Spoilers for BLACK SUMMER follow, though they're pretty oblique. EDIT - And since I call out the cinematography and lighting, lemme credit where it's due. Yaron Levy and Spiro Grant were responsible for the cinematography, Yaron Levy the lighting. I'll get this right sooner or later. If you've known me for any length of time, you have probably figured out that I'm a sucker for zombie movies. I've watched, well, a lot of qualitatively bad movies in my time, hoping that there's a flash of something new or a composition or a shot or even writing that injects some new life into shabby walking corpses. I'm the guy who can see something interesting in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD III, for crying out
I was supposed to get up early the last day, catch some of that good light. I chose not to. Rolled out of bed and over to the NoHo Diner which, as always, beat Denny's as an option. Walked around the morning heat and overcast along Magnolia, shot some close-ups of concrete and grime. I love doing that and then having people ask me why I do. Proves we're not in a simulation is my usual reply. Particularly in the world of curated grime in game and movie effects art. Instead of being cool models, it's about pores and rust and pockmarks. Detail washes everything out and obliterates what you were going for in the first place. Just like all those dudes making up fake worn vinyl album covers for th
Sunday. Breakfast on West Adams, but I don't think it was actually the West Adams neighborhood. Out of the three tables occupied in the place at 8am, two of them were filled out by LAPD. That's usually a good sign, as it comes to quality of food. One of the best breakfasts I've had in LA was at the Academy comissary in Elysian Park. That and Nick's, which used to be run by ex-LAPD, though I haven't been back in many years and heard that it's gone downhill since then. But you hear that a lot about a lot of places. Sometimes it's even true. Anyways, I had the chilaquiles with carnitas and a lot of coffee. Dependable. Back to Wonder-Con. Spent most of the time there at a writing roundtable sort
Saturday was a skip day. As in I skipped the show. I often do, particularly since Saturday is the worst day to just walk around. If I'm at a table, sure, I'm all TCB and will be there before the floor opens. But this was a more casual show for me, so it was wake with the sun and then drive from Costa Mesa to my literal hometown. Okay, not where I was born, because I don't remember that, or anything until my family got out to Laguna Niguel. Being from Orange County and thinking of it as "home" when someone says the word is a real weird feeling. While not the origin of the planned community as a tool of white flight and edge-city building, Orange County as a whole, particularly the south, feel
Awoke Friday, and remembered that I forgot a big chunk of what happened Thursday morning that I didn't include in a blog post that I'd write five days later. Okay, not really, but I forgot to mention that I did stop into Dark Delicacies the first day I was in town. I'd never been, to my shame, and wasn't disappointed. It's a great bookstore even if you don't really like straight-up horror but are into esoterica. Grabbed a two-volume private press survey of UFO photography, dated 1986. That's the good stuff, so far as I'm concerned. I like to put X-FILES as a hard demarcation (though there are some post-X-FILES documentaries that weren't a waste of my time). Honestly, anything UFO that takes
You shouldn't look too hard at the titles. Sometimes they're just for fun. Spent last week and the beginning of this one down in LA, primarily to attend Wonder Con over a couple of days. That'll have its own little section on the off chance that other comics blogs/sites link back to this and ahahahahahahaha. Yeah, that hasn't happened in a long time. Landed in OC and as I passed through the baggage claim area, got hit with a "Welcome to Orange County" tape loop that for all the world sounded just like the "Adventure and excitement await you in the off-world colonies" slogans from BLADE RUNNER. But we're in 2019 now, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Orange County, at least Anaheim, are for
