You know those cute folksy expressions that, at least in the popular imagination, are the mark of rural
speech patterns? Well, I think we urban folks need some of them too. So I'd like to propose some folks-sounding urban phrases and expressions.
The first one, by the way, harkens back to my high school days. There was some guy I vaguely knew (he was two grades ahead of me) who used it as the quote under his picture in the yearbook. I think I know what it meant, but I'm not sure. Anyway, After that one, the rest are from my fertile mind. I am open to suggestions for more expressions.
If you can't get a seat at Roosevelt Avenue, you're not really trying.
Even Times Square gets snow.
Don't open a bodega and call it Whole Foods.
He couldn't get mugged if he tried.
Don't snatch my purse and then say you have no ID.
Like homeless to an E train.
If you'r crossing sixth, watch out for the roaches.
Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 3 Movie: Hunchback of the Morgue (1973) Directed by Carlos Aured As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL Plot:
Gotho is a hunchback, distraught over the death of his lover -- the only person who was ever kind to him. He supplies body parts to a mad scientist in the vain hope that his love -- the only person who was ever kind to him -- can be brought back to life. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
After two weeks in which a travelling party is somehow stranded with the monster in a dwelling off the beaten track, I was under the impression that we'd be seeing four weeks of that same basic outline. So, leave it to Keith to throw us a curveball. Instead, this is kind of a variation of a theme that's been visited and revisited many times over.
But this does have a few nice touches that make it stand out. For starters, this time the focus is the assistant, rather than the mad scientist. Also interesting was the fact that we don't actually see the monster until the very end. That ensures that this movie isn't really about the monster, but about the process of building it -- a process in which Gotho is both villain and victim. It also helps keep the suspense high. We keep hearing the screams from the monster and can't help but wonder what it looks like.
It should also be noted that this movie also gave new meaning to the phrase "flaming rats."
The original Broadway cast album to Oliver! was one of my parents' records that I loved when I was a kid. My favorite song was "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two." There's a certain playful quality to it that appealed to me as a young kid -- long before I actually understood anything about the story. Often I would just listen to that one song. But occasionally, as a special treat, I got to listen to the whole album.
This was the first Broadway soundtrack that I got into.
Sixth grade. class play. It's Oliver! And I draw the role of Fagin -- which, admittedly, was well suited to me. Because of my ...limited...singing abilities, I am coached to sort of rap "Pick a Pocket."
Thanks to "Pearls Before Swine" (the best comic strip around, IMHO), I realized something interesting about the Trump presidency. Note, by the way, that "interesting" is subjective.
For the rest of this post, I am ignoring the six cases where two presidents had the same last name.*
Trump is the first president whose last name begins with the same four letter sequence as a past president. The past president in question is Truman. Both "Trump" and "Truman" begin with T R U M.
There have been several pairs that began with the same two letters, and one (Harrison and Harding) that began with the same three letters. But Trump colluded with Truman to up the ante.
Who says these are boring times?
*Adams, Harrison, Johnson, Cleveland, Roosevelt, Bush
Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 2 Movie: Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) Directed by Carlos Aured As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL Plot:
Centuries after Alaric de Marnac is beheaded and his wife is tortured to death, they keep their vow to return to life and avenge themselves. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
The plot here bears a strong resemblance to the plot of last week's film. A traveling party is stuck in the a dwelling in the woods after a breakdown. Oh, and they're stuck there with a source of grave danger. I thought I was really clever during the film to notice this parallel, but Keith and Joe noted that that was part of Naschy's formula. Instead of a castle, it was a French chalet. Instead of a vampire it's a long-dead warlord. Instead of stagecoach it's a Mercedes. But the basics are the same. This did confuse me a bit, since it was written by Jacinto Molina (as opposed to Naschy). My confusion was cleared up as they told me that that was Naschy using his real name.
There are some things to really give them credit for. The prologue, which takes place somewhere in Europe centuries ago, lasts long enough that I, the viewer, had gotten to the point of figuring that that was the setting for the film. But then, once you have the executions, we cut to a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and we're in present-day Paris.
On another matter, Joe (or was it Dave?) noted that Naschy played bot the villain and one of the victims. As such, it was kind of expected that the climactic battle would feature Naschy on Naschy. To his credit, the film avoids that trope.
On the visuals, the opening did a good job. with the extreme violence -- de Marnac getting beheaded. His wife, being suspended upside down still cackling her vows of revenge against her executioners. And the scene, later on, where we see de Marnac's disembodied head, is just fabulous. Admittedly, I am told that it owes a lot, visually, to The Thing That Wouldn't Die. THere was also a zombie sequence that owes a lot to Night of the Living Dead.
But, despite the really interesting stuff, I had a hard time getting into the story. There's two more weeks for Naschy to make an impression on me.
