MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE BLU-RAY OCT 23 2018

GREAT NEWS!

Stephen King's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

coming to Blu ray

Oct 23, 2018

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE PRE-ORDER

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I honestly don't care about the fact that it's 1080p or any of the special features and b.s. like that.

What's REALLY FNNN AWESOME is the Goblin truck shown on the front cover almost centralized as it is.  I mean, as much as I love the Karl Lorimar VHS cover-art from the old video store days of 1987-1992, I gotta say it could have been a little clearer.  The Goblin face does come across as downright blurry even on a near mint collector's copy being sold on eBay.  Sealed copies are very rare and absurdly expensive.  The Anchor Bay 1996 re-issue with similar but inferior cover-art is a little easier to find, but it's vastly inferior, and even if I were to go a little easier on it, it's just not worth spending $15 on a sealed VHS tape.  I'm buying a VHS for either one of two reasons

1) It's going to remain sealed for display purposes, which I can't afford to be utilizing my money on at this point, even if it's 70% off of the alternative of buying what I *actually* want

---OR---

I can buy a sealed copy with the false assurance that the tape is going to playback at a higher quality because of the factory seal not being broken.

Either way, it's a waste.  I don't need to buy a sealed VHS just to watch a movie on VHS.  Cassettes get old.  They just do.  Sealed or not, dust accumulates through the tiniest molecule of torn shrinkwrap and then if you have a TV bigger than 15", you get absolutely no benefit from the "formatted to fit your TV" business of VHS.  OF course, when your wide/flat-screen TV is only 19-22", those black bars can sometimes get in the way depending on how the movie in question was filmed.

AAAanyway;

Er.  Seriously.  There has still **NEVER** been a DVD edition of this movie that featured the Goblin truck on the front cover.  The two DVD editions (in the U.S. at least) that got on the mainstream distribution circuit featured a painting of a truck grill plastered with scraps of human remains.  Kinda gross, fitting I guess, since that's what some people think of when they hear the name Stephen King.  This guy I knew from St. Louis, staying in Cape Girardeau for his college education couldn't wrap his head around my interest with movies that had a melancholy or negative slant to them.  It's not like I watched exclusively horror movies.  He knew this.  I did see some pretty big shockers when I was 14 and 15.  But aside from PIECES and BLOOD DINER, the availability of viable gore clotted rather quickly.  I'm really not sure why I watched so many horror movies when I was 14 and 15.  I eventually realized how pointless it was and gave up.  I did have some intention of writing a book similar to Videohound compiling horror movies and stating noteworthy facts about the movies such as the cast etc.  But that was kind of a fruitless pursuit because I seriously was falling asleep during half of them by the time I got to be 16 and 17.  So obviously my interest in the genre and my limited awareness of what constitutes a "noteworthy" fact in the context of a horror movie was not really fit for a book about horror movies.  I also thought I was going to be in a band someday.  Yeah.  I wonder why that never happened....?...big mystery there, I know, am I right or am I?

Anyway.

Stephen King, especially this particular movie, was not all about gore.  It was almost an action movie in some respects but also a bit of a dark comedy, albeit centered around a world betrayed by its' own creations.  THE DEAD ZONE, like THE GREEN MILE, had some dark and dreary stuff, gore/violence, but was not really a horror film.  CARRIE was almost a Lifetime Movie of the Week, except the gore element really got played up to the 9s toward the end.  SALEM'S LOT and THE SHINING were both very much horror movies, but were rather limited in their gore quotient.  The concept of vampirism was used more as a social commentary about small town idiocy in SALEM'S LOT and THE SHINING seems to be King reflecting on the ways he was failing his family with his drug addictions, framed in the context of the going ons within a haunted hotel in the area's off season.

Ehh (big belly sigh sigh)

Anyway.........

Hmm.

This movie is a little cheaper at a couple other sites.  It might go further down in price at those sites as well as Amazon.  I doubt I'll be able to order it by or before Oct 23.  I saw at a BestBuy a similarly packaged BLOOD DINER with a price tag that wasn't really any better than what you see there --- MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE as of the moment is $32.99, although it'll probably go down to maybe $22.99 and then go back up shortly after to somewhere closer to $25+   It'll probably go down to under $20 eventually, of that I have no doubt).

My wants are piling up, seriously.

Also been wanting IDW's 1st GHOSTBUSTERS hardcover omnibus ($30-$40 retail)

and IDW's represings of NOW COMICS' THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS comics from the mid-late 80's (vol. 1)  ($20 standard retail)

and a sealed copy of the original VHS edition of Wes Craven's THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (I found one on Amazon, still haven't found the will to jump on it)

And then IDW's GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL, which is basically IDW attempting to re-write the massive mess that Paul Feig's movie was, complete with a much more compelling story and more definition to the characters.

Those 3 GB items alone are like 5 years worth of birthday gifts, as if I have any business hoping for anybody to buy me anything for my birthday.  For crying out loud --- I'm 34 years old and the only accomplishment to my name is providing minor small batches of assistance to my mom when she babysits my two nephews.  And my mom knows me enough to suspect when it's about time for me to up and go home and just waste my day down and away.  My sister was kind enough and financially blessed enough (more so the former than the latter I think...) to spend almost $100 on dinner out to an Italian restaurant in celebration of my 34th year of existence (granted, some of that $100 was for her and her husband, as well as my mom and my 1st(and@thetime only)nephew but still....)  Just sayin'...idk......I don't know why I'm so antsy about it.  I'll probably (although it's by no means a guarantee) get $20+ circa Christmas and then in January I can whittle down that list a little.  It's really not important.  If it were, I'd be dead or have done it already.  I don't need "my" books to be healthy or happy.  It just seems like if I were going to spend money, why not in that manner?  What do I spend money on instead?  Little spots of insignifance...idk.  Like I can't stand having money but I don't want to spend it unwisely....yet I somehow trick myself into thinking I've reached a compromise and really I just downright waste my money.   Ibought 3 CDS from FYE about a week ago.  I sold one of them at CD WArehouse a couple days ago during my psychiatrist appointment to get a refill of RX and the other one I tried to sell to CD Warehouse but they wouldn't accept it (not sure why).  The other CD was not yet received because they somehow didn't include it in the shipment, and I didn't know this until the package came.  Now I gotta try to sell that one.  It might be maybe worth keeping if I hadn't already bought that album on digital.  But really, half the songs on it (LAST YOUNG RENEGADE by All Time Low) are just filler.  "Dirty Laundry" and "Good Times" are the two standouts, although there's nothing really all that great about those particular songs.  The title track is OK.  It sets the tone for the album.  Their collaboration with former Indie rock it darlings Tegan & Sara was also really good.  I never can remember what it's called.

I also bought 2 DVDs and a CD from SecondSpin.com and I now intend to sell the DVD that I haven't yet already sold and the CD I'm keeping, although I don't listen to it that often and am kinda trying to suck as much out of Spotify before my 2 free months are up on the 3rd of September.  I have enough CDs to go a month without Spotify.  I need to save up some money for Christmas.  I didn't get anybody squat last year except maybe my mom and my sister.  Not sure if I even did that.  So I need to get at least a little bit of some gifting done for my adopted family consisting of my Gramma Della and her two sons and biological granddaughter (my two uncles and my cousin).  They really have been great at welcoming me and my mom and sister.  I really never fully realized how much they cared about us until we got ready to leave Missouri and they each threw us a going away dinner gathering.  That was real cool.  I really had no idea my sister and my cousin were that close until my sister got invited along with me to her wedding and my Gramma was explaining their relationship and I was like "Yeah, I can see how that would mean something", but I figured those days were gone and the days themselves were just kinda there in the first place.  I don't personally have a whole lot of preference about people individually.  I consider human companionship to be a blessing, but who my friends are is really just a toss of the dime and friends really should be a dime a dozen and I don't expect anything out of anybody except to help when I need help, as outrageous as that may sound, I realize that's not a realistic expectation, but we're not meant to just let people drown when we spot it.  Many people more and more think it's OK to do that, and that's been going on for the past 40+ years, and some day it'll get just flat out weird if someone does stop to help someone that is clearly very much in NEED of help.  I don't expect favors granted me.  If I can get help with some small insignificant thing great.  But if nobody wants to, I'll get by.  Friends are just people you haven't met.  Unless they decide to be your enemy.  They may be your enemy, but you should be an allie to all people, through prayer.  Jesus did indeed say that and a lot of other things you can read of in THE HOLY BIBLE.

idk.  I'm probably not articulating half of what I'm saying here as well as I should.  Hhrrrrrrmmm.

MY MIND MAKES NOISES (2018 perfected)

These last few years have seen almost a torrent of bands trying to successfully tow the line between slick pop and indie rock.  The turning closer to slick pop and away from indie rock became almost official with 2008's OCEAN EYES by Owl City but then got toppled in 2013 with THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE by CHVRCHES.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than perhaps another album by CHVRCHES, this new band Pale Waves shows up.  Spotify has 10 songs by them, six of which are on their upcoming CD titled MY MIND MAKES NOISES.  The other 4 are part of an EP titled ALL THE THINGS I NEVER SAID.  They sound very similar to a band called The 1975, except this Pale Waves does it with more consistency in their quality of songwriting.  Most albums have a little bit of lull here and there, like filler that can still be satisfying in its own way.  For CHVRCHES, that was "Lungs" and "Science/Visions", but these guys have no lull.  In light of a recent playthrough of their 10 songs on Spotify, I can tell you there are some songs that are indeed stronger than others.  However, when six singles all manage to hit the spot, the remaining 8 from the upcoming LP have got to be WTF awful or this band is just really that freakin' good.

It comes out the same day as The Story So Far's new album.  But I'm kind of annoyed with that band after them taking all damn year and beyond to get stuff off the ground and their style was always a little obnoixous, and what the heck is this he's singing about Opiods?  Is he abusing prescription medication and singing songs bragging about it??!!!!?  I probably will buy it eventually but I had an order for it and the Pale Waves CD placed together at bullmoose.com, and decided to cancel the PROPER DOSE (SSF) portion of that order.  It seems weird breaking it up like that but I really need to trim things down.  I cannot really afford to pay for so much b.s. all the time for the rest of my days.  What I really need to do is focus on Jesus more and less on music and the other blessings God bestows upon us.  I need to take the advice that was spoken of on the radio -- be there for those that are important to you.  I get bored doing that, but it's not really that much of a chore really.  It's probably just as much of a chore doing that as it is sorting through stacks of music figuring out what if anything I want to listen to, full knowing that what I want to listen to I probably haven't even heard yet and whatever song I haven't heard yet that I want to hear probably sounds a lot like some other song that I may never even ever hear since all music borrows from itself, sometimes intentionally and other times not so much.

Not to mention life just resonates better with God in it.  I read The Bible Sunday and Monday last week, 3 total entries and everything just felt better.  I felt like I was in 3-D more so than usual.  Since then I've read one entry of my Daily Life Principles Bible edited/annotated by Charles Stanley, and it just isn't enough.  I had a psychiatrist appointment that took up 5 hours of the day between the drive to (45 mins apprx) and the drive back with a couple stops on the way (2 hours).  The waiting room took 1.5 hours.  I spent some time hugging my ill nephew (he's OK, just a little icky feeling) and for that brief moment I felt like I was fulfilling the entertained notion of presence purported by that guy on the radio I just wrote about a few lines up ago.

But I still neglected to read God's word.  It's not as if I didn't have time.  Sure, I had less time than I would have liked to have.  5 hours going to and from the psychiatrist and in between..... and 2.5 hours babysitting does cut into that but it doesn't make it some insurmountable feat.

Try again next time, if God wills a next time.  

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991) vs AVATAR (2009)

I found AVATAR rather annoying in the way it portrayed the success of the goody good lone wolf up against the behemoth of evil that he was up against.  This film, unlike that movie, is not based on a large chunk of one facet of US history.  This film is based on a long standing problem that far predates US history and is told in the most outrageous way possible.  It's over the top in the depictions of evil, and the "good guy" is less of a saintly type than the character in AVATAR.  More to the point, he's a child, and he has his convictions about morality, but he's still a child -- which means it's easier to talk him out of those convictions and get him entrenched in this twisted rabbit hole he ends up stumbled upon.  The film is basically a fairy tale.  The sleeping beauty of sorts whose stuck in the high tower waiting for her prince charming is indeed a Cinderella type, constantly walking on egg shells to avoid facing the cruelty of her parents, and is indeed rescued by an actual human being rather than a "fairy godmother" (whatever that is...).  A real whopper of a movie.  Sure, it's not a cure for poverty.  Wes Craven, regardless of his religious faith or lack thereof, should know based on his Biblical teaching that the poor have no savior except surrender to Jesus and that salvation is not in this life but in the next, for those who accept the terms laid forth in The Gospel.  AVATAR, on the other hand, made me yearn for a time and place where being gung ho about your beliefs was enough to keep you alive in your physical shell as it is currently known and not get struck down any minute by a giant robot.  People read the story of Daniel in the Lion's den and think the moral of the story is that God will keep you out of trouble if you pray to Him.  The fact is there is no moral to that story.  That story was a piece of a much bigger story.  And that much bigger story was a piece of an even bigger bigger story.  But I'm getting sidetracked.  Anywayyy.  I'm probably too tired to bother writing this anyway, although not tired enough to sleep I don't think.....maybe I'll edit this later, I might not.