"I am on a drug, it's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available, 'cause if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body." - Charlie Sheen on 20/20

He's right of course... I've had to resort to getting high on the less powerful version: Joe Estevez.

Has it really been that long since I update? Eeks.

So, anyway... We went to see The Green Hornet  (in 3D) last night. It was the first 3D movie I've seen since the new technology came out. I know people having been buzzing about it for ages, but thats how it is... sue me. the 3D was impressive, of course, but it loses something in scenes with a short range of focus. Close-ups or even midrange depth of field become rather bland.

Moving on to the movie itself...

The Green Hornet has been around a *very* long time.  He was created in 1936 for radio by the legendary Fran Striker, who also created the Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet's alter ego, Britt Reid, was actually meant to be the descendant of the Lone Ranger. Britt Reid was the millionare newspaper owner of The Daily Sentinel, which he used as a platform to expose the corruption and crime of the city. However, he frequently donned the mask of The Green Hornet and posed as a dangerous criminal in order to get close to the criminals he intended to bring down. He was aided by his partner\chauffeur\valet Kato, who was the muscle behind The Green Hornet. They would go into their conflicts in their carefully modified car 'The Black Beauty'... later described as their 'rolling arsenal'.

The character proved to have tremendous appeal and staying power. The successful radio show gave way to movie serials, comic books, and a short-lived TV series in the 1960s (done by the same people who did Batman, and aside from one crossover with that series, it largely maintained a slightly more serious tone.)

The feature film has been languishing in production hell forever. Since the 1990s, in fact. Names such as George Clooney, Kevin Smith, and Jet Li have all been attached to it at one time or another, and the property passed from studio to studio, until finally it was finally made by Seth Rogan and Michael Gondry. The result.... mixed.

( Spoilers and specifics after the cut. )

Current Mood: apathetic

More Star Blazers geeking.... teenygozer will probably like these. :)

These are some slightly longer and clearer trailers, though they are fully in Japanese. Enjoy!

io9.com/5574676/new-footage-of-live+action-starblazers-movie-blasts-our-hearts-with-a-wave+motion-gun-of-excitement

Current Mood: excited

 


My childhood geek is showing...

And no, its not cut. Share my geek! share it!

Current Mood: geekcitement

( Read more... )

Am I the only person who wants to see a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic, set in the modern day, with that guy from the Dos Equuis commercials in it?

Yeah, I kind of thought I might be...

Among my favorite authors can be found one Spider Robinson. His books (particularly the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series) were extremely important to me when I was younger. They were some of the first science fiction stories I came across that were unashamedly, even proudly, optimistic. These books had an unswerving faith in the fundamental goodness of human nature, and no matter how bad or cynical I get, when I reread those stories, I can't help but be moved and affected by them. And I'm not talking about the puns, of which there are an astonishing number.

Spider Robinson's wife and writing partner, Jeanne has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. According to a note on Spider's official website she's been taken off chemo, and the prognosis is that she's got anywhere from a month to a year left.

I feel an obligation to repay Spider for all he's written and how much his stories have meant to me. He and Jeanne need help with the medical bills, so I'm doing what I can, and posting a link to a charity auction for Jeanne's benefit.

http://www.scifisaturdaynight.com/?p=972

There are further donation options that Spider lists in the letter on his website, which can be found HERE:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/index2.html

So... its a small gesture, but I'd like to think Mike Callahan might say something to the effect of "There are no small gestures that can't add up to a BIG gesture if enough people do it."

Well, lets start with something easy. Saw the new Doctor Who last night.... Victory of the Daleks. Overall, and entertaining episode, but lightweight and not especially good. The Daleks were not as annoying as they have been. And its saying something when the Daleks get the funniest like of the episode. "So... you do not require tea?"

Anyway, on with more Captain Satan madness...
( Read more... )

Anyway, there you have it.

People who read this blog may notice I occassionally mention Pulp magazines and characters. I like them. They had a certain imaginative quality that some present stories and novels lack. The stories have their own internal laws, and since they were for the most part written to a formula, the writers of pulps really got a workout trying to hide the formula each month, or to make it seem fresh.

Lots of characters showed up in those years, and a few have stood the test of time and entered into the American idiom; The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Saint... But for every one of them, there were a dozen lesser characters that we've forgotten about.

Enter... Captain Satan.

I've got an old issue of High Adventure magazine that I hadn't read. High Adventure is a modern magazine that reprints old pulp novels and stories, rescuing some of them from obscurity. They reproduce the art, and sometimes the advertisements of the original pulps. This particular issue had the story 'The Dead Man Express' featuring minor league pulp hero: Captain Satan.

( Read more (very long) )
So whats that leave us with for a hero? A sadistic, murdering, paranoid, OCD, control freak of a gangster with a mob of dumb guys who worship him like a god. Sort of like George W. Bush, only more competent.

I'll admit, I've not finished the story yet. I actually can't wait to get back to it, because its so completely mental its entertaining. I have no idea where the walking dead guy or the hypnotist come in when it comes to not stealing train cars and making sure the cargo is delivered on time. I'm not even sure whats so bad about this racket... But, it MUST be evil, because Captain Satan is trying to stop it!

So, I watched the new episode of Doctor Who over the weekend.. The Beast Below. Good Episode, but I have one, niggling little question about it...

( SPOILER!!!! )

o.O