Archive for Movie review
Today’s awkward mail sent to me, but not for me, comes first in a plain brown business envelope of the sort one doesn’t see much these days. Within on engraved business stationery is thus:
Dear Ms. Malin,
As you know, we pride ourselves on our ability to track down missing persons even on the most slim of clues and information. We believe in thinking outside the box, and always getting results. We admit, however, that your case has forced us to think so far outside the box that we are questioning some of our results and we request some further input from you in regards to your case.
You hired us to locate the father of you and your siblings–a man who disappeared without warning some twenty years ago. You also refused to provide us with any biographical or biological data, and insisted we search for your missing father on a philosophical basis alone. This is way outside the box. Still, we agreed to give it a go.
We hesitate to consider the following a “narrowing down” of the list of possibilities–but more the top ten in our list of potential targets. If you would be so kind as to look over this list and offer some insights, we would appreciate it and feel more confident that we could bring this case to a successful conclusion.
Our investigators have turned up the following possibilities:
- A Cape Verdean short order cook in Tulsa, Oklahoma who owns a complete set of the works of Albert Camus.
- A professor of secular humanism at Hofstra University.
- A chorus girl at an all-drag revue in Flint, Michigan.
- The Dalai Lama
- A diabetic Marist missionary in Burma.
- A retired cartoonist currently living in Cleveland, Ohio.
- An independent film actor and playwright from New York currently supplementing his income with TV commercials and animation voiceovers.
- Three Jewish comediens from Brownsville, New York
- A keyboard player in a German 80s-nostalgia techno band.
- The “missing” Lindbergh baby.
The list may seem a bit all over the map, but I think you’ll agree that they all share certain aspects from the philosophical profile you provided us.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Bernard and Vivian Jaffe
Interconnective Investigations
Next up is the ever-familiar folded note written with crimson ink upon a rag paper. It reads:
To Whom It May Concern:
Have you noticed the increasing number of bank robberies of late?
We have.
We’re just saying.
We await your signal.
(signed)
Unsigned
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Today’s link goes to The Three Stooges Official Website. I mean, come on! Does it get much better than that? Okay, I’m a Marx Bros. kind of guy, but easy fun entertainment is pretty much any Three Stooges short you could ever run across. And I’m a huge fan of the Stooge double-slap sound effect. If I thought it wouldn’t be socially awkward, I’d make it my ringtone.
Cheers!
Filed under: Blogosphere, Humor, Letters, Movie review, Publishing, Writing | |1 Comment
In 1923, pirates off the coast of India hijacked a ship which was carrying a print of the Rudolph Velentino movie The Sheik (1921). This is the origin of the term “pirate” when referring to illegal copies of movies. The most pirated movie on record is Three Men and a Baby (1987).
The infamous line, “Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a damn.” in the movie version of Gone With the Wind (1939) does not appear in the original novel by Margaret Mitchell. It was added by the studio to beef up press coverage of the film.
During the very opening scenes of The Sixth Sense (1999), Bruce Willis is watching the end credits to Weekend at Bernie’s (1989), a favorite of director M. Night Shyamalan.
A problem with funding for Clerks (1994) almost stopped Kevin Smith’s film career before it began due to flooding in Smith’s home which threatened the comic book collection he was selling to pay for the film.
The most cursed film in history? Conquering Cross (1941) by Sergei Eisenstein in which 189 members of the cast and crew were killed in accidents ranging from electrocution to drowning. The original cinematographer, Alexi Andropov, was killed by a bear at the Moscow zoo a week prior to the production’s start.
From the cutting room floor: In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Francois Truffaut slapped Richard Dreyfuss. Kangaroo Jack (2003) had a cameo by John Rhys-Davies as a foul-mouthed Australian hobo. Fire Walk With Me (1992) had a cafe scene filmed in Esperanto. The topless scene in Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
Over 9,000 pounds of soba were used during the filming of the Juzo Itami film Tampopo about a trucker who trains a young widow in the art of noodles.
The theatrical preview for the Coen Bros. movie Blood Simple (1984) was created before the actual film was made. It was filmed with the help of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell while they themselves were filming Evil Dead (1981).
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In light of a recent conversaion on Facebook, today’s link takes you to He-Man.org. Want to know more about Castle Grayskull, Battlecat, Skeletor, and the Masters of the Universe? Why would you go anywhere else? This is one of the only sites of this type I’ve seen to openly have a download section for videogame ROMs and emulators. Go figure.
Enjoy!
Filed under: Blogosphere, Humor, Movie review, Rumor | movies, Teehan|No Comments
I was watching the Hitchcock classic Rope last night–a riveting movie with a great cast and direction. But I got to wondering…how would a remake look? For one thing, the murdering know-it-alls Dall and Granger could be played easily by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. And Rupert Cadell would be played by Robin Williams.
Well, this is how it could have worked out if a remake was made ten years ago. I think all three would be too old for their roles by now–maybe not Williams, but Affleck and Damon are far beyond college-age characters now. Even Leonardo DiCaprio would be too old. Who could play those roles now? Why do I think Zach Braff could do one of the roles? Maybe team him up with Shia LaBuouf.
Or maybe cast women? Natalie Portman. Ellen Page. Megan Fox. Felicia Day. Summer Glau would be great. And for the mentor role, maybe Julienne Moore, Marina Sirtis or…oooh… Meryl Streep. Maybe even Helen Mirren.
Who to direct? Kevin Smith is master of the two-head shot, but he wouldn’t be able to do the fancy long takes Hitchcock did. I think Quentin Tarantino would do an interesting job. Yeah, he’s up the adreneline factor a notch or five, but he has the directorial skills to pull off a decent version of Rope. Other possible directors might be Bruce McDonald, Steve Buscemi, the Coen Bros., David O’Russell, or Spike Jonze.
Why not Woody Allen? He’d do a very good job–no question on that. He probably has the most experience in that sort of direction, but I kind of doubt he could bring anything new to the story.
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Well, no time for love, Dr. Jones. Back to work. It’s Monday and there’s a lot to be done. Without further ado, today’s link sticks with the theme of the above brief movie discussion: Alfred-Hitchcock.com. It’s pretty much what you expect–biography, filmography, trivia, quotes, and more. Well worth checking out if you’re a Hitchcock fan, old or new.
Cheers!
Filed under: Blogosphere, Movie review, Reviews, Writing | |No Comments
I get the feeling that I’m not supposed to have liked the new Speed Racer movie by the Wachowski Bros. I mean, it’s not Lawrence of Arabia, but I knew that beforehand. What it did turn out to be was a fairly decent adaptation of the classic 60s animated cartoon series. I thought it captured the spirit of an action-oriented anime on film quite well, all things considered, and I thought it had enough callbacks to the original series to make it enjoyable for those of adults, such as myself, who remember watching the cartoon on TV as kids.
Much of the non-driving action is still anime-oriented. It’s goofy and fast. Like a Batman TV episode on fast-forward. Typical of kids programming, and of American television adaptations of Japanese anime, it’s been sanitized for your protection. Maybe one use of the word “hell”, and everyone who crashes their car is all right because you see either a protective bubble envelope them or a parachute deploys or somesuch. Even for the villains. No one really gets hurt so you can enjoy the destruction guilt-free.
Visually, the movie is a celebration of exaggeration and sensory overload via brightly colored lights and fast action. The original cartoon featured a lot of looped animation and fairly simple art that wouldn’t cut it in today’s films. It’s bright, it’s colorful. There’s lots of fast, darting action and explosions. It’s perfect theater for the ADS poster kids, or as we call them these days, anyone between 6 and 16. For me, I struggled to keep up, but I like multiple viewings, so I didn’t mind if I missed part of the action. It will give me something to enjoy later.
Even the slow story scenes are brightly colored. Plot-wise, it’s a pretty standard “Speed is going up against a cabal that runs fixed races who will stop at nothing to put an end to Speed Racer’s goody-goody interference, but Racer X (who is probably Speed’s dead brother) lends a hand.” kind of storyline. No real surprises for old Speed hands like myself, but new enough, I guess, for the kiddies who, I’m guessing, this movie was also aimed quite squarely at. There were some great references to the original animated series. The megacar makes an appearance. When Speed jumps out of the Mach 5 after a race, he ends up in the familiar swinger-pose that showed up during the opening credits of the original series. Spritle and Chim-Chim still hide out in the trunk. The Mach 5’s controls are a series of buttons on the steering wheel. Sparky is still a bit of a dork. And Trixie.. well Trixie (played very convincingly by Christina Ricci) is Trixie. Not exactly the covergirl for the modern woman, but not a non-entity like Mom Racer played by Susan Sarandon who must have been a fan or was in desperate need of a paycheck.
For the other actors, John Goodman as Pops Racer was a no-brainer, although it was weird for me to see him in this role, then a few hours later I caught him as the racist, sleezy dad of the bad guy in Death Sentence. Matthew Fox (Jack on Lost) did a good Racer X. Emile Hirsch was a convincing Speed. We’ll have to see where this career move takes him. Oh, and Roger Allam as the villainous Arnold Royalton put in a nice over-the-top performance.
OK, recommendation time. If you loved Speed Racer as a kid and keep an open mind, you’ll like this. If you’re an obsessive fanboy who loves to nitpick, you will love to hate it. In either case, it’s worth owning or renting. If you remember the series and merely enjoyed it, you won’t care enough about the movie to pay much or anything unless you have kids. Kids will enjoy it. If Speed Racer never even entered your radar, you probably won’t get much out of it and will simply find it silly for no reason. In that case, it’s okay to avoid the movie. It probably wasn’t meant for you to begin with.
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Work-wise, it’s a steady week. I’m working mostly on the Design Integration book and Character Kings for BearManor. The May issue of the medical journal is out on proof, and the SFWA Bulletin should hit the printer by the weekend. This works for me as we’re having a fairly busy week socially. Tonight is probably our only “night off” but then again, it’s Lost night, so we try to keep that as open as possible. Tomorrow night…Gaelic Storm concert!
Rumor has it… Every time a mousetrap snaps, an angel’s wings catch fire. Whether this is an argument for or against lethal traps is for you to decide.
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Today’s link takes you to the Tribute to Robert Goddard–Rocket Scientist and Space Pioneer website. There’s a pretty complete history of Goddard and his groundbreaking work on rocketry. A good read for a bit of history and science.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Reviews, Rumor | Robert Goddard, Speed Racer|No Comments
Time for a couple of quick movie reviews.
First up, I’ve finally gotten around to seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It was…okay. The second half was better than the first half. I wasn’t a fan of Abe Sapien’s voice–played as it was by the actor inside the costume, Doug Jones, instead of David Hyde Pierce doing the voice. Hellboy himself looked a little smaller, less bulky and imposing than he had in the first movie. Selma Blair was as ignorable in this movie as she was in the last–but they may also be the fault of the character. Moody women on fire is so three years ago. Likewise the prince and princess characters were likewise flat and un-interesting despite one being the villain and the other an unlikely love interest. Furthermore, the story and set design seemed to move away from the Cthulhu-esque horror adventure of the last movie to a more Gaiman-esque fantasy kind of setup. It wasn’t what I was expecting, and it took me a while to get into the groove of it.
I was not a fan of how, particularly in the beginning, it seemed they were going for Men In Black style gag humor. It just didn’t fit and served as more a distraction than anything else. Directors and their toys, ya know?
Okay, John. So what did you like?
I liked the character of Johann Krauss–and specifically how I was set up not to like him at first, but as the story progressed, I grew to like him more and more. I thought that was pretty skillfully done. I liked the Angel of Death scene and the chilling revelations of Hellboy’s fate. I liked the stone giant that functioned as the gateway. I thought the Tooth Fairies were interesting and unique. And I still liked Hellboy. And Abe–somewhat. The story got better as it moved along, but overall…it could have been a lot better.
Recommendation? A one-time rental for fantasy adventure fans. Worth watching once on cable, but not pay-for-view. Hellboy fans… well, they’ll buy the DVD no matter what I say. Some will probably sell it for the used bins. Other Hellboy fans may do well to get their copy there than paying full price.
Oddly enough, I do hope they make a sequel. But if they do, they better pay off the set up from the Angel of Death scene.
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Next up, Auto Focus starring Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe, a biopic about the late Bob Crane, star of the classic TV show Hogan’s Heroes.
This was pretty good. The pacing was a little slow, but for a biopic, that’s probably to be expected. The movie focuses on Crane’s rise to stardom and his subsequent fall into obscurity, and his introduction and obsession with pornography and sex addiction. It ends, of course, with his infamous motel room murder–mostly likely at the hands of John Carpenter (not the director) who first introduced Crane to homemade porn and the swinging scene. Carpenter was tried but not found guilty–but the movie nonetheless paints a strong argument for him as being Cran’e killer after Crane tried to break free from Carpenters influence.
Acting wise, Kinnear does a good job doing a Rob Lowe impersonation of Bob Crane. I can’t judge the verity of Dafoe’s rendition of Carpenter, but Dafoe is a damn fine actor and can play creepy with the best of them.
Special shoutout goes to Kurt Feller’s portrayal of Werner Klemperer–and especially Klemperer’s Commandant Klink. It was spot on.
Overall, it’s a good picture, tho not for everyone. I loved Hogan’s Heroes as a kid, and somehow seeing Bob Crane playing drums at a strip joint just doesn’t jibe. I suppose that’s why it’s an interesting movie. Recommendations? It’s on the Sundance Channel’s On Demand right now, so you can see it there. It might be worth a rental if you’re in the mood for something slow and sleazy. Cinematically and scriptwise it doesn’t impress enough to warrant a purchase unless you’re an absolutely die-hard fan of Crane’s or of the movie’s stars, Kinnear and/or Dafoe.
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Today’s link goes to a page with fine selection of knots. Yeah, knots. Good for sailing, camping, securing stuff to the roof of the car, and taking care of lifes other little problems like that dog next door that won’t stop barking. I’m just saying. Anyway, check out Animated Knots by Grog.
Then go find some rope.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Reviews | Auto Focus, Hellboy|No Comments
I’ve finally gotten around to watching Finding Forrester (2000), directed by Gus Van Sant, written by Mike Rich, and starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham and Busta Rhymes. Not a bad movie. It’s very reminiscent of Good Will Hunting, Van Sant’s previous film and he seemed to be aware of it enough to give Matt Damon a brief cameo. But Finding Forrester is a different movie and a lot less angsty. Instead of a Irish-American math whizkid from Southie, we have literary-minded black whizkid from the Bronx. Instead of a talented therapist wrestling with his personal tragedies, we have a reclusive author wrestling with his tragedies. FF is partially set at a private academy, GWH is set partially at Harvard. Both movies have the younger and older lead characters redeeming the other. Yeah, there are parallels, but don’t be fooled into thinking they are the same movies. They have different feels to them, and are both pretty inspiring.
Special kudos to Ron Brown who has never acted before and reportedly was only after an extras role when Van Sant ended up tapping him for the lead. He did a great job and it must have been hugely challenging working with such established and well-trained actors and Connery and Abraham. Speaking of F. Murray Abraham…he does a good job playing the villain-like character–very Salieri in a way–and not the first time he’s been the nemesis to one of Connery’s characters. Their characters butted heads back in The Name of the Rose in 1986. (Good movie adaptation of the book. Also starred a young Ron Perlman.)
While I’m naming names, I enjoyed Busta Rhymes’ character as well. He plays a relatively small, but also very key role.
Finding Forrester…if you liked GWH you’ll like this. If you like literary-themed stories, or are a fan of folks like J.D. Salinger, you’ll like this film. It’s easily worth a rental or cable viewing. Maybe even owning.
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A pretty good week, production-wise. Van Alexander is out for proof, the Bulletin and medical journal are out on proof. The Ray Danton photos are all set–I’m just waiting on the captions and placements–the text layout is pretty much done. So a good week. Today is going to be spent taking care of dozens of loose-end chores, cover art, contracts, and fixing a couple of typos in TumbleTap Presents 2009 before that goes off to the printer.
And without going into sordid details, I got an issue that’s been hanging over my head since December not only resolved, but resolved completely in my favor.
So, yeah… good week. To celebrate, here’s a sneak peak at the artwork for the next SFWA Bulletin, courtesy of artist Randy Asplund.
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Rumor has it…Statistically, coffee consumption is at its highest when a Democrat is president. Bees also produce more honey. Drug abuse and bank robberies rise during Republican administrations.
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In keeping with an authorial theme, today’s link takes you to a short interview with John Updike at The National Book Foundation. His brilliance will be missed, but his words live on.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Publishing, Rumor | Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting, John Updike|No Comments
We watched an odd duck of a little movie last night: Happy-Go-Lucky a British film directed by Mike Leigh and starring Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, and Alexis Zegerman. I’m still mulling over the movie in my head, trying to decide what I think of it.
In short, it’s about a 30 year-old woman, a primary school teacher, named Poppy who lives in Camden with her best friend Zoe. Poppy is one of those eternally sunny and optimistic types. There was a point during the opening credits where she’s riding her bike, grinning like a loon, when I wanted to keep shouting “Bonjour, Amelie! Bonjour!” (I can be a bit of a prick. I behaved myself, though.) Anyway, she’s eternally cheerful (despite living in London) and the movie is pretty much about her being faced with a series of challenges to her sunny disposition. Her bike is stolen. One of her students is getting violent. She has a strained relationship with one of her sisters. She encounters a homeless man. A bunch of little things that many of us encounter every day. She manages to cope with each encounter fairly easily. No real challenge. Then there is her odd relationship with her driving instructor (who kept reminidng me of that Family Guy line, “The British are a lovely people…not physically, of course.) who’s a bit of a nut job.
Poppy’s radiant look on the world and constant giggling gets on her intructors already-frayed nerves, but there’s a love-hate thing going on which explodes in her face a bit.
To say that she learns something isn’t being untruthful. Her sunniness never really fades, but one suspects by the end that she may be a little less naive. Maybe about people. Maybe about how her relationships work.
Structurally I was given the impression of a Merchant-Ivory film turned on its head. Instead of two school chums facing challenges and growing up in some exotic locale, it’s about a grown woman and her friends in an urbanish locale who want to delay growing up as long as possible. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I can relate to that.
Oveall, though, I dunno. It was kind of like having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without enough peanut butter, or maybe not enough jelly (depending on your preference). I thought something was lacking. Granted, I don’t think I was the movie’s target audience, but I expected a little more.
So do I recommend it? Yeah…why not. It’s a good movie to watch with your loved one. I would have been pissed to pay theater prices to see it, and I don’t think I’d have purchased the DVD myself, but I could have seen renting it, or catching it on cable. It’s one of those Miramax indie darlings, so obviously it struck a chord with a lot of people.
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Rumor has it…Al Pacino (the actor) has a brother-in-law named Robin Williams (not the actor). Robin Williams (the actor) has a second cousin named Albert Pacino (not the actor). It was this revelation during a party at director Christopher Nolan’s house that the three of them decided to work on 2002’s Insomnia.
A lot of work today, unsurprisingly. Basically more of the same from yesterday–which was itself a hugely productive day. Let’s see if we can’t do this two days in a row.
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Today’s link is a little self-serving, but I’m glad to finally have it live and routed the way it’s supposed to be. Today’s link is homepage for TumbleTap.com the newest, most exciting name in graphic novels. Give us time.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Rumor | Happy-Go-Lucky, Tumbletap|No Comments
There’s been a list floating around facebook… a list of 249 movies and the suggestion that anyone who has watched 85 movies “has no life.” I’ve yet to see a person who has a score less than 85, but the real problem with the list are the glaring ommissions. It seems to be heavy on movies of the past 20 years–and many of them generic Hollywood fare like the Scream movies and the works of Adam Sandler.
So without even trying, I’m going to list ten movies they left out (that I’ve seen).
Lawrence of Arabia
Planet of the Apes
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
A Clockwork Orange
Juno
Sunset Boulevard
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Harvey
The Blues Brothers
Henry Fool
That’s just stream of consciousness at work. Now I’m going to go through the list and add brief random notes.
Lawrence of Arabia - starring Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Sir Alec Guiness, and a host of other famous names. Interesting bit of trivia, it’s the only movie I can think of where there are no spoken female roles.
Planet of the Apes - “Take yer stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!” I loved this movie, its four sequels, the single-season TV series, and even the single season animated series. Pierre Boule, who wrote the original novel, also wrote Bridge over the River Kwai
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances ever. Bummer ending, but what a ride.
A Clockwork Orange - I loved the book, and even though the movie took a slightly different focus, it was a pretty good adaptation. A bit of the old ultra-violent and a horrorshow kick to the gulliver, it is!
Juno - Great script. Great acting. Great direction and cinematography. Great soundtrack, too. How the hell did I end up loving a movie about teen pregnancy?
Sunset Boulevard - A true classic which has inspired homage scenes in thousands of other movies and shows. I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Groundbreaking film tech with some decent writing and impressive acting from poor Bob Hoskins who played second banana to a rabbit. Kudos to Chinatown while I’m thinking of it.
Harvey - Speaking of playing second banana to a rabbit. You just know if they remade this, they’d ruin it by trying to show Harvey.
The Blues Brothers - “We have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes. It’s night. And we’re wearing sunglasses.” “Hit it!”
Henry Fool - Yeah, he’s never heard of you either. A Hal Hartly film staring Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, and Parker Posey. It spawned the sequel Fay Grim ten years later. We can only hope for another ten years down the line.
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Sunday nights are always weird for sleeping around Casa de Teehan. I think part of it is the change in sleep patterns from weekday to weekend back to weekday. This particular night is also rough as Margaret has a headcold and I seemed to have strained my wrist a bit from playing out last night and neither of us could get comfortable. Add to that the cats always having tense relations at night, waking us at random points with cat fights. Yeesh.
So screw it. I’m up at 3am. I have things I can do. The first proof of the medical journal is finished, but I need to prep the PDF versions of the proof for the editor. I have a whole mess of photos for the Ray Danton book to go through. I need to go through the latest proof of The Professionals. And I know later in the day I will have some work related to a new book apparently entitled It Came From the 70s which appears to be about 70s SF/horror movies. (Sounds like a fun book!) And I should be getting materials for the Nebula issue of the SFWA Bulletin today as well.
I need to write two pages of material to finish the TumbleTap sampler and get that off to the printer. And there is still a little bit more of the Rogue Satellite Comics collection that needs finishing.
Add to that I finally got the old box spring and mattress out of my pantry and into the hands of some poor unfortunates so now I can get some spring cleaning done in there today.
So yeah, I have stuff I can do.
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Today’s link goes to Scooby-Doo, We Love You - a fan site dedicated to everyone’s favorite gang of meddling kids. Many vidcaps and a brief episode guide to the various series and seasons. Some fun to be had for those looking for a quick nostalgia fix.
Cheers!
Filed under: Book layouts, Magazine layouts, Movie review, Reviews | facebook, scooby doo|2 Comments
I saw the movie version of John Irving’s The World According to Garp recently and forgot what an elegant movie it is. I don’t think I’ve seen it since its 1982 theatrical release–and I think I went to see it more because it had that funny guy from Mork and Mindy in it than for anything else. I didn’t get on my John Irving reading kick until college a few years later.
The movie has most of the required elements of an Irving novel: New England setting, wrestling, infidelity, academic setting, novelists, bears, and such. I’m pretty sure this was the first time John Lithgow appeared on my radar… interestingly enough as a post sex-change football player.
Twenty-five years after my initial viewing, I think I can appreciate the quality of acting better. It seems natural now to see that Robin Williams (who is very young in this) would go on to A-list stardom. Glenn Close was brilliant, of course. And the story was told in an engaging way–lots of ups and downs. Great production quality.
It’s a sad movie, but not terribly sad. Well, okay, terribly sad in spots…but it could have come out worse. Okay, it probably came out as worse as it could… but I’d say it was still a deent ending for the kind of story it was.
Take that as you will. And yeah, I confidently chalk this up as a recommendation.
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One goes out, another comes in. After having done a complete first layout of the new Ray Danton book yesterday, today I’m going to focus on the next issue of the medical journal…if the damn cats let me. They’ve been fighting again and they’re very indiscriminate in whose stuff they knock over and destroy during their noisy, fur-flying kerfluffles. A water spray bottle becomes my best friend.
I’m calling and e-mailing Bearmanor authors today to go over photo stuff for upcoming books. Next week I’ll be doing a number of new book covers and will post previews here.
Rumor has it…Both Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (both once registered Democrats) started their careers as liberal commentators and both nearly failed before their careers could take off–until it was pointed out that there was more money to be had in the controversial, “nutty” world of right-wing pundits.
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Today’s link goes to StrangeHorizons.com - site for great stories, articles, reviews and more. They’ve been around quite a while now–ten years or nearly so–and still going strong. They published a few things of mine years ago… poetry and reviews, so I’ve always had a soft spot for them and think you will to.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Publishing, Rumor | cats, Garp, Strange Horizons|2 Comments
I’ve always been a fan of Kenneth Branagh’s version of Henry V since it first blew me away in theaters, 1989. It’s Shakespeare turned up to 11. It appeared this morning on cable and it’s been my morning viewing.
My favorite character? Not Robbie Coltrane’s Falstaff which is brilliant. Not Branagh’s Henry (I still call him Hal). But rather Brian Blessed’s intense portrayal of Kent. Does this guy have a setting less than 11? Less than 20? You probably know him best as Prince Vultan from the 1980 version of Flash Gordon (and his subsequent reprisal of the role on an episode of Family Guy or as Richard IV in Black Adder. If I had ever gone into acting when I was younger, I’d have cultivated a style similar to his–which would have been a failure on my part because a.) I suspect there can be only one, b.) there ain’t room for more than one, and c.) I just wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I can’t act, you see.
So I’ll just enjoyed Blessed’s performances when I can. (He was also Robin Hood’s dad in the Kevin Costner version.)
“Hawkmen! Dive!”
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I’m looking over a book on the British TV series The Professionals, but my main current project on the book front is putting together a book on the films of actor Ray Danton–one of those faces you recognize, but rarely put a name to. Pretty straightforward sort of book, but there are going to be a lot of photos to process and place.
TumbleTap work continues. I’m still waiting for the magic of the internet to route the URL to the right site, but other work continues. I’ve been asked, so I’ll answer.. yes, we should have Rogue Satellite Comics and Oz Squad available and on-hand at the San Diego ComicCon. I won’t be there, but Chris Reilly of Rogue Satellite will be there hawking it alongside his many creations at Slave Labor Graphics.
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Today’s link drops by a fun little webcomic called Joy of Tech available from the good folk at GeekCulture.com. In keeping with my recent reading of Jpod and my current reading of Microserfs it’s very much in mesh with that geek world. A good recommendation. Check it out.
Cheers!
Filed under: Movie review, Webcomics | Brian Blessed, Danton, Joy of Tech, Tumbletap|No Comments
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