Which Blade?

A while ago I got a large compendium of Witchblade, seeing good value for money (and an extremely heavy weight to hold while reading!). However, I had a hard time following the story, and a harder time telling two significant characters apart (one a cop, the other a bad guy, drawn the same). [And vol 2 now ordered!]

I was also aware of, and watched to catch up with some time, the Witchblade TV Series, and have now just finished season one (of two). I don't know how much of the story was dumbed down for the viewing American audience, but I certainly appreciated the easier bite-sized plot chunks.

However, it is, in many ways, still just as confusing. Deliberately confusing too, it seems, like the comic. The Witchblade is a mystical artifact that ends up on the arm of Sara Pezzini through a monumentally stupid coincidence, and proceeds to screw up her life. At many moments, Sara can tap into the Witchblade to see beyond the natural and to call upon the blade to help defend and/or kill people. There are lots of (extremely badly composed) shots swapping between normal Pez and Pez in armour, showing that she's a knight, and she's reincarnated through the ages and... lots of other surreal directorial techniques to demonstrate weirdness that just confuses the audience. (Just look at the episode titles to see how pretentious the series is.)

[Interestingly, the series was broadcast mid-2001, and the pilot/first episode is dated '10th September, 2001'. And some of the later establishing shots feature the twin towers. I'm sure the producers were later doing the 'nervous collar tug'...]

There are two sets of bad guys, dirty cops (the mundane threat) and Kenneth Irons, who wants to Witchblade for himself, although the Witchblade can only be possessed by women. The show actually kills people, but then in the last episode... bah! Every episode we get a little bit more of the puzzle, and have to say that the arc over the first season is paced well.

The lead is Yancy Butler, who was... (sod it, insert your own 'drug use' euphemism here), which might explain why every shot of her is with her looking as if she's about to break out sobbing. Yes, the character had problems, but the one expression was all she gave in any situation! (Recently, she was on The Mentalist, and... bam! there's that expression again!) It's rather off-putting to wonder if crying is the response we should expect in every scene.

Anthony Cistaro nearly steals every scene, but he gets given all the "I know everything, you know nothing" moments so the script is on his side there. The rest of the main cast were distinctly cast, so I had a lot easier time tracking who was who.

Aside from the 'spooky' moments, this series is moderately watchable. Onto season two, and I might try to dig out vol 1 of the comic again...

[END]

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Panrific!

Do you remember Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy? For a show that was only 16 episodes (31 shorts), it made a very large impact, and there have been a lot of references to it in later tv shows and movies.

And there's one aspect of it I quite like. Check out the trailer:

Pretty much everything you need to know about the show is right there in the trailer. It's a cartoon that is 'cops vs robbers' where the main lead is a super hero kung fu master. It has the Sarge, Rosemary and Penry, who becomes HKPh, and Spot (unnamed in the opening) the cat. Penry transforms into HKPh, but is rather incompetent at it, and only succeeds thanks to Spot. Especially when it comes to capturing criminals, they completely outclass him, but due to fortunate bungling and Spot, they are indeed captured. And there's the Phooeymobile, which can transform into other things (however, unlike in the opening, it doesn't screw up).

And that's by and large every episode in a nut shell. There are some additional amusing points as well. Everyone knows HKPh and is honoured to have their lives ruined by him. HKPh can pause any situation to consult his guide to kung fu. And, very responsibly, it shows HKPh and Spot buckling into the Phooeycar whenever they drive around in it.

Such a simple show, and so much joy.

[END]

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Re-Animated

As part of my occasional dealings with Lovecraft, I've been listening to the HP Literary Podcast, which discuss Lovecraft's stories. About twenty or so episodes in, and they're coming up to discussing Herbert West - Reanimator. I haven't read the story, but I did have the movie on DVD, so decided to watch that instead.

The story is about... well, Herbert West and his Re-animating. Of people, as it happens. And, well, wacky hi-jinks ensue! It's dead people coming back to life and running around, yeah, it's not an indepth serious epic about the nature of good and evil... and, indeed, what is evil varies throughout the movie. It's Science! Gone Mad! Maaaaddd!!!

And it seems like a student film. Well, it was Stuart Gordon's first directorial movie, and it was mid eighties and... it shows. That said, while it is of the time, they clearly had a lot of fun making it, and it also shows. The actors were willing to give anything a go, the effects aren't terrible, and the story is strong enough to carry.

And, of all the names associated with this (although he wasn't a name at the time), Herbert West is played by Jeffrey Combs. He's just quiet and creepy and sure of himself and damn fine casting for the role.

Lovecraft wasn't a zombie writer, and this isn't a zombie movie. In fact, this is about the part before the zombies happen. Most movies would use this as a jumping off point to do a zombie attack. Yay for not doing that.

The DVD has a range of extra material, including a 'making of' feature that is about as long as the movie itself. While that is nice, it also says a lot that they spend more time on not the movie than the movie (and there are many movies like that). "We'd rather talk about the movie than actually produce more/better movie." Huh.

Anyway, this is a twenty year old movie based on a ninety year old story... and it holds up! Go watch!

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Christchurch Quake in Graphical Form

Most of you have probably heard of the Christchurch earthquake. No, not the Sept 4 one, the Feb 22 one. I felt it up here in Wellington, the building shook for a long time, but that's nothing compared to down south.

As well as checking out GeoNet, there's another site that has compiled the statistics into easier presentation form, Crowe's Canterbury Quake Live. It's got daily magnitude graphs, weekly, and since Sept 4, and Tuesday's quake is very evident.

And there could easily be another major aftershock still to come.

You want to do something, but not even in New Zealand? Why not buy some RPGs then? RPGNow has a Christchurch relief RPG bundle, with a few big RPG books in there, and many NZ based, as well as add ons for other games. Take a look, or better still, buy it. It's only US$20.

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O Superman

It's one of those songs that, if you hear, you go "the hell...?" And, for comic geeks, of course, "Superman" has certain other resonances... But tracking down this song wasn't easy for a while. Until recently when I added a significant keyword to the search (hint: lyrics).

And then when you watch the full thing, you realise just how weirder it is than you thought. What exactly is she singing about? And yes, although this was written thirty years ago, certain events ten years ago come to mind...

Welcome to the electronic arms of "O Superman" by Laurie Anderson:

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Tombe of Horrors! Death III

With feeding a ring into the slot, they continue on to a corridor, to a stair way... to a door! Dum dum dummmm!

They open the door, eventually, and fall in the trap. But there's another door! They open that, fail to disable the trap and fall into it. But then there's the next door! Beyond that... they jump over the trap. Huh.

Continuing on, they find another door, with a party going on beyond it. Smash the door! Smash the door! No party there... they go down... and start sliding down the suddenly steep corridor! They try to climb up, but slide down! Oh noes! Death Count: +2!

...and then the players had had enough...

In the end: Fun 1, ToH 2. Humm...

Afterward, we played Betrayal at House on the Hill. I died. I wasn't the only one. But fun was had!

[END]

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Wanna be a priest?

So, how easy is it to become a priest these days? Various comedy shows have an episode where someone becomes a priest just to get an amusing storyline for that episode, and it's never mentioned again...

Is it really easy? Let's take a look.

Spiritual Humanism, right out of the gate, first page: "Online Ordination". Just fill out a form and wait by your mailbox.

The Universal Life Church Monastry once again simply says fill out a form.

Then there is Open Ordination...

Now, these churches all have a common thread of being very open and liberal and, well, humanistic. Becoming something like... a Catholic Priest is a bit trickier.

If you want to be a generic priest, go for it, it is easy! (Indeed, I'm almost tempted to be ordained more than once!) It's not like you're trying to get an actual degree or anything... (that'll be a different post!)

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