Heroic Times

Whip Hand by W. Franklin Sanders/Charles Willeford (Gold Medal, 1961)

heroictimes — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:16:35 +0000

The great thing about the rise of Ebooks is it offers accessibility to a lot of books and authors, specifically pulp authors of the early and mid 20th century, that would otherwise due to scarcity and exorbitant prices remain both unknown and unavailable to the mass of readers.

Now I love traditional books, it’s my preferred way of reading books. That said, for some books, specifically the vintage paperback with faded pages, a digital version, where you can adjust font size and brightness to your leisure… can be a boon.

On the PC I recommend Calibre. It’s a software ereader for your laptop that works great. For the tablet I recommend using Alkido Ebook reader. Both are pretty fantastic.

Use my links to see my recommended tablet, laptop, and software options.Your purchase through my links, give this blog additional pennies to keep me publishing. So I definitely appreciate those of you who help me out by ordering items through my links. It really does make all the difference.

Getting back on topic, here is today’s must read Ebook.

Whip Hand by W. Franklin Sanders/Charles Willeford (Gold Medal, 1961)- Well obviously no one is going to mistake a book with such a salacious cover for War and Peace, however that said this novel, credited to Franklin W. Saunders was actually ghost written by the acclaimed cult writer Charles Willeford, and the first chapter… surprisingly great. I just blew through it. If the other chapters are that solid, this is going to be a good read.

You can download the Epub versions of this from various places online, or read it online here!

I think the first chapter may hook you as well.

BEST TABLET EREADER! Better than Kindle, more useful than an Ipad! Archos 101 G9 16GB – Turbo- To save money you can go for the G8 version, and/or get one with 8GB as opposed to 16GB. At $250 it’s a great deal!

HP ProBook 4530s XU015UT 15.6″ LED Notebook (2.1 GHz Intel Core i3-2310M Dual-Core Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)- Laptops are potentially going to start climbing in price. Get a great one now. This HP is a particular winner in that it supports Linux better than most laptops.

ART BOOK OF THE DAY: SHEKHINA BY LEONARD NIMOY

heroictimes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:01:09 +0000

“Nimoy is a gnostic mystic—a radical spiritualist, indeed, a spiritual rebel…I am suggesting that Nimoy’s fascination with the female body involves an element of temptation as well as transcendence. I am suggestion that what is really unusual about his female figures is that they signify profane and sacred love simultaneously…The issue that Nimoy’s photographs subtly address is the transmutation of sexual desire into spiritual aspiration…It is Nimoy’s ability to convey woman’s many-sidedness—Shekhina and Succubus at once—that makes his photographs profound.”
— Donald Kuspit

“A feminine word in Hebrew, Shekhina is the Talmudic term for the visible and audible manifestations of the Deity’s presence on Earth. Over time, Shekhina came to represent much more — a softer, empathetic feminine counterpart to God who could argue for humanity’s sake, comfort the poor and sick, and stand as the mother of Israel. Nimoy’s first encounter with the mystique of Shekhina began in synagogue at the age of 8. “The men were chanting, shouting and praying in an Orthodox service. It was very passionate, very theatrical,” said Nimoy. His father told him not to look, as the worshippers averted their eyes during blessings recited by the kohanim, or descendants of the priestly class. “I was chilled by the whole thing,” he said. Years later Nimoy’s rabbi explained to him that the entry of Shekhina into the sanctuary to bless the congregation could cast a fatally blinding light. Such a powerful memory inspired the actor/photographer to explore the feminine aspect of God in human form, including the issues of sensuality and sexuality.”
- R. Michelson Galleries

First and best, most inspired of Leonard Nimoy’s Monograph’s, released in 2002 this large 10.3″ by 10.3″ Hardcover was met with both acclaim and a bit of shock, in its portrayal of Jewish Women, that strives for both the sexual and the sacred. A beautiful book, published by Umbrage Editions, mixing large, striking photographs with quotes and prayers. It’s a book deserving of any coffee table.

Price your copy of Shekhina here.

DVD Reviews: RED, GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE UNINVITED

heroictimes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:06:51 +0000

On the DVD front I recently watched the INTERNATIONAL, THE UNINVITED, RED, and the original Swedish language THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

UNINVITED- This 2009 film, was the worst of the four. About a teen whose mom burnt to death in a fire, and her coming to terms with that, after being released from a mental ward. The first feature film by the Guard Brothers while it did have a nice twist at the end, by the time that came I was too annoyed with the characters, and the film to really care. Grade: D.

“Along with me I’m gonna need a scientist, an engineer, and of course, a black person to sacrifice himself in case something goes wrong.”
- Eric Cartman, SOUTH PARK, season 9, Cartman’s Hippie Exit Strategy 2006

RED- RED would have been okay except for one thing, the idiotic lets sacrifice/kill the ethnic character (Morgan Freeman) for no reason whatsoever. It’s the most egregious example I’ve seen in a film.

It was such a moronic death, that I just couldn’t believe the stupidity, I went through the film expecting, to find out it was some trick, the character was wearing a bullet proof vest and distracting them, and playing possum, and would turn up later in the movie.

But Nope. Basically Morgan Freeman’s character just decides to commit suicide for the white characters, when it was completely unnecessary.

I mean completely unnecessary.

We’re not talking the cool Jim Brown in THE DIRTY DOZEN type death, this is utterly unnecessary. When it was probably fifteen ways they could have all gotten out alive. Nope, instead the script just shoehorns in a ‘let’s kill the ethnic character’ scene. This Director, Robert Schwentke and Writers Joe and Erich Hoeber go on my list of incompetent and pedestrian filmmakers to avoid.

They should really be ashamed of themselves, and the fact that the writers wrote the upcoming BATTLESHIP, hints heavily at that being a film worth avoiding. All in all, the unnecessary cliche/stereotype ruined an otherwise okay action flick. GRADE: D-.

THE INTERNATIONAL- nicely filmed thriller, about an Interpol agent trying to bring down an arms running bank. Well filmed and enjoyable. B+.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO- It was better than I thought it was going to be, this tale of an investigation into a 40year old disappearance/murder. Well filmed, well acted, and both disturbing and thrilling. Not something I would feel any need to watch again, but a compelling viewing experience at the time. B.

A SOPA Bullet and 29 Gunmen: Meeting your Destiny on the road you took to avoid it

heroictimes — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:42:19 +0000

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against – then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
-from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

It’s not enough to defeat bills like HR 3261 (the Stop Online Piracy Act, which sounds like it might be a good thing, but is anything but. The full text can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.3261:)aka SOPA; the bill would criminalize much of what you can do on the internet today, would allow big business to shut down sites and blogs with impunity. With no real burden of proof necessary.

Just an email or a call. And concepts such as free speech, or more to the point, anti-big business speech, can be shut down… as if they never existed.

So it is not enough to just defeat this Bill.

It’s not about this one bill. It’s about giving them reason to fear… drafting the next, and the next, and the next.

This is just one bullet you’re dodging in this bill. It is not enough to dodge this bullet, you have to take out the gunmen.

Remove them from positions, to be able to fire that gun at you again. Stop them from firing more bullets. Because what they know, what any good gunman knows, is… you can’t duck them all. They shoot enough bullets, and at least one is going to hit you. To take you down.

And what they are trying to take down is nothing more or less than your ability to resist… being owned, being controlled, being terrorized, being enslaved… to big business. They want to be able to do, whatever they want… unchecked.

And with enough bullets dressed as bills, they’re on the road to… turning back the clock.

To the killing of liberty, and the hard-fought dream… of America.

So you don’t try and just duck the bullets, you stop the shooter. You stop him hard.

You stop him so hard, that God himself will blink.

There are 29 gunmen, who signed the bullet called SOPA.

There are 29 assassins.

Assassins of liberty, at the onus of big business and big business dogs such as the RIAA and MPAA to be sure… but Assassins none the less.

You may want to look over the below names. See which ones come from your state or a surrounding state. Which ones are representing themselves rather than you. And do your part… in un-employing them.

Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21]
Rep Amodei, Mark E. [NV-2] – 11/3/2011
Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] – 12/7/2011
Rep Barrow, John [GA-12] – 11/14/2011
Rep Bass, Karen [CA-33] – 11/3/2011
Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 10/26/2011
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] – 10/26/2011
Rep Bono Mack, Mary [CA-45] – 10/26/2011
Rep Carter, John R. [TX-31] – 11/3/2011
Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] – 10/26/2011
Rep Chu, Judy [CA-32] – 11/30/2011
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] – 10/26/2011
Rep Cooper, Jim [TN-5] – 12/12/2011
Rep Deutch, Theodore E. [FL-19] – 10/26/2011
Rep Gallegly, Elton [CA-24] – 10/26/2011
Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6] – 10/26/2011
Rep Griffin, Tim [AR-2] – 10/26/2011
Rep King, Peter T. [NY-3] – 11/3/2011
Rep Larson, John B. [CT-1] – 11/30/2011
Rep Lujan, Ben Ray [NM-3] – 11/14/2011
Rep Marino, Tom [PA-10] – 11/3/2011
Rep Nunnelee, Alan [MS-1] – 11/3/2011
Rep Owens, William L. [NY-23] – 11/14/2011
Rep Ross, Dennis [FL-12] – 10/26/2011
Rep Scalise, Steve [LA-1] – 11/14/2011
Rep Schiff, Adam B. [CA-29] – 10/26/2011
Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27] – 12/7/2011
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20] – 11/3/2011
Rep Watt, Melvin L. [NC-12] – 11/3/2011
Rep Terry, Lee [NE-2] – 10/26/2011(withdrawn – 1/18/2012)
Rep Holden, Tim [PA-17] – 11/30/2011(withdrawn – 1/18/2012)
Rep Quayle, Benjamin [AZ-3] – 12/13/2011(withdrawn – 1/17/2012)

That is your mission, and your duty, and your calling if you choose to accept it. To say no, to all the people who would betray you.

To attack the Assassins of Liberty.

“Sometimes a man can meet his destiny, on the road he took to avoid it.”— The International

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: EIGHT FAVORITE PODCASTS

heroictimes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:47:21 +0000

Well 2011 was a big shaking up point for a lot of podcasts I listened to, with a lot giving up the ghost.

So now here at the beginning of 2012, my current favorite podcasts are as follows:

COMIC GEEK SPEAK
B-MOVIE CAST
HORROR ETC
NO APOLOGIES
11 OCLOCK COMICS
AGONY COLUMN
GEEK BRUNCH
THE TREATMENT-One of the new podcasts on this list. So I’ll give a quick description: Elvis Mitchell is the host of THE TREATMENT, one of the better cinema interview shows I’ve come across. It’s typically great,and incise and smart, avoiding the inane questions that most reviewers ask.

That said, if there’s one demerit you can lay against Elvis Mitchell’s interviewing style is he comes into interviews with a thematic agenda, or thematic viewpoint that he tries to foist upon the people he interviews.

And when they politely say, ‘uhh not really’. He still over their objections insists ‘these are the things you try for in each of your films’, etc, no doubt because he’s worked the interview out in his head and doesn’t want to relinquish his hypothesis/preconceived notions; but it still comes off as more than a bit… suspect,

To pursue a line of inquiry that has been asked and answered seems like you’re not listening to your guest. We’re here to hear the personalities viewpoint on their work, not for them to signon on a reviewers viewpoints.

Thematic even stylistic agendas are typically more about the viewer than the filmmaker. Concepts like filmnoir are hindsight discoveries or designations by armchsir film critics, often trying to create parallels or themes or constants, when viewing a filmmakers work in quantity, when really that’s often not what the filmmaker was going for at all.

So rare is the filmaker or actor who thinks in terms of playing the same stylistic tune, but more readily thinks simply in terms of telling the story. And if there is a thruline between products/films its less something imposed than something ingrained, So yeah I typically find interviews trying to convince filmmakers about their style, sketchy at best.

But when not leaning on that particular crutch, Mitchell can make for intriguing and fun interviews. He interviews everyone from David Cronenberg to Lawrence Fishburne to Kevin Smith to John Landis to John Ridley to Mark Waid, etc. And manages to do it all in a scant short form format. Go listen now.

You can check them all out at the links below:

http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/

http://www.bmoviecast.com/

http://www.horroretc.com/

http://thetaylornetwork.wordpress.com/no-apologies/

http://11oclockcomics.tumblr.com/

http://www.bookotron.com/agony/Current/Current_Podcast_Audio.html

http://www.geekbrunchpodcast.com/

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt

There are a few shows I’m going through to fill spots 9 and 10. One forerunner being THE RED PANDA. If you want to suggest some podcasts, please do.

Check back soon!

MOVIE REVIEW: RED TAILS! I was wrong! Go see this movie now!

heroictimes — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:05:20 +0000

I just returned from seeing RED TAILS, a movie I had great qualms about, after just seeing the trailer, and specifically regarding the leads of Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr.

I didn’t think they could bring the gravitas necessary to these pivotal roles.

I was absolutely wrong.

There is no other way to say it. Both Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrence Howard nailed their respective roles, giving great performances. As does the whole cast.

I’ll go into details later, but suffice to say it’s the first great movie of 2012. From direction, to acting, to editing, to special effects, to script, the movie fired on all cylinders.

Just a phenomenal movie, that I’m already planning to see in theaters again in the next couple of days.

And evidently I’m not alone. When I went to buy my tickets, the girl at the counter told me ‘You might want to get a seat now, because it has been selling out all weekend’.

And after seeing it, I can see why.

And the audience was completely into it from first frame to last. Just accomplished film-making and a great flick.

Easy grade of A.

Favorite/Best Art Books of 2011

heroictimes — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:23:09 +0000

This was a relatively easy list to decide on. My 3 favorite artbook purchases of 2011 were:

3. Zdzislaw Beksinski- I’m putting this on the list even though this isn’t a 2011 publication. Finally managed to pick up this 1992 English Language House Arkady (love that name) printing of BEKSINSKI.

2. SPECTRUM 18- Every year this annual showcase of the best of fantastic art, is a welcome purchase. And this year continues their streak.

1. REBUS- My number one artbook of 2011 comes from Chronicle Books, and is the drop dead gorgeous James Jean’s
REBUS. Having had this for a month I do not get tired of flipping though those stunning red gilded pages. The book is a work of art just in terms of design, even before you get to the art within, which is masterful, and beautiful, and disturbing. Just simply gorgeous. Trust me, If you at all have an interest in artbooks, you need to own this one. Highest recommendation.

There you go. Come back next installment as I start looking at 2012 artbooks to put on your must buy list! Price your copies by clicking on the links below:

Zdzislaw Beksinski

Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

Rebus

Reasons why any self respecting person should hate X-MEN FIRST CLASS :)

heroictimes — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:58:14 +0000

“Along with me I’m gonna need a scientist, an engineer, and of course, a black person to sacrifice himself in case something goes wrong.”
- Eric Cartman, SOUTH PARK, season 9, Cartman’s Hippie Exit Strategy 2006

I don’t even like/watch South Park but that quote is funny and sad because it’s true.

Here it is 21st century and writers/filmmakers from Frank Miller (SIN CITY) to Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (X-MEN FIRST CLASS) are still crafting films that still perpetuate this bigoted vaudeville/black-face denigration of minorities, particularly Blacks as either victims/sacrifices, hors, criminals, or comedy relief or some effed up combination of the four.

I hear all these people saying X-MEN FIRST CLASS was the best movie of 2011. Are you effing on crack?! This goes to prove what Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka said in an early age… if you live all your life with lies it becomes hard to see anything that has nothing to do with those lies.

I’m saying a population that watches American Idol and thinks X-MEN FIRST CLASS is a good movie and that their country is a democracy, the cowboy on the white hat, has perhaps lived with lies too long. And therefore can’t see the concentration camps paid for with American Tax dollars, and the 24 hour propaganda machine, and how many of us are being herded into new millennium Dachaus.

I’m saying that twisted facts are easy offshoots… of twisted fictions. The dream being father to the reality.

So needless to say Matthew Vaughn’s new X-MEN FIRST CLASS movie will get as much theater money out of me as his first one, which is to say none. I’m drawing the line in the effing sand, I refuse to pay theater prices for any movie made after 1970 (revival films being excluded) that a/ has less than two characters of color and/or b/has characters in boring, tired stereotypical roles.

Which means I’m not going to see effing DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN or PRECIOUS either. I don’t need that crap. Give me instead more OBSESSED and more TAKERS and more BLACK DYNAMITE and more BLOOD AND BONE. Any of those movies are worth a dozen times predictable crap like X-MEN FIRST CLASS (I caught it on DVD from the library, if anyone was wondering).

And what makes me the maddest about that movie is it plays lipservice to liberty and inclusiveness, using Kennedy’s speeches for God’s Sake, and invoking the age of the 1960s, while presenting a completely 50s based message of ethnic characters ‘get in the back of the bus’. And the horrible thing is so many eyes can see this film, and not see it, not see its messages, its bigotry, its failings. Can honestly crank out odious crap like that and think they are somehow being liberal??? Absolutely amazing.

It concerns me that a whole generation is growing up, somehow blind to how off the beam America isn’t just getting… but is. Even to shows like COMMUNITY (see my discussion of) which is dazzlingly bigoted. And the onus isn’t just on the creators, it has to be on the stars. Seemingly the ethnic actors these days are devoid of the social conscience of a Poitier or a Belafonte or a Williamson, and this new generation just takes roles without any larger conversation/consideration about being used as a modern step and fetchit.

Sure you risk being fired if you speak up, but you risk something worse if you don’t. Your soul. You risk walking around like all these sheep, raised and reared on lies, and unable to see anything… if it has nothing to do with those lies.

Here endeth the rant.

What is DC Comics Thinking??? Rob Leifeld on THREE BOOKS?!!

heroictimes — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:17:31 +0000

The following is a bit of a rant, and will only have meaning to those who follow that misnomer of an industry… comic books. So non-comic people feel free to ignore.

Why on earth would anyone give Rob Liefeld three books to write/draw and/or some combination thereof?

Not hating on the guy, by all reports he’s a really nice, and passionate guy about comics. Great, wonderful. Make him a VP for life, if DC wants to toss money his way. But he’s no writer, never was. And his art, not my thing. And I’d argue isn’t going to make ANYONES’ top ten, or even top 100 list.

Why would DC comics derail the momentum of their 52 experiment, by pushing out books with questionable writers and artists?

Say what you want about Marvel, Marvel Comics at least believes in putting top notch writers and top notch artists on their books.

And DC seems to be embracing the alternate view, the 90s image philosophy of ‘Who needs writers’ and to a degree ‘Who needs good artists’.

I mean DC does have strong writers such as Scott Snyder and Grant Morrison, and strong artists such as JH Williams III and Jamal Igle. But it seems for every title they have strong talent on they have 4 titles where you’re thinking ‘What the eff were they thinking putting this dude on a book?’

And the Leifeld announcement (putting him on 3 books), it just shows a shortsightedness, and I think an undervaluation of the creators. It’s almost like editorial feels the properties will sell despite who is on it, and despite how incomprehensible the story is and how bad the art… and history does not bear that point of view out.

In a world where writers such as JM DeMatteis isn’t on a regular book, Doug Moench isn’t on a regular book, Christopher Priest isn’t on a regular book, Rick Veitch isn’t on a regular book… you give Rob Leifeld THREE BOOKS!!!!???? WTF. I mean is the guy working for free?

I do not understand what DC is doing giving him DEATHSTROKE, HAWK AND DOVE, and HAWKMAN. HAWKMAN for goodness sake, give to Tim Truman or Mike Grell or Messner-Loebs!

And the same thing with artists, in a world where Steve Rude and Kevin Nowlan and Tony Aikens (good news on the WW 2 parter) don’t have regular drawing gigs you give three books to Leifeld to layout or draw??!!

I mean I’m not trying to take work out of anyone’s nest. If DC has faith in Leifeld, fine, make him the writer/artist on HAWK AND DOVE for life (I mean I won’t be reading it, but I’m assuming some are reading it for him to still be on the book), but don’t give him MORE books. That’s just crazy.

DC.. you’re shooting yourselves in the foot.

That said you’re saving me money by not putting talent I’m interested in on these books. Just means it’s less stuff for me to buy.

Here endeth the rant.

Image of the Day: BEYOND THE VALLEY!

heroictimes — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:48:39 +0000

Image of the Day: BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS!

This is why for me Itunes will never replace the fun of having the actual album cover, or CD available. Music is as much the presentation as the songs themselves. As much the process, the preparation for the listening, as the listening itself.

Even with crazy cult albums such as this!