I wanted to do an engraving of a space ship and this is what I ended up creating. It’s a rather small piece and is probably the last time I will ever be able to engrave into a Resingrave black since they are no longer being manufactured.
These are images of the print in-progress from blank block to inking for the first proof.
A teenage girl is obsessed with a new wave pop star. She writes him letters, follows him to Munich, finally meets him, and hilarity ensues. I’m leaving out a few details, but that’s basically the whole plot. Seems stupid but it somehow managed to keep me engaged through most of it. There is a Kraftwerk style vibe to R’s sound and look that make this film a bit more watchable than it had any right to be.
What a mouthful of a title. Anyhow, this book is a case against post-modernism and its application within the academy and modern political discourse. Post-modernism is confusing by design and I agree its a pretty awful ideology. Reading about post-modernism isn’t much easier than reading post-modernist writing itself. As with all these vaguely political non-fiction books I have read recently, they wait until the last chapter to lay out their solutions and say anything interesting.
The most notable thing from this 1964 Japanese sci-fi movie is silly the starfish alien designs. The point of the story is for the aliens to warn Earth of an impending disaster, but they go about it in the most roundabout way possible. The, at the eleventh hour, they just save everyone completely negating the entirety of the movie’s narrative. The scenes of the aliens on their ship must be inspired by German expressionist films. The rest of the movie is pretty dull.
I came across this movie when it was featured in a list of pre-Romero zombie movies. The only thing it has going for it is Barbara Steele looking emaciated as per usual. The effects are limited to decomposed hand reaching out from around corners and few seconds of a mauled eye in the first three minutes of the picture. The rest is mostly boring, poorly dubbed dialogue about a scientist who died.
Are all ancient religions actually based on alien encounters? Of course not, but that’s not going to stop these film makers! The case made here is paper thin and devoid of any evidence. Most of the proof comes in the form of looking at ancient artwork and then saying stuff like, “The drawing’s head is very round… could it be… a space helmet!!” or “Those ground markings seem to go nowhere… or could they be… landing strips for spacecraft!!” Their biggest piece of evidence isn’t even an actual cave drawing. It’s a reproduction drawn by the one scientist who actually believes this garbage. At the very least, I did like appreciate the just seeing ancient monuments like the pyramids and moai statues.
I was really excited to see this movie and so my viewing suffered from raised expectations. I liked it but I was a little disappointed by how close it mirrored The Matrix at times and I didn’t appreciate the crude humor. This is a movie about a mother/daughter relationship and adding drag-show level gags alienates a large group of younger viewers who might get deep meaning from the narrative. Otherwise, this was a very fun and imaginative take on the concept of the multiverse.
I played all of the sequels to this RPG that were available on the Sega Genesis, two on the actual hardware and the last one as a Virtual Console game. I am finally getting around to playing the first game in the series on the Sega Master System.
Growing up in the 80s, I never actually saw a Master System in person and knew of nobody who owned one. Yet there are hundreds of games for the system and a lot of folks consider Phantasy Star to be one of the best. I enjoyed it for the most part, but, if not for the conveniences of emulation, I would not have been able to get through it. State saving and CPU speed boosts help to get through the most tedious parts of the game play.
The turn-based combat mechanics are incredibly basic. Your characters can ether attack, run, talk, or cast spells. Talking is useless. There are only about four combat spells and one protection spell. Ninety percent of the time I would go into fast emulation and just spam the attack button. It’s really not until the final few dungeons that I had to think a little more about tactics. This is too bad, because most of the game is grinding to level up.
There is barely a story. The gist of it is simply to get revenge for the death of your brother. You advance through the game by finding items that give you access to more regions and dungeons. The dungeons are the core of the game. They are impressively rendered as first-person perspective mazes. Much of the game’s challenge is then mapping out these mazes as you would in Eye of the Beholder.
Despite the flawed mechanics and threadbare plot, I enjoyed most of the experience. There’s a very casual pacing to the game and enough variety to keep it interesting.
This is a 70s low-budget version of a Poe tale by the director of Alucarda. A reporter goes to a famous asylum only to discover that it is being run by a madman, It feels a little like an episode of The Prisoner but there is no visual flare. It’s shot in a really flat, boring way and is completely lacking any energy. The actors (all filthy hippies) look like they raided a community college prop room and each put together a “crazy” outfit. On top of all that they plot is not very good and the score is terrible. I wanted to like this one, but alas it is not very good.
Another Philip Marlowe mystery featuring excellent hard-boiled prose. The story is filled with drug addicts, drinking, mobsters and crooked cops. The casual racism of the time is a bit jarring but, at some level, it is an integral part of the plot mechanics and the reasoning as to why certain cases aren’t being investigated. Just thinking about this book makes me want to keep whiskey in my desk drawer.
