Another breathtaking scene from under the trees at sunset.. One day in October
2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Tis the season: Taking another look at Halloween 3
Years ago, I would host and attend regular movie parties. We’d sit and watch awful films, laugh at plots, mock the narrative, and just have genuine fun. It was like MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 with a bunch of immature brats and younger adults who wanted to stay young—all of us were not paid for our efforts, but I dare say we came up with good comedy. If only iPhones and YouTube were available in the late 1990s, we’d have great podcasts. Maybe we would have been sued by companies for copyright issues.
One film caught our attention early and became a long standing joke for life: Halloween 3, the Season of the Witch.
If you never saw it, don’t be fooled by the name. It has nothing to do with the lunatic killer Michael Myers, and no it was not made by Rob Zombie. This movie was from director John Carpenter. He didn’t want to create another Halloween starring ‘The Shape’ so instead he changed the story. This one features a mask making company called Silver Shamrock that does some funky things with cursed rocks from Stonehenge and comes up with a plot to kill all kids that buy masks they create. The movie features women who look like robots that have their heads come off, awful music that never seems to end, and kids wearing pumpkin masks that turn into bugs and snakes. In doing so John Carpenter violated a rule some horror movie makers go by: Not to kill off children in brutal ways in movies. Though it wasn’t brutal but actually quite tacky, leading to the humorous nature of the film.. In other words,it’s one of the one films ever made.
Or is it?
This is where I wonder if it was maybe not as bad as it seems. Are we just judging the movie when compared to Sam Loomis shreaking about a monster in Haddonfield? If so Halloween 3 will never be as good.
In all fairness, the notion of wearing a mask and having it turn into snakes and bugs is frightening. In the movie it happens at 9pm because Silver Shamrock has seemingly been able to convince the entire youth of America that they should be home by 9 to watch ‘the big giveaway’ live on TV. It’s assumed that all cable networks at the time (1970s) were going to run the 9pm ad from the company. I know, I try to be logical, even with an illogical horror movie.
I think this film would have been much better were it to have been made in current times. Seriously. Think of it, minus our the mockery of the movie I’m sure you have done along with me and my friends, the movie has a social message: People are convinced easily by awful ads on TV to do just about anything. Including rushing home from tick or treating to tune in for some stupid giveaway. People are mind-numbed by television.. and even more modern technology has fried the parts of the brain that did not happen to become numb in the process of life.
In other words Halloween 3 is an epic narrative… a dark comedy.. an eloquent judgement on our times: Parents who will buy anything for their kids, including masks that will eventually turn into the demise of the nation. And kids will want anything to fit in. And in the end, parents and kids will be equal in their inability to think for themselves and be convinced by whatever advertising tells them to do.
I don’t think John Carpenter thought he was making a social commentary. Instead, watching Season of the Witch, it would appear that he was just smoking a hell of a lot of pot.
So … sing the song and watch the TV. Watch… watch… watch…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmSP5b_Mi6g]
Saturday, October 20, 2012
A 'veteran bigfoot hunter' has his 1973 Winnebego damaged--he tells cops to look for Bigfoot
Sadly it’s not just a ‘only in Pennsylvania’ story.. This could be Anytown USA these days.
A 'veteran bigfoot hunter' has his 1973 Winnebego damaged--he tells cops to look for Bigfoot
I’ll save the sappy stuff for the tenth anniversary. But today, October 20, 2012, is a pretty big deal. My wife Tara and I have been married now for 5 years as of 12noon today. Right now about 5 years ago the party was just beginning…a reception to end all receptions. And then some.
It has been an amazing five years. But even more amazing is contemplating just where exactly the time goes. Five years ago we were young and the future was ahead of us. Today we have a son and the future is here, moving quickly, becoming the past. Watching our son Ayden growing is a miracle in itself, but it also allows us to forget about our own aging process. I guess that is what our parents told us would happen…
Yes, indeed, five years back now a marriage just began. Today it’s strong. Tomorrow it will continue. Of course there are fights and frowns, but there are also laughs and happiness. Relationships are helped with children. They bring meaning and something ‘more’ to the lives we lead.. A family began with a walk on a bridge under autumn leaves. It continues today.
Five years later, on to ten.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Madonna says the use of guns was a metaphor
But she still chose to open her Denver show with the simulated use of guns, and shooting at the audience. Some were offended by that, others are just angry that she showed up three hours late. No word on whether she took her clothes off or not…
Madonna says the use of guns was a metaphor
All the news unfit to print..
A meteor lights up the sky over California.. The meteor created a boom, shook houses, and now debris is scattered from the meteor..
The meteor blazing through the sky was visible and caused mouths to open in awe throughout California..
A few days ago a rare earthquake hit Maine.. and now another rare earthquake has rattled another odd state: This time Nebraska.. It wasn’t overly strong but it shook nerves. Lots of ‘rare’ places are suddenly getting extraordinary events..
Now a number of states are preparing for earthquakes.. the proof is a multi-state earthquake drill.. With ‘rare’ events in Maine and Nebraksa, plus the New Madrid fault worries and nuclear plants in numerous states, can we really prepare for something big?
A major problem occurred throughout the Midwest Thursday as ferociously high winds hit the Plains, causing the drought-scourged landscape to whip up with dust.. several multi-vehicle pile ups took place on roadways covered in dust and dirt..
If it is not the high winds ruining your day, it’s a late night tornado outbreak.. This one kept people up all night long as people from Illinois to Mississippi were rattled by a late October severe weather outbreak..
Like a horror movie, bugs have invaded a Utah town and are covering everything, from food to children to animals and homes. Residents of Portage Utah cannot seem to get rid of the boxelder bugs as they are swarming just about everywhere..
The ‘Perversion Files’ revealed.. new information shows that local Boy Scout leaders, police, mayors, and other local officials may have helped cover up a major pedophilia within the Scouts.. it documents the Boy Scouts from the 1950s through the mid 1980s..
Big solar flare erupts from the sun..
Imagine a world where it is criminal to save seeds—and now realize that that is exactly the world we may be living in soon..
The UK GUARDIAN asks, who controls the internet? Tech giants are fighting for supremacy along the information superhighway..
Obama and Romney roast themselves and each other at Al Smith dinner..
In the past, a ‘lethally hot’ planet earth was absent of life, say scientists. And they ponder when it will happen again..
Mars Curiosity Rover finding more strange and bright objects on the Martian soil..
Rapper Flavor Flav arrested in domestic assault..
WARNER BROS retains the rights for SUPERMAN.. .. They won a legal battle to keep all rights to the man of steel..
MTV: How PARANORMAL ACTIVITY stays fresh..
Box office predictions: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 will be the top weekend movie..
Latino moviegoers expected to come out for PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 in big numbers..
No offense to the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY fans out there—I was once one, too—but the films are drying up in fun and creativity.. maybe it’s playing now simply on the fact people want ‘a scary movie’ this time of year and they know one devoid of a plot and story will be eaten up like candy on Halloween night. I cannot imagine the same scares and the same pranks being anywhere near as fun as they were the first time we saw them in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 1. However, if I had to choose between this aging franchise or the sordid tales from the SAW films, I’d pick ghosts and goblins over torture porn any day..
NEW YORK TIMES reviews HBO movie ‘THE GIRL,’ a film about Alfred Hitchcock’s films and how blondes made ‘the best victims’.. The TIMES writes, “The trouble with “The Girl” is that it tries to psychoanalyze Hitchcock but fails by trying to know the man too much. It’s a movie about Hitchcock that ignores his best advice: “Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement.”“
Thursday, October 18, 2012
A campaign can require a lot of wardrobe changes. Blue jeans in the morning, perhaps. Suit for a lunch fundraiser. Sport coat for dinner. But it’s nice to finally relax and to wear what Ann and I wear around the house
A pretty funny joke tonight from Mitt Romney during a bow tie comedy event tonight with President Obama
...that odd moment..
..when a severe thunderstorm brews and hits near the end of October. Thunder is rolling across the sky tonight. Creepy feeling as heavy rain falls and lightning lights the sky .. autumn? I don’t know.. strange feeling with this storm.
It's over: NEWSWEEK goes digital
After 80 years NEWSWEEK as a printed magazine will cease to exist.. December 31 is the final issue. After that all digital is the new NEWSEEEK norm.
Whether people know it or not the more old fashioned print dies away the more we will lose out in the end.. The idea of sitting back and relaxing each week with a magazine or newspaper is going to be something gone and mourned when it is..
Has anyone thought about the crisis doctors and dentists face? No print? What will they put in their waiting rooms?! Maybe they’ll just leave what they have their now: HIGHLIGHTS for kids from 1989 and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED with the victory of the Boston Red Sox on the cover…
Who killed print? The readers or the printers?
Who will miss it? Maybe everyone more than we know..
It's over: NEWSWEEK goes digital
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
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