Dylan Charles's Blog, page 9

Movie Review: V/H/S/2

V/H/S was an interesting, albeit flawed, horror movie anthology. It featured six short films, all of which were found footage with an overarching frame. There were one or two strong entries, but, for the most part, they were average horror stories that didn’t really make full use of the found footage genre.

Still, I have a soft spot for found footage. But, like all horror, it must abide by very specific rules in order to be scary. Found footage is about convincing the audience that what they’r...

Chaos

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts dealing with my latest hobby and recently someone in the hobby passed away. She had been someone who was in an accident, who used the hobby to regain her basic humanity, to reach out to people.

And then she died.

And then it turned out she faked her death, that she had never been who she said she was, that everything about her was myth.

And now, I want nothing more than to meet her. She sounds absolutely fascinating, a lightning rod of insanity that must...

All Our Gods are Demigods

In American culture, ancient mythologies and folklore passed from generation to generation have been replaced by cults of celebrity. We rely on musicians, artists, athletes, actors and writers to show us the way. They stand above us and apart from us and demonstrate what we can achieve if we are truly great. They are inspiring and they are Gods Among Men.

Ted Williams hitting a ball out of the park in his last game when any other player would have been well passed their primeMuhammad Alidancin...

A Restful Walk

I took a walk through the Mount Auburn Cemetery today.

That’s not as weird as it sounds. It’s a landscaped cemetery; as much a park or a garden as it is a place for the dead. In general, I’ve noticed a kind of casual acceptance of cemeteries in and around Boston. Within the city itself, you can turn a corner and find yourself walking passed another secluded little graveyard tucked away in some urban corner. The city just grew around them and kept them carefully hidden away.

Anyway, Mount Auburn...

Historical Subjectivity

I think I mentioned a while ago that I signed up for a few courses on Coursera, an site that has a multitude of classes available cheap as free. My first class, which started about two weeks ago, is History of Rock (Part One) taught by the University of Rochester’s Professor John Covach. So far, I’m really enjoying. This is not a class I would have ever been able to take in college because I would have been far too busy trying to cram one more comparative literature course into the semester....

Seeing Things in a Different Light

I’ve been investing a lot of time lately in modeling and painting and I’ve been doing it so much now that it’s affecting how I view everything around me. I’ve never been very aware of color or shapes and I’ve never been particularly good at spatial reasoning. When I read room or item descriptions in books, I tend to gloss over them.

But after spending hours on manipulating how something looks and working on visual characteristics, I’m starting to become aware. I’ll notice shapes more and lines...

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

I’ve been a big fan of Star Trek for most of my life and I’ve tagged along with the franchise through good times (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek First Contact ) and troubled times (Voyager, Enterprise, Star Trek Insurrection). When I was kid, I loved the original series, but I love the movies more and watched Wrath of Khan so many times that I could (and,embarrassingly, still can) recite the lines along with the actors.

When they announced they were re-booting the s...

Revamped

While I’ve been working on my new blog, I’ve been relearning what makes a good blog. Over the next few weeks, I’m planning on reapplying those principles here.

Please bear with me.

-D-

Boston Revisited

A friend of mine is visiting for a few days and it’s reintroducing me to the city I live in.

It’s too easy to forget those places you see everyday or those places you used to go to; but once you show a newcomer those things that caused you to fall in love with your home on the first place, it becomes easy to see once again.

I’ve enjoyed traveling to our old haunts and remembering again everything that made Boston, Boston for Emily and me.

I feel a little sad that we’re already planning the day t...

Subcultures in the Mist

As I’ve mentioned before in posts that I don’t feel like digging up, I’ve been getting involved in a new hobby. I’ll spare you the details about what this hobby entails, as I have a whole other blog for that, but I’ve thrown myself completely into the subculture that surrounds this hobby and it’s fascinating.

In every culture, there are heroes and tropes and easily identifiable figures. There are law makers and governments: figures that impose order. There are merchants and moneymakers. There...