It’s probably not a surprise to anyone that I’ve been watching BBC’s “Orphan Black” since the first episode. “Orphan Black” is, of course, a show about a vast conspiracy to create, monitor, monetize, and sometimes terminate human clones, which is totally up my alley, right?
I see a sheep … and horsies … and a butterfly … and Tatiana Maslany … and Tatiana Maslany … and Tatiana Maslany … and …
So this week I’m reading a zombie (shocker) apocalypse (shocker) novel called Grace Lost, by M. Lauryl Lewis, in which some sort of blue mist from space has coated the world and caused the dead to rise. Or something like that.
So it’ll certainly be no surprise to anyone who’s read more than, like, two sentences here that I was a fan of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV show. But I also, back in the day when I had more free time, was a fan of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” board game. What’s that? You ask, “There was a BtVS board game?” Well of course there was.
So this week I’m reading The End of the Story, a collection of short works by Clark Ashton Smith, who was a writer in the vein of HP Lovecraft, albeit (so far) a little less eldritch in his abominations.
So this week we’ve been watching “Jurassic World“, in which things get a little out of hand at the Wild Animal ParkSafari ParkJurassic Park Jurassic World theme park, a lovely place which looks like someone put the Safari Park and Sea World together in a tumbler, shook it up, and poured the resulting slurry out into a Hawaiian valley. The cause of the chaos this time is not a hurricane or corporate espionage, but rather, some overly ambitious genetic engineering combined with generally poor animal husbandry and a door that could maybe have been reinforced a little better. This all leads up to a designersaurus that’s much smarter and more versatile than it should be, which uses its mad skilz to escape its enclosure and go marauding. Hilarity ensues. And by “hilarity” I mean “lots of people getting eaten by dinosaurs”.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.* *Does not apply to Chris Pratt or Bryce Dallas Howard
So apparently the Walking Dead have constructed an amusement park in Avalon on Catalina Island — excuse me, “Catrina Island” — in an attempt to draw in more victims. You may want to visit Two Harbors instead.
Here’s what Avalon looks like from a similar angle when it’s not being overrun by the living dead and their ambitious waterfront redevelopment endeavors:
Avalon apparently had a post-apocalyptic building boom.
And of course the panoramic view:
From the air, we can sort of get an idea of where the “Catrina Island” ranger station was located:
As for staying on the island or leaving, I’d have gone with staying, at least until Lloyd’s of Avalon runs out of caramel apples. After all, it’s the zombie apocalypse. Once the caramel apples are gone, they’re gone for good. Unlike, say, gasoline, of which there appears to be an unlimited supply.
So this week I’m reading The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker, which is not about Grundy and somebody who does not grant wishes, but rather, about a golem whose master dies almost immediately after she becomes animated and a jinni who is accidentally freed from an olive oil decanter while it is in for repairs.
Both of these rather lost supernatural creatures find themselves adrift in New York City at the very end of the 19th century. Hilarity, most likely, does not ensue.