Happy Halloween! Monster from "Hyper-Reality" (Repeat)

On Sunday [October 29, 2017] I posted another piece about my uncompleted 35mm short film epic, Hyper-Reality. It's Halloween today and I thought I would post an on-set photograph of the film's monster.

Actor Mike Garr rehearses a fight scene with the monster -- actually a guy [my brother] in a costume that I designed and built (with some valued assistance from Erminia Diamantopoulos).

When the fight choreographer first saw the costume, she said: "I find that really disturbing."

Charles Bukowski on Cats

"Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you'll feel better because they know that everything is just as it is. There's nothing to get excited about. They just know. They're saviours."

Cats know.

Charles Bukowski on The Cat

"A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won't let go."

The cat knows.

Andrew Cartmel Writes Again

One of my favourite active writers is Andrew Cartmel. His fiction and non-fiction works have me waiting for the next in line.

His blog, Narrative Drive, is a series of thoughts on books and movies, old and new. The Brit's infectious enthusiasm is apparent in the various postings, with the recent bits on a number of pulp crime novels making me want to explore the genre beyond the book covers....which are fab!

The "Vinyl Detective" series is now five strong, with the latest book scheduled to be released later this year. I've read the first two in the chain, and have reviewed them ("Written in Dead Wax"", "The Run-Out Groove"), with the third ("Victory Disc") sitting on the reading table waiting to be enjoyed -- Turk and Fanny await their biscuits, so get on with it, mate!

Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-1989 is an absorbing non-fiction work about Cartmel's tenure on Doctor Who, just as that long-running British science fiction series was winding down -- though they did not know it at the time, of course. (I rarely, if not barely, mention the new "Who". It does not offend me; it just bores me. I tried watching a few eps recently.) The show's encumbrance by a static budget, with a BBC "sixth floor" in stasis, makes one who is interested in TV production appreciate what DW's new script editor had to deal with when producing product. These television makers weren't the first to experience "if it's not one thing, it's another", so much a part of any production, big or small, and their tasking of reinvigorating and maintaining a series that BBC controller Michael Grade so vocally despised, albeit not always without reason, should make one realize that what went-out to your telly was often a simple reduction and compression of uncontrollable chaos. (Sitting in a pub till late at night instead of working on that special makeup might not sit well with those who hoped for more; even considering the restrictive budget. And in the control room, that televised cricket match may very well be more interesting than what's playing on the in-studio monitors.)

Script Doctor is outstanding. The fact that Cartmel drew much of the book's source material from a diary that he kept during Who's writing and production phases, makes for full-spectrum authenticity. I'm working on a review, with the initial draft coming fast: the piece opens with a background story on my relationship with the classic series. But I soon realized that I want to watch a few more stories from the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan" era before I publish the book review. Thank you, Britbox! They're all there.

The story's in process. I just need a little more time and space....

Isaac Asimov on Education

"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."

... and then Facebook came along.

The Space Probe Golden Film Record (Repeat)

You may pick just one feature film to be included in the Golden Record on the next interstellar space probe. It must represent what mankind is capable of doing in the motion picture form; which is why Forrest Gump cannot, or should not, hitch a ride on a vehicle that may go on its forever journey -- eventually to be found by another race of beings. (Now that I think about it, Forrest Gump himself might be a prime candidate for the trip to somewhere, some millennium, never to be seen again; at least not by humans.)

Back to the probe: My own pick might just be:

Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1927 epic. The imagery is so forever, the film as a whole, so quoted and referred to, that, to me, there is no better representative feature-length motion picture.

A few years ago I got into a discussion with a friend about the matter and he said his pick would be 2001: A Space Odyssey, another "forever" piece of film art.

As much as I like Annie Hall, Bicycle Thieves, and Patton, I don't feel they best represent the 'bandwidth' possible in the art form.

What? Plan 9 from Outer Space? I had forgotten about that one....

Book: The Rebel Christ (Coren)

The Rebel Christ

Written by

Michael Coren

Dundurn Press

2021

The Toronto Maple Leafs Lost Last Night

“Obviously losing sucks, especially when you lose a couple in a row."

... so stated mathematically-challenged Leafs player Auston Matthews after a fourth straight loss; this time to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Well, Mr Matthews, welcome to playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I've been following them since the 1970/71 NHL season. And following them has been easy simply because they are easy to keep up with -- even in my slippers....

A Forever Question: Poverty Row

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Why is life close in spirit to a B movie?

Picturing: Fresh Broccoli Stem

What A Match! (MUN vs LIV)

I took the above snap seconds after Liverpool FC forward Mohamed Salah netted a hat trick; each of his three goals a beauty.

History was made today in Premier League football.

The play-by-play announcer noted that, before today's match, Manchester United had never gone into half-time while down by four goals to nil.

I'm Anarkyvist: Time Warp Television - CKVR - Adverts and Bumpers (Repeat)

 

In early 2011 I felt it was time to start digitizing my VHS collection of over 200 tapes. To YouTube I went and signed up under the improbable and somewhat mysterious name of "Anarkyvist". The project got off to a good start, but after the initial volley, I seemed to lose interest while gaining other convenient distractions. It.'s time to go back to those VHS boxes and the conversion process, but for now I will take a look back here on this blog....

"While in the process of digitizing a mass of VHS tapes, I came across some material that I recorded off of CKVR television in 1991-92. Back in the day when they used to be a great station, "VR" ran a framework concept titled "Time Warp Television" which showcased old television classics such as "Gilligan's Island", "All In The Family", "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Star Trek", "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "Lost in Space", and (the less classic) "Land of the Giants". I popped together this little clip of bumpers, adverts, and promotions. There might be a Part Two...."

I will correct the recording period specified in my YouTube intro: it should read as "1992-93". The "Time Warp Television" framework programme started in the 1991-1992 television year with an offbeat host by the name of Nabu Perini (spelling?). Unfortunately for regular viewers, he, and his Elvis bust, left after Time Warp's premiere season. On the tape that I pulled the above clips from he is nowhere to be found doing his "streeter" thing. However, in one of the clips he can be seen walking ('behind' William Shatner) with a Super-8 movie camera.

Yes: Voyage, to the Bottom, of the Sea!

Film Design: A Matte Painting Concept Sketch

Ron Hobbs: Storyboard Artist and Artist in Toronto

Note: I know Ron, and have for years -- occasionally we get together to talk all things film -- but I am not his agent, so I present the following artwork simply out of respect for his talents.

I'll let the artwork speak for itself:

 

"Mama"

"Hemlock"

A Short Graphic Story Based on the Screenplay Called:

 

www.ronhobbsstoryboard.com

Paul Darrow (1941 - 2019) Remembered

The late British actor Paul Darrow played many characters throughout his long career, but he's best known for his dynamic portrayal of the charismatic Kerr Avon on Blake's 7, a science fiction television series which originally ran on BBC1 from 1978 to 1981.

"Avon", whose electronics and computer skills were as tremendous as his greed, was just one of the astounding space characters in the renegade band of Roj Blake. The series' titular leader sparred often with his tenuous ally. But Avon was just the man Blake needed in his efforts to overthrow the totalitarian Terran Federation.

Blake's 7 was referred to by some as "Star Trek on a budget", but that did not matter since the scripting and characterizations set it apart from most television SF pap. (Still do.)

This was pure Avon:

"Listen to me. Wealth is the only reality. And the only way to obtain wealth is to take it away from somebody else. Wake up, Blake! You may not be tranquilized any longer, but you're still dreaming."

Great stuff.

Paul Darrow could have been born to play Avon.

The King's Depths (Repeat)

Introduction: The following piece I wrote on October 6th [2020], but after completing it, and just before pressing the "upload" button, it struck me as being in bad taste given what little we knew of the U.S. president's overall condition at that time....

U.S. President Donald J. Trump was admitted to Walter Reed National Medical Center on Friday, not after already being tested and confirmed as COVID-19 positive, but after feeling unwell throughout the night. He was advised to seek serious medical treatment, immediately. The president has long downplayed the severity of the virus, and has ignored the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans. Deaths but a little inconvenient: for him, and for the people who've died. Yesterday he exited Walter Reed and took a joy ride in his armoured vehicle to show his faithful, who stood outside with their banners of support and reaffirmation, that the king had beaten the unseen and not-real plague.

Later in the day Trump went home triumphantly to the White House and waved with laboured breath to the crowd. All was good again in the Great Kingdom.

If this were a Brothers Grimm story, how might it end? Most of us would not wish something like this on Mr Trump, but, given his mean nature toward his fellow man and woman, one can have fun with a fanciful tale....

"King Trump, while dining late one night on food fit for kings, felt a great disturbance in his belly and breast, a rumbling of which he recalled from days and nights before. He sweated all over, and he gasped for life. His minions rushed him to the town's physicians, who, with armour and tools, battled for him through the night, only to lose the king of kings in the darkness.

His faithful villagers did not fret for long at the sight of their immobile once-proud King. They ate him all up."

Post Script: I understand that this tale is even darker in the original German.

Flash Poem: A Friend Departs

I just remembered!
How was the affair?

And just realized:
You're in the air!

___

2018

Simon St. Laurent

Please Don't Key-in "Toronto Maple Leafs" Here

With the 2021/22 National Hockey League season upon us -- but not "upon" me as I much prefer Premier League football -- it is time for me to look back at my postings regarding that poor bastard of a sports franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I must clarify something: That ice hockey club is one of the greatest of sports team money-makers... it's just that they don't win much of anything, certainly not the coveted, and gorgeous, Stanley Cup.

I plead with you, dear reader, that unless you want to be duly entertained, please not to do a search within this blog using the key words "toronto maple leafs". Clearly I am not a fan, but for some reason I like to mock a big-name sports team that has not won a league championship since 1967. Yep, nineteen sixty-seven. That was before man landed on the moon and pre New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers. That long ago....

Please let me introduce you to my Toronto Maple Leafs world, with the subject's kick-off piece I wrote in March of 2016, and one which explains, fully, where I am coming from:

An Admission 45 Years Later (Maple Leafs Forever)

On Saturday, February the 13th , I came clean by making a long awaited admission of misplaced support from 1970.

Today I will admit something about "misplaced support" from 1971.

In April of that year, deep in the National Hockey League playoffs, I, for some bizarre and inexplicable reason, was hopeful for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team in eternal question was playing against the New York Rangers, a good, solid club, and one coached by the great Emile Francis.

The date was April 15th, it was game 6 of the quarter final round between these two members of the "original six". The Rangers led the best-of-seven series by three games to two.

Overtime: This match, tied at 1-1, was resolved with venomous brutality when a Rangers player (Jean Ratelle? Walt Tkaczuk?) scooted down the ice over the Leafs blue-line, through a hapless Leafs defenceman (Jim McKenny?), and snapped off a quick shot. Goaltender Jacques Plante shot out his right leg, he stretched out his toes, but failed to stop or deflect the smoking disc-shaped piece of vulcanized rubber from fulfilling its Nomad-like programming. The next event was more acoustic in nature; the sound of what happens after a speeding 6-ounce hockey puck motions past a Leafs goalie at such a critical time in the NHL season. "Clank!!!"

(Forever Futility.)

I did my job quite well: I was a pro. I (got a wee bit upset).

My dad laughed, no doubt amused by a hockey-loving kid who had yet to snap out of a silly phase. I can still picture him, to my right, getting a kick out of my "upset". Translation: "Kid, it's just a bleedin' game. It means absolutely nothing in and among the grand schemes of life." (My dad was right, of course; except when his beloved Habs lost.)

For decades I've asked myself the question: "Why?" Not the question of why a Leafs goalie would fail to stop or deflect an ice hockey puck, which even an answer of "42" could not explain away, but why I would waste allegiances on a total, complete, absolute, non-achiever. This memorable match had played out mere weeks after my 10th birthday, and after the Leafs team began to brush up on all the interesting local golf courses and beer halls, I would, in guided prescience and with great leaps of maturation, shoot my affections to the Montreal Canadiens. This would pay off -- sorry for the spoiler, young ones -- and my reaction this time around would be one of: Joy.

Toronto-based sports journalist Peter Gross reported on the wireless this morning that the Toronto Maple Leafs are just one loss away from being "mathematically eliminated" from making the playoffs this year.

This cynic must admit: That loosey-goosey sports organization has been improving since 1971. By way of avoiding playoff games on a regular yearly basis they spare many a 10-year-old from having certain hopes and, more importantly, breakdowns. And from having anything of relevant interest to write about 45 years later.

(Replay: "Claaaaank"!)

A Forever Question: Canadian Media Needs

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Can Canadian media have another Michael Maclear?

Sunday Fun: Football Matches Score

Multitasking? What, like doing actual career-type work while watching Premier League football matches?

At 9am, now: Everton vs West Ham

At 11:30am: Newcastle vs Tottenham

Yesterday's matchup between Leicester and Man City was pretty thrilling. Three goals were scored within five minutes, with goals two and three just fifty-five seconds apart: City; United; City. (Minutes 78, 82, and 83.)

After that flurry, I yelled out: "This is a bleedin' ice hockey game!"

Back to 'work'....