LeEMS Bean

Richard of Doomed Moviethon on the Daily Turniquet

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:56:37 -0500

Richard of Doomed Moviethon has recently posted his "A Hierarchy of Italian Horror & Giallo Directors" on the The Daily Tourniquet. The Daily Turniquet is a new online horror mag with podcasts, fiction, and news where Richard will be contributing regularly from now on. Check out the Doomed Moviethon blog--Cinema Somnambulist for updates, and take a look at his first article for the Daily Tourniquet: "Ladies of Giallo."

Food Party!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:53:18 -0500

So, even though I was already acquainted with and a fan of Thu Tran's Food Party, I still managed to miss the first two episodes on IFC. I was even warned about it premiering ahead of time on Serious Eats. How could this possibly happen? What could possibly be wrong with me? Am I so preoccupied and harried that, not only am I not blogging, writing, web building, crafting, I can't even catch a show on TV--or set my DVR to record? Will we ever know the answers to these questions?

Much better than trying to figure out, is to bury yourself in the Food Party that's already out there and waiting for you while you wait for the next episode on Tuesday.

Don't scientists watch animated movies? Do they not know what they're getting into?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:04:48 -0500

Being the nerd that I am, when I read the story about Mice engineered with gene for human speech(io9) I immediately thought of The Secret of Nimh. If I am remembering correctly The Secret of Nimh revolved around a group of mice and rats who had escaped their lab imprisonment where they were made extra smart and given the capacity for speech and planning as they battled each other over the rats' idea that humans should be taken out.

So scientists today have engineered transgenetic mice with the gene for human speech. They have made the first step in a chain of events that is going to take away Mrs. Brisby's home and put her children in danger! Not to mention that if the outnumbered and well meaning among the small animal world don't succeed, the rat's are going to rise up, steal our electricity and murder us all! How can we let some lab coat buffoons put us all in danger like this without censuring them? Is anyone keeping tabs on these crazy scientific advancements?

Previously:

Anime beats real life again

Sci Fi Movie Reality

What anime hath fortold

Electronic Face Masks and Animated Prophesy

I love me some futuristic architecture

Successful Arm Transplants and a Murderers Hands

Lasers in the Sky: life from the movies

This is the comic that I built

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:35:31 -0500

Allow me to introduce you to Levi Levi. He is a private detective, but really he'll do just about any odd job and if you throw him something he won't do, he'll find you the guy/girl who will.

Levi has been hanging around in my head and sketch book for a little while waiting for his chance to provide me some respite from the very long comic project I've been working on. His segments will be relatively brief and offer a world of variation. For months now, and completely unlike me, I have been so focused on my extra long/involved project that I didn't need to use him, but it just so happens I felt the need last weekend and have a few pics and pages done already.

I have given him his own blog/rss feed thingy because it was the easiest way to present a page with those neat previous/next entry links without having to create pages from scratch. I'm thinking I will post new pages for him here too when I get them in, but I'm not resolved on how I'm going to do it.

I'm actually kind of nervous. Though I bought into the free website fad long long ago and eventually started renting ad free space and a domain for my artwork and craftiness and ever expanding list of projects and ideas, this one feels completely new and unexplored. Hope you like it in any case.

Another Cinderella Story: almost an awesome teen movie

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 12:53:51 -0500

The DVR is both a blessing and a curse for me. It allows me to catch shows I am genuinely interested in without having to chain myself to the TV. It enables me to program my own viewing even more than I did when I would routinely put in a movie to avoid TV programming. And it helps me catch shows and movies that I would have never seen because my passing curiosity was never enough for me to try and catch it when it aired. Warner Bros. Another Cinderella Story is one such movie. I would have never seen this without a DVR. That said, I do like a lot of teen movies. I'm not really sure why I do, and I don't like all of them, but.....you get it, right?

I pushed play on a lark late one night to peruse the thing and see if it had anything to offer. And once Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins from Ginger Snaps appeared on the screen, I was committed to the rest of the movie. I first became acquainted with Isabelle and Perkins from the Ginger Snaps movies. Werewolves, more than vampires I think, have a cheezy and unfortunate movie history. Ginger Snaps got it right for me. Not to say that there isn't enough fuel in the three movies for some robust geek debates, but I was satisfied, and entertained, and happy. And I was even more happy to see the two actresses who played the sisters in Ginger Snaps playing the evil pseudo step sisters in Another Cinderella Story. If they were only given more time on screen!

Unfortunately their parts didn't even have the meat of the adversary role in the film and they primarily occupied a comedy relief position in a movie that was kind of comedy all over. The rest of the film was kind of cookie cutter, pretty teen drama, with the added bonus of semi-musical, attitude-heavy dance routines.

Anyway.....'sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters. never had to have a chaperon no sir. I'm here to keep my eye on her......'

Sweet Charity

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:33:18 -0500

If The Music Man is a clever, albeit doily covered, soda shop/tea room of great musicals then Sweet Charity is a smokey, red-velvet covered after-hours club.

I have to admit, before I met my husband, I knew very little about the crazy creative force that was Bob Fosse. I knew what I liked, but it never occured to me to dig into it and rip from its bowels what would be the shared essence of other things, similar things, I might like just as much. I was a late bloomer musically too--about the only creative product I was completely up on until college was visual art.

Knowing a little more, now, about the personalities that mold any one creation, its easy for me to see that Sweet Charity reeks of Bob Fosse's sweat, and genius, and insanity, and it is lovely for it. I'm not big on heavy video posts, but I cannot help myself here. I'd rather watch these than continue to rattle on about it, so that's what you get to do too.

Sammy Davis Jr. and the "Rythm of Life"

My favorite number -- "Big Spender"

"Rich Man's Frug"

"There's got to be something better than this"

Bento Beat Box

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 14:31:15 -0500

Every morning I turn on the TV while I'm getting ready. First for the Weather channel (which is really unneccissary in Summer as every day is exaclty the same!) and then to a music video channel. I can't say why I started TV-ing my mornings, I'm not all that addicted to the box; and I remember, long ago, I used to wake up with a stereo and music. Anyway, the music video channels have become my only link to popular music in my radio-less existence. I am far too used to finding stuff online now and have developed a strange and exclusionary music persona. While I like discovering the random Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" and Honey Honey's "Little Toy Gun," there is only so much Theory of a Dead Man, and 'lil Wayne I can take (no offense--just personal taste). Well, wouldn't you know it, my incomplete salvation was at hand! Hiding in a free-on-demand channel in my digital cable was Bento Beat Box on Anime Network. This half hour show is like a mini music video channel for Japanese Rock brought to you by JRock Revolution.

So, ah, I'm not going to say that Rock in Japan isn't just more of the same done different--music 's like that all over the globe, but the fact that it is done different is refreshing in its own right. I'm also not going to say that it's not necissary at all to understand the lyrics in order to get all you can out of a song 'cause there is a lot of beautiful poetry in music, but really there are several popular songs supposedly in English that no one understands. I am going to say that even people without my strange and exclusionary musical persona could really enjoy the show. And now that I said all that I'm gonna whine, because I don't actually get the Anime Network as a channel and I really want to, and my free-on-demand doesn't update but once a month so I only have access to one measly episode. For those of you without my particular obstacles--go and discover some music, boost its ratings and all!

Noises Off

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:27:45 -0500

There are movies in my collection that are both so good and so not mentally taxing that I can run to them every time TV programming pisses me off. This is a lot. And so, these movies get watched a lot--and that's how good they are, as I never get tired of them. One such is Noises Off!. It is the story of the stage production of something called "Nothing On," which is full of sardines and telephones and doors. My only ever roomate, ex-roomate, wonderful friend can't stand this movie because she said it was too spot on (or something like that, she'll probably deny everything). I've never worked in theater myself, so I couldn't say though I have worked in artist spaces--which are just as flaky--and been in the small and buzzing enclosed spaces of a working theater production, so.....The characters in Noises Off! are the amalgamated caricatures of theater. At least I hope they are amalgamated caricatures, and amplified. It would be like walking around in a cartoon if one were surrounded by people like this. Walking around in a cartoon might seem cool at first, but I have a feeling it would drive everyone to lunacy(like Who Framed Roger Rabbit right?)--that's why cartoons are so fun to watch and not live. That's why Noises Off! is so much fun to watch.

A few random, closing thoughts: I wish Christopher Reeves had done more comedy. Carol Burnett is and always will be the bomb. I miss John Ritter.

Bavadoom at Doomed Moviethon

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:32:06 -0500

After gallons of work and heartache (I know, I watched) the much asked after Bavadoom is complete and offered up spread-eagled like on that paramount of horror movie obsession sites: DoomedMoviethon.com. From the Cinema Somnambulist (child and successor of DoomedMovieBlog):

"The moviethon consisted of 17 Mario Bava films watched in a little under 54 hours. While it was not as insane as Argentophobia and it wasn't nearly as drunken as Doomed Fulci-thon, my Mario Bava moviethon was a whole hell of a lot of fun."

Moonlight

Fri, 15 May 2009 09:06:33 -0500

While everyone is in a tizzy about Twilight and True Blood, I have been watching a completely different vampire drama and enjoying it very much, thank you. Rerunning on the SciFi channel right now, Moonlight is the classic vampire detective set up. Those of you who read The Vampire Files by P.N. Elrod will know what I'm talking about. While I have little to no interest in current SciFi shows I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the re-runs that pop up. This is how I discovered The Dresden Files, which I later bought; I will most likely buy Moonlight as well.

Of course, since its a re-run, perhaps all those Twilight and True Blood fanatics tuned in when it was new. I am behind the times--it happens a lot where TV is concerned. Moonlight offers up all the angsty, I-don't-want-to-be-a-vampire sentiment without getting too whiny; it has action, sexual/romantic tension, flashbacks, vampiric psuedo science, alternate history and a damn handsome leading couple. And while it may not be the most nourishing TV sustenance, it isn't complete junkfood--at least I don't feel dirty watching it. It's kind of like vitamin enfused softdrinks, that way. If you want to give it a try you can view clips on CBS.com.