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Posted

Watched a weird old animation called Gandahar, wonder why stuff like this doesn't get made anymore?

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

Posted (edited)

Houdini and Doyle ep 8: "Strigoi"

Given the pile-up of historical inaccuracies (but to be fair, this has to be an alternate history, really), its sometimes amazing that I like the series as well as I do.  This one deals with (Doyle's real life friend) Bram Stoker.  Doyle had met Stoker at about 18 or so, IIRC, and they had become friends.  Stoker would have already had his first book published and Doyle would have been starting (or about to start) medical school.  Later in life Stoker and Doyle would collaborate on two chapters of a collaborative novel, "The Fate of Finnella".  Stoker was a fan of Sherlock Holmes.

 

Set about 3 years after Stoker's publication of DRACULA.  In real life, while well reviewed, the book was only a modest seller.  Dracula's popularity as an element of pop culture was three decades away.  Here, though, the novel has made Stoker a veritable recluse - sort of.  We find the real reason he has become a hermit is his tertiary syphilis (speculated by biographers, but I believe not actually proven).  I believe the symptoms presented here don't really match up, but not being a disease expert I'll leave that alone.

 

Stoker is presented as a little old man - and while he may have been 53 at the time the show is set in, the real Bram Stoker was a big burly man with red hair and beard. Also this presentation dispenses with Stoker's wife entirely - she outlived him by two decades (and while considered a great beauty of the time is mostly known today as the widow who fought the distribution of NOSFERATU for copyright violations and won).  Henry Irving - the actor Stoker represented, and Stoker's role as Business Manager of Irving's Lyceum Theater is also missing (this being where he primarily made his money for many years, including the post Dracula ones)

 

That said, the story was fairly fun; Stoker's servant is killed with a stake.  Two groups circle Stoker's fame - a group of self-professed vampires and a group of self-professed vampire hunters.  Its funny to see Houdini rail against the vampires for hanging around graveyards, given that we're only a year (or so) removed from the Victorian era that saw many seeing a cemetery as a park - a nice place to walk and have a picnic.  While Houdini from the US may not have had any connection to that, Doyle and Constable Stratton would have, and so nothing being said seemed odd (or maybe it was because hanging around the graveyards at night was odd - just seemed a bit like a missed opportunity to talk about a weird real-world historical factoid).  The mystery adds a lot of inconsistencies allowing the viewer to muse whether or not there really were vampires or not.  And as always the main leads make their characters engaging, with Houdini having dialed back some of his more irritating mannerisms to be more in tune with the other characters.

Edited by Amentep

I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

Posted (edited)

 

the real Bram Stoker was a big burly man with red hair and beard.

 

 

Much like the real Jane Austen, a noted pugilist and libertine.

Edited by Nonek
  • Like 1

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

Posted

First ep of Preacher was weird as hell, imo. It took me about 3 episodes to finally get it a lil bit.

"only when you no-life you can exist forever, because what does not live cannot die."

Posted (edited)

we don't know anything 'bout preacher comics.  also, we only saw first episode o' the tv show.  that being said, the way we saw first episode were that some kinda entity were looking for a compatible host.  first prospective vessel were a christian minister in africa.  explode.  second were a satanist in eastern-europe or russia or some such.  explode.  tom cruise were indeed mentioned via a tv news broadcast.  explode.

 

the titular character, as far as we could tell, were like baby bear from the goldilocks fable.  unlikes papa bear or mama bear, baby bear were an ideal fit for goldilocks.  the preacher's inner conflict is what seeming made him sympatico with the moaning space miasma. he is a bad man trying to do good?

 

dunno. only one episode. perhaps am reading all wrong.

 

the friendly irish vampire attacked by the religious fanatics (nothing says crazy like a defaced bible filled with jack torrance inspired doggerel) whilst he were bartending (?) on a charter jet, will no doubt play a greater role in the future, but he is clear a protagonist.

 

two things we got from pilot: 1) camp meter will be set extreme high, and 2) the not-so-subtle theme o' Religion Sucks will be a constant.

 

looks kinda fun.  am kinda a binge watcher these days, so will likely wait 'til the season is finished and then watch all X episodes over a couple weekends.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited by Gromnir

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

Posted

Last ep of Preacher ended quite dark. Did not expect this, heh. But I'll guess I should have, considering what happened before.

"only when you no-life you can exist forever, because what does not live cannot die."

Posted

Knight Rider blu-ray, complete series, October 4.

 

Just waiting on Magnum P.I. to join Airwolf and KITT in the holy eighties HD triumvirate. 

All Stop. On Screen.

Posted

Knight Rider blu-ray, complete series, October 4.

 

Just waiting on Magnum P.I. to join Airwolf and KITT in the holy eighties HD triumvirate.

 

I think Magnum P.I. ages much better than Airwolf and Knight Rider. Is MacGuyver not part of your pantheon?

"Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin.

"P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle

Posted

Olympic trials. Confirmation lady gymnasts are the Navy SEALs of sport, dedicated quick-strike multi-point extraction specialists.  

All Stop. On Screen.

Posted

Wait.. there's going to be a spinoff from the Blacklist?    Blacklist Redemption..

 

 


Covert operative Tom Keen joins forces with Susan "Scottie" Hargrave, the brilliant and cunning chief of a covert mercenary organization that solves problems that are too dangerous for the government.

 

Said Susan Hargrave to be played by Famke Janssen..

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

Posted

Stranger Things is up on Netflix. I was sold halfway into the first episode. I'm halfway into episode 3 now and still enjoying it.

  • Like 1
"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
Posted

Oh man, time for bed, the Open Championship is live this year starting tomorrow at 4am. Professional golf back home in Scotland, woot!

All Stop. On Screen.

Posted

Finished bingeing Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now we need to catch up on Orphan Black, Killjoys, and Dark Matter before the new PVR gets here in a couple weeks.

The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Devastatorsig.jpg

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