Reviews by markjazz

I found this item at a used music store for $9.99. I had heard about how bad the sound quality was but I had to pick it up because I've never seen it before in person and online I've seen this bootleg go for over $30 easy. I listened to it at home and it's true. The sound quality is crap. It sounds like someone just held up a tape recorder in the air while SP played their show, which was in Chicago 1993. Some tracks have this odd phased channel switching at times and some bitch is talking during most of the show. Both of these issues are mostly at the first half of the show though.

Couple notes: *The first 1:30 or so of the track Tin Omen on here is the same one that SP put on the "Brap 3/4" compilation. *Ohgr's mic kicks out at the start of Morpheus Laughing and at the end of the song he sounds pretty pissed. Kind of funny.

Tracks 1-3: Duets with Albert Ammons.
Track 4-8: Piano solos.
Track 9: with the J.C. Higginbotham Quintet.
Tracks 10-15: Piano solos.
Tracks 16-17: Harpsichord solos.

This is my first compilation I own by this label and now that I'm finding out some are worth a heck of a lot, even used, I'll be getting more. I got this for $8 used and it's worth three times that. I saw this going for almost $300 new! Music wise this is my first taste of "Lux". The quality is pretty good, except for tracks 4-8 because they were on a small label (Solo Art), but overall I was impressed by this mans playing. The track "Honky Tonk Train Blues" is what he's known for and it's no wonder. I thought it was two people playing it was so good! Hearing a jazz man play harpsichord is interesting too as not many people were using it at the time. Johnny Guarnieri is one of them.

Oh boy, where to begin. For starters, this book is not for adults. I'd say it's more for the age range of 14-22 year olds as the last half of the novel is mostly geared towards a child playing with his "Good Buddy" doll, except this one isn't as evil. There's so many things wrong with this book that I can't list them all, and it's a real shame because I was a fan of Preston but lately his books have turned far too predicable, as with others in this genre, like James Patterson and Preston's buddy Lincoln Child for example. I have to admit that I did like the overall premise of this story but it was so flat and Preston feels the need to prod the reader with useless pop-culture references, including one of his buddy's own novels. Yes, he mentions "The Third Gate" by Lincoln Child. It was sad. I just rolled my eyes when I read that and put the book down. Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the FBI agents has to have it explained to him why the A.I. program is named "Dorothy". The first thing that popped into my mind was the movie 'The Wizard of Oz'. After that's explained to him he doesn't even know who Judy Garland is. I almost tossed the book across the room after reading that part. I would have LOVED to have read the A.I. program's journey on Saturn's moon Titan but instead we get people chasing down a program's journey though the internet and then the same people looking for a boy and his "robot".... ooooo, how thrilling! Anyway, this advanced copy was free and I'm glad because it's the worst book of his I've ever read... and I'm not to keen on reading anymore of his now sadly.

Not sure what all the hype is about this book, or the comparison to Robert Heinlein. I've read a few of Heinlein's novels and they're more hard sci-fi than this one. I find Varley writes more like Orson Card personally. This book I'd say has a reading level for 14-18 year olds. There's too much humor and most of it is not funny at an adult level. I find anyway. The basic plot is good and I like the history lesson about the space program that pops up every so often but I was told most of this in Jr. High so most of it is not new to me. It's just a nice refresher I guess. I was expecting a much grander tale with more sci-fi elements but instead I get a group of average people that want to go to Mars before the Chinese because one character happens to find a mysterious bubble and all the sudden they can build a space ship in six months out of junk. Reminded me of a LEXX episode. If you ever watched that show. I will say it all came together nicely but I think this would have been better as a short story for teens and not as a novel. Too much fluff in here. This is the 2nd Varley book I'm giving a 4/10 so no more for me.

My first Conan novel I've read and probably the only one I'll read. The problem with a book like this is you know Conan survives. Whatever happens to him you know he's going to live through it. And yes, this is true for all comic book hero's but I'd rather read about it in something that takes me a hour to read instead of in novel form. To be honest, I was only reading this to find out what that Demon was on the cover and I was disappointed. I won't give it away but the Demon isn't in it for long and he talks like you or I would. It was kind of weird reading it. Anyway, what's good about this novel is how well RJ stuck to the comic books. I felt like I was reading a comic book at times and it held true to one right to the very end. This was a good read overall but I prefer the ole black & white comics personally.

For it's budget this film is actually pretty good. It's loosely based off of the idea of A Fistful of Dollars and it works well for this type of genre of film. Kain is basically getting as much cash as he can while he pits two opposing clans against each other that fight for the only water source around.

Naja is the "Sorceress" but she doesn't do much except run around naked, even after she's freed. Yes, after her freedom she still bares her boobs like it's normal. Maybe it is for her but she doesn't appear to be the town slut so I don't get it.

Now, this movie would have been great with a bigger budget but it has one thing I've never seen before.... a.... hot... woman... with... four... boobs!

This movie could have been really good if it wanted to but the problem was the comedy aspects weren't that funny and listening to Gus do his stand up routine wasn't funny at all! There were a couple laughs and the overall plot was ok but in the end it felt like a "Tales From The Crypt" episode, and those were very hit or miss.

TRT: 1:19:11
Octaman Shown: 0:00:53 (before the credits)
First Human Death: 7:18
Last Human Death: 1:16:00
Total Deaths: 7
Scenes with Blood: 7
Swears: 0
Tits: 0
Explosions: 0
Octavision: 35 times!
Stock Footage Scenes: 3
Film Score: 2.5/5
Part that Charley Brewster is watching in the movie Fright Night: 1:15:14

So, since the whole thing is a dream while the poor guy is dying, and probably still high, does that mean this whole movie takes place in just 8 minutes? Seeing as the brain can surive for roughly 8 minutes after death.