Just a quick update with some cool links I’ve found over the last few days.
The first is this one. I just found it really cool, and I liked the idea of a human chimera. Somehow I think this would make a really cool episode of CSI. Imagine how hard the DNA match would be...
Next I found this link. And so begins the Zombie Apocalypse! (Insert sufficiently evil laughter here!) I just thought this was really cool and I would be curious to see how many hits I get on this. And, jumping off of this, I found this awesome simulator a year or so ago and I always thought it was brilliant. I can spend hours look at it and restarting it over and over. (Hint: Click on the actual city/simulator to make the commands work.). Finally, as more of a game version of the simulator, you have this one. I like it, although it is really very simplistic… Either way, it shows how woefully unprepared people are for the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse. All I can say is; load up on ammo, find your stronghold, and start watching for mysterious outbreaks of poorly described diseases and the ensuing CDC and government quarantines. I’m ready for TEOTWAWKI; are you?
How freakin’ cool is this?!? Would you believe that I've always wanted a hidden passage? In fact, I actually built plans for a swing away bookshelf in my parent’s old house back when I was in high school. Alas, I couldn’t convince my dad that this was sufficiently cool enough to merit the major renovations it would have entailed. Now though, now that I’m an adult with a certain amount of disposable income and MY OWN HOUSE, I could do this. Although I’ll be damned if I’ll spend between $1500 and $10,000 to have these guys do it, but I do really dig their designs. When Mrs. Zombie and I buy our next house, I’m totally doing this. I mean it!
Finally, and along the same lines of really groovy ideas the Doctor gets into his head and then does absolutely nothing with (story of my sad, pathetic adult life there!); I found this. Too bad I’m not more mechanically inclined. I would totally love to build a replica of the Munster’s Koach or Grandpa’s Dragula hot rod. The hardest part would be to fab up a frame. The rest of it though would be easy enough. It’d just take some time.
So, I wanted to leave with one more comment. A few months back, I got the On Demand package with my current cable provider and have spent the last few months watching shows I’d heard of, but had never had the opportunity to watch. I finally finished watching all of the Sopranos and Deadwood. Both are incredible shows in and of themselves. HBO is doing some fan-fricken’- tastic things. These shows, plus Rome have become my newest obsessions. There’s one show on HBO, however, that has totally and completely blown me away. Carnivale. Wow! Man oh man oh man! What a show. It’s the story of a traveling carnival in 1934 that picks up an escaped killer named Jim in the dustbowl of the Midwest. The story has so many levels. There’s the main story line about Jim(the actor who played the grown up John Connor from Terminator 3), who can heal the sick and infirm, but at a horrible cost; and brother Justin, a minister in California who Jim is connected to by his nightmares. Brother Justin (played by Clancy Brown) has powers too; the power to show others their darkest sins. The story is that – in each generation – one representative of all that is good and one representative of all that is evil are born and must confront each other for the sake of the world. The best part is the juxtaposition of what one would consider good and evil. Clancy Brown is one of the most underrated actors around. He plays Brother Justin with such barely concealed malevolence, it warms the evil Doctor’s cold black heart. He’s come such a long way from playing the Kurgan in the original Highlander. I don’t care so much for the character of Jim, but he grows on you. The main plot though, is only part of the wonder that is Carnivale. The rest is the wonderful supporting cast at the carnival itself. There’s the macro-encephalitic dwarf Sampson who’s the boss and reports to the much more sinister and mysterious ‘Management’. There’s the interplay between the lead roustabout Clayton and his affair with kootch dancer Rita Sue. All the while Clayton longs for the dark and brooding Sofie, who’s played by a handsome actress. (I know, handsome is a weird gender confused word choice for a woman. I wouldn’t describe the actress as pretty; but she’s still attractive in a way. She’s handsome. I can’t explain it.) Anyway, Sofie’s a card reader who lives in a trailer with her catatonic, telekinetic mother Appolonia who communicates psychically with Sofie. There’s also Lodz, a creepy blind mesmerist who has evil designs on Jim and his powers. Lodz lives with Lila, the bearded woman. The cast also has other standouts; like Bill Moseley as the cook (Yes, that Bill Moseley. Rob Zombie’s albino psychopathic protagonist from House of a 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects), Adrienne Barbeau (still hot now, even years after she should have stopped doing that), and Toby Huss (you’d probably best recognize him as the crazy radio operator from that movie Down Periscope with Kelsey Grammar. Dark Gods help me, I love that movie - and much of it has to do with his character.) Anyway, looking at all the odd characters, and creepy subplots; one could see why the Doctor loves this show. I have always had a fascination with carnivals, carnies, and freak shows. It probably goes back to high school when I first saw Tod Browning’s masterpiece, Freaks. In fact, my friend Christine and I wrote a treatment for a screenplay about sideshow freaks, but we never did anything with it. I may need to pull that out. Anyway, I digress… Sooooo, I highly recommend Carnivale to anyone who’s looking to justify having HBO. I just watched Season One, and I’ve got to say it is the most unbelievable, jaw dropping, “I can’t believe that just f’in happened!” season finale I’ve ever seen. Go! Watch it! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
So goodnight, dear reader. And remember; “It puts the lotion on Its skin…or it gets the hose again.”
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