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Henry David Thoreau: A Life
Book
Walden. Yesterday I came here to live. That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the...
Rhythm Alchemy: In Search of the Philospher's Stone
Book
According to Socrates, humans have nothing more to learn because we already know everything we need...
Tang Garden
Tabletop Game
The Tang dynasty was considered the first golden age of the classical and now iconic Chinese...
BoardGames 2018Games ZenGames GardenGames
Jamie (131 KP) rated Uzumaki (3-in-1, Deluxe Edition): Includes Vols. 1, 2 & 3: Vols. 1, 2 & 3 in Books
Jun 4, 2017
Nightmare fuel in it’s purest form
Spirals exist everywhere in nature: in the shells of snails, the petals of a flower, the swirling clouds of a hurricane, even the shape of whole galaxies. Why this shape continues to show up over and over again in nature is still a bit of a mystery. For the most part spirals are viewed as aesthetically pleasing, appealing to humanity throughout the centuries.
What makes Uzumaki so brilliant is that it takes something so abstract and transforms it into pure nightmare fuel, utterly corrupting one of nature's most beautiful shapes: the spiral. When I had first started reading this comic I was skeptical, how could a geometic shape be scary? There is nothing inherently sinister about a shape, just as there is nothing all that unusual about the town.
Uzumaki challenged my perception of horror in it’s twisting narrative, starting slow as the madness began to spread, spiraling out like a flower in bloom. As the story reached a fever pitch, it quickly descends, like a whirlpool sucking everything underneath it’s surface. Pure genius.
The art is also a wonder in itself, with extremely detailed drawings depicting some of the best examples of body horror that I’ve ever seen. While this is of course up for debate, many fans and critics have chosen Uzumaki as Ito’s magnum opus, and after reading a couple of his other comics I would have to agree. Uzumaki is one of the best works of horror I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I highly recommend this for any fan of horror, but especially for fans of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, whose books greatly influenced Ito in his creation of the series.
What makes Uzumaki so brilliant is that it takes something so abstract and transforms it into pure nightmare fuel, utterly corrupting one of nature's most beautiful shapes: the spiral. When I had first started reading this comic I was skeptical, how could a geometic shape be scary? There is nothing inherently sinister about a shape, just as there is nothing all that unusual about the town.
Uzumaki challenged my perception of horror in it’s twisting narrative, starting slow as the madness began to spread, spiraling out like a flower in bloom. As the story reached a fever pitch, it quickly descends, like a whirlpool sucking everything underneath it’s surface. Pure genius.
The art is also a wonder in itself, with extremely detailed drawings depicting some of the best examples of body horror that I’ve ever seen. While this is of course up for debate, many fans and critics have chosen Uzumaki as Ito’s magnum opus, and after reading a couple of his other comics I would have to agree. Uzumaki is one of the best works of horror I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I highly recommend this for any fan of horror, but especially for fans of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, whose books greatly influenced Ito in his creation of the series.
RəX Regent (349 KP) rated The Birds (1963) in Movies
Feb 25, 2019
Hitchcock at his best
1960 saw the release of Psycho, Hitchcock's signature work, but Psycho is not the only film that people think of when talking about his work. The Birds, made three years later, has a warm place in film fans hearts and a much larger fan base than people seem to think.
I know more people who dislike Psycho compared to those who like The Birds and I feel that this is most defiantly Alfred Hitchcock at his best. Rear Window and Vertigo are also up there but this film offers the right blend of shocks and a disturbing sense of dread, that makes it accessible by many, whilst still being fun to watch.
The birds have turned. Nature is taking her wrath upon man for a brief moment, but the sheer scale of the idea that nature could turn on us is a primally frightening concept. I do feel that this was the vain in which M. Night Shyamalan's dismal The Happening was attempting to tap into decades later, but Hitchcock got this right first time, for all time.
The effects are dated but their impact is still strong, as the ideas are so pronounced that there's little need to show anything. The acting is decent and the direction, though not as perfect as many would argue for Hitch, still doing the job well. This is a timeless and more accessible Hitchcock classic than Psycho, yet often dismissed and I wonder why?
Both films are clear genre pieces and are still being drawn from today. This is a textbook thriller with a natural twist and a dire tone. But the image of the crow massing on telegraph poles is a simple as it it frighting, just because it happens every day
I know more people who dislike Psycho compared to those who like The Birds and I feel that this is most defiantly Alfred Hitchcock at his best. Rear Window and Vertigo are also up there but this film offers the right blend of shocks and a disturbing sense of dread, that makes it accessible by many, whilst still being fun to watch.
The birds have turned. Nature is taking her wrath upon man for a brief moment, but the sheer scale of the idea that nature could turn on us is a primally frightening concept. I do feel that this was the vain in which M. Night Shyamalan's dismal The Happening was attempting to tap into decades later, but Hitchcock got this right first time, for all time.
The effects are dated but their impact is still strong, as the ideas are so pronounced that there's little need to show anything. The acting is decent and the direction, though not as perfect as many would argue for Hitch, still doing the job well. This is a timeless and more accessible Hitchcock classic than Psycho, yet often dismissed and I wonder why?
Both films are clear genre pieces and are still being drawn from today. This is a textbook thriller with a natural twist and a dire tone. But the image of the crow massing on telegraph poles is a simple as it it frighting, just because it happens every day
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Wolves of Savin Hill (2014) in Movies
Aug 16, 2019
The indie movie, The Wolves of Savin Hill is a very fine directorial debut for John Beaton Hill. He also wrote this story where sentimentalities and brutality clash between two best friends who have lost touch over the years. In their youth, they made a promise youth that now haunts them as they are adults. In what results is a trial of what’s left of their friendship. In how this film treats the subject matter is like that of silent lucidity.
In what they have become, Tom (David Cooley) stayed in Boston only to grow up to be an alcoholic troublemaker and Sean (Brian Scannell) relocated to Los Angeles with Tom’s sister Emily to eventually work the beat as a cop with an axe to grind. Anyone who tries to mess with him often got the end of the stick. But when Emily is found dead and news reaches home, Tom goes to LA to confront Sean. The web of deceit he finds himself in is more than he can handle.
Cooley and Scannel deliver strong performances. The plot only gets stranger at every succeeding moment, and the draw this film creates gets viewers invested into wanting to understand the psyche of each of these leading men. Hill crafted a nicely enticing film that wraps two time periods together to reveal the darkest nature of what friends are willing to do for each other. The flashbacks are far more interesting than the now.
To reveal anymore information will only spoil the causality of how these two have to contend with each other. When this film hits more festivals, viewers can discover for themselves in what human nature means according to this filmmaker. The hills have eyes and what he sees may not be necessarily good.
In what they have become, Tom (David Cooley) stayed in Boston only to grow up to be an alcoholic troublemaker and Sean (Brian Scannell) relocated to Los Angeles with Tom’s sister Emily to eventually work the beat as a cop with an axe to grind. Anyone who tries to mess with him often got the end of the stick. But when Emily is found dead and news reaches home, Tom goes to LA to confront Sean. The web of deceit he finds himself in is more than he can handle.
Cooley and Scannel deliver strong performances. The plot only gets stranger at every succeeding moment, and the draw this film creates gets viewers invested into wanting to understand the psyche of each of these leading men. Hill crafted a nicely enticing film that wraps two time periods together to reveal the darkest nature of what friends are willing to do for each other. The flashbacks are far more interesting than the now.
To reveal anymore information will only spoil the causality of how these two have to contend with each other. When this film hits more festivals, viewers can discover for themselves in what human nature means according to this filmmaker. The hills have eyes and what he sees may not be necessarily good.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Sapphire and Steel in TV
Apr 2, 2020
It would be easy to mark Sapphire and Steel down just for being so obviously a low-budget, studio-bound TV show, but this would be to overlook just what a startlingly distinctive and uncompromising piece of... well, entertainment doesn't quite cover it, for the programme seemingly sets out to baffle the viewer as well as divert them. It is notionally a fantasy, but elements of SF and horror also appear. Stories mostly take place in out-of-the-way places like remote cottages, junk shops, the tops of tower blocks, disused railway stations and so on. The structure of time seems to be weaker in these places and when it breaks down or is interfered with, operatives such as Sapphire and Steel and their occasional colleagues appear to resolve the situation.
This is pretty much all we are told about the format of the series - who and what Sapphire and Steel are, what the limits of their powers are, and who they answer to, is never made clear (even the nature of their mission seems to change from story to story). The cryptic, often surreal nature of the series is one of its main attractions, along with the chemistry between the stars (occasional ally Silver, played by David Collings, is also a joy to watch).
The bleak and eerie atmosphere of the stories is consistently impressive, as is the clear understanding of visual style possessed by the makers: stories are filled with startling images and symbols, occasionally drawn from the visual arts (one adversary is basically a Magritte painting brought to life). Always memorable, and never more so than in its final episodes: the sheer unexpected bizarreness of Sapphire and Steel's fate makes it all the more shocking and downbeat. A unique and very distinctive series.
This is pretty much all we are told about the format of the series - who and what Sapphire and Steel are, what the limits of their powers are, and who they answer to, is never made clear (even the nature of their mission seems to change from story to story). The cryptic, often surreal nature of the series is one of its main attractions, along with the chemistry between the stars (occasional ally Silver, played by David Collings, is also a joy to watch).
The bleak and eerie atmosphere of the stories is consistently impressive, as is the clear understanding of visual style possessed by the makers: stories are filled with startling images and symbols, occasionally drawn from the visual arts (one adversary is basically a Magritte painting brought to life). Always memorable, and never more so than in its final episodes: the sheer unexpected bizarreness of Sapphire and Steel's fate makes it all the more shocking and downbeat. A unique and very distinctive series.
OCR A Level Economics: Book 1
Book
This textbook has been produced in collaboration with OCR for use with the new 2015 OCR Economics...
Global Governance and Transnationalizing Capitalist Hegemony: The Myth of the 'Emerging Powers'
Book
This book is a critique of claims regarding how emerging economies are supposedly rewriting the...
International Dispute Resolution and the Public Policy Exception
Book
Despite the unprecedented growth of arbitration and other means of ADR in treaties and transnational...