Short animation

Click on the title for the link.

This is a short animation of horror from "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe.

We Were Soldiers Once… And Young

The book i recently picked up is called "We Were Soldiers Once… And Young" Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and war journalist Joseph L Galloway. This book describe the even of the Vietnam War, the main focus is on Gen. H-Moore's 7th cavalry Regiment during th battle of "La Drang Valley." This battle is the first Large unit war in Vietnam. Many soldiers died during the landings and hard battle environments. This book was published in 1992, the film adaption is outstanding, similar to the story itself. These are the true events. The book just explains it a bit in detail of what went through the Generals mind, and what he did to prepare himself and his men for the battle of this life.

Dracula: Film vs. Novel

After finishing Dracula, the novel, I decided to watch Dracula: Dead and Loving it, the parody with Leslie Nielson. As I started it up on Netflix, I remembered the trailer and was expecting it to be completely independent of the novel with no similarities other than it is a story about a vampire named Count Dracula. Although the famous horror story was instantly turned into a comedy that had me "loling" from start to finish, it did i pretty good job setting the mood for a horror story. In the background at times a organ type instrument would play those "traditional scary tunes" that people normally think about when hearing about a horror story. In addition there would be a thin layer of smoke on the ground.

The movie also did a good job showing the physical features of vampires such as, pale skin, (described, in the novel, when Harker first met the Count), absence during the day (seen throughout the novel), absence of a reflection (shown, in the novel, when Dracula creeps up on Harker while shaving), and even the ability to climb up and down the sides of buildings.

There were many plot parallels throughout the movie. One parallel was the scene where three gorgeous female vampires come to Harker's room and attempt to seduce him for his blood before Dracula stops them. In the movie for some reason, Harker is not the character that travels to the counts castle, but instead it is Renfield. Other parallels consist of the scene where Van Helsing and the others watch over Lucy's tomb. Again, the only differences are the characters in the scene and their role. More generally speaking, the main difference between the novel and the film is the "usage" of characters and their roles.

One thing that disappointed me was the exclusion of the "strange" scene where Van Helsing and the others come across Mina sipping from a wound on Dracula's chest. I wanted this to be included hoping that if I saw it visually, I would be easier to grasp the situation and understand what was going, in addition to its purpose in the novel.

Unlike the novel, at all, where I stated that the plot seemed stretched out and prolonged, the movie seemed extremely rushed. The movie had the potential to be that much better if it were mad longer and with a slower pace. Some scenes to me felt like they were over before they even started. On that note, much was cut out from the movie such as the scenes in the beginning when Harker was a "prisoner" of Dracula.

The Trope of Love

In The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, there were many tropes that defined what a romance was supposed to have. However, the trope, Disability Superpower, seemed to be a major theme of the novel. Time traveling, in the context of the novel, is considered a genetic disorder because for the protagonist, he was born with it and he can't control when he will time travel and in what time he will appear in. It may sound like this book is more science fiction but from sci-fi sprouts romance. The book revolves around the relationship between the girl and guy which portrays romance but time travel happens to create problems between them which squeezes in a little of sci-fi.

Top 25

holographic darkness a sci-fi short story

The moon lite sky was amazingly bright and slightly offset by the gritty street, as I walked between the avenues of crane and peek, a narrow and winding road filled with dark cybertronic conjuration and their ill-fated holographic thought forms that billowed and lurked beyond the edge of darkness.

Sci-Fi rules of engagement

Science fiction like any other genre of literature is based upon its own set of rules and perimeters which dictate the types of content that is allowed to be used within its stores. I have been reading science fiction for quite some time and the same themes and troops are always prevalent, in my opinion sci-fi unlike like other fiction genres is dependent on reality and meta-reality equally. This fragile balance between the real and almost could be real is to me what makes science fiction so appealing. My initial run-ins with science fiction happen during my early years of genera exploration, which at the time were primarily composed of long informative nonfiction type texts and there corresponding sub categorizes . I ultimately found that science fiction was a worthwhile stretch and interesting read. My earliest science fiction titles dealt with postmodern post-apocalyptic scenarios in which the protagonist is born into a world much like our own yet altered by some drastic event that brings about radical often fundamentalist change to the face of the planet. This brings me to the book that I am currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson the story is set in a similar anti-altruistic society in which virtual reality cybernetic and cooperate espionage melt together to form a gritty and highly enjoyable sci-fi thriller with all the trappings of a full length action movie and then some. Neuromancer is by all measures a classic, it was written in 1984 and still has all the zest and vitality of the popular newer texts in its genre.

The Shining: Movie Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cb3ik6zP2I

I can't wait to watch this!

Bond At His Best

Both Bond books and films have epic fighting scenese just like this one. Bond is so cool... To bad he is a Brit. (Embeding of video was disabled, sorry). Click the title for the sweet fight.

Cue the Bond Music...NaaaNaaNaNaaaaa.....

Wow, talk about "Live and Let Die", a fantasticly bold, daring and action packed James Bond book. Right away Bond receives his briefing from M, the male, unlike the new movies which are a woman (Judi Dench) and soon enough he has people either following him or trying to intimidate him with small bombs in his hotel room. Bond has no time to rest, adapt or get the full gist of how he will go about with the mission. The book is great, it unfolds just as you would expect, Bond gets into a load of trouble with a fierce Harlem and Jamaica based mob, but manages to squeeze his way out but soon enough he has to watch every step he makes or he will die. Although Bond is sophisticated, suave and works well under pressure in both the movie and the book, they portray him differently. In the movie, Bond seems impenetrable, as if it would be impossible to kill him, let alone hurt him while in the book the bad guys managed to brake his finger! Also unbelievable is the fact that Bond said that he will make love with the beautiful Solitaire only after he finishes the mission...WHAT? Bond said what?! I thought his only weakness was women and how could he resist to making love with the gorgeously described Solitaire. As opposed to the movies, the book looks like it spans over a period of a week or two, while the movie seems somewhat longer. Bond is always on the run, always seems to be in danger and throughout the book, I have seen him rest for only about two days total. Either way, Bond is the man and the book is great. Seeing as how the book differs from the film in various ways, I would like to continue reading other Bond books. (I have finished this one, just a tad bit late on the blogging).