Category Archives: JP/Japer
Biff Bam Pop’s Best of 2011 – Apes, Captain America, Harry Potter and More Made A Mark At The Movies
All this week, Biff Bam Pop’s various writers will drop by with their thoughts on the best of the year when it comes to tv, music, movies, comics and more. Monday, we looked at what topped our tv list, Tuesday featured our musical faves, Wednesday was all about comics while Thursday looked at the best in video games. Today, Biff Bam Pop’s writers offer up the movies that moved them most in 2011.
Shannon Watkins:
And so comes the end of the most lucrative movie franchise in history. Yes, even more than Star Wars, James Bond and Twilight. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the final chapter of the series was not a let down. The action-packed finale flew by, feeling much shorter than it’s two hours. All the loose ends were tied up and you really get a sense of how much the series has grown with the audience. Images of Harry’s once-safe haven, Hogwarts, as a crumbling and smoking battleground feel impossibly dark when compared with the shiny-goodness of the first installment.
Biff Bam Pop’s Best of 2011 – Batman, The Boys, Severed and More Great Comic Reads
All this week, Biff Bam Pop’s various writers will drop by with their thoughts on the best of the year when it comes to tv, music, movies, comics and more. Monday, we looked at what topped our tv list, while Tuesday featured our musical faves. Today, here’s a list of what comics left their marks on our writers.
Jason Ward:
Best – Dynamite Entertainnment’s The Boys – Fans of writer Garth Ennis know he’s not keen on the superhero genre. He enjoys it to a degree, sure, but he’s been poking fun at the cape & tights crowd since DC’s Hitman made it hilarious in the 1990s. The Boys takes it a step further in a world where irresponsible superheroes are the product of a corrupt corporation trying to find leverage in the arms market. Someone’s got to keep an eye on things and slap the supes down when they get out of hand, and that’s what The Boys are for.
This year, we got to learn why team leader Butcher Baker hates the cape-clad crowd so much in Butcher Baker, Candlestick Maker, as well as see Wee Hughie learn The Boys’ origins and reunite with the team to investigate an apparent murder by a member of the world’s “greatest” super team, the Seven.
The Boys are headed for some dark places as the final showdown with the Seven draws near, and The Boys have already lost one of their number this year. From this point forward, anything goes – and that’s how it should be.
Biff Bam Pop’s Best of 2011 – Prog Rock, Hair Metal, Folk and More Make For An Eclectic Year
All this week, Biff Bam Pop’s various writers will drop by with their thoughts on the best of the year when it comes to tv, music, movies, comics and more. Monday, we looked at what topped our tv list. Today, here’s a list of what topped our list of favourite musical moments. As you’ll see, all of our contributing writers have some diverse taste
Andy Burns:
This was a year that featured a whole mess of big box sets from the likes of Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, U2 and many more. Out of all of those, I’d have to say that Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here Immersion Box Set was the real revelation to these Floydian loving ears. Imagine putting on an album you’ve heard hundreds of times and then feeling like you’re experiencing it for the first time. That’s what it was like for me listening to the Surround Sound mix of WYWH. From the wind blowing to the sound of machines working to the actual music itself – I was placed right inside that album. You’d expect an experience like that from Dark Side of the Moon, of course, but Wish You Were Here in surround sound is a revelation that every Floyd fan should check out.
Final Giveaway!!! Win A Copy Of The Bestselling Biography Of Steve Jobs In Day 23 Of Biff Bam Pop’s Holiday Gift Guide
I’m writing this entry on MacBook Air. I’ll check to see how it looks on my iPad or my iPhone – I think you get the picture. Apple products have made an indelible impact on my life, and probably on yours as well. If you’re remotely interested in technology, at least. And the man at the forefront of all this amazing “stuff” was Steve Jobs. I read the biography that shares his name and it was completely captivating to read about his genius at work. Make no mistake, Jobs could be a mean guy. He also appeared to have some nasty hygiene as a young man, though that also came with stellar taste in music. Written by Walter Issacson, the book leaves no stone unturned, talking to both friend and foe of Jobs to give a complete picture of one of the most important creative minds of our time.
Apple accolytes will eat this book up, and I can’t give it a higher recommendation. Even if you don’t have multiple iPods, you’ll still find Steve Jobs the book fascinating. Order it online from Amazon.ca here or win a copy from Biff Bam Pop and our friends at Simon and Schuster!
How to enter the Steve Jobs book Holiday Gift Giveaway:
1) Post a comment below with your favourite Apple product and why (must use valid email when commenting).
2) Bonus entry: Tweet us @BiffBamPop with your favourite Apple product and why (you must be following@BiffBamPop on Twitter).
Winner Selection:
One winner will be selected from all entries received by December 25th, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST.
The winner will be announced December 26th, 2011 right here at Biff Bam Pop!
Airplanes, Biological Threats, Ancient Mythology, Horror And A Famous Director Top The Wednesday Run – December 14, 2011
A quick anecdote: two Thursday evenings ago, I went out for dinner at a well-regarded pizza house in east end Toronto. The pie, a two-cheese blend with three types of mushrooms aside some green foliage, lived up to its “pretty awesome” billing. A nice night out.
But you know how these things can sometimes go.
No, the food stayed with me, thank god, but flash-forward three days and I’m shivering under bedroom blankets, sleepless, head pounding heavy, coughing up something off-colour, shedding weight like a character out of a Stephen King novel and tracking back the vector of my infection to that pizza pie night.
These things, these days. All it takes for monstrous biological threats to invade our bodies on a cellular level are interactions benign, rudimentary, innocent: the touching of a door handle, a glass cup, a fork.
The Strain #1
Written by: David Lapham, Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan
Illustrated by: Mike Huddleston
Dark Horse Comics
And that’s where The Strain starts – in a benign place: a Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport. A normal occurrence, certainly, except this plane has landed dark: all lights off, all window shades down, all communications lines quiet. A CDC rapid response team gets called into action – and so begins an arduous effort in the prevention of an ancient, mythological contagion at the centre of one of the world’s most populous cities.
