When Bedtime Reading Enters My Dreams

I had another one of those dreams last night, a dream I was caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. When this happened before, I turned the dream into the short story "The Wild Ones," which you can read in Love, Lust, and Zombies, edited by Mitzi Szereto.

I always love a good zombie story, and I still have crushes on SEVERAL cast members from The Walking Dead, but the specific reason for this zombie dream had to do with my choice of reading material before bed. It was TVTropes.org, which I have mentioned several times previously as a favorite resource.

Like Wikipedia, it's also a good place to follow a proverbial rabbit trail. As one writer on Tumblr once said, "Does anyone else go on Wikipedia to look something up and then click on a bunch of random links and then half an hour later you’re 10 articles deep into the inner workings of Vietnamese politics?"

I do; I suppose that's part of the life of the writer. The day I found Wikipedia's pseudohistory category was a pretty clear example of that.

My search into TVTropes last night began with Rihanna. I'd heard her song "What Now" on Spotify the other day. I hadn't seen the video in a while, but I remembered that I contained images of the singer doing some moves that involve contortions and other non-dance moves that may remind viewers of either a person with a mental illness or film depictions of a person who is possessed (by evil spirits, perhaps).

This is the official video from Rihanna's VEVO page on YouTube. It's not available for embedding as of this writing.

This screencap captures Rihanna as she begins to fall backward.

I wondered if anyone had commented about this on TVTropes. Music videos are written of and discussed on the site, and I wondered if anyone had added "demonic possession" or anything similar as a trope in the "What Now" video. Well, there isn't even a page for the "What Now" video. The single and its accompanying video are barely mentioned on TVTropes at all.

This caused me to wonder a very specific thing: When I imagine the trope of what "demonic possession" looks like visually, what am I actually thinking of?

A related question I'd been interested in the past month or so had to do with the origin of the zombie myth in pop culture. Wikipedia actually does a really good job of answering that one. When I think of a zombie, I'm largely thinking of the visual language created by George Romero in his Night of the Living Dead, which I watched as a child and have seen several times since. It premiered in 1968, before I was born.

A fascinating audio book I heard recently (having borrowed it from the library via the Libby app) was Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Dr. Monica Murphy. In it, the authors mention that George Romero's film was inspired by Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend. Even though Matheson calls his infected, murderous undead "vampires," the book essentially inspired the modern myth of the zombie apocalypse.

In turn, the bloodthirsty, relentless vampires in the book and its subsequent adaptations resemble animals with rabies. The human fear of zombies is closely related to the human fears of disease transmission and the kind of loss of control associated with neurological diseases like rabies. (Note that in real life, rabies isn't transmittable from one human being to another - not easily, anyway.)

And all of that was interesting to me, but if you visit the page on demonic possession on Wikipedia, you get more of a religious and historical discussion than a pop culture one. So to dig a little deeper into the cultural history of film depictions of demonic possession, I visited the TVTropes page on The Exorcist. (You may remember this post about the ongoing cultural relevance of Pazuzu.)

But then somehow, from there, I ended up on the page for Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1970 rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. I've never seen the whole thing, only bits of it as a student in various Catholic schools. (I wanted to watch the TV version that aired earlier this year, but I missed it.)

If you go to TVTropes' Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV, i.e. opinions) page, you see there are versions of this musical in which Judas and Jesus are depicted with varying amounts of sexual tension between them. Now, when you say "Judas" to me, the first thing I think of is the Lady Gaga video. That is also unavailable for embedding, but it can be found here. Here's a little screencap:

Actor Rick Gonzalez (left) portrays Jesus, with Gaga as Mary Magdalene

That Judas? He's Norman Reedus, one of my Walking Dead crushes. I've been into him ever since my first viewing of Boondock Saints. And Judas x Jesus is the reason I had a dream about zombies last night.

It wasn't even a particularly scary dream; it mostly involved avoiding the darkness I Am Legend-style.

So if you're down to do a little wiki editing, someone could add some pop culture references to Wikipedia's demonic possession page and fill in some more of Rihanna's video tropes on TVTropes.org.

By the way, if you're really trying to give yourself nightmares, a good TV trope to explore is fold spindle mutilation. Read the real-life examples if you have a taste for gruesome reading, especially the Byford Dolphin diving bell accident story. It's both tragic and gross, if you're into that sort of thing. (And what human being doesn't have at least a little streak of morbid curiosity?)

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Happy Wuthering Heights Christmas Actually

This Tweet:

Is there anything more dramatic than when Dido’s “Here with me” kicks in when rick won’t tell kiera knightly he fancies her #loveactually

— Scarlett (@scarlettwith2ts) December 23, 2017

...reminded me that Andrew Lincoln, the actor from Christmastime favorite Love Actually who also plays Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, was also in the 2009 BBC miniseries production of Wuthering Heights. (His character's name in Love Actually is Mark, and Mark is declaring his love for the wife for his supposed friend Peter.)

Best. Edgar Linton. Ever.

He even gets to be a little bit sexy and we, the viewer, get a little preview of the butt.

So I did this.

Well, he IS. He should have been nicer to Isabella. And to dogs.

But the 2009 production is what introduced Catherine actress Charlotte Riley to Heathcliff actor Tom Hardy, and the couple has been together in real life ever since. They're on Season 4 of Peaky Blinders together -- although not in any of the same scenes. Which is a real shame, because her posh character May is bad for Tommy Shelby, but she might have been great with Alfie Solomons.

Yep, I binge-watched the entire fourth season of Peaky Blinders on Christmas Eve. It also had Adrien Brody, my beloved Geoffrey Fife from The Thin Red Line. I did not love the way he played his character Luca. It seemed like he was doing an awkward impression of Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

Although not played by an actor on the show, it was mentioned that one of Luca's rivals was a Chicagoan named Alphonse Capone. You know who has played Al Capone?

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Uh-Oh, I Have a Crush on Another Boy

SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2. 

Slight spoilers for Marvel's The Punisher, if you haven't seen the whole season yet. 

I haven't been very consistent with watching the Marvel superheroes series on Netflix, but my husband, Mr. Tit Elingtin, has been devouring them. I watched a bit of Luke Cage, which I really liked, and a bit more of Jessica Jones, which was also quite good, but with my inconsistent access to streaming Netflix this summer, I hardly watched any of Daredevil. 

I knew Deborah Ann Woll played a character on Daredevil. You may remember her from the Charlaine Harris-based HBO series True Blood. She played Bill Compton's vampire "child," Jessica Hamby, and much of Jessica's storyline was a love triangle involving her, Jason Stackhouse, and Jason's best friend Hoyt Fortenberry. The series ended with a happily-ever-after for Jessica. 

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Tit binge-watched the latest Marvel series, The Punisher. Woll's character from Daredevil, Karen Page, had a starring role. I got hooked.

The Punisher is a Marvel title that I actually used to read as a teenager. My brother had a subscription. It was right around 1990, and the series was The Punisher: War Journal by Jim Lee and Carl Potts. 

The Punisher, a.k.a. Frank Castle, isn't a superhero. He has no superpowers. He's a violent vigilante who brutally dispatches criminals. His Backstory of Infinite Sadness is that his wife and two children were brutally murdered, and now he doesn't GAF what happens to him personally. He's on a suicidal revenge mission (or what TVTropes.org designates as "Roaring Rampage of Revenge") -- he just happens to be exceptionally skilled at killing criminals. 

This characterization may remind one of my fictional TV boyfriend John Reese. 

On the Marvel series, Frank is played by Jon Bernthal, my newest boy crush. He played Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead, but I didn't like Shane Walsh. No one likes Shane Walsh**. Shane Walsh was an abusive asshole.

Jon Bernthal as Al Capone in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
Because as everyone in Hollywood knows, Jews and Italians are interchangeable.

I didn't make it that far into the TV series, but I understand that--SPOILER ALERT--his conflict with Rick ended in a physical fight in which Rick had to kill Shane or be killed himself. Then Shane came back as a zombie. Then Carl, the one of Lori's children whose bio dad is definitely Rick and not Shane, had to re-kill Zombie Shane. 

http://thatwritererinoriordan.tumblr.com/post/167866152170

He was a zombie. She was a vampire. They're perfect for each other. 

In this Netflix iteration, Frank Castle -- well, he's kind of an asshole too, what with the brutal vigilante killings and all. He has another side, though, one that's extremely loyal to his family and friends -- and yes, even romantic. Many of his memories of his slain wife Maria are very sweet, and he was clearly a loving, hands-on dad to elder child Lisa and younger child Frank Jr., even though he had to be away from them with the Marine Corps. He was a military dad, but a soft dad nonetheless. 

His friendship with Karen Page is developing into a slow-burn romance, but obviously with quite serious complications, him being a wanted multiple murderer and her a reporter. Karen has become his berserk button - don't dare threaten her. They've saved each others' lives now, and there was a significant forehead touch in an elevator. 

Forehead touches are not sex but often foreshadow sex in the future. They also convey an emotional connection. Frank is really a one-woman-at-a-time type of guy, and his commitment to Maria was deep and genuine and lasted longer than her life. In one scene in which he's badly injured and near death, he remembers dancing with Maria at their wedding. 

Their ship name is Kastle, and I ship it so hard. I really want Frank Castle for Karen Page, not for myself. 

However.

Frank's characterization hits upon several of the tropes that I find particularly delicious: the wounded warrior trope, the outwardly tough guy who's soft as a kitten belly around the right woman, and the woman who's strong enough to stand on her own two feet but inwardly melts when the tough-soft guy's around. Frank Castle is covered in blood, scars, bruises, and stitches most of the time, which is true to the comic books, and WHY DO I LIKE THAT?!? But I do.

And Jon Bernthal is one of my (many) favorite boy types: Yeshiva Boy Who Grew Up Hot. He has clearly been working out for this physically demanding role and as a result has back muscles that look awesome in his many shirtless scenes. He has big, soulful, dark-chocolate brown eyes, and why wouldn't Karen be into a Frank who looks like this? 

Karen and Frank can't possibly have a happily-ever-after ending. I won't pretend I think they're going to end up getting married and having children. One of them probably ends up bleeding out in the other's arms. Vigilantes don't get to grow old gracefully. Ask Mr. Reese. 

I'm asking for heartbreak once again, but I can't help my stupid feelings. I'm shipping Kastle. It'll go right up there with my other OTPs, like CaReese, Destiel, SnowBaz, Johnlock, and all the other shipper nonsense I get myself into, most of which are doomed to end in a puddle of blood and tears. 

P.S. I do highly recommend the Night at the Museum movie trilogy if you haven't seen it already. The third film, one of the last performances of Robin Williams, is especially bittersweet and poignant but ultimately worthwhile. And Rami Malek as the young mummified Egyptian pharaoh Akhmenrah is also quite handsome. 

**Some people probably like Shane Walsh. If you do, I'm not judging. He's fictional. Go for it. 

Jane Slayre: The Literary Classic with a Blood-Sucking Twist

Jane Slayre: The Literary Classic with a Blood-Sucking Twist by Sherri Browning Erwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've long been a fan of monster mash-ups; you get all the fun of rereading the classic, plus the fun of the supernatural twist. This is an especially good one. I started reading this around Halloween.

I love that it includes the whole Jane Eyre story - unlike the erotica mash-up Jane Eyre Laid Bare: The Classic Novel with an Erotic Twist, which disappointingly excludes the St. John Rivers story. In Browning Erwin's telling, St. John is the Daryl Dixon of the tale, slaying vampires and werewolves with a crossbow of his own invention. Zombies have also come into play, but their fiercest slayer is Jane herself. Saving people and hunting things is the Slayre family business.

This book does include the line "Reader, I buried him," causing me to laugh out loud - but fear not, the happy ending is still intact. In short, this is the monster mash-up done right.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

I purchased this book with my own funds from Better World Books and was not obligated in any way to review it.

Next, I'm going to read Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. It's the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series.

I think this is supposed to be Adrian and Rose, but keep in mind Rose is half Turkish and described as being olive-skinned. 

Vampire Academy

Frostbite

Shadow Kiss

Blood Promise

Sadly, the Frostbite movie campaign failed to find funding, so even if I enjoy Spirit Bound (doubtful, since I hate Strigoi!Dimitri), I'll never see it reach the big screen. 

You know what I think could have saved the Vampire Academy movie franchise? Letting Misha Collins play Dimtri. He already answers to the name Dimitri, because it is his name. I don't even care that he's 40 and not 25. Let Dimitri Belikov be older; let his relationship with Rose seem that much more inappropriate. 

No offense to Danila Kozlovsky (age 29); I still think he's gorgeous. 

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It's just that American audiences aren't all that familiar with Russian actors, even if I really wouldn't mind getting familiar with Danila. 

Oh, well, Maybe the Vampire Academy series can do what A Series of Unfortunate Events is doing and continue on as a Netflix web series. (Squee!)

ManDay Hotties Hop #7: East Asian Edition of #ManCandyMonday

I read Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self, a memoir/series of linked essays by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Tizon about being a Filipino man in the U.S. (Goodreads link here.) One of the statements Tizon makes in his book is that U.S. men and women alike consistently rate men of Asian and Pacific Islander descent as less physically attractive than white, black, and Latino men. 

I didn't even realize I was doing any kind of stereotyping of Asian men. But then I looked at my Human Beauty boards on Pinterest, and I realized I saw very few Asian male faces. Taiwanese actor Vic Zhou, Canada skater Patrick Chan, South Korean actor Lee Byung Hun, and a guy from a Chinese underwear ad are pretty much it, unless we count some Indian actors. 

But that can't be right, can it? I mean, the world is full of beautiful males of East Asian descent. So let's broaden my beauty horizons and appreciate some of them today. 

Daniel Dae Kim, the American actor born in South Korea, star of Lost and Hawaii Five-0. Hot to begin with, but also totally bilingual. Fact: everyone gets hotter when they can speak more than one language. The icing on the cake is he's certified sexy: one of People magazine's Most Beautiful People. 

Nor was Kim the only Asian beauty on Lost. Let us not neglect Ken Leung, who also does us the fan service of showing up as a repeat guest star on Person of Interest as Leon Tao. Leung is a native New Yorker of Chinese descent.

Chow Yun-Fat, the amazing actor from Hong Kong. A little older than me, sure, but still so smokin' hot. 

Ken Watanabe, the Japanese actor. So maybe I fell asleep during Inception and never saw the end. At least we'll always have Batman Begins. 

Victor Kim, American musician of Korean descent, and complete hottie. 

Born in Seoul and then transplanted to the U.S. from Canada, The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun is a babe. I left off with the show somewhere in Season 2, but I'm taken to understand that so far, his character Glenn Rhee is still among the survivors as of the most recent season. I hope he has a love interest, because the TV trope that "the Asian guy never gets the girl" must die.

Speaking of Korean imports, Seoul-born, L.A.-raised Star Trek babe John Cho could not possibly be absent from this list. His glorious black hair should be on the list all by itself, styled as it is in a manner befitting a teenage vampire.

And if you've ever seen pictures of Cho with his son, then you know he is a DILF.

And then there's Tony Leung, who is also from Hong Kong. This guy just exudes sexy. 

Reggie Lee: the Filipino actor plays Sgt. Wu on Grimm. He also plays a small role in The Dark Knight Rises, a terribly-written movie with more than its fair share of hot people. I would not be sad if he were cast to play George Wu in Allegiant Pt. 1. With Maggie Q playing Tori, the Wus are a very sexy family.

No list of lovely Filipinos would be complete without Arnel Pineda, the lead singer of Journey. Sure, his amazing voice is easy on the ears, but he's also easy on the eyes. And when he first started singing, he didn't even understand English! I actually prefer his look with short hair, but this is a great pic.

Alex Tizon, you're not so bad yourself! In his book, Tizon admits to having been self-conscious about his full lips and relatively broad nose, but to many, many women who are attracted to men, these features are a plus. If they weren't, I wouldn't have butterflies in my tummy every time I looked at a picture of Idris Elba. 

But seriously, you should read Big Little Man because it's warm-hearted, insightful, and enlightening. I received a free copy in exchange for a review through the Amazon Vine program. I'm glad I picked it, because as a Caucasian woman, I was completely ignorant of some of the struggles faced by Asian Americans, and Asian American men in particular, in Western-dominated cultures. Now I have a little bit more understanding. 

I should probably mention I have a first cousin who's half Filipino, although I've never met him. My uncle once tried to marry the daughter of the Philippines ambassador to the United States. Her parents nixed the union, but not before the baby was on his way. Although I am a white Jewish girl, my whole family tree is white, black, Mexican (La Raza: indigenous American and Spanish multiracial), and Filipino. 

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Norman Reedus of 'The Walking Dead' Likes 'Daryl' in the Adult Parody

[Press Release] LOS ANGELES, CA/JANUARY 30, 2014 … In a recent AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD Q and A with actors Norman Reedus and Andrew Lincoln in Singapore, Reedus admitted to watching THE WALKING DEAD: A HARDCORE PARODY. The film is produced by BurningAngel Entertainment and directed by Tommy Pistol (2014 AVN award winning “Best Actor”) and Joanna Angel (BurningAngel Entertainment owner and spokesperson).

“I had hoped and dreamed of a cast member of AMC’s The Walking Dead to see the Porn Parody we made – but I didn’t think it would ever actually happen,” said Joanna Angel owner and spokesperson of BurningAngel Entertainment. “Thank you Norman Reedus for taking time out of your busy zombie killing schedule to watch our porn.”

After months in a hospital bed, County Sheriff Rick wakes up from a coma and realizes the world has been overrun by zombies. The undead were hungry for brains…and sex! The only way to fight and return these undead creatures to the grave was to fire a jizz shot. Viewers will find out if Lori gets with Shane or Rick, if Michonne and Andrea get together, and if Daryl shoots his bow.

The film features adult stars Joanna Angel, Kleio, Skin Diamond, Jessie Lee, Larkin Love, Sierra Cure, Arabelle Raphael, Phoenix Askani, Tommy Pistol, Danny Wylde, Wolf Hudson, Owen Gray, and Tommy Gunn. DVD features special behind-the-scene featurette, trailers of upcoming features, photo gallery, animated menus, and zombies!

To purchase a copy of THE WALKING DEAD: A HARDCORE PARODY, please visit http://store.burningangel.com/products/the-walking-dead-a-hardcore-parody. For wholesale orders, contact Wilma at wilma@mile-high-media.com or (800) 363-0133


ABOUT JOANNA ANGEL AND BURNINGANGEL


Pushing the envelope, the BurningAngel Empire is a refreshingly unique web cocktail of sex, rock n' roll and pop culture. BurningAngel.com launched in 2002 with a few sets of photos and a band interview, conceived by two amateur college kids from Rutgers, Joanna Angel and Mitch Fontaine. Since its launch, it has exploded into a fierce indie company that has pioneered a new species of erotica known as "alt porn," with a network of websites and hundreds of DVDs to its credit.

The company is revered for popularizing alternative style girls, and prides itself on delivering hardcore adult content alongside band interviews, record reviews and a community with its own social networking. As both the star of many of BurningAngel's movies and the company's spokesperson and owner, Joanna Angel has stormed both mainstream and adult media. She's appeared on the cover of every major adult magazine (AVN, Club, Hustler, Picture Magazine, Adam Film World and Xtreme, to name a few) and has been featured in many tattoo magazines as well (some include Prick, Taboo, Inked and Savage). She has been featured on Fox News, Playboy TV, Fuse TV, G4 TV, KROQ Radio, as a regular on the Jason Ellis show on SIRIUS Radio, as a guest on the 2008 series premiere of TLC's LA Ink, and in a speaking role on Adult Swim's "Children's Hospital."

She has also appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Village Voice, The New York Press, Esquire UK, Details and Penthouse, among others. Heeb Magazine featured Joanna as its cover girl, naming her one of the Top 100 Up-and-Coming Jews in 2005, and The New York Post featured her as one of the Top 25 Sexiest New Yorkers in 2006.

She's also made her mark in the sex toy world, becoming a venerated Fleshlight Girl in 2013. The same year, she made further strides into the mainstream world with a speaking role in the indie drama Scrapper. BurningAngel has brought home several awards from all the major adult shows—from AVN to XBIZ, to XRCO to YNOT. Some of its accolades include Best Porn Star Website, Best Web Premiere and Best Sex Comedy. From a college dorm room to national television, BurningAngel has made a mark in entertainment, and it's only just beginning.

***

The Complete First Season: 3-Disc Special Edition

Social Media, Writing, and Editing Services I Offer - Erin O'Riordan

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Till Zombies Do Us Part by Celeste Ayers. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Noah and Amy are two teens in love. There is however one problem; the world as they know it was turned into nothing but a pile of chaos and zombies. As they battle for survival they’ll embark on a journey into the unknown while facing new trials that will put both their love for each other and their humanity to the ultimate test. Just how far will they be willing to go?

Guest Post: Book To Film ~ When They Get It Right!!

Having always been an avid reader and very much a massive movie fan, the concept of turning some of my favourite books to movies has been a somewhat tricky subject. How many times have we sat with our friends, neighbours or family and debated the subject of “Yeah it was good, But did you read the book”? Often it can prove to be a swift kick to the nether regions when you watch the absolute nonsense that passes for an adaptation. Then other times they go way too far and make about 9 films that, to be fair, even the trailers looked boring as hell *cough* The Lord Of The Rings *cough*. Don’t get me wrong, they were decent enough films but my god boooooring. I think Peter Jackson was just way too anal when it came to getting that right.

Every now and then however, you get a movie adaptation that just embodies everything the writer strived to convey and the movie encapsulates the complete spirit of the words. Today I would like to talk about one such example that, in my eyes, does the book justice. The book that sprang immediately to mind would have to be Fight Club from Chuck Palahniuk. This man is a great writer and I seriously love his stuff; it is dark, dirty and holds a mirror up to society. He shows us in no uncertain terms who we are right now and where we are headed. Fight Club is no exception.

“If our Fathers are our models for God and our Fathers have bailed then what does that tell us about God” – Tyler Durden

The book tells us the story of Jack or The Narrator. Jack seems to have lost his way and is feeling like he is simply existing; never really awake and never really asleep. He travels from state to state, never really taking a moment and hoping that there will be a mid air collision just to end the numbness of it all plus “Life insurance pays triple if you die in a plane crash.” Until he meets Tyler Durden. 

Tyler is everything that our humble Narrator is not; cool, cocky, confident and above all else…. FREE. Through him Jack learns how to let go. The two men quickly bond and inadvertently start a car park Fight Club: a group session for men if you will. Here you can forget everything you were supposed to be and become everything you want to be.… A MAN. The basement where they stage their “group therapy sessions” soon re-locates to a house and there the Fight Club evolves into Project Mayhem. The intention being to show the world that no longer will they sit back and eat the crap forced upon them. 

Palahniuk has stated that this story is for the lonely soul, showing that as a society in 1996 we had become scared of confrontation of any kind. We had become victim to the perfection we as humans strived for. As far as I’m concerned this is truer today than back then.

"We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman [The Narrator] is created."

^—               David Fincher^[3]

In 1999 visionary director David Fincher was man enough to take this book and adapt it to the screen and my Christ what a job the man did! The movie had that same dark and gritty feel to it and served the book incredibly well. He changed only a couple of key scenes from the book and managed to say everything Palahniuk intended with his book. Edward Norton took on the role of The Narrator. Doing so he delivered one hell of a voice over throughout the movie, telling us his tale and his acting was superb as Ed Norton always is. Brad Pitt put in, what I consider to be, the best role he has ever played as Tyler Durden; this guy was cooler than cool. He is one of my all time favourite movie characters, from start to finish and Pitt is excellent. Both of these men play their respective roles so well that when you come to the almost unbelievable twist in the third act you genuinely buy it as realistic.

Combining both of these actors and Fincher at the helm made this one of my all time top 10 movies and it is perfectly accompanied by one hell of a book. Commercially this movie was considered a flop. Maybe due to the harsh criticism that the movie was nothing more than a “violent portrayal of man’s urge to destroy things.” In my opinion this is completely wrong however; there is so much more to Fight Club than that. Critically it put these three men on the map. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for one of Palahniuk’s other books, Choke, when it was adapted into a Sam Rockwell movie.

This is just one example of many movies that totally got it right but for me. It is the one movie that, upon getting it right, really hit a note inside me and almost every male. It shone a light on what we, as a society, had become: an angry generation. Case and point: the London Riots of 2011. As I said, “still completely relevant.”

Other Chuck Palahniuk books I would recommend are Survivor, Choke and Lullaby. As for Fincher, you have to check out Panic Room, Se7en and The Game.

I am currently reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a movie I refuse to watch until I have finished the book.  My god it’s one of the most intense reading experiences I have ever had. Gripping like you wouldn’t believe!

- Haldon365


I suppose I little about me…. What is there to say, I am a work to pay the bills by day and as of late outside my work I am working hard at becoming a Mark Kermode type (with more integrity). My site is still in its baby stages but the three of us just love doing what we doing. Feel free to stop by and see what we are about. 

www.365flicks.com
For the Fanboys From A Fanboy


Haldon365's Walking Dead/Game of Thrones post

Haldon365's Silver Linings Playbook post

Haldon 365's Zathura review

The Host movie review by CHUNK at 365flicks.com

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Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1 - 24 by John Howard Reid. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Another essential book for a film buff's library, this one is packed with information and reviews. Some of the entries are quite extensive. JHR provides all the information you need, including complete cast and production staff. I find JHR's information invaluable. I like to read not only who acted in a movie, but who made it, both top-billed and lesser mortals. -- Ross Adams in DRESS CIRCLE mag.

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Zombies - they're everywhere lately. On June 28th, Esther Wheelmaker will drop by Pagan Spirits to talk about her steampunk zombie novel  Gravely Inanimated. In the meantime, I've gotten into the Walking Dead graphic novel series after I took my nieces to the comic book shop on Free Comic Book Day 2013 and picked up a TWD book there. I'm halfway through Book Two.

But, as I must sometimes remind my dad, please don't spoil the TV show for me. I have only seen up to the part where Lori finds out she's pregnant and she doesn't know whether the baby is Shane's or Rick's. 

I didn't read Isaac Marion's book Warm Bodies. I came to the movie fresh, not knowing anything about it other than what I saw in the trailer on the big screen. If I remember correctly, the first time I saw the trailer was at The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2. Appropriately, the DVD I got from Netflix featured the trailers for BD Pt. 2, The Hunger Games and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I intend to read Wallflower before I see its movie, but I haven't wanted to pay the $12 for that skinny lil paperback yet.

The movie centers on a zombie who comes to be called R; all he can remember of his name is that he thinks it started with an R. Eight years after the earth succumbed to the zombie apocalypse for reasons R can't name, he lives a bleak, sleepless existence with the other zombies, hanging around an airport. He wishes for more, but his cognitive faculties are limited. He does know that zombies all eventually deteriorate into what they call the Bonies, which look less human and more wraith-like and apparently have even less reasoning power.

Meanwhile, in what may be the last surviving colony of humans on the planet, Julie Grigio also dreams of more. She loves her boyfriend Perry, but wants to feel closer to him. Perry is loyal soldier in the military-like colony government run by Julie's dad. He'll have more time for romance once all the world's zombies have been shot in the head and re-killed.

Julie and Perry, along with Julie's best friend Nora and a handful of others, go out on a raid, collecting medical supplies for the colony from an abandoned pharmacy. They cross paths with a group of zombies, including R, who view them as lunch. Acting on what he refers to as The New Hunger, R chows down on Perry, eating his brain. Thus he receives some of Perry's memories, and strangely, he begins to feel protective toward Julie, saving her from other zombies.

After that grotesque start, the movie veers further from horror-comedy territory and more into the romance genre. Julie can see that R wants to be more like a living person again, and his efforts appear to be paying off. When Nora puts makeup on R to make him look less dead, he almost looks like a living person again. Eventually, Julie, her father and the other survivors have to question whether it's possible for the undead to return to life.

For most of this movie, I felt very bad for Perry. Julie doesn't seem terribly upset about his death or react very badly when R finally confesses that he ate Perry and hands her Perry's gold watch. The film's explanation is that the survivors have seen so much death, they've learned to get over it quickly and not get too attached to other people. Somehow, though, Julie becomes attached to R. When she thinks he's had to sacrifice himself to save her life, she's distraught.

Sometimes while watching this, I thought Julie's attraction to a walking corpse was a little weird. But then I'd think about how much I like vampires, and it didn't seem so bad. After all, Nora does inform us that R doesn't stink.

Except the skeletal-looking Bonies, most of the zombies in this movie don't look very deteriorated or grotesque - nothing like you see on The Walking Dead or in most zombie movies. R looks pretty normal except for his pale skin and eyes, which are weirdly blue with hardly any pupils. Their mostly-preserved state  is a hopeful sign that the ending will be far less bleak than in your typical zombie fare.

R is played by English actor Nicholas Hoult (the boy in About a Boy, young Beast in X-Men: First Class, and Jack in the recent Jack the Giant Slayer). Julie is played by Australian actress Teresa Palmer (6 in I Am Number Four, and the female lead in a quirky Australian thriller with Stephen Moyer that I enjoy, Restraint), and her father is played by John Malkovich. (I adore him.) Perry, whom this movie should really care more about than it does, is played by Dave Franco. He's a beautiful Jewish-American like his older brother James. He's been in a number of TV shows, including Greek, Scrubs, and Privileged.

Nora is played by Analeigh Tipton, which I understand was a controversial casting choice because Tipton is Caucasian and Nora is described in the book as being of East African descent. I would understand if you were to complain about this, because ethnic diversity in this movie is practically at zero. Does Hollywood seriously think that white people won't watch movies with African-American actors in them? Because whitewashing is ridiculous and stupid.

I didn't love this movie, but I did like it. I'm not sorry that I didn't read the book, which I understand is a little darker than the film version, because I think I like the more romantic version better. Three and a half stars, I'd say. Worth a watch, but not an instant favorite.

Did you read this, and if so, did you enjoy the book? Did you like the movie?

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Till Zombies Do Us Part by Celeste Ayers. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Noah and Amy are two teens in love. There is however one problem; the world as they know it was turned into nothing but a pile of chaos and zombies. As they battle for survival they’ll embark on a journey into the unknown while facing new trials that will put both their love for each other and their humanity to the ultimate test. Just how far will they be willing to go?

Oh How Pinteresting! 'Cloud Atlas' and the Masterpiece Classic 'Wuthering Heights'

Look what came in the mail today! I know this isn't going to be an easy book to read, but I suspect it's going to be a worthwhile read.



On Monday I watched Cloud Atlas. I didn't read David Mitchell's novel, and maybe that's why I was so utterly baffled and confused by this movie. Someone please tell me - is it so brilliant it went over my head, or is it just a hot muddled mess of characters in six different timelines?



...and when the characters start speaking in dialect that's supposed to be a futuristic descendant of English? Even subtitles wouldn't have helped. You need a new dictionary to get this movie.

This is one of Hugh Grant's characters in it.



He kinda looks like Rick Genest (that Canadian model who appears in "Born This Way" with Lady Gaga). But this is the part that's really going to stick with me: the Frobisher-Sixsmith feels.



I mean, it would kill Hollywood to make one big-budget movie with a gay couple that gets a happy ending?!? Hollywood, I will give you good American money to see a gay rom com that ends with the happy couple cheerfully eating strawberries off each other. I don't want the young LGBTQIA thinking their love lives have to turn out like A Single Man, Brokeback Mountain and Boys Don't Cry because that's all they see in the media. You're sending mixed messages when you say "It gets better," but in every single movie it gets worse.

Okay, ranty thing done. I also saw this movie. Wuthering Heights is one of my top 5 favorite books ever, but I'd never seen the Masterpiece Classic version until last Friday.



At first I was like, "Tom Hardy as Heathcliff? Ew. No." Then I started watching it, and I was like, "I wish he'd stop using that stupid Bane voice." To be fair, the Bane voice pops up a few times, but he sounds normal through most of it. He's not OMG-great, but he's not terrible, either.

I liked this adaptation. I don't think I ever appreciated Edgar Linton as much as I did when he was played by Andrew Lincoln. I still kinda blows my mind that he's actually English and not U.S. Southern.



Ralph Fiennes remains my favorite movie Heathcliff.



But now I can't stop watching the Bad Lip Reading take on The Walking Dead.

I read this last week. Obnoxiously, I have volumes 1, 2, 4 and 6. I'll have to see if the library can fill in the gaps, because $15 a piece (at Barnes and Noble) is a lot to pay for a graphic novel series of which there are at least 17 volumes.

The Complete First Season: 3-Disc Special Edition