Laserdisc Rot

I like to consider myself an armchair Batman pop culture historian. I once toyed with the idea of making a podcast over some of the studying I've done - but as I mentioned in this defense of 1966 Batman , "do we really need another white dude talking with false confidence on a niche topic?" I'd still like to write full posts on them - maybe even some kind of book? Whether or not there's interest in something silly like that, I take watching media on The Batman very seriously. In my research on Batman villains, I happily consumed the 1966 episodes, skimmed the Wikipedia synopses on the episodes of Super Friends , reveled in the Batman The Animated Series , and had hit or miss of the pre-Nolan films. From there, you suddenly have an explosion of Batman: Year One , Batman Begins , Batman Beyond , The Batman , Beware the Batman , Batman: Brave and the Bold , Son of Batman , Batman and Harley Quinn , Batman: Gotham Knight , Batman: Gotham by Gaslight , Batman: The Dark...

As I mentioned almost two months ago , I've been doing art on the daily. It's still going on. Today marks my 60th day of making art every day  and I'm still loving it. It's been an absolute treat watching my art improve. And now I have another report for this goofy blog. Almost a month ago, I started a project of painting tarot cards based on films that are special to me. The choice wasn't always a perfect fit for the tarot and the film, but each film is special to me for some reason and I wanted a chance to showcase them. That's what I'll be doing today. 0 - The Fool Film: Monsieur Hulot's Holiday Year: 1953 Director: Jacques Tati Every journey starts with a single step. The Fool represents beginnings in many ways. I'm not sure Tati's famous clown, Hulot, is the perfect fool, but once this image was in my head, I had to exorcise it. Deeper into the Hulot series, Tati uses M. Hulot's general ignorance of how society is "supposed" to...

As I've stated On Here, I've started a non-profit that is all about making movies more accessible in Appalachia. Between Sony becoming a champion of killing physical media ( which I railed against a few weeks back ) and the general toxic affect capitalism has on small towns (a topic that I've been brewing on for a while, so expect a post about it at some point) its becoming harder and harder for folks to consume media - this is exaggerated the poorer you are. Communal screenings is something that is not just anathema to both the presidents of Sony and Netflix - it's something they think is dying and they're doing what they can to drive a stake into its heart. I, not so respectfully, disagree with them. People showed up for Charade  !! This past weekend, our non-profit hosted our very first event! We held a free screening of Charade  (1963) for the community. We worked with a local tattoo parlor, Woolly Worm, that has an artist lounge in its backroom for a venue. We...

I had a call with my best friend from college the other day. While I went into software development for the web, that guy is a scientist playing with plasma physics. He’s also a world-class Ultimate Frisbee player, but that’s probably best for another blog. Anyways, he asked me my thoughts on AI. I gave it to him straight: I believe Generative AI to be an unforgiving and unforgivable technology. I stole that phrase from Ursula Franklin, who was an amazing woman. In her 1989 Massey Lecture, The Real World of Technology , she says that “nuclear power is an unforgiving and unforgivable technology.” She says this as a research physicist that refused to work with nuclear power. She said that nuclear power left an indelible mark on both the planet and mankind and that no use of it could excuse that unethical side effect. I believe the same thing with Generative AI. While there is nothing as dramatic as Hiroshima, Chernobyl, or Three Mile Island to point to as an example of the unforgiving im...

I was watching Return to Oz  yesterday (as one does on the Fourth of July). My mom and I both have an odd love for it - and one of the twins was oddly fascinated by it. Got me thinking about this old article I posted. It was originally published on The Roarbots back in September 2021. That blog was a fun time but, sadly, is no longer hosted anywhere. So I figured for this week I'd repost it. It's a favorite of mine. Enjoy. What a wholesome film? Right. Right?? Body horror is definitely a niche realm of horror that is hit or miss for a lot of people. Some of the concepts are universal – even though some of the delivery gets to be too gross or visceral for most. But I can’t get enough of it for some reason. The themes are fascinating to me. For those who aren’t familiar with the subgenre, I once described it to my mom as “horror where you don’t have full agency of your body.” Her response was, “Would that make werewolves body horror?” Right on the money. The classic werewolves ha...

This is not going to be a suddenly crazy new stance for most of my online mutuals: I'm known by most as "that guy who has way too many laserdiscs." An excuse to post my LaserDisc collection? Don't mind if I do! This week, Playstation announced that they were removing over 500 films  from their streaming service because of a lapse of rights. This goes beyond "you can't stream it" or "you can't rent it." If you had "purchased" it on there, you will also lose it. If this is news to you, I truly am sorry. Because a streaming service can only provide a film as long as they either own the rights or they have a deal for those rights - when you "purchase" a film on there - you ain't buying it. You are "long-term renting it." Check the fine print you always just click away. Sony is not special in this relationship to video media - its built into all  streaming services. So if you (like me, I must confess) purchased ...