Intermission

^^

SHR's semi-weekly columns will be back after a short vacation.

In the meantime.

May or may not be SHR in cat form.

The Punch That Rocks the HQ

  Saturdays are slowly becoming my "How is Toei going to make Whitebeard more badass?" day. Granted last week we had the Ace dying (and Luffy losing it) episode but at least this week the emotion takes a backseat to give us a good old fashioned slugfest between two powerful entities. That being said, time for the review of One Piece - Episode 484.

"Pick up the soap, bub."

Zach Galifianakis, why?

  Zach Galifianakis, a name that makes me glad computers have a copy/paste option. I couldn't imagine being that guy and writing my name for school reports and exams day in and day out. Ouch. I feel for the guy, I really do. Especially considering that I actually think he has golden moments of comedy, that he doesn't seem to be capitalizing on. Take for instance a movie I had the pleasure (I'm being nice, it's my nature) of watching at the budget theater here in town: Due Date. So yes, we're doing this, SHR's Review of (God help me) Due Date.

You know... there really aren't ANY warning signs.

The Top 10 Saddest Moments in One Piece History.

  Attention none One Piece readers/viewers: this list is SPOILER heavy and full of sadness. While usually I wouldn't consider myself a person that gets out of his way to feel sad, I AM capable of feeling emotions, considering my overly optimistic and forgiving personality, this is quite a feat. That being said; One Piece is one of the few shonen manga that is packed with emotion. Be it happiness, sadness, despair, or rage; the world that Eichiiro Oda has crafted is anything but two dimensional. The art style and the usually upbeat tone of the series can fool most to drop their guard and go with the flow. I know that because I was one of those people. I figured it was going to maybe have a semi serious moment here and there. But nothing could've prepared me for the amount of raw emotional scenes and moments this show, aimed at teenage (and pre-teen) boys in Japan mind you, was going to throw at me.

Ready for the New World!

Dear Netflix, I Love You. PSYCH!!!

  I love the internet. I guess I should say specifically which part of the "series of tubes" I'm talking about, but I think I just love all the possibilities that the internet provides us. When I was a wee-bit Rican back in the Island I used to think MSN Messenger and MSN Chat Rooms were the best thing ever. Then I came upon multimedia heavy sites like IGN.com and the such. It wasn't until much later that my love for the internet blossomed again with MySpace and YouTube... the idea of user content and pages at my fingertips was a great rush, but then Facebook came and united all the formulas in one simple (yet complicated) package. A couple of years ago I heard of a service for movies named Netflix. Get some discs in the mail, watch 'em, send them back, get some more, all for a small monthly fee. This was Heaven for a movie fanatic like me, so how do you improve that formula? Two words: streamed content. At first it was only via their website (makes sense) on your PC but they have expanded to PS3/Xbox 360/Wii and a plethora of other devices to get their service out.

Making going to the movies an even bigger waste of money...

Burn Baby Burn!

  Two things: the Top 10 Saddest One Piece Moments has been postponed, and thank Enel for that. Due to the pacing (and filler) from Toei this week I'll be reviewing episode 482 of One Piece. Next Sunday thought, may God have mercy on my soul. So without further ado, let's dive right into it. And as per usual: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!

Why are you wet, baby?

  Leonardo DiCaprio... boy, I used to hate that man. Probably the byproduct of jelaousy (if I wanted to be a blonde white boy), or perhaps it was that I was convinced he was going to be a passing fad, like many teenage actors before him. But man, did he prove me wrong. It wasn't shortly after Titanic that I started noticing his pedigree. I realized that I had pegged him wrong and because of that I could finally enjoy his movies without any agonizing guilt: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and most recently Shutter Island; the last, in what seems to be, a successful streak of Martin Scorsese/DiCaprio cinematic gems. So let's get into it, today is SHR's (SPOILER FREE) review of Shutter Island.

The Cataclysm

  I know I sort of mentioned it in my introductory column... but it bears repetition. So here goes, confession time: "I am a World of Warcraft player." Go ahead, get it out of your system: call me names, point and laugh, giggle like a schoolgirl, pull my proverbial underwear, etc. The matter of fact is... I was a huge RPG player back in my console days (fighting games too) and I remember dreaming of an RPG that would never end and could play with my friends. RPGs back in their heyday were solo affairs and I hated that my friends had to sit and watch me for hours and take turns instead of being my party members. So while I missed the boat on Everquest (and I'm glad I did) and Ultima Online (DAMMIT!) I joined the MMORPG bandwagon with Final Fantasy XI Online sometime in 2003. After MANY many party grinding sessions I found that MMOs maybe weren't for me... since I wanted to be able to play by myself and then, when my friends were online, get together and slay some dragons and what not. Enter December 2004...



The Great Age of Pirates

  Welcome back to the beach house! I stated in my introductory column that I was going to be reviewing weekly One Piece anime episodes (not the manga since the good people of the Unofficial One Piece Podcast have that covered rather well). And while I will be reviewing/talking about other things as well, I figured I should explain what exactly IS One Piece and why is it my anchor for this weekly blog. To say it's the most fun/dramatic/action-packed/emotional piece of animated entertainment is really underselling it; of all the animated (and live action) series I've ever seen, One Piece is easily on the top of the list (Lost would be its live action counterpart if I had to choose one).

The House by the Beach

I tried not to get involved in the whole bloggin' business. Honest, I tried my damnedest not to get caught up in it. But after much consideration, and seeing as how I have dreams that eventually involve journalism, I figured "Why not?" But if this is going to be the first of many, I think an introduction, to who I am and why am I doing this, is in order.

Hey look... we got a State coin too!