The Snake Takes Shape

 

The Superman Knocks Twice

I saw Superman Returns last night at a sneak showing my brother's company was doing. Bryan Singer has made a big damn movie for sure with some spectacular visual effects, but at the same time with a lot fewer characters then the X-Men movies, he was also able to give us a lot more intimate character moments. For instance, like Peter Parker's learning to web-swing in first Spiderman movie, Superman Returns shows us a new aspects of his origin that we've never seen before, in this case Clark's discovery that he can fly.

Additionally, Superman Returns is very much a love letter to the first Richard Donner Superman movie with numerous "in-references" that are often exact recreations of lines and scenes, but at the same time fit into the more modern story. In a sense Kevin Spacey is playing Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor, while still doing enough to make it his own. A lot was made about using unused Marlon Brando footage, but really they were just backdrop, setting the tone for the film as a whole. But they did help tying the movies all together.

There was a major story element, that worried me a little bit just because it's a large departure from comic continuity but I'm curious to see where it goes. But who knows? Comics continuity could begin to echo the movies. The rumor is that Richard Donner will be joining Geoff Johns as a writer on Action Comics later this year.

Roadside Show & Tell!

My book club buddy Alison is currently crossing the country as part of her Roadside Show & Tell. She's an amazing artist and her travel log is almost as amazing. It makes me hungry to take my own road trip across America, something I've never done. It really is a strange and fantastic country that I'd like to see more of eventually, but foreign shores tempt as well.

DogBlogged

Yesterday, I appeared on the Dogster Blog. Pretty sweet! So far, it's been great getting up to speed with the dogster pack and I'm really looking forward to building some cool functionality for the dogster/catster community and helping build the place up as the best place on the internet for us pet lovers to hang out.

Update: I also launched my first dogster/catster code today, re-designed storefronts. They feature excellent photos by my friend Gabriel Branbury. Check them out the DogStore and CatStore.

Thar be dragons in de Mission!!

Mission Dragons
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

The mini-park next to my house is finally coming together. This week a dragon or so sort of serpent started to rise out of the ground. It looks there might be some light or water feature to it as well. Either way it should be a dramatic change from the old scrub grass lot.

Kickball Sunday

mini-kball june467
Originally uploaded by GGPkickball.

Jordon took some awesome kickball shots last weekend. This one looks like I'm about fall over backwards while juggling the ball.

Yes, dogs!

Yesterday was my first day at dogster.com/catster.com. It was great to meet the members of the team I hadn't met before, like Greg, Steven, Randi and her dog Ripley. Mostly I was just getting the lay of the land and meeting the architecture, but today I hope to crawl through some code. I can already see really making a diffeerence for the site and the company. It's going to be fun, which is something I was missing from Visa for far too long. Woof! Woof!