Around Chicago
• Not a lot going on for me now around my beloved town, but aside from a few rainy days/moments, I love the recent weather! It’s very nice to go by the beach on Lake Shore Drive for a nice run or chill at the beach with lots of cute ladies, blasting my iPod to my beloved 80s/90s music, and catching up on some fine literature (well Marvel/DC Comics mostly for me.)• I’m missing Anime Central dearly, but I’m in big excitement for Wizard World (aka Chicago Comic Con.) It’s taking place August 19th-22nd. Lots of celebrities and pro wrestlers will be there signing autographs (more on my opinion on some of this later), my friends Little Brass Bird (www.littlebrassbird.com) will have a booth, and Disco Stu, er, Disco STVO will be there. :D More details about the event are here. http://www.wizardworld.com/home-ch.html
• Taste of Chicago is coming soon, woo-hoo!
Video Games
• Just received my copies of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Alan Wake, both are very fun! IGN gave Mario Galaxy 10 out of 10!!! I haven’t gotten that far in the game yet, so it is very early for me to determine whether I agree or not with it. So far it’s very similar to the original Galaxy (which isn’t a bad thing) just they added a little fun with the return of Yoshi!! I’m liking the controls for him a lot so far, hopefully this game will continue to rock. Alan Wake has been REAL fun! It’s a third person action game from Remedy, the people who brought you Max Payne. It’s very unique because it is narrated like it’s a book. So far it has an interesting story and things should get pretty crazy later on.• So it looks like Sega has another Sonic the Hedgehog title in the works called “Sonic Colours (or Sonic Colors.)” The plot currently is about Sonic and Tails finding a weird alien race of different colors that can help Sonic move faster in the game. People are speculating that this may be Sega’s “Super Sonic Galaxy.” That has been a problem with some of the more recent Sonic titles: Shadow the Hedgehog (Xbox/PS2/Cube) was trying to be like Grand Theft Auto, Sonic the Hedgehog ’06 (PS3/X360) had a Final Fantasy X-XII vibe (at least with cinema graphics), and Sonic Unleashed’s Were-hog gameplay reminded me of God of War. Personally, I could be just a little judgmental but Sega hasn’t been as solid with their delivery of Sonic titles (barring portable titles) since Sonic Adventure 2 (and I have complaints about that game.) Maybe it will surprise me, who knows. I just hope that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will end up delivering! In the meantime, Sonic Colors’s trailer, watch and comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcD5K_mqOLM&feature=fvst
• E3 is coming up and in honor of that tradition; CrossTopix will be celebrating the event for that week! That’s right, stay tuned for All-Gamers Week on June 13-June 19! I’m excited! So far Matt B. Wild of Explicit Gamer.com and good friend/hardcore Xbox 360/live gamer Mark S. will be doing multiple discussions for this event. Sorry fellow readers, no movies/TV/music discussion on that week, this week belongs to those who love their game consoles (and any PC-related announcements that might occur, though I’m personally a console man.) Stay tuned for more details!
Movies
• Last week I saw Shrek 4 in 3D with friends CharlieCat, Matt McCollum, and Dexter (a future guest on CrossTopix.) I wasn’t expecting too much but I was very pleased with what I saw, much better than 3 and just as good as the first two! For those of you parents reading, plenty of well-hidden adult humor is in the movie.• I know I’m one of the only few interested in it, but I still want to see Prince of Persia. Those interested in it may want to see it soon though, last weekend it only score $30 Million of its $200 Million budget. It’s getting some decent reviews out there and has a 6.9/10 average on IMDB, which is decent. If I do see it, maybe I’ll post a full review on the site…
• So why did Sex and the City 2 cost $100,000,000 to make? The first movie cost $65 million and I understand the actresses are getting some very nice pay days to be in the sequel of the successful first movie and the ridiculously successful series, but $100 mil?!?! I know they’re wearing expensive outfits in the movie, but did they buy extra ones and just kept them and didn’t wear in the movie?
• Some concept art for the Captain America movie has been disclosed: http://www.411mania.com/movies/news/140914/%5BMovies%5D-Concept-Art-For-Captain-Americas-Suit.htm In my opinion, he looks alright, the belt and suspenders look a little weird though. Never been a huge fan, but if the trailers look decent, perhaps I’ll see it.
Random
• Okay, how many of you have been to a convention? Okay, now how many of you have gotten an autograph from a celebrity you liked? I remember at Wizard World when I first went and spent around $55 for the weekend pass then got told by the first person I met “I’d love to give you an autograph…. $25.” I was stunned! So $55 for this con, $15+ for 1-day parking, and you have to pay to meet a celebrity?!?! Well I warmed up after awhile met a few celebs I’ve wanted to meet for awhile: George Lowe aka the voice of Space Ghost on Coast to Coast for $10 and Mick Foley for $25. The greatest people there were Jamie Maddrocks and Monoxide Child of Twiztid, they charged… $0. They were kind, willing to talk to the fans, sign anything given to them, offered small pictures for you to get signed, and said some of the truest words: “We charge nothing and that’s how it should be for events like this!” I could not agree more guys! Sure it is one thing they make you buy a book or at least bring your own memorabilia of them for them to sign or proceeds go to charity. I don’t mean to trash the next few celebrities as I respect their works but I feel that honestly this is a bit ridiculous: William Shatner charges $75, Patrick Stewart charges $60, and Mark Hamill… $100!!! If you paid for an autograph for each of them at one show, you could have bought a Nintendo Wii, paid a cable bill, take multiple friends/family out to dinner, etc. On top of that, Wizard World now charges for a photo WITH YOUR OWN CAMERA with the celebrity in addition to autograph. Because of that, I only get photos now because I think a picture represents me meeting someone more than an autograph. But picture if you wanted both a picture and autograph from someone like Mark Hamill, you will spend $200! Again, I don’t mean to slam the celebrities nor the event, but I would like some explanation why some people would charge so much!• Speaking of things not likely worth the price, ever heard of Tweetfan.com? Take a look. http://tweetafan.com/vips Ever wanted to follow the tweets of Shelley Martinez, Joey Kovar, or Blair Thomas? $1/month please and… who are these people? Of the list I posted, I only know Shelly Martinez because she played Ariel in WWE’s ECW. Look, I understand they’re all doing it for charity which is very nice and it is only $1/month, but to follow something like Tweets? That’s kind of like McDonalds deciding to let you have one of those paper place mats on the serving tray if you donate $1 to them or much worse… me telling you all that you can read this article for $1/month! Haha.
Well that’s it for my column, hope you guys find it somewhat interesting. Send any suggestions on what I can do to improve it. CrossTopix should debut with a new column soon featuring Dave Jones. Also, next week, look for an all-new Cross X-amine featuring an interview with local band (the band that) NEVERWHAS and a new CrossTopix featuring NEVERWHAS member, Nik Rubicz!
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