Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

Vid: You're Gonna Go Far, Kid (Mission: Impossible)

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 18:53:17 GMT

I've largely migrated my vid posting to AO3 at this point, so here's a direct link to the new vid there.

comments

If you miss My Week in Movies

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:19:47 GMT

Once upon a time when I still posted on Dreamwidth, I'd do a weekly roundup of the movies I watched in the previous week, sometimes with notes. I'm still doing little reviews, just on Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/43c77

comments

Vid: Magic (Georges Méliès)

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 16:52:33 GMT

Title: Magic
Song: Magic by B.O.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo)
Source: Georges Méliès
Length: 2:06

Meet the first wizard of cinema

Vimeo password: wizard

Download the 58MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save file as...")

Notes: George Méliès was a pioneer in the realm of movie magic, operating from the earliest days of cinema in 1896 until 1913. He started his career in stage magic and many of his earliest shorts were filmed and shown at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin where he was the director.

Most of Méliès’ cinematic work dealt with, at one level or another, movie magic. His favorite trick was stopping the camera, removing or replacing a prop or person, then restarting the camera, giving the illusion of a transformation. He also did a lot of work in overlaying separate filmed sequences into one shot. While many of his films can be distilled down to the genre of “trick” film, his interest in narrative grew over the course of his career. His most famous work is certainly A Trip to the Moon (1902) with its famous shot of a spaceship hitting the face of the moon in the eye.

As for myself, I’ve owned a box set of most of Méliès’ surviving films for quite some time and never thought to crack it open. I’ve been struggling lately with a shortage of my ADHD medication and I thought that, given that the majority of the Méliès oeuvre runs under five minutes, it might be a good distraction, especially before work. I was absolutely charmed and a vid idea started to form. So that’s this. Enjoy!

Thanks for se42 and thirdblindmouse for encouragement.

comments

Vid: Don't Put It In Your Mouth (Supernatural)

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 17:44:55 GMT

Title: Don't Put It In Your Mouth
Song: Canadian PSA
Source: Supernatural
For: cherry
Length: 0:51

Castiel, you don't know where that's been.

Vimeo password: canada

Download 70.7MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save File As...")

This was CherryIce's idea that was gifted to me and I sat on it for five years until some Prime Day deals brought Supernatural: The Complete Series into my home. With full access to source and no excuse, I made her this vid.

comments

Still Here!

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:16:51 GMT

This account is mostly used for posting vids now and I post vids about once a year.

Things are going well. We moved into a townhouse back in November and I have my own office space now. No more sharing with the bedroom.

I'm running D&D about once a month for settiai and other friends.

I'm slowly backfilling my old Vimeo-exclusive vids onto Youtube to give them a wider audience. I'm surprised by how many views they're racking up in just a day or two. Alas, some vids like David Cronenberg are not suitable for the platform (but that one doesn't need the help, probably, as it's my most kudos'd work on AO3).

One bummer is that the ADHD med shortage has been hitting me on and off for the last year. I'm currently three weeks without meds and my pharmacy still has them on backorder. I'm annoyed because this shortage is entirely artificially manufactured by the federal government. It would take one pen stroke (and some time) to resolve.

comments

Festivids Reveals!

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 18:52:58 GMT

It can now be told! I made two treats this year:

Weapon of Choice (Busby Berkeley movies) for fairestcat
Hold On (Floor is Lava) for thingswithwings

I know, I know... TWO vids in a calendar year? Wild.

comments

Vid: Weapon of Choice (Busby Berkeley movies)

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 22:22:07 GMT

Title: Weapon of Choice
Song: Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim
Source: Busby Berkeley movies
For: fairestcat, Festivids 2022
Length: 2:32

Just Busby Berkeley Vibes

Vimeo Password: rubykeeler

Download the 33.4MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save file as...")

Archive of Our Own link

Notes: Busby Berkeley was the top choreographer in 1930s Hollywood. His sequences were often the finale for a "let's put on a show" film, although sometimes he would have sequences in the body of the film as well. He was known for inventive staging, kaleidoscopic bodies, and sheer ambition.

I've had this vid in my head ever since I saw my first Busby Berkeley movies on Filmstruck (RIP). The idea centered on a visual that turned out to not actually exist, oops. I was delighted when I saw that fairestcat requested these movies because it was the perfect excuse to put this long-gestating idea down on a timeline.

Not all Berkeley sequences are represented -- Shanghai Lil was avoided for racism/yellowface reasons, for instance. However, the sequences stretch across ten different films. Clipping was handily assisted by the existence of a bonus feature in the first Busby Berkeley box set which was literally just the choreographed sequences for the included films, plus a couple extras. All killer, no filler.

Sources:
42nd Street (1933)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
Fashions of 1934 (1934)
Wonder Bar (1934)
Dames (1934)
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
Varsity Show (1937)
Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)

comments

Vid: Hold On (The Floor is Lava)

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 17:49:45 GMT

Title: Hold On
Song: Hold On by Animal Logic
Source: The Floor is Lava
For: thingswithwings (Festivids 2022)
Length: 1:31
Warnings: Some flashing lights.

Summary: ...or don't.

Vimeo Password: dontfallin

Download the 44.8MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save file as...")

Archive of Our Own link

Notes: This has to be in the top five silliest vids I've made. I love this ridiculous Netflix show and I was pleased when thingswithwings requested it. I've been looking for an opportunity to use the song "Hold On" (from the Borderlands 3 soundtrack) and this was deliciously appropriate. All footage is from Season 3 because that's the only season I could get my hands on. Even with that limitation, I had a lot of fun making this.

comments

Vid: Let's Hear It for the Boy (Project Runway)

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 17:27:51 GMT

Title: Let's Hear It for the Boy
Song: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Deniece Williams
Source: Project Runway
Length: 1:23
Warnings: The dog is too cute.

Summary: Project Runway has one job and that is to show me the dog.

Vimeo password: swatchwatch

Download 11.7MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save link as...")

Notes: I'm a huge Project Runway fan. I only picked up the show during the first Christian Siriano seasons, but I've spent an inordinate amount of time and money backfilling my PR experience. Everybody knows the best part of Project Runway is Swatch, the dog who shows up 2-4 times a season when they're at Mood. His appearances last about a second. Imagine making a vid out of that. I really plumbed the depths of what was available. You're seeing clips here from the mothership as well as All Stars and Junior, plus some supplementary videos from various sources. I had to resort to some truly janky video acquisition methods for some of this.

I'm still retired (lol), but I'm also apparently determined to make a vid every calendar year. So here you go.

comments

Vid: One Way or Another (Slasher movies)

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 01:27:12 GMT

Title: One Way or Another
Song: One Way or Another by Blondie
Source: Slasher movies (1974-1982)
Length: 2:50
Warnings: Violence, gore, some flashing lights, minor drug use

Password: jamielee

Download 19.8MB MP4 (right/ctrl-click and "Save file as...")

This is a terrible vid. I had the idea in the shower and it was probably not well-conceived, but I had a week-long vacation and very little to do, so here we are. Originally it was supposed to be for slasher movies 1974-1989, but I narrowed the timeframe when it became clear I was getting everything I needed (mostly) out of one eight year stretch.

I went through a lot of bad slasher movies so you didn't have to.

Thanks to sol_se who kept cheering me on.

( Full list of sources )

comments

My Two Weeks in Movies: September 5 - 18

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 21:14:03 GMT

I'm losing track of a lot of things. I finally just gave up on bullet journaling. I don't know how much longer I'm going to keep up with this feature. I don't really check Dreamwidth anymore, so maybe it's time to just let this go.

I watched exactly one movie in the last two weeks:

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster (2021)

I saw this documentary at the Laemmle NoHo 7. I was the second-youngest person there. Not a lot in terms of new information, but nice to spend 100 minutes engulfed in classic horror information again.

comments

My Week in Movies: August 29 - September 4

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 20:53:09 GMT

It was a pretty good week, all told, even though I did run out of my ADHD meds before my weekend started. It's a little scary that my pharmacy has no ETA on when they will be in stock, but I'm trying to take it all in stride.

Movies I've seen before are in italics

GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

comments

My Two Weeks in Movies: August 15 - August 28

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 02:12:20 GMT

Last week was crazy busy at work, so I didn't have the spoons to post. So here we are with a double feature! I'm feeling kind of down right now, so no life updates or commentary.

Movies I've seen before are in italics.

Creep (2014)
Free Guy (2021)
Jakob's Wife (2021)

Rifftrax: Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare
Best in Show (2000)
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

comments

My Week in Movies: August 8 - 14

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 04:40:37 GMT

I went to Des Moines last week to see my mom and nephling (as well as briefly see my dad who was in town for unrelated reasons). It went very well. It's nice to reconnect with my mom, who I haven't seen since November 2019 and who lives in Ireland now. Also, I had some really nice moments with the nephling. We went to the Iowa State Fair on Friday which made me feel old as hell. I spent most of the day just looking for an air conditioned place to sit down.

NO MOVIES

comments

My Two Weeks in Movies: July 25 - August 7

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 02:31:18 GMT

Oops. Let's not do that again.

I had a miserable week last week when I was off my ADHD meds for five days due to an ever-cascading series of f**kups, mostly not mine. I ended up taking two non-consecutive days off of work, which I'm sure didn't look weird at all.

I've been playing a lot of LEGO DC Super Villains which is cute as most LEGO games are.

This week I'm in Des Moines to see family, so there may not be any movies to post about.

Movies I've seen before are in italics.

Godzilla 2000 (1999)

Fear Street: 1994 (2021)
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Annette (2021)
Aquaman (2018)

sol_se and I are back on our Godzilla bullsh**t, working through the Millennium series. Godzilla 2000 is a perfectly serviceable entry with no great highs or lows.

I really liked Fear Street: 1994 and look forward to completing the trilogy eventually.

The Suicide Squad is a ton of fun. I'm really glad that Warner is committed to doing hybrid releases through the end of the year, because it's nice to watch these new movies at home sometimes. Margot Robbie is a delight as Harley Quinn as usual. King Shark is deadly and adorable. Be warned, this movie earns its R rating.

Annette. Where to start with Annette. I just felt like Sparks (the musicians who wrote the story and the music) were just screwing with me the whole time. It's a musical where everyone just states what they are feeling and doing in the most banal terms possible. There's some other strangeness that I won't spoil, but yeah. I was never bored, but I think I'm angry at the movie? I hope there's some artistic conceit I'm missing and the movie is secretly brilliant.

Aquaman is stupid fun and there's not much more to say about it.

comments

My Week in Movies: July 18 - 24

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 21:25:34 GMT

Vacation! sol_se and I took a little mini-vacation to Santa Monica for her birthday. We got a fancy-schmancy hotel room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. We spent like 90% of our time in that hotel room because it's still a scary world out there, but we did make it to the pier and the ocean proper.

Otherwise, I've been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I'm not sure why. I'm not getting the same thing I get out of, say, a full Mass Effect run and it's taking a lot longer. At this point, I'm just used to it. I'm not going for any sort of completionist run. I am romancing Solas which is weird and I hate it but I've also never done it.

I only saw one movie:

The Proposal (2009)

The hotel just had basic cable (plus HBO and Showtime). This was playing on Lifetime. Cute, although I felt that at no point did the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds character actually fall in love, so the ending didn't work for me.

comments

My Week in Movies: July 4 - July 17

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 03:48:27 GMT

Finished playing through The Outer Worlds. Poked at a couple other games before settling on Dragon Age: Inquisition again. I think. The Hinterlands are trying my patience a little.

Went to the comic book shop and swapped opinions about Black Widow and Loki. It's nice to get out and be social in limited quantities.

Here's the movie list:

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Rifftrax: Pressure Point

Gunpowder Milkshake is delightful and fun and somewhat inventive.

Pressure Point is from a low budget film production company in Delaware of all places. It's very bad and is basically the same plot as Radical Jack, another Rifftraxed movie from the same people.

comments

My Week in Movies: June 4 - 10

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 04:25:38 GMT

Better late than never, right? I put down Mass Effect for a bit and I'm playing The Outer Worlds, which is fun. I wish the leveling didn't cap out at 36, because I'm there and I still have a quite a bit of game to go.

The big news is that I saw my sister for the first time since November 2019! She was in town on a little vacation and we had dinner together. It was very good. I missed her.

Here's what I watched:

Rifftrax: Bride and the Beast
Black Widow (2021)
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

The Rifftrax was a weird one. I mean, what can one expect from a screenplay by Ed Wood? First it's about a woman's past life as a gorilla and then it forgets that entirely and focuses on some safari nonsense before going back to the gorilla thing for a bizarre ending.

I liked Black Widow! It felt mid-level MCU for me, which is still pretty darn good. We watched it on Disney+ because watching at home is easier.

I liked T:DF. It was a little generic in places, but I loved the cast. Linda Hamilton still has it.

comments

My Week in Movies: June 27 - July 3

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 21:34:35 GMT

I think I've petered out on Mass Effect. While I still have a couple of different playthroughs I can do, I've been playing these games for a month straight. I've switched to Outer Worlds as a breather game, especially as there is DLC I haven't played.

Finally socialized for the first time in over a year, going over to airawyn's place for a small gathering. It was a lot of fun and I didn't forget how to talk to people! I think.

Here's the very short movie list:

Fate of the Furious (2017)

I'm all caught up on Fast and Furious movies that are out on digital disc. I still need to see F9, though.

comments

My Week in Movies: June 20 - 26

Sun, 27 Jun 2021 23:09:53 GMT

More Mass Effect. Wrapped up my Shepard Shepard run and now doing a second Renegade run to catch some content I missed the first time around.

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2019)
Rifftrax: The Dark

comments

My Week in Movies: June 13 - 19

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 21:37:32 GMT

Still living that Mass Effect life. Working through ME3 as Shepard Shepard, Earthborn Sole Survivor Infiltrator (although I never, ever use Tactical Cloak). I'm determined to unlock Synthesis (although maybe I'll pick Control, as I've literally never done that before because f**k you Illusive Man).

Movies I've seen before are in italics

To Catch a Thief (1955)
Gilda (1946)
The Sparks Brothers (2021)

I forgot how utterly middling To Catch a Thief is.

I love love love Gilda, except for the ending, which is utterly unearned. But leaving that aside, every sentence in this film has at least two meanings and just working through the layers of subtext is delicious.

I'd never heard of Sparks, but I do know Edgar Wright, so I checked out this documentary. In the end, the band seems very cool but I don't think I'd ever be into them. Quite an array of talking heads in this one.

comments

My Week in Movies: June 6 - 12

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 04:38:56 GMT

Sorry, running late on this. I just completely forgot this was a thing this week until I went to open Dreamwidth and I went, "Oh yeah, wasn't I supposed to do something with this."

Once again, I spent most of my time playing Mass Effect. Right now I'm playing a male Shepard named Shepard Shepard who is romancing Jack and will probably romance Kaidan in ME3. I'm playing the games as completely as I can in this run (I skipped two missions in ME1, one because it was annoying and one because I just forgot).

Movies I've seen before are in italics

Rifftrax: The Last Shark
In the Heights (2021)
Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

The Last Shark was a delightful Rifftrax.

I saw In the Heights in the motherloving theater. With Junior Mints and Dr. Pepper! I was masked when not eating/drinking and the theater had social distancing in place. I was honestly lucky to get a seat because it was a very last minute decision to go. Lin-Manuel Miranda certainly has a style and it serves him well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Didn't even notice it was over two hours long. I did miss the post-credits scene, so I need to go back into HBO Max and look into that.

On a whim I bought the Universal Monsters complete Blu-ray collection with 30 different monster movies. sol_se and I watched Ghost of Frankenstein because it was the only film in the Frankenstein series she hadn't seen yet. Not a great film, but it does have some good moments.

comments

My Week in Movies: May 30 - June 5

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 22:59:19 GMT

Still living that Mass Effect lifestyle. Eventually I have to get sick of it, right? Right?

We also finished Steven Universe Future and I didn't cry, but I came damn close. Man, the whole Steven Universe thing is just so good, but Future is really dark and hard to watch in places.

Apparently Critical Role ended its second campaign last week. I feel a bit left out, but that's my own fault for dropping out of the fandom. I'm still in wonderment at how easily I used to be able to just sit and watch four hours of RPG play in a single go. I don't think I'm capable of that anymore.

The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Rifftrax: Dragon Wars: D-War

I'd never seen The Conjuring (although I did see The Conjuring 2), so sol_se and I pulled it up on HBO Max and watched it in anticipation of the third movie. It's pretty good, but I think The Conjuring 2 is probably better.

As for the third Conjuring movie, they really opened things up a lot, which I think was ultimately to the film's detriment. It's fine, but it's the least of the three films thus far.

Dragon Wars: D-War is a love letter to downtown Los Angeles in a lot of ways, if your love letters end in explosions. It has some incomprehensible mythology and roles for some currently well-known actors before they really hit it big.

comments

My Week in Movies: May 23 - 29

Mon, 31 May 2021 03:31:50 GMT

It's all Mass Effect all the time! I played through all three games in like a week and now I'm playing through again, making all the worst possible decisions (I'm going to need a chart for ME2).

Rifftrax: House on Sorority Row
Rebirth of Mothra (1996)

House on Sorority Row wasn't actually that bad as slasher movies go, which made for a good Rifftrax.

I've never seen the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, but Mothra is sol_se's favorite, so it seemed like a good time to break it out. It's definitely more kid-oriented than I was expecting. They snuck a Ghidorah on me despite saying Ghidorah several times.

comments

My Week in Movies: May 16 - 22

Sun, 23 May 2021 20:44:10 GMT

Most of this week has been taken up by playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I burned through both games in about nine days and I'm now on Mass Effect 3. I really expected these games to last me longer, so I'll probably end up doing a Renegade playthrough next (still Fem!Shep because of course).

I went out and about for fun for the first time since the pandemic started (yay for vaccination). I just went to the comic book shop. They didn't have what I wanted, but they did have the first art book for the Mighty Nein Critical Role campaign. I don't watch Critical Role anymore, but I have very fond memories of the time I did, so I picked it up.

Movies I've seen before are in italics

Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)
Steven Universe: The Movie (2019)

sol_se and I finished up the Heisei/Versus Godzilla series with a very meh entry. The series started pretty strong and went downhill about midway through. At least this one doesn't feel like it was edited by an amateur.

I am proud to say I only nearly cried during Steven Universe: The Movie. Man, Steven's mom was an asshole.

comments