Haven’t We Met?

~ lobablanca

I love serendipity (the word, not the movie…although I do find the movie to be a lovely bit of diversion on a rainy afternoon).

In 2006, I found myself wandering the streets of Dublin, slack-jawed and amazed that I was in a place that perhaps had been walked a thousand times before by ancestors from my very own “long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” It was our first day in Dublin, in fact, and we were pretty much giddy and groggy from the long flight and virtual lack of sleep, and just ambling about without much of a point or purpose at all. That’s when I stumbled upon this lovely fellow:

He was located in a center island on O’Connell Street, not too far from the “Stiffy on the Liffey.” A nearby placard explained that he was part of a series of sculptures that had been commissioned for the Millennium celebration (the same celebration, we were later told by a tour guide, that had brought about the, er, erection of previously mentioned stiffy).

Of course, being a true member of my particular family, I happily photographed this rather pensive rock-dwelling rabbit. We are renowned for our propensity to photograph anything non-sentient or non-human, so a bronze bunny? Double win. Then we were once again on our way and I pretty much forgot all about this sculpture.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered this during a perambulation through the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden a few weeks ago:

Needless to say, this was an unparalleled delight to discover that my hippity-hoppity friend had somehow found his way across several years and several thousand miles to appear right in my own backyard. I also learned a bit more about the Thinker on a Rock, thanks to a little handout available at the garden entrance. I was a bit surprised to see that he was originally created back in 1997 since I was still under the impression that he had something to do with the millennium. Although, three years isn’t all that much time in the grand scheme of things, and perhaps he had merely been brought to the streets of Dublin because someone enjoyed Barry Flanagan’s artistry in general rather than having been actually commissioned specifically by Dublin for the purpose of this celebration.

Who knows? All I know is that, in the midst of what was already an extraordinarily enjoyable day of wandering through museums and the Mall, my happiness meter pinged off the scales when I found the Thinker.

Serendipity, FTW.

What’s Your Sign?

~ lobablanca

As most people know, this past weekend was the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, the combined crazy spoofiness sponsored by Comedy Central and hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I didn’t attend this rally (although I did get caught up in some of the mad rush trying to get downtown). I have a HUGE phobia against massive crowds, regardless of how amused I am by the purpose of said gatherings. Plus, I had quieter and more personally enjoyable plans for my weekend.

However, this morning I did find this link of the 100 Best Signs At The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear. Some of these are simply brilliant (and some of the people holding the signs are equally wonderful).

Several of these signs quickly became favorites, including the one that reads, “Teatard.” I’m only going to post one here, however, because if I start posting more than one, I’ll end up posting them all…and I don’t want to steal buzzfeed’s thunder. Here, then, is the one that made me laugh out loud and make a strange squee-like noise that made me grateful my officemate hadn’t arrived yet:

Of course I enjoyed it for the obvious reason, but I also loved it because whoever made this sign has a sense of humor as cheesy and geeky as mine. Case in point, this is a snippet from a blog entry I made during my Angry BloggerTM days:

When an American reporter later asked Bush if he realized that many people considered his statement to be highly hypocritical because many consider him to be xenophobic, he scoffed loudly and replied, “Who said I was Xena-phobic? I love that show! I think it’s great to see more women in action roles, especially ones who look so good in so little…know what I mean?” He then appeared to cringe visibly and several in the vicinity reported hearing loud screaming coming from the still unidentified “mystery bulge” beneath the president’s sports coat. Several reported that the voice sounded like Karl Rove. Mr. Bush promptly stopped talking and allowed Secret Service to escort him back to Air Force One.

See? Utter cheese of the strongest geek flavor. And, wow, talk about taking a walk down “Thank the prophets those days are over” lane! Ah, good times.

Anyway, take a look at the rest of the signs and, hopefully, laugh along with Loba.

Doctober 31: All Good Things…

~ lobablanca

What more appropriate title for this final Doctober entry than the title of the very last episode of TNG?

I can’t believe that Doctober is now over. I can’t believe that I have awesome, silly ImagiFriendsTM who suggested that this could continue into “Bevember” and even “Crushuary.” (I can, however, believe that I gave both those suggestions serious thought.)

There’s definitely a sadness, at least on my part, that this is the end of this month-long silliness. But this has been an extraordinary amount of fun. I hope that everyone who found their way here enjoyed the daily offerings…or, at the very least, didn’t find the entire idea too off-putting. I’d say I hope you didn’t find it too geeky, but even I know that this was a huge geek-o-rama. I’m okay with that. My quote here at the lair is a Dr. Crusher quote after all (five bars of gold-pressed latinum if you can name the episode from which it came). Geekery is all part of the business here at Chez Loba.

Rather than something over the top for this final posting, I decided I’m going to keep it simple…besides, how do you top the Zombie Crushers from yesterday’s post? It’s a bit impossible, if you ask me. Zombie Crushers win each and every time.

So, instead, I give you this lovely photograph of Gates McFadden, in “civilian” clothes. And I offer my warmest and most earnest gratitude to all who stopped by to see what new craziness this silly little wolf was offering up each day. Not only did Doctober keep my spirits high and my creativity levels soaring, but it helped to push my tracking statistics higher than they’ve ever been. Definitely an unexpected but incredibly appreciated bonus 🙂

Again, thank you. And we now return the lair to its regularly scheduled geekery…

Doctober 30: Night of the Living Crushers

~ lobablanca

“They’re coming to get you, Beverly…”

That would have been an interesting take on the whole Night of the Living Dead story, eh? Or what if both Crushers turned into brain-slurping zombies? We’ve already witnessed Dr. Crusher consuming Commander Riker’s brain through a straw, so obviously she’s got a bit of those dirty, dirty zombie cravings going on inside. And Wesley is her son…it’s just a matter of time before genetics caught up with him…

Of course, there already is an unofficial “Trek” take on this movie, thanks to Tom Savini’s 1990 remake of Romero’s original zombie tale. The remake stars Tony Todd, most famous to Trek fans as Worf’s brother Kurn (as well as famous to horror movie fans as the Candyman himself), and Patricia Tallman who…wait for it, denizens…was Gates McFadden’s stunt double. Remember the scene in Generations when Data pushes Dr. Crusher off the side of the sailing ship on the holodeck? That was Patricia Tallman going over the side. She was also McFadden’s double during the series run. She also doubled Nana Visitor, Michelle Forbes, Gwynyth Walsh, Louise Fletcher…let’s just say she doubled a lot of the Trek actresses. She also appeared as various characters throughout the run of TNG, DS9, and Voyager.

I very rarely say nice things about remakes, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for Savini’s NOTLD remake, mostly for the Trek influence but also because it’s a gooey, fun take on Romero’s original. Is it better in color than in black and white? That’s up for debate, I suppose. Is it better with Candyman and the Trek Stunt Actress Supreme? Uh. Yeah.

Oh, and because I know you want to see this, here’s what the official Night of the Living Crushers T-shirt design would look like. You know, this is the second Doctober posting that I wouldn’t mind seeing on a T-shirt…

Doctober 29: …Just Drawn That Way

~ lobablanca

As it is with most geeky entertainment genres, Star Trek has its fingers in many different consumer-friendly pies, including the extremely lucrative comic book world. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we delve into that particular collector paradise. I’m barely an amateur when it comes to comics; I have certain favorites that I visit now and again, usually in graphic novel format, but I’m by no means a capital-c “Collector.” And when it comes to Trek comics, I’m even worse. I think I own three TNG comics and one DS9 comic. The DS9 and one of the TNG comics were gifts, and the other two TNG ones I bought at conventions because…ready? Dr. Crusher was on the covers. As Comic Book Guy would no doubt say, “Worst. Collector. Ever.”

Then there’s this “comic,” which I think only barely makes the comic categorization by being comic-book size and being drawn. However, as you can see from the following pictures, the interior pages are almost coloring book-esque in their black line art and utter lack of any other color. Regardless of what this actually is, I can honestly say that this is one of the more delightful non-action figure collectible anomalies I own.

I assume that this company, Personality Comics, released an issue for all of “The New Crew,” but this is the only one I’ve ever seen. This one, in fact, didn’t come out until after Gates McFadden had returned to the show for the third season. But rather than blather on any further, I’m going to cut this short and let the photos speak for themselves. And believe me, they have some rather…unique things to say…

Doctober 28: Geminis and DoppleCrushers

~ lobablanca

You ever re-watch a show after you’ve watched a different show, and you have this weird epiphany about how Character A from Show A looks eerily like Character B from Show B?

Have I completely lost you all? Wait…I promise this will make sense in a minute (and I mean “sense” in the loosest, Loba-iest meaning of the word).

So I’m watching/re-watching Twin Peaks right now. I put it this way because I admittedly didn’t finish watching it the first time it was on television. It came out when I was 13 and I really couldn’t be asked to follow something that bizarre and intricate when my biggest concerns were turning in my homework on time, not blowing up the science lab because of my wonky math skills, and not getting an in-school suspension because my skirt didn’t touch the floor when I got down on my knees.

(You think I’m kidding about that last part. Sadly, I’m not. And, sadly, I did get an in-school suspension around this time for this precise reason.)

Yeah, so Twin Peaks. I’m really digging it this time around in ways similar to how I hated Mulholland Drive the first time I saw it but now love it and think it’s one of the most awesome movies Lynch has ever made. But something that struck me as totally bizarre and completely amusing during this viewing is the fact that Nadine Hurley and Beverly Crusher could be twins.

Not like creepy The Shining twins. Actually…

Okay, no. That’s just too creepy.

However, look at this:

Okay? Now, look at this:

See what I mean? The only thing that really throws me off is that Nadine is way shorter than Dr. Crusher is. Other than that, these two are like sisters from another mister…only, you know, separated by about 400 years. And played by completely different actresses.

Whatever. All I know is that this makes me want to add an eye patch to every photo of Dr. Crusher I can find. Wouldn’t that have been awesome (even if slightly disturbing that the CMO of the Federation’s flagship would choose an eye patch over an ocular implant)? And there is precedent for cool eye-patchery: Saul Tigh, Snake Plissken, Commander Franky Cook from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Elle Driver from Kill Bill…and let’s not forget General Chang, the Klingon with the eye patch bolted into his skull. See? Cool and badass.

I think Dr. Crusher would look awesome sporting an eye patch. Don’t you?

Doctober 27: The Springtime of Her Voodoo

~ lobablanca

I can’t sing the praises of TrekCore.com enough. Especially their Rare Photos section, which delights me to no end, no matter how many times I peruse the archives. There are so many photos that make me wish I could have been privy to what was transpiring just outside the confines of that moment forever frozen in time.

There are several candid shots of the TNG crew from the first season that I find particularly mesmerizing. Images like these two, in which something is going on right off-camera that has obviously utterly delighted Dr. Crusher and Commander Riker:

(Also, just a guess here, but I bet Frakes went home with a bruise from Gates belting him in that second shot.)

Or this one, with Data in a cardigan (“Will you not be my neighbor?”)

Or this odd publicity shot of the lovely ladies of TNG:

Okay, let’s try this one again. Bev, take off the lab coat. And, Tasha, put your leg down.

No, still not right. Too red. And, Deanna, stop slouching!

Now that’s much better. This was actually the final shot they used as a publicity photo. Do you remember the captain’s chair with wood on the instrumentation panels? Neither do I. I also don’t remember Dr. Crusher’s lab coat ever looking quite so…crushed velvety.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today, denizens. Well, except for this screen capture, which didn’t come from TrekCore, but still delights me. Why? Because these are my three favorite TNG characters.

DVDregs: Mimic

~ lobablanca

Well, here’s a surprise: a new DVDregs from the “M” section of my collection? Wasn’t my last movie from “D”? Were there really no questionable movies from E-L? Actually, there are still movies in “D” that I’m considering for this segment. It just so happens that I needed to watch Mimic for another reason, and it was one of the stronger contenders from my collection for this segment. So, you know, two birds, one stone, yadda yadda.

I remember seeing Mimic in the theater when it came out in 1997. I also remember liking it, which is why I bought it on DVD a few years later when I found it in a Halloween-themed bargain bin for $5. I also remember never watching the DVD after I bought it. So it’s been more than 10 years since the last time I saw this movie. Could it really stand up to the passage of so much time in between viewings? Or would this be another one of those impulse buys destined to migrate downstairs to the donation box?

The story begins with a scene in which we and the primary protagonist, Dr. Susan Tyler, are introduced to a room full of dying children, all suffering the final stages of a disease that is being spread by the cockroaches of New York City. Why has the CDC called in Dr. Tyler? Why, because she’s a renowned entomologist! Who else would you bring in to deal with diseased cockroaches? Orkin?

So Dr. Tyler goes about doing something that we pretty much thought was completely impossible: She eradicates the entire cockroach population of NYC. She creates an insect hybrid, which she calls the “Judas” breed, that is designed to release an enzyme that will be the kiss of death to the roaches. Hey, was that a pun made at the expense of the name Judas? And should we be concerned that something might go amiss with a bug breed named after the disciple who betrayed Christ? Hmm, I wonder if this bug is going to…I don’t know…betray anyone? Nah, that can’t happen, because Dr. Tyler has also programmed these insects to have a limited life span and an inability to breed. What could possibly go wrong with that?

The Judas bugs are successful. The roaches are all killed, the children stop getting sick, and all is well. We think. So does Dr. Tyler, who is heralded as a hero. Er, heroine. So we skip ahead 3 years. Dr. Tyler is now married to Dr. Peter Mann, the CDC dude who first brought her in on this project, they’re happy, they’re upwardly mobile, they’re attractive…all is right. For about 10 minutes. Then the shit hits the fan. Or the ceiling, actually. Yes, there is a scene in which we see poo hanging from a ceiling. We see more than one of these scenes throughout the rest of the movie. Along with a lot of blood. And sweat. And gooey, viscous white stuff.

Okay, here’s where I derail the description a little bit and go off on a famous Loba Tangent. I make no secret about the fact that I love horror movies. I’ve seen my share of all kinds of them…slasher flicks, thrillers, monster movies, sci-fi horror, psychological, etc. I know what scares me and what I view with a sense of meh-laise.

Most stuff gives me a momentary jolt and then passes into the mist of my movie memory banks. Some stuff sticks around. White gooey glop? That sticks. I don’t know why, but I find scenes in horror movies that contain some kind of milky, viscous substance to be very squeam-inducing. It’s just gross. Worse than blood. Worse than entrails. Worse than rotting flesh.

This movie is filled with this goo. It’s everywhere. People are smearing it on themselves. The bugs are oozing it. It looks glisteny and gross and there’s no escaping it.

I don’t really want to give away much else about the actual story, because it is a rather intriguing twist. Let’s just say that Dr. Tyler wasn’t very successful at programming her Judas bugs to self-terminate. And they are aptly named. How they betray is where the intriguing twist resides.

One of the things that most surprised me when I re-watched this film was the fact that it was directed by Guilermo del Toro. In fact, I think this was one of his first American movies. I adore del Toro’s style, which is definitely prevalent throughout this film, even if it is early in his career (and even if he has pretty much disowned this movie because of “artistic differences” between him and the Weinstein brothers, who produced the movie). There is an unevenness in the storytelling at times, shifts in the script that stray away from the darkness that is so obviously a del Toro trademark. It makes me wonder what a purely del Toro take on this movie could have been.

That being said, Mimic is still successful at setting a disturbing, dark atmosphere. There are pure slices of fright embedded throughout this movie. There’s also an annoying boy who plays the spoons and calls out types and sizes of shoes worn by everyone who walks by him. I have a feeling he was supposed to be a sympathetic character. I kept wishing for the white viscous glop pit for him. Sadly, it never came (and that’s the only spoiler I’m going to give you). True, the movie does show its age through some rather dated and mediocre CGI effects, especially toward the end. But there are enough traditional physical effects throughout to make up for the less impressive CGI.

The cast includes Mira Sorvino as Dr. Tyler, Jeremy Northam as Dr. Mann, Charles S. Dutton as a surly but good-hearted NYC cop, Josh Brolin as Dr. Mann’s coworker (ironically named Josh), F. Murray Abraham as Dr. Tyler’s mentor/conscience, Dr. Gates, and Giancarlo Gianini as Manny the shoe shine guy with the annoying spoon-playing kid. Not a bad cast, although I did find Sorvino to be a bit of a weak link at times.

To be honest, I have a very difficult time seeing Sorvino as anything other than either Romy or her guest role on Will & Grace (“You spun me right ’round, Will! Like a record!”). To me, she’s a brilliant comic actress, perfect at being the foil to the silliness transpiring around her. In roles like this one, she simply doesn’t bring the gravitas I expect in such characters. Whether that’s a flaw of her skills or of my expectations, I don’t know.

Dutton and Brolin, however, provided two of my favorite performances in this film. Dutton is especially likable and sympathetic, and you’re with him all the way (even if you can see where he’s heading a thousand miles away…even in the damp darkness of those underground subway tunnels).

DVD Special Features: Um. There are none. Unless you consider the theatrical trailer and “Chapter Selection” to be special features. Personally, I don’t. I’m quite surprised by the fact that there was nothing else included with this movie, not even a sunshine-pumping featurette or the standard commentary track. I guess this might have something to do with the clash between del Toro and the Weinsteins, who put up the financial backing for this film and apparently interpreted that as “We’re paying for it so screw your artistic vision and give us what we want to see.”

Of course, this makes me wonder why del Toro wouldn’t be interested in releasing his own director cut of this movie, to fix all that he felt went wrong due to Weinstein interference. Then again, he’s moved on to much more impressive things like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, Frankenstein, and prep work for At the Mountains of Madness (look! A tie-in with yesterday’s BookBin2010 posting!).

Final Verdict: Even though I feel supremely let down by the fact that this DVD had absolutely no special features, I still like this movie enough to want to keep it in my collection. Though not a cinematic classic, it’s still a fun, gooey thrill ride to pop in on a dark and rainy autumn evening.

BookBin2010: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

~ lobablanca

Honestly, denizens, I never thought I would finish this book in time for another BookBin2010 entry. I started reading this the night after I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife, so, yes, it took me almost an entire month to finish this collection. It’s only 406 pages; however, to be fair, it’s a very dense 406 pages. Dense like trying to traverse a virgin tropical rain forest with a plastic spork.

The collection in question is The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. As I mentioned in this book review, I only recently read my first H.P. Lovecraft stories. And, as I mentioned, a big part of this reason was an inherent Cthulhu hurdle I’ve developed through various encounters with rabid Cthulhu fans who tainted the concept for me.

After thoroughly enjoying “The Rats in the Walls” and “The Colour Out of Space,” however, I decided that it was time to tackle more Lovecraft and, hopefully, banish this hurdle from my mind. Plus, I had a Borders gift card burning a hole in my pocket (because prophets know I need more books!). I grabbed this particular compilation because it contained both these previously read stories (even though this now means I have these stories twice, I assumed that the other short stories in the collection were chosen because they were perhaps similar in scope and scares, which is what I wanted) as well as the very first Cthulhu story. No better way to banish the hurdle than by starting at the beginning, right?

Before I continue, here is a list of the short stories contained in this collection:

  • “The Rats in the Walls.”
  • “The Picture in the House.”
  • “The Outsider.”
  • “Pickman’s Model.”
  • “In the Vault.”
  • “The Silver Key.”
  • “The Music of Erich Zann.”
  • “The Call of Chthulhu.”
  • “The Dunwich Horror.”
  • “The Whisperer in Darkness.”
  • “The Colour Out of Space.”
  • “The Haunter of the Dark.”
  • “The Thing on the Doorstep.”
  • “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”
  • “The Dreams in the Witch-House.”
  • “The Shadow Out of Time.”

All in all, a rather solid and impressive collection. It starts out incredibly strongly, in fact, with several of these first short stories holding some amazingly horrific ideas and imagery. Plus, M. Night Shyamalan’s got nothing on Lovecraft when it comes to the twist ending. Lovecraft possessed a brilliantly disturbed imagination, which I’m sure earned him just as many detractors as fans when he was writing. He was able to plumb the sinister depths of his mind in ways that very few writers have ever successfully done.

That being said, I believe this collection began to fall apart for me around “The Call of Cthulhu.” I tried. I really did. But I just don’t care about Cthulhu. I respect those who do enjoy this Lovecraftian mythology, but I found this particular story to be a tad bit tedious. It was also around this point in my reading that I began to notice the rather laborious nature of Lovecraft’s narrative.

Unfortunately, this latter realization was something that I couldn’t seem to shake throughout the rest of my reading. Each story at times felt like a slog through beautiful but unnecessarily cumbersome prose. Subsequently, each story took a great deal of time to get into; however, once I was involved in the stories, they almost always succeeded in captivating and haunting me. Almost each one following “The Call of Cthulhu,” however, contained some kind of reference to Squid Face and his particular mythology. Sigh.

Final Verdict: I’m definitely keeping this collection. I don’t think I will ever attempt to read it in its entirety again, but I foresee revisiting almost every single one of the stories separately. That’s one of the things I love most about collections like this; the ability to flop down on the couch on a rainy day and randomly flip open to a favorite short story for a quick scare or two. It’s why I love my Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe anthologies so much.

As for more H.P. Lovecraft, I do believe that my next attempt at reading his writings will be his novel At the Mountains of Madness, in honor of the upcoming movie being headed by Guillermo del Toro. I figure, even if the narrative of this novel is as dense as his short stories, I’ve got until the movie’s 2013 release date to finish. That should be just enough time…

Doctober 26: Candidate Crusher

~ lobablanca

Bet you didn’t know that becoming the head of Starfleet Medical was a democratic process, did you? Look at all the fantastic things that Doctober is teaching you, denizens!

Anyway, this is Loba’s non-subtle way of reminding American denizens that a week from today is November 2, which means…time to vote!

(Sadly, however, you won’t be able to vote for Dr. Crusher. Although, if you’d like to use her as a write-in candidate, I can’t tell you not to. Just be sure to take a photo if you do 😉 )

I know, I know, politics. Yay. About as enjoyable as trying to give a cat a colonoscopy (there’s a visual I bet you wish you didn’t have in your head right now). But the political process is one that affects us all, even if it’s in subtle ways, every single day. Don’t think that because this isn’t a presidential election year that it isn’t important. In fact, I’d argue that local political issues are in many ways more important, because these are the politicians creating laws and making decisions that will impact you much closer to home.

And why am I saying all this a week before the actual day? To give you all time to start reading up on your local races. Don’t just toe your party’s line. Don’t turn on the television and see who slings the most mud in the most convincing ways. Learn what these people stand for, what they believe, what they want to bring to the table. Make smart decisions. But don’t be apathetic. Don’t shrug and say that you’re just one person. Too many people are doing just that. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of stupidity is that smart people do nothing.”

So get involved, get informed, get out and vote. That is all.