Bad Geek Confessions: Dune

I finally got around to seeing the new Dune film on blu-ray because I am a casual fan of the franchise.

This is what makes me a bad geek.

Some Smashing Comics for Dealing with Grief

Technically this is “Bad Geek Confessions: The Hulk” but I liked the other title.

After years of confusion, I finally figured out how and why I read the Hulk…

And also why I suddenly have a long box filled with the Green Goliath’s adventures.  

For a long time, I decided I viewed him the same way I view the Punisher: a fantastic guest star to see how other heroes dealt with him, but his solo adventures normally didn’t interest me.

Except for the times that they did.

Bad (Bad Geek Confessions) Geek Confessions- More Star Trek

With a new season of Ash vs. Evil Dead on disc and the combining of all the Netflix Marvel Heroes in The Defenders being released, I should be writing about one or both of them by now…

But I’m not because I haven’t started watching either yet.

I’ve become addicted to Deep Space Nine and there’s no way I could stop during the final two seasons to watch something else.

Bad Music Confessions Part 2

Click here for part one

With the Hot in the Shade live performance before it, and the Revenge release in 1992, it looked like KISS had settled on a new and kick-ass image and sound and Gene was focusing on the group again.  The looks came together staring on Crazy Nights in 1987, but the sound wasn’t there yet.  Paul was always the ringmaster on stage with a powerful yet theatrical quality voice.  (I would have liked to see him in Phantom of the Opera.) However, the band lost a lot of its hardness and edge with Gene’s influence lessened.

Bad Music Confessions Part 1

I must apologize to all of my readers.  Granted given my limited reach that might be quicker if I did it in person, but I have space to fill.

I lied when stating that the only two major acts I actively sought out all new album releases for were Weird Al, and Alice Cooper.  There was another band I was an equal or greater fan of for a large portion of my life in the past.

Bad Geek Confessions: Career Choice Importance

Passing another quantum level of aging, I feel the need to come clean about something.

I have not been totally honest about the reasons for entering my chosen profession.

In fact I have lied about it frequently.

When I went for my college interviews, I spun a story designed to impress, highlighting how the January 28 1986 Challenger Shuttle disaster shook me emotionally, and steered my interests in the direction of Aeronautical Engineering.

While the tragedy did shake me, this was a bald faced lie. 

Though it isn’t the one I feel guilty about.

Bad Geek Confessions: Battlestar Galactica

In 1977 Star Wars opened and blew the minds of we who were at the right age.  This may be hard to believe for the media and Expanded Universe drowned children of today, but minus the toys, one novel and some embarrassing TV appearances (the infamous Holiday Special that George Lucas vowed to smash every VCR tape of with a hammer, and Donnie and Marie which oddly predicted Luke and Leia's relationship on a variety show), there was no new Star Wars for a while.

As hyperactive boys under ten, after having a Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away change our lives, this could have been a giant problem.

The saving grace was a TV series that brought “pseudo Star Wars” regularly into our homes:

Battlestar Galactica.

It was like throwing some stale Twinkies to a starving man.

It wasn’t great.

It wasn’t healthy.

And

Who knows what went into it.

But it was there, and it gave us the science fiction equivalent of occasional creamy filling goodness.

There was no Jedi or Force, but the focus on a bunch of viper pilots on the carrier like Galactica served as a prehistoric version of Rogue Squadron stories.

The Empire Strikes Back finally gave us the return of true Star Wars in 1980, acting as the final nail in the coffin for the already limping follow up series Galactica 1980.

But in 2003 what has been praised by fans and critics alike as the height of the art of reworking and restarting an old concept brought Battlestar Galactica back to the airwaves.

The question is:

How can one rate the purely emotional ties that developed for a show that served an important purpose in childhood to the far more complex, higher quality and more intricate efforts to create an engaging story and build the franchise anew.

What follows are the complete details of my intellectual, technical and emotional analysis to compare and contrast the impact of the original series to the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica:

Bad Geek Confessions: Teargeekers Part 2

Please click here for the explanation of this particular set of foolishness, and the start of the list.

Transylvania 6-5000  

“…and my lovely wife.”

OK, it is time for a major confession within a confession. I love this movie. My whole family, immediate and extended, also loves this movie. 

Bad Geek Confessions: Teargeekers Part 1

Now that introductions and explanations are out of the way (click here if you missed them), and we’ve established that I’m pathetic. It’s time to start the list of movie scenes that create nerdly emotional responses.

Note I will use “nerd” and “geek” interchangeably.  Some people will give you detailed explanations of the differences between them, in some cases using venn diagrams.

These people are extremely geeky nerds, or is that nerdly geeks?

Anyway, on to the list of Teargeekers.

Monster Squad 

“My name is Horace” *ca-chack*

Bad Geek Confessions: Geek Tragedy

To start off with the one of many embarrassing admissions, the first film that brought tears to my eyes was the 1978 TV Jan and Dean bio-pic Dead Man’s Curve. 

In my defense:

I was about nine years old at the time.

I was sick, home from school, and on some brand of mind altering cough medicine.

I started watching it because I saw Richard Hatch and thought it was a Battlestar Galactica rerun.

The point is not that I am pathetic, although a case could be made for that argument, but rather that movies have great powers to tap into emotions.  Even for a geek (who are supposedly rational and dispassionate) like me.

Bad Geek Confessions: Spider-Man

Spider-Man:  At times, a case could be made that he was the most popular of all superheros.

An even stronger argument could be made that he never falls out of the top three spots of superhero popularity. 

Now he has a brand new gazillion dollar movie reintroducing him.

While I’m sure I will find it enjoyable, unlike my usual rabid devotion to babble on about these sorts of films, I need to exempt myself from reviewing this movie.

The reason is - I really don’t give a rat’s patootie about Spider-Man.

Bad Geek Confessions: Star Wars

OK, it was 1977 in the Bronx, but I can be forgiven some poetic license on my hundredth post, can’t I?

My folks took me to a movie I hadn’t seen any trailers for, but the newspaper write ups made it sound like my sort of thing.  (I kind of pity the youth of today, who have access to every single detail of films months before they premier, now.)  After a lengthy mysterious underground trip we arrived at the theater. (Again, probably just a subway ride, but - poetic license.)

The room darkened, the above words appeared, and suddenly the screen exploded with the most awesome thing I had ever seen in my young life.  There was a brief pause for my brain to process:

“Wait, he’s the best part of this, and he’s the BAD GUY?”

Bad Geek Confessions: Star Trek

Fifty posts and I haven’t mentioned Star Trek yet? I must be slipping.

The True Crew

I’ve been watching Star Trek for as long as I’ve been capable of watching things. (Thanx, Dad.) When it was in its first syndication run, we’d watch it every night (after the vampire shows were done) at dinner. I was young enough that, for a very long time, I had this overall conception of Star Trek undivided into episodes. Tribbles, Klingons, Spock with a Beard and the American flag were all weaved into one highly unusual story in my highly unusual head. I also had the pajamas, the action figures, the communicator walkie talkies, and even the cardboard ears. The Franz Joseph designs in my Dad’s Starfleet Technical Manual were some of the first pages I poured over multiple times.

My enjoyment of the original series and its characters has not dulled over the years.

However, I cannot sit through The Next Generation or any of the other later shows.

Bad Geek Confessions: Dancing With the Stars

Hi, I’m Jeff and I’m a Dancing with the Stars-aholic.

I’m not really sure how this happened.

As I can’t dance…

At all.

Bad Geek Confessions: Dracula

Vampires on Parade
or
The Ultimate Sucker

With spring finally making a strong appearance, and the smell of summer barbecues on the horizon, this is a perfect time to think about vampires.  Face it, come October we’re going to be up to our jugulars in monster talk, therefore a little pontificating about the undead now is a nice change of pace. It’s like that “Christmas in July” thing, but with less tinsel and more blood…

Enter this post freely and of your own will.

One of my earliest memories.  Thanx, Mom.

Bad Geek Confessions: Lord of the Rings

I have read the Lord of the Rings many times over the years.  My copies are dated 1984 and I know I read it from the library before that.  The Hobbit, I read back in elementary school, even predating my Dungeons and Dragons obsession by a few years. (For reference, my first character was Gonzo the Halfling.) 

So, again, I have read them.

I have reread them.

I have enjoyed them.

I have also read the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. (Though, ironically, I can't remember if I finished the latter.)

But having said all that…I definitely prefer the movies.

Bad Geek Confessions: Jack Kirby

In order to talk about Jack Kirby, I have to talk about the Beatles.