A live performance of “Shine On Brightly” by Procol Harum, one of original architects of what came to be called Progressive Rock.
Month: November 2022
The Narrow Margins
With so many midterm elections too close to call between the Democratic and Republican candidates, I’m watching The Narrow Margin. Directed with great tension by Max Fleischer’s son Richard, Charles McGraw is perfectly cast in a rare leading role. There is no music, except in bits from a record player that becomes an important plot device. This one is really, really good. Really!
Two thoughts about the possible influence of The Narrow Margin on other movies with action aboard trains. Jacqueline White begs a comparison to Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest, seven years later. It’s almost as if Hitchock had Saint watch White’s scenes and instructed her, “do it exactly like her.” The big fight scene between McGraw and one of the thugs reminds me very much of the life-and-death struggle between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love, more than ten years later. If I can think up a comparison with the train scenes in A Hard Day’s Night, I’ll update this post. 😉
Democracy Against Dictatorship Before Pearl Harbor
From Captain America #3, May 1941.
Me Tue
The week before last I dropped my ballot into the box in front of town hall. There were no self-appointed “ballot watchers” who have swallowed the con man-in-chief’s lies.
The guy in this video who says, “Go back to same day voting and paper ballots” should be reminded of Florida’s “hanging chads” in the 2000 election. Even where voting is done the way he wants I’m sure he would convince himself there was “something wrong” with the process.
One of the big Republican talking points this year is crime. Yes, let’s talk about crime. In particular the school shootings resulting from the “all guns all the time” mentality that holds the country hostage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/
The Final Fall Back?
Here’s to the vote for permanent Daylight Saving Time! That’s quite a mug on Colbert. Or should I say that’s quite a Colbert on mug.
The U-Files
The 90’s! The decade of The X-Files and the infamous alien autopsy.
Lovely Rena, a member of the monster-fighting GUTS team, encounters a grey alien in an episode of Ultraman Tiga.
Like the 2005 return of Doctor Who after fifteen years, Ultraman returned to TV in 1996 after a 15-year absence. As with Who, each new Ultraman occupies a different body.
With a partial exception during Ultraman Ace, women had played secondary roles. They mostly handled communications at the command center, like Lieutenant Uhura.
Rena in Ultraman Tiga was a featured character. Her presence was obviously intended to attract teenage boys to the series.
This next scene leaves no doubt the studio knew the effect that Rena would have on their target demographic.
Rena was played by Takami Yoshimoto, who is now 51. Takami was literally born into the Ultra family, as her father, Susumu Kurobe, was the first Ultraman in the original 1966 series.
Takami’s popularity quickly extended beyond Ultraman. The LaserDisc store I frequented throughout the 90’s had Japanese “girl watching” videos for rent, similar to this one with Takami.
Click here to see the safest “boudoir” photo of Takami I can share. It is nonetheless NSFW unless you’re working from home.
