Musings and Daily Observations

[JaseSF]

I sure do seem prone to colds lately. Not sure why...maybe something missing in my diet.

Sometimes it seems like everyone is trying to escape reality in some fashion or another but when sometimes you do stop and take things in, such as going for a walk and just getting a chance to appreciate the beauty of the natural world around us - those moments somehow make everything seem worthwhile...

[JaseSF]

It's a politically correct world after all....

I've never been one who enjoyed or looked favorably upon the politically correct mentality where one has to watch whatever one says so as to not offend anyone else in any way or fashion. Some of it just seems well downright silly...

What really upsets me is when I see that some seem to feel the need to try and alter history by editing out the more offensive elements of old movies and cartoons (which simply reflect the timing and thinking in which they were made - not that said thinking is necessarily correct but from an historical perspective it can prove fascinating - but who cares about history nowadays? ). In some cases, things are banned outright. So Charlie Chan wasn't played by Asian actors back in the day and neither were Mr. Moto or Mr. Wong. So black people often were played up as stereotypical servants and frightened clownish buffoons in old haunted house movies. So many cartoons and movies showed a surprisingly level of prejudice towards the Japanese during World War II (big surprise eh?). Hmm does this mean that Catwoman should have never been played by Earth Kitt or Halle Berry? So I cannot watch Song of the South with an informed eye?

Sad world we live in that's supposed to be "free" yet one in reality must watch and tiptoe around what they say, what they want to watch, so as to not possibly offend instead of looking at the items in question through a studious eye with an eye to the history surrounding it and examining things in that way. No better push that aside and hide it away. Yeah that'll really stop history from repeating itself. Should we hide away the atrocities of the Holocaust? Should we forget the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Should we forget the victims of 9/11? Erasing the twin towers from movies is so helpful is it not?

[Jack]

I detest political correctness.  It based on precisely the same logic that Orwell used to justify newspeak in 1984.  And it's so blatantly obvious that the people who preach this stuff are carbon copies of the people they condemn - just on the opposite end of the political spectrum.  They'd be the first ones in line to turn their neighbors in to the secret police if they could.  They would love a society like that.

[Trevor]

I once heard that certain PC groups were aiming to have the name "manholes" renamed to "street level ductal entries". 

[JaseSF]

For a large part of my life, I've been battling an inner impulse to become a shut-in recluse. For a period of time, you could argue I never moved outside of a certain safe zone (this was particularly true during my teen years). Over time, I've worked hard at battling those instincts to get me out there more in society and faced up to many fears so much so I can now function fine and fell perfectly O.K. in a crowd or amongst strange people, something which I found exceedingly difficult in my teen years yet I still remember those struggles and on occasion those old fears do strike me unexpectedly at unexpected times - especially if I've been hearing of increases in the local crime rate, more robberies, etc.. Make you really wonder more and more if you're ever really truly safe anywhere? I've also had to battle a minor bit of OCD as I have to constantly be washing my hands and have to check things like door locks and that the freezer door is shut which I do far more than I should...

[HappyGilmore]

Freedom of speech, so long as you're willing to PAY to hear and see the free thing.  Makes sense, I suppose. 

Frankly, I'm tired of trying to NOT hurt people's feelings.  I find that offensive.  So what if I just blurt out what I want.  That's my right.

[JaseSF]

Well said Happy. I'm all for free speech...

Anyways some daily observations today:

The phone company here seems to take forever to fix things and despite the millions they rake in, seem awully reluctant to actually spend the dough to replace outdated cables and wires...

Still battling the cold- I have a sore throat and it seems sinus related. Of course I'm reluctant to take cold medication...unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

Old photographs feel a bit like a time capsule to me - looking through old photo albums gives one such a glimpse of the past, bad clothing and hairstyle choices and all....

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I once heard that certain PC groups were aiming to have the name "manholes" renamed to "street level ductal entries". 

I also had once heard that the ACLU was trying to remove the phrase " A Real American Hero" from the G.I. Joe action figures and cartoon.  More politically correct BS.

One of the things I loved about living thru the 80's..unlike today, noone had a stick up their a*s...the playing field was level, as everyone got the treatment.  Not today though, say something to someone and you're fair game for a lawsuit..

[JaseSF]

Did You Also Prefer It Way Back When?

It's interesting that as a sci-fi and horror fan, I preferred it when it was a less socially acceptable, less mainstream hobby (not to say it's entirely mainstream now either though). Years back it seemed more a cultish thing to be a science fiction, fantasy and horror fan. I kind of miss those days of searching channels high and low to find some genre movie or TV show and finding most of them late at night or early Saturday morning, and on weekend matinees. I miss when shows like "Lost In Space", "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "The Time Tunnel", "Star Trek" (the classic series), "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and the classic "Doctor Who" could be found on TV (nowadays the only one I can find on TV is Star Trek and even that is altered with unwanted updated effects).

Nowadays the new stuff the genre throws at us seems to be watered down carbon copies of what's been done better before (Stargate SG-1? Even see the Time Tunnel?, Star Trek: Voyager? Ever see Lost In Space? First Wave? Ever see The Invaders?). Mostly it's just classic old ideas refiltered and repilfered yet lacking so much of the talented character actors and great writing that could be found in shows like Trek, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, The Avengers and The Prisoner. Everything now seems about making a quick buck by playing up to the latest popular fad (which seems to be vampires coming out the wazoo nowadays when it's not zombies. The zombies at least seem to have maintained some respect but the vampires, well that's another story entirely.) Where's the spectacle? Where's the magic? Where's the ideas? Where's the originality? The heck nowadays with storyline, plot and character development - all the masses really want anyways us a little sex, loads of violence and eye candy FX right? All they want to see is cool stuff like vampires and werewolves or whatever's the craze this week fighting - who cares if there's no rhyme or reason behind it all?

I miss that element of true cultish phenomenon that was sci-fi fandom and truly quality sci-fi stories that made you stop, think and wonder when you finished watching it, that fascinated you with the moral, emotional and logical issues raised and the challenges interesting, believable characters faced in dire situations. Also I miss the just plain fun element that was true of Irwin Allen's shows which maintained that sense of fun without betraying their core characters and their idealogies.

These days too there's a little too much dark, dank, gloomy ni hope for tomorrow stuff and not enough fun, we can overcome the challenges of the future stuff. Does everything really have to be dumbed down for the masses too?

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Did You Also Prefer It Way Back When?

I miss that element of true cultish phenomenon that was sci-fi fandom and truly quality sci-fi stories that made you stop, think and wonder when you finished watching it, that fascinated you with the moral, emotional and logical issues raised and the challenges interesting, believable characters faced in dire situations. Also I miss the just plain fun element that was true of Irwin Allen's shows which maintained that sense of fun without betraying their core characters and their idealogies.

My friend, you just earned yourself some more Karma.  I LOVE Irwin Allen.  Lost In Space was a fantastic show! The First Season was pure science-fiction\survival horror.
Had LIS stayed that serious in seasons 2 and 3, there might have been more seasons.

The Time Tunnel. 

A great but very short-lived series with some truly interesting ideas. The scientists would watch history unfold on the other end of the tunnel as the two travellers would live that history.  In many ways, this show was the forefather of Quantum Leap and Sliders, to name a few.

And a big nod to Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and to David Hedison, one of the nicest people I ever met.   And, of course, Land Of The Giants was a blast. Little people, big adventure 

Irwin Allen had some great ideas, and his fantasy worlds were a very special place for escapism, as opposed to PC science fiction and the more serious ideals.  Where shows like Star Trek promoted hope and possibilities, Allen's shows promoted pure fun and fantasy.  And I wouldn't have had it any other way! 

[dean]

Just saw this floating around online, and thought I'd mention it.

Your car is Japanese. Your pizza is Italian. Your potato is Irish. Your wine is Chilean and Spanish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Colombian. Your tea is Kenyan. Your watch is Swiss. Your fashion is French. Your shirt is Indian. Your shoes are Chinese. And then you complain that your neighbor ...is an immigrant... go figure...

[JaseSF]

Very few shows nowadays have that same level of fun and adventure nowadays...I guess the new "Doctor Who" might come the closest yet but that's completely different too...

Black and White Is A-OK With Me

There's nothinng that gets on my nerves worse than when people dismiss classics and even modern films is they are filmed in black and white and not color. Black and white lends itself to the Horror genre particularly well and it does seem rather doubtful yesteryear's Horror classics from the 1930s and 1940s would have had the same impact in color. The use of light and shadow to emphasize mood, the way things remain hidden in shadows just waiting to strike, the otherworldly atmosphere of a black and white foggy forlorn landscape. I cannot imagine the original Universal Horror films in any other way other than black and white. Colorizing them would be criminal IMO. Films like The Haunting, Ed Wood and The Elephant Man I feel all benefit from being black and white - adds that feeling of the past I'd argue. But Horror films in particular seem to benefit the most, it helps create that otherwordly aspect where something could be out there in the shadows, in the fog ...somewhere waiting.  I think that classic TV series such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" also benefitted from being in black and white. There's just something about it that seems to lend itself particularly well to monsters, fantasy and science fiction horror style stories.

That's not to say color doesn't have its place too. But you know when some classic series switched to color, it changed the whole tone of certain series. The Irwin Allen series all seemed to get campier and more tongue in cheek as they moved into color as did arguably the Avengers. Mario Bava did a masterful job with adding vibrant color to his horror films in disturbing ways yet to me, color seemed to also bring with it an added aspect to Horror as exploitation also seemed to accompany it from there on and after.

Classic Horror films and classic Horror/Sci-Fi shows successfully lured us in shadowy netherworlds that were fascinating to behold and filled with frightful characters and sometimes bizarre and terrifying monsters.

I'll grant you not every black and white classic was a great movie. There's certainly a large share of bad movies from that era too. Cheap low budget black and white bad movies to me though are an especially appealing guilty pleasure. I love The Giant Claw, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, The Brain From Planet Arous, The Deadly Mantis, Bride of the Monster and many more. Some low budget efforts such as I Married a Monster From Outer Space, X the Unknown and Rocketship X-M are surprisingly good. Maybe some  people do unfairly equate all black and white output with said above low budget bad movie example by which they'd be overlooking an awful lot of great classics (really in every genre there is).

I'm just saying give black and white a chance if you haven't already. There's loads of great black and white classics waiting to be discovered if one is willing to search them out.

[Trevor]

I'm sorting stills and some rare lobby card posters now ~ including some very rare ones of The Naked Prey ~ and I find it amazing that a colleague of mine, Freddie Selomo, found some of these posters in 1993 in a dumpster belonging to the company that owned the films. 

[JaseSF]

That's shocking. That's a great movie btw. Hopefully someone will bring those back to the public eye in some fashion.

The Ole Bait and Switch.

Have you noticed how so many specialty channels have changed their basic content, the content originally advertised to lure in potential viewers? In the U.S., the Sci-Fi Channel when it began played lots of classic sci-fi series and plenty of classic genre films too...nowadays it's filled with pro wrestling (although I have to admit to being a fan of that too) and terrible modern films and Syfy originals. Canada's Space network followed the same basic pattern starting out airing lots of classic series and movies but now the only classic you'll find on there is the original "Star Trek".

So-called classic movie channels have started airing modern shows and TV series when they're not airing modern films...many of said channels started out showing true classics of the 30s-60s but nowadays they rarely ever air anything made before 1970, heck even 1980.

Very few of the music channels even seem to play music or music videos anymore instead filling the airwaves with one inane reality TV show after another. It's like for the classic (talking before the 1980s here, heck it's even getting hard to find stuff from the 80s I'd argue) movie and TV fan, more and more the only place to turn is DVDs and Blu-Rays. If it's not the latest, newest whatever, it's like it's pushed aside.

[JaseSF]

Tastes – One Might Not Match Another.

We all have different tastes and interests, isn't that true??  I’ve come to realize the tastes and interests of many are vastly different than my own. I'm not truly impressed with or watching most modern TV series. I usually wait and see if I hear good word of mouth about something before I check it out and usually by the time I hear what show is actually good, well the damn show gets cancelled but then that's life I guess. When one gets disappointed year after year one tends become cynical about any new series as much as I want to believe I might find them entertaining, it rarely if ever turns out that way and when I do find a show I find entertaining, it typically gets cancelled after one season most often.

But hey I guess I must be the minority since none of the new shows I find entertaining ever seem to last.  Honestly ethics and morality tales I've always enjoyed and they have traditionally been a large part of the Science Fiction genre. The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Lost in Space, Batman: the Animated Series, The Flash were all about right and wrong. And growing up reading comics instilled a strong interest in the subject matter for me: questions of ethics, morality and the overall psychology of humanity in overwhelming circumstance, will one’s humanity remain intact?? Today it sometimes seems very few are interested in these types of stories, tales of right and wrong and real authentic issues that every human being is faced with on a daily basis.

Science fiction of course has long been about both a fear of science and an embracing of science. We have seen books, films and TV Series aplenty where science has horrifying, terrifying consequences dating back to Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. On the other side of the coin there's films of man going to the moon (DESTINATION MOON), exploring the ocean (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA), exploring the galaxy and the universe to better understand himself and the universe as an whole (STAR TREK)--learning what's wrong and what's right--questioning himself every step of the way--do we ever really know the answers to all the questions--NO we never will but it's doesn't mean we should stop thinking about and considering the real issues facing humanity and concerning the planet and where we are headed. I am of the old school I guess you would say that believes a movie/TV series should not just be entertainment for entertainment’s sake but should involve issues, a moral, a lesson or at the very least a question or two if you know where I'm coming from. But that's just me, my tastes, my interests.