… and I am not seeing a DAMN thing.
The same thing happened during the last big sky event … that Blue Moon/Blood Moon/Sailor Moon/Neptune/whatever.
Why do I always suck at these things?
There’s always a silver lining. If I can’t see the meteors, then I can’t be reduced to ash or zombified as per a crappy, overrated 1980’s horror movie, right?
“The Unknown”
— from Edgar Lee Masters’ “Spoon River Anthology”
YE aspiring ones, listen to the story of the unknown
Who lies here with no stone to mark the place.
As a boy reckless and wanton,
Wandering with gun in hand through the forest
Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield,
I shot a hawk perched on the top
Of a dead tree. He fell with guttural cry
At my feet, his wing broken.
Then I put him in a cage
Where he lived many days cawing angrily at me
When I offered him food.
Daily I search the realms of Hades
For the soul of the hawk,
That I may offer him the friendship
Of one whom life wounded and caged.
“Cockneys vs. Zombies” (2012) began with such promise — with cool, funny characters; capable comedic actors; an attempt at a decent story; and dry, witty British dialogue. It looked like it could be a cool unauthorized companion film to “Shaun of the Dead” (2004).
Sadly, then, it didn’t pan out. The offbeat, character-driven banter gave way to a lot of slapstick that didn’t really work for me. And problems with pacing and tension prevented this from being an effective horror film.
I’d give this a 4 out of 10. Oh well.
I have two questions after this film about British slang, with which I try to stay current. (What can I say? Some great horror movies come out of Britain. I love it when Frank tells the crow in “28 Days Later” to “get out of it.”)
Now here is a gem, courtesy of my boy Frank — Virtual Atari, where you can play (most of) your 80’s favorites right online, using your keyboard!
The games available number at 550, and that’s pretty damned impressive, if you ask me. There are so many that the list includes even the most questionably inspired games. We’ve got “cartridges” for games like “Crazy Valet,” “Save the Whales” and the truly befuddling unauthorized German game, “Snail Against Squirrel.” (Do such melees occur in real life? I can only imagine that they would play out rather quickly.)
It’s Sunday!! Have fun!!
Here’s a little perspective — Legionnaire’s disease is an environmental threat and cannot be spread from person to person. This article also quotes New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo as saying the disease typically occurs annually in more than 500 people statewide.
https://www.rt.com/usa/311904-legionnaires-disease-nyc-outbreak/
Matt Wagner created a world for “Grendel” that is brutal, violent, tragic and sad. It’s also home to some of the best comic book stories ever created. “Grendel Omnibus Volume 1: Hunter Rose” is as close to perfect a collection as you can get, in my humble opinion. It deserves a 10 out of 10.
Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the creation of Hunter Rose, this is a comprehensive collection of all the iconic arch-criminal’s tales, presented as chronologically as possible. (After the death of this character, the various “Grendel” comic books focused on other characters who subsequently adopted the name and identity … it’s a little hard to explain.)
It begins with “Grendel: Devil by the Deed,” which is a great summary of biopic of the title character, and then moves on to more than 40 other stories, all penned by Wagner and illustrated by various other artists. It ends with the fantastic “Grendel: Behold the Devil,” illustrated by Wagner.
These comics are as difficult to describe as they are amazingly good. On the surface, this is a noir crime-story collection, about a masked mastermind who overruns the East Coast mobs. He’s pursued by the “Argent the Wolf,” the closest this series comes to presenting a hero.
But the “Grendel” identity (both here and in Wagner’s later incarnations) is really more of an abstract force, like aggression or amorality. When you look at both Hunter Rose and his successors, you do realize that Wagner seems to be tackling nothing less than the nature of evil. (This becomes more evident in Wagner’s later “Grendel” personas.) If you enjoy these comics (as I obviously have), that’s fine. But if you empathize with the main character (I’m not even sure he’s a protagonist), you ought to worry.
He isn’t an antihero, or even a sympathetic villain like Dr. Doom or Venom. He’s evil. He murders countless people, both innocent and guilty – all merely to provide his supergenius mind with “challenge,” to achieve “focus,” and to gain “dominance and subjugation” over every human being he encounters.
Nor are we often presented with many other “good” major characters. Argent, the ostensible hero, brutally slaughters even low-level criminals, with the tacit approval of a desperate and morally shaky New York City Police Department. Both Grendel and other characters opine that he isn’t much better than the villain.
Does Wagner succeed in creating a three-dimensional character? That’s hard to say. He really seems more archetypal when compared with a more complex, fully realized characters in comics (as Bruce Wayne often is, in the hands of the right writer). Wagner does explain his transformation and motivations, but to me they seem incomplete. Still, Hunter Rose damned compelling and fascinating to follow. Wagner has a beautiful command of the English language, and I do think that Hunter Rose is the most eloquently voiced comic book character I’ve ever read.
Wagner’s (varying) style is also a little hard to describe. When I first started reading his stuff way back in the 1990’s, I tried to explain to other comic fans that his stories were “experimental.” These books were rarely similar to what you would read from DC or Marvel, or even Dark Horse. They’re written, structured and drawn in a variety of ways – often, for example, using lots if text that makes the books “prose-heavy.” You sort of have to read the books to “get it.” If you’re a serious comic book fan, it’s worth checking out Wagner’s work just to see the different kind of things he can do with the medium.
The art is unique and beautiful. I know very little about art in general, but I do think there’s an art deco influence, and Wagner’s illustrations actually kind of remind me of Walt Disney’s classic work.
All in all, this is a fantastic collection. I strongly recommend it.
Bus rides, train rides, sodas, coffee etc.
Do I look po’? (My doctor told me today that my shirt was too small, and that I needed a new one! She’s a lady doc, so I let the comment slide …)
Are people just charmed by my Baby Face?
Does my ponderous expression alert people to the fact that I am sometimes slow to understand things? And do they then figure that I need all the help I can get?
Or is it that the people of this Commonwealth are just so preposterously, inexplicably NICE?
… even if I won’t be using most of these advanced features or syncing across devices.
It’s smoother, faster and easier. The “Task View” function makes managing open windows and programs a hell of a lot easier. It’s easy to download, even if it takes a while.
The nicest feature, of course, is the return the “Start” menu at bottom left. I have no idea what possessed Microsoft to abandon this most basic and needed of system features for Windows 8. That bizarre … spread of tile icons for 8 seemed as though it were suggested by an angry imbecile who hated the very concept of organization. (I actually used to have to keyword search for “Settings” during the brief period when I was using 8.)
Nolan approves.
Photo credit: “Windows 10 build 10240 (RTM)” by Source (WP:NFCC#4). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.
Anyone who’s listened even briefly to blog correspondent Len Ornstein knows he’s a man with deep-seated opinions about politics and statesmanship. What few may know is that he was once quite a distinguished statesman himself.
This September 1991 article in the Mary Washington College Bullet covers Len’s rise to becoming Student Council President. He was quite the dark horse candidate — the article indeed notes that he went from “pariah to president.” Len was a bit of a provocateur in the old days, rattling the political order by criticizing the existing council for being too little engaged with the student body. He handily won the election, though, after a spirited grassroots campaign in which he simply met and introduced himself to voters on Campus Walk. (I still remember him doing this, and it was something the other candidates were not doing.)
Note also that the newly elected Vice President was a one Pete Bucellato — another good friend of mine and another eccentric Long Islander. It’s a wonder the kids at the Virginia state school didn’t dub them “Grant and Sherman.”
We fared well under your stewardship, Len!!
So … once again, the cool and rugged Mary Wash kids kindly invited this New York nerd along for their annual 5-day camping excursion at Iron Gate, Virginia. And, once again, I bailed like a weenie.
I’m speaking specifically about Russ, Janet, Paula and Paul. (No, the latter two are neither spouses nor siblings, even though that would be totally awesome.) I WANTED to go!! Seriously!! And I know that you guys went to great lengths to assiduously counsel me about the availability of wifi, coffee, cell phone reception and convenience stores. I appreciate your encouragement.
I WILL be there in spirit. If you DO have any access to the Internet (you guys totally equivocated when I asked that), then here is evidence that I am thinking of you.
It’s a story I wrote about a disappearance in the thick forests surrounding a small, rural town. Just switch out Willibee, Massachusetts for Iron Gate, Virginia, and it could be your little getaway. It’s called “The Disappearance of Little Tommy Drummond,” and it was first published in Dead Beats Literary Blog in November 2013.
Party like the old days, but beware of strange messages carved into trees. And don’t walk too far alone at dusk.
http://www.deadbeats.eu/post/66085895442/the-disappearance-of-little-tommy-drummond-by-eric
Photo credit: “View southeast, general view, barn at left – Woods Homestead, County Route 12 on north side of North Fork of Hughes River, 2.2 miles north and east of Goose Run Road intersection, Harrisville, Ritchie County, WV,” 1933, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, via Wikimedia Commons.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 