The Grandiose

Sorry for my absence for the last two days (if anybody ever reads these), but I've been catching up on my reading and recently picked up "The Strain" which is the first book in a trilogy by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro that released just last month. The battle of vampires against the human race takes full "flight" and opens up excellently and just keeps getting better and better. GDT brings us some of the most gruesome vampires that any book page has seen in a while and Hogan did wonderfully bringing that dark and ominous environment to life. Although Chuck Hogan is an award-winning writer himself (Hammett award for The Standoff and Prince of Thieves which Stephen King called one of the best novels of the year), it was GDT who came up with the outline of the trilogy and is more known for his movies including Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth (also directed Mimic, Blade II, and both Hellboy's). Just believe me when I tell you that if you're a horror fan like me, then you'll love this book. Pick this up now before they make it into a movie because the book is always superior. Also look out for GDT to direct the upcoming films Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein.

Pictures were already released and can be found pretty much everywhere of the assorted Nikes themed after the recent summer blockbuster movie Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I simply want to let you guys know that the Megatron Zoom Flight Club Supreme TF's are not only savage, but pretty much the only ones I'd even think about purchasing.

We all know of the A-Team movie coming out and I'm sure most of you heard that Ice Cube was in the lead to play B.A. Baracus, but if you ever read anything here you would have seen that they dropped that idea. Word now is that The Game is very close to signing on to the movie as that character made oh so famous by Mr. T. Not sure how to feel about this, but I guess we'll have to wait for confirmation.

Good news for all the Avatar fans out there, the new teaser trailer is here. I'm not up on my anime like I used to be (Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll type stuff), but I here and now see that this will be a good movie. In case that wasn't enough to peak your curiosity.......M. Night Shyamalan is directing. Now most people would argue that the majority of his work were flops, but I personally enjoyed almost everything he's made. Yes The Happening was weak, but for the most part his movies are what movies are suppose to be.....entertaining. Now before you go complaining, check out the trailer here and tell me this doesn't look good.

Now I hear people always complaining about how Jordan Brand is horrible now and how nothing they put out is any good. While I do agree they do some horrible fusions and rediculous colorways, without retro's none of us what actually have what we want. You can't be mad at a shoe for retroing now if all you worship is a retro that came out in the late 90s early 2000s. I love that I got my black cement IIIs again and have already purchased the true blue IIIs that will release everywhere except the US in August, and I have to say I'm very impressed with this Jordan XII Retro colorway. The original inspiration was the rising sun design and Jordan just went back and refocused the shoe even more this time around. The preforated leather and beautiful insoles make these one of the best new colorway retro that I've seen in a while. Retail will be $150 but I see some places are selling them early (cough read the pics cough).

So I'm Boo Boo the fool now? The media tells me Mike is dead, never shows me the body, and conveniently happens before Mike has to get back on tour to pay off this debt? Can we say Tupac ladies and gentlemen? Everybody knows the Neverland Ranch was getting foreclosed on and Mike was in deep debt with the government (I'm hearing somewhere in the $400 million range). If you recall, a certain company came forward and offered Mike a ridiculous amount of money to go do that European Tour that was announced not too long ago and there were talks of more tour shows that he might have to do in the US. Ok if I'm Mike, I owe all this money, don't want to go on tour, and have been harrassed by the media since the trial, what should I do? FAKE IT!!!! Nothing adds up. Uses a cover story of all these drugs so nobody questions anything, keep my doctor with me since I am truly sick, and dip the hell out. Why didn't we see the body when they took whoever out of the ambulance? Why could the doctors not find an exact cause of death and then ship the body to the mortuary saying that's what the family wanted? Just doesn't add up in my book, but if this is what Mike wants folks to believe then so be it. RIP* Mike.

Even though this already dropped, I finally got a chance to listen and review this mixtape and am very pleased with the outcome. Legendary producer 9th Wonder got together with wordsmith Wale to bring a breath of life back into hip hop in a time of mindless chatter over somebody else's beat. Wale, who I've personally been listening to since his 100 Miles and Running mixtape came out in 2007, has been torching mixtapes and has appeared on several tracks and is working on releasing his debut album which apparently is finished and will release sometime late this summer. If you don't know who 9th Wonder is, then I feel bad for you. Hands down one of the best producers in history comes oh so soulful as expected on this whole piece of musical art. These two worlds clash as 9th laces every track perfectly (yes he even had some old beats on there) and Wale (comfortable with those DC go-go beats) complimented these joints amazingly with his word play. With appearances by a handful including Joe Budden, Currensy, Talib Kweli, K'Naan and others, this mixtape should be an easy download for you....If you're into that kind of thing of course.

I know how much people hate the Countdown Packs and talk about how much they ruined the Jordan Brand, but the truth is that I wouldn't own my all-time favorite Jordan without these recent releases. The carmine VIs really hold a special place in my heart....(pause)....but Jordan Brand really knows how to destroy history. 2010 will give light to two seperate Jordan VI retros (that we know of for the moment) with the pair pictured above in white and black similar to the 2000 Olympic VIs but with a speckled midsole and the all infamous infrared VIs (the "infrared" has been changed and they will simply release as black and varsity red). I'm all for new things, but this is just another ploy to take consumer's money and cheapen the history of a certain shoe in the process.

New images have recently surfaced of Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp. We've seen these guys do multiple projects together that have all come out leaving strange, but great impressions. The movie is slated right now for March of 2010 and is expected to be presented in Disney 3D.

If you didn't already know, Concepts (located in Cambridge, MA) recently released the blue lobster SB dunk low in limited quantities after the original lobster design got so much positive feedback. They were bagged, tagged and sealed in a HAZMAT foam container. Each pair was joined by an official Nike SB tee shirt, hang tag and lace lock. The first 200 pairs came with 1 of 2 Concepts x Alien Workshop skate decks. What most didn't know was that what's even more rare than a blue lobster is a yellow one.

According to the facts, the assortment rate of getting a pair of Yellow Lobster dunks is only 2%, 1 of 50, at the limited packaging Blue Lobster release. There were 250 pairs released, so 5 of them were yellow, and 245 were just blue lobsters. Yellow lobsters are one of the most rarest lobsters in the world. You have a 1 in 30 million chance of seeing one of these rare genetically mutated yellow lobsters in their natural habitat. Good luck at getting your hands on these.

Most had to see 2003's The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen to hear of Dorian Gray and others had to read Oscar Wilde's brilliant character at one point in school. Either way you should know about this movie and (like myself) anticipate the release of this movie. Ben Barnes (Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) will portray the epic character even though I thought Stuart Townsend was excellent in the 2003 movie along side Sean Connery. I'm not summarizing anything else. I'd prefer you read the actual book, but I'll settle for you looking him up on Wikipedia.

Another movie that shouldn't need any introduction, Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself. Before Iron Man you might have raised an eyebrow, but I'm sure most feel like I do and approve of Robert Downey Jr. portraying the legendary detective. Jude Law plays John Watson in the movie and Guy Ritchie (Snatch) is directing so this should make very good competition for any other movie releasing on Christmas.

Adidas Originals will be working with Lucasfilm Ltd. on a collaborative Star Wars collection, with first releases coming for Spring/Summer 2010. The Spring/Summer 2010 collection fuses iconic Star Wars characters and scenes with classic adidas Originals footwear and apparel silhouettes. Inspired by the galactic saga, the Star Wars collection consists of limited edition as well as mass distribution footwear, apparel and accessories for men, women and kids. Classic adidas Originals track tops and several legendary sneaker styles are represented with characters and scenes from the epic saga in reinterpreted versions. Expect to see Darth Vader and Stormtrooper graphics on select iconic Originals styles. Other key Star Wars characters and memorable moments from the films will also be represented in innovative ways. The Spring/Summer Star Wars collection will be introduced at retail beginning January 2010. Select retailers as well as adidas Originals Stores worldwide will carry the collection.

This beautiful car is definitely worthy of being Bruce Wayne's day car or that one he drives at night. The good thing is that the Koenigsigg's Quant could soon be going into production. Most of these rumor styled cars get some steam and are never made, but the Swedish manufacturer has told newspapers that they indeed plan to put the car into production in limited quantities. Koenigsegg, who are in talks to buy Saab from GM, say the car has 512hp and can speed from 0-62 in 5.2 seconds. It features a thin solar coating on the bodywork to top up power and can be charged (in a more conventional way) within 20 minutes. There is no word on pricing yet, but we can probably assume that you or me will never own one.

About a month ago, a statement from Mos Def was posted on the internet claiming that Mighty Mos could beat Jay-Z and Lil Wayne live on pay-per-view in a freestyle battle. Now we know a one-on-one battle would never happen, but what about a team battle? December 30th in Louisiana an event where competitors will go head-to-head including marching bands, DJs, breakdancers, and Mos is proposing a 5 man team, each with a captain to duke it out over beats. Mos being the captain of one team seems to have already assembled a team of himself, Black Thought, MF Doom, Nas, and Jay Electronica (who is already collaborating on a whole CD with Mos) against Jay-Z and whatever 4 people he selects. Now of course I doubt this will happen, but the challenge is out there and this is exactly what hip-hop needs. Take it back to the beginning and and battle it out to see who undoubtedly is the best. I've publically stated that record labels should make it mandatory for their artists to compete YEARLY in a tournament showdown to prove who's truly great in their craft. I already know people are going to start with the "Mos just wants shine cuz his album out" and that couldn't be further from the truth. He puts his music out there and is not worried about any of that. If you remember his last album Tru3 Magic came in a clear plastic case with no writing or even promotion at Mos' request. The stage is set for one of the biggest events in hip-hop history...I'm asking Santa for this to go down.

Back in 2005, Nike planned to release quickstrike pair of Gucci inspired dunk highs designed by Girl Skateboards. Nike ended up scrapping the project and as a result, less than 30 pairs were made and have been very expensive fan favorites. In late 2009 though, fans will get their chance to finally own this dream shoe. The only major differences will be the clean cut trim, thicker SB tongue and SB laces. From the compare and contrast sample pics above, Nike seems to have done a good job so far.

If you remember the beginning of Grindhouse, then you definitely remember the fake trailer for the movie Machete. Apparently a lot of people enjoyed it and fueled Robert Rodriguez to actually make the movie. Danny Trejo will take the lead in a movie which pretty much is a spoof of Rodriguez's earlier work in Desperado (Trejo along with a lot of the other cast were also in that). I'm sure some are excited for this, I'm just not one of them.

The sequel to the brilliant Marvel game that let you play as your favorite superheroes is back for it's new release slated for September of this year. Although the game has been confirmed for a while, the option to play as Venom, Green Goblin, and Juggernaut has just been announced even though the only way to play as Juggernaut is to pre-order your copy at Gamestop. This time around, a solid story has been added to the game in the form of the epic Civil War comic event that spanded 7 issues and pinned superhero against superhero in a situation where a mutant registration law has been put in place and approving of it on one side is Iron Man and opposing on the other is Captain America. The game will allow you to choose your side and go at it with completely destructible environments and of course some of your favorite Marvel characters. You can actually order the whole comic saga in one hardback cover with extras off Amazon for roughly $40 and trust me, it is well worth it. Look for the game in stores September 8th for the PS3, Xbox360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

Now Todd McFarlane (One of the best Spider-Man artists ever and creator of Image's Spawn) had already decided to reboot Spawn with another movie instead of a sequel and he wants.....Leonardo DiCaprio?!?!? Now he didn't exactly say where Leo would fit in considering the original Spawn is black, but the true comic fans would argue that the original Spawn actually died in the comic franchise and his powers were then bestowed on a young white fellow.....Hmmmm. Doubts are in the air the Leo will even do the movie, but who knows at this point.

I'm a Rock, excuse me Dwayne, fan and don't think it's too far fetched to think of him as our generations Arnold. I guess that would explain the torch passing in The Rundown and why he is in the lead now to do the Commando remake. The movie has been given the greenlight and I can't think of anybody better to play the role.

After several incidents of players overheating and collapsing or even just taking fatal hits, the Hothead helmet hopes to rid sports of those events. The helmet monitors cranial heat, wirelessly alerting coaches when the wearer runs the risk of heat exhaustion. The helmet also monitors the force of impacts to the head, we could soon see the perfect helmet to make football an overall safer activity. Not exactly sure if that is in fact what we want to do seeing as how that gamble is something that makes the sport itself interesting, but it will be interesting to see who starts using these helmets and when.

Seeing as how Alzheimer's patients will often have "wandering incidents", it wasn't a too far fetched idea that GPS tracking systems like the ones found in dogs and other pets now were implicated into orthopedic shoes. Devoloped jointly by Aetrex and GTX should be available by the end of the year.

Yes rumors have been floating around about a remake which wouldn't surprise me since Hollywood is remaking everything else. It has now been confirmed though and that Liam Neeson (Taken and Star Wars: Episode I) will play Hannibal Smith to lead the team and Bradley Cooper (The Hangover and Alias) will play Face aka Dirk Benedict. The rumors of Ice Cube playing Mr. T have died down but rumors of Woody Harrelson playing Murdock have come up. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

With all the remakes and origin movies (and the lack of creativity in Hollywood) it seems as if another Predator movie is in the works, but not the way you think. If you recall, Predator 2 jumped straight into LA and starred Danny Glover while the Governator was left out. This franchise reboot will be directed by fan favorite Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Planet Terror and others) and he apparently wants Arnold to reprise his role as "Dutch" in the predator movie. Guess we'll see how that pans out.

Yes Johnny 5 is back!!! Dimension Films has picked Dan Milano (Robot Chicken writer and voice artist) to write the remake of the 1986 film Short Circuit. In the original, an armed robot became “human” after being struck by lightning. It then enlisted the help of human beings when the military tried to “disassemble” it. If you ask me, I think the success of Wall-E just motivated somebody to bring his cousin out of retirement.

If you saw the Lakers Game 1 win, you may have noticed Kobe and other Lakers wearing the special Kobe IVs made especially for the NBA Finals. The gold, white, and forum blue (apparently that's another way to say purple since the Lakers owner doesn't like that word which just seems ridiculous to me) colorway features stats throughout the shoe in off lettering that gets in to the road it took for the Lakers to get back to the finals. To me, these kind of just took some design features not only fron the MVP Lebron VI but also the NYC graffiti Lebron IVs with that look of random lettering all over seperated sections of the shoe. I say go Lakeshow but I'm not too thrilled about this half-constructed idea even if it was thrown together which I doubt since Nike was pretty much on banking for Kobe and the Lakers to reach the Finals. I feel they could have put more thought into the shoe instead of producing a confusing color on a shoe that has just been done in so many good-themed colorways. Nike just dropped the ball with this one and went for the quick buck which I cannot be mad at them for. No word on what type of release these will be yet (HOH only I assume), but these indeed will release to the public.

If you see that fragment logo on the heel and sole then you know Mr. Fujiwara is involved in this second installment in their footscape series. Only problem is that these will be harder to obtain then a job in our economy. Set to release this Saturday in Japan only, if you happen to see these for sale please don't hesitate to cop. They can just pass me the wht/blk/teal pair now....I wish.

After all of the discussions about the PSP Go, Metal Gear, the Final Fantasy series (two games in 2010 sounds good to me) and numerous other games, Playstation so far has not really given anymore detailed info on the PS3 Slim. Seeing as how the PS2 Slim sold so well, it was no surprise when Playstation decided to do the same for the PS3. It is too early to know if the same or better hardware will show up memory wise, but we can hope that the console will be cheaper seeing as how the PS2 released for a cheaper cost even though it came out almost 3 years after the original model hit shelves. The only other thing we know right now is that it will hit stores 2010.

Sole Collector is one of the top (if not top) sneaker magazines out now and a great online community (one which I myself am apart of - jamlj13) and throughout the years has hosted different sneaker events througout the country. Each event featured a signature shoe that was sold to people in attendence and ranged from Air Max 95s to dunk highs, but these take the cake. With no event (that we know of) in sight, Sole Collector collaborated with Nike once again to make this very special and ridiculously savage colorway for the Nike Air Penny IIs that recently retroed. There was some teaser pics earlier this month, but these are the finished products and I already know people are trying to get any info of availability already. Unfortunately is does not look good at the moment, but hopefully the website/magazine juggernaut releases these more widely to the public (or at least to it's subscribers). Enjoy the pics and more info will come on availability as it is revealed.

Ok I was very disappointed with the Wolverine Origins movie solely because 90% of what you saw about Dead Pool was false, but it seems as if Fox Studios wants to correct their error. If you stayed after the credits (alternating times of the movie had different endings) you would have seen "Dead Pool" pick up his own head which hinted toward his own spinoff. Word now is that Dead Pool is indeed getting his own movie. They want to stick VERY close to the comics to not piss off anymore fans, something they have not done with a lot comic-to-big screen productions. The supposed story as of now will claim that Dead Pool simply took the name and that the super freak you saw at the end of Wolverine, just had the same name and is was not Wade Wilson/Dead Pool at all. Not the most creative, but I like it and hope this movie does one of my favorite Marvel characters justice. Even though Ryan Reynolds will be back in character, you will see the gruesome face of the popular mercenary. Definitely no word on release yet since a script has not even been finalized yet.

Kudos to joblow.com on the first pic of Jackie Earle Haley (he played Rorschach in Watchmen) as he steps into the shoes of the infamous Freddy Krueger in the remake scheduled to release next year. Since this is a remake that will explain more of the origin (What's with all these "origin" movies) and the pic is supposedly of him before he was burned and playing hide-and-seek with kids on the playground. If your looking for those ridiculously rare Freddy SB Dunks, check the dunk section already!!!

The pic pretty much says it all. Another Alien movie and this one will be a prequel which will explain the origin (go figure) of the first movie. One of the bright spots though is that Tony Scott and brother Ridley Scott, who directed the original 1979 film, will be attached to produce. With these guys behind the scenes, it's pretty much guaranteed to not be as corny as the last one. No other information concerning the cast or script has been released yet.

When placed side-by-side against some of the current portable gaming competition, the PSP Go illustrates just how different it is from the competition and predecessor. The screen ratio looks similar to older PSP models, but is considerably smaller in size—3.8 inches versus the PSP-3000's diagonal size of 4.3 inches or 11% smaller and seems to have borrowed some design features from its brother product, the Mylo 2.The PSP Go is also pretty efficient on overall hardware footprint. The LCD screen is 0.3 inches larger than the iPhone, but thanks to the slide-out controls, doesn't have nearly the same amount of extra plastic flanking each side. The removal of some of the PSP's original buttons (display, sound, volume) definitely make the difference in efficiency.

Versus the Nintendo DSi and DS Lite, both screens seem to be very similar and with not much of a difference in size. Weight-wise, the PSP Go sounds pretty light—approximately 3.8 ounces, making it 43% lighter than the original PSP. That makes it lighter than the iPhone (4.7 ounces) and Nintendo DSi (7.5 ounces). Keep in mind that these PSP Go figures aren't official, so things may be slightly off. But if you need to budget pocket space for the Fall, it might be handy.

In case you didn't know, Terrance Howard will not be coming back in the Iron Man sequel apparently because he couldn't get what he was asking for money wise and will be replaced by Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle is a great actor, but I think most people will agree with me when I say Terrance Howard was perfect to play Colonel Rhodes/War Machine. Also new to the set will be Mickey Rourke who will play Whiplash (google that to see a pic and see if he looks familiar) who was recently spilling details about "his" suit in the movie. Scarlet Johansson, with no complaints from me, will also be in character playing the Black Widow and who could forget Samuel L. Jackson (yes I had to put his whole name) playing Nick Fury.

Also recently in Marvel, Chris Hemsworth has been officially chosen to play Marvel's Thor in the upcoming movie scheduled to release in 2011. Probably not my first pick for Thor, but I like the idea of a smaller name (not to take anything away from the man) to play the role instead of going with somebody ridiculous. Could you imagine somebody weird playing your favorite super hero part and ruining it? Don't act like you forgot about Mr. Affleck in Daredevil. There's also a rumor that Channing Tatum really wants to play Captain America in the upcoming movie....I'm not saying anything negative, but let's pray they find somebody else.