Guilt

The Seventies.  Nineteen-seventies, that is.  Before the Internet, cell phones, and, to the greatest degree, Velcro  When you ran low on fuel, you pulled into a “service” station.  No, not a “gas” station where you pumped your own, but a “service” station where a young man in a bow tie came to your car and greeted you, then sold you premium gasoline at 35 cents a gallon.  While the gas tank was filling, he washed your front and rear windows, checked your tire pressure, motor oil level, coolant (it was called it “water” back then), and your power steering fluid (maybe your brake fluid too, if you asked), and he did all of this at no charge.  When you paid for your gasoline, he presented you with a receipt, a hand-full of Blue Chip stamps (redeemable for merchandise) and a free steak knife.  If this Service Station Attendant worked 40 hours a week at a buck and a quarter an hour, he could afford rent, groceries, a late model used car, a girlfrien...

Movie notes from the Rust Belt-----Youngstown, Ohio. Via my beloved ROKU box streaming Netflix through my home wireless network into the 46 inch HD wide screen Vizio, my Bride and I recently took in a Tim Allen double bill of our own design.  The Six Wives of Henry LeFay and Crazy on the Outside. There’s never too much plot to get in Tim Allen’s way in his movies (or TV appearances, for that matter)--it’s pretty much always Tim playing Tim, and I approve. Six Wives has, as a story, the Tim Allen character being killed in a Mexico para-sailing accident, then having his many ex-wives, a current wife, a future wife, and his daughter deciding what to do about a funeral.  They are all still in love with him.  Much is told via flash-back.  Hilarity and sweetness ensues.  A dandy story featuring Tim Allen, South Carolina native Andie MacDowell, Barbara Barrie (Barney Miller’s wife), and the wonderful Larry Miller (from A Mighty Wind, among other stuff).  Wo...

I watched a brief news story (on FoxNews, of course) about a newly proposed California law.  Interesting stuff. The state democrats in Sacramento have been in control of California since the 50s.  At this point, they really can do whatever they want, whenever they want.  We also know that California democrats are, in general, anti-big business.....anti-business generally, but anti-big business to a large degree.  In general.  Usually.  Depends on the business, I guess. The newly proposed law (I suppose it’ll pass without much discussion given the make up of the state legislature) prohibits the smoking of tobacco products in your home if you share a wall or a ventilation system with any other place.  So, if you live in an apartment or a condo, you can’t smoke tobacco in your own home. It doesn't really bother me if they do this.  I left California many years ago, and quit smoking even longer ago.    But here’s the rub: ...

Did you know that all alligators are crocodiles, but that not all crocodiles are alligators? Crocodiles and alligators are both part of the reptilian order Crocodylia. But they're part of different families, Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae respectively. Usually when people say "crocodile," they really mean "crocodilian." In total, there are some 23 unique species of crocodilians, including those in the lesser known family, Gavialidae. So there, Crocodilian Dundee.

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt--Youngstown, Ohio I incessantly poke fun at the SyFy channel and some of it’s programming--specifically the Ghost Hunters stuff.  Not that I’m particularly insightful with this, but they make themselves such an easy target.  I just can’t help myself.  Nevertheless, that sort of nonsense has always had a rapt audience.  Probably because people have always been frightened at things that go bump in the night. In the public domain now is that 1972, um, thriller, I guess, The Legend of Boggy Creek.  The story is pretty straight forward.  This is the Fouke, Arkansas re-telling of the Bigfoot legend, made on the cheap by using the rural folks playing themselves and done in a sort of “docu-drama” manner.  The narrator was the local weatherman at the local TV station.  Most of the rest of the cast never appeared in any other film.  The guy who made the film, Charles B. Pierce, got funding for this movie by borrowing...

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt.........Youngstown, Ohio Whilst perusing the “Crime” catagory of Pub-D-Hub on my ROKU box, I tripped across that 1944 thriller, Dark Mountain.  Truth be told, I don’t have much use for movies from the 30s.  They’re made in a completely different way, and, like so many other things, I just don’t like them.  But movies beginning in about 1942 (the war years and beyond) really turn me on. Dark Mountain was probably shot in one take and in a couple of weeks tops.  It’s got everything, all packed into less than an hour.  Love, betrayal, good guys (in this case, the U.S. Forest Service), bad gangsters, a wonderful girl, a goofy side-kick, comedy, a car chase, a cute dog, a woodie station wagon, and a happy ending. There’s not much of a story to get in the way of the beautiful mountain scenery, classic cars, and sometimes snappy dialog.  Wonderful girl marries a gangster, but she doesn’t know he’s a gangster.  She gets ca...

I recently caught up with a 1996 Straight-To-Video release starring Sam Elliott, DogWatch.  All of this courtesy of my Netflix subscription and my more than beloved ROKU box streaming the Netflix content through the 46 inch Vizio high definition wide screen.  It’s a wonderful age in which we live, no? The only stuff that keeps this movie from being a classic Noir is that it’s shot in color and doesn’t have any narration.  Everything else is in order.  Snappy dialog, lots of shadows, bad girls, a bad decision on the part of the hero which ultimately leads to his downfall and, well, death, since you asked.  You can tell the age of the movie just by watching the scenes with the strippers--NO TATTOOS.  What a pleasant surprise.  Tattoo-free nekkid women. And that’s pretty much it for the story--Oh, there’s plenty of interesting twists and turns, and Sam Elliott is always good..........and he has the world’s best mustache.  Like my grandmother use...