Slashdot | H.R. Giger Returns To The Alien Franchise

Great news for Alien franchise purists, as conceptual artist H.R. Giger has been confirmed as a contributor to the prequel that Ridley Scott is set to begin shooting in February. The originator of the ‘xenomorph’ design, Giger was left out of James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), since Cameron only needed a new ‘Alien queen’ design, and had come up with that himself. This article features the Swiss TV broadcast where Giger’s wife broke the news, and a full gallery of Giger’s conceptual work for Alien.

This is definitely a step in the right direction.

They’ve got Ridley Scott directing, and now H.R. Giger on board.  This might actually shape up to be something decent.

Sunday was the last episode of The Walking Dead, at least for now.  I certainly hope they make another season of the show.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wanted to see more, but I can really appreciate what the small number of episodes did for the show.  It kept the story on-track.  Kept things moving along.  You couldn’t just waste time on things that didn’t move the plot along.  A finite number of episodes made it more important to actually do things with the screen-time they had.  And this was a good thing.

You look at some series, like Lost or Heroes and it seems like they just sort of wander along…  There’s no real impetus to get the story told.  To wrap things up.  To move forward.

I’d like to see more of Rick and the rest of the survivors.  I’d like to know what happens to them.  I’d love to have something bad happen to Shane…  And I’d like to know what happened to Merle…  But, at the same time, I’d almost rather follow a different group around next season.  Get a snapshot of a different part of the world.  Maybe see how things are out in California, or Alaska, or New York, or overseas.

In talking with Terri about Splice yesterday, I eventually figured out what I disliked so much about the movie.

The trailers made it look like some kind of sci-fi monster movie.  Lots of running, lots of screaming, Dren looking very frightening and aggressive.  I was expecting something more-or-less along the lines of Species – a monster movie featuring a monster that was the product of genetic tinkering.

But that is not what Splice is.

Splice is actually a movie about a couple who make a bad (immoral?) decision, and slowly slide down the slope to ruin.  Their relationship suffers.  Their jobs are in jeopardy.  They can’t trust anyone anymore.  Elsa’s mental health declines, and she starts acting like her abusive mother used to.  There’s tension between Clive and his brother as they try to keep the secret buried.  There’s incest, of a sort…  And child abuse, of a sort…  And rape, of a sort…

Splice, it seems to me, belongs on Lifetime more than on SyFy.

Just like Signs wasn’t actually about aliens, Splice isn’t actually about genetic tampering.  It doesn’t matter that Dren is a genetic chimera until the last 10 minutes of the movie.  Until that point Dren is treated basically like a human child.  It could easily have been a story about child abuse, rather than genetic tampering.  But it isn’t even really about Dren being abused…  It could have been virtually any deep, dark secret they were trying to keep.

It could have been a movie about infidelity of some sort.  Or alcoholism.  Or drug addiction.

The movie was about a couple playing for their mistakes – not the mistake itself.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that kind of movie.  I know there are plenty of people out there who enjoy that kind of thing.  And that’s fine.

But I’m not one of them.  I don’t watch Lifetime.  I don’t like V. C. Andrews.  If I had known what Splice was actually about, I wouldn’t have gone to see it.

And I think that deception was intentional.  I think they intentionally crafted the trailers and commercials to make the movie look like something it wasn’t.  To draw in folks who wouldn’t go watch it otherwise – folks like me.

I can’t say too much about Heart Shaped Box, as my wife hasn’t finished reading it yet…

Suffice to say that it was easily one of the best books I’ve read in a while.  Certainly the best horror story in a good couple of years.

I’m definitely going to have to keep an eye on Joe Hill…

Don’t worry, it’s not a crusade.  Honest.  Just ignore the biblical references inscribed on our weapons.  Yeah, it’s all about freeing the oppressed masses and spreading democracy.  Really.

Carnal Nation | Jennifer Love Hewitt “Vajazzles her Vajayjay”

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt claims she “vajazzles her vajayjay” with Swarovski crystals and you can too! In the video below, she tells talkshow host, George Lopez, that she began decorating her “precious lady” like a crystal ball to feel better after a rough breakup. She advises other women to do the same and exclaims that she is currently vajazzled in hot pink for the show.Since the vajayjay is actually the space on the inside, it seems unlikely that she actually glues crystals inside of her vagina, but she may very well attach them to the outer portion of her privates – her vulva.

Hewitt even offers to bedazzle Lopez’ goatee and when the amused host suggests that the crystals could be irritating for “the dude”, she replies, “I’ve had no complaints.