Jul 25
It's Gon' Rain!

It's Gon' Rain!

Has Juneau Alaska became the rain capital of the world? Ever since Hannah and I got back from our vacatin in Washington it has just been either overcast, or rainy. It was really starting to get to me for a minute, but then I just started taking some viteman D and all is better.

I really am starting to miss the sun though. Last summer was kind of like this too. The first summer we spent here was great, but that was 3 years ago. Seattle Washington really has been unfairly called the rainiest place on earth thanks to a little movie called “Sleepless In Seattle“. I have lived in Washington for several years and it’s true it is rainy. But Seattle has nothing on Juneau for rain right now.

I do hope this is not a trend. Maybe it can be blamed on El Niño, or the butterfly affect.

Jul 21

Dear Michael Bay,

I would like to invite you to see Batman: The Dark Night which opened in theaters this last weekend. It will give you the chance to see what a good movie adaptation of a comic book looks like. I am hopping that if you can see this picture before it leaves theaters you might be able to save movie audiences from the cinematic abortion that will be Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and maybe make a good movie instead. You know, one that is not an embarrassment to Transformers fans.

Respectfully,
Youseph Tanha

Jun 25

Don’t Touch The Puck, is a silent horror movie made around 2000 by myself and some good friends. The movie was made for a collage class that that they where taking in Bellingham Washington. If you watch the short movie till the end you will be able to enjoy the blooper real that caught me by surprise the first time I saw the film. Enjoy!

May 21

Back when I lived in Seattle, my roommates and I put together a little video called “Commuting”. Which is nothing less then the story about the bullshit we have to put up with everyday on our commute to work. Granted, it might be a little exaggerated but that was how we felt. The idea was that we would make several of these little funny short films and share them on the internet.

Well, not long after the first commuting video was made we slowly one-by-one got different jobs and moved away. We have never made any followup’s to the original commuting video but we still talk about doing it. I would not be surprised if end up making one again here soon. Until then please feel free to enjoy the original.

May 12

Transformers means a lot to me. I can’t help but feel the need to point this out. Below is the original Mach 5 car from the Speed Racer cartoon.

And here is the Mach5 From the live action Speed Racer movie that just came out.

There is almost no difference between the two.

Now please look at this. Below is an image of Optimus Prime from the Transformers cartoon show.

And here is Optimus Prime from the live action Transformers movie.

Now, what the hell happened? How can one movie try so hard to preserve the original aesthetics of what made the show so great, and another movie go out of its way to visually rape their fans of what they have known and loved for so many years. What the hell went through the mind of director Micheal Bay when he was mangling the characters of Transformers?

To quote Kevin Smith.

In Hollywood you just fail upwards

Apr 24

Dreamworks and ParamountThe people at Dreamworks and Paramount are pretty darn cool. (Expect for Michael Bay when he is making a Transformers movie) I recently had a couple of questions about “The Kite Runner” movie. I wanted to ask about a song I could not find on the sound track as well as find out what font was used in the opening credits of the movie.

Not knowing who best to ask these question, I ended up going to the kite runner website and e-mailing the contact address they had. I wrote out a very polite e-mail asking if someone could tell me about a particular song I could not find on the official soundtrack to the movie. Also if someone could tell me how to find the font that is used in the opening credits. I wrote out this e-mail completely expecting it to get lost in someone spam or trash folder.

Within a few hours I got a response back to my surprise. I was asked some more detailed question about the song and the font to help the people at Dreamworks and Paramount find answers my questions.

After a few days of correspondence they where able to tell me where I could find the song that was in the movie. Score one for me! (It actually was on the sound track. The part they used in the movie was on the second half of the very last song. I just didn’t listen to that song all the way through I guess.)

The Kite Runner FontBut as the week went on, no one was able to tell me anything about the font used in the opening credits of the movie. They were able tell me about every other other font used on the DVD cover and in the movie but I was not able to find out anything about the font used in the opening credits. I am left to think it might have been a custom font made specifically for the movie.

But the thing that impresses me most is how several people from Dreamworks and Paramount did not hesitate to help me out one bit. They really went out of their way to e-mail me and help me answer my questions.

If anyone out there in the cloud happens to know what font this is, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment.

Mar 16

Never Back DownFor weeks, I mean weeks, Zaine has been talking about “Never Back Down“. Ever since he saw the movie trailer for it at the showing for CloverField he has gone on and on about how “Never Back Down” is going to be so shitty that it will be great. It will just be a great old school fight movie.

Well Friday night was opening night for the movie and he talked me into going. I really am glad I went. We went to the late 9:50pm showing. By the time we got to the theater we were both so excited for how bad we thought this movie was going to be. With Popcorn and soda in hand we found our seats and waited for the movie to start.

By the time the movie was over both Zaine and myself felt like our expectations where met. This movie was quite possibly the best, worst movie ever in the history of time. It was like Snakes On A Plane 2.0. This move was just so terrible that it was great! We laughed so hard at how bad it was. The bad acting. The over acting. The zippy one liners. The Music video style of directing. Just talking about it makes me want to see it again.

In fact, we might just go again tonight!

Mar 05

Hello World. I hope your having a great day!

[ START RANT ]

Tom & JerryI hate SpongeBob SquarePants. Actually I hate most modern day cartoons. None of them seem to be as good as the cartoons I grew up with as a kid. I’m talking Loony Toons, Tom & Jerry, Smurfs, others. Even now I find myself watching old Loony Toons and laughing. But I can honestly say i have never once laughed at SpongeBob SquarePants.

It’s like know one who makes cartoons for kids now are trying. I have seen kids sitting in font of a t.v. watching what passes for cartoons these days and their scared. They aren’t even enjoying what they are watching. It’s really depressing.

I find myself picking up DVD’s of old cartoons I used to watch as a kid so that when and if I have children some day they have something worth watching. Rather then this SpungeBob SquareCrap.

[ END RANT ]

Dec 27

When I used to live in Anacortes, just about every night at 11:30pm I would head over to my friend Adam’s house to watch Futurama. He and I, along with some friends would gather together and spend a few minutes talking about the day. How Adman’s shop was doing. How Chode’s record label and shows where coming along. How work and driving to Oak Harbor everyday was for myself. Then Futurama would come on and we would all get quite and watch it, taking brakes only during the t.v. commercials to talk. It was just a good fun get together that ended each of my days on a high note.

Benders Big ScoreLast month the first new Futurama in two years was released (Futurama: Bender’s Big Score) as a direct to DVD movie. I picked it up when it first came out, but only recently got to watch it because the first copy of the disk I got was a miss print or press. (Not sure what you call it when the disk quits playing halfway through.) In any case, I took the disk back to the store and they gladly exchanged the faulty disk for a new one.

Now, the movie was great! I didn’t feel like any of the writing had changed over time. It really feels like everyone involved in the show the first time around got back together to make this movie and did so with out missing a beat. The movie retains the original comedy style that made Futurama so much fun to watch.

Anyone new to Futurama can pick up this DVD and watch it enjoy it. Anyone who has seen the older episodes will enjoy this movie a little bit more because of all the time traveling that is done in and references to older episodes.

If your a fan of Futurama this is a must have DVD. If your new to Futurama, this is as good of a starting point as any.

Nov 28

Netflix

When I first moved to Juneau Alaska I spent a lot of money on DVDs. It’s kind of crazy when you look at my DVD collection how big it is. I am sure other people have bigger collections then mine, but still. I think mine is pretty impressive.

After the first year of living here, and buying one to many DVDs that I know I will never watch again, I decided to get a Netflix account and have not looked back since. Having a Netflix account has saved me a lot of money by not buying, rather renting the movies I would normally buy. If I get a movie in the mail that I really end up enjoying then I will go out and buy it.

I also feel that having a Netflix account has exposed me to a lot of movie titles I would not normally see. Like indy films and just random goodness that you don’t find when walking into a store or a brick-and-morter movie rental place.