Review – Predator: Killer of Killers

The quality of both the animation and the storytelling strongly resemble extended cut scenes from a Predator-themed video game. Or maybe even more than one game. The first two subplots combine easily enough. Who wouldn’t want to see a badass viking and a badass ninja team up to battle Predators? But the protagonist of the third story is a World War Two era pilot. Within the episode, the Predator spaceship WW2 dogfight theme works well enough. But when this guy shows up in the arena of death with two hand-to-hand combat experts, it takes some awkward plot twists to effectively work him into the drama. When it comes to low-budget tack ons to famous franchises, I’ve seen worse. Mildly amusing

Review – Predator: Badlands

A wimpy Predator and the upper half of an android – both of whom talk too much – team up to locate and subdue a monster on a death planet. I found it innovative that all of the human-appearing characters are played by only two actors, which must have cut way down on the casting budget. Which is a good thing, as clearly they needed as much money as possible for the effects-intensive action sequences. The result is slick and clever without being particularly interesting. Mildly amusing

Book Review – The First into the Dark

The First into the Dark: The Nazi Persecution of the Disabled by Michael Robertson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As the title indicates, this is a consideration of the krankenmorde, the Nazis’ formal and informal systems for murdering sick people. The authors divide their work into two parts. The first half is a fascinating yet hard to read history of Aktion T4 and other efforts to murder anyone too physically or mentally disabled to serve a purpose in the reich. This turns out to be one of those experiences where just when you think it can’t possibly get any worse, it gets worse. The second half focuses mostly on debates about definitions and ethics. It’s important stuff, but it isn’t as compelling as the history.

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Review – Fear Below

The parts with the shark in it were fun. The rest of it was a vaguely unsatisfying 1930s era caper movie about divers trying to recover stolen gold from a van at the bottom of a muddy river. The acting and production values were good enough. Even the script was okay. It’s just that most of the story didn’t do much beyond bridging the gaps between moments when the shark swam in out of the murk and bit someone. Mildly amusing

Book Review – Practical UX Design

Practical UX Design by Scott Faranello
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this while on a quest for a textbook for a freshman-level User Experience Design class, and wow was this ever not what I was looking for. The author serves abstruse design theory buried under a blizzard of baffling buzzwords. The result appears to be aimed at MBAs and MFAs without really meeting the needs of either (let alone the beginning-level students that are supposedly part of the target audience). The illustrations were a further obstacle to understanding, mostly screen caps from popular (in 2016) web sites that either did or didn’t clearly illuminate the point at hand. A sprinkling of errors – both typographical and factual – didn’t add to the credibility of the text. If you’re headed to a cocktail party where you’ll need to sound smart (without actually being smart) about UX, these lessons will do nicely. For other approaches to the subject, seek elsewhere.

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Book Review – The Vest Pocket Kodak and the First World War

Vest Pocket Kodak & The First World War, The: Camera & Conflict by Jon Cooksey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was like lingering in an excellently-curated museum exhibit about the title subject. The text was concise and the illustrations copious. Though several sections left we wanting to know more about their topics, overall the coverage was comprehensive. In a war famous for inventing new ways of killing, there’s a wonderfully human quality to the simultaneous introduction of new ways of seeing and recording (not to mention camera marketing).

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Book Review – More Making Books by Hand

More Making Books by Hand: Exploring Miniature Books, Alternative Structures, and Found Objects by Peter Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book at the wrong point in my book-making career. I’m in my getting-my-feet-wet phase, just trying to figure out what goes into assembling an art book. So I found myself a bit overwhelmed by all the extremely specific instructions for creating various kinds of unusual books. Indeed, without the copious illustrations, I would have been completely lost. Thus I may find myself back here at some point in the future when I’m ready to break out the tools, stock up on supplies and actually start making. The examples from the authors’ work are also helpful, though I found their well-to-do white people’s aesthetic a bit inaccessible. Overall this does a solid job of providing what the title promises.

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