Hundredth was a hardcore band that turned to shoegaze with their album Rare. Here’s a track off it:
Shoegazer Sunday: Hundredth’s “Down”
April 11th, 2021Music Video: Mr. Weebl’s “Unicorn”
April 9th, 2021Today is evidently National Unicorn Day, so it gives me an excuse to post this:
I sort of wanted to post it for St. Patrick’s Day, but forgot…
Joel Hodgson Launches Another MST3K Kickstarter
April 8th, 2021MST3K creator Joel Hodgson has launched another MST3K Kickstarter to help fund the show that was dropped by Netflix after two seasons. Their minimum goal is $2 million for three more episodes (which I think they’re going to breeze past today), with stretch goals out to $5.5 million for 12 episodes (plus 12 short films).
Plus something called “The Gizmoplex,” which he describes as “an online theater for live screenings & special events!”
1. Live Premieres & Events: Each month for our first year, The Gizmoplex will host at least* one live event, where you can join me, our cast and writers, and some special surprise guests. Each live event will be like a night at the theater, and will have a lot of fun surprises. Our live events could include new sketches, trailers (done “MST3K style”), live Q&A panel discussions, interviews, contests… even the return of the MST3K “viewer mail” segment.
2. The MST3K Watch Club: To make it easier to watch MST3K with your friends, The Gizmoplex will also be the official home of the MST3K Watch Club! Each month, you’ll get on-demand access to a new selection of episodes, and the ability to host your own live screenings for up to 10 people! Anyone with a Gizmoplex Pass can join for free, and if you want to invite someone who doesn’t, they can get a “Day Pass” for just $0.99!
And, if we reach our stretch goals, the Gizmoplex Pass will get even more valuable!
3. Gizmoplex Apps: If we raise $3.3 million, we’ll be able to develop apps that bring The Gizmoplex to mobile devices and TVs! Right now, the plan is to include apps for six of the most popular platforms: iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, FireTV and Roku. Like Crow says: we’re gonna conquer cyberspace, man!
Also: “I really want The Gizmoplex to feel like something new: less like another Netflix with nothing but MST, and more like a charming, off the radar, suburban cineplex that plays movies for 99 cents, long after their first run.”
Though not stated, the ad campaign suggests they’re keeping the Season 11 and 12 cast, and Jonah Ray appears in the Kickstarter video.
There’s also some interesting discussion of the economics behind the show and Kickstarter:
1. Without a network supporting us, we need to fund everything ourselves. During our first Kickstarter, we estimated that, once production was up and running, we’d be able to produce new episodes for about $250K each. In the end, though, the budget for each new episode ended up being closer to $350K. For the last two seasons, we were able to cover the difference through our deal with Netflix… but this time, we’re on our own. We’ve got a lot of ways we can keep the budget lower, but, you know… it’s still going to cost something. And when you think about it, $350K for 90 minutes of television is still one of the best deals in show business.
2. We still can’t spend everything we raise on Kickstarter to make the show.
Campaign Fees: Between Kickstarter and the credit card processor, we pay about 8% of your pledge in fees. There’s also a fee for CrowdOx, the platform we’ll use to manage all of your surveys and rewards after the campaign ends.
Making Rewards: We reserve about 20% of your pledge in order to design, produce, print, sort and pack all of your rewards. And that’s not even including shipping, which we’re not collecting until after our Kickstarter campaign ends!
Dedicated Support: During our first Kickstarter, we underestimated the amount of work involved in providing customer support and creating detailed backer updates, so we had to depend on volunteers to do a lot of it. This time, we want to make sure we’re prepared, so we budgeted about 4% of each pledge for that.
Building & Running The Gizmoplex: We really want The Gizmoplex to be great, but getting it started will take some work – and keeping it running also means we’ll have some monthly fees to cover. We also need some budget to support all of the special live events we’re planning to host. So, we’re using about 3% of your pledge for that.
When you put it all together, we have to spend about 35% of what we raise just to cover Kickstarter expenses, and to keep all the promises we’re making to you.
He thinks that if they do 12 episodes, per episode cost will be down to just under $300K.
You may remember that MST3K already had the biggest Kickstarter in history up to that time. It’s since been surpassed by several smart watches and board games, among other things.
Despite the caveat that “this might not be a good time for some people to offer financial support to a robot puppet show dedicated to cheesy movies,” I expect them to blow the doors off the totals of their last Kickstarter.
Naturally I’ve already pledged.
Update: Just ticked over the first goal of $2 million.
Shoegazer Sunday: Whirr’s “Lean”
April 4th, 2021Whirr has been around a while and done some albums on Graveface records. Here’s “Lean” off their split EP with Nothing.
Movie Review: Kong: Skull Island
April 2nd, 2021Kong: Skull Island
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Written By Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly and John Gatins
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Tom Hiddleston, John C. Riley, Brie Larson
With Godzilla vs. Kong upon us, I finally watched Kong: Skull Island. Even though I’m a Godzilla partisan, overall I think it’s the best executed of the Monsterverse films. (I’m seeing Godzilla vs. Kong this weekend.)
In 1973, with the Vietnam War winding down, LANDSAT has discovered Skull Island in the South Pacific, previously hidden because it’s perpetually ringed by storms. An Air Cav force, lead by Samuel L. Jackson in the Samuel L. Jackson role, escort a group of ostensible scientists to the island, including John Goodman (head of barely-funded Monarch, secretly looking for monsters), Tom Hiddleston (an ex-SAS pathfinder/tracker mercenary) and Brie Larson (a photographer). Soon they run into Kong, who crashes their helicopters a lot quicker than the Viet Cong. Jackson immediately goes full Ahab while another group runs for their life and right into John C. Riley, playing the American version of Sir Basil St. Exposition as a stranded WWII American flyer, along with the silent but friendly native tribe. Riley quickly explains to them that not only is Kong king, but he’s the good king, saving people from the monstrous subterranean “Skullcrawlers,” which look like giant tatzelwurms with vaguely possum-ish snouts.
The plot unfolds more or less the way you would expect.
This seems the best of the monsterverse movies because it has the best cast, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (who’s primarily worked in TV) seems to have come closest to realizing his vision for it. It quickly and efficiently gets the ensemble to the island with a minimum of character exposition accompanied by a great classic rock soundtrack that runs the gamut of CCR, Jefferson Airplane and Black Sabbath. Jackson, Goodman and Riley all turn in their usual solid work in roles that might seem trite with less stellar performers (see: everyone who’s not Brian Cranston in the previous Monsterverse films). Larson is less annoying than her Marvel role. The support cast of mostly redshirts also do good work. Only Hiddleston comes across as Johnny Onenote And His Pet Stoic Gaze, but the script doesn’t give him much to do.
The special effects work on Kong is extremely solid (which you would expect from Industrial Light & Magic), even if not as expressive as the Andy Serkis version from Peter Jackson’s remake. The Skullcrawlers are appropriately menacing. But it’s the Huey flight sequences where the effects really shine. It’s obvious from the shot composition that Vogt-Roberts watched Apocalypse Now a whole bunch of times…
By jettisoning the “Kong takes Manhattan” plot from the previous versions, and dialing the Beauty and the Beast bits down to a bare whisper, Legendary Films has created a swift-moving kaiju film that even casual fans of the genre should enjoy.
Library Additions: Three Subterranean Press Firsts
March 30th, 2021The Carriger is the last book from the Subterranean PC sale, while the Hand and Smith are normal Lame Excuse Books stock purchases:
Library Additions: Limited and Lettered Editions of Neal Stephenson’s Atmosphæra Incognita
March 18th, 2021Still more books from the Subterranean Press PC sale:
Lettered edition on left, numbered edition on right
All editions are long sold out.
St. Patrick’s Day Music: Mr. Irish Bastard’s “I Hope They Sell Beer In Hell”
March 17th, 2021For a rowdy St. Patrick’s Day drinking song, here’s everyone’s favorite German Celtic Punk band Mr. Irish Bastard with “I Hope They Sell Beer In Hell”:
Library Addition: Lettered Edition of The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
March 16th, 2021Another book from the Subterranean Press PC sale:
Howard, Robert E. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. Subterranean Press, 2010. First limited edition hardback (the Del Rey trade edition precedes), a PC copy of 50 signed, numbered (so says the limitation page, though this is the Lettered edition) leatherbound copies, signed by artist Greg Staples, a Fine copy in a Fine traycase, sans dust jacket, as issued. A lavish production. Supplements a copy of the ordinary numbered edition. Bought for $200, a hefty 50% off the original offering price of $400.
Library Addition: Lettered Edition of China Mieville’s The Last Days of New Paris
March 15th, 2021More from the Subterranean PC sale:
Mieville, China. The Last Days of New Paris. Subterranean Press, 2017. First limited edition hardback (the Del Rey trade edition precedes), a PC copy of 26 lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine traycase. Supplements a copy of the numbered edition. Long out of print. Bought for the original offering price of $250.
