Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…
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Recent Features
Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism
Things That Change You Forever
I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes
A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.
There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…
My New Weapon of Choice
In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.
“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”
“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)
Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…
Know Your Meme: Creepy Chan
Know Your Meme scientist Yatta explains how Anonymous is a better Tyra Banks than Tyra Banks on America’s Next Top Model. (Thanks, Mike White!)
“Fare Thee Well, Infant!”
Ah, the internet, what would we do for time-wasting/movie-geekery without you? Famous Movie Quotes as if Spoken by a Proper Englishman includes such gems as “Toodeloo, you ghastly miscreant!” and “I grow impatient with these malevolent slithering reptiles on this bloody aircraft…”
The End of the Zombie Plague
Jim Rossignol shotguns him some zombies, really the zombie infestation of gaming, writing, “My issue with the zombie archetype is that it is largely without a villain, and we need specific villains” in games.
Werner TKO’s Chuck Every Time
5 reasons Werner Herzog is more badass than Chuck Norris (even with his action jeans).
Clashing with Star Wars
Two items where Star Wars runs up against participatory culture: the completely awesome Animals with Lightsabers and the completely logical one-off joke The Hook.
Dallas Episode IV: A New Hope
Ever wonder what Star Wars would look like as Dallas or Airwolf? Probably not, but it’s still worth seeing. (via Adult Swim)
So Awful It Moves Past Parody
Vaniel found some awful description in a fantasy novel: “Really, all I could think was, ‘I have got to scan this tomorrow because no one will believe how awful it is.” It’s so awful it’s gone back around to being good again–but for all the wrong reasons.’ It’s astonishingly awful. It should win an award. [...]
DANGEROUS BECAUSE IT HAS A PHILOSOPHY
In Videodrome, shortly before the arrival of the least sexy waiter in the history of cinema (no link for this, you’ll just have to go rent the movie), Max Renn (James Woods, no hyperlink needed) and Masha (Lynne Gorman, IMDb listing not interesting enough to link to) share the following exchange on the nature of [...]
LOLthots
oh, hai! Jay Dixit ponders the humanity in lolcats (and talks to The New Yorker’s cartoons editor about them): “By articulating profound feelings through cats and marine mammals speaking garbled English, we’re able to shroud genuine emotions in pseudo-irony — which means those animals can evoke deeper emotions without fear of mockery or cheapness.”
Oh Hai LOLBiznez!
Running computers on LOLCode and translating the Bible into LOLcat. Oh Noes?
More Goddamn Batman (and Robin, Age 12)
Confined Space collects a chain of fan art from the “Goddamn Batman” meme. My favorite: Law and Order: Goddamn Batman. Protoclown read All-Star Batman and Robin–the start of the damned and batty–so you wouldn’t have to.
Birth of an Internet Meme
Good old comics controversy: Spider-Man gets rebooted (back to 1971!), and the response: “It’s magic, we don’t have to explain it!” You can already buy the t-shirt.
Of Note Elsewhere
At Sequart, Julian Darius makes the case that Star Trek: Into Darkness damages the Star Trek franchise and that “Starfleet must be destroyed.” (via Mike White)
“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.
It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.
Oh, and it’s not true.”
Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.
Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”
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