The Portrait of Zool

Good gawd, Maude Love is God Grab a hank 'n spank the lank You got to get it: To get it good. Don' worry 'bout the stankin' rank it's allll GOOD!

A brave explorer went on an adventure one fine day, in search of the Pretty-Darn-Holy Grail, which, he had been told, was simple, reliable, and effective. He just couldn't pass that up. After travelling many days and nights over many miles of forest and desert, he came to a great blue-stone temple deep in a dark jungle. With some trepidation, he entered the narrow stone passageway and followed it down, down, down, under the forboding earth. At the bottom he found a chamber lit with blue flamed torches, a strange alter with a blue statue of a demon, and a well full of deep blue water below it. He was very thirsty, so bent to drink his fill, but as his lips touched the water the statue suddenly sprung to life, swelling to immense proportions, hissing and growling menacingly. "I am the Blue Demon!" the monster roared. "Who dares disturb my alter, for any who have profaned it's deep blue waters with their touch shall pay with their lives!" The brave explorer jumped back with surprise, then after half a heart beat whipped out a swiss army knife. He quickly unfolded the blade. It was one inch long. The demon bagan laughing uproariously at the sight of it, but the explorer jumped to, hacking the blue demon to bits. *Slice!* *Slice!* *Slice!* *etc.* The blue demon fell to the ground, blue blood spurting from a hundred wounds. "I guess it really IS how you use it..." he said, and then died. Suddenly from the well at the alter a brilliant blue glow began to illuminate the cavern, and then a brilliant blue object slowly raised out of the pool. The explorer was nearly blinded, but shielding his eyes with his hands he was astonished to just be able to make out... his reflection.

Nothing but bluuuue skyyyy, do I seee...

Oh, BTW.... Yay!

I don't watch much TV either, but it's more a case of being deprived than any decision of mine. I just don't have the free time. When I do get a chance to watch live it is usually history channel ( I LOVE ancient history - had a great show on Carthage and Alexander last night). As far as regular shows, there are currently only two that I HAVE to see - I admit, I record them. Very convenient, as I can be interrupted without losing anything (pause) and FF the comercials! They are The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert. Those are truly so funny they are tragic - or so tragic they are funny, you decide. ;p I find Stephen Colbert's humor so achingly insightful that at times I truly don't know if I should laugh or cry. Highly recommended.

Epic

Amen, Z. Amen.

First post... Ack! FOCUS! [Edited for decency ]

This is an extension of the word association game with an additional twist; You can write whatever you want. It can be as simple as an emoticon, a picture, or a word, or a phrase, or a poem, or even a story - whatever the previous post inspires, the idea is to let whatever comes and post it to inspire the next participant. Let your creativity run!!! Of course, the longer you take in your response, the greater the risk that someone else may post first... Enjoy!

Supersize me!

With Babylon 5, like the original Aeon Flux animated series, I watched the very first episode, and the very last, and most in-between. I plan one day on buying the entire series, which is available on DVD, though it would probably take me a decade to watch them all, given my usually crowded schedule. B5 I could describe in one word: Epic. Absolutely Epic. The transformation of the characters throughout the series, and of humanity itself, I found thoroughly absorbing, triumphant, tragic, and even mind-boggling, depending. Truly an underrated classic, IMO. Of course, that's just my opinion.

It certainly sounds more complex than that! However, I will stick with my comparison as the inspiration if not the actual structure. Rereading my post, it sounds a little like I am dissing Firefly, which wasn't my intention at all. I really do like it! However, watching the show, especially in the first few episodes, I couldn't shake the uncanny comparison with the post-civil war veterans who had been discharged en masse, only to return home and find ruins, or to form outlaw bands that took advantage of the devestated civil state. Episode after episode, it dawned on me the juxtaposition of colonial american and space technologies from the 'war' made it a genuine 'sci-fi western', with many parallels to post-civil war America. There has even been more than one episode centering around slavery! Absolutely more complex, with additional background and depth, but a sci-fi-western none-the-less. Will it turn out as awesome as Babylon 5? We shall see...

Firefly the series is really good - I haven't seen the movie. I find the premise of the series a pretty bold leap: It is basically a sci-fi western, straight out of American history of the aftermath of the civil-war, explored with a psychic dimension and with space travel added.

Philip K Dick Rocks! err... Rocked! I highly reccomend the biography DVD 'The Gospel According to Philip K Dick'. The Editorial Review at Amazon.com: The visionary work of science fiction legend Philip K. Dick inspired the films Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), and Minority Report (2002). Films from John Carpenter's They Live to David Cronenberg's eXistenZ to The 6th Day mine the same sense of the technological morass, complex conspiracies, and manipulated and uncertain realities that Dick spun out in such novels as Time Out of Joint and A Scanner Darkly. Dick's unnerving ideas influenced a generation, but despite the title of this labor-of-love documentary, it's less about his work than the life-changing events of the last decade of his life. The bizarre true story of paranoia, mind-altering drugs, mystical visions, and an 8,000-page treatise called The Exegesis is as compelling as any of his novels. All it lacks is a grounding: filmmakers Mark Steensland and Andy Massagli take for granted a familiarity with the author and his work. That may leave the casual viewer a bit bewildered by it all, but fans will appreciate the comments of cult author Robert Anton Wilson and rare audio recordings of Dick himself (set to funky minimalist animation). Lacking a strong portrait of Dick's life and work before the visions, The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick is hardly definitive, relying almost solely on interviews to flesh out the figure, but it is a valuable first step in exploring the work of one of the most influential "unknown" authors of our time. --Sean Axmaker The Amazon page

Aeon Flux originated from a series of five or six 4 minute shorts on MTV's Liquid Television in 1992, then went into production for 1 season of ten half-hour shows in 1995. I have always been a rabid AF fan, and have been diligently working towards seeing the movie (best I am able under my other obligations) to review it both on it's own merits and how it compares to the original animated series.

Elvis

living stone

That never works with this crowd... trust me.

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest While on vacation this week I made time to go see this film, and I'm glad I did. Actually, pretty much everyone with me agreed with the above reviews, that it was too long, containing unnecessary parts, and overall disappointing - but I loved it, and here's why... SPOILER alert!!! Although, actually, it is tough to have spoilers in this film because it can be seen as less plot driven and more a pure, fun filled, action adventure story. True, it doesn't have the fire and explosions or spaced-out weirdness of a Schwarznegger film (IMO the classic summer action adventure blockbuster) but rest assured there is plenty of pain, destruction, and carribean black juju to go around - you know, the watery-piratey kind. Yes, some scenes could be deleted without really effecting the flow of the movie - but how often have we lamented the formulaic pace of our entertainment? IMO, these scenes were put in just for the fun of it, which in today's world of frantic efficiency I found a tremendous relief and highly enjoyable. This movie is very true to the pirate genre, as made clear from the opening sequence and throughout, which is why I really liked it. In fact, I would not be surprised to see a pirate genre revival, solely because of the Carribean trilogy. On a deeper level, I also found the basic premise to be artful and resonant, that the legend of Davey Jones was a man who was so frustrated with love that he took his heart out of his chest, locked it in an iron chest, and buried it. The fact that he had no heart was the secret to his power over the sea. How's that for a modern myth? Metaphorically, I found it a powerful statement of what can be seen as the modern crisis between power and compassion, between our need to make and maintain our own place in the world, and our sensitivity to and empathy with the plight of others. Davey Jones is an archetypal metaphore for this dilemma because of the need for his own peace and fulfillment: frustrated by unrequited love, he locks his feeling heart away, which quickly allows his legitimate need to run amok into greed and egotism. "I am the sea," he says at one point, and one can't help but feel that with the power he commands, there is something to that. The kraken is an awesome power, but only the power of negativism, the power that takes, destroys, consumes, all to fulfill Davey's own self-serving ends. Even the Black Pearl, the film's metaphore of man's ingenuity and 'power object', which in Jack Sparrow's case is the fulfillment of his freedom and destiny as a pirate, can put up a good fight, but in the end cannot resist the cruel singlemindedness of Davey's ambition. Of course, I am a huge Depp fan. He has never failed to wow me, even when the scripts have failed critically, such as in Edward Scissorhands (but that's another review). In Jack Sparrow, we find all the essential elements of his best roles. Spontaneous and carefree, but at the same time scheming and self-centered, his character totters through the movie like a water sprite caught on dry land - which it seems he often is. We get the sense that the character wants to be a pirate much in the vein of a child's fantasy, free to roam the seven seas, answering to no man, backed by his loyal crew, swimming in gold, wenches, and rum, yo-ho-ho... At least, that's how I identified with the character. At the same time, we are shown several times the lost child at the center of the fantasy, relying on his 'broken compass' to reveal what he truly wants, unable to see beyond his basest desires - except in the end, when he searches his deepest feelings to come back and face the music, so to speak, thus setting the stage for the introduction to the sequel. Of course, since 'Pearl' Jack has always been on the edge of disaster, scheming, talking and slinking his way out of one bad situation right into another, and of course this reaches an apex with his decision to do 'right' at the end of this movie. Unlike most sequels, I found this movie not only did not ruin the first movie, but genuinely complemented and extended it. I found it genuinely fun, exciting, and entertaining, with plenty of coherent references and extensions to the first movie and the Disney attraction that was the original inspiration. The acting, writing, sets and effects are all superb. Will the next continue in the same vein? Will Davey be reunited with his heart and see the error of his ways, losing his power over the sea but reclaiming his soul? Will Jack and the Black Pearl, through the mystical auspices of Tia Dalma and the no-nonsense pirating of Captain Bellamy, be recovered? I for one can't wait to see the conclusion to this pirate fantasy.

Hap P B D!

Thanks again!

"Zool... Issssat really you?" The portrait formerly known as Zool was awakened from his rock & roll fantasy by the distantly familiar voice and sooty breath of the almost dragonic lizard. Though he was more inclined to indulge in exotic and arcane depictions of narcissistically self-absorbed rock supergods than just hanging around the halls of the Pen these days, he was glad to see him. It was, actually, kind of nice. And he was touched. "A gift... for me? You remembered!" Zool squealed with delight (in rock supergod fashion) on having the gift unwrapped for him and finding such a superlative, err... gift. "You shouldn't have!" Whipping out his looking glass tie, he held it up to catch the reflection of the tiny portrait, which he then peeled out of the mirror. Now holding the unwrapped rectangular gift in his sequin gloved hand, he quickly tore the unwrapping off. Inside was an unwrapped rectangular gift. He un-unwrapped it as well, only to find another unwrapped rectangular gift. "Well, you certainly have given the gift that keeps on giving," said Zool intently, shredded unwrapping paper once again flying. "Ack!" said Wyvern, as unseen by Zool he fell to the floor wrapped up by a huge snake... * Thank you all!

Pachyderm chill-out Elephant infiltration footprints in the fridge!

Elephant space warp I put peanuts in the fridge Now there's only dung...

Tight gray wrinkled skin Elephant in the ice box? Or month-old meatloaf...