The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) Review

To celebrate Halloween season, Hammer Time begins with a review of the horror film that made the movie studio famous world wide. Plagued by last minute changes to the story and makeup, Hammer’s interpretation of Mary Shelley’s famous novel still chills and thrills over fifty years later. But do not think it a shallow experience, for there is a real story in there too.

In the late 1950’s, British film studio Hammer Films decided to revive the old Universal monsters for another go around. Known mostly for their Quatermass adaptations, the studio focused on remaking Frankenstein. But Universal got wind of the plan and that forced rewrites to the script to avoid a lawsuit. The planned makeup had to change too. Sounds a bit messy, doesn’t it?

Thankfully, a good director, a competent script, and standout acting by Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee combined to produce a true classic in the horror genre. Not to mention the movie was a killer at the box office, partially due to it being in color – a change made due to Universal’s threats.

That ability to use color is pressed into service right away with a nice matte composition featuring a lone rider on his horse. Right away the appropriate gothic mood is set and further expanded upon, for it is a dank and dreary prison that the rider has arrived at. The priest (Alex Gallier) has come to the prison at the behest of Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), a possibly insane inmate with a curious story to tell before he is executed.

Health 10-12-1011

Yesterday was qualifies as a good day since I got some things done. Best of all, I was able to get in a workout on my home gym. Sore today, but given that I have a touch of chest congestion to go with mild sinusitis, this is a victory.

The new bifocal contact lenses are behaving so far, but I will give it until the end of the month before I render final judgment. Hopefully the body will not decide to react to them, since they are a big improvement.

Crossword puzzle was barely acceptable with some mitigation due to running into words I had never encountered before. Audiosurf was much better.

Health 10-10-2011

It can be hard to collect one’s thoughts when you feel lousy and have a headache to boot, but here goes.

I am now at the 25 drops three times a day point on the H2O2 therapy and that level will last for a while longer than the norm. While not 100% effective, it has reduced IBS symptoms by at least 95% in occurrence and significantly lessened the severity. That alone makes it a success in my book. The nausea is not improving though.

I dread drinking the concoction and am now using Sunny D to flavor the water. Why? I hate the stuff and I was beginning to have a visceral reaction to fruit juice. So Sunny D is something I do not like anyway, but still tastes better than the straight water with the peroxide in it.

Other benefits experienced include sinusitis symptoms lessening, but not going away. It is strange being able to breath through the nose while suffering them, I must say. Breathing in general is easier, much to my surprise. Walking is easier, which is a welcome change.

Energy levels have been slowly rising to the point I am starting to enact some long planned changes in lifestyle, with a resumption of hobbies being a big part of it. A desire to limit time spent on the Internet means I will be cutting back on that. Not a hard thing to do, since I was already well into the process of doing so.

While things have been improving, you could not judge that by today. Not a good day and the crossword puzzle and Audiosurf confirmed it. Though I did slip into tired and stubborn mode playing the latter, which led to playing too many rounds of it while getting worse scores with each play. It occurs to me that behavior is much like a little kid refusing to admit he is tired and does not need to go to bed. I guess some things never change.

You Cannot Beat Reality for Weirdness

The perfect illustration of why.

Of course when you have a tinpot Marxist dictator in charge of the country, just about anything becomes possible. To me this is utterly insane, simply because it would inspire me to be worse. Frankly, if I found a video game involving running down mimes, I would buy it and play it too much.

While I do not “road rage”, I could easily mime rage.

Not So Shocking News: Drones Are Vulnerable to Hacking

Every time I read someone proclaim the era of human flown combat aircraft is coming to an end, I roll my eyes. It is highly reminiscent of the proclamation that guns were no longer needed on fighters back in the 1960’s. Go check YouTube for videos of strafing done to protect the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to see how false that was.

There are so many vulnerabilities to automated remote systems and guess what, our drones have already been hacked. This is far worse than having Iraqi dissidents intercepting unencrypted real time footage from drones. A keylogger records all the inputs and commands sent to the drones, which means somebody out there is figuring out how the actual control can be disrupted.

The most likely culprit is China, but it could be anyone in this overly wired age. But the most distressing part of this incident is the inability of the military to get rid of the trojan. That should be relatively easy unless the network itself is compromised.

I am no fan of moving warfare to drones for a variety of reasons. Taking out the human risk in warfare risks dehumanizing it to the point of playing a video game. Flexibility is not there in reacting to unforeseen situations, unlike with a human in the cockpit and on site. If we go up against an opponent with real air defenses, drones are very vulnerable to being shot down. Last, but the biggest, is the vulnerability to hacking.

It reminds me of the beginning of the most recent Battlestar Galactica series where the newest Viper fighters were disabled by a virus. Ah science fiction, you always tend to predict the future!

Bleach Ep. 10: Assault on Trip at Sacred Ground

After the somber events of the prior episodes, Bleach takes a breather and veers into a nearly pure comedy episode. A new character that may be the most despised in the series makes his entrance. But is he an idiot or an awesome idiot?

In some circles, there is no way more impressive to make in an entrance than parachuting into the scene. Fortunately, I do not belong to such circles. But Don Kanonji surely does.

He also dresses so flashily that pimps from the 1970’s would consider him garish. The idea of someone like him hurtling out of the sky toward me is enough to cause nightmares, but the audience assembled adore him. So who is this mysterious mustachioed man and what is he doing filming a show in Karakura Town?

Well, Don Kanonji is the most popular exorcist on television in Japan, watched and beloved by millions. That includes Ichigo’s friends and family, much to his horror. Poor Orihime initially fails to score points with the boy by repeating the exorcist’s catch phrase, “Bohahaha” – this due to some trauma involving spirits in his past.

But that does not prevent him from being dragged along with his family to the open set filming at an abandoned hospital. Which leads to my wondering just how the title of the episode fits. Is it a mistranslation or am I missing an aspect of Japanese culture?

Anyway, it is an abandoned hospital and all of Ichigo’s friends are there, including an especially annoying Rukia attempting to blend in with the humans. Annoying to Ichigo that is and quite amusing to the rest of us. But it would not be Bleach without something going wrong of a spiritual nature.

There is a ghastly howl coming from the hospital that Ichigo and Rukia can hear.  So can Chad, Karin, Tatsuki, and Orihime. Yet nobody else in the crowd can hear it. Hmm.

A further education on how Hollows come into being is given by Rukia, complete with full illustrations. One of the better running gags in the series, in my opinion, is her artwork. At this point, Rukia was slowly becoming one of my favorite fictional characters and part of it was due to the glimpses of her child like side from time to time.

So with the lengthy exposition out of the way, it is time for epic level idiocy on the part of our new hero, Don Kanonji! Yes, with the aid of his cane he sets very bad things in motion to the cheers of the assembled crowd.

Oh did I mention he really can see spirits and has some power for a lowly human? Either that or his fabulous get up conveys special abilities to him. Make your own jokes here; there are too many possibilities.

Comedy gold follows as Ichigo’s attempt to intervene goes poorly. If it was not for the unexpected appearance by Urahara, the substitute Soul Reaper would be on the sidelines for the rest of the episode. Kanonji isn’t the only one with a magic cane as “Hat and Clogs” demonstrates in a clever bit.

Freed to remind the viewers he is the hero of the show, Ichigo hauls the TV star into the hospital to do battle with the spirit unleashed. Filled to overflowing in confidence and bravado, Don Kanonji keeps trying to get Ichigo to leave. Yes, the man is a complete idiot. But he does have a compelling and unexpected motivation which involves the 25% of the country who watches him.

25%?! Okay, I should not blink, given reality TV’s hold on American audiences…

The battle is joined and if you ever wondered if Ichigo’s oversized sword could be a liability in battle, you will get your answer in a most satisfying way. We also find out Kanonji is not just an idiot, but a genuinely brave idiot. Lessons are learned, sort of, a new friendship is made, sort of, and the episode provides some needed information, sort of.

So is Don Kanonji an idiot? The answer is a resounding yes. Is he an awesome idiot? That is up to the individual viewer to decide, but I like the vainglorious fool. Oddly enough, he is one of my favorite characters in the series and even gets a major moment in the big plot many years later.

That said (or typed as may be), this is not one of the better episodes of the series. It is not a bad episode, merely fluff without any real substance. People may complain about filler arcs, but this straight from the source material is true filler. At least it is amusing.

Waiting for Guffman 2012, GOP Version

I have often called campaign time the “silly season” when talking to friends and acquaintances.  There is good reason for this as passions are inflamed and the strangest things not only can happen, but will happen. But mostly I call it that because of how people behave.

To the average voter, the November election campaign is all they are aware of and it seems filled with acrimony. They should pay attention to endorsement races and primaries if they want to see the good stuff. There is nothing quite like infighting between people who agree on most things.

Usually it is based on actual positions and has legitimate reasoning  behind it. But often it can be purely emotion based, simply motivated by liking a candidate. “Wooing voters” is a phrase that has much truth in it, for the most ardent supporters act like those in the first blushes of love.

Presidential races bring that out the most for some reason. My suspicion is that there is so much belief in the power of the presidency that it becomes idolization of someone being more than human – or at least very special, if not exceptional. Consequently, demagogues have a better than usual chance to get in than other offices.

This year, there have been some very intense crushes on potential candidates, with their devoted fans eagerly praising and pushing them on message boards, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Perhaps it is dissatisfaction with the established field or just a reaction to the disastrous Obama presidency that had many people waiting for their personal Guffman to show up.

Daniels, Ryan, Jindal, and Rubio were the lesser names that came up, but there have been big names waiting in the wings since the beginning. One of them who was supposed to be the savior of the field was Rick Perry from Texas. His meteoric rise and equally drastic crash illustrates the perils of listening to such hype. That goes for candidates and activists both.

Christ Christie is someone people have repeatedly asked me about and I did not think he would run until recently. But that turned out to be false information based on wishful thinking by those who wanted him in.  In the end, he chose not to run this week which made me very happy. Only by New Jersey standards is he conservative.

Today the other shoe dropped when Sarah Palin announced she wasn’t running. That was a relief to me, for I saw nothing good coming of that and she is far more effective doing what she has been doing. The president is not the ruler of the land, despite what Jim Lehrer may think. While powerful, the Oval Office has far less power than most think – thankfully.

Congress is more important, but harder to get the average voter to care about. I suppose it is the human tendency to desire a king that makes the executive branch more glamorous. A lack of understanding by most of the populace on how governance in the United States works is another factor.

So this is it, there really is nobody else to get into the race now. Just like in the movie, Guffman is a no show. Now the debates are going to matter even more, despite being dog and pony shows run by the media.

But the thing that must happen, no matter what the outcome, is rallying around the candidate running against Obama in 2012. Putting aside internal GOP differences has been very difficult the last several election cycles and has caused problems in turnout. This time I believe it will be different. Almost all the people I have talked to finally understand what is at stake.

Given how ugly things have been already, expect a very nasty election. If people think things are polarized now, they have not seen anything yet.