Tag: reviews

New at 123ish: Anime VTubers Are a Thing Now!

On the lighter, fluffier side, I indulge my inner otaku to trace the cultural roots of the vTuber phenomenon. It’s only been going on a couple years now, so this is your chance to jump on an early bandwagon for this growing medium.

It wasn’t easy researching when the deepest information you get is a few paragraphs from “Japan Trend TV.” Kizuna AI is the face of vTubers, not even remotely being dethroned by her legions of imitators. Bonus round, found this:

That pick up your spirits after the bad news cycle in the media recently?

Continue reading “New at 123ish: Anime VTubers Are a Thing Now!”

New at 123ish: Items of Devotion for Alternative Religion + Join My Cult!

So this was a weird experimental post based on my starting an argument in which I held the position that you can make an Amazon product list out of anything. “Anything?” they said. “Anything, just pick something,” I said. So they said “something for the spiritual category.” And then I was naming the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Bob J.R. Dobbs and they went “Wait a minute, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” But I said “Too late! Things have been set in motion which cannot be undone!”

And that’s how we got a list of Best Devotional Items For Alternative Religions. With a bonus section where I introduce my own alternative religion: the Cult of the Temponaut! I hope one day to have my cult grow to a world-wide viral phenomenon, just like all the wacky cults we deal with already. I mean, mine is mostly benevolent and nobody can get hurt in it, right? Ah well, we’ll find out, omelets and eggs.

Just remember, physicists have reversed time already using a quantum computer. That’s how you get Temponauts! Start showing them respect before you have to deal with them all at once.

New at 123ish: I review lots of Android stuff.

Maybe ya’all haven’t noticed yet, but *I* *freakin’* *love* *Android*! It’s the spawn of a union of two of my favorite technologies, Linux and Google, and while it’s never perfect, it’s damn near the “year of Linux on the desktop” we all yearned for.

So I reviewed a stack of apps for Android, just paying homage to the stuff that’s privileged to stay installed on my beloved tablets. There’s the top games on Android, mostly free with a couple paid-for honorable mentions. And the top free non-game apps on Android, focusing on free apps that you may not have heard of.

 

New at Suggested Reads: HP Lovecraft Books That’ll Give You Nightmares

So apparently, the late H.P. Lovecraft has gained new-found popularity with younger generations, even though he was about as politically correct as Archie Bunker. Over at Suggested Reads, a new site for discovering quality literature, I had the opportunity to at last dive into the works of Lovecraft and ink out a map for the first-time Arkham tourist.

Continue reading “New at Suggested Reads: HP Lovecraft Books That’ll Give You Nightmares”

News At 366 Weird Movies – I’m in a book!

A few of my reviews whirled by over at 366 Weird Movies while I was too busy with other things (week off for Father’s Day and all that). To catch up:

CAPSULE: AGAINST THE CLOCK (2019) – A messy mish-mosh of cyberpunk spy thriller themes, as half-baked as the sloppy CGI fractals and hyperactive jump cuts that frame this abortion of a film.

CAPSULE: KEOMA (1976) – Could have been a contender for the last great spaghetti western, but is ruined by the Soundtrack From Hell. Yes, you heard right, and you’ll wish you’d never heard. You’re asking of course, how bad can this possibly be? Here’s a sample. Now imagine that crotch-splitting abomination going on for the ENTIRE MOVIE. That’s right, it never shuts up, a continuous Greek chorus obliterating every serious moment for the 105 minute run-time.

CAPSULE: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII (1987) – A harmless descendant of Miami Vice, with lots of booby cheesecake and a loose story that has something impenetrable to do with a snake, a toilet, a blow-up doll, a skateboard, and a razor-edged Frisbee.

But let’s get to the important part

Continue reading “News At 366 Weird Movies – I’m in a book!”

New at 123ish: Unique Desktop Toys For Office Fun

I don’t miss much about the corporate 9-to-5 (cubicle slave #X197532), but one thing I do get nostalgic for is all the dumb things people would do to amuse themselves to alleviate office tedium. I did a whole review of unique recommendations for office desktop toys. These are all non-electronic diversions too, so you can rest your bloodshot eyes from glowing screens too.

The pic is, of course, from Terry Gilliam’s epic 1985 film Brazil. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) twiddles with this decision toy with ‘yes’ on one side and ‘no’ on the other, with a weight that drops onto a wedge to randomly fall on either side. It’s a perfect metaphor for the movie’s dystopian universe, where everybody endures only having the illusion of free will. It’s where, for all the good anything does you, you might as well go through life making random decisions.

Always wanted to find this toy in real life, but probably not looking in the right place. In the meantime, check out my recommended list, you’ll find many surprises!

 

New at Spookwire: Five Horror Movies Inspired By True Events

I’m sure my steady readers will be familiar with my taste for horror movies. My latest shingle is hung over at Spookwire, a site dedicated to the paranormal and eerie events of all kinds.

Join us this time for 5 Terrifying Horror Movies Inspired By True Events! You were expecting the Winchester Mystery House or the Dyatlov Pass Incident… but what is Freddy Kruger doing there?

Click on for bonus buck content…

Continue reading “New at Spookwire: Five Horror Movies Inspired By True Events”

New at 123ish: The Biggest and Best Lego Sets Ever

Hey, I never did get around to writing about Legos! I loved them, my kids loved them, and there’s a nice wholesome culture of Lego hobbyists and collectors out there. So I thought I’d round up the most impressive sets released in Lego history and blog about them. Good luck tracking them down, some of these are highly sought-after collector’s items!

Continue reading “New at 123ish: The Biggest and Best Lego Sets Ever”

You know what I haven’t blogged about in awhile? LINUX!

Anybody out there remember the elder days of yore on the web, when I was one of the few bloggers to talk about Linux and FOSS? I figured it’s time to update distro recommends for a new generation. So here’s the top five Linux distros for every kind of user.
As usual, I dodged the trendy meme distros in favor of time-honored practical systems for anybody from the most clueless newbie to the salty veteran power user. Wow, it has been a long time!

Follow on for one of my classic Linux essays, the final battle report of the Microsoft vs. Linux wars:

Continue reading “You know what I haven’t blogged about in awhile? LINUX!”

New at 366Weird: The Manitou!

Over at 366 Weird, my latest cinematic safari is a special treat: The Manitou (1978). A serious contender for the campiest Exorcist ripoff ever made, it’s a thrill ride of one “WTF?” moment piled onto another.

Whose idea was it to cast Tony Curtis in the lead? Who decided “native American medicine man” is a close-enough substitute for Catholic demons? Why did the 400-year-old medicine man pick this woman out of the blue to incubate his neck-rupturing reincarnation? Why did they go with a frozen hospital with meat-popsicle nurses frozen mid-wave? Why is this suddenly turning into 2001: A Space Odyssey? And why is it always black magic or white magic, doesn’t magic come in any other colors? We will never know, but even the late, great Roger Ebert had to warn people to set down their coffee before continuing the review.

Continue reading “New at 366Weird: The Manitou!”