cinema history class: the black cat

Session: Beastly Black and White, Week 1
Movie 1: The Black Cat (1934)
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Four travelers, stranded by a storm, are stuck in a house where evil is the norm. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
This was bait and switch, pure and simple. The movie was marketed as Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat, and the opening credits indicate that it was "suggested by" the Poe classic. Bullshit. Except for the fact that is has a black cat and some people in it, this movie really borrows nothing from Poe. They could have written the cat out of the script alltogether, and there would have been no material difference. I guess they would have had to come up with a different name. Something like War's Final Victim. Hey, that sounds pretty artsy, if I do say so myself.

Now, don't get me wrong; having spent this many years watching movies in Keith's basement, I've learned not to expect Poe adaptations to adhere perfectly to their Poespiration. But all the others we've seen incorporate at least an element of the original.

Having said that, I suppose it would be unfair to judge this movie by what it's not. So now I'll focus on what it is.

I'm of a bit of a mixed mind on this. In some ways this was your standard story of people trying to survive after being stranded in a monster's castle. The castle itself has a classic spooky castle layout, but the construction is all art deco, which kind of makes it disconcerting. And it was an interesting story, but very slow-moving at times.

I enjoyed recognizing more-recent things in it, and realizing how much it influenced future productions. In many ways it felt like either a really bad episode of Star Trek (note how Karloff looked like Ruk from "What are Little Girls Made of") or a really good episode of Space 1999. Yeah, that latter one for sure. The soulless way Karloff's character navigated his way through his role reminded me of S-1999 season 1.

In addition to the regular stuff, I found a couple of interesting aspects of this movie to appreciate-- places where it filled in some of my cultural knowledge.

The first is Boris Karloff's voice. Until seeing this, I wasn't aware of what Karloff sounded like when he spoke. Now, all those pop culture high-pitched lispy monsters from pop culture make sense to me. I thought of them as kind of generic monsters, without ever stopping to question why that voice is the iconic monster voice. Now I realize that they were all Karloff impressions. Bobby Pickett's "Monster Mash." Frankenberry. Innumerable monster anthology narrators -- all of them were Karloff impressions.

My other "duh" moment was a bit of dialogue. At one point, Peter (played by David Manners) says "Sounds like a lot of supernatural baloney to me." To this, Vitus (Bela Lugosi) responds, "Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not." The clip of this exchange is incorporated into The Monkees' movie Head (which I plan to bring to class next year for Bring Your Own Movie Month). I had always known that this clip was from some old movie, but I didn't know what movie Now I do. Yay!

Ratings:
Me: 8.5
Dave: 9.95
Ethan: 9
Rich: 7 to 8
Sean 3 out of 4

cinema history class: creature with the blue hand

Session: Krazy Krimis -- Get Your Krimi On, Week 4
Movie 1: Creature with the Blue Hand (1967)
Directed by Alfred Vohrer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A homicidal maniac with a metal hand (which has built-in claws) is killing people, and Scotland Yard is having trouble solving the string of murders. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
There's stuff to like here.

First of all, there's Klaus Kinski who is always a treat. And here he plays a sane man, which is a bit of a stretch for him. There's the murder weapon, which can be seen as a primitive precursor to the whole Wolverine thing. And the portrayal of the various and sundry residents of the asylum was entertaining.

But I just couldn't really get into this.

Ratings:
Me: 7
Dave: 9.5-9.6
Ethan: 10
Joe: 10
Sean 3 out of 4

earworm wednesday: i

lids bbq 2018

Well, the weather cooperated. We had a beautiful day for the LIDS annual picnic.

A little auction excitement

Club President Chris Petersen, hosted (how many years in a row is this?). Not that I'm complaining -- the setting is perfect, just off the bay, with a nice breeze and beautiful scenery. Her husband, Steve, handled grill duties. Several members brought lots of daylilies to auction off, and to give away (both as door prizes and plain old giveaways.

I've come to really look forward to the annual picnic -- it's a time to schmooze with other LIDS members in a relaxed atmosphere, without an agenda. And schmooze, I did. Between bites of hamburgers, hotdogs and cake. Hmmm. Maybe that explains my waistline.

The only thing I didn't like was that Blair couldn't come. She was taking Sharon to some e-Sports event in Manhattan. Not to worry though -- I ate enough for both of us. Back to that whole waistline issue...

And speaking of eating, Can someone explain to me what kind of dog won't eat hamburger?

Anyway, I came away with some plants, so tomorrow I'll be digging in the yard (hopefully before the Jamaica Estates Association Gardening Club meeting). My bounty? Glad you asked. Pictures of the daylilies are below the list:

• War Horse: I bought this at auction. I love those reds. It reminds me of Spider Man, which is my favorite.
• Allen Watts: Also at auction. I love those Hanson cultivars with the halo pattern. Funny, I was thinking that it looked a lot like Alien Data Base, which is also a Hanson. And when I looked it up, lo, I found that it's one of Alien Data Base's children.
• Frame of Reference: Also at auction. Another haloed Hanson.
• Beyond 2000: This was a freebie. I'd heard a description, and it sounded pretty.
• Trish Herr: Another freebie. Same thing
  about hearing a description.
• Cherokee Star: Another freebie. Same thing about hearing a description.
• Black Ambrosia: Thanks, Toni& Doug! I forget how it came about, but at some point Toni had promised Blair and me that she would give us some of this. I think it's because I had expressed interest in the dark purples.
• A huge hosta (I don't know which cultivar): Thanks, Pam & Luanne! I don't know how this came about, but since Blair and I have a large section of shaded yard that we've been trying to turn into a hosta bed,* this will come in handy.

War Horse

Allen Watts

Frame of Reference

Beyond 2000

Trish Herr

Cherokee Star

Black Ambrosia

*The woman we bought the house from had pachysandra there. I hate pachysandra.

two tales of a city

Ethan and I were in Boston last weekend. It was part of our plan to go to Boston.

You may be rolling your eyes, anticipating that I'll bore you with all the details of the tour. Fear not. Instead I'll just be boring you with discussion of two things we did. At the advice of Keith (who runs our horror movie class) we went on a Boston Crime Tour and a Beacon Hill Crime Tour.

Both were walking tours in which our guide took us around the designated area, telling us a variety of stories about the history of crime in the area. Both were excellent experiences -- especially if you've had your fill of duckboat rides and Faneuil Hall. But they both required a lot of walking.

But they were very different from each other.

The Beacon Hill Crime Tour, led by David Phillips, focused on -- duh -- Beacon Hill, a very wealthy area of Boston. But while the geographic area was limited (it only involved one mile of walking, though that mile included some steep hills), the scope was pretty expansive -- covering crimes from colonial times up through the 1960s. Phillips  would walk the group to a location, and then tell us a crime-related story from the area's history. The stories were discrete and self-contained; none of them were really related to each other. I should note that Phillips threw a little twist in there -- one of the stories was made up, so it was a game to figure out which one was false.

The Boston Crime tour, by contrast, was a more-expansive experience, geographically speaking. We walked about three miles in all -- starting at the Downtown Waterfront, then going up through the North End, and the West End, before ending at the sight of the Boston Massacre. While our guide, Omar Doherty, did cover some crimes from Colonial times, he focused on organized crime from the mid to late 20th century. So we heard a lot about Whitey Bulger, Stephen Flemmi and John Martorano. Rather than focusing on discrete, self-contained stories, Doherty painted a picture of a phenomenon. His tour was more of a conversation -- though that also might have been a function of the fact that Ethan and I were the only ones taking that tour. With Phillips, we were two of maybe a dozen.

While Ethan and I did do some conventional touring in Boston, I really enjoyed these less-traditional activities, and can wholeheartedly recommend them -- unless, of course, you have low tolerance for icky stories.

In case you're interested:
Beacon Hill Crime Tour
Boston Crime Tour

Tell 'em Moish sent ya.

vote. or don't. your choice.

This morning, I voted in the primaries. A few observations:

• Since Blair and I are registered with different parties (yes, we're a mixed marriage), there was some confusion over which ballots to give us. Fortunately, it wasn;t a big problem.
• One of the pollworkers started giving me dirty looks when he realized my party affiliation. He did his best to mask his distaste, but I could still see it. Whatever. He still did his job.
• This was Ethan's first time voting, so he was a little ill at ease. I had brought the Approval Notice he got from the the Board of Elections. Just in case. We didn't need it.
• One of the observers (perhaps alerted by the confusion of a new voter and a mixed-affiliation couple) came over. When he saw my T-shirt (a Nick Lowe concert shirt from sometime -- I forget when -- in the last ten years), he started chatting with me about it. He was unaware that Nick Lowe had reinvented himself as a crooner in the 1990s.

Overall, it went reasonably smoothly. Let's hope for the same in the general election in a couple months.

cinema history class: the hand of power

Session: Krazy Krimis -- Get Your Krimi On, Week 3
Movie 1: The Hand of Power (1968)
Directed by Alfred Vohrer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Some loon in a skeleton costume is killing with a scorpion ring. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
Well, this is kind of embarrassing, and I should probably just kind of skip the blogpost about this movie. This was a Thursday night that I was just way too tired to be in class, and I ended up sleeping through most of the movie.

I remember the really cool skeleton costume that the killer wore, the spring-mounted venomous scorpion-tail ring that the killer employed, and the green-hued guy with the backstory. I also remember some really cool music -- these late-60's krimis seem to have the best music. I also remember the discussion about how the skeleton costume made this seem like something right out of Scooby Doo. Oh, also that this was a pretty good revenge story.

But for the life of me I can't remember the movie. As such, I couldn't rate it -- that much I could remember. But I can't even find my notes, so I can't tell you what the others rated it.

Sorry.

PS: In case you're looking for it, this is also known as The Zombie Walks.

google reminds me of a faux pas...

Googling myself, I came across this on "Sproutology," a website devoted to the British band, Prefab Sprout.*

Back in 1985, working for a campus newspaper at Queens College, I attended a college press conference for Prefab Sprout -- or, more accurately, for their lead singer, Paddy McAloon. The band had just released Two Wheels Good, and Columbia Records was making a big push.

It was pretty standard as these events went, and I remember very little about what was said during the conference. My most vivid memory is from before the conference actually began. It was a faux pas I committed -- a completely unforced error. At least I learned to keep my mouth shut.**

But before I get into describing the error, let me tangent.*** As I was supposed to, I wrote up the press conference for Skyline (the paper I was writing for, then. I also sent information to Alternative Rhythms, which was a music 'zine I had done a little writing for. I don't recall what I sent them -- most likely the Skyline article, which was poorly written, but full of direct quotes. Sam Rosenthal, who was publishing AR, took quotes from what I sent, and wrote a coherent article.

Anyway, I had gotten to the conference early -- as I usually did for these things. There were two people there before me. A young man and woman who obviously knew each other quite well. They looked a little bit older than me, but I immediately assumed that they were also there representing a college newspaper. I went to another table to grab a press packet and mumbled something about how I should probably read up so I'll know who "these clowns" are. The two of them chuckled and resumed their private conversation. I sat in the front row with the press packet and a notebook.

A while later, after other student journalists entered the room and as the press conference started, I learned that the man at the table was Paddy McAloon himself. He was incredibly graceful about the faux pas, and conducted the interview as if I hadn't just insulted him.

As a PS, I'll note that I wasn't enamored of PS' music. Stylistically, it never interested me. Except for "Faron" (which was listed as "Faron Young" on the British version of the album, which was titled Steve McQueen. I don't know why record labels do this. At any rate that one song sounded enough like cowpunk (which was just starting to interest me) to attract me. I still like it.Here's a liver version:

*I am not sure whether Sproutology is affiliated with the band, and I don't have enough interest to investigate.

**People who have known me since 1985 may question whether I actually did learn to keep my mouth shut.

***Yes, I know that tangent is not a proper verb. I don't care.

cinema history class: the hunchback of soho

Session: Krazy Krimis -- Get Your Krimi On, Week 2
Movie 1: The Hunchback of Soho (1966)
Directed by ALfred Vohrer
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
An heiress is kidnapped and imprisoned in a plot to steal her inheritence. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
As much as I enjoyed last week's introduction to krimis, I enjoyed this week's installment even more. Gone were the sober grays -- replaced by the garish colors of the late 1960s. And it wasn't just the color. This was a more exciting film from start to finish.

The Mad Executioners from last week started with a sober show trial (of sorts) underground. This began with a partially undressed woman running from a killer. And we're off to the races. It's not as if the excitement came at the cost narrative. The story here was every bit as strong as that of tME.

What I found fascinating was how much this movie reminded me of other things. The early scene in the police station reminded me of the Batman TV show. And the heiress sounded just like Barbara Feldon.

Of course, I took particular pride in a certain observation I made early on about the titular hunchback's hunch. But let's not go there...

Ratings:
Me: 9.5
Ethan: 9
Joe: 9.9

stoopid presidential factoid for the day

Here's a little interesting factoid about the Presidents that I find interesting.

The record for the most consecutive US presidents who have each been elected once and only once is three. That record has been achieved twice:

1. Cleveland (1884), Harrison (1888), Cleveland (1892)
2. Harding (1920), Coolidge (1924), Hoover (1928)

That means that the sequence of initials for these for CHC and HCH -- inversions of each other.

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I think about sometimes.

rip, rocco moretto

This morning was spent at the funeral of a war hero.

I never had the honor of meeting Rocco Moretto. But, through some volunteer work I did with a couple of military charities (notably The Mission Continues) I've been at a couple of events at the Long Island City VFW Post 2348, which was named after Moretto in 2013. From the post's website:

Rocco Moretto is a U.S. Army veteran, who was drafted in February 1943 and served in Europe as a combat infantryman with Co. C, 26th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He landed with his unit on Omaha Beach in Normandy June 6, 1944, and fought with his unit in every major engagement for the rest of World War II, including the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of the Huertgen Forest. He remained in combat for 11 months until May 8, 1945, known as Victory in Europe Day.

During that period, Moretto was one of only two men from his original company of 219 who survived without being captured or wounded. He was discharged as a staff sergeant and returned home in 1945.

Following the war, Moretto worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad, later Amtrak, until he retired in 1985. He has received a number of honors, including in 2004 when he was presented the Legion of Honor Award from the government of France, the country’s highest military honor. Moretto is a longtime member of the United War Veterans Council of New York, post commander of American Legion Post 6 in Manhattan and has been affiliated with VFW Post 2348 for more than 45 years. 

Rest in piece, Rocco Moretto.