Post Weekend Open Thread (03/19/12)…

Updated on March 19, 2012 By Ken Begg 13 Comments

Let’s see…

I worked Saturday, that there went that day. Yesterday I mostly didn’t laundry and packed (including grabbing up a caddy full of DVDs) for the Texas trip. Currently I’m reading Timeless, the fifth of a series by Gail Carriger that’s sort of a Jane Austin social comedy / Vampire / Werewolf / Steampunk genre meld. I had started reading Larry Coreia’s Monster Hunter Alpha, but noticed someone had Timeless on hold (it’s a library copy), so I want to finish that and return it before I leave. MHA I’ll take with me for some airport reading.

So…nothing very exciting on my front.

As of Wednesday I’ll be gone, although if I get to a PC I’ll post some reports, hopefully to act as a sort of skeleton to a full Fest diary once I return. Monster of the Day will be on vacation from this Wednesday til the following Wednesday.

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  • Toby

    Highlights:
    – finishing the first of The Hunger Games books. It was excellent, and I look forward to reading the second one.
    – watching Battle Royale for comparison. Similarly excellent, and I now have the book and the manga on hold at my library.
    – A few episodes of Bleach, from the Soul Society arc.
    – Finishing the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. Love the exchange when Gideon makes his entrance:
    “Scott Pilgrim. Can I just be the first to say… ‘Nice shirt.’?”
    “Shut up! You’re like the third person to say that!”
    – A few episodes of Without a Trace (Season 2).
    – A few episodes of Law & Order (Season 7).
    – A couple of episodes of Damages (Season 2).
    – Listening to the soundtrack of Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks: Part 1. It was about as good as can be expected without the footage.
    – Finishing Hector: Badge of Carnage: Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see this from the developers of Sam and Max Save the World and Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People. My favourite part was probably when you manipulate a delinquent whose trying to get arrested for the sake of his street cred into getting tazed by an old woman, then use him to start your car battery. “Looks like the criminal” (puts on sunglasses) “finally got charged.” (takes them off) “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

  • Blake

    The only eventful thing in the world of genre film/literature was that I watched the second half (or last third) of “The Silence of the Lambs” on Friday evening. Brazilian regular cable is a lot more “open” than American regular cable, so I got to see Ted Levine in all his full-frontal glory (not that I wanted to).

  • Monoceros4

    Finally got around to watching a film from a year or two ago that got overwhelmingly positive reviews, Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox…and I didn’t care for it. While I used to be somewhat of a Roald Dahl fan I never got round to this one, so I can’t judge it on that score. There was a fatal lack of urgency to the whole affair, though, a kind of undertone of smug certainty that robbed the movie of energy. Yeah, of course you know things in a movie of this nature are probably going to end happily, but there’s a way of making the viewer think at some point that maybe it just might all go wrong. Events rise and fall in a movie like Chicken Run but in The Fantastic Mr. Fox they’re all at the same lazy pitch and after a while the movie just lost me.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Wow, I just got an email from the Warner Archive folks…they’re putting “The Quatermass XPeriment” out on DVD!  They’re also putting out the Matt Salinger Captain America movie if you’re so inclined.  I’m sure they’ll be way too much money, though…

  • Gamera977

    Hope you like MHA Ken, I didn’t think it was quite as good as the first two novels but it was still great fun.

    Sat: Finished off a massive book on the Korean War. Downloaded the 20 year old RPG Arena from the Bethdesa website and started replaying it again in DOS Box. Later watched the MST3K version of ‘Merlin’s Shoppe of Wonders’ on YouTube. Not too shabby but making a movie out of two short films made in 1984 and 1995 and hoping no one will notice the difference was a little strange. Watched the MST3K version of ‘The Girl in Gold Boots’ last week and it’s just as bad as Ken’s review.

    Sun: Watched ‘Portrait of Jennie’, ‘Charly’, and ‘Chain Reaction’. Good stuff- thanks for the head’s up Ken.

    Hopefully will get a chance to check out the 3D version of ‘John Carter of Mars’ this week.

  • Ericb

    So that means you have to special order it from Warner rather than just buying it at Amazon or whatnot?

  • Ken_Begg

    No, they generally sell those at Amazon, too. That one’s actually been available for a while; I have it in my ‘wish list,’ along with some other such flicks.

  • I wrapped up the pencils and script for chapter five of my graphic novel project so I’m hovering around the mid-point of having the whole thing drawn. 225+ pages, so far!

    Checked in on Pop and Kyle’s progress on their latest monster suit, this one is a real oddball choice: Magma, the giant walrus that’s only in the Japanese version of GORATH! Pop told me the dollar store in town has the Billy Jack collection for $10 (!), so I told him to grab the set for me next time he’s in town provided they’re the scope versions. I may watch the third and fourth films, but I predict a heavy use of the fast-forward button.

    I also took a few minutes to make some modifications to a commission piece. Still managed to sneak in a couple of movies. Among them the 1966 classic THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO, the first of two feature films part of Gerry Anderson’s incredible Thunderbirds series. I still think I favor THUNDERBIRD 6 out of the pair of films, but both are tons of fun.

  • Ericb

    Great.  It’s only $18 on Amazon, so not too bad.  I’ve been waiting for this one for years.

  • Gamera977

    And oh BTW: ordered the Blu-Ray of ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’. Should be here late this week or next.

  • I shot what will hopefully turn in to my first TV credit.  I’ll hopefully know more in the next month or so. 

    In true T-Fest tradition, I also had to order car parts for some quick repairs before the trip to Dallas.  Whee…..

  • The Rev.

    Be sure to let us know how that TV thing goes!

    I didn’t watch anything this weekend outside of a couple of episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” and the latest installment of “The Amazing Race.”  I was too busy.  Thankfully, TwF2k12 will make up for it.

  • GalaxyJane

    No TV, books or movies this weekend unless you count the second half of the VCU game on St. Padraig’s Day (I don’t, there was much cussing). Took off for my semi-annual (about every other year thus far) girl’s weekend with my mom to Milton, WV for Art glass, antiquing, and (new for 2012) flea marketing. Came home with 4 boxes of Blenko glass and, since all the green drinks Saturday were vodka-based, no hangover.