My story on Storm Crow Tavern is finally up on the Vancouver Sun website, and I assume it ran in yesterday’s paper too. You can read the piece here.
I’m pretty excited about this place, especially since it’s just up the street from where I live. The menu is somewhat limited (no brunch—yet) but I love the fact that you can stop in any time and the one screen in the joint will be showing cinematic fare such as Forbidden Planet and, as was the case yesterday (Friday) afternoon, The Last Starfighter. (Thanks to Rodney DeCroo‘s friend Michael for identifying the obscure 1984 sci-fi movie.)
I’ve been meaning to stop in at the Storm Crow more often than I have , but this is owing largely to the fact that most of my discretionary drinking-out income goes towards paddles of craft beer at St. Augustine’s. However, I do grow weary of that joint’s sports-bar ambience (numerous TVs tuned into TSN). Old episodes of Rocket Robin Hood are much more to my taste.
Got sent a package of graphic novels for review last week. Vancouver’s own Raincoast Books distributes a number of publishers, so once in awhile I’ll get lucky with a shipment of nice new books.
Among the latest batch was this curiosity – a thin, wonderfully coloured (by Hilary Sycamore) and drawn (by Humayoun Ibrahim) graphic adaptation of a short story by Golden Age science fiction author Jack Vance. I was unfamiliar with Vance’s work but after reading this little beauty I’ll be seeking out more, for sure.
I thought this adaptation, along with a reprinted (from the New York Times Magazine) profile of Jack Vance by Carlo Rotella, was an ideal intro to the work of this almost-forgotten (though not by Michael Chabon, to name one well-known fan) author. Highly recommended; you can read more of my thoughts on this book in my The Moon Moth graphic novel review on The Snipe News.
Have you read any Jack Vance? Which novels or short stories would you recommend?
Last weekend, I wrote a blog post about buying a cheap science fiction paperback (Destiny Doll by Clifford D. Simak) off a guy selling books outside my neighbourhood liquor store. The guy had a huge selection of SF paperbacks and I regretted not taking a photo then. So yesterday the same dude – I think his name is Ritchie – had his wares out once again so I snapped these pics.
Picked this up on the weekend from outside my neighbourhood liquor store.
A guy had a whole blanketful of old science fiction paperbacks (among other things) and this one caught my eye. The bookseller said he acquired the collection from a guy who used to come to the (mental health) drop-in centre where he worked/volunteered; the guy said that the book collector left (or gave) the books to him because he respected how he makes his living – selling books.
I must’ve been 12 when I saw Logan’s Run for the first time, in a theatre in Winnipeg; it may even have been my birthday. Besides being a glorious slice-of-’70s sci-fi cheese (though I didn’t know it at the time), the 1976 movie jump-started my adolescence.
Movie trailer – Logan’s Run (1976)
Logan’s Run (1976 version; a remake is rumoured to be in the works, although that’s been said for the last 10 years) starred Michael York as Logan, a Sandman suddenly forced to decide if he’s going to carry out his state-directed orders to kill “runners” (anyone who reaches the age of 30 and decides not to opt-in to a very suspect system of rebirth that includes either being exploded from within or zapped by some lethal death-ray, it’s never clear which) or run himself. Veteran British actor Peter Ustinov gives the only remotely naturalistic peformance within a parsec of the film; Farrah Fawcett makes a brief and green-spangly appearance as Holly, a cosmetic surgeon’s assistant. And Jenny Agutter plays Logan’s love interest and fellow runner, Jessica 6.
Jenny Agutter in Logan’s Run (1976).
It’s the film’s mild nudity, and the icy English rose beauty of Agutter (also in American Werewolf in London and Walkabout) that was responsible for my quantum leap. But the movie also casts a spell, even today. Even though what, to a 12-year-old boy in the ’70s, was an action-packed futuristic and really cool-looking movie is, by today’s standards, low-rent, retro and sometimes silly, Logan’s Run does have a certain look and production design that gives the film an atmosphere unlike just about any other.
Michael York and Jenny Agutter Logan’s Run production still.
There are plotholes (like, why does Logan call the rest of his fellow Sandmen when he’s already decided to run?) and cheesy special effects galore, but the movie is also daring in letting its hero be an anti-hero – a coldblooded killer – for a good chunk of the story.
And 36 years later, the idea of a society so brainwashed as to accept their fate – death at 30 – is still thought-provoking. How different is that from the mass hysteria that greeted the death of Kim Jong-Il? How different from Mormonism, or any belief system we’ve inculcated? How different from our acceptance of Stephen Harper as prime minister (okay, the last might be a bit of a reach… might).
Logan’s Run, which was based on a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, had an even more radical premise – death at 21 – and a far different ending. The novel spawned a couple of sequels; Logan’s Run the movie led to a TV series (the DVD of which is about to be released) and a comic book series (from Marvel, 7 issues), as well as inspiring lots of bad electronica (or maybe that’s redundancy). A remake would be interesting, but the 1976 Logan’s Run stands alone as a kind of perfect storm (pardon the cliche) of set and costume design, British acting talent, and music (Jerry Goldsmith‘s score is something else) and ideas. The following year, Star Wars would usher in the era of so-called “space operas”, or Westerns in space, and the age of idea-based science fiction movies would die.
As the fans say, “Run, runner!”
Ah, Marvel Comics in the ’70s – never a publisher to miss an opportunity to cash-in.
Of all summer 2011 movies, Rise of the Planet of the Apes seemed to be the least promising (if you don’t count The Change-Up, Captain America: The First Avenger, Transformers 3… okay, so Apes had some competition).
As far as I know, no one was crying out for a prequel, sequel, or reboot to the whole Apes mythos; it seems it had run its course, with the 2001 Tim Burton remake putting an even spikier nail in its coffin than Joel Shumacher‘s nippley Batman and Robin did to that franchise.
But lo and behold, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a really good movie. It’s not great – it still dabbles in way too many cliches (the angry neighbour, the rapacious industrialist, the do-gooder scientist, ad infinitum).
But Rise artfully strings together the action-movie and sci-fi tropes with which we have become agonizingly over-familiar into a fast-paced and surprisingly affecting story. No doubt the latter aspect is owing in no small part to Andy Serkis (Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films), who lends his magnificent body language to the main ape, Caesar.
And it’s definitely the apes who are the stars of the movie – James Franco is fine, as is John Lithgow (Freida Pinto as Franco’s love interest I’m afraid is completely forgettable) but everyone is ultimately overshadowed by the hairy beasts.
Freida Pinto and James Franco in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).
I have to say, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on the edge of my seat for the climax of a big Hollywood movie, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes had me until the last frame. Now if the studio can only keep the damn dirty hands of the likes of Tim Burton, Joel Shumacher and other hacks away from any sequels.
Shawn Conner is a freelance journalist and copywriter with a passion for pop culture. He is currently at the Vancouver Sun, where he writes on arts, entertainment, health, business and marshmallows. Previous credits include the Georgia Straight, the Globe and Mail and the Comics Journal. For fun and bankruptcy he also edits and publishes the online Vancouver arts and entertainment magazine The Snipe News (http://www.thesnipenews.com/). He lives in East Vancouver with his girlfriend Robyn and two grey cats.
