It’s nerd-guru blogging weekend, apparently: On his blog, Battlestar Galactica re-inventor Ron Moore waxes rhapsodic about the Sopranos finale, calling it “perfect” and saying “I wish I’d thought of it first.” Not that I was worried before, but this gives me a lot of faith in BSG‘s final season, that’s for sure. (Via Jim Treacher)

On his blog, the director of Hostel: Part II says this weekend will the last chance you have to see a new movie of his for the forseeable future; after that, his financially (and creatively -ed.) disappointing Hostel sequel will probably be out of theaters, and it will be a long time before Cell, Trailer Trash, or anything else he’s been talking about will see the light of day. He blames much of the failure of the film on leaked bootlegs of a rough cut that surfaced before the release date, both for siphoning away the audience and leading to reviews of that rough cut by sundry online critics. (The possibility of inherent faults within the film itself is not acknowledged; “People love the movie,” he says.) He also warns that with the failure of this movie, the future of R-rated horror as a viable genre with studios and theater chains is in doubt. Frankly, after actually seeing Hostel: Part II, it’s tough to get all that worked up over that prospect. (Via Bloody Disgusting.)

I grabbed this spiffy Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely New X-Men-derived number from Mutant-America.com, purveyors of a variety of great comics-logo shirts that aren’t available through more, er, official channels. (The licensed “Magneto was right” T-shirt has a gigantic grimacing Jim Lee Magnus set on a black background with a goofy badass font. No thanx.)

According to a recent AOL interview with Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis, he’s working on an opera entitled Oblivion with none other than Clive Barker. I’ve been wondering what was up with this project: Barker mentioned a potential collaboration with Davis to me waaay back in the spring of 2001, but that was pretty much the last I heard of it; I don’t recall it being mentioned in any of the upcoming-project laundry lists that official Barker site Revelations puts together on a regular basis. I’ll admit that this project is a lot less interesting to me now than it was six years ago considering Korn’s output since then, but take it from this metal fan: Korn’s first few records contain enough interesting ideas to make a Davis/Barker collab worth looking into. (Via Bloody Disgusting.)

Killing in Style, Sylvian L.’s marvelously sharp and stylish (ha, fittingly enough) giallo blog, is coming to an end. In fact, to hear Sylvian tell it, he’ll actually be deleting the whole thing, not just quit posting. Go and explore while you still can.

I’m talking about this week’s installments of World War Hulk, New Avengers, Justice, The Amory Wars, B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls, Mystic Arcana, and The Trials of Shazam! at Wizard’s Thursday Morning Quarterback.

Bloody Disgusting has posted the trailer for the 2-disc 20th Anniversary Edition Monster Squad DVD. Clearly aimed at the Harry Potter set, yet still indescribably awesome. Get ready to have your proverbial Twinkie stolen.

The former film studies student in me still can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but Kristin Thompson is reading the tea leaves regarding the likelihood of a Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, detecting a possible softening of the hardline anti-Jackson stance taken by New Line honcho Bob Shaye. Fingers crossed, man.

A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale’s age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

[…]

The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.

—“Weapon dates bowhead whale to 1800s,” AP, CNN.com

The news of the passing of venerable Suicide Girls interviewer-of-all-trades Daniel Robert Epstein at the young age of 31 is just stunning to me. I didn’t know him at all, but he was a force of nature who racked up the best roster of interview subjects of pretty much any writer ever, and did a fine job with them to boot. It’s strange how much the death of someone with whom you have no real connection can affect you in this Internet age, but my thoughts go out to his family and friends. I will definitely miss his work, and the role it played.

These are bad people. Evil people, really….We sympathize, however, not because they aren’t bad people, but because we aren’t bad people and bad as the bad people may be, they’re still people and we, as good people, recognize a common thread of shared humanity between us. The fact that Tony Soprano isn’t a cartoonish villain doesn’t mean he’s not a villain.

—Matt Yglesias

I’ve decided not to bother with the “that sucked!” school of Sopranos final-episode criticism at all. I disagree so much–on the level of “well, you clearly were watching the show for reasons that were, if not objectively wrong, then at least 180 degrees apart from my own”–that there’d be no common ground to be found, and it would simply drive me crazy and lessen the enjoyment I got out of the series. And fuck that. I’m not looking for reasons not to enjoy the things I enjoy, nor do I read and participate in criticism to wage campaigns of attrition.

Among the myriad feelings I’m feeling today is a sense of total vindication of my unironic love for Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” one of the best rock songs ever, one of those songs so perfect that feels like it was beamed in from another plane of existence and merely channeled by the band that recorded it. I’ve said for years that it’s the equal in intent, execution, and effect of “Transmission” by Joy Division, and people look at me like I’m crazy. No more, Butchie. No more.

This should be interesting.

SPOILERS, obvs.

1. Paulie saying “You’re a general, T!” to Tony when Tony discovers that Paulie had rescued a painted portrait of Tony with his late horse Pie-Oh-My and had Tony repainted into Napoleon.

2. The scene where a suburban family on a trip into the city gets carjacked by a couple of black guys when pulling out of the parking garage, and their dog runs away chasing the car, and the dad yells “Niggers!” and completely shocks his children, and then we cut to Tony smilingly eying a polaroid of the stolen SUV because it ended up in his crime family’s hands.

3. AJ’s suicide attempt, and Tony rescuing him and telling him “It’s alright, baby. It’s alright.”

4. The ducks leaving the pool.

5. Tony asking Dr. Melfi if anything’s wrong after her rape, and her saying “no.”

6. Adriana begging “please” as she struggles to get away from Silvio when he pulls over in the woods to kill her, and Silvio saying “c’mere, you cunt.”

7. Uncle Junior thinking Larry David and his manager on Curb Your Enthusiasm are he and Bobby Baccala.

8. The glow of the wildfire in the window as Moby’s “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die” plays in the background as “Anthony Soprano” sits on his hotel bed during his coma hallucination sequence.

9. Artie Bucco.

10. Tony and Christopher repeating their reminiscence about the van full of wine they hijacked from the bikers, to diminishing returns.

11. The psychiatrist, never seen before or since, who tells Carmela to take the children and run, not walk, away from Tony immediately.

12. “University.”

13. Bobby Baccala telling Uncle Junior, who’s just decided not to support Richie Aprile’s bid for power against Tony, “I’m in awe of you.”

14. Meadow Soprano’s dance in her underwear for Finn to Bill Laswell and William S. Burroughs’s “Seven Souls.”

15. Carmela’s reaction when Tony’s Russian mistress Irina calls and says “I’m the woman who used to fuck your husband.”

16. The Father Phil storyline.

17. The Vito Spatafore storyline.

18. The use of the music of Andrea Boccelli during the Furio/Carmela storyline.

19. Johnny Sack discovering his wife Ginny binge eating, and his genuine devastation as he says “You lied to me!”

20. The quick cut from the old man who reacts to the Tony-ordered shoot-up of an old brownstone by saying “I told you that crack is some bad shit!”

21. The quick cut from Patsy Parisi reacting to Tony’s big rousing speech about the need for solidarity in the face of Phil Leotardo and Johnny Sack’s vendetta against Tony B. by saying “Thank you, very much.”

22. The proto-mashup of “The Peter Gunn Theme” and “Every Breath You Take” as the FBI tries to bug Tony’s basement.

23. The Kinks’ “Living on a Thin Line.”

24. Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon’s “World Destruction.”

25. Van Morrison’s “Glad Tidings.”

26. The Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile.”

27. The word-by-word shots of the passages in the study Dr. Melfi’s reading that explain how sociopaths con their therapists, particularly through their sympathy for babies and animals.

28. Vito Spatafore’s interior monologue countdown to his lunch break as he tries to do an honest day’s work on the farm.

29. The look on Tony B.’s dead face.

30. Adriana throwing up all over the table at the FBI office.

31. Burt Gervasi’s terrier barking as Silvio kills him.

32. The hapless landscaper forced into indentured servitude along with his college-kid son thanks to the war between Paulie Walnuts and Feech LaManna.

33. Idiotic Little Carmine actually making the right decision pretty much every time he makes a decision.

34. The fact that Bobby Baccala and Johnny Sack evolved from bit parts into main characters.

35. Gloria Trillo gasping “Kill me! Kill me!”

36. “You shot me in the foot!” “It happens.”

37. The loser in the band that Chris and Adriana are producing shitting all over the Beatles for being so predictable and boring.

38. Hesh dating African-American women exclusively.

39. Uncle Junior crying when Tony asks him if he ever loved him.

40. Finn falling asleep during the marathon argument with Meadow that ends with him proposing to her.

41. The ghostly silhouette of Livia at the Inn at the Oaks during Tony’s coma-hallucination.

42. The name Kevin Finnerty.

43. Phil Leotardo coming out of the closet in Vito’s hotel room.

44. The look on Feech’s face on the bus back to prison.

45. The waiter who Chris and Paulie murder in the parking lot after stiffing him on the tip.

46. The motorcyclist who gets run over during the hit on Silvio and Patsy.

47. The kids crying during the hit on Bobby.

48. “Daddy, they shot me!”

49. Detective Markasian honking and yelling at the traffic on his way to commit suicide.

50. Detective Markasian putting his badge on just before he commits suicide.

51. Eugene Pontecorvo hanging himself.

52. Vito’s son taking a shit in the shower.

53. Ralph Cifaretto yelling “I did nnnnnot! But so what?”

54. Agent Harris.

55. Bobby Baccala.

56. The homeless woman with the Daily News stuffed up her ass.

57. Tony curbing Coco.

58. Bobby telling the jury foreman that if he were to convict a man like Junior Soprano, he’d want to put a bullet in his head here, here, and here.

59. Matthew Bevilaqua/Drinkwater.

60. Phil Leotardo saying “No more, Butchie. No more.”

61. JT Dolan telling Christopher “You’re in the Mafia.”

62. Johnny and Ginny Sack’s obviously anorexic daughter exasperatedly demanding “Can this family talk about anything but food?”

63. Johnny crying as they drag him back to prison at his daughter’s wedding.

64. Big Pussy asking Tony if it’s alright to sit down before they kill him.

65. Uncle Junior’s mistress sobbing and screaming “Corrado! Corrado!” after he hits her in the face with the pie and walks out on her.

66. Uncle Junior crying after he hits her in the face with the pie and walks out on her.

67. “The Test Dream.”

68. “It’s all a big nothing.”

69. “Everything turns to shit.”

70. Caitlin, Meadow’s depressed freshman-year roommate.

71. Finn looking over and seeing Vito pop up from blowing the security guard.

72. Furio’s rampage in the massage parlor.

73. Kennedy and Heidi.

74. Sil, Bobby, and Tony shadowboxing when the music from Raging Bull starts playing in the restaurant where they’re discussing going to war against Phil.

75. Bobby’s death scene.

76. Paulie killing his mother’s friend.

77. Adriana talking about how nice it is that Matush is sending money back to fund schools for boys in Pakistan.

78. Big Pussy bragging about going down on his Dominican mistress, and Tony asking “Hey Puss–did she really even exist?”

79. Tracee brining Tony baked goods while topless, with a smile full of braces.

80. All the malapropisms, from “my knight in white satin armor” to “irregardless” to “at the precipice of a crossroad” to “prostate with grief” to “mayham.”

81. Janice’s Rolling Stones tattoo.

82. The dream version of Detective Makasian sining “Three Times a Lady” to Annette Benning.

83. Tony beating the shit out of his driver just to show he’s still got it.

84. The Scautino bust-out.

85. Big Pussy running over the cyclist as he attempts to tail another gangster on behalf of his FBI contacts.

86. The dream-fish Big Pussy telling Tony that his fellow fish are asleep.

87. Carmela’s speech to comatose Tony in the hospital.

88. Tony punching through the wall during the big fight with Carmela.

89. “It’s just that ‘remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.”

90. Dumping the asbestos in the middle of nowhere.

91. Livia smiling as they wheel her away from Tony.

92. The murder of naked Lorraine.

93. Tony having sex with Charmaine Bucco as Artie cheers them on in a dream.

94. The pervasive racism.

95. Tony B. zooming in on Carmela’s ass as he videotapes their pool party.

96. “Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this.”

97. The whole series from “University” onwards.

98. “In the end, you die in your own arms.”

99. The opening credits.

100. The fact that we knew Tony’s captain Ray Curto was wearing a wire for like two seasons, but because he wasn’t a main character no one paid any attention to it and focused on Adriana instead, and then when they finally brought it up again he had a heart attack and died in the FBI agent’s car.

101. Carmela’s philistinism.

102. AJ giving the bike to the hoodlums outside Blanca’s apartment.

103. AJ’s therapist asking him why he’s depressed, and him responding “How could anyone not be?”

104. “I get it! I get it!”

105. The look in Tony’s eyes as he kills Christopher.

106. “Fucking D-girl!” “Hey! I am a vice-president!”

107. Johnny Boy Soprano’s mistress singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to Tony.

108. Ralphie’s “collegiate” look.

109. “You let him hold a gun to your head during sex?” “It’s not like it’s loaded.”

110. Dr. Elliot Kupferberg.

111. “Fuck Ben Kingsley! Danny Baldwin just took him to acting school!”

112. Cosette.

113. Paulie asking Big Pussy in his dream “When my time comes, will I stand up?”

114. The handheld camera during “Chasing It.”

115. The rocking of the boat during Tony and Paulie’s fishing trip.

116. The Tindersticks’ “Tiny Tears.”

117. The episode that used a song from Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. II over the closing credits.

118. Ralphie running across the yard after his son gets shot in the head with the arrow.

119. Chris explaining his tardiness to a meeting: “Sorry, T–the highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive.”

120. The fact that Frank Vincent was on the show.

121. Melfi reverse-Godfathering Tony by closing the door on him.

122. Bobby refusing to defrost his late wife’s last meal.

123. Tony goading Janice to break her anger-management routine just because.

124. Ralphie’s Gladiator obsession.

125. The art direction for the promo materials from Season Two onwards.

126. Calling the last episode “Made in America.”

127. Playing that commercial with Abe Lincoln and the talking beaver in the mental ward where AJ is institutionalized.

128. Hesh’s description of Livia: “Between her brain and her mouth, there was no interlocutor.”

129. Tony Soprano.

130. “Poor you.”

131. Butchie accidentally wandering from Little Italy into Chinatown as he wraps up his phonecall to end the war.

132. Agent Harris: “We’re gonna win this thing!”

133. Phil gootchie-gootchie-gooing his twin grandbabies at the gas station.

134. The guy who pukes when the SUV rolls over Phil’s head.

135. Meadow telling Tony how the government and FBI discriminate against Italian Americans, and Tony replying, “Well…”

136. Meadow parallel parking.

137. The man in the Members Only jacket.

138. “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

139. “Don’t stop—”

140. Cut to black.

A nice, straightforward Horror Roundtable this week: “Name your favorite horror movie.” If you’d asked me that question on a different day you might have gotten a different answer, but I’m pleased with the answer I gave. Most interesting is how many participants were unable to pick a number one…

Scientists believe they’ve discovered the origin of déja vu. I always thought it had something to do with a short-term memory accidentally getting stored in the long-term memory bank, but rather it’s a question of a part of your brain called the dentate gyrus not properly processing a new situation that resembles a similar situation that happened in the past, leading you to believe that this exact situation happened in the past. This creepy phenomeon happens to me a lot, so I’m a little disturbed that the sensation is associated with Alzheimer’s. But sometimes I’m in the shower and I can’t remember if I shampooed already or not, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

Yo, cut it.

Several trailers for upcoming horror films of note have appeared online in the past few days.

First up is I Am Legend, the Will Smith-starring adaptation of Richard Matheson’s post-vampire-apocalypse novella. It’s actually rather interesting, or at least not annoying, which is what I thought it would be. Obviously showing how things got to the pass we’re at when the novella begins is a big change, as is setting the thing in Manhattan, but neither is necessarily bad, just different. Still, casting Will Smith and spending the amount of money they must have spent on this thing to shoot in New York and close the Brooklyn Bridge and so on would indicate that this is supposed to be a blockbuster, which frequently (though not always) proves inimical to the values that make post-apocalyptic horror interesting in the first place. We’ll see.

Next up is The Invasion, the latest incarnation of the thrice-remade sci-fi apocalyptic paranoia classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this time starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The trailer feels like a misstep to me, showing way too much of the movie and centering on a bored-of-it-already child-in-peril plot. But I’m struck by how much what we see here is indebted to the fast-zombie horror school of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead, an interesting road to go down for this property. The leads show a lot of promise, of course.

Finally, there’s 30 Days of Night, based on the not actually very good graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith about vampires who besiege a small Alaskan town where the sun won’t come out for another month. The idea behind the book was much better than the book itself, which is why I hold out some hope for the movie, though the trailer comes across as over-the-top and cheesy. Still, that’s what most trailers tend to do, so who knows.

My post called “Meet the new boss,” on how the Museum of the Moving Image’s current ’70s/’00s horror film exhibition represents a new conventional wisdom that “good” horror films offer sociopolitical criticism (of America, for the most part) has attracted some interesting comments, most notably from “carolclover.”

First of all, if “carolclover” is in fact THE Carol Clover of Men, Women and Chainsaws fame, it’s a pleasure to have her visit my blog. (The reminds me of the time I was hanging around on the Comics Journal message board and wound up in a discussion with Scott Bukatman, and I said, “Wow, THE Scott Bukatman?” and Scott said “that’s definitely the first time anyone’s said THAT to me.”)

Anyway, carolclover writes:

I think you’re the one who’s taking the reductive view, if you’re really looking at the museum’s schedule for that series. What do Martin, Ichi the Killer, House by the Cemetery, It’s Alive, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, High Tension, Rabid, Carrie, The Descent, for example, really have to do with either Iraq or Vietnam? It’s a thematically wide-ranging and well-selected series of contemporary and 1970s horror (both particularly fecund periods for the genre).

I tried to be clear in my original post that while Iraq and Vietnam are the foremost targets of the horror-film-as-political-commentary set (for obvious reasons), I didn’t mean they’re the only targets; that was the point of bringing up Night of the Living Dead‘s resonance with issues of race. Also, I don’t deny that the 1970s and today are fecund periods for the genre, though again I believe the omission of the intervening years speaks more to an absence of the kind of genre exemplars for which the curators were searching, and a perceived similarity between the films being made in those two time periods, than any kind of comment on the relative fecundity of those periods.

So. Regarding the politics of the Museum’s festival, here’s the introductory paragraph on the handout available at the Hostel 2: Part II screening:

Horror movies are currently enjoying a resurgence in production, popularity, and inventiveness unparalleled since the rise of th eindie horror movement in the 1970s. Today’s Splat Pack directors–Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, and Alexandre Aja among them–draw direct inspiration from the earlier generation’s masters, including John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero. Then and now, the best horror movies are transgressive and powerful, challenging taboos and offering social commentary while delving deeply into our darkest desires and fears.

And here are sample quotes from the write-ups for the individual films:

The American Nightmare: “examine[s] the 1970s horror renaissance against the backdrop of war and social turmoil.”

A Clockwork Orange: “In Kubrick’s sardonic view, Alex’s sadism is more than equaled by the violence of the state.”

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: “a rural Texas family of laid-off slaughterhouse workers who consume everything in their path” (consume!–ed.)

Panel discussion – “Considering Horror”: panelists “examine the aesthetic, cultural, and political implications of contemporary and 1970s horror films.” (The panelists include the Village Voice’s Nathan Lee, perhaps the foremost “it’s about Bush” film critic in the country, incidentally.)

The Hills Have Eyes: “Craven’s innovative horror film is an attack on pollution and on middle-class American life.”

The Hills Have Eyes (2006): “Aja’s visually and thematically startling film expands the original’s critique of ‘nuclear’ family.”

The Host: “This hilarious and pointedly topical movie about a rampaging mutant lizard has many satirical targets, including American foreign policy and environmental recklessness.”

It’s Alive: “With his distinctive blend of iconoclastic humor, social satire, and genre mastery, maverick director Larry Cohen unleashes a domestic and environmental nightmare”

Bug: “A woman and her boyfriend, a Gulf War veteran convinced he has been purposely infested with infects, spiral into paranoia in an Oklahoma motel room.”

Dawn of the Dead: “Snyder (300) remakes George A. Romero’s satire of consumerism, with zombies surrounding a shopping mall in post-apocalypse surburbia”

Dead of Night: “A fallen Vietnam soldier returns as a zombie in this scathing satire by the late Bob Clark…one of the first movies to deal with the impact of Vietnam on the American psyche.”

Homecoming: “Slain soldiers return from Iraq as zombies intent on voting republicans out of office in this bold and inventive satire. In The Village Voice, Dennis Lim hailed it as ‘easily one of the most important political films of the Bush II era.'”

George A. Romero’s Martin: “an unsettling study of post-adolescent alienation, religious fanaticism, and urban decay.”

28 Weeks Later: “The U.S. military takes over the reconstruction of plague-ravaged England, then loses control of the country to a zombie-fueled insurgence…smartly satirical.” (insurgence!–ed.)

The Last House on the Left: “Craven’s Vietnam-era rape-and-revenge tale…pits the counterculture Stillo family against the bourgeois Collingwoods.”

The festival also includes Hostel and (obviously) Hostel: Part II, as well as Carrie (which, DePalma-isms aside, is pretty clearly “about” American suburbia, gender politics, and religiosity). And it’s surely no coincidence that the first film to be screened at the Museum itself is The American Nightmare–as all of the above indicate, that’s the exhibition’s thesis statement. Ichii, Final Destination 3, The House by the Cemetary, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage–it seems clear to me that these are the exceptions, not the rule. It also seems abundantly clear exactly what that rule is.

So I’ve been promoted at work to Online Managing Editor, helping to run WizardUniverse.com. Why do I bring this up? Because if you’re reading this blog there’s a very good chance you’ll like the site, which frequently features extensive coverage of the kinds of movies and comics and TV shows I yak about here.

For example, I already mentioned our interview with Hostel: Part II director Eli Roth. But wait, there’s more!

Here’s a report on the recent Battlestar Galactica season four press event by our new West Coast Editor (and my old boss from my Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly days) Savas Abadsidis. Old-school Cylons and the sex organs of Jamie Bamber and Katee Sackhoff are involved.

Here’s an interview by Kiel Phegley with cartoonist Eddie Campbell on The Black Diamond Detective Agency, his new graphic-novel thriller.

Here’s Andy Serwin waxing enthusiastic about The Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja, one of the best superhero titles on the stands today and a must-read for fans of the Kill Bill school of pasticheur pulp.

And as always, I’m pontificating about the week’s comics–specifically Detective Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, New Warriors, Iron Man, Midnighter, Sock Monkey: The “Inches” Incident, Supergirl, and Superman–at Thursday Morning Quarterback.

Something for everybody! Especially if you’re me.