sighs of a summer night

From Andy and Opie-Bachelors, with Aunt Bee out of town a few days, Miss Peggy (Joanna Moore) drops by to help out with cooking and tucking in. Rumors fly when the town barber-mouth, Floyd, insists she has matrimony on her mind. Naw, heck it's 1962 after all, and she just wants to look in on "two helpless bachelors."
With a song thrown in just to break our hearts.

day the earth stood still

I was listening to the radio today to sound bytes from a certain senator's speech in Berlin where he says "people of Berlin, people of the World," and thought...why didn't he just go ahead and add 'People of EARTH' in a sort of airplane-hanger echo?

I mean, after all, it's all science fiction fantasy.

Klaatu Barack Nikto.

It all seems to fit! Run for your lives!!

a vagabond's birthday

Amelia Earhart, born on this day in 1897.

A vagabond, not in a bad way, but certainly a relentless nomad of flight.

A Renaissance woman of sorts. Pioneer, record setting aviatrix, and best selling author.

Lost July 2nd, 1937.

quote

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004)

a classical argument

From Caesar's Hour(1954), Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray have a spat to Beethoven's 5th.

Live TV. No re-takes. Pure genius.

creative writing plot goes bad

I was thinking of my college days today, remembering the real reason I took creative writing: to be near girls. It was a beautiful plan.

Her name was Lisa, 19 like me, with shiny hair down to the back of her knees. We sat next to one another at the round table. She laughed silently and blushed beautifully at every quasi-witty thing I said under my breath. Mostly about the professor, and how the part of his twelve strands of hair seemed to originate just above his left ear.

Only about a week into the fall semester I was reclining at home leaning all the way back reading the newspaper when I saw a smudged gray and white picture of her and a linebacker in the wedding announcements. I rocked forward, folded the paper back, and angled the paper towards the table lamp just to make sure. My face burned and I felt sick.

Shortly afterwards, while critiquing one of her stories as we took turns around the table, I think I said something spiteful (and uncharacteristic of me) like, "just take a shovel and bury this in the backyard." The way she looked at me with those doleful blue eyes...I'll never forget. Out in the echoed hall after class I told her I was so sorry.

2...or 14 in blog years

2 years drifting along life's mysterious sweet and sad journey.

Thank you, Dear Reader, for your continued support....




A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving....lao tzu

reel life

Fellow movie buffs...do you ever notice in a ton of movies...both old and new...whenever there's a scene where coffee, tea, or a delicious dinner is served or offered, that only one or two sips are taken, or only a couple bites are taken and it's never finished?
And a lot of times it's never touched at all. You know, the scene where the police have the fork halted at their mouths and the radio cracks loudly about the bank robbery in progress across the street.

And while I'm at it...what about those dusty, filthy, shaggy, vagabonds with clean, white, straight teeth?

Oh, I'll be ok.

I know noth-ing!

In his new book, The Unnecessary War, Pat Buchanan rewrites history, claiming the World Wars were unnecessary and are the root of the decline of Western civilization in the world.

But, Mr. Buchanan, without WWII we wouldn't have Hogan's Heroes, my favorite sitcom of all time.

louder...LOUDER!

my favorite scene from Casablanca...
it gets me every time...



..and doesn't it seem that Conrad Veidt played every dastardly Nazi in every film from the 40's?

Actually, Veidt, a distinguished actor also in silents, in real life was an Anti-Nazi exiled to England after Hitler's takeover in 1933.

crossing over....

...into The Twilight Zone, with this weekends SciFi Channel's Marathon.

So, a good excuse to lower my voice to a staccato baritone and list my 10 favorites:

1 - Static
2 - The Lonely
3 - Time Enough At Last
4 - Night of the Meek
5 - A Stop At Willoughby
6 - The Monsters are Due On Maple Street
7 - Walking Distance
8 - Third From The Sun
9 - The Howling Man
10- A Penny For Your Thoughts

I find The Howling Man, and an honorable mention, Night Call, to be the two that are truly frightening.

Any particular favorites, lovely stranger?