Endless Ends

[Endless_Night]

Also the movie Dark City (1998?) is a really good sci-if neo-noir. If that’s something you’re into. I didn’t think I would like it, but it was really good.
Jennifer Connelly was born to be in a noir film and Kiefer Sutherland plays an interesting Peter Lorre-type character. Also William Hurt as the gumshoe detective! What’s not to like?

Whaaaaaaaat?!?!

Sci-fi noir??! I had no idea there was such a thing!

Jennifer Connely? Peter Lorre impersonation? WILLIAM HURT?

Holy Catnip. I am so in!!!

Like yesterday!

 

[Endless_Night]

This is what it must have been like packing for the Oregon Trail.

 

[Endless_Night]

Long day. So. Down the rabbit hole.

(Honestly, I’m too tired to dive far, but even a little is relaxing. )

I have investigated this whole sci-fi as noir thing. Blade Runner, Gattaca, Terminator, Minority Report. I’ve seen, and a few more.

Like.

It may be that I’m confused, but the rules seem to be a little different. I think of the genre as leaning towards dark, or at the very least, ambiguous endings. A couple of the above mentioned - I’m not really sure they fit that blueprint?

Gattaca - Doesn’t he get what he wants?
Minority Report - Doesn’t the bad guy lose and justice prevail?

Admittedly it’s been some time since I’ve viewed either, so maybe I’m missing something….

 

[hotwords229_A]

Long day. So. Down the rabbit hole.

(Honestly, I’m too tired to dive far, but even a little is relaxing. )

I have investigated this whole sci-fi as noir thing. Blade Runner, Gattaca, Terminator, Minority Report. I’ve seen, and a few more.

Like.

It may be that I’m confused, but the rules seem to be a little different. I think of the genre as leaning towards dark, or at the very least, ambiguous endings. A couple of the above mentioned - I’m not really sure they fit that blueprint?

Gattaca - Doesn’t he get what he wants?
Minority Report - Doesn’t the bad guy lose and justice prevail?

Admittedly it’s been some time since I’ve viewed either, so maybe I’m missing something….

Good points. Maybe Neo Noir has different rules?
I don’t know.
This requires further research.
As an aside, the club that Sarah Conner ducks into when Reese is following her (where she first meets The Terminator) is called Tech Noir.
Just saying . . .

 

[Endless_Night]

Love me some Terminator and Blade Runner.

Voice over version, or not?

Inquiring minds….

 

[Endless_Night]

Good points. Maybe Neo Noir has different rules?
I don’t know.
This requires further research.
As an aside, the club that Sarah Conner ducks into when Reese is following her (where she first meets The Terminator) is called Tech Noir.
Just saying . . .

Smarty Pants.

SMARTY PANTS

First thing I did after logging on was go search Youtube for that reference. And let me just say that it was not easy, because I am in the middle of nowhere with no internet. Only phone. Yet, naturally, even though it took FOREVER I could not remain in ignorance.

Smarty Pants.

 

[Endless_Night]

Murder! 1930). Based on Enter Sir John (1928 ) written by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. This is old. Early days of sound, and curiously, Hitchcock’s third talkie.

(Hitch seemed to have a bit of a thing for this storyline. He did it again the next year in German film, Mary (1931))

Premise. Woman is accused of a crime - Murder, in case that wasn’t clear - tried, and found guilty by a jury of her peers. Famous dude is infatuated with presumed murderess and can’t believe she’s guilty. He moves heaven and earth to find the true criminal.

A murder mystery is born.

What caught my particular attention is the similarity to a rather more famous book written about the same time. Dorothy Sayer’s Strong Poison 1930).

Same basic plot. The characters are associated with the scandalous - at the time - arts. One deals with a fledgling actor and famous (knighted) thespian, while the other showcases a writer of detective fiction and a famous amateur sleuth (who just happens to be a peer of the realm).

There are a few differences. In one, the accused took a knock to the head and can’t remember what happened. In the other, the accused steadily maintains her innocence. The motive is also different - money versus a secret. Still, simple changes that don’t change the fabric of the story.

I have…questions.

Like, these women were contemporaries. All belonged to the Detection Club. Dane's and Simpson's book came out two years before the Sayer’s.

- Was this a problem?
- Did Sayer’s *borrow* the plot?
- Were Dane and Simpson, idk..pissed?
- Was there a literary scandal?

- PENS DRAWN AND PACES AT DAWN?


Yes, these are the kind of things that keep me awake at night.

 

[Endless_Night]

In other news, Johnny Dangerously left me underwhelmed. It was supposed to be funny, right?

It was…not so much.

* * *

In other, other (and somewhat more alarming) news, I seem to be taking on the characteristics of a hipster.

No. Really.

I fear for the future. If I start growing a beard, someone, please, by all that is holy, stage an intervention.

No.

Really.

 

[hotwords229_A]

In other news, Johnny Dangerously left me underwhelmed. It was supposed to be funny, right?

It was…not so much.

* * *

In other, other (and somewhat more alarming) news, I seem to be taking on the characteristics of a hipster.

No. Really.

I fear for the future. If I start growing a beard, someone, please, by all that is holy, stage an intervention.

No.

Really.

Maybe you had to see it as a kid? I remember it being really funny. But I was probably 8 or 9 when I saw it, so . . .

You are not allowed to be a hipster.

Care to explain how/why this hipsterism has cursed you? It was a full moon this week. Did you wake up in a Starbucks writing a script, dressed as an ironic lumberjack with evidence that you had been in several Apple stores the night before?

 

[Trekka]

In other, other (and somewhat more alarming) news, I seem to be taking on the characteristics of a hipster.

No. Really.

I fear for the future. If I start growing a beard, someone, please, by all that is holy, stage an intervention.

No.

Really.

Sustainable cottagecore got you all fucked up, eh?

 

[Endless_Night]

< Care to explain how/why this hipsterism has cursed you? It was a full moon this week. Did you wake up in a Starbucks writing a script, dressed as an ironic lumberjack with evidence that you had been in several Apple stores the night before?

I am currently in possession of a hipster vehicle. And, right now, as I type this on my iphone, I am wearing a pink, blue, and grey flannel shirt.

Do something.

Sustainable cottagecore got you all fucked up, eh?

Cottagecore?

*heads off to google*

 

[Endless_Night]

Sustainable cottagecore got you all fucked up, eh?

Oh. My. God.

Seeing as I am in the middle of pricing geothermal heat pumps, can pastoral poetry be far behind?

< Care to explain how/why this hipsterism has cursed you? >

Did I mention I have at least 12 sites bookmarked on the elusive and entirely foreign concept of sustainable gardening for a year?

Gah.

 

[Trekka]

Wait’ll you Google normcore
Yeah, they made that a thing

 

[hotwords229_A]

Seeing as I am in the middle of pricing geothermal heat pumps, can pastoral poetry be far behind?

Those suckers cost A LOT! I was looking into the regular heat pumps recently and

Looks like I’m going back to whale oil.

 

[Endless_Night]

Wait’ll you Google normcore
Yeah, they made that a thing

The ridiculousness of categorizing normal. I did, however, get a kick out of menocore as “aspirational style”

Oh, man.

 

[Endless_Night]

Those suckers cost A LOT! I was looking into the regular heat pumps recently and

Looks like I’m going back to whale oil.

*gasps*

Whale oil? That is completely and utterly lacking in environmental responsibility.

*flicks your chin with my hypothetical beard*

I will see you at dawn, Muscles.

Prepare to duel.

Ironically.

 

[Endless_Night]

Beginning of a ramble. Not posing as a question or looking for reassurance.


1/ I am a January birthday person.

Ahem. Anyway, I have a long-term friend with whom I celebrate birthdays. We are the same age and almost exactly a month apart. Each year we pick one birthday and spend most of the day together. This year I have opted out, and it’s created a rift in out friendship I’m not sure will repair.

She is a rabid anti-maker. (Seriously, I think she’s kinda lost her mind on the subject .) This situation has not been helped by the fact that the half dozen people she knows who’ve come down with Covid have, at most, been mildly ill.

I mask up. Take precautions. Limit my interaction with people.

We both have mild asthma, so are at some risk.

My choice not to co-celebrate may seem obvious. At least, on the surface, but -


- I also risk.

 

[Endless_Night]

2/ One of my relatives works in the medical profession. They have a pre-school age child. The idea of childcare right now is

So, I help with care. Their practice takes all precautions. Yet in the last eight months three of its members have come down with Covid.

Some might say that my risk choice is more understandable. Some might not. Either way, it’s still a choice. A choice to not be as safe as absolutely possible.

Really, is her choice so different than mine? We both still actively chose risk. Under those circumstances does it make any sense for me to potentially crash a valued friendship? Idk, but in some ways that is what I seem to be doing.

Just tossing that out into the ether.


You know, like an overthinking thought for the day.

 

[hotwords229_A]

I mean, this seems like one of those moments where if she is really your friend she will understand your position. Otherwise . . .

In the future, four words that will get you out of anything and no one will ask follow ups: “I have explosive diarrhea”.

You’re welcome.

 

[Endless_Night]

< In the future, four words that will get you out of anything and no one will ask follow ups: “I have explosive diarrhea”.

You’re welcome.

So helpful. Always.

* * *

Geothermal heat pumps. I fear this may cut into my shoe budget for the foreseeable future.

Seriously.

I could buy a car for about the same money.

 

[Endless_Night]

Life has been like running a marathon like a sprint lately. Naturally I grabbed a little relaxation when I could.

I give you, Gargoyles (1972).

The Good: A very young…errr, can't remember his name. The bad guy from Urban Cowboy (1980). Which I have only seen once. Strange movie. (Which might be why I can't remember his name. ) Something of a rather inventive backstory. 500 year incubations. Several different kinds of gargoyles. Fancy-schmancy special effects in makeup.

The Bad: It was made in the early 70s. Need I say more? Several strange plot holes. At least *counts on fingers* four, and that's off the top of my head. Baaaaaad wardrobe choices. The heroine ran around in halter tops the entirety of the movie. In the desert. I mean, it hardly seems suitable attire.

The Confusing: Big Daddy gargoyle abducts the heroine. This always seems to be a running theme in monster movies. Monster fancies human female.

You know, in my youth it never occurred to question this rather bizarre trope. Now, I gotta say, why? It's not like they needed her for procreation. Also, the gargoyle queen was jealous of the attention Big Daddy paid the human. That is a lot of anthropomorphizing!

(There was even a gratuitous scene involving sex reading, where gargoyle/human, errr...stuff was, you know…implied. )

I feel…something. I mean, I grew up on this stuff. Appropriate gender and a reasonable attractiveness was supposed to guarantee, idk…certain kinds of stuff? The movies said so! I am left pondering the ramifications of this whole set of lifelong expectations. Not the least of which that they have seemed to work fairly well. Which rather adds to the confusion.

I feel like this warrants some type of existential crisis....


That's a lot from a moderate 70s horror movie.

 

[hotwords229_A]

“And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty.
And it stayed its hand from killing.
And from that day, it was as one dead”

 

[Endless_Night]

“And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty.
And it stayed its hand from killing.
And from that day, it was as one dead”

KING KONG

Cinephile.

Huh. Was King Kong based on a book? I do not know….

 

[Endless_Night]

Life has been crazy lately. Reading takes concentration. Movies I can veg.

Mary Higgins Clark. Another pull from the parental bookshelf and something of a prolific writer of suspense. Not in the same class as Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense, mind, but certainly quite readable. At least, if I remember correctly. It’s been an eon since I’ve perused.

Anyhoo. It seems several movie adaptions were made in the early to mid aughts. In my quest for relaxation I might have scrolled through a few.

They are…bad.

I mean, like, I’m embarrassed for the actors at how bad.

The plots haven’t aged well. Relevant at the time of writing, no doubt, but not so much now. There are often these crazy side plots. Edgy, maybe, to have dual plot lines at the time? Idk, but when you have a series of murders perpetrated to cover a huge fraud it seems a little over the top for the heroine to have her own (and completely unconnected to the fraud) stalker, who also commits murder.

Overkill? I do believe so. Pun intended.

I am confused. Which seems to be the theme for the week.

These books were best sellers. Back when that meant something. Could they have been as bad as the films seem to indicate?

 

[hotwords229_A]

KING KONG

Cinephile.

Huh. Was King Kong based on a book? I do not know….

Kind of, but not really. I always thought it was highly “inspired” by the book The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Or possibly inspired by the silent movie of the same name.

Also, King Kong (1933 B&W) is my all-time favorite movie.