Maps is evidently the shoegaze band name for UK musician James Chapman. “Elouise” is a pleasantly buzzy song, and the video features cutting edge screen saver technology from about 1997.
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
Shoegazer Sunday: Maps’ “Elouise”
Sunday, February 15th, 2015The Silliest Horror Movie Poster I’ve Seen All Week
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014Noted without comment…
Yes, there’s a trailer.
Looks like they were aiming for a cross between 80s T&A horror films and direct to SyFy…
Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer Drops
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014Behold:
Is that mecha-Stark, or Ultron in Stark armor fighting Hulk?
I’m there.
Library Addition: Lord John Film Festival
Friday, October 17th, 2014This is one of those cases of coming across something on eBay and going, “Yes, I do want that.”
Yellin, Herb. Lord John Film Festival. Lord John Press, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. Signed by Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison and Janet Leigh.
Yellin was the owner of Lord John Press, and this book is a miscellanea of remembrances and appreciations of various films interspersed with examples from his large collection of signed movies photos, posters, lobby cards, etc.
I was briefly worried when I realized that Bloch died in 1994, and Janet Leigh in 2004, but the book has evidently been in production for quite a while. A copy up on Amazon is signed by the same five people, but the signatures look slightly different.
Lord John was an interesting, eclectic press, with both genre and mainstream books (along with signed Gerald R. Ford books). I have a significant fraction of their SF/F/H output, but don’t have Stephen King’s Dolan’s Cadillac.
Shoegazer Sunday: Black Hearted Brother’s “(I Don’t Mean to) Wonder”
Sunday, September 14th, 2014Black Hearted Brother is a project featuring Slowdive’s Neal Halstead. Here they are with “(I Don’t Mean to) Wonder”.
Also, evidently the Judge Dredd remake has some impressive slow-motion set-pieces…
Library Additions: Screenplays for Manos: The Hands of Fate, Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014I mentioned the Kickstarter previously, and my package of “Alternate Classics of Filmdom” was waiting for me when I got back from London.
All bought for $20 from the Kickstarter. My only complaint is that the font size is ridiculously small…
“But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci!”
Monday, August 11th, 2014Robin Williams dead of an apparent suicide at age 63.
Williams, along with Richard Pryor, was one of the true authentic comic geniuses of my lifetime. As a stand-up comic, his mind was so quick and his work was so manically innovative that his basic appeal actually survived transition to the straitjacket confines of a prime-time sitcom. He was a solid dramatic supporting actor, but it’s a shame that (unlike Pryor) he never found a movie that served the true essence of his comic genius.
Finally, Your Own Screenplay for Manos: The Hands of Fate!
Thursday, June 26th, 2014Q: Have you ever wanted to own the screenplay to Manos: The Hands of Fate?
A: No, it’s one of the worst movies of all–
Q: Of course you have! Now, for the low price of $8, that script can be yours!
A: $8 seems a little steep for–
Q: Put on your own staged plays of Manos! Invite the neighbors!
A: They’d stone me.
Q: But that’s not all! For $20, you can get the scripts for Plan 9 From Outer Space and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!
A: Yuck! It’s like a trifecta of suck! I’d rather–
Q: Of course you want them all! So get your money in to the Kickstarter campaign today!
(Hat tip: SF Signal.)
Related: “How Plan 9 From Outer Space earned, and lost, the title of worst movie of all time”.
A Random Collection of Post-Dinner Links
Monday, May 26th, 2014After dinner Saturday night, we finally watched the typeface geek movie Helvetica.
Chances are pretty good that if Helvetica is the type of movie you enjoy seeing, you’ve already seen it. But if not, and you’re interested in fonts, it is indeed worth watching.
A few random topics that came up during conversation at dinner and during the movie:
(I saw it on Gail Carriger’s Facebook feed; not sure of the original source.)
How To Kill Godzilla
Friday, May 16th, 2014Via Ace of Spades, comes War is Boring’s primer on how to kill Godzilla.
The basic plan is:
That would probably work in real life (where the square/cube law pretty much precludes 10-story monsters, much less ones breathing atomic fire). But in the world of the just released Godzilla movie (which, alas, I have not seen yet), given that our fire-breathing friend is reported to have survived Castle Bravo, America’s first dry-fuel thermonuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll, well, color me skeptical that 30,000 pound JDAMs would do the trick…