Blood Ties – Season One (Region 2) DVD Review

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 Blood Ties is a TV show based on a series of modern day books about vampires. The story follows Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) a former cop who is now a private investigator as she investigates cases of the bizarre and unusual. Think a grown up version of Buffy with the standard monster of the week that comes with it.

While investigating the cases she joins up with former partner cop Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal) and vampire Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid). The show in essence uses the same formula as Angel where a monster is encountered and then the vampire is sent in to fight it. There is more to the story though in even a full season set there is only a single bad episode. The rest are stories about vampires, exorcisms, haunted paintings and the list goes on.

Even though the show does sound rather generic on paper with the vampire sidekick and romance storyline that shows it type of book origins it is a good show. It takes a while to get used to and the DVD has no extras but the show is excellent and takes repeat viewings.

Verdict: +

Major League Gaming, now on ESPN

MLG on ESPN
In what appears to be a healthy intermingling of the mainstream sports and gaming cultures, ESPN has struck a deal with Major League Gaming so that they can have shows on ESPN. Sounds pretty cool and the guys at MLG are ecstatic enough to release this press release. This elevates MLG’s status to biggies like the MLB, the NBA, the NHL and what-not, because ESPN will be giving complete coverage to the MLG.

That means you’ll be seeing player interviews, the 2008 MLG Pro Circuit Competitions, streamed matches, scores, statistics and so on. We’re definitely not talking about an oddly-timed half-hour show talking about how gaming tournaments are so weird. We’re talking a full-fledged sports deal that puts the MLG actually into the major league.

Check out ESPN’s flashy new site for the newfound affiliation, where they’ve already got the show going, with fresh MLG news and Pro Circuit stuff. Those not in the know might also be interested in ESPN’s Video Games site, where they try to be real cool and pretend they are good at covering video games like other major sites we won’t mention here. Just kidding.

This event has a profound impact on gaming, perhaps the largest since Halo 3’s humongous sales. With nerdy gaming tournaments getting showtime on ESPN, you know that the mainstream-gaming gap is being filled slowly. And while some might be annoyed by that, the more optimistic among us will tell you that this can only mean more people play games, more people make games and hopefully, games become cheaper and better!

So much for Utopia.

New Police Sirens Dangerous?

New police sirens could potentially be risk to your health.

Yes imagine that police sirens that vibrate you while driving. Sounds soothing doesn’t it? It’ll be interesting to see if this causes car crashes in the near future. As of right now the vibrations are said to be sound based so biologically you should be ok, but mentally – that’s a whole different story.

Bloopers Mashup – StuffWeLike Fall 07 Videos

As the new Spring semester for college creeps up on us, I became depressed. My free time will dwindle away, but the good thing is that I’ll be able to make more internet videos!

I mashed up Mr. Lifeless, Gazmo and Friends, and Two Males and a Killer Whale bloopers all into one video. This is all never before seen stuff so enjoy our stupidity!

Justice League movie stalled!

Justice League, from the Animated Series
Superhero movie fans mourn, because the highly-awaited Justice League movie from Warner Bros. has hit a rock, stumbled and fallen down an inescapable ravine with no Lassie to help. The movie, which was slated for a 2009 release, with production to start Spring has been put on hold. Production will now most likely start in late summer or fall (if at all)!

Why, you ask? The studio wants tax breaks for shooting in Australia, and got no response to their proposal. They also weren’t fully satisfied with the script, and wanted some more help with it, but the current writers’ strike leaves their options to drooling Justice League fanfic writers, which is not a good idea. Plus, the film is in a sorry state with the writer’s strike already, but their SAG deal expires in June, and the movie needs to be completed by then!

As far as the cast goes, most of the cast should still be available for the planned late summer-fall production. The cast itself, for those not in the know, will feature Arnie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as The Flash, and (rumors follow) Scott Porter as Superman, Common as Green Lantern and Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul.

The repercussions here are that we are in a shortage of superhero flicks. The Dark Knight, the show-stealer is coming out this very year, while a Superman sequel’s fate is currently unknown. The inevitable Spider-Man 4 will take a while. That leaves us with the new upcoming Hulk movie and the planned Captain America movie. Okay, maybe not even that less, but hell.

Apple TV $229 AND with MORE Features

At Macworld Apple announced several new features to the Apple TV and a new price ($229 for 40gb, $329 for 160gb), all making for a package that’s actually appealing.

Users can now rent over movies straight from iTunes. Over 1,000 titles will be offered by the end of February. Of that 100 titles will be offered in high definition with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Costs will be $3.99 for new releases, $2.99 for library titles, and $4.99 for high definition titles. Costumers will have 30 days to activate the title and 24 hours after that to watch it.

Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their computer, all
current generation iPods or iPhone.

“With the new Apple TV and iTunes Movie Rentals, movie lovers can rent DVD-quality or stunning HD movies from their couch with just a click of a button,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “No more driving to the video store or waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail.”

Other new features include viewing photos from their computers, Flickr and .Mac Web Galleries on their widescreen TV as slideshows or screen savers, and anytime photos are updated on Flickr or .Mac, they are automatically updated on Apple TV.