Blackmoor Vituperative

Wait, what are you talking about, WE decided!? MY best interest?! How can you know what’s MY best interest is? How can you say what MY best interest is? What are you trying to say, I’M crazy? When I went to YOUR schools, I went to YOUR churches, I went to YOUR institutional learning facilities?! So how can you say I’M crazy?

This afternoon’s movie watching entertainment was “The Pink Jungle” (1968). I first saw this movie when I was staying at my grandparents in Virginia Beach, approximately 1975. The room I stayed in had a small color TV (12 inch, maybe a bit more). I watched a lot of movies on that TV, including all of the “Planet Of The Apes” movies. Those, of course, are easy to find now, but this one isn’t. As far as I can tell, it was only released on VHS, and only in pan-and-scan.

The version we watched was clearly digitized from a VHS source, but it was pretty entertaining despite the pan-and-scan. The film was originally released in Techniscope, which was an Italian cheapo widescreen process used in the 1960s. It may not be CinemaScope, but I’d still rather see the whole picture than a pan-and-scan version. Maybe some day.

“The Pink Jungle” (1968) features George Kennedy, who was already pretty well known by this time, James Garner, who at this point was best known for playing Maverick (Rockford Files was still a few years away), and Eva Renzi, who was still making movies until the 1990s, but who is probably best known for this and “Bird With The Crystal Plumage” (1970).

This is a fun film. I hope someone rediscovers it and gives it the widescreen DVD or Blu-ray release it deserves.

But what the hell is up with that poster?

On this day in 2007, I signed up for World Of Warcraft. I met some amazing people… Artisania, Slade, Liore, Shivae, Kolja, Teledriath, Iloam, Heulwen, Kharris…

Those days are gone, but I’ll always remember them, and the people that made them great.

I ran across this quote today (not for the first time). It occurs to me that our fairy tales might have changed, but the lesson is still the same.

“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.”
— G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles (1909), XVII: “The Red Angel”

P.S. This is often mis-quoted as something like, “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.” It’s succinct, and it’s true, but that’s not the quotation. I care about things like that. You might not.

I have tried to avoid dumping on things other people are looking forward to… but yeah, I am tired of the Avengers, Spider-Man, Batman, [that’s not] Superman, Guardians Of The Galaxy…. The only superhero movie I am interested in at all is Black Panther (I am looking forward to that).

I am interested in Star Trek and Star Wars even less. Trek has become just … eh. And the last two Star Wars movies were so bad… just… SO bad… ecch. Barring something coming along as unexpectedly entertaining as Force Awakens, I think I’m done with that franchise (I never thought I’d say that).

I guess this is what getting old feels like.

I’ve been watching all of the Godzilla movies in order. I’m up to “Godzilla vs. Destoroyah” (1995). One of the wacky things about Godzilla movies is their … I guess I’d call it “alternative science”. Most Godzilla movies have at least one scene with people in a lab or around a table, explaining to each other the most nonsensical “science” behind whatever might be happening.

I’m not a fan of professional football, myself, but there’s room enough in the world for people to like what they like. Physical performance is a form of art; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It would be hypocritical of me to criticize someone for what they find fun, don’t you think?

If you are having a good time and not hurting anyone, more power to you.

celebrate your oddities, your work, your sexuality
celebrate your urges, celebrate humanity,
celebrate your fetishes, my message is clear,
there’s no such thing as normal: everybody’s weird

We watched “T2: Trainspotting” (2017) tonight. To put it in the vernacular of the film, it wasn’t shite. I enjoyed it. Quite a bit, actually.

And if you’ve not seen it recently, you really should see the original.