Yesteday, among a couple of other dvds, I picked up a used copy of Johnny Suede. Given Johnny's wacky hairdo and the description on the back of the box, I was expecting something along the lines of a live-action "Johnny Bravo" cartoon, but it turned out to be a lot less strange -- better in some ways, though not quite far-out wacky enough to work for a full review on Scary-Crayon (which admittedly was my main motivation for picking up the film). But it was an interesting film to watch, since it's a lot like the kind of movie I'd write (and have written part of, in a screenwriting class back at Yale), especially with characters named "Flip Doubt" and "Freak Storm". And whaddya know, Freak Storm was played by none other than Nick Cave (of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)! Dunno if you're reading, Hannah, but you'd love this movie. 😉 (more...)

Like I said in one of the recent posts, I was going through some of the old directories on my hard drive and came across copies of my first "blog" from 2001-2, and thought that some of the weirdness therein should be resurrected for the delight of current readers. So here you are -- a dream from (I think) the fall of my junior year. And if you haven't thrown me your two questions yet, feel free -- I'm still taking 'em. And if you have submitted your questions already, feel free to ask a third. Or something. Keep me occupied so I don't try to make my head explode with more heavy heavy topics. Please. (more...)

And now, Scary-Crayon reviews...

The Red Lobster Fun Book!!!

Enjoy!!! And I'm still taking questions on the post below, so keep 'em comin'...

Just finished writing up the latest Scary-Crayon feature -- I think I'll upload it sometime this evening. Maybe a little earlier. Who knows. You'll enjoy it, I think. If you can bear to read through it all, that is. It has words. Lots of them.

Right now it is hot as low draggin' balls in this house. Per some of the recent posts, if I must go to hell, I hope I get an ice hell. I can't take this heat. Bloody hell. It's sweltering and I'm melting. Like the witch when Dorothy poured water on her. Except I wish someone would pour water on me. Cold water. It would feel so nice. I need an ice bath. (more...)

So Tina over at fidlet.com has recently written a blog entry addressing the depiction of vampires in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". She writes:

It is repeatedly said in the show that vampires (and other demons) do NOT possess free will. Why is that? Well, it seems to be due to thier intrinsically evil natures. That is, humans have free will because they have a soul, which gives them a conscience: so they have something within them that pulls them towards the good; there is some motivation in them, intrinsically, to do the right thing. Vampires do not have this: there is nothing in them that motivates them to do what is right...

Yet, while the characters recognize that vampires don't have free will, they nonetheless seem to hold them morally responsible for their actions. Buffy has no problem killing creatures that simply cannot help doing what they do. But she will never kill a human being, on the grounds that they do have a soul (i.e., free will). This seems rather mysterious to me: so you willingly kill those that had no freedom to anything but evil, but will not kill those that freely do evil.

So being something of a Buffy "expert", I wrote up a comment to post over there. And then it ended up being so lengthy that I figured I'd just post it as a blog entry. Be warned, I'm kinda exhausted (it's past 5 AM...), so it's probably not the best example of my work, but it should make sense. So Tina, this one's for you. 🙂 (more...)