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Blast From The Past: 2008
Oct. 31st, 2014 11:12 am
Nightmare Wars, Dan'l and Clarity invented by me, artwork by "crow" of www.APForums.com for the latest "Acid Test".
FreeWill Tries To Look Alive
Oct. 30th, 2012 04:51 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of November 1, 2012
Zombies used to be terrifying. But then they became a featured motif in pop culture, often in humorous contexts, and now there's a growing acceptance and even affection for them. Here's the view of Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide: "Eventually rock and roll morphs from Sid Vicious to the Jonas Brothers. Same thing with vampires: We went from Dracula to Twilight to make them peachy and G-rated. I guarantee you someone is working on a way to take the fear out of zombies and market them to children." Your assignment, Sagittarius, is to do to your personal fears what the entertainment industry has done to zombies: Turn them into amusing caricatures that don't trouble you so much. For example, visualize an adversary singing a duet with Justin Bieber.
ICBMs loaded with My Little Pony toys? Neo-Nazis on the way to the Ethnic Cleansing derailed by a special on Deep-Fried Bacon Triple Angus Burgers at the Drive-In? A Sino-Viet-Japanese-Korean idol singer contest with Gangam Style dancing?
I don't think it's working.
Zombies used to be terrifying. But then they became a featured motif in pop culture, often in humorous contexts, and now there's a growing acceptance and even affection for them. Here's the view of Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide: "Eventually rock and roll morphs from Sid Vicious to the Jonas Brothers. Same thing with vampires: We went from Dracula to Twilight to make them peachy and G-rated. I guarantee you someone is working on a way to take the fear out of zombies and market them to children." Your assignment, Sagittarius, is to do to your personal fears what the entertainment industry has done to zombies: Turn them into amusing caricatures that don't trouble you so much. For example, visualize an adversary singing a duet with Justin Bieber.
ICBMs loaded with My Little Pony toys? Neo-Nazis on the way to the Ethnic Cleansing derailed by a special on Deep-Fried Bacon Triple Angus Burgers at the Drive-In? A Sino-Viet-Japanese-Korean idol singer contest with Gangam Style dancing?
I don't think it's working.
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Blue Gender. Too many central characters were killed off or went rogue, and it hit a tipping point to "why should I care what happens from here?"
Blue Gender. Too many central characters were killed off or went rogue, and it hit a tipping point to "why should I care what happens from here?"
Anybody want to help me complete mine?
Version 1) My brother and sister took Drama courses from Graham Paul, who was in A) PALE RIDER with CLINT EASTWOOD and B) STEPHEN KING'S GOLDEN YEARS with KEITH SZARABAJKA...
Version 2) My mother A) had a novel whose cover inspired the music video for "Suddenly Last Summer" by THE MOTELS (directed by VAL GARAY) and B) appeared on a local TV talkshow with co-guest Country Music star LEE GREENWOOD...
Version 3) I met A) DOCTOR WHO stars SYLVESTER MCCOY and SOFIE ALDRED and B) RED GREEN stars STEVE SMITH and PATRICK MCKENNA at PBS fund drive events...
Version 4) My brother was an extra on MY FELLOW AMERICANS with JACK LEMMON and JAMES GARNER...
Version 5) My father was an extra on BATTLE CRY with VAN HEFLIN, ALDO RAY, TAB HUNTER, RAYMOND MASSEY and JAMES WHITMORE.
Version 1) My brother and sister took Drama courses from Graham Paul, who was in A) PALE RIDER with CLINT EASTWOOD and B) STEPHEN KING'S GOLDEN YEARS with KEITH SZARABAJKA...
Version 2) My mother A) had a novel whose cover inspired the music video for "Suddenly Last Summer" by THE MOTELS (directed by VAL GARAY) and B) appeared on a local TV talkshow with co-guest Country Music star LEE GREENWOOD...
Version 3) I met A) DOCTOR WHO stars SYLVESTER MCCOY and SOFIE ALDRED and B) RED GREEN stars STEVE SMITH and PATRICK MCKENNA at PBS fund drive events...
Version 4) My brother was an extra on MY FELLOW AMERICANS with JACK LEMMON and JAMES GARNER...
Version 5) My father was an extra on BATTLE CRY with VAN HEFLIN, ALDO RAY, TAB HUNTER, RAYMOND MASSEY and JAMES WHITMORE.
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If Disney went and did a revival now, how much you'd want to bet that they fold it into the Marvel Universe? (Which would have all sorts of awesome possibilities...but also be very bizarre as Gargoyles was in part a reaction to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [which also became Disneyfied through Jim Henson Studios] and Batman The Animated Series.)
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The pilot storyline for Gargoyles. I know the world has completely changed in the time since it was on TV, but gosh darn it!--Revive it somehow! A Pixar CGI feature version would be billions of tons of cool.
The pilot storyline for Gargoyles. I know the world has completely changed in the time since it was on TV, but gosh darn it!--Revive it somehow! A Pixar CGI feature version would be billions of tons of cool.
Writer's Block: Paranormal activity
Oct. 21st, 2011 05:49 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
Miss Ruby is a permanent resident of Rather Manor. Tho' I think she's finally decided to Rest In Peace.
Miss Ruby is a permanent resident of Rather Manor. Tho' I think she's finally decided to Rest In Peace.
Useless News
Aug. 2nd, 2011 01:42 pmJust south of Corbin, Kentucky on Highway 25E, at the used car dealership named Slusher's, there is a Chevy Astro van painted up as Scooby-Doo's "Mystery Machine" in all its quasi-hippie glory. I didn't stop to see whether it was for sale, or if so what the asking price is, when I went by there Sunday.
Cowboys And Aliens
Aug. 1st, 2011 05:33 pmWhat I said on Facebook last night: --A typical DOCTOR WHO plotline with a typical DREAMWORKS budget. Meaning that the aliens are rendered to the point that they don't have to be portrayed by Shakespearean-trained human cast members, and that the dog is a real one and not a chrome puppet. (Not that I have a problem with chrome puppet dogs, per se.)
Further thoughts:
Emma is a Time Lady. She "regenerated", tho' it was a far more powerful regeneration than most of the ones we've seen, although the Master's in the FOX Doctor Who TV movie comes close. She is somewhat telepathic and can speak any language she needs to. Fanfic, anyone?
Harrison Ford rocked a role that John Wayne would have probably gotten if this movie was made fifty years ago. Hmm. Can we have a Western movie in which Ford and Jeff Bridges play archrivals?
I feel sorry for the designers of the alien villain race. I'm sure they felt the need to outdo the dozens of villain species (no pun intended) going back over dozens of movies. But do their features make biological, structural sense? To me, they didn't.
Further thoughts:
Emma is a Time Lady. She "regenerated", tho' it was a far more powerful regeneration than most of the ones we've seen, although the Master's in the FOX Doctor Who TV movie comes close. She is somewhat telepathic and can speak any language she needs to. Fanfic, anyone?
Harrison Ford rocked a role that John Wayne would have probably gotten if this movie was made fifty years ago. Hmm. Can we have a Western movie in which Ford and Jeff Bridges play archrivals?
I feel sorry for the designers of the alien villain race. I'm sure they felt the need to outdo the dozens of villain species (no pun intended) going back over dozens of movies. But do their features make biological, structural sense? To me, they didn't.
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More Is More
Jul. 10th, 2011 10:21 pmLetting my research addiction play out again. This time it's related to that project I mentioned in the previous post (the car race horror movie). I'm looking up cars of the middle to late 1960s for inspiration. The story I have in mind involves six teams and a solo campaign, each having a different "character", "philosophy" and "theme".
I'm coming along...slowly...mainly because I don't want to miss something I should have noticed from the get-go.
I'm coming along...slowly...mainly because I don't want to miss something I should have noticed from the get-go.
A while ago here I voiced my desires to make a race car-based horror movie. Paul liked my initial premise, but thought it too expensive to pull off, and wanted to do something else, which I still may participate in if I get all the resources together.
Meanwhile, I'd come to the thought--on the racetrack smaller cars can easily, more safely, and less expensively handle the action. As some of the "track" will have to be rendered as miniature sets, that means that stunts and crashes can be done using miniatures, thus removing risk to players and stand-ins.
So I'm now thinking about using Legends and Baby Grand cars as the structural basis for the machines in the story/movie. There would be mockup cars for acting around that wouldn't have to be operational. Perhaps a truck-with-cockpit rig like as used in the Fast And The Furious movies for the actors to ride in and pretend to drive.
And since the Legends and Baby Grand cars use fiberglass bodies as designed, new bodies just for the movie can be designed and fabricated for these. Which means some room for artistic creativity.
I need more info. *Pokes around the Internet and ruminates...*
Meanwhile, I'd come to the thought--on the racetrack smaller cars can easily, more safely, and less expensively handle the action. As some of the "track" will have to be rendered as miniature sets, that means that stunts and crashes can be done using miniatures, thus removing risk to players and stand-ins.
So I'm now thinking about using Legends and Baby Grand cars as the structural basis for the machines in the story/movie. There would be mockup cars for acting around that wouldn't have to be operational. Perhaps a truck-with-cockpit rig like as used in the Fast And The Furious movies for the actors to ride in and pretend to drive.
And since the Legends and Baby Grand cars use fiberglass bodies as designed, new bodies just for the movie can be designed and fabricated for these. Which means some room for artistic creativity.
I need more info. *Pokes around the Internet and ruminates...*
Tags:
Conclusions
Jul. 8th, 2011 02:27 pmToday, I came to the end of a very long and drawn out process in an attempt to acquire something that had some otaku significance but still hadn't made it to America.
Space Gundam V, the South Korean knockoff anime based around the Valkyrie fighter from Macross. Somebody made a torrent available a few months ago, and I got to download it in pieces over the course of the past month or so, and took final delivery overnight.
This program is worse than I imagined it could be. It's even worse than the Digiview content, which I would have found hard to believe if somebody told me so. The visual narrative is a mess, which probably means whoever made this was likely under pressure to get it done quickly and just threw it together. There is far too much cliché physical comedy, the kind you see more often in American and Western cartoons. (If the Filmation people who worked on the Archie cartoons of the Sixties and Seventies did a giant robot show, it would probably be a lot like this--but maybe better!)
The story is pretty much like Fight! Iczer-1 in that an evil alien being is terrorizing Earth with awful monsters, and a good alien being from the same race is a mission to stop him. When a young man heroically fights a great white shark to save his kid sister and friends and gets badly hurt doing so, the good alien does the Ultraman Bargain with him, "synchronizing" and possessing his body so the alien can live among Earthlings and do his work.
He/they go to the shore and retrieve the Valkyrie fighter there just in time to intercept a raid by...an enormous rat. There is a scene in which the good being tries to talk the bad being into giving up his stupid--I mean, nefarious enterprises, but of course, it fails.
And then a giant spider and a Breetai-sized demon show up, and the Valkyrie (and the silly mecha of the silly sidekick character who makes Hayao Kakizaki/Ben Dixon look like Isaac Newton) fight them. The Earthlings trick the demon into killing the spider, and then, after an embarrassing scene of Head Lasers to demonic groin, it is revealed that the demon is actually a bio-mech piloted by the villain, who, through the use of a droid, has kidnapped the kid sister of the possessed hero. It eventually takes an over-the-top Lucasesque Jedi Force fight showdown to resolve the issue, which makes you wonder "if the aliens had these powers to begin with, why did they need giant robots?"
I've probably made it sound more interesting than it is. When I first learned about this program, I'd thought about redubbing it into English as a Robotech tribute/parody, but I'd have to edit it a lot to do that.
FP
Space Gundam V, the South Korean knockoff anime based around the Valkyrie fighter from Macross. Somebody made a torrent available a few months ago, and I got to download it in pieces over the course of the past month or so, and took final delivery overnight.
This program is worse than I imagined it could be. It's even worse than the Digiview content, which I would have found hard to believe if somebody told me so. The visual narrative is a mess, which probably means whoever made this was likely under pressure to get it done quickly and just threw it together. There is far too much cliché physical comedy, the kind you see more often in American and Western cartoons. (If the Filmation people who worked on the Archie cartoons of the Sixties and Seventies did a giant robot show, it would probably be a lot like this--but maybe better!)
The story is pretty much like Fight! Iczer-1 in that an evil alien being is terrorizing Earth with awful monsters, and a good alien being from the same race is a mission to stop him. When a young man heroically fights a great white shark to save his kid sister and friends and gets badly hurt doing so, the good alien does the Ultraman Bargain with him, "synchronizing" and possessing his body so the alien can live among Earthlings and do his work.
He/they go to the shore and retrieve the Valkyrie fighter there just in time to intercept a raid by...an enormous rat. There is a scene in which the good being tries to talk the bad being into giving up his stupid--I mean, nefarious enterprises, but of course, it fails.
And then a giant spider and a Breetai-sized demon show up, and the Valkyrie (and the silly mecha of the silly sidekick character who makes Hayao Kakizaki/Ben Dixon look like Isaac Newton) fight them. The Earthlings trick the demon into killing the spider, and then, after an embarrassing scene of Head Lasers to demonic groin, it is revealed that the demon is actually a bio-mech piloted by the villain, who, through the use of a droid, has kidnapped the kid sister of the possessed hero. It eventually takes an over-the-top Lucasesque Jedi Force fight showdown to resolve the issue, which makes you wonder "if the aliens had these powers to begin with, why did they need giant robots?"
I've probably made it sound more interesting than it is. When I first learned about this program, I'd thought about redubbing it into English as a Robotech tribute/parody, but I'd have to edit it a lot to do that.
FP
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I already live in a haunted house now. For a few years, I'd slept on the previous owner's bedframe and box springs (with my own mattress atop it). I've seen her ghost a few times. Death is but a door.
I already live in a haunted house now. For a few years, I'd slept on the previous owner's bedframe and box springs (with my own mattress atop it). I've seen her ghost a few times. Death is but a door.
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Back To A Different World
Apr. 10th, 2011 08:57 pmToday I bought the first DVD of the remastered 1960s Japanese sci-fi/horror/superhero TV series ULTRAMAN, which I first encountered around 1978 when I was living in Pittsburgh and watching just about anything that the independent stations showed. Like SPEED RACER, this show is exactly as old as I am...and shares the same English-language dubbing cast, which is probably why I was won over so quickly.
Well, that and the Tsubaraya special effects.
I'm watching this disk in bits & pieces, as this series only had bookended continuity...the only "high" plotline is explained in the very first and very last stories. This means that the majority of the stories are self-contained and can be watched in random order. I'm also watching with the sound off to start; I may go back and rewatch to check out the differences in the soundtracks.
Where to begin...?
Yes, there are embarrassing ways in which this program shows its age--but not too many. Japan was living the future in the early and middle 1960s (and for a good while afterwards); they had good reason to be proud of their technology and to show it off. You can forgive the reel-to-reel magnetic tape and little telescoping antennae everywhere...who knew what was to come? But at the same time you had a dichotomy of both high-future concepts (exploitation of the planets of the Solar System!) versus an all-too-cynical eye on how the real world works (smuggling, pollution, superpower nations with casual regard on the use of atomic weapons, etc.).
There are two kinds of monster on the loose in ULTRAMAN: those spawned by mankind's reckless treatment of the natural world, and those dumped on Earth by space beings who see mankind as a threat and want to beat the human race into submission. It's the job of the Science Patrol--and soon, the big man in silver and red--to fight back and restore peace and order. This formula begat a whole genre unto itself, tokusatsu, which endures still.
Well, that and the Tsubaraya special effects.
I'm watching this disk in bits & pieces, as this series only had bookended continuity...the only "high" plotline is explained in the very first and very last stories. This means that the majority of the stories are self-contained and can be watched in random order. I'm also watching with the sound off to start; I may go back and rewatch to check out the differences in the soundtracks.
Where to begin...?
Yes, there are embarrassing ways in which this program shows its age--but not too many. Japan was living the future in the early and middle 1960s (and for a good while afterwards); they had good reason to be proud of their technology and to show it off. You can forgive the reel-to-reel magnetic tape and little telescoping antennae everywhere...who knew what was to come? But at the same time you had a dichotomy of both high-future concepts (exploitation of the planets of the Solar System!) versus an all-too-cynical eye on how the real world works (smuggling, pollution, superpower nations with casual regard on the use of atomic weapons, etc.).
There are two kinds of monster on the loose in ULTRAMAN: those spawned by mankind's reckless treatment of the natural world, and those dumped on Earth by space beings who see mankind as a threat and want to beat the human race into submission. It's the job of the Science Patrol--and soon, the big man in silver and red--to fight back and restore peace and order. This formula begat a whole genre unto itself, tokusatsu, which endures still.
