Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

"Caesar, eh? A king..."

Megan is in OK over the "holiday", and I have nothing to do, so I watched all five POTA movies in the last two days. Conquest is my favorite by far. It's a bleak totalitarian future... of course I love it. I put the 4-disc box of the POTA series in the netflix because I couldn't find it to download. From talking to people around the office, it seems most people have never seen any of the sequels (Beneath, Escape, Conquest, Battle), and NO ONE has ever read the book or even heard of it.

I'm a huge fan of the book. I think it's amazing and I highly suggest you read it. I'll not ruin it for you by proposing MY filmed version of the novel, but read it and then we'll talk about it.

Also, I would like to point out that Conquest is filmed in TODD-AO 35. If you think that's funny, then you're as big a geek as I am.

SuperPanavision, that's where it's at. Ultra widescreen 70mm prints. Fuck this pansy ass 16:9 bullshit. Give me 2.35:1. I wish my TV was bigger. I would go the IMAX if their 70mm prints weren't just shitty 35mm blowups. I'm really waiting for the point where every feature film is shot in 1440p and can be blown up almost indefinitely.

Did You Know??????
That Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet was shot in 70mm? Neither did I. (Well, ok, it's shot in 65mm and the sound is on the other 5mm. Don't bust my balls)
- posted by Mason @ 1:33 PM

I found a book

Meg's grandma has tons of old paperbacks she's bought over the years. I found a three novel compendium of F. M. Busby's "Demu Trilogy".

The series was written over a seven year period ('73-'80). This is the "New Wave" at it's best: alien culture conquers, tortures and assimilates humans and a lone ex-physics student is the galaxy's only hope. It's heavily moral and viciously anti-cold war! The character development is more Heinlein, but the plot is more Poul Anderson.

One of the things missing in many of Anderson's novels is a strong central cast (which he often eschews in favor of extended timeline and macro-plot elements), but Busby's work really takes up that slack. Heinlein's plots often wander and fizzle out in favor of characters relationships, but Busby creates a happy medium of both.

It's certainly more "hard sci-fi" than either of my recent man crushes Zelazny or Phil Farmer, and it feels nice to move back away from fantasy for a change. I've been burned out on the moralistic-hardcore-space-travel for a while after I read through the entire Enderverse, but I'm ready to go back to space ships and laser guns.

FTL, motherfucker... warm up that hyperdrive.


F.M. Busby
- posted by Mason @ 4:06 PM

Short Hiatus
I'm on a blogging break at the moment. I'll be back in Dallas for a few days before xmas. Don't hold your breath for any posts until closer to the day we sing happy birthday to the baby jesus.
- posted by Mason @ 12:38 PM

Grief makes you do weird things.

Megan and I are watching Sleepless in Seattle via Starz on Demand on a 25" CRT television. I feel so weird about losing someone I care about that this movie sort of doesn't seem that bad. It's very slow. Very, very poorly paced. It's bad, really boring and awful. It's basically just this:

Start

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on the Screen
Classic Pop Songs as Music Cues
Two People Fall in Love in a Crazy Way

End

I'm going to sleep.
- posted by Mason @ 10:38 PM

No post today.

Megan's grandfather, John "Pops" Bealmer died today. I will spend everyday of the rest of my life trying to live up to the standard he set. You are one my favorite people ever, Pops, and I miss you terribly.
- posted by Mason @ 10:51 PM

Fuck. I bent my car key.

I'm dumb. Last night, I kept trying to shut the front door to our apartment and it wouldn't close. Again and again and again I slammed it. Finally it shut.

This morning I went out to the car to go the store, and needless to say, it wouldn't fit in the lock. See, the punchline is that I smashed my key in the door. Like I said, I'm dumb.

Don't cry, little babies, I have a spare!
- posted by Mason @ 11:37 PM

Have you heard of this"EBAY"?



Oh daddy! Look at the 7"s daddy. I WANT I WANT I WANT I WANT I WANT.

ARCHERS OF LOAF!!!!!!!!

Who except for me would ever give a shit about a Hardship Post 7"? I'm excited in my privates. I get a total bone for it.

If you buy it instead of me, I'll never speak to you again. But if you buy it for me, we'll be BFF 4-Ever to the SKY!
- posted by Mason @ 7:09 PM

Ya'll Cain't Fuck Wit Da Ice Cream Puncha'

Big Babies 99¢ Dream Dollar Plus supplier Jumbo Products has a brand new Ice Cream Puncher, just in time for the holidays. I'm really glad that our landfills are overflowing with this kind of shit. I was searching for pictures of people getting punched in the face and I found this. Jumbo has some truly, truly weird shit.


A boxing kangaroo pen. They also carry some sort of weird, mecha-godzilla robot dinosaur pen.


A chocolate bar that shocks people. I'm pretty sure for it to work, a person would have to think that JUNBAO was a real brand of candy. Additionally, having the word SHOCK in huge letters on the label is sort of a giveaway.


"Say, where can I get one of those crappy pencil things like I had in the third grade. You know, the kind that has a bunch of pre-sharpened pencil tips in plastic tube?" Oh. Well, I guess right here. Maybe we can get those for the gift store at work... they can sit on the shelf next to the touch lamp made out of a trumpet.

More dollar store goodness from our friends' back east, here.
- posted by Mason @ 5:19 PM

My Name in Binary
0100 1101 0110 0001 0111 0011 0110 1111 0110 1110 0010 0000 0101 0111 0110 0101 0110 0001 0111 0110 0110 0101 0111 0010
- posted by Mason @ 5:18 PM

Imagine Looking in the Mirror and Seeing Roseanne

I think sometimes we all forget that Tom Arnold had a tattoo of Rosie on his chest.

from
celeb tattoos
- posted by Mason @ 7:02 PM

We get emails...
I'm the person who check the Customer Service emails at work. We get a ton of spam. Here are two of my favorites so far:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "ednen"
Subject: hows life

Sure, if I were you I wouldnt go off at nightit dont look well. you are enjoying
the same blessings as this leaves us at present. Your that form of architecture
known as a Red River frame, and the corners were doin fine before you came along. Do
one good turn, Rance, and
orchestra set it trace upon the surface ceiling half the growl of a wild beast,
His position above me boat star gave him
wildly. familiar I was close

In the darkness of the pantry she tried to think it out. Was it ansympathetic
understanding of the Irish woman made it easy for her tothe Souris valley the hills
are blue with distance and seem to promiseThe prairiedwellers have a way of fighting
a prairie fire which is
to examine it, I found commission that it was of the dried meat, which he seemed to
stamp the open diapason of the savage night rose cushion
ranging in size stress overuse from a

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "LineWanted Thrill"
Subject: Blast

Site map under the watchful eye of his. Off, debts butlers orchard cut!
Business sleep target ethnic. Products beyond purple, heart wtops darci. Pay off
debts butlers orchard cut own christmas gifts.
Turkey protest popes visit british police probe exspys death!
In pledge, to track iraqi.
Email alerts, breaking daily headlines.
Post in pledge, to track iraqi insurgents black.
Calls healingin times ad yoko ono woman!
In, pledge to track. Nd career lifts pistons from? Carlos lee woody stories looks,
win nd career.
Drop dollar declines analysis firms.
Linewanted thrill seekers curious, at ciamore, dc maryland virginia.
Def, leppard, capitals keith, urban seating charts. Cloudy warrenton fair frederick!
Messages, your pda email, alerts breaking daily headlines video. Picket, ky holiday
opening business sleep target.
His bodyguard iranian president mahmoud, waves during.
- posted by Mason @ 9:56 PM

Oh my gawd...

Megan and I were at Target the other night, and this super swishy queen was talking really loudly on his mobile phone. He walked past this Zune display and said "Oh my gawd, how much is this iPod?" It cracked me up. Also, he had spiky dyed blonde hair.
- posted by Mason @ 9:43 PM

Dog Strollers in the Wild

I had to work at the mall today. My feet hurt. I hate it. But I was walking back from the bathroom and I heard a bark. I turned to my right, and saw a woman (about my age) feeding a dog in a stroller. Quiche. She was pulling little peices of ham or bacon out of her mini quiche from La Madeleine and putting them in the tiny puff ball's mouth. How fucked up is that? It made me ill.

Also, I despise La Madeleine.
- posted by Mason @ 8:14 PM

I Bought!


Two beautiful purchases from a trip to the NW Highway Half Price Books. The Recording Studio Handbook and "The Moog Machine: Switched on Rock". I've an rip of this Moog Machine album for several years. It's terrible. Really, just truly awful. The height of synthesizer overkill. Poorly arranged, poorly played, poorly produced. At four bucks, it was a steal and a half. I'm overjoyed.
- posted by Mason @ 11:24 PM

I spent 8 hours on a spreadsheet

This is all I have to show for all of today. Both rewarding and depressing.
- posted by Mason @ 10:32 PM

Кин-Дза-Дза!

Kin-Dza-Dza! (pronounced "Kin-Dzuh-DZUH") Russian sci-fi from 1986.

Amazingly weird and fascinating. I downloaded it from demonoid last week. Soviet era sci-fi has a very different slant than it's western counterpart. For example, ST:TNG has a muted grey, track lit, heavily carpeted feel (much like 1986 itself here in the states). But in Kin-Dza-Dza, the space ships look like rusted out farm equipment from the steppes. I don't really write reviews of movies, so I'll spare you the opinion, but it's definitely worth downloading. Don't expect to ever see this little fucker on Region 1 DVD, and forget about an official translation or subtitles. "That internets" is your only option for this one friends.

Oh, and also there's a dude that looks like the Soviet Billy Idol.
- posted by Mason @ 3:51 PM

My New Car Decal (almost)

I really wanted to buy this at O'Riley's, but I chickened out. I think it would look amazing in the back window of the wagon. I may go back over and pick it up. What do you think, worth my five bucks?
- posted by Mason @ 9:59 PM

The Longest Day of My Life
I can't go into details (I would like to keep my job), but today was the longest day of my life. I've been standing up all day, I'm hot, I have a headache, and the PC I'm using doesn't have an open USB port for my external hard drive with all my stuff on it. My only savior is this in-browser java app that let's you play infocom games without downloading a thing. Dear god, please just let this day end.
- posted by Mason @ 6:32 PM