Uggie

Uggie is a Jack Russell Terrier who appeared in the big movie of last Sunday night's Academy Awards, The Artist. Prior to that, he appeared in several other films and commercials, but there's no denying that the French movie The Artist made him a star, with most reviews mentioning that he stole every scene that he was in.


The Artist is a unique film, a true silent film inspired by the silent movies of yesteryear and done in the same black and white style. It's already garnered critical acclaim, mostly due to the performances of the actors featured in the movie, Uggie included. Uggie has received many accolades for The Artist, including awards presented at the Cannes Film Festival, the Prix Lumière Awards, and others, as well as attending those awards shows and gala events.

Even though Uggie was diagnosed with a neurological order during the filming of The Artist, he managed to do all his parts like a pro. Consequently, his trainer and owner Omar Von Muller decided to have him retire from showbiz to do less stressful parts, and earlier this month, Uggie became Nintendo of America's spokesdog for their Nintendogs + Cats game for the 3DS.

Uggie & French actor Jean Dujardin onstage at the Oscars

While a "Consider Uggie" campaign for a special Oscar award didn't exactly pan out, last February 26 was still Uggie's biggest night ever, as he attended the Academy Awards ceremony. He was brought to the stage and joined the cast of The Artist as they accepted the final award of the night for Best Picture; Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin even carried then kissed him while holding his Oscar with his other hand, awwwww.

Uggie with the producer, director, and the cast of The Artist backstage at the Oscars

For the Oscars, Uggie wore a black satin bowtie with dangling 18K gold bone engraved with his name, exclusively designed by the prestigious Swiss jeweler Chopard. The classy bowtie will then be auctioned off, with proceeds going to The Amanda Foundation, a Los Angeles-based animal rescue group.

The Artist has yet to be shown here, but I'm already looking forward to see this adorable dog onscreen.


[Photos: Uggie - Business Wire; Uggie and Jean Dujardin - Mark J. Terrill of Associated Press;
Uggie and the cast of The Artist, Reuters]

Pokemon | Pokemon Black & White Sequels Announced

With an announcement that surprised no one, The Pokemon Company revealed that sequels to Pokemon Black & White are being developed. This was expected, since Nintendo usually releases a third iteration of the main games about a year after their release.


The somewhat unexpected news here is that there will be two sequels instead of one, and in a startling leap of creativity, the new games have been titled Pokemon Black 2 & Pokemon White 2. For the first time ever, we get a numbering scheme for the Pokemon games; so much for the Pokemon Gray rumors that were spreading some time last year.

No other details were mentioned during the announcement, except that these new games are mainly for the Nintendo DS, not the 3DS. Oh, and two new, extremely ugly-as-hell formes of the Legendary Pokemon Kyurem will also be introduced here, called Black Kyurem and White Kyurem. Truly, I'm astounded at the levels of creativity involved in the naming of these new Pokemon!

All snark aside, I just rolled my eyes at the announcement, after the terrible disappointment that was Pokemon Black & White. If these new games are just basically DLC masquerading as full games, with players having to do the entire scenarios of battling the 8 Gym Leaders with ADHD and Elite 4 with Asperger's all over again, not to mention more mystical bullshit with the Legendary Pokemon, then I'm not looking forward to them.

Also, if these sequels force you to use only the crappy 5th Gen Pokemon for the entire game and unlocks the old 1st-4th Gen once you finish the main story, then I most definitely Do. Not. Want.

However, if you look closely at the logos, you'll notice something odd--they both have sparkling, jewel-like designs in them--blue for Pokemon Black 2, red for Pokemon White 2. The only analogous games that correspond to these are Pokemon Sapphire & Pokemon Ruby; these could also have something to do with all those Ruby & Sapphire remake rumors.

Pokemon Black 2 & Pokemon White 2 will be released in Japan on June 2012; North American and European releases will follow this Fall.

Gizmos | Club Nintendo Chotto Mario Edition 3DSes

These awesome, limited edition Nintendo 3DSes were raffled off to lucky Club Nintendo members in Japan recently. Announced last year, the Chotto Mario-na Nintendo 3DS promo was open to all Club Nintendo members who registered two 3DS titles from October 1, 2011 to January 15, 2012.

Top to bottom: Chotto Mario Edition 3DS,
Chotto Peach Edition 3DS, Chotto Super Kinoko Edition 3DS

Only 3,000 of these special 3DSes were made, with 1000 each for the Chotto Mario Edition, the Chotto Peach Edition, and the Chotto Super Kinoko Edition. The winners were sent their unique 3DSes sometime last week, and expect some of these to appear on eBay priced for a ridiculous amount of money, heh.

I like the Mario design best of all among the three designs--the Peach edition was pink, and I hate pink, while the Super Kinoko edition was okay, but the huge polka dots will make it somewhat embarassing to bring out, LOL.

Originally, these limited edition Chotto 3DSes were thought to be exclusive for Japan only, but the promo was also offered to Club Nintendo members in Europe and Australia. Will the USA be next?

Music | Rupert Holmes - Let's Get Crazy Tonight

During the late 1970's to early 1980's, Rupert Holmes was one of the more prolific singer-songwriters of that era, specialzing in lengthy songs that tell some kind of story. His most popular song here, Terminal, became a rather cheesy karaoke staple, while his most famous song ever was Escape (The Pina Colada Song), a song that practically defined 1980.


My all-time best Rupert Holmes song, however, was a song released in 1978 called Let's Get Crazy Tonight. That period in music was known as the Disco era, and I was sick to death of hearing the Bee Gees being played on the radio nonstop that this song was like a breath of fresh air.

The song has a nice, light pop melody that's catchy but never annoying, and features Holmes' trademark lyrical play, in which you can actually hear the words clearly and get a sense of what's it about--a far cry from the auto-tune hip-hop crap that's played on the radio today.

Let's Get Crazy Tonight wasn't a big hit in the USA, but it did have moderate success and radio airplay here. The mellow beats and great instrumentation, particularly the flute and percussion during the last few minutes have made this song a favorite of mine through the years, and it's played constantly on my portable music player nowadays.

Space | Tethys, is that you?

Wow, the first half of February has come and gone already; it's been a busy & hectic past couple of weeks--work to submit, places to go, plus games to play (heh). Yet sometimes all it takes to make your accomplishments pale in comparison is to look upwards into the vastness of space.


There, just past Mars, is the ringed planet Saturn. This most unusual planet with the clearly defined rings is my favorite planet, and right now NASA's Cassini space probe is doing a flyby of its moons while taking the most amazing photographs ever.

The photo seen here was taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera on Dec. 7, 2011, showing Saturn's rings at an almost edge on view, casting their shadows on the planet's surface. In the center, just below the rings, you can see a tiny, little moon--Tethys.

"Tiny" is an understatement though. At 660 miles in diameter, Tethys is bigger than Earth's moon. But here, its size is rendered insignificant by the sheer scale of Saturn in the background--I knew Saturn was huge, but it's not only huge, it's super-duper humongous.

It's an awesome, breathtaking reminder that no matter what we do, we're just dust particles in the grand scheme of the cosmos.


[Photo from NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute]