After his mind meld with Jimi Hendrix, Spock had a purple haze all in his brain.
[via dangerousminds.net]
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It's strange playing a VHS tape these days. It's almost like being a techno-archeologist, exhuming forgotten relics from the analog dust. Popping the big, blocky black cassette into the bulky black plastic player leaves me feeling like I'm handling some oversized toy that was designed for colorblind children. The screen comes alive, streaked with static and I'm treated to a playlist from days gone by. Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers (2002), one of JMS' failed attempts at a spin-off of B5. The pilot introduces us to David Martell (Dylan Neal), a Jeffry Hunter handsome leading man who puts together a misfit crew of Rangers to man a moth-eaten starship, the Liandra, and fend off threats to the Interstellar Alliance. Not a bad effort, but it suffers from a case of more of the same since the threat of The Hand is too much like the Shadow menace. Next to assault my optic nerve is the MD Geist OVA (Director's Cut, 1996), subbed not dubbed. This short and intense anime relates the tale of a super-soldier who is too good at his job. While the basic plot dynamic is derivative of Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) this terse and stylish film drives home in a visceral way the nihilistic consequences of war. The animation doesn't stop there, as Heavy Metal (1981) follows. It's a patchy but psychedelic head-trip that stitches together a series of unrelated sf/fantasy tales from the eponymous magazine with the rather contrived device of an evil green orb that thinks it's Ahriman, or something. The parts are more entertaining than the whole in this stoner classic, but it's still a trippy ride. My analog adventure ends with The Road Warrior (1981) that post-apocalyptic extravaganza that put the pedal to the metal and left tire marks right across the face of the genre. Mel Gibson's taciturn Max Rockatansky is a wasteland Hopalong Cassidy, a hard-boiled egg who follows his own star but who has a good heart. The crazed punk-rock marauders that ply these wastelands spilled over into dozens of knock-offs and pastiches, and they still prowl around the popular imagination. These VHS cassettes are now as rare as the gasoline in Max's wasteland, but nowhere near as valuable. How much longer will they remain? How long until they join that growing pile of technological detritus and become forgotten curiosities of the past? Will it be left to techno-scavengers to unearth and replay them, and what will they see when they do? |
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After his mind meld with Jimi Hendrix, Spock had a purple haze all in his brain. [via dangerousminds.net] |
I stopped by the library today planning to check out the tankobon of Nihei's Biomega, but I couldn't find it on the shelves even though it was listed as in. So I grabbed Shirow's first manga Black Magic instead since I haven't read it yet.  So this weekend I'm going to go ahead get a double dose and watch Shirow's Black Magic M-66 OVA again.  How can you not love this classic? Not only is it the only anime he had direct involvement in, but with the US's ever increasing reliance on drone weapons its story about a rogue killer robot is disturbingly relevant. Maybe I should round things off by reading Haldeman's thematically similar Forever Peace (1998). The future is now -- for better or worse. |
 (Art by Steven Ray Brown) Gonna check out the new Avengers flick tonight. Judging by the reviews it sounds like it's a competently made action movie, which is good enough for me. Personally. I've always been more of a Justice League fan, so I've been reading some of the old silver age Avenger comics to get up to speed. I've noticed a few curious bits of trivia that don't get a lot of attention. There's a passing reference in one issue to the characters being "licensed" crime fighters. That begs a lot of questions. Wouldn't they have to carry their licenses with them all the time? Is there a Department of Superheroes that they have to register with? What kind of test do you have to take to get the license in the first place? Another issue makes mention of reimbursing the city for the damage caused by the heroes from a special fund. Even so I bet insurance rates in a superhero infested city are sky high. "Does this policy cover damage caused by vigilantes with a Lycra fetish?" One nice touch is that the Avengers have a rotating chairmanship. When he Wasp comments that it's a silly system, Iron Man retorts, "Silly, perhaps, but more democratic!" Given the authoritarian overtones of much of the superhero genre it's nice to see Stan the man raising the issue of democratic principles. |
 "INVASION" by deathink A little illustration to accompany my recent mini-rant about the glut of invasion plotlines in sf. |
 (pic via BBC)I know I haven't been posting much lately. Not much exciting going on, really. I've just been reading through those old Barsoom books and such like. I still think it's ERB's best series and the imitations are just as fun for me. Aside from social attitudes they haven't dated as badly as some sf, probably because they're so deliberately escapist. I forgot to watch Fringe last night. I guess that tells you something. I knew it was a X-Files pastiche from the beginning, but the last episode with the observer invasion story line has me ready to give up on it. Can we call it quits with the alien invasion plot lines, Hollywood? It seems like every other show or movie hangs its coat on that rusty hook. Enough already! I watched Armitage III again the other day. Still really good, and still looks futuristic. The only thing is the mobiles all look really big. I don't think many people realized how quickly phones would shrink. I think I'll watch something completely different next. Maybe Glass Fleet, La Legende du Vent de l'Univers. Any other good anime you think I should check out? |
 Rev Susie the Floozie has a real treat from the archives for us this week. A two-part interview with none other than underground icon Bettie Page. quote: So tune your dial to radio4all.net and hear this special Bob's Slacktime Funhouse show. If that's not enough for you, this weeks Hour of Slack is a mysterious archive compilation, "Argyle Hour of Slack," so you can damage your aural cavities with that, too. (subgenius.com/ts/hos.html) |
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Bat Person After being bitten by a rabid Bat-Boy, milksop social worker Mark Lilly becomes the masked crimefighter, Bat Person, and wages war against New York's criminals with the help of his loyal sidekick, Koala Man (Doug). He is slowly transforming into a full-blown Bat-Boy. Stats Body: 4 Mind: 4 Soul: 5 Attributes Damn Healthy! Level 2 (2 points), Heightened Senses Level 3 (Hearing x2, Vision, can see in the dark) (3 points), Servant Level 3 (Koala Man) (3 points), Personal Gear Level 1 (Utility belt) (1 point), Special Attack Level 2 "Bat shriek" (30 damage, Area Effect (10 meter radius), Drain Soul (2 points of Soul drained), No Damage, Short Range) (8 points) Defects Marked (Bat-Boy features, 1 BP), Nemesis (Sabrina Maroney, 1 BP), Significant Other (Callie Maggotbone, 1 BP), Skeleton in the Closet (Secret identity, 1 BP), Physically Unappealing (1 BP) Derived Values Attack Combat Value: 4 Defense Combat Value: 2 Health Points: 65 Energy Points: 45 Shock Value: 13 Note: Anyone attacked by the "Bat shriek" must make a Soul save at -2 or flee the scene. Koala Man (Irreplaceable Servant) Doug, a timid giant koala, has been teamed with Bat Person by Grimes, the sadistic head of the DOI who hates vigilantes, in order to keep tabs on him. Unbeknownst to anyone, Doug has a secret, shameful past as a professional assassin. He does most of the duo's fighting. Stats Body: 5 Mind: 4 Soul: 3 Attributes Combat Mastery Level 4 (8 points), Damn Healthy! Level 1 (1 point), Gun Bunny Level 1 (Two Guns) (1 point) Defects Marked (Giant koala features, 2 BP), Recurring Nightmares (1 BP), Skeleton in the Closet (Ex-assassin, 2 BP), Cannot Talk (1 BP), Owned by a Megacorp (DOI, 1 BP) Derived Values Attack Combat Value: 8 Defense Combat Value: 6 Health Points: 50 Energy Points: 35 Shock Value: 10 Notes: Write-ups for BESM (Rev. 2nd ed.). Optional skill rules not used. Bat Person & Koala Man are from the fantastic TV show, Ugly Americans, season 2, episode 16, "The Dork Knight". Bat-Boy comes to us from the pages of Weekly World News, "The World's Only Reliable News!" (weeklyworldnews.com/) Update: Dropped Doug's Soul stat by one point to reflect his timidity and gave him the Damn Healthy! att. since he always takes so much abuse. |
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I have a conspiracy theory. Did you ever wonder why so many movies and TV shows are filled with guns? Why nearly every TV show is a cop drama and almost every action movie is a gun bunny's dream come true? Here's where my conspiracy theory comes in. The studio executives and producers behind these shows all own shares of stock in the gun companies. They green light show that will need to purchase a ton of guns, the profits of the gun companies go up and so does the value of their shares. Diabolical, isn't it? That's why this recent Reuters report by Greg McCune doesn't surprise me. quote:  In other words, Romero films and shows like The Walking Dead are basically extended gun commercials. It's probably only a matter of time before we see Official Walking Dead (TM) Target Dummies. How crazy does my conspiracy theory sound now? I guess that's one thing you've got to hand to high fantasy shows like George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones. It'll never annoy viewers with product placement and it definitely will never turn into a gun commercial. |
 Gahaak was mortified to have the puny humans see him in such undignified circumstances. (pic via goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com) |