Lastech – Page 22 – jellybeansofdoom.com

December 9, 2010October 19, 2013

It’s a bird, it’s a turkey: it’s Lastech on a plane!

I don’t like flying, it makes me nervous and cranky… I hadn’t flown since, oh, 2002. You’d think perhaps I would bring a book onboard and try to distract myself, but no…

I prefer to let my mind wander about the aircraft. How long has it been since they banned smoking on planes? Sometime in the ‘80s, wasn’t it? So why do they still have the “no smoking” icon overhead? And no flat screen TVs, old cathode tube units instead. Hmmmm. Just how old are those planes, anyway, I wondered, glancing nervously at the wing flexing at 39000 feet.

In this 1960’s décor of cream and gray plastic, I tried to imagine myself as Dave Bowman on the shuttle to the moon, but no dice.

Funny how some pilots are smoother than others, and how you can tell by the way they land and take off.

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December 4, 2010December 4, 2010

Felis Catus’ visual acumen: the Wayfarer-Oakley effect

Research continues into the extremes of violence demonstrated by Mazuzu Whang whilst at play.

I have posted before in “Dance Hall Days” about his tendency to not only chase a laser dot on the floor, but to absolutely obliterate it. I’ve also observed his disregard for human comfort or safety when chasing or being chased by Tito, bouncing off us at high speed while we sleep…

I now think we may have an explanation for this Clockwork Orange level of violence.

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December 4, 2010December 13, 2012

“Mother”: Korean neorealism?

“Mother” – (2009, South Korea, 128 minutes – rated R)

The film opens with “Mother” (Hye-Ja Kim) walking through a field, stopping and then dancing to a theme by Byeong-woo Lee, a remarkable composition of musical motives evoking works by such diverse artists as Nino Rota, Roque Banos, Nick Cave or Frank Tetaz.

Byeong-woo Lee playing the piece live:

It starts with a cinematic work of art, further enhanced once it is revealed what Mother just did.

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December 2, 2010December 2, 2010

Nostalgia and wonderment: revisiting “forbidden planet”

Science fiction has always appealed to my imagination, for as far back as I can remember, and my favorite sub-genre remains the space opera.

Both in film and book forms, it allowed me to escape and hope the future would be better and more exciting than the present.

“Forbidden planet” is still the single most vibrant example of pure sci-fi for me, as Leslie Nielsen’s passing reminded me this week. This post isn’t intended as a review of the movie, rather it’s a look back on how it influenced me personally.

When someone like Leslie Nielsen passes on, it is difficult not to feel a pang of loss, so familiar was he to so many of us. Not just from films but from countless TV appearances over the years. It wasn’t uncommon to see him in an episode of some show before he’d appear again later the same evening on another.

He was one of those faces we grew up with, and he was never tabloid material. As young as I was when I first saw “forbidden planet” I knew Walter Pidgeon (another Canadian, like Nielsen) from various films and Earl Holliman from TV appearances, but I didn’t recognize Nielsen until years later, when I had an “aha!” moment.

I also believe my taste for electronic music (Orbital and such) stems from the fascinating soundtrack of the film, as does my love of open spaces which ultimately drove me westward.

Everything about the film, from the foreboding skies, ambient sounds and design of the underground city raised the bar for future movies, and for me there aren’t many space operas worth the time. I’ve never been a fan of the “Star Wars” series, so it’s slim pickings out there. I imagine younger viewers might find it hokey by now, but on the other hand, there are some undeniable qualities to this old pre-CGI favorite, after all theater also remains a popular art form. It still takes me back.

Leslie Nielsen in a scene from the trailer for Forbidden Planet

November 28, 2010

From creature-features to funny commercials: JBoD’s Sunday funnies

While Lastech was off shaving, I discovered that his post from earlier in the day had vanished. I noticed because the comments for it had become attached to another post and I was forced to delete them lest confusion reign. Very strange. I managed to go find it as one of Google’s cached pages and rescued it. Here it is again. 🙂 -Rudha-an

While inspired by Rhuda-an’s “guide to survival“, I wanted to work up a post about what to take on road trips to cover most emergencies.
As I ran through lists of items with shelf-life of varying length, a pain to keep track of and replace, a light bulb came on about an “organic” solution. All you’d ever need is a Trunk Monkey.
Watch the commercial, then enjoy the other two.

Like seafood? And “Kung Fu Panda”? You’re not alone.

“Bug”, a disturbing drama directed by William Orkin.

November 28, 2010October 19, 2013

Cityscapes: San Francisco in dream sequences

There’s always been some dream-like quality in films from Tarkovsky, Lars Von Trier or Kurosawa which I found attractive beyond the visual dimension, and it has to do with the way scenes flow, details and locations reveal themselves.
I used to dream this way: I would find myself going from one somewhat familiar location to a completely different one, a construct of my imagination, which could not possibly belong next to the original place in the real world, like going from day to night by the flick of a switch.
Living here in California means zooming by unknown treasures at 75 mph.
Exploring a city like San Francisco makes you wonder whether it was conceived by Morpheus. Take Mountain Lake Park, just off Highway one at Lake street, the park borders the Southern edge of the Presidio, and I’d never have known it was there, hadn’t we in fact looked it up.
The trail which starts at the Lake goes on for several blocks, seemingly forever.

Mountain lake path — Mountain Lake hiking trail

Within a large city, suddenly you find yourself in the woods, starting with a lake which once reportedly had an abandoned albino alligator as a resident.

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November 26, 2010

Friday night cat blogging: Dimension Mazuzu

A friend of the blog, HG, commented after meeting Mazuzu “he’s an alien!” Even for me, the fascination has not diminished.
I recently considered that rather than being an alien, Mazuzu may be coming from another dimension.

The spice must flow.. — The Spice must flow...

That’s got something to do with the way he moves.
I posted before about his annoying habit of “backing up”, which is how the infamous butt up my nostril incident happened. And watching him at play with Tito, I wondered at times how it was Tito could keep up.

I mean the naked streaker is fast, and leaps higher and farther than most cats I’ve known.
But here’s the thing: it’s almost, though not completely, as if he cannot move sideways. I am thinking about testing his peripheral vision, not that I suspect anything unhealthy, but the bugger is just so worthy of observation, even Tito seems to watch him with amazement sometimes.

Watching them run parkour is one of the most spectacularly entertaining things ever, especially the leaps off or up the Tower of Power.
I imagine Mazuzu’s dimension to be like “Tron” with his brethren speeding across planes and lines broken by angles. By the way, he’s been known to…. cut the cheese on occasion, too.

November 23, 2010December 13, 2012

Thanksgiving loaded groovy gravy: “blood freak”

I was salivating about stuffing a turkey with Spam this week, how unoriginal I know… I do like Spam, even the kind we find in the site’s ‘Spam’ box. Those buggers are getting semi-creative, as in this comment about “the worst journey in the world”:

“This was interesting and ive forwarded it on to all my friends on planet zikzar45. IF they like what you have written they may spare your life
but if they dont, well you should prepare your will. Earthling.”

Bet he or she drives a Plymouth Satellite (wink-wink), I’d like to have what he’s having.

But lo! Do I have a recommendation for your Thanksgiving night viewing….

“Blood freak” – (1971, USA 86 minutes, rated R)

This is no longer available through Netflix, and my recollections might be –perhaps – somewhat “clouded”…

Whatever your poison of choice is, even if it’s Wild Turkey, load up on it. Put the flick in the machine (can’t bring myself to even call this a movie). Well, look, it’s really bad. But in a groovy way, dig? As in dated… Carbon dated.

We’ve seen silent films which didn’t feel this fixed in their era.

Where was I? Thanksgiving started early…. Oh. So this dude Herschell (Steve Hawkes, born Sipek in Croatia), so named as a reference to Herschell Gordon Lewis, rides up on Angel, stranded by a flat tire, gives her a lift back to her pad where her sis is getting’ high with hipsters, yeah?

But Herschell, normally a righteous guy, partakes of the evil grass and boffs Ann, the baaaad sister.

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November 22, 2010December 13, 2012

Midnight Movie Madness: a “death note” everyone has to pay

“Death note” – (Anime series, Japan 2006, NR)

I always enjoyed serialized sci-fi and horror shows broadcast late at night, re-runs of “Star Trek: Voyager” or “Friday the 13th: the series”.
If you do as well, I recommend watching “death note”, a Japanese

animated series about a student, Light Yagami, who finds a notebook with special powers, the Death Note. The titular notebook is the artifact of Light’s doom, something he could have bought from Louis Vendredi’s shop in “Friday the 13th: the series“. The note, dropped on purpose into the human world by Ryuk, a demon-like Shinigami (death deity), has the following rules written in it, which Light attempts to refine and perhaps even circumvent: “the human who uses the note can neither go to heaven nor hell. If the time of death is written within 40 seconds after writing the cause of death as a heart attack, the time of death can go into effect within 40 seconds after writing the name”.
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November 21, 2010October 26, 2013

Meddling with forces of nature: working in America

I am typing this with the old tingling feeling down my left arm. No, it’s not the tick-tock man in my chest, it’s nerve damage, although the ticker could be in better shape, too.
Damage from performing data entry hunched over a less than ergonomic keyboard-desk-chair combos, like well, so many of us “working wounded” today.

No, no, it’s true, well…. Truer, that it is better to work than not. I mean, the media’s not turning the spotlight on suicides/murder suicides/tent cities around the country, a word which certain politicians pronounce as though the letter ‘o’ was not part of it.
No, I’m happy to be working. It’s just that the nature of work in America sucks and blows at the same time, something Bart Simpson thought a physical impossibility.

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