"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Monday, August 17, 2015

Lego Hyrule Castle

Check out the video below for a look at a large scale (unofficial) Lego Hyrule Castle from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that took two years to build. In the video master builder Joseph Zawarda talks about his creation. For more details about the build click here. For pics of his other Lego Legend of Zelda builds click here.

Nerd HQ San Diego Comic-Con Panels

One of the fun things (at least for those that can't attend) about the San Diego Comic Con is the panels. However, while sometimes the actors and what not embrace the whole experience, most stay in "sales pitch" mode. As a result, 5th annual Nerd HQ results in much better panels as the more intimate setting (only a few hundred people in the room) along with panelists who are volunteering their time rather then completing some marketing obligation The highlights this year, besides the always entertaining Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon, include the cast of Doctor Who, cast of The Maze Runner, Once Upon a Time, Stephen Amell (Arrow), cast of Mr. Robot and a whole bunch more. If you want to pick and choose which videos to watch, click here.

Saturday, August 08, 2015

The Jon Stewart Era Ends on The Daily Show

It is a true end of an era as Jon Stewart signed off of The Daily Show for the last time on Thursday. Stewart led the charge of speaking truth to power, using actual footage, facts and evidence to point out the bullshit that politicians and businesses sell everyday. It is something that the 24 hour news networks and your local news is supposed to be doing but stopped doing a long time ago when they learned more money could just be made by feeding into fear and hate. Its a sad day for those of us that want a little humor with the facts of the day and now instead just have the usual nonsense spin machines to go to (nevermind the tragically that real news only comes from something like The Daily Show and not supposed actual reporters who only seem to be reading from their emails or twitter nowadays).

The final episode, to no surprise, was full of class and a fitting sign off as most of the previous correspondents (the talent in that room when they were done...) all appeared before Stephen Colbert gave a heartfelt speech showing his appreciation of what Jon Stewart had done for him and the others over the years. The next, fortunately brief, segment was some of Stewart's targets giving him a send off, and then this was followed by a walk through the backstage offices to the set as Jon essentially said goodbye to everyone he worked with each day. The last segment was him warning the audience to always remains viligent for the bullshit and to call it out when they see it before he got his own moment of Zen with a mini concert by his favorite singer Bruce Springsteen. Few shows get the final episode nailed right but Stewart has 2,581 episodes of practice and he nailed it to no ones surprise. His legacy established, he will be missed and all I can say is good luck to those that try to fill the mighty large hole he is leaving in his wake.

While not available for embedding, you can watch the final episode here.