focoproject.com

As many of you may have noted in the post below, I was rendered speechless by my viewing of Visitor Q and whether I like it or not, the movie has stuck in my head. As I have also mentioned before, I have had a difficult time explaining the obvious dissimilarities between my rating and that found on IMDb.

It is by sheer coincidence that as I was looking for a picture to post for that particular film, I ran into a very interesting post at IrishFilmJournal.com which has a lengthy analysis of the film and which helped me understand the merits of a movie that I had found too shocking to truly value. After having read it I suppose I have come to a greater understanding of what Miike has done, though by nature of its content I can not say that I like the movie any more than previously stated. I will therefore leave my rating at 2 out of 5 for Visitor Q, though I highly recommend to anybody that dares watch this film, that they keep this article in mind because, if nothing else, it manages to provide a solid argument for the idea that this film is not disturbing for the sake of being disturbing and should not be readily dismissed as such.

In any case I end this particular post with the link to said blog and hope that may clarify matters for those viewers that opt to take a peep at this controversial film. If you do happen to watch it, please do send me a word to let me know, I am interested to discuss this a bit further.

Here is the link: IrishFilmJournal.com

-Fco.

I don’t really have the words to express the overwhelming feeling of joy and hope tonight in seeing Barack Obama become President Elect of the United States of America. To see the inspiration that has flooded the country and moved the youth to finally speak their mind. I feel an immediate change in the air, a lifting of the pressure that has weighed us down. Clearly there is a long and difficult path ahead, for our future President, for our country and for all of us as citizens, but I am optimistic. Very optimistic. So for now, congratulations to Mr. Obama and to our nation!

-Fco.

Alright, I saw this today and I just could not pass up on the opportunity of posting this up in here, because it is pretty funny. Not so much that it happens, because, everybody needs a spotter at some point, otherwise, weight lifting would be pointless…but this is just…funny.

(alright, the code embedding was not working and I did not have the time to figure it out, so I will just provide the link, maybe switch it up later to the actual video, once I can be bothered)

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=45079213

Fco.

Song of the Day: Duality - The Martial Arts

…is this thing on? It looks like the site has come back, which is a good thing, the bad news is that I am also trying to meet my deadline to get my show up on the air by the start of the month so this means that I may not be able to get you the other chunk of my report on Comic-Con until later…possibly tonight if I find myself with some time. I appreciate your patience on this.

-Fco.

Song of the Day: Neanderthals - The Cyanide Valentine

I am here, I am here, I have not forgotten the blog  by any means, things just sort of hit life a bit harder this last few weeks and I have been busy with all sorts of things. But believe me, I have movie reviews lined up for you, a couple of book reviews and other random things to discuss. For now, however, until I get some more time to write something more substantial, here is a quick little video that gives all the secrets of some of the most popular national selections. Its all very…very accurate, I guarantee it.

Before too much time has passed, I feel compelled to say a word or two on Spain, beause it seems that for the first time one of my soccer teams actually accomplished what they were supposed to! How many times has a team looked so promising only to fail in quarter finals? Spain has been pulling that sort of nonsense for 44 years now. I have gone through this with Mexico too, though I am not sure that their selection ever looked as capable as Spain’s looked during this Eurocup.

When dealing with European teams, there are two sides I normally support, Spain and the Netherlands, the latter because I like the color orange and therefore as a kid I always supported the team (childhood teams are hard to die, just look at me and the Patriots) and the former because like it or not it is the Mother land.

During group play Eurocup 2008 both of these teams looked like they would be unstoppable, from the gates both sides were showing incredible form, Netherlands with a surprising attack and Spain with truly beautiful football, short passes that seemed to cut the midfield with ease. The difference only seemed to come during quarters, when Spain pulled through the way they were supposed to and Neatherlands failed too keep up.

The feat of beating Italy during quarters was of course a huge moral victory, particularly considering the fact that the game took place during the previously cursed (as far as Spain is concerned) July 22nd date and that it came down to penalty shootout. From then on, los Matadores seemed to get all the momentum they needed. It came down to the final, where they met up with German side that in all honestly was not looking to form and in my opinion never truly did. Somehow, by sheer luck, the Germans slipped as far as they did, even when they struggled so much with Turkeys entire bench (pretty much, since nine of their players were out due to injuries or suspension).

Nevertheless, if one team is known to be able to pull out enough muscle to do what it takes, the German side certainly would be that, so a final promising a showdown between Germany and Spain would be surely a good one. It was, for the most part and exciting game, low scoring sure, but not without excitement and in the end Spain finally got it well deserved victory, the only team that played without a hitch throughout the tournament, able to make the needed changes, out play their opponents and consistently deliver when it was needed.

So…there it is, Spain lifted its cup and I could not be more content. Now, lets hope Mexico can look at that team and do something similar.

-Fco.

It is all Ken’s fault, honestly. I was just walking out of Buffalo Wild Wings, minding my own business, happy to have seen yet another great Eurocup2008 game, when Ken stopped me and asked for my business card. Of course, I had none, as usual, I tend to forget to grab more business cards when I get back to the office. So instead he asked me to put my name and number down for a contest. I did, even if I was unsure what exactly it was that I had just signed up for. I heard contest and free chicken wings for a year and I thought it sounded good.

And it was good, turns out that two days later I get a call from Garret, the GM at Buffalo Wild Wings to let me know I had just won the contest along with three others and was going to get free tickets to the game, a VIP pass and would be competing in a wing eating contest during the half time show!!!

Now, I must say that I had a bit of hesitation on the contest part. My gag reflex is the worst, the idea of stuffing my mouth with food was not at all appealing, but hey, how many shots do you get at being in a half time contest? Not many…so I was not about to back out of it. Besides, it also meant a free live game for me and two friends. Of course, Kenichi was rightfully deserving of the first, because that was the deal, he is after all the one responsible. The other ticket went to my friend Rick who, even though it was short noticed, dropped everything out of his extremely busy schedule to make sure he could go watch some football and kick it out of the house for a bit.

So we went and it was fun. There was football, there was beer, there was cheer leading and all sorts of excitement. In all honesty, watching a game, I do not care what the sport is, is always better when you are there, live, seeing it all unfold. Sure, you often sacrifice the miracle of instant replay for it, or the DVR pause button for when you have to go take a leak but, ‘that is a small price to pay’ says I.

The contest itself was fun, between myself, two other winners of the drawing, a couple of radio celebrities, the Rattler Man (who apparently is some extreme fanatic, season ticket holder) and two little people (I think that is the politically correct term currently being accepted by society) who would act as a tag team. We each also were assigned a ‘counter’ which, in brief, was a really hot girl dressed in a tight referee shirt and short skirt and sexy fish-net stockings. That alone made the contest worthwhile…but I digress.

The contest itself was simple, you are given one and a half minutes and 25 boneless wings to eat, the person who eats the most wins. They also gave us a bottle of water but then told us we could not use water while competing. What this meant is that those delicious chicken wings suddenly turned into serious choking hazards. I did not become aware of this until I shoved the first one in my mouth and realized…”holy mother of all that is holy and mother, I am stuck with a chicken wing in my mouth I can not chew.”

Surely the other contestants realized this too, but for some reason they proceeded to shove more wings in their mouth. The dude next to me said he shoved three wings right of the get go! I never thought I would actually have the advantage here, but the strategy was very very simple: to win this contest, I simply had to eat like a civilized person and that is exactly what I did. Instead of shoving wings in my mouth, I would bite half a wing, swallow insert the other have and move that way.

Wouldn’t you know it, the strategy won, though apparently I was not the only genius to figure it out, somebody else at the other end of the table did too, and the two of us tied for first place with a grand total of — drum roll please — seven wings! I know, that sounds ridiculous even to me, particularly when there were guys twice my size competing, but…that is the way the cookie crumbles. So, I got a coupon book for chicken wings for the next year, a hard hat signed by the Rattler players, play off tickets for the AFC, a shirt and a hat, plus free beer. All in all, Ken did very good to make me sign up for this random contest.

And at the end of the night, kicking it with Rick and Ken at a game, watching the Rattlers attempt to ‘pull a Turkey’ and make a last minute comeback was very fun. So, here is a beer for a night well spent!

If you care to see more pictures of the night, just head over to my flickr account by clicking on the link: Rattler Night.

-Fco.

Dear Mexican Football Selection,

Why do you hate me? Me and all your loyal fans that tune in to watch you play year after year regardless of the disappointments you manage to formulate? I have not suffered so much with a team since the Patriots, who sucked for the longest time but who have managed to pull themselves out of obscurity and make themselves the number 1 team to hate of the decade (I still love ‘em). Could you not pull a Patriots one of these years and actually put out the performance you are supposed to?

On paper, you are supposed to be fantastic, your line up is one of the best and most diversified in ages…why is it then that you can not seem to plug the holes in your defense when everybody in the starting position back there is so good the are playing in Euro clubs?

Watching you play against Argentina tonight seriously reduced my life-span by seven years, with all those close calls you always seem to get and never seem to know how to finish. 4-1! Four to one, you could have lost with some dignity and made it closer.

I still love you…but we need to have a talk about this. You are becoming a hazard to my health.

Hopelessly yours,

Fco.

That’s right, read them and weep. I know you are all jealous of my new “Death Metal Black with Solar White Racing Stripes” look. They are pretty bad ass if I say so myself. I took the girls to get pedicures and they treated themselves, so why not me right? I am just sorta ticked the girl would not do a pirate skull on me, I think it was well beyond her artistic capabilities. Next time, I will ask them to let me do it myself, I will design a skull logo and do a 2/3 design to make it look as if the skull is embedded on the bed of the nail. Anyway, the best part of this whole thing is that foot rub they give you. I could get used to that every once in a while…

-Fco.

I am stoked about this one. I knew I would eventually want to put the galleries up, show the illustration work I have done and get back into it. Now I can finally show it without kicking you out to my deviantArt site, which is good and all but I like having this sort of content visible through the website. So…feel free to browse around, you will find the buttons on the top right navigational bar. One titled Sketches, the other Illustrations and I think those names are pretty self explanatory. There are navigational buttons beneath the gallery to view multiple pages and you can click on any thumbnail to enlarge. I have tested it on Firefox and it seems to work well, I will get around to testing it on other browsers later.

For now, that is the only upgrades I will be putting on, though a music link and an apparel link may eventually find their way here.  For now, enjoy the drawings and thank you again for visiting!

Fco.