BookBin2013: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

~ lobablanca

spook

I enjoyed Mary Roach’s first appearance here at the lair so much that…rather than read the book of hers that I have owned for almost a decade and still have not read, I found the other book of hers that our local library had in stock and borrowed that instead!

I probably should have gone with the book I already own. I suspect that it would have been more entertaining. That’s not to say that there is nothing enjoyable about Roach’s second book, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. There are several interesting, strange, funny, and disgusting portions of this book that amused (or traumatized) me greatly. Holistically, though, it’s quite an uneven read with a painfully slow start. I think it took me a full four chapters before I finally started enjoy the read. It’s also painfully obvious that Roach doesn’t really believe in any of the things about which she’s writing.

I can’t completely fault her for this outlook. Tackling aspects of the afterlife when there’s not really anything that you can do to prove anything pertaining to the topic…it can be a hard pill to swallow, for sure. But that doesn’t mean that you have to be so…patronizing about it all. Her obvious “Scully” stance on this subject infiltrates every chapter.

To be fair, I have somewhat set thoughts on the “afterlife,” but I’m still not 100-percent certain what I believe (which is why books like this appeal to me in theory). After reading this book, I’m quite certain I know how Roach feels about it all. However, that wasn’t my interest in this book and it wasn’t my hope when I decided to read it. I simply wanted to learn more about other cultures’ views as well as some of the experiments performed in the hopes of applying science to faith. I got that, but I definitely could have done without the accompanying patina of Roach’s incredulity concerning everything she discussed.

Still, there are some interesting portions, as I mentioned. You simply have to suss out the interesting from the supercilious.

Final Verdict: I do believe I shall pass on adding this book to my library. I also really do need to read Stiff at some point in 2014…along with all the other books in my library that I’ve still not tackled. No, seriously. STOP LAUGHING.

Merry X-mas!

~ LobaBlanca

No, denizens, I’m not contributing to the “war on Christmas.” You know me, though…always looking for a loophole. And, in this case, our two lovely well-wishers would say nothing less than Merry X-mas. Think about it…what if, at the end of the series, Mulder and Scully disappeared to the North Pole and took up residence as that mythical toymaking duo, the Clauses? We’d all want to believe then, eh? Plus, they’d still be having crazy adventures with strange UFOs…just now, Mulder would be at the helm!

xmasfiles_660

As a special treat, click the small and get the full-sized version. Use as you wish. Share as you wish. I hope it brings you joy. And, whatever your pleasure, denizens, I hope your day is marvelous. Just like you.

Holiday Flashback: Twas the Night Before Christmas

~ LobaBlanca

As much as I love Rankin/Bass holiday specials, I’m shocked that I completely forgot about their cartoon version of Twas the Night Before Christmas. This used to be one of my favorite Christmas specials when I was a little kid. I suspect it was the singing mice. Or Joel Grey. Either one always gets me. Thankfully, and who knows for how long, someone has posted this cartoon on YouTube. I can only describe my response upon discovering it as “great joy and gratitude.”

Merry Christmas Eve, denizens, if that’s your holiday swing. If not, I wish you the most wonderful Tuesday ever in the history of the universe.

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/bOUFMmprpLI

BookBin2013: Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred-Year History of Classic Horror Films

~ lobablanca

reelterror

This is a first for this year, denizens. This started out as a library loan that I simply couldn’t finish before I had to return it…so I just went ahead and skipped adding it to my wish list, instead buying my own copy right away. I was enjoying it so much while reading it that I knew I was going to want a copy for my own library anyway (guess you can guess what the Final Verdict is going to be today, eh?).

You all know how much I love horror movies. As someone who has been a fan of the genre longer than even sci-fi and Star Trek, I tend to read and watch a lot about horror movies. Therefore, I can say that, from the perspective of a die-hard horror fan, David Konow’s anthology Reel Terror didn’t provide a lot of stuff that I didn’t already know, but did provide a nice timeline of the evolution of cinematic horror as well as an outline of some of the biggest movie high points. The book would be a good genre guide for those who might not be as well-versed in horror trivia but would like to learn more.

To be fair, the book does feel a bit redundant in light of the special edition DVDs of the movies Konow covers, which all have special features that cover a lot of the same ground. Also, a lot of the really big horror franchises have documentaries that cover way more ground in way more detail. For example, if you’re a Freddy Krueger fan, get thee to a copy of the documentary Never Sleep Again…or…just…here:

[hulu id=tbspev-i2zgahnxb13hchw width=512]

It’s also kind of strange how Konow shifts from a more holistic history of the genre in its early days to more specific movies once he reaches more recent times. I guess that’s because he’s more in his comfort zone with modern films that more people know. Then again, isn’t that more reason to go into more detail on the early stuff? So that more people know about them and discover their importance to the genre?

And, since I am an editorial nitpicker, I have to say, this anthology needs an editor STAT. Sentences need tightening, grammar needs correcting, facts need checking. Come on, now. Don’t let poor editing wreck a decent book (and some of the mistakes are really quite jarring).

All this aside, Reel Terror is a nice compendium full of fun facts for both beginners and old pros to the horror scene. If you like the genre or are interested in getting more into the genre, I think this book might be for you (you might want to wait until the next edition, though…maybe, just maybe, it will be properly edited!).

Final Verdict: Um. Yeah. You all are lovely smarties. You know the answer.

Saturdays Are a Scream

~ lobablanca

Hey, there denizens. I was actually planning on doing a holiday-themed Flashback Friday for you last night. However, my plans were thwarted by the subject in question being way too overprotective about YouTube clips. And, trust me, this is definitely a visual.

Instead, I’m giving you this alternative. A few months ago, we took what has become in recent years an annual trip to San Francisco, both for a little bit of work and a little bit of play. Okay, it was all play for me. Part of that play was spending a few days up in the Sonoma region, as any fan of drinking is apt to do. Honestly, though, it’s also a beautiful region; I’ve got loads of photos that I really need to upload here at some point.

Today’s batch of photos, however, are all related to a bit of a pilgrimage that I decided to take this year. Any regulars to the lair know that I have quite a bit of love in my heart for the horror movie Scream. The film, set in the fictional California town of Woodsboro, actually was filmed all throughout northern California, including the towns of Glen Ellen, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Tomales Bay (where Sara Sidle was born; geek love crossover!!), Santa Rosa…places that we go through or to every single time we stay up in this area.

So I did a little surreptitious research prior to leaving, tracked down addresses, made sure I packed my GPS and car charger, made sure I had fresh charges on my camera battery packs…and we were off! Time to track down the locations where director Wes Craven made the idyllicly horrifying town of Woodsboro come to life…and horrorific death.

First stop was Woodsboro High:

woodsborohigh_screencap1

The location they used was in fact the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma, California:

WoodsboroHigh1

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The filmmakers were supposed to use Santa Rosa High School, but the City of Santa Rosa reneged after reading the script and deciding that the movie was too violent. If you watch the credits all the way through, you will notice that Craven gives a “special” thanks to Santa Rosa for this decision.

I found it amazing that Craven was able to take such a small space as the community center and make it believable as a public high school. I was honestly stunned by how small the center is, and how tucked away in a neighborhood it is. If you didn’t know its horror history, you’d drive right past it without a second thought, merrily on your way to one of the nearby wineries.

Of course, associated with Woodsboro High was Woodsboro Square, where all the kids could hear Principal Himbry tell them over the PA system how much he cared about them:

woodsborosquare_screencap

This pavilion is still in Healdsburg’s town square, minus the overhang they built in front of it:

woodsborosquare

And of course, the fountain where Sidney and her friends met up?

woodsborofountain_screencap

It’s still there as well. I hung out for a little while, but Sidney never showed.

woodsborohighfountain

Healdsburg actually doubled for Woodsboro in several scenes, including the police station scenes. The “police station” is now a little market. Ironically, the Healdsburg Police Station is right next door, which means that this alleyway, soon to be the location of “Bam! Bitch went down!”:

policealley_screencap

Is still a police-associated alley…just with the police station on the opposite side:

policealley

Next stop on my creepy stalker tour was Casey Becker’s house:

beckerhouse_screencap

The house, located in Glen Ellen, actually isn’t visible from the road. I found this to be true for both the houses I tried to visit. These foggy early morning shots of the mountains near where the Becker house is located are the closest I could get:

beckerhillside1

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Same with the Prescott house:

prescotthouse_screencap

The closest I was able to get to this house was to take a photo of the drive leading up into the neighborhood, but the big gate at the beginning prevented me from actually driving up there…unless, of course, I had been daring enough to buzz the guard and explain that I just wanted to creeper-stalk the “home” of Sidney Prescott. I’m sure they would have immediately let me in. Totally.

prescott_driveway

It’s a shame I couldn’t get up to this house…not only because Sidney Prescott is one of my favorite horror heroines, but also because I would have loved to have been able to catch a glimpse or two of this amazing view that the Prescott house overlooks:

prescottvista_screencap

These two experiences with trying to get to these houses got me thinking a bit more about the movie in ways that I hadn’t really considered all that closely. Got me thinking to the point where I started formulating my own “thesis” for some imagined film studies class…I would call it “Woodsboro: The High Cost of Isolation” or something equally undergrad-clever. Almost every house they used for Scream fit this same mold: beautiful, sprawling property, nestled far off main roads, cut off from traffic, from city life, from everyone. The initial purpose of this is obvious: You want your characters to feel cut off, alone, trapped by the killers. But there’s more to this if you keep looking.

Houses like where Sidney, Casey, and Stu live are muy expensivo. Takes a lot to afford these levels of privacy. So you’ve got well-off families, enjoying the privilege of solitude that money can buy. The parents of all these kids also obviously enjoy other privileges of money. Think about it: The parents are almost non-existent in this movie (as is usually the case with teen-centric horror movies). Casey’s parents are out enjoying an evening alone while their daughter settles into an obviously familiar “all by myself” routine, Sidney’s dad leaves her alone because he has an out-of-town work meeting (can’t afford a view that beautiful and sprawling unless you’re working some serious hours, Mr. Prescott), Billy’s dad stays out late, Stu’s parents aren’t even seen. The only parent that seems even remotely interested in her children’s lives is Mrs. Riley, Tatum and Dewey’s mom.

Even worse? Sidney’s dad leaves her alone on the first anniversary of her mother’s murder. Here’s a man either so uncaring or so emotionally damaged by what happened to his wife that he removes himself from the entire scene rather than deal with the emotions that such an anniversary would no doubt incite. Everyone has their own way of dealing with trauma, but he has completely ignored the needs of his daughter at this time. True, he was captured and perhaps he was meant to be home by the actual anniversary…but I don’t think so.

Then there’s Billy. They don’t really go into it a lot, but obviously Mr. Loomis was a bit of a dead-beat dad. Even though he was still there, taking care of his son in light of the fact that Billy’s mom left…well, let’s be honest, Sid…the reason she left was because Billy’s dad was a naughty boy who still liked staying out late, even when his son finds himself locked up by the local police. So the only time we see Mr. Loomis is when he comes to bail out his son. There financially, not there in any other way.

So no real parental supervision, including one parent who disregards the fact that he has a daughter still damaged by what happened to their family a year prior and another father not really that interested in how his son is coping with the fact that he caused the son’s mother to leave through infidelity. Oh yeah, infidelity with the now-dead mother of his son’s girlfriend.

Kids raised in environments in which they obviously never want for anything material…but are sorely lacking in emotional guidance and nurturing.

Of course, I’m probably reading way too much into all this. But I think there’s something there, some commentary on the darkness of material wealth when combined with moral or emotional bankruptcy. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Macher might have been Ward and June Cleaver. We don’t know, though. Never will.

And now I need to go watch this movie yet again and look for moments to support this new thesis. Hope you enjoyed my tour of Woodsboro. Haddonfield next time?

BookBin2013: Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison

~ LobaBlanca

oitnb

Earlier this year, I found myself under a barrage of questioning from friends, both nerdy and non, all asking me the same thing: “Are you watching that new Netflix show, Orange Is the New Black?” It was weird and somewhat unnerving that people from all angles of my existence were asking about this show and showing utter shock when I responded no.

I hardly watch any television anymore. I mean, sure, I still watch CSI…because Jorja Fox and Elisabeth Shue. Otherwise, I typically tend to shy away from getting into TV shows. They just seem to constantly disappoint me. I’m far too critical for my own good sometimes. Also, why on earth would I want to watch a show about an upwardly mobile, city-dwelling Whiter-than-Casper yuppie who is suddenly faced with serving time in a federal prison for a crime she committed almost a decade prior? Sounded like a recipe in cliches and stereotypes that I didn’t think sounded interesting at all.

However, this constant questioning and surprise over my lack of participation caused enough curiosity that I finally looked up this Netflix show, just to figure out why everyone was asking me about it. And the obvious answer was?

Galina “Red” Reznikov. Known in my world as Captain Kathryn Janeway.

redkj

Oh, yes. This was something I needed to watch.

I typically don’t like things that pique the interest of the Hype Machine (which this show obviously was doing), but I put those reservations on the back burner because of my lifelong devotion to Kate Mulgrew. For the most part, I’m incredibly glad that I did. First, the expected nitpick from me: The show was created by Jenji Kohan, who created the Mary-Louise Parker-helmed Showtime series Weeds. Minus the first season, I hated that show. It took turns so dark and twisted, I finally gave up watching, for fear of ODing on Dramamine just to keep up. Kohan’s MO seems to be giving you characters that you love, instantly like, or even love to loathe…and then making them thoroughly hate-worthy in the least enjoyable ways.

I really hope she doesn’t do that with the characters of OITNB, although the first season ended in such a way that I’m beginning to wonder. Truthfully, though, the primary character, Piper Chapman, is probably the least likeable character of the whole cast. No, the strength of this show lies within the capable hands of one of the most amazing ensemble casts I have ever witnessed in any series. I’ve made note of this before, but it bears repeating that it’s a shame that many of these incredibly talented actresses couldn’t finally catch the break they deserved until being cast as prisoners. Yay for diversity…behind bars.

Seriously, though, the women on this show are amazing: In addition to Mulgrew and Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman, there’s Danielle Brooks, Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox, Samira Wiley, Dascha Polanco, Taryn Manning, Michelle Hurst, Natasha Lyonne, Yael Stone, Selenis Leyva, Constance Shulman…they are all so amazing in their roles. You’d think with a show with so many “moving pieces” as this one, it would be easy to overlook characters or forget certain ones in between appearances. Not so with this cast. Each of these actresses brings something so delightful to her character that you remember her, no matter how often or infrequently she appears.

But what does all this have to do with a book review? Glad you asked. After watching the first season and hitting a raging case of withdrawal upon finishing, I put myself on the library wait list for the book on which this series is based. There actually is a Piper, although her real name is Piper Kerman:

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money 10 years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to 15 months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187

Flashback Friday: The Year Without a Santa Claus

~ LobaBlanca

It’s that time of year once more, denizens, in which I journey back to those nostalgic memories of Christmases past and bring a little holiday joy into the lair while doing so. For me, holiday television viewing is almost predominantly owned by Rankin/Bass Productions. I’ve referenced these purveyors of stop-motion and traditional animation before, but this time I’d like to reference one of their stop-motion cartoons that wasn’t quite as popular as their more famous fare, like Frosty and Rudolph: The Year Without a Santa Claus. Featuring Mickey Rooney as the voice of Santa and Shirley Booth as the voice of Mrs. Claus, this show didn’t air in regular rotation for very long in comparison with other Rankin/Bass offerings (I believe it stopped appearing on regular television in the early 80s, which means it was only out there for five or six years; ABC Family now plays it every year, which I guess is one tick in favor of cable television).

I actually don’t remember a whole lot from the show itself. My favorite parts, however, were the Miser Brothers: Heat and Snow. Together, they sing two parts of a song that I still love. It’s silly and bouncy and actually converted quite well to a cover by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Don’t believe me? First, here’s the original:

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hGRkNaMFp6w

And here’s the cover:

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/sPJjBNa7WYY

See? Not bad. If you want “bad,” all you need do is listen to this cover, performed by Harvey Fierstein as Heat Miser and Michael McKean as Snow Miser for the 2006 live-action version of this special. Oh, denizens, I really, truly wish I was kidding on this one. I apologize now, but I’m going to have to post a link to this since I have mentioned it. It’s terrible. You have been warned:

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IGhT_ylXN8s

Eek. And did they really try to sexy up this special with scantily clad girlie dancers? Seriously, who thought this would ever be a good idea? Tick another one off in the support of my disdain for remakes…

Oh, and by the way? Team Heat Miser, all the way.

BookBin2013: Voices from the Street

~ LobaBlanca

pkd_vfts

Here’s a visit with a favorite author who hasn’t made a BookBin appearance since I reviewed his novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said back in 2009. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Philip K. Dick. While I haven’t read a lot of his works, I have always regarded the ones that I have read as top-shelf contributions to the science fiction genre. One of my ongoing frustrations with our local library (which for all intents and purposes, is quite lovely in almost every regard) is that the only one of Dick’s novels that they’ve had in a very long time is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Own it. Love it. Want something new.

So when I did a random database search on a whim and discovered that they were hiding one of Dick’s books somewhere other than the science fiction section, I could barely keep from running to the location. Seems that one of his earliest rejected manuscripts, penned sometime in the 1950s, finally made it into print in 2007. Surprisingly, Voices from the Street is not a science fiction book. It’s as grounded in present-day reality (for the time it was written) as anything could possibly be.

The story centers on Stuart Hadley, a young handsome lad with a pretty wife, a new baby boy, and a dull but promising job selling televisions. He’s also coddled, disaffected, and temperamental, with a constant sense that he was meant for more than the confines of his “normal” life. He wants to be an artiste, bohemian, spiritual, separate. He seeks fulfillment through various means and…well, in the end, it’s truly a Philip K. Dick novel, even without the electric sheep.

In this novel, Dick captures several personality layers through an array of complex and disparate characters…the damage of disconnectedness left by war, the ennui of privilege, the false witness of spirituality, the emptiness of having, the futility of wanting. His prose is dark, direct, never afraid to keep plummeting down the rabbit hole, never feeling the need to hold back on anything. His dialogue is vicious at times as his characters hold conversations reserved either for the closest of friends or the people one deems unworthy of censorship. Characters are blas

BookBin2013: A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It Or Not!” Ripley

~ lobablanca

curiousman

Two of my all-time favorite things when I was a kid were as follows: watching episodes of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! on Sunday evenings before bed, and getting to visit the Ripley’s museum whenever we made it to Myrtle Beach. I have always had a love affair with the bizarre or mysterious or just plain gross or scary, so these two treats fed right into my fascinations…it wasn’t until I was much older that I started to understand the exploitative implications of a lot of the people the Ripley museum “showcased.”

It also wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that the “Ripley” of Ripley’s fame was an actual person. What? I never claimed to be 100-percent on the ball all the time, denizens. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that I hardly knew anything about LeRoy Robert Ripley beyond the obvious fact that he had a penchant for peculiarities. From this approach, then, I found the details of Neal Thompson’s Ripley biography A Curious Man both fascinating and at times, yes, unbelievable.

Mostly, I think I find it unbelievable how much money cartoonists once made, how like rock stars they were treated by their employers and readers alike. I suppose it should make more sense to me than the celebrity status we so willingly award to the most undeserving of crassness today (“reality” television is a poisonous thing, indeed). Those early comic strip pioneers, including Ripley, at least contributed something to the pantheon of creativity…something more substantial than the stain of fake tan smeared across our collective conscience.

Besides, this was a time before cable television and multiplex theaters. It was a time before world travel was an acceptable option and we dared envision connecting with anyone beyond the boundaries of our ZIP code or even the parameters of our humble little neighborhoods. To experience the wonders and terrors that the world had to offer required a contact, a willing conduit to allow the flow of information from the farthest regions down into Main Street, USA. Someone like Ripley, who gladly would uproot and take to the skies, the seas, the snows, the sun-drenched jungles…wherever he had not yet journeyed, had not yet taken his readers.

Thompson’s biography provides all this information and more on Ripley, from his early days through his rise to fame, his comics, his museums, his radio shows…perhaps even beyond that. Sadly, I ran out of time and had to return this to the library before I could finish it. However, what I did read of this book was quite fascinating, not just in regard to the man but also to where he grew up, where he lived, and where he traveled. Thompson does quite a lovely job of making his biography well-researched, well-rounded, and well-received by readers, including me.

Final Verdict: I would like to check this one back out of the library at some point, so that I can finish the few chapters I had left, and perhaps I’ll add it to my wish list for future buying. Believe it…or not!

Flashback Friday: Chain Lightning 600 Dominoes

~ LobaBlanca

What’s this, you say? A new Flashback Friday? An honest-to-prophets, brand-spank-me-new blog post from the delightfully in absentia LobaBlanca herself? To what do we owe the honor tonight? I don’t know, really…but enjoy it while it lasts, denizens. You never know when the muses will withdraw their benevolence.

So I love dominoes. Not the actual game of dominoes. I do know how to play the game, but not being a fan of games in general, I don’t really like it. No, I like setting up elaborate domino schemes and watching them tumble in properly syncopated style. I haven’t actually done such a thing in years, but when I was little, I used to do it all the time. See, one of my aunts gave me one of the greatest gifts ever for my birthday one year: The Chain Lightning 600 domino set.

Some of you might be familiar with the similar Domino Rally set, which is apparently back on the market as of 2012. This was the more popular of the two sets. Domino Rally had larger dominoes, plus it had easy-to-build bridges that actually had flip-up dominoes attached to them. So you didn’t really have to have any patience or skill to build those. All you had to do was flip your wrist to make the attached dominoes stand up.

Chain Lightning had bridges, too. However, you had to add your own dominoes. And they were little tiny things. Took a steady hand and nice supply of patience to build up one of those. Took even more of both to use the design templates that came with this frame that you could use to lower the template so you could add the dominoes, and then raise the template back up so you could remove it without knocking over the dominoes. You don’t even want to know how many times I knocked over a template that I’d just spent several minutes adding.

Photo courtesy of Daysgonebytreasures
Photo courtesy of Daysgonebytreasures

This set might have been what started me on my illustriously long-lived career as more potty-mouthed than a sailor.

Still, I kept at it and got pretty damned good at using the templates and also coming up with my own designs. I would go into our dining room, which was empty at the time, and spend hours, just me and a giant bag of dominoes and my imagination. Bonus if I could make it through a building session without the dog coming through and knocking over at least part of whatever I was building.

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XM1bDL5CQa4

What makes me laugh the most about this video is the same template design that gave them problems used to give me the same problems. I always assumed that it was somehow user error. Now I see that there must have been something wrong with the design.

Sometimes I wish I still had a space where I could build things with dominoes. Then again, I know my personality. If I still played with dominoes, I’d be one of those crazy people who spent days and days building elaborate things like…well, like this:

//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/9E7Ep3U06Nc

Of course, we all know that, instead of an “Around the World” tribute, I would build some kind of tribute to something worthwhile…Star Trek or Scooby Doo. Maybe domino diaramas dedicated to all the Peanuts characters.

Oooh. I’m liking these ideas…