2024 marks the 45th anniversary of sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien, which was released May 25, 1979.
The first time I saw it I was pretty young, it was on TV and censored. We actually had it recorded on a VHS from TV, which is something my family did a lot. I only saw the full uncensored version years later! 😂
After my mother’s (✝, 92) death quite some time ago already, we’re still going through all her stuff. A pencil drawing showed up. This drawing shows my great-grandfather. Though his head looks somewhat like an #Alien 🤣, the face is actually pretty accurate.
My mother did this drawing about 40 or 50 years ago when I was a kid. But she gave up soon. Then she tried painting with oil which she also gave up quickly.
Alien was released in 1979. It is hard to believe that film was made 45 years ago. Some plot details in the movie are still so relevant today. The sci-fi styling, visual aesthetics and music also really hold up.
There's a crowdfunded four-hour documentary on Aliens (1986) coming up, a bit less than 3 days still open for backing. Cheapest tier is $ 49 – but, four hours!
Summer 1979. I'd finished my first year at college. There is no internet, but a frenzy has been whipping up among weird kids for this movie for months.
One of the chief sources of information for nerds was Omni Magazine (In the US and UK). I had subscribed to it for its entire lifetime.
There was a long feature on H.R. Giger in the November 1978 and his eerie art with creatures that combined biology and machine-like elements. It put me over the edge.
Talking of "stupid things that I have on my desk", this is the only thing that vies with "Captain Cash and Rocket Lad"¹ for favourite thing on my desk.
I make no bones about really not caring for japanimation. (This is a learned distaste, caused by its icky community. Once I saw certain things held up as positive I couldn't unsee them and it tarnished the whole medium as a result.) And of all the japanimation things, I think I loathe Pokemon the most. Not because it's especially egregious. (I mean it's at least not tentacle porn?) Because it's omnipresent. You can't go anywhere without having them polluting your eyes.
Thankfully I have an SO who agrees.
So when I stumbled over this figurine of the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise merged with Pikachu from Pokemon, I instantly thought of SO and bought it to surprise him with it.
Only...
It was REALLY cute and funny. So I decided it was mine. Now it sits on my desk next to "Captain Cash and Rocket Lad" and I really can't decide which I prefer.
There’s a case to be made that the Xenomorph is the greatest movie monster ever conceived. It’s certainly among the most iconic. H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who designed the title creature of Alien, took inspiration from Francis Bacon and Rolls-Royce, and emerged with a biomechanical killing machine that’s instantly...
Whenever I see OpenAI's Sam Altman with his pseudo-innocent glance, he always reminds me of Carter Burke from Aliens (1986), who deceived the entire spaceship crew in favor of his corporation, with the aim of getting rich by weaponizing a newly discovered intelligent lifeform.
“So that’s where you look for aliens. In the course of an eclipse totality track. When everybody else is looking awestruck at the sky, you need to be looking round for anybody who looks weird or overdressed, or who isn’t coming out of their RV or their moored yacht with the heavily smoked glass.”
Where to look for #alien tourists – from Iain (M) Banks’s 2009 novel TRANSITION
The Xenomorph Isn’t the Scariest Monster in Alien (www.denofgeek.com)
The Xenomorph might be one of the best monsters in movie history but the real terror in Alien comes from the company Weyland-Yutani....
Does the sci-fi classic Alien have the best movie marketing campaign ever? (www.msn.com)
There’s a case to be made that the Xenomorph is the greatest movie monster ever conceived. It’s certainly among the most iconic. H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who designed the title creature of Alien, took inspiration from Francis Bacon and Rolls-Royce, and emerged with a biomechanical killing machine that’s instantly...