Dancing that isn't exactly clean, aka Dirty Dancing

It may seem weird to you that I am doing a movie like this.  What can I say?  This movie was always on when I was a kid.  This is largely because my one of my sisters was unreasonably obsessed with this movie.  Dirty Dancing as you all know stars Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.  This exercise in dance-sploitation is probably one of the most popular films for women ever thanks to the overall sexiness of Patrick Swayze.  Who could blame them?  I'd do the guy, but I used to f#$k guys like him in prison.

So the movie is about Baby and her family's trip to a family resort called Kellerman's and how they have a crazy adventure there, discovering that Baby is no longer a baby anymore, and that nobody puts her in a corner.  Baby becomes enamored with the dirty world the entertainment crew lives in and... Holy Hell that is Wayne Knight.

Not long into the film, we discover that Johnny Castle's (Patrick Swayze) friend Penny is pregnant.  She is one of the main dancers and her friends decide to pay for her back alley abortion.  That is pretty heavy stuff for a movie like this.  Until this point it was all fun and games, but suddenly this movie becomes awesome.  While the abortion story arc is going on, the movie is great.  People think I am telling a joke when it comes to my love of this short stint in cinematic gold.  I assure you I am serious when I say that the movie suddenly becomes a good movie for this brief period.  The only time they can get the abortion done is Thursday night when some dance competition is going on that they can't miss because they would lose their salary at Kellerman's or something.  So Baby steps in and gets taught by hunky Johnny Castle.  Naturally once she gets into the swing of things, Baby does great.

                                                 Master of the air guitar.

Sadly the "fun" ends when the back alley abortion goes awry and Penny is sick.  Baby runs to her daddy and luckily he is a doctor.  After fixing Penny up, Baby's dad scolds her and forbids her to hang out with those bad dudes.  Oh boy, if he ever finds out about Johnny Castle's seedy past as a bouncer, Kellerman's is going to explode.  So like any young girl who was just told she couldn't do something, she immediately ignores her father's advice and bangs Johnny.  This is when the movie starts to suck again and they finally prove that love cannot be stopped, and nobody puts Baby in the corner.  The best part about the ending is just how open they leave it.  I like to think that Johnny and Baby's relationship doesn't continue much longer past the ending credits.

What we learn from this is that you should have sex as soon as possible in life, and never obey what your parents say as long as you aren't too terrible to everyone you meet.  We also learn that in 1963 back alley abortions cost $250 and that they work pretty well, but you should seek immediate medical attention by a trained doctor on vacation with likely just as primitive tools.

When it comes down to whether or not I like this movie, the answer is a bit complicated.  Sometimes, I've Had the Time of My Life with it.  But mostly it just leaves me with a feeling of Overload.  In all seriousness, this movie is really stupid.  It does however have a lot of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey dancing sexy.

I Spit on Your Grave, His Grave, and Everyone Else's

This poster claims that no jury would convict this woman for getting her revenge.  Clearly the people who wrote that tag line don't know that being a vigilante is a crime.  In any case in 1978 Meir Zarchi made one of the most over the top and uncomfortable films in history.  The movie I Spit on Your Grave, aka Day of the Woman is Grind House cinema at its best, or possibly worst depending on how you look at it.  Those of us who are horror fans and go seeking out this sort of thing out are way past having seen this movie, and now on the subject of Italians killing real animals in cannibal movies.  That doesn't detract from the fact that I Spit on Your Grave is hard to watch however.  This is why I am giving you fair warning that what I talk about from this point on will be, sad, terrible, upsetting, and NSFW.  Now that doesn't mean that I am going to show a bunch of naked people or anything, but if you are hanging out at work and someone is looking over your shoulder at a review of this film, you should probably close your browser thingy and come back later.  Now that we've got that out of the way...

This film is about rape.  A lot of it too.  Now the rape is just one incident, but it takes up what seems to be half of the movie upon your first viewing.  In actuality it is probably closer to a third.  The film stars Camille Keaton as Jennifer, who is a writer that decides to go into the woods and seclude herself in order to stay focused on a book she working on.  Shortly after this, a few guys see her, rape her, and leave her for dead.  The least intelligent of the group is left to kill her, but he can't do it.  So Jennifer is in fact alive.  She is rightfully very shocked, and once she starts to recover she takes matters into her own hands by chopping guy's dicks off in the bath.

                                              A woman's work is never done.

So basically the movie is just Jennifer seducing, and murdering the men who raped her from that point on.  There isn't a lot of substance as far as a deep story is concerned.  What this film lacks in story, it makes up for in tension building, and a great ability to make one uncomfortable.  The whole ride is not like your average day at the amusement park, unless your average day consists of getting raped and then killing a guy with a boat motor.  It is really a hard movie to watch.  The movie does make you sufficiently feel for Jennifer, but once the killing starts, the whole thing becomes brutal in an entirely different way.  I suppose that is a good thing as you do want to see this girl get her revenge, but did the world really need this movie?

This film does pretty much what the movie Hard Candy does, except successfully and more offensive.  If you couldn't sit through Hard Candy, then I Spit on Your Grave is nowhere near your ballpark.  I have seen both these movies and I Spit on Your Grave is much better at getting its point across and making you feel the way you are supposed to while Hard Candy is mostly just boring.

                                                             A ride of revenge.

This is not an easy sit.  There is no way to color coat this violent, crazy, terrible tale.  The movie is probably well made but I am too busy being upset to really know.  I know women in real life who have suffered from this type of violent crime and I can only imagine what they are going through.  This movie helped me to understand a little bit and then became an insane exploitation flick, which I wasn't expecting.  The whole experience is jarring.  I don't really like this movie, but I have met people who do like it.  The movie works for them and they can get through its message.  These people don't watch I Spit on Your Grave often.  I don't know how I feel.  I say that if it sounds like the kind of movie you'd like to see then go for it.  If it sounds like full length torture then you are probably right.

Retro Sci-fi, Neo Fantasy, Turbo Kid

For a few years now, people have suddenly become obsessed with nostalgia.  You see it everywhere.  Just go to a grocery store and look at soda.  Not only do you find that they are selling soda in glass bottles with old logos, even the regular logos have a touch of retro to them.  I like the style as I prefer a simple approach to the looks of a product.  But it isn't just soda.  People are making the old new again.  Independent developers are making retro-stylized video games, music and movies pretty much all the time.  Sometimes these things work better than others.  This new found genre of... things has created some really creative ideas.  People are inspired by the things they loved in their youth and have made a sort of new style where science fiction never grew up and exploitation runs rampant through a Canon films inspired, over the top, ultra violent world.

My only issue with all this is that the world they have created never existed, and the younger audience that loves this stuff is looking at the new with nostalgia goggles on for something that was never like that.  Sadly, these new consumers then think that older films were like this and eventually get disappointed when they go seeking them out.  It is a business model that is destined to fail simply because of the passage of time.  In the mean time it will be a great ride though.

We've seen Manborg, Kung Fury, and Turbo Kid come out of this new trend.  Manborg being influenced by Exterminator 1&2.  Kung Fury is seemingly influenced by ninja films, nazi-sploitation, and Miami Vice.  But Turbo Kid is influenced by something I love just as much as any of that, Italian post apocalyptic rip offs of The Road Warrior.  There is nothing wrong with influence and I love how this genre is constantly expanding.  So let's talk Turbo Kid.

Something I love about this film is that it really captures the feel of an 80's movie.  Often the idea gives way to excessive and strange for the sake of strange, and there isn't anything wrong with that either.  The big difference between the other two great titles I mentioned, and this one is that Turbo Kid really makes you feel for these characters.  The Kid is well written, and the character Apple is weird and endearing.  I often found myself wanting to know more about The Kid, or just the world around him and luckily I got that.  The two characters work well together, but as I was watching the film, I was reminded of something odd, a film called Heartbeeps.  The Kid and Apple look similar in a way and travel around scavenging.  Much like the two robots of Heartbeeps.  That is where the similarities end but it was strange to think of that.

The reason why I am not talking too much about the plot is because much of the plot is comprised of minor plot twists that make up the story.  I don't know what I am allowed spoil because of the film being so new.  The Kid is a fan of a comic book superhero called Turbo Rider.  He collects comics and Turbo Rider merchandise.  His enjoyment of a nostalgic fictional character helps us to connect with The Kid throughout the film.  He wants to be like Turbo Rider as much as we would like to be like Superman or whoever we idolize in a similar way.

He meets a girl named Apple in the wasteland and they begin to travel together.  The evil bad guy is named Zeus and he controls a big water supply in this wasteland.  So he is the big bad and people don't like him.  He is played by Michael Ironside in his best performance since the last time he was on the screen.  I meant that too, whatever this man is in becomes instantly improved just because he is in it.  Starship Troopers, Top Gun, hell even Highlander 2 are all better movies because you get to see Michael Ironside in them.  Yes, I do enjoy watching Highlander 2 because of him.  How can anyone see General Katana and not smile a little?  If I had to compare Michael Ironside's performance to something it would be General Katana.

This movie is over the top, violent, nostalgic, weird, and I love it.  But what makes it so great is the lasting impression the characters make on you.  It is rare that a movie like this will go for substance as much as style, but I am happy to report this film has both.  The movie is great, and I highly recommend watching it without much knowledge as to what it is about.  Let the story happen to you.  Let the world that Turbo Kid resides in wash over you.  You won't regret it.

City Hunter Starring Jackie Chan?

City Hunter is a 1993 comedy film starring Jackie Chan based on a manga of the same name.  I honestly don't know if I can make a review of this very long, but seeing as how I just watched it, I will give it a try.  Now, I am a big fan of Jackie Chan.  His films are pretty different from most martial arts action movies, or even comedies.  Most of his comedy comes from a very Buster Keaton inspired world.  This isn't me being clever by the way, he does recreate a Buster Keaton moment on one occasion.  It is completely fair to say that once Jackie started to hit it big, he changed action forever.  His scenes are fast and crazy with plenty of real stunts also performed by Jackie Chan himself.  Jackie fever hit America hard in the nineties and we got nearly every one of his movies here in the states, for better or worse.

City Hunter is a departure even for a guy used to comedy.  Seeing Jackie Chan in a live action manga is really strange, and I do mean live action manga.  Depending on which version you get Jackie's name is Ryo, or City Hunter.  What the hell is with that English Dub?  Why call your character the name of the movie?  It makes sense to call something James Bond 007, but City Hunter?  That isn't even a name you jackasses!

So the movie is about City Hunter and his friend's little sister who lives with him.  City Hunter is a detective and is hired to find a girl.  His friend's little sister is all grown up and they are into each other but City Hunter is womanizer.  Often there are strange cartoon moments where people have visions and stupid things happen.  In one, the girl Hunter lives with smashes him with a hammer.

So anyway the girl City Hunter must find is on a boat and he sneaks on but is almost thrown off because he is very hungry.  That is the real plot during his harrowing escape from the boat workers.  Some other girls are on the boat doing stuff and it turns out there are terrorists on board as well.  Yeah, it is like a comedy version of Under Siege.  So City Hunter and these random girls must stop some Terrorists.  There is a scene in a theater which is on the boat showing Game of Death where Hunter has to beat up some people and is helped by watching Bruce Lee on the screen.  There is another scene where some band is playing and dancing that really makes no sense.  This is the point I am trying to make here.  The movie is mostly a series of random events.  It makes the film a bit hard to sit through, though occasionally the jokes do work out.  The best thing about this movie does come out of this however.  A scene in this movie happens where City Hunter is electrocuted by a Street Fighter II machine and that makes him think he is in the game while fighting an American guy who is suddenly dressed as Ken.  Then this happens.

Yep, Jackie Chan as Chun-Li.  That is why you should watch the movie.  The Street Fighter sequence is funny and awesome because you get to see Jackie cosplay as a girl.  He does a good job too.  As far as I am concerned, Jackie Chan is the best actor to have played Chun-Li.  He really nails the character.  Then the movie keeps going and the terrorists are punished when City Hunter dances with a girl who has holsters with guns in them on her legs.

It is slapstick entertainment with bad anime comedy through and through.  Jackie Chan does get some good stunts in and a couple good fight scenes, but if you looked at this right after something like Police Story you might be pretty disappointed.  The movie cases are very misleading as well, so if you picked it up in the video store (not likely I know) you would probably be annoyed at what you ended up seeing in the end.  Do I recommend it?  Not really, but if you have to see the whole movie just to see the Street Fighter segment then yes.  Otherwise you could just look that part up on Youtube.  I do however recommend watching Police Story.  Go do that now!

The Great Batman Debate

A detective in a bat suit can somehow cause a lot of heated debate.  I know that doesn't make sense, but for some reason fans of this weird shadowy figure get angry if you disagree with them.  Now I know that earlier I said a bunch of scientist ninjas in bird suits could kill The Batman.  This of course was a joke and hopefully you understood that.  However, before we go on, I am probably going to make someone mad at some point in this rant.  Just remember that this is simply an opinion of The Batman from a person who has been a fan of the guy since as long as he can remember.  That does not make me an expert on what Batman should be, but just hear me out.

When I was a kid, the hype for Tim Burton's Batman dominated the world.  People paid for theater tickets just so they could watch the Batman trailer and then leave before the movie started.  The movie even grossed $547,705,200 adjusted for inflation in the U.S. which is the second highest grossing film about Batman just $100 million under The Dark Knight.  Just think about this for a second.  It played in 2,000 less theaters and back then we really didn't see a lot of multiple screen theaters.  Also this is before the big superhero movie boom happened that was like a snowball rolling down an endless hill.  Back then people thought super hero movies meant this.

I was aware of Batman before this because I watched re-runs of the Batman TV show starring Adam West.  I became obsessed with this Batman, eventually buying comics, toys, magazines, and reading about him.  To me he is a rich guy in a bat suit and he runs around killing bad guys.  But wait!  Isn't the main thing about Batman that he doesn't kill people?  Well, you are both right and wrong.  If you were talking Silver Age Batman then yes... most of the time.  But Golden Age?  The dude constantly ran around with a gun hanging people from his batplane.

Yeah, I know that a character develops overtime and the Batman we are all used to today is not like this.

I am fine with that.  One of the things that makes Batman cool now is that he is so crazy that he thinks not killing people is the right thing to do and instead beats them within an inch of their life and leaves them bleeding in the gutters with broken bones because he is crazy.  All I can say is Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, hell even Green Arrow wouldn't have the issue of having to deal with Gotham's criminals for very long.  They would have gone for the greater good a long time ago. That is what makes Batman special.  He is a rich guy who is insane, and dresses as a bat to stop crime.

See what I mean here?  There are quite a few versions of Batman around.  Many of them are very different.

So it's fine if someone thinks Batman should be different.  If someone enjoys that version then it should exist I suppose.  The non-killing Batman is the accepted version however.  To me I see him as a pulp hero detective guy in a silly costume.  He is kind of like Lamont Cranston a.k.a. The Shadow.  Batman has more in common with pulp heroes like Dick Tracy then he does Superman, or whatever other superhero.  It is the costume that makes him different, and it looks cool.  I do however hate the armored Batman.  I just can't get into that, and Tim Burton started it.  A couple movies away we would have blonde women fondling his "black rubber" and suits with nipples.  All this in an era when Batman still looked like this in the comics.

The Dark Knight has always struggled with identity issues though.  Sometimes he's a killer, sometimes he's warning Robin about the dangers of not buckling his seat belt, and all of that is fine.  Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward is actually the most accurate depiction of Batman, surfing and all.  That is what Batman was like back then.  The Batman in The Dark Knight movie pretty much didn't exist until those movies came out.  These movies attempted to take a serious look at Batman.  What would he be like in real life?  Let's make him be in a serious crime drama film.  This is something I also don't understand.  It is okay to have a serious take on something, but it also still needs to be fun.  How serious can you take a guy who dresses in a bat suit to fight crime?  The very idea is hilarious.  More importantly, he is a superhero.  Even Watchmen has is moments of light hearted fun and that's about as dark as comics get if you don't count the giant squid.  The Dark Knight and it's sequel are just dull, long movies without much color and full of exposition.  This by the way is coming from someone who likes Casablanca, a long, colorless movie full of exposition.  But at least it's not dull.

I understand that people love that version of Batman.  You know what?  Good!  The character has been around since 1939 and is worth discussing.  No version of Batman is truly right or wrong though.  Many interpretations of the character exist.  The weird thing is that we all argue with such anger and frustration with each other about something we all love.  That is precisely why we argue though.  The Bat is a theatrical, tragic, and fascinating character.  We all love him and that's why I am calling for peace here.  Let's discuss why we like this guy in the loving way he deserves and enjoy him together.  I don't need to have another conversation about why I don't like The Dark Knight Trilogy, and you don't have to yell at the top of your lungs about how you prefer a realistic approach instead of a guy who dances at clubs in his bat suit.  It all starts here everyone.  We are going to bring joy to the world with our Batman loving truce.

Let me get this out of the way first though.  Batman can't defeat everyone, that is stupid.

                                                Love,

                                                        Rodney Anderson

Zombies are supposed to move slowly

Tombs of the Blind Dead is a film that people often forget about when it comes to zombie films or horror in general.  It is easy to forget that movies about zombies even came out between the time of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but in Europe these movies became somewhat common after George Romero's first zombie classic.  Tombs came out only a few years after the release Night of the Living dead, in 1971 actually.  Though not Spanish director Amando de Ossorio's first horror film, this is certainly the most remembered next to his sequel/remake of this Return of the Blind Dead, or Return of the Evil Dead as some English speakers knew it as.  That title confused me as a child when I saw it's VHS cover on the rental shelf.  Taking that into account, as a ten year old I thought it was a pretty strange sequel to Evil Dead.  Things would get more confusing when I read about a series called Evil Dead Trap.

More to the point, depending on which version you see, you could get a rather offensive film, or a rather tame one.  The American release is pretty neutered by the original Spanish version standards and also is pretty rearranged.  In the American version you get to see some Knights Templar doing... something to a woman strapped to a wooden X and then some people by a pool or whatever.  The Spanish version opens with some moody castle footage in the day and then a rotting hand comes into view with a music sting, and a blonde girls screams at what appears to be nothing, then we get to a pool scene.  This Templar Knights doing stuff scene does happen later in the movie and is far too graphic to show off here, offering nude torture and quite a lot of violence.  These Knights are doing witchcraft on the poor girl I guess, which makes me like this movie because I love witches.  The scene in question is pretty damn violent for 1971 by the way.

Tombs is one of the many films to use the barf bag gimmick.  So just in case you get sick, here you go.  Great way to advertise.  The only time I remember hearing about people actually using one though is during Zombie 2, but that is a different story.

So these Knights Templar are accused of witchcraft.  The punishment is that they are hung in the gallows have their eyes pecked out by birds, while the corpses hang there.  Pretty harsh I'd say.  Then many years later they look like this.

They are actually pretty creepy in the movie, and are filmed in the dark or at the very least, day for night.  There is a lot of fog and footage of them moving slowly... very slowly.  These are the slowest damn anythings I've ever seen in a movie next to the pacing of The Crawling Eye.  If you don't like slow horror films then you'd have a very hard time getting through the hour and forty minutes of screen time, of which the Zombie Templars walking around makes up about twenty minutes of, and another twenty at least is dedicated to shots of the ruins or country side.  So these Undead Knights can't see you, but they can here you, smell you, feel your presence etc. all while riding undead horses.

You might be wondering what the plot of this movie is.  Well this guy and his girlfriend are on a vacation and they meet a friend of the girl.  For some reason the guy invites her friend on a train trip with them.  His girlfriend is not too happy about it.  On the train the guy acts pretty inappropriately towards their new companion and his girlfriend goes to the back of the train.  Her friend follows and we get a flashback of the two in a catholic school or something doing lesbian stuff together.  So the girlfriend jumps off the back of the train and stays in some nearby ruins where she gets offed by these undead knights.  The boyfriend goes to find out what happened to her with a group of friends and they all get terrorized by these Templar Zombies.

Like I said, lots of darkness in this movie, but that is what makes it look so good.  If you turn off the lights and watch it by yourself, letting this film just happen to you, you can achieve the desired affect.  A creepy atmosphere, weird violence, and utter confusion will follow.  Not that the movie is hard to follow, but sometimes you just don't understand why a character is doing something.  Plus most of the deaths look like this.

I told you they were slow.  This movie isn't as good as something like Dawn of the Dead, Zombie 2, or even Make Them Die Slowly, but it is worthwhile for a genre fan.  I've seen both versions and I prefer the Spanish one way more.  Largely because the American version is mostly slow moving Templar things with no pay off and sometimes it makes the movie a bit more confusing.  The real violence comes in it's sequel Return of the Blind Dead, but this movie's gory scenes are nothing to shake a stick at.  Especially for when it was released.  Overall it is a cool movie it you want something a bit different from your average zombie flick.

A Team of Science Ninja Motorcyclist Birds

Anime doesn't age well.  This is a sad reality for those who used to watch it.  Once you get to a certain age, the magic sort of disappears.  This happened to me a while ago.  Sure there are some shows that I still think are good shows, like Cowboy Bebop for example, but just try to watch Saber Marionette J.  More to the point, older anime becomes quite silly and ridiculous when no longer seen through nostalgia glasses.  The rose tinted world I once lived in has now given way to a harsh reality and a desire to drink a whole lot more.  Luckily this doesn't affect my enjoyment of Gatchaman.

I might deserve to be judged for this serious transgression of taste, but for some reason I love these stupid bird costume wearing idiots.  Though technically in the world of Gatchaman, they are not idiots.  They are Scientists, and Ninjas, with gadgets and vehicles.  In order from left to right in the picture above, these motorcyclists are Jinpei the Swallow, Ken the Eagle, Jun the Swan, Ryu the Owl, and Joe the Condor.  Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is probably the best name for a team of scientists or ninjas ever.  Strictly speaking though, they break the most important rule of being a ninja, keeping a low profile.

These "Ninjas" drive/pilot a series of vehicles and do science while fighting bad guys wearing equally ridiculous costumes.  In fact, Ryu drives a tank around that can jump and also drive faster than a rhino runs which is impressive considering how fast normal tanks move.  Also it has a propeller for some reason, and as well all know propellers make things cool.

Jun seems to be the only motorcyclist though as she rides an actual motorcycle.  That is mad!  What kind of ninja rides a motorcycle?

In the first episode the Motorcycle Ninja Scientist Bird Team takes on a Robot Turtle King that is sort of like the Mecha-Gamera.  They do this with flying vehicles, the ability to glide, and their superior skills in both martial arts and science.  Pretty standard stuff I'd say.  The weird thing is that for the time this show can be incredibly detailed.  I really mean it when I say for the time.  The show came out in 1972 when anime mostly looked like Speed Racer or Astro Boy.  I would say most of the time the show is on par with those, but sometimes this happens.

That is pretty good detail for your average 1970's anime that lasted around 100 episodes.  The show is about as stupid as you might expect though.  The story is mostly Gatchaman versus some evil guy with an army who has evil intent.  Gatchaman wins, the end.  I just saved you around 2,520 minutes.  The show's strong points however are in its character Jun the Swan.

Ken is your typical leader, Jinpei is your average kid sidekick, Ryu is your everyday overweight nice guy sidekick, and Joe is... cool but rude.  Jun however is a strong independent female with something to prove.  She is just as smart as any of the other scientists, and just as good at fighting.  Her weapon of choice is a bladed Yo-Yo (before Yo_Yo Girl Cop was doing it) that she uses to slice bad guy throats open.  Another important thing about her character is that not only is she upbeat, she occasionally makes fun of the other party members for comedic value.  This includes her fearless leader Ken, who she also has a crush on due to his long hair and vaguely mysterious demeanor.

Another thing that is pretty sweet about this show is that The Science Ninja Team Gatchaman regularly kills people.  Pretty much every bad guy they meet if they can.  That is the mark of a true ninja.  Batman has nothing on these Ninjas.  Think about it for a moment.  They have gadgets, money, ninja skills, smarts, and there are five of them.  Batman is pretty much screwed, and these guys would slit Batman's throat with Yo-Yo's then throw his lifeless body off a tall cliff.  Then they would drink hot cocoa together and laugh about it.  That is cold (except for the hot cocoa.)

Overall, the show is silly, stupid and fun by normal anime standards.  If you don't like anime or younger audience shows in general though, it might not appeal to you.  So I guess in the long run I don't recommend it to anyone who isn't already used to older anime from this era.  Let me leave you with this for those who already know what I am talking about.  There are a number of crossovers with other Tatsunoko characters that don't really do the team justice, but at least you can see Jun the Swan saved by Yatterman-1 and 2.

The Beginning of Practice

They often say that practice makes perfect.  So what better way to start improving on my writing than testing the waters so to speak by writing more.  The purpose of this blog... thingy, at least for me, is to practice writing and to get a feel for my writing voice.  Often I write something and later decide it is really quite bad.  So instead of just feeling like I have failed, I have now chosen to just keep writing until it seems good to me.  

One day I thought that blogging might be the answer.  Maybe I could get an opinion from the occasional reader.  I really do mean occasional by the way.  Like maybe two or three max, but who knows, it could shoot all the way up to five.  I know, those are some high hopes.  Now I don't really think I am some great writer.  In fact, the truth would be closer to far from it, but this is why people practice.

A long time ago, I became pretty good at piano.   To me this feels like a different life, but the fundamentals of practice stayed with me.  Now maybe writing won't do anything for me.  Maybe I will simply fail to become better at something I admire in other people, but regardless I must do so to get a grasp as to why I think everything I write could be improved on.  So practice I shall.

Some of you (all one at the moment) might be wondering just what this blog is going to focus on.  Well I have an answer for you.  My focus will be entertainment, and creative mediums as art.  Don't worry though, I like to entertain with a comedy style.  I think that it draws people in and makes people happy.  Perhaps you remember reading reviews of video games, music, or film in your favorite magazine and in some small way long for a return to the entertainment someone's opinion could bring.  Who knows what you are thinking, but I feel that way.  I think critical thinking, and in an entertaining way, is important to understanding something as simple as a review.  To understand one's opinion you must better understand the person.  It is very likely that few, if any, people I don't know will ever see this.  But overall this is for my practice and a tiny bit of input.  So let the games begin.