Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
January 25, 2018
Thoughts on Let the Right One In (Swedish and American films + comparisons to novel)
Category: Books … TV, Film, & DVDs

Having finished reading John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Let the Right One In (and the short story sequel, "Let the Old Dreams Die"), last night I watched the Swedish and American film versions back to back. And... it was an interesting experience. I first saw the American film nearly a year after I saw the Swedish one, so it wasn't entirely fresh in my mind -- but from what I recalled the American movie seemed like a superfluous remake of the original, made only for people who for whatever reason can't abide subtitles or dubs. And while it does seem that the American movie is more an adaptation of the Swedish film than of the original novel, my previous opinion of the film isn't *quite* right. (more...)

-posted by Wes | 7:51 pm | Comments (0)
May 20, 2017
Currently Reading: Asura Girl
Category: Books

So this week I started reading Asura Girl by Otaro Maijo, which I think I acquired during one of a friend's book purges. I don't recall what initially moved me to take the title home, but one of the things that persuaded me to read it now was my curiosity concerning prose translated from Japanese. Shusaku Endo's Silence ranks among the most satisfying and thought-provoking books I've ever read, but I haven't read any Japanese novels besides that.

About halfway into Asura Girl -- and having looked up some additional information about the book online -- I'm finding myself wondering about other details, like the fact that the book is written in first person and the protagonist is a 17-year-old girl, yet the author was a 30-year-old man when the book was released. The book also won the Mishima Yukio Prize for that year, which seems surprising because it's not all that good (at least so far, and admitting that whatever elegance the original prose possessed was perhaps lost in translation) and Yukio Mishima is kind of a big deal in Japanese literature. But the depiction of Japanese teenage culture is intriguing because of how alien it seems (to me; it might not seem that strange to others), and what story there is is interesting enough (though so far the novel has largely consisted of the teen female protagonist's musings, hence my curiosity regarding the reality of the author's age and sex), so I'm sufficiently motivated to keep reading.

-posted by Wes | 8:41 pm | Comments (0)
June 17, 2012
I bought used library stuff today
Category: Books … Miscellany … TV, Film, & DVDs

Okay, I bought them yesterday -- since it's after 3AM now -- but still. I don't often buy CDs (it's free to download music, and I don't mean illegally; Amazon's got lots of free tracks and there's Freegal for library members, among the many free songs artists and DJs offer up on their websites), but the library had a $1 per CD or 5/$4 sale going on and, after browsing the selection, I decided I was probably going to get three of them. So why not get two more for just another buck, right?? That's how they get ya.

CDs purchased:

  1. Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree
  2. The Cure - Wish
  3. Annie Lennox - Songs of Mass Destruction
  4. 10,000 Maniacs - Blind Man's Zoo
  5. This Mortal Coil - Blood

I also bought two books: The Haunted and the Haunters, a collection of ghost stories selected by Kathleen Lines, and Spider-Man: Midnight Justice... the latter of which was apparently not enjoyed at all by the author of the linked review. Oh well, it was a quarter and features VENOM. And might make for a fun SC review someday.

And I bought a DVD! Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People. I'd never heard of it before... but holy shit it looks awesome! And it's rocking a 6.4 on IMDb, which surprises the heck out of me for a film like this.

Aaaand that'll do it for this post! Now, because it's totally what I should be doing instead of sleeping, I'm going to head to the basement and photograph action figures. See ya next time. ;p

-posted by Wes | 3:29 am | Comments (5)
May 15, 2011
Vampire Haiku inspiration
Category: Books

I just read a book!
The title: Vampire Haiku.
It was amusing.

I'd never really thought about the existence of novellas in haiku, but that's pretty much what Ryan Mecum's Vampire Haiku is! It's not really a continuous story -- the book is presented as the haiku journal of one vampire, and mostly they simply consist of observations and that aren't necessarily connected -- but there is a certain consistency and there are references to past events. Most of the entries are also dated, though a lot of time passes between written dates -- sometimes decades. The book is only 137 pages yet purports to span nearly 400 years (it begins in 1620 and concludes in 2009). (more...)

-posted by Wes | 10:45 pm | Comments (2)
November 6, 2006
Wacky World Land
Category: Books … Linkage … TV, Film, & DVDs

You know, I wonder if somehow having a comment spam filter attracts spam comments. I mean, WordPress and Akismet appear to do a really good job of catching them, but I never got this many spam messages back on the old Blog of Wes. (There's no sense in reading the old page since I ported all of the old entries over to here, but if you're interested you can take a gander at the old layout :)) Perhaps the programs are lying, in order to exaggerate their performance and effectiveness!

Aaaand on a note somewhat related to that last comment, VOTE TOMORROW! Assuming that you have not already. I'm planning to vote Democratic across the board... and it really sucks that I feel like I have to do that, but I think that's the extent to which the political scene has been polarized as of late. And have you seen some of the Republican National Committee advertisements for this campaign? They're like weird fake campaign ads on a sketch comedy show! Insanity.

Also, given yesterday's international news, I totally want to read this book. Could be interesting!

The Prestige is pretty good stuff, by the way. A lot of the reviews that I've read have called it a challenging and confusing film, but I honestly didn't get any of that -- it seemed fairly easy to understand to me, especially since it goes out of its way to explain the twist ending at the end, replete with flashbacks. Anyway, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece (I probably couldn't rank it among even my top 20 or 30 favorite films, though I'd certainly add it to my DVD collection for $7.50 or less), but it's definitely a great film and makes for a good theater experience. It's certainly the best movie I've seen at the cinema this year! But then, the only other movies I've seen thus far are V for Vendetta and Silent Hill, so that's not saying too much.

Finally, the latest Neurotically Yours cartoon from Ill Will Press -- entitled "Useless Software" -- is quite funny. "It all just says pissed off and a date next to it!" Go watch. 🙂

-posted by Wes | 1:33 pm | Comments (3)