50 Movie Pack - Nightmare Worlds MOVIE REVIEW TIME FUN YAY

I bought a 50 movie pack featuring Sci-Fi movies from Best Buy this weekend. I plan on watching each one of them and posting a review of each. I find it hard to keep up with blogging when there are so many things I'd like to write about, so I thought this might help me get my shit together.

Today while doing some freelance work I watched two movies. Please be aware that I might have some of my facts wrong because I wasn't paying complete attention to them the whole time, but I don't think that is mandatory to enjoy these to begin with.

First I watched:

ALIEN CONTAMINATION

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082000/

Alien Contamination is about aliens coming to take over Earth. A mystery occurs on board a cruise ship; mostly everyone is dead, or hopped overboard abandoning ship in the middle of their meals. A team is sent to investigate. They find some dead bodies that look like they've been "blown up from the inside". That is what the investigating team said, not me. I thought they had contracted some rare skin virus. The team also happens to find a glowing, pulsing, humming pod, which once picked up proceeds to rhythmically hum and glow faster, then explodes. The green goo turns out to be acid, and everyone starts bleeding and face melting, then exploding. (There are a lot of exploding people in this movie.) Somehow one of the investigating team members makes it back to whatever lab they had come from, and we're introduced to a cold-hearted bitch scientist CIA whatever woman who's name escapes me. She has some kind of fucked up love affair going on with some other member of her team. Somehow that is relevant to the rest of the movie because they talk about it through the rest of the movie.

They (the scientists, or some scientists, not really clear on this one) bring back a pod from the ship. Bitch scientist lady proceeds to explain to people who I have no idea what relevance they carry to anything be it government or what have you that when the pods warm up they explode acid everywhere. She then makes sure that they get the point by injecting some of that acid into a rat (WTF?) and everyone gets to watch the rat explode about five seconds later.

Later on they somehow seem to end up with a TON of pods in what seems to be a warehouse that may or may not be in the process of being robbed by thieves. Of course the scientists run into the thieves and try to warn them about the exploding pods, but they fail, and all of the who I am assuming are thieves explode.

Either before or after this the scientist lady contacts an ex-astronaut. Apparently he and his partner a few years back had traveled to Mars and might have seen these pods before. Of course the ex-astronaut is an alcoholic and accused of being insane. Its the lady scientist's job to get him to tell her what he actually saw (reluctantly because she was involved with his removal off the astronaut squad back in the day because no one believed him the first time). We have a nice little Mars expedition flash back here. She convinces him to help. He slaps her in the face (I think). No one explodes in this scene.

They decide that they're all going on holiday to south america. I think this is because ex-astronaut's partner, retired from the astronaut force, is running a coffee company down there. And why not? A bunch of things happen. Again, no one is exploding.

Once they get to South America scientist lady becomes a bitch because she wants to shower before dinner. This is really important. The two dudes don't get it so they go off to get drunk and play loud music in their rooms. Somehow scientist lady gets trapped in her bathroom. With a pod. No one can hear her screams because they are off playing loud music in their rooms. I guess she escapes though, because she's alive later. No exploding people in this scene either.

I won't ruin the end of the movie for you, but you definitely get to see a pretty creative alien named "The Cyclops". A couple more people explode, and someone gets eaten as well. This movie was a great start to this dvd set. It was both hilariously awful and hilariously gross. The special effects were pretty bad, but they weren't terrible, and exploding people definitely make up for everything else that sucks about this film. Actually the film didn't really suck at all.

I would recommend this movie to a friend.


I just finished watching the second movie, called Alien Species.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115506/
This movie is about aliens coming and invading earth.

It was so bad I'm not even going to waste my time talking about it. This is one of those movies where you just sit and wonder to yourself how it ever got made. It looks like it was shot on my parents camcorder from 1987. The acting is worse than Southland Tales. The plot doesn't make any sense. Nothing ever gets resolved. Somehow people are stuck underground with aliens. There's some classic early 90's special effects in there, the kind you'd see in the student work commercials for the Art Institutes. The song in the ending credits has seriously got to be from 1985.

If I was me now sitting next to me then watching this movie, I'd probably fast forward to a few parts for a laugh, but no way would I let myself watch it in its entirety.

All in all 50% awesomeness is a good start to this DVD adventure.

What one might call a "hairy" situation

So I have been catching this show on the science channel called My Shocking Story the last two days. Its a pretty amazing show. Yesterday I watched people get face transplants (woah), and today, real werewolf-people. Well, children, rather. There are a few people in the world with a disorder that causes hair to grow all over their bodies.

According to hairweb.org,

This phenomenon manifests itself in extreme growth of hair all over the body - almost the whole body is covered in hair. It is known as an extreme form of hypertrichosis and it is one the worlds rarest hereditary diseases - due to a gene defect.

You can see pics of people with this on the internet if you're really curious, but it looks just like it sounds.

Anyway they were discussing a young boy from India who has this whole problem and the treatments he was receiving and you know all that good Science Channel stuff. They went on to explain how the doctor who was treating him in India was working with an American doctor from Columbia University who deals with genetic science. They showed a clip of the doctor from India on the phone with the American doctor, speaking about the genetic mumbo jumbo and discussing some options. The Indian doctor agreed to send her samples from the boy (hair, skin, etc) to see what they can or might be able to do. Sounds great for him, right?

Then they showed a picture of this doctor from America.




If I was the boy's doctor in India, I would hesitate to show the boy's parents a picture of this woman. Considering HER hair issues, I don't think they would feel very hopeful about their son's future relationship with his hair.

image from http://clonemyhair.com

Green Ginger Tea to the Rescue!!

Sara and Lee and I sold a bunch of stuff at the punk rock flea market in Philly today. We had something for everyone! I sold mostly toys, Sara sold clothes, and Lee sold some stuff and records. We all did well! And I sold four pieces, two paintings and two bottles. Super! IT WAS SO PACKED. They overstuffed the place with tables, there was SO much traffic. I don't think they were expecting that many people to show up. There were people lined up AROUND THE BLOCK to get in. Jeez. R5 better make some adjustments here. We also all agreed that we will get a table in the future. We had a really good time. Even having to crawl under the table was fun in its own way.

I was just watching the commercials during the superbowl, and some of them were in "Real-D". Well I have a pair of those glasses from the movie My Bloody Valentine (which was AWESOME btw, a great slasher flick), so I put them on, and they didn't work. Are there some kind of differences between movie glasses and tv glasses, or were those commercials really not in Real-D?

Things that make you go hm?!

I met The Muffs!

Jesse and Mike and I went to see The Muffs at maxwell's in hoboken. I went with every intention of meeting them, because their singer and guitarist Kim Shattuck has been a hero of mine ever since I got into them. In case you aren't familiar with her band at all, you might know her as the girl who guest sang on Lori Meyers on NOFX's Punk in Drublic. Being that they were playing at Maxwell's (a small hole in the wall to say the least), I figured that I had a big chance to make it happen, so I brought my autograph book with me and some of that liquid courage.

They played a great set - way better than what I had heard from their live recordings. They rocked out a lot, they sounded great, and they even played new material, which not only super surprised me, but got me excited for a new album!!

After the show we stood next to the stairs leading down to the basement of the place, which we were assuming was a large area with many rooms and corridors. I stood up at the top of the steps, nervous and giddy as all hell, trying to get up the courage to go downstairs and find them. Thank goodness for Jesse and Mike and their "DO IT" egging me on, because without them I don't think I could have done it. I almost fell down the steps from excitement, and when I got to the bottom of them to find only a single storage room, there they were, just hangin out. I couldn't believe it, it was way easier than I thought. I talked to Ronnie (bass) first, telling him that I have been listening to them since I was 13, that I'm so excited to meet them, to see them, blah blah blah, I was a wreck. I got Ronnie's autograph and then talked to Kim, telling her something like, I sent you a myspace message years ago and she's a hero of mine and I'm sure I didn't make much sense and thinking back to it I must have sounded like the biggest idiot ever ever ever. She gave me a hug, even. I got a hug from Kim Shattuck!! I know, it sounds like no big thing to you, but it was really just plain awesome for me.

Kim and the drummer both signed my book, and Jesse and Mike also came downstairs, so I even got this awesome picture thanks to Jesse's iphone. I could go on about what a complete toolbag I felt like I sounded like after we left, because I am rather embarrassed about the whole thing, but I think I will leave it at that. I mean, a 28 year old girl acting like a 12 year old groupie of the Jonas Brothers for a punk band that's been around for 18 years .. kinda silly.

Thanks to them for understanding how silly I must have felt and being so cool about everything, and playing an awesome set. And on a side note, Jesse Rohland has the coolest bedroom in an apartment I have ever seen in my life. And Hoboken sucks, by the way.

Killer Jellyfish!

Image from: irukandjijellyfish.com/

These things are really tiny, only 2.5cm big. Its one of the most poisonous things on the planet! From wikipedia.com:

Irukandji syndrome is produced by a very small amount of venom and includes severe pains at various parts of the body (typically excruciating muscle cramps in the arms and legs, severe pain in the back and kidneys, and a burning sensation of the skin and face), headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, high heart rate and blood pressure.

And to top it all off, there is no anti-venom. ANNND that pain lasts anywhere from hours to days. On the TV show on Animal Planet that I heard about this from a girl they interviewed while she was all doped up on morphine from a sting which they said barely masked the top of the pain and she talked about how painful it was ugh and she was in pain for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! That's scary!

I just heard that you can't keep them in a regular fish tank because if it runs into the wall it will die!

Obamamania!
I'm happy about the fact that our new president is just a regular guy who grew up in a regular family and got some pretty damn serious ambition to do some shit. I think that means more to me than anything, because it really does prove that anyone can do what they put their mind to it. All around I feel that we can only wait and see what really goes on for the next four years, but at least people are trying to feel good about something when things are obviously so bad.

The Muffs!
I'm totally going to see them tomorrow. YES!! I'm bringing my autograph book to see if Kim will sign it. I feel kind of embarrassed about it. But she rocks so hard! The Muffs! I wonder if they will have any new material. We're heading to a guy I used to work with's house up there to throw back before the show because I'm broke!! I really want a t-shirt tho. =o(

Punk Rock Flea Market
Lee and Sara and I are selling shit at the punk rock flea market on feb 2nd. Come check it out! I'm getting rid of mad 80's toys and stuffed animals and just some shit I have laying around the house. Should be a good time. At the Electric Factory, btw.

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavillion is so good! They really reached a point where they can say the sound is completely theirs. Not that their other stuff sounded like much else, but this album is much more well fused than their previous material. I still love the Jam, but I can't get enough of songs like My Girls and Summertime Clothes.


I'm sleepy..

Happy New Year

Sorry

So, I made my friends all their holiday presents this year except for Greg who I got a shirt with a screaming cat face on it that says "STRESSED OUT!". Sara and Lee got refurbished action figures made to look like Zed from Zardoz, John and Dan got Katamari Damacy custom cousins. I wanted to put pictures of them up but I completely forgot to take some. They seemed happy. I made Ralph a box with the logo of the French Foreign Legion on it, ha ha ha.

I just got back from Washington D.C. and we were there to a. pick up things from my aunt's house in Annandale VA (totally sweet area) and b. to go to the zoo. I will have to put them on Picasa later. I also have several videos of Tai Shan munching on some 'boo (that's what we pandas call "bamboo" around here) I will have to put up as well.

Pandas are so stinking cute I can't take it.

SO from my aunt's house I got a new sweet couch and furniture for upstairs in the extra room and oh man its just ending up to be sweet around here, but we have a lot of work to do rearranging and cleaning. I also got an asian (I think it is Chinese, but I can't be sure) ink painting my aunt's girlfriend was presented with in Korea. I know I know it might be Korean if she got it from Korea, but the text inked on it looks like kanji, though I've never actually seen any Korean calligraphy so maybe I am just being stupid. Its so beautiful, and its HUGE!

I've been doing nothing else besides playing Persona 4 and I plan on writing my very first full game review upon completion. Its cold, so I'm gonna go make some cocoa or some shit. Later, suckers

Recent Love Affairs

Here are some things I have been obsessing over lately.

1. Vanilla Cream Soda
Soda is ok, it makes you pee a lot, but vanilla cream soda is the closest thing to heaven you can get in the soda department. At the Bent Spoon in Princeton, they have italian soda ice creams, and my next adventure in the Bent Spoon department will be to have a vanilla cream ice cream soda. heck yeah!

2. Leg Warmers
I've been searching for a good cheap pair of leg warmers for forever, always too lazy to order from catalogs and internets, but always on it when I find them in stores. This Sunday Lee and Matt and I went to Columbus flea market, and I bought 3 pairs of legwarmers, 2 pairs of tights, and 4 pairs of socks. The legwarmers are my favorite. They're just so practical, and, since I bought them in the brightest colors they had, guaranteed to make a statement to what might be an otherwise colorless work outfit. Bonus - they can double as arm warmers. Also, two pairs of them have lil buttons! Too cute. P.S. the two pairs of tights that I bought had nifty patterns - grey and black stripes, and get this - ARGYLE.

3. Dr. Mario
I'm good at this game. Some days, I'm great. I can beat everyone I know. I can't beat everyone on the internet though. There are things I see people who are better than me doing when I'm playing against them that I understand, but can't recreate with that amount of speed they do. Right now my rank on Wii kind of shuffles between 6600-6800. Over the last two months I've completely lost interest in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (its just too much of the same thing over and over again, regardless of how many jobs they've stuffed in there it can be extremely boring to the point where i've fallen asleep playing it) and since Persona 4 comes out in a steadily decreasing amount of time I have refused to pick up another serious game. That has led to me playing Dr. Mario, sometimes for 5+ hours, online, almost every day. The big lure is that I am more often than not going to play against someone different every time, so its a constant gauge on my skills. I really would like to have some serious bragging rights to this game, so if you have a Wii, and you have downloaded this game, lets play. I'd like to prove to you that I can kick your ass. And if you're better than me, well hell, its awesome to play against you. You will never get better at a game unless you play people who challenge you.

That's that. Persona 4 comes out in about.. 2 days, so don't expect many things coming from here that aren't related to that game.