Another great thriller from the Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films DVD six-pack. This one pits Grand Moff Tarkington against a clever bank robber who seems to hold all the cards. The story shows its stage production roots by taking place, more or less, in real-time and by building most of its tension through dialogue and intense acting. Cushing is absolutely great as Fordeyes, the uptight and nervous band manager. The Christmas setting and Fordeyes’s character instantly reminds you of Scrooge, but it’s A Christmas Carol laced with threats of violence and torture!
Unlike his debut album, this one feels much more complete and less like a singles collection. The production is slicker but the early Elvis rawness and attitude is still there. So many great songs like “Rip It Up” and “Paralyzed.” The rock ‘n’ roll stands aside for “Old Shep,” which is an epic tale of dog mercy killing. The CD includes six bonus tracks (singles from the same sessions) which include three of his best: “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Hound Dog,” and “Love Me Tender.” Awesome cover photo, by the way.
This is so much better than the overrated Clash album that stole its cover design. I think people forget just how raw and rollicking Elvis when he burst on the scene. I came to appreciate Elvis in reverse. I liked his cheesy film soundtracks before I ever really gave these early songs a chance. Elvis lives!
This is a good film noir from the six movie Icons of Suspense Collection: Hammer Films DVD set. There is plenty of psychological drama and over-the-top acting. Aside from the female lead’s weird Italian accent, I found all the characters intriguing. The tight pacing keeps it moving and there are plenty of interesting twists and turns along the way. I especially like the opening shot in which the camera slowly pulls back to reveal a horrible car crash.
Season two is more of the same point-and-click adventuring that was done so well in Season one. The puzzles are definitely a little less straightforward and found myself relying on the built in hinting system more than last time around. The humor and storytelling are still intact though. Most of the characters from season one reappear and are as strange as ever. There are quite a few new faces as well including a foppish German vampire, a gun toting Santa and even the dark lord Satan himself.
The main problem with this game is in its implementation on the Wii platform. The loading times are unbearable and the animation is jerky. I was hoping that these problems would have been addressed in this version but I guess Tell Tale didn’t put any effort into this port. I can live with dumbed down graphics, just get the thing to run smoothly fellas. Next time around I am going to be playing season three on my PC instead.
Postrel makes the case for decentralized, dynamic systems. The obvious application of this is in free-market versus command-style economies, but she goes beyond these standard libertarian talking points to show how dynamic systems can create a better future in everything from urban planning to hair styling. Standing against the dynamists are the enemies of the future, the stasists: change fearing reactionaries and rule obsessed technocrats. These two flavors of stasists are often from opposite sides of the traditional political spectrum, but their shared belief that controlling outcomes only serves to stifle innovation and growth. This book is more than a decade old and yet it seems as fresh and vital as ever. A lot of what is advocated here I think comes from Hayek’s ideas of spontaneous order which I read about in his book The Fatal Conceit. That book was a difficult read for me, The Future and its Enemies was much more user-friendly and understandable. Highly recommended.
This CD has a bit of a branding problem. Is it a Potato 5 record? Laurel Aitken? Floyd Lloyd? In any event, this is a ska record from the 90’s with a very first-wave sound. Ska like this is good, albeit incredibly formulaic. I can only take so much of it and, thankfully, this is a short nine song album. I like to put on “Jesse Jackson” and watch news coverage of the Blago trial (injecting “Junior” after the chorus).
Poster Children finally return to form after their less-than-stellar New World Record CD. I guess they decided to forget about all their buggy CDROM content and focus on the music for a change. There are still hints of the experimentation in some of the songs, but most of the surprise is gone and the rocking far outweighs the novelty factor. I really like “This Town Needs a Fire” and “Zero Stars,” and I also really dig the two instrumental tracks.
Well, the Poster Children’s run of awesome albums ends here at about track 3. I like the inclusion of synths and always appreciate over-production, but the band makes some really questionable choices here. For example, “Ankh” features a silly, low-pitched vocal part? Most of the tracks come off as experimental B-sides and they’re just boring.
After a gruesome and exciting start, this film loses steam fast. Peter Cushing never comes off as creepy and evil as I think the film makers wanted him to be… and this is including the tacked on rape scene. His co-stars aren’t any more convincing either. This movie seems to be mostly a hodge podge of ideas and missed opportunities. However, I did like the cringe inducing (yet bloodless) brain surgery bit.
