Batman: Animated Collection (2016)

Batman: Animated Collection (2016)

Dirs. Various (see individual paragraphs for respective credits)

Five animated films that showcase a number of different aspects of the Batman universe.

Alternatively, a money-grabbing collection from unconnected eras in Batman's animated history that don't complement each other much.

However you look at it, it's the only way to get three of the five films on Blu-ray in the UK without importing, so is perhaps noteworthy to those that prefer that particular format.

See below the cut for short musings on each one. I've listed them in the peculiar order that they're presented in the set, which isn't the order they were made or released and definitely isn't a very logical way in which to view them.

Stargate SG-1: Season 01-10 Mockups

SG-1: Hastily Made Mockups for Review Posts

Related to the Stargate posts on The 7th and Last blog.

I was unable to find existing cover art of acceptable size and quality for the SG-1 posts that I made on The 7th and Last blog, so I hastily made my own. They're uninspired, but they did what I needed them to do. Maybe they'll be of some use to someone; e.g., folder images (cropped to a square), or placeholders until something better can be found or created, etc, by the one in need.

If they can serve a non-profit purpose for you, use them however you wish. I don't own them. I simply modified and repurposed an existing image that I found on the internet. When you get right down to it, can anyone ever really 'own' something that's been posted on the internet?

You can throw a painted pebble into a pool of water but can't claim ownership of the ripples that occur (or the pebble, for that matter). One can only hope that folks who repost stuff don't be an asshole and use them for inappropriate means. But as always, let your conscience be your guide.

Hollow Eve's Mourning After (2021)

Some Truth (Betwixt the Lies)

Many moons ago, in a Kingdom United, October's end was a seasonal occasion duly respected by the nature-loving folk who dwelled there. But all things change, sooner or later, and during a night of storms and knives a wicked hunger was born in the hearts of some men, which quickly spread.

The Kingdom's protectors were unwilling or unable to stop the capitalist greed that slowly consumed the once-good people.

In time, the cruel equation that ensures the rich get richer and the poor become poorer was added to a child's primary education.

Generations later, behind closed doors, handpicked scientists, doctors, and surgeons began working on a method to have it coded directly into the DNA of newborns. But it wasn't necessary, because the children copied what their parents did: as they grew, they looked around and deemed what they had to be of lesser economic value to what they felt their peers had, so they embraced the government approved ideology with great zeal, as if it were mandate.

The Official Star Trek Fact Files (1997-2002)

The Official Star Trek Fact Files (1997-2002)

Authors: Various | Illustrators: Various | Page Count: 8512 (28 pp x 304 issues)

(Alternatively, 7904 not counting the cover + table of contents of each individual issue.)

Partworks - they keep making them, so there must be an acceptable profit margin in it for publishers, even though a huge percentage of folks will get pissed off with the duration and expense and give up buying the damned things before the final issue rolls off the presses.

The Official STFF ran longer than most, over five years, and anyone buying the bi-monthly issues was lucky if their copy wasn't dog-eared and coming apart at the seams, which were designed to come apart (they were perforated), but not, I think, before they even left the fuggin' store!

Information on what the Files contain is better documented on the dedicated Star Trek wikis (Memory Alpha, for example), so if you want a detailed rundown, I recommend visiting those.

What's below is just one person's thoughts on the publication. I didn't have the full collection, I stopped buying the issues when the store that I got them from failed to fulfil the request, but I'd a hell of a lot. I donated the entirety of what I had to a children's charity some years back, when moving into a smaller property, but I got years of enjoyment from them and am pleased that they also aided a good cause - and this post.

Edgar Allan Poe: A Dream Within a Dream (1849)

A Dream Within a Dream

by Edgar Allan Poe | 1849

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

Mothra: US Lobby Cards (1962)

Mothra: US Lobby Cards (1962)

W.A.S.P. - Reidolized - The Film (2018)

W.A.S.P. - Reidolized

(The Soundtrack to The Crimson Idol)

Dir. Ralph Ziman

Even though I'll be referring to the album itself, the text below is primarily for the sixty-minute 'film' that accompanied W.A.S.P.'s re-recording of their fifth studio album, The Crimson Idol, which was originally released back in 1992. If ever I do a band discography post I'll give the new version of the album the kudos it deserves.

The 'film' is the album's songs with occasional v/o narration by vocalist Blackie Lawless; i.e., parts of The Story of Jonathan (Prologue to the Crimson Idol) track that was included on the 1998 remaster of the 1992 concept album.

Documenting the tragic rise and fall of a fictional rock star named Jonathan Aaron Steele, and incorporating such themes as abandonment, emotional need, addiction, ambition and, ultimately, self-worth, it's presented in grainy lo-fi B+W with frequent splashes of symbolic crimson. It's a conceptually interesting idea that nevertheless gets tiresome pretty quickly.