“Would You Like a Job Here?” “Why Yes, Yes I Would.”

It looks like I am going to be working at UCSF medical center now. I am so excited. Full time, 80% laboratory work, 20% in other pathology labs. Weeeee!

I got so lucky finding this job. It’s perfect; I get to use my degree prepping biopsy specimens. The best part, though, is the health insurance. My God it’s been so long since I had health insurance. Now I don’t have to feel irresponsible riding my bike in the city with no helmet, just suicidal…

Vengeance is messy! so, so messy!

Park Chan-wook is a very talented director. I could never give his directing justice so I will keep it simple: his “vengeance trilogy” threw me in a manic depression one night.

I watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance on my roommate’s recommendation. Amazing. Then he gave me Old Boy. Holy shit. Then I was forced to wait for Lady Vengeance to come out. It did. My God it never ends, Park can do nothing wrong!

Next, I decided to watch all three in one night; a little Vengeance marathon. Sitting in my cramped room in SF I eventually made it through 6 hour’s plus of all the most righteous violence and sadism with glassy eyes and a very heavy heart.

By this time it was about 2 in the morning. I remember I had school the next day, but they were late classes. So, to ease malaise I took to the SF streets on my trusty 10 speed. That town has never felt so alien.

I guess my student days were so boring (actually, they haven’t picked up in recent weeks, so I guess this is true for my whole life) that a few hours of completely fictional violence can affect my mood so drastically. I mean, I felt like an alien inside my body. Can people really be this cruel? No, you idiot! It was just a movie! What kind of emo pansie are you??

Well, whatever. Chan Wook Park is fabulous. Him and his Korean colleagues make very interesting films. Hopefully they keep coming. I anticipate many nights where I will need to get all emo once more.

Asian horror is fantastically graphic

I just finished watching Japanese director Takashi Miike’s installment of the Showtime series “Masters of Horror.” His piece – “Imprint” – follows an American man returning to Japan in search of a woman he promised to rescue from prostitution. His search leads him to a brothel where a disfigured prostitute tells him the tale of his lost love. The late 1800’s Japan setting is a perfect locale as the tale of prostitution, abortion, incest, murder and torture unfolds.

This film is so violent. My god! So violent, in fact, Showtime prevented its television release due to its extreme content. The most violent scene? Well, it might be the uncomfortably long (five minutes, at least!) scene of brutal torture executed on the American’s love interest(bamboo shoots and all). Of course, the foetus floating downriver is up there as well (it’s hard to rate these kinds of things on any objective scale).

Violence aside, the pacing and execution of the film is very well done. For a one hour, made for TV segment Miike took great care with the set design and costumes. Whether its an alien green sky with a silhouette hillside underneath, or a leafless tree with deep red fabric hanging from it, the images of the film give the story a fantastic, subjective feel. The eerie setting compliments the questionable narrative of the disfigured storyteller.

This is one hell of a movie. Shouldn’t be missed by anyone who loves an old-timey horror yarn. It reminded me of an updated Poe or Lovecraft tale. Of course, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about half the time.

Imprint (Wikipedia)

Greg Ruth? Oh, he’s totally amazing!

Greg Ruth is primarily an illustartor ( see: Freaks of the Heartland ) but he has also written and illustrated his own comic: Sudden Gravity.

Sudden Gravity is amazing. Ruth used only pen to create some very interesting effects that work amazingly well with his odd story of the caretakers and patients of the spooky Bentham International hospital.

Ruth’s tale is very offbeat and full of strange, surreal images expertly drawn. He can write compelling dialogue as well. The thoughts and impulses of the patients are well done and add a nice degree of suspense to the story.

At the same time the dialogue between the resident staff is natural and well crafted. Characters interact with subtle conversations and you really get a feel for the relationships they have amongst each other.

Ruth’s graphic novels reward patient readers that enjoy cerebral, suspenseful tales of horror.

My most favorite thing about Greg Ruth, and this probably isn’t fair for me to point out, is that he doesn’t like random yahoos making one off comments about his work on the amazon.com review page. 2/3 of the way down the page is his steamy defense of some knucklehead who didn’t like Sudden Gravity.

Thats right Greg! Don’t take no shit from nobody!

The coolest thing about William Hope Hodgson

is that he was:

1. A weightlifter
2. Asexual (probably)
3. An absurd writer of pretty bad, but pretty entertaining horror fiction
4. I’m surprised I made it to number 3
5. Landshark

Post Number One: Super Awesome

Hello all uze cool kids in cyberspace.

My first blog will be about all the funness that is my life here in San Francisco California. Lord knows I am just SUCH an interesting person. You will all love me. Guaranteed.

First thing. Alot of these posts will probably be about either biology, boredom, the weather, possibly baseball, maybe even some science fiction. Lord knows I will be so popular with all you folks at the wordpress.com site.