OFF: Misc. ranting...

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 22/09/2004 16:39, Henderson Keith wrote:
> To keep up this pace, we'll need to start having
> tributes to bands that haven't even formed yet.

Good idea! :)

> On the subject of *not* creating anything interesting, I laughed
> uncontrollably this morning at the new Onion article about Matchbox 20 (link
> below).  I think everbody here should enjoy this.

Yeah, I saw that too!  Bang on target :)  That did the rounds where I
work and got a fair few chuckles ....


> I've never heard
> Coldplay I don't think.

You ain't missing much!  Vaguely miserable, whining soft pop-rock.

> And it was only recently that I was subjected to
> the stunning awfulness that is the Darkness.

Kinda like the Comic Strip's "Bad News" made flesh!

> I mean, I have nothing against jumping onto a popular bandwagon
> movement if one was actually producing a lot of good music.

Amen.


> P.S.  Awhile ago, I saw this article listing the top 10 sci-fi films of all
> time, as voted on by a consortium of scientists in England.  The list is
> fairly lame I thought, though many of them are at least decent movies.  The
> inclusion of Star Wars (sci-fi?  c'mon, really?) is sickening, though in the
> article they admit that "the first two films of the original Star Wars
> trilogy make it onto the list probably for reasons of nostalgia rather than
> science."

I will defend the coolness of the first two films to the death :)  But
they're really fantasy films -- space opera -- rather than proper
sci-fi.  But, hey, I like space opera :)

> The same might be said about Alien, which was nothing but
> suspense/horror IIRC.  Solaris intrigues me though...don't really know much
> about this movie (the original I mean, not the George Clooney remake, which
> I haven't seen either), and I can only find a version with German subtitles
> (or overdubs, can't remember), since it was done in Russia(n).  Is it worth
> searching out for next time I'm in the UK?  I'd rather have English, though
> the German practice might be worthwhile.

I've seen this, in an arts cinema or at an sf con once upon a time I
think, with English subs, so a English subbed version must exist, though
gods only know if it ever went to DVD.  My brain must be affected by
post-modern short attention-span disorder, since ... I remember it as
being very, very tedious ;)  I don't recall whether I stuck it all the
way through, or whether I sloped off during an intermission!

> Anyway, the worst here must be the
> Matrix, which was pathetic IMHO....I guess it's a good thing I didn't see II
> and III, which I've heard were even progressively worse!

I didn't see III, though II was worse than I.  But I was a pretty OK
action flick, I thought.  I mean, its sci-fi angle was pretty old hat,
but so are most sci-fi angles.  I guess it just hit its audiences at the
right time or something.  I think I saw it on an airplane and, yeah, the
hype didn't really live up to the reality.  Though I saw it on DVD later
and, OK, it was fun while it lasted.

> Anyway, Brazil
> (closer to Sci-fi than 3 & 4!), A.I., and Dark City are some of the obvious
> omissions here IMHO.

Didn't really dig A.I.  Actually, I'd say there's probably been some
cool sci-fi anime that got (unsurprisingly) overlooked, but I haven't
been keeping up with what's current in anime, so I'm not sure ....

> P.P.S.  I'm *almost* finished reading the Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley
> Robinson.  Intriguing many times, but man, can he bore the pants off you.
> Christ

I liked the first one, especially when the thingygummy fell over at the
end -- that was cool :)  But somewhere in the 2nd book I stopped caring
about any of the characters or what happened to them.

My fave KSR book remains _Escape from Kathmandu_ :)

> I guess Jim Cameron has the rights to do a movie about it.
> (?)  Man, he'll need to do 10 movies to get all this crap in there.

Ditch the crap and there might be a couple of movies worth of
entertainment there :)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/