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".

November 6th

Happy fucking election day.

Anon Strikes Back

I just spent the last half and hour or so watching Twitter go crazy over Anon's response to the take down of Megaupload (currently trending under "the internet strikes back" at the time of this posting).

The call to arms went out earlier:


Here's the thing- this will probably prove to be counterproductive to yesterday's massive protests. Still, it feels damn good to watch the people hell bent on dismantling the greatest platform for free speech mankind has ever known get a little cyber cider in their eyes courtesy of Anonymous.

In case you were wondering? Some of the rat fucks behind PIPA are already running scared.

New Comic

I give you, Get your censor on

SOPA/PIPA

The problems with SOPA and PIPA are numerous, but they condense to one unavoidable point: Both pieces of legislation give sweeping censorship powers to corporations. This will not only increase self censorship- it will stifle future innovation and creativity by making the internet a riskier place to start new businesses, which in turn will lead to fewer and more cautious investors. This is actually what corporations like the MPAA and RIAA want. This isn't really about piracy because these bills don't really have chance at stopping piracy. This is about shutting down competition.

One of the founders of Veoh details how Universal Music (UMG) through a completely groundless lawsuit abused the DMCA and ultimately forced him to sell the start-up off in a fire sale.

Today Ars Technica is contributing to the fight against these two extremely dangerous pieces of legislation by arming the populace with loads of information.

Artists (you know, the "content generators" that SOPA and PIPA are going to murder the internet to allegedly protect) say that the bills would do far more harm than good.

Google has a take action page.

In case you're still unclear:


Alright, here's a song:


Finally, somethings never change (language warning):



Contact your Congress people.

Update: A host of webcomics are participating in the blackout strike.

Why I Love This Town

BPD were arresting a gentleman for- honestly- what the fuck ever because it's Baltimore. The interesting thing is that while they were cuffing the suspect a random dude attacks one of the arresting officers. The funny thing is that exact freaking thing happened in the very first episode of The Wire. I tell you, this town.

What I'm Currently Reading (and some other stuff)

Hope you had a fun and happy solstice and that 2012 proves better than 2011.

Since the DC reboot two things have happened. Thing the first is that my local comic shop closed. Lame. Thing the second is that I decided to just have the three (soon to be five) monthlies that I'm reading delivered. Thank you, Comix Zone. In case you were wondering? Getting comics in the mail is so very awesome.

Currently reading:
Wonder Woman
Batwoman
Super Girl

Will start reading this month:
Birds of Prey
Justice League

I am also using the hell out of my Crunchyroll subscription. No, I am still not watching Naruto. I am, however, watching Battle Girls Time Paradox which is kind of like someone was watching a lot of Koihime Musou and thought "Hey, why don't we do this with feudal Japan instead of just ripping off classic Chinese literature?". It's not as fun as Kiohime, but it's good. I just finished Murder Princess, which probably benefits from being 6 episodes long considering that it's fairly consistently meh. The animation isn't terrible, but it's not particularly good either. The plot is fairly predictable. The characters are unremarkable standard anime types. And while I will never stop wishing that Funimation would offer subs as readily available as their dubbed work, the voice acting in Murder Princess is acceptable. (Or maybe I mean that I wish Netflix offered subtitle options for more of it's instant selection?) It's pretty heavy on the romantic two girl friendship, which is something. I guess. So, Murder Princess: Come for the intriguing concept of a near death experience causing a princess to swap bodies with a bounty hunter (of monsters) and then convincing that bounty hunter to avenge her father's death and protect the kingdom, realize that the A-plot is pretty meh, then end up staying for the les yay (which is intense enough to practically be the B-plot). If you like that sort of thing.

I've been dragging my feet on finishing Geroge R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons because I have been informed that the end will make me want to punch Mr. Martin. More so than usual.

I finally finished Planetary. It took longer than I expected because something happened in the second volume that crawled inside of me and murdered something precious. That is not a complaint; it means that story was resonating with me. Still, it took me a while to get through that. Though I am pleased to say that volumes 3 and 4 resurrected that precious thing. The art is beautiful and the story is nothing short of amazing and ridiculously fun. Seriously, guys. Planetary is totally on my favorites list.

I have also been running around the land of Skyrim killing the ever loving fuck out Dragons and just about anything else that I come across. It is sweet.

On Comics

Credentials are in order, I suppose. I started off reading Spider Man back when I was a not quite so wee tyke. I dropped Spidey (and the rest of my Marvel reading) with the clone saga. I stopped reading comics for a number of years, but started picking up trade paperbacks some years back. I returned to monthlies (DC) three months before they announced the reboot.

Come September, I'll be picking up...well, I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll keep reading comics. I guess September will begin a chronicle of a lapse comic nerd trying to cope with the DCU reboot. To kick things off, we should start with my current pull list:

-Batgirl
-Birds of Prey
-Secret Six
-Wonder Woman
-Batman Inc
-Power Girl
-Zatanna
-Detective Comics

Anyone keeping track can see several problems coming down the pike in September already.

That said, TPB's that I'm catching up on:
-Powers
-Planetary
-Hellboy
-Fables
-100 Bullets
-Sandman
-Wonder Woman (selected)
-the occasional impulse buy

Golden.

I love heading over to Pravda's English site and scanning headlines because more often than not you will find a thing of great beauty. Today's big winners?

Birth of twins: Devil's will or double joy?

And

Magic rituals lead to ecological disaster.

Awesome.

There Are Two Ways To Look At This

The first is that the technology behind this 3D hologram and its synthetic voice is pretty darn sweet.

The second is to return to that place that we call "oh, Japan."

You will probably experience both of those perspectives in that order.

Also? Why did it have to be a horrific-dinner-plate-eyed anime girl? So, I guess that technically makes three ways.