Geekboy's Movie Poster Collection: Part 1

So I just spent the last two weeks doing a massive remodel of my bedroom.  Throwing Spackle around, repainting, building new shelves, tearing out old carpet, and rearranging my furniture.  I decided I wanted some new wall art to go with the new paint job.  I'd found a dealer on Ebay who specializes in the reproduction of vintage posters at reasonable prices, and I'd been drooling over them for a while.  I finally took the plunge and purchased some of my favorites.

First up we have the 1941 Republic serial 'Jungle Girl'.  If you know me you know that this is my all time favorite serial, so picking up this one was an obvious move.

As this dealer also had the 1942 follow up, 'Perils of Nyoka,' I bought it as well so I'd have a complete set.

Third we have 1949's 'King of the Rocketmen'.  This is the first of four Republic serials to feature the Rocketman suit - the others being 'Radar men from the Moon' (1952) 'Zombies of the Stratosphere' (1952) and 'Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe' (1953).  Each of the Rocketman serials uses a significant amount of stock footage from the previous installments, so watching them back to back can get pretty redundant.

Fun fact: The Rocketman serials are the primary source of inspiration for Dave Steven's comicbook hero 'The Rocketeer'.

George Lucas also named one of the Clone Troopers from Star Wars 'Commander Cody' as a tribute to the character from 'Radar Men' and 'Sky Marshal'.

And finally we have the 1968 science fiction film 'The Green Slime'.  This is kind of the odd one out in a collection for Cliffhanger Serial posters, but it's an awesome poster and I wanted it, okay?

It may be an awesome poster, but the movie that goes with it is slightly less awesome.  It does have a rocking theme song though - give a listen here:

 -Geekboy.

Jack 'O Lantern 2017

I decided to carve an actual pumpkin this year instead of a gourd.  I know what you're thinking:  How does one live 20+ years without making a proper Jack 'o Lantern?  Well, carving pumpkins was never a part of my childhood.  Why?  Because my mom didn't believe in growing pumpkins unless she could use them for pie.  So for my formative years the only pumpkins I really had access to looked something like this ----------------------------------- >





< ---------------- I picked this pumpkin up for a dollar at a local fruit stand while shopping for apples with my family.  I wasn't 100% sure it was big enough to suit my purposes, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.





-Geekboy.

On Free Comics...

Happy Free Comic Book Day everyone!  If you have a local comic shop I hope you took advantage of the free stuff/sales/artist meet ups.  I also hope you didn't have to stand in line for too long.  In years past I remember feeling like I was trapped in an elevator with about 60 other people, but this year the crowds weren't too bad.  I don't know if this was because of the rainy weather or if the cashiers have speedy checkout lines down to a science after so many years of experience.  Possibly a combination of the two.

My local store had their first ever costume contest!  I didn't participate.  Found out about the contest too late to whip anything together.  I considered making a black mask and going as Man Without Fear/Netflix Season One Daredevil, but ultimately decided 'Nope.'  I enjoyed seeing others in costume, however.  Present and accounted for were DC comics 'Bombshells' Wonder Woman, The Riddler, Han Solo, and a family of T-Rex and Godzilla.

As well as my free comics, I picked up 'Wolf Moon' by Cullen Bunn of 'The Sixth Gun' and 'Harrow County' fame, and the first two volumes of the Steampunk series 'Lady Mechanika'.

The free comics and sales are nice, but the best part of the experience - and this is coming from a super reclusive introvert - is rubbing shoulders (perhaps literally) with like-minded nerds.  In the year since last FCBD I'd forgotten the sense of energy radiating from the community.  If you missed this year, be sure to catch it the first Saturday of May next year.

-Geekboy.

The Unknowable Future

Over the past few years there have been some major changes in my family dynamic.  And there are more changes coming down the pipe in the near future.  It's inevitable at this point.  Maybe it's because of all these changes, but I've been thinking a lot about these two songs lately.  They both deal with family life and how it changes with time.

The first song is called 'Boats & Birds' by 'Gregory and the Hawk'.  My interpretation of the song is that it's about empty nest syndrome.  A mother is singing to her child about how she knows that they will have to grow up and someday and the child will live his or her own life.  'You can skyrocket away from me - And never come back if you find another Galaxy - Far from here where there's more room to fly - But leave me your stardust to remember you by.'  The song is about coping with the fact that sometimes you have to let go of the people you care about.

The other song is 'House of Gold' by 'Twenty One Pilots'.  It has sort of the same premise, but the roles are flipped.  This one is about a son who wants to have the means to provide for his mother in her later years.  She's provided for him after all, and it's only fair that he return the favor.  'She asked me, son, when I grow old - Will you buy me a house of gold - And when your father turns to stone - Will you take care of me?'  The son wants to care for his mom in the event of his father's death.  He worries that he won't be able to provide for her needs financially.  My favorite line in the song is 'And since we know that dreams are dead - And life turns plans upon there heads - I will plan to be a bum - So I just might become someone!'  This drives home for me the point that the future is unknowable.  We can't control it.

And what are our biggest fears?  The unknown.  And if the future is both unknown and unknowable it stands to reason that the future and the change it brings can be one of our biggest sources of anxiety.  And fear can be such an isolating emotion.  Fear of the unknown future is not something we have to face alone however.  Because the unknown future and the fear it brings are universal.  Everyone has experienced it or will experience it.  Everyone you come in contact with should be able to empathize with your worries.  That makes everyone you meet a potential part of your support group.  Or, if talking to other people about your worries is too scary, you can have you fears quelled vicariously through songs like 'Boats and Birds' or 'House of Gold'.  Songs help because they remind us that we aren't so alone.

-Geekboy.

Jack O' Lantern 2016

Happy Monster Month.

My family never really had a pumpkin carving tradition, but I think it would be cool to take the Jack O' Lantern back to it's original roots.  (Because I'm a big Hipster).  The first Jack O' Lanterns were carved not from pumpkins, but from turnips.  Unfortunately I don't have a turnip on hand this year, but my brother grows gourds, and he gave me one for carving.  So, here it is.  My Jack O' Lantern.

-Geekboy.

Can Geekboy Sum Himself Up In 3 Fictional Characters?

So, I've seen this thing going around social media sights like Facebook and Twitter where people post pictures of fictional characters as a visual aid to illustrate their own character traits.  It's a fun exercise to see what makes you tick.  People looking at your post who know you well can confirm that yes, that is what makes you tick.  People who don't know you quite as well can get to know you better.

The Geekboy blog is more or less anonymous.  You don't necessarily know me (unless you do) and I don't know you.  Or do I?  Perhaps I'm that mysterious figure skulking about in the bushes outside your house.  Okay, that took a creepy turn...

But since the casual visitor to this humble blog doesn't know much about me, I thought it could be fun to tell you a little about myself using one of my favorite things: Stories!

Firstly, we have Seamus Zelazny Harper from 'Gene Rodenberry's Andromeda'.  Harper is a total geek, and he thinks he's way cooler than he actually is.  But he's good with technology, and does his best to keep the Andromeda Ascendant running.  I'm no Harper when it comes to tech, but I also do the best that I can to keep my ship running, metaphorically speaking.

Next, we have Henry Jones Sr. from 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.  He's grumpy yet driven.  Passionate to a fault about achieving his unobtainable goals.  Obsessive and workaholic, and that gets in the way of his personal relationships.  I have a dose of these character traits.  Hopefully not to this extreme.  But I am grumpy and antisocial, particularly if you're interrupting me when I'm working on something I'm passionate about.

And lastly, Susan Ivanova from 'Babylon 5'.  Like Ivanova, I'm passive aggressive, cynical, and if I have a really good Zinger I just can't hold it inside.  Ivanova has issues with authority, and also with being IN authority.  More often then not she has a lot put on her plate and she stresses out in a major way whenever she does.

These are the characters I chose for myself, but if somebody else was choosing a character to represent me I think they would pick Garfield.  I hate mornings, love coffee, and am a bit of a couch potato.  And again, grumpy.  Geekboy is a Grumpus.  I don't know if I got that across clearly enough yet.

You may be wondering how one can be as much as a couch potato as Garfield, but as driven as Henry Jones Sr.  Somehow I manage.

As I said, I might not know you and you might not know me.  So feel free to tell me a little bit about yourself using three fictional characters in the comments.

Real life Scooby Doo..?

You may have noticed that I've been posting pretty regularly since mid April of this year (2016).  You may have also noticed if you'd been paying particularly close attention that I usually post of Mondays.  Today is not a Monday. It's a Friday.

"How dare you Geekboy!" you find yourself exclaiming.  "A blog schedule is not something to be taken seriously!"  You take out your vintage style pocket-watch and tap it to emphasize how late this post is.  Also, you say 'schedule' funny, because you're suddenly a cranky middle aged British man with mutton chops.

Truth be told I was on vacation in Virginia with my family for most of this week.  In our many travels we stopped at Grand Caverns, which we soon learned is the oldest touring cave in the US of A.

One of the rooms on the tour is called 'Dante's Inferno'.  Our tour guide told us a cool story about this part of the cave.  She told us about how miners found some valuable minerals in this section of Grand Caverns, and they wanted to keep their cache a secret.  So they started a little ghost story to keep the tourists away.

The miners noticed that their candles would go out when they reached a certain part of the cavern.  It was easy to convince everybody that it was 'Evil Spirits' that blew out the candles, even though it was a natural phenomenon.  You know what this sounds like?

Yep, that's right.  It sounds like the plot for a classic episode of 'Scooby Doo, where are you?'  Buried Treasure of some kind, and a creepy story to keep everyone else away.  The only things missing is the miners never dressed up in ghost costumes, never said "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" and also, there are no meddling kids.

My favorite part of this tour was where they turned all the lights out.  And I know what you're thinking.  "But Geekboy," you say as you roll your eyes, "They always turn all the lights out."  And they do.  Every single time.  I think it's a requirement of being a cave tour guide.  But our guide did it in a way I'd never seen before.  She lit a candle first, showing us what it would have been like for the original spelunkers exploring these caves in the 1700s.  Then she had one of the kids in the tour blow out the candle.  Normally turning out the lights is like a cheap jump scare in a horror movie.  It's there to get an extreme reaction from the audience.  But this time it wasn't like that.  It was subtle and classy, and when she turned the lights back on we got to see just how much those early spelunkers were missing by exploring these caves in the candlelight.

If you're in the Virginia area, make sure you take in a cave or two.  And if you've seen a few caverns before, feel free to leave your favorite memories in the comments.

-Geekboy.