Gosh, you've really got some nice toys here.

[zrath]

Well, I don't know about all y'all, but I had a smashing weekend! Simply smashing!

It was kicked off by coyoteseven and I attending a LUGOLA (Lego User Group Of Los Angeles) meeting on
Saturday Morning (well, we tried for morning, but got there a little past noon).




It had been a while since we had attended one of these. They were usually held in far-flung places like Tustin or
Carlsbad (which makes sense, since Legoland is there, but that's not really L.A. anymore, IS IT!?!?) or Pasadena.
This time, it was hosted by the lovely and talented Dan Jassim at his home in Lawndale or thereabouts.
Which definitely qualifies as L.A., and cause for much rejoicing. Huzzah!
Dan is the master of giant (and not so giant) starships with detailed interiors, working features, and smooooth hulls.
(Marvel at Dan's mighty Brickshelf gallery and despair! For he is Lego Ozymandias, or some junk...)
I bet you'd like to know all the gory details of what goes down at these depraved lego meetings, HUH!?!?
Well, I'll tell you! I will! All of it!
We bring MOCs (My Own Creations, Lego-speak for creations of your own design) and show them off. We take photos.
We share building tips. We trade parts. We chat a lot. We snack and drink. It's all pretty innocuouious, or whatever.
And I have photos! Behold!



This is all Dan's stuff. The massive ship in the center is a new MOC, the Hurricane troop carrier. The center section is
crammed with seats occupied by armed yellow Lego spacemen. The inside is all detailed, the airlocks open, the bridge is
fully detailed and crewed, there's a retractable gangplank. The troops exit via a ramp in the rear. It's got turrets,
a tail gun, large missile pods, and working landing gear. It's modular, weighs a ton, and does not flex!
Dan's Brickshelf gallery (which I linked to earlier) contains a ton of impressive pics of the Hurricane.
The beige ship on the left that looks like a nose is the Nasal Avenger. The smaller beige ship is called the Mirage.
The big yellow ship is a space tanker. It's also modular and highly detailed. There's also a generic mech next to it.



This is the back of the troop carrier. You can see the tail gun and barely make out the troop loading ramp underneath.
Look at those beautiful engines! So detailed, so large, so smooth. I think I may weep from joy...



This is an overhead shot of the Nasal Avenger, showing the old-style bubble-canopy turret and finely crafted details.
Dan truly is an artiste!



Another Dan design. This is the personal ship of a Sith bounty hunter. The ship is called the Venom.



Some wacky geometric shapes, and a couple more Dan ships. The round grey thing is the Piranha fighter. The sleek and
somewhat stubby white fighter behind it is the "Advanced Y-Wing Fighter". It's an ultra-modern upgrade of the Y-Wing.



Three ships by a LUGOLA member whose name escapes me. A skull-faced fighter, a well-armed blue racing ship (reminds me of
the WipEout racers) and what looks to me like the spaceship equivalent of a GeeBee plane of the 1930's. Hey tubby!! :D
Either that or it's one of the playable ships from "Colony Wars: Red Sun" (the 3rd game in the PSX series).



And finally, my stuff and Coyoteseven's. The 'Yote built the blue and white ship, a modern take on the Classic Space
design school of the early '80s. I built the black and white fighter a couple of weeks ago, using parts from one of the
new "Mission To Mars" sets. I have a lot of parts left over and I'm still trying to build something with them.
The red and grey thing is an evil alien cropduster with articulated legs/spraying booms. The tank in the back is removable
(and looks a lot like the crew compartment on a Tachikoma). There's a claw arm module that plugs in the back too.
I also used a Mars set for this, but it's a "Life On Mars" one, which dates back to 2001. Lego has a thing for Mars.
The yellow block with the string is not ours.
Dan makes us feel so inadequate! His ships are too awesome! Oh the pain, the pain...

After the meeting, C7 and I went looking for an auto parts store for some radiator coolant.
His truck was very low and making that nasty "radiator overheating and water/coolant evaporating" smell.
We went to the Pep Girls (Marnie, Molly and Jackie) and bought some 50/50 premix.
Wow! Antifreeze has become EX-PEN-SIVE!! I mean, holy crap, $15 for a gallon jug!?!?
The premix stuff is cheaper, but daaaaaaaaannnnnnnggggggg!!
Next to the Pep Girls was an awesome independent videogame store called Cali-Games.
It was incredibly clean and chock full of nifty stuff! C7 almost bought an Atari 2600 "VCS" IN THE ORIGINAL BOX!!
It was a 4-button unit with rounded edges and woodgrain front plate, so we reckon it was from 1979.
Yeah, this place had EVERYTHING! New games, old games, ancient games, ditto with consoles and peripherals.
If you're looking for esoteric videogame gear, they probably have it.
The store is at the corner of Rosecrans and Hawthorne in Lawndale. It's easy to find, next to the Pep Girls.
And also next to this place:



We did NOT have lunch there.
We had lunch at a Long John Silver/A&W joint. I had the fish/shrimp/clam platter with fries. It was tasty.
C7 had a pair of delicious hot dogs and some fish. It was a nice change from burgers and mexican food.
In the parking lot, we spotted this license plate:



C7 asked for a copy of the photo to make an LJ icon with, and lickety-split, he's got it up and visible already!
After all this excitement, we went to the nearby Toys'R'Us, where Dan undoubtly gets the bulk of his Lego.
My local TRU is teh suck, and that feeling was reinforced when we checked out this one in Lawndale.
They had most of the new Star Wars sets: the Republic Cruiser, the MTT, the Naboo Fighter with Vulture Droid, the Jedi
Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring, but they did not have the TIE Crawler, which I was really hoping to see.
They had other nifty sets like the motorized T-Rex and ferris wheel, and the new skeleton army medieval sets.
It's beginning to smell like Christmas!!

After that, we headed back to my place, hung out for a bit, then C7 went home.




And then, on Sunday, the Sibling and I went to see "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" at the Landmark.

The Landmark is a brand new theater housed in the Westside Pavilion expansion, which also contains a Barnes & Noble.
It's a rather swanky cinema with wide leather seats, stadium seating, assigned seating, high quality concessions, ushers,
announcers, and the kind of service you just don't get anymore at multiplexes. It's like The Bridge, but REALLY nice.
Tickets are $11 for evenings and weekends. Matinees are $9 on weekdays only. This is actually not too bad.
My usual theater is the Culver City Stadium 12 and charges $8.50 for matinees. They do matinees on weekends though.
But the Landmark is a heck of a lot closer to us!
The Arclight in Hollywood is also very nice, but a lot more expensive and parking is a major pain in the ass.
The Landmark has a ton of parking, since it's in a mall.
Also, the seats are wide. How wide? I can seat down and lower both armrests and be comfortable!
This has never happened at the Culver City Stadium 12 OR The Bridge Cinema! I always need to keep one armrest up!
So yeah, I think I have a new favorite theater. :)

Oh yeah, the movie!
There are new DVDs of "Blade Runner" on the way (December 18th), and a new cut of the film ("The Final Cut").
So the studio decided to do some limited screenings of the new cut on the big screen.
I've seen the film tons of times, in three different flavors: theatrical, home video, and Director's Cut.
I had no clue as to what was new with this Final Cut, so it was to be a complete surprise.
I doubted that Ridley Scott would put the narration back in (though I kinda like it), and he didn't.
The "happy ending" (stock footage of driving to the Overlook Hotel is happy?!?! :D ) was also nowhere to be seen.
So in that respect, the Final Cut is a lot like the Director's Cut. The Unicorn Dream Sequence is in there, but shorter.
Some of the scenes are longer, with extra music and dialogue. Also, Warren (no LJ) attended the Blade Runner panel at
San Diego Comic Con this year and told me that the running-through-glass scene with Zhora was reshot for the Final Cut.
In the original film, a body double did the crashing, but said body double didn't really look like Joanna Cassidy.
So they got Joanna to come back and they reshot the scene with her. And holy crap, it looks almost completely the same!
After 25 years, the film holds up rather well. It's really unique, and beautiful.
The film was projected with a Sony AltaX4 digital projection system, which the announcer claimed had resolution
"4 times higher than the highest resolution HD TV you can get at Best Buy". And holy crap, was the picture ever crisp!
If it's playing near you, you oughta check it out. It's a treat.


Goofy Moments In Home Viewing: Part 4012
Saturday Night, I was watching "Lord Of The Rings: Return of The King" Extended Edition with the Sibling. (4 hours!)
At the scene when the giant eagles show up, my brother quipped "Ouais! Voila les Américains!"
("Awright! Here come the Americans!") I laughed and replied:
"Yea! It's the 235th Tactical Squadron out of Edwards Air Force Base! Nazgul at 12 o'clock! All units break and attack!"

You had to be there...

Comments

[trailer-spot.livejournal.com]

If it's playing near you, you oughta check it out.
So far the choices I've read about where Venice Film Festival and NY or LA, neither one exactly qualifies as near me I'm afraid. Too bad.

Voila les Américains!
Even though I wasn't there, I still thought it's funny. ;)

It probably has already reached you, but just to make sure, the video of that life-size X-Wing and what really happened (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgF9hBL-CuA).