Wherein I give my opinions of assorted media.
We watched the pilot of The Tick on Amazon yesterday. Boy, was it dark. Funny, but very dark. That darkness is there in the original Ben Edlund comics. The very first issue shows the Tick in a straightjacket in a padded room. It is entirely possible the entire comic series is a delusion in his … Read more
I watched Seven Samurai last night for the first time. It is, of course, masterfully done. The visuals are so rich and the story is so well-told. We watched it on Hulu, where it’s part of the Criterion Collection. So after the feature they had a short documentary about the film, its inspirations, its impact … Read more
I’m rereading +Judd Karlman’s Dictionary of Mu. I can probably count on my fingers the RPG setting books I actually like, and this one stands head and shoulders above them all. At its root, I’d say the best thing about the Dictionary is that it has a point, and it drives that point home like … Read more
Originally posted over on G+, but also here in case I want to refer back to it: ?+Epidiah Ravachol was speculating on why John Carter has not done so at the box office. The discussion has just crystalized my own ideas on the subject. My own first reaction to the movie was “I really enjoyed … Read more
I recently watched the DC animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood. It’s a six year story, but still a warning is warranted: Spoilers throughout this piece, so consider yourself warned. I was particularly struck by the parallels between this and the Captain America: Return of the Winter Soldier story. Both Cap and Batman are … Read more
I’ve been unhappy with superhero comics for a number of years. Part of it is due to a lack of a browse-able comic book store in the area. As titles I liked came to an end, I wasn’t able to find new things to like. Every now and then, I’d pick up the odd issue … Read more
In Shakespeare’s day, people would describe going to “hear” a play, a sign of the primacy of spoken language in the Elizabethan perception of the world. However, the Curio Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night was certainly a play to be seen. Set. The theater itself is in a huge, beautiful old church. There’s about a … Read more
Working from memory, these are the books I read in 2009. When I was young, this would have been considered “light,” but at this point in my life, it passes for “a lot.”