Tag Archives: 2017

Salem, Virginia, December 2017

That last shot you see is of people on their way to line up in the Christmas Parade.

 

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This Christmas, care to give the gift of indie lit?

If you’re feeling so inclined, then please remember you can conveniently find my own mad scribblings over at my Purchasing page.

 

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We wish you a monstery Christmas …

A sublimely talented ladyfriend of mine made these Christmas ornaments, and I think they’re wicked cool.  She told me that they’re “Cornish pixies,” and that they’re Harry Potter characters.

The last photo depicts dragon-egg ornaments.  Those might be a reference to Harry Potter too, but I stopped her before she could tell me … I’m much, much happier thinking they’re from Game of Thrones.  (Seriously, look at the red one!)

 

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More street art from the Via Colori Street Painting Festival 2017

My friend in Houston took this shot for me.  She said she knew I’d like it.

Yep.

C’mon — 50’s-era robot designs are so much more fun than the modern “Westworld” variations.  Well … I suppose that depends on what you’re into.

 

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“The Shackouls Family” street art at the Via Colori Street Painting Festival 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A friend of mine attended a street art festival in Houston over the weekend; this is one of the photos she took.  The chalk artwork here is an update on Norman Rockwell’s 1943 painting, “Freedom From Want.”  (Look closely and you can see a few tweaks.)

 

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Cover to “Old Man Logan” Vol. 2, #20, Andrea Sorrentino, 2017

Marvel Comics.

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A few quick words on the premiere of “The Defenders” (2017)

I certainly wasn’t as thrilled with the premiere of Marvel’s “The Defenders” (2017) as I thought I’d be.  I’d somewhat grudgingly rate it a 7 out of 10.

The show’s first episode suffers a bit from an inescapable challenge — how to satisfy the fanbase for each of four superhero characters who have had their own shows.  I’d honestly say that this show so far interests me about 50 percent of the time — I love Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but I don’t much care about Luke Cage or Iron Fist.  Complicating things further is the show’s need to logically tie together all of their respective storylines, while arousing interest in a new overall story for this nascent ensemble team.  (It … looks a lot like Daredevil’s story from both the second season of the Netflix series and the original comics.)

I’m optimistic I’ll enjoy it more as I catch the rest of the series.  Marvel properties almost always have good writers.  And the large cast here (including none other than Sigourney Weaver) is uniformly excellent.

 

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Thank you, United States Veterans.

To all of our Veterans — thank you for protecting our lives and liberty.

 

Airmen place flags, honor Veterans Day

Photo: Flags stand beside graves of deceased veterans at the Utah Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Bluffdale, Utah, Nov. 10, 2015. More than 100 Airmen from Hill Air Force Base placed flags beside the burial sites of 5,646 veterans. (U.S. Air Force photo by R. Nial Bradshaw) [Wikimedia Commons]

A short review of “Jigsaw” (2017)

I’m going along with the crowd today where “Jigsaw” (2017) is concerned; I concur entirely with the other reviews I’ve read.  It’s a story fraught with logical problems, but it’s entertaining enough to please fans of the franchise (of whom I am one).  Based on my own enjoyment of the movie, I’d rate it an 8 out of 10.

Yes, some of it doesn’t makes sense.  And the twists and coincidences seem pretty forced.  There was another problem for me, as well — at this point, the writers seem to have run out of ideas for the film series’ trademark moralizing booby traps.  (The one involving a grain silo is particularly uninspired, and seems like something out a Bugs Bunny cartoon.)

But what the hell.  I’d be lying if I said that this was a movie that didn’t distract and scare me.  I think what attracts me to the “Saw” films is not the blood and gore.  (Gory horror movies are a dime a dozen.)  It’s the character concept behind their brilliant, merciless killer — he’s like a combination of James Moriarty, Rube Goldberg and one of the Inquisitors of old.

Besides, I still like the twists.  They may be forced, but they always take me by surprise despite my best efforts to predict them.

And I think every movie is made better by the addition of Callum Keith Rennie.  (He’s a shady, grizzled police detective here, though he’s far better than so cliched a role.)  I’ve always thought Rennie was terrific — he deserves the lead role in some sort of extremely dark anti-hero film.  (Are they remaking 2005’s “Constantine” anytime soon?)

 

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An overcast autumn day in Salem

Salem, Virginia, November 2017.

 

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