Breaking Bad Finale T-Shirts

9/30/2013

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Three Breaking Bad shirts in one day! I was expecting something after the finale, especially for one so satisfying, but not so many. This is really hard to pass up, but I expect there will always be more. I was waiting to see how the show ended before I bought. Usually series finales leave a very bad taste in my mouth; this was one of the few that blew past all expectations and unpredictably turned out how I wanted it to. Now that I know I'm still in love with Breaking Bad, I want to find "The One." The one Breaking Bad shirt that would top all others I have seen. These are all great, and I think if I had to choose it would be the BB/GTAV crossover. Not because of Grand Theft Auto V, which I don't have yet, but because it has Jesse, Hank, and Mike, and isn't as depressing as the depiction of Walt/Heisenberg surrounded by the shattered remnants of his terrible deeds.

Click any of the pics to purchase one of today's shirts at either RiptApparel or Teefury. They start at $10 and $11 and are available on other products, such as coasters and hoodies. Available today only for another 13 hours.

Love BSB, But Their Merchandising Partner Could Use Some Work

9/28/2013

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*Sorry for the blur. Old camera+bad lighting+impatience=notsogoodpics.

Ugh. Just ugh. I'm so annoyed right now. First of all, I was having a bad day already...bad three weeks, really. Now this. I mentioned my problem with GroundCtrl in a previous post that I twice updated, but this needed a post of its own.

They send the poster and lyric sheet separately from the CD in the deluxe bundle, so you can pay for shipping twice. I knew that already and was willing to deal with it, but it's just one more thing that adds to my dissatifaction considering how long it took and the condition it arrived in. The CD itself is the standard edition, missing 3 bonus songs from two other different editions and also with a crack in the case. This version is $10 everywhere. That would come out to about $14 at Amazon if you didn't buy it with something else to get free shipping. Subtract that from $67 and you get $53 for a poster and lyric sheet. Now, don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful poster and large, so they didn't skimp on that and I won't be asking for any money back, but I'll never buy a bundle again unless it shows and describes in detail exactly what I'm getting. I took a gamble because I love BSB, and I mostly lost.

I waited two months for the rest of my order. When it arrived today, the poster was wrinkled at the edges, had a dent, and was dirty on the back. Good thing none of it should show when I frame it. Still, that pisses me off. I have ordered posters before (Fringe Benefits Project) and they came nicely packaged, costing $43 a piece with shipping. Quite a lot, but it was for a good cause and they were limited editions. It was obvious they had been careful with the Fringe poster, going so far as to roll them with sheets of paper and securely close them with paper straps so their circumference was slightly smaller than the tube and would slide out easily. The BSB poster was hard to get out, and instead of the poster tube being taped at the end, it was folded in so that anyone could open it easily and steal the contents. I have no idea if the packaging was GroundCtrl's fault or if the shipping center was another partner they had nothing to do with.

And the lyric sheet. I wasn't sure what it would be, because the site didn't say. It was quite disappointing. There were pictures of Brian, Nick, Howie, AJ, and Kevin, which was nice, but it really was just one sheet. They should have called it a mini poster. As for the lyrics, there were a few phrases. Not the full lyrics for all songs or even just one song. It was five repeating excerpts from "In a World Like This," which wasn't made clear on the site, because they didn't distinguish between the song and the album. Wow. And to say that it's handwritten is just hilarious. I expected maybe the guys had each written a song out and it would be mass reproduced. The longer it took to ship to me the more I hoped that they really would be hand-written and had been a very limited run, like what was supposed to happen with the signatures in September's Notebook. But that was far, far from what I actually got. It's a reproduction, of course, but while the writing is different for all five boys, they look like handwriting fonts. Guess I'll frame it, though. It's pretty enough.

Definitely going to buy only from my trusted sources from now on, mainly Amazon. If only the Deluxe version had come up in the dozen searches I did before purchasing then I would have. I feel very cheated. Well, I guess it an expensive lesson in not spending frivolously. Now I gotta go see if those bonus songs can be downloaded anywhere yet.

 

DRN, Almost Human, and Another T-Shirt

9/27/2013

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*Yay! I won something! I got this DRN (Dorian) shirt for the new fall show Almost Human. You can see it sitting next to my >Fringe Butterfly and Arrested Development Illusions shirts. Almost Human was created by one of the imaginative, wonderful, personable writers from Fringe, Joel Wyman, and is set to premiere in November, pushing Bones to Fridays. The contest was run by Fringenuity, a group of amazing people who were an instrumental part of keeping Fringe alive long enough to properly end with a conclusion to the story instead of the outright cancellations that happen too often in television and enrage so many. They did a ridiculous amount of work and organized the passion of fans to nudge two mountains named Fox and Warner Brothers. I am grateful. I hope AH never needs that kind of help, but if anyone can rally fans and prove a show deserves to be saved it's them.

Though it was a drawing and everyone had an equal chance, here is my winning entry, and check out all the other entries at Storify. Thank you again, Fringenuity.

*Well, this is long overdue. I have an excuse, though. Soon after the shirt arrived, I hurt myself and could barely move. It's been a few weeks now. Getting better.

Fringe Versus Fringe

9/24/2013

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Of course! Why wouldn't I miss these? It's a Two Fury day, which means two shirts compete. They both ended up being Fringe shirts, and at a time when I cannot buy. And it happens that I was so busy updating my sites that I didn't see the email about them, so the sale is almost over. Perfect timing. Only four hours left to get yours for $11 a piece. And four hours left for me to regret my decision not to get two more shirts from my favorite show..

 

This is How the World Ends

9/14/2013

Go see The World's End. That is all.

Wait, you need more? Well, I wasn't planning to write anything about it. I'm too busy now, and forever apparently, and I do this purely out of love. What follows is not so much a review of The World's End as it is an urging you to see all three films in the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy, so dubbed after an ice cream that makes a number of appearances. They are not technically a trilogy as each stands completely on its own, with different characters, situations, and settings. It's not necessary to watch them in order, and you won't be lost if you watch only one. But they are related as they share a sense of humor, a fast cut editing style used for comedic effect in certain scenes, a nonchalant attitude that turns to anxious action when the characters finally wake up to the reality around them, and a creepy Halloween feel of crisp air, falling leaves, and danger around any corner. There are also familiar faces, a terrific running visual gag about fence hopping that never fails to crack me up, and in every one, in the middle of everything there are tender moments, some purposefully melodramatic and milked for laughs but many genuine. 

The first of the series is Shaun of the Dead. I had no respect for any zombie movie until this one. Cardboard cutout characters, bland acting, and appalling writing gave me no reason to. Shaun has everything the genre was lacking plus a lot of personality and laughs, but it doesn't pull punches. Neither does Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop movie where the bodies start gruesomely dropping left and right before the Village of the Year competition. Still the police investigate small town mischief, track an escaped swan, and participate in the fair. "Yarp," this is another great one. The latest, The World's End (if you hadn't seen me use the name twice already), tackles science fiction territory with an alien invasion by body-snatching takeover. 

It all starts with Gary King (Simon Pegg) trying to get the gang back together to attempt an epic pub crawl in their hometown of Newton Haven that they had failed at 20 years prior. Though Andy (Nick Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Peter (Eddie Marsan), and Oliver (Martin Freeman) wanted nothing to do with it, Gary is the king and always gets his way. Everyone has grown up, but Gary is stuck in his past, desperate to recapture something he never had, a realization he points out in the beginning that is also a key earned moment in the end. So the reluctant group sets out to visit the 12 pubs of the Golden Mile, from The First Post to the World's End, via a circuitous route seemingly designed to stymie the wasted. But it doesn't take long for these former friends to clash, one of them not even drinking (sacrilege!), because of something that happened between him and Gary. Oliver's sister, Sam (Rosamund Pike) joins them on and off, but Steven still has a crush on her that he has kept secret for these many years. In short order they get to a point where old feelings are bubbling to the surface, especially from poor Peter. You just want to give him a big hug after he pours his heart out about being bullied. Then a fight ensues in a bathroom, finally revealing the town's secret: robots have taken over. But don't call them that. They don't like it. What I love about these "blanks" is that they aren't super powered and indestructible. They can be taken out by a bunch of drunk guys who may have had a few self defense lessons. I loved watching the husky Andrew kick butt...and run. He did so much running he made me tired, and I kept thinking, "WTF?" - another great joke, by the way - "How did Nick Frost not have a heart attack? Good for him."

I'll stop there before I give away more than the trailers. Pegg, Frost, writer/director Edgar Wright, and company will send you into fits of laughter and then tug at your emotions. Characters are believable as human beings. They're not boring fill-in-the-blanks. They are witty, foul-mouthed, vulnerable, maddening people, and you care for their well-being. As always, Simon and Nick's real-life friendship shows through fantastic chemistry. When they finally fight their way to the End, there is a great example of how to fit sobering drama into a comedy. It was a touching scene where all the pent up frustrations finally boiled over. There's a lot of heart in this trilogy along with the frequent laughs, so if you haven't seen any of it yet, you may want to get to the theater as soon as possible. I would have thought that there would be more fans of these movies in the States by now, six years after the last. It's sad to think that so few know about them. They deserve to be seen and loved and shared and endlessly quoted. There's just such a wonderful feeling I get from these collaborations that it's hard to put into words. But at least I tried.


I was late with this because the family didn't feel well on opening weekend and the next was too busy. We went last Saturday and it took me all week to write because things. Life gets in the way, as I'm sure you well know. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to review each movie.

Some interviews to pass the time when you're done:

Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright Talk MOTY and The World's End ~ GQ

Interview: The World's End Director Edgar Wright and Star Nick Frost ~ The Week

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright talk about their trilogy-capping new comedy, The World’s End ~ AVClub

Interview at the World's End: A Cornetto Retrospective with Pegg, Frost and Wright ~ Geek Exchange

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost Talk Themes and Foreshadowing in The World's End ~ SlashFilm

The World's End Interview: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Reveal the Formula Behind Movie Beer ~ ShockYa

Cornetto Trilogy Easter Eggs

SUPERNATURAL
Mr. Crowley
T-Shirt

9/09/2013

Supernatural - Crowley T-shirt

The King of Hell you would think is a despicable, blood-thirsty guy. You would be right, but he's also funny and charming. For those now concerned with my spiritual welfare, I'm talking about Supernatural. Mark Sheppard has done such a great job with Crowley, imbuing him with emotion and humanity in last season's finale. It was an aborted transformation, though, and it's been a long wait to see what will come of him this year. You can proudly wear Crowley across your chest to celebrate the return of Supernatural on Tuesday, October 8 at 9 EST. This shirt is available today only for $10.

No idea what I'm talking about? Here are my favorite scenes.

Misbehave and Refreshable Me

9/04/2013

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I will never understand how all the best shirts come out in bunches over a few weeks a few times a year with dribs and drabs in between. Today Ript Apparel has two more Minion shirts, one of them Firefly themed, starting at $10 a piece. Save $1 when you buy both designs.

Tyler Ward, Rising Star

9/04/2013

I've been dragging my feet (my ears?) on listening to Tyler Ward covers. Not for any reason other than I have had a lot to do, and I've been finding new favorites, like Bastille, and listening to an unbelievable amount of unreleased Backstreet Boys lately. But I follow Tyler on Twitter. There was a reason I did that, so I'm rediscovering him right now. Wish I hadn't let this one get away for so long.

A beautiful original. Actually, there are quite a few. He's not just a voice. He can write, too. If that's something that's super important to you.

One of my favorite songs because of this Fringe fan video. Yes, I can make any post about Fringe. Sorry... No, wait, I'm not sorry. Go watch it if you haven't.

I first heard Tyler in the Piano Guys video for "Titanium" and had to know who he was. His voice is fantastic.

Doctor Who
Doctorama and Tardis Express
T-Shirts

9/03/2013

Doctorama - Doctor Who, Futurama mash-up teePhotobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

How did I almost miss Doctorama?! Where was I all day? This is a fantastic shirt. Fry as Ten! Leela as Rose! Bender as Cybermen! So hard to pass it up, but I can't spend more any time soon. I also have quite enough clothes. Certainly not going to run out. I'll have to save it as my background. Also available is TARDIS Express. The more I look at it the more I like how the TARDIS is elegantly incorporated into the logotype.

If you want a shirt, or a hoodie or even coasters, you have less than 6 hours left. Shirts start at $10.

Bastille B-Sides

9/02/2013

These are the Bastille songs I have to listen to forever on YouTube, which has been really annoying lately. It keeps logging me out every few minutes because I want to continue to use my original channel as Reinbeast instead of their new asshat policy of forced real names. These are my favorite songs not available on Bad Blood or Haunt EP. Some of them were on single releases. Unfortunately, they are not on Amazon or iTunes US. If you live in the UK, though, you can buy the great "Durban Skies," "Sleepsong," and "Poet." And I am jealous of you.

Locked Out of Heaven, Thinking Ahead, Angels, Dreams, and more are available on this YouTube playlist.


Available at Amazon
CDs - Bad Blood | Haunt
MP3s - Bad Blood | Pompeii | Things We Lost In The Fire | Laura Palmer