"Happy Halloween"

The following link comes courtesy of my old pal, ibbq4you2. His moniker suggests he likes to bbq, eh?

You need the sound!

TIC-TAC-TOE

YOU GOTTA TRY THIS AT LEAST ONCE!!!!!
IT'S GREAT.

Click HERE

"Them"

 

Another classic b/w monster movie from the 50's. Dare I say it: they don't make 'em like this anymore.

The creature in the background is supposed to be a giant ant. And it stars James Arness but not as a carrot from outer space. He plays the love interest of the woman scientist pictured in the foreground.

James was a big galoot. At least 6'8". So perfect for playing an alien and Marshal Dillon.

"Them" was on TCM today. Thank goodness for Ted Turner!

"Dr. No"

 

"Collage au Foils"

 

 

"Some Like it Hot"

 

"Turn Out the Lights; The Party's Over?"

The World Series has been cancelled tonight, and I was all abuzz with anticipation. Were the Rangers gonna win its first title, or was there still magic in Tony LaRussa's team?

Chaz Bono was unceremoniously booted off "DWTS's." And one of the judges referred to Chaz as a big penguin or something like that. Chaz was miffed about the comment and has the web-or parts of it, anyway-all abuzz ( there's that word again ).

Golden Pond has my email address as being vietnamcatfish@aol.com. I don't know how to change it and have forgotten the password. So any email correspondence just won't happen.

Mark Richt, the football coach of the Dawgs is on the hot seat. It's being said that he must win the Florida game this weekend or it's turn out the lights; the party's over. And I've always been puzzled about his last name. Is the "t" silent or do you pronounce it? Rick or Richt? Anyway, GO DAWGS in Jacksonville in what they call the largest outdoor cocktail party.

Your film critic went to see "The Thing" this past weekend. It's the second remake. Sorry-gotta go with the original. John Carpenter's first remake is better too. Wasn't scared by the cgi effects. Give me Ray Harryhausen any day of the week.

Seems Netflix has lost 800,000 customers since it raised prices and separated the streaming videos from the dvd's. And, of course, the stock price is down....way down. The public is fickle and wants something for nothing. Ah, reminds me of a time long long gone. I was always nervous when it came to raising prices at the old cafeteria chain. Too many regulars eager to pounce on yours truly.

"What do you mean the "milly" went up ten cents? Oh, the humanity!" And the "super-mealy" went up a quarter? I remember when it costs a dollar two ninety nine!"

So the World Series is cancelled for tonight. What's a sports fan to do? Well. there's a Big 10 showdown between two powerhouses: Pitt and Conn. So, yes, I'm ready for some football! Go DAWGS! Can't wait-all abuzz here.

"They Call Him the StreaK"

Shades of Ray Stevens.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP)—The Pac-12 Conference suspended 10 players Friday for their involvement in a fight that occurred during the first half of the UCLA-Arizona football game Thursday night.

"The Conference is extremely disappointed in the actions of the student-athletes involved in this incident," Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. "It is unacceptable behavior and violated Conference rules, as well as NCAA fighting rules.
"I have taken these actions today because it is imperative that we hold our student-athletes and coaches to the highest standards of sportsmanship."

ut the players got off light compared to the Arizona student whose sudden emergence from the stands dressed as an official set the chaos into motion. In addition to being tackled, cuffed and paraded off the field in his skivvies in front of halftime entertainers decked out in full 19th Century Mexican regalia, the streaker was also booked on a felony charge:

Jace Michael Lankow, 22, was arrested on charges of criminal impersonation and was booked into Pima County jail Thursday night after his televised streaking at Arizona Stadium. Lankow was released Friday, the jail said.
[…]
The criminal impersonation charge is a Class 6 felony. According to Arizona Revised Statutes, the felony can be dropped down to a Class 1 misdemeanor based on the court's review of the defendant's character and history and if the crime was not a dangerous offense.

"Follow that Dream"

Tatum O'Neal's mom is in this one. In fact, it's the lady he's singing the tune to.

"Peter Cushing"

 

Character actor extraordinaire Peter Cushing. I remember seeing him in countless movies as a youngster. "Hound of the Baskervilles" in which he played Sherlock Holmes. And in Mummy and vampire movies. He was in "Star Wars" as well, playing one of the many forces of the dark side. Pun unintended!

"Hail to Thee Old Ivy League"

 

A good song from Roustabout. Which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Leif Erickson. And as the banker, Dabs Greer.

Dabs played the old Tom Hanks character in "The Green Mile."

"Fan in Vegas bet Cardinals to win World Series at 999-to-1 odds"

 

Back on Sept. 12, when the St. Louis Cardinals trailed the National League wild card by 4 1/2 games with 15 to play in the season, some slaphappy fan at the MGM sports book in Las Vegas put down $500 of faith in his team.

What were the odds that the Cardinals were going to come back from the brink and make something of themselves and make this dude some cash? Well, not only can we tell you the odds, but we can also tell you what the payoff is.

The sap true believer, Deadspin reports, wagered $250 at 500-to-1 odds that Team Fredbird would take the NL pennant, along with another $250 — at 999-to-1 odds — that the Cardinals would win the World Series.

Well, the fella (a St. Louisan, Deadspin says) is already $125,000 richer after the Cards upset the Phillies and Brewers in the NL playoffs, and he's three more St. Louis victories away from winning $250,000. Sounds great, doesn't it, cashing in on the old hometown team? But there's a downside....

"Surfer Narrowly Escapes as Great White Bites Through Surfboard"

 

What has been described as a large great white shark tore a massive chunk from a surfboard off northern Oregon on Thursday -- while the terror-stricken surfer was sitting on the board.

Bobby Gumm, a chef in the coastal community of Newport, was about 600 yards off South Beach when a shark estimated to measure 16 feet seemingly mistook the board for a meal. It first brushed Gumm's leg and then bit ferociously into the front of his board, lifting the board and surfer from the water....

"I saw the water churning up like there was a bunch of piranhas. All of a sudden I saw a dorsal fin that was at least two foot in length high and as I saw it I saw the shark actually lift my friend up with the board and everything, it looked like an old geyser or something just lifted him out of the water about 10 feet."

"Stalag 17"

 

Peter Graves played the Nazi spy in Stalag 17. And later starred in "Fury" and "Mission Impossible." And as a pilot in "Airplane."

"They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used to"

 

"Bill Mazeroski"

 

"Play It Again, Sam"

 

 

"John Landis Explores Evolution of Monsters in the Movies"

John Landis has been a horror movie luminary ever since he directed An American Werewolf in London in 1981. In the decades since then, he's seen monsters evolve from elaborate works of costume and make-up magic to elaborate works of CGI.

In his new book Monsters in the Movies, out Monday, Landis explores a century of cinematic creatures, from the currently hot vampires and zombies to apes, genetic mutants, mad scientists, psychos and scary children. Scanning through the book, it's hard not to be taken by the evolution of how Hollywood monsters are created, from rudimentary make-up tricks to really slick technical feats....

To get a taste of the metamorphosis of movie monsters, Wired.com asked Landis to tell us about some of the best beasts in history. See what he had to say in the gallery above. (Spoiler Alert: He gets the ghoul.)

P.S. Some are listed below. And some of my all time favs.

"The Mummy's Ghost"

 

The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

Director: Reginald Le Borg

Landis says: "The mummy movies are a direct result of the opening of King Tut's tomb, which in the 1920s was such a cultural event. By the time of The Mummy's Ghost, the mummy is no longer the lead character. It's usually an evil priest and the mummy's just kind of a killing machine. What's frightening about the mummy at this stage, what's scary is that they don't stop. They're relentless."

"Misery"

 

Misery (1990)

Director: Rob Reiner

Landis says: "That's in the chapter of human monsters. Those are the only monsters that truly frighten me, because they're real. There are psychotics and pedophiles and cannibals. They're real and they're out there. I wouldn't have chosen [Kathy Bates] as one of the best monsters, but for me that was a hugely successful picture. There was something about her character and her look that resonated because she could be the checkout person at Walmart. She's exceptionally normal. That scene where she smashes his foot really hit people because it was so relatable."

"King Kong"

 

King Kong (1933)

Directors: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Landis says: "That is the monster movie. That King Kong was 8 to 12 inches tall. Like so many movie monsters, Kong was a victim. He was just living on his island and white men come and take him away in chains. He really is powerful and a powerful image. I still think this is one of the best fantasy movies ever made."

P.S. Umgawa!

"Jaws"

 

Jaws (1975)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Landis says: "One of the things that always fascinated me about Jaws was how schizophrenic it is. It has this strange structure. The first half of it is literally a classic monster movie, with every cliché intact. Then in the second half, when they go out on the boat, even the score changes. It's really beautifully made and a really wonderful movie."

"7th Voyage of Sinbad"

 

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

Director: Nathan H. Juran

Landis says: "That's for me. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is the reason I'm a filmmaker. I saw that when I was 7 and it charmed me and enthralled me. I went home and asked my mother, 'Who does that, who makes the movie?' And she answered, 'The director.' So from the time I was 8 years old I knew what I wanted to be. That Cyclops is one of the great fantasy creatures. It just has such life and it moves so beautifully. That movie has a fabulous sense of fantasy. These things were moved one frame at a time by Ray Harryhausen's hands."

P.S. Any reader of the Pond knows this is one of my favorite movies.

"80's Week on 'Dancing with the Stars'"

Because Nancy Grace is on "Dancing with the Stars" my curiosity has been piqued. Have never really watched the show, but I'ma watching this one. Carson Kressley was voted off last night-thank goodness. And then there's Chaz Bono, David Arquette, Ricki Lake, and J.R. Not Ewing.

Monday night was 80's week. So here's a song from the 80's.

"Mike Daisey goes after Apple, the late Steve Jobs"

NEW YORK (AP) -- Normally, the launch of a new Apple device such as the iPhone 4S would make Mike Daisey salivate. But not this year.

Daisey, a monologuist in the vein of Spalding Gray and a recovering "Apple fanboy," hasn't upgraded his phone since flying to China to investigate how those smooth, beautifully designed hand-held gizmos are made.

What he found was horrific labor conditions, impossibly long hours and the use of crippling, repetitive motions. He met very young factory workers whose joints in their hands were damaged because they performed the same action thousands of times a shift.

"I was woefully ignorant most of my life. Even though I love the devices deeply, I never had any idea how they were made and never thought about it in the least," says Daisey, who had assumed robots put together his iPad and iPhone.

"I know that people in charge know about these things and chose not to address them," he adds. "And that's hard to swallow when you see the damage it does and you know how little it would take to ameliorate a high degree of human suffering...."

Daisey's eyes were opened when, posing as a businessman, he traveled to the Chinese industrial zone of Shenzhen and interviewed hundreds of workers outside the gates of the secretive Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer. A string of suicides at the heavily regimented factories also have drawn attention to conditions faced by workers inside....

 

"Hank Williams Jr. New Song: 'Keep the Change'"

It's a crazy world, eh? LOL!

P.S. Funny how song writers can pop 'em out in a short time like biscuits outta the oven.

"Pants on the Ground"

 

"Earth vs. the Spider"

 

There's no beating a sci-fi flick from the 50's. This is one of them. I saw it at the old Paramount Theatre in downtown Atlanta. I hopped on the bus, Gus, to make my way into the inner city. You never wanted to ride the electric trolley buses-always the disconnect factor from the electric wires above. Stranded you would be waiting for the driver to reconnect them. A petrol bus was the only way to go.

"The Spider" was made in 1958, so I saw it when I was a mere lad of 7 or 8. Btw, they don't make 'em like this any more.

"Hank Williams Jr. New Song"

Are you ready for some vengeance, vapid lyricism and strained rhyming patterns?


From Yahoo Sports:

Hank Williams Jr. is releasing a new song entitled "I'll Keep My ...," in which he calls out ESPN and Fox News after his remarks about President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler on "Fox and Friends" led to his dismissal from the "Monday Night Football" theme song after 23 years.

The country music singer wrote the song on Friday and is scheduled to release it late Monday or early Tuesday. In its third verse, he takes issue with how Fox took his words out of context: "So Fox 'n Friends wanna put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around...."

"The Thing"

Anyone who has read my blog through the years knows "The Thing from Another World" is one of my favorite movies. And that it's about an alien carrot from outer space.

The original debuted in 1951; the remake by John Carpenter of "Halloween" fame in 1981.

There's another remake on the horizon. October 14th. And, yes, I will be in attendance.

"Living in the Material World"

 

A new film from Martin Scorsese.
Director's Statement

Like so many millions of people, I first came to know George through the music, which was the soundtrack of our world. The Beatles' music, those beautifully lyrical guitar breaks and solos, those unforgettable songs of George’s like "I Me Mine" or "If I Needed Someone," and the images, in magazines, on album covers, the TV appearances, the newsreel footage, the Richard Lester movies; and then there was the world after the Beatles, when George and his music seemed to open up and flower. I will never forget the first time I heard "All Things Must Pass," the overwhelming feeling of taking in that all glorious music for the first time. It was like walking into a cathedral. George was making spiritually awake music—we all heard and felt it—and I think that was the reason that he came to occupy a very special place in our lives. So when I was offered the chance to make this picture, I jumped at it. Spending time with Olivia, interviewing so many of George’s closest friends, reviewing all that footage, some of it never seen before, and listening to all of that magnificent music – it was a joy, and an experience I'll always treasure.

Below is the trailer:

"I'm So Tired!"