PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Die Nibelungen

 

Sperhauk lent me his copy of the Kino Video dvd of Die Nibelungen. It's a two disc set of the 1924 Fritz Lang silent films adapting the 800 year old poem Nibelungenlied. I hadn't seen it before. I have seen many of Fritz's movies. You might remember his Metropolis, or Fury. I've seen the former several times. Once I even watched a multi-reel 8 mm film version of Metropolis. It was back when I lived in Winnipeg. Mike Hall had a copy, at least I think it was his. I think the place we looked at it was Ed Ackerman's studio. I'm not sure who else was there, Mike, Steve, maybe they remember. Those guys were part of the Winnipeg SF fan group in the 70's. It took a while to watch the movie, stopping to rewind each 8 or so minute reel. We didn't have but the one take up reel. We stopped for burgers at the Salisbury House after watching a fair bit of the movie. I think we spent as much time as it took me to watch the 5 hour long Die Nibelungen. The first movie is Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and the second movie is Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge. They were released about 6 months apart. I liked seeing them in one long sitting. More depressing. I'm joking. It's a comedy. Of death.

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried. The fellow in the title is a young prince of Xanten and he's out to win the hand of the princess of Burgundy. On the way over to her house he runs into a dragon. Wow! You should see that dragon. Look here's a couple of pictures and you can see the scene here on YouTube..

 

So, now I'm thinking Siegfried is a bit of a dick, killin' that dragon for no good reason. I just know what that dragon would say,  "Just quenching my thirst, why you gotta get all stabby on me?", but it's a silent movie and you can't hear what he's sayin'. It's a full size articulated dragon puppet, about 60 feet long. I think it's a bit weak as dragons go but I still like it. The work that went into it must be admired. Siegfried bathes in the dragon's blood and becomes invincible. Well, except for his Archille's Heel. It's not really his heel, it's the spot on his back that got covered by a leaf, his skin didn't get any of that dragon's blood, so it's vulnerable. That will be important later. Siegfried beats up the King of the Dwarfs and gets a net of invisibility.

 
Siegfried arrives at Kriemhild's castle and there's a lot of bad livin' goin' on. It sweeps Siegfried up and carries him off to Iceland where Kriemhild's brother Gunther has to wrestle Brunhild to win her hand in marriage. That's my two ancestors. Germans and Icelanders. I'm not going anywhere with that. Siegfried turns invisible and helps Gunther. That later back fires and Brunhild turns against Siegfried. Hagen, some knight at the court, kills Siegfried on a hunt, after learning of that weak spot. Brunhild kills her self when the plot complicates up a bit and Kriemhild vows revenge for the killing of Siegfried.

 
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge. Kriemhild tries to get her brothers to kill Hagen but they like him better than her and won't go along with her plan. Some knight comes from Attilla the Hun's castle with an offer of marriage from the great warrior. Kriemhild goes to see what's happening, and thinking of revenge, she marries the guy and bares him a son. She invites her brothers for a festival and bribes some of the Huns to attack them. It all goes wrong and Hagen kills Kriemhild and Atilla's son. It gets worse and nearly everyone dies. A rather dire story. That's the whackest Attilla I've ever seen. Not that I've seen many, mind you. He's got a great castle. Great thick high walls, a huge thick doors, topped off by some nice wooden pillars and a thatched roof. Great for burning everyone in there to death. While it may not be the happiest story, it sure has some nice interesting sets and characters. Very stylistic, as you might expect from the director and that period in Germany. Here's a site with some German color postcards from the time the movie was released. that's one of them up on the left. Here's a shot of Kriemhild and Attilla in what I can only describe as "quite the costume."

 

They might dress well but they aren't the people you'd like to spend some time with. The whole movie has this unreal look to it. Fairly interesting even if the story plods along at times. I was glad to see it, though I don't know if I will want to see it again too soon. It's worth checking out for it's unusualness.

Harry Potter Bookends

 
 
 
I am excited to see new HP sets coming and it got me interested in making some more HP works. I started wanting to make some bookends and it morphed into this. There are 29 minifigs and that barely makes a dent in the cast. You can see more pictures of some of the scenes at my Flickr photostream or on MOCpages.

 

The Adventures of Clutch Powers

  
I picked up a copy ofThe Adventures of Clutch Powers. It's Lego's first full length feature, a computer animated movie about LEGO adventurer Clutch Powers, that's set in a completely LEGO universe. That's Clutch in the brown jacket. He's got nice hair, huh. That hair is teamed up with a dim tough strong guy, a goofy smart guy, a hot chick. That's them to left of Clutch and that's his boss and the science guy on the right of him. A. FOL is the name on the science guy's name tag. AFOL is Adult Fan Of LEGO for those that might not know. There are a lot of in-jokes in the movie. Clutch himself gets his name from the force that holds the bricks together, their clutch power. He's a cross between James Bond, Indiana Jones and Han Solo. The chicks dig him, he's everyone's pal, and he works alone. The movie opens with Clutch having a run in with a rock monster while harvesting crystals from an underground mine. He returns to home base in LEGO City. It's a really cool tower.

 

His boss introduces Clutch to his new team. There's been a riot at the space prison. That doesn't sound good. The team blast off in their space ship, which is a ship from an actual set. At the prison they get attacked by evil wizard Mallock the Malign. He's not very nice. He's the evil wizard from Castle - Fantasy Era set 7093 Skeleton Tower. The team chase him to a castle themed planet where there's a battle for the kingdom. I like those large trolls from the Fantasy Era sets. They came in two colors and two paint jobs. That's the second version from the Troll Mine set. They have black clothes and tattoos on their arms. The troll becomes Clutch's pal and they eventually join forces with a local prince.

  
If you have an eye for it you can spot many sets and vehicles, either straight up or modified. I'm pretty sure I didn't find everything. Some stuff was refered to only slightly. The animation is good and the characters move fairly well. There are lots of jokes, some ok and some groaners. There's a fair amount of character development, most of which is heaped on Clutch. There's more action than pathos. The movie moves quickly and there are things crashing and blowing up all the time. Luckily in the LEGO universe you can just put it back together again or build something new. I enjoyed it, glad I picked it up, and I'll rewatch it again. At times there's so much going on you can't see it all in one pass. The dvd has a short with the science guy and some skeletons. There's some Space Police shorts, one for Power Miners, and a few tv sports. It's twenty smackers at the LEGO store but you can find it for 15 bucks at Amazon and the like.

Mythical Creatures by MisaQa

 
As a sucker for a good dragon I was drawn again to MisaQa's green dragon. He looks great. What a face. He's part of a group from MisaQa'a 2008 Advent Calendar. She's just posting them on Flickr today. Well worth a look. Here's a couple more.

 
 

Poker Playing Dragons

 

I got a card in the mail today. It was selling Poker Dragons. That's them up there. Normally I like dragons. They're cool. I don't know that these are cool. Might be, but I don't think so. They are smoking and we know that isn't cool anymore. The Hamiltion Mint has a lot of crap that looks like this. Small dust collectors to fill up shelves. I am no stranger to having nick nacks and little statues that populate the flat surfaces of my house, and I certainly have no judgement when it comes to buying crap like this, but I don't think I'd ever have a reason to buy these. So many other things that are better.

   

Here's a Flickr pic from someone who's kid got the first statue for his birthday. It doesn't quite look as good as the painting. They are small dragons, 3 and a half to 4 and a half inches. The poker table is about 4 and a half inches. I was looking for a pics off the internet and found this colorful painting, by some guy named Thomas Patrick Reidy the III, of dragon's playing poker. Not a style that I care for that much but not a bad painting. Then there's the LEGO version. Not the best picture. More of SavaTheAggie's LEGO at Flickr.

They're good, dragons!

That's the cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows deluxe edition. It's $65 but you can get a discount just about anywhere. It comes in it's own slipcase. The regular edition dustjacket illustration is reproduced on the endpapers and the book slipcase covers. The chapter illustrations by Mary Grandpre are reproduced full page in a section after the novel is done. The larger size really makes those illustrations come alive. Those chapter spots are one of the reasons the US editions are so much nicer than anyone else's editions. Nicer paper, larger size, better bindings and the great Mary GrandPre covers, they all add up to an unbeatable combination. I have the Canadian editions, touted for their recycled paper, and they are crappily made. I have a couple with major flaws, and one that has two pages that never got the glue when they made the book. They just fall out when you turn the page. On a trip to Winnipeg I bought a box set just after book 5 came out, but didn't open it until I got home. I bought a copy of the Deluxe Edition. I want to take the cover to work and make a copy for my wall at work. I would like looking at it. I do like the dragon.

Mugglenet has now got over 7000 comments on the last HP book. Here's page 132. A lot of the comments are pretty similar, as you might guess, and there is this constant complain to know more about the universe. Most, like me, were pretty satisfied with the book. It works out to be a nice story arch and it really doesn't matter who the new Minister of Magic is. Nobody could be worse than Fudge. My mom would do a better job than Fudge, or George Bush. She wouldn't be lying to you, and she makes good fried chicken. Slow cooked in a covered frying pan on top of the stove. Breaded too.

Mo' Dragons

This is Arhat Subduing "Dragon King". You can see a timelapse of it's creation here. 

Here's a real old Chinese Dragon. I don't know anything about it. I just like the simple look of it.

 

That's a dragon from Takayama Temple. Some people went there and put it in their blog. I enjoyed the cartoon of bathing instructions for westerners.

Dragons of Spratt, Ohio

I picked this up because of the dragons on the cover. Flying dragons that have no legs and feet. Not as common. Usually, there's feet, mostly four, occasionally two. I prefer the 4 foot version. There are rhinos, and giraffes and cows. Oh, my? Turns out to be a wildlife preserve on reclaimed coal land. It's based on a real place. I don't think the dragons are real. I probably woulda heard 'bout that. Too bad. I would like to see some dragons. I would have prefered the dragons with legs and feet, but I ain't picky. This was a fun book. An old female dragon settles in the Spratt area, eats some zebra, lays some eggs and dies. Then the book starts. Salt is a kid who lives on a large animal preserve. His dad is the main vet, and his mom is upper management. Their work takes them away from home. Salt's best friend is Ham and Candi is Ham's twin sister. Salt's evil aunt shows up as the parents are called away. She's big in cosmetics and Candi is fascinated by her. The aunt reveals her evil plans more and more as the book progresses. She kills one of the dragons to make an anti aging creme and that leads the kids to secret away the rest of the dragons. More antics follow. You'd almost think they could have marketed it under some sort of horror series. It's might be a bit gruesome for the really young but it's all spelled out for the older thinking kids in good understandable prose. Linda Zinnen is a good writer,she has two previous books. Here's an interview and review of her previous books. Her story flows and pulls you along nicely and she gives the evil auntie a suitable punishment. There are lots of baked goods and animals. Even a stinky buzzard. The kids are likeable and like enough to real kids. I'm glad I bought a copy.