Good Ooze and Bad Ooze

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Mozart Day
Thomas Crapper Day
Anniversary - Auschwitz Liberated
Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism (Germany)
Holocaust Memorial Day (UK)

 

Last night, somehow, the theme of the evening for Josh and me was melting brains, and there was good news and bad news.

First the bad news, to get it over with: Terry Pratchett’s brain is melting. No, I’m not kidding: he’s got early-onset Alzheimer’s. This sucks, but he seems to have a pretty good attitude about it, and I hold out hopes that he can hold it off for a while. But still—damn. We should all send him some crossword puzzles or something, athough judging from his books he already exercises his brain pretty well.

Now for the good news: My Cinematic Titanic DVD came! It is called The Oozing Skull, because it has nothing at all to do with an oozing skull.* But more importantly, it had a whole slew of original MST3k dudes making a comeback, and that is really what I was looking for.

 

Cinematic Titanic’s got some good stuff going for it.  Aside from a stellar group of writers/riffers, it takes full advantage of the Theatre Silhouette.  The visual jokes come into play often—chandeliers drop for certain scenes, Trace Beaulieu hops in a cherry picker for a little makeup-cleanup job on one of the closeups, and at one point Stephen Hawking rolls through the theater.  (I’m willing to bet the actual Stephen Hawking would have totally done that cameo if they’d asked him.)

 

And if you’re as much a MSTie as Josh and I, when you look at the visual comedy you will think, “That is so Joel.”  Because it is. You can’t help comparing the new riffs to the show that started it all, and part of that is the distinction between the two hosts of MST3k.**  And this new show is, in fact, so Joel.  There’s prop comedy, and a few calls in unison, and a lot of in-house discussion (“I can see I’ve opened up a hornet’s nest here …”) during the riffing. It’s rather surprising how evident it is.

 

The jokes come quickly and are pretty damn good. The lack of any introduction whatsoever is a little jarring—you get dumped directly into the movie, without any explanation. But the only other real complaint about it is that it’s much too short, and there are not more of them.

 

The DVDs are also somewhat expensive, and I’m not sure how I’ll be able to afford them.*** You’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth the money.  But for me, it was a damn good way to spend an evening.

 

 

*It did have a brain that sort of fell apart, but it was not in the skull at the time and did not ooze very much.  Overall it was a pretty disappointing misnomer.

 

**We are not here, by the way, to renew the Joel vs. Mike hostilities.  I do not care who you think is better. We are going to work on the assumption that they are both awesome.

 

***It’s a little weird to see a note saying that this s artist-owned and produced and that you should not reproduce it. You want to protest that this is MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, dammit! They wouldn’t have been even known if it weren’t for piracy!  And they encouraged it until their lawyers told ’em to knock it off.  And after that whole Sandy Frank business, there are some episodes you can only see pirated!

But on the other hand, I like these guys enough to actually pay in good faith.

Comments

[dreams-cametrue.livejournal.com]

My dad suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. I know they have treatments now that weren't available in the late '70's when he was diagnosed but it's still a very scary thing to face.

Tom-

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because they're still not particularly good. (There's one they're working on, I think ...) It really sucks.

I'm sorry about your dad. That's definitely No Fun.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

I've heard that they're coming up with electronics that are supposed to be able to delay the onset of Alzheimer's, but it's probably more preventive than curative, and I'm not sure of just how much it or other chemical treatments can do right now. Terry Pratchett is a writer I've read much too few books of considering how much I liked the ones I did, and I find the irony of someone whose calling it is to set things down on paper so they'll be remembered losing their own memory cruelly humorless. You always fantasize about being able to ask a writer what they meant when they wrote this or that, and you're picturing a writer who can remember what he wrote.

And yeah, Stephen Hawking did his own voice on that episode of the Simpsons and played poker with Newton and Einstein on a holodeck, so...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Stephen Hawking was on Futurama, too! The dude's a sport. I love the fact that he's done voiceovers and voice acting and audio lectures, and he doesn't actually have a larynx.

There's supposed to be some new treatment they're testing that has magical effects on people WITH Alzheimer's, but I don't know how effective it actually is, or how fast it'll get on the market.

It's such an awful disease. I can see why people have such a horror of it. But the thing that makes me happy is that even if he loses his memory, the things will be written down, so that we all will remember it and see how amazing his mind is, even if it does deteriorate.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

You know, this way of looking at it hadn't occurred to me, and I kind of regret that it didn't.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Alzheimer's: I watched as my grand mother's mind fell apart, and 21 years after the last time I saw her, it still hurts. Hopefully the recent leaps forward in stem cell research will be able to make an impacton Terry.

MST3K: Hmmm... what sort of a bribe/collateral would be required to arrange a borrowing, as we are both local and all that. I have a Large Stash(TM) of MST3K DVDs from both Rhino and from Castle Forrestor.com ( among other things, I have the complete Gamera run of MST3K). The monies are tight right now, so buying anything will have to be on hold.
One of my best and brightest geek moments was getting to ask them a question at a con. Someday if you like, I can bore you with my story of "The Day I met The Cast".


** - my only complaint about the Mike era, was that Sci Fi was skimpy with the shorts. Dammit, the short movies were always my favorites. "A Day at the Circus", and "Catching Trouble" still make me laugh like a ninny.

*** Once I have more monies, I will be buying it.

**** Sadly, I've heard that the new material with the Bots is unfunny.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I think we can work something out. Howzabout if you pick your favorites? There's a bit of a queue, though. I'll let you know when everyone else is done with it.

I'm surprised you got the Gamera run. Aren't those directed by Sandy Frank?

There definitely weren't enough shorts in the Mike era at all. "A Date With The Family" is my all-time favorite, but the Home Economics one was pretty good, too. The best part about the shorts is how funny they are WITHOUT the riffers. The moral lessons are a lesson in anthropology, AND they're hilarious.

You got to ask a question? Amazing--I would have probably said something more along the lines of "GAH" than ask a question.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I asked about a Gamera marathon, having 5000 people boo and hiss you is kind of intimidating, but I stuck to my guns. The local "monster movie" station was so cheap, they didn't run Godzilla movies, but they did run Gamera movies.

As for Gamera MST3Ks, a quick peek here might answer your question.

At the con, they showed Teenage Caveman before they went on stage. The media room was packed, there's nothing quite like watching MST3K with about 300 other people. After it was over, we formed a conga line and did the Bunny Hop to the main conference room. It was chock full of nerdly delight.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Poor Terry Pratchett! No! Why does bad stuff always happen to the brilliant ones? I'm still reeling from the loss of Douglas Adams (seriously).

On the other hand, Pratchett has already given us a lot of great material to last us for many years to come. And the movie version of "Hogfather" was brilliant. Oh, and did you know about this http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2007/11/21/the-first-north-american-discworld-convention-an-update/?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Shit, yes. Every time I read The Salmon of Doubt I'm especially saddened, because Douglas Adams seemed like the sort of happy, wonderful person you'd love to meet, and I agreed with so much of what he wrote. (It's painful to read about all the things he was still hoping to do, too.) I am glad Pratchett has written things down. Even if his mind DOES slip, he'll have this awesome legacy, and we'll all know what he was like from that.

Diane Duane mentioned the con in her blog. So cool! It may even be reachable for me, although I don't actually know yet. It would be awesome. I'm sure he'll still make some sense come September 2009, right?