01 March 2015
A most pleasant Sunday to you all! Azzy here once again, and it’s time for the brand-spanking-new blogisode of GR2 Weekly! We’re just a few weeks from Kitsune Kon now and there is much to look forward to. But also, I may or may not skip doing an installment of GR2 Weekly that particular Sunday, partly because I’ll be away from a computer most of the weekend, partly because I would like to get a head start on doing the Kitsune Kon Recap. I may very well also come across something very early in the week I’ll talk about. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, as is the case every week, the Geek World has been buzzing quite a bit. Star Trek fans the world over are mourning the passing of Leonard Nimoy, people spend the day Net Neutrality becomes a reality by arguing over a frigging dress, the people behind the upcoming Tomb Raider movie could have picked a much better screenwriter, Playstation can’t make up its mind if that free online DriveClub game is coming or not, and for some reason, Japan seems to think people who are good at video games aren’t cool (if you saw some of their products on the Adult section of J-List, yeahhhhh…). But to bring things back up, we’ve got new musical masterpieces from both Banjo Guy Ollie and Smooth Mcgroove, NASA may end up restoring Planetary status to not only Pluto but also Ceres, the new Thor comics issue features the perfect tongue-in-cheek response in the comic to its ignorant critics, a DBZ fan film blows Dragonball Evolution right out of the water, and a Speedrunner broke the record for Super Mario 64 completely by accident. Now for this week’s top winner and loser.
Geek Rant of the week
When s**t storms fly on the internet, they really frigging fly! No, I’m not talking about that stupid dress everyone else was arguing over (I refuse to do anything more than acknowledge the argument even happened). What I am instead referring to was the “fan film” (or deboot, as it would be later labeled) Power/Rangers, which was conceptualized by producer Adi Shanker and starred the likes of James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica). The film itself, which was directed by Joseph Kahn and was more or less a dark spoof of the concept of “fan films” (Kahn was quoted as saying “Two of the worst types of filmmaking out there that are not credible to filmmakers … one is porn and the other is fan films.”) and was very much Not Kid Friendly. The original version on Vimeo even had some mild NSFW bits mixed in. The 14-minute long feature, which came out on Monday, drew a wide array of reactions from both fans and Power Rangers alum alike. Walter Emanuel Jones liked it, Karan Ashley liked it, and even Austin St. John offered his professional opinion on it. But not everybody was thrilled about its existence. Most notably, Haim Saban.
I guess with that legitimate Power Rangers reboot movie coming out in the foreseeable future, one could only guess he had a giant hissy fit and thus Saban Capital Group Power Rangers LLC proceeded to descend upon the film, bombarding both Vimeo and YouTube with harassment and take-down complaints. The NSFW version was quickly taken down from Vimeo, with the YouTube version hanging on for a day or two afterwards.
Sums it up, pretty much.
While the situation was eventually resolved (with both versions being brought back to life) after some legal chest-bumping between the two sides, Saban really made itself look like a petulant child. Not cool.
But speaking of bitching and complaining, this brings me to the other major point. Remember when I mentioned about reactions from some former Rangers? Not every ranger enjoyed it seemingly. Jason David Frank (yeah, the same one who has the one-sided “beef” with Austin St. John) offered his take on the film, basically slamming it because it wasn’t Saban that was involved with it. But seeing as the character of Kimberly is featured in the film, surely Amy Jo Johnson must hate it too, right? After all, she has made it her mission to distance herself from the franchise as far as humanly possible. This was her reaction:
Talk about irony!
Geek Rave of the week
It never ceases to amaze me just how much computers and the internet have become such a central part of our lives, especially the Internet in particular. You communicate with it, view web pages, play Online games, create with it, you are currently reading this blog post because of the Internet. Hell, about the only thing you can’t do is have sex with it (though rumor has it people are trying to make that into a semi-reality). The Internet is at its best when everyone can have access to it to express their thoughts and feelings. But there were those in both the business world and in Congress who sought to make the Internet a “privilege” with people being forced to pay obscene amounts of money in order for faster access.
But by a 3-2 vote on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the series of rules collectively known as Net Neutrality.
You can read up the details in the article, but long story short, Net Neutrailty ensures everyone has open access to a safe and fast internet connection by classifying the Internet as a utility and requiring service providers to be a neutral gateway. Gabe Rottman (legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union) had the following to say, according to the article:
“This is a victory for free speech, plain and simple. Americans use the Internet not just to work and play, but to discuss politics and learn about the world around them. The FCC has a critical role to play in protecting citizens’ ability to see what they want and say what they want online, without interference. Title II provides the firmest possible foundation for such protections. We are still sifting through the full details of the new rules, but the main point is that the Internet, the primary place where Americans exercise their right to free expression, remains open to all voices and points of view.” While not all are happy about it (especially Republicans, but that’s no surprise), this landmark ruling is a welcome relief and hopefully we can take more advantage of this and argue less about the color of a certain dress.
Well, my fellow geeks and geekettes across the interwebs, that brings this blogiside of GR2 Weekly to a most satisfying end. And as I tend to enjoy mentioning every chance I get, should you have any suggestions for what I should Rant and/or Rave about (please suggest away, I promise I won’t bite), feel free to message me and you are equally as encouraged to post much linkage on the official GR2 Weekly Facebook page. See you next week! While you’re still here, though, be sure to check out and Vote Up Lemme Addams everybody. Sonny Strait will be a happy person. 😛
Azzy's Geeky Galaxy 