movies

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vampire in Venice

I guess it makes sense that someone with a blog called ‘vampires in the sunshine state’ would have several friends direct his attention to this story about a ‘vampire’ discovered in a plague grave in Venice that has been doing the rounds on the net for the past couple of days.

It reminds me of the excellent, if slow, movie Vampires in Venice starring Klaus Kinski.

Which further reminds me of the plague imagery in his remake of Nosferatu.

References to the shroud in the Reuters article isn’t something you see used much in vampire movies. The most obvious one that comes to mind is The Vampire Lovers, with the unforgettable Ingrid Pitt.

Mention of the shroud reminds me of the band, The Shroud, who do a lovely cover of Alice, the Sisters of Mercy song.

Now, Alice sparks name recognition with my mate, Alice Henderson, who has just released what I believe is a pretty neat book called Voracious, given Alice is right at home camping out in all weather in the mountains, and her book draws heavily on that experience. That and the fact that she’s written Buffy books. Way cool.

All of which is a highly convoluted way of suggesting you check out Alice’s book. 🙂

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Tron, Depeche Mode and Fox Klein (and SF stuff at the end)

What, I hear your cyberbrains muse, do those three things have in common? No, wait, that’s not you at all, it’s the rickety desk fan making that peg-leg rattle because it’s set on 2 and the little pin that stops it from rotating isn’t working quite right. But it’s a fair question, just the same.

Thursday. Another dull day at the sausage factory. Cut, paste, upload. Repeat. And then Sean Williams, bless his love of 80s electronic music, sent me this. It is essentially a trailer for Tron, set to one of my favourite Depeche Mode songs, Suffer Well. And done very nicely, too.

And where does the comedian Fox Klein fit in? Well, nowhere, except that he, and the two Coronas I had with dinner, were the highlight of the evening at the Sit Down Comedy Club. A charismatic comedian, offering a storyline or at least a consistent theme with moments of absolute cleverness, and lots of relationship/sex talk without resorting to smut.

Which goes to show how music, fantasy and a sense of humour will overcome 🙂

Meanwhile, check out this download from ABC Radio’s Book Show, featuring Aurealis Award winners Jonathan Strahan, Alison Goodman and KA Bedford talking about the importance of the awards, speculative fiction’s ability to compete for attention in the wider market place, and other stuff.

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Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

The old blog has been a bit quiet this past week, on account of my actually doing some effing writing (woohoo!). How to get the wheels running again after a long period of abstinence? Check this excellent tip from the most excellent Kim Wilkins — it works for me 🙂

Meanwhile, though, we did slip out to take in the latest Underworld movie, Rise of the Lycans. It’s a prequel, fleshing out the history flashbacked in the first movie (I promptly forgot everything about the second movie, it was that atrocious; not as bad as the second Highlander movie *shudder, we do not call it by its name* but still pretty naff — what was it with that helicopter scene??).

It was done well, for the most part, especially once it got going. Rhona Mitra played the part well, and looked enough like Kate Beckinsale in vampire mode, far moreso than the *blonde* actress they used in the first movie. Bill Nighy was his spitting best. The werewolves looked cool. But I was left with the feeling, why? What did this movie tell us that we didn’t know already, and that we really needed to know to have a better understanding of the other movies? Answer: not a lot. And for my money, not enough vampire action. But that’s probably just me.

If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about and have managed to read this far, check out the trailer.

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Happy birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

January 19, 2009, is the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth. And what a talent he was, with a life so tragic and twisted and mysterious even that continues to tantalise, as if his incredible oeuvre was not enough.

To find out more about dear old Edgar, check out this site which not only has an extensive bio, but most if not all of his works available to read online.

And while I’m lamenting lost talents, it’s worth a second moment of introspection for Vincent Price, who played so many roles based on Poe’s work and gave them a certain, haunted, insane, camp rendition.

Gentlemen, I owe you one.

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Star Wars Lego

A friend’s son produced this stop-animation Star Wars using Lego. I think it’s pretty darn cool. Especially since Thomas is only 10. Watch out, George Lucas!

You can see some of Thomas’s earlier works at his YouTube channel.

Oh, and then there’s this: A trailer for Dark Knight, probably my favourite flick from 08, done in Lego.

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melbourne horror con

Just found out about a convention in March in Melbourne featuring a swag (well, four) actors, who’ve appeared in horror movies and TV shows, and for some inexplicable reason, Suicide Girls. I guess for a certain demographic horror and T&A go together. Pity, that. Anyhoo, the Hub horror con reads like one of those Star Trek-style cons where the guests parade through a Q&A panel or two and sign autographs for a fee, and certainly the talent is attractive (Suicide Girls not included, attractive yes, talent… debatable): Robert Englund, Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Combs and Tony Dodd, and a promise of more to come.


Also of interest is the Supernatural con they’re planning for April, with the stars of the TV show Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Incredibly, tickets costing $1400 and $800 have sold out. Are these boys hot or what?

There is also some do related to Twilight, but I think both the book and movie are naff, so I didn’t check that out 🙂