Stardate 0226.10

My heart and thoughts go to my adopted sister Nikki and her family today on the loss of her grandmother. I never met her but Heaven did get another angel this morning...if you believe in Heaven.

Another Decent Into...
Dark City(1998)
I have looked forward to seeing this movie for the past 12 years. Saw the trailer for this during a viewing of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and thought awesome! Well, once again, the disillusionment set in. The plot isn't too bad...

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens in a hotel bathtub, suffering from what seems to be amnesia. As he stumbles into his hotel room, he receives a telephone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland), who urges him to flee the hotel from a group of men who are after him. During the telephone conversation, John discovers the corpse of a brutalised, ritualistically murdered woman, along with a bloody knife. Murdoch flees the scene, just as the figures, known as the Strangers, arrive at the room. Eventually he learns his real name, and finds his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly). He is also sought by police inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) for a series of murders, which he cannot remember. While being pursued by The Strangers, Murdoch discovers that he has psychokinetic powers like them and uses it to escape from them. Murdoch moves about the city, which experiences perpetual night. He sees people become comatose at midnight, with the cityscape being altered along with people's identities being changed at that time. Murdoch questions the dark urban environment and discovers through clues and interviews with his family that he was originally from a coastal town called Shell Beach. Attempts at finding a way out of the city to Shell Beach are hindered by lack of reliable information from everyone he meets. Meanwhile, the Strangers, disturbed by the presence of a human who also possesses psychokinetic powers, inject one of their men, Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien) with Murdoch's memories in an attempt to find him.




Murdoch eventually finds Bumstead, who recognizes Murdoch's innocence and has his own questions about the nature of the dark city. They find and confront Dr. Schreber, who explains that the Strangers are endangered extraterrestrial parasites who use corpses as their hosts. Having a collective consciousness, the Strangers have been experimenting with humans to analyze the human soul in the hopes that some insight might be revealed that would help their race survive. Schreber reveals Murdoch as an anomaly who inadvertently awoke during the midnight process when Schreber was in the middle of fashioning his identity as a murderer. The three men embark to find Shell Beach, which ultimately exists only as a billboard at the edge of the city. Frustrated, Murdoch tears through the wall, revealing a hole into outer space. The men are confronted by the Strangers, including Mr. Hand, who holds Emma hostage. In the ensuing fight, Bumstead, along with one of the Strangers, falls through the hole into space, revealing the city as an enormous space habitat surrounded by a force field.



The Strangers bring Murdoch to their home beneath the city and force Dr. Schreber to imprint Murdoch with their collective memory, believing Murdoch to be the final answer to their experiments. Schreber betrays them by inserting false memories in Murdoch which artificially reestablish his childhood as years spent training his tuning abilities & learning about the Strangers and their machines. Murdoch awakens, fully realizing his abilities, frees himself and battles with the Strangers, defeating their leader Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) in a battle high above the city. After learning that "Emma" is gone and can't be restored, Murdoch utilizes his newfound powers through the Strangers' machine to create an actual Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force field with water and forming mountains and beaches. On his way to Shell Beach, Murdoch encounters Mr. Hand and informs him that the Strangers have been searching in the wrong place, the head, to understand humanity. Murdoch opens the door leading out of the city, and steps out to view a sunrise that he created. Beyond him is a dock, where he finds Emma, now with new memories and a new identity as Anna. Murdoch reintroduces himself as they walk to Shell Beach, beginning their relationship anew.

The atmosphere of the film is top notch. Very noir, a future city set in the past. Hmmm..kinda sounds like Beta City to me...(Rhapsody In Black reference). The storyline is trippy in the beginning and you really have to watch to keep up. Sadly, the twist pulls this movie down and for the last 15 mins, it sinks into laughable territory.

The Strangers looked to be a cross between Uncle Fester and the Cynobites from the Hellraiser series. Not very convincing though I do like the fact they fly. So yet another anticipated movie ends in tragedy for me. Worth a look though....7/10

Karma-
It came back hard this week. A visitor came to me this past Monday. That visitor was my ex-fiancee. Readers may remember her as the object of some rants on my previous posts. Well, the pain has subsided and we talked for two days straight airing our grievances. She's back in my life now in a positive way. Let's not pop open champagne yet. It will be a long road before I see us gettin back into a relationship. For now, I'm going to enjoy the moment.

The Cinema Snob-
I'm two reviews behind on Mr. Snob so rather than go back to review I'll just post 'em and start fresh with his new vid whenever he posts it.





I know I'm being lazy but oh well, lol.

Reading Ed McBain's Mischief. Look for a review of that soon.  And look for me sooner.

Stardate 0212.10

Oh been so long since I waited...just to say hello old friend....This is going to be the longest blog entry I've ever written. So much to discuss. First things first. I have two serious issues to get off my chest so if you're not interesting just skip down to the fun stuff. Anyhoo...

Another Decent Into...

My Personal Life-
This is for my ex-fiancee. Once again, you have let fear and repression guide you away from logic. I said it once, I'll say it again. You still have feelings for me. Otherwise, you wouldn't have asked me what you asked or cared to have known. You wanted the best of both worlds. See other people as you sit me on the sidelines. Well my dear, it doesn't work that way in the real world(Reader: Strange-me talking about reality isn't it?).

The repressed part of you has no regrets about our relationship. The repressed part of you loved the time we spent together as a couple. You wanted to explore outside of your insulated box, openly and freely. When we were to take the altar, the part of you bonded to God and judgement from your family  clashed with your repressed self. It caused a fear and a retreat that to this day still leaves me scratching my head.

Contrary to your belief, you do not know what real love is. You had it in the palm of your hand and crushed  it to dust. I wonder how you could be heartbroken if we are not together? I wonder why you won't unchain your repression? I say fear. I am not of your world but I wanted to be. I wanted to believe that faith would guide me and make me whole. I wanted to believe you would be my guide away from the darkness that has enveloped me since birth. Now I truly know, the only thing I can believe in is me: Eric William Polk.


Wal-Mart-
This is for Mike Duke, CEO of the world's largest retailer. YOU ARE RUNNING THIS COMPANY INTO THE GODDAMN GROUND!!! You instruments of change have taken the sunny, smiley disposition many associates like me  have and turned them. As you sit in your tiny office in Bentonville, Arkansas worried about your next p.r. op, there are many of us that are sick of working in underemployed stores. Tired of constantly being pushed to work harder trying to do the job of three. Do you not hear customer complaining? Well guess what? If you don't have the horses to run, the wagon ain't gonna move.

Yes, if I don't like my job I should find something else. The reality is jobs are scarce. While we work for your company, you should be making every effort to take care of the associates, to as Sam Walton(remember him?) said,"Listen to your associates, they're your best idea generators?" I guess with his passing, his philosophy went to the grave as well.

I wonder if your a student of world history? I'm assuming not. So I'm sure you're not really aware of the fall of empires from Greece to the Soviet Union. It all erodes from within. And Mr. Duke, this company is eroding faster than beach shores in a windstorm.

Ok folks, thanks for putting up with that. Now on to the fun stuff as promised.

The Super Bowl-
Congrats on the New Orleans Saints. You stood toe-to-toe with the Peyton Manning machine and knock 'em square on his butt! It was a tight game, well-played untill midway through the fourth quarter when the Saints pulled ahead. After all your city has been through in recent years,this victory is well-deserved!

Under The Dome review-
I finished it! After six weeks of lunch break reading, I complete Stephen King's latest epic. Let us begin with the plot:

Shortly before noon, on October 21st, the small Maine town of Chester's Mill is abruptly separated from the outside world by an invisible, semipermeable barrier of unknown origin. The immediate appearance of the barrier causes a number of injuries and fatalities, and traps former Army Captain Dale "Barbie" Barbara--who is trying to leave Chester's Mill--inside the town.




Police Chief Howard "Duke" Perkins is soon killed when his pacemaker explodes after getting too close to the barrier. This removes the last significant opposition to James "Big Jim" Rennie, the town's Second Selectman and used car salesman. Big Jim exerts significant influence within Chester's Mill, and seizes the opportunity to use the barrier as part of a power play to take over the town.



Big Jim appoints one of his "puppets", Peter Randolph, as the new Police Chief. He also begins expanding the ranks of the Chester's Mill Police with questionable candidates, including his son, Junior Rennie, and his friends. Junior has frequent migraines caused by an as-yet undiscovered brain tumor, which has also begun affecting his mental state; unbeknownst to Big Jim, Junior was in the process of beating and strangling a girl to death when the barrier appeared, and has killed another girl by the time Rennie places him on the police force.



Elsewhere in Chester's Mill, local reporter Julia Shumway is phoned by Colonel James O. Cox, who has her carry a message to Barbie to contact him. When he does, Cox requests that Barbie act as the government's "inside man" in an effort to bring down "the Dome". Because of Barbie's talents as a former bomb factory hunter, Cox gives him the task of locating the source, which is believed to be inside the Dome.



As Big Jim covertly encourages unease and panic among the town, Barbie, Julia and a number of other townspeople attempt to stop things from spiraling out of control. After crossing Rennie's path on several occasions Barbie, is framed and arrested for Junior's murders. He is also accused of killing Reverend Lester Coggins, who laundered money for Rennie's large-scale meth operation, and Duke's widow Brenda Perkins, who were both murdered by Big Jim. While Barbie is in jail, other residents track the source of the Dome to an abandoned farm, and the device is strongly indicated to be extraterrestrial in origin. The restrictions issued by Rennie become more severe and the police force grows more abusive, galvanizing the town and eventually leading some residents to break Barbie out of jail, killing Junior seconds before he can murder Barbie.



The semi-organized "resistance" flees to the abandoned farm, where multiple people touch the strange object and experience "visions". They not only conclude that the device if from extraterrestrial "leatherheads" (so named for their appearance), but that they also set up the Dome as a cruel form of entertainment for a group of their children, as a sort of "ant farm" used to capture sentient beings and allow their captors to view everything that happens inside.



On an organized "Visitors Day"--when people outside the Dome can meet at its edge with people within--Big Jim sends a detachment of police to take back control of his former meth operation from Phil "Chef" Bushey, who is stopping Rennie from covering up the operation as well as hoarding the more than four-hundred tanks of propane stored there. Chef is mortally wounded in the ensuing gunfight, but detonates an explosive device in the lab before he dies. The ensuing explosion turns the propane and meth-making chemicals into a toxic firestorm.



More than a thousand of the town's residents are quickly incinerated on national television, leaving alive only the twenty-nine survivors at the abandoned barn, an orphaned farm boy hiding in a potato cellar, and Big Jim and his informal aide-de-camp, Carter Thibodeau, in the town's fallout shelter. Rennie and Thibodeau eventually turn on each other; Big Jim stabs and disembowels Carter, only to die several hours later when hallucinations of the dead send him fleeing into the now-toxic environment outside. The survivors at the barn begin to slowly asphyxiate, despite efforts by the Army to force clean air through the walls of the Dome.



Barbie and Julia go to the control device in an effort to beg their captors to release them. Julia is able to make contact with a single female leatherhead, no longer accompanied by her friends and thus not caught up in their mob mentality. After repeatedly expressing that they are real sentient beings with real "little lives", and by sharing a painful childhood incident with the adolescent alien, Julia convinces the leatherhead to have pity on them. The Dome raises up slowly and "pulls" away until it vanishes, allowing the toxic air to dissipate and finally freeing the town of Chester's Mill.

Ok, so what did I think of it? Sadly, this is one of his more uneven stories. Big Jim is just a bit too one-dimensional for  a character as far as I'm concerned. Big Jim is little more than evil big man on town cliche. Dale Barbara is a bit more intriguing, a Iraq War vet ready to leave town caught up in an uncontrolled circumastance.

The keepers of the Dome, the Leatherheads, are so unimaginative I can't believe Mr. King conjured this up in his mind. He could have done a way better job. The reason for the Dome is too weak for me to be acceptable. I think I would have worked it the fiction was more finely tuned.

What worked for me were the stories within the stories. The divisions between the two factions. The person in the meth lab. The bisexual mother and her conflict. This was vintage King. There is a twenty page sequence before the climax there is some of the darkest material he's ever written. Unfortnately, it sets up for a flat ending at best.

Well as a devoted King fan, I'll continue to read, but I hate to think that his best writing is behind him at this point....7/10

The Cinema Snob-

For the latest bite of bad movies, the Cinema Snob orders a thought-provoking flick entitled The Body Shop  off the t.v. and no it's not a gay porn. Don't believe me? Watch...

I saw this movie under the name Dr. Gore once which was enough. Ugh. Lol. The episode itself is pretty funny. Cinema Snob and The Big Box world's colliding. Always entertaining. It seems Mr. Snob is trying to broaden his show a bit and it works in this case. What is The Big Box? Well, here is a sample episode which inspired the Snob's review...

And for a bonus...yes he did say Savage Weekend...why? enjoy...I'm so generous today...

Currently I'm reading a Louis L'amour tale by the name of Matagorda. Yes, it is a western. No, I'm not crazy....

Fini

Stardate 0201.10

Well..made it through January...A decent month considering the Steelers didn't make the playoffs lol...This month I see myself kicking some butt lol...

Another Decent Into...
The Homer J.Simpson Idiot of the Week( for the week ending Jan.30th)-
Ok readers. I'm going to make it simple and easy this week. The winner of IOTW is a regular target and i swore I would never award this to a person of this stature. BUT!!!! When you cut NASA's budget and force the limitation of manned space missions, well Mr. Obama, you hit me where I live! It's ok to swell the goverment to infinitsmal size. Give money away to "road" projects and yet you reduce America's ever-dwindeling intellect even further.
I have a theory, if I may indulge you for a few. The best and brightest go into space unless u fly commercial of course(then its just the richest). Whether its by conspiracy or apathy, America has lost its edge in all things technology. It has for sometime. With this cut we continue not to let our children be influenced by whats out there. Rather whats on the Internet, whats the new game on my Wii, who's texting me? Thanks alot Mr. President!!!

Super Bowl Week-

And so we come to the week of the most wonderful time of the year...Super Bowl Week!!!

Being, however my beloved Steelers won't be playing for number seven, Im going to go back in time and review the 6 reasons why my team is the best of the Super Bowl Era...

We shall begin with Super Bowl IX in Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, L.A.

Remember when they played the big game in January?....

Super Bowl IX was played on January 12, 1975 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. The AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers (13-3-1) defeated the NFC champion Minnesota Vikings (12-5), 16–6, to win their first Super Bowl game.

This game matched two of the NFL's best defenses – Pittsburgh's “Steel Curtain” against the “Purple People Eaters” of Minnesota – and two legendary quarterbacks: Terry Bradshaw and Fran Tarkenton, respectively.



However, the Steelers dominated the game, recording the first safety in Super Bowl history, and limiting the Vikings to Super Bowl lows of nine first downs, 119 yards of total offense, and 17 rushing yards. The Steelers also tied Super Bowl records for the least rushing first downs allowed (2) and the least passing first downs allowed (5). Tarkenton was held to only 11 out of 26 completions for 102 passing yards, no touchdown passes, and tied a Super Bowl record with three interceptions. Furthermore, Pittsburgh became the second Super Bowl team to hold their opponents' offense scoreless; Minnesota's only score came on a blocked punt, and they did not even score on the extra point attempt. The Steelers accomplished all of this with two backups: linebackers Ed Bradley and Loren Toews replaced injured starters Andy Russell and Jack Lambert for most of the second half.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh had 333 yards of total offense. Steelers’ running back Franco Harris, who ran for a Super Bowl record 158 yards (more than the entire Minnesota offense) and a touchdown, was named the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player.

Twas' a brutal game for the Vikes to say the least...Steelers 16...Vikings 6...
Tomorrow Super Bowl X

P.S. I saw the game on my Steelers dvd collection..my gawd the game was played quicker back then...lol

Under The Dome update...
On page 970...one hundred more to go

Time to depart into the uncharted center of your mind....later!