Movie and Book Blog

The X-Files: Fight the Future (Rob Bowman)
Thirty-seven thousand years ago, a deadly secret was buried in a cave in Texas. Now the secret has been unleashed. And it's discovery may mean the end of all humanity.

"The plague to end all plagues"

When a terrorist bomb destroys a building in Dallas, Texas, FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are drawn into a dangerous conspiracy surpassing anything they've ever encountered. With the dubious assistance of a paranoid doctor (Academy Award -winner Martin Landau). Mulder and Scully risk their careers and their lives to hunt down a deadly virus which may be extraterrestrial in origin - and could destroy all life on earth. Their pursuit of truth pits them against the mysterious Syndicate, powerful men who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets safe, leading the agents from the cave in Texas, to the halls of the FBI, and finally to a secret installation in Antarctica which holds the greatest secret of all.

The last time I saw this was in the theater when it came out in, if I remember correctly, 2000. So eight years have gone by, and the show has ended. After watching this I kind of wish the series would have just ended with this film. It finishes perfectly with the whole " we pretty much have figured out the conspiracy, and we are going to keep on fightin'. " But FOX probably wanted to drag it on for another half a dozen seasons to keep rolling in the cash, which eventually pissed off Mulder so he started making bad comedies with the girl from the shitty Hannibal Lector movie and the up-your-ass-with-broken-glass 7UP guy, so the T-1000 decided to fill his role. Fortunately, the last season it seemed Mulder was probably so pissed at both his unsteady film career and failing TV Series that he returned so he and Scully could say "we pretty much have figured out the conspiracy, and we are going to keep on fightin'." But this time with different haircuts.

8/10

movie count 19/156

Diary of a Drug Fiend (Aleister Crowley)

Diary of a Drug Fiend was Aleister Crowley's first published novel. To the reader of 1922 it presented a shocking look at a little know phenomenon. Today, while we are more familiar with drugs because of their widespread use in our culture, Diary of a Drug Fiend remains one of the most intense, detailed and accurate accounts of drug addiction and the drug experience.

This is one of my favorite books and it has been a couple of years since I have read it. It is divided into three parts.

Paradiso: Peter & Lou meet, and they go on a cocaine induced whirl wind romance across Europe.

Inferno: Peter & Lou's supply runs out. Withdrawl ensues.

Purgatorio: With the help of "King Lamus", Peter & Lou learn to fight and control their addiction through the development of their "true wills."

Aleister Crowley was many things and the least he gets recognized for is his poetry. A master of the English language, his novel could be described as Burrough's "Naked Lunch" written by a poet. It is incredibly eloquent and flows with a style similar to poetry.

Crowley did a shit load of drugs himself, so the descriptions of the trips as well as withdrawals are incredibly accurate. He writes himself in the story as the character "King Lamus", and it is an almost perfect allusion to who he was in real life. The only fault is that Lamus has mastered his control over drugs - something Al failed to do and resulted as an addiction that followed to the end of his life.

This is a book I often recommend to people interested in the philosophy of Crowley. In the third section, Purgatorio, Lamus takes Peter and Lou to an Abbey in a country, deserted type region, (a real property owned by Crowley), where they set about on the path which Crowley described as "The Great Work." Detailed, descriptive methods are written that can be very helpful to understanding what he was trying to accomplish in life.

10/10

book count 14/104