For years, I have been a fanatic for Ron Moore’s “Battlestar Galactica.”
I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE NEW STAR WARS TRAILER.
I feel like I’m cheating on my wife.
“Chewie? We’re home.”
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. “
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
“I am haunted by waters.”
— Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It”
River Fluvia at Olot, Bridge of San Roc, Catalonia, taken by Wamito, Wikimedia Commons
Wait … “Farmville” is a real place?!
Link below to “22 Virginia Small Towns that You’re Going to Love,” by Casey Higgins at Virginia’s Travel Blog.
I’ve never been to Farmville, Virginia, but it can’t nearly be as annoying as its online namesake.
Anyway, Culpeper made the list, but not Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg has grown beyond a “small town,” I think, and is therefore too cool for this list.
My review of “The Walking Dead” Season 3 premiere.
I am blogging some old reviews from Facebook; this was my take on the premiere of “The Walking Dead’s” third season. Here’s where I finally diss on Season 2. (Or … is “throwing shade” the modern parlance? I keep hearing that expression and don’t know what it means.)
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“The Walking Dead” returned to form tonight with a third season premiere that resurrected the magic of the first season, and even added more. I’d give this a 10 out of 10, and I was a guy who complained about Season 2. It’s better than ever.
With this opening episode, all the second season’s problems seemed to disappear. Our friends ARE OFF THE DAMNED FARM, and on the run, in a fast-paced horror story instead of a weird postapocalyptic milieu-type drama starring Old MacDonald, Good Cop and Bad Cop. There’s action, tension, scares, mood, setting, atmosphere and decent characters – not another episode of “The Waltons,” in which zombies occasionally visited.
Every major character is imperiled and has to fight. Even young Carl wields a gun and racks up a few kills. And it’s a smart script, with just enough expository dialogue to explain what they’re trying to do.
Seriously, for a horror fan, there’s damned good fun here. The makeup and special effects are f***ing incredible. (Greg Nicotero is a genius.) There’s also a few very nice creepy touches connected with the setting – including one group of zombies that are a little harder to kill. (I’m not sure if the writers knew this, but that device was also used by Dave Wellington in his “Monster Island” zombie novel.) And there are a couple of nice touches lifted straight out of the comic.
Rick used to be a boring boy scout and generic good guy who only seemed interesting as a foil for Shane. He’s much more interesting here as a fallible, darker character. Carl, previously an annoying and redundant plot device (“Where’s Carl?”), is damned cool this time out. Michonne, maybe a more difficult character to write and play, is just perfect.
Hell, this was better than one or two of the George A. Romero movies. Seriously, nice work, AMC!
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child …”
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:11
“I Wait,” by Julia Margaret Cameron, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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“Feminists at Mary Washington say they were threatened on Yik Yak,” Justin Jouvenal and T. Rees Shapiro, Washington Post
My review of “The Walking Dead” Season 2.
I am blogging my past TV reviews from Facebook; this was my (probably too kind) assessment of “The Walking Dead’s” problematic second season. (I have since actually suggested to newcomers to the show that they skip this season entirely.)
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I want to love “The Walking Dead’.” I really do. It actually IS a very good show, and it brings one of my favorite horror subgenres into the mainstream. When I was in high school and college, fans of post-apocalyptic zombie horror were a relatively small group. Even if you liked horror films, most people leaned toward different kinds of movies. And the books and films that zombie fans enjoyed sort of petered out after the 1980’s. It just wasn’t a big thing.
And “The Walking Dead” has a lot going for it. (Through Netflix streaming, I was just able to catch up on the second season.) Can anyone name a show on cable television today that has more pathos? This show pushes the boundaries. I’ve often been surprised at what gets past the censors.
It’s got an expansive scope, a great basic story, and one extremely interesting character. (I don’t even need to say who it is – he started out as a supporting character and a plot device for creating tension within the group, and his popularity has soared past any other character.) This show probably also has the greatest makeup special effects of any television show I’ve ever seen. Yes, “The X-Files” occasionally gave us great monsters like “Flukeman,” but that was only for a single episode. “The Walking Dead” gives us visually terrifying adversaries every time we tune in.
But this show is also problematic. The pacing problems are enormous. Let’s look at the structure of every episode. It begins with an enjoyable pre-credit “hook” – something to reel us in. It usually ends with a bit of a cliffhanger – a brief action segment or dramatic event that’s a hell of a lot of fun. But between those two things … ugh. Sometimes the show seems like a boring soap opera that is bookended by brief zombie horror sequences. Really. What does it say about a show if you sometimes just fast-forward through all the conversations just to get to “the good parts?”
Oh well. I still like it a hell of a lot. This show always keeps me coming back, and I’m eagerly awaiting Season 3 on October 14. I’d give the second season an 8 out of 10.
I will never tire of this joke. I will never tire of this joke.
I have no idea why I find it so brilliantly funny. I think it’s because the kids look so casual.
My review of “V/H/S” (2012).
I am blogging my past movie reviews from Facebook; this was my take on “V/H/S.” The tongue-in-cheek reference to Roger Ebert at the end was written before his passing.
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Finally – a horror anthology that’s worth its salt! “V/H/S” (2012) got mixed reviews from both fans and critics, but I personally loved it. I haven’t had this much fun with a collection since “Creepshow” (1982); I’d give “V/H/S” a 9 out of 10.
It definitely isn’t for everybody. This is a collection of five violent, found-footage vignettes, all shot in low-quality shaky cam that even got on my nerves, and I usually don’t mind it too much. It’s gimmicky and low-budget, with brief “urban legend” –type stories that offer little characterization or detail. The quality of the acting was also wildly uneven, and in one segment was so bad that it was distracting.
But, damn it, it worked. This was overall a hell of a lot of fun, with shorts that were raw and inventive. And all of this film’s various flaws were more than made up for by its incredible first segment, “Amateur Night,” which might be the scariest horror film of its kind that I’ve ever seen. (I don’t want to name its sub-genre because I think that even that would be a spoiler. Regrettably, though, I think the film’s advertising sort of does let the cat out of the bag.) Seriously, “V/H/S’” first segment was goddam terrifying, and ought to be ranked right up there with “The Exorcist” (1973). This makes it worth the price of a rental alone. And I think this part was so scary largely because of Hannah Fierman, a talented physical actress who is also unusual looking.
Seriously, if you’re a hardcore horror fan, you owe it to yourself to at least give this a try. Ignore Roger Ebert’s review. He was having a bad morning when he wrote it.
To all of my Mommy friends!
Wishing you a happy Mother’s Day! I am always amazed at what you gals are able to accomplish. I sure as heck could never do it — and a lot of you give yourselves way too little credit. You put so much time, skill and patience into raising the little ones, all the while managing careers, studies, friends, finances, community commitments and (hopefully!) a little down time. You set a great example to your guy friends!! I hope your special day today was terrific!!
“Peasant Mother,” Fritz von Unde, 1894
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 