More on the end of things.

If you read the last post you can probably guess that I love those post apocalyptic and disaster type of movies, books, comics, whatever, but I have to say that Cormac McCarthy has written one that stands out in a very crowded genre, "The Road". It is literature, it is eloquent in its stark portrayal of the end, in a world stripped bare and burnt, the characters even lack names. How did the end come about? We as the readers aren't given that info in its complete state, I don't know if the characters know for certain what's transpired. It doesn't matter, the story is the father, his son and their struggle to survive. It won a Pulitzer Prize this year, read it if you dare. This story doesn't pull any punches and I have to be honest that made me love it, but other people I know have said it made them feel sad for days. Just like that first time I saw "The Day After" it served as a stark reminder that those apocalypse scenarios are not the rollicking shoot'em up and it'll be ok later we've seen in some movies. Not that I don't love those as well, but sometimes its good to reminded of the reality and consequences of the actions that we as a species commit have on the world around us.

Whew! Literature and social consciousness in one post, way too heavy. I can't wait to head to DragonCon and lighten up some.

Mmm, mmm zombies!

The end is coming! Whether by flood, fire, nuke, microscopic bug, alien invasion, or zombie the a-pocky-calypse is on the way! Are you prepared to fight off cannibal corpses? war lords run rampant? over zealous shoppers looking for toilet paper and milk before the nuke-u-lur winter sets in? Popular Mechanics magazine has a cover story on surviving disasters, and even Dragon Con has a track with panel talks, guests and who knows what else about the end times. We've all seen it countless times in movies, on TV and in books, things can't last forever, and they never end good. I just finished Richard Matheson's story "I am Legend" about the last living man on earth , and he wasn't alone. What a cool story, the Charlton Heston movie "Omega Man" didn't do it justice (I still liked the movie). Vincent Price did a version as well, and later this year Will Smith will put his spin on Robert Neville, last living man on earth. Another in the line of Romero remakes, "Day of the Dead" will come out sometime in the not too distant future starring Ving Rhames, looks like he might be just the guy to know when it comes to making the dead deader still. Not too long ago the History channel had a special that featured multiple ways for the old home planet to cease and desist that ranged from asteriods, to killer germs, to of all things some type of particle accelerator. Any way you cut it man we're DOOMED!

So stock up on ammo and MRE's and I'll see you at the rally point!

Anime lately

I've been watching a lot of anime lately, and I'm always amazed that even thru the filter of another culture the work seems so superior to what I see in american animation. Not all of it is good by any stretch of the imagination, nor is all american animation bad, but in general the japanese stuff sports good story lines, detailed writing that carries an arc for one or more seasons. You can't really judge on what you see on tv here because those are what the american distributors think the viewing public can understand.

Ugh, I didn't start this post to be a rant but praise for a couple of recent shows I have finished, one being "Black Lagoon", a story of a group of mercenary/pirate types, its the interpersonal story that played out I wasn't expecting. It was also just a good ol' bloody shoot'em up some times. It has gangsters of all types, thieves, hustlers, and arms dealing nuns just for good measure.

The other was a story about a junior high kid feeling like he's stuck in a rut, until he "saves" this oddball little dog, and meets the dogs owner a local musician. His life gets better and he does join the band but that's all I want to give away. I really enjoyed this one despite myself, and in the end it made want to listen to music the rest of the weekend.

I have a couple more to watch "Darker than Black", "Mushishi", "Death Note" and a couple of others but the list is of course always growing. On the american side I watched the new "Hellboy: Iron and Blood" and it definitely rocked. I really hope they continue with this series of films, both animated and live action.

Historical Facts

I'm a day late on this but the spirit of the season is still upon me. Here is a link to the fate of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The rockets red glare

Those words took on a new meaning this evening. On the way home from a cookout with friends my ride began to feel like a night flight over Baghdad in the early days of desert storm. It started on Cedar Lane headed toward Merchants Road when quite literally I was the target of a barrage of some type of fireworks rockets. I couldn't tell if it was a couple of kids shooting bottle rockets at the same time or one of those little boxes that shoots multiple rockets, but when one of them hit the front fender just in front of the driver's side door, I let out quite a few expletives that I'll leave out of the post here, and it didn't end there, a second barrage went off near the railroad tracks on Merchants (right next to the Weigels) I think it came from the driveway to my immediate rear. To finish it off a really big rocket came screaming across the South Knoxville connector in front of myself and several other cars.

I guess I remember doing stupid things when I was a teenager, and in recent years fireworks seem so much more prevalent, meaning more people who have no business shooting them are, as well as letting their kids (read way to young to have explosives of any type) play with them. This year seems especially perilous with the extra dry weather we've had, thank goodness I'm not a fireman. Well that little slice of "drama" is over, and I guess it made the ride home interesting at least.

Happenings

The car, running again, $328.01 later.
Bought Mom a Baker's Edge brownie pan for her birthday (only bakes edge brownies).
Helping at least one friend move this weekend, maybe two.
and....
...uuhhhh....
...wow, that;s about it, life seems pretty simple right now.

Photo fun

Just got around to going through some of the miscellaneous photos from my life and posting them to my Flickr account in a new set. I'm trying to get better about using the tools I have in some meaningful way (meaningful to me). Keep checking back on that set it promises to grow quite a bit.

Mom's birthday is this coming Friday and I have no idea what to get her, or for that matter her exact age (although I'm sure it would mean my head if I put that on the web). Maybe just a really good cake and nice dinner, who knows.

Made final plans for my trip to Dragon Con this year. Got the time off, made my lodging and travel arrangements, can't wait to go and see the other geeks.

On a darker note my car decided yesterday that it needed a new distributor. It did this by failing to start, but I was able to convince it of the error of its ways with a couple of sturdy whacks to the said distributor. I guess that's getting replaced tomorrow, along with the plugs and the wires.