Friday, December 28, 2012

Apparently I'm taking a break...

I had fully expected to take 12/25 off and then get back to blogging and writing but my brain decided it wanted more time to play videogames, read comic books and have impure thoughts about comic book and video game characters,

 

I must be a little more tired than I thought.

 

So that being said, I plan to start my usual schedule of posting mayhem on 1/4/12.

 

Thanks for being patient and I hope everyone has an awesome New Year!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Since it is Christmas Eve and I am being profoundly lazy...

...I won't be posting an installment of THE COLD INSIDE this week.

 

Next week the story will resume as normal.

Friday, December 21, 2012

The work of writer, artist and 'usual madman' Sam Hunt needs your love... your sweaty filthy Internet love!

This guy is one of my better friends out there and I think his work should be a little more widely read. If you haven't done it yet visit his website http://www.theusualmadman.net

 

From THE WHIRLWIND IN THE THORN TREE

THE SOUND OF GUNFIRE startled him awake, but instead of his bed, he was underwater. Lucidity came at him from every angle, a silent flock of doves converging on his confusion, and brought him to a diamond clarity. A dark and subtle landscape of undulating blue, red, and green materialized from the nothing-world that was his slumber, and the cold water threatened to take his breath away. Somehow he'd gone fromhis bedroom to the brook out back, and shot in the neck somewhere between the two...

 

 

From CHIMNEYSWEEP

WHEN MIKE ELLINGTON WOKE up, he was naked and couldn't move. Not that he was paralyzed--he could feel the cold surface of the table against his back--but he was wrapped in a ton of Christmas lights. His own lights, he realized as he angled his head to look at his bonds. He had been bound to the dining room table with his own damn Christmas lights, the green cords looping over and over and over around his legs, midsection, and arms until he was completely immobilized...

 

 

From TALENT SHOW

"VERY GOOD, BLANCO," I SAID, praising my subject. I held up another card, this one with a picture of a Bengal tiger on it. He leaned closer, and I could hear his eyes focus more precisely on the card. He seemed to be processing it, and then said, "It is an image of a tiger."...

 

George Takei reading aloud from 50 SHADES OF GRAY is kinda adorable...

From i09



and lets not forget the magnificent original...

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The following song is dedicated to my wonderful wife...


Thoughts: A true labor of love, produced by fans and starring fans. The movie is done in the style of a 1920's black and white silent film. This is a brilliant idea that works very well for what they're trying to do, by limiting themselves to the effects of the silent era they let the strength of the story carry things along. That being said the things they do to realize the world-spanning adventure are pretty damn clever, I wonder what these guys could do with a Michael Bay sized budget. A faithful and worth adaption, just don't watch it with friends that don't like 'reading a movie'.









As per IMDB the plot for OUT OF MIND: THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT (1998) “Haunted by disturbing dreams from an inherited book, a young man becomes interested in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.”

Here is the trailer for the film



Thoughts: A wonderful discovery, it may only be an hour long but it uses that time very efficiently. OUT OF MIND gives us a crash course in Lovecraft’s life and works and throws in a pastiche of his stories to boot. It may not have George Lucas style effects but it has great ideas and a lot of heart. The films portrayal of Lovecraft glosses over the more problematic aspects of his personality but that works just fine for what this production is trying to do. I don't know why but I find the idea of the old man from Providence wandering around in the world of dreams oddly heartwarming.









As per IMDB the plot for CTHULHU (2007) “A Seattle history professor, drawn back to his estranged family on the Oregon coast to execute his late mother's estate, is reacquainted with his best friend from childhood, with whom he has a long-awaited tryst. Caught in an accelerating series of events, he discovers aspects of his father's New Age cult which take on a dangerous and apocalyptic significance.”

Here is the trailer for the film.



Thoughts: An interesting adaption of Lovecraft’s classic story ‘THE SHADOW OUT OF INNSMOUTH’ and in my opinion it is superior to DAGON (not that DAGON isn’t entertaining in its own way also). CTHULHU takes ‘THE SHADOW OF INNSMOUTH’ and changes it from the story of a man wandering into danger to a coming home story. The protagonist is a gay man and the story of his love interest is believable and heartfelt. I like that the relationship of Russel and Mike has all the beats of a standard horror movie couple’s relationship. Russel’s relationship with his father is just as complicated and believable, sure his father is the leader of a cult of starry wisdom but 75% of their relationship could be that of any other father and son. That being said what we came for here is the Lovecraftian horror and we get it in spades. While the movie is called CTHULHU we never see the big guy in the film, but we do feel his presence as the apocalypse taking place in the background of the protagonists story slowly comes to the forefront. There are many disturbing and frightening scenes in the film thanks to the director's wise decision to hint at things rather than show them. The scene where the protagonist has to make his way through the tunnels beneath the city using only a flash camera for illumination is particularly harrowing.










Monday, November 26, 2012

'HORROR MOVIE DAYCARE' is where my Mom should have sent me.

From i09

 

Things I'm Thankful For #21 - My daughter.

“To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away.” ― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir