Horror Movie Journey Keeps on Keepin' On

We added two more films to our horror march through cinema history, two more past the time of magic and occult and into the Cold War era of science, or, dare we say, speculative fiction. And then the plan was to watch some absurdity from Alfred Hitchcock, but Peacock took The Birds off the shelf. So we went another direction with absurd animal fare:

Since Cass was gone for a week up in the mountains for the LB right-of-passage week away from the fam, our pace for the romp through the classics as we approached Halloween slowed, but we still have a few movies to go.

We started this pair off with the earlier Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The underwater filming was pretty spectacular, despite the idea that it was to be taking place in a lagoon off a tributary of the Amazon, which would realistically have a visibility of inches rather than large sweeping vistas of crystal clear depth.

My mom commented on the sexism that was rampant in (all of these) movies, and for sure, but at least this distressed damsel is a doctor and scientist. Eh, ignore the fact that she's only in the position because of the kind actions of two separate men...

The opening of the movie is a pretty good rundown of the formation of earth, and the discussion of the Devonian period perked up my ears. They strove to talk about science in a realistic way. Besides the idea that a water-creature wouldn't develop a bipedal locomotion style (hell, furry mammalian gator-types returned to full-water living and are our dolphins and orcas today), they seemed to care about what they were doing.

This was no B-movie in execution of plot, production design, or acting. It was pretty entertaining, if not scary, exactly.

Once we saw that The Birds was no longer available (WTF Peacock?), we focused on something else, something more ludicrous and absurd, the first two classics from SyFy, Sharknado and Sharknado 2: The Second One. 

You gotta hand it to the Sharknado sequel naming team, what with the subtitles being capital-C Classics. My favorite is probably the third film: Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

Sharknado is silly, with Ian Ziering playing Fin, a former pro surfer. The first film takes place in LA, and the second film takes place in New York, as Fin and his ex-wife April (she's also his fiance), played by Tara Reid, are making the trip to promote her book, "Surviving a Sharknado."

Sharks are raining down from the sky, taken up from the ocean and thrown all over both LA and NY, and the only thing Corrie and I take issue with is that Fin, and April, are actually New Yorkers? Fin and a game Vivica Fox had a history? And he took off with Tara Reid? To be a pro-surfer in LA? WHAT?

Anyway...they were silly. Maybe we'll keep watching them. Maybe I can convince Cass to watch "People Under the Stairs" with me, which is a proper scary movie, one chill enough for me to like back from being young. Dan and I watched it at the Cabin, from what I remember, and scary movies were not generally on my watchlist as a kid.

Also: Peacock has excised Tremors? WTF Peacock? Now I have to find my DVDs?

We're keepin' on keeepin' on!

That Moment...

You've been here, right?

FINE. Jeeze, already...

Valkyries bring it home in Ballhalla

On Halloween the WNBA had their first ever Game 7 in the Finals. Last year was the first year they expanded to seven games, and it only took until year 2 to get pushed to the limit.

Another thing that started last year were the Golden State Valkyries, who played their first year as an expansion team. Owned by Joe Lacob, the same owner of Steph Curry's Warriors, the Valkyries have the advantage of an enthusiastic ownership group, a rabid fan base, and a winning infrastructure.

The Valkyries fans have dubbed the Chase Center, where the both the Warriors and Valkyries play, Ballhalla, and the atmosphere has been described as a mix of playoff basketball and a Pride parade.

This year, despite the ramshackle commissioner office decisions that seemed to shoot themselves in their foot at every opportunity, has been a watershed year. The attention that Caitlyn Clark's presence has brought has elevated the game's profile. A'ja Wilson is considered the GOAT, having won multiple MVPs and three finals championships in four years. Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles and Gabby Wilson are all superstars. Olivia Miles, man!

Anyway, if it wasn't Halloween night, I would've preferred to watch the whole game, and not just the last six minutes, from the point they were tied at 53 until the end.

At one point with less than 20 seconds left, Burton, for Golden State, was sinking her second free throw to put the Valkyries up by five, and I'm pretty sure I spotted Nancy Pelosi in the crowd:

When watching those last 6 minutes of game time, and about 20 minutes of real time, the crowd was very energetic and loud, chanting "DE-FENSE" whenever the Atlanta Dream has the ball, and chanting "G-S-V" whenever the Valkyries had the ball.

It was real and it was a moment where this sport tapped into a vein of national energy, national resistance. The WNBA, and it's rise in popularity over the past few seasons, culminating with sell-outs at the Finals and a new CBA that makes the work lucrative enough to not have to go overseas in the offseason, is a manifestation of all things the right is terrified of:

• Awesome and powerful women
• Awesome and powerful Black people
• Awesome and powerful queer people

That the sport is growing in popularity at the same time a backwards looking group of terrified white men making up the ruling class fight to erase things that are celebrated by this league shows that moment of resistance. History will look unkindly upon this era's ruling class and their figurehead in the White House, and sports has given us an island upon which to camp while the bigots and pedophile-protectors flame themselves out.

These games kick ass, and hopefully new leadership in the commissioner's office will help get the league to where it should be: as a fully fledged member of the zeitgeist.

Rain on Halloween

This year's Halloween we drove to a different part of town to trick-or-treat with one of Cass's friends. It was a fancier neighborhood than the places we went the last two years, but that manifested itself with larger homes and longer walks between homes. One side of the street didn't even have a sidewalk. Ferris Bueller and Donnie Darko's respective houses, or their exteriors, were in this neighborhood, so that should say something.

It rained, too. Not too hard, and the turnout was still good, so it didn't seem to dampen anything.

Both our kids wore costumes based on One Piece characters, an anime where everyone seems to scream at each other all the time. Cass is dressed as Sanji, the chain smoking, well-dressed cook of Loofy's pirate ship:

And Camille is Vivi, a blue-haired lady:

My camera kept making the sky look brighter, but it was nice and crowded:

The people from the neighborhood mentioned this house was worth coming to see at Christmasmtime:

This Tudor style p lace has a dozen pun-adorned tombstones on their lawn:

Here's that "See it at Christmas" house:

And their lawn...look at the work:

On the way back to the car we stopped at a house that has both Sasquatch:

And Chunk, from the Goonies, complete with, "Hey...you...guys!" playing on a loop.

Another Halloween in the books, another trick-or-treating down. Happy seasons!

Brew Crew Win World Series

As I enjoyed a beer, I watched a team named the Brewers finish off their opponents in the World Series. Ity was their first World Series victory in franchise history, a history that spans, what, 57 years, and starting in the other league. I really liked Robin Yount and Paul Molitor as a kid, as well as the blue and yellow color scheme.

The Rays lost this year, in what is their third trip (lost to the Phillies in '09, and to the Dodgers in the shortened '20 season). Not great, but consider the Mariners: all those Hall of Famers and all time greats, and not a single WS appearance.

One factoid I thought was cool about this year was that it was the first time since 1980, and only the second time since 1920, that a first time winner of the World Series was going to be guaranteed. That's it. Only three times dating back 107 years were both teams non-winners of the World Series, guaranteeing the winner would be a first timer. In 1980, the Phillies beat the Royals, and in 1920 Cleveland beat Brooklyn.

Also, I leaned about Yandy Diaz, a wily veteran playing for Tampa Bay. Any guesses to his country of origin?

I'll add him to the list:

• Yandy Diaz
• Yasiel Puig
• Yoenis Cespedes
• Yasmani Grandal
• Yordan Alvarez

(I did want to see them all lined up...)

One last note: after reading Pynchon's Shadow Ticket, I have a new soft spot for Milwaukee, so congrats!

One more last thing! This is the first time, I think, ever that the team with the better record won every single series during this postseason. Not only was it the 1-seed versus the 1-seed, but every series went to the higher seed, except for the wild card White Sox beating the AL West champion Astros, but the White Sox had the better record, as the Astros were a definition-of-mediocrity 81-81 on the season. It's rare in baseball that we get the best teams in each league in World Series, but here we are. Or, eh, were. Go Brew Crew!

Soccer Interlude

The previous Saturday we went to watch a Long Beach State girls soccer game against UC Riverside. It was an event where Camille got to parade around the field. It was an AYSO youth girls night. Kinda like the baseball game at Dodger Stadium when Cass and I got to walk the field, only this time it was Camille and Corrie doing the walk.

The game was pretty cool, especially as the Long Beach girls scored a goal in the first three minutes on a corner kick. The ball bounced around and amid the chaos, was put into the net.

The seats were, eh, a college game:

So, right on the green. I even caught an errant ball and tossed it back to a coed for a throw-in.

Way off in the distance was a Long Beach State drum team banging away a pulse-pounding beat for nearly the entirety of the game:

I realized during the time that I needed to have five drummers following me everywhere and drumming a score to my daily routine.

During the parade walk Camille looked like someone had shot her puppy. Later Corrie said that she was upset that they didn't name her team---the Lavender Legends, but she was the only player at the game. In our defense, there was no information about registering your team or team name or anything like that. It seems like there must have been something like that, but we had no info about it.

But hey, we won! At least I'm pretty sure LBSU beat UCR, as the score was 3-1 when we left with a few minutes to go, as it was after 9, which is after both bedtimes.

The kids spent most of the game off on the kid's field, an area beyond one of the goals that was a large patch of grass with a couple of goals set up. Many kids spent the whole time running around, alternating between playing tag and playing soccer. Right behind us on our grandstand were the Riverside contingent, family members who knew everybody and complained about the officiating often.

It was a fun Saturday night.

Journey Through Classic Horror Films, Part 3

On our meandering movie watching tour, we hit up another couple of classic Universal horror films, both from the 1940s:

The Wolf Man, from 1941, was a second go at the werewolf concept, this time starring Lon Chaney Jr as Larry Talbot, the estranged son of Sir John Talbot, the patriarch of, er, Castle Talbot in the Welsh countryside. The dad is played by Claude Rains, an English actor who played the Invisible Man in that classic.

They try to make the story something like, "Larry was successful off in America," as an explanation to why, eh, Larry is clearly a big ol' American lug, while his father is the tiny and calculated Claude Rains. Think...Channing Tatum and Derek Jacobi?

Anyway...something my mom mentioned in a comment is the rampant sexism in these (and most) of the older films. In the beginning of the Wolf Man, Larry helps his father with his telescope. Then he starts looking around the Welsh town where they live, and then peeps a lady in her room. Soon he's using information he's gotten from said peeping to ingratiate himself into her zone, and soon enough he's in love. This prompted a conversation with our kids about love and spying and real things in life, like honestly falling in love, no spying or false pretenses needed.

Bela Lugosi plays a gypsy named Bela, who gets beaten to death---as a wolf---by Larry and his silver-handled cane, but not before he bites Larry, turnign him into the next werewolf.

It's quick, breezy, and hits its mark.

The Phantom of the Opera, from 1943, was shot in Technicolor and was wildly bright and colorful, the production using the new tech to its fullest. It won an Oscar for production design, making it the only Universal horror film to be recognized by the academy in any year.

Here, Claude Rains is back playing Claudin, a violinist with the Paris Opera. His skills seem to have evaporated as his fingers on his fret hand on the violin has lost feeling. He's let go, which puts his secret payments to a singing coach for an understudy from his same village in jeapardy. 

I was convinced the whole time that Claudin was the singer's grandfather, but it turned out he was only 48 (!!) (he looks 75), so then I was convinced he was secretly her father. 

It turns out he was just obsessed with her, but not in a sexual way. Um...sure. Whatever you say.

Claudin tries to sell a concerto he's written, and, to cut a long story short (too late), he mistakingly thinks a jerk has stolen it, gets his face all burned up by acid, steals a master key for the Opera house (a real palace in Paris) which gives him an impossible level of access.

They filmed much of the movie on the same sound stage that they'd constructed for the famous silent Phantom from 1925, the one that stars Lon Chaney Sr.

The very last scene of the movie I enjoyed. Christine DuBois, the understudy-turned-star, has been linked to two fellas who both think they're perfect for Christine. For what it's worth, Christine has a type: the two dudes are at the top of their professions (one is a decorated military and police detective; the other is a decorated opera singer, the star of the Paris Opera), and they both have dark hair and thin mustaches.

The last scene has each guy show up to her room at the opera house trying to woo her, each having brought identical flower bouquets. Finally they tell her she needs to choose. She smiles, laughs, and walks out her door to the waiting and adoring crowd, leaving both men dejected in the room. The detective, half-joking yet half-serious, asks the singer if he wants to join him for the dinner reservation he'd made earlier for an evening with Mademoiselle DuBois. The singer accepts, and they laugh as they interlock arms and try walking out the door together.

That ending was less sexist than most of the scenes we've seen from these classics.

This movie takes a while to get going, and there is so much opera in it that it almost seems like a musical, but the sets are lavish, as are the colors splashed everywhere. It's not a bad time, for sure.

At one point, Claudin takes Christine to his underground lair, and mentions an underground lake. In reality, there is an enormous cistern under the Paris Opera house, the palace itself, that is still used today to train firefighters to swim in the dark.

And that's pretty cool.