Weekend Reads (Apr 9): “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus,” Martial Arts Movies, “Doctor Who,” Elon Musk
Recommended weekend reading material for April 9, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
It’s one of the great questions of our age: How does one make a movie like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus? Matt Patches interviewed the film’s director, Jack Perez, to get some answers.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, which finds a team of oceanographers scrambling to kill two underwater kaiju by luring them into a tentacle-flapping, jaw-snapping fight, was not a passion project. But when Perez signed on, he wanted it to be good — even if the Debbie Gibson-led creature feature was just another cog in The Asylum’s notorious business model. And it seemed to have worked; the movie’s low-rent visual effects and stilted drama mesmerized internet kids, prompting Asylum to produce several Mega Shark sequels. Before the hyper-self-aware gimmicks of Sharknado (also an Asylum joint), there was Perez funneling his monster-movie memories from the 1970s into cheapo popcorn entertainment.
I thoroughly enjoyed this interview. My favorite detail is Perez calling The Asylum a “mockbuster schlock factory.” Asylum movies are notoriously painful to watch, so I admire his self-awareness and workman-like mindset. Sometimes you just gotta make an ultra-crappy monster movie to pay the bills.
Related: Watch Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus for free on YouTube. (C’mon, you know you want to.)
In light of its upcoming 25th(!) anniversary, Jason Bailey reflects on Grosse Pointe Blank’s unlikely comedic legacy.
[T]the casual enjoyment of the cool criminal life, present in those early Tarantino films and much more so in its cynical imitators, is not present here; Martin Blank, despite our initial impressions, is neither cool, calm, nor collected. He is a mess, and his existential struggle is a fine reminder that the one thing few even bothered to try replicating from Pulp Fiction was the “trying to be the shepherd” beat.
I watched Grosse Pointe Blank several years ago and it still held up really well. A true (dark and twisted) comedy classic filled with great performances (and some solid Benny “The Jet” Urquidez action).
I’ve seen most of these classic Michelle Yeoh action movies. Supercop is one of my all-time favorite Jackie Chan movies, and Yeoh all but steals the show from him. The Heroic Trio is absolutely bonkers in the finest ‘90s Hong Kong tradition. Finally, Wing Chun is a lot of fun, and Michelle Yeoh + Donnie Yen = pure action gold.
Speaking of classic martial arts cinema, Jimmy Wang Yu died earlier this week at the age of 79.
A contract player at the start of his career, Wang’s early career was indelibly linked with Shaw Brothers, for better and worse, and he would become a mainstream star in the studio’s most famous wuxia films including One-Armed Swordsman (1967) which broke box office records in Hong Kong, Golden Swallow (1968), Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) and ground-breaking kung fu film The Chinese Boxer (1970).
The Chinese Boxer helped steer kung fu films in a new direction, and paved the way for the films of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Click here to read Chan’s tribute.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys behind films like The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, want Hollywood to take animation more seriously.
Framing the five Academy Award nominees for best animated feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure could be dismissed as simply careless. But to those of us who have dedicated our lives to making animated films, that carelessness has become routine. The head of a major animation studio once told an assembly of animators that, if we played our cards right, we would one day “graduate to live-action.” Years later, an exec at another studio said a certain animated movie we made was so enjoyable that it reminded them of “a real movie.”
There are, of course, far more important things in the world — and more important things to think about in the wake of this year’s Oscars, including some true high points we shouldn’t overlook: Beyoncé! Compton! CODA! Questlove! But the repeated diminishment of our art form is at the top of animators’ minds.
I agree with Lord and Miller 1,000%. I don’t understand why people are so quick to treat animation like it’s not a serious art form created by very dedicated and talented individuals.
K. B. Hoyle reviews one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, “The Eleventh Hour,” and what makes Doctor Who so special in the first place.
What I love about Doctor Who in general is that it’s unapologetically childlike. Not childish — childlike: it invites you to accept absurdity, simplicity, and the fantastic without skepticism, but with wonder and awe. It presupposes Good and Evil and the notion that there are heroes out there who should — according to a code of unquestionable and intrinsic goodness — save the day. And the best of all these heroes in this story is the Doctor, aided by his companions. You never question the Doctor’s capability or desire to ultimately be and do good, and although the Doctor can operate as a solo act, the Doctor chooses to not be alone, working best with companions, friends, and aids.
Let’s say you’re building out a music service that involves the cataloging and display of artist and album information. Here are some of the “horrible” edge cases that you might need to consider, ranging from albums with weird and/or really long titles to bands that keep changing their name to artists who release music under lots of aliases. (Aphex Twin, I’m looking in your general direction.)
Frustrated by the Western bias in a lot of music production software, Khyam Allami released several web-based programs that allow musicians to explore tuning systems from around the world.
Most electronic music tools (along with the guitar, piano, and wind instruments) are set by default to a tuning system called equal temperament, which is the foundation of most Western classical music from the past two centuries. This does not allow for microtonality — the notes between a standard piano’s keys — which is commonly used in musical traditions outside of Europe. Through his research, Allami discovered that it had been possible to explore microtonality using MIDI, the language of electronic music tools, since 1992, but software developers had not implemented functions to make microtonal tunings intuitive to use. As one product manager of a popular music notation program told him, they simply didn’t believe that there was a market for such features.
You can access the programs — Leimma and Apotome — here.
As the U.S. and others have levied sanctions on Russia, one group that’s been singled out are Russia’s elite, the oligarchs. But what, exactly, is an oligarch?
Russia’s original oligarchs made their fortunes in the 1990s during the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, as state assets were offloaded to private bidders, often in corrupt deals. During this period of market liberalization, well-to-do businessmen, former officials and plucky entrepreneurs acquired large stakes in Russian companies in oil and gas, metals and mining, railway and transportation, agricultural products and other core industries.
However, oligarchs aren’t just a Russian thing. It could be argued that we have some oligarchs right here in America, too. And some of them are using their considerable wealth to influence American politics.
After purchasing a 9.2% stake in Twitter, Elon Musk will now sit on its board of directors. What does that mean for the social network? (Hint: Possibly more than a long overdue “Edit” button.)
As Dorsey’s hand-picked successor, [Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal] was already going to face criticism that he was simply more of the same from a company that has struggled to live up to its potential. The fact that Dorsey left the board, though, had given Agrawal an opportunity to begin crafting Twitter according to his own plans.
Now that Musk is around, though, with his viral polls and stream-of-consciousness product suggestions, Agrawal may find himself struggling to balance his own vision against that of an unpredictable board member with a much louder megaphone.
Related: Musk’s newfound power at Twitter falls right in-line with his version of free speech absolutism, for better or worse.
Also related: Musk’s purchase of Twitter stock netted him an extra $156 million in violation of SEC policies.
An ancient Hebrew “curse tablet” could prove that the Bible is centuries older than previously thought. However, the announcement has been controversial, with concerns being raised over how the tablet was excavated and acquired.
A small, ancient tablet made of folded lead that features an early Israelite curse inscription is once again igniting the debate regarding the historical reliability of the Hebrew Bible. Alongside this conversation, there are also tough questions about the management of archaeological sites in the West Bank — specifically: to whom do findings discovered there belong, and what is the difference between archaeologists and antiquities looters?
Let’s wrap things up on a charming note: This abandoned Japanese train station looks like anime come to life.
Just as Yukari says, the photos really do look like that of a cherry blossom surrounded lone station you'd see in maybe the opening of an anime. Of course, with most anime being set in Japan, those kind of comparisons sometimes seems obvious, but the gorgeous colors and staging have a certain quality to them that has many on Twitter comparing it to their favorite anime.
The photographer’s Twitter account is filled with even more stunning photography from throughout Japan. Our family traveled to Japan back in 2009, and we’ve been wanting to return ever since. Photos like these make me feel that even more keenly.
From the Blog
When it was announced last October, Donald Trump’s Truth Social was touted as a new social network that would fight against “Big Tech” censorship and the liberal media. But thanks to various tech glitches and a decidedly underwhelming rollout, Trump’s vaunted social media platform has turned out to be a disaster.
Given its awkward roll-out — which is made even worse by the fact that it has $1 billion in funding — one can’t help but think that Truth Social was only ever intended as a Trump vanity project, something to assuage his ego after it got bruised by Twitter. It was an opportunity for him to “take a stand” and rage against those who hurt him while also making big, lofty promises to his base. (Of course, we all know how good Trump is at keeping his promises.)
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