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.
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!
That’s a wrap folks!
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