How My Brain Works (Sometimes): Wie sauber schnee von den Stiefeln (mit musikalischer Begleitung)

Posted on January 3, 2014 by geelw

So, it snowed a lot last night and part of this morning in a few too many places. Yeah, winter sucks. Anyway, as I was going outside into the stupidly cold air and saw that deeper than it looked but already mostly shoveled snowy white world, some guy comes into the building and starts stomping his feet, one at a time in a beat that made me chuckle because I watch too many movies and retain certain scenes in my head for future use. Why I do this I have zero idea, but I think it’s because it makes me laugh a lot when I see scenes from real life that remind me of made up movie bits.

Anyway, this is probably the ONLY proper comedic use of this interesting musical clip from The Battle of the Bulge. Toss in some crappy bing-translated German above (it’s supposed to say “How to clean snow from your boots (with musical accompaniment)”, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and ta-da! That’s how the magic happens around here. Yeah, magic. “Hey, Rocky? Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!”
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(Thanks, GunOfNeverone!)

Or maybe I just need another cup of coffee. I think I only got about five or so hours of sleep between last night and this morning. Anyway, stay warm and stay the heck inside if you don’t need to be out in this mess. The things I do for you folks…

I Might Not Make Any Resolutions This Year, But Some Of YOU Need To…

Posted on January 2, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, you know who you are, you too many seats taken on public transit, loud music blastin’ and/or cellphone talkin’, toe-pickin’, generally nasty to see in public types who think everywhere is perfect for your personal palace needs. You kings and queens of disgusting behavior are so bad that Miss Manners would throw you over her knee and spank you. But yes, she’s too darn nice for that (although I do believe she may change her mind on a few fronts this year).

You folks with the icky habits need to clean up your act this year, but at home and not out in public where you can make people want to toss their cookies at you. There are a few other people who can take that same train to Politeville, as it Just. So. Happens to make an scheduled stop in the village of Common Sense. Read on for two more types of fellow travelers who need a nice vacation and some proper reeducation about living in the modern age… Continue reading →

It’s Quiet in Here… Too Quiet…

Posted on January 2, 2014 by geelw

For some odd reason, I have a bit of a block today. It’s not that I don’t have a pile of stuff to do here (he said, staring at his pile of stuff to do… which very politely sits there occasionally tipping its cap), it’s just that I’m almost literally at a loss for words. And when I can think of stuff, it’s as if it’s in another language. Bleh. Granted, you’re reading what I’m writing and therefore, I’m not at a TOTAL loss for words at all. It just that actual and more entertaining collections of letters and such aren’t coming out of the factory upstairs and that’s not a good thing at all. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I don’t think it will last long at all. I’ll run a self-diagnostic and post the results later. Or not. If things go as they should, this glitch will be shorter than it is longer and things will be back to normal soon.

Off to hit myself in the head with a hammer and see what happens. Back in a bit…

Back Up And On My Feet. Or Perhaps I’m Dreaming Again…

Posted on December 28, 2013 by geelw

So, yes. I went to bed earlier than usual after the spending the previous 24+ hours awake and I’d like to think I got a great rest now. However, I popped up in bed at 5:44am wide awake and as it was still dark outside, a bit annoyed that I was up. Of course, I did what anyone else would do… got out of bed and turned the computer on. Which was (of course) a bad idea. As I am the KING of bad ideas, I didn’t turn down the chance to hold onto my title. Amusingly enough, it probably would have been a better idea to relinquish that crown temporarily because nearly everything I tried to do online failed. I think my PC was still trying to sleep, so stuff like posting comments on a few blogs I follow or poking around to see if the stuff I was trying to sell on eBay kept getting me booted around with a few error messages.

Then again, my home computer needs some major updating which I haven’t done on the slower connection there. My super updated (thanks to free library wi-fi) laptop was in the other room all bagged up and ready to go later and yours truly wasn’t about to go out there and take it from its snug case to play with for a bit (as I’d be tempted to poke around all those games I’ve got installed)…

Continue reading →

Stupid Stuff I Think Of When I Really SHOULD Be Working #362…

Posted on December 22, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, MZ774!)

So, I sometimes tend to let my mind wander all over the place when it gets busy around here, but then again, no one is ever in complete control of their brain and what it thinks. Anyone who says they are is lying, but they may also be unaware that their brain is getting the better of them by allowing the very thought of control from outside to creep in just to keep them properly pacified. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah… I’d been kicking this idea around for a while and some people have even done stuff like it in the past, but I’d always wanted to see popular modern films get reworked as if they were done in different time periods by famous writers of those eras. Now, before you get all “but that’s been done already and a LOT of times, too!” on me, I think a period remake of Death Wish as scripted by William Shakespeare might be a fun bit of business. Or Dirty Harry by Ernest Hemingway (yikes!). And for the ladies? Emily Dickenson’s Mystic Pizza or something like that. Feel free to think up your own favorites and play around with them (I’m not much of a chick-flicker, I’ll admit)…

Eh, maybe this has been done already, but the big hook would be every bit of dialogue would be true to the times each writer lived in, but the films would all be subtitled with the original English scripts. Hell, I’d pay real money to hear how “Gimme your money, or I’ll bust you up!” sounds in Shakespearian English (and you know you would, too!)…

Unconventional Games of The Year Choices Incoming. You’ve Been Warned.

Posted on December 21, 2013 by geelw

(Thanks, movieclips!)

As some of you may know, I hate making “best of” lists, as it’s always a case of what one DIDN’T experience not making the cut almost always being as good or (or better) than what was chosen. That goes double for public choice where popular seems to outstrip good by a few leagues. That said, if you kidnapped me, tied me to a couch with a bunch of random strangers and submitted them to some rather strange blood testing to see who was infected with an alien virus, I’d fess up beforehand that yes, I’m one of those Things just because I hate me the hell out of needles and sharp objects (unless I’m in the kitchen cutting up stuff to cook). I’d also probably admit that out of all the games I’ve played this year, I probably put MORE time into a few than most did because I liked them a lot more than most did. Okay, that and my backlog is insane and I no longer review too many games in a “speed to the finish!” manner, as that’s how you miss some important stuff… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: Night of the Juggler

Posted on December 19, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, TaylorHamKid!)

While reminiscing with a guy I hadn’t seen for close to 20 years this week, this flick came up in our conversation and I had to rush out to write about it while the memory was still fresh. After the great 1972 ABC telefilm Short Walk to Daylight and 1980’s compellingly crazy action/drama Night of the Juggler, I still say James Brolin should have stuck around and made a third New York-centric film to complete some sort of unconnected trilogy about an otherwise decent cop who’s having some really bad days in the Big Apple.

The former film was about survivors of an earthquake (in New York City of all places!) trying to make it out of some deadly subway tunnels with Brolin’s cop leading the way and the latter has his divorced ex-cop now truck driver character chasing after the maniac that’s mistakenly kidnapped his daughter. Neither is legally available on DVD (and it’s a darn shame, I say), but if you’re clever and know how to use the internet, there are ways to snag both gems for your viewing pleasure… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week(end): The Stunt Man

Posted on December 15, 2013 by geelw

It’s been a really sad year for film fans in terms of losing bits of history and memory as the months fly by too soon. Upon hearing that Peter O’Toole passed away, the first thing I thought of was that TCM is really going to need to update its TCM Remembers video to include the legendary actor (and perhaps Paul Walker, as he wasn’t included {not being a “classic” film actor and all} although Eleanor Parker, who died later, was).

The second thing I thought of was not the film he’s probably going to be most remembered for by many, David Lean’s masterful epic Lawrence of Arabia, but Richard Rush’s bawdy, bold 1980 film, The Stunt Man with the actor playing a madman of a director trying to make a bizarre World War I film with an on the lam drifter replacing the stunt man killed in a freak accident… Continue reading →

Kind Of A Lazy Sunday, But Not Exactly…

Posted on December 8, 2013 by geelw

(thanks Josh Landeros!)

HA! Fooled you, didn’t I? You though I’d not post a darn thing today, hmmmm? Well, I was busy tinkering with some stuff, so there. Anyway, yeah – the backlog continues, but I’m winding up some fun stuff and have a few surprises on the way in the coming weeks. Going to give away some reading material soon, there’s a guest writer on the back burner popping up in a few weeks and between then, I’m just going to be cackling like a madman and rubbing my hands together because one silly plan I thought up just may work out FINE. Maybe. Wear a helmet just in case stuff explodes in my face again is all I’m saying, kids. Okay, that’s it for now. Or perhaps not if I can complete this review I started, lost and am reconstructing in another window as we speak. Maybe it’ll go up tomorrow morning, as I need to add a lot of screenshots? We’ll see… we’ll see.

Sleepy Kong gotta go get him a cuppa joe. Lateness of the hour aside, it’s been a stupidly busy but backwards day here. Bye!

ELYSIUM Headed to Blu-Ray/DVD December 17. You Forgot ALL About This One, Right?

Posted on November 26, 2013 by geelw

Okay, okay… so I almost did, thanks to the huge flood of movies rolling into theaters this year and some other distractions major and minor (alright… it was too many games, mostly). Anyway, at least Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi epic took longer to hit home video than other flicks that came out, disappeared faster and sprung up on discs sooner. Yeah, I liked District 9 a lot and Blomkamp’s visual stule, so I’ll be snapping this up at some point. I rarely take the reviews of others into consideration because I’m old and cranky enough to know some people who review films and games approach them from a completely incorrect perspective, but you can’t stop them from presenting their opinions no matter how wrong-headed they are. Anyway, I’m looking forward to finally checking this out without any hootin’ and a’hollerin’ from the peanut gallery as well as seeing what this very talented director has up his sleeves for a next project…