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 | Steven Krise Member since January 2002 Last login on 20 November 2009 |
| Fool by Christopher Moore, 311 pages Steven Krise 19 November 2009 Sort of a bawdy Pratchett-esque take on King Lear, maybe? | Freedom Evolves by Daniel Dennett, 347 pages Steven Krise 12 November 2009 Dennett skirts most of the babble about free will and determinism by defining free will to be behavioral plasticity coupled to culture. As such, it has evolved over the entire course of life on Earth and seems to have culminated in modern humans who have the most plastic and culture. |
Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene, 220 pages Steven Krise 11 November 2009 http://www.google.com/#q=synopsis+"graham+greene"+"our+man+in+havana" |
Life As We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life by Peter Ward, 292 pages Steven Krise 29 October 2009 Ward challenges the Darwinian "orthodoxy" with his startling thesis that life on other planets may (or may not) use different chemistry from Earth life. |
The Everything Knots Book by Randy Penn, 273 pages Steven Krise 22 October 2009 A fairly standard introduction to knots. It tries to go beyond just having diagrams showing you how to tie knots by having chapters on rope management, teaching knot tying, your continuing knot journey, but the author didn't really have enough material to support these additional chapters. So +5 for the idea, but -7 for the implementation. |
Starting Out in Poker by Stewart Reuben, 160 pages Steven Krise 17 October 2009 A fairly standard poker text, except for the unique "Try It Yourself" section at the end of each chapter, which is a short graded quiz with rated answers in the back of the book. |
Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey, 425 pages Steven Krise 13 October 2009 Fortey's thesis is (to paraphrase Dobzhansky) that nothing in geology makes sense except in light of plate tectonics. He then takes the reader on a tour of a dozen or so locations around the globe with various geological formations that either were pivotal in providing evidence for the theory or which finally made sense when explicated tectonically. |
How to win at poker by Belinda Levez, 106 pages Steven Krise 08 October 2009 Probably the lamest poker book I've ever read. This is what passes for good advice: develop a betting strategy that maximizes profit whilst minimizing loss (with no explanation of how to evaluate a strategy to see if it meets that criterion) or bluff but not too much because when people call your bluff you lose money. |
Brewing Made Easy by Joe Fisher & Dennis Fisher, 89 pages Steven Krise 03 October 2009 Like somebody created Cliff's Notes from the Cliff's Notes version of the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing. There's nothing to see here; move along. |
Handbook of Knots by Des Pawson, 176 pages Steven Krise 28 September 2009 DK always publishes excellent books, and this handbook is no exception. It uses photographs for the various diagrams, which I find easier to decipher and use as a guide than illustrations. |
The Evil Dead   Steven Krise My Basement (TiVo) 15 June 2008 Bruce Campbell - battling a bookshelf (oh, and some ancient Sumerian demons that possessed his friends). | Kontroll Steven Krise My Basement (TiVo) 05 June 2008 I was expecting a low-budget horror flick, but it turned out to be more of a psychological allegory. Other reviewers have panned its shallowness, but I liked the characters and found the visuals to be arresting. |
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter Steven Krise Brian's Crib 26 April 2008 Jesus Christ battles the vampiric horde that is eating up all of Ottawa's lesbians by the power of his kung fu. I give it a 10 out of 10 for campy irreverence, but the production did suck exceeding hard...verily. |
Requiem For A Dream Steven Krise My Basement (NetFlix) 06 March 2008 I've never felt like I've physically had the wind knocked out of me by a sequence of images in a movie. The Office is a fairly good palate cleanser. |
Apartment Zero Steven Krise Netflix 21 November 2007 An odd couple (the slick coke using salesman from Die Hard and a very young Mr Darcy) come to accept murder as transformation. |
A Scanner Darkly Steven Krise You Need To Ask? 28 September 2007 Freck: That sure is some silencer. Barris: Yes, uh, what it did was augment the sound rather than dampen it. But I almost have it. I believe I have it in principle anyway. |
Beowulf And Grendel Steven Krise My Basement - NetFlix 15 July 2007 Somewhere between a literal rendition of the epic and 13th Warrior. Not so much an action/adventure/fantasy as a character piece set in picturesque Iceland. Apparently, Gerard Butler is dreamy. |
Vampyros Lesbos Steven Krise My Basement (TiVoed off of Sundance Channel) 13 June 2007 To quote Alan Cummings, "It manages to defy all categories it could easily be pigeonholed into and has a tone and atmosphere all its own. Oh, and did I mention there's loads of tits in it?" |
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Steven Krise TiVo in my basement 16 February 2007 Self-aware little film noire-ish piece set in modern Los Angeles. Val Kilmer was wonderful as Gay Perry. |
Bubba Ho-tep Steven Krise TiVo in my basement 13 February 2007 An existential tale of how Elvis (masquerading as an Elvis impersonator) and the brain of JFK (in the body of an elderly black man) rediscover Lebensfreude whilst battling a cowboy mummy (the eponymous Bubba Hotep). |