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Mysterious Glow. The Blog of Mr. Brad A. Ingle.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
A New Kind of Beauty
Your daily moment of future shock.
Philip Toledano photographs a new, emerging standard of beauty, that seems to be based not on makeup or fashion trends, but surgery. (NSFW, partial nudity.)
A new face is emerging. It is almost elfin, and has never existed until recently. I find it unsettling. This look is not isolated. I saw this face at the gym just this week.
Philip Toledano photographs a new, emerging standard of beauty, that seems to be based not on makeup or fashion trends, but surgery. (NSFW, partial nudity.)
A new face is emerging. It is almost elfin, and has never existed until recently. I find it unsettling. This look is not isolated. I saw this face at the gym just this week.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Unsolicited Advice (#1 in an ongoing series.)
I've participated in Social Media for some time now, and I've noticed a curious phenomena that you should avoid.
It is perfectly acceptable to submit posts like this:
Don't be a Sore Throat Gina. It will ruin your health.
It is perfectly acceptable to submit posts like this:
"DANG! I GOT A SORE THROAT MUST BE TOO MANY TEQUILA SHOTS! PARTY!!! WOOOO! SPRING BREAK 2012, BEE-YOTCHES! LOL!"It is not okay to do this:
"Once again, I'm getting sick. My throat hurts. Probably tonsillitis, which is the last thing I need. Not that anyone cares."After the Sad Sack post, the poster's well-meaning friends immediately swoop down, and being primates, electronically pat-pat them on their head to make the hurt go away.
"Hang in there Gina. I'm thinking of you."Sore Throat Gina gets a kind of charge out of this. Posting illness updates pays immediate dividends in sympathy, and the electronic equivalent of a hug, but the long term effects are devastating. Sore Throat Gina will start to seek more electronic hugs.
"Went to the doctor. Had to take off work, again. My boss totally berated me for taking off more work. I would get a lawyer, and sue her ass, but the thing is, I need this job. Anyway, the doctor says it's allergies. I absolutely don't have the money for medication. I don't know what I'm going to do."
"Hang in there Gina. I'm thinking of you."
Secretly to herself: "Yesss...delicious sympathy. I drink it up like sweet nectar."I'm not bullshitting to be funny. I've seen people, in as little time as a year, turn into shambling wrecks over stuff like this. They start to crave the attention so much that their immune systems turn off, just so they can stay sick, and keep the spotlight on themselves. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as hypochondria, as Sore Throat Gina-types genuinely do get sick. An emergency room visit is in Sore Throat Gina's immediate future, one that she will tell you, she can't pay for.
Don't be a Sore Throat Gina. It will ruin your health.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Spaghetti Sci Fi
I'm pretty sure I'll be showing this at stately Ingle Manor soon. I'm proud to say I saw Starcrash in the theater.
The opening credits say, "You are about to be HURLED..." Truer words were never spoken.
Italians know how to do Westerns better than Americans, they understand the mythology of the Old West better than the country of its origin. Giallo and Italians horror films are popular, Mario Bava and Dario Argento are known to many Americans. Italians know how to make entertaining movies, so it is strange that their Sci Fi is so... so bad. These movies are painted with such a large brush, that they sometimes not always manages to transcend their campiness and become a kind of poetry.
Star Crash has these moments of campy transcendence. It may be the bright colors, or the cheap costumes, which looked like something your mom sewed for you; they have the charm of an Elementary School Christmas pageant. Caroline Munroe, my favorite B-Movie actress, is beautiful as Stella Star. The design of Stella's robot companion is interesting, but then he opens his mouth and starts speaking with a Miner-Forty Niner old prospector dialect. C'mon Stella, I reckon we gotta run! The preposterous and long-winded plot is pretty much good guys versus bad guys, but one gets the feeling that the heroine, Stella Star, a space smuggler or something, dips into morally ambivalent territory. Think old-school Han Solo, when he shot Greedo first.
I always conflate other Spaghetti Sci Fi movies, like War of the Robots and Star Odyssey. They re-use costumes, props, and scenes from different movies. Aliens – or we're they robots?– with blond, Prince Valient wigs, were really popular. I remember watching these films on UHF stations, but I can't tell you what they were about. Most of the time, the plots were so tedious and rambling, that I forced myself to watch them.
When these awful movies were on TV, my friend would call me, "Are you watching this?" Even in Junior High School, when we were desperate and forgiving of all sci fi and fantasy movies, we couldn't stand these films.
The opening credits say, "You are about to be HURLED..." Truer words were never spoken.
Italians know how to do Westerns better than Americans, they understand the mythology of the Old West better than the country of its origin. Giallo and Italians horror films are popular, Mario Bava and Dario Argento are known to many Americans. Italians know how to make entertaining movies, so it is strange that their Sci Fi is so... so bad. These movies are painted with such a large brush, that they sometimes not always manages to transcend their campiness and become a kind of poetry.
Star Crash has these moments of campy transcendence. It may be the bright colors, or the cheap costumes, which looked like something your mom sewed for you; they have the charm of an Elementary School Christmas pageant. Caroline Munroe, my favorite B-Movie actress, is beautiful as Stella Star. The design of Stella's robot companion is interesting, but then he opens his mouth and starts speaking with a Miner-Forty Niner old prospector dialect. C'mon Stella, I reckon we gotta run! The preposterous and long-winded plot is pretty much good guys versus bad guys, but one gets the feeling that the heroine, Stella Star, a space smuggler or something, dips into morally ambivalent territory. Think old-school Han Solo, when he shot Greedo first.
I always conflate other Spaghetti Sci Fi movies, like War of the Robots and Star Odyssey. They re-use costumes, props, and scenes from different movies. Aliens – or we're they robots?– with blond, Prince Valient wigs, were really popular. I remember watching these films on UHF stations, but I can't tell you what they were about. Most of the time, the plots were so tedious and rambling, that I forced myself to watch them.
When these awful movies were on TV, my friend would call me, "Are you watching this?" Even in Junior High School, when we were desperate and forgiving of all sci fi and fantasy movies, we couldn't stand these films.
Costumes. Yeah, we got 'em.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Happy Lupercalia
Happy Lupercalia everyone!
Lupercalia by http://mysteriousglow.com/images/luper.jpg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Lupercalia by http://mysteriousglow.com/images/luper.jpg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Facebook comments from friends, acquaintances, and family members run the gamut of competing grab-bag reality tunnels. Every day I hear the benefits of being a Fundamentalist Christian, Militant Atheist, Objectivist, Marxist, Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian, Hippy-Dippy New Ager, Conservative, Liberal, et al.
All of these competing lifestyles will work just fine "if only Those Other People would just do <insert moral & ethical imperative> ."
I just want to read and write about funny things and I'm sick of the scolding talk by liberals and conservatives. However, Facebook is totalizing in modern life, and there is no 'saying goodbye.'
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