Heavy Metal: “It’s Not A Bad Life” by J.D. King

There was a resurgence in interest in the sci-fi fantasy magazine HEAVY METAL among me and my classmates in the mid-eighties, no small part due to the fantastic movie which had come out in 1981, and there were a lot of us digging each month’s stories and amazing art.

Among the tales of cyborgs and wizards was this particularly quaint little story called “It’s Not A Bad Life” by J.D. King.  Appearing in the February issue of 1985, the short strip told of an unassuming alien named Nyrg Gleep, his daily goings-on and, by its end, showing that we may no be so different from out alien cousins!

I remember being particularly touched by this strip. This was, of course, amidst all the Space Cops , Dragon Slayers and Sword Wielding Barbarian stories, and it made me feel so strangely nostalgic!

Re-reading it now, it STILL tugs at the heartstrings!

"See How They Run"

As I've mentioned a few times here, one of my favorite actresses is the lovely Saiorse Ronan, and I try to make a point of seeing any and EVERY one of her movies as they come out! And while I still haven't had the time to check out her latest flick "FOE" (though I DID read the book and loved it), I did manage to see her 2022 comedy mystery "See How They Run" finally!

Done in the quirky style of Wes Anderson (of whom I also love and of whom Saoirse has made many films with), this is an Agatha Christie type "mystery-within-a mystery" where a cad of a director (Adrien Brody) is killed in a way identical to the Murder Mystery play they are doing.

Sent out to investigate the crime are Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and his assistant Constable Stalker (Saiorse). Like most Christie-type set-ups, this is one of those "room full of suspects" who, while the detectives investigate the scene of the crime, slowly start dropping like flies around them!

While certainly not in the calibre of Anderson, this movie is still fun and very colorful and satisfied my Saiorse Ronan cravings until I can get to see FOE myself!

Surrounded by Cilla!

 As a huge fan of the Beatles, one name among their colleagues that continually came up in early interviews was an artist that I had no knowledge of, vocalist Cilla Black. Mentioned not only because of her association with the Beatles, but because of the many tunes  John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote exclusively for her to sing, "It's For You", "Step Inside Love" and the groovy "Love of the Loved", among others! 

In fact, it was the latter Paul McCartney penned song "Love Of The Loved" that I really dug and made me want to explore more of her catalog. Strangely, unlike a lot of her peers, Cilla wasn't as big a name here in the US as she was in the UK, and I really had to dig to find out info about her and her music!

Many labels have been releasing these things called ORIGINAL ALBUM SERIES, 5 or 6 CD album paper sleeved collections, and luckily Cilla was among them! Collecting five of her first albums, Cilla, Cilla Sings a Rainbow, Surround Yourself with Cilla, Sweet Inspiration and Sher-oo!, this was a beginner Cilla fan's dream, and I grabbed it right away!

Been listening to the five albums on rotate for the past few weeks, and I HAVE to say how WONDERFUL they are! Very catchy and Groovy, and WOWOW, what a set of PIPES she has! VERY impressed at how POWERFUL her voice can be, and at the same time, sweet, gentle and even playful! At this point I've exhausted my five CDs and it's time to seek out MORE!

PS: Somehow I was expecting Cilla to sound like Petula Clark as they are of course both 60's Female British Vocalists. But while there IS some of that "sound" in Cilla's music, the singer that she somehow most reminds me of is Shirley Bassey (!), with her BIG and powerful voice !!

A real treat of a discovery for me!

Entrancing "Poor Things"

 Wowowow, just caught the amazing movie "Poor Things" by eccentric director Yorgos Lanthimos, a movie about which much talk has been buzzing, but let me assure you, the film is WELL worth the PRAISE it is getting!

Starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe in a sort of gothic horror fairytale, I first described the movie to friends as a sort of "Tim Burton Meets Guillermo Del Toro", and while there IS a bit of that, you know what the film reminded me of (at least the early half)  was more along the lines of the QUAY BROTHERS with its shaky, macabre imagery and fanciful designs!

We meet brilliant surgeon Godwin Baxter (Dafoe under extreme makeup) conducting his business of medical advancements in the field, while raising a young woman with the seeming mind of a child named Bella. 

Though happy in her secluded life with Dr. Baxter, she is kept a secret from the people of the village and is forbidden from leaving the borders of the house. But Bella is curious about the wide world outside her window and as she grows, becomes more and more frustrated about her virtual confinement.

The overprotection and secrecy by the good doctor is well warranted, however, as we find that Bella is the result of an surgical EXPERIMENT with RE-ANIMATING a recently DECEASED pregnant woman's CORPSE...reactivated with the help of her unborn child's brain put into her head in place of her old damaged one!!

Since then Baxter has raised Bella as his own and, up until recently, she has been content to play in the house and yard. But the outside world is calling, and eventually the wide-eyed woman-child breaks free and is out to explore life as much as her voracious appetite can take!

Indeed, she travels everywhere near and far- from fancy towns and restaurants to sailing the seas to far-off places. We soak in the wondrous, magical places she visits as she does, and little by little, we see the once naive and innocent woman becoming a strong and self assured young lady!

The visuals, the characters, the acting, everything was SO GREAT, and I'm determined to see it again and will DEFINTELY be purchasing it on bluray when and IF it ever DOES!!!

BTW, when Poor Things had first come out, someone had uploaded crude handheld recordings of it online. And while not the way such a film should be viewed, these clips were the first images I saw of the movie and I have to say, the blurry, grainy and shaky camerawork actually ENHANCED the feel of the movie for me. I got a REAL "Nosferatu" vibe from these early clips as it looked like legitimate 1922 film footage! I mean, look at these grabs. Don't they look unsettlingly vintage?!

 I've loved Yorgos Lanthimos other works like "The favorite" and "The Lobster" (though still haven't seen A Killing a a Sacred Deer), but Poor Things is surely his best one YET!!!