The CW's 'ARROW'



Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow in the CW's new pilot, 'ARROW'.

 Above you see the first official image released of the CW's take on the Green Arrow for their new series pilot 'ARROW'. The costume was designed by three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood. Developed by writer/producers; Greg Berlanti (No Ordinary Family, Ei Stone), Marc Guggenheim (FlashForward, No Ordinary Family, Eli Stone) and Andrew Kreisberg (The Vampire Diaries). 'ARROW' follows billionaire playboy Oliver Queen after he's returned home, having been stranded on an island for five years, and takes up the bow and quiver for the first time to battle crime.

Some details about the series leaked out a few months ago, mostly casting breakdowns. While fan favorites will appear, including Dinah Lance, who isn't quite her fishnet wearing self just yet. It seems that this series will be making a number of changes and additions to the mythos. For example, Oliver now has a little sister and his mother is alive. He also isn't the head of his families company, and his home of 'Star City' is now called 'Starling City'. A name change that just puzzles me with its complete randomness.

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow as he appeared on 'Smallville'. His costume from seasons 6-9 is on the left, season 10 is on the right.

This isn't the first time the network has utilized the character. Their previous DC Comic outing 'Smallville' featured the Green Arrow in a supporting role during the last five seasons played quite well by fan favorite Justin Hartley. 'ARROW', being completely unrelated to 'Smallville', has cast Stephen Amell in the role for this, the characters very first solo television series.

Overall I'm quite thrilled with the costume, granted its not the most illuminating picture we could've gotten. The 'Smallville' costume was bright and pop, which was very appropriate for that series. But early word has it that 'ARROW' will be very different in terms of tone and style. With some throwing around comparisons to the Bourne action-film franchise. Statements of more of a focus on seriousness, reality, and action, makes this costume feel right. It includes a street style, a utilitarianism, and just looks like it was put together by hand. I am very much looking forward to this show, and I hope it turns out well.

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The sexual tension during the GOP debates is palpable. You can almost imagine the candidates passive-aggressively groping eachothers genitals backstage.

'Before WATCHMEN' is happening...

I honestly, truly, can't articulate my feelings on DC Comics 'Before WATCHMEN' project. And this is a long while after it was announced. I think that they have really great people involved, and I wish them well. But that's about as far as my positive feelings on the subject go. The history of WATCHMEN is a complicated thing and is tied up in a number of legal, economic, and creative details. Quite a bit of which is out there for people to read about so I won't try and make sense of it here. When it comes to my feelings on the subject I guess I could try to simplify it just by saying; I really wish this didn't exist. And in all of the interviews and all of the press releases I've seen there has been a lot of talk about what they're going to do, about they're love and respect of the original, and a bunch of other PR lines. But not a single person involved on any level has answered the most basic question; Why?

'Before WATCHMEN' is happening, that much is fact. With even the announcement of it, the comics community is split. Not just readers but, from what I've read, creators as well. 'Before WATCHMEN' is happening.....

Will we Time Travel?

I should first say that I have no degrees beyond a high school diploma. I have no training, no associations, and no experience, that would make me specially qualified to say anything. I'm just writing how I feel and from my own imagination.

The short answer is, yes, we will time travel. Of course the nature of Time Travel depends on your definition of it. Is it so simple as just popping back and forth to different times? is it more of a metaphysical concept? if you crush a butterfly are we all screwed?

Through recent experiments we've confirmed that time travel is indeed possible, but for now to a point. But I think if the technology is pushed, it may take decades or even centuries and a number of leaps and discoveries, than actual time travel will become an inevitability;

Energetic; We become able to detect and identify various forms of energy from other time periods.

Audible; Moving forward we are able to tune into the broadcast signals of other times and listen to events. This will eventually lead to listening in on sounds outside of artificial broadcast.

Visual; Focusing in on observation, we find a way to receive broadcasts of visual mediums.

3rd Person; We gain a stationary, window into the past, or even the future, through some sort of means. And view it as we would a TV show. From our singular screen we can observe events as they unfold. In time this technology develops and we can alternate between multiple views.

1st Person; We move forward allowing our view to be that of a specific individual. We experience the time period through their life, but still we cannot interact.

Dimensional; We can now project ourselves into a time period. Though we still cannot physically interact with the world around us, and cannot be seen by the inhabitants of the time, we may move freely and explore as we will.

Atomic; We are able to create an atomic replicant of a time explorer, who may move about the world and more importantly, interact. Once exploration is complete the replicant would than cease to exist.

Navigational; Not satisfied with atomic replicants, we design a machine that may be able to carry passengers through time itself opening doorways and jumping back and forth.

Of course these are just ideas in a shallow attempt to achieve what authors have been writing about for years and years. Reality may actually be much simpler than anything dreamt up. As we know the faster you go the less time passes. And as you approach the speed of light even more so. If you travel faster than the speed of light than the effect is even more profound. If you travel to the nearest star at faster than the speed of light time will have very little effect on you. But in that travel, enormous amounts of time have passed on Earth. You would return to a world nothing like you left it. But than again, when you ask someone what their definition of time travel is, that's not what comes to their mind. They'll want to go back and forth and that's where it, ironically enough, is going to take time. But I do think we'll get there.

Go see JOHN CARTER right now

As I have said before, I am in no way qualified to give movie reviews, all I can do is speak to my experience. Arguments about titles shall not appear in this post, but i will say I fall on the "Of Mars" side of the argument, but if you have seen the movie than you know that argument is completely unnecessary. I will also avoid mention of advertising, because that's an entirely different discussion.

Anywho.

I love the John Carter of Mars universe. Its beautiful in every conceivable way. So I've been quite excited to see the film JOHN CARTER for a while now. With every glimpse I found myself counting down the days. I remember reading the first book in the series a few years ago and being unable to put it down. I dreamt of living on Barsoom. I still do. My sister and I went to see JOHN CARTER. She was passively interested in seeing the movie, but she certainly wasn't enthusiastic. That changed however. After the credits rolled and the lights went up she was a fan. She was smiling and happy. She finally understood what I had been talking about. The film is a wonderful adaptation of the books and a love letter to the story of Carter. The romance is beautiful, the action terrific. The physical design of Barsoom and its peoples may not have been what I imagined them to be, but they were still fantastic. The movie has suffered it seems from a number of sources. But I ask you, forget all of what you're hearing, and just go see it. If you're expecting a disaster you will be proven wrong, if you're expecting nothing you'll see something, and if you're expecting just another summer movie you'll be wonderfully surprised. JOHN CARTER is a movie that deserves to be seen.

Please go see it.

Prometheus - Peter Weyland TED 2023 [OFFICIAL CLIP] - HD -

This is beautiful, this is amazing. As part of the promotion for PROMETHEUS this video has been released featuring Peter Weyland, yes that Weyland, speaking at a TED conference in the year 2023. For anyone who doesn't know what TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design. Every year the leading minds in countless fields come together to share and discuss ideas that shape the world and future. Here Peter Weyland gives the opening remarks to his vision of tomorrow.

He may be the leader of one of the most evil corporations in film history but dammit he can rock a speech. Speeches like this excite, they truly do. Pure vision and ambition in the pursuit of science. No fear, no hesitation. In one speech Weyland has inspired every feeling you could ever have, both good and bad. In one speech you become wrapped up in his words and want to hear more. In one speech, the future itself is born. Powerful.

Abrams Trek, an alternate reality with little difference...

I should say first, I am a huge Star Trek fan, and I have been all my life. I won't sum up my feelings about Abrams Trek, really because if I did this post would fall into a mess of nerdiness. Instead what I want to write about is the nature of its alternate reality. In the case of Abrams Trek the concept of an 'alternate reality' is used as a cheat to allow for a 'reboot'. But as the upcoming sequel is currently in production we will see possible growth and diversion from the original Star Trek universe. I love alternate universes, the concept is actually one of my personal obsessions. So here are some things I'd like to see in this new reality to further set it apart from the prime Roddenberry-Verse. I acknowledge that some of these are superficial, but just go with it.

1. Facial Hair; Even the smallest changes help. The crew is young in the Abrams-Verse. Maybe set somewhere just before the original series timeline. When the original crew made the jump to feature films, they started experimenting. The first time you see Bones in 'The Motion Picture' he's sporting an impressive beard, which he promptly shaves off, and Scotty sports a mustache through the rest of the films and in his appearance on 'The Next Generation'. So in this young Abrams-Verse, throw a beard on Kirk, a mustache on Bones, a goatee on Sulu, and keep them for the rest of this crews run.
2. Uniforms; The Abrams-Verse uniforms are already different from the original series. Why not take it further, why not make some bigger changes. Instead of shirts and pants you could change it to spacesuits, or tech driven jumpsuits, or whatever you'd like.
3. A new non-human hero; Spock has, among other things, represented the possibilities of Star Trek. His mother a human, his father a vulcan, he was the enigma of the future. What can be if we embrace the non-human life we will one day meet. Spock brought a hope and was a real jump from the evil aliens so often seen in popular entertainment. So bring someone else into the fold. A new addition to the command crew to really hit the point home. Since there's only the singular female voice in Uhura, maybe the new addition could also be female.
4. Kill off one of the characters; Seriously. If you want to set what you're doing apart as an alternate universe, you have to make a jump. And killing a major character is a hell of a jump. Doing this could even open the door to #3 above.
5. Change the Enterprise; The design of the Enterprise in the Abrams-Verse was quite different. Change it even more, go nuts.
6. Conflict; The destruction of Vulcan, the presence of Spock-prime, knowledge of advanced technology, these three things provide enough of a push to shake up the status quo in big ways. The Gorn, the Klingons, the Orions, Romulans, Tholians, potential for some big differences abound.

This is an alternate reality, start changing things.