Category: Movies

Notes from the Bathroom

by Administrator, posted in Messages from Rebecca, Movies, Paranormal, Television

Oh, the posts I had lined up for this week, but the unthinkable happened. For the first time in, I swear this is true, 20 years I was laid up with the stomach flu. Not the oh my tummy is a little upset and I have a fever kind of flu, the one where I now know all the subtle nuances that my bathroom has to offer kind of stomach flu. When lying on your bathroom floor you discover odd things like, I should probably dust the ceiling vent and clean the overhang of my sink. Now that I’m up, and almost running, let me tell you about what could have, should have, would have been if not for this vile, evil flu.

First off, my awesome plans of seeing Watchmen at the IMAX on opening day fell apart. I wasn’t sure I was going to write about seeing it, but since I had recently shared with you my feelings about the comic it seemed like a possibility. As of right now I still haven’t seen it, sigh.

I also had planned to watch my review copy of “2012: Science or Superstition” that the cool folks at Disinfo.com sent me. This is the first time I have been given a DVD to review and was looking forward to writing something impressive about it in a timely fashion. Obviously, not going to happen while sick.

Lastly, I had meant to share this information sooner. My friend Deborah Collard of the North-Eastern Alabama Paranormal Society is in the running to be cast in a new Discovery Channel show called “The Gray Area”, which is about unexplained phenomena. Deborah and all the folks over at NAPS have been big supporters of The Magical Buffet and me and so I would like to encourage my readers to take a few minutes of time to log in and vote for her! Click here to vote!

As anyone who has been sick knows, it takes a while to crawl back up to normality. However I promise you, I’ll get there.

We have so much cool stuff coming up here at The Magical Buffet! Let’s see: I’ve got a few interviews I think you’re going to really love, The Creative Whack Company gave me a new fidget to try out, and more!

Also remember, if you have a My Space profile you can find us on My Space and be our friend! If you use Facebook you can search The Magical Buffet and become our fan! Show us some love!

Take care everyone! Stay healthy!

What’s the Deal with “Watchmen”?

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff, Movies

On March 6, 2009 a long awaited movie adaptation of the graphic novel (collected comic book series) “Watchmen” will be in theaters. What started as a project originally tapped director Terry Gilliam stated was impossible to translate to film is now being brought to the big screen by director Zach Snyder of “300” fame. Those of you who know comic book fans, who at this point are in a near ecstatic state, may find yourself wondering, what is the big stinkin’ deal about “Watchmen”?

I have generally found myself hesitant to write about comic books here on The Magical Buffet. I do not feel I have the knowledge of the history of the medium to discuss it intelligently, or the intellect to discuss the medium in such a way that does it the justice it deserves. My explanation of why “Watchmen” is such a big deal is my opinion alone, and undoubtedly will not do this book justice. I could fill pages mentioning the awards and acclaim this collected comic series won, and I could quote experts in the field on the importance of “Watchmen”, but this isn’t a collegiate write up, this is hopefully an everyman accessible glimpse at why “Watchmen”, and its upcoming film, are such a big deal. Aimed especially for those who are not comic book readers.

In order for me to explain why “Watchmen” matters so much to me, I have to start out at the beginning. Like most girls growing up, I wasn’t a comic book reader. I would read “Garfield” and “Peanuts”. Occasionally my mom would pick me up a “Misty” or “Archie” comic book at the grocery store. My only other experiences with comic books were their translation onto the big screen, like the “Superman” movies. I didn’t read any other comics until the middle of high school when my friend Doug loaned me his copy of the graphic novel “Season of Mists” for the comic book series “Sandman” by Neil Gaimen. This book was eye opening for me. First, I had not known that comic books were sometimes bound by story arc into books, generally referred to as graphic novels. In addition, I was unaware that there were comic books that didn’t deal with superheroes. The complexity and passionate stories told in that first book impressed me so much that one of my first comic book purchases when I moved to New York was to buy every “Sandman” graphic novel….all at once.

Why does that bit of background matter? It shows my atypical introduction to comics. Until rather recently, I had never read a “superhero” comic book. No “X-Men”, “Spiderman”, or even “Batman” had been touched. Which, from what I’ve been led to believe, is not how it normally works. (Much the way that I didn’t start my role-playing experiences with “Dungeons and Dragons”.) Shortly after my now husband and I started dating we had a very important book exchange. One of those tests. If you “get” this, then you’re okay, kind of things. I loaned him “Neuromancer” by William Gibson and he gave me the graphic novel “Watchmen”.

I’m not going to give you some sort of plot synopsis or character outlines. Instead, I’m going to tell you what really matters to me about the book.

Why would a normal man choose to don a mask and fight crime without the backing of the police or superhuman abilities? What happens to a normal man who can rewrite reality but has no human connection to the reality in which we live? Is it ever morally correct to comprise? Are love and hate more closely connected than we would like to believe? Does doing whatever it takes to save your loved ones make you a monster? What happens to a masked vigilante when they quit?

All those questions, and more, are asked and explored within a back drop of an alternate history of the United States in the 1980s where vigilantes have been outlawed, we’re moments away from nuclear war with Russia, and someone is murdering retired masked heroes. For me, this is what a “superhero” comic book should be.

That is what the big deal is with the “Watchmen” movie. The best of everything comic books can be will be translated to film and offered up to the general population. Will the film live up to its source material? Will people unfamiliar with the book “get” it? We’ll have to wait until March 6 to find out. And the waiting is killing me.

www.watchmenmovie.com

This is Not a Review of the new Killers Album “Day & Age”

by Administrator, posted in Movies, Music, Reviews

It was going to be, but I realized I could sum it up easily. This album takes everything that was good about music from the 80’s, smooshes it together and sprinkles it in glitter. Just go buy the darn thing, it’s awesome, and let me move onto The Airborne Toxic Event.

The Airborne Toxic Event is based out of Los Angeles, CA so despite the fact that their self-titled album has been out since August it just made its way onto WEQX out here on the east coast. What do they sound like? Remember that really sweet spot that existed in 80’s new wave music when it would overlap with Goth music? (I think there is some hipster name for that specific genre, like dark wave, or Goth wave, or something.) You know, the way you could dance to Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” knowing full well it was sort messed up to do so. Most of their album reminds me of that. Musically the album is cool. They have a full time violinist, which is always good in a rock band. While listening to it I feel certain I could totally bust out my Molly Ringwald 80’s white girl dance, which believe it or not is a good thing.

Lyrically I find myself feeling like The Octopus from the trailer for The Spirit: “What is it with you and women?” This theme is perfectly encapsulated in the ass kicking song “Sometime Around Midnight”. This song sounds less 80’s but has some tortured shouting towards the end, so it breaks even in my book. The hooking up, getting dumped, pining for women thing is pretty obvious, and fairly staple in rock and roll, I just never felt so hit over the head with it before. Adult me finds it a little tiring, but the teenage me (who I’m in close contact with) finds it kind of hot. It’s all angsty and sexy. Sue me – teenage me wins out more often than I’d like.

A quick trip to the internet provides some back story for this album. According to Wikipedia, “The band was formed in 2006 by Mikel Jollett. During a one-week period in March 2006 while working on a novel, Jollett learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and he also experienced a break-up and was diagnosed with genetic Autoimmune disease. Even though the disease encompasses over 70 different disorders, Autoimmune led Jollet to develop 2 cosmetic conditions: Alopecia areata and Vitiligo. Spurred by these events in his personal life, Jollett turned from writing prose to writing songs, and soon realized he was composing an album instead of a novel.”

Well that explains a lot. Try out “Sometime Around Midnight” and see what you think.

If you want to shake your 80’s groove thang….

By the way, I’m hopelessly amused by The Spirit trailers I’ve seen. How about this one? “Somebody get me a tie! And it sure as hell better be red!”

Dancing Midget Zombies

by Administrator, posted in Movies, Music

Many of you know that here in the northeastern United States we had a vicious little ice storm that resulted in prolonged power outages. Fortunately I was only without power for under 48 hours, which I never thought under 48 hours was good until I talked to people who went 72 hours or more! Anyway, I’ve been busy catching up, and that means hitting all my favorite celebrity gossip blogs. It was during this that I came across the headline “Dancing Midget Zombies” on Perez Hilton’s website. That title was enough to get me to check it out, and I assume it’s enough to get you to click in for my article.

The title is in reference to a music video Hilton was featuring from the female British rapper Lady Sovereign called “I Got You Dancing”. I’ve always kind of liked Lady Sovereign, her stuff reminds me of early hip hop music. (Technically she is part of the Grime genre of music, “a genre of urban music which first emerged in East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.” according to Wikipedia.) I’ll admit, I was curious as to how a female British rapper was working the concept of dancing midget zombies into a music video. Then I watched it.

This reminded me that not everyone is a big of geek as myself. What Hilton thought was a dancing midget zombie video I rapidly realized was a pretty awesome take on the 1979 movie “The Warriors”. Not only is the song infectious in a good way, but whoever put the video together did a great job of incorporating loads of “The Warriors” references. Obviously Lady Sovereign and her dancers dressing up as the various gangs during the dance numbers is fun, but I’m thoroughly impressed by what an attractive Luther Lady Sovereign makes. (Luther is the character played by David Patrick Kelly who said the infamous line, “Warriors, come out to play!”)

Check out the trailer to get a hint at what I’m talking about.

See what I mean? Good stuff. Unfortunately I don’t know if/when “I Got You Dancing” will be out on CD, but the good news is that “The Warriors” is out on DVD now! Perhaps someone should buy a copy for Perez Hilton.

How I Spent My Weekend…

by Administrator, posted in Movies, Reviews, Television

I approached this past weekend with the best of intentions. My husband and I were going to get up on Saturday, go out for some breakfast, hit Target to pick up a copy of Freakazoid Season One, do some grocery shopping, come home, clean, post Kip Givens’ awesome article to the website and then, only after all that was complete would we crack the shrink wrap on Freakazoid.

However, as the weekend drew nearer our excitement over Freakazoid kept building. Let’s put it this way, our apartment is still waiting to be cleaned. Once we got home from breakfast and running errands, we collapsed into balls on our sofas and started watching Freakazoid…and didn’t stop until we’d watched all of season one!

Freakazoid is a cartoon that aired in the mid-nineties. It was done by the same folks who did Animaniacs…another great weekend waster in our household. It follows the adventures of Dexter Douglas who due to a computer bug was sucked into the internet and was spit back out with the ability to “Freak Out!” and become the teenage superhero Freakazoid. The show is a haven of geek pop culture references, and hilarious cameos. I encourage all of you who love cartoons loaded with geeky insanity to go and pick up a copy of season one, or at least rent it, but once you rent, you will want to buy!

And for those of you clever readers who are asking, why didn’t you just clean the apartment on Sunday? Here’s why….

Jet Li verses Michelle Yeoh swordfight. ‘Nuff said.