Musings #2: I Can’t Handle The Truth.com

Filed Under BBT Magazine, The Deconstructionist, Musings | 3 Comments

Am I the only one who bristles every time a Truth.com anti-smoking ad come on? The latest iteration is among the worst- hipsters rent a million trucks and use a bullhorn to try and get a tobacco company to close down through convoluted logic and rapid editing. I can’t find it on youtube, but this one is also a fine example. Notice they brought two cameras so they could film the guy filming the main guy. So slick!


It’s not that I like cigarettes or smoking, but I dislike hipsters almost as much, so these commercials where thin people in straight-leg jeans and buddy holly glasses square off against evil just make my skin crawl, sort of like if Al Queda were printing handouts about how much they hated the people who leave chewed gum on subway seats.

The trouble is, most people start smoking because of some kind of peer pressure, and hipsters are fountains of self-esteem crushing emanations. Also, hipsters usually smoke like Victorian-age London. Being told whats best for me by people who think they  are better than me makes me want to vomit in terror.

Your thoughts are welcome.

Turbo Tagger

Musings #1: Portal

Filed Under webcomic, Musings, Penny Arcade, Portal, X-Box | 2 Comments

I’ve come to realize that not every idea I have deserves 750-1,000 words. So occasionally I’ll drop in with something shorter and usually more link-heavy.

Now, when I say ‘Portal’, those of you with an X-Box 360 and the sense to buy the Orange Box know what I’m talking about. For the rest of you, there’s this excellent write-up from Twenty-Sided.com that explains it all. I myself don’t have a 360, but I have been able to play the 2-D flash version of the game , which is tremendous fun.

The game’s great and all but but what I’ve been thinking about is this Penny Arcade comic it inspired: 20071012

My concern is, won’t Gabe (the guy on the slide) eventually just die? I’ve never been that good with physics, but it seems that he’ll continuously accelerate until he reaches terminal velocity, eventually moving so quickly that when he tries to escape the loop, he’ll hit the ground at over 100 miles an hour. Granted, that kind of impact may not be enough to kill a character in a comic strip, but still, what kind of example does this set for non-comic characters with portal technology?

Your viewpoints on this matter are appreciated.

Turbo Tagger

The Evil Resident Book Review: Sacred Cows and Dead Vegetarians by Matt Baker

Filed Under immortality, Fiction, D. S. Knight, DS Knight, novels | 2 Comments

Come on in, sit down, I promise you won’t leave here as a zombie…er…let’s just forget I said that and get on with the review, shall we?  Heh.  Yeah, anyway, when I received the box of books for review, Sacred Cows and Dead Vegetarians caught my eye right away.  For one, because it was the perfect size to hold and not knock myself out with if I spent forty-eight straight hours reading; and, two, I’m biased.  That is indeed what I said folks, biased.  I live, and grew up in, the south-west, close to the places where the story takes place, and so far as I know I’m the only person at BBT who lives this far west of the Rockies.  And, third, it had a cow skull on the cover, how cool is that?

 
It took me a while to get into Baker’s style of writing, not to mention the copy I received was a galley copy (un-edited, to the layperson.)  Then that Real Life™ stuff happened and I temporarily misplaced the book, which I found in my purse (which I’d misplaced as well) underneath my paperwork for that place I go to six hours a day five days a week for a paycheck.  When I finally found it, I forced myself to sit down a couple hours before work and get through as much of the book as possible.  Let’s just say I was late for work, partly because I lost myself in the story and partly because the clock at the coffee shop is nearly two hours slow (a very pathetic excuse, I know, but I had to say SOMETHING.)

 
This, in short, is what I distracted myself with when I was supposed to be ordering sausage and flour for the store.

 We are introduced to a mysterious man on a horse, in the middle of a blizzard in some mountains up north in an unspecified state or territory, as the story happens in what is left of the “old west” sometime after the Alamo.  It sounds a little stereotypical, I know, and that is what I originally thought, but this mysterious stranger turns out to be a man named Ripley Abromowitz, an outlaw wanted in several states.  Now, unlike in other stories, this outlaw is not the tall, dark, handsome man, such as in Old Gringo, but, rather, the stocky-bordering on fat, dark man, most people would dismiss as unintelligent and slow.  This is my kind of hero, and my instant like for him hinged doom for the character in my mind, since my favorite characters nearly always die.  I was, however, not to be disappointed.  Ripley, as stated before, is much more intelligent and quick of wit than he looks, and turns the tables on the man that would kill him, and we get to hear his story-which includes a Texas lawman, Dirk Manly, who has rounded up Ripley twice before, a young lady named Lucy who is to be the bride of the mysterious and inherently evil Lord Wessel, and Andy, an ex-slave who comes into his own by the end of the book. 

 
I definitely recommend this book for anyone who loves a good, not-so-average fantasy novel, or movie.  This book is a fantastic read, and reminds strongly of an Indiana Jones meets Resident Evil sort of story (plan your Halloween costumes around THAT!)  Add some were-creatures and zombies, with a little spaghetti western flair, and that’s what this book is all about. 

 
So, everyone, grab your whips, Colt .45s and saddle up for a story that will leave you wondering, just where has this guy been your whole life?  Okay, maybe not your whole life, but hey!  I had to say SOMETHING, right?

 

~ D.S. Knight-Evil Resident

The Deconstructionist with Gordon Weir: Pleasure Island in the Desert

Filed Under F. Andrew Taylor, Las Vegas, Vacation | Leave a Comment

Final-Logo

Las Vegas part Duex

 

One of the most surprising things about Las Vegas is that people actually live there.

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Murder Party (2007); Also: The Naturalist Presents three horror movies no one else would recommend

Filed Under BBT Magazine, New York, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, Art, Halloween, Brooklyn, Murder as Art, Murder Party, Lake Placid, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Blob, Extraterrestrial slime mold plasmodium, Big Bill Shatner | 7 Comments

Movie Reviews with BBT Critic Jef Taylor

My original plan for this late October Soylent Screen column was to do "The Naturalist Presents," in other words a bunch of horror movies that no one but me would dare to recommend.  And don’t worry, I’ll still do so with a shortened list, but in between thinking of the idea and deadline time something happened to derail my train of thought.  That something was Murder Party, an indie horror comedy that deserves to be reviewed and recommended now, so that you wonderful BBT readers will be aware of it and have a chance to rent the dvd before Halloween.

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BBT Flash Fiction Contest BETA Now Open!

Filed Under FFCBeta | Leave a Comment

BBT FLASH FICTION CONTEST BETA

Topic: This contest will run through November 22nd so let’s say CONSPIRACY. It has to be sci-fi/fantasy/horror/etc and it as to have some satire in there somewhere. 1,000 words.

The contest is open NOW. Details follow.

Get writing!

–G

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