Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Friday B-Movie Pick: Love at First Bite

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Love at First Bite

From 1979 comes this comic send up of the Dracula legend with a great comic cast. George Hamilton as the Count, Artie Johnson as Renfield, Richard Benjamin as the decendent of Von Helsing (who changed his name to Rosenberg for “professional reasons”), and Susan St. James as the love interest of both Rosenberg and Dracula. The movie starts out with Dracuala being kicked out of Romania by the Communist government and moving to New York City. It is a period piece (late 1970s, complete with a big dance number at a disco), but the gags are great and the cast really delivers.

Friday B-Movie Archive

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Walk Hard

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Walk Hard – The Dewey Cox Story

This musical bio-pic mockumentary takes on multiple musical bio-pics, but mostly the very well done Johnny Cash story, Walk the Line. John C. Reilly is a great pick, since he does all his own singing and guitar playing, which he actually does quite well! The rest of the cast is quite funny and the music is really good too! Yes, I bought the soundtrack CD.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: The Jennifer Morgue

Monday, February 8th, 2010

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.

It’s another tale from the “Laundry Files.” British Civil Servant Bob Howard is forced to save the world from the horrors of the “Old Ones” once again, while dealing with the mind numbing horrors of government bureaucracy at the same time. Stross pays tribute to the British institution of James Bond in this book as well.

Monday Book Pick Archives

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Confessions Of An Action Star

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Confessions Of An Action Star

Classic low budget B-Movie mockumentary film from 2005. It “documents” the career of major action star Frank Sledge. Starting from his humble beginnings as a dancer, don’t laugh, David Carradine knew absolutely zero martial arts when he landed the lead role in Kung Fu. He got the part based on his skill as a dancer and the fact that he wasn’t Chinese. There is also fun poked at Steven Seagal’s films, who, while an actually highly trained and experienced martial artist, had no acting background when he did his first feature film (Above the Law). This is complete with delightful cameos by actual actors talking about their work with Frank Sledge.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation


Merry Christmas! Let us revisit this classic 1989 film starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo and Randy Quaid in one of his best known roles.

B-Movie Archive

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SNL takes on Obama, again.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

The last time SNL did a skit that wasn’t completely fawning of our Dear Leader, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer actually spent air time “fact checking” the skit.  I wonder if SNL took that under consideration for this skit.  Their facts are spot on.  In all, a much better job of political reporting that you would see on MSNBC during their “prime time” smear shows.

HT to Mr. Reynolds and Hot Air.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Strange Brew

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Strange Brew

Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis star in this 1980’s comedy classic about a couple of Canadian lads out to make the Great White North safer for beer, hockey and back bacon. Oh, and don’t forget beer, can’t mention beer enough when talking about this movie.

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New Paltz Fencing

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Way back when I was an undergrad, I was a plank holding member of the New Paltz College Fencing team. It seems they are still around. I found a couple reasonably recent articles about the team.

Ohh…it seems they have a Facebook page, which I will have to join. Plus, they have this bit of fencing humor which I’m reposting.

Sabreurs – or “sabreurs” fence sabre – a single-edged weapon characterized by sudden charges and wide, slashing attacks. Sabreurs prefer tight black leather clothing. Studded collars and wristbands are also quite common, as well as dog-collars, leather hoods, multiply- pierced body parts and grotesque or obscene tattoos. While many wear highly-polished pointed-toed boots with silver toe caps and spurs, most prefer heavier stompin’ boots of the Doc Marten variety.

Sabre fencers tend to be more heavily built than the other two. In sharp contrast to the casual brutality of the epeeists, or the studied, exquisite cruelties practiced by foil fencers, sabreurs are most often prone to random behavior. Screaming is a common manifestation of this, and the source of much amusement for groups of sabreurs out on the town. (Particularly when touring libraries, museums, retail outlets, and hospital wards.) Occasionally a sabre fencer will leap without warning into heavy traffic. His compatriots will generally take advantage of the ensuing confusion to loot the nearest music store.

Epeeists are tall. Very tall. A group of very tall men and women lounging on a street corner are either basketball players or epeeists. The difference is that basketball players will help a little old lady across the street, while epeeists are more likely to take her purse and throw her over. There is no real epee “costume”, except that they tend to wear track suits and shave their heads. Their women are the most beautiful of all the fencing women, but also the most likely to knife random passers-by and take their wallets.

All epeeists wear very expensive running shoes which they have invariably stolen. It is a mark of shame in the epee subculture to wear legally-purchased footwear. Naturally this is difficult to ascertain merely by looking, and of course asking about it can lead to other complications.

Foilists tend towards bright colors and flashy outfits. White sports jackets with pink shirts, gold chains and floppy white hats are common foilist attire. Foilists are usually smaller and slighter than their colleagues in the other weapons. This has bred in them a furious temperament and a tendency to pick fights with anybody at any time for any reason. It is said of foilists that if the chips on their shoulders were any bigger they could fly to tournaments on the next stiff breeze. Certainly it is true that after a night on the town any given 5′ 6″ foilist considers himself a match for any two members of the local police department. Additionally, foilists have a thing for knives – not surprising, given the nature of their sport. Most foil fencers carry at least one secreted about their persons, which they are prone to pull on people who upset them. Bar staff take note: junior and cadet-age foilists invariably become upset at persons asking them to provide proof of age at licensed drinking establishments.

Unlike epeeists and sabreurs, few foilists will stoop to common looting or shoplifting to support their lifestyle. Extortion, protection rackets, and credit card fraud are their thing. And while a sabre fencer might bodily throw a blind person in front of a bus, the more subtle foilist will merely suggest to one that it is now safe to cross. It is this delicacy of disposition, combined with a propensity towards sudden, directed violence, which makes the average group of foilists walking down the street as cunning and as dangerous as a bag full of mutant wolverines. Certainly it is this last group which is most to be avoided when traveling the streets of our fair city during a tournament weekend.

Before you ask, I was a sabre fencer. We had a four man sabre team, including our resident southpaw and Calvin, the manic-depressive art student who’s art always had more that bit of red in it.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Van Wilder

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Van Wilder

This early work by Ryan Reynolds is a fitting successor to Animal House. Complete to the actor who played Otter appearing as Van’s father.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: The Foot Fist Way

Friday, November 6th, 2009

The Foot Fist Way

Oh my! I studied Tae Kwon Do back in the 70’s and 80’s and there is a lot more truth to this film than I am comfortable thinking about. It is very funny in spots and in the end, a story of a man finding his center and confidence in who he is, and being able to pass that message on to others.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

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