Artist Aram Bartholl has been installing flash drives in public places— highly unusual places– in and around New York for people to download/upload whatever they will. The history of the Web suggests one should approach these with caution. Fascinating idea, though.
And a Happy Halloween to everybody!
Daniel turns stranger, revolution charges ahead on Tauron, and none of it really matters, because Caprica’s been cancelled.
The remaining episodes likely won’t air for a few months.
After years of Dracula period pieces, Hammer decided to put the Count in the present era with Dracula 1972. Despite, at best, mixed reviews, the film received a sequel. Better than its predecessor, Satanic Rites of Dracula still does not rank among the great horror classics. It does, however, provide an excellent glimpse into the state of the horror movie in the early 1970s.
We’re in the dying days of the older-style monster movie, post Rosemary‘s Baby, in the culture that produced Charles Manson, Vampirella, Jack Chick tracts, and Man, Myth, and Magic. The same year as this film appeared, The Exorcist changed the face of horror movies. At the same time, the old monsters, popculturized by Universal and kept alive by Hammer and Forrest J. Ackerman, retained a powerful appeal. This film blends the old (Dracula, vampire brides in the cellar) with the new (occult rituals, big conspiracies, Antiente MagickTM in modern times).
Traditional horror occupied a curious space in the 1950s. Monsters from space and beasts born of radiation had taken over the genre. Yet the vampires, werewolves, and mad labs lived on in television and at the midnight Spook Show. Small-time Hammer Films turned their eye to scary movies and started a full-fledged Gothic revival. They began by imitating Universal, with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) borrowing much from James Whale’s 1931 classic and Horror of Dracula (1958) bringing to the forefront the sexual themes of Bram Stoker’s famous novel. However, from the beginning a house style was evident: bright red blood, lavish period costumes, reused sets and locations, overwrought music, theatrical acting, décolletage, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and, increasingly, gore and sex. Hammer built the connection between the more elegant horrors of the past and the more visceral fear-films of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Last Halloween we reviewed how Hammer horror started. This year, with the studio rising from the grave, we’re going to see how they ended, that first time around.
Fighting in the Matrix, death on Caprica, and Zoës, Zoës everywhere– I don’t know what to think.
In the landmark Superman #700, the guy in the Big Red S decided to walk across America and reconnect with the average person. The first three issues of his year-long adventure prove a mixed journey.
Space tourism continues to grow, a few rich guys at a time; Virgin Galactic hopes for regular flights by 2012.
The stars may not be counted but the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics had found a new way to weigh them
Scarlett Johansson may be starring as Elizabeth Bennet in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a role that had been attached to Natalie Portman.
Finally, Japan demonstrates an early-generation prototype for the Cylons—or, at least, replacement for Katie Perry and Lady Gaga:
No Dicking around, this was a pretty good Fringe ep. It gave us a closer look at Shapeshifters, raising in the process questions about identity and morality. Torv has been faring much better as Olivia(s) lately, though I found her performance this week lacking in subtlety. Still, if an imposter replaced someone close to us, how would we know? How do we cope when someone we know well changes?
A few more questions after the cut, and (we hope) some discussion.
Due to the show’s arc-heavy approach, I likely will be reviewing ever other episode this season. “Retribution” had a faster-than-last-season pace and some decent acting. The comic-opera costumes and flourishes have been left behind on Gemenon. I thought Sister Clarisse acted a little too openly– no one saw her set off the explosive device?– but I found this an interesting episode.
Last week the show referenced Julius Caesar; this week, Graystone recalls more than a little Macbeth.
Anyone else?
It’s been a very long time since our Crossover Comix site received any attention, but I’ve just added some Halloween-themed updates from comics past: