Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Karl Urban and Star Trek

Song: Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
Status: Antici---pation (Rocky Horror Picture Show)

"Star Trek" (2009)

From director J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III,” “Lost” and “Alias”) and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (“Transformers,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before.
With none other than Karl Urban playing the role of Doctor McCoy.
Guess what I'm going to be doing for my birthday!!!!!!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Frankenfish

Song - Drive - Incubus
Status - Up all night

Beware the Dangers of Very Large Fish. Make that genetically engineered fish.

I agree with Jaime that Frankenfish ranks right up there with the worst of the worst B movies. I have to go back on my earlier assertion that B movie didn't stand for bad movie. So in this case, it stands for really BAD movie.

Instead of sleeping (which I really should have been doing because I have to drive a long distance tomorrow...oops...make that today) I ended up watching the oh-so-thrilling movie Frankenfish.

I'd seen bits and pieces of the movie over the years... Well since it came out in 2004. I can even claim to have seen parts of Snakehead Terror starring Bruce Boxleitner. It, also, made its appearance in 2004. I guess Hollywood had a run on fish phobias in 2004.
The terrifying Snakehead. A person could do the Wedding March faster than these fish crawl.
Not quite the teeth that would strike terror into the hearts of houseboat vacationers.

Anyway... Jaime reminded me of Frankenfish, so I decided to give the movie a perusal. Besides, the TV was on, what else was I supposed to do? I can drive with one eye closed, really.

As I watched these poor people try to outrun large jumping fish with really wicked looking teeth I decided these were some of the best actors in Hollywood. They actually looked afraid. And who wouldn't be. Their house boats were sinking! And the water was filled with really huge piranha... Oh wait, that's another movie.

Back to Frankenfish... The pretty girls, the stock drunk guy, the older lady and her friend were in DANGER. Creak, gurgle, tilt, creak some more. Slow, scary music, a little more tilting. "Oh no. The fish are sinking the houseboat!!!!" We are sooo not going to make it. Thud. (Fish breaking through the side of the boat) Bubbles coming up through the water.

Then, inexplicably the boat levels out, stops its creaking and gurgling while the rescuers show up and get taken out by the genetically enhanced fish. That's when we find out that these fish had been made like this so they'd be a more sporting hunt. Ya think? Who comes up with these plots? I've got a really good plot book I can lend them.

I had more fun, earlier, watching the movie Doom, based on the video game where guys go through a tunnel to get to Mars and fight genetically altered people. Hmmmmm.

Well, anyway, Karl Urban is a lot more interesting than fish punching holes in house boats. Yummier, too.
I still have to see Pathfinder. Haven't had the chance yet. But there's a whole week ahead to see some of the movies I've missed. Totally have to catch up on my Karl Urban movies. It's like a fix.
But then I really like a good looking guy with a sword.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Picture of the Day

Song - Stand my Ground - Within Temptation
Status - Facing the dragon

http://zephyri.deviantart.com/art/Dangerous-Liaisons-57467427

Click on the picture to get the full impact. This illustrates my sentiment for today better than anything I could say.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Glorious Genre of the B Movie

In my last post I expressed my liking for B movies. My family teases me about it all the time. The more hokey, or strange, or the more badly written the more they think I'm going to like it. That's not entirely true. I don't really care for zombie movies, or slasher movies, or movies that spend a significant amount of time the an ugly dark place. But I really like movies with interesting characters.

So what is a B movie? One would be tempted to think it means Bad movie, but not so. I was going to muddle my way around an explanation, but Wikipedia puts it better.

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today.

The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has two primary and somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie.


In looking at several different lists of B movies, I realized that my list is very different from most other lists. Most other lists fall into the really really bad movies but don't we just love them category.


So I decided to make my own list. (In no particular order)

Eaon Flux (the movie) SO don't like the MTV version.
(Because Jaime reminded me...) The Scorpion King
Escape From New York
Escape from L. A.
Fifth Element (Is this a B movie????)
(Have to 'fess up to the Kill Bill movies)
Batman Returns... (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are not B movies)
Flash Gordon
Big Trouble in Little China
Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Hellboy
Star Trek Nemesis
The Alien movies - mostly#3 and #4
All the Predator movies - especially #2
And the Alien vs. Predator movies... though in the last one they nuke Gunnison, Colorado... disturbing since I visit Gunnison occasionally.
Dark City
The first thirty minutes of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Mummy (not a B movie) and The Mummy Returns
The Professional
Wasabi
Fright Night
Grimlins
Blade
Doom
Pitch Black
The Chronicles of Riddick
Underworld
The Lost Boys
Interview with the Vampire
Queen of the Damned
Red Scorpion
Vampires - with James Woods
Cherry 2000
They Live
Commando
Terminator 1, 2, and 3 (Some might dispute these)
The Road Warrior
The Crow - Brandon Lee
A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Clint Eastwood
12 Monkeys - a really great movie on the time travel paradox
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Bulletproof Monk
Jackie Chan movies

Some I don't watch, but are very popular

Reptile movies about snakes and crocodiles
Biker flicks
Haunted house movies... Though there's an Amityville House movie I watch for the first thirty minutes and then shut off.
Zombies - the Living Dead stuff
Dr. Giggles
Any of the Saw movies
Jeepers Creepers - one of the most disturbing movies I ever watched. Jeepers Creepers 2 was just as bad.
Sin City
The Candy Man movies
Urban Legend
BloodRayne

There are a lot more, on both lists.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

I've been tagged

Song: The Howling - Within Temptation (Another good idea from Jaime)
Attitude for today - Totally didn't know anything about this strange game.

So...do I even have six quirks? I don't know. I can't think of a single thing that I do anyone would call strange.

I suppose playing the soundtrack of Batman Begins all day long, every day for nine months could be considered a quirk. But I've done that kind of thing for as long as I can remember. Within Temptation was a three month stretch. The song Marooned by Balligomingo was a four week stretch while I revamped my novel Prithiel, which isn't yet finished, so I will be going back to it soon for another month or so.

Of course anything by Hanz Zimmer gets a long play--most of the time.

How about my obsession for certain vehicles? I am always on the look out for my favorite vehicles, all of which I can't possible afford. One can hope, right?

Top of the list.
Hummer H2. The biggest one they make. All of the others are just way too small.

The H3T is kind of interesting. Too small, though.Second favorite the Jeep Rubicon. With the big tires. Has to have the big tires.


Then there are the super cars. Whoa boy.


Number one sports car.... Um... Yeah.... Mercedes Benz SLR...droooool. The hottest car on the market.

Top view.....

Side view....
Really sexy back view....
And the super sexiest front view you can find anywhere... but I wax poetic.
You can't over look the Corvette ZR1...more drooling.
Or the Mazda RX8... more drooling

Um... the table top is getting wet... wait a minute

Okay, cleaned up.

The Mazda RX8

Ain't it cute?

I have to add the Porsche Carrera just on looks alone. (In driving tests it doesn't match the 2008 Mercedes.) I still wouldn't mind having one.


Number three.... Can you believe I've only covered two quirks? I can spend days on the computer looked for pics to use for references in my writing.


Number four... I can't sleep in the dark. Nor in the quiet. I have to have the TV on. If something happens, like the power going off, or a well meaning child turns the TV off, I wake up. Since I don't sleep very well anyway, probably because of all the light and all of the sound-ya think?--when I do finally get to sleep, its hazardous to wake me up. Ask my kids who have had me come up out of a dead sleep in fight mode.

Number five --- Have to think here.


I love love love B movies. The B-er the better. I've lost count of how many times I've watched The Mummy...though technically it isn't a B movie, but The Mummy Returns is.


Have you seen Oded Fehr???? DROOL..... Oops, there goes the table again.


I've seen The Professional countless times, with Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman... in my opinion her best role so far. The movie started out as a 1 and a half star flick. Over the years it has gained status and is now a 3 star movie. But watch it on TBS because the language has been cleaned up. Jean Reno has another one that is a jewel (after the first half hour...skip that part... too much language). The movie is Wasabi. A real delight.


I'll stop anything I'm doing to see a move with Karl Urban: Doom, Chronicles of Riddick (it doesn't hurt that Vin Diesel is also in it) The Bourne Supremacy, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King, Xena: Warrior Princess.

Isn't he just yummy?

Can't forget the really built Predator.


Or Lara Croft, who can do anything.


Then there's Hellboy. Ron Perlman was also great in Star Trek Nemesis... He kind of looked like Hellboy there, only white instead of red.

These are only a few of the B movies I like, believe me...

So now we're to number six. Hmmmm. Have to Think... It's so hard. There's so many to choose from.

I don't like to call people on the phone because they're never there. I love barbecued beef ribs. I get discouraged easily. I like to play my music LOUD in the car. I love cats.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE dragons...

I can't make up my mind most of the time. I'm obsessed with Mah Jong. I rarely pass up ice cream.

Oh... I know........



Can't believe I forgot.



Drum roll. BRRRRRRR.




I'VE SEEN THE LORD OF THE RINGS 118 TIMES.

Whew. I almost forgot.

Okay. Confession time. I don't know who to tag. Everyone I know Jaime already did, or Lori-ann will.

Nov. 14, 2008 - Update -- Since Lori-ann hasn't gotten around to it, I tag Donna C. (Run away laughing in glee.)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Redo on the turkey's vaction

Song: Tennessee Bird Walk - Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan (another idea swiped from Jaime)

Since some needed an explanation for my last blog, I felt it needed redoing.

Thanksgiving is approaching fast!! We need to get away. You know...take a vacation.
Head for the woods. Everybody RUN!!!!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

"The Apprentice" by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore

"The Apprentice" by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore

It has occurred to me to ask, has anyone else read this book? It was the very first fantasy/romance cross I ever read, and I loved it. It was also somewhat a (failed) pioneer in the field, since it was published back in 1989--long before LKH opened up the genre with her Anita Blake novels.

I looked it up today and found that critics gave it a largely bad rap, and for all the wrong reasons. They stated an passive aggressive heroine and that it was "predictable" in that you saw many of the plot twists coming, and I think it was one of the biggest misunderstandings of the book I had ever seen.

The heroine was passive aggressive because she'd been abused all her life and didn't know how to fight back yet (one of the very FEW times I have approved of a passive aggressive heroine--what she was was not only perfectly natural, but classic symptoms of an abused child), and the "secrets" and "twists" the critics speak of...weren't. The author never kept anything from the reader because it wasn't important, it was only important the characters keep their secrets from one another. The book was based on character interplay and the lush atmosphere she created, and she really could make you stand right there, out on a cold mountain side with that timid but highly intelligent young lady, buckling down in too thin clothing to engage in back breaking labor while pondering with a mixture of loathing, unbidden attraction, and fear for the man who has waltzed in through the keep's front door to ever so quietly shake her whole world to their foundations.

This was THE book that got me hooked on paranormal/fantasy romance, and after reading it (*in* 1989) it set me on a 4 year search for more stories like it in a time when they just weren't being published. It wasn't until I stumbled across Anita Blake in 1993 I even began to see hints of the same sort of crossover between genres (though for a while the Silhouette Shadows series made a nice stop-gap measure). It still remains one of my all time favorite books, both in general and as a romance in particular.

Does anyone else even remember this book? Did anyone else ever read it?

Shelfari

Sunday, November 2, 2008

My Muses

Like a lot of writers I use music to get into the mood of my scenes. When I find a piece that works I play it over and over, sometimes for days at a time if I need to stay in the place where my characters are. I use several groups, some of which are--Within Temptation, Muse, Nightwish, Evanescence. This is only a small sampling, believe me.





I have to make special mention here of Lori Cunningham who has taken her own spot in the music I listen to. Not only is she beautiful, but she is a wonderful talent. And a woman of courage who stands up for the ideals we all should espouse. I expect her to do great things with her music and become a real success. I feel privileged to be able to use her music in my work. See her sites here and here







My most recent find, one that I'm excited about is Manic Bloom. Not only do they have great music, but their lyrics totally reflect what I am writing. It's as if they looked inside my head. I hope to hear more from them. See them here and here.


As the kids say, "They totally rock."



Saturday, November 1, 2008

Getting Started

Since I don't know what I'm doing, this is a trial run. So....Running...Running.

Working? Maybe.

We'll see.