been reading is a much more adult (not Adult with a captial "A" you pervs) story that I would equate to a supernatural version of "The Fugitive," except the protagonist Light Yagami really is commiting a crime of sorts and the cops are after him. The supernatural in this tale surrounds the mythology of the Shinigami, the Japanese angel of death, and is called Death Note. This is the debut work of Tsugumi Ohba, which has been so well received as a first time story that many think this is a psudonym for a more famous author. The story itself is about a Shinigami who leaves his Death Note in the human world and a high school student finds it. The book has the power to kill anyone whose name is writen in it. There are limits but Light learns them as he decides to kill all the criminals in the world. A cult forms around him on the Internet, refering to Light as Kira (derived from Killer), and Interpol asks a top detective, only known as "L" to investigate the hundreds of criminals that are dying of heart attacks daily. As L gets closer to discovering the true identity of Kira, Light must manage to learn all the powers of the book to save himself and create a crime-free Utopia for humanity. This is not a black and white, good vs. evil, plot. Each viewpoint is rationalized but Light sometimes goes over the edge by killing the odd Law Enforcemtn officer that's getting to close to him, but L has his share of vices too. One of the best Manga I've read so far to come out of the 21st century.

My Guitar Hero career is still moving ahead strong and I've moved on to Hard. The learning curve from Easy to Medium is much steeper than from Medium to Hard, but not by a lot. I finally defeated Slash on Hard and that was an accomplishment. This didn't feel cheezy at all. I had to work at for a while, which is how it should be. I doubt I'll see him on Expert but I know he won't go quitely there either. My next hurdle is Cherub Rock on Hard. Those three-fingered split-cords are murder on the fingers. See you next broadcast.