I was to feature a guest today, but it fell through. And that’s all right. I recently told Truedessa that I wanted to scale back. Less promoting and more about what I want to share. I want to share more amazing speculative fiction stuff. More cool movies, more prog rock, more geek happenings and items. And certainly I want to share news of the IWSG and my books and writing.
The posts will still be packed, but it will be with geeky goodness!
My wife discovered that RiffTrax is now on Amazon Prime.
So of course, we had to watch one.
And our choice led us down a dark road…
This movie may have been forgivable had it released in 1971. That it came out in 1990…shame on everyone involved. It’s the equivalent of a dumpster fire three weeks after a garbage strike.
There’s no point in summarizing, because it’s completely inane.
And it starred Jesse Ventura in a role that should’ve killed his political career. Like, nuclear bomb killed.
Fortunately, RiffTrax manages to make the unwatchable hilarious!
Movie Review
The AccountantFirst, I don’t understand the wide split in critics’ reviews. How could one not be entertained by this film or appreciate its clever uniqueness?
And it was original and clever. It was smart and subtle rather than in your face dumb action.
Great performances by everyone, especially Affleck. It was cool to watch a character who was a high-functioning autistic who possessed incredible math skills – and who was a trained killer.
It has a slower pace, but there are many great action sequences. The fights were more about stealth than over the top.
Recommended.
Music Review
For those not familiar with the artist, and that’s unfortunately a lot of you, Townsend has been making music very a very long time. He began as the singer for Steve Vai in 1993 and since then he’s separated himself as a truly unique singer and personality.
Over the years, he’s been the creator of several projects including Ocean Machine and Strapping Young Lad. Transcendence is the culmination of everything he’s done so far.
It’s progressive rock, which means it’s very complex, but it’s also very accessible. It features some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. The songs are incredibly layered and rich, resulting in a sound that is both moving and sonic. Listening to Transcendence is more of an experience than anything else.
If you enjoy powerful and melodic music, you’ll enjoy this album. As the title states – it’s transcending.
And while you read the rest of this blog post, please enjoy my favorite song on the album, Storm Bending. This is the generic YouTube video, but if you want to see the brand new video that plays more like an epic movie, visit Vemo. Believe me, it’s amazing!
There were two very special posts this past week. Toi Thomas gave a great review of CassaFire and Truedessa wrote the most amazing poem about the Dragon. Thank you, ladies!
Reedsy Learning
Presenting a new learning platform for writers - Reedsy Learning>
From Reedsy Co-founder, Ricardo Fayet:
Reedsy Learning is a brand new learning platform for authors. It offers free courses on pretty much every subject useful to an author, from story inception to marketing the book. Better yet, we've leveraged our network of friends and professionals to make sure each course is taught by a relevant industry expert.
Here's how the courses work:
• you can register for only one at a time
• you get 1 email every day for 10 days
• emails are 5-min reads (max)
• emails are sent in the morning (your timezone) so you can read them while sipping your coffee
Sounds like a great deal – and it’s free!
New Releases
Cling to God: A Devotional by Lynda Young
Find Cling to God: Amazon Paperback, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Oz Kindle, Nook, Barnes and Noble, Kobo,
iTunes, Goodreads.
Way to go, Lynda! This book will be a blessing to many.
Featuring Sold! by J.L. Campbell
Find it at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo
From Untethered Realms
Find it at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo
This is Issue 8 and it’s packed with awesome content.
Visit the site and download your free copy.
Movie trivia answers from last week:
1 – Iran, John Goodman, movie – 2012 - Argo
2 – Football, Tim McGraw, homeless – 2009 – The Blind Side
3 – London, Kate Winslet, Peter Pan – 2004 – Finding Neverland
4 – Coal mining, Laura Dern, Sputnik – 1999 – October Sky
5 – Arabia, Omar Sharif, cowboy – 2004 - Hidalgo
6 – Musician, Reese Witherspoon, legend – 2005 – Walk the Line
This week – hit men/assassin movies. Name the movies from the character names and the year:
1 - Leon and Mathilda, 1994
2 – Ed and Anton, 2007
3 – Vincent, Jules, and Butch, 1994
4 – Ah Jong, Jennie, and Yi Ying, 1989
5 – Arthur, Steve, and Big Harry, 1972
Who’s ready to binge-watch RiffTrax on Amazon now? Were you misfortunate enough to see Abraxas without their help? Did you see The Accountant? Ready to check out Transcendence? What about Reedsy Learning? Did you get the trivia right? Now, what about this week’s trivia?
