I just started a new job this week. I’m working part time at a local app developer doing what I do best: typing.
One one hand, I’m happy to have the job and so far it’s been fabulous. (My only issue is the half a mile I have to walk to get from the bus stop to my job but ehhh maybe I’ll invest in a bike and learn to ride it.)
But –and here’s where the nerd problems come in– I don’t have enough time or energy left after work to do my blog posts, write in any of my drafts, or even eat dinner. Heck, I watched Sundays OUAT yesterday! That’s how little free time I have.
I’m still going strong with these pieces! This week, I look at From Russia With Love,. Unfortunately, this happens to be my least favorite Bond movie so far.
Excerpt:
It only took five minutes in my very first rewatch to make me uncomfortable and that’s important, because from those five minutes on, I wasn’t able to enjoy the film the way I wanted to. I watched Dr. No about eight times before I got sick of it. From Russia with Love took half as many rewatches.
From Russia With Love is the second James Bond film, and it’s based on the fifth novel in Fleming’s Bond series. The film focuses on two main plots: first, we have the far reaching arms of SPECTRE plotting to both steal a specific cryptographic device from (and then sell it back to0 the Soviet government; then, we have one of SPECTRE’s top agents developing a way to get revenge on Bond and MI6 for the events shown in Dr. No via a complicated mix of scandal and murder. It’s more focused on political intrigue than the previous film (which I feel focused more on terrorism than on espionage); here, we have Bond and his allies in a country that isn’t exactly friendly to them, and in the middle of an issue that could end with MI6′s reputation being dragged through the mud.
I’m going to be honest: From Russia With Love alternately bored and annoyed me. The high points of the film were the political parts and the fight scenes, but there was so much more that I either felt uncomfortable with or that straight up made me angry.
If that piqued your interest, feel free to check out Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating From Russia With Love over on TheMarySue and say nice things about it either there or by messaging me on twitter! (Or you know, you can totally disagree with me and share your thoughts about that! I’m open to discussion!!)
AKA: How I spent an entire weekend in front of Netflix.
In the interest of full-disclosure, I have a confession to make: I don’t know that much about Daredevil.
I saw the Ben Affleck films and I’ve seen him in Spider-Man comics and event tie-ins, but I know the bare bones about the character.
I know that he’s blind and that he’s a lawyer. Oh and that he’s Catholic. That’s about it.
That’s actually a good thing.
I didn’t come to Netflix’s Daredevil with any preconceptions of how the characters should be or how they should look. I wasn’t attached to him the way I was with Captain America so there’s no chance of me getting super pissed about characterization the way I was with the Avengers.
I’ve been watching Daredevil all weekend and I don’t regret a minute of it.
Originally this was supposed to be a simple #tbt focus on a specific book but really, it wound up being kind of a love note to the pulps.
I got into The Spider because of The Shadow.
I have about fifty episodes of the original radio drama (starting in 1937) in my Audible library. Mostly because you can get 5 episodes for about $3.50 and every so often the price drops to half off and I went a little wild during one of the big sales.
Now after I had my fill of the radio drama, I went looking for the original pulps for The Shadow. Unfortunately, my google-fu sucks. I wound up on RadioArchives.com and immediately fell for The Spider. Issue #11 (the first issue I bought) which has the full-length story “Prince of the Red Looters” is free for the kindle on Amazon.
Created by Harry Steeger in 1933 as a direct competition to the Shadow’s incredible success as a pulp hero, the Spider shares so much in common with the Shadow that I’m wondering why I couldn’t find any reports of injunctions or lawsuits going out from Street & Smith Publication. (You know, the way that National Publications did over Will Eisner’s Superman knockoff, Wonder Man in 1939.)Read More »
I’m on the front page of TheMarySue! Ah! I feel like I’m moving up in the world! Wow!
If you like super critical reviews of stuff coupled with that crisis when something you love turns out to be ridiculously problematic, you should keep an eye out for the further adventures of Bond Girl. After all, there are twenty-three official Bond films out so far and a handful of unofficial ones. It’s going to be a wild ride on our way to Spectre!
You can read Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating Dr. No HERE
While short, this review does contain spoilers for Fast & Furious 7 both in the text and in the video accompanying it. If you haven’t seen it yet, this isn’t the review for you.
I loved the original premise for the F&F franchise. Dom, Lettie, and Brian up against the world was my thing. I liked the idea that the characters existed in this morally gray area where they were on the run from the government as well as the actual bad guy in the films.
The shift from car thieve/drag racer centered franchise was a bit unexpected but okay, it works. It really works. And in Furious 7, there’s a really good blend of the dynamics where you have the whole “these guys are doing illegal shit” but they’re also the good guys. I loved how we did get some racing scenes in (the beginning with Lettie was fabulous both because she was back behind the wheel and because we saw her dealing with the trauma caused by her injuries and having flashbacks). I also loved how this starts setting up the stage for the crew to do bigger things and to interact with crime/criminals on this larger scale.
I’m not sure how I stumbled across this book. One minute I was looking for comic book history books on my kindle and the next thing I know I was neck deep in this gritty-as-hell post-apocalyptic universe and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Normally I don’t read dystopian stories. I’m a “Happily Ever After” kind of person and if that’s not guaranteed by the author or if I can’t figure out the ending within a few chapters of the book, I get bummed out. I can assure you that there was none of that dark dank depressed feeling associated with this book.
Isabella finds herself with a job, a home, and what might be a reason to stop running all in a very short time.
Note: This is the first story in a series.
Image used under a CreativeCommons license.
Isabella rides into Temptation Valley in the early hours of the morning on the back of a bay mare that isn’t hers.
Sitting straight up in the saddle, Isabella doesn’t let any of the worry that she feels show on her face. She guides the mare forward with a quiet click of her tongue, directing the horse towards the biggest building on the town’s dusty main street – a building with a hand-painted sign at the front of it that says Temptation Valley Inn in faded paint.Read More »
Day or summer camp it didn’t matter. I hated camp with the kind of furor that was reserved only for cabbage or presidential addresses that come on during the season finale of your favorite show.
But CampNano is different.
For one thing, I don’t have to leave the comfort of my bed and blankets to participate. That’s a pretty big draw for me. So I’m in.Read More »
I’m going to be honest with you guys: I’m a million times more excited for Spectre than I am the next Avengers film and this trailer just solidified that excitement.
The trailer is everything I ever wanted and it’s just a teaser. How am I going to survive the actual trailer when it comes out?
I am 100% here for the explosions and the general badassery and I love the hell out of everything that Sam Mendes has been doing with James Bond, but I am also ridiculously excited to see Naomie Harris’s Moneypenny. It’s been too long and I’m going to have to admit to a little overdramatic swooning when she was speaking in the trailer.
Here’s hoping that she gets even more to do and that we get to see a bit of the back and forth banter that the Moneypenny/Bond relationship is famous for.
I’m so excited for this movie! If I could preorder tickets from now, I’d do it just from that trailer!
March’s Lootcrate haul was everything that I wanted it to be.
When they first announced “Covert” for March’s theme, I was excited. I took it as a sign that I could get off my butt and make headway on the various James Bond-related projects that I’ve been planning to do starting this month. I love spy stuff and I live for James Bond.
When I got the box yesterday, it was like explicit approval from the universe, like it was saying “hey, Zina, go out there and do those ridiculous spy projects you’ve been dreaming up”. Everything in the box is perfect and relevant to my interests. I mean, come on there’s a freaking Sean Connery Bond t-shirt in the box.
It’s like the universe wants me to immerse myself in all things “spy related”.
I’m definitely taking it as a sign that my upcoming James Bond review series will go well!
This is a Red Riding Hood-inspired short story from the (were)wolf’s point of view. Much thanks to my pal Fleet for looking over it for me. Red Riding Hood has always been my favorite fairy tale and I try to play around with it every single chance that I get because it can be done so many different ways.
Contains: allusions to violence, dubious consent/consent issues, mild gore, animal death, sort of sexualized violence, mild sexual situations/imagery
From flicker user tambako. Used under a CreativeCommons License.
Val’s second in command Koan comes to him in the early morning before the others awaken, coming off his patrol around the forest. Koan lopes towards Val in his human form, moving gracefully around the other wolves despite the sheer amount of space that their fellows take up around the cooling fire.
“There is someone in the woods,” Koan says, speaking in a low voice when he comes close to Val. He dips his head in a short bow and then steps forward, moving into his alpha’s space just far away from the rest of the pack to provide the illusion of privacy. “I heard the humans talking about it in the middle of the night and I –”
Koan does not get the chance to complete his sentence.
“And you what,” Val says, sitting up slowly from his makeshift bed of hides. He combs one hand through his hair, clawed nails catching on the silvery strands as he peers at Koan with an unreadable look on his narrow face. “You waited this long to come and tell me about it? You could have sent a runner, one of the natural wolves in the forest, if it was serious. What’s changed?”Read More »
#tbt or ThrowbackThursday is a weekly series where I write about things from history — primarily comic or film history. For the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about Frederic Wertham’s infamous book Seduction of the Innocent and going through the chapters with insightful and slightly snarky commentary. (Chunks of it will read like a research paper but then, those have always been my favorite things to write!)
Everyone that has even a drop of interest in comic books and comic book history has heard about Dr. Frederic Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent. He’s the big bad of comics history, the reason why we had the Comics Code Authority, the reason why, to some, comics just aren’t as good as they could’ve been.
Wertham is referenced in nearly single paper, book, and documentary on comic book history. You can’t escape references to him or his crusade against comic books. However, many people that are interested in comic books haven’t actually read Seduction of the Innocent.
This week’s post is pretty heavy on the social justice even though it’s also about comic books and video games. A lot happened in comics and in social justice and I started paying attention to more of the things being passed around my dash. Especially pieces on harassment and accessibility in comic book culture.
So here’s what’s stuck in my thoughts this week.
Trigger Warning for: abuse, online harassment, references to The Killing Joke under the cut
1. Arkham Knight
I’m not much of a gamer.
In fact, I’m terrible at video games and boardgames and roleplaying games. If it’s got the word “game” in it, I’ll gladly admit that I’m probably terrible at it. But despite that, the one series I love and buy all the time without a care for how long it’ll take me is the Batman game series put out by Rocksteady Studios.
When I say I love this game I mean… I really love this game. The only entry in the series I don’t have so far (aside from AK since it’s not out yet) is Arkham Asylym and that’s only because my college roommate’s boyfriend had it when it came out so I did my thing and struggled through the game as best as I could.
Hell, I still haven’t finished playing my copy of Arkham City (that my best friend got me in 2012!!) but I bought Arkham Origins last year and I’m probably going to buy Arkham Knight when it comes out in June.
Why?
Because I’ve just seen the utterly gorgeous cinematic trailer for the game. Everything about it looks perfect and super realistic. Bruce’s face — geez, Bruce’s face — The footage in the trailer actually looks like an actor instead of 3D modeling/rendering from the game. And Harvey Dent, my second favorite villain in the DCU, was there shooting up the joint and I loved it.
In all seriousness: this trailer got me even more excited for a game that I was already excited to buy and I think that everyone should at least watch the trailer once (because it’s good).
[This recap/review contains images of mid blood/gore, and brains.
In the interest of full disclosure, there’s something that you all should know about me: I’m not a zombie fan. I cringe through my older sister’s recaps of The Walking Dead and have actually walked out of rooms if there are zombies on the tv screen. I can watch nearly every other type of horror subgenre with little to no issue, but zombies are where it stops for me.
Usually.
The thing with iZombie is that I really and wholeheartedly love DC’s tv series. Aside from Gotham (which I got into late so I gave up on it), I have yet to find a DC series I didn’t like. I even own all of the Smallville DVD box sets. Yeah, DC has me hooked on their TV series.
So despite how terrified I am of zombies, I kind of had to watch iZombie and you know what? It’s really good.
So good that despite the fact that I’m probably going to have to rewatch that Neil DeGrasse Tyson clip about how zombies couldn’t actually exist in real life just to make it through the night, I’m going to be watching episode two next week.
Stitch's Media Mix 
You must be logged in to post a comment.