Dark Matters: Twisted But True

I've been feeling pretty sympatico with Sisyphus lately. If you don't remember your Greek myths, King Sisyphus was super clever, but murderous and conceited. He believed he was more clever than Zeus himself, going so far as to betray one of Zeus' secrets to another god. He kept evading punishment by the gods, which led to him being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down the other side and have to repeat the process forever.

It's felt like a metaphor for my life in general, but also for my Netflix queue. It's a never-ending parade of movies, TV shows and documentaries that I don't seem to make any real progress on. 

Over the weekend I finally got to a show called "Dark Matters," something I added while browsing without knowing much about it. According to the summary: "Dark Matters tells dramatized stories of science on the dark and ragged edge of human understanding, where experiments can be ethically controversial and the results can be mind-blowing." It's hosted by John Noble from FRINGE, an on-the-nose choice if I ever saw one.

Horror is Other People

One of the pitfalls of enjoying older horror films is discovering whether or not they still hold up in the 21st century. Some are so inextricably tied to their time period, that they lose any possibility of timelessness. But even if the audience is fine with that, accepts it, even loves it, it could still lose them if it just isn't scary anymore. Sometimes the only thing left is the satisfaction and appreciation for a well-crafted, masterful horror film-- even if it's no longer that relevant to modern life or modern fear.


One of the films that I find still holds up really well is PSYCHO.

Belated Memorial Day Thoughts

While I was in Washington D.C. this April, one of my top priorities was getting to see Arlington National Cemetery. When you're a taphophile and aerophobic (a.k.a. afraid of flying), if you can psych yourself into getting on a plane and flying someplace with a major, historical, important cemetery nearby, you make that trip count. Mine ended up counting even more than I expected.

Film review-ish: Scream 4

During lunch at a recent library training event, somehow the topic of the SCREAM trilogy came up in a somewhat disparaging way. As always, I was the lone weirdo who halted the conversation to say, "But... I like the SCREAM series!" One of my colleagues backed me up on the first movie, but... only the first movie.. Okay, okay...

I don't believe in guilty pleasures, so anyone hoping I'm going to back down and admit that two and three sucked and I have bad taste for liking them is going to be more than a little disappointed. I try to avoid judging other people's tastes, even though I might not be perfect at it, and I hope that others will allow me the same courtesy in return. My theory is, looking down my nose at what someone else likes accomplishes nothing except possibly making that other person feel bad. I don't want to be responsible for that!

So let's address SCREAM.

10th Anniversary of Buffy TVS's "Chosen"

Usually when we say "I remember where I was when..." it's a reference to a historically important event. I could never compare something like an episode of a television show to an event like that, but I can't deny that I have strong, vivid, emotional memories of media that has touched me on a deep level. Many of those memories are about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

American Mary

As of today, AMERICAN MARY is officially out on VOD! You can see it through Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Verizon or iTunes. The film will also have a limited release in the U.S. starting May 31st. The best way to find out if it's coming out near you is probably to keep an eye on the film's Twitter feed or Twisted Twins Productions' Facebook page.

However! If you're in the Chicago area you're in luck...

Oddities

Since ODDITIES is already in their fourth season, I feel I'm a little late to the game on singing their praises. I had been meaning to take a look at it for a while, but finally started over the weekend after an insane night of coolant dumping out of my car, fumes inside the car, getting the car towed, getting a ride back home, etc. As my sister and I sat eating a really late dinner of Mexican food, she brought the show up again and I popped it on. It would be no exaggeration to say that I was hooked from the very first episode. It's like crack for nerdy weirdos.