Weekly Geekly Rundown for February 21, 2024
Skijoring, The Fantastic Four, and More
As a part of last June’s Weekly Geekly Rundown, I talked about Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, an annual event that takes place at Brockworth near Gloucester, England. I discussed my love of Roadside Americana and how an annual event where people run down a steep hill pursing a rolling cheese wheel was a perfect fit for that mentality. I’ve definitely added attending that event to my bucket list.
As that discussion might suggest, I’m a sucker for quirky sporting events and one of our local news stations recently covered a snow based event that combines my love of odd sports with fond memories from my own childhood. You see, when I was a kid I was on the ski team in high school. Such a claim might make you think that I imagine myself as some proto-Shaun White who was good enough to be an Olympic athlete if only I hadn’t taken an arrow to the knee.
Nothing could be further from the truth. While I was good enough to be “on” the ski team, I was barely good enough to qualify for meets in our internal competitions. When I would ski a slalom event, I was constantly on the edge of completely losing control. I loved the speed and had the courage to hurtle myself as fast as possible, but I did not have the control of my fellow team mates. God save the person who was keeping time at the finish line as I was as likely to explode in a flying mass of skis and sticks that endangered everyone within 10 yards as I was to skim smoothly past. I’m lucky to be alive, let alone as uninjured as I managed to come out of the situation.
As I’ve gotten older, that love of speed has diminished, mostly due to the fact that I have children whom I like to hang out with. One’s risk assessment changes dramatically when you have children, especially when you see how bad things can get even for talented athletes like Michael Schumacher and he was wearing full protective gear.
All of that said, if I had known that Skijoring was a thing when I was a kid, I would have totally tried out for this sport. Any sport descended from the traditions of the Sami people that involves skiing while being pulled by Reindeer, Dogs, Horses, or Snowmobiles sounds just crazy and fun enough to appeal to my younger self. Naturally, I’d have wanted to participate in either the equine or motorized version of the sport and would probably not be writing this right now had I known about it, so maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t hear about this until after I’d lost the immortality mindset of youth.
I’ve long said that the Roger Corman low budget Fantastic Four movie is the best cinematic adaptation of Marvel’s first family. The more recent adaptations have all made similar mistakes in not trusting the source material. Sure, as depicted in the first ten pages or so of Fantastic Four #1, the family started on the edge of villainy (you bet I’ve got a post on that coming), but once the edges were rounded out and the Marvel Heroic Age hit its stride the teams origins and tensions became classic.
The first Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis film had some good elements, but ultimately the treatment of Doom was the film’s well…doom. The less said about the second one, and Alba’s contacts in that one, the better. The 2015 reboot of the franchise with Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell had a solid cast and might have worked if they followed the hint of story that the beginning of the film suggests is coming. Yes, that film would have been a radical departure in some ways from the comics, but given how destructive the family was to the pseudo-New York in Fantastic Four #1 (yep, I will be writing about this book) there are elements that hold truer than one might think. Once again, the use of Doom ruined the film by taking what could have been an interesting story of the world’s first super team negotiating with the military and political powers that be and transforming it into a lame “ticking timebomb” film. Just as Age of Ultron is a frustrating Castle Defense video game made filmic, Fantastic Four was just a ticking time bomb save the world film that could have been more.
In both prior attempts, the true strength was always Johnny Storm. Both Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan give strong and charismatic performances that deserved better conflicts. Miles Teller’s Reed was interesting and Ioan’s was classic. Costuming aside, contacts for Elba and wigs for Mara, the acting on the Sue Storms was good and that same is true for the Grimms. Both Chiklis and Bell are talented actors who brought emotional depth to The Thing, even as they were sadly miscast for the Ben Grimm parts.
That’s what makes the Corman one so special. The casting is spot on. The script is pretty good. It needs a little touch up here and there, but it trusts the source material. The only problem the Corman one has is that it looks like a high school stage production of the Fantastic Four in its special effects. Okay, a Harvard Westlake stage production, but it is far from cinematically good effects-wise whether we are talking practical or visual effects. It’s hokey looking, but it’s still the best version to date.
That might be changing with the new film that is set to release on July 25th, but we’ll have to see. They changed the villain from Doom to Galactus, a bold but fan favorite, move. The proof will be in whether they trust the underlying source material or not and many Marvel titles have demonstrated a lack of willingness to do this. The problems of films like Thor: The Dark World and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness have been due to a hesitation to go all in on the source material. From what I’m seeing in the most recent trailer, I don’t know whether they trust the material or not. There are suggestions they do, having The Thing echo the personality shown in Remembrance of Things Past and a fun Johnny are two examples. However, Reed Richards seems more like Ultimate Reed Richards in personality and less 616 Reed Richards. We’ll see though when the film is released.
The Lamentations of Luke Y. Thompson
gave a very positive review of Heart Eyes last week that captures a lot of why it doesn’t work, and that comments without spoiler on the one moment that annoyed me. It’s funny how the film is a better romantic comedy than a lot of what’s being offered today and I think a lot of that has to do with certain factors that Luke touches on, though he may not have intended it. I was thinking about many of the great Romantic Comedy films like That Touch of Mink, You’ve Got Mail, It Happened One Night, Sleepless in Seattle, and Notting Hill. Very few of them have the characters have sex during the film. Even films like When Harry Met Sally or Pretty Woman that do have that act become a moment when the relationship loses. It’s a moment that needs to be overcome in order for the marriage of true minds to be demonstrated. This isn’t universal, to be sure, but it is common. Good romantic comedies are demisexual romances. The connection must be total and reciprocal before the relationship can be sexual in a healthy way. As my wife always says, “there’s a Frasier episode for that.” In this case that Frasier episode is where he says asserts that men don’t use sex to get what they want because it IS what they want. If that goal is attained before deep connection, the relationship will alter when it alteration finds.
Courtney Howard’s View from the Center Seat
To say that Courtney Howard was disappointed by Old Guy is an understatement and her recent review of the film at Variety gives a point by point analysis of where the film doesn’t work. What’s most impressive about the review is her ability to share a genuine critique of the film without wandering into snark and rant land. There was a time when I was younger that I loved a good rant, but now I find that genre of review cliché and lazy. The “I’m so angry at this movie I’m being paid to write about and I want my FREE back!” review is just toxic fandom with a W-2 and does no one any good. They tend to be over the top to the extent that they fail to serve even the most mercenary of review goals, giving consumers advice on whether the expense of the movie is worth it or not.
Of course, that’s not the kind of review that Courtney writes. She writes a negative review that a film maker can use to improve future work. She provides references to research and parallel stories that might have been better models for use. I was most surprised by the fact that the director of Con Air was incapable of directing this film in a way that gave it a snappy pace.
I’m touching on two of Dr.
’s posts this week. I missed one weekly update in February and I’ve got to catch up some how. She writes so many engaging posts that you all should just read her every published word. I recently downloaded her Cambridge Thesis Solomon on Stage, Representations of Magic and the Occult in Early Modern English Drama and placed it atop Manly Wade Wellman’s Sins Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances on my to read pile. I’ll say that the opening paragraph draws one in, and that’s a complement when it comes to graduate theses.The first of her posts this week is the latest in her series connecting the songs and writing of Kate Bush with films in the horror genre. No, it’s not a series of Stranger Things references, this is a person I read on the daily so you know the dives are going to be much deeper than that. In this particular case she connects the song Breathing with one of the most disturbing films ever made, Threads (1984). Like the Oscar nominated film Testament (1983), Threads takes a very personal look at the effects of a nuclear holocaust and how it affects family. It does so without the TV movie kitsch of The Day After (1983) by focusing on the the personal rather than the spectacle. Our own
wrote his own thoughts on Threads recently and if you haven’t seen it or Testament, I highly recommend them. Not only are they good movies that have again become salient, but they help to give you a glimpse at why Generation X is the way it is.Dr. King’s analysis of the song Breathing and its connection to Cold War Armageddon fears is a powerful read because she articulates the haunting nature of the song and the fear that underpins it. As dynamic and violent as the explosions of nuclear weapons are, and would be, the destruction of the world that they promise isn’t destruction by fire. It is death by whimper and not bang. The modern FallOut franchise, and TSR’s old Gamma World games, turn nuclear destruction into something that rewrites the world when in fact it would cause the world to slowly fade and the contemplation of that dissolution is true horror.
Now to transition from the haunting and depressing to the more lighthearted, if historically grim, world of witches and familiars. A few days back, Dr. King wrote a very amusing post asking readers to pick a real world witch’s familiar. She provided several wonderful examples that ranged from small dogs to weird chimera creatures that would one would feel at home seeing in a D&D Monster Manual entry inspired by cheap plastic dinosaurs from Hong Kong (I’m looking at you Vinegar Tom).
If you’re one of my political science students or read the Weekly Oddity above, my choice would not surprise you. Given that I begin any discussion of the American Revolution, or of the First Amendment of the Constitution, with a quick overview of the English Civil War, the Dutch Revolt, and the Thirty Years War, the only possible choice I could make was Boy. There is no greater ally against the rebellious Roundheads than a loyal companion who might also be a Lapland lady. For my personal survivability, it was a wise choice. Sadly, or not so sadly depending on your position, my familiar didn’t aid me enough to prevent my King from transitioning “from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.”
shares an excellent review of Guillermo del Toro’s take on the vampire film Cronos (1992). Guillermo del Toro is one of the great modern film makers, in large part due to his talent for creatively reimagining classic tales. He is extremely well read in the horror genre and was supremely kind the couple of times I got to meet him. Of those, my fondest memory is when I met him at a signing at the now closed Mystery and Imagination bookstore in Glendale, California. He was there for a Pacific Rim signing and I came bearing copies of horror anthologies, such as an Arthur Machen one, that he had written an introduction for. I was near the back of the line, so he was likely tired by the time I got to him but when he saw the book his face lit up and he chatted with me for around 10 minutes and gave me his business card. It’s one of my fondest geek culture moments. Cronos is truly a weird tale and a good demonstration of how one can tie history and horror together in newer ways. has a good post this week with a discussion of Stu Horvath’s episode on the dungeonsynth album Music for Dungeons. I’m a big fan of Stu’s, even if I lament selling him my copy of the First Quest LP. He’s a knowledgeable host and excellent podcaster. This entry of also includes a shout out to ’s crowdfunding project (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/castlegrief/kal-arath-twin-sun-sutra). Grief’s setting is very pulp and Sword & Sorcery influenced and he described it as ““A sword and sorcery version of Mad Max set in a demon-ruled Mongolian steppe.” So if that’s your jam I highly recommend checking it out. demonstrates how he and I are constantly on the same wavelength in his post discussing the art of the LJN line of D&D products, especially the module Quest for the Heartstone. This module reminds me of the wonderful times I had playing D&D with my friend Sean as a kid. After our characters finished laying siege to the Keep on the Borderlands, yes we laid siege to it, we shifted play from co-Dungeon Mastering to Sean taking on the role ad DM. One of the first adventures Sean ran was Quest for the Heartstone and it was a total blast to play in. There are numerous clichés in the adventure, including a “fight your evil clone” moment, but it also includes some amazing art by Timothy Truman and others. It’s one of two places you can find B/X statistics for the LJN toy line iconic heroes and villains, so if you want to know how strong Warduke is or how wise Mercion is then this is a book for you. Interestingly, the statistics presented in Quest for the Heartstone are different than those in Shady Dragon Inn, but that just makes it more intriguing to me.
What terrible fate caused Warduke to lose 6 points of Constitution?
has been writing a series of posts on an interesting game running philosophy called Keep Uneducated Players or KUP style play. In this case, the uneducated means uneducated about the mechanical specifics of how their characters work. It’s a philosophy diametrically opposed to the Mechanics Based Mindset I’ve discussed in the past. I introduced the term in a past Weekly Geekly, but expanded upon it in my article comparing 3rd Edition D&D to GURPS.
I Liked D&D More Before it Became GURPS
“Almost all old school dungeon delving is an off the cuff Player VS DM negotiation made in the moment.” — Jim Zub
I like the KUP concept for a couple of reasons that are based, ironically, in clashing play philosophies. The first reason I like KUP is that it aligns with some OSR styles of play. Older versions of D&D, AD&D and D&D Basic, recommend having the DM make all rolls and to describe the results to the players. This lines up with KUP perfectly. The second is that it aligns with the more freeform style of modern play, as well as with my own experience as a game master.
I’ve run a lot of role playing games over the years and I’ve been a big time evangelist for the hobby, but the biggest point of resistance I get from people is their fear that the game is “hard to learn.” There are a ton of rules for most role playing games and many potential players are put off by the amount of work they might be required to do in order to play. As much as I love building characters in Champions, it’s homework. It’s math homework to be specific and the rules of the game are pretty complex on top of that. It’s very fun to play, but it can be a challenge to learn. The most recent version of D&D, which I call 6th edition for a variety of reasons including the massive changes to the Monk class, attempts to diminish resistance by potential new players by making the rules simpler in presentation. AD&D was written in High Gygaxian which often contains challenging vocabulary. Modern D&D however, uses much simpler language. The aim is to maximize approachability. I think they’ve gone to far in the grammar, but that removing complexity from player experience is a good goal.
That’s why I’ve often found myself running games for people who have no idea what is happening mechanically. I just tell them to roll the dice and that high is better (for everything if it’s D&D 3.x or later) and they have a great time. They get to have the same pick up and play experience that they have with video games. I am the computer processor. Adding additional layers to my current DMing style, and going full KUP, seems like a good way to go when you are playing with a recreational group and don’t have any Mechanical Mindset players.
has a great Sword & Sorcery Roundup this month that includes a link to a review of The Averoigne Chronicles by Clark Ashton Smith. I’ve been a diehard Smith fan since I first read Tom Moldvay’s D&D Expert Adventure X2 Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville) when I was a kid. It was the first module to use the “a mist separates the PCs from the real world” trope that became more famous with its implementation in I6 Ravenloft. Moldvay’s module drew upon Smith’s Averoigne cycle and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Needless to say, I devoured both after reading through the module.
His Roundup also includes a link to a Black Gate post discussing Roy Thomas’ Barbarian Life Book series. While many Bronze Age comic fans sing the praises of Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, or Alan Moore, I always drifted over to the books written by Roy Thomas. He wrote hundreds of Conan stories if you combine his work on the Conan and Savage Sword of Conan and his work on The Invaders, All Star Squadron, and Werewolf by Night (among many other books) you have an author who touched on so many of the tropes I love. He combined a pulp mentality with a deep knowledge of prior comic lore and an approachable writing style. I know that he’s taken some flak for being included as a creator of Wolverine, but he did contribute a significant amount to the creation (as an editor which should mean less creative credit) and it’s really one of the smaller scandals in modern comics so I’m willing to give him a break.
has been playing ’s Kal-Arath as a solo campaign. It’s so cool to see what Robin is doing and that we share a similar taste in tactical map suppliers and love of cardboard tokens/miniatures in our gaming. I am not playing a lot of solo games right now, but there was a time when that was the only way I got to play and I love reading through other players’ experiences.
Marc Normandin over at Retro XP has a very cool review of the Super Nintendo game Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions on his Beehiiv site. He touches on how the game shares some mechanics with Super Star Wars (a great series), but with added incompetence on the part of Daffy that adds to game play. Duck Dodgers, Daffy’s character here, is one of the great Looney Tunes characters and a delightful mashup of Buck Rodgers and Flash Gordon, but we know who the real star of the show is and that’s Marvin the Martian.
I received some terrible news the other day via email. Paul ‘Wiggy’ Wade-Williams, the principle author for and owner of Triple Ace Games, is retiring from writing game products. He had a stroke a couple of years ago and it has affected his ability to write gaming supplements and so he is shifting to just the management side of the business.
As you know from last week’s Rundown, I’m a big fan of the Savage Worlds role playing game. It has an elegant and easy to learn rules set that is extremely flexible and can be applied to a variety of settings. No author or designer displayed how much could be done with the system more than Wiggy. He was extremely prolific and provided mountains of support material for the game in its early stages. From his adaptation of Beowulf into an orc siege (Against the Orcs) to his grim dark science fiction setting Necropolis to his inspired fantasy setting Hellfrost, I was able to run so many fun and engaging game campaigns. Those only touch the surface of his prolific writing.
From his home in Shetland, Wiggy helped to build up an American gaming company through his contributions. In my opinion, he’s the best thing to ever come out of Shetland and given how big a fan I am of the murder mystery show that’s high praise indeed.
Eventually Wiggy expanded beyond his freelance writing for Pinnacle Entertainment and started up his own company Triple Ace Games which published material for both the Savage Worlds game and the Ubiquity System. The Ubiquity System was designed for the game Hollow Earth Expedition and its pulpy style and attachment to a pulpy setting are right in the sweet spot of Wiggy’s creative talents.
Through his company he’s released a number of games, but my favorite would have to be Leagues of Adventure especially if you add the Leagues of Gothic Horror expansion to the mix. For the next couple of days, you can buy Leagues of Adventure for a bargain price at Bundle of Holding and given Wiggy’s health, I bought the bundle even though I already owned all the books. Leagues of Adventure is a wonderful steampunk role playing game that uses the Ubiquity system as its core mechanic, but it has a lovely whimsy that reminds me of the sadly underrated television series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. When you add the Leagues of Gothic Horror supplement, you get a wonderfully fun Universal Horror PG-13 gaming experience that’s a nice counterpoint to the Rippers R-Rated Universal Horror game play for the Savage Worlds game system. Both are great games, but sometimes I’m in a lighter mood for my horror. This isn’t to say you couldn’t play Leagues as an R-Rated game, you can, but the art inspires PG-13 play and that’s a good thing.
I’ll try to keep the music selections simple and direct for this Rundown and focus on the things I’ve been listening to when wrangling data this week.
While Bush often gets criticized as being the Temu version of Nirvana, I’ve never seen them that way. To me, they are a fusion of Shoegaze and Grunge that has a classic rock sound.
An interesting combination of artificial synth sound and skilled natural vocals, Steve Windwood’s album Arc of a Diver has two wonderful road/writing songs, the title track and While You See a Chance. In an era when so much music uses autotune, it’s interesting to hear a song where it is the instruments that are artificial even as the voice is pure, human, and emotional. It’s a pretty killer album as a whole, but these are two songs I keep coming back to again and again.
Maybe it’s all the Kate Bush that Dr. Rebekah King has been writing about lately, but it put me in the mood for unique female vocalists who seem to be channeling the sounds of Elfland and when I think of unique female vocalists who can channel the sounds of Elfland Cocteau Twins are the first band that comes to mind. With songs like Beatrix and Lorelei topping the list of compositions that walk the fine line between the melodic and surreal. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals are haunting in a way no other artist can capture.
I went into this week with two films on my “to watch” list. The first was a micro-budget action adventure film called Clear Cut starring Clive Standen (Taken TV Series), Stephen Dorff, and Alec Baldwin. I am not recommending this film. There’s a decent action film idea in the screenplay and the movie has a couple of moments, but the Photoshop level digital effects and lackluster action scenes prevent me from giving it a recommendation. Still, it has one of the best “this is why no one is using a cell phone in this movie” scenes I’ve seen to date and it has Stephen Dorff in it and he doesn’t phone in his performance.
The second film was Robert Eggers’ Oscar Nominated film Nosferatu which just became available on Peacock in an Extended Cut and after watching it I’ve decided it’s not only one of the best vampire movies ever made, it is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. As with most great Gothic horror, it equates sex and death not as competing forces but as one and the same. Sex (at least lustful sex) doesn’t bring “the little death,” it brings death. It’s a tension rooted in both the real risks of childbirth and the staunch mores of Victorian society.
Robert Eggers makes this tension one of the central components of the conflict of the movie, but he does so in a way that never wanders into the exploitation cinema of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. Where Coppola’s film almost wallows in the near pornographic with its graveyard sex scene with Lucy, Nosferatu’s sexual scenes are rooted in either psychic connections with the horrible or with a sacrificial grace. It’s a remarkable contrast. Both films feature nudity, but Nosferatu’s nudity is more naturalistic and focused on the underlying moral tensions of the film. These tensions include the conflict between the mystical and the scientific, the difference between love and lust, and the redemptive power of sacrifice. There are many more themes in the film, not the least of which is how the film incorporates Solomonic Magic.
’s excellent essay on the topic is a must read primer for watching the film. Reading her piece adds layers upon layers to what Eggers is doing in the film.Where past adaptations of Nosferatu have clung closely to Murnau’s design for the vampire, Eggers’ Orlok has an appearance rooted in history. Bill Skarsgård’s Orlok looks like a partially rotten Eastern European lord. His costume would be appropriate in a tale of Napoleon’s battles and fits the era far better than many other costuming and character designs of the past. It’s the first time that I truly thought the vampire looked like he came from the era where he originated.
Emma Corrin’s kind Anna is an interesting adaptation/diversion from the Lucy. Where Lucy becomes a killer of children, Anna is someone who adores her own children and is kind to those around her. I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Hoult’s since I first saw him in About a Boy. That film is on my list of near perfect films and with Nosferatu Hoult now stars in two films on that list. His portrayal of Thomas’ fear as he negotiates with Orlok in his castle is one of the few times the film actually feels scary. Most of the horror of this movie is dread and plausible sorrow rather than spine tingling fear, but Thomas’ visit to the castle has some moments where I looked over my shoulder as I sad alone in my darkened living room waiting for my family to return home.
The cinematography is excellent and lifts some moments straight from Murnau’s classic to good effect, even as it isn’t mere pastiche. The majority of cinematography looks more like an N.C. Wyeth painting than German Expressionism. The muted colors, desaturated blues, flat lit skin tones, and foggy grays give one a sense of cold that lines up well with Eggers’ other films.
This is a horror movie for people who love horror movies, but it is also a movie for those who love tragic drama. Like The Woman in Black, this is a sad film but it is also a beautifully sad film and I give it my highest recommendation.
I am both honored and happy to meet a way to play by means of the KUP model! I will re-post other old posts on that topic... and yes, of course, I still need to draft the KUP manifesto! Thanks for sharing my view, Chistian!
Thanks for the mention, Christian! :D