JACKSON

1958-2009

Today like many others had heard the news on the grapevine that pop icon Michael Jackson, 50 had died today.

6:30PM ET: WKTV.com via the Los Angeles Times has confirmed the death of Jackson. The Associated Press and BBC have also confirmed his death.

6:20PM ET: Earlier this afternoon paramedics were called to the home of Michael Jackson, around 12:30PM PT. He was not breathing when paramedics arrived. They administered CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center.

So yes, it is something big to blog about. What I will resquest from those who are reading this to comment and share thier best Jackson memories. I have already cut myself off from a couple of people who have been airing unpleasant comments on Facebook and would rather not see anymore. Share your Michael moments if they are good.

I of course growing up in the 80's fondly remember the awesomeness of Thriller, Smooth Criminal, Bad and also trying to mimmick the dance moves, but pulling it off (esp the moonwalk) very badly.

RACCOON

Run with us...

INFLAMATORY

I spent the day shooting/acting some scenes for Brain Freeze today and came across this sign whilst walking through the St Matt's Uni Campus.

Today was Open Day to the public, so obviously someone perhaps a disgruntled student parent pinned this message up outside the Uni Creche. Looks like that someone went through a lot of trouble too.

UMAGA

Thoughts on Umaga.
Did someone say 3 Minutes!?

I was looking through WWE.com last night after watching the very well executed Extreme Rules PPV to look at the highlight photos and see what would be on tap for RAW.

I then came across a random but shocking news piece on the site announcing that WWE had released Umaga from his employment.

“From WWE.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Umaga as of today, June 8, 2009. WWE wishes Umaga the best in all future endeavours.”

I don’t get it. Umaga was one of the top heels and one of the best characters going, especially in a current period in WWE where it seems the good guy ratio is overlapping the bad. Allegiance aside, Umaga was a solid hard-hitter and brought out the best in a lot of the faces he feuded with.

When Umaga first came into WWE in 2006, he was frizzy haired and somewhat a little generic - The whole Samoan savage thing had been done before. It also didn’t help that he’d already been established from two previous TV incarnations, Jamal (WWE) and later as Ekmo (TNA). The best thing about Umaga at the time of the character starting out was his charismatic Cuban manager Armando Estrada who was a great spokesperson and mouthpiece.

Umaga as a character really came into fruition when his move set was altered from just relying solely corner moves. Moves like the Samoan Spike, Samoan Drop and the Sidewalk Slam variant were both very good highspots and brought Umaga more into a better centre of focus. Umaga became a much more watchable ring warrior when he broke free from mainly trapping opponents in the turnbuckles.

As well as sorting out the moveset, the image improved. Umaga got rid of the troll hair and replaced the do with tribal dreadlocks and shaved patterns, he also acquired better henna face tat designs and better ring gear. Umaga looked more fearsome and his image complimented his in-ring toughness.

Umaga had some great wars against some of the most credible stars including DX (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), John Cena, and Jeff Hardy. Umaga had also got off to a great start when his first WWE feud pitted him against Ric Flair where he gained his first major victory. Many other victims followed after Ric Flair. Umaga was also a brilliant nemesis for Triple H for the better half of 2007.

So what about Umaga’s appeal? He did big moves, looked nasty in a stylish way, and had presence. Watching Umaga destroy people and scream out his Samoan war-cries was like watching Taz the Tasmanian Devil but only much more extreme.

What started to go downhill for Umaga was the separation of himself and his manager (who drafted to ECW). The dynamic had been broken in half and both forcibly had to branch out on their own. A soulless feud with Bobby Lashley (representing Donald Trump) accumulating at Wrestlemania 23 was about as wholesome drinking Somerfield Basics tea.

Now that Umaga is gone, he will certainly leave a gap that needs filling. At least towards the end of his WWE run he got to speak some English, although that debatably not a good thing. Hopefully Eddie Fatu can pick up somewhere on the Indy circuit, maybe go back to TNA or reunite with Armando Estradra. Perhaps a fantasy bout against Samoa Joe is now a possibility… The 90 Day No Compete clause will probably help sort something out for the future.

Umaga will be missed.

CANCEL

Aside from all the promising Transformers news surfacing from the recent Botcon 2009 event in Pasadena, it was sad to learn proper confirmation that Transformers: Animated won’t be continuing.

As much as I liked the Season 3 finale, I was left unsatisfied with an improper sense of disclosure. Surely a true finale episode should have been longer to have made room for the things to tie up in the show. The Dinobots, Constructicons and Wreck Gar are still roaming the Earth (where Prowl should have been buried) as well as a few other things still unresolved. For me it was like a very bad goodbye and a rushed ending for endings sake. Perhaps I am wrong and that the episode was indeed made longer, but cut for airtime reasons. The episode certainly did feel like it was cut. Time will tell come the DVD release.

I liked Animated a lot! It looked different to everything else and was a breath of fresh air after 3-4 years of badly translated japanimation in the forms of Armada, Energon and Cybertron. The best thing of all was that it was a Transformers text that both old and young fans could engage with. For the young fan it had the cartoony designs, whacky approach and colour; whilst the older audience could mark out at the several nods to past transformers incarnations and 80’s voice actors taking part (Judd Neilson, Weird Al Yankovic, Susan Blu etc). Beyond looking at the surface of the image, Transformers: Animated was uber-fan-friendly!

During its tenure I couldn’t help but feel in just under a year Animated was rushed. Season 1 and 2 being aired back to back probably wasn’t a smart move on Cartoon Network’s part. I think maybe things should have been spread out more.

Ideally Animated could have carried on for another year and another couple of seasons. So much potential was there via 25 years worth of source material to draw from. I’d have even welcomed the umpteenth return of Unicron, especially if the story was good. The remediated source material itself wasn’t just a drawing factor, but original characters like Bulkhead, Slipstream and Lugnut as well as a few likable support cast humans were all great too. On top of that, the interesting new origins for characters like Blackarachnia/Elita-1 and The Dinobots were brilliant! I could tell that some of the ideas must been influenced from Marty Isenberg’s involvement with the show, as he did similar things with the 2003 TMNT toon.

Transformers: Animated. It was fun whilst it lasted.

I hope the next Transformers show can be better; not just as a show, but also how the show is handled.