Friday, August 31, 2018

James T. Kirk on the Soldier and the Diplomat

I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. I can only tell you the truth.

While a fictional character, Captain James T. Kirk could tell us the truth.


Thursday, August 30, 2018

George Lucas on Star Wars 1977

It's just a movie. It's no big deal. I don't think it's all together that well-made a movie, because I was working under extremely difficult conditions.

It is just a movie, but it's a well-made movie and many of us enjoyed the result.


George Lucas on Film School

When I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker, all my friends thought I was crazy. Nobody went into film; the girls all gave a wide berth to film students because they were supposed to be weird.

Yeah, I remember that all too well.


Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Mike Stoklasa on George Lucas and Star Wars

"I'm not convinced that George is this genius filmmaker that he's always been portrayed as being. I see him as a guy who had a neat idea to make a space adventure movie in the spirit of the old Flash Gordon serials. Modernize it a little, make it share a lot of visual elements with World War II, add some mythological elements and call it Star Wars. Then get a whole other bunch of people to make it work somehow . . . He works best when other people take his ideas and work with them. When he writes and directs, it's disastrous."

I agree with the above in whole and in parts. George Lucas has been elevated by many Star Wars fans as being the great being. The human being is humble, often repeating the down-to-Earth line: "People, it's just a movie." Indeed it is....they are. But this is not to take anything away from Lucas, and contrary to what impression Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa might convey in the above quote, the Star Wars creator slaved at his writing desk for thousands of hours over a few years to come up with the universe for his "Flash Gordon-like space movie". He had advice and feedback over his push to come up with a story, the story, but it was good old creativity's hallmarks: blood, sweat, and tears. (And in Lucas' case, a lot of self-inflicted hair snipping.)

Distillation is part of creativity.

The first Star Wars movie, Star Wars, no "A New Hope" crap, was the result of a creative mind; not to forget a hard working writing hand of limitless stamina. Many other creative minds added layers of essential brilliance: Taylor, McQuarrie, Dykstra, Mollo, Williams, and many more. (The film's opening title crawl was 'translated' by filmmaker Brian De Palma and film critic Jay Cocks from Lucas' unwieldy and rambling original.) Let's not forget the talented cast. Not to be forgotten on the casting note: Lucas spent hundreds of hours picking his cast, taking the care to see how they played off one another. (He had taken the same approach with American Graffiti. Also to remarkable effect.)

Filmmaking is a collaborative art. Of which Star Wars is a wall-poster illustration.

As for the bit: "When he writes and directs, it's disastrous." Watch THX-1138, American Graffiti, and, of course, Star Wars. So much for that theory. When it comes to speaking of the "prequel films", of which I will not speak in the conventional sense, Stoklasa is bang on with an explosive force to match the destruction of the Death Star.


Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Revisiting a Certain RAF Bomber Command Aircrew

The most popular postings on this blog are not those of my amazing work and writing. They are of my dad's experiences with No. 626 Squadron of RAF Bomber Command during World War 2.


From September 27, 2010

Aircrew - RAF No. 626 Squadron Lancaster - 1945

Further to my posts below, here is some information provided to me courtesy of Dave Stapleton of "The 626 Squadron Research Project". Here is the roster of my dad's crew-mates on a 626 Squadron Lancaster bomber:

Pilot Officer A R Screen - RAF - Pilot
Flying Officer R J Lovell - RCAF - Navigator
Warrant Officer E A Ellum - RAF - Wireless Operator
Flying Officer D H Mitchell - RCAF - Bomb Aimer
Sergeant W R Bradley - RAF - Flight Engineer
Sergeant H W St. Laurent - RCAF - Mid-Upper Gunner
Sergeant C Rodger - RCAF - Rear Gunner


As indicated by the listing, RAF bomber aircrews were made up of men from different Commonwealth countries, not just from the U.K. Hence four Canadians. If memory serves, my father told me that Sergeant Rodger was from Toronto.

Those guys were a brave bunch. When I was in my late teens or early 20s, I would bellyache something like: "Ohh... where's the bus? My feet are cold." Okay, jerk, try the following: Cold or even frostbitten hands (if you were a gunner); flak exploding all around; getting 'coned' in searchlights over a city; coming under attack from a lurking night fighter, with your pilot sending your bomber into a violent corkscrew maneuver -- as the gunners open fire and fill the inside of the fuselage with fumes of cordite -- to increase your chances of seeing home that night; a bomb dropped by a friendly bomber above hitting your own aircraft, and right beside where you are sitting (that happened to my dad on a trip); wondering if you might end up bobbing about on the North Sea in the middle of the night, or having to bail out over enemy territory....

Those cold feet don't seem to be so bad, after all.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Toronto Film Society Presents....

"Bad Guys, Mad Guys" Season 71 Summer Series

From July 9 to August 27, 2018


Yesterday while cleaning up I found a pamphlet of interest to me. It makes perfect sense that I pick it up, file it, then find it again the day before the last screening in the series.

The Threat (1949) and Rope of Sand (1949) run tonight at the Carlton Cinema starting at 7pm.

It make even greater perfect sense that I won't be able to attend the screening thanks to the "short notice".



For years I've been wanting to see Mad Love. The movie, not so much the act....

Sunday, August 26, 2018

I Love My Sunday Funnies

Sunday mornings are my newspaper reading time -- even though news reading kicks off my day every morning.

Longtime U.S. senator John McCain died yesterday and the news hit hard. For some reason a certain Toronto-based newspaper refuses to cover his passing front and centre on its website.

The missing news was obvious. Even I was not looking for trouble.

Of course the Toronto Sun won't mention John McCain: the fearless man turned against and frequently called-out President Donald Trump, whom the fine folk at the Sun love.

A few weeks ago the Sun gave no ink to the issue of Ontario Conservatives "clapping out" reporters' questions. Can you imagine if Liberal or NDP members did that? We'd never hear the end of it.

The motto at the Toronto Sun: "Whatever's Convenient."

I love my Sunday funnies.

Back to School Gadgets Again?

Back to school gadgets. Again.


From August 22, 2017:

Back to School Gadgets

Something I heard minutes ago: "Back to school gadgets."

Back to school gadgets? When I was in elementary school the only thing that might have qualified as a back to school gadget was a pencil case (there was a zipper that moved), or, even better, the compass inside it (I could adjust the instrument's spread).

Actually, there was, and still is, the combination padlock for the school locker. It was cool: after closing the lock you could open it again just by spinning the center spinny thingy in the right directions and in the right increments.

Some things stay the same. Even with great advancements in technology.


Next: My Texas Instruments T-1250 pocket electronic calculator. (Just $25 -- in 1975 currency.)


Saturday, August 25, 2018

A Repeat of a Partial Operational Record Book

The most popular postings on this blog are not those of my amazing work and writing. They are of my dad's experiences with No. 626 Squadron of RAF Bomber Command during World War 2.


From September 22, 2012:

An Operational Record Book (Partial)

The postings on this blog with some of the biggest hit counts are those regarding RAF Bomber Command No. 626 Squadron, with which my father flew during the war.  I thought it time to add a little more information regarding his operational record.

Here is a partial list -- culled from material provided to me by Dave Stapleton of The 626 Squadron Research Project -- of "ops" flown by Flying Officer A.R. Screen and crew:

Date - Target - Notes

12 March 1945 - Dortmund
13 March 1945 - Herne - The target was a Benzol Plant
23 March 1945 - Bremen Bridge
14 April 1945 - Potsdam
22 April 1945 - Bremen - Mission abandoned on Master Bomber’s orders.
25 April 1945 - Berchtesgaden - Hitler’s Eagles Nest in Bavaria (specifically, the SS Barracks)

With the Allied forces now advancing well into Germany, Bomber Command now turned its attention to humanitarian sorties and 626 Squadron was similarly tasked. (The Squadron’s Lancasters were converted to carry sacks of food in the bomb bays. Each aircraft carried 284 sacks; these were dropped from 500ft.) The crew flew two of these sorties:

30 April 1945 - Rotterdam - Operation Manna
2 May 1945 - Rotterdam - Operation Manna


Special thanks to:

Dave Stapleton
The 626 Squadron Research Project
Copyright 2010 ©


Post script:

A few weeks ago I was telling a friend how young these guys were who flew in RAF Bomber Command. My dad was nineteen; his crewmates would have been that age or a year or two older. I joked with my buddy that if this particular aircrew was known for doing something special during the war, and a movie were made about their experiences, the guy in the role of my dad would probably be an actor in his late twenties or early thirties. And Flying Officer Screen would no doubt be played by someone like Johnny Depp.

Film producers, who aren't known for being a bright lot to begin with, often miss on details like the above.

Friday, August 24, 2018

The Most Popular of Posts Here

The most popular postings on this blog are not those of my amazing work and writing. They are of my dad's experiences with No. 626 Squadron of RAF Bomber Command during World War 2.


The first in that series; from March 7, 2010:

626 Squadron - Royal Air Force


I’m just old enough to have had a father who served in World War II. I say this as when the subject comes up I am asked how I can be the offspring of a Second World War veteran – I’m 48, and I am one of the second batch as my late father had been married before.

In reference to that great opening speech in one of my favourite movies, Patton (1970), where George C. Scott as George S. Patton addresses an unseen crowd of soldiers, my father did not ‘shovel shit in Louisiana’. He served in RAF Bomber Command; specifically as an Air Gunner on Lancasters with number 626 Squadron. I say this, I suppose, partly in the hope to snag those former aircrew who might be surfing the Net after keying “626 Squadron” into their search engines. My dad’s “Skipper” was Pilot Officer A. R. Screen; referred to by his crew as “three engine Screen” as their Lanc often lost an engine on sorties.

As I discovered a few years ago after keying the said search I found out that there is a British gentleman, by the name of Dave Stapleton, who dedicates time to researching the very same squadron – he too has a connection to 626. Last week Dave sent me a nice panorama shot which had been taken of the squadron's crewmembers a couple of weeks after VE-Day. These large-format photographs were taken of the squadron previously during the war (as they were for other squadrons) but what is interesting about this one is that these guys survived the war. My dad is in there somewhere but, as the picture does not come with a “key”, I have to corroborate this one with the siblings.

Not to go on too much about the subject, Dave also supplied me with my dad’s Operational Record, but I will end with this: “This raid on Berchtesgaden was the last operational sortie flown by 626 Squadron, and the last major raid of the war in Europe. Two targets were identified for the raid, the Eagles Nest itself and the SS Barracks nearby. 626 Squadron’s target was the SS Barracks.”

Thanks again to Dave Stapleton for his fine research work: http://626squadron.org/


* The photo above is of the very Lancaster that my father flew in on the ‘Berchtesgaden’ operation; in addition to two earlier raids, including one on Bremen three days before. (The crew pictured here is not his crew.)

Supporting the Toronto Sun's Party Line

A guest column in yesterday's Toronto Sun extols the virtues of a "Prime Minister Andrew Scheer".

It opens:

"Like almost every conservative I know, I believe Andrew Scheer would make an infinitely better prime minister than Justin Trudeau."

Fine.

I continue reading.

This feels like an advertisement for the Conservative Party of Canada. (A Toronto Sun specialty. What is "newspaper"?)

Fine.

The editorial was authored by Kory Keneycke, a man with quite the work history.

It ends:

— Kory Teneycke was director of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, founder of the Sun News Network, and campaign manager for Ontario Premier Doug Ford

I find that funny.


(Note: In his list of Scheer attributes, Mr Kenycke conveniently forgot to mention certain financial indiscretions.)


Thursday, August 23, 2018

George Lucas on Thinking Upwards

As corny as it sounds, the power of positive thinking goes a long way.

So true but so undervalued.



Wednesday, August 22, 2018

There's a New Butterfly in Town

I learned minutes ago that there is a new film called Papillon. For weeks I've been meaning to post the first in a series along the lines of "Movies that Hit Us". Now I have a natural lead-in courtesy of something I discovered this morning.

(The few scenes I saw looked grim, thematically, and pictorially. The picture "light" was wrong, and I found out why. It was shot in Europe. Its sunlight, direct or indirect, is not right for a story that takes place in French Guiana.)

Prelude to the Piece:

Papillon (1973 - Franklin Schaffner)

My buddies and I loved it when we saw it at the Terra Theatre in CFB Borden. Since we were young at that time we couldn't necessarily articulate why. But we raved outside the theatre doors, nonetheless. (Some answers: great performances, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman; and a brilliant score, Jerry Goldsmith.)


Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A Certain Toronto Morning Show

Like many Torontonians, I'm aware of CITY television's morning show Breakfast Television. We know it through osmosis if we're not regular watchers. One thing struck me as I watched a "BT" program very recently:

I remember Jennifer Valentyne posting her usual morning "remotes". She'd be there, wherever, live with her microphone, covering an event or place. What I also remember is the news from two years ago where she was being relieved of her mic by Rogers Communications, runner of BT; they wanted to "go in a different direction".

Fine.

So why is there now a new host doing exactly the same thing Ms Valentyne was known for? (I ask, very well knowing the answer.)


Monday, August 20, 2018

Cat Get Mad Even

Here's something I should have posted during this year's International Cat Day:

A joke among cat lovers is you can't get mad at the little beasts, even when they do something that, if it were a human, would get you upset and angry. Kitty commits an indiscretion and we break into a giddy laugh.

"You can't get mad at them."

Willie could have pulled a hand phaser, one set at "Dematerialize", on me and I would not have gotten upset. He could have pulled the trigger, same answer. The red beam travelling past me and taking out the Qing vase, now glowing red and expanding and dissipating, leaving a scorch mark on the paper-lined shelf where it stood for centuries, not upsetting me the least.

That's the power cats have over some of us. They're just too cute to get mad at.

We laugh giddily.


Hey Umpy!

Television highlights this morning of last night's Blue Jays and Yankees game: It was a blowout, with New York winning 10 to 2.

The highlight for me was the Toronto manager being thrown out of the game early for contesting a call at first base.

This former umpire threw a manager or two out; and more than a few players. A fellow ump, a friend of mine, kidded me one day about my infield moves.

"You're always throwing guys out of games." He laughed. He called me "The Turfer".

But not once did I ever abuse such great powers. (And I knew that National League rule book like the back of my hand, even if some did not like my "interpretation" of it at times.)


Sunday, August 19, 2018

Sounds Like a "Man From U.N.C.L.E." Episode Title

The current president of the United States of America shoots his mouth off constantly, giving "verbal diarrhea" new meaning and scope. A Twitterstorm of hostility. Checking the news every morning furnishes one with the latest 'Donald Trump at three o'clock in the morning'.

Some who know him say that Trump is not a racist. Some may be forgiven for thinking the opposite to be true. After all, making racist comments on a regular basis constitutes racism.

We must not forget the man's trash-talking of U.S. allies.

Social media allows Donald J. Trump his own endless version of "The Daily Telegraph Affair".


Saturday, August 18, 2018

Repeat My VHS Purge: The Mummy

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From January 15, 2017:

My VHS Purge: The Mummy





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

The Mummy (1932). A wonderfully creepy, but romantic, horror film that has long been a favourite of mine. I first saw it on late night television when I was in my teens. Before I parted with this particular VHS tape I watched it again and my affections were reaffirmed. The Mummy is more melancholy than I remembered it being but it still contains one of cinema's most chilling scenes.

Repeat My VHS Purge: The Terminator

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From January 16, 2017:

My VHS Purge: The Terminator





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

The Terminator (1984). It was the summer of 1985 when I got around to seeing this now classic science fiction film. A coworker told me that he and a friend had been doing their 'Arnie' impressions the day before. (Sounds like, "Give me your address there".) The Fox-Beaches rep cinema must have been listening; with a friend I trotted off to see a recommended flick.

I rewatched The Terminator recently and still think it's James Cameron's best film. (Avatar can disappear into The Fourth Dimension, for all I care.)

Repeat My VHS Purge: A Night to Remember

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From January 21, 2017:

My VHS Purge: A Night to Remember





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

A Night to Remember (1958) This "Titanic" nut considers the British film classic to be the finest of all the feature length dramatic films made about the famous disaster at sea. I first read Walter Lord's outstanding and absorbing book of the same name when I was 11 or 12 years of age. Seeing the motion picture adaptation a year or two later on television was a visceral experience for me, effectively cementing my interest in the R.M.S. Titanic.

The real story is not so much about a machine, but humanity. A culture of arrogance and vanity (along with bad luck) contributed greatly to the ship's sinking, resulting in the loss of many of its passengers and crew. A Night to Remember is almost documentary-like in its depiction of this tragic event.

Friday, August 17, 2018

As I Described Andrew Scheer Today

Andrew Scheer, current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and Leader of the Official Opposition, has had a difficult time connecting with many Canadians. A lot will rest on his shoulders come the next federal election. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to rate relatively well in most popularity polls.

As I described Andrew Scheer to someone today:

The problem is Admiral Scheer's flotilla is made up of leaky ships. And he cannot command or unify.

Nothing will change, otherwise.

Trudeau will almost certainly win again. Our Prime Minister is far from perfect (who is?) but he has much going for him.

With Scheer on the bridge, the Conservatives are dead in the water.


Repeat My VHS Purge: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 22, 2017:

My VHS Purge: The Brain That Wouldn't Die





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) Most films one thought of as brilliant in his or her childhood don't stand up when viewed from an adult perspective, but, The Brain That Wouldn't Die is not one of them. In my twenties I saw the cut home video version, with the film's infamously gruesome moment completely missing. I felt robbed of a special childhood moment. (I should note that I first saw Brain when it carried the slight re-title of The Head That Wouldn't Die.)

What happens in cases like this is Public Domain (PD) prints end up saving the day for childhood memories.

Positively drenched in atmosphere, The Brain that Wouldn't Die holds many creepy scenes; and ingredients. I suppose one could argue that, in its own way, Brain/Head is every bit as good as Citizen Kane....

Repeat My VHS Purge: Taxi Driver

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 28, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Taxi Driver





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

Taxi Driver (1976) Stunning filmmaking; all departments, including: Direction (Martin Scorsese), Script (Paul Schrader), Cinematography (Michael Chapman), Music (Bernard Herrmann), Editing (Tom Rolf, Melvin Shapiro), Acting (Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and more), etc.

I remember seeing Taxi Driver for the first time on late night television. Few film viewings have had such a grip on me.

Final Note: Check out the VHS tape's box front above. "Jodie Foster is delightful." She certainly is terrific. The 'critic' -- Liz Smith from Cosmopolitan magazine -- was not incorrect, but for such a quote to end up as the box front's representative critical notice tells me that someone at Columbia Pictures Home Video was not doing his or her job.

I can imagine: "Hey, honey, you like romantic comedies. This looks like it might be fun, and something the kids could watch." (Until they turn the box over to read the back....)

Repeat My VHS Purge: Strategic Air Command

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From January 29, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Strategic Air Command





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

Strategic Air Command (1955) Shot in VistaVision, and starring Jimmy Stewart, it is very much a film of its time. But, although born during McCarthyism, this picture avoids glorifying "Strategic Air Command" outright. The men and women have a job to do. No serviceman comes across as blood-thirsty or rings in any way of "I wanna get those Russkies". There is a conscience within the film, a quality all but absent in most films of this type produced today.

Mention must be made of Jimmy Stewart's service on bombers during WWII. His piloting of the Convair B-36 and, later in the film, a Boeing B-47 feels right. 

Strategic Air Command is not a great film, I don't think, but it entertains in an almost sombre manner. And the sugar bowl-sweetness between Stewart and onscreen wife June Allyson is not to be missed. The highlights, for aviation fans certainly, are anything involving SAC bombers flying high above the clouds. In particular the B-36 is lovingly photographed as it soars. Victor Young's beautiful score elevates these sequences, making them almost poetic. Now that is something you do not get anymore. (What's a tune?)

I liked Strategic Air Command when I first watched it on late night television in late 1976 and I still like it.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

10 Quotable Lines from Cats

"Humans? What about them?"

"Sounds like a complete waste of time."

"That's a big mouse!"

"Sleep replenishes the soul."

"Those curtains had to go."

"No! Don't clean up the garage. Bad idea!"

"Can openers? That's putting it politely."

"Even I don't like all cats."

"Why mice and rats? Human infants are too easy to catch."

"Ah, piss on it."


Roger Corman's Political Leanings

I'm currently in the process of re-reading Beverly Gray's insightful book Roger Corman - An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking (2000). It was a pleasure reading it the first time around. Last night I came across this little passage discussing Corman's politics:

... Roger once informed his young children (in the presence of then assistant Anna Roth) that Democrats are naturally superior in terms of both "IQ and compassion."

I've long admired Roger Corman.


Roger Corman on the Monsters Up Front

Don't show the monster too much at the beginning.

He's absolutely right, but in reality the advice is often not taken.


Roger Corman on Why Filmmaking

What turned me on was film, not only as an art form but as an exciting way to make money.

Film can be an art form, and it can be an exciting way to make money.



Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Repeat My VHS Purge: Doctor Who "The Curse of Peladon"

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 4, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Doctor Who "The Curse of Peladon"





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Doctor Who: The Curse of Peladon (1972) For me this is the representative story of Doctor Who. It has: Freaky aliens, atmospheric settings, memorable characters ("Hepesh!"), effective jeopardy, a murder mystery, terrific lines of dialogue ("I'm the Earth ambassador!"), and just the right number of episodes to tell the tale.

"The Curse of Peladon" is perfect Who -- the 'balance of things' is just right. And as a Brit might say, "It's a cracking good story!".

Proof of purchase: I bought the VHS of "Peladon" after doing a little pricing power play. It was January of 1996; I saw the tape in HMV -- on lower Yonge Street here in Toronto -- and then made the natural progression to the great Sam the Record Man store a few doors down and noticed "Peladon" was there too, but at one dollar more in price. (It should be stated that "Sam's" almost always had better pricing.) I went up to the sales guy behind the counter and told him what HMV was charging for the same tape. The quiet man, without saying a word, pulled out his label machine and popped out a price to match the competitor's. Sold. (My wording makes it look as though I had to have that videotape of "The Curse of Peladon".)

Repeat My VHS Purge: Doctor Who "The Tomb of the Cybermen"

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 5, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Doctor Who "The Tomb of the Cybermen"





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) Long thought to be a "lost" Doctor Who, all four episodes were eventually discovered in 1991 residing in Hong Kong. (The copy was a 16mm kinescope used for foreign distribution; the original recording tapes had been erased by the BBC years before.) Considered a glorious find by "Whovians", this one works, I think, because it drips with atmosphere. The actual storyline is almost secondary; at times it seems to exist just to bump and creep along in order to fill four parts/episodes. The Cybermen are great villains, however.

My introduction in any real way, other than having read a fair bit about "Tomb" over the years, was through a British friend who told me it scared him when he saw it as a child. He may have used the word "frightened". Doctor Who certainly scared me when I was a child.

Acquiring the VHS tape allowed me to see "The Tomb of the Cybermen" and I was impressed.

Repeat My VHS Purge: Superliners: Twilight of an Era

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 11, 2017:

My VHS Purge: The Superliners: Twilight of an Era





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes: 

The Superliners: Twilight of an Era (1980) What a morsel of sweet goodness this is to an ocean liner fanatic. Narrated by Alexander Scourby, the best of the National Geographic voices, Superliners tells the tale of the great liners that plied the North Atlantic between the Old and New worlds. The Queen Elizabeth 2 is filmed during a voyage between Southampton and New York City in 1979. This footage functions as a framing, and contrasting, device as it's intercut with archival film, photographs, and interviews with experts and seafarers of all sorts.

Lyn Murray's musical score sets a tone of nostalgia and longing. "Longing" in that the business of moving people across thousands of miles of water was all but superseded years ago by jetliners.

I watched The Superliners: Twilight of an Era when it first aired on PBS in 1980. Years later, seeing the VHS tape for sale made for a quick sail.

Repeat My VHS Purge: Search for Battleship Bismarck

Soon I hope to get back to "My VHS Purge". It's been a while. [This page was accidently corrupted when I went to repost on Feb 15, 2020. The intro was best-guessed, but the rest below is unchanged.]


From February 12, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Search for Battleship Bismarck






As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Search for Battleship Bismarck (1989) Dr Robert Ballard searches for the lost World War II German warship. The pursuit and sinking of the Bismarck is a grand tale of a sea battle between two great naval forces: Britain's Royal Navy and Germany's Kriegsmarine. Search for Battleship Bismarck plays the straight documentary form: Archival footage from the war and battle; interviews with historians, and with men who fought on both sides. The stories are at times moving. One in particular is recounted by former Royal Navy seaman and author Ludovic Kennedy as he reads from his book Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the Bismarck: The HMS Dorsetshire's rescuing of German sailors from oil slicked water is abandoned after a lookout spots what appears to be a U-Boat's periscope. Perhaps the most sobering story told in the film is that of a German sailor whose arms had been blown off in the final battle. He tries desperately to stay afloat and to clench a lifeline with his teeth.

Motion picture film shot from the deck of a Royal Navy warship showing the Bismarck in its death throes may be the most potent and 'truthful' footage of the documentary.

Many documentaries have been made about the sinking of the Bismarck, but Search for Battleship Bismarck carries the National Geographic mark of quality.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

The Great Power Outage of 2003

"It was fifteen years ago today." (August 14, 2003.)

I was at my place of work in downtown Toronto. My co-worker and I stood in front of the bank of VTR (Video Tape Recorder) equipment and chatted some technical business. Suddenly, a harmony of clicks and clacks. And lights going out: overhead fluorescent tubes and the video decks' myriad of little indicator lamps. The shutdown was dramatic. And it meant that every video feed and recording we had going at the moment was rendered useless.

At first my partner and I both thought it was that bloody little local transformer station that too often failed in the middle of a work day. No doubt it'll pop back on in seconds or minutes.

Minutes passed.

Our manager popped out of his office and exclaimed: "There's a blackout on the entire eastern part of North America!" That was drama. Then it set in. We would have no need to finish our shift. Time to go home.

Wait a moment. That means there's no subway. Then, as now, I lived in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood.

Fine. I'll walk home.

As I propelled west along King Street I bumped into a friend and former co-worker who was making his way home. The fifty-minute walk was a great chance to catch up.


That evening I went for a stroll: Shadow People!


Repeat My VHS Purge: Carmina Burana

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 18, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Carmina Burana





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Carmina Burana (1990) No, it's not the music from the film The Omen (1976), as the overture to Carmina Burana, "O Fortuna", is so often mistakenly attributed, including by cinema scholar VIncent LoBrutto in his biography on director Stanley Kubrick, for it's the head-banger intro and extro bit to one of the greatest musical masterpieces of the 20th Century.

Written in 1935 and 1936 by German composer Carl Orff, Carmina Burana is a cantata asking for interpretation by dance company or musical group of all mixes.

This VHS tape is of a traditional performance by symphony orchestra and choir: The great conductor Seiji Ozawa leads the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Shin-Yu Kai Chorus, and Boys Choir of the Staats- Und Domchor, Berlin in a definitive performance of Orff's masterwork. It also doesn't hurt having soprano Kathleen Battle.

Whenever I played this tape my VCR's capstans would rattle.

Repeat My VHS Purge: Chuck's Choice Cuts

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 19, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Chuck's Choice Cuts





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Chuck's Choice Cuts (1982) As good as this tape is, it's not The All Night Show, the source. Tomorrow, Monday, February 20th, I will be posting an article on "Chuck the Security Guard" and his short-lived late-late night series, so I won't go into any great detail here. The VHS has Chuck, actually Toronto-based actor Chas Lawther, doing the kind of thing he did on TANS: Having some fun in front of the camera and showing an assortment of film shorts such as the Superman and Betty Boob cartoons, music shorts, and old movie trailers. The difference is this production was shot in a tape-house machine room and not in a small television's station control room. Also, the original show was live-to-air, which is quite impossible to do on a pre-recorded videotape. I suppose the best way to mimic The All Night Show experience would be to play this tape starting at 1 o'clock in the morning.

I grabbed Chuck's Choice Cuts in the early 'nineties from After Dark Video on Bathurst Street here in Toronto. The store itself had a fine collection of off-beat videos and a decor to match. (After Dark closed its doors years ago.)

Repeat My VHS Purge: Annie Hall

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 25, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Annie Hall





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Annie Hall (1977) My favourite new film release that year and my favourite film of 1977. Woody Allen had not entirely left his slapstick behind him when he made Annie Hall, but somehow those loopy little moments work in this story for the people. I remember that opening night; out came a manager: "Folks, the theatre is almost full. There are individual seats, however." Friend Chris and I looked at one another for approval. "Why not, let's go." We found a freakish arrangement of two side-by-side seats. I sat in the corner-most front left seat while he sat immediately to my right.

That, for those who do not remember, or had yet to arrive on this planet, is how anticipated and popular Annie Hall was in 1977. And soon after the film's opening, the character herself, Annie Hall, became a bit of an item. She spawned a clothing line, of sorts: "The Annie Hall Look."

Part of the reason I picked up the VHS was the low price. Such a small price to pay for a great movie.

Repeat My VHS Purge: Dazed and Confused

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From February 26, 2017:

My VHS Purge: Dazed and Confused





As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tape collection. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

Dazed and Confused (1993) The Bloor Cinema, Toronto, January 1993: The house was packed and the audience reaction was one of "I'm having so much fun watching this", which threw me back to 1973 and American Graffiti. A communal screening feeling was Dazed and Confused.

I would have been the age of the film's 'kids'; part of the "freshmen" pack, even if we don't use those decidedly U.S. terms here in Canada (as far as I know). In addition, initiation rites, certainly at the high school level, and most certainly in the mid 1970s, are not a Canadian thing (as far as I've been led to believe).

Richard Linklater is one of those film directors who understands people, what makes them tick, and cultural inter-dynamics flexed by time and place. Dazed and Confused is a retro time capsule, but in an enjoyable motion picture.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Repeat My VHS Purge: The Blue Max

Soon I hope to return to "My VHS Purge". The series' most recent filing was done on March 5th of last year. Over the next few days I will be revisiting the original "Purge" postings....


From March 4, 2017:

My VHS Purge: The Blue Max

As part of a downsizing project eight years ago I purged most of my pre-recorded VHS tapes. I've never been a big collector of movies -- my DVD library is fairly small -- but the fact is I had accumulated around 70 tapes:

The Blue Max (1966) An underrated epic. Three or four years ago I rewatched it after a prompt from a friend who had himself reappraised the film. He was right. The screenplay is superior, not typical of a 'roadshow' picture, I find. There is the brand of spectacle usually found in the form -- in this case fabulous flying and combat scenes -- but also present is a lot of human-based machinations, the kind that might have impressed the Bard. These finely wrought narrative streams roll to a satisfying climax.

Star George Peppard, while much too old at the time to be playing a fighter pilot (those guys were in their early to mid twenties), is believable as a man who will stop at nothing to get the big prize: The Blue Max, the "Pour le MĂ©rite". Ursula Andress, James Mason, Jeremy Kemp, and Karl Michael Vogler give fine support. As for tech credits, cinematographer Douglas Slocombe and composer Jerry Goldsmith fly high. (What is typical of a blockbuster film is the staffing of top people, in front of and behind the camera. More often than not this loading of talent does not translate into a great movie, or an okay one, even if the individual contributions can be spotlighted and raved about.)

Some of the film's highlights: The balloon-busting sequence; a game of "chicken", with contributions from a bridge; Peppard and Andress; the clash of Allied and German soldiers, complete with visceral hand-to-hand combat (which film critics had somehow not known about when they raved about Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan); and James Mason's 'big stamp' (it packs a punch).

The Blue Max deserves a spin on DVD or Blu-ray....


A Scene Today from Mainz, Germany


Courtesy of my Germany correspondent. (I wish I was in Mainz right now.)