strange and random happenstance

Before you even ask, yes, I will watch anything set in Wisconsin to sit in judgement on it. Because that's what a true Wisconsinite does. Which means, don't ever get me started on Picket Fences. And you know what, Revival was doing pretty good until episode eight wherein Wausau has magically acquired an Amtrak station. The lack of railways in Wisconsin, and the fact that the capital doesn't have a stop with the minimal Amtrak service there is is a very sore subject for the state's residents. As for the Milwaukee corridor rumors, bite me. And this plot point, which was kind of a major plot point, was just throwing salt in the wounds. But at least they avoided any mispronunciations, which is why I will forever hate Jack Trotter on The Gilded Age for his mangling of Peshtigo. I know I should feel so happy for him becoming rich and buying a house and everything, but I'm sorry, you can't pronounce the town where your mother died and you were presumably born!?! Plus, I'm additionally sorry that the Chicago fire took the focus away from Peshtigo, but, whatever, learn to pronounce it Jack. Because at least Revival redeemed itself for the Amtrak error by putting in a wicked Milwaukee Bucks burn in the finale that they had lost to the Indiana Pacers. Again. Seriously, if you're a Bucks fan, you feel this joke in your very soul. And has The Gilded Age done anything to make it up to me yet? No. It hasn't. Moving on, if I can, as a connoisseur of everything to do with my home state I had obviously heard about the graphic novel by Tim Seely and Mike Norton. Patrick Rothfuss put me on to it, and well, Patrick Rothfuss has really bad taste in reading material. Something I have painfully learned over time. I just didn't like it but at least I have since realized why Martha's nickname is Em. It's not Em it's "M." Get it? Anyway. So, this is a zombie story, so if you have zombie issues, maybe don't tune in. But even if you do have zombie issues, maybe try it anyway, because while this is a zombie story it's also about how we treat others and militias and religious zealotry and personal agency and MAGA and the CDC and all of that and it hits really close to the bone. Luckily though if you were one of the Revivers that came back from the dead that injury will heal right up. I'm a fan of zombie stories that try to tell a bigger tale, that about family and connection and identity and our place in the world, which is why I love iZombie and Shaun of the Dead so much. Because who says zombies have to be humorless? And while Revival does have it's more amusing moments this is a darker but far more fascinating tale. It's like a puzzle you're piecing together. There's a cold case but there's also this new miracle that's happened and how they connect is everything. And while we are given an ending and Martha's MAGA dipshit father is given a few glorious smackdowns, there is more to explore in this world. When reading that comic all those years ago I would never have thought I'd enjoy, let alone embrace, a show based on it, here I am. Just shows that many kinds of miracles were worked on this show. Plus the wrestler CM Punk is brutally murdered in an episode if that's your jam...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 7:23 PM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, CM Punk, Graphic Novel, iZombie, Jack Trotter, Mike Norton, Milwaukee Bucks, Patrick Rothfuss, Peshtigo, Picket Fences, Revivers, Shaun of the Dead, The Gilded Age, Tim Seely, Timely, Wausau, Wisconsin, Zombies

You've Got Red on You: How Shaun of the Dead Was Brought to Life by Clark Collis
Published by: 1984 Publishing
Publication Date: November 23rd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 424 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Shaun of the Dead is one of those films like Twister that whenever you catch it on TV while flipping the channels you can't help but keep watching it. The humor, the pacing, the pathos, the music, everything is perfection. I dare you to listen to "Don't Stop Me Now" without wishing you had a pool cue in your hand. Of course it wasn't an easy film to make. At the time Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg were only known for their quirky cult comedy Spaced and here they were pitching a major motion picture that was very zombie niche. In fact, they would have been happy had this film only had an audience of one if that audience was George Romero. And if he liked it. They really wanted him to like it. This was an epic love letter to the man and the aesthetic he had created. But it took a lot of convincing to get everyone on board with their vision. At times the studio was pushing for "names." Which means, in an alternate universe Nick Frost isn't in this film but for some reason Gillian Anderson is. Which could have been a little awkward given how Tim Bisley felt about Dana Scully.... With new interviews from the cast and crew and complete access to Edgar Wright, You've Got Red on You shows a detailed behind the scenes picture of how this zomromcom came to life. The long hours shooting without air conditioning. The people whose entire job was just to maintain blood spatter continuity. What it's like being covered in blood spatter in that heat. The fact that David Bowie was really "funny" about the Labyrinth soundtrack and therefore a zombie was attacked with the Batman Soundtrack instead. I mean, Prince was their first choice, but it didn't hurt to have a backup. And then once the film was wrapped, would anyone watch it? Thankfully George Romero approved and anything else was a slice of fried gold. They didn't realize though that it would be so successful. But this was down to clever marketing. In order to break the US the trio of Pegg, Wright, and Frost toured the US. They did an old fashioned hard sell going town to town, and because of this they didn't just create a fanbase, they created true fans. Fans that would come out on their next two tours when they promoted Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Fans that would repeatedly buy all the different versions of the film that were released and would follow them to the ends of the Earth. Or at least to the pub on a Sunday afternoon.

I don't know how I first heard of Shaun of the Dead, I'm guessing a trailer before another movie in the summer of 2004, but I was an early convert. I was a member of the "Shaun Street Squad" which was a website designed to spread the word about the film and where you could earn sweet sweet swag by doing fan art and fanfic. And yes, I actively participated, cashing in my points for a pint glass and then some. And then opening day I was there in the theater having dragged my friend Matt along with me to see this film everyone was talking about. After that first viewing I became an acolyte of Simon Pegg's. Spaced, Hippies, Asylum, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and branching out, Black Books, and Little Britain, where Monty Python, Red Dwarf, and Blackadder were my formative years of British sitcom, Simon Pegg came in to inform my early post college years. So I had one question going into this book, could it give me any revelations? The answer is not really. Aside from David being written for David Walliams, which makes everything make sense to me. But it's such a well laid out and eminently readable history of the film that a lack of anything new didn't really bother me. It was also, for the most part, pretty unbiased, showing Edgar warts and all with an ongoing feud he had with the director of photography David Dunlap. And while Edgar admits to this feud Edgar himself might be the only real problem with this book in that it was Edgar's voice that was predominate. His view of how things happened. Yes, others were interviewed, but Edgar's voice and Clark Collis's reverence for him carried the narrative. And as for Collis.... It's his inferences in the end that make the book not achieve it's full potential. Because in the final analysis the author places too much cultural importance on Shaun of the Dead. Yes, it's was culturally important in bringing about the more romcom side of zombies, but was it THE REASON that zombies because popular again? No. That would be 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead comics, which were released in 2002 and 2003 respectively, whereas Shaun of the Dead was released in April 2004 in England, us in the states had to wait for a fall release. Also, I found it odd that Collis never once mentions iZombie which in comic and televisual form were both heavily influenced by Shaun of the Dead. And of course THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT was omitted from this book. Because of Shaun of the Dead we got Hot Fuzz, perhaps the most perfect movie ever.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 28 Days Later, Clark Collis, Edgar Wright, For the Love of Book Clubs, George Romero, Hot Fuzz, iZombie, Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg, Spaced, The Walking Dead, You've Got Red on You, Zombies

Well, for those who don't know me that well, or haven't been following me for that long, Monday was my birthday! Same as Alfred Hitchcock, yo. So, yeah me... I guess... seems weird to be applauding yourself, like at awards shows when nominees applaud themselves, you think, wow, now there's someone who thinks highly of themselves. So, whatever, yeah me, I'm a year older, yadda yadda. Also, this blog is very much, well, yes, me, but more, how other's works effect me. Literature filtered through a Miss Eliza shaped brain. Therefore, while I do talk about myself, I'm mainly talking about things that others have done or written. So for a change, the reason I'm talking about me, besides the whole birthday, is, I figured, I've made everyone else answer my silly Steampunk questions, it seems only right I answer them myself! Therefore, in honor of the day my mom gave birth in a horrible heatwave in the 70s, I present, my Steampunky brain, unfiltered.

Question: What is the definitive Steampunk book for you?

Answer: For me, it's Soulless by Gail Carriger. While there are books I've read since that I might love more, in fact, some of the ones I love more are by Gail Carriger, it was this book that made me more overtly aware of Steampunk, therefore, the definitive Steampunk book for me.

Question: What drew you to this genre?

Answer: While Soulless did draw me to the genre, I think that the reason I was ready for it was my love of the Young Sherlock Holmes. This movie influenced me at a very young age, instilling a love of Victoriana, flying contraptions, wacky inventors, sleuths, and evil Egyptian cults, the cult thing leading to nightmares to this day, damn you Lord Bobbins for playing the cult's music at Teslacon's mummy unwrapping last year! That, and Nicholas Rowe. Also, the romantic in me loves to think that because of a lose at an early age, Sherlock was never able to love again... even if it's totally against character, it made my adolescent heart ache.

Question: How do you take your tea?

Answer: Lots of milk and lots of sugar. What's the point of drinking tea any other way but the way you like it, which is the valuable lesson from Shaun of the Dead.

Question: Must have sartorial accessory?

Answer: Bomber jacket. Because it appeals to my golden age of travel/exploration fantasies... also, just an all round good coat.

Question: Sartorial leaning: Street Urchin, Tinker, Explorer or Aesthete?

Answer: Explorer... but that's I think because I lack the courage to try to pull off Aesthete. But I am a tinkerer at heart and I loved to dress up as an urchin as a child, it was that or Bat Girl, so, yes, Explorer overall, but really, I love them all.

Question: Top hat or bowler hat?

Answer: Both. Different occasions, outfits, social rankings, require different hats.

Question: Subgenre you most identify with: Boilerpunk, Clockpunk, Dieselpunk, Gaslight Romance, Mannerspunk, Raygun Gothic or Stitchpunk?

Answer: Gaslight Romance, because of the aforementioned Young Sherlock Holmes.

Question: If there was one thing that could truly exist from the world of Steampunk what would it be?

Answer: A super steam train. Seeing as I only travel over land, not high over land, a faster train is a must in my mind.

Question: If there was one element in the Steampunk genre you could remove forever what would it be?

Answer: Nothing. Because, while there are tropes and situations that are played out, every once in awhile there's a book or author that is able to take that trope and reinvent it. If I was to censor something, I might be inadvertently stopping a work of genius.

Question: Favorite movie or television series with Steampunk elements?

Answer: Oh, just too too many. Doctor Who, The Avengers, Warehouse 13, Jack of All Trades, on and on and on. But if you can get Bruce Campbell in there, all the better!

Question: Preferred mode of transport: celestial, aether, terra firma or aquatic?

Answer: Terra Firma. I like my feet to not leave the ground, or at least something connected to the ground, thank you!

Question: Victorian or Wild West?

Answer: Victorian. While younger, I did love the West, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, at some point, the Anglophile in me took over.

Question: Would you like an automaton butler or ladies maid, considering that it might be the first step in the robotic apocalypse?

Answer: I'm lazy, and I don't like people touching my stuff, so logically, a robotic butler or ladies maid would be wonderful, but than I think of Cylons, and no way! I mean, did you read that article a few weeks back about a computer who didn't know what I cat was who was able to teach itself! Machines are starting to think. That day will be the day people look back on as the beginning of the robopocalypse.

Question: If The Doctor showed up at your door, where would you go?

Answer: I have always wanted to solve histories unsolved crimes. Jack the Ripper, what really happened with Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood? What did Agatha Christie really do when she disappeared? Black Dahlia, Zodiac Killer... you get the idea. Oh, and it'd be nice to meet Jane Austen. This, of course, is presuming I survived long enough on our first unexpected jaunt.

Question: Favorite Queen to have had a diamond jubilee, Victoria or Elizabeth?

Answer: I'm going to be the only one, but I'm going with Elizabeth. One, because no one has been showing her the love. Come on people! And two, how cool was the bit at the Olympics with her and Bond? Queen Victoria never jumped out of a helicopter to open the Olympic ceremonies!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Black Dahlia, Corgis, Doctor Who, Gail Carriger, Jack of All Trades, Jack the Ripper, Nicholas Rowe, Queen Elizabeth, Shaun of the Dead, The Young Sherlock Holmes, Warehouse 13

I'm starting a new recurring post where I'll be spotlighting the actors and actresses I love the most. Some will be well known, others well known to those who frequently watch the BBC like me. But all the best at what they do! I'll discuss where I first saw them, what made them finally memorable to me, taking them out of the ranks of, "you know that actor in part three of that miniseries" to me actually remembering their name and looking for it in upcoming productions. I will also have a, I didn't realize it was them segment, were apon rewatching a series I will have the "by jove" moment where I realize I knew them longer than I thought I did. There will also be the occasional, I wish they hadn't done that, as well as the obligatory bio and what to look forward to. So here goes, the premiere post of "Spotlight!" Which I thought I'd give a Desperate Romantics slant, because that's what I'm immersed in currently.

Name: Rafe Spall

First Impression: One of the two Andy's in Hot Fuzz, cause talking to them is always an uphill battle. Also great sunglasses.

Lasting Impression: George Emerson in Andrew Davies' A Room With a View (watch it if you haven't seen it!)

What else you've seen them in: From The Chatterly Affair to Dracula, to Wide Sargasso Sea to Desperate Romantics, Rafe has made a name for himself in the costume dramas. But his talents aren't just limited to waistcoats and corsets... he's also stared in more modern period pieces, such as the biopic of Frankie Howerd with David Walliams, and the gritty He Kills Coppers. There is also the modern fair of Hot Fuzz and Cracker.

Can't believe it's them: Remember that really chunky no necked employee at Shaun's work in Shaun of the Dead? That was, surprisingly Rafe Spall! I still can't believe that the tall, good looking man who's been a focal point in recent miniseries is the same as that chunky acne ridden teen who gets turned into a zombie!

Wish they hadn't: Kidulthood... not that it's bad, it's just written by my nemesis, Mickey Smith from Doctor Who, aka Noel Clarke.

Bio: Acting must run in his veins, because his father is none other than Peter Pettigrew, Timothy Spall. In fact his father co-stared with him in A Room with a View as his character's father, Mr. Emerson.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:31 AM 7 comments  

Labels: A Room with a View, Andrew Davies, David Walliams, Desperate Romantics, Dracula, He Kills Coppers, Hot Fuzz, Noel Clarke, Rafe Spall, Shaun of the Dead, Spotlight, Timothy Spall, Wide Sargasso Sea

So I'm a bit behind in announcing that this week, August 29th to September 6th is Zombie Appreciation Week in the Blogisphere celebrating Young Adult Zombie books of the year. Who needs national holidays like Labor Day when the undead are about? So sit back and enjoy the eventual zombie uprising that will claim your life...if you're lucky though you're best friend will keep you in a shed to play video games with.

Some Young Adult Zombie Books of note:
Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
You Are So Undead to Me by Stacie Jay
Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E. Van Lowe
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Generation Dead and Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters

For other zombie fun go check out this site to find out how long it would take for you to be infected once bitten, otherwise known as the Zombie Bite Calculator. Full of useful questions from age to if you take blood thinners, you can gauge your chances of survival. Hopefully you have a better chance then me...1 hour and 20 minutes...pitiful really!

So have fun with the last 3 days of the week devoted to the undead and when in doubt, just watch some Shaun of the Dead.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 1:52 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Geration Dead, Kiss of Life, Never Slow Dance with a Zombie, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shaun of the Dead, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Zombie Appreciation Week, Zombie Queen