END OF MARCH - ALREADY

As the headline says, "End of March - Already". Could be called the death march as time goes so fast and goes in one direction only. Towards that final day. Where, sooner or later, we will all end up, some day.

Pardon the Edward D. Wood brand of prose. I am so tired I don't know what day it is... just that it is the last day of March of 2010. Wednesday! That's what day it is.

News. Ah, Toronto is running into a heatwave. The Pluto will be heading into the 25 degree Celsius range by the weekend. Make sure you visit Toronto, if you have not already. Great city.

Around seven months from now we will be subjected to the first strains of Christmas music for 2010. (Of course we all know that these tunes, which quickly become irritating, fire up close to an entire two months before December 25th... in some big retailers, that is the case; I swear.)

Christmas is a full 1/7th of the year. Think about it! And you had better start now, because you do not have a lot of time.

AVATAR NOT

I finally saw Jimmy Cameron's huge money making feature film Avatar. I was unimpressed in so many ways, including, surprisingly enough, the 3-D.

My original idea was to do a mini treatise on Avatar and its disappointment, but I'll leave it at that... plus I'm really busy right now. You get the idea.

I will say this: Avatar must be the biggest money maker where the majority of people say, when asked what they thought, "it was good... it was okay, I guess". Wow. A couple friends of mine think it is outstanding but I find, in my own little admittedly limited exit polling sampling, the majority is rather ho-hum. "The 3-D was unnecessary" has been a very common comment, and one with which I agree completely. A gimmick, and a not very good one. More annoying.

I really wish Cameron would have a professional script polisher go over his scribblings before his productions go to camera. While I do like a few of his films, I have long felt that they almost always "don't quite get there". He's no Uwe Boll. And that's for sure.

A SATURDAY FRIGHT SPECIAL

Saw the tail end of a short film on Paxels (http://www.paxels.com/), which got me searching for something. I ended up on this...
http://saturdayfrightspecial.blogspot.com/

Here is the "About us" from the above blog:

Saturday Fright Special is New Hampshire's first Horror-Host Television Show. We are based out of southwestern New Hampshire, where we can be seen on Cheshire TV. SFS can now be seen in every New England state. Our show is a trip back in time to 1960s and 1970s television, with public domain films, intermission reels, PSAs, commercials and all kinds of other nostalgia from bygone days.


The main Saturday Fright Special website is...
http://saturdayfrightspecial.com/

The show streams live on www.cheshiretv.org/stream.htm at 10pm on Saturdays. I'll be there.

ROBERT CULP DIES AT 79

This is crazy! So many actors I grew up watching on television are leaving us. Now Robert Culp has died. He of television's I, Spy (with Bill Cosby), multiple and outstanding episodes of The Outer Limits (1963-65), and a favourite feature film of mine, Paul Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).

I remember writer Harlan Ellison saying of Robert Culp, back the 1960s, something like, "he's hot".


The sad news...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/article/784893--robert-culp-79-starred-with-bill-cosby-in-i-spy?bn=1

Info on Robert Culp...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Culp

U.S. HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL PASSES

Good to hear that U.S. president Barack Obama's Healthcare Reform bill has passed the House of Representatives.

What this comes down to for me, the issue, at least, is that I find it disturbing that so many Americans do not think the extra costs involved are worth it to take care of your fellow American. Some would argue, as an article featured in The Atlantic Monthly a few years ago on the 'poor' victims of Hurricane Katrina pushed this same hypothesis, that (too much of) America is a 'me' society: To these people, you are great if you are doing well, financially and otherwise, but just don't dare be poor or marginalized.


The news...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/health.care.main/index.html?hpt=T1

A REWRITE IN TEXAS

You may have heard of the big plan, by the right, to rewrite school textbooks in the state of Texas. I think what is happening is nothing short of chilling.

Ignorance is bliss, ain't it?...
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/schoolsandresources/article/782821--state-of-denial-revisionist-education-in-texas

What is scary, kids, is that kids will be 'educated' by this crap. This rewrite happening in Texas could effect schoolbooks across the United States.

TIM BURTON TO MAKE THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Vic Mizzy's wonderful and sticky theme music from the 1960s television series The Addams Family is about to embed itself in your brain. Permanantly.

Tim Burton will be making a big screen update of the classic Charles Addams cartoon... in 3-D. "Ooh scary, kids! Cousin It will be running under your legs... in 3-D! Ahooo!"

Maybe Mizzy's theme will be adapted by composer Danny Elfman.


The news...
http://tvguide.ca/TVNews/Articles/100320_burton_addams_movie_DW

PAXELS - WEB TELEVISION

When surfing the Net be sure to check out 'web tv station', Paxels (http://www.paxels.com/)

Launched by Toronto-based arts and film guru Dion Conflict in early March, Paxels is getting more and more viewers. The word is spreading.

I could go on but just check the site out, again at...
http://www.paxels.com/

GUY MADDIN WINS FOR NIGHT MAYOR

I just updated my "Current Book With Coffee" entry (on the left) with the book "Playing with Memories - Essays on Guy Maddin", and five minutes later came across this news: Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin has won the best experimental short award in the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, for his latest flick, Night Mayor.

Looks interesting...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/03/17/nfb-guy-maddin.html?ref=rss

Guy Maddin rocks. And I want to see Night Mayor.

PETER GRAVES

I found it to be sad news hearing that actor Peter Graves passed away a few days ago. As a matter of fact last week I saw, for the first time in two decades, a few minutes of a Mission Impossible episode. (It was a later episode, from 1970; Leonard Nimoy had his role as "Paris" by that point.)

In the show's second season (1967-68), Graves replaced Steven Hill as the main IMF guy.

A few months ago I started copying my VHS collection over to DVD-R. A show I have a few examples of is A&E Biography, and most of the ones I have are with Peter Graves as host.

Nineteen Eighty was a big year in motion picture comedy: Airplane. Peter Graves renewed his familiarity with the general public.

One of those class-looking actors that I grew up watching on the telly.

DOCTOR WHO AND KEY TO TIME

Yes, I did already put my time apparatus/reader ahead one hour. I did it over an hour ago... so I would not forget.

Now where did those months go? I could swear it was not long ago that I went from 2 pm to 1 pm. Did I use that extra hour? No.

I've had lots of hours handed to me over the years -- decades -- and I have the innate gift of frittering them away. And then came the Internet...

DISCO DOCTOR WHO THEME ON TOP

I did not realize that the (great) Doctor Who theme had a turn in disco form. Two of my favourite things: Disco and Doctor Who (the original).

Observe this video file from 1978, from the British music chart show Top of the Pops. I'm in there somewhere; the one with the long hair.

POST SOMETHING WINDY

I am busier right now than I have been in quite a while: Articles, reading, studying, and some socializing.

Admittedly this blog has always been something that I do while I have my morning coffee. When I was working a full-time job, that's when my entries here were most dense. Why? Because it is one of many things that you mark (or not) on the wall chart... a list of things to do each and every day. Like many, I am actually most productive when I am busy -- if that makes any sense. Perhaps I'm hoping that you know what I mean.

Wow, is it ever windy outside today.

And more wind from me in the coming days, as things settle into place. I promise.

HURTING OSCARS

"Would you believe, ten best picture nominations?"

"I don't believe it."

"Ahh... would you believe one good picture and nine voting-card specials?"

***

All due respects to the brilliant Don Adams, the Oscars, or rather, the viewers, are in for a treat. Now there are more possible winners of that coveted prize. My faithful readers know that I have no affection for the year's most specialest event -- it's more due to apathy... more important and interesting matters -- but I do support director Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker. Not for an instant do I think it is an Oscar-worthy film, it's good, but not that good, but it would be nice to see a woman director take the gold.

I've tried working through the director's earlier effort, Strange Days, via DVD. What a piece of crap! Although I've managed to make it to the 65 minute mark, and have laughed out loud numerous times, there is a lot more to go... and laugh even more.

Most directors make at least one 'below the toilet water-line' movie. (A "bowel movie"?)

Still have not seen Avatar. And I've heard, from many friends, that Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is outstanding.


* While not the first, Ida Lupino did much to promote the idea of woman as film (and TV) director.

Piece from today's Toronto Star...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/776178--james-cameron-s-teen-chum-prizes-an-early-script?bn=1

SECRETS NO LIES

TVO's Saturday Night at the Movies, tonight, played Brit director Mike Leigh's 1996 emotionally draining opus, Secrets and Lies. It's a favourite Leigh film of mine, but admittedly it's not to all tastes: If you are susceptible to being sunk by "downer" movies, then stay away.

My joke for years has been "you have not seen a Mike Leigh film until you've seen Four Days in July". Some of you might want to keep the pharmaceuticals handy.