Open Post-Weekend Thread…

Updated on April 23, 2012 By Ken Begg 17 Comments

It was a short weekend for me, in that I worked Saturday. In recompense I’ll have next Friday off, though. I figure that will give me a whole weekend on top of going down to the Portage next Sunday to see their aforementioned triple bill of giant monster movies. I’m also tentatively planning on seeing Cabin in the Woods Friday, as I figure weekday matinee audiences will be smaller than weekend matinee crowds.

Sunday I grabbed replacement still for my reposting of the Nightshift review from The Hitchhiker, which I shifted over because it was the next episode following the new piece I posted earlier last week. I apologize for that one, by the way. The episode didn’t give me a lot to work with, so it wasn’t great. As Nightshift indicates, though, the third season of the show–of which that was the opening episode–really saw the program hitting its moronic stride, so hopefully the next piece will be better.

Later that night I watched the latest chapters of Amazing Race and Chopped All Stars, and during the rest of the day finished off Reefs and Shoals, the latest (the 18th!) of Alan Lewrie Naval adventure books by Dewey Lambdin.

This is one of the quieter books, as Lambdin is sticking to actual British naval history was the series progresses. Given this, there wasn’t always huge naval action going on, although Lewrie was always in the thick of what there was. In this case, it’s early 1805 and Lewrie is hunting French and Spanish privateers in the waters off the Southern US.

This is probably the finest naval series ongoing right now, and has been for a while. When the series opened Lewrie was a young aristocratic punk more or less shanghaied into the Navy. The early books were much more Flashman-esque, as Lewrie was a skirt-chasing, inept knob and more than a bit of a coward.

However, as the series progresses we watch Lewrie grow into a fine fighting officer. Although he remains prone to getting into trouble in his private life (especially where the ladies are concerned), it’s been pretty satisfying to watch him evolve in this fashion. Plus he hates the French, so he’s got that going for him.

So, yes, a minor book in the series, but the end of 1805 saw the Battle of Trafalgar, so I think things will be picking up over the next couple of books. Can’t wait.

So what did you guys do?

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    I saw a bunch of pretty good stuff, including “The Proposition” (very violent, but well done), “Never Let Me Go” (thoughtful), and “It Came From Outer Space” (classic Bradbury).  I didn’t realize you could watch the latter (as well as the Howard Hawks “The Thing”) on Amazon Prime for free.

    I also saw “Rubber,” which is one of the oddest things I’ve seen in months.

  • The Rev.

    Is Rubber that killer tire movie?

    This was another weekend where I didn’t get to watch much of anything (my best friend from high school and his wife were in town this weekend.)  I did manage to get through the 4th episode of “The Walking Dead” Friday night, so I’m slowly, finally getting through the 2nd season.  Good stuff so far, particularly the first episode, which left my jaw hanging at the end there.  We also watched “The Amazing Race”, and are firmly in Mark and Bopper’s camp at this point.  Hopefully they can overcome their physical disadvantages and somehow pull a win off, although it seems very unlikely at this point.

  • Gamera977

    As usual not much. Finished reading Orson Scott Card’s horror novel ‘Treasure Box’ which was btw excellent and started William Hope Hodgson’s ‘The Night Land’.

    Also my copy of ‘The Whisper in the Darkness’ came in Sat and I watched it that night. I am intending to write up a short review for the forum sometime this week. Really liked it, they changed the ending to make it more cinematic but frankly I actually liked the changes. If you like Lovecraft you should see this movie.

  • Gamera977

    A friend was telling me about ‘Rubber’. His reaction was pretty much WTH!?!

    I’d be interested in you opinion, odd seems one of the milder adjectives I’d use to describe this film from his description.

  • Ericb

    Watched some old Dr. Who Key to Time serials.  I’m taking a break from history reading to re-read Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. It’s a fun book in a high-brow sort to way.  I’m thinking it would make for a great Pixar PG or PG-13 animated film but that will never happen.

  • Ericb

    One of my favorite bits on M & D is the werefop.  It’s a wolf who when the Moon turns full becomes a London dandy. 

  • Toby C

    My highlight was watching the My Little Pony FIM season final. It lived up to expectations – loved the cameo by DJ Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch at the end. Also, the scene in part 1 where Pinkie Pie sneezes confetti, and the scene in part 2 where she fights the changeling after criticising its impression of her.

    I also rewatched the first Iron Man – planning to watch all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (the Ang Lee Hulk included) before May 3 – and a few episodes of Bleach – loved the scene where Yoruichi reveals her human form after posing as a cat with a male voice for over 20 episodes.

  • Beckoning Chasm

     I liked it, but then I like things that don’t take the usual route (no pun intended).  It’s about 15 minutes or so too long, but otherwise I thought it was clever and funny, and it was refreshingly free of the “film-school” series of “too cool for school” audience shout-outs and hommage stuff.  It helps that the first scene pretty much says “Don’t take this too seriously.”  But I can certainly understand how polarizing it is–most of the reviews I’ve seen either really like it or really hate it.  I consider myself to be a pretty big David Lynch fan, and that helped I think.

  • Beckoning Chasm

     Yeah, Rubber is about Robert, a tire who comes to life and kills people with his mind.  I first saw the film tucked away in a sales rack at Best Buy; looking at the cover, I thought, What is this, a documentary?  Then I read the back cover synopsis and I had to see it, so I put it at the top of my Netflix queue.

  • I’ve been “marathoning” the last two seasons of Futurama on blu-ray.  Every time I watch the show I regret not taking that computer animation class back in college. 

  • Gamera977

    Thanks! Yeah, I figured it was the sort of movie so off the wall that either you love or hate it. Funny, my friend usually likes stuff like this, guess it somehow rubbed him the wrong way. I’ll have to look up a trailer tonight if I’m not too tire-d. (sorry)

  • Still working hard on my graphic novel, but at least I’m drawing the last chapter now (although I could keep the story going seemingly forever, so I hope it does well enough to justify a sequel).

    Had some company Sunday, including a friend who really wants to write screenplays and bought a book that told him how. I gave him directions to Ken’s review of JAWS, as I thought he’d learn more from that.

    Otherwise, I took in a couple of movies, including THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, and listened to radio episodes of The Jack Benny Show while working.

  • While working on Yet Another Project I Will Never Finish I spent time off and on reading Kolchak: Night Stalker.  By chance I found it on Kindle and, being a fan of the movies/original series I felt I had to give it a go.  It hasn’t been that bad so far, though while reading it I wonder if anyone proofreads Kindle books or if they just upload the things and hope there aren’t too many errors…

  • I watched the MLP:FiM finale too. It still amazes me that they took something as girly as My Little Pony and made it amazing!

  • Toby C

    Well, considering the tone of the first My Little Pony TV special (Rescue at Midnight Castle in 1984) it’s not that surprising.

  • Ericb

    So what happened?  Did they give My Little Pony the Battlestar Gallactica treament? That’s surreal.

  • Toby C

    I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at with the Battlestar Galactica comparison. If it’s the Darker and Edgier factor, I would again point out that G1 was arguably darker, with Monsters of the Week on a regular basis. Nevertheless, FIM does have some outright terrifying moments – especially towards the beginning and end of each season – but they’re also balanced out with at least a dozen jokes per episode and regular musical numbers.

    On the other hand, and more in line with the BSG parallel, the writing and characterisation is a lot more complex than previous generations, especially when you look at the Mane Cast – six ponies, all multidimensional characters who each act as foils to the other five, all with strengths and weaknesses but all sympathetic and totally believable as friends.