I've Finally Finished My Least Favorite Philip K Dick Book I Ever Read.

You guys may have noticed I don't do a whole lot of reviews, obviously because I'm completely clueless as to how the internet (and this whole 'blog' thing) works. I have an overwhelming need to share this, however.

Over the years, I've digested and revisited PKD's twenty or so brilliant novels. In search of fresh reading material lately, I have been forced to check out his lesser books. Usually, I would regard a least favorite PKD book the way I'd speak of, say, a least favorite type of candy. This is a different story however.

I picked up the book Dr. Bloodmoney, over three years ago. I read about 100 pages before I put it down, unable to continue. Recently, with the determination I'd imagine one would gather to perform dental work on oneself, I went ahead and finished the rest of the book.

The whole time, I was wondering to myself why I was having such trouble making it throught it. For starters, there wasn't a character I felt I was actually rooting for. Dick has been known for his flawed protagonists, but in this case I'd even go as far as to say I actually hated most of the main characters. There's flawed, and then there's downright feral. Everyone's motives are so shallow it made me feel kind of dirty. For example, at the end when (SPOILER: Bonnie tells Adrew Gill "I've decided I love you" I assume it's supposed to be sweet since he's the father of her kid and all, but since she's spent the whole book being such a transparently conniving bitch it just nauseated me). I could barely force myself to give a shit about even the characters that weren't busy stabbing each other in the back.

Then there's the whole thing about the (SPOILER: sentient, talking animals). It's so meaningless to the plot that I'm not sure why I qualified it as a spoiler. Yet they mention (SPOILER:some rat that can play a flute) a half dozen times, enough that it kinda makes all the human characters seem even more horrible and unlikeable for (SPOILER: investing in traps designed to murder dogs that can talk and musically-inclined rodents).

All in all, the most interesting thing about this book is you get to see PKD experimenting with narrative devices and unfolding imaginative landscapes that he uses much better in later works. In my opinion, however, it's worth skipping over to get straight to the good stuff.

Think you might disagree? Go ahead and pick up a copy and we can discuss it.

Dr. Bloodmoney

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb

Composer Of Dr. Who Theme Beatmatching Reel-To-Reel Tape.

Yeah, really. Up there is Delia Derbyshire, composer of the original Dr.Who Theme, beat matching several reel-to-reel tape machines. Awesome.

French Production Company Named After Obscure Philip K Dick Reference.

Persus Neuf (Persus 9).

A Pretty Decent Circuit's Edge Fansite.

I was having a discussion recently about my favortie cyber-punk novel, which just happens to be When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger.

In 1989, Infocom released an excellent RPG based on the novel, Circuit's Edge. Here's a sparse, but decent fan site that includes a few scans and a couple of walkthroughs.

Incidentally, this is not Effinger's first dealings with Infocom. He actually wrote a short novel serializing the Zork franchise.

I Used To Be A Nihilist, Til I Saw A Jetpack Brontosaurus.

Jetpack Brontosaurus (Coming Soon!) from Flashbang Studios on Vimeo.

The above is a trailer for the game Jetpack Brontosaurus from the game website Blurst.com. In the game, you play an Apatasaurus named Brontosaurus who is dreaming he has a jetpack. Between the concept and the gorgeous music, this is so wonderful I can barely stand it.

Then, when typing in "Jetpack Brontosaurus" into Youtube, I got this gem, called "Rocket Belt Rawr"...



How could you ever have doubts on the innate goodness of the universe when there are two easy to find and free games starring a brontosaurus with a jetpack?

Huge (But Incorrect) Collection of American Flagg Comic Book Covers

This site chronicles the covers of Howard Chaykin's excellent (some, specifically me, would say masterpiece) comic book series American Flagg. If you've never heard of it, the story involves a group of steampunk-ish officers of a Ranger Squad (Plexus Rangers) and specifically a ranger named Reuben Flagg (who joined the force after playing one on television) and an incredibly tangled series of bureaucratic catastrophies that would be impossible to summarize (to give you an idea, his cat becomes mayor around issue 31).

If at all possible for you, it's worth checking out. As you can see from the covers, the artwork is gorgeous (especially the early issues), and it's satire of a sex and celebtrity obsessed culture choked with crooked officials is dead on.

Unfortunately, the collection on this website is incorrect, and instead of showing the covers of the first 12 issues of American Flagg, it is showing the first 12 covers of Howard Chaykin's American Flagg a later 12-issue story arc from 1988.

Lord British Is Hanging Out In Outer Space Right Now

When I was 11 years old, Richard Garriott was one of my heroes. Being a kid in the late 80s, I idolized a lot of people (Ronald Reagan, Stephen King, Vanilla Ice, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) that today might seem laughable (actually, Eastman and Laird's TMNT still kinda rocks, so I take that back), but no matter what, my respect for Richard Garriot has NEVER wavered.

He personally created and programmed (I would venture to say) the most innovative, seminal computer RPG since Collossal Cave/Adventure. He then built the success of that game (Ultima) into an amazing Austin-based computer game empire (Origin Systems) that had a good run of nearly dominating the genre. Anyone else ever went to the Origin System's HQ for their Halloween haunted house? If not, you totally missed out.

Anyway, I've idolized this cat for nearly 20 years and he's in space now! How awesome is that!

Rar =)

The Night The Teenagers Ruled The World!

I just found this great fansite for 80s B-Rated Zombie movie "Night Of The Comet". It's got everything; trivia, quotes, memoramblia, bios of the cast... Above is the trailer, voiced by Optimus Prime himself. Below is a fun vid by Pirated Video where they whittled the whole movie down to 10 minutes. It's full of spoilers, so don't watch it if ya wanna check out the movie for more than just nostalgia.

Oh, and of course DMK has 23 cars.

Zombie Versus Shark!

You know this is exactly what you were waiting to see all day, even if you didn't know it yet.

What can I say? I aim to please!

Admin Note: This clip is from the Lucio Fulci movie Zombi 2.

Updated Admin Note (05/2010): An imitation/overdub travesty of this viral vid is in the new Windows 7 commercial.

All you ever wanted to know about Phantasy Star

I've decided today should be Segatastic Saturday! Why? I'm not all that sure. But let's roll with it.

In any case, for my first Segatastic article, I dug up two of the first websites I looked up as soon as the internet was available to me - a pair of excellent and thorough fansites to the seminal Sega "Phantasy Star" RPG series. Amazingly, they're both still around and fairly-regularly updated.

Most of us were exposed to the series because of Phantasy Star 2, one of the first cartridge releases for the Sega Genesis, and likely the first (or one of the first)console RPG many American children of the 80s had ever played - Dragon Warrior was released in the US the same year (1988) and the first Final Fantasy game was released a year later.

The first game was released on the Sega Master System, and is a coveted collectors item. It was known for being one of the first story-based console RPG releases in the United States on any system (1987, a year before Dragon Warrior), as well as being the first with a female protagonist.

The series continued with the epic Phantasy Star III, in which you play through the lives of three generations of characters, and the excellent wrap-up/reboot Phantasy Star IV.

For more (much much more) information, I present to you The Phantasy Star Cave and The Phantasy Star Pages. They contain scans, detailed walkthroughs, maps, fan art/fan fiction... In short, all you ever wanted to know about the series.

The Church of Jediism

This will bring you at least 20 minutes of fun.  And yes, Jediism is an official religion on the UK census!

http://www.jedi-church.co.uk/

Admin's Note: Ganked the image below from the site.

They've Killed Fritz! - "Wizards"

"Wizards", another of my favorite movies as a kid. Thanks to the bizarre selection of mom-and-pop video rental stores (back at least half-a-decade before Blockbuster cookie-cutter chains sprouted everywhere), I got exposed to a lot of lesser known, underground animation as a kid. Back then, anything that was a cartoon was put in the "Kids" section.

Resistance is Futile!

Check out this two-part documentary!

Yay for technological communist facism!  Enjoy the Borg!

Nine Minutes With The Hypnotoad.

You are feeling much calmer.