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God, I still feel like I've been beaten with a stick. Spent a lot of today asleep, after hugely overextending myself yesterday--Flow in the morning, then walking up to Canadian Tire, walking back, vaccuming (which can be surprisingly strenuous), going back out and walking more. Constant motion. I can't do it like I used to, I guess.
Miscellany, therefore: I re-edited "The Shrines" today, sent it off to [redacted], and am for Goddamn sure going to get Chapter Four out the door, so I can start Chapter Five for real on Monday. On Friday we took note of the sad fact that Space's Friday Frightmare seems to have gone the way of all whatever; God knows, I could personally have programmed it better out of stuff in my own library, but it's still a bit sad. So we watched two horror movies back to back ourselves, instead: Blood Creek by Joel Schumacher, followed by The Descent Part 2.
Though Schumacher (rightly) takes a lot of shit from genre fans, primarily for the sin of single-handedly busting the Batman movie franchise back down to jokey Adam West TV show level before Christopher Nolan reinvented it, I actually have to say that Blood Creek is a real keeper. It's got an amazing amount of the things I like most, all stuck together in one freakish package: Thule Society Nazi black magic shenanigans, Hellboyesque Lovecraftian undertones, starting things in the middle, on the run, without too much explanation. Plus, the monster is played by a genuine actor--Michael Fassbender, late of Inglourious Basterds, who starts off all handsome and charming, then eventually degenerates into a char-skinned Viking Blood Whisperer who gets his power from a runestone in the foundations of a nearby barn, and wears a coat made from his ancestors' bones. Plus: Undead horse action! And a great female lead, daughter of the family who mistakenly take him in, thus selling their souls for one hundred and fifty 1938-era dollars; she starts off as his Renfield/victim, learns just enough rune-magic to imprison him, and ends up a very old woman in a very young woman's skin, rebellious yet fatalistic in that prototypically German way. A true Shield-madchen.
The Descent Part 2, OTOH, really lives up to a very difficult standard indeed until the very last minute and a half, when a stupid-ass knee-jerk stinger destroys all its internal consistency. Particularly annoying because this is a franchise that runs on strong female characters and survivalist karma, both of which are beautifully evoked throughout the rest of the narrative. If you have to see it, pretend the credits start about halfway through the last track.
I also made it through Avatar, and--horror of horrors--quite enjoyed it. Pure pulp, very much A Princess of Mars run through an ecological fable filter; the philosophy behind it seems heartfelt, but yes, it can't help but come off as clumsy. I think perhaps that one of the primary things which annoys people about it, beyond the whole "'blueface' equals redface" thing (which, strangely enough, I find fairly specious), is that because Cameron is an Old White Dude with More Money Than God (or at least you and I), his personal played-out fantasy can be realized with such incredible detail and beauty that if you were hoping for better, it's gonna feel like getting slapped full in the face. Yes, it's true: He's not likely to give you what you want, so much, as just do what he wants, and make it look like a billion bucks. And even though we'd all like to think there's supposedly been some sort of vote taken on tropes we never want to see played out onscreen again, Cameron obviously didn't get that memo, so I guess you'll just sort of have to eat it.
In other words, though the sum is some pretty old hat, the parts are shiny and cute (particularly everything to do with Zoe Saldana's Neytiri, her kick-ass shaman Mom, Michele Rodriquez's Trudy, or Sigourney Weaver's Grace Augustine), and often far cooler than you think they're going to be. Also, because your hero is a Marine, it ends with a fist-fight between "him"--or rather his avatar, which is twelve feet tall, though still totally naked and only armed at an indigenous level--and a goddamned mecha which, because it's operated by another freakin' Marine, just happens to come equipped with a six-foot knife. I'm just wondering: Is that standard issue? Or was it more like Colonel Quaritsch ground it himself, on his off-hours?
"Sir, I'm not entirely sure that's--"
"Just shut your Goddamned pie-hole, son. If I'm goin' hand-to-hand with these bastards, I'm doin' it armed."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Anyhow. That's been my weekend, more or less. Y'all?
Amended to add: the most recent issue of ChiZine, which includes sovay's poem "Persiphnai", has one of the best overall TOCs I've seen in a while. Start by checking out the utterly despair-brilliant "Year of the Rabbit" in particular, by An Owomoyela, here (http://chizine.com/year_of_the_rabbit.htm).
Miscellany, therefore: I re-edited "The Shrines" today, sent it off to [redacted], and am for Goddamn sure going to get Chapter Four out the door, so I can start Chapter Five for real on Monday. On Friday we took note of the sad fact that Space's Friday Frightmare seems to have gone the way of all whatever; God knows, I could personally have programmed it better out of stuff in my own library, but it's still a bit sad. So we watched two horror movies back to back ourselves, instead: Blood Creek by Joel Schumacher, followed by The Descent Part 2.
Though Schumacher (rightly) takes a lot of shit from genre fans, primarily for the sin of single-handedly busting the Batman movie franchise back down to jokey Adam West TV show level before Christopher Nolan reinvented it, I actually have to say that Blood Creek is a real keeper. It's got an amazing amount of the things I like most, all stuck together in one freakish package: Thule Society Nazi black magic shenanigans, Hellboyesque Lovecraftian undertones, starting things in the middle, on the run, without too much explanation. Plus, the monster is played by a genuine actor--Michael Fassbender, late of Inglourious Basterds, who starts off all handsome and charming, then eventually degenerates into a char-skinned Viking Blood Whisperer who gets his power from a runestone in the foundations of a nearby barn, and wears a coat made from his ancestors' bones. Plus: Undead horse action! And a great female lead, daughter of the family who mistakenly take him in, thus selling their souls for one hundred and fifty 1938-era dollars; she starts off as his Renfield/victim, learns just enough rune-magic to imprison him, and ends up a very old woman in a very young woman's skin, rebellious yet fatalistic in that prototypically German way. A true Shield-madchen.
The Descent Part 2, OTOH, really lives up to a very difficult standard indeed until the very last minute and a half, when a stupid-ass knee-jerk stinger destroys all its internal consistency. Particularly annoying because this is a franchise that runs on strong female characters and survivalist karma, both of which are beautifully evoked throughout the rest of the narrative. If you have to see it, pretend the credits start about halfway through the last track.
I also made it through Avatar, and--horror of horrors--quite enjoyed it. Pure pulp, very much A Princess of Mars run through an ecological fable filter; the philosophy behind it seems heartfelt, but yes, it can't help but come off as clumsy. I think perhaps that one of the primary things which annoys people about it, beyond the whole "'blueface' equals redface" thing (which, strangely enough, I find fairly specious), is that because Cameron is an Old White Dude with More Money Than God (or at least you and I), his personal played-out fantasy can be realized with such incredible detail and beauty that if you were hoping for better, it's gonna feel like getting slapped full in the face. Yes, it's true: He's not likely to give you what you want, so much, as just do what he wants, and make it look like a billion bucks. And even though we'd all like to think there's supposedly been some sort of vote taken on tropes we never want to see played out onscreen again, Cameron obviously didn't get that memo, so I guess you'll just sort of have to eat it.
In other words, though the sum is some pretty old hat, the parts are shiny and cute (particularly everything to do with Zoe Saldana's Neytiri, her kick-ass shaman Mom, Michele Rodriquez's Trudy, or Sigourney Weaver's Grace Augustine), and often far cooler than you think they're going to be. Also, because your hero is a Marine, it ends with a fist-fight between "him"--or rather his avatar, which is twelve feet tall, though still totally naked and only armed at an indigenous level--and a goddamned mecha which, because it's operated by another freakin' Marine, just happens to come equipped with a six-foot knife. I'm just wondering: Is that standard issue? Or was it more like Colonel Quaritsch ground it himself, on his off-hours?
"Sir, I'm not entirely sure that's--"
"Just shut your Goddamned pie-hole, son. If I'm goin' hand-to-hand with these bastards, I'm doin' it armed."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Anyhow. That's been my weekend, more or less. Y'all?
Amended to add: the most recent issue of ChiZine, which includes sovay's poem "Persiphnai", has one of the best overall TOCs I've seen in a while. Start by checking out the utterly despair-brilliant "Year of the Rabbit" in particular, by An Owomoyela, here (http://chizine.com/year_of_the_rabbit.htm).
