Reavers Ate My Dingo!

Scars Using Rigid Collodion

2009-11-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite makeup techniquies is creating scars using rigid collodion. Above is an effect I did for talk like a pirate day, but I've also been known to scar myself up, just to go to Walmart... try it some time, it's fun.
Here is a video that explains how to do it... but just a few notes. I don't color under the collodion with pencils as shown in the video, and I never use greese paint. I color the scar with a LS-7, Natural color lip stick, and then shade (to give the scar a little more depth) with a Suntone cream foundation (I can't remember the number right off the top of my head, and I don't want to dig out my case right now.) Also, the video sayes to use 10 layers of collodion... I've never used more than 4 layers to achive a really good deep scar. But other than that, It's a pretty good vid.
Enjoy.

Vampire Fangs.

2009-11-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

There was a time when I was the weird one, because I LOVED vampires. Of course that was 25 years ago, but hey, I can reminisce. Now with the advent of Stephanie Meyers (curse her black heart) and the Twilight series, every middle ages housewife with 3.8 children, wants to be a vampire… and not just on Halloween. Now, forgetting the fact that vamps (leach-men) in Twilight don’t have fangs, I offer you aspiring vamps this little link.

http://www.vampfangs.com/

If you want to get a good quality, customizable set of fangs… this is your place. Now, they don’t sell full custom, dental porcelain fangs… for that you need to go have them made… by a fang technician.
These fangs are made by a company called “Scarecrow.” They’re dental quality plastic that comes with the chemical molding kit. It takes a good 20 minutes to get a good tight fit. And you will have to re-mold them about every year, depending on how often you use them.
I own a set of “Natural Length” fangs. They make for a really good fit. My 13 year old daughter got a set of “Subtle” fangs, and I found them to be a little small, even for her mouth.
They have some good instructional vids to teach you how to mold your teeth, as well.

And as for the “Clown White” makeup… you Twilighters… You’ll have to find that for yourself… I don’t do Clown White.

Look around, you’ll find some good stuff… and some freaky stuff… after all, they are a Gothic Superstore.

Eyeliner

2009-11-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm a guy, which means that by definition, I have trouble with eye makeup. When I was doing Seussical I felt really sorry for the Wickersham Brothers because they had to have me stick an eyeliner pencil in their eyes for two weeks straight. So I decided to pick up a Ben Nye EL-1 cake liner, and an angle brush to use on my daughter for Halloween. It was a little harder that I thought it would be to use... so here's the video I found to help me out. Hope it will work for you.

Makeup Tips.

2009-11-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, I never use this blog site for geek stuff anymore, so I’ve decided to change it into a site dedicated to Theatrical makeup. I’ll post Tips, tricks, great vids I find on Youtube and the like. I may even post pics of the work I’m up to with Community Theater and haunted houses. I don’t know, check back often to see what’s up, you might even learn something… after all, if I can do this, anybody can do this.
So to start off this new Idea of mine, I’m going to post a pretty good vid about how to do a simple… but really gross cut.

Marian Call

2009-05-30T14:51:00.001-07:00

Marian Call is a singer who does... well... geek music.
My wife and I are going to see her next month... if you'd like to go... email me and I'll give you the website address.
Anyway, I found one of my favorite songs of hers on YouTube.
It's not a great recording... but you should like it.

Into the Black

2008-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I love it when fans just can't let it go.
The Browncoats are among these.

Here's a group of 'coats that took matters into their own hands and built an original film based on the world, if not the characters, of Joss Whedon's Firefly.

Looks like they are late getting it out, but I'm willing to wait.

Gary Gygax (1939-2008)

2008-03-05T06:52:00.000-08:00

Gary Gygax, the co-author of Dungeons & Dragons, and for all intents and purposes, the father of role playing gaming died the other day at the age of 69.

Thank you Gary for all the fun you have given to me and to other geeks over the years.

God’s speed my friend.

Geek Moment

2007-12-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

Can I just tell you... I'm so jazzed for this show.

Not just for the show, but for Summer Glau as well

Evil Overlord

2007-10-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

My baby sis sent this to me a while back and I thought it was funny. I have come to realize that it originated at Evil Overlord, Inc.

I've posted it here without their permission... but since I'm the omniversal dictator (retired) what they gonna do? ;)

Enjoy

The Top 100 Things I Learned in Evil Overlord Leadership Training (EOLT)

1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear Plexiglas visors, not face-concealing ones.

2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

3. My noble half-brother, whose throne I usurped, will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

5. The artifact, which is the source of my power, will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object that is my one weakness.

6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

8. After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

9. I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labeled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labeled as such.

10. I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

11. I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

12. One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

13. All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

14. The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

15. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

16. I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

17. When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

18. I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.

19. I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

20. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

21. I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi storm troopers, Roman foot soldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

22. No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

23. I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless – my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

24. I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

25. No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery that is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

26. No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber.

27. I will never build only one of anything important. All-important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.

28. My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

29. I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

30. All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.

31. All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick.

32. I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

33. I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.

34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

35. I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.

36. I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cellblock, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

37. If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legions of Terror are losing a battle, I will believe him. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.

38. If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.
39. If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.

40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable super weapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

41. Once my power is secure, I will destroy all those pesky time-travel devices.

42. When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys that happens to follow him around.

43. I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her in on my plans.

44. I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.

45. I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

46. If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?” I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.

47. If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.

48. I will treat any beast that I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

49. If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact that can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want Ad in the local paper.

50. My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh PowerBooks.

51. If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people-oriented position.

52. I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.

53. If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!” I will say "Oh well" and kill her.

54. I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being and then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.

55. The deformed mutants and oddball psychotics will have their place in my Legions of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.

56. My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.

57. Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.

58. If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

59. I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

60. My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in less than 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords.

61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?” I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

62. I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports that intruders could use for cover in a firefight.

63. Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.

64. I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits that could prove to be a disadvantage.

65. If I must have computer systems with publicly available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.

66. My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.

67. No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

68. I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again, they'd better save my life again.

69. All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster-homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.

70. When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.

71. If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

72. If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon instead of using my unstoppable super weapon on them.

73. I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

74. When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.

75. I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

76. If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

77. If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutenant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.

78. I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

79. If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited-edition commemorative coins.

80. If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

81. If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.

82. I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

83. If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

84. I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

85. I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

87. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

88. If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again.

89. After I capture the hero's super weapon, I will not immediately disband my legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.

90. I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.

91. I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.

92. If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say that his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

93. If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is scheduled to go first.

94. When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

95. My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency; the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

96. My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.

97. My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unraveled.

98. If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.

99. Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb in size.

Finally…

100.To keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with free unlimited Internet access.

Jayne... The Man they Call... Jayne!

2007-04-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Man they Call Jayne

This video is so Shiny. What more can be said?

Update:
Well, after I posted the vid, I found that you'll have to view it in YouTube... No big...
just click on throught and enjoy the whoopin' they give FOX.

Star for Joss

2007-02-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Just thought that it was a good idea.

http://star4whedon.whedonversefansunited.org/index.html

Has all the info.

Return of the "Old School" Gamer

2007-01-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

I just discovered Catan! Ok, you gamer types out there have known about it for years, But I just discovered it and it is AWSOME!

I guess I had better explain. I used to be a gamer. I real gamer, not those fake gamer geeks who park it all alone on their couches to play video games and believe that they might be playing with real people over the net. I’m sorry but that isn’t gaming. That’s pathetic.
AD&D, Traveler, BattleTech, Carwars, Risk, Axis & Allies… these were my games. My friends and I would play these things for hours. I carried my dice around with me in a velvet pouch, for crying out loud. I’ve been called an “old school” gamer some kid in a gaming store. Ya, that’s me.

So, when I was introduced to Catan by my sister’s boyfriend… I was hooked. Of course, my board isn’t as big the one pictured, but it’s cool anyway.
And my kids are good at it, far better than I am.

Battlestar / Simpsons

2006-12-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

I just thought that these were terribly clever, so I thought that I'd post a couple of my favorites. They're done by an artist named Dylan Meconis.

You can see the rest of her pics on her blog site:

http://community.livejournal.com/pantsketch/99256.html

Wonder if she could do some of the Firefly Folk?

Shame on Universal!

2006-10-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

Shame on Universal!

I haven’t gotten the whole story, so I’m kinda shootin’ from the hip here, so I may have to post a clarification later, and if that’s the case… so be it. But here’s what I know right now.
For some time, FOX has been going after Browncoats for the products (Tee-shirts and the like) that we have been producing about the television show that THEY cancelled. But as all Browncoats know, FOX sucks, so it never came as much of a surprise. But now… Universal is doing the same. From what I’ve been able to gather, Universal and FOX have been contacting CafePress companies that sell Firefly and Serenity related merchandise and shutting them down! Ya know, they were all for the Browncoat produced merchandise when we were advertising their movie, when we were pitching it to our friends, and producing flyers to hand out at bus stops and on the commuter trains, as I did. We were their Big Damn Heroes then, cause they did exactly jack to promote this flick themselves.
I’m not one of those anti-corporate types that jump all over big companies that have the audacity to earn a profit. But when a big corporation like Universal sends a $9000.00 bill to 11th Hour (a very talented browncoat) for the products she’s produced, including some of the most beautiful Serenity ads that I’ve ever seen, that’s going a bit too far! Shame on Universal!
Let’s see…
Since Universal is all hip on sending invoices to the Browncoats… I think that it’s time that the Browncoats do the same.

Murph
Mindofmurph.blogspot.com
Reaversatemydingo.blogspot.com

Invoice # 000001
To: Universal Pictures
Due Upon Receipt
RE: Browncoat Advertising Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Materials:

1000 sheets 20lb copy paper……………………….$12.50
Copy toner and machine time & energy……………$25.00

Time:

Flyer production…8 hours @ $50.00/hr…………..$400.00
Flyer distribution…100 hours @ $50.00/hr……….$5000.00

Reimbursable expenses:

Fuel…100 miles @ $0.21/mile……………………$21.00
Train Fare…100 fares @ $1.50/fare………………$150.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Due…………………………………………..$5608.50
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please pay upon receipt.
This is your final notice. Any delay in payment on your part will resilt in this invoice being referred to collections.

Thank you.

Funny little clip for Halloween

2006-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Simpsons

This is so sick... and yet I can't keep from laughing.

Battlestar Galactica

2006-09-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so... you either love it or you hate it. I happen to be a lover... not a fighter. I have a friend who was a huge fan of the 70's version. He even named his two ferrets Starbuck and Apollo. So I figured that he’d like the new “up to date” version. Hate. Hate for the new series is all that comes out of him. That’s cool. I personally love the series. The end of season 1 blew me away and the end of 2.0 left me with my jaw on the floor. The end of 2.5... well I had to be revived after that one. I wont say a word about what it was that caused me so much stress and tribulation because I don’t want to have to give a spoiler alert, but HOLY FRACK! I can’t wait for season 3... the little “Resistance” vids on SciFi have just wetted my appetite. When does this all begin? October 6? Oh man... that’s 2 weeks away... just enough time to watch the entire series on DVD... again.
;)

Yet... another video

2006-08-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Serenity

I love this video! I don't want to turn this blog into a place where I just showcase videos... but if need be... I will.
Plus... the music rocks.

Return to Serenity

2006-08-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Return to Serenity (Full Trailer)

Found this fake trailer. It's very well done.
Keep Flyin'

My feelings about StarWars...

2006-08-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry...

Got the pic from a friend of mine. Made me laugh.

Had to be posted. Really... Had to be done.

Sprekin de English?

2006-07-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

Fight... or is it Flight... in a new world?
I don't know...

I came across this German version of the Serenity movie poster. I like it, but... well, I took German in high school, and that was... more years than I care to admit.

Does anyone know German, and would anyone care to tell me what this Gorram thing says?

Thanks

Firefly Video

2006-07-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Firefly Away

I've seen better videos out there, but I really kind of like this one because I really like the choice of music. It’s kind of a simple acoustic. Minimalist is the word I’m looking for.
I’m not sure who’s singing, but I’m a fan already.

Will the real Jubal Early please stand up?

2006-07-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Short Question to any Browncoats that happen to be reading this blog.

Why... did Joss name Jubal Early, the bounty hunter after Jubal Early the Confederate General? Or was it unintentional?

It made me chuckle to think of a character, named after a Southern States General, who was played by and African-American actor.

Old General Early must have spun in his grave.

So, we can see the differences... are there any similarities? Well... they both seem to have worked for the wrong side.

Vampires

2006-06-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell ya… when it comes to “movie monsters” I am in love with the vampire. Not sure why, just something has always attracted me to them. Maybe it’s because vampires have always been so cool. You know what I’m sayin’. Vampire walks into a nightclub… music’s throbbing… he looks across the room, and catches the eye of some attractive (attractive? Hell… Drop-dead gorgeous) woman. They lock eyes and he takes her right out of the arms of her stunned boyfriend. Come on… James Bond doesn’t have that kind of power. (The Fonz… maybe, but not James Bond.)
They get to live forever, their strong as hell, and just plane cool. Ok, so there’s the whole blood sucking fiend thing, but I could work around that.
Then I was 14, or so, I read Dracula for the first time, and I was mesmerized. What a fantastic novel that is. But, I was rooting for the bad guy. Yep, I wanted Dracula to take out Mina. Turn her into a Vamp so that together, they could take out Serward, Arthur, and VanHelsing. No such luck.
When I was 16, I saw Fright Night. Not a great Vamp flick, but good enough. In it, a kid figures out that he’s living next to a vampire, and tries to take him out. Well things go wrong and the vamp takes out the kid’s girlfriend, Amy. There’s a scene where the kid walks into a room and sees Amy laying on the floor, so he goes up to her and rolls her over. Well, she’s been bitten and is in the process of changing and has black eyes and small fangs. I thought that Amy was so cute just at that moment. The scene is supposed to be horrifying, but wasn’t to me.
Am I wrong? Is there something terribly wrong with me?
As I’ve gotten older, and have had the opportunity to read and study a lot more, I’ve found a whole other dimension to the Vampire. And I find it interesting.
I’ve found that Stoker’s novel is about as erotic as a novel can get without being pornographic.
Anne Rice told me that much of the original human is still found within the vampire. They can have guilt, can love and hate. They are not just the feeding animal, but they can be if they choose too.
Joss Whedon made them likable. Spike was likable, even when he was evil as evil can be. He made my wife fall in love with Angel. I think it was just because he was so damn good looking. But can I say Vampire Willow… Damn!
And so… what am I saying? Not sure.
Really looking forward to Blade the television series. I sure hope it’s good. There is a micro thin line between Horror and comedy. Unfortunately, most horrors fall over the line, and are so horrific, they cease to be scary.
But…
Keep the movies coming, cause I’ll keep watching. Oh, and writers? Um, if you could make a story where the Vamp wins… once in a while… that would be good.
And just a side note:
If there’s a 500-year-old vamp out there who would like to talk to someone… well, I guess… I’m your guy.

Welcome

2006-06-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

Not sure what I'm gonna do with this site yet. But I'm sure it will be something of a 24/7 Joss Whedon love fest.

Come back again, and we'll se what developes.