APOCALYPTO

I've always said, if there really was such a thing as a Star Trek like holodeck, I'd probably never leave it.

There was a time in my teens when I would have just inhabited Middle-Earth.

I recently upgraded to "The Works" with cable, so that is a bit of a time wasting danger. There is a plethora of movies that I never had access to before. But just like when I go into a video store like Westside Video, I'm stumped by what I want to watch. Movies that I almost went to the theater to see, suddenly aren't appealing.

Watched APOCALYPTO.

***(SPOILERS)***

Got to give Mel credit for attempting unusual things.

I must be really jaded, because all the blood letting wasn't as bad as I expected.

It was interesting the way he did it, though.

A slow, in real time sacrifice, from the victim's viewpoint, looking upside down as the knife descends, eviscerates, lifting the still beating heart, then the axe descending, the rolling of the horizon as the head comes off.

Umm, Mel.

You got a problem. You seem to really like this kind of thing. Whipping, evisceration, and other such tortures seem to be a theme in your movies. Makes me wonder if you wear a hair-shirt in real life (you really must be punished, you bad boy).

I said I was jaded, but I pretty much cringed. Won't be recommending it to my wife.

Anyway, the rest of the movie could just as easily been called, "A Run Through the Jungle."

There was a real Peril's of Pauline element to the wife in the deep hole, pregnant, struggling for food and water, then a flood, and then...gasp, a baby being born in the flood, holding the baby and the child over the water...and on and on.

Oh, and the son's 'native' getup was just too cute for words. A little Aztec cherub.

I think Mel missed his calling as a silent film director. He must have given directions to the inhabitants of the city something like this: "O.K. Look really, really evil and degenerate."

The evil, sly, crafty looks of the 'king' and the 'priest' weren't exactly subtle either.

I liked the arrival of the white man at the end, though, signaling the doom of the Aztecs.

New Books. Books! More Books!

I've decided to really go for new books. They did very well this summer, and I'm getting lots of folks in the door who are bookish.

I started to reorder most of the books I'd sold over the summer, and began to realize that almost all of them fell under the rubric of "cult" books -- not in the evil, fundamentalist "cult" sense, but in the old 'pop culture favorite' sense. The books that most readers end up reading, that are passed from friend to friend, that have become so much a part of our culture that they are constantly referred to in the media and conversation. Books like On The Road, or The Alchemist, or The Prophet.

Meanwhile, the "best sellers" I brought in because everyone said I should, like "The Shack" or "Breaking Dawn" are just sitting there...4 copies of a Stephanie Meyer book that everyone bought at Costgo.

After I was done reordering, I thought why not keep going that direction -- why not keep bringing in the classics, the perennials, the favorites...?

I plugged "Cool Cult Books" into Google, and up popped an article in The Telegraph.co.uk about the biggest 50 cult books.

Funny thing is -- I'd read almost all of them. And I'd also read almost all the books brought up in the comments.

And here I thought I was such an independent thinker. But I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull just like everyone else....

Anyway, plenty of food for thought, and plenty of great books still to bring in. Hopefully, by Christmas I'll have a great, great selection.

Reading or viewing?

Been reading lots of books and comics. Too many to review.

This, I think, is my natural state. Reading.

My T.V. hasn't been turned on much this summer. We switched over the digital a couple of weeks ago, and for a day or so, I had, like, 500 channels. I see ads for shows like True Blood, and I wonder if I should sign up for HBO. I wonder if I should get Netflix; I wonder if I should get Tivo. And biggest of all, a big screen T.V. with all the trimmings.

But....I keep thinking this would be like filling my fridge with donuts and cake and candy and ice cream and telling myself I'll eat only a little. I'll be good. I'll be choosy.

Uh, uh. Gorge city.

As usual, I'll check out the new shows like Fringe. Last year there were a whole bunch I thought I'd like, but ended up only watching Terminator (Sarah Conner Chronicles). Which I recommend, by the way, much better than you'd expect, and if you guys don't start watching it, it will go the way of Firefly and every other good S.F. that people only seem to discover after they've been cancelled.

Finished another Jack Reacher novel, Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child. Seems to get more and more ridiculous in getting the protagonist in interesting situations. Read a couple Stephen Greenleaf 'Tanner' novels; Death Bed and State's Evidence. Hit Parade by Lawrence Block. The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva.

I read a bunch of comics, but took them back to the store before writing them down. House of Mystery, Kick Ass, Richard Corben's Lovecraft series, who's title escapes me.

I love Corben's take on things; but then again, the comics include the original Lovecraft stories and poems, which are a whole nother level of weird.

I think what has held me up from blogging here more often is the need I feel for pictures. So....rather than hold off any longer, you get this.

Words not pictures.

The RIght Madness

James Crumley writes hardboiled fiction like a Raymond Chandler who is still alive and drinking after all these years, and doing drugs on top of that. And has a closet full of guns.

C.W. Sughrue is the Hunter S. Thompson of hardboiled detectives. If H.S.T. could've shot people (other than himself.)

I love it. I lost count of the colorful characters and falling bodies, but you don't read Crumley for the plot. You're just along for the ride.

Virgin Comics, only half a Virgin?

Every few years, a multi-millionaire will enter into the comic business with great fanfare, ready to show us fanboys how it's really done. Cross Gen, the late, unlamented Tekno (which I seem to be the only one who liked), are only two of the examples. They have a common characteristic of having big names involved -- who usually lend not much more than their name.

Virgin Comics was sponsored by Richard Branson.

Never took flight.

Not enough people gave it a spin.

I don't necessarily believe that there is wholesale rejection of new companies -- more that comics are a hard sell, no matter who you are, and if Marvel and DC weren't already Marvel and DC they'd have a difficult time.

Which makes Dark Horse Comics achievement all the more remarkable.

I'd say Image, too, except that they've come down so far from the height, that just surviving isn't really a success.

Interestingly to me, these comics often tend to find their footing a couple of years in, actually publishing comics that people want to read. I'm not sure if this is just because they have produced so many comics that they finally hit on a success by accident, or because they finally figure out the market. (See above Dan Dare comic....)

Of course, the Holy Grail of all these companies is to create licensed characters that can be made into movies, toys, T.V. etc.
I'm beginning to believe, in fact, that comics are nothing more than the Research and Development arm of Hollywood. Huge creativity expended at a relatively lower cost.

The comic pundits -- yes, we have pundits -- are ready to blame the insular comic market for these failures.

For instance, Dirk Deppey of Journalistica has this to say:

"The Direct Market caters primarily to a closed network of 25-35 year old men who’ve been reading Marvel and DC Comics for over a decade, and have next to no interest in buying anything that doesn’t cater to their narrow set of interests. You can occassionally snag a moderate number of readers by producing work that grabs them by the fanboy short-hairs — vampires, zombies and licensed versions of characters or creative works that they fondly remember from childhood are usually required — but anything else is slow death where money is concerned."

He apparently doesn't see the irony of an earlier statement in the same article:

"Setting the question of content aside — I haven’t read enough Virgin Comics to speak to that — "



Who screwed Virgin Comics? We all did.

Hugo Award for comics?

Well, graphic novels at least.

I suppose it might be hard to ignore Watchmen, 300, Sin City, etc., even for Science Fiction snobs.

Besides, why should there be such a thing as S.F. snobs. (And believe me, they exist....) Didn't they suffer from that same attitude for a generation?

Lot's of Mom's think it O.K. now to read S.F. and Fantasy.

Next.... broadening of the minds (or dumbing down of America, depending on which camp you inhabit) .........comics!

Quit playing video games, son! Read a good comic!

Bones of the Earth, Gridlinked.

I've known about Neal Asher for some time now, simply from recommendations and reviews. I even ordered most of his books for my store.

But I was waiting for a used copy to show up. I was almost ready to give up and turn one of my new copies into a used copy when Gridlinked appeared at Linda's store.

This is the first of Polity series, and it's very good. A far future cyberpunk novel, much like Richard Morgan's Kovic series, (Altered Carbon.)

I was feeling lucky in finding a new author to explore, when I picked up the second book pictured above. Bones of the Earth.

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time. Not sure why I hadn't read it before, because Michael Swanwick had written my favorite steampunk novel, The Iron Dragon's Daughter.

This is one of those compulsively readable novels that pin you to the couch and won't let you go. Time travel, paradoxes, creationists, and dinosaurs. Really fun. It's rare to read two great novels in a row, and I'm really relishing it.