odds and ends: dinosaur dracula, comic pull list

One of my all-time favorite websites is X-Entertainment, a free-for-all tribute site to all the things that made my childhood rad. Updates to X-E have been sporadic in the past few years… but that promises to change with the advent of Dinosaur Dracula, X-E’s newly branded web address!

So far, Matt Caracappa has looked at Garfield and Friends fruit snacks, Fright Flicks trading cards, and my personal favorite, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cracker topper. X-Entertainment was surely an influence on my Thrift Store Finds posts, so I think anyone who likes those would truly love Matt’s writing. Check it out.

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We all know that I am something of a fan of the movies Alien and Aliens. I suppose you could say I had the misfortune of being born too late to see any of those movies in theaters- the only Aliens movies I’ve ever seen on the big screen have been muddled (Alien 3) botched (Alien: Resurrection) or just god awful (any of the Alien v. Predator movies, but I haven’t actually seen any of those).

Well, I’ve finally had the chance I’ve been waiting for last night; my most anticipated movie of the summer has to be Prometheus.

The “not a prequel” prequel to Alien, I was excited enough to see this flick that I broke free of my normal old man routines and went to a midnight showing. Even though director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Daniel Lindelof have been pretty straightforward, saying Prometheus is something new… I mean, c’mon. It’s an Alien movie.

…and I loved it. I loved it despite the cardboard cut-out characters. I loved it despite the gigantic plot holes. I loved Prometheus despite its’ structure, seemingly designed to infuriate the most nit-picky fans of this franchise. It’s a gorgeous movie worth seeing on the big screen.

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My current comic pull list is woefully small, and getting smaller by the month. Right now, these are the books I’m asking my fine comic retailer to put aside for me.

odds and ends

A grad school friend of mine sent me this link to Thirty Books Everyone Should Read Before They’re Thirty. I’ve never seen one of these list-articles I’ve ever entirely agreed with, but as I turned 30 this year, I thought this rated a look a look.

According to my own reading and the link above, I have read 21 of the 30 books worth reading before one turns 30. Of those nine misses, four of them (The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, The Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin, and The Prince by Machiavelli) are all books I’ve read bits and pieces of in various college classes. It may not count, but goshdarnit, it should.

As with any “list” type article, there’s tons of room for debate. I would argue that The Wizard of Oz belongs on this list over The Wind in the Willows… but seeing as that’s exactly the type of conversation these things should inspire, I was glad of it.

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Last night, a couple of friends and I went and saw Ghostbusters on the big screen. The movie’s been rereleased and has been playing in select theaters throughout October.

If you read this blog for two weeks, you can be assured a reference to Ghostbusters. It’s a cornerstone of my childhood and I’ve easily seen the movie over 100 times on video, HBO, basic cable, and God only knows where else… but I have never seen it in theaters! In these woeful financial times, I was a little reticent about ponying up $10 bucks to rewatch a movie I know by heart… but I was pleasantly surprised!

Honestly, it was like seeing a whole different movie. The subtleties of the main actors’ work played SO much better projected on a huge screen. Even the smaller laughs were bigger. The next time I hear about a movie I love being rereleased, I’m not going to rationalize myself out of going to see it with owning it on DVD. Movies are meant to be seen that big.

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One final link: If you’re a child of the mid 1980’s/1990’s, I highly recommend going over to X-Entertainment and getting yourself in the mood for Halloween with the Halloween Countdown. Every year, Matt Caracappa spends the month of October gleefully pouring over the memories, the marketing, and the fun of Halloween in a daily blog which is required reading. X-Entertainment gives Christmas the same treatment and it’s become a yearly tradition for me.