Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Star Wars Technical Journal of the Planet Tatooine, also styled as “Star Wars Technical Journal Vol. 1”, was the first of three volumes in The Official Star Wars Technical Journal magazine series from Starlog Communications International, Inc. It was published on October 1, 1993. The three volumes were later compiled into the compendium title Star Wars Technical Journal. Volume One was reprinted in July 1994 with a new foil-embossed cover to herald the release of the series’ second and third vol What a fantastic time capsule of Star Wars fandom and quasi canon back story. It was released in 1993,...
This is the back side of a Farm store, for those of you that have never been, you’re not missing much, it’s just a drive up convenience store. I learned during this trip that they do not sell bud light here. Apparently this is how my cat sits now. Or he’ll sit like this. He just had a one year birthday on St Pats, so he still has a young man’s spine. Not be me though, my spine is utter shit. I got a blister from when I raked my yard last week. The gloves I had sucked, so I...
Wish Dragon: Directed by Chris Appelhans. With Will Yun Lee, Jimmy O. Yang, Constance Wu, Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Determined teen Din is longing to reconnect with his childhood best friend when he meets a wish-granting dragon who shows him the magic of possibilities. A heartfelt mix of Disney’s Aladdin and Disney’s animated version of Mulan, the entire cast of this movie appears to be either Chinese or Chinese American, which is fine, but I was surprised that a movie that was so clearly marketed to that audience would go to the lengths that it went to in showing the utter...
The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek: With Gates McFadden, Marc Cushman, Larry Nemecek, David Gerrold. Chronicles rare and fascinating details of how “Star Trek” began, where it’s been, and how it’s going where no television series has gone before. It’s an eleven episode series of 45 minute longish episodes that go into all the details of the franchise up to about the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT era with plenty of talking heads from the various series, though not many of the big names showed up for it. It’s interesting if you’ve not seen Trek documentaries before, and it’s still entertaining for...
The Boys Presents: Diabolical: With Grey Griffin, Antony Starr, Ben Schwartz, Chris Diamantopoulos. The Boys animated spin-off. Eight unrelated episodes about mostly unknown characters in the same universe that “The Boys” takes place in, there’s a couple extremely good episodes, a couple ok episodes, one that’s just dumb, and a few more that are middle of the road. I’m happy they didn’t make them all connected in some way like “What If…” did. Be warned, there is a significant amount of gore and violence here, though if you’ve seen the live action show, this animated stuff won’t seem out of...
Upload: Created by Greg Daniels. With Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Zainab Johnson. A man is able to choose his own afterlife after his untimely death, by having his consciousness uploaded into a virtual world. As he gets used to his new life and befriends his angel (real world handler), questions about his death arise. The 8 episode season two is here and I continue to think that this is a pretty enjoyable show that doesn’t take the topic serious enough to actually do it justice. Buy On Amazon!
Rumble: Directed by Hamish Grieve. With Geraldine Viswanathan, Will Arnett, Stephen A. Smith, Terry Crews. In a world where monster wrestling is a global sport and monsters are superstar athletes, teenage Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps by coaching a loveable underdog monster into a champion. Amazing animation, somewhat uninspired music, and a story that’s equal parts Pacific Rim, Real Steel, Blues Brothers, and is completely predictable, but it’s still a fun ride. There’s a few voices that you’ll obviously recognize, but Viswanathan sounds exactly like Tawnie Newsom from Lower Decks, to the point that it’s distracting and...
I went to a hospital to do a thing for a second time, or maybe the sixth time depending on how you count things? Am I being vague? Yes I am! This is the broken o-ring for a Marinelands Magnum 350 canister filter. I let the dang thing sit in my garage for too long and the exposed rubber parts all dry rotted and need to be replaced. I found a set of four of them for $10, but that’s about $9.90 more than they should be, so I’ve reached out to a local aquarium group here in town...
Turning Red: Directed by Domee Shi. With Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park. A 13-year-old girl named Meilin turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited. It’s Pixar, so do you need me to tell you that it’s an enjoyable emotional roller-coaster that made me cry a few times? Nah, but I’ll tell you that anyways. The animated is top notch and they’re definitely marketing to a very clear and specific audience, but I’m happy to enjoy it even though I’m not remotely in that cohort. It’s out on Disney+ right now. Buy On Amazon!
Cryptozoo: Directed by Dash Shaw. With Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan. Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown. This is a weird one to review: it’d be super easy to pick apart the animation style and the sheer weirdness of the idea of having a zoo full of cryptoid taken from various parts of the world, which on the face of it seems like something we’d see on a made for TV late night special starring actors...
