It’s been awhile since I’ve done a blog post that was just talking about movies I have seen recently. The world sure has changed, and now with streaming being what it is, people are not as excited about going out to the movies as they used to be when now they can just wait to see it at home. But I still love the experience of going to the movie theater. It was the thing I missed the most when we were all under lockdown during the pandemic, so I don’t take it for granted when there are new movies that look interesting or are based on something I’m into. There has been a lot of discourse over whether or not these movies are actually good, and that’s fair, but here’s what I think! No major spoilers, I hope.

Let’s start with Super Mario Galaxy. I had been dreaming about an animated Mario movie since I was a kid, but when the first Super Mario Bros. Movie was announced, I was optimistic that it would be good, even though I am not a huge follower of the works of Illumination studio. I just can’t get on board with the Minions, OK? What are they, corn? They’re corn, right? Yes, they must be. Anyway, I thought the first Mario movie was over all pretty good. It was fun and had some heart to it, but I knew that there was no way it would ever have a chance of being as good as that non-existent movie I had been thinking about for my entire life. Which is fine. I accept that. Now for the sequel, they decide to jump all the way ahead to the Galaxy games, a surprising move, but not unwelcome. Super Mario Galaxy is one of my most favorite games, after all, so I was hoping the movie would give me some of those feelings I got while playing it years ago. And it did… sometimes… kind of.

When the movie starts and you see Rosalina’s Comet Observatory, it really hit me that I had spent a lot of time there while playing the game. It was a nice feeling to kick the movie off, and I had hoped there would be more moments like it. It’s true that the movie was full of recognizable characters and environments and fun Easter eggs from the Galaxy games and the rest of the series, but they crammed so much stuff into it that a lot of it just zipped right by.  The Super Mario Galaxy games presented so many memorable moments to the player that give you the feelings of the epic scope of the adventure, the massive danger of the challenges you face, the whimsical sense of exploration and discovery, and the cold, lonely melancholy of being in space. The movie doesn’t really have much of that. It often came close, but before it can really make you feel something, it’s on to the next part of the story. Even the music, as great as it was, teased me with the nostalgia of a familiar tune at the perfect scene before it yanked the rug out from underneath itself and morphed into a different piece of music, changing the vibe entirely. Overall, I’m not going to say that I hated it. It did give us a lot of Mario and the gang for our money, plus all that other stuff that wasn’t even from a Mario game, and I have to credit them for stuffing as much Nintendo as they could into the film’s run time, but what I really wanted was an occasion to breath and appreciate it.

Mortal Kombat II was a decently fun time at the movies. I liked the first in the series, but I understand how some people were disappointed because it didn’t actually feature the tournament like you’d expect, and it also focused a lot of time on a character that wasn’t even from any of the games. Well, MKII gets right to it, pretty much giving you all the Mortal Kombat you could hope to handle. All the lore is there, all the characters looked pretty familiar, and it was mostly very faithful, which I appreciate as a fan because we all know how it feels to be disappointed by an adaptation of something we like that isn’t faithful and doesn’t even bother to try. The movie itself isn’t that deep, but it’s Mortal Kombat, so it doesn’t need to be. There were some cool fights, but I miss the kind of fighting you’d see in martial arts movies made in the 90s, which they just don’t do anymore. I found it interesting that, even though it was a sequel, the 2 main characters the story presented were not even in the first. If there is a MKIII, I’d like to see if they would do that again, and maybe make the main characters Smoke and the younger Sub-Zero.

Finally, there’s some new Star Wars! The Mandalorian and Grogu is a fun adventure movie, and a lot of the marketing seemed to position it as being akin to the old Hollywood serials. Yeah, there was a fair bit of that, and you’d expect that kind of thing from Star Wars, but I also picked up some vibes that reminded me of those cheap sci-fi movies you’d catch on cable TV back in the day. But in a good way! Obviously I am a loyal Star Wars fan and have seen all the episodes of The Mandalorian, so I can’t speak to it in terms of it being relevant to people who have never seen either show or any of the movies before, but I’ve been hearing that people are seeing this film and enjoying it even without knowing anything about either. It bewilders me that that anybody would want to go see a movie about a show they’ve never seen, but it stands to reason that every Star Wars could be somebody’s first, and I’m happy to see that this one could potentially still work that way. So, I’m not upset about anything like unmet expectations that other people might have, as it never promised to be the next big deal in the Mandalorian story, and I never cared about it showing any grand revelations or anything like that. I saw it as a chance to get one big start-to-finish adventure with these characters on the big screen, and that’s exactly what it was. I have a feeling I’ll like it more after I watch it again in the future.

All 3 of these movie had mixed receptions from audiences, and I think that’s just the way things are these days. People are more jaded in general, and I admit that I am too, and have been for a long time, but I save my jadedness for all the other stupid stuff that happens in the world. When it comes to movies, I generally try to find something to like. In general, I liked all 3 of these movie well enough, even if my mind wasn’t blown by any of them. But I think the buzz in the air is telling me that the main event of the Summer season is going to be the Masters of the Universe movie, and I’m looking forward to seeing that one for sure.

Sayonara.

I’ve finally taken the time to get some new artwork out into the world! Well, not all of it is new, most of it is from some time ago. It just needed to finally be put online. Take a look at these examples.

There’s way more than just this! I’m still thinking about how to best proceed with an easier way to add new artwork here on my site, but for now, you can find it all on my DeviantArt and NewGrounds.

Also, I’ve just recently started using Cara, which I heard some buzz about some time ago. It’s kind of like Twitter crossed with Instagram, but with a focus on artists. I’m just getting into it by slowly posting older pieces first, but they are finding a new audience, so it may wind up being worthwhile. I think I am on a couple other social media sites too, but every since the Internet started falling apart and all these alternatives sprung up, it’s been a lot to keep up with. We’ll have to see where the people are. I think all of the chaos in the art world has shown that the best thing an artist can do for themselves is have their own website, where they can control their own narrative, so SykoGrafix is going to stay my main base of operations and I’m going to do more to turn it into a brand identity with new, original creations. It’ll take awhile, though.

In the meantime, you can keep up with me on BlueSky, which I like a lot more than X formerly known as Twitter, as well as my Tumblr, which I try to post something on every once in awhile, even if it’s just toy collecting pictures or work in progress sketches. Maybe Tumblr isn’t what it used to be, but I still find it fun and useful.

Posting on art on social media has been pretty inconsistent for me in recent years, but stream on Twitch is another story. I’m usually live and doing something every week, and I’ve settled into a schedule of sorts, with Thursdays being my main streaming day, and there’s usually a good crew of regulars there to hang out with. Join us sometime, won’t you?

Sayonara.

OK, look, let’s just get it out of the way. This website has been neglected. I had meant to update several times, but just couldn’t get to it. It’s been a difficult year. I often did not feel well, there was a flood, there was mold, I didn’t have a regular job but found it hard to get much done, and the Internet just plain sucks now, so creating anything is demoralizing. Hey, it is what it is. But 2025 wasn’t all bad, or at least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself. I did do some interesting things worth talking about.

First, let’s talk stickers! I got a new printer and a cutting machine! Now I can make stickers myself in my studio. I’ll find a way to sell them online eventually, but for now you can find some of the designs available print-on-demand on my store page. More coming!

During the summer, I went to Toronto and saw BABYMETAL live in concert again! The was my second time seeing them live, and they were amazing. Though I wish I got a different seat. Here’s a video I shot of one of their songs.

Then, the next week, I was back in Toronto and saw Weird Al Yankovic again! This was my third time seeing Weird Al, and was by far the biggest concert I’ve ever been to. Here’s the encore!

A few days later was TFcon! It was another fun year with plenty of friends and robots. I did another panel, this time about Super Deformed Transformers. I got to meet Tania Gunadi, who played Miko on Transformers Prime. And I sold some stickers, including this special sheet.

Later on in the summer, I was back in Toronto for a third time for another concert! I saw the Evangelion Wind Symphony in its very first ever performance in North America. You can read about the experience here.

I sold some old stuff, some of which I wish I didn’t have to, but I did get some new stuff! Sometimes you can find me unboxing on Twitch. Streaming has been a highlight this year, especially over the past few months.

Anyway, I have new artwork, but I still have to upload it, so I’ll share that another time.

That’s all for now. Got this in before midnight, so it technically still counts as a post made in 2025. See you next year. But hopefully not in another year.

Sayonara.

Yes! I think we’re back! It’s been way too long. Ok, so here’s what happened:

Last year, my hosting contract came to an end. Renewing it was exponentially more expensive, so I looked elsewhere. I found a host that I thought would work out great and be the home for SykoGrafix for a long time. Thanks to a special promotion, the price was excellent. Maybe too good to be true? I had no major issues with that hosting provider, getting transferred over and all set up again was a breeze, but there was something wrong with the site itself that made it difficult to update. Probably a coding error on my part, or something changed after an update that caused WordPress to not work properly and I couldn’t post unless I went through a number of convoluted steps. That totally drained any enthusiasm I had for maintaining the site, and I just never got around to fixing it as I was busy with other things. Anyway, one year later, it wouldn’t matter anymore! The host I had moved to announced it was going out of business. One could say that this pretty much confirmed it to be a scam in the first place, but considering what I paid at the time, I say that I got my money’s worth out of the deal, so it didn’t really affect me. It was annoying that I’d have to find a new home and go through the transfer process again (which seemed to be particularly arduous this time around), but that’s over now and we’re here! And I’ll be here for good long while. Better yet, for some reason, everything works again! I didn’t change anything about the site itself, but now I can more easily update whenever I need to.

At any rate, now that I’m settled it, I do feel like this place could use an update. I want to redo the front page, change the graphics, and make it easier to add new artwork with some kind of automated gallery feature instead of having to make a new separate page for every image I want to upload. So I’m looking to get into that starting in the next couple of months.

Speaking of changes, the whole art world sure has changed a lot in the past year alone. The encroaching spread of generative artificial intelligence and the decomposing hellscape that social media has become recently has made life as an artist even more challenging. Times are changing, often in terrible ways, so the only thing that can be done is change with them. That said, I am vehemently opposed to using generative AI to create art. I’ve experimented with it enough to know how it works, and I’ve decided that I won’t be using it as a creative tool to make images. Largely because there’s nothing that a computer can come up with on its own that is going to exactly match my vision for my art. I don’t know how much I can specifically do to stop it, but out of principal, I won’t be complicit in allowing my work to be used to train generative AI to do anything. So I’ll be looking into everything I can do to prevent that from happening. That will also take some time to set up. Because of how X formerly known as Twitter has gone full bore into exploiting its users to train AI, I will not be using it as much. You can find me on the new sensation, BlueSky!

So, there’s a lot to do. At this point in time, I’m not teaching right now, just doing commissions and other stuff. So I might be out of a job, but at least the site works again!

Sayonara.

I’m not the kind of person who loves music the way most people seem to. Sure, there’s music that I like, but mainstream music isn’t a big part of my life. As a teenager, when most people were making big statements about what music they were into and using that to forge their identities, I didn’t really care. Over the years, I’ve found more fondness for music as I became aware of genres and artists that spoke to me, especially when I felt I needed something to listen to while working on art. So I have a pretty eclectic playlist of anime theme songs, movie music, video game covers, some classic rock, and of course, ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic.

But there is one music act that stands above everything else: BABYMETAL! Ever since “Gimme Chocolate” went viral, I have been a massive fan, and my admiration for this band continues to grow exponentially with every new song and video they release. From their wide variety of twisted musical styling to the incredibly precise execution of the music and dancing, Babymetal has got me hooked. And most importantly, they are fun to watch and listen to!  I don’t go to very many concerts, but seeing Babymetal perform live and in person has, for years, been at the very top of the list of things I’ve wanted to do during my lifetime.

On September 18, 2023, I got to make that happen! Babymetal performed a concert in Toronto, my old stomping grounds, and so I returned home after far too lengthy of an absence, just for one day, so I could see my all time favorite musical act for real. It was an incredible, overwhelming experience that has left me shaken. The girls put on an incredible show, their band tore up the stage, and the Toronto fans absolutely stepped up to show our appreciation. They played a good mix of songs from their 4 albums, with a balance between their newest songs and the early hits they became known for. It was an outdoor venue, close to the water at RBC Echo Beach, and it was a bit chilly, but Babymetal brought the heat!

I recorded the entire concert, though I was a bit too close to one of the speakers and so the audio wound up quite distorted. Oh well, that’s part of the fun. I hope to do something with the recording someday, like use it in a video project, but for now, here’s one complete song from the show, Headbanger!!

What struck me the most about attending this show and seeing them in person is how I could see, first hand, how happy they are on the stage. They’ve been performing at a high level and going on tour since they were kids, and this particular tour seems particularly grueling. I can only imagine the hard work and dedication that been put into Babymetal. It doesn’t come across in my recordings, but watching them from the audience, I could see on their faces how incredibly happy they are singing and dancing and doing their thing for everyone. I wasn’t prepared for how seeing that would make me feel. I was truly moved.

Babymetal came to us as part of the Babyklok Tour, along with Dethklok, the band from the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse. I didn’t stay for that performance, as I was looking to wander around the streets of Toronto a bit while I was in town. I was at the show for Babymetal, and that was enough for me.

Well, actually, no, it wasn’t enough! I need more Babymetal! Now that I’ve seen Babymetal live and crossed that off the bucket list, now I want to see them again! I want to see them more than once during the same tour! I don’t really like to travel, but I am willing to travel more, as long as wherever I go there is a Babymetal concert! I want to see Babymetal in England and/or Scotland! And then, of course, it would be amazing to have the chance to attend one of their gigantic shows in Japan. A ninja can dream.

So, besides the show, I got to spend a bit of time downtown and check out some cool Toronto places. The city has certainly changed a lot since the last time I was there. Things have certainly become more homogenized in many ways, and there are less really unique places with the kind of stuff that I’m interested in. But I miss being close to the action, especially when something extraordinary is happening in town. I wasn’t going to miss seeing Babymetal there, no matter how far away I was from home. It was the perfect chance to see my favorite band in familiar place. I imagine I’ll see them again, either in Toronto or somewhere else, sooner or later! When will that be? Only the Fox God knows!

Sayonara.