Tjack

   I was once able to speak at length with Craig Shaw Gardner, who had recently done the novelization of the first Keaton Batman movie.  He spoke also about the restrictions to follow the main plot of the film but that he enjoyed having the chance to fill in the backround with more detail than any movie could.

43 minutes ago, Killer Shrike said:

There are many books that I'll never crack open because they give strong indication that they are not meant for me and I likely won't enjoy them. I've started books that didn't grab my interest and thus I put them down. I've finished many more books, some of which were disappointing and / or instantly forgettable. However, I can't think of any books I've actually hated, as hate is a strong emotion and not something I'd so carelessly apply. 

 

Having said that, I've found most licensed novels to be drivel and I generally avoid them on principle.

    Licensed novels depend heavily on the quality of the author. Those types of books are often done by writers just starting their careers or who can’t get their own novels published

  For instance the DC comics and Star Trek novels done by Greg Cox I’ve found to be excellent.  Try seeing if any of the franchises you enjoy have material by an author you’ve heard good things about.  Good hunting.

9 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

Hate is too strong a word here, but I never finished any of Isaac Asimov's books. I just couldn't get into his Foundation series no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't even finish the book on astronomy he wrote. I guess his writing style just doesn't mesh with my tastes.

    The Foundation books were all written as a series of novellas for John Campbell’s Astounding magazine.  They’re best read (I believe) that way. Take each section as it’s own story, and then wait a few days or even weeks to let the ideas percolate in your mind before going on to the next one.   This will keep you from being overwhelmed by characters and  backround history that have little do do with one another.

40 minutes ago, Pariah said:

 

Not without dinner and flowers. 

      You say when and where, and bring a note from hubby and you’ve got a deal!   Do you like Italian food?

54 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

I made a comment one day to a former co-worker that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings, and he replied, "What's 'Wings'?"

So I said, "Do you know the song, 'Live and Let Die'?"

And he answered, "The Guns N' Roses song?"

"That's a cover. Wings did the original one for the James Bond movie."

"Oh, what's the name of the James Bond movie?"

 

     “Third base.”

1 minute ago, Cancer said:

I don't have that many books on the hate list, because by choice my leisure reading tends to be nonfiction, most often history, over the last few years.

 

My wife reads a lot of urban fantasy, and my few times attempting that stuff ... the genre rubs me the wrong way.  (I admit I haven't tried any of the Harry Dresden stuff.)

 The Dresden Files is great stuff. Urban Horror mixed with a lot of very funny stuff and bits of ultimate cool that you’ll tuck away in your head and remember for years. 
  Do yourself a favor though, the first four books get a little repetitive in explaining the rules of the world and some plot elements.  So just start at book four and go from there.  You can backtrack later on.

3 hours ago, Starlord said:

 

 

What was inside and how many licks did it take to get there?

 One...Two-oooo....Three.....Crunch!!      According to the owl that sounds like Paul Winchell, three.

   BTW,  Since nobody else has mentioned it yet...

  The Eastern world is in fact exploding and missiles are indeed flairing and bombs are also loading.  So according to Barry McGuire’s predictions, we may be in trouble.

59 minutes ago, death tribble said:

 the first of four books Julian May's Pliocene Quartet, 

    You mentioned one of my favorite series of all time.  The Pliocene Exile is fantastic.  Admittedly (and getting back to topic)  it took me several tries to get thru the first book but once it picked up steam I was hooked. All four of the first series. The two Intervention novels and the final Trilogy. I even had the overview book, but I lent that to a friend who passed away on me.   (Looks like you one that one Joe.  R.I.P. ‘ya big Wookiee.)

   I can (and have) go on at length about movies and TV shows I’ve despised, but while there are plenty of books I’ve started and put down in the middle (or before) or will simply never read again. (This is a big thing for me, because I’ll re-read something I enjoyed the same way I’ll re-watch an old movie.)  I can’t think of any that generated the same type of loathing.

   I mean I think Twinklight, and 50 Shades of Mommy Porn are stupid and The Hunger Lames was dull, but I have no venom to spew for them.  Maybe it’s because I know how hard it is to get the right words in a row for even as meager an effort as something like this is, that I’ve got respect for anybody who completed any writing at all, let alone had the balls to Fitz-Carraldo the boat over the mountain and actually get published.  (Thank you to Dennis Miller for that analogy)

57 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Most cats are self-loading without the need of a stick, unless a cat carrier and a trip to the vet is involved.

But for that you need a stick, a taser, and a pair of those gauntlets they use for letting falcons perch on your arms.

Or somebody looking for views on their Facebook page is jamming those cats in there with a stick.

   Do they understand that we as a group are a bunch of semi-elderly couch potatoes?

   Hearing the tale of the Glassie made me long for the days spent on the Far Venture.
   She was part of a Star Wars campaign I was Co-GM for.  She was a YT-1300 and I was her Engineer.  (A Dwaarf from the Gaigax system) Over the course of time we hade some “special modifications” done for her.  The most noticeable were the landing skids and thruster installed on the roof...Those went in after the third time we crash landed upside down. But my favorite was the torpedo tube installed at the rear of the ship. We called it the “Take that with ya”, since we saved it for ships locking a tractor beam on us as we hauled a$$ out of yet another bad situation.  Normal torpedo speeds times the velocity added by the beam made it too quick for anybody to react to.

   For roleplay I included a list of protocols that automatically went into effect during a “red alert” situation.  All lighting and life support was cut by 1/3 to save power.  All airtight doors closed but did not lock in case of hull breach. And I stated that drawing extra power to the engines, weapons and shields caused the motion dampeners to go a little out of synch so the inside of the ship rocked like standing up on a moving bus. (Safe enough to walk, if you keep one hand on a grip of some kind but a little chancy if you’re doing repairs or emergency surgery)

    No matter what we went up against, she always pulled us through....The Far Venture!  May The Force always be with her!

14 hours ago, Bazza said:

Mallrats. The first film I saw that i had to remember how terribly bad it was. The reason I saw it is that I was a fan of Shannen Doherty from Beverly Hills 90210 and Mallrats was her big new film since she left the show. Also, it was one of the first cameos of Stan Lee, a novelty at the time, as this was before his sequence of cameoes in Marvel films. All in all, 90 mins I will never get back.

    I’m a fan of Kevin Smith’s work and I rather enjoy Mallrats, even though it’s not one of his best.

5 hours ago, archer said:

 

Another Vanilla Ice song?

 

What was the first song you created for Vanilla Ice?

      I was in the process of composing a witty response when I decided to forget it and just tell you to ki$$ my entire butt.💋

1 hour ago, Bazza said:

Then you missed the purpose of the film as an alchemical allegory in the same manner as Greek mythology, Homer’s Iliad, Odyssey, or Shakespeare’s Tempest. 

   Yup.

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

I'll probably get eviscerated for saying this, but I simply cannot stand Tommy Boy. I have tried to watch it. Really, I have. I just couldn't do it. I've never been able to watch enough of the film to understand why seemingly everyone but me thinks it's funny.

 

And since I am about to step in front of the tomatoes anyway, I will go ahead and add 2001: A Space Monotony Odyssey to the list. Yes, I know, classic science fiction film, groundbreaking effects, hand in your geek card, all the rest. I don't care. I rented it back in the day so that I could have something to watch while recovering from surgery. It literally took me three sittings to get through it.

 

That's it for right now. I'll undoubtedly come up with something else to shock and offend the rest of you with later.

    The only way to watch 2001 is with the remote in hand and your thumb firmly on the FF button.  Every time the classical music starts hit that button like it owes you money.  This brings the running time to 30-45 minutes.  After that the whole thing is just bad Star Trek.....The Original Series.    Kirk would have whooped HAL the same way he beat Landru and the M-5 computers before him.🖖

On 3/2/2022 at 9:10 PM, Bazza said:

I liked Hudson Hawk when I saw it decades ago. 

 

Also liked The Wild Wild West with the mechanical steampunk spider, or whatever it was. 

   I always believed that those two movies were horribly misunderstood.

Hudson Hawk was incredibly mis-advertised.  The studio bought what they thought was going to be another Die-Hard.   What they got from producer Bruce Willis was a modern version of a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby “Road” picture. Silly plot, lots of gags and musical numbers. The whole schmere.

    So they just advertised it as another Die-Hard anyway and the public who were expecting chocolate cake but got tutti-frutti ice cream instead were upset.  They didn’t understand what was going on and trashed the film.

   
  WWW on the other hand.... I have said that the only thing wrong with that movie was the entire script.  Casting...Good. Set Design....Great.  Music...All right.  The idea of upping the Steampunk quotient...Fantastic.  Even the giant mechanical spiders...Acceptable.
 Both stars in drag, Ted Levine’s Southern General that made you long for his reserved dignified portrayal of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs,  Mr Branagh’s awful accent and scenery chewing and sequences like escaping from the buzz saw shurikens of doom...........What brand of crack were you people smoking?

   The shooting script should have been used to smack the writers, producers and directors into unconsciousness and after they were released from enforced drug rehab they could take another shot at the whole thing.

1 hour ago, dmjalund said:

sounds like a line from a Vanilla Ice song

    May all the Gods in Southern California keep me from creating another Vanilla Ice song.

1 hour ago, dmjalund said:

Gigli (Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez) is supposed to be pretty bad. Haven;t watched it though

    It is a movie that is far beyond merely stupid. The main point of contention is that Ms. Lopez plays a lesbian who falls in love with Ben even though his character is an idiot.  (That’s not just an opinion, it’s a plot point that he’s stupid and inept.)  

    However there is a scene in this film that make it VERY rentable. In it Jenny from the block delivers a very seductive soliloquy on why she finds women desirable while doing yoga in tight exercise wear.

    Guys...find this on YouTube,  trust me.

2 hours ago, death tribble said:

Having seen the Green Hornet in the Adam West Batman series and then a black and white serial from the 1940s I can see why. It ain't good but there are far worse out there in my far from humble opinion.

   Trust me my dear Tribble, you don’t want to crack the lid on this particular can of crazy.

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

 

Assuming a 26" manhole cover 1" thick:

• r = 13" = 33.02 cm
• A = 3425 cm²
• V = 8700 cm³
• D(Au) = 19.3 g/cm³
• m = 167,917 g = 167.9 kg

That's about 370 pounds, give or take.

 

Better have the fighter carry it.

 

 

  Get it up on its side and roll it.

  Coldly......Green Hornet......Seth Rogan must die!

   Don’t get me wrong, I like the Conan novels and Westerns and all that stuff. I was just trying to say that those genres shouldn’t be judged by real world standards of behavior.   And Conan’s (or whatever Hero) kissing a resisting princess (or whatever woman) until she melts In his arms and falls for him is a trope responsible for a lot of crappy learned behavior by men for a long time.  “Your lips say no, but your heart says yes!”  “No dips#it, NO MEANS NO!”

16 hours ago, Cygnia said:

    This is the kind of thing an Evil Sorcerer wears as a clasp on his cape.  As a last ditch weapon he throws it at you and as it grows to monstrous size he escapes.