The Velveteen Rabbit A shy boy learns important lessons from a stuffed rabbit come to life. This was sweet. As expected, there were some differences from the book, namely giving the boy a character arc alongside the rabbit’s, but it was actually well-executed. They could have padded the runtime out with a lot of nonsense, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 50
Osmosis Jones A white blood cell cop and a cold pill agent team up to fight a foreign threat that found its way inside an irresponsible zookeeper. Inside Out meets Innerspace. The animation style reminded me of Don Bluth, but he had nothing to do with it; a script shot through with toilet humor doesn’t … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 50
Heh: Considering what the ancient Hebrews thought about the goings on in the heavenly realm with the Elohim council, and who rules the nations after Babel, a horrifying cosmic god-being directing America’s fate is not far off from the truth compared to other views. That is, if you share those ancient beliefs at all (I … Cthulhu For President, 2024
Carrie (2013) A bullied high school student discovers her telekinetic powers. I never saw the 1976 original, but checking out its synopsis and comparing that with the remake, they were fairly similar*. The 2013 version benefitted from better production values, so the telekinesis scenes could be played up a little more intensely. They were a … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 49
Today is Anne Bradstreet Day, dedicated to someone I never heard of: She was one of the first colonial poets to be published in the New World, the first Englishwoman to publish a book of poems and the first published American poet. While her early works were more rooted in the traditional poetry structure at … Anne Bradstreet Day
Dune: Part Two With the House Atreides defeated on Arrakis, Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica work to win the favor of the native Fremen to push back against the Harkonnens. I liked this even more than Part One, if that were possible, because I think the runtime here is a little more justified. Part One … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 45
After Earth After an injured Ranger Corps officer and his son survive a crash landing on a depopulated Earth, they must contend with the hostile environment and feral Ursa creatures to survive. There was something incomplete going on here, like M. Night Shyamalan just gave up halfway through directing the thing. I want to invoke … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 43
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Two brothers, fledgling plumbers from Brooklyn, are transported to a world where a giant fire-breathing turtle aims to take over the neighboring kingdoms. This could’ve been really bad—worse than the universally-hated 1993 abomination—but thankfully all those involved with writing this did what was expected of them. Some awkward dialog … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 40
The Adam Project A pilot on the run in 2050 steals a time-traveling plane and jumps to the past to meet himself at 12 years old. You’d be forgiven in thinking it’s really annoying that Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool in every movie, because we value versatility in acting. But no one else would be able … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 39
In light of what’s been going on with Twitter and Elon Musk recently, and the endless and exhausting go-nowhere discussions about free speech…from “Free Speech: Neither Real, Nor Your Right” (via Vox Day’s “Free Speech is Anti-Christ“): Free speech is a myth. The keepers of America’s “golden legend” of free speech have been either dishonest … Free Speech Doesn’t Exist, Again
Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045, Season 2 The threat of the posthuman virus and its part in the Sustainable War scenario increases. I had a hard time following the story here, because the animation is way too distracting for me. However, I may have figured out the big reason why Production I.G. went the realistic, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 36
Anything based on Enlightenment principles, including “human rights,” isn’t courting disaster, it’s slapping the start button on a judgement time bomb. If we want to get to the fundamentals of it, human rights are products of men’s minds, implicit agreements to use force a certain way. The bigger the parties involved, the more complex and … Catacomb Resident: The American Lie
It might be good to point out here that what we think are America’s particular sins, real or imagined, are ultimately irrelevant to the judgment cycle itself. It’s not gays, or that America hates gays, or racism, or lack of universal healthcare, or lack of veteran care, or pollution, or whatever other political scapegoating you … Catacomb Resident: Back to Eden
The Polar Express A boy and a group of children ride a fantastical train to the North Pole. This was the first movie ever to use all-digital motion capture, which made for realistic movements in the animated human characters. I’m not quite into that type of CGI—I didn’t like it when Ghost in the Shell: … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 34
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Tanjiro, his sister-turned-demon, and two other companions, meet (big breath) Demon Slayer Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku on a train and encounter, uh, demons. Though it’s an asterisk achievement, Mugen Train was the highest-grossing movie of 2020 because of you-know-what screwing things up. I’m not familiar with the Demon Slayer series at … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 33
There was a meme image, screenshot from a Twitter post, I saw a while back. It was a woman mentioning the fact that Jesus never told women to cover up but told men to pluck out their eyeballs to avoid sexual temptation. The implication is that the onus is all on men, though the idea … Catacomb Resident: Indecent Exposure
America Defiled (mirrored on archive.org) One thing to note here is that the covenant of Noah and its seven laws were made with all humanity, meaning. A nation (people) following the Noahic laws, even if the nation isn’t especially Christian, could expect some reasonable blessings, because Noah addresses core human behavior and consequences. In other … Catacomb Resident: America Defiled
Belle (2021) An unassuming Japanese high school student becomes a singing sensation in a virtual reality world, but gets caught up in finding the identity of the virtual world’s mysterious Beast creature. When people talk of of remakes of older stories, in this case Beauty and the Beast, this is the direction movie makers should … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 31
Squatting, as in the Holy Grail exercise move, that is. From the article, “Do You Really Need to Back Squat?”: Watch Naudi’s Video on the Back Squat HERE Watch Naudis Video On how he suggests How to Deadlift [ed. – link is to a private video] While Mike and Naudi have different training methods, their … Squatting Isn’t Everything
Time Bandits A young boy with neglectful parents helps dwarves time travel throughout history, escaping the owner of a map they stole. I watched this a lot when I was a kid, not realizing how non-kid-friendly it was. I mean, his house burns down and his parents combust right in front of him at the … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 26
Escape from New York Not sure why I think this, but I consider this a sister film to the original Mad Max. They came out roughly the same time, so there was a similar cultural context, at least when the final rewrites and filing occurred. Also crazy to note that the depiction of vector graphics … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 21
From a news roundup article at Anonymous Conservative linked in Vox Day’s “The charade of success”: I always thought it bizarre Erik Prince walked into the CIA, fresh out of the Navy SEALs, heir to a billionaire fortune, as comfortable in a high-society soiree at a five star restaurant as he would be hip deep … The Limits of Ability
5 Reasons Trump Is Right to Save Incandescent Light Bulbs I may like LED bulbs a little more, but they are likely to progress as a technology because of Trump’s revoking the standards. If the lower prices of incandescent bulbs aren’t a factor in competition, there’s no incentive for firms to figure out how to … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 36
If you’re a working stiff like me, you will have seen a printout of the moral alignment chart tacked up in the break room somewhere, assuming your co-workers have a base level of humor. The printouts feature characters from a fictional universe (I refuse to use the word “fandom”) and the characters’ perceived alignment. If … What Is God’s Moral Alignment?
The Minäverse is free on Kindle (for now) Internet friend and fellow author Jill Domschot put up her newest book on Amazon for free, until April 10. Also, my two books are always free over at Smashwords, but go get you some Minäverse first. Predator Helicopter Scene – Long Tall Sally It’s a movie, sure, … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 33
You’ve been warned: this is a mammoth post. I wanted to get all my exemplary bits of music journalism (if you can call it “journalism”) posted here, for safekeeping. Most of them are from Noisecreep, but the site hasn’t been updated for months, so its demise may be soon Nevermind…it’s still kickin’. Buzzgrinder is still … Ultra Mega Post of Past Music Journalism
Transcendence A mildly interesting depiction of a human achieving singularity and becoming more or less a really powerful AI, like The Lawnmower Man, though with slightly more realism and considering the practical matters an AI has to accomplish in the real world to make things happen. Might require more than one viewing but it didn’t … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 3
Japanese-style public service ads in LA metro Cute, but it feels the novelty could wear off quick. The real reason why network ‘neutrality’ is impossible Interesting technical reasons why this idea is a nightmare. It will cause shortages of service, just like every other time bureaucrats try to make things “fair.” Twitter is done with … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 28
tl;dr – I don’t want bread Stop with all the sandwiches for breakfast. Not everything has to be in sandwich form; you’re not leaving some moral culinary duty unfilled if you don’t serve sandwiches all the time. If you really must have sandwiches on the menu, the very least you can do is offer normal … Attn: Restaurants That Serve Breakfast, Please Take Seriously and Enjoy this Unreasonable Rant
In post-industrialized economies, money never stays local. It eventually finds its way out downstream from retail purchases. The local small grocer may buy their produce from the farm down the road, but the farm probably doesn’t buy their machinery locally. If they do buy local machines, the manufacturer buys parts and materials that come from … Shmall Shbusiness Shaturday
The general order of events: The red herring for this post: a fictitious Cthulhu “presidency” isn’t that much different than a God “presidency,” at least to Americans. There’s a strong tendency for some folks to equate the supernatural with malicious forces; if you’ve already accepted this equivalency as truth then the terror of Cthulhu isn’t … Cthulhu for President, 2016 and Forever
I listened to Molyneux’s analysis of Zootopia (video here and audio here)—which sounds like a terrible movie, by the way—when he mentioned the white feather phenomenon from World War I. A tough time for pacifist or “other principled” guys, for sure. Being rejected by women romantically is traumatic enough, so much so that most men … Rise of the Dude Raiders
TED Talks are the pinnacle of bourgeois cheesepuff and self-back-pattery—a ‘roided up NPR with visuals. As a prole, I’m supposed to be floored by the priesthood coming out from behind the Veil of the Holy of Holies to radiate their revelations to me. Their videos are mildly interesting at best, but this one I couldn’t … Teach Your Kids Not to be Dicks
Explanation of “Resting Bitch Face” (RBF) here. It’s simply subconcious mirroring of fashion model stoicism. If that’s what a woman exposes herself to enough, it could be at least a partial explanation, even if there’s no desire to model (heh) the model’s success, beauty, attention, etc. The mirroring may also be a modern hijack of … Theory on the “Resting Bitch Face” Phenomenon
Perhaps you’ve read this article regarding the recent San Bernardino shooting, or at least seen an image of the cover with the bold quote. America—as the pinnacle of Western civ, with all its attendant belief systems—as a nation, has nothing to do with God, so I don’t see a reason why God should bother helping … Why Should God Fix Anything?
I ignore such salacious, morally complicated stories as the Kim Davis fiasco, but the bleating on Facebook has been hard to ignore. I have little true opinion about it since it has no direct bearing on my life, but it does serve as a working example of competing loyalties that demand full allegiance. As a … Separate the Church and the State
Bear with me if you’ve never seen Castle in the Sky, or you’ve forgotten it. Some time ago, on Facebook or on some message board had mentioned the odd interest the pirates took in Sheeta’s presence on their ship. If I had a clip of the relevant scenes, I would link them here, but it’s … Castle in the Sky – Sheeta and the Pirates
American twenty-something males shoot each other over Nikes and women. Russian twenty-something males shoot each other over philosophy: [T]wo men in their 20s were discussing Kant as they stood in line to buy beer at a small store on Sunday. The discussion deteriorated into a fistfight and one participant pulled out a small nonlethal pistol … In Russia, Pure Reason Critiques YOU!
From left to right. Just throwing it out there. Found here.
Most people know of Nabokov from Lolita, a book bearing a title now synonymous with guileless jailbaiting teenage girls. Pale Fire was published after Lolita and hasn’t enjoyed its household word status, probably because it’s significantly more difficult to read and far less prurient. If you can successfully wade through his complicated narrative and strange … Book Review: Pale Fire