ODDS and ENDS

ODDS & ENDS
By Alex Ness
Sunday July 3, 2022

ON THIS DAY, LONG AGO

This article appears on July 3, 2022.  My mother died in October 2012, but her birthday was 7/3/1926. I've spent almost a decade in mourning, and despite many good things in my life, she still appears in my thoughts every day, and many times a day. I mention this only because of the date of the article, I really am not looking for sympathy. I do, however, try to be reflective and transparent, and I make certain to become aware of my outlook, and note that for others in case they think my work reflects that outlook.

WRITING FOR OTHERS

As I write this, I have long been aware that some folks wouldn't see it as fairly being called a neutral or unbiased review or interview work. Beyond personal taste or the quality of work, there's a difference between what a writer of such work has been exposed to, what they choose to consider and the difference between quality of work versus enjoyment of a work. If one doesn't have product to review, they can only review what is before them. If one only likes one kind of work, the focus will be narrow, even if written well.

Advocacy is entirely different than analysis. Exposure allows a context of a work to be more than a single note in concert, but it would be fair to say, everyone starts with a blank slate, so it can difficult to assess a work as falling within the genre, or even singularly due to the amount of information offered. There are movies, for instance, that are fine work, but not of a subject I like. Even then, if I'm aware of what has been done before, I can consider the importance of a work, as how it fits in the previous considerations.

Someone I know wrongly called Star Wars the first movie of its kind, when it appeared 45 or so years ago. George Lucas has spoken of the influences upon his movie/franchise I'm not going into that at the moment, but the movie and franchise were built upon b/w serials and adventures, samurai films and more. Science fiction had long existed when 1977 arrived. I do think Star Wars was good, it just wasn't new as a genre or new to the public within the genre it appeared within. My point isn't to say I'm important, I've important views, or what I think is something you should agree with. I am saying I have an opinion, I'm sharing that, and hoping if something is good to share that well enough to encourage the reader to themselves seek out the work.

CATS

My health has been off, due to pain and other causes. I've missed a lot of sleep. Just as I mention my mother I can honestly say there is just one source of pain relief for me, the answer would be my cat princess Katya.  So, if you imagine me reading, watching or listening to something, imagine I have the cat shown on my lap or nearby in a very cute position. I'd be lost without her, and that really isn't exaggerating.  

MEMORIAL DAY MOVIES ADDED FILMS TO CONSIDER

In my desire to give the readers 12 War movies to view, I tried to make a list of great films from many different eras of film, and different subject matter (different wars or battles). In doing so I had to cut corners that made the list less in numbers in order to make certain WWII and Vietnam War films didn't dominate the list. As such, I made mistakes that I wish I'd avoided. Here are five movies I wanted to include but forgot, or squeezed out of the list for less than great reasons.

THE BEDFORD INCIDENT: This movie features an amazing cast, uses a limited setting, and tells a story that is hyper focused upon a single event and the factors leading to it.  It shows in lavish detail how the clues and path of an attempt to hunt leads to considerations of motive, false beliefs and tragic mistakes that could lead to absolute Armageddon.

PORK CHOP HILL: I saw this movie as a young kid, when my brother and I were staying with our Grandma in Minneapolis for 3 weeks in the summer.  She'd read Harlequin Romances, her air conditioner was pumping gloriously cold air, and my brother and I absorbed some great movies. While my childhood memory had the story happen between the UN troops versus Communist Chinese in the Korean conflict, this is a story of an American action at the end of the war, when negotiation delays meant dead soldiers and false hopes. Pork Chop Hill would be one of many battles in a war and later wars of a similar nature where the goal was abstract, and one no one would likely think worth a life's end.  It is both brutal and powerful.

ZULU:  The battle of Roarke's Drift saw a slaughter of a battle between a then modern armed army of the British Empire and the mass human wave attacks called the Horns of the Buffalo, or a moving crescent, by warriors armed with spears and shields. Courage wasn't the determiner of victory, and blood shed didn't mean the war was won or lost. There are modern viewers who think this movie might revel in the racially white army of the British defeating the mass of backwards black folks, and it does exist, but that isn't the story told. The colonial context forms the background information and part of the reasons for the battle.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS: After the French Foreign Legion and other French colonial forces have been defeated in Vietnam, they have been reassigned to the dangerous region of Algeria, a French department in open revolt against the French mother country. The Battle of Algiers is a lesson in brutality towards those who revolt, the choice to torture, and fight for reasons that aren't altogether moral or for good reasons.  It also depicts the life of those who choose to fight against the mother country's forces, and what they must do to survive. If a film can be called a documentary as well as dramatic, I'd suggest this work does that. It is easy  

ENEMY AT THE GATES: A sniper duel fought within the ruins of the city of Stalingrad, where the Soviet soldiers finally held the ground against the invading German army, of the Nazi Reich and Adolf Hitler. It is claustrophobic, moving, and based upon how the Soviet political system created a hero, and the hero chosen had to somehow do his work despite the need to fulfill expectations of those in power. In doing so he loses friends and allies. I love this film, it is beautiful in look despite being a war film, CGI laden, and written about a subject that was juiced up to make a better movie.

THE GOOD

I received an email asking me for a list of comics that I consider the worst of all time as a balance towards the article wherein I shared my 10 favorite comics. The emailer asked me to go into detail regarding what I dislike as a way to warn potential readers what might be a comic no one should consider. While I have a list, and image, I've absolutely no interest in going deep into the detail territory. I've mentioned as a person who writes about creative works, I pretty much assume the best intentions and admire a finished product, due to the difficulty many people have simply getting published. Creative works represent a labor whereby a creative person has created something that had to be offered up to the taste of a wide number of readers. While it couldn't be said that all creative works are equal, it requires work and some talent at least to create something that others will read. I respect that. My outlook regarding creative works I don't like, I generally assume that someone else WILL like what I didn't like.

THE BAD

JTHM Johnny the Homicidal Maniac presumes to be funny. I found it pointless and violent, even if in comic fashion of violence.  I didn't find it humorous, I didn't find the violence to be cathartic, I found it infantile. Knowing some people who loved it made me wonder about their humanity. But then I turned on my television to some Jerry Springer shows and thought I'd found who might like it.

ROB ZOMBIE'S SPOOK SHOW was an anthology of unpleasant stories told in the most lurid fashion, but still within a R boundary. If someone thinks I dislike Rob Zombie, or Crossgen, I assure you, it hasn't anything to do with it. It was simply unpleasant and not worth the time it took to read it.

ZOMBIE KING I am sorry, but Frank Cho might be a fine artist, but this work revealed a child with the freedom to say dirty things. It was a vile, dark and dirty work. I was shaking my head the entire time while I briefly read it. It was a pure form of crap.

EVIL ERNIE from whatever publisher, is a product that I found to be rather ill advised, uninteresting, and a waste of time to read. The absence of likable characters, the mediocre concepts, and apparent love of things evil or dark, all made me wonder the point of it.

Jim Balent's TAROT Witch of the Black Rose was a work that immediately became obvious the purpose. Without going to deep in description, the art depicts physically impossible women with enormous breasts, who then enter into occult sorcery and sex. And then more sex. And the sexual adventures involved big breasts and women with big breasts, and more breasts. As a heterosexual I clearly understand why some readers would like this, but if I wanted to read softcore porn there are dozens if not hundreds or thousands or millions of products that would do the job better.

From MARVEL both MARVILLE and ULTIMATE ADVENTURES suffered from the same issues, making them nearly unreadable. They were self referential, attempting to utilize comic reader meta themes, and parody, and each did so without nuance or able to create any interest. I'd never have read them thinking they'd be the best work I'd read, but I had hope for WAY more than I experienced. The books felt like vanity projects done by teens, rather than from veterans in publishing. Bad writing, somewhat passable art, and smug or self conceited concepts made these books a waste of money, and the time spent reading them.

CAPTAIN CARROT AND THE FINAL ARK and CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON were similarly flawed works from DC Comics. Captain Carrot was marginally good per issue, but nothing great. And it then was ended with such an obvious editorial dictated ending, it felt like the reader who paid for the book essentially spent money on a work from a big company that could just as easily been released as a 2 or 3 panel cartoon for free on their corporate website. The individual issues of Captain Atom were ok if not good, and there was potential. Until the last 3 pages rebooting everything saying, essentially, the comic you spent $27 damn dollars on never happened, and there is no true ending of what was written.

CHOSEN by Mark Millar and Peter Gross was a real disappointment to me. I think both of those creative talents are able and gifted in ability, but chose to take a road down Blasphemy Lane to tell a story that felt old, clumsy in concept and worthless overall. The concept that doesn't work takes a 12 year old boy and says he is the returned Christ, and "hilarity ensues". That's sarcasm, btw. Mark Millar's Unfunnies was a concept that maddened certain crowds, but it was a powerful lesson in how archetypes and tropes can be manipulated to get a reaction from a reader. Chosen was simply a boring attempt at tearing down certain constructs, without being willing to erect new and better ones. 

About Getting Reviews from Me

I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address. I no longer have a post box, although I regret that.  It was a crushing defeat to no longer have a p.o. box, when I came to realize I was getting so little product it made no sense to pay for the privilege to not receive mail at both my home and at the post office. If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.



MY LINKS:


My Poetry AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com

Published Work  AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html

Amazon Page Amazon.com/author/AlexNess

Cthulhu Horror CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com

Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com

All works and art remain the property of the owners/creators and nothing more than fair use is asserted.