Also This

Related to yesterday's link: Shots Fired.

On the Strange Strange Chance that Anyone is Still Actually Reading

This lady is so completely on point that it made me update this hot mess of a thing with something substantive.

Night Zero- This World Could Really Use Blade

For these first four or five episodes of The Strain I definitely won't be recapping.  We'll see after that.  Also I'm going to try to avoid stuff that's been really hit upon by stuff that I'm listening to and/or reading unless I'm going to say something different.  So let's jump in.

The vampires.  I really like the mythology the show is building.  Obviously regarding vampire physiology, but (at least in the pilot) a bit less obviously you have several tiers of vampires.  Physiologically, the vampires in The Strain are pretty much maxxed out Blade 2 vamps.

Blade 2:

The Strain:

Okay, the airline pilot turned vamp in the last image is dead, but we have can still see the hairlessness, split jaw, and proboscis that these particular undead jerks have in common with the Blade 2 variety.  After all, they're both Guillermo del Toro projects.

When vampires aren't just mindless eating machines (or drinking machines, if you will) they're Nazis, dickbag One Percenters, or some combination of the two.  It usually feels a bit heavy handed because, well, immortal leeches obsessed with power and blood/bloodlines.  On the nose almost doesn't begin to cover it.  That said, we have Nazi vampires.  Or at least one.

And from that we get one of our better protagonists so far, the Armenian (going by the name) concentration camp survivor, Setrakian (played by Mr. Filch/Walder Frey).

Other things of note:

When Bolivar turns around to deposit his wig while in quarantine, the camera dips down for a gratuitous ass shot.  It's hilariously deliberate, and (I like to think) a delightful wink and script flip of the usual gratuitous shots of women in the horror genre.

The coffin/box:

Nothing good is coming out of this thing.  Nothing good is happening to anyone in contact with it.  Everyone in this show who's handled this thing and isn't a vampire fails remedial horror survival.  (Like the first crew of the Event Horizon.)

The Master's coffin brings us to the last bit- this show looks awesome.  Guillermo del Toro's visual style is unmistakable and helps distract from the less than stellar elements that weigh the show down.  I haven't mentioned the pacing, the occasional crushingly cliche aspects, the hilarious hairpiece, or the characterization because everyone else has- not because I didn't notice or it didn't bother me.  That said, I'm increasingly glad that I was undeterred by the pilot with each passing episode.

I'll post on episode 02- The Box sometime within the next day or two..  Thanks for dropping by.  If you listen to podcasts The Canary Underground is pretty solid choice for The Strain.

Bit of a Change

Clearly, I'm changing the look up again.  Don't quite know what I'll settle on or when, but it will probably be something close to what you see now.  I might also pull the awful political stuff from the archives in order to keep people from getting the wrong impression of who I am now.   Leave feedback if you want.

*Edit:  Yeah, no.  Jesus Christ.  Just scanning back through some of that shit is making my skin crawl.  I want to go back and shake the hell out of myself.  So, old right wing bullshit is being tossed.   I kind of want to vomit now.

*Update:  As of now, I've probably pulled something like 200 or so posts.  I'll pull additional posts that make me want to travel back in time and be very sad at myself as I come across them.

Coming Soon

So I'm watching The Strain this summer and it's fun horror pulp.  The fifth episode aired this past Sunday and for lack of anything more compelling to put here, I'm going to start posting some thoughts about it.  That said, The Strain Post 01 will go up some time tonight.  I'll probably go episode by episode.  The first four episodes will probably not be treated as though I haven't seen later episodes.  It's a 13 episode season so we're not quite half way through yet.

I'm still getting a smattering of traffic occasionally. So... To whoever is bumming about over here:  I hope you find something entertaining.  See you later tonight.

OMG It Is Not Even 2014

And there is a new post.

This is free copy of Major General Smedly Butler's very amazing book War is a Racket.  Everyone should read it.  People who cannot read should have it read to them.

Music Saturdays?

So this is Enter Shikari and I've been listening to them for a little while now.  Here's some more.

And one more:

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Next on the "To Buy" List

The World Encyclopedia of Flags.  Because it's always time for some motherfucking flag chat.

*Oh, look!  Two posts in one day.  See you suckers next year.

Apparently...

...People are still visiting this page so I guess I should start updating again or something.  Here's a thing:

Enjoy.

Zombie Related Things

I'm tired of zombies.  There.  I said it.  Everywhere you look someone's doing some uninspired bit about the zombie apocalypse and it's boring.  I've reached the point where I look at zombie things the way anyone under 50 looks at news stories about popular You Tube videos, which is something like the way an adult looks at a small child they've allowed to beat them at game when that child is gleefully crowing their victory.

That said, when someone does something different or even kind of different they've earned some credit.  To that end, I bring you Exit Humanity:

This is by no means a flawless film.  (It is, in fact, deeply flawed.)  However, it tries to do something different and for that it is to be commended.  The makeup effects are delightful.  The story starts off interestingly (it gets really lost along the way, but it starts well enough).  There are also some really well executed animated bits.  If you have time to kill it's worth checking out, but have a friend on hand because Exit Humanity's redeeming features aren't enough to save it.

Just So We're Clear

Ahahahah.  So, remember this post?  Welp, chances are that if you stopped by enough to get where that was coming from and at least be sympathetic to it, this is probably the last post you're going to read here (provided that you're even actually reading this post because I've been gone for just under a year- though not for the first time).

Here's the rub, my former fellow right wingers, (yeah, former) I've left the fold.  I am and have been for some time now, a hard line leftist.  A liberal socialist to be exact.  I thought any old readers stopping by deserve to know.

This can be considered an official declaration that I Was Wrong and that I'm Sorry I Was An Insufferable Asshole About A Lot Of Things.

I'm still not planning on doing a lot of talking about politics because that shit is still depressing- just for a bevy of other reasons.  

The next post will be a video of some sort.  Also, I started a Tumblr. It's a work in progress.  I've stopped reading monthly comics in favor of a strict TPB regiment.  Still playing Skyrim and my frothing rage over the Mass Effect 3 ending has settled into a simmering ever present disappointment, which manifests as a general apprehension when it comes to buying new games.

November 7

Only in America could a center right corporate apologist war-mongering imperialist be considered "center left", but hey- at least we didn't elect the fucking sociopath.

Props to Washington and Colorado on legalizing weed and demonstrating a modicum of sense on drug policy.

Props to Maryland on voting against bigotry twice over by providing in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants and furthering the goal equality for gay people.

Every time I see a map breaking down election results by district all I can think is "Fuck, am I thankful for fucking cities".