Happy Halloween! Two weeks late...
You know, I could use the magic of blogging time travel and set the post date to be Halloween, where it would sit in that chronological spot. You might believe that you just missed it the day it came out. But that would be dishonest.
And it would conflict with the details surrounding my latest work-in-progress shelf:
I finished this last Sunday morning, and I've been waiting to have time to write about it all week. It was another great story, which had me cheering at the end. Since ERB uses some generic names for some of the characters, we're going to have fun casting them below as a cool visual aid.
One of my favorite albums from the early '90s is School of Fish. The whole thing is a masterpiece, especially the first two tracks: "Intro" & "3 Strange Days". I echo some of the lyrics frequently because they represent a limited and compressed toe-dip into some pop culture phenomenon, experience, or sampling. I'd even call the term 3 strange days a "short soirée", even though that stretches the definition well beyond the norm. But hey, mangling and jangling the English language is just how my thoughts work. And it may not be a strict three days (and it doesn't have to be limited to pop culture entertainment), but you get the idea:
For three strange days
I had no obligations
My mind was a blur
I did not know what to do
I think I lost myself
When I lost my motivation
Now I'm walking 'round the city
Just waiting to come to
For three strange...
So last weekend, after completing my annual Halloween movie fest (more on that another time...maybe), I started watching Gene Roddenberry's unsuccessful and bizarre, loosely-connected trilogy of mid-70s SyFy films: Genesis II (1973), Planet Earth (1974), and Strange New World (1975) on Tubi.
I finished this yesterday, and once again, I found the beginning and end to be stronger than the middle, but I have a theory for why that may be. And it doesn't have to do with ERB; rather, it revolves around my work schedule. You see, I typically finish the previous novel as my work week is winding down, and immediately dive into the next one (I've already read 4 chapters of #15 last night). So my ability to maintain focus when reading before bed is hampered by a long day of working (when I'm in the middle of the story), and maybe I piddle out a few pages at a time, instead of whole chapters - sometimes reading several paragraphs more than once! ...sometimes reading several paragraphs more than once! ...and maybe I piddle out a few pages at a time, instead of whole chapters - sometimes reading several paragraphs more than once! [You get the idea.]
I mean, I was really struggling yesterday to complete the novel, even though I felt rested enough and really wanted to finish it. I had to stop, get up and move around, then come back again (repeatedly). I even did some of my vision fusion exercises in hopes my brain wasn't shutting itself down like it was two to three years ago, before I had vision therapy (for double vision). And I really did enjoy the story with one exception, which was both cool and a missed opportunity.
And had this book been published in the 1950s, instead of 1930-1931, it probably would've been called, "Tarzan versus the Reds". Oh, and the dynamic Neal Adams cover has nothing to do with the story...that I can recall.
I missed TRON: UPRISING the first time around, back in 2012-2013, because we didn't pay for Disney XD back then. However, streaming Disney+ (which is increasing in price again next month to $18.99/month!) allowed me to check it out before I rewatched TRON: LEGACY. I (briefly) mentioned my fondness for Legacy in my TRON: ARES post earlier this week. Somehow, I had time to watch episode 1 on Monday, then I got around to episodes 2-5 on Thursday, before finishing the series in a marathon layabout day (that was quite enjoyable) yesterday*, watching episodes 6-19.
*Skipping the Baltimore Comic-Con for the second year in a row for other reasons.
Was it worth it...?
