Monthly Archives: June 2010

A Pleasant Surprise

Early this week after I had finished my evening’s writing I found that I could not fall asleep. I spent a fitful twenty minuets in bed, but In knew I wasn’t falling asleep anytime soon. So instead of bothering my sweetie-wife by tossing and turning I got up, de-equiped my CPAP mask and such, and returned to the living room.
I decided to watch a TV show on disc, figuring about 40-50 minutes should put me in a more accepting mode for snoozing. I took out my latest TV acquisition, Star Trek The Original Series Season 3 on blu-ray.
Yeah, yeah, season three the one that gave us space-hippies and Spock’s Brain. However I selected The Tholian Web as my late night Star Trek Fix.
I had seen the episode before of course, but not in like twenty years or more. This is a much better episode and very strongly written. The science isn’t terrible — how nice to see c used as a unit as speed as it should be in this sort of setting — and the character dynamics were very nicely played out.

I had two out of episode thoughts that kept occurring to me.

1) I kept watching James Doohan’s right hand. Scotty has a lot to do in this episode and I marveled as what skill Jimmy Doohan showed in constantly making sure he right hand was out of frame or hidden from the camera.  (Doohan lost a finger in WWII and concealed the fact on camera.)

2) I wondered why they had written an episode with so little Kirk in it. Usually you make sure you get the most out of your stars. They cost big bucks and you pay them even if they aren’t there. I know often episode like this will happen is a star is sick or engaged. I have no idea if this is the case with Shatner and The Tholian Web, but I am happy with the results.

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It warped my little mind

So in an earlier post I told you about the production company, The Asylum, and how they make mockblusters. (Cheap knock titles of big films hoping to ride the coattails to profit. This used to happen a lot with made for TV movie, but now exists in the direct-to-home video market.)

We had lots of fun watching MegaShark versus Giant Octopus. This has caused me to investigate The Asylum’s catalogue for other hidden gems.

I found one.

Sherlock Holmes.

This of course is perfect for The Asylum as the stories and characters are in the public domain and Guy Ritchie can’t say boo to The Asylum and their knockoff with the exact same title.

OF course those old stories are kind of dull and slow for us modern audiences, but that’s okay the fine minds at The Asylum knows exactly what Sherlock Holmes, master detective really needs.

Giant Monsters.

I kid you not. Their Sherlock Holmes has Dinosaurs, Giant Octopuses (Octopi?), Mechanical fire-breathing dragons, and lovely steampunk  powered armor.

Here’s the one sheet.

Who cloud resist that Sherlock Holmes? Fie on Guy Ritchie we’ll go with The Asylum!

(Fish is right we really do need a sarcasm font.)

[Of course I have been describe as a font of sarcasm, but I don’t think that’s really applicable.]

There is of course a trailer…..

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A quick post

Things have gone rather well today. 2000 more words written for Cawdor, voted without incident, funny stuff on Tv to watch and the news that there is serious speculation that there may be life on Titan. Now this is not evidence of life on Titan it is anomalous finding that life could explain, but more likely there is a strictly non-biologic process at work.

However for there to be even a serious suggestion of life on freakin’ Titan, that is wicked cool.

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Cawdor Update

The book is steaming along nicely. I have completed about 290 pages of manuscript and I am charging towards the inevitable conclusion. The path has been far from inevitable. I have deviated wildly in the middle away from my outline. However that is precisely why I have an outline,

Instead of becoming lost and confused as to where my story was heading. I grew confident enough to walk away from the path because I knew what my goal was going to be. It has made the story stronger and I hope more enjoyable.

I still feel it’s a story few will like, but I am drawn deeply to it.

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Movie Review: Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

It is hard to intellectually grasp that Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus is in the same artistic field as Spartacus, but they are. Yesterday we celebrated Fish’s birthday with food, friends, and a bad movie. The film, at her request was Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. The movie was produced by the company The Asylum, which noted fort making cheap rip-off titles of major films Included from their productions slate, Transmorphers, The Terminators, and I am Omega. Their budgets are quite low and the it is the bane of modern film making that digital effect truly are within anyone’s reach. Note I did not state that GOOD digital effects are within anyones reach, for big screen high def digital you still need real money.

Mega Shark stars Deborah Gibson as the worlds dumbest Marine Biologist, Lorenzo Lamas as mysterious, cliche spouting, government agent, Sean Lawlor as washed exposition professor,  and Vic Chao as locked eyebrow love interest.

The point at which teh audience will know that they are in for and Ed Wood level of disastrous movie-making will depend on the audiences attention to detail or basic knowledge of marine life. IT might be when they spot loads of stock underwater footage from the bleedin’ tropic being used for Arctic waters, or it might be when they notice that clueless marine biologists as no nail-polish in wide-shots, but dark heavy nail-polish in close ups, or it might even be the terribly non-issue sunglasses worn by military pilots. However they become aware the audience will be ignorant of how truly awful the product will become.

As you can see from the image above the scale of the shark is something more associated with Japan than San Francisco. The shot was followed by a shot from directly above the bridge. Stock footage of traffic on the bridge into which that superimposed their shark biting through the driveway. Because it was stock footage the cars continued to roll along ignoring the shark. Apparently nothing will interrupt bay area commuters.

Mind the plot is equally mind-numbing. The above scene was one where the heros were attempting to capture the shark and corral it in SF bay for study. Better yet it was going to be a secret and not one would know. Yes the film is that stupid.

We had a grand time watching this film, but that’s because we had become Joel and the ‘bots. Do not attempt watching this film alone.

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Rashomon in REM

So the other night I was back to using my nasal pillows, trying to find the right fit so that my therapy would work to best effect.
Anyway, here the sequence of events from my point of view.
My sweetie-wife wakes me up in the night and tells me that my mask is loose and blowing air. I reach up, check and find that the nasal pillows are in place and not leaking. I groggily tell her everything is fine and go back to sleep.
Here’s the sequence of events from her point of view:
My mask is loose and blowing sir. She wakes me and tells me this. I adjust and re-fit my mask, then I check it again and tell her that it’s fine.

Seems I am completely capable of resetting my mask and not being awake enough to remember it.

On a good news front, it does look like version one of Cawdor will be finished this month.

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Movie Review: Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time

So this past Monday my sweetie-wife and I went out and watched Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time. This is a movie based on a video-game franchise so I went in with lowered expectations.

Frankly, I enjoyed myself. Oh this not Oscar™material by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not as good as the first Pirates of The Caribbean film, but this movie entertained and it was fun.

Of course you have to accept that this is an unreal movie, like Pirates, or Alladin. So the heros are capable of amazing feats. There are no surprises in the plot, the film is capably written, acted, and directed. For summer popcorn fare this worked just fine.

Two things of note.

1) Alfred Molina stole every freakin’ scene he was in. The man is an amazing actor and his comic sense was spot on. He’s underworld business man was a great addition to the story and he never failed to bring a laugh.

2) If I were to cast the voice of Niven’s Puppeteers it would be Gemma Arterton In this film and in Clash of The Titans I was memorized and seduced by her voice. The effect I think Niven wants for his Puppeteers.

This movie was not enough of a hit with me that I will buy it on disc, but it was worth a morning’s matinee price.

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