Friday, February 5, 2010

Fast Times At Ridgemont High Vs. High Fidelity

GAH! I’ve been SUPER sick all week. I mean ass glued to the toilet, staring at the sky screaming “WHY!”, while simultaneously begging a higher power to just let me sleep. THAT kinda sick. So suffice to say the blog got put on hold a bit this week. I’m not sure it would matter much though as I haven’t had an awful lot to talk about lately, it’s not a rut so to speak, just a nice slow roll through winter, and I’m good with that.

I finished three books while spending an inordinate amount of time in my own personal Fortress Of Solitude;
- “In The Moons Of Borea” (*** ½ out of 5 Stars) – This was the Lumley book that sort of tied the first three Titus Crow books up with the Ithaqua series. This one was de Margney and the “Warlord” of Borea trying to regain the time clock. The most interesting thing is the sort of waffling on portraying Ithaqua as anything other than a heartless monster.
- “Elysia – The Coming Of Cthulhu” (*** out of 5 Stars) – This tied all the Lumley books together, and it completely epitomizes my issues with this series. The ideas are interesting the exectution leaves me cold. The Cthulhu Mythos deities shouldn’t be treated as concepts of “good” & “evil” the point is they are beyond that. They are horrors beyond our comprehension, things beyond our ability to fully understand or even fathom. To assign them arbitrary emotions and set them up as cardboard villains takes the horror out of this & makes it merely a pulp story. And as a pulp story its just O.K.
- “The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian” (***** out of 5 Stars)NOW THIS on the other hand is BRILLIANT! This is book one of three of the collected Robert E. Howard Conan stories. I had already received and read book three, and for Christmas Mighty Mike and Charity Michaels hooked “a brutha” up with this tome. I must say while the stories in volume three are a tad more polished and sort of take Conan in a different direction, this first book is chock full of interesting tales from across the breath and scope of this fictional icon’s “life”. I must say I was amazed to learn that “The Phoenix On The Sword”, Conan’s introductory tale, was a originally a Kull The Conqueror story entitled “By This Axe I Rule”, that was reworked and resold as Conan. I also think it’s important to note that these are not brainless tales about scantily clad women and a ponderous barbarian. These are tales about civilization being battered by time, decay, and man’s natural predisposition towards barbarism. By reading this, my simple appreciation of Howard’s contributions to literature have become glowing enthusiasm and gushing love for the material. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys reading, FIND and READ R.E.H.’s collected Conan stories, you will NOT be disappointed.

I also engaged in some FEAR network viewing while I periodically found myself bathroom bound;
- Gothic (** ½ out of 5 Stars) – So there must have been someone at the FEAR network who is a HUGE Ken Russell fan? I’d never watched this piece of fiction that revolves around that weekend where Mary Shelly and her lover visited the debaucheries of the home of Lord Byron and she concocted her famous tale Frankenstein. I’m not rote on Lord Byron or about just why he earned such a heinous reputation, but let me say if the film is even slightly accurate, these were some seriously CRAZY folks. Suffice to say this movie’s reach exceeds its grasp and it becomes less frightening and more ponderous and bludgeons you with images allusions to grotesque behavior. It’s not an awful film, but not one I’d watch again.
- Lair Of The White Worm (**** out of 5 Stars) – I love this movie. It’s sort of goofy, but it’s got just enough going for it that I can overlook all that, oh and Amanda Donahue will HAUNT you with how sultry she is in it. In addition apparently this is based on a Bram Stoker story. You can see that Stoker definitely had a thing for that vampire-like theme. This one though definitely has some Lovecraft in it, & I “dig it the most”. Overall, it’s an entertaining flick and Hugh Grant’s actually entertaining it.

How ‘bout some

RANDOM CRAP!

- I primed all my minis this week, now I’m out of primer.
- I’m not huge on Marvel right now or their collective direction, BUT those new Avengers ads they’ve got are BRILLIANT! John Romita Jr. on art, an Avenger spotlighted with a simple quote to describe them is just gorgeous in its simplicity and the execution is, well marvelous.
- I need to cut my hair again.
- I read that there is animated Conan flick coming of the great story “Red Nails”, I must say I’m excited. Almost excited as I am about the “Planet Hulk” & “Crisis On Earth 2” animated flicks that are out this month.
- “WHEN GIANT REPTILES ATTACK” Movie-A-Thon is this Saturday. I know there is apparently a Snownomi on its way, but I think we’ll still have a decent turnout. I’m looking forward to seeing just what all we find at Video Universe to watch, BESIDES DAGON!
- I’m hungry for something that I can’t seem to place, and it’s driving me M-A-D-!
- I’m exhausted…

Well back it I suppose…

“THEY TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT!”

5 comments:

  1. I'm surpised you didn't unleash your rage at the potential Watchmen 2 film.

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  2. Or the potential Watchmen comic book spin-offs! Good grief.

    As for Marvel lately, I've been absolutely giddy.

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  3. Dan Didio & Warner Brothers should think real hard on this.
    The idea that we need to remake, re-imagine, do prequels, or add additional content to what is the "Citizen Kane" of comic books is asinine. And in my opinion on Didio's part a firable offense.
    As for a second movie, it's just further proof that Hollywood is devoid of ideas, intelligence, and anything even remotely ressembling an original thought.

    On the Marvel front, I do like the "Heroic Age" teasers, even though it looks a lot like Marvel trying to out 'DC' DC. As for SIEGE, I'm markedly unimpressed so far. If you try to compare it with Blackest Night it's almost laughable.

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  4. - Lair Of The White Worm


    I LOVE IT!!!

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  5. You should Amanda Donahue, and yes I can't spell, is incredible to look at in that flick.

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