LEGO | Pokemon

When Pokemon and LEGO mix, it's usually a good combination. Case in point: Filip Johannes Felberg's custom Pokemon creations made from LEGO bricks. What he does is make 4 different Pokemon from his extensive collection of bricks, and the results are quite amazing, with each Pokemon perfectly capturing that blocky 8-bit charm.

Clockwise, back to front: Pikachu, Eevee, Jigglypuff, Chikorita

Filip used to make 4 different Pokemon every week, but now limits it to when he has time off from his busy schedule. What he does is build the 4 Pokemon and take photos of them, then disassembles them to free more bricks for new creations.

Clockwise, back to front: Gengar, Doduo, Metapod, Diglett

He started with mostly Generation 1 Pokemon, then gradually added Pokemon from later generations. His latest work now includes the new and mostly ugly (sorry, can't help it--I hate most of them, LOL) 5th Generation Pokemon seen in Pokemon Black & White.

Clockwise, back to front: Slowking, Dustox, Cascoon, Murkrow

Hopefully he goes back to the original Pokemon and build Bulbasaur, but no matter what, he's done a fantastic job. More, please!

[Photos are from Filip Johannes Felberg's awesome flickr album]

Film | Battle: Los Angeles

What happens when an extra-terrestrial invasion occurs so brazenly and in full view of the media? Battle: Los Angeles tries to answer that question, focusing on a squad of marines sent to rescue some civilians in an abandoned police station, and as usual things progress from bad to worse.

Battle: Los Angeles tries to look gritty and real by employing a pseudo-documentary look, which apparently requires lots of camera-shaking and extreme close-ups. I hate this kind of film technique; the constant shaking was annoying as hell, and it made me dizzy.

People tend to compare this with Cloverfield--which happens to be one of my favorite movies of 2008--but at least in that movie, the shaky cam was done in the proper context, as one of the characters was actually filming the entire thing. In Battle: Los Angeles, no one was shown holding a videocam, so all that shaking was pointless. Making it worse was the amount of hokey dialogue spouted by the lead characters; even more amazing was that they all delivered the lines with a straight face.

The alien technology used in the movie was quite disappointing, as the aliens seemed to be using the same guns the marines had--what the hell? Shouldn't they be using some super advanced laser death ray or something? And most of their vehicles were hardly impressive; they looked like junkpiles or leftovers from District 9.

In the end, the interesting premise of Battle: Los Angeles falls flat in its execution. The movie turned out to be just okay--it makes a satisfactory popcorn movie, but it's something that doesn't deserve repeated viewings.

Devastation

It's been a week since that catastrophic earthquake occurred in northeastern Japan, and until now that country and the rest of the world are still reeling from the effects. The earthquake, initially reported as an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, was actually a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake, causing 10-meter high tsunami waves that wreaked havoc on coastal areas located in Japan's Tohoku region.


From the widespread devastation that happened afterward, and after viewing countless videos of shaking buildings and tsunami waves mercilessly pounding towns and villages, I can't imagine the horror and anguish that the Japanese people in the affected areas must be going through right now. About a year ago I was on the 21st floor of a building when a 6.0-magnitude quake struck; we only felt the outer tremors since we weren't in the epicenter, but I've experienced enough earthquakes inside buildings in my lifetime to know that it can get pretty harrowing.

And it's not over yet. Thousands have been reported as dead or missing, numerous aftershocks are still happening, and even worse, threats of meltdowns from Japan's many nuclear power plants located in the northeast region have been looming over the area, after some of them were heavily damaged by the quakes.

Since Japan is the main source for anime, manga, and video games that many like me depend on for entertainment, I was genuinely concerned not just for its many residents but also for the fates of those creators and developers. Industry-related sites like the Anime News Network have compiled helpful lists that convey to fans confirmation of their favorite creators' status after the quake, and I for one was grateful that those circulating rumors about the death of Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri were proven to be false, confirmed by both Nintendo and Satoshi's best friend, Pokemon illustrator Ken Sugimori.

If anything else, this disaster is once more proof that nature is a force to reckoned with. When it comes to natural disasters, earthquakes and tsunamis are the ones I'm most terrified of, as you can't simply outrun them. There's no rhyme or reason why these things happen other than the characteristic behavior of tectonic plates, and predicting when they're going to strike next is just not possible.

Design | Starbucks Logo

Starbucks celebrates its 40th anniversary this month with a new logo, removing the famous "Starbucks Coffee" imprint while making the iconic Siren in the center bigger and recoloring it with the same green shade that used to frame around it.


The new logo officially debuted this week on Starbucks cups, but it was actually unveiled last January 2011. Reactions were mixed among long-time Starbucks patrons, who either loved it or downright despised it, even comparing it to Gap's ill-fated logo change last year.

As for me, I really liked the original Starbucks logo, but I find this new logo striking, clean and distinctive. I totally get what they're trying to achieve; just like Apple and Nike, who also ditched their names from their famous logos, Starbucks doesn't need their name to signify that they sell coffee--they are coffee, LOL. I'm also one of those long-time Starbucks patrons, and hey, I like the new logo and think that it's a bold step in the right direction.

Music | International Pony - Leaving Home

International Pony is a trio of DJs and mixers from Germany who specialize in music that seems to combine electronica with funk grooves. It's hard to exactly pinpoint their musical style, but there's a bit of Daft Punk in there mixed in with Fatboy Slim. Whatever, I happen to like it.


Back in 2003, when MTV was still cool and still played music videos, I saw this video being played on one of their shows reserved for dance music tracks. That's how I first found out about International Pony, through their Leaving Home video.

The video is certainly one of the strangest videos I've seen, as a bunch of kids jump around all over town, only to be stopped by the trio, who then try and fail to impress the kids with their dance moves--hilarious, really. Everything ends with a bizarre image of the kids sleeping in a field of beds with farm animals all around them; I'm not making this up, LOL.