Odd Obsession

Format blatantly stolen from the Librarian in Black : Books- -Ready Player One, Wolf Hall Comics-- 20th Century Boys, Mr Wonderful, Ooku, Starstruck Magazine- -The New Yorker Movies (theater)-- Hanna, Trollhunter, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame Movies (DVD)-- Summer Wars, Attack the Block, Bellflower Movie (Streaming/On Demand)-- Margin Call TV Shows (streaming)-- Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Eden of the East, Breaking Bad, MI-5, Burn Notice, Party Down TV Shows (live)-- Community, Fringe, Parks & Recreation TV Show (DVD)-- Archer, Leverage Item of Clothing--Corset Tabletop RPG -- Agents of Oblivion Mobile Game -- Chuzzle Albums: Wo Fat: Noche Del Chupacabra , Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats : Bloodlust, Lo Pan : Salvador Song –Valkilly: "Love Via Revolver", The Vaccines: "Post Break-Up Sex" Radio-- Radio K, Mirrorshades Web sites: TV Tropes, Good Show Sir, Bitch Blogs , Chunket, Fast ‘N” Bulbous Twitter Twerps: Snarkey’s Machine, Ke...

Cavalcade of Cover Versions from ash966 on 8tracks . I love a good cover version. I have a playlist of 133 on my iPod.  Yet TV shows like Glee and movies like Across the Universe make me gnash my teeth in annoyance and stab my pillow. Why is that? I’m going to try to explain, but I don’t entirely understand myself, so bear with me.  I don’t actually hate musicals. I have seen Singin’ in the Rain , The Bandwagon , and Meet Me in St. Louis a total of 20 times at least. If there were a new version of The Carol Burnett Show where they did a combination of standards and top 40 hits between skits, I would be all over it. ( Kiki and Herb: The Series !) I do believe there are very few good ones (Hi, Hedwig and the Angry Inch ) ever since Rodgers & Hammerstein decided they had to be about Serious Issues and the songs had to come out of the action organically and stuff, which is just no fun to watch.  So, basically in the 60s music starte...

  Warning: possible spoilers for all 5 of you who have not seen the following but intend to someday: The Shop Around The Corner, In The Good Old Summer Time, You’ve Got Mail , the play She Loves Me, the play Parfumerie, and all the others who have ripped off that plot. Every year, Hollywood throws together a few haphazard romantic comedies in a way that suggests they think it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Just throw together two good-looking actors, have them fall over once or twice, maybe a supporting role for an up-and-coming comic, and voila! You are done.  Oh nonononono. This is why, if I say I like romantic comedies, I might as well be saying I like Hummel figurines or velvet paintings of crying eagles. I only like good ones, OK! Of which only a handful have been released since the end of Hollywood’s golden age. Romantic comedies are actually the hardest genre to get right. A good romantic comedy is a delicate machine of many intricate p...

Those of us who read science fiction know that even SF of the finest quality can be represented by truly fugly covers that cause us embarrassment while riding the bus. The two major ways they tend to go wrong are: 1) attempting to depict scenes in the book photo-realistically while failing in knowledge of basic anatomy , and 2) having way, way too many things (and fonts) going on at the same time . No wonder e-books are so big with the fandom. This is the one that allowed me to finally realize my dream of having something on Good Show Sir .   Why, hello there, giant-brain-eyeball-octopus-bat-guy! And what’s behind your head? It’s not the moon, because it doesn’t go all the way around. An enormous cantaloupe, perhaps? This one just has too many elements. Do we really need a blue alien, a rocket, purple tomatoes/pumpkins, pseudo-Mayan panther/snakes, AND a bug-eyed alien with one antenna holding a wine glass?  If this is about a human who swaps...

Better than just about anything, really * Someone recently brought up Billy Bragg to me as an exception that I should make to my curmugeonly, folkie-hating ways. Well, I did see him back when young and less set in my convictions, and he did not impress me that much. (Now, I want to preface this by saying that I do not feel the burning hatred of a thousand suns for actors or musicians who express political opinions, such as some conservative commentators feel for all those not named Ronald Reagan.  If you go to far in that direction, you might as well say anyone who was not actually a politician couldn't comment on politics, and how sad would that be? It would eliminate both Noam Chomsky (linguistics professor) and Glenn Beck (morning drive-time DJ). Glenn Beck isn't wrong because he's self-taught, he's wrong because he thinks Obama will give the United States to George Soros to make into his own personal socialist fiefdom.) Bragg started out with a recording of...

Photo by Brea B. I had a fun Halloween spreading cheer as a Harajuku fairy. JSeux was horrific as usual, but I love my man a little monstrous. Wearing a corset was not bad. It's fine as long as you can sit up straight or stand (or even dance), it's just like someone is hugging you all the time. It's hard for maneuvering, like getting out of a car. It would keep me from slouching pretty well, though. I figure I can wear it for a steampunk or Wild West look in the future. What were you for Halloween?

This is one of those lists that somebody probably took about 10 minutes working on, tops. I mean, if you are going to call it " The 10 Greatest Movie Hitmen of All Time ", why nothing before the 70s? "Oh, gee, Jfro, I'd have to actually get This Gun For Hire from Netflix, that sounds like work," I mean, it's the ur-example, it's even in the title. Notice the way Alan Ladd's character couldn't care less about the people he kills, but shows affection to children and animals, suggesting childhood trauma. Then remember the guy from Leon (plant, child), Ghost Dog (pigeons, child), Le Samourai (bird). C'mon! If it's not a trope, it should be.  The last two would be on my list as well, Ghost Dog for Forest Whitaker's awesome performance (whether Jim Jarmusch should be allowed to direct action movies is another question) and  Le Samourai because well, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Delon. Not to mention, influencing The Killer ...