Netflix Addiction: VHS and VHS 2

by Dr. Sparta

I am not sure what I just went through my fellow whales. My rock hard and manly insides are uncertain if they should shiver in terror or just stay put with uncertainty. This is truly something to experience. 

I decided to tackle and investigate Netflix's B-Movie horror section, battling the worst of the worst. Amongst the chaos, I stumbled across the following two films. A truly strange (and my guess is, original?) pair of films that present a new concept to the horror genre, if you ask me. Yes, my brothers and sisters, you read right. This concept is going to be called “found footage of evil tape that contains found footage”. There is nothing sane about these films, other than the fact that they kept me there staring at my monitor as I sat there, baffled by whatever the heck was happening. I constantly kept asking myself questions like “Did that 8-foot tall, demonic, bull-faced monster really come out of there? Why did that gargoyle vampire she-beast even exist in the first place? Why can artificial bionic body parts see and hear the undead? And why are they so mad?”. They’re not necessarily scary, but under the right atmosphere (I was completely alone for my review), they can find a certain spot in you that will get quivery. 

VHS and VHS 2 are…worth your time? In my opinion, I'm not too sure about their gloriousness. These films, however, are something to watch if you desire something extreme and new. 

Bonus GLORY! 

Let me know if you can connect all the videos and stories or if I summoned a conspiracy theory beast as I watched this. I am going to sit down, stare at the sky and contemplate my life. This is Dr. Sparta, preparing a vaccine against the effects of this movie. 

Comebacks: From nostalgia to present day epic-ness

The 80s and 90’s, what glorious memories ravage through our thoughts! Sylvester Stallone training for that fight with that seemingly unbeatable foe. Arnold taking names left and right as a behemoth-killing machine. Ahh! Such sweet fond childhood memories! The Die Hard movie experience delivered the greatest Christmas movie, possibly of all time. If you lived as I did, your childhood was GODLY.

Nowadays we are seeing more and more comebacks from the great heroes of our time: Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis. All of our heroes are delivering the great action that we were raised on.

Truth be told, not all comebacks have been great. But the ones that have come back successfully, this is a very heartfelt and warmed up, THANK YOU.

It started, what seems like a decade ago, with Rocky’s return to the big screen. Rocky V didn’t live up to the fan’s expectations and left a bad taste in our mouths. Rocky Balboa, on the other hand, did give us that one; true, real, last rocky fight that the fans wanted. The nostalgia was everywhere. Stallone took advantage of how much we missed him, and he returned as another one of our childhood heroes: RAMBO

To watch Rambo again, on the big screen, was as close to a religious experience as I have had. Some people say it was unsatisfactory, to them I say: TO HELL WITH YOU. That movie was AWESOME! You see before the movie Rambo became a verb, to truly comprehend its epic-ness, one had to singlehandedly face an entire army to the extreme all alone. And that he did brothers and sisters……he did that.

Following that comes THE EXPENDABLES. Need I say more? Alright, it’s true that I do appreciate the second one more, but the first one had something we had all dreamed of when we were but violent wee ones; all of our heroes together in a single movie. It was amazing. It brutally delivered all we hoped. Now the sequel…can’t describe it. It’s too awesome. It’s on Netflix. LOOK IT UP!

Arnold has also made his comeback. He has also successfully delivered. Note that he accepts he is old, but that hasn’t stopped him from delivering boot to ass! With movie titles like The Last Stand, Escape Plan, and Expendables 2, he’s shown us that he has yet to slow down his terminator ways. And we hope he doesn’t stop anytime soon.

To a disappointing end, we saw the last Die Hard movie, which shattered our hopes with its bad CGI and Bruce Willis’ evident boredom of the role. He has shown better movies, like Red. I just beg the gods, that he realizes the error of taking up old roles without desiring to do them. For the fans of John McLane, we were baffled by the last movie’s failed attempt at showing us what he is known for; being human.

Whales and whalettes I must leave you. What was your favorite childhood obsession and has it made the comeback? If it has, did you ADORE IT?

With that said, take Commando, Demolition Man and call me in the morning. 

This is Dr. Sparta.

Geek Whales spotted devouring food @ East.

Kings and Queens

Every once in a while things will come together in such a way, that had you planned them, it would have never worked out. Today was one of those days. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Prologue. I am one of the founding members of Geek Whale. Tonight, I received a message from Houdini (another Geek Whale member). He was hungry. What a coincidence! So was I. My brother and his girlfriend were at the house, Houdini picked up another friend by chance and we all went together to East in Guaynabo.

That's right, it's a pineapple!

We didn’t eat there. We feasted! We feasted like KINGS and QUEENS! The ridiculous amount of food that we ordered could have been viewed as a mistake, or as a most glorious of challenges. It was a glorious challenge. We ordered, we ate, and the food coma almost killed us, but we survived! And really, isn’t that what's important?

Two desserts! Two!

We opted out of the more expensive teppanyaki or sushi. These two options are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are deliciously expensive. And let’s face it, it’s Thursday, we couldn’t go too crazy. We ordered appetizers, three main dishes, two orders of the East fried rice, and Houdini and his friend ordered two desserts. That's right, I said two! We ate till we had trouble breathing. It was amazing. The staff let us laugh and joke as loud as we wanted and were always super attentive.

If you want to feast like Kings & Queens, and not break your budget on a nice dinner among friends, this should definitely be on your list. Geek Whale approves!

Prologue & Houdini 

till next time,

-prologue

Netflix Addiction

by Dr. Sparta

Expedition Netflix!

People, truly my life now feels complete. Netflix now possesses a good kind of relic that you HAVE to indulge in. You see, back in the 90s, there were two little shows called Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Both shows captivated audiences with epic and over the top episodes that spurred every type of emotion. Smiles, tears, and anger; the feels were definitely felt. 

If that weren’t enough, you’d experience mythology’s greatest moments like the Hercules vs. The HYDRA, The Trojan Horse, and what could be the greatest one of all…The appearance of Autolycus, played by none other than the man who would surely seduce women, maybe even the manliest of men, with his smoothness and chin of steel…BRUCE CAMPBELL! So please, if you love your eyes and your good times give this show a try, just don’t get angry when it has taken over your entire life. This is Dr. Sparta giving you a prescription FOR THE GLORY!  

Going into Cosplay - Pt. I

by Dalai Dama

You have some time on your hands and you want to try something new. It has to be something that will make you feel happy after you hit the con floor and show your stuff, and something that will let you become that character that you truly adore!!  That’s right! We are talking cosplaying. There are many things about the world of cosplay that you should know, let's call it the basics. NOW LET’S GET IT ON!!!

First of all, you need to pick a character. Some people go with the basics of picking their favorites while others choose one that resembles them, but the reality is that you need to find a character that you are completely comfortable with, one that convinces the public that YOU ARE THAT CHARACTER! If you are shy, try choosing a character that's more relaxed, like a modest super hero, a character with a laid back sense of fashion, maybe a hero’s alter ego or secret identity, a simple anime character, or you can cosplay as a character that does not have an extreme costume like Emma from Once Upon a Time, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, or one of the many versions of The Doctor. You can choose a great variety of characters from your favorite shows, comics, movies and anime. There is always one that will be JUST RIGHT!

Second step: Find references everywhere! You can always get reference pictures from comics, manga, books, magazines and obviously, the Internet. You should try to find different pictures of your character, look for all the different styles that the character can have and pick the one you are most comfortable in making (you may be a beginner in sewing or you may be a theatrical costume designer). Always be aware of your skills; you may want to take the "I'm going to buy it" road. However, there is nothing wrong with going out and getting a costume fully made for you or just getting it on eBay, but the important part is that you are happy and you feel comfortable in it. If you decide to make it yourself, don’t forget that it doesn’t matter how it looks as you’re happy with the outcome and there's always room for improvement. Find your strengths; maybe you aren't great with fabrics but you are great with prop making. There is always one thing that you will be your strong suit, but as long as you try and you are satisfied with your work, you are gold! On another note, NEVER BE AFRAID OF TAKING ON A CHALLENGE, but don’t forget that it will take time. You will fail at some steps, you will be frustrated, desperate, and you will cry about your project. In this case, start as early as possible. This way, you can redo things, find new solutions for your problems, or just find the motivation to keep working on such a hard project. In addition failures will cost more time and effort than just working straight ahead. You should start small when working with new materials let's say Worbla Thermoplastic or satin. In order to become one with the material (I’m not joking), you have to first learn the material you are going to use and start small because there will always be trial and error. That way, you don't spend too much money!

To be continued in Part II.

Pin-up Tutorial: Pencil Line Art

By Silent Jay

Greetings little grasshoppers. When I'm not working in the 10th circle of hell, (yes, there is a 10th circle, Dante missed that one), I like to spend my time drawing. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of my knowledge today. Like it says on the title, only pencil line art, we will work on shadows and colors another time.

First thing, materials, need the right tools for the job:

Materials 

   1. Bristol Paper = It comes in smooth and vellum. l recommend smooth,  it is better, especially if you want to ink your work later. Vellum tends to get dirty real easy. Use any size you want, If you're a beginner I recommend 11''x14''. For this I'll be using 9''x12'', because I’m broke and can't afford bigger size right now :(.

   2. HB Lead Pencils = you can use regular or mechanical pencils, I like to use both, regular for guide lines and mechanical to finish the job. HB lead to me is the best type of lead, not too soft and not to hard, right in the middle. 

   3. Plastic Eraser = your choice but I recommend non latex plastic erasers.If your not careful, erasers with latex can actually make your work dirty.

  4. References = To make this clear, as long as you're not ligth-boxing the pic, NO, THIS IS NOT CHEATING! Even professional artists need to use references from time to time. You may know how the human figure looks like or the form of any object, but having a reference makes the difference between amateur and high quality work. 

If you have a friend that is willing to model for you and any camera, use them. Capture your model doing different poses and in different angles until you find something that you like or get tired. 


If you don't have access to a model and/or camera or you're too lazy to do it, you can always google pictures of models or use magazines. To avoid legal problems for using a random picture of the internet, I asked the very beautiful and talented Loki for her help and she agreed to let me use her pic for this tutorial. 

Additionally, it is always good to have an anatomy book or pictures of muscles of the human body.



If your still awake after all that, now we'll start drawing. 

Step One: Guide Lines

Nothing complicated here, just a couple of lines to guide you. Using the pencil, real gently, do the first line using the shape of the models spinal column. This may be hard to see cause of the angle and the pose, but you can still imagine how the bended spine looks from that angle. 

Then do a circle for the head. After that a line below the head, around the clavicle area. 

A couple of lines for the arms and legs with small circles to indicate where the joints are (shoulders, elbows, knees etc.). After that some curved lines around the guide lines, start giving some shape of the body. 

At this moment it doesn't matter if it looks right or not, is just a guide. Go as crazy as you want, just remember to use the pencil gently because you're going to erase this lines at the end.

Step Two: Shaping this mess of lines

Most of the artists that I know, start giving shape to the body by starting with the torso. That’s because the torso is the part that actually "controls" the movement of the body. How you draw the torso can be the difference between drawing a body in action or just drawing something that looks like a stiff doll. 

But in my case I start with the head, cause I’m a rebel and I don't follow the rules, and because the head is the part that is closest to the foreground. 

After shaping the head, I realized that the head is out of proportion with the rest of the body. It’s a good thing that I did those guide lines gently so I can fix it.

Still using my reference picture I keep giving form to the body. You can see now that the drawing is starting to look more like a female body and less like the mess of lines that I had before. 

At this point I’m getting close to how I want the final product to come out  so I start pressing the pencil a little harder and erase some of the guide lines.

Step Three: Details - I’ll do what I want

Details, it is up to you how much you want to use, it all depends how you want your drawing to look.

In my case, I use a couple of short lines in the arms to show a little muscle, I want to keep the body type close to the original picture. But If I wanted it to look like a body builder, I would have to make those short lines longer and emphasize the muscle. 

If you're not sure how to draw the shape of a muscle or how many muscles are in that part of the body? Thats why you should have a anatomy book. You don't have to draw every single muscle or bone in the body, but, in my opinion, it is good to indicate a couple of them, which ones are up to you. 

   I see that the gluteus maximus (that would be the muscles in your butt) is on the right side of the figure, so to give some balance to the drawing, I decide to step away from the reference and have the hair blowing in the wind on the left side. Like I said before, the picture is just a reference, you don't have to do a photocopy if you don't want to. You can draw it however you want. So whatever, I’ll do what I want!

Step Four: Finish it

This is the part when you press hard on your pencil to trace the final lines. I prefer to use the mechanical pencil to finish the drawing. I also make some little details like eye lashes, a couple of line on the knees and the sternocleidomastoid (the muscles on the neck).

   Erase any dirt and guide lines left and you're done. If it didn't come out like you wanted it, don't worry, the key word is practice. Practice everyday and with time you will see that you will get better. And if you one day you achieve the level of skill you wanted, it doesn’t matter you will keep drawing.

   Hope I taught you something today or at least not bored you to death. Any questions or opinions you can email me at geekwhale@gmail.com. I want to give special thanks to the model Loki, photographer Wilfredo Miranda and Cyanide Nation agency for their help in this project. Please go to the links below and give some support to these talented people. Until next time, even if your hand is bleeding DONT STOP, KEEP DRAWING!

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialLokiKypo

https://www.facebook.com/lokiradicalbeautyservice

https://www.facebook.com/WMirandaPhotography

           https://www.facebook.com/cyanidenationhq?hc_location=stream

This is us

Geek Whale is the documented adventures of a flying mythical orca and his friends jet packing through comic conventions, game tournaments, movies, concerts, and other weird events. 

Our mission is to cover and report a wide selection of events in Puerto Rico aimed at the entertainment masses and bring them closer to light. Games, films, cons....what do all of these have common?

That's right! Whales.

This is Geek Whale.