#i included an entire amazon link for realism

[shirecorn]

Hey I just wanted to thank you for that studying anatomy post. I'm trying to support my kid's art education as best I can but I am not, technically speaking, a good artist at all, so resources like what you have put together is incredibly helpful for our home ed. Anatomy is something they have been really wanting to learn lately and I think this is going to be very exciting for them!

(How I study Anatomy)

Studying Animals, creatures, and design

ILL DO ANYTHING FOR CHILDREN i think I took out the swears in that post? did I take out all the swears???

My blog in general is not safe for kiddos because I didn't want to cut out that part of my personality as an online persona, but individual posts can be!

Depending on their ages beware setting kids loose on my blog because I swear a lot, draw Sometimes Really Realistic Gore, body horror, and the occasional Fish Tiddies.

Art tips is usually ok tho I think?

I've been meaning to follow up on the reference gathering step. Showing how to get good reference is important because it impress the importance OF reference

Recommendations for further anatomy study!!!!!!

These were super important to me as a young artist, because "draw three circles and add stripes for a tiger!" were completely boring and taught me nothing. But these books were something else entirely.

I recommend buying most of these books rather than borrowing from a library, because it takes a long time to properly chew through them the first time, and there's always concepts that go over your head for a while until you're a stronger artist and can comprehend them.

As for buying books, please buy from a book merchant rather than Amazon if you can afford it. Amazon exploits their workers, including crew for their streaming shows, which are artists like me! Check used book sites like ebay and Thriftbooks for cheap prices if you need those.

Dragonart by Jessica Peffer and the sequel, Dragonart Evolution

She has multiple books for different level artists

This one is great for kids and it illustrates important concepts like anatomy, realism vs stylization, and teaches a ton of important art concepts. This is one of my foundation books as a young artist.

The believable anatomy here is what made me so anal about dragon wings having enough surface area and connecting down the the tail. I haven't read the sequel, but I imagine it's probably even better and higher quality than the first.

I was selftaught until I was 21, so by the time I realized how-to-draw books were a thing, it was hard to find one advanced enough for me.

Drawing Wildlife by J. C. Amberlin

This book is INTENSE, dude. Absolutely perfect for a more advanced artist. It talks about techniques to render fur, how muscles work, why deer are built like tables, etc. It is really intense so if you get it for a child or young teenager they may look at it and then put it aside for a couple years.

I cannot recommend this art enough for people who want to draw animals. it REALLY elevates your technique and skill.

Draw Horses by Lee Hammond

This is a really typical book. Very short, check out from the library type. It's easily interchanged with whatever other horse book is out there, but this is the only one I've read. It was not advanced enough for me after reading Amberlin, but it's a great introduction to the basics of form and shading, as all good art books should be.

Further Study:

Skulls!

As much study as I've done, nothing compared to the leap of improvement as when I started cleaning skulls. Let me tell you, as soon as those kiddos figure out that a jaw hinges behind the eye instead of opening off the bottom like a trap door, they will be unstoppable

Skulls are easy to acquire, actually. I linked to etsy where you can search for replica skulls at affordable prices. Most of the time when you search for replicas, you're get hundred dollar museum-quality pieces, and that's not what we need to learn to draw. As long as they are cast from real bone and have a jaw that separates, they will be useful.

Real skulls are, in my opinion, much better than the replicas, but you need to consider the source when buying. Most bones you can buy are sourced from hunting, fur farms, meat processing, or souvenir shops. You need to know what business you will be supporting with your purchase. All of mine were animals that I found dead, or were given to me by their owners after they died.

Having something you can hold in your hand is super valuable. You just don't get the same kind of understanding from photos.

Museums

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAKE YOUR KIDS TO MUSEUMS!!!!!

My parents suffered from Have-too-many-kids disease so I can count on one hand the number of zoos we went to, and I think we only went to One science museum. They didn't really care about art so I never went to an art museum until I was 23 and took myself. I had never seen an oil painting in real life before and I started crying right then and there. Please nurture their love of art with everything you have in you. My family didn't care about art and actively discouraged me from pursuing it, yet here I am. Can you imagine how powerful I would be if I had that backup my whole life?

Oh yeah and at science museums some (Like the cal academy of sciences) have sets of skulls, pelts, rocks, and whatever else that are specifically for kids to handle and touch! Ask if yours has any because when I asked I got access to a treasure trove and got to touch an otter skull!

Zoos!

Super important! Grab a sketchbook and go! Make sure everybody works super loose and doesn't fiddle too long or get frustrated. Living animals move, so trying to do something really detailed won't work, it's not like reffing off a photo!

My sketches are on the left, but I went searching for some looser sketches that are good for little hands. The artist talks about their trip.

Yay

That's all the images I'm allowed and all the ramble I've got left for tonight. I refuse to proofread please enjoy

[artistsemamartin-blog]

5 Artist Studio Must Haves

When it comes to the right studio space for any artist, some of us can be limited or find it hard to know what we need before we can sit down and draw. I have taken around 3 years to learn and build up the must have items I use every day for my commission work. In this blog I have laid out the 5 Artist Studio Must Haves I cannot live without including scanners and drawing board. There is a direct amazon link for a UK or US customer for each item I talk about. I hope this is useful to you. Let me know in the comments below.

Wooden Artist Draws

I search a while for these draws, and they were so hard to find. I ended up getting this 4 Drawer Wood Artist Supply Storage Box from the american amazon store since the UK one only sold two or three draw types which isnt really enough. They are the perfect size for pencils and stackable, so as your collections of pencils grow you can buy more draws to fit them all. These draws fit my 76 Caran D’Ache Luminance pencils box, 2x 24 set of Derwent Drawing Pencils and my set of 120 Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils. So they four draws is plenty!

They also come with handy dividers inside so you can separate your colours and have everything organised and easy to use. I highly recommend getting them as a must have studio tool.

Click the following buttons to buy from amazon if you are in the UK or US.

A0 Drawing Table

My A0 Drawing Board is definitely one of my favourite items I have bought for my studio. The UK link is the exact table I have bought but the USA link is the smaller version created by the same company. It’s worth spending more money on quality drawing table so it can last your entire artistic career. As a professional I use it all day every day and I am constantly tipping it backward and forward for drawing and photography of my work. It is really easy to use, and you can even adjust the height, so if you are a shorty like me you can have it lower than a normal table, or a lot higher than one. This A0 size gives me plenty of elbow room and the foot supports on the bottom are a great height for keeping your legs at a relaxed angel. I recommend buying this A0 Drawing Board if you have the room.

Click the following buttons to buy from amazon if you are in the UK or US.

Daylight Lamp

The right lamp is so important for drawing so you can trust you are seeing the right colours all the time and you are not dependent on a good sunny day. Since I live in a cottage in the middle of Wales, I don’t have the best lighting in my studio and therefore I am so happy I bought this lamp. The PHIVE LED Architect Lamp lights my work with a bright even light and you can hold down the power button as a dimmer switch. It secures well to my drawing board or a desk and has a long cable which is useful for plugging it in far from a socket. I would recommend getting this lamp to work on your latest creation, all hours in the day and night.

Click the following buttons to buy from amazon if you are in the UK or US.

Technology Must Haves

Technology wise I cannot complete a portrait without my Lenovo Tab E7 Tablet and my Canon LIDE 220 Scanner. I upload the reference picture to my tablet so I can zoom in on details and have a clear picture to work from. There are many tablets out there by this was the most affordable for me and does its one job perfectly. After I have completed a portrait, I use my Canon LIDE 220 Scanner to scan in my work at 600ppi. This means I have a high-quality image to use for prints and on my website whilst the customer keeps the original. This is an A4 size and larger sizes are available at a higher cost. But usually I scan the image in parts if it is larger than A4 and then put the picture together in photoshop which doesn’t take too much time. I will hopefully save up and get a large printer scanner but for now this one does the job perfectly for me.

Thank you for reading my blog about my 5 Artist Studio Must Haves. I hope it was helpful and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me or comment below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Sema Martin and I am a realism pet portrait artist based in Wales, UK.  I specialise in colour pencil as a medium and have created many pet portraits for customers in Wales drawing from their reference photo sent to me by email. The high-quality brand of colour pencils used is a mixture of Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran D'ache Luminance on extra smooth Bristol Board paper.

[forever-phasing-blog]

The Most Influential People in the concrete powder minecraft Industry

Piaget (1954a) thought of the concrete stage An important turning issue in the child's cognitive advancement, because it marks the start of sensible or operational imagined. The kid has become mature adequate to utilize rational assumed or operations (i.

At this stage, a toddler can easily group objects which have been mixed up into distinctive sub sets that outline their qualities. This is a crucial potential specifically in Math lessons where youngsters at the moment are acquiring the opportunity to differentiate sets. Factors including coloration, size, product utilized together with other physical qualities are conveniently identifiable by the youngsters (Keenan, 2001). This potential is usually generally known as class inclusion mainly because it requires making classes of various objects. An illustration of classification is when a toddler id in a position to generate sets of similar coloured paper from a mixture of various hues.

 In the primary stage of realism, kids feel that their dreams are a product of the outward physical surroundings and they use their eyes to see their dreams. In the second stage, kids understand that dreams originate from their minds and so are unreal, but nonetheless Believe that they're taking place from the area before them.

Initial, ensure that the stone is clean and dry. Then you will have to utilize a very good bonding primer and after that make use of a hybrid enamel for the ultimate paint. Apply 2 coats; ensure and give an entire day to dry between coats. Many thanks! Certainly No Not Useful 3 Helpful thirteen

As toddlers (ages 1-three several years) start to examine their planet, they discover they can Handle their steps and act to the ecosystem to acquire benefits. Precisely what is the key developmental job of this stage?

Then use your fingers to be certain the remaining wire isn't about to present or protrude. When They are all clipped, you'll be able to go back and fill the Areas and re-screed.

Even whenever they consider a distinct route, they are able to see of their minds eventually where They are really headed, rather than solely memorizing and recognizing 1 direct route.

Once a toddler has accomplished these features of your concrete operational stage, he / she has last but not least arrived at the fourth and remaining stage of human improvement through which all Older people are in: Piaget's stage of Formal Operations.

Obtain the appropriate paint for the correct concrete. Your best guess, when working with concrete, is to implement masonry paint, which happens to be formulated to deal and develop as concrete variations temperature.

Your last value will depend on the colours, patterns, and In general complexity of design you want to have.

Often known as the "3 Mountain Undertaking," youngsters are questioned to pick an image that confirmed the scene they'd noticed.

We figured the area of the sides wouldn't get any smoother with us messing about with them. You will need to eliminate the sides with the forms immediately after several days of curing in any case to allow the sides to dry more thoroughly.

Ideally this has encouraged you to definitely go on and attempt to construct your very own concrete countertop. We learned quite a bit by the procedure and are thinking about quite possibly undertaking A further one particular in 6 months or so. Although this challenge does take a truthful amount of time as far as drying and so on, All round, we did not have a lot of person several hours in the actual design.

RemodelingCalculator.org can be a participant from the Amazon Companies LLC Associates Software, an affiliate promoting application created to offer a implies for web pages to generate promoting fees by promoting and linking to amazon.

[problemsofabooknerd]

Recommending LGBTQIA+ SFF

Pride Day 5!

Check out the intro to my Pride project here.

Listen, I have a deep love for queer contemporary. I love a love story. But my truest love has always been fantasy, and it’s always a little bit harder to find LGBTQIA+ rep in SFF. I want my gays in space! In castles! On quests! And not just gays, of course. I want bi guys and gals, trans and enby folks, and ace peeps all across fantastical worlds. So, if you’re thinking along the same lines as me, check out the recommendations down below the cut. And at the end I’ll even add a quick list of some queer SFF on my personal TBR too!

Sci-Fi

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (goodreads, amazon)

This book is about lesbian pirates and sea monsters. That is the end of my pitch. Seriously, if the sentence “lesbian pirates and sea monsters” doesn’t already have you hooked, I don’t know what to say, I will never be able to convince you of how incredible this book is. Plus, it’s the first in a duology so there’s even more to love. 

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (goodreads, amazon)

I already mentioned this book in my first post this month about books with a large cast of queer characters. If you like queer teens of color kicking ass and saving the world, this is the series for you. 

Dreadnought by April Daniels (goodreads, amazon)

What? You want more queer superhero stories? Not a problem. Dreadnought follows Dany, a trans girl who is still in the closet due to her transphobic and abusive family. Then the superhero Dreadnought dies at her feet, and Dany inherets all his powers - and the body she has always wanted. This duology deals with some darker aspects of being a superhero, and does have warnings for a LOT of transphobia (one of the villains is a terf and she’s really awful), but it’s excellent and ownvoices and I can’t recommend it enough. Plus Dany is a lesbian, and the second book has a f/f romance!

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (goodreads, amazon)

Henry has had a rough year. His boyfriend killed himself, his relationship with his brother has become even more strained, and his grandmother is rapidly remembering less and less. Oh, and also he’s abducted by aliens semi-regularly who tell him they’re going to destroy the world and he has the power to stop it. This one has big trigger warnings for depression, suicide, and attempted sexual assault, but it’s also a beautiful book about mental illness, complex family relationships, and love. 

Axiom: The Last Hope by Rachel Marie Pearcy (goodreads, amazon)

If you read a million dystopian books a few years ago when the genre was big, I’m sure you, like me, were missing out on queer dystopian. I am here to make your life better! Axiom is about a world in which every decision is made for you, until Ella falls off the beaten path and falls for her female roommate. It has all the tropes and high-intensity of a dystopian, plus a f/f romance that really strengthens the whole center of the novel.

Fantasy

Peter Darling by Austin Chant (goodreads, amazon)

Austin Chant is going to probably be on as many posts as I can manage this month, despite the fact that he only has three novellas, but I can’t help my love. Peter Darling is a sequel/retelling of Peter Pan wherein Peter is trans. He returns to Neverland after a ten year absence, and finds it even darker than he left it. This also features a m/m romance between Hook and Pan. Austin Chant owns my heart, that’s what you need to know. 

Caroline’s Heart by Austin Chant (goodreads, amazon)

What? Already another Austin Chant novella? Yeah, that seems like me. Caroline’s heart is a f/m romance, and it’s about trans folks falling in love. Cecily is a witch who lost her true love year ago, and is desperately trying to resurrect her. But when a cowboy in peril stumbles into her path, she has to decide if giving up the past is worth it to save a man she barely knows. This is super western, super queer, super historical, and super magical. It’s everything. 

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle (goodreads, amazon)

And speaking of queer magic, I have some more to share! Spellbook is set in a small town in Ireland and follows a variety of teenagers with intersecting stories and lives. One night at a party, a spell is cast and everyone wakes up the next day to find they have lost something. One of them also finds a spellbook that possibly has a way to bring everything back, and there is a part to play for every person in the group. There are three POV characters, two of whom are queer women. There are bisexual girls and a lesbian character, and f/f and f/m romances both happen. There are also POC and one of the bi girls is deaf in one ear. Plus it’s magical and odd and Irish and fabulous, as if that was not already evident in this description.

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly (goodreads, amazon)

Amberlough is set in a an alternate 1930s-inspired world full of cabarets and a rising fascist regime. It follows Cyril, a spy, his lover Aristide, smuggler and emcee at the Bumble Bee Cabaret, and Cordelia, a Bumble Bee dancer. When Aristide’s life is threatened, Cyril is forced to turn against his government and his moral code to keep him safe. The worldbuilding in this one blows me away, and in general has an aesthetic that is unbeatable. Plus the sequel was just recently released! 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (goodreads, amazon)

We always see the stories of children who wander through magical doorways, but what happens to them when they stumble back to our world and out of the place they feel like they belonged? In the Wayward Children series, it means you end up at Eleanor West’s Home For Wayward Children. This is a novella that deals with magical trauma and finding a way and a place to be your true self, and the entire series is incredible. This first one features and asexual protagonist and a trans side character, but the books afterwards always feature queer characters and magically heartbreaking stories. 

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (goodreads, amazon)

If you are looking for magical realism with cursed queer ladies, this is all you could ever possibly want. Wild Beauty is set in the lush gardens of La Pradera, where the women of the Nomeolvides family care for it every day. The women also have a curse: should any of them fall in love too deeply, the object of their affection will disappear. Then one day a mysterious boy appears in the garden with no memory of who he is. This is a story in which every single female character is bisexual, basically. It opens with all the cousins being in love with the same girl, and it’s magical and wonderful and about the traumas of colonialism and the power of family. Plus, all of the characters are Latinx. It’s excellent. 

High Fantasy

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst (goodreads, amazon)

A book about two princesses falling in love, which is basically all you need to know. I mean, there’s also the fact that one of them has the ability to control fire (despite the fact that magic is forbidden), or the fact that she is engaged to the prince and falls for his sister instead. Or! That there are so many horses and so much horse love it’s at times overwhelming! These are also good facts about Of Fire and Stars, but ultimately I know that all you all need to be told is that two princesses fall for each other and it is glorious. 

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust (goodreads, amazon)

I just did a full review of this yesterday, which I will link here. Basically this is a retelling of Snow White that focuses on the complex relationship between a princess and her stepmother. It’s super feminist, fascinating, and features a f/f relationship for the Snow White character. Read it immediately, I’m begging you.

And that’s the end of my list! But if you’re looking for some more, my TBR currently includes The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh, Passing Strange by Ellen Klages, Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis, Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie, and Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey. Ok, your TBR should be good and stuffed with queer SFF now, so I’ll wrap up here. And check back tomorrow if you want to hear all the little details of my personal sexuality journey!

[allthingsfantasy]

Blog Tour ~ Day Moon ~ Excerpt

Blog Tour ~ Day Moon

Author: Brett Armstrong

Genre: Science Fiction/ Fantasy

Dates:29th of May ~ 9th of June

Hosted by: Ultimate Fantasy Book Tours

Blurb:

In A.D. 2039, a prodigious seventeen year old, Elliott, is assigned to work on a global soft-ware initiative his deceased grandfather helped found. Project Alexandria is intended to provide the entire world secure and equal access to all accumulated human knowledge. All forms of print are destroyed in good faith, to ensure everyone has equal footing, and Elliott knows he must soon part with his final treasure: a book of Shakespeare’s complete works gifted him by his grandfather. Before it is destroyed, Elliott notices something is amiss with the book, or rather Project Alexandria. The two do not match, including an extra sonnet titled “Day Moon”. When Elliott investigates, he uncovers far more than he bargained for. There are sinister forces backing Project Alexandria who have no intention of using it for its public purpose. Elliott soon finds himself on the run from federal authorities and facing betrayals and deceit from those closest to him. Following clues left by his grandfather, with agents close at hand, Elliott desperately hopes to find a way to stop Project Alexandria. All of history past and yet to be depend on it.

 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34722838-day-moon

Buy Links:

 Amazon.com ~ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XWDM49Z

   Author Bio:

 From an early age, Brett Armstrong had a love for literature and history. At age nine, he combined the two for his first time in a short story set in the last days of the Aztec Empire. After that, writing’s role in his life waxed and waned periodically, always a dream on the horizon, till he reached college. At West Virginia University, he entered the Computer Engineering program and spent two years pursuing that degree before an opportunity to take a creative writing class, for fun, came along. It was so enjoyable, he took another and in that course he discovered two things. The first was the plot for a short story called Destitutio Quod Remissio, which the others students really seemed to love. The second, he realized he absolutely loved writing. For him, it was like the proverbial light bulb coming on. In the years since, describing that epiphany has been difficult for him, but he found the words of 1924 Olympian Eric Liddell are the most eloquent expression for it: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” God gave Brett a passion for writing, and so feels His pleasure when writing. After a few years passed, Brett got his Computer Engineering degree, but also completed a minor in each of his real passions: history and creative writing. In 2013, he began graduate school to earn an MA in Creative Writing. During that time he completed the novelization of Destitutio Quod Remissio and entered the 2013-2014 CrossBooks Writing Contest, which won the contest's grand prize. As of March 2015, Brett completed his MA and is presently employed in the West Virginia Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology as a programmer analyst. Brett lives in Saint Albans, West Virginia, with his beautiful wife, Shelly. In the summer the pair gardens together, and each day Brett continues writing his next novel.

Visit him at:

 Website: http://www.brettarmstrong.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brettarmstrongwv

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BArmstrongWV

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00TGQ8ULK

Excerpt:

 Chapter Seven – The Storm

 “Alas, the storm is come again!”

The Tempest, Act II, scene 2, line 38

  The door to the creative arts hall swung shut behind Elliott, ushering him into the building with a rush of wind that startled him. He glanced back at the huge glass entry doors and swallowed back the wave of anxiety that rose up. Professor Alsworth’s e-mail was so vague it was hard to fathom what this meeting was to be about. It definitely wasn’t the start to a Monday he would choose.

Only a few other students were out and about on the campus. Columbus Day kept most of the other students in bed till well after noon. Elliott had been up for several hours now.

Each footstep echoed off the tiles of the hall. Through the low lit corridor were arranged a variety of art pieces. The hall wasn’t like those on the downtown campus. It was completely new and its interior reflected the subject matter taught within its enclosure. The walls were a gradient of dark and light tones that drew their inspiration from the school colors. Along the wall were crisscrossing metal beams that intersected at various angles and arched around light fixtures and show pieces. Many of the latter were produced by students or faculty. A long entry hall gave way to an open atrium where the metal wall accentuations soared up and twisted into the next several floors.lit corridor were arranged a variety of art pieces. The hall wasn’t like those on the downtown campus. It was completely new and its interior reflected the subject matter taught within its enclosure. The walls were a gradient of dark and light tones that drew their inspiration from the school colors. Along the wall were crisscrossing metal beams that intersected at various angles and arched around light fixtures and show pieces. Many of the latter were produced by students or faculty. A long entry hall gave way to an open atrium where the metal wall accentuations soared up and twisted into the next several floors.

At the back of this huge open area was a coffee bar, surrounded by stools and automated dispensing machines. The room’s centerpiece was a square pond where the water was almost precisely at the lip of its container. Long plush benches were arrayed around it and the lights played off the barely stirred surface. The entire effect of this place with its wide acoustic halls and edgy architecture was to evoke the spirit of creativity in sight and sound. Elliott liked coming here, most days.

Instructor offices were on different floors, based on the department, but Professor Alsworth’s happened to be on ground level. Nearing the office, Elliott felt his pulse quickening. A variety of scenarios, good and bad, ran through his mind, most too extreme in one direction or the other to be likely.

A few steps shy of the door to the office, Elliott could hear voices. Both spoke in hushed tones, and he did his best to not focus on the conversation. That another student was meeting with Professor Alsworth meant that this should not be a visit of any concern.

Dropping down onto a hard plastic chair in the hall, Elliott folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. In the hall were a number of paintings. The two closest were abstract, with a wide array of colors, strokes, and seemingly erratic design. One was probably on display for the subtle use of hues and even texture in the painting. It didn’t interest Elliott much. He preferred some level of realism in his work. Even so, one of them caught his eye. It was darker than the other and reminded Elliott of a stormy night.

Inside the office the conversation was cut short, and footsteps could be heard approaching the door at a quick clip. The door swung open with surprising speed and Elliott jumped to his feet to avoid its path. Entering the hall was a girl, whose sniffling Elliott perceived before his eyes reached the dark hair and pallid skin. “Lara?” he asked after the retreating form of the downcast student.

She turned and looked at him. Lara’s eyes glistened with tears and her primrose lips were twisted with a sorrow he had never seen. Without answering him, she turned around and hurried down the hall away from him.

Elliott took a few steps toward her, but hesitated. Lara hadn’t told him that she had an appointment today as well…

Another figure emerged into the hall: Professor Alsworth. His eyes were trained on Lara, his face impassive, but his posture slightly hunched as though he carried a weight that bore down hard on him. His blue eyes flicked to Elliott after a few seconds and he said, “Hello, Elliott. You can come on inside and sit down. I’m going to go get some coffee.”

Nodding to his teacher, Elliott shuffled inside as Professor Alsworth stalked down the corridor toward the atrium. Inside Alsworth’s office it was much brighter than out in the hall. He kept it pristine, without a single paper of his inbox out of sorts in its stack or bit of clutter to be found. Walking slowly toward the large, L-shaped desk roughly a third of the way from the back wall, Elliott could see the display of his professor’s Mac still alight, left on the last thing his teacher had viewed before stepping out into the hall.

Unable to resist his curious nature, he leaned across the desk to get a good view of it. On the screen was an image from an art gallery’s website. The piece he was looking at was titled Dia de la Luna. It was a painting and it looked eerily similar to the drawing he had submitted just last week.

[curlygirl79]

First Second Coming, the debut fantasy/supernatural/romance/suspense novel by Jeff Pollak, was released on 1st August. Prior to it’s release, I sat down for a virtual chat with Jeff, and I am delighted to be able to share this with you all today. Let’s jump straight in, and then I will share all the important information about the book with you all.

What was the inspiration behind First Second Comings?

When 9/11 occurred, I watched the World Trade Tower collapse just as everyone else did. Of course, I was horrified by the spectacle. Perhaps more so than others, because I had connections to that building. Born and raised in New York City, I’d been in the building a few times as a child. In my adult years, my law firm would hold annual seminars in the Top of the Tower conference centre every May, to update our New York/New Jersey corporate clients about California law and important appellate decisions. As a partner in the firm I’d function as a speaker, a panelist, or just a meet-and-greet guy. I had some clients in the building and gotten to know some of the conference centre’s staff. So the collapse was very hard to watch – some people I knew in that building didn’t survive, I later learned. That day a random thought came to me, that this planet really needs a new god, someone who is a planetary turnaround specialist. Some fourteen years later, when I’d decided to spend my future retirement writing fiction, the concept of a character who is a planetary turnaround deity came back to me as the seed of a story. I developed it and First Second Coming is the result.

What are your favourite books as a reader?

My all-time favorite books? I’ll break it down by genre.  Historical fiction: James Clavell’s Shogun and Tai-Pan novels. Also Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost. Fantasy: Tolkien’s Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Science Fiction: Frank Herbert’s Dune and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Thriller/Suspense: Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October and John LeCarre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Horror: Stephen King’s The Stand. Magical Realism: Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 and David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. Non-fiction: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin about Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War Cabinet, and Simon Winchester’s Atlantic about that little pond that separates England from the U.S.A.

Which authors inspire you as a writer? Is there a particular author who it would make your day to be compared to?

At the moment the authors who inspire me the most are, in no particular order, Iain Pears, David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami and Daniel Silva. The first Pears book I read, An Instance of the Fingerpost, is told from the point of view of four different individuals. Each POV character narrates the same events entirely differently, leaving the reader amazed that the story  comes together. Pears is a master at that sort of intricate plotting and character development. As for Mitchell, the man’s off the charts as a writer. Incredible talent. I don’t read his books, I savor every sentence in them, especially The Bone Clocks. As for Murakami, I started with 1Q84 and it was a revelation. Something different in its Japanese setting, in the richness of the details of both the real world and the alternative world he creates, and in the uniqueness of the story. Finally, Silva – he writes espionage thrillers along the lines of LeCarre or Follett. Silva’s ongoing series of about twenty books now all involve Israeli Mossad spy Gabriel Allon. Silva’s books are a bit formulaic, but he often incorporates real world events into the story and he has a conciseness to his writing style that I try to emulate in my writing. At this point in my development as a writer, being compared to Silva would probably make my day as I’m not yet at the “master writer” level of a Pears, Mitchell or Murakami. I aspire to get that good, though.

What did you learn over the course of writing First Second Comings that you wish you had known before you started?

Good question. I was learning the craft while I wrote, so I suppose the short answer is “everything.” I attended writers conferences, participated in critique groups, did online courses and researched answers to the “how to” things that came up. If there’s one thing that stands out that I didn’t learn but instead experienced, it’s getting so close to your characters that they actually talk to you unbidden (in your head) while you write. The first time my female main character, Brendali Santamaria, started talking to me I pretty much freaked out. I wasn’t expecting that and didn’t know this is a fairly common occurrence in the writing world. She’d tell me what was actually going on in the story, as differentiated from what my outline said was happening. I enjoyed hearing from her before long. Her romance with Ram Forrester, for example, wasn’t something I had planned to include in the story – but it happened and is now a major piece of First Second Coming.

Do you have a regular writing routine? If you do, what does it look like?

I do now, yes, but while writing most of First Second Coming I’d write as time allowed, around my work and family obligations. Now, as a retiree and empty-nester, I have plenty of free time. I do most of my work in the morning, from about 5:30 to 11:30, taking breaks for exercise and to get showered and dressed. In the afternoons I’ll hike for an hour or so, do any errands or chores that need doing, and write or edit as time permits. I don’t write in the evening, leaving that time for reading or other leisurely pursuits.

Do you have a plan in mind for your next book?

I’ve begun writing the second book in the “New God” series, or to put it another way, the sequel to First Second Coming. I’m also doing research for it and writing a novel that will be a spin-off from the series but not part of it. All those things – the two novels and the research – are in the start-up stages. I hope to have a first draft done on at least one of the two novels by year end.

Thanks so much Jeff, for taking the time to talk to me. Now, onto the all important blurb!

BLURB:

In 2027 the deity known as NTG – short for New Testament God – retires after more than two thousand years of minding the store for his employer, Milky Way Galaxy, Inc. The new god, a planetary turnaround specialist, must decide whether the Earth’s dominant species should or should  not be included in his plan to bring the planet back into full compliance with Milky Way Galaxy, Inc.’s planetary operation standards.

Earth’s new God introduces himself to humanity by unexpectedly appearing on the Ram Forrester Hour talk show. Ram, an atheist, and co-host Brendali Santamaris, a devout Catholic, are stunned. God’s interview, beamed worldwide, shocks and infuriates viewers. They learn that a sixty-day conference will take place in Los Angeles to determine whether humans are capable of helping him implement his planetary turnaround plan. All that those in attendance must do to assure that mankind earns a coveted spot in this God’s good graces is eliminate religious violence forever, without his heavenly help, before the conference ends. Failure means extinction.

God designates Ram and Bren as the conference’s only authorized media reporters. This assignment, fraught with peril, ignites their romance. Not only must the harried couple attend the conference meetings by day and do their show at night, they must also outwit a group of religious fanatics bent on killing them. When conflicts with the conference intensify, it’s up to Ram and Bren to do whatever it takes to protect their budding romance and assure mankind’s survival.

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jeff Pollak, the author of First Second Coming and sequels to come, was raised in the Riverdale section of the Bronx by a single mom and two grandparents who lived eight floors up. After graduating from college in Buffalo, Jeff headed west to Los Angeles for law school and spent his entire legal career in and around civil litigation. Now retired, writing fiction is Jeff’s new passion.

  SOCIAL MEDIA:

Goodreads

Website

Twitter

Thanks again Jeff, for taking the time to talk to me. I think this sounds like a fascinating book and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

Join me for a virtual chat with @jspollak author of First Second Comings #bookblogger #q&a #meettheauthor #fantasy #supernatural #suspense #romance #fictioncafewriters #spoonshortagebookclub First Second Coming, the debut fantasy/supernatural/romance/suspense novel by Jeff Pollak, was released on 1st August. Prior to it's release, I sat down for a virtual chat with Jeff, and I am delighted to be able to share this with you all today.

[sabersourcing]

This is a custom MHS Graflex Thin Neck Hybrid Lightsaber by Shameem Moshrefzadeh. The hilt is primarily comprised of Modular Hilt System (MHS) parts from The Custom Saber Shop. The hybrid design of the lightsaber hilt is pretty wild, paying homage to both the Graflex lightsaber and the thin neck lightsabers in Original Trilogy. Few sabers reference both designs at the same time.

RELATED LIGHTSABER SELLERS affiliate links If you purchase an item through these links, I receive some money at no cost to you. ETSY Lightsabers AMAZON Lightsabers EBAY Lightsabers KYBERLIGHT Lightsabers

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The hilt borrows design features from the Graflex lightsaber and a thin neck lightsaber like the Luke Skywalker ROTJ lightsaber. If you cover up the neck section, the hilt looks more or less like a standard, maybe slightly longer-than-average, Graflex style lightsaber. But the presence of the thin-neck design element disrupts the profile of the entire hilt. Not that that’s a bad thing. The thin neck surprisingly complements the overall hilt design.

The top several inches of the hilt is styled like the Graflex or Skywalker lightsaber, including iconic features like the bunny ears and a glass eye on one side and a decorative red button (non-functional) on the other. A Graflex style blade plug, with a brass pin in its center, is installed in the hilt to add some realism to the emitter section. The emitter features the iconic s-curve shape.

A thin, black spacer is installed below the emitter section. Several additional spacers are incorporated into other parts of the hilt as well. All of the black spacers and black T-track grips visually tie together throughout the hilt.

Moving down the hilt, we reach the taper of the thin neck! The thin neck is powder coated a gold color, much like the thin neck lightsabers in the Original Trilogy. The shade of the gold colored thin neck is slightly different than, but very similar to, the brass pins near the top of the hilt.

Below the neck, the hilt features two metallic silver, recessed tactile switches (Shameem used to sell these custom switches in his now closed Etsy store affiliate link), one on either side of the hilt. A short, metallic silver ‘gear-tooth’ style section is situated below the switches. Long, black T-track grips encircle the lower grip section of the hilt (the grips feel like a hard plastic version rather than a rubbery version). Finally, the hilt tapers slightly at the pommel. A D-ring is installed on the bottom of the vented pommel, completing the look of the hilt.

Overall, the MHS Graflex Thin Neck lightsaber hilt is a really cool custom hybrid design, incorporating design cues from both Graflex style lightsabers and thin neck style lightsabers. Since the hilt is made from many Modular Hilt System (MHS) parts, you could visit The Custom Saber Shop and attempt to construct a similar lightsaber hilt, if you’d like.

Shameem’s Saber Customization Services Etsy Store STORE CLOSED affiliate link https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShameemCustomSabers

Shameem Moshrefzadeh, founder of Shameem’s Saber Customization Services, was a United States based custom saber builder. He announced that he was “transitioning out of the world of custom saber building” in August 2019.

Shameem Custom MHS Graflex Thin Neck Hybrid Lightsaber Hilt Review This is a custom MHS Graflex Thin Neck Hybrid Lightsaber by Shameem Moshrefzadeh. The hilt is primarily comprised of…

[entergamingxp]

The Rebel Collection on Nintendo Switch Is a Serviceable Eyesore

December 19, 2019 11:55 AM EST

Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection for Nintendo Switch significantly undermines visuals for portability; there are better (and cheaper) options for Black Flag and Rogue.

The Assassin’s Creed series has relatively recently undergone a seismic shift in both what the game is and how it is played; both Origins and Odyssey have been game-changers in moving the gameplay goalposts from incremental annual improvements to more radical change. Yet, for gamers that have grown up with the series, there is something nostalgic about the checklist-era approach of the classic Ezio titles. And that includes some of the most cherished middle-children to the series: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Rogue, both newly available on Nintendo Switch.

Yet, despite the acclaim these seafaring adventures have garnered from the fanbase over the past half-decade, both are pretty hard to recommend in 2019. Are both of these some top-quality Assassin’s Creed adventures? Absolutely. Do they hold up today? Without a doubt. Are the titles visually stunted and poorly optimized for Nintendo Switch? Yes–enough so that you should consider not grabbing the collection.

Before we dive into that, a quick overview of the titles–Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection houses both Black Flag and Rogue, the two games that came at a significant intersection of our current gaming generation. We reviewed both games when they released, with both receiving and 8.0 out of 10 — feel free to check those for deep-dives of the individual titles.

During the launch of the newly-released PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Ubisoft didn’t know where to play their cards and chose (like most major software releases in the time) to create a cross-generational title releasing simultaneously for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. A year later, with the PS4 and Xbox One bases firmly established, Ubisoft took on a new Herculean task: create two entirely different Assassin’s Creed games for both generations.

Though Assassin’s Creed: Unity for PS4 and Xbox One crashed and burned at launch in a mess of nightmarish bugs and glitches, the PS3 and Xbox 360-dedicated Assassin’s Creed: Rogue mainly flew under the radar. Lifting most of what made Black Flag phenomenal (sailing, shanties, and the like), the game remained a cult classic to the dedicated fanbase until recent years when Ubisoft remastered the game for current-gen systems.

In short, there is no question that these games are worth playing. At least one of them–Rogue–is likely criminally underplayed by even most fans of the franchise. But that doesn’t mean you have to play this on Nintendo Switch. And you shouldn’t… unless it is your only option.

While Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed: Rogue are both technically serviceable on the Nintendo Switch, the game is pretty visually repulsive. Every graphic-based buzzword is on display here: bad textures, missing frames, random pop-ins, graphic artifacts, mismatched lip-syncing. You name it, and The Rebel Collection’s got it.

“…you are better served as a consumer to pick up the titles separately on PC, PS4, or Xbox One — provided you have those consoles.”

Even worse: I’m not some self-professed graphics expert or a frame rate savant, and I (more than the average gamer) am more likely to overlook smaller inconsistencies in games if it doesn’t impact gameplay. However, two significant issues dog the Nintendo Switch versions of both Black Flag and Rogue. On the one hand, the series itself tends to aim for more realism in their art style; if we were talking about a cell-shaded series, noticeably pixelated textures might not be so much of an issue. In The Rebel Collection, it makes the screen tough to look at.

Following that, issues like the lip-syncing (or lack there-of) bring back some violent callbacks to Wii-era ports. You remember the ones–where developers were porting each and every technical marvel to the vastly-underpowered but commercially successful Nintendo console. Those games weren’t pretty and were occasionally barely functioning. And while I’m not suggesting developer and publisher Ubisoft is taking this same strategy with the Nintendo Switch, both Rogue and Black Flag are reaching the upper limits of the Switch’s capabilities.

Weirdly, the effects seem worse when you dock the Nintendo Switch for TV Mode. I can’t say if it is running worse, but more likely projected in 1080p on a big-screen TV, all the blemishes look more jarring. On the bright side, handheld-dedicated gamers (especially those with Nintendo Switch Lite) likely will get the best experience out of the bunch.

If you are reading this and thinking, ��But Lou, why are you putting graphics over gameplay?” it’s a pretty simple answer: both titles are so readily available, and are cheaper, for systems that offer a better experience. A cursory look over at Amazon shows Black Flag and Rogue Remastered for $19 each, new. These prices aren’t even including digital sales where you can grab one of these regularly for as low as $4. Pretty bluntly, you are paying more to get a worse version of these games to take on the go.

“…I have to imagine there is a relatively small market for Nintendo Switch-only gamers that are faithful fans of Assassin’s Creed.”

On the other hand, I don’t think this should be the nail in the coffin for your decision making. If you are a Nintendo Switch-dedicated gamer with no other consoles, there is nothing wrong with these games. Except for frame drops, the mechanics port over smoothly, and the title is functionally the same as other current-gen consoles. There are more pros than cons, and you will leave the end credits with a smile on your face and ‘Fish in the Sea’ stuck in your head. But I have to imagine there is a relatively small market for Nintendo Switch-only gamers that are faithful fans of Assassin’s Creed.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Rogue are both great titles and deserve to share the stage with some of the more mainstream releases in the series. While the Nintendo Switch’s Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection will offer the essential experience on each, you are better served as a consumer to pick up the titles separately on PC, PS4, or Xbox One — provided you have those consoles. Because it’s hard to appreciate the sprawling adventure in front of you when you keep getting distracted by janky waves and shadows.

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

December 19, 2019 11:55 AM EST

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[joneswilliam72]

The 405 curated streaming queue #1A, March 2019 – totally free streaming choices.

The world of streaming is getting more and more dense with more and more options for the average viewer among more and more outlets to choose from.

Indeed, the sheer volume of content is daunting. But this climate also offers a tremendous amount of quality choices. If one knows where to look.

Toward that end, at The 405 I will be sharing a snapshot every month of my entire streaming queue across Hulu, Amazon, Tubi TV, PlutoTV, Sony Crackle, Netflix, MUBI and Vudu – all of which have apps for one’s smart TV in addition to the usual mobile fare. We will be adding entries for other free services like IMDb Freedive, and other paid services like The Criterion Channel, as they expand their smart TV capability. I have taken into account truly great films in most every genre in making this list and will continue to do so.

Tubi TV, Sony Crackle, and PlutoTV are all free all time (with adds), Vudu has a tremendous amount of free content but also pay content (all entries on this list for Vudu are free with ads). Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix are of course pay options.

Towards that end, entries over the free services will be in this article and entries in the paid services will be coming a little later this month. This template will be repeated from month to month as the platforms rotate new titles in.

The options below are on their respective outlets as of March 11, 2019. As I am in the US, they may not be accessible to viewers who are not. I cannot guarantee that one way or the other.

This is also just a snapshot. To list my entire queue would make this article unbearably long. What I have included below are the choices in my queue that I consider to be the most essential, must-see, and the highest quality. Links to each film at the respective service are embedded in each bold title below, along with the film’s trailer after the description.

Stay tuned for “The 405 curated streaming queue #1B, March 2019 – paid edition” for the best of my queue on the paid services, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon.

I. Vudu

Still from Darren Aronofsky’s first film PI (1998). Source:Nerdist.

Tootsie

The classic starring Dustin Hoffman as a down-on-his-luck actor who cross dresses to gain a part on a TV show is always a fun watch and really essential if you have not seen it. Tootsie was directed by the one and only Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa) too.

The Last Witness

The Last Witness is a WWII murder mystery about a very real massacre of 22,000 Poles by Stalin and the Red Army. Catch my interview with director Piotr Szkopiak here.

A Scanner Darkly

Based on the Philip K. Dick novel, A Scanner Darkly is a dark, dystopian wonder with a lot to say on the human condition.

Pi

Pi is Darren Aronofsky’s first feature length film. It tells the story of a migraneur mathematician obsessed with the Bible Code and the people chasing him. In its monochrome, frenetic, and sublimely beautiful style, Pi is a cannot-miss.

Bully

From Kids director Larry Clark, Bully is a gritty look at teenagers and a murder plot involving their bully in 1990s California. It is a visceral gut punch of a movie that anyone who appreciates great cinema will love.

Irreversible

Gaspar Noé brings us a vicious, incredible, seemingly-random story of violence in Paris in a way only he can. Irreversible was the follow-up feature to his I Stand Alone, which was terrifyingly brutal in its own right. While both films are hard to watch, this is very intentional considering the subject matter and should not deter the viewer as Noé’s horrifying elegance is one-of-a-kind among directors.

Last Man Standing (NOT the Tim Allen TV show)

Bruce Willis is a mob hit man getting in gun fights in a Texas ghost town – which is a setting not often seen in mob movies. Last Man Standing is an action flick with a story the one and only Akira Kurosawa contributed to the story of – Last Man Standing (like Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars in 1964) is a retelling of Kurosawa’s 1961 classic Yojimbo which is itself based on “The Maltese Falcon” author Dashiell Hammett’s novel “Red Harvest”. The Coen Brothers”– and Frances McDormand’s – incredible 1984 film debut Blood Simple. also got its title from a quote in “Red Harvest”.

Amityville II: The Possession

One of the best in the Amityville franchise and starring the incomparable ‘80s sex symbol, actress Diane Franklin who started the teen heartthrob curly-haired revolution. My interview with Diane can be read here.

The Machinist

Christian Bale stars as an insomniac machinist with a very dark secret. Bale lost an incredible amount of weight to play the part – dropping around 60 pounds, he is damn near unrecognizable in it – and his acting does not disappoint. Come to think of it, neither does the writing or filmmaking of this black as night neo-noir. The Machinist is truly a must-see.

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a darkly funny, brilliantly-surrealist, post-apocalyptic fantasy. This is one you have to see to believe.

II. PlutoTV – Note that PlutoTV does not have a search function that I could see. You have to scroll through the relevant section for a title. Therefore, I have noted which section I found each title in next to its listing. While the site’s features and navigation frankly suck something awful, PlutoTV does offer an exceedingly wide breadth of great films and overlooked gems.

Still from TEETH (2007). Source:Bloody Good Horror.

The Evil Dead (horror)

Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead tops more than a few “essential horror cinema” lists for good reason.

Night of the Living Dead (classic movies)

More essential horror, this time from the master George Romero. Night of the Living Dead is still scaring many an audience after nearly 51 years.

Hellraiser (horror)

A third entry for essential horror, this time from the great Clive Barker who both wrote the “Hellraiser” novels and directed the film.

Bronson (thriller)

Bronson is a loosely-true, biographical film of “the most violent prisoner in England”(an electric Tom Hardy) from The Neon Demon and Drive (look for Drive under the Sony Crackle section lower down this page) director Nicolas Winding Refn. NWR also runs a streaming site that is pretty incredible in its own right: bynwr.com specializes in restoring, then streaming, old cult classics and great movies that fly below the radar. Restorations are personally supervised by NWR and the site is always free to watch and read the treasure trove of information it shares on each film. The paid MUBI service streams these films on the larger mobile and smart TV ecosystem.

Children of the Corn (horror)

The feature length horror classic from Stephen King all about a couple whose car breaks down in a tiny Nebraska town with homicidal child religious zealots. Children of the Corn did a lot to define Stephen King’s horror on the big screen in the 1980s.

Bug (indies)

Bug is an overlooked gem of psychological horror starring Ashley Judd and directed by cinematic legend William Friedkin of The Exorcist, Wages of Fear, and The French Connection.

Donnie Darko (indies)

One of the most significant head-trips I’ve ever experienced at the movies – Jake Gyllenhaal is sublimely terrifying as the titular character who just so happens to have a homicidal rabbit named Frank as his hallucinatory friend. Donnie Darko messes with your sense of time and reality in incredible ways that no fan of serious, cerebral horror should miss.

Freakonomics: The Movie (documentaries)

An exceptional movie after an exceptional book (which I also highly recommend). Freakonomics will teach you to think counter-intuitively and reason like the rogue economist who wrote it.

Teeth (horror)

Teeth is a blood-chilling feminist horror film about a woman with literal vagina dentata (look it up) that became much more relevant in the #MeToo era. Read my interview with Teeth’s lead star Jess Weixler here.

The Merchant of Venice (drama)

Al Pacino stars in 1984 director Michael Radford’s 2004 take on Shakespeare’s play. Watch for the incredible realism here: for instance, the prostitutes are topless in the beginning scene not because Radford wanted a racier movie, but because it was the law in Venice, where authorities thought it would stomp out homosexuality. My interview with Radford can be read here.

Melancholia (indies)

Melancholia is Lars von Trier’s surreal story about two sisters (Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg) who find their already strained relationship at its breaking point as a mysterious planet is colliding with Earth. While far from von Trier’s best (that, in my opinion, goes to the profoundly nihilistic Antichrist), Melancholia is well worth a watch.

A Star is Born (classic movies)

The 1937 original with Frederic March and Janet Gaynor.

Suddenly (classic movies)

A thriller with Frank Sinatra as the baddie along with Sterling Hayden? Count me in.

His Girl Friday (classic movies)

Cary Grant is always a great watch with his one-of-a-kind humor and goofiness. The great Howard Hawks (the original 1932 Scarface, The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby) directs.

House on Haunted Hill (classic movies)

The original 1959 horror classic based on the book by Shirley Jackson and starring the immortal Vincent Price, this is essential modern gothic horror.

D.O.A. (classic movies)

Edmond O’Brien is California businessman Frank Bigelow who is poisoned when he heads to San Francisco. Can Bigelow find his own murderer before the poison acts? D.O.A. is a fantastic, frenetic film noir directed by prolific cinematographer Rudolph Maté who worked on classics from The Passion of Joan of Arc to Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent.

Algiers (classic movies)

Hedy Lamarr and Gaslight’s Charles Boyer star in this locational love story that did quite a lot to convince the studios of Casablanca’s merits four years after Algiers came out.

He Walked By Night (classic movies)

Richard Basehart is a cold blooded killer in this noir that acted as a forerunner to TV’s Dragnet.

Indiscreet (classic movies)

Indiscreet is one of screen legend Gloria Swanson’s first talkies. Wanna see what the experience behind her immortal portrayal of Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) looks like? Indiscreet is a definitive entry in the canon of a powerful actress that helped build that indelible foundation as Norma Desmond in Wilder’s movie.

Maniac (classic movies)

A fascinating example of early grindhouse cinema (from 1934) in its violent, disturbing style, Maniac (originally titled “Sex Maniac”) tells the story of a former vaudevillian who is skilled as an impersonator as he aids a mad scientist in re-animating the dead.

They Made Me a Criminal (classic movies)

An essential early noir starring the great John Garfield (The original Postman Always Rings Twice).

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (classic movies)

More essential noir and Kirk Douglas’s film debut. Barbara Stanwyck also delivers knock-out performance.

Goya’s Ghosts (drama)

Goya’s Ghosts is an incredible look at a scandal involving the mistress (Natalie Portman) of legendary Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (Javier Bardem). Milos Forman (Amadeus) directed and co-wrote this fantastic, based-on-a-true-story historical piece.

III. Sony Crackle.

Ryan Gosling in DRIVE (2011). Source:Japan Times.

Sexy Beast

Sir Ben Kingsley earned an Oscar nomination for the role of brutal British gangster Don Logan in this Jonathan Glazer-directed crime thriller.

The Haunting

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Liam Neeson star in this more modern take on Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House.”

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is Guy Ritchie’s breakout London crime comedy that is always a treat to watch. Check out my interview with Rocketman director and actor Dexter Fletcher who plays Soap in Lock, by heading here.

Arlington Road

Jeff Bridges plays a college professor who suspects his new neighbor (Tim Robbins) may be an alt-right domestic terrorist. It is sad how timely a thriller Arlington Road still is (it is 20 this year) – but even if it wasn’t, Arlington Road is still a taut and very well-executed.

Drive

Nicolas Winding Refn directs this neo-noir with Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver with a conscience. The visual palette of Drive is absolutely incredible with its neon-drenched, realist, California scenes – made all the more incredible because Winding Refn is actually color blind in that he is physically unable to see midtones. If you like movies like Nightcrawler, you’ll really like Drive.

Lords of Dogtown

Heath Ledger, John Robinson, and Emile Hirsch star in this look at the skateboarding trends that developed in the 1970s in Venice, CA. Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Miss Bala) directs Lords of Dogtown.

IV. Tubi TV

Still from CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962). Source:The Criterion Collection.

Memento

Christopher Nolan’s epic 2000 neo-noir murder mystery told in reverse chronology. Starring Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss, Memento is undoubtedly one of the best and most influential neo-noirs of the early 2000s.

Mulholland Dr.

David Lynch’s surreal magnum opus is a movie I’ve written about extensively at The 405 – read my original analysis of it here. Mulholland Dr. is essential cinema for the modern world. Check out my interview with Oscar-nominee Robert Forster, who was in Mulholland Dr., here.

True Grit

The Coen Brothers version of the classic western from 1969, with Jeff Bridges in John Wayne’s part of Rooster Cogburn. True Grit was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

Hugo

Martin Scorsese’s multi-Oscar winning love letter to classic cinema. Hugo (with its PG rating) also functions really well as a family film that has substance and can teach your kids a thing or two about the great Georges Méliès who directed one of the first great movies in the early 1900s: A Trip to the Moon.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage

The 1970 giallo classic from Dario Argento. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is a defining film for giallo as a style in its reluctant detective story about an American who witnesses a murder at an art gallery in Rome and tries to piece his recollections together for the carbineri.  .

The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

An entertaining, self-explanatory documentary. Every cineaste should know about The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made.

Multiple Maniacs

Multiple Maniacs is the definitive John Waters classic. Read The 405 interview with him here.

Reefer Madness (In Color and Restored)

While it isn’t the monochrome original from 1936, Reefer Madness is an essential watch to understand the racist and hype-driven roots of America’s Drug War. It is definitive in that area and even birthed terms like “voodoo pharmacology.”

The Goode Family

Another brilliant satirical show from Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge. The Goode Family is a scathing sendup of modern leftism and was beloved by many regular leftists when it was on for one season in 2009 because it shows a regular family. Think King of the Hill with weird vegan hippies and not Texans and you’ll understand this half hour show. Alas, petulant, safe-space-hiding critics hated The Goode Family and crucified it till the plug was pulled. Still, the lower than average ratings also didn’t help the shows ultimate destiny. But don’t let that deceive you: this is quality – and very funny – satire. See the pilot below.

The Little Shop of Horrors

A fantastic little piece of comedic horror from 1960, Roger Corman directs The Little Shop of Horrors.

The Hitch-Hiker

The Hitch-Hiker was the first Hollywood film noir directed by a woman: the incomparable actress and filmmaker Ida Lupino. Edmond O’Brien stars.

Carnival of Souls

A remarkable low budget but high-concept, psychologically-driven horror flick made by Herk Harvey, a Kansas filmmaker who specialized in industrial films in 1962. The film’s entire budget was sourced over the course of one weekend in Lawrence, Kansas. Carnival of Souls is a must-see that bombed when it first came out but is now viewed as a standard-bearer of superb psychological horror.

Suspiria

The Dario Argento horror classic which was recently remade by Luca Guadagnino.

1984

Director Michael Radford’s superb take (the 1956 version, done almost 25 years before this one, was essentially panned by Orwell’s widow for neutering the more brutal lessons Orwell intended in the novel) on George Orwell’s powerful and timely novel of an authoritarian future. Read my interview with actress Suzanna Hamilton who played Julia in 1984, by going here.

Dial M For Murder

Dial M is the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly. Warner Brothers insisted the film be shot in 3D, which Hitchcock did not want. The craze was fading but Hitchcock gave in to their wishes. Still, like all his movies, Dial M is nerve-shredding.

The Naked Kiss

A 1964 crime drama about a prostitute working out her psychological demons. Prolific auteur Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One, Shock Corridor) is the mind behind The Naked Kiss.

Five Minutes to Live

Johnny Cash stars as hood Johnny Cabot in this 1961 crime flick directed by Bill Karn. Five Minutes to Live was the only feature length film the Man in Black acted in in the ‘60s, he would go on to do more in the intervening decades before his death in 2003.

Kansas City Confidential

Kansas City Confidential is a rather under-rated film noir with John Payne as an ex con trying to go straight who is framed for an armed car robbery and must go to Mexico to seek justice and the truth.

Gothic

Gothic is the great Ken Russell's take on the infamous story of what happened the night Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” with Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron and Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley. Russell’s work is always bold and boundary-pushing: if you like Gothic, you owe it to yourself to see his 1971 film The Devils too, although you’ve probably already seen The Who’s Tommy – probably Russell’s best known directorial effort.

from The 405 https://ift.tt/2VUHE4T

[totalgrouch]

I find Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, endlessly fascinating. The Whole Earth Catalog was at once a catalyst for certain segments of the 1970s ecology movement and somehow, a foundational text of the world wide web—a compendium of seemingly unlimited information and where to obtain it. Brand was a hero of the environmental movement at the time.

But in the last few decades, he’s been viewed by some as a heretic for a variety of opinions contrary to the modern environmental movement: support for nuclear power and genetically modified plants, both unpopular topics among modern day environmentalists. In Whole Earth Discipline he argues for a roughly technofuturist solution to climate change: consolidating into cities; including an “all of the above” energy approach of wind, solar, and nuclear; crops genetically engineered to need less water and resources; geoengineering where necessary. It was not necessarily going to sit well with the WWOOF crowd, but that was ok; Brand considered himself an ecopragmatist. But it was seemingly contrary to the hippie moveent the catalog had become most popular with. 

And I have no problem with his ideas. GMO is such a nebulous, meaningless term, and at a certain point the environmentalist left bleeds into weird new age beliefs that become scientific apostasy. Nuclear power is desirable alternative to fossil fuels while we aim more toward fully renewable sources. Simply ceasing pollution levels below 350 parts per million of carbon in the air isn’t going to undo the damage we’ve done, and perhaps strange technological methods of carbon mitigation are desirable. 

In some ways, it’s almost too bad there’s no Whole Earth Catalog to flip through anymore, but if you can get your hands on one—even one of the later editions—you should do so. 

But one of the ideas Brand supports is thinking in the long, rather than the short, term, and that wraps up into creating the 10,000 Year Clock, a symbol of the Long Now Foundation meant to symbolize thinking far, far past our own lifespans in our stewardship of the Earth and humanity. 

This week Jeff Bezos shepherded in the first 10,000 Year Clock. Of course, Bezos has his own futurist ambitions: he wants to move polluting industries off of Earth entirely. There’s also the weird disconnect between some of Bezos ambitions, his perch within late capitalism, his nebulous politics, and his contentious ideas on labor. (See this link for some of my thoughts.)

In some ways, Bezos represents something unusual. Kindle Libraries and Amazon Video are an efficient step away from physical media. (Except that my last Amazon Fire worked for about a year and a half before becoming another obsolete sack of crap that couldn’t start up.) That has an element of post scarcity to it ... if you ignore the scarcity of the rare earth elements used in some electronics.

And Amazon is also the purveyor of So. Much. Crap. Your apartment building has probably been clogged with impulsive Amazon purchases before, and some overseas made knock-off good that seemed like a nice alternative to whatever you were looking for at the time. 

Oh and also Amazon employees are miserable.

Ultimately, by the sheer ubiquity of capitalists and capital, we may have to depend more on people like Bezos to secure our survival, which is a terrifying thought in its own right as start-up / Valley / Seattle tech culture is its own sort of ouroboros. It’s a world of nebulous but potentially well meaning billionaires vs. more nefarious billionaires like the Kochs, all with us caught in the middle. 

Some of Brand’s visions would place our environmental future in the hands of the market, but the market is based at a really basic level at goods and services. That means more goods—even if virtual—will have to flow, continuing on with some of the underlying problems we have that have never gone away. 

But what is the realism in expecting more and better? Perhaps it involves creating the proper pushback to mitigate some of the worst excesses of the system, but with income inequality at an all time high, it may be hard to build the resources to topple existing systems. 

Brand, himself, purported that he was a libertarian in early writings on the catalog. It was a resource meant to foster self-sufficiency by giving access to tools. Maybe its most logical successor thus is Wikipedia, founded by Rand-ian objectivist Jimmy Wales, whose own politics blur traditional right-left divides. Perhaps its best to view many of these more (but definitely not entirely) benevolent actors as arch-technocrats. 

But those technocrats are bolstered by a whole lot of money to take on a whole lot of pet projects on the back of workers. Tesla could usher in the age of the electric car, but Elon Musk will do anything (shades of “TOFUTTI BREAK!”) to keep the United Auto Workers union out of Tesla plants. 

What we’re left with is the disconcerting feeling that we’re going to lean on people who aren’t our friends, but don’t necessarily want us as dead as their more cynical counterparts, to ensure some of our own future. 

So prepare to accept the technocracy over the oligarchy, I guess. Unless we can build the socialist future we really want out of the utter shit sandwich surrounding us. 

[yasxgamal]

5

5: The last message my character sent to yours

[ yas > lamisi ]: okay so what about these gloves [ yas > lamisi ]: https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Compression-Arthritis-Gloves-GUARANTEED/dp/B00ZO4WW7Q [ yas > lamisi ]: anyway if i don't ever get the surgery, will my hands fall off, or can i just live with the pain forever?