25 times a second

OK, then. I'm off to the beach to eat clam cakes and sit in the sun for a few days, so there will be naught for posts for perhaps a week or so. Please to entertain yourselves by going to see the new zombie flick and saving the season's box office. See you on the other side.

The newest update at Score, Baby! has a plethora of looks at some cool soundtrack stuff--I'll be buying Indiavision soon enough.


I never posted about the big merger between AMC and Loew's in the theater biz. Given the way that ticket sales are going, let's just say I really hope they own the land upon which those theaters are built.


OK, I know virtually nothing about the Brit TV show The Omega Factor, but it sure sounds a lot like the X Files some decade and a half before Cris Carter meandered down the path of governement conspiracy and psychic stuff. I may just need to import the new DVD release of this series if I can find out anything else about it.


The Sunday Herald sits down with Maggie Cheung and has a lengthy talk with her about Clean and former husband Olivier Assayas.

How bad is this year's box office slump? For the LA Times, it's front page news.


Did you ever play the twisted platformer for the PC called American McGee's Alice? If you haven't then you should, but if you don't get around to it then you can just take in the movie version. Though me, I'm still waiting for that American McGee game based on the Wizard of Oz.


It's the English language website for Seven Swords! Lau Kar-leung and Tsui Hark together. Be still my beating heart.


Bloody Disgusting interviews zombie maven George Romero just shortly before the fourth installment of the Dead series hits the big screen. I'm so excited.


Richard Corliss has a few thoughts on movie monsters that spring from the wondrous substance which gives the planet life.


Here's something to make you wish you lived in California: the Giant Japanese Monster Festival at the Egyptian. Henshin! Online has more.

DVD times lists the specs for the upcoming Val Lewton box from the geniuses at Warner Home Video.


DVD Drive-In takes a gander at the newly released DVD for Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik. It's such a great disk--the film itself looks great, there's a commentary track with the star as well as Tim Lucas, a nice featurette is included, plus there's a Beastie boys video and the original trailers too. And I bought mine for under 10$ postpaid. I'm laughing.


A pair of nice recent interviews of modern Japanese filmmakers: Midnight Eye's Tom Mes talks to Sogo Ishii while over at DVDTalk James Emanuel Shapiro chats with Kiyoshi Kurosawa.


A Not-so-safe-for-work happy 39th birthday to Christy Canyon, late Golden Age star and autobiographical author.

The press releases are going out for Montreal's Fantasia Festival, though we don't get the schedule for another week.


I say buzz buzz buzz and it's just because I'm a human fly and I don't know why. But I'll sure be picking up that SE, and the reasons should be clear.


In Time, Richard Corliss pores over the current state of the documentary--and things are looking pretty good even if they've swung toward the subjective.


In general, I subscribe to a program that says that genre movies should not run longer than 100 minutes. However, in the case of Tsui Hark's Seven Swords, I'll happily await the four hour cut for the DVD. (Hat tip to Hong Kong Entertainment News in Review).


Oooooooh, scary. Universal is packaging together a raft of Hammer horror (including the old fave Brides of Dracula) into a great looking box set which is slightly shy on extras but still looks to be a great release.

Is anyone who attempted to watch the NBA Finals last night still awake? Anyone?


With the DVD release of Rock and Rule now out, fps talks to some of the animators.


Wow, was that bad. I'd never before seen Scorsese's New York, New York but since it just came out in a Special Edition DVD I figured I'd check it out. Then it turns out that it's nearly three hours long and....nothing....ever.....happens. It's not an utter loss--there are some nicely shot musical numbers and some good character actor work--but the whole thing is completely muddled and the tone of the film is so scattershot as to be completely distracting. This might be the worst Scorsese film I've ever seen.

You'll all be happy to know that a few library requests have solved my summer beach reading problem and now I've got horror to keep me busy for weeks: not only did I get the P.D. Cacek and Nick Mamatos books that I mentioned on Sunday but I also picked up Curfew by Phil Rickman, The Boys Are Back in Town by Christopher Golden (who also wrote Strangewood, one of my favorite horror novels of the last few years) and The Manor by Scott Nicholson. That all ought to keep me entertained for a little while, at least.


Oooooooooh. The Masters of Horror site is live and it is cool. (Hat tip to Twitch).


Would you like to be a zombie in the videogame George Romero's City of the Dead? Well, three lucky contestants will get just that opportunity--details here. Also on the zombie front is this nice blog post detailing how Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin would hold up in a zombie attack. (Thanx to Incoming Signals for the latter item).



Now here's a release that makes me glad that I have an all-region player: it's a collection of shorts by an old Brit titled Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film, and it looks darn good.


Via HK Entertainment News comes word of a Chinaview piece that says Tsui Hark's Seven Swords is ready for a July open. Also on the website there are some graduation pics for Kung Fu Hustle starlet Huang Shenyi.

Just a brief note today to point out an upcoming Turner Classic Movies festival of classic science fiction with their Future Shock series. Lots of solid gems to be shown throughout this one. Also on tap this month for their mini cult film festival is a Japanese don't miss golden oldie: The Manster.

Great, great news for domestic fans of international horror: Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo (aka Pulse) will get a domestic release after all. Now me, I love me some Kiyoshi Kurosawa (well, except I did watch Charisma the other night and it was only OK) and I have to say that so far, Kairo is my most favoritest of all. It's creepy, it's thought provoking and it's a great argument for how restraint can work well with this sort of material. Don't miss it.


Ever wonder where the world's most dangerous filmmaking hotspots were? Well, wonder no more. (Tip of the hat to Incoming Signals.


I wish I could read this Japanese blog that I read about at Bitter Cinema. From the looks of the pics, it's a cool one...


There's been far too little Vicky Zhao Wei on screens of late, so it's nice to see her back even on the small screen.

A completely apropos of nothing, off the general topic blog post for no apparent reason other than that it's the internet and therefore I can. Below please find voluminous links detailing the current state of various things that interest me of late.

Reading: A-Frame by Chad Randl, Beach Houses: Andrew Geller by Alastair Gordon, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 and the latest issue of Metropolis. This last led me to look at stuff like Angela Adams rugs, Nina Marquina's site, Maija Louekari's fabrics and the amazing floating sculpture made by Janet Echelman in Portugal. Not sure what's next on the reading list, it's summer time so it may be time for some trash. The Wind Caller by P.D. Cacek? Deep in the Darkness by Michael Laimo? Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatos? Somewhere in the midst of the 2004 Stoker Award nominees there must be some beach reading for me. If not, I'll go back to reading The Walking Dead and Sgt Frog.


Sounds in heavy rotation(many thanks to Dusty Groove): Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends, the new album by Six Organs of Admittance, Love's a Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa, and the recent reissue of Together by Charles Wright and the 103rd St Rhythm Band. Older disks also being spun: Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes, Take it From the Man! by the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Since I Left You by The Avalanches. On order: L' Enfant Assassin des Mouches, Le Monde Fabuleux des Yamasuki, Nat Kendrick and the Swans (a pseudonym for James Brown), Thunder Lightning Strike by The Go! Team and The Milk of Human Kindness by Caribou. Pending library requests: Bye Bye Beaute by Coralie Clement, Muswell Hillbillies by the Kinks and Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain. I've got vinyl of these last two, but my turntable is busted...


Quick DVD recap. Recently viewed: Decasia: A Symphony in Decay, Charisma by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Invincible Fist. In the wings: Warlock by Edward Dmytryk, New York, New York SE, Hana and Alice and Finger of Doom. Pending pre-order: Born to Boogie. Will order this week: Dirty Ho, Danger Diabolik, Varan the Unbelievable and the Jaws 30th Anniversary Edition.

Blogger ate my last post yesterday, so just a quick recap of the pointers to DVD Drive In--so you can read Casey Scott and George R. Reis' work under their bylines before it appears mysteriously in some print magazine. Anyway, check out the reviews of Fireball 500/Thunder Alley, Vibrations/Fluctuations/Submission and Zontar the Thing From Venus/The Eye Creatures.

A Dark Horizon batch of news 'n stuff includes a rumor that last year's Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins may be Supergirl.


In other comic book type new comes the strange announcement that Matthew Vaughn is skipping out on X3. I'm already beginning to get a bad vibe about this one...


Bloody Disgusting has the scoop on a passel load of good stuff for Montreal's excellent Fantasia Festival. Looks like some pretty promising stuff--I'd be most excited about Survive Style 5.