Jasonisms

Why am I writing this? Because I'm bored, that's why. As a fan of those paranormal "ghost hunting" shows (well, some of them) I was pleasantly surprised by the first Paranormal Activity  movie. However, towards the end, PA made the same mistake nearly all horror movies make: they try and explain the supernatural. It's the explanation of how and why that decreases the mystery, breaking fear down into chunks of knowledge and understanding.  What typically terrifies us isn't the what but the why . Jason (from the Friday the 13th franchise) is a man in a mask killing people for no discernible reason. And then they gave him a reason taking what made him terrifying away from the audience. Freddy Kruger (from A Nightmare on Elm Street  fame) reached into your dreams, killing you where you were the most vulnerable ... and then they gave him a why making him just another killer on a revenge quest. The people who keep making PA movies are falling into th...

This week I had a chance to sit down and watch two recent zombie movies. Oddly enough, both movies were based on books. The first movie, Warm Bodies , based on the book Warm Bodies , by Isaac Newton and World War Z , loosely based on the graphic novel, World War Z , by Max Brooks. While I am a fan of the supernatural style books, movies and TV shows, I've never really been a fan of the zombie genre which, for some reason, seems to have been popular for the past couple of years with pop culture phenomena like The Walking Dead , Zombieland , the Resident Evil (movie) franchise and even the comedy, Shaun of the Dead. For me, zombies are boring. Traditionally, these undead have been cast as slow brain-hungry bodies that mill about seeking fresh meat, also in the form of brains. More modern incantations of the zombie lore have taken these slow decaying bodies and put them in faster, athletic self-healing roles supposedly to add a heightened scare factor to a world that moves at the...

"What's that? You say you've got a Japanese steampunk novel with mythic creatures, civil unrest, and a strong female protagonist? I'm afraid I missed everything you said after 'Japanese steampunk.' That's all I really needed to hear." ~  +Patrick Rothfuss   I have a library card. Yes, it's arcane in a world of digital books and eBook readers to visit the library, but I'm a fan of hand held books. Hand held books have a look and feel that eReaders just can't duplicate; they never run out of batteries and no one ever hung they Kindle or Nook on the wall so others could peruse their collection like one would a bookshelf. eReaders just aren't conversation pieces like a spread of magazines on a coffee table or book spines showing from every nook and cranny in your living room, study, office or wherever. While at the library a couple of weeks ago returning some movies and a book I happened upon this book, Stormdancer . The c...

I saw a movie. Well, let's face it, I've seen a lot of movies, but this is the most recent movie I've seen (in the theater anyway). And let's also face it, I find the supernatural fascinating. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's because the supernatural is sort of like proto-science. And using modern understanding of physics and psychology can explain away a vast majority of the supernatural but then what's left? What do we have when something can't be explained? That's the real terror -- no knowing.  Science explains. Science brings us comfort in a world we work to understand. In my opinion, one of the worst things a "spooky" movie can do is explain what's spooky. By creating an explanation the story tellers are taking the terror of the unknown right out of the story. The Conjuring does that. The movie starts off with a, well, a prelude -- a very creepy prelude about a doll that haunts two girls. This prel...

When I say I'm a *Star Wars* fan I mean I'm a *Star Wars* fan -- not a CosPlayer or convention devotee, but a fan of the Universe George Lucas created and the cultures that dwell within that Universe. I remember being a kid and eagerly awaiting the answer to the greatest question of the time: was Darth Vader really Luke Skywalker's father?  I remember going to a theater in Satellite Beach, FL that was having a *Star Wars* marathon of the first two movies in preparation of the release of Return of the Jedi . It might have been the first or second time in my life I saw a movie by myself since my mother was less than interested in seeing these films. I remember watching Jedi in disbelief as Obi-wan Kenobi explained to Luke how Vader was his father, turning the Universe upside down for an 8 (or 9) year old boy. There came many a weekend afternoon watching the movies in syndication and many hundreds of hours watching them on VHS before George Lucas changed the film...

I read. All the time. Way back in the long ago I picked up my first comic book. After a few months of reading 20-something pages and having to wait another month for the next 20 pages of the story, I decided to try reading a book. Simply stated, I wanted something longer, something that would occupy my time and fuel my imagination. So I headed to the nearest bookstore and bought my first novel which is well documented here: Magician Apprentice . I'm always on the lookout for new authors, writers who are interesting, great story tellers and who can fashion believable three-dimensional characters. While perusing the bookshelves at the local library, I ran across an author who's been writing more than a decade, but whom I hadn't heard of before now. I can't remember which of her books caught my attention, but after some quick research I requested her first novel from the library's, well um, library: Bitten . Cover of the paperback version I was pleasantly sur...

390 East Elkhorn Ave. Estes Park, Colorado 80517 phone  970.586.2919      I've been to Ed's Cantina a handful of times over the years. Whenever my motorcycle group rides through Estes Park, this is the place we tend to stop and eat. Why? Parking is fair, location is easy and who doesn't like Mexican food? The food's never been great, but in a small town like Estes Park one can't be too choosey on ethnic dining. The service has never been great, but I've always stopped there with a large group (20+ bikes and riders) and just chalked it up to the mass wave of people coming in all at once. However, this past week changed all that. With my niece in town we headed up to Estes Park for lunch before entering Rocky Mountain National Park. We had our dogs with us (2) and walked along the river's sidewalk, first stopping at one restaurant and then another looking for outdoor seating where we could tie the dogs up outside the patio and sit near them as others...

It's been a month or so since I downloaded the Rando app from the Google Play Store . I read about it in a post on Google+ and decided to give it a try. It's a fun little app reminiscent of chatroulette, but so far, without all the penises. The premise is simple: take a picture, upload it up to the internet aethyr and receive one in return. The names, no connections, no nothing. You take pictures. You send pictures. You receive pictures. That's all there is to Rando. As they state on their Play page: Description Rando is an experimental photo exchange platform. Give, receive and collect unique photos from random people from all over the world. A rando must be sent for one to be received. It's about gifting rather than sharing. You will never know who received the rando, they will never know who sent it. You will know the location of where it landed, the receiver will know where in the world it was taken. Build your rando collection with unique cultural sights from aro...

I went to Vegas for the first time ever a week ago for my brother's wedding. I only had a couple of conditions for finding a place to stay: 1- Close to the Wynn and Treasure Island (where my brother and family were staying) 2- Hot water and doors that locked 3- Cost effective for somewhere I wouldn't be doing much more than sleeping Not too bad for $30/night I booked the BW Mardi Gras because the price was right and the walk wasn't too far from where I would be spending a lot of my time. More importantly, I drove over to Vegas and has access to my vehicle, so walking was only something I needed to do if I chose to walk. http://www.mardigrasinn.com/ When I came in the front door it seemed like a bunch of derelicts were hanging out in front of the place. Perhaps they were trying to save a buck too, I thought. No problem. I entered and checked in which was nice and easy. The people there were dealing with some woman who was drunk or high, who just yelled at eve...