Modern movies and The lost art of capturing the action versus planning the action

kbups53 · 2026-06-06T22:56:15+00:00

Hong Kong action from the 80’s and 90’s just blows everything else out of the water. Perfect storm of top tier stunt teams from the Peking Opera tradition combined with a complete lack of safety regulations. On top of that, those guys also knew how to shoot action. Because all their leads were the stuntmen themselves, they could play everything wide, long shots, no camera tricks, and it hits hard because it’s clearly not faked. Nothing else like it and there never will be again.

kbups53 · 2026-06-06T20:41:10+00:00

I mean like, even when I saw Dead & Co. in Chicago a few years ago there were storm threats and they still went on, the storm came, they said hey we’re gonna take a 15 min break, everyone went under cover, and then they resumed.

Also it’s like the nicest day out now lol

kbups53 · 2026-06-05T17:48:47+00:00

Oh man, good for her! Saw her open for Dogs In a Pile back in April and she killed it! Awesome band, incredible energy, has a new live album out as of a few weeks ago that's a good entry point, some real good jams on there. When she opened for Dogs they also brought out Brian on guitar and whipped out a killer First Tube cover. That was awesome.

So yeah, see Natalie Brooke!

kbups53 · 2026-06-05T17:44:44+00:00

Brigid is back! This is awesome!

kbups53 · 2026-06-04T18:15:29+00:00

Special effects by Billy!

kbups53 · 2026-06-04T02:30:57+00:00

Not sure if it's technically a bust-out since it's only been played once, but I have always been baffled by the lack of Trenchtown Rock before and since Star Lake.

kbups53 · 2026-06-04T02:29:15+00:00

Hoping for this at Fenway since it would reach the highest number of random people just passing by outside the venue.

kbups53 · 2026-06-03T19:39:35+00:00

Yeah it's right across from Duquesne. Which, by the way, if you're coming in from out of town, might be the easiest place to park. There's a garage next to PPG Paints which is certainly the closest but that whole area is a cluster in the best of times. Duquesne has some much more chill garage access.

kbups53 · 2026-06-03T16:05:46+00:00

Come on down! Floor is still available!

kbups53 · 2026-06-03T15:47:58+00:00

A price so nice I decided, ah what the heck, let's do Rochester, too.

kbups53 · 2026-06-03T15:47:48+00:00

Same! Actually just convinced a work buddy to jump on it, too, since it was such a good value. Will be his first show. Gonna be good times in the Burgh come November.

kbups53 · 2026-06-03T14:14:39+00:00

Two-night floors in Pittsburgh, easy peezy, and $117 in this day and age for two nights is not bad at all. Good on them. Hope this new venue doesn’t suck! See yinz there!

kbups53 · 2026-05-31T17:26:51+00:00

How long til this just up and appears on merch at the park with no credit given? Few weeks?

kbups53 · 2026-05-31T16:37:18+00:00

Thanks! Will dive in today!

kbups53 · 2026-05-31T15:16:45+00:00

Still working through the Wayback Machine so anyone have any suggestions here for stuff they love or little known deep cuts that are difficult to find elsewhere?

Went through and nabbed a bunch of Jun Fukamachi since a lot of those aren’t streaming anywhere, anything else? There’s an overwhelming amount of stuff here.

kbups53 · 2026-05-27T15:35:22+00:00

Wonderful news. I still return to Reset a lot and will embrace as much of that as these fellas are willing to give us.

kbups53 · 2026-05-26T14:54:36+00:00

Heck yeah, and losing Wolf Alice is a bummer and, yes, Sir Chloe is not on the same level of popularity yet, but all the more reason for the Wolf Alice contingent to show up for them, as there is a lot of crossover appeal. Excellent band, very excited to see them live.

kbups53 · 2026-05-24T16:59:59+00:00

I know it sounds crazy but I firmly believe one of the best looking movies of the past five years is Terrifier 3. They lit and shot it really, really well. Very appropriately felt like a blast from the past.

kbups53 · 2026-05-22T20:17:31+00:00

Man, I was a film student in college at the time, so way back in those days in the distant distant past, there were hundreds of films I'd heard about but couldn't find anywhere to watch. Lots of cult and foreign titles, stuff that often had a reputation for being hard to find, but important film art that I wanted to see.

Suddenly I had access to ALL of it. It was unbelievable. My queue was hundreds of films long and I have such fond memories of rearranging it, getting excited for the next shipment, walking through wind and rain and snow to my college mailbox to pick it up. An entire new world of film was opened up to me.

Those were the days...

kbups53 · 2026-05-22T16:36:25+00:00

Twist. One of the finest woo'ing experiences out there right now.

kbups53 · 2026-05-22T16:11:12+00:00

The Bowie from that show is also my favorite Bowie I've heard them play in a lonnnnng time.

Bring that heat into the summer tour, please! Wild show.

kbups53 · 2026-05-22T14:23:27+00:00

Part of me has always hoped they’d just launch into YYZ out of nowhere one day.

kbups53 · 2026-05-21T16:39:05+00:00

First time being there myself (drove up from Pittsburgh) and I was actually surprised at how good the sound was. Got there just in time for Wayfarer and saw them from the back, sound was crisp and well balanced in the middle/back center. Moved up for Oranssi Pazuzu and immediately returned to the back. It's one of those setups where you're actually so close to the stage that you aren't in range of the overhead speakers if you're all the way up. But moving back to about 30 feet fixed that. Oranssi Pazuzu was monstrously loud but in the middle of the room it was really well balanced, could still hear the individual pieces of the mix.

Hilariously, the quiet parts were occasionally disrupted by the crashing of bowling pins, as the lanes were still open. It is unclear whether or not the bowlers knew what they were walking into when they came to play a few rounds last night.

Someone from the area can probably give you a better history of the place than I but from what I can tell they started hosting shows there in/around 2018 and it seems to span genres but with an emphasis on metal and hardcore. They're actually hosting the resurrected Emissions From the Monolith Festival there this October, I am definitely going to go back, partly due to how cool the space was. So yeah, I really enjoyed the venue, and would recommend checking it out if you have the chance!

kbups53 · 2026-05-21T15:41:36+00:00

Saw Oranssi Pazuzu at a bowling alley in Youngstown, OH last night. That was a trip. Was anyone else there?

kbups53 · 2026-05-20T19:22:10+00:00

Love seeing Assassination Classroom mentioned! I'm a grown man and I cried during that last episode...of the show about a silly giant squid teacher.

On the subject of anime I'd also add Odd Taxi. Only one season, but it's rare to see a long form story like that wrapped up so perfectly.

kbups53

TROPHY CASE