Def Jammed

By Priest January 4th, 2016, under Movies, TV

Someone gave me a Blu-Ray player and I am, frankly, reluctant to install it. When I was over friends’ homes watching movies on Blu-Ray, they just seemed… bad… to me. They didn’t look like film. Everything looked like it was shot on videotape, and *bad* videotape like 1970’s soap operas: just a little *too* lifelike and surreal.

This worries me because the industry is, of course, forcing us to use this technology (and, inevitably, 4k), but, to me, my upscaled “normal” DVD’s look a lot better and more film-like.

Is this normal? Is there some adjustment period I need to go through or is this actually what people are enjoying these days, films that look like bad 1970’s soap operas where everything seems to be made out of plastic? What am I missing? Read the rest of this entry »

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The Blue Van

By Priest December 16th, 2015, under Comics, TV

So I bought Season One of the 1966 Batman TV series, and I’ve been gleefully reliving my childhood binge-watching a show I haven’t seen in a couple of decades. The first season was brilliant. I’ve read the producers or the network believed it was a bit too dark and lightened it up for Season Two which, I believe, cost them their adult audience by pandering to the kids and thereby killed the show.

Season Three was the flailing of a dying man, even sillier than Season Two, the network geniuses not understanding why Season One was such a hit: its pitch-perfect balance between the absurd and the (preadolescent) entertaining captured in perfect tone in the pilot, “Hey Riddle Diddle.” That show gave me nightmares as a kid when the Riddler set the Batmobile on fire and then threatened Robin with a scalpel and a head vise, while being laugh-out-loud funny when Batman enters a discotech, preferring to stand at the bar because, “I wouldn’t want to attract undue attention.”

I’m only now really appreciating how brilliant the show was, and how either the network or the studio killed their own golden goose by not truly understanding how delicate the formula was or how vitally important the balance was to maintain. Other things I’ve discovered:
Read the rest of this entry »

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1999 the Roleplaying Game

By Dave Van Domelen December 7th, 2015, under Writing

So, in a burst of inspiration over the last few days, I’ve written a fairly simple tabletop RPG set in the 1999 universe (or an alternate version of it).  I can’t really finish it until I’ve read Book 4, but it’s in good enough shape that a little independent playtesting (or at least “read-testing”) is in order.

Interested in giving it a try?  Send email to me at dvandom at gmail (not putting in a full email since I get enough spam due to robo-sifting as it is) and I’ll give you viewing privileges on the current Google Doc.

Just keep in mind, this is not meant to be a detailed game where it matters if you carry a Ruger or a Colt .45.  A gun is a gun, a fighter jet is a fighter jet, and a giant robot is…well, okay, those have some differences.

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Priest: Unscented

By Priest November 24th, 2015, under About Me

Today, I smell like a man. I really hate that.

It’s driving me completely insane–this…this stench. It’s a manly smell, like so many men I’ve smelled in my life. Hard to describe, a kind of taxi driver smell. A church deacon smell. I have to suppose some men like smelling like this because so many men do, but I hate it.

I prefer to smell like nothing; to come and go like the wind. Imperceptible, un-smellable. Priest: Unscented. Yet, here I am, smelling like a man. Every few minutes I move this way or that, and catch a whiff of myself. Horrible. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gobble, Gobble

By Priest November 20th, 2015, under Comics, Writing

I’ve posted an episode sampler from “1999” to the Kindle store. “1999 Limited Edition” will be a free download this weekend, Nov 21-22, as well as Thanksgiving week, Wednesday Nov 25 through Friday, Nov 27. It contains five sample episodes from Book 1 and 2, which kind of sucks for those of you who actually paid for Books 1 and 2 (although, combined, those are twelve episodes).

Unfortunately, the only way to effectively promote a book on Amazon is to give it away, period. Every other avenue requires exhausting investment in social media and other platforms that I honestly don’t have time for. But Kindle readers gobble up free stuff (and who can blame them), which helps (somewhat) in rankings but more important, raises visibility of the series as a whole.

If you’re active on message boards or Facebook pages, feel free to repost this or pass on the word. The five episodes make a great introduction to the series, No Kindle is required. Oh, and even if you don’t download it (because you already have these eps), please do me a solid and leave a (hopefully positive) review. That really helps, too.

Wishing everybody a Happy Turkey… –cjp

Cover 2g236

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