Author: Trisha Lynn

Trisha L. Renken-Sebastian (aka "Trisha Lynn" is a jill-of-many-trades. A former editor of both Wizard: Anime Insider and Sequential Tart, she has also been the managing editor for Saucy Goose Press, a small independent publisher, and contributed to a 2009 episode of the public radio show “This American Life.” She currently lives on Vancouver Island in Canada where she bides her time until she can create her own socially responsible media empire.

Trisha’s Take: How to desegregate the World Series of Poker

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Shaun Deeb says: "I support women poker players. Poker is a gender-neutral game. I am here to promote abolishment of gender-specific or segregationist events at the WSOP."

Back when Secretary of Geek Affairs Wil Wheaton was writing a lot about poker in his blog, I took it upon myself to learn more about the modern game and why Wheaton liked it. My Internet meanderings eventually lead me to the Tiltboys, a group of friends and poker players in the California Bay Area who had been regaling the online poker community for years with their outrageous exploits, prop bets, and antics which surrounded their weekly home game.

Eventually, they gathered these writings into a book called Tales from the Tiltboys, the cover of which features former “Celebrity Poker Showdown” commentator Phil Gordon in drag. The reason why he was in drag was that back in 2006, he and and four of the other Tiltboys crashed a Bay101 ladies only tournament (please excuse the bright pink background); the reason written by Bruce “Bruscilla” Hayek is here: Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: How to desegregate the World Series of Poker” →

Trisha’s Take: Cyrus review

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Cyrus

Directed by Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass
Starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill
Rated R for language and some sexual material

Back when I had a Netflix account, I went on an indie movie-watching spree, and that’s where I encountered the concept behind “actor’s workshop” films for the first time.

For the people who aren’t acting or film geeks, I’ll explain. An actor’s workshop film is one where a bunch of actor who are taking classes together take what they’ve learned and make a movie out of it. The coolest thing, though, is that some of the best actors are always taking classes and workshops to hone their craft even further. Another thing I learned about was the mumblecore movement, wherein production is very low-budget, conversations are improvised, and the focus is on characterization over complicated plots.

Multi-hyphenate brothers Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, who helped form the latter, seem to have taken the best of what’s cool about an actor’s workshop film, given it a mumblecore feel, and turned it loose into the world.

The plot to Cyrus is pretty simple. John C. Reilly stars as John, a divorcé who never really got out of the depressive funk that drove his now-ex-wife (Catherine Keener) away seven years ago. Strangely enough, they’re still friends—and may possibly also work together—and after she tells him that she’s getting married again, she tries to get him out of his rut by forcing him to go to a party. There he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) who sees something charming in his sad sack and “drunk on Red Bull and vodka” exterior and follows him back to his place.

However, she doesn’t stick around in the morning, but instead leaves him a note. Intrigued but not scared off, John invites her over for a proper first date which is as romantic as it is charming… only to catch her sneaking out of his room at night. Her vague explanation doesn’t satisfy him, so John follows her back to her house where he meets the source of her secrecy: her antagonistic live-at-home 21-year old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: Cyrus review” →

Warner Bros. to turn “Supernatural” into an anime

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If today you feel a wave of “WTF?” wash over you, check your nearest “Supernatural” fangirl for the source.

For according to Anime News Network and Cinema Today, Warner Bros. and acclaimed anime studio Madhouse are teaming up to turn the hit show about brothers who fight against the dark forces of the world into an animated series.

From the ANN article (because I can’t read Japanese):

The anime project will not only remake the best episodes from the live-action version, but also depict original episodes not seen in the live-action version. Those original episodes will include prologues of the Winchester brothers’ childhood, anime-only enemies, and episodes featuring secondary characters from the live-action version.

The project will be co-directed by Shigeyuki Miya and Atsuko Ishizuka (“Aoi Bungaku Series”), and there’s no word yet on which Japanese seiyuu (aka voice actors) they’ll get for the project.

Warner Home Video Japan will be releasing the 22 episodes on Blu-Ray and DVD in Japan over three volumes starting on January 12, 2011; no work on if there will also be an English-language release.

Trailer Watch: The Norwegian Ninja first English-subtitled trailer

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To all you schlocky film fans out there, I heartily apologize for not mentioning anything about this sooner:

Here’s the synopsis, courtesy of the gang at TwitchFilm.net:

Kommandør Treholt & Ninjatroppen is the true story of how Commander Arne Treholt and his Ninja Force saved Norway during the Cold War. The story takes place in the time right before Treholt’s arrest on espionage charges in 1984, and reveals a spectacularly different version of our recent past than has been previously known.

A mix of true story and unabashed flights of fancy, the movie will premiere in Norway on August 13. An English-language blog is here, and I really hope someone decides to release this in the U.S.

Trisha’s Take: To buy an iPhone4, or not to buy an iPhone4?

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If, like me, you were unfortunate enough to only have to rely on Twitter updates to find out exactly what new doohickies are going to be on the new iPhone rather than being able to stream it live, you can check it all out again courtesy of This Week in Tech’s special coverage of the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (aka WWDC).

After reading Gizmodo.com’s official summary of the new features, the thing that jumps out at me is the selective multitasking, which pits it directly against the Droid phones and makes me swing back towards staying with AT&T. The video calling feature turns me off because it’s something I don’t think I’d use every day.

Gizmodo’s own rundown of why someone would want to buy one is telling, especially the part where it says that it’s much better at being a phone than previous models of the iPhone were due to its slimmer size, greater battery life, and noise canceling microphone.

I think that the reason someone should buy an iPhone should ultimately come down to how much it’s going to cost you on a monthly basis. Considering that I’m already paying about $110 a month for the most basic calling plan (but I’ve got an obscene amount of rollover minutes), unlimited data, and unlimited text messages–and that’s before my special day job-related discount could kick in–I’m still incredibly on the fence.

Anyone local got an iPhone or a Droid I could play with for a while?

Marvel announces same-day digital delivery; brick-and-mortar stores, fans freak out

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After Marvel Comics announced last Wednesday (aka, the day that most comics hit the stores in the U.S.) that it would be offering Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 as a digital download on the same day as its regular print release, the blogosphere went into a tizzy and hasn’t fully recovered yet.

Written by Matt Fraction with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico, the annual will include a story about the Mandarin’s origins, which to date has never really been explored.

Reaction hit the ‘net on Friday, and I think the best place to find a nuanced argument would be courtesy of Dirk Deppey at The Comics Journal‘s Journalista! who today writes:

[You] need to keep in mind that no legacy media, — film, television, music or print — has found a proven and stable way to make the Internet pay for itself in the same way as has their previous business models. While it’s difficult to get firm music-industry statistics without paying for them, Wikipedia notes that record sales shrank by close to 40% in the United States between 2000 and 2007. A 2009 Yankee Group report makes the claim that television advertising revenue is dropping faster than the increase in advertising revenue for online video. This isn’t a swamp into which a content publisher leaps lightly, especially is you’re a division in a larger company, and doubly so if that larger company in turn is owned by Disney.

I personally don’t have a large enough cellphone screen to make reading comics on it a rational decision, but I can totally understand and get behind being able to get the newest release of a favorite book or series fed directly to my computer on a subscription basis. Once I finally decide between an iPhone and a Droid, however, this is definitely something that will become a concern.

Olivia Munn takes on Samantha Bee in battle of female correspondents

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Congratulations are in order to “Attack of the Show!” co-host Olivia Munn who graduated to the big times last week by booking her first “special BLANK correspondent” segment for “The Daily Show.”

According to James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter‘s Live Feed blog, Munn is likely to be taping a few segments over the next few weeks and the response to her bits will determine whether or not she’ll be able to continue on as a regular special correspondent.

I have a love/hate relationship with geeky shows who hire non-geek-aligned women like Munn to host them. Sure, they need jobs like any other women do, but at the same time why not hire a host who has a little more experience in the field and is also attractive? At the same time, I’m glad that Munn was able to book this job because any step forward for Asian-American women in media is a good step, right?

Look for more work by Munn on “The Daily Show” in the weeks to come.

8-Bit Theater ends its run with a bang

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One of the first webcomics to use sprites from video games for character art, 8-Bit Theater creator Brian Clevinger gave his nine-year old series a great sendoff by teaming up with artist Matt Speroni and letterer Jeff Powell to create a hand-drawn epilogue to his story which ended officially on March 20.

I have to admit that while it was never on my webcomics readling list, I do recognize that when it comes to being a pioneer of webcomics, Clevinger’s creation most definitely deserves to be on that honor roll. Many sprite comics have come and gone, but his story’s endurance had as much to say about good writing and great characterization as it did the fact that it was one of the first of its kind.

Congrats on a great run.

Inside the Lines: Romance author invades comics world, and other stories

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  • In the “Damn, they stole my idea” department, New York Times best-selling romance novelist Janet Evanovich and her daugher Alex teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create a graphic novel called Troublemaker featuring Alex Barnaby, a female racecar mechanic whose vantage point as a raceday spotter leads her into mystery and intrigue. The art is by Joëlle Jones (Dr. Horrible) and volume 1 will be out just days before the annual Nerd Prom in San Diego this July. (Source: Newsarama.com)
  • American manga artist Amy Reeder (Fool’s Gold) has “graduated” to the big times and will be penciling DC Comics’ upcoming ongoing Batwoman series starting with the second story arc which will see the light of day in early 2011. She’ll be working on scripts by artist/co-writer J.H. Williams III, whose pencils will kick off the series later this year. I’m rather hopeful about this prospect of seeing more female pencilers working on “Big Three” books, and really hope that she (and the book) does well. (Source: Newsarama.com)
  • After taking heat and a lot of licks for his underperforming directorial debut for The Spirit, comics artist Frank Miller is returning to the medium that made him great and revealed some of the first pieces of art for Xerxes, a 300 prequel story about the leader of ancient Persia who was the antagonist in the numerically-named film/comics series. Scheduled to be published by Dark Horse Comics in 2011, the ouroboros will begin its turn and if director Zach Snyder likes it enough, he said he’ll option it for a live-action adaptation. (Source: The L.A. Times Hero Complex blog)