cinema history class: killer klowns from outer space

Session: Bring Your Own Movie Month 2018, Week 3
Movie 1: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Directed by Stephen Chiodo
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Space aliens have landed and are terrorizing the town. Oh, and they look like clowns. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
I was very torn about what to bring for Bring Your Own Movie Month this year. Considering many candidates, I settled on Klowns because Sharon said she'd come to class if I showed it. IN the end, she couldn't come to class, as she had an Overwatch tournament to compete in, but that's neither here nor there. Klowns, is among my favorite movies, despite its sophomoric nature. The fact is, it's a better film than one would expect based on its screaming title.

Nevertheless, I was kind of nervous about how well it would go over. My choices for BYOM month have received mixed reviews. So I was pleased by the reactions.

I was expecting Sean to like it, and his grade was no surprise. I had discussed my choice with Keith, so I was also aware that he likes the film. In a sense that's out of character, as Keith tends not to like it when horror is played for comedic effect. But he apparently makes an exception for KK, because of its unique cleverness.

Joe and Dave were the two guys in the class who had never seen this, and they both surprised me by giving it high marks. They appreciated the campy quality, which seemed out of the 1960s, and they both (correctly) felt that John Vernon (as police officer Mooney) stole every scene he was in.

Despite having seen this many times, I gained some new insight. I forget who made the observation -- maybe it was Keith. But one of the things that makes the film work is the fact that the clowns seem to to seduce their victims, luring them in with comedy or other entertainment before turning on them. It's an interesting aspect to the dynamic that I had never noticed before.

Score!

Ratings:
Dave: 9.8
Ethan: 8
Joe: 9.67*
Keith: 9
Sean: 3 out of 4

*Joe specified his methodology: It scored a 9 as a sci-fi/horror film, a 10 as 1960's (esque) camp, and a 10 for the Dickies. He said to weigh those three scores equally. Thank God I'm an actuary.

rerouted e -- or simply f?

There's something I don't understand about the E and F subway lines in Queens.

By way of background, for the non-Queensians, the E and F trains end (or begin, I suppose, depending on your perspective) their runs in Jamaica. After leaving Manhattan, they both follow a trunk line under Queens Blvd. Just past the Briarwood Station (which purists among us still call the Van Wyck Blvd. Station) they part course. The E goes to Jamaica Center while the F goes to 179th Street.

The E train goes closer than the F to my office in Manhattan, but the 1479 Street terminal of the F train is my home station. So on days that I work in Manhattan ("the city" in local parlance), my return commute starts with an E train but I switch to an F -- usually at Union Turnpike.

But sometimes an odd thing happens. The E train will get rerouted over the F line and go to 179th Street. When that happens, I feel like I've hit the jackpot. Instead of having to get up and wait for another train, I get to stay on the one that I'm already on. Of course, lots of other commuters are annoyed at the inconvenience for them But that's their problem.

Anyway, when the rerouting happens, we are notified by an announcement from the conductor along the lines of "This is an E train running over the F line. For Jamaica Center, please wait for the next E train." What I don't get is why they insist on calling it an "E train running over the F line" rather than an F train. Once the rerouting has occured, the train is effectively an F.

And it's not just a pedantic point I'm making. There are many immigrants in the area, some of whom aren't native English speakers. I would think that a simple announcement like "This is now an F train to 179th Street" would be easier for people to understand.

ANd don't even get me started on the occasional morning E trains that start at 179th Street...

cinema history class: the unholy three

Session: Bring Your Own Movie Month 2018, Week 2
Movie 1: The Unholy Three (1925)
Directed by Tod Browning
Movie 2: The Unholy Three (1930)
Directed by Jack Conway
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Three former circus performers hatch a plot to steal from the rich. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
Thinking out of the box yet again, Joe decided to show two interpretations of the same story, followed by two cartoon shorts that tied in.

The films in question were 1925's The Unholy Three and the 1930 remake by the same title. The remake, which featured two of the same stars (Lon Chaney Sr. and Harry Earles), was largely a scene-by-scene copy of the original -- even down to the dialogue which was often the same. I'm not generally a fan of remakes unless there's something important to justify it. In this case, the justification comes in the form of sound. The 1925 film was silent, while 1930 remake was a talkie. In fact, it was the only talkie Lon Chaney Sr. ever made, and the last film of his career.

The casts were both strong, but these films were really tours de force by both Chaney and Earles. Chaney was genius acting as the Professor acting as Granny O'Grady. And Earles, as an adult pretending to be a baby is simply sublime. His ability to alter his facial appearance with hardly any noticable movement is truly amazing. I'd seen it before in Freaks, the 1932 film that Keith showed us at the inauguration of this class years ago.

If I have to choose one version over the other, I'd have to take the 1930 film. There were some plot points that I missed in the original because of the way the title cards were used. Also, one crucial part of the film involved the animosity between Hercules and the ape. This subtle point was explained better in the remake. I also found the Hector character more sympathetic in the remake. That said, I preferred the ending of the earlier film (the endings were slightly different). But I do admit that there's something poetic about how Chaney rode off to end the last film of his illustrious career.

As a bonus, Joe showed two cartoons -- "Baby Buggy Bunny" (starring Bugs Bunny) and "Baby Rattled" (starring Snooper and Blabber). Both were written by Michael Maltese (one of Joe's cartoon-writing heroes), and featured diminutive adult criminals disguised as babies. Joe talked about how, seeing these cartoons as a kid, he thought it was ridiculous that an adult would pass himself off as a baby. His whole perspective was changed when he saw The Unholy Three. Myself? I vividly remember "Baby Buggy Bunny" from my childhood -- I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny. I doubt that I'd ever seen "Baby Rattled" before. And, never the big Hanna-Barbera fan, I couldn't help but note that the Bugs Bunny cartoon was vastly superior. In fairness, as Joe noted, the Bugs Bunny cartoon was made for theatrical release, and more effort was put into it. The Snooper and Blabber cartoon was made for television and required a tighter turn-around. Still...

Ratings:
Me: 9.5
Dave: 10
Ethan: N/R
Keith: 10

Update: Initially, I referred to Harry Earles as "Harry Styles" in a couple places.

themes sung by the stars

I was watching some reruns of Frasier, and noticed the ending theme. Specifically, the fact that it was sung by series star, Kelsey Grammar. Which made me start to think about what other TV series featured theme songs performed by stars of the show. Here is a (partial -- duh!) list of 10. I am opening to being reminded of others.

But first, note that for some of these, you have to catch the right season. For example, season one of The Brady Bunch featured a theme song sung by other-than-cast. For the theme sung by the Brady kids, you have to go to season 2.

All in the Family

Alice

The Brady Bunch

The Monkees

The Partridge Family

Eight is Enough

My Two Dads

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

21 Jump Street

Green Acres

clerking again...

For the third year in a row I clerked at the LIDS annual flower show. Two years ago I wrote about my first experience.

Mostly more of the same, though this year I had a couple of realizations...

I wasn't really planning on entering anything, but I was open to the idea. In the morning I was out in the yard to see if anything I had seemed worthy of entry. But nothing passed muster. I was all over, thinking "that one has a crease, that one has uneven color, that one's not symmetric. So I didn't enter anything. But during the judging I was mentally checking out all these flowers and realizing that some of the flowers I had passed up could have stood proudly. I wouldn't have won best in show or anything like that. But I would probably have ribboned with some of my flowers if I had entered them.

Maybe next year. Well, no not next year. Next year LIDS is hosting the regional meeting so we won't do a show. Maybe in two years.

The other realization isn't so much a realization as an observation. The rules for judging are clear about scapes with more than one bloom. The judges are to grade based on the worst bloom on the scape. Given that, I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that people enter scapes with multiple flowers. In theory, there's no potential loss from removing a bloom. If the bloom you remove is the worst on the scape, then your score will be higher. If you remove a bloom other than the worst, your score won't go down. It's Operations Research 101. That said, I can think of a few reasons to keep multiple blooms on a scape:

• For whatever reason, you think that the extra bloom(s) improve(s) the aesthetic appeal of the entry, and that will sway the judges who are, afterall only human.
• If two entries are tied for best in show, the judges can use number of blooms as a tiebreaker. But seriously...For that to work you have to have a scape with multiple blooms where they all score exactly the same. Then you have to tie another scape. How likely is that?
• Your as rational as pi.

So...uh...what was my point?

Oh yeah. If I enter the contest in a couple years, I'll be sure not to enter any scapes with multiple blooms.