Monday, June 5, 2017

Introducing The ZAK Entertainment Patreon, Doctor Strange and Knitted Puppets!


Welcome back to ZAK Entertainment everyone! We’ve been going strong for over 8 months now, with September looming around the corner this blog has just about hit it’s one year anniversary, while we’ll get to that later something big is happening with ZAK Entertainment today, something that’ll help me keep ZAK Entertainment running and perhaps take it to new heights. Today I’m announcing the launch of the ZAK Entertainment Patreon! 


I discovered the potential of Patreon a few months ago and after working on it I’ve finally launched it. Not to sound like I’m begging for money but a goal is to obtain a stable income through this to take on ZAK Entertainment full time and perhaps get some better equipment to better suit the blog and Youtube. (I need to upgrade my Computer at some point, haha.)

Of course this isn’t just for me it’s just as much for you as I. If you’re aware of how Patreon works then you’ll know that Patreon Creators set out rewards for Patrons to receive when they donate money to the Patreon Creator. The reward tiers I currently have up are a $1 USD reward tier where you’ll gain access to the ZAK Entertainment Patreon Community and News feed which I’m hoping to use in the future. Along with this tier comes a personalized email subscription to ZAK Entertainment to get an email notification every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (My blog posting days.) though you’ll have to let me give you the link to subscribe, haha. Finally you’ll get exclusive first watches of my future Youtube uploads including ZAK Knits.

The $3 USD Reward Tier is something I think you knitters will enjoy. For $3 you’ll get entered into a monthly raffle to win a knitting pattern OF YOUR CHOICE from Ravelry for up to $6 in value! I’ll only be doing the giveaway once three people enter the raffle so go ahead and enter the raffle! For those unaware Ravelry allows you to purchase knitting patterns and gift them to others so this is how this giveaway will work. You will need a Ravelry account to get this reward!

While I don’t have many rewards set out as of right now more are sure to come and I’m open to any suggestions you guys have! Patreon is a pretty new avenue for me so bare with me and join me on this new journey. I wish to add more rewards in similarity to my other main topics such as Video Games, Film and maybe eventually my artwork (If I get good enough for that anyway.) and my story writing which I could actually work into Patreon as well, would you be interested in that? Overall this is all about community and I’d love if you’d give me feedback via social media, this post’s comments or now on Patreon! You can get to my Patreon by following the link on the right side of the blog but for those on mobile follow this link here: https://www.patreon.com/zakentertainment!

Now onto the main topic, which may be a little strange, Doctor Strange more to the point.


Marvel Studios really have created a massive and expansive movie franchise, the largest of it’s kind and it doesn’t seem like the competition can keep up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU’s list of heroes only started off with just Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow but if you’d look at how many heroes and storylines have been introduced now you’ll drop your jaw. Slowly but surely the MCU has been running a storyline that has spanned just about every movie in all three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Infinity Stones storyline. The Infinity Stones are 6 stones of cosmic power and have existed for millennia of years created by the Cosmic Entities. Each stone has it’s own unique power and so far the Space Stone, Power Stone, Reality Stone and Mind Stone have been the only stones revealed until Doctor Strange that is and I finally got to watch Doctor Strange this past weekend thanks to the wonderful world of Netflix. (Disney pun, get it? Disney owns Marvel? Ah forget it.)


Going into this movie I’ve not really been all too aware of Doctor Strange’s (Full name Doctor Stephen Strange.) story, I’ve only really seen him in crossovers with Spider-Man, The Avengers and The Fantastic Four on occasion. If anything however this movie definitely made me a fan of the Doc and his strange powers. Doctor Strange starts off as a egotistical and arrogant neurosurgeon at the top of his career. Basically he’s Tony Stark, without the sense of humor. However his ego gets the better of him landing him in a terrible car accident and rendering his hands practically useless, bringing his career to a screaming halt which then bursts into flames.

With broken hands and a broken spirit the Doc scrambles to find ways to cure himself and after speaking with a man named Jonathan Pangborn he discovers a place by the name of Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal. Kamar-Taj is said to be able to heal the body via the spirit and being desperate, Strange gives it a go. Little did he know Kamar-Taj is more then just a spirit healing cult it’s home to the Ancient One, Founder of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, an order of sorcerers tasked with protecting the world from mystical and otherworldly threats.


The Ancient One and the Masters also just so happens to have some sort of power over the multiverse and I don’t just mean Earth-1/Earth-2 ect I’m talking different dimensions such as the mirror universe which the masters use to train so the real world is unaffected. The Ancient One uses this power to convince Doctor Strange, who at the time doesn’t believe a thing, that magic is more real then he had ever imagined. Thus Doctor Strange’s training began and he would soon learn that he might perhaps have been born for the mystic arts, destined even, especially after having some out of body experiences. He would quickly go on to face a challenge and be the World's last defense against a threat that threatens reality itself when the Dark Dimension rises. That’s pretty much the gist of this movie (Without spoiling the really good parts, and there’s a lot of them. Actually I’ve not really spoiled much at all.) and it’s pretty awesome.


I had no expectations going into Doctor Strange other then the fact it was a Marvel movie and I usually come out of Marvel’s movies loving them. He’s been around since 1963 created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko but I guess I never really paid attention to the character much. Oh boy did this movie change that for me with its incredible visual effects, engaging characters and some pretty sweet sorcery action. Ah yes the visual effects, possibly my favorite part of the movie and I can safely say this has my most favorite visual effects ever used in a Marvel or Superhero movie before. It can be pretty strange and trippy but that’s the appeal of it, it’s so out of this world and I can see how much hard work the visual effect artists must have gone through to accomplish this. If you guys have any tips on how you did the visual effects for this movie, especially the mirror dimension scenes, hit me up maybe?

As far as the acting of the actual characters I can say that they probably picked the perfect guy to play Doctor Strange visual wise and while I’m not the biggest Benedict Cumberbatch fan I actually thought he did well as the character actual acting wise as well as his spot on perfect looks. Who would have known the guy who voiced a certain dragon could go on to play Doctor Strange? While the movie is primary focused on the Doc, he’s the center character, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One made a pretty good performance too. I haven’t actually watched any movies she’s been in since The Chronicles of Narnia so it’s cool to see her in something again, though I swear this isn’t the first movie she’s gone bald for. I actually found myself loving Benedict Wong (Yeah this movie had two Benedicts in it.) as, well, Wong. 


Wong is the guardian of Kamar-Taj’s Mystic Arts library which is full of books of, well, the mystic arts and some dark secrets as well. He’s not in the movie much but I really liked his character, for some reason.

Overall this movie was a visually appealing, action packed, thrilling and pretty emotional movie from beginning to end. It doesn’t take long for the movie to get into the spell slinging action either while still having that necessary plot building. (I still say Captain America: Civil War was unnecessary dragged out in the beginning despite still loving that movie.) For Doctor Strange’s Origin movie I think Marvel pulled it off and I can’t wait to see the Doc return in future Marvel movies and possibly even a Doctor Strange 2. Benedict Cumberbatch will be reprising his role in the upcoming Thor Ragnarok and even Avengers: Infinity War which only fuels my huge excitement for Infinity War, though I am concerned how the movie will juggle all these characters, luckily most if not all will have already been introduced in movies prior to Infinity War. Oh yeah Stan the Man aka Stan Lee makes a cameo in this movie like every Marvel movie before it and it’s actually quite unexpected so keep your eyes peeled!

For those wondering how to watch this awesome movie, well starting this month Netflix has the movie available for streaming! Of course for those who don't have Netflix or want a more permanent version (Not sure how long Netflix will have it up for streaming.) you can buy it on iTunes for

You know what else is strange? Today’s free knitting pattern! Like I talked about in last Monday’s blog we’re on the starting line of Summer, the winter season is over so beanies, sweaters and most socks are mostly off the knitting last until later on this year. Which leaves the question, what does a knitter knit for summer? Well I mentioned before that shawls are a great option today’s blog is more of a fun toy rather then a piece of clothing. Today’s free pattern is “Puppet Parade: Mouse” by Sherry Graziano.


To be honest this pattern isn’t really strange instead it’s absolutely adorable. I never thought of knitting up hand puppets before and this pattern would make an unforgettable gift to your kids when they get off school for the summer or for yourself to use to entertain your young ones. Given the nature of this pattern It’s not a beginner pattern but it’s not too advance either. You’ll need some Aran weight yarn, one skein of at least 170 yards/100 grams to be exact as well as some small bits of perhaps scrap yarn for the tongue and if you have some a small bit of black yarn. A US Size 7 (4.5mm) set of double pointed needles, a Size G/6 (4MM) crochet hook (Apparently for combining some of the parts together.), stitch markers and stitch holders. When it comes to the eyes you can use ball buttons but if you’re worried about choking hazards (I would advise not letting kids under the age of 3 have anything with ball buttons unless it’s sewed on securely.) or don’t have ball buttons you can easily substitute them for normal cloth buttons or even some sew in some thread to form balls for eyes.


Overall this pattern is absolutely adorable and would make great presents for your kids to play with during the summer while you continue knitting. That’s not all actually; this pattern comes with a second pattern for creating a puppet piglet! Sherry Graziano has some adorable and awesome puppet patterns as well as some animal themed mittens and socks so go check her out! 


She has four more awesome animal patterns up for sale in a 4 pack for $3.99 USD which could actually be your choice of pattern if you win the ZAK Entertainment Monthly Knitting Pattern Giveaway happening on Patreon! It only costs you three dollars to enter so be sure to check it out!
https://www.patreon.com/zakentertainment

You know what? It would be really cool to see these characters or just knitted puppets in general in some sort of puppet show or TV puppet show. The Knitted Puppet Pals? Knitted Street? The Knuppets? Fraggle Knits? The possibilities are endless. I would seriously contribute all the knitting for that show.

With that out the way today is the next step in this blogging journey, for returning viewers I thank you so much for reading me ramble on about geeky stuff and for new viewers welcome to the geek zone, haha. Anyway Patreon should prove to be an awesome journey and hopefully open up some new doors and form the community I’ve always wanted. A lot of changes will come to Patreon and the blog in the future but for now, it’s here and I’m ready to get the ball rolling.

BREAKING NEWS!


This is not a drill, I REPEAT, not a drill! Pokemon is going to be announcing something huge tomorrow which means Wednesday is going to be a full on Pokemon blog. The future of Pokemon is right around the corner so be sure to come back on Wednesday to find out what's in store!

That’s a wrap folks!

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