seriously, imagine Walken saying, "needs more anal probing"

Circus of the Damned, by Laurell Hamilton. Woo! Exciting. Anita Blake is my heroine. Kind of the silly-tshirt wearing of Gaby McAslan with the badassery of Buffy, but with the hardness of Cassie Suthorn. Though I agree about the Richard love interest, now, I get how she’s taken in by chemistry and attraction, but ditch him, Anita! I’m curious where Hamilton is going to go with the rookie animator/executioner – will he become badass, or die horribly? Lots of the usual twists and turns and original creatures and Blake’s calm tenaciousness, and the kind of ending where you go, how the hell could this possibly be resolved in anything but a horrible manner? And then it is resolved, in a way that’s horrible but still good. I did feel a bit jipped that some of the weight of that ending felt stolen, since it was exactly the same last trick as in the previous novel in the series, just much more bloody and violent. Oh, and Edward is interesting as a total sociopath interacting with relatively normal characters, it’s fascinating each time. And will she encounter the crazy-horny-scary lamia anymore? Probably so, as it was hired by Jean-Claude. If I didn’t have other novels I’m obligated to read first, I’d definitely go get the next book.

Communion, with Christopher Walken, and anal probing. Actually, I was disappointed there wasn't more anal probing. I can see how the film might be iconic in some ways (though it could have been iconic in different ways with more anal probing), and I can definitely tell how it’s autobiographical. You can see how the movie is mirroring scenes someone wrote about themselves. And in that, alas, I think it just gets self-indulgent; it doesn’t help that for much of the narrative the main character is something of a dick, and there’s less narrative, in truth, then a loose string of related experiences without an arc driving them. I think it would have been served, especially with the wonky special effects (though, points for attempting to use an alien blowup doll of sorts, I wonder if one could auction that off for fetish purposes), by limiting any need for special effects by doing it in an Asian horror movie style – less show and tell, more psychological tension and hinting. That also would have helped to take the movie from just randomly purposed and timed alien encounters, in that, in that horror style the purpose (which, granted, of the aliens is unknown) is less important than them just being creepy.


Olympic cheerleaders are so weird.

Drillbit Taylor, with Owen Wilson and two kids who are like the opposite of the evil twins of the kids from Superbad. The good twins? In a sense this movie is kind of the opposite of Superbad – first day of high school rather than last, nice kids versus jerks. Then there’s the adult aspect of the movie, with Wilson…not sure what to say about that. It’s basically Wilson’s trademark humor, which is fine – not amazing, not boring. I got kind of sick of the humiliation humor, that doesn’t really do it for me. And it just seemed long, for a comedy. But it was sweet. Not the greatest movie ever, but eh, fine.

more human than human?

Schismatrix, by Bruce Sterling. In a sentence, I think it’s like the Lord of the Rings for posthuman narratives, in the sense of, it was the original gangsta progenitor for those themes. Deus Ex, the Rifter trilogy and Blindsight, Dresden Codak, I would suspect sprang one way or another from seeds from Sterling’s writing. Using a singular character in a population spanning the solar system, he runs through a gamut of identities that includes too many variations of what humanity-could-become to count, and moreover the permutations and evolutions of those across literal centuries. Not quite a character study, but not just world-building-with-a-narrator, either...I’d go so far as to say it takes the posthuman theme and applies it to itself, making a, say, post-character study? Heh, ok, the label doesn’t work, but one gets the idea, I hope. Aesthetically, it probably is a bit too meandering and almost directionless-seeming at many points for most casual scifi readers, but a cyberpunk or hard science fiction fan will appreciate it, I think.

a matter of perspective

Jacob's Ladder, with Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Pena. Would have helped if I'd known what Jacob's Ladder is, durr, though it also might've stripped the ending of a lot of weight, and maybe even given away the whole movie. There seemed to be a certain skill of the creators of skimming in downright disturbing demonic imagery into seemingly normal environments, but it never really got look-away horrifying...more grotesquely fascinating, eerie, even downright disturbingly erotic at one point. I think part of it was the mystery and paranoia pervading the movie, it left me always looking for the key, the hint to understanding what was real and what was not, who was demon or angel or human. I really want to talk about the ending, heh, which was basically the only way you could pull off...bah, but I don't want to give anything away. Ask if you're curious and not worried about seeing the movie.

I so want one...mmm....bacon

systema notes - rained out

-yeah, lightning directly overhead a park filled with tall trees was probably a good marker for having booked it when we did, not to mention the deluge that followed immediately thereafter
-I still don't really get the, punch to stop them from sitting up thing...I get the basic idea of relaxing working muscles, but the how of it entirely escapes me
-also, going "deeper" with a punch without making it "sharper", but it's not a push either....argh.
-getting better with the fist-pushups, at least, finally learned how to distribute my weight across my knuckles so I didn't bruise this time
-nipples.
-when absorbing, you don't do "heroic" movements and try to twist out of the way, there's a trick of returning to equilibrium, as overcompensating in rolling or twisting with something will just put you in a vulnerable position
-I didn't get the limbo-roll-under-stick drill, either...again, thought I saw the concept of rolling it across muscles surfaces for fine body control and safe-reflexes, but...doing it...ah well, not my best day

I learned about the Miracle Fruit in this webcomic
(the more recent ones are straight up laugh-out-loud, the older ones are more hard-honest autobio)

I...well, actually kind of do want one. I like the in-dark-ending best. Rolly-polly!

a one, two, or three hot dog bouncer?

The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down, with a bunch of struggling actors trying to make their mark. But hey, kudos to them for living the dream, natch. Also I think that title is missing apostrophes? Anyway, it has its funny moments. Also, it's pretty shallow and insipid, though of course, the subject matter is...though! Though. If I'd realized this earlier I would have been mildly more interested, it basically is trying to be Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the LA 'scene,' down to the style of narration. So...kind of a clever premise, points for trying, nice job random indie people. Kind of.

Like that horse painting project, but more evil