Finder’s Fee

Posted on March 26, 2020 by geelw

Of course, both computers here decided to do the Animal House horse thing within a few hours of each other, and worse, while I was writing a few blog posts and seeing what sort of tax filing I needed to do in my current financial status. Let me tell you right now that finding someone to fix a computer during a crisis is quite difficult (and how!), but this was one of those weird twists where being in the right place at the wrong time was beneficial. After calling around to a few places in a bit of a frantic (and yes, they were all closed), I took a short break, noticed the trash was piling up and went to take it out to the compactor. I was annoyed to see someone was leaving their bagged garbage and a few pizza boxes on the floor of the compactor room for the last few days, but didn’t want to touch it because, well… you know.

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Elevator (In)Action

Posted on March 18, 2020 by geelw

(Thanks, HAMSTER Corporation!)

A few days ago, I got stuck in the elevator here with another guy who, after we let Security know of the issue via intercom and they said they were on it, started asking me about sports. Well, that was a dull, but enlightening (for him, I think) mercifully brief conversation. I told him I didn’t really watch sports except when I popped by a friend’s place and a sport of choice was on TV. If I’m asked who I like, I almost always counter ask “which team is winning?”, which by the way, has gotten me a few mean looks over the years, but quite a few more laughs. Like a perfect pitch, it’s all in the delivery, I guess. Well, and it depends on a good mix of catchers and not some folks who want to hit you hard with bats, as well.

It’s a mugging, I say!

Anyway, I think the guy looked at me as if I was a space alien visiting from somewhere, but my joke about the elevator being a busted TARDIS went a few feet above his head. It’s a good thing I made no jokes about needing a new companion in my travels, as if you don’t get one Doctor Who joke, you certainly won’t get a second one. I did mention that I have played some sports-themed video games and still do from time to time, so at least he was looking at me a lot less suspiciously after that information.

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Back In The Chain, Gang

Posted on March 16, 2020 by geelw

Thanks, Sestren NK!)

Well, I got sick for a bit last week and a few days, but it wasn’t the beer named illness and no, I drank no bleach as a response, as that’s pretty stupid and I’d be a dead person with a blog to still write for. It seemed to be an adjustment to some medication I’d been taking plus a touch of the return of some massive headaches (probably a side effect from the meds)I hadn’t had in years that laid me up. I think I made it outside once when a grocery store nearby opened to pick up some food to cook for myself, but otherwise, I’ve been holed up at the home office in recovery mode. Personally, I think everyone who can needs to know how to cook, as among other things, it’s a big money saver and hey, if all the delivery people end up working too many hours they may fall ill themselves and nope, you don’t want to have any of that special soup.

(Thanks, obviouslyFAKE2!)

Anyway, my inbox is SWAMPED. I have a bit of catching up to do with a bunch of games and films I’d either been playing or watching in bits when I can so this week will see a few posts on recent stuff and maybe some older content I’d been meaning to post, but getting better was my focus. Anyway, a few folks bought some games from the collection last week, so those will go out first (I have to brave a trip to the post office, as my printer died last night, so this will be an adventure IF the place is busy). Uh, wish me luck? I did make the choice to pick out some theme music for the trip there and back, though.

Well, let me get going. I did oversleep, so at least I’m well rested (ha-ha).

-GW

(Not So) Random Film of the Week: Night Tide (1961)

Posted on March 7, 2020 by geelw

Sirens go off: A figure of speech, as it were.

Spoiler Theater: In Curtis Hanson’s beautiful, haunting and unsettling romantic thriller, it’s a case of Boy meets Girl, Boy gets Girl and Boy, Oh Boy, does Boy lose Girl, But That’s Sort Of A Good Thing? Night Tide is a dark and moody film set by the Pacific, with an old pier carnival and its seaside surroundings as the main setting and what could be seen by some today as a few problematic elements in some of its troubled characters. I still think it’s an excellent film, mind you. But after watching it with a few friends recently, I see it’s also a film where some viewers applying more modern thoughts to its story may find an issue with their overall enjoyment. You’ll see.

A young sailor on leave named Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) goes to a seaside amusement park at night. He pops into a jazz club where he sees a lovely woman (Linda Lawson) sitting alone enjoying the music. He crosses the room, asks her if he can sit at her table because he can’t see the musicians from where he is, then proceeds to sit facing the woman, not the musicians. He tries to strike up more conversation, but she asks him to let her listen to the tunes instead. He then tries to buy her a drink twice, but she refuses both times. Suddenly, a strange, middle-aged black-clad woman (Marjorie Cameron) comes into the club, approaches the other woman and starts speaking an untranslated foreign language (Greek?) to her. The young woman is upset by this and quickly hands Johnny some cash to pay for whatever she was drinking and rushes out of the club.

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DeepDiscount.com’s Sale Will Take A Bite From What’s Left Of Your Wallet

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

Yipes, just when I post news of a sale, here comes a bigger one. Deep Discount.com is having a really killer sale where if you spend $40 on selected items (there’s a rather huge list here) you get $5 off if you use that coupon code below when placing an order on the site.

Don’t have a copy of JAWS on Blu-Ray in your house? Well go get one, I say!

This deal runs only for a very short while. so act fast!

Don’t sleep on those deals, as there are a few hundred thousand of them and the sale ends 3/9/2020 – it takes time to go through everything, but those who do will find some great bargains.

-GW

Kino Lorber Sale Will Have Your Wallet Wanted: Dead or Alive

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

Quick post: This big ol’ End of Winter Sale 2020 (thru March 11) made my own wallet vanish before I even bought a thing. I need to get the dogs out and search for it before the sale’s over, but I think it’s in witness protection or something after all the disappearing it’s done over time.

Anyway, click here (or above, if you like) and go buy many things because you were likely going to do that anyway, right?

-GW

Pathologic 2 Comes To PS4: The Only Time “Going Viral” Is A Good Thing

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

Grim, the understatement of GIF explanations.

I still haven’t played Ice-Pick Lodge’s rather unsettling survival horror game Pathologic 2 other than a demo from a few years back, but I want to eventually. The first game was quite good, but woefully depressing as its three playable characters each with their own aims, tried to figure out the dealing with the deadly plague that had taken over a small town with only 12 days to find some sort of resolution. That the game initially came out in 2005 makes it suddenly timely in some respects, but if you’re going to go pick it up on PC, don’t expect to be much of a “feel good” experience.

The stylized visuals and very methodical gameplay featured a mechanic where quests disappeared once a day was complete, so fast work was required in some areas lest a character integral to the overall plot expire. The interesting thing was it seemed impossible to do everything that was tasked, so the replay value was in maximizing one’s efforts and trying the figure the most efficient means to work through problems that arose. The tensions that arose from doing certain tasks while the Sand Plague crept inexorably forward made the game compelling, especially when one didn’t use any walkthroughs and took each day as a challenging survival puzzle of sorts.

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Capsule Review: Knightin’+ (PS4)

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

Warm and fuzzy, indeed: Familiarity does not breed contempt here.

When you play Knightin’ yes, you’ll be fightin’ monsters, traps, and more.
A bit like Zelda, and you’ll say, “Well, duh. I think I know that score!”.
But this game’s shorter, so you oughta temper expectations.
It’s great to vacuum up some time, but might not sweep the nation.

You just start playin’ – soon you’re slayin’ all creatures in you path.
Bosses are tough, but skills and gear can beat down all their wrath.
The writin’s great – you may let out a chuckle as it goes.
I wish the game were more fleshed out, four dungeons here just blows.

But still, they’re great – appreciate the hat tip to nostalgia.
Timing and precision rule, lest you go to Valhalla.
The tunes are bliss, they sure don’t miss that classic gaming beat.
A big grin and a toe that taps work even in defeat.

Collision woes may give you throes, but practice makes perfection.
See and learn those areas where parts need a correction.
It’s all good, though – the game will flow when things go with the plan.
And if they do a sequel – well, I’ll surely play that, man!

Knightin’+ is $5.99 on PSN, but you can get it digitally on Switch, Xbox One and PC as well. The EastAsiaSoft physical edition seems to be sold out, but you can see if Play-Asia can get you one, as they’re the only place to get it for the retail price outside of an auction site’s gouging. It’s quite nostalgic and funny, gets straight to the point with no filler and it’s worth a few plays even if you’re just collecting the 16 trophies. Indie developer Muzt Die Studios and port house Ratalaika Games did a great job overall here. Sir Lootalot’s adventures may seem short, but there’s a good chance you be back for more as the game is so much fun to play. And yes, a longer sequel would be nice.

Score: B+ (85%)

-GW

-Review code provided by the publisher

(Not So) Random Film of the Week: The Flesh Eaters (1964)

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

Cheesy, but very perfectly so.

I think about Jack Curtis’ exceptionally cheesy but really awesome sci-fi/horror hybrid The Flesh Eaters maybe a bit more than I should, but there’s a good reason for that. It was one of the many fright films I grew up watching on television so many times that its unnerving 91 minutes were engraved in my brain for decades. While I’d seen many other horror/sci-fi films as a kid, this particular one stood out for the unsettling for a kid gore factor and overall tone that screamed EC Comics-style nightmare fuel.

I found out later in my teens that it was written by very prolific DC, Marvel and other publishers comics writer Arnold Drake who also made storyboards for the film to assist the director. It’s also by location, classifiable as a New York-based film because it was partly shot in Montauk, New York. The plot kicks off as a small seaplane takes off from Manhattan, runs into a bad storm, and is forced down on a small island in the area with, let’s just say, some rather interesting results in store for all involved.

On that plane are faded starlet and professional drinker Laura Winters (Rita Morely), her lovely but very harried assistant Jan Letterman (Barbara Wilkin), and debt-ridden pilot for hire Grant Murdoch (Byron Sanders), all of whom survive the in-flight stormy surprise landing. They soon meet a German-accented marine biologist Professor Peter Bartell (Martin Kosleck) who’s all by himself on the island save for his little microbial friends whom we will soon find out more about. The not so good Professor has taken up some evil WWII experiments in breeding nasty little bacteria who need fresh flesh to thrive, and between the human and many more fish skeletons that start turning up in the troubled waters around the island, everyone is in for quite a bad time if something REALLY stupid happened to that plane, right?

It’s too bad the folks on that plane didn’t see the beginning of the film as the in-flight movie, as they kind of missed out on a few important things…

Guess what happens to the plane? Free popcorn to the winning guess!

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(Not So) Random Film of the Week: Fast Company (1979)

Posted on March 6, 2020 by geelw

I’m still waiting for the Slow Company movie, but I’m patient…

I think it was around 1983 or so and I’d seen four or five films by David Cronenberg when I found out he’d made the 1979 drag racing centered “B” movie Fast Company. At the time I had to search around for a video store that carried it because in the US, it wasn’t readily available as far as I was seeing. A friend of a friend got a copy of the film from one of his sources not too long afterward because he was just as curious as I was and its funny how that sort of thing works out, isn’t it? I recall liking the car stuff, but not liking the plot much, but overall it was a decent popcorn flick provided you didn’t take the story at all seriously.

Watching it again more recently reveals it’s still a pretty pedestrian (ha-ha) movie with a some great car action, a touch of sex and nudity not uncommon to the era and if you didn’t know it was directed by Cronenberg, you’d think you’ve gotten a pretty good made for cable flick from a time capsule. It’s not a badly made film at all, though. In fact, some of the drag race scenes and a later car reconstruction scene benefit from Cronenberg’s attention to detail and his real-life obsession with the sport. Hey, everyone needs a hobby, right? You could say “All body horror and no play make Jack a dull boy”, but that’s not true if you stop and think about it. Still, variety is indeed, the spice of life, so this one’s special like that.