That was one big ol' ape!

The holiday season is almost at an end, thank the gods. Why is it that when the holidays hit, people become pure nastiness personified. I know a few people who are in customer service positions who have told me horrific stories of how patrons are 20 times more nasty to not only the CS personnel, but to each other. Whether it's shopping, buying groceries or just putting gas in the car, people tend to do these things with a ton of venom and hate in their souls around the holidays. This is why I'm so much more of a Halloween fan than Xmas. Xmas always tends to bring in darkness (and unemployment, evidently), while Halloween is all about FUN! No presents to burn a hole in your wallet, no big meals to cook and no nasty attitudes to deal with.

A few nice things did happen, though.....

• I got to see Peter Jackson's, "King Kong". It rocked! Though I wasn't as impressed with it as I was with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, it still was a visual cornucopia of action and special effects. At one point I was cheering Kong on as he put a serious can of whoopass onto a few dinos on Skull Island. Later Kong was pulling at my heartstrings as he and his "love interest" had a nice little holiday ice skating redevoues. Especially when I knew that within the next few hours, Kong was going to sacrifice his life for his love for her. I don't know if I like my heartstrings pulled that much. It kind of summons up a whole "Old Yeller" type vibe. Both my Mom and sister were in tears by the end. Of course I was more interested in Jackson's flair for the macabre as he brought us visions of a real creepy tribe of Kong worshipers and their decaying temples. There was also a wonderful scene that included giant insects and slugs. Groovy. Not sure if I'm going to pick this one up when it's out on DVD. But I will say that Jackson and his gang did a wonderful job of not only paying homage to the original movie, but also adding a lot more to the King Kong mythos.
• I finally finished the old James Bond novel, License Renewed. The book came out back in 1981, and reintroduces Bond to the literary world (the previous Bond novel, Colonel Sun, came out in the late 60's). Bond is put back into service after the cold war has fizzled and MI6 has gone through a restructuring. Now Bond only answers to his boss "M" who puts him on the tail of a rogue nuclear physicist who also happens to be a Scottish Laird named Anton Murich. Murich has a little side position as megalomaniac bent on worldwide domination. What is it with Bond and evil Scottish lairds? (any of you read SilverFin yet?). Of course Bond comes through in the end and the evil Murich is blown to bits. Hope I didn't ruin the ending for you. The book wasn't a knock out of the park, but it was a fun, quick little read. Right now I'm in total pulp heaven while I page through Indiana Jones and the sorcerer's Stone. Pure goofiness, but fun.
• I did end up getting a nice amount of Best Buy gift certificates for Xmas. Since my B-day is coming soon, I may wait and pool a bunch of them together to get something nice, but what? I could go and get the "Serenity" / "Firefly" DVD's ooorrrrrr I could get a new Xbox since mine is dead oooooorrrrrr I could get a new phone. My current one works, but is a bit archaic as I bought it 12 years ago. What do you all think?
• I got the news from a fan message board that my favorite band, Type O Negative are finally coming out with some form of creative project this coming March. No CD yet, but a live DVD of an old concert from a German music festival called Sympathy for the Devil will be released. It will have band commentary which, for me, was a the highlight of their last DVD, After Dark. Now if we could only get them to come out with a new CD sometime before the coming of Christ!

Whelp, I'm going to be getting some food in me and get a good night's sleep as I have two New Years Eve parities to go to this weekend. One tomorrow night and one on the actual night. I have wonderfully weird friends.

We'll talk later.

Zangz.

Long Cold Winter....

According to the astrological calendar, winter hasn't even really started yet. Yet here in my home town we've had weeks of both snow and bitter cold, and it doesn't look like it's going to let up for quite a long, long time.

I know it's been a while since I last blogged here, but recently life gave me quite the sucker punch. After 14 years of employment, my company closed the local branch. So I get to start my holiday season by searching for a new job. Merry frellin' Xmas.

So you can understand that it's kind of hard to blog about the genres of the fantastical when you're concerned that by this time next year you'll be living in a cardboard box under a freeway on-ramp.

But, seriously, I'm going to give this the ol' "stiff upper lip" treatment and get back to the blog from time to time.

So here we go......

• I'm really looking forward to Peter Jackson's "King Kong". I've been hearing that's it's quite moving and a stunning site to see. Jackson certainly has that great eye for the fantastic. I've heard that with the boat load of cash he made from the "Lord of the Rings" he built a small haunted attraction in his own home. He also has a part of his house designed to look exactly like Bilbo Baggin's home in the Shire. At least someone is living my dreams.
• In related news, it looks as thought Peter Jackson is going to exectutive produce a movie based on the Xbox video game, Halo. It is rumored to be directed by "Hellboy" director,
  Guillermo del Toro ! That would rock! "Hellboy" rocked and Halo rocks! It all rocks! Except of course when I'm playing my buddy, Roberto in a game of Halo and he's kicking my keister all over the place. Then it doesn't rock as much.
• Even though I can't stand the holiday, I'm hoping that family will shower me with either pity money or Best Buy gift cards for Xmas this year. That way I can spend it on finally getting the DVD of the entire series of Firefly and the movie that followed, "Serentiy". Or maybe some DVD's I've been meaning to catch up on like, "Batman Begins" or the extended version of "Sin City", my tow favorite movies that came out this year.

That's it for now. I've gotta go and frost Xmas cookies at my sisters. Blah. I hope your holiday season starts off a heck of a lot better than mine has. Bah humbug!

Zangz.