Friday, January 06, 2023

Avatar, the endless path

Well, we just this week watched the second James Cameron Avatar film, The Way of Water, and well, I want to give all’ya’all my quickie review of the film here on my blog before I post a longer, more reflective , review over on my HubPages site.

Still, to do that, I’m-a gonna have to give you my quickie review of the first film.

Avatar

A group of nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials travel across the galaxy to new planet to seize a power source from the sacred ground of the indigenous peoples. Only the hi-tech, highly militarized, Colonials get their collective asses kicked by the lo-tech (bow-and-arrow) indigenous peoples and are sent packing. 


Avatar 2: The Way of Water

Fifteen years later, those same nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (pissed that they got their collective asses kicked) travel back across the galaxy in order to seize a brand-new power source from sacred creatures of the indigenous peoples. Once again, they get their collective asses kicked, only this time in water. 

For my next trick, as Cameron has announced several more Avatar films (one every two years from now to eternity and beyond, just like James Bond). So I’m going to (precognitively) deliver my reviews of the next six projected Avatar films.


Avatar 3: The Way of Fire

The nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (who are still living on Pandora) attempt to seize another brand-new power source from the indigenous peoples of Pandora. Once again, they get their collective asses kicked, only this time more severely, and with fire. 

Avatar 4: The Way of Wind

Here it is another several years later and those same nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (still pissed that they keep getting their collective asses kicked) travel across Pandora in order to seize another new power source, this time from the very planet of the indigenous peoples. But, once again — that’s right — get their collective asses kicked. 


Avatar 5: The Way of Desert

A whole bunch of new nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (pissed that their friends got their collective asses kicked) arrive on Pandora so as to seize spice from the giant sandworms that are ridden by the indigenous Na'vi Dessert Dwellers, and are surprised when they get their collective asses kicked.  

Avatar 6: The Way to Tipperary

Those very bad nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (once again surprisingly pissed that they got their collective asses kicked) travel back across Pandora to seize a new and improved power source from a sacred place of the indigenous peoples. Only to (surprise), get their collective asses kicked. 


Avatar 7: The Way to San Jose

You will get to see even more nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials (once again, eternally pissed that they keep getting their collective asses kicked) travel to yet another sacred place on Pandora so as to seize a spanking-brand-new power source from the indigenous peoples. And here’s a new twist to the story, they get their collective asses seriously kicked.

 

Avatar 8: The Way of the House Speaker


This time the Na'vi are fed up with the constant waring on their planet, and travel to Earth in order to confront the nasty, self-entitled, White Colonials on their homeworld to once again, majorly kick their collective asses, this time on TV by repeatedly not voting Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. (Yeah, I totally went there,.)

 

Yeah, I realize that I got seriously flip with my extended mini reviews, but here’s the rub. When thew first Avatar film came out Cameron was fairly-well roasted over the fact that his plot for that film read suspiciously like the plot to the Disneyfied version of Pocahontas. Now, having seen both films, we now feel that the film he will be retelling for the next 3,000 years of longing will, in fact, be Zulu (a 1964 film that recounted a 1879 battle where the Zulu nation hands the invading Colonial British armed forces a resounding defeat in battle; a defeat that will be echoed throughout history by the American Colonists, and virtually ever British protectorate for all times). 



Tuesday, January 03, 2023

Turning Book Pages into Art

Book Page Art started when founders Jen and Kristy discovered a box of books that were discarded and placed on the curb to be thrown away. They were determined to do something with the books and brought them home in order to give them a new life as art!

I personally discovered them at the 2022 New York Comicbook Convention, where they occupied a booth opposite the booth where I was working (Heroes in Action). During our down times during NYCC (which weren’t many) I was drawn to their booth in order to check out their very cool product.


What Jen and Kristy have done is take pages from books that are old, torn, tattered, and/or getting thrown away, and give them new life by creating original art on weathered old book pages. According to Book Page Art’s web page, they work at matching their page artwork and quotes to the books that correlate with them. “We take special care that artwork represents the book that the pages are from.” Needless to say, the specific book page on which the art appears (either a quote from the book, or some art relevant to the book itself) will often vary from the pages shown in photos on the site.


Given that they use all possible pages from each book to create their art, each page is uniquely different. Also, the art is done directly on the pages of the upcycled books and never photocopies of pages. Customers can either choose from pre-existing pages and art or they can request a specific page or passage from a book, creating a custom order, which is also possible (assuming the book and/or page is available). Anyone wishing to place a custom order should directly contact them directly).  


Because books vary in size so too does the art, thus they mount each page onto a black mat backing that is 8 x 10, so that it fits perfectly into an 8 x 10 frame. All art is shipped in a protective casing with a sturdy cardboard mat in order to protect it from bending in the mail. In the unlikely event that the art is damaged in the shipping process customers should contact Book Page Art directly.


The art page that I discovered which best suited my state of mind was a page from The Alchemist (a book, I admittedly (sadly) never actually read, but I did acquire a copy soon afterwards and it is now sitting by my bedside). I immediately fell in love with this page and the quote as it most assuredly described the current state of my life, as I find myself in a relationship with a woman I’ve known and have been friends with for several years. After a number of failed relationships (for each of us) we have found a cojoined life for both of us with each other. Hence the quote seemed spot on as far as we were both concerned.


 The art is now on display in our Livingroom, just above the fireplace. Because while the gift was from me to my love, it accurately describes how we each feel about each other.



“I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you”







My days under the Malibu Sun!

Way back in the early '90s I was writing for, well, virtually every comicbook magazine under the sun. As if that wasn't enough, I wa...