Archive for December, 2012

Shoegazer Sunday: Lemon’s Chair’s “What You Want”

Sunday, December 30th, 2012

For your Sunday dose of Shoegaze, here’s Japan’s Lemon’s Chair covering My Bloody Valentine’s “What You Want.” I actually prefer it to the original, mainly because the tonalities are more pleasing to my ear.

This is evidently off a Japanese compilation of My Bloody Valentine covers called Yellow Loveless.

Sold a Story to Rayguns Over Texas

Saturday, December 29th, 2012

My story “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids” will be appearing in the Rayguns Over Texas anthology edited by Rick Klaw that’s to be published for LonestarCon 3, the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon. It’s sort of a Greg Egan story by way of Timothy Leary and H. P. Lovecraft…

We’re Experiencing Technical Difficulties. Please Stand By.

Friday, December 28th, 2012

Power outage begets dead cable modem begets having to drive to the Time Warner building to get a replacement. So don’t expect much in the way of blogging today…

Godzilla Christmas Tree

Tuesday, December 25th, 2012

The search for the coolest Christmas tree is officially over. You’re never going to beat the giant, fire-breathing Godzilla Christmas tree of Aqua City Odaiba shopping mall in Tokyo.

Merry Christmas!

Rare Exports: A Weird Christmas Horror Movie

Monday, December 24th, 2012

In his tomb in upthrust Lapland
Dead Kris Kringle lies dreaming

If you’re looking for a weird Christmas horror movie, you could do a lot worse than the Finnish movie Rare Exports. The son of a reindeer herder/butcher finds out that a team just over the border in Russia are drilling into a mountain they believe to be a tomb.

It quickly becomes apparent that the tomb is that of Santa Claus. And the real Santa Claus is not the jolly fellow of Coke commercials, but a fearsome punisher of the wicked that looks a lot more like Krampus:

What makes the film work is its cold, gritty, unsentimental realism. It really does look like it was filmed in a tiny village in Ass End of Nowhere, Finland. Save an unconvincing CGI helicopter at the end, and the strange coda that gives the film its name, I thought everything about the movie worked pretty well. Of recent Scandinavian horror films, I thought this worked better than Dead Snow, but not as good as Let the Right One In.

Worth viewing, and available on Netflix.

I was going to do a longer review, but I’m running out of Christmas.

Random Thoughts on Watching Evil of Frankenstein

Sunday, December 23rd, 2012

Watching Hammer Film’s 1964 Evil of Frankenstein, several thoughts occurred to me:

  • You would think Baron von Frankenstein would be a little more circumspect about hiring a corpse-snatcher.
  • I wonder why Frankenstein needs two orange fountain drink machines in his lab.
  • “Hey, I’ll just go back to the castle they ran me out of ten years ago! I’m sure there’s no chance they will have looted all my expensive belongings!”
  • “Hey, my enemies are now the mayor and chief of police! I’m sure accusing them of theft couldn’t possibly backfire on me in any way.”
  • A mute, blind beggar women just happens to lead Frankenstein to his frozen monster. If she could speak, I’m sure she’d say her name was “Deus Ex Machine.”
  • Sure, a hypnotist is the obviously the first person you think of for reversing severe brain damage.
  • Somehow the mute, resurrected monster who’s never been spoken to understands every command given by the hypnotist. What a stroke of luck!
  • “There’s no way the monster could possibly misinterpret my vague command!”
  • “There’s no way they could possibly trace back the crime spree of a monster back to the castle he was created in!”
  • After the “incident,” I’m sure the Karlstaad police added “bottles of chloroform” to the list of things not to let people keep in jail.
  • Pretty much every major character in Evil of Frankenstein is an idiot. With the possible exception of the Burgermeister’s wife, who has a pretty sweet gig as bosomy eye-candy.
  • Important Safety Tip: Do not get Frankenstein’s monster drunk. Just not seeing a lot of upside to that brilliant decision.
  • Shoegazer Sunday: Ride’s “Beneath”

    Sunday, December 23rd, 2012

    Here’s “Beneath,” a nice, melodic song from classic shoegazers Ride:

    Galadriel As You’ve Never Seen Her Him Before

    Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

    Earlier this year, science fiction writer and North Carolina State University professor John Kessel declared that “I know the world does not care, but nobody could pay me enough money to go see The Hobbit. Well, maybe someone could, but nobody is going to.”

    The Internet knows how to respond to such statements.

    Soon a fundraiser for the SFWA Emergency Medical fund was launched, with various levels of funding support:

    $250 — Prof. Kessel goes to see The Hobbit (the upcoming Peter Jackson version, in a movie theater before the end of the year, no cop-out home screenings of the Bass-Rankin animated classic)
    $750 — Prof. Kessel will either before or after the film eat Denny’s The Hobbit-themed Ring Burger
    $1000 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Gandalf when watching the film
    $2500 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Galadriel when watching the film

    And the result?

    Well, feast your eyes:

    The last picture is with John’s “Hobbit escort” Kate Maddalena, who took these pictures.

    Click any picture to embiggen and more fully display all of John Kessel as Galadriel’s, um, glory.

    If you’re impressed by this outstanding display of selflessness (or else you have a fetish for really tall, butch trannies), you too can donate to the SFWA Medical Fund.

    You might also pick up one of John’s swell books, like Good News From Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, or his short story collection The Pure Product.

    (And thanks to John and Kate Maddalena for permission to use these photos.)

    Howard Waldrop and I Review The Hobbit

    Monday, December 17th, 2012

    Over at Locus Online.

    I liked it more than Howard did.

    Shoegazer Sunday: Echodrone’s “Cold Snap”

    Sunday, December 16th, 2012

    Busy week. Here’s more Echodrone, this time with “Cold Snap,” which is pleasantly haunting.

    Their Bon Voyage is starting to sound like a good candidate for Shoegazer album of the year. Any others you can suggest?