Author Archive

Bigger Than Lolcatz?

Posted on December 4th, 2007 by by Robert Hood

How about Lolzillaz? 

More here.

Snap!

Posted on August 19th, 2007 by by Robert Hood

My 2007 Snapshot was facilitated by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Darkest secrets revealed!

The Quatermass Conclusion: An obituary for Nigel Kneale

Posted on November 2nd, 2006 by by Robert Hood

A 2003 Manx stamp celebrating the work of Nigel Kneale
You realise what you’re implying? That we owe our human condition here to the intervention of insects?
So wrote Nigel Kneale, premier British screenwriter, in what is probably his most famous work: “Quatermass and the Pit”. As both BBC drama (1958) and Hammer-produced feature film [...]

Fulfilling the aphorism

Posted on September 25th, 2006 by by Robert Hood

It’s interesting, if not comforting, to get some sort of “official” confirmation of what we already knew: that the US-led War on Terror and occupation of Iraq has served to give strength and focus to worldwide terrorism. So suggests a consensus report on the State of Play by 16 intelligence agencies within the US government, [...]

The Mysteries of Boll

Posted on August 31st, 2006 by by Robert Hood

As everyone who knows such things knows, Uwe Boll is a less-than-talented film maker who makes pseudo-blockbuster horror flicks based on computer games. So far he’s produced a trashy zombie gutchewer (House of the Dead) and a trashy scifi-horror opus (Alone in the Dark). Given how bad these films are, I was bemused to discover [...]

The Art of TV Advertising

Posted on May 19th, 2006 by by Robert Hood

So this is a Great Age of TV Drama, with certain shows we could all name (and then argue the value of) achieving a high level of creative brilliance. Must be wonderful for the sponsors, eh?
Unfortunately DVD technology and boxed sets of TV shows have killed any tolerance I (and no doubt others) might [...]

Enter the Squid

Posted on April 13th, 2006 by by Robert Hood

After decades of suffering under a regime of poorly dubbed re-edits, bad prints and TV-oriented pan-and-scan claustrophobia, Toho Studio’s classic daikaiju eiga are finally being released to DVD in the West in properly tidied-up original formats — sweeping Tohoscope and with vibrant colours, clear sound and decent subtitles. Suddenly all those narky mainstream critics who [...]

The Rebirth of GINO

Posted on April 6th, 2006 by by Robert Hood

The American Godzilla is in the process of being re-born, across time and media-space and against all the odds, by virtue of one fan’s enthusiasm (not to mention talent) and the wonders of the internet.
In 1998, Tri-Star released producer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla remake to much pre-event anticipation and even greater post-event [...]

Eating the Gods’ Tucker

Posted on March 31st, 2006 by by Robert Hood

I recently re-read H.G. Wells’ 1904 novel The Food of the Gods — and was thinking what a damn fine film it would make, now that the technology exists to do it properly. The problem is, anyone who took it on would want to contemporise it, adding lots of nifty technology, government conspiracies and covert [...]

The Sans of Time

Posted on March 29th, 2006 by by Robert Hood

Serif or sans serif? When and where is it best to use one or the other style of font? Which is most readable?
Among the many dilemmas currently plaguing mankind, this appears to be the least dire. But the answer is crucial, for it involves us as writers not only because our priceless verbiage will appear [...]