The Weekend That Was

The weekend was pretty great in a lazy weekend sort of way.

Friday night Jamie and I stayed in as we do every Friday.  As you may know, Jamie is in dialysis, which she does three times per week.  This procedure does not require her to run through an obstacle course, but it is tiring to have all the blood removed from one's body, run through a blood car wash and replaced.  She does errands and chores all week, especially on her off-days, but by Friday night, the batteries are usually running low.  So, its mutually agreed upon that Friday is not usually a day for hitting the local discotheque or working on our relay races.

We stayed in and watched a PBS American Experience episode about J Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb.  The doc was less about the development of the bomb and more how someone basically apolitical was destroyed by associations in his personal life after World War II and the Red Scare had gripped the American psyche.

We also watched How to Train Your Dragon, and, yes, people with kids, it was as good as you've been saying.  Very cute movie.

After Jamie had retired, I watched more of Mega Shark vs., Giant Octopus than I intended to watch, and if you see one Lorenzo Lamas vehicle this year, ladies and germs, may I recommend this one in which he appears to actually be enjoying himself.  Actually EVERYBODY looks like they're having a good time, especially Debbie Gibson, who plays some sort of scientist. 

Saturday we met up with my folks and Jason, all of whom decided they wanted to see Thor.  On a second viewing, I mostly enjoyed it all over again, especially wondering what The KareBear would think about these shenanigans, but she either genuinely liked the movie or genuinely liked Thor actor Chris Hemsworth's winning smile and inhuman build.

We also went to have dinner with the family and the ever-affable Steans-Clan-Auxillary-Member, DK.  DK is really pretty great, and I don't see her enough.

Sunday was Day of the Apes at the Alamo, and I've already written about that excursion (all five Apes movies in one sitting).

Sunday evening on Twitter, PaulT and I were discussing a possible next marathon, and he suggested a Super-marathon.  And somehow it came to be that Paul invited writer Chris Roberson of Superman, Elric, etc.. fame, and that started a whole mess.  So, anyway, more details on that this fall, should it materialize (I have my doubts).


Today boiled down to "prepare to have a little cookout", "cookout with Matt & Nicole" and "hanging out on the front porch with Matt & Nicole".  Not a bad set-up.

All weekend I've been wrestling with Dell Datasafe Online, a service I pay for that backs up my computer on Der Kloud. A combination of factors occurred in the past month, and I haven't had a successful backup in some time.  So, as a Dell/ Windows user, I have been desperately trying to resolve all issues myself so I am not put on the phone with an 18 year old on the other side of the planet who thinks the solution to everything is to reformat hard drives.

I believe its now working, but as I added a few dozen GBs worth of iTunes to my laptop, its also moving very, very slowly as it pushes those bits up to Dell.  And whenever it messes up, I have to start it over.  It is also, as near as I can tell, going to take about 3 days to complete.  I think I'm doing something wrong, but their documentation is absolutely awful.

Anyway, I rarely do these "so that was the weekend" posts, so deal with it.  I already wrote, like, three posts over the weekend, so enjoy those.

Cinema Corps: Wednesday - "Touch of Evil" at The Paramount

On Wednesday June 1 at 7:00, catch a noir classic with Charlton Heston (hey!  More Cheston for me and Si!) and Orson Welles in Touch of Evil.  You can stay around, and on the same ticket, watch Welles' F for Fake, the movie I've never been able to watch to the end.  Srsly.  I can't deal with it.

True Story:  Touch of Evil is so frikkin' creepy, I literally turned it off the first time I watched it, went away for an hour and then came back to it.

Also, it stars Charlton Heston as a Mexican guy, because, apparently, there were no Mexican or Hispanic actors in 1958.  That is a scientific fact.*

But it is a good movie!  A really good movie.  So, join us!

*or some mid-range racism.  Slow clap, Hollywood.

Memorial Day

Here at the Signal Watch, we salute all those who currently serve, those who ever served and those who gave up their lives for the protection of the USA.

By the way, there's a Planet of the Apes comic out, and its really pretty good

In the midst of all this Planet of the Apes movie hullabaloo, I'd be remiss if I did not mention the current Planet of the Apes comic (from Boom!) which saw its second issue released last week. 

I can almost hear the Jerry Goldsmith music in my head

The two names on the cover are Daryl Gregory (writer) and Carlos Magno (artist), and I tip my hat to both.  I'm not overly familiar with either person's work, but both obviously referenced the heck out of the Apes movies, but set the comic in a period not covered in the movie series explicitly.  Doing some math, the suggestion is that this story occurs shortly after the framing sequence of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, or roughly 600 years after the main action in Battle. 

In just two short issues, Gregory has managed to frame his world within the grand scope of the Apes movies, set up multiple characters, the political situation, and reference the transitions occurring that would need to occur for the state of things between (chronologically) Battle and Planet of the Apes.  I'm impressed.

Artist Magno's style fits the material very well, with the rough-hewn world of the Apes and Humans pulling up a new civilization with hints of the old.  His faces are pretty great, and hew well to the style of the Ape makeup from the movies but using the freedom given to him by the pen to get anatmoy up to a grander scale on gorillas, etc...

I confess to some confusion at the... uh... very human anatomy of chimpanzee Alaya, but what I had dismissed as a Ren-Faire style to her dress actually makes quite a bit of sense after watching multiple hours worth of Apes movies.

Anyhow, this can't be a full recommendation as this is only the second issue, but I'm enjoying the series thus far.  Other Apes fans (even non-comic readers) should check it out.  Its a great bit of expansion on the film series and I really like Daryl Gregory's writing.

5 Planet of the Apes Movies in about 9 hours

Well, goodness.

What can you say about the Planet of the Apes Pentilogy that hasn't already been said?

I love these flicks, enough so that in 2001-ish, Target had the original Planet of the Apes for sale on DVD on a big display with the Statue of Liberty and everything, and I caused a pretty serious ruckus in the video department when I re-enacted this scene from the original POTA.



Like Nova, Jamie remained silent.

SO, this morning I arrived at the Alamo Ritz at 9:35 this morning to see Planet of the Apes unspool in glorious 35mm on the big, big screen.  And all of its 4 sequels.

Talking Heads

The video for Burning Down the House was probably the poppiest moment the band Talking Heads ever achieved.  The video got regular play on MTV, became the band's only Top 10 hit, and was where I remember first hearing their music.  The video hit in 1983, which would have made me about 8, and still very excited about whatever showed up on MTV, be it Tina Turner, Billy Idol or the J. Geils Band.

However, I really liked that tune.  Its a pretty darn good rock song, and I don't know if I parse the video now any better than I did 28 years ago, but I did like that there seemed to be something to figure out and I suspected it had something to do with the band members wrestling some inner-something.

We ALSO project David Byrne's face onto the side of our house

But, as a kid I didn't care so much about what the art was trying to say so much as the fact that I liked these people who all dressed in white suits, apparently weren't too worried about glamour or attitude and had a kick-ass blonde on bass.  Even then I thought that was unusual and nifty.

Signal Watch Reads: Action Comics 901

Action Comics 901
Reign of the Doomsdays - Part 7
Writer:  Paul Cornell
Artist (pg: 1-10, 18-20): Kenneth Rocafort
Artist (pg: 11-17):  Jesus Merino
Colorist:  Brad Anderson
Letterer:  Rob Leigh
Associate Editor:  Wil Moss
Editor:  Matt Idleson
 

Cool.

Look, this is a chapter in the multi-multi-part story we started talking about when it was still called Reign of Doomsday.  I didn't like the first several chapters, and I'll stick with my story that the first several chapters could have been done in about 1 issue instead of spread out all over creation.  But with issue #900, DC handed the story to Cornell, and from there this thing has taken off like gangbusters.

It's also very hard to talk about as a complete story as this issue represents more or less a sequence in a much larger story.  Fair warning, I suppose.

NathanC takes it to TV to promote classic film in San Antonio

Let me be clear: I am totally jealous of Nathan's gig as one of the voices of film in San Antonio, Texas. He's been working with the Bijou Theater and using his voice as part of San Antonio's public radio network to bring all kinds of films to The Alamo City for over a decade.

Here's Nathan appearing on local TV to promote the start of the TPR summer cinema series.



I'm heading down there for a picture or two, but I need to square with Jamie and figure out what we're going to go see.  I think Nathan represents my sole San Antonio reader, but if you want to go down there, lemme know.

I have to apologize to Nathan, because his choice to run my review of Santa Buddies may have tarnished his relationship with the Walt Disney Company.  One hopes that hasn't slowed him down too much.

Signal Watch Reads: Supergirl 64

Supergirl #64
"Good Looking Corpse - Finale"
Writer - James Peaty
Artist - Bernard Chang
Colorist - Blond
Letterer - Travis Lanham
Cover - Mahmud Asrar & Guy Major
Associate Editor - Wil Moss
Editor - Matt Idleson

Supergirl is in a bit of flux until the conclusion of Flashpoint the last week of August. After the pretty-terrific run by Sterling Gates, and only a short run post-New Krytpon, the series was to be handed off to current darling of comics, Nick Spencer. However, after one issue (Supergirl #60), Spencer and DC parted ways and the storyline was handed over to James Peaty, while Bernard Chang stayed on with art chores.

Noir Watch: Detour (1945)

I'd read a bit about Detour in Eddie Muller's history of noir, Dark City,a great handbook for growing an appreciation or understanding of noir.  Detour was extremely low-budget, shot in about a week, and shows its rough edges pretty much everywhere in the film.  But after one viewing I can see why folks come back to this movie again and again.  Its not always about the professionalism of the product when you've got story and actors that make it work.