Weblog 295

October 9, 2011~ 12:00 am
Did you ever watch a film that just sucked all the air from the the room and your soul out with it? I mean a really, really depressing, disappointing film that-- when it's finally over you think-- "Why in hell did I watch THAT?"

Something sufficiently heavy and ugly, so it looks a lot like this



(It's a twisty, dark tree but you also see the tortured face superimposed. You can't NOT see it.) Sadly, I made a bad choice for our movie night. Still high on seeing Ryan Gosling's performance in the 'Lars' film, I chose another of his that came with the highest recommendation.

BOY... was that wrong! Choosing a 2001 film that had done well at the Sundance Film Festival that year, I rented 'The Believer'- where Gosling plays a neo-Nazi who is also Jewish; while that sounded like a pretty provocative theme for a film, it's nothing but one violent ugliness after another. Gosling's part was well-acted (though I sure did get sick of seeing his sharp-featured sneering face after about 15 minutes into the story.)

There's not a redeeming moment in the entire movie and the other actors were 'hammy' in their roles-- at least to these eyes. In fact Wayne got up and left after about 35 minutes, but I stuck it out, determined to see what had brought the film the kind of critical acclaim it received back in 2001. Right up to the bitter (and ridiculous) ending, I kept wondering, and now....



now I'm left with a depression hangover. LOL!! No kidding. The rest of the evening stretched out in front of me like that bridge up there. Endless. Bare. Dispirited.

My advice is: stay away from this film. It's a vampire... it'll draw the life out of everything.

(And don't expect any 'breakthough' moments because there aren't any.) There's not one bright spot of insight, no glimmer of softness anywhere to be found: the characters are ugly, the sex is ugly, and the whole project smacks loudly of an Indie film trying to be darkly sensational. The film REEKS of over-arching ambition, and plays spuriously because of it.

Here's the way the world looks after viewing



Empty. Discarded. Thrown away.

What a waste of an evening. (Of course, after I wrote this, I did some web surfing to cheer myself, and it worked!)

I landed on some charming vintage sites and found what I think may be the scariest looking DUMMY I've ever seen.....



LOL!!! Isn't it great! Imagine hiring that for a children's birthday party? Those Victorians sure knew their kids. LOL!!!




October 10, 2011~ 7:30 pm
Strange mood persists.

It feels like I swallowed some slimy river stones: heavy and weighted-- perhaps it's the 'Halloween mood' creeping up on me, dragging the dying season along with it.)

I've been cruising around the net and finding things that give me chills.... like this.



By damned if those folks don't look like ghosts to me. (They're not. It's just what I found spookiest in part of an old photo, and the fact that both children's faces are absent any discernable features. Felt a little chill steal over me studying that.)

Here's another picture gives me the willies.



Landscape lost in a kind of fog... perhaps it's early pre-dawn or just before dark... and along comes this intruder. He's been introduced into whatever story comes drifting up from the subconscious. When I see something like that my scalp begins to tingle. I get a little buzz of 'DANGER...DANGER!' that pops up like a tin duck in a shooting gallery, a real toe-curler.

(This all may be coming from 'Monday Syndrome'. LOL!!!) The beautiful weather promised today did not happen. It was cloud-covered and cooler than predicted. Add that to a Monday... and you get gray, creepy thoughts, at least I do. (That image reminds me of so many slasher-movies over the years: it's that scene just before terror begins. Perhaps I need to rent another Texas Chainsaw sequel.)

Having gotten my boogiemen out of the way (the ventrioquist dummy, the cemetery folks and the 'shadow man') -I think it's time to change the mood and snag something happy.

How about 'The Owl and The Pussycat'? Not a nursery rhyme poem, but the 'real thing'.



Click on that cute illustration to read about a REAL love affair between two very different species. (It'll do you good. Go ahead. Click on it.) Come to think of it..... there is something creepy about love tokens in the form of dead bats. LOL! But it's meant from the heart. THAT'S the difference. :)




October 11, 2011~ 7:40 pm
Ok....ok....I ADMIT it.....

I'm now on a 'DUMMY KICK'... those often scary 'lap-sitters' that used to freak me out when I was a little kid. Every variety show seemed to have one featured and as we sat in the blue glow of our halo TV in the 50's, my dad would invariably criticize the ventriloquist. "There! Did you see that?"

"His LIPS are moving." LOL!!!

I think what scared me was the way their darned big eyeballs moved back and forth-- back and forth, expression never changing --watching everything. (I immediately saw their potential when in 1978 Anthony Hopkins starred in a horror film called "Magic" about a ventriloquist and his dummy. Made perfect sense to me.)

When not being scary, they can be hysterically funny. Take for instance, 'Geraldine and Ricky'. This photo is from their record album.



Say what you will, those are fine heads of HAIR!

And speaking of hair....how about some BEARDS as well?



(Can you believe that is Volume III? It's GOT to be the matching beards! And if it worked so well for those fellas, why not for Geraldine and Ricky???)



There we go. All dressed up and ready for the Lawrence Welk Show. Perfect. :)

(Yep, I'm feeling perkier today, and the dummies did it.) Never underestimate our little friends.

And DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM.... (some conditioning never dies.... you can't be too careful.)





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