Great e-cards, and other (zombie?) recommendations

by

Web

Does anyone send e-cards anymore? Even typing “e-cards” feels slightly shameful, out of date, is it the “e” hyphen….? Anyway, although this takes any pleasant surprise out of any future “digital salutations” I’ll send to you, I enjoy someecards so much I thought I’d share it.

Books

Just finished Brave New World (read BNW online if you’re that way inclined) by Aldous Huxley. This is an awesome book, which I would shout about more but for the disgusted cries of “What? You’ve only just read it..!?” that are hailing down on me.
Next.

Film

click to watch youtube exploding headRevisited Cronenberg’s Scanners (was gifted the trilogy and more cult DVD goodness by the lovely people at Sci-Fi London, they keep on giving!) which I had forgotten about bar the exploding head scene which, nerdy child that I was, I freeze framed on my VHS to find the spot where the real guy is switched for the pumpkin head of gore.

Needless to say, there are plenty more goodies in this movie, the freaky, 80’s synth sound design, grimacingly tense telepath mind battles, some great stunts (when the school bus busts slo-mo into the record store!) and the ever eerie Michael Ironside playing the Bad Scanner Darryl Revok. Gripping!

For more gore check out an ace short Zombie film, made by our beer crazed Dutch neighbours, Zombeer! It was produced by a very cool friend of mine, and the film was one of six official nominations for the Shocking Shorts Awards, organised by Sci-Fi Channel and NBC/Universal.
Zombeer on Vimeo
Zombeer at Myspace

Dead Set the E4, Halloween Zombie 5 parter. I am just getting to watch on download (no TV and Channel 4 On Demand does not respect the Mac. Arse). Episode One was great. There is a little aside by a housemate in the fictional Big Brother house,”That’s the public for you, they’re animals” as outside, the eager BB fans are ripping each other apart in zombie fervour.
Dead Set at PirateBay

Music

Something sweetly 90’s about 4AD’s release from Deerhunter “Microcastle”. Swirly guitars, echoey fx’d vocals. Pleasing.

Fleet Foxes sound like a sentimental, harmonious, sixties memory that none of us are old enough to remember, but by God, weren’t we having a good time?

Johnny Flynn is barely 25, and strangely is related to one of Robson and Jerome.. but he makes nice jangly folk pop. A bit like a boy Laura Marling. Cardigan Kids.

WIRESPOTTING – LATE UPDATE!!

I am about 2 weeks late on this nugget but it’s Bubbles! Everyones favourite, lovable junkie becomes someone (er, not watched them yet) in Heroes!!

5 thoughts on “Great e-cards, and other (zombie?) recommendations”

  1. I enjoyed Dead Set, but it didn’t really break any new ground. I was expecting a bit more from Charlie Brooker. If you haven’t seen it I recommend The Mist. It’s not a zombie movie but it has the same claustrophobic tension as the characters hold out in a supermarket and start bickering and eventually turning on each other.

  2. Agree with Alex.

    The ending (can’t remmber if it’s Directors cut or not) of Mist is probably the best part of the movie … I won’t spoil it. 🙂

    30 Days of Night was ok. There is a series and miniclips over on hulu.com … kind of neat.

    I also liked 28 days and 28 days later.

    Dawn of the Dead (2004) was good, also.

    -sj

  3. Good tips, thanks! Finished Dead Set yesterday. True, it didn’t cover any new ground, but I quite enjoyed it all the same. I thought the ending was excellent, and I especially liked the idiot producer getting his er, just deserts.

    Will check out The Mist, thanks!

    And Scott, I haven’t perfected getting Hulu to let me in.. tried a bunch of US Proxies but none of them were current. Surely that is all I need?

    28 days later was good, there is a better, more depressing, alternate ending on the DVD which I liked.

    28 weeks later was ok.. not quite as cool.

    30 days of night also on my to see list…

  5. For cool you to call me cool is very cool indeed. Thanks for the Zombeer love! Things are going well, it just played a festival in Canada of all places. Unfortunately they neglected to Fed-Ex a plane ticket for the producer.

    I’ll second and third The Mist! I saw it in the cinema on a Sunday afternoon as a little time waster, and instead it left me quite literally speechless at the end. I think even King himself said he preferred the movie’s ending to his own (endings not being his strongest point, maybe that doesn’t say much). I just finished King’s newest Duma Key by the way, pretty good read.

    I really need to start watching that first season of The Wire, and I still haven’t gotten round to watching True Blood. Also my internet is down at home, so I can’t see any new episodes of anything, which is annoying. I’m really loving Damages on BBC3. I almost passed on it because I thought it would be just another courtroom thing, but it is really good, and nice to see something with a proper story arch again. Also another reason why I love Dexter, almost everything seems to be ‘story/monster/drama of the week’ these days, and I do love a good ongoing story…

Leave a Comment