Here's some old school Tom Waits from before he was the creepy we all know and fear.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Super short revies: The Great Train Robberry
Well, I just got back form seeing a classic of Western cinema. One of the first movies that changed everything.
And I must say, it was certainly everything it was cracked up to be. The Great Train Robbery is famous for being one of the first films to use parallel action. In other words, when the main plot of the movie, the train robbery, takes palaces the scene cuts back to show a different set of events occurring simultaneously. In this case, this event is the release of a tied up ticket taker and the summoning of Calvary.
Other than that there's not a lot to the film. The plot is standard: Train gets robbed, criminals are gunned down by the authorities. The film spend what, for modern audiences, is an inordinate amount of time on things like squaredancing. Seriously, there's a minute long sequence that's nothing but squaredancing.
The special effects are also laughably primitive. For example, in one seen, a robber beats a man to death and troughs him off a train. By "man", I mean a really, really, crude dummy. It doesn't even have anything approaching realistic human proportions.
All in all, I give this movie an F. I know,I know,it's a cinematic breakthrough. But I really, really, really hate squaredancing.
And I must say, it was certainly everything it was cracked up to be. The Great Train Robbery is famous for being one of the first films to use parallel action. In other words, when the main plot of the movie, the train robbery, takes palaces the scene cuts back to show a different set of events occurring simultaneously. In this case, this event is the release of a tied up ticket taker and the summoning of Calvary.
Other than that there's not a lot to the film. The plot is standard: Train gets robbed, criminals are gunned down by the authorities. The film spend what, for modern audiences, is an inordinate amount of time on things like squaredancing. Seriously, there's a minute long sequence that's nothing but squaredancing.
The special effects are also laughably primitive. For example, in one seen, a robber beats a man to death and troughs him off a train. By "man", I mean a really, really, crude dummy. It doesn't even have anything approaching realistic human proportions.
All in all, I give this movie an F. I know,I know,it's a cinematic breakthrough. But I really, really, really hate squaredancing.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Mooning the Cheetahs
There's a fine line between tragedy and comedy that often get blurred. This is often true when it comes to celebrity deaths. For example, how long is it going to be before Michael Jackson jokes are OK again?
I would like to propose a simple rule of thumb about such celebrity demises. The more tragic a celebrity's death, the longer it takes for it to be funy. For example, Princess Diana jokes had a wating period before they were socially acceptable. However, David Carradine, who died in an ill-conceived attempt at auto erotic asphyxiation, becomes subject for mockery almost immediately.
I call ths the "Mooning the Cheetahs" rule after a Dilbert comic stirp on ettiquete which says that is OK to laugh at demise of others as long as said demise is so hilarious and deserved that it becomes a health hazzard not to laugh. The example given is a man who died, as the name of the rule implied, whilst mooning enraged cheetahs.
With this simple rule, Michael Jackson jokes should be OK agian in about a week.
I would like to propose a simple rule of thumb about such celebrity demises. The more tragic a celebrity's death, the longer it takes for it to be funy. For example, Princess Diana jokes had a wating period before they were socially acceptable. However, David Carradine, who died in an ill-conceived attempt at auto erotic asphyxiation, becomes subject for mockery almost immediately.
I call ths the "Mooning the Cheetahs" rule after a Dilbert comic stirp on ettiquete which says that is OK to laugh at demise of others as long as said demise is so hilarious and deserved that it becomes a health hazzard not to laugh. The example given is a man who died, as the name of the rule implied, whilst mooning enraged cheetahs.
With this simple rule, Michael Jackson jokes should be OK agian in about a week.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Late Comic Books: Unspeakable Atrocity or Unforgivable Sin?
As you can probably tell from the title above, I am not a big fan of one of the more pervasive problems in the comic book industry. I am speaking of course about late comic books.
Now, I'm not talking about when a book misses a ship date by a couple of weeks. Quite frankly, at that point, it's often due to last minute editorial changes and/or problems at the printer/ distributor.
Wha I do loathe , however. is when the writer or artist of a series decides that it would be OK to take a long break. That often means months or years passing in between issues of the comic. This isn't a problem for comics like Fell or Global Frequency that tell a self-contained story each issue.
The problem occurs when comics tell long -form story arcs. A realtively recent example is the comic book, The End League. The comic tells the story of the last group of superheroes on Earth on a post-apoclayptic world where the villains won. With an extremmely large cast of characters, the story contained multiple plot threads that were all finally woven together for a satisfying conclusion.
Or at least, I think they were. You see, by the time, one plot thread became important I had all ready forgotten about it due to the moths long delay between issues. I often found myself digging through back issues in order to find out where a particular character came from.
Thats the problem with late books. Sure, some people say that it's worth the wait so that the writers and artists can produce the best product possible. The problem is with monthly 22 page comic books there's not really enough product to justify the wait. Most comics take no more then ten minutes to read. Ten minutes after a protracted wait is not satisfying. Instead, it leaves me feeling cheated. Like I just wasted my time. This means I am less likely to pick up work by the writer or artist in the future. That's not something the shrinking comic book market can afford.
Now, I'm not talking about when a book misses a ship date by a couple of weeks. Quite frankly, at that point, it's often due to last minute editorial changes and/or problems at the printer/ distributor.
Wha I do loathe , however. is when the writer or artist of a series decides that it would be OK to take a long break. That often means months or years passing in between issues of the comic. This isn't a problem for comics like Fell or Global Frequency that tell a self-contained story each issue.
The problem occurs when comics tell long -form story arcs. A realtively recent example is the comic book, The End League. The comic tells the story of the last group of superheroes on Earth on a post-apoclayptic world where the villains won. With an extremmely large cast of characters, the story contained multiple plot threads that were all finally woven together for a satisfying conclusion.
Or at least, I think they were. You see, by the time, one plot thread became important I had all ready forgotten about it due to the moths long delay between issues. I often found myself digging through back issues in order to find out where a particular character came from.
Thats the problem with late books. Sure, some people say that it's worth the wait so that the writers and artists can produce the best product possible. The problem is with monthly 22 page comic books there's not really enough product to justify the wait. Most comics take no more then ten minutes to read. Ten minutes after a protracted wait is not satisfying. Instead, it leaves me feeling cheated. Like I just wasted my time. This means I am less likely to pick up work by the writer or artist in the future. That's not something the shrinking comic book market can afford.
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