Panic Beats (8/10)

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Panic Beats has been on my radar ever since I saw a few clips from it in to Mondo Macabro demo reel that is featured on all their DVDs. Without quite rising to greatness, it does not disappoint. There’s a lot to like here: a solid story, moody lighting, gratuitous nudity, and a effective smattering of gore. It does suffer from slow-ish pacing and bland, TV soap opera level camera work, but when it slips into high gear, it’s pretty great. The story seems lifted straight out of an issue of Tales from the Crypt and involves multiple inheritance plots, angry supernatural spirits, and the usual comeuppance for the evil doers.

Lives of the Artists: Volume I by Giorgio Vasari (5/10)

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I started reading this thinking it would cover the techniques and materials of the Renaissance masters. Apparently, that’s another Vasari book (unsurprisingly) called, “Vasari on Technique.” This is more of a straight up accounting of the major works of the period. Having someone describe artworks through words doesn’t really make for the most exciting read. There’s only so many ways you can say, “His painting was almost indistinguishable from nature.” The most interesting parts of the book are the various anecdotes about the day-to-day activities of the old masters. But those stories a few and far between the rote cataloguing of works.

Election Day 2020

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Hey everybody, did you know today is election day? I hadn’t seen any reminders on social media at all so I thought I’d just let you know here. Remember, post a photo of yourself holding a sticker because voting is not just an expressive act, it is also a performative one!