When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish by Martin Gardner (5/10)

Posted on

Martin Gardner died around the time this book was released. Like many of his books, it compiles articles and essays that he has written over the years. This volume lacks much of the consistency of his other books. As usual, he still manages to hit some of this favorite topics: mathematics, pseudo-science, religion, and his overly-enthusiastic love of G.K. Chesterson. Personally, I think he is at his best when he is looking for paradoxes and puzzles within the framework of these broader areas of interest. That was truly his area of expertise, and when he strays from that it can feel like he is just indexing facts without much insight. Despite the lackluster quality of this book (and the fact that it ends on the sour note of his pro-socialism politics), he will be missed.

Friday Foster (4/10)

Posted on

You know you are in trouble when the most convincing performance in your film is by Isaac from The Love Boat. Despite the skin and swears, this is a made-for-TV quality blaxploitation film. It is uncommonly low on action, and the acting and dialogue is painful. Even Eartha Kitt disappoints.

Liberal Rage

Posted on

Oh my. Most of my buddies on Facebook lean leftwards and I am anticipating an explosion of liberal rage come Tuesday evening. They can’t seem to shut up talking about Christine O’Donnell, or whoever the right-wing boogeyman of the moment happens to be, while completely ignoring the main gripe of over-reaching government that is going to swing this election.  I will try to document the “gosh, Americans are stupid” and “Somehow this is still Bush’s fault” nonsense and publish it here. If the Democrats pull off a miracle and keep the house, I will be knee deep in standard liberal gloat. Either way, should be fun.

Movie Week Continues

Posted on

My Halloween movie fest continued last night with a re-watching of Mother of Tears, the third film in the Three Mothers trilogy. When I first watched the film I pondered if it would get better on rewatching. Nope. It was actually more painful on the second viewing. What a rambling mess of a film with awful acting and dialogue all around. No screengrabs for this film. It doesn’t deserve that level of respect.

Stills from Kill Baby, Kill

Posted on

My Halloween movie fun-run continues with Mario Bava’s Kill Baby, Kill. Not really his finest work, but it is memorable for the scenes of the ghostly child at the windows.

This is a very creepy still, but, in the context of the movie, it doesn’t come off as eerie as it could. I’m probably the 9000th person to post this screenshot on the Web, but any Kill Baby, Killpost must include it.

Kill Baby, Kill - Cursed

The film is filled with more great compositions such as this one in which a young girl is compelled to impale herself with a sconce.

Kill Baby, Kill - Spiral Staricase

Italians sure do love their spiral staircases. As a note to budding architects who work in cities with high counts of maniacs and vindictive ghosts: a simple straight flight of stairs is probably a bit better in emergency situations. Oh, and avoid the metaphysical endless room loops.

Gub by Pigface - CD (7/10)

Posted on

The first full-length record from Martin Atkins all-star review. Very drum centric as one would expect—on many of the tracks it seems like drums and vocals are about all they could muster. This band is, almost by definition, self-indulgent and quality is a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes they are great, often times they are an audio endurance test.

Stills from Inferno

Posted on

My plans to watch a bunch of horror movies in the run-up to Halloween have not been going to well. I did manage to re-watch Dario Argento’s Inferno the other day. I have always considered this to be one of Argento’s weaker films of this era, but the more I watch it, the more I like it. It has much of the wonderful colored lighting, expressionist sets and dynamic compositions that made Suspiria so great. Also, despite the flawed and incoherent plot, there are plenty of memorable scenes.

Dario Argento's Inferno - Musicology

For some reason I especially like this scene where our hero, Mark, gets bewitched during his musicology class by The Mother of Tears…

Dario Argento's Inferno - Mother of Tears

This is only a brief cameo from the third mother, but it’s very effective. Too bad the actual movie about her, Mother of Tears,  was so mediocre. They should have just looped this scene for 90 minutes and released it as a feature.

Dario Argento's Inferno - Mother of Shadows

Inferno takes it its time in getting to the main villain, Mater Tenebrarum, but the scene in which she reveals her true identity is one of my favorites in Argento’s entire body of work…

Dario Argento's Inferno - Mark

Mark, don’t be lured into her fiery trap!

Dario Argento's Inferno - Mother in the Mirror

Without giving away the surprise, the shot above is so, so well done. Apparently, this is some of Mario Bava’s special effects handiwork. Good stuff. I encourage anyone who appreciates films simply for their beauty to check this film out.

Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein (5/10)

Posted on

Another old sci-fi novel by Heinlein that cares more about the concept than the story. Even at 120 some pages, it still felt too long. I guess fans of “hard” science fiction may appreciate the constant hammering of the main concept of a spaceship as the known universe to its inhabitants, but it gets old fast.

XXX Party by Phantom Surfers, The - CD (10/10)

Posted on

After years of releasing full-length surf records sprinkled with a few jokes and some schtick, The Phantom Surfers finally made a joke album sprinkled with a little surf music! The disc is filled with skits and guest appearanes by various filth luminaries like Rudy Ray Moore, Blowfly and post-Raw Neil Hamburger. The premise here is to be as dirty as possible and, to this end, the band succeeds wonderfully on tracks like “The Golden Turd” and “The Phantom Surfer’s Alphabet.” All records, CDs and daytime dramas should strive to be the XXX Party.

The Phantom Surfers and Dick Dale by Phantom Surfers, The - CD (8/10)

Posted on

This is a surprisingly straightforward Phantom Surfers record. The premise behind this record is that it is with Dick Dale. That is half true. They include two actual 50s pre-surf music Dick Dale songs: “We’ll Never Hear the End of It” and “Fairest of Them All.” Both of these are pretty terrible and Dick Dale was none-to-pleased with their inclusion.