An Angler's Tale #3

Today after work, on this final day of July 2023, I decided I would head out to the lake for some afternoon fishing. Against my better judgement after yesterday's thunderstorm, I set out for Kerr Scott Reservoir, and as expected the water was very cloudy and I knew right away that fishing wouldn't be good, but I still set out.

And low and behold, I actually did catch something! 

#1: Redbreast Sunfish

Caught on the ultralight with Crickhopper on the lake. 

#2 Spotted Bass
Caught using a spinner on the Medium-Light at the Spillway. 

An Angler's Tale #2: The Setup

Wanted to create a little port that would serve as both a reminder for future purchases as well as giving some insight on what my primary setup looks like.

The reel is a Zebco Omega Pro30; I got it as a birthday treat to myself last year. Easily the smoothest, most powerful reel I own at the moment. 

Like my Ultralight setup, I have purchased Berkley Trilene Smooth Casting monofilament. This is a 10lb test, which is the mid-range for the pole it's on, but honestly given how small fish tend to be around here, not much else is really needed unless I had say, a boat or kayak where I could get away from the shore and the waters most heavily fished.

The pole is a 5'6" Zebco Rhino Tough rod and was rated the best pole to combine with the Omega Pro.

Overview:

Pole: Zebco Rhino 5'6" Pole

Reel: Zebco Omega Pro30

Line: Berkley Trilene 10lb XL Smooth Cast

Lure (Smallest to Largest) : 1/16, 1/8, 1/4oz 

MONSTER SIGHTING #38: Shin Godzilla

Here we are at the final Godzilla that is currently available. Toho's last go at their bread and butter and one of my least liked films in the entire series 

Is it a spectacle? Sure. Does it provide social commentary on Japan's politics as well as giving the viewer a glimpse into what goes on during a giant monster attack on the government level.

Not particularly a fan of the Godzilla design or all the stroking the fans give the film. It's a different kind of Godzilla for sure, but fans actively dunking on Godzilla 98 while praising this movie for the same reasons still stand as one of stupidest things about this series' fandom. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #37: Godzilla Vs Kong

I suppose it was always destined to happen once they made Skull Island part of the Godzilla universe, but that did little diminish the impact of the film's announcement.

Godzilla seemed to have fell back into a more villainous role at first, and while it was cool to see him straight up destroying buildings and fighting the army again, I much prefer the friend to humanity approach. 

Kong got a ton of character development, with his ability to use sign language to communicate with humans being the coolest of the bunch. 

But you know, having Godzilla fight Kong again wasn't cool enough. Oh no, they wanted to make the two unite and fight side by side, and what better adversary for such a feat than none other than Godzilla's most powerful and deadly foe: Mecha-Godzilla! 

MONSTER SIGHTING #36: Godzilla King of the Monsters

2019, the year of our king and his reunion with three of his oldest pals. The only movie I have seen three times in theaters and a real huge step for the now established Monsterverse. 

Godzilla got a slight redesign, giving him more pronounced feet and a more traditional crown of dorsal fins. Also oddly interwoven throughout the film were more traditional sounding roars which felt weirdly out of place. 

Rodan for me was the star of the film. Very charismatic and expressive. 

Mothra is of course also here, and probably the most powerful she's ever been in a Godzilla film, taking Rodan head on in a physical fight.

And then there's the big bad and the forth member of the Ghidorah: The Three-headed Monster film crew. They had the awesome foresight to give each of the heads their own personality. They even brought the chattering sound from the Showa era back. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #35: Kong Skull Island

When it was announced that Kong Skull Island was going to be in continuity with the 2014 Godzilla film, I was ecstatic. For the first time since the 1960s, we were going to have Godzilla and King Kong existing in the same world. 

Kong himself for a marvelous makeover for the 2010s, making him look more kaiju-like than the simple giant ape design seen in Peter Jackson's film. 

The new foe for this film naturally had to be a reptilian of sorts. The Skullcrawlers are two-legged monstrosities from the depths that were responsible for the deaths of Kong's family, making his fight against the creature have more emotional impact than most match ups. 

An Angler's Tale #1: New Beginnings

 In a world that continues its steady descent into pure chaos, a weary traveler sits beside a gently flowing stream, a simple fishing pole in hand; They cast their line and momentarily forget the woes of the world, the current battles going on, and their struggle against the ever forceful impressions of those in power.

They are the protagonist and an angler, and this is their tale.

As of yesterday, July 25th, 2023, I have renewed my fishing license again for the coming year, thus granting me access to the waters that flow through the land that once formally belonged to my ancestors. In the time since I last went out to "drown worms" as my mother likes to say, I've picked up a few new pieces of gear, which I will get into right now.

MONSTER SIGHTING #34: Godzilla

When I tell you that there will never be another movie in my lifetime that will garner the same mysticism and hype, I mean it. From the very first day that news start circulating of a possible new American Godzilla way back in 2009, I fell into a state of disbelief and stayed there well into the first viewing of the film at our dinky little local theater, a year before Two Rivers opened up.

By 2009, we had been half a decade without a new Godzilla film and had no real reason to believe that anything else would be happening with the IP anytime soon. I didn't want to believe the initial rumors that it was happening, I couldn't believe the announcement and was in utter disbelief when actual photos from the filming locations started leaking. The mere thought of seeing a big budget CGI Godzilla film on American screens felt utterly unbelievable at the time. 

And then the Comic-Con 2010 concept piece leaked and everything hit the fan all at once. 

Like with the the first Hollywood attempt at Godzilla, his design would be kept a closely guarded secret leading up to the release, and had someone not filmed the closed door viewing of the airport scene in 2012, we likely wouldn't have seen him in all his glory until the toys leaked the following February leading into the May 2014 release. 

I ultimately saw the film three times in theaters; Twice in the Liberty and once on a big IMAX screen. It was and still is a spectacle to behold. Edwards gave the monsters weight and a level of realism that was to that point seen only in one other film: The prior year's Pacific Rim. 

Beginning Book #28 of 2023

Finished Rattus New Yorkus in a day and am now wanting to take a break from the horror genre for the remainder of July and the entire month of August and, instead give my reading time to the epic fantasy genre; Paticularly, that of the Lord of the Rings! I own this specific edition of the book physically, but I am so spoiled by my Kindle that lugging a physical book around now just isn't appealing any longer. Still, this is one of those books that owning a physical edition is a must. 

I imagine it'll take me more than a couple weeks to finish this behemoth of a book, and by that point September and the autumn season will be rolling in with the Halloween mood in tow, opening the gates for more horror reads.

MONSTER SIGHTING #33: Godzilla Final Wars

Toho couldn't have put a more polarizing film for Godzilla's 50th anniversary if they wanted to. Putting Ryuhei Kitamura in the director's chair sounded like a good idea at the time sure, considering he was the must-have action director in Japan in that period. But what he ultimately dropped on us was a really weird mixed bag of oddities in the form of a film that has all the silliness of a Showa era film but is totally unaware of how goofy it is.

There is a ton to unpack with this movie so I am only going to talk about a few personal highlights, starting with making Zilla a canon monster in the Toho universe!

The fight was done purely to make a mockery of the film and creature, lasting only a few seconds and fueling the weird hate boner the fanbase had and continues to stroke to this very day. 

Another neat little thing done in this film was giving us a Godzilla Versus Gotengo fight. The Showa had already canonized The Atragon back with Destroy All Monsters, but now here we get to see Godzilla do battle with and actually lose against the Gotengo. 

Rodan's millennium incarnation is another huge plus for me and is currently sitting as my favorite incarnation of the character. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #32: Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo SOS

Not a whole lot to say about this one as it's more of less GxMG with Mothra. It does have the prestigious honor of being the second suitmation era Godzilla film that I've got to see the big screen though, so it had that going for it at least. 

CURRENTLY PLAYING: Lunar Silver Star Story Complete

So I started my first playthrough of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete after more than two decades. It's been a blast, the game holds up incredibly well. The Working Designs translation is bonkers and not something I truly appreciated back in the 90s when I first got the game.

I am just about to the halfway point right now, with villains being revealed and party members disappearing. This point in the name is signaled by the game's "That One Boss'": Vile Crustacean. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #31: Godzilla Against Mecha Godzilla

Thinking about it now, I think it's cool how Mecha-Godzilla got another duology akin to what it has during the Showa era. That said, I used to have iffy feelings towards this film and it's direct sequel. My viewing Tokyo S.O.S in a theater setting definitely helped to sway me a bit.

Tiny head aside, I love the bird-like approach they took with the KiryuGoji suit. It's a neat alternate take on the bulky MireGoji from 99/00.

The Mecha-Godzilla itself is fantastic and leaps and bounds better than the Heisei abomination. It's mobile, armed to the teeth with weaponry and even has a little bit of actual Godzilla DNA running through its system. 

CURRENTLY READING: Parasite Eve

 Current Progress: 39%

It likely wasn't the author's intention, and if one hadn't played the kinda-sequel game before reading this then it might not be immediately apparent, but I am absolutely digging the "It's a medical journal—OH! It's a horror novel now—Oh wait, it's a medical journal again... I think?" approach. At least in the first half, Eve's presence is nothing more than extreme cellular activity with the occasional short chapter from her point of view. As the book is moving on, however, her presence becomes more and more prominent, with more and more characters becoming aware - although unknowingly - of her presence via the impression she is putting on their mitochondria. 

I can definitely see how this book could put some people off. There is a lot of medical talk and deep descriptions of procedures and how the body works and not enough focus on the titular antagonist or the people she's imprinting on, but I love the slow burn approach. It's a nice change from the fast-paced stuff I've been reading.

MONSTER SIGHTING #30: Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: All Monsters Attack

Shusuke Kaneko, director of the Heisei Gamera trilogy was finally given the chance to helm a Godzilla movie, and what we got in return was the height of the millennium era. Had Toho not skimped on the budget, or interfered with the man's original vision for the film, we could have had movie that blew everything that came before and after out of the water, but alas it just wasn't meant to be.

Originally, King Ghidorah nor Mothra weren't in the film. Instead, Baragon was set to tag along with Anguirus and Varan of all monsters. Just imagining the kind of world we could be living in right now had Toho not had them replace them with audience-friendly faces instead, why, covid probably never would have happened in that timeline, nor would Trump have been made president.

The Godzilla we got was a beast; imbued by the vengeful spirits of those that died during the war. He quite literally goes out of his way kill people, from smashing in a hospital building with the tip of his tail to blasting a crowd of fleeing people with his breath. 

The other star of the film is Baragon! While he's first to get bodied by Godzilla, he puts up a great fight that's entirely tooth and claw. This fight marked the first and only time Godzilla has fought against Baragon, and hopefully not the last. 

Mothra is Mothra. 

Ghidorah is a quite different here. For starters, he's on the good side. He's considerably shorter than normal and doesn't immediately start out with the ability to fly. 

July 16th, 2023 + Garden Update

 Been a while since I posted a proper journal entry, and with summer in full swing and my entertainment quota currently being met, I feel it's time I dished out another one. 

Now I love the autumn season and pumpkin stuff

But this is too much too soon. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #29: Godzilla X Megaguirus

The Millenium era got off to such a great start. G2K gave us Orga, a fun new interesting monster and the follow-up film gave us yet another new monster, this time going all the way back to Rodan's solo film for the foe. 

I am always for getting new monsters over them reusing older ones unless the monster in question is one which only ever had one or two appearances, which is what made the NEXT movie in the series so disappointing for me.

Megaguirus herself is my favorite of the new kaiju created for the Millenium era. The queen of the Meganuron that Rodan made snacks of when he hatched in his solo film way back when. She puts up a heck of a fight as well.

MONSTER SIGHTING #28: Godzilla 2000

Godzilla had a lovely little, albeit short-lived, resurgence in the US in 2000 thanks to the nationwide theatrical release of Godzilla 2000, marking the first time a lot of people - myself included - would see an authentic suitmation Godzilla film on the big screen. I wouldn't see another one until this past March when Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo SOS received a one-night only theatrical showing.

The entire year of 2000 was pretty memorable for me pretty much from beginning to end, and having a nice new Godzilla movie in the mix was just an extra dash of sprinkles on the premium sundae that was the beginning of the new millennium, something I will definitely be talking about more in the coming months. 

This Godzilla really embodied that 2000s era edge that hit it's peak around mid 2006. I love the design enough to put it on the cusp of my top five. The only thing I felt it was missing was his signature blue atomic breath, which was later given to him in a short pachinko film. 

His adversary being an alien monster crafted using the knowledge gleamed from earthlings and by fighting Godzilla was a neat take that I now wish that they had went further with. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #27: Godzilla

I talked about 1998 a pretty good bit this year on the blog, but I refrained from talking too much about the biggest movie of the year.

There isn't a movie in the franchise that garners more undeserved hatred than GODZILLA. People really seem to not be able grasp the fact that Godzilla is a multi-purpose character with great range and that not every incarnation needs to a god of death. Portraying him as a simple animal is to this day one of the more refreshing modern takes on the character that I wish would get more love.