Squid Girl Episode 3, Season 1

UPDATE September 4, 2018

More DMCA take downs have hit the blog despite screen captures long being considered fair use. Due to my not being able to afford a lawyer, I have no choice but to remove them or have the blog suspended. Only the words will be left.

TVTokyo is proving to be foolishly draconian in targeting posts meant to get people interested in seeing the Squid Girl anime and perhaps even purchasing it on DVD or Blu-ray. Being anti-piracy myself this is infuriating that they are targeting posts I wrote hoping to encourage people to try out a delightful show.

Another trio of stories explores Squid Girl’s adjustment to the surface world and introduces another regular character. Surprisingly, there is a common theme running through all of them – fear. Don’t be afraid, come on in, the water is fine...


Aren’t You a Scaredisquid?


The first story gets going with a satiric shot taken at ghost hunting “reality” shows, which Takeru loves to get scared by. I had to love Squid Girl’s reaction to the show and we find out she is a skeptic on anything that can’t be seen. That leads to a moment of evil inspiration for Eiko, who decides she will find a way to scare the ink out of Ika.


In Japan, there is a tradition amongst the school age kids of having tests of courage involving things such as going to graveyards at night. Used to be that kind of thing was done here, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside.  Anyway,  Eiko’s plan goes awry, despite bringing in other friends Goro and Sanae. Or perhaps, because of it…

The madness of Sanae is on full display here, which is expected. Goro’s behavior – not so much. Way to go, Mr. Lifeguard! Of course Squid Girl is not afraid of the inky darkness and soon gets separated from the others. Not happy to have gotten lost, the ever confident squid takes unique measures to find them.


The horrors of the graveyard are fully revealed and the big question is whether or not Squid Girl will be able to find her way home. Fear, surprise, and an almost fanatical devotion to sea life puns follow.

Isn’t That a Squid’s Natural Enemy?


The miserable revelation that it will take years to pay off her debt demoralizes our young inkvader. But that is not her biggest problem. Acutely conscious of her place in the food chain, the sudden appearance of killer whales off the beach has Squid Girl paranoid.


We also find out Ika see’s the world differently from everyone else. Very differently, as her fears get the best of her. This is bad, because it nearly leads to Takeru drowning. Time for Chizuru to turn on the charm and sucker Goro into teaching her brother to swim.


The pride of squid everywhere is at stake and Squid Girl will not allow some puny human to teach the boy! But what about the killer whales? Sheer silliness, fear, loathing, and tentacles are the highlight of this segment.

Who’s the New Fish?


A new waitress surfs onto the scene at Lemon Beach House as we meet Nagisa, a tomboyish surfer girl. Things go swimmingly until she sees Ika Musame and panics. Finally, a natural reaction to a tentacled monster from the sea! However, Nagisa is the only normal one amongst a bunch of weirdo’s as she soon surmises.


Nagisa’s terror is the sweetest sound to Squid Girl’s ears for she finally has scared someone. But Chizuru and Eiko are determined to show how harmless she is to the new girl. That must be countered if Ika’s dreams of world domination are to pass!


Extreme cuteness, fearful determination to save the world, and squid fishing make this the most amusing of the segments.

Thoughts

The gentle yet often sharp humor that makes this fluffy series so much fun is on good display across all three vignettes in the third episode. Already the series is hitting its stride, which is a good sign. Welcome social satire shows up from time to time to add an edge to the slice of life stories but it never undermines the sweetness at its heart.

Using fear as a common theme through the three stories was clever as we got to see different kinds on display. As always, it is Squid Girl’s reactions that get the biggest laughs. Fortunately, the supporting cast all get their moments too.

As always, I come away in a better mood after having watched Squid Girl. With season two’s new episodes streaming at Crunchyroll, I find myself smiling a lot lately.

Squid Girl Episode 6, Season 1

UPDATE September 4, 2018

More DMCA take downs have hit the blog despite screen captures long being considered fair use. Due to my not being able to afford a lawyer, I have no choice but to remove them or have the blog suspended. Only the words will be left.

TVTokyo is proving to be foolishly draconian in targeting posts meant to get people interested in seeing the Squid Girl anime and perhaps even purchasing it on DVD or Blu-ray. Being anti-piracy myself this is infuriating that they are targeting posts I wrote hoping to encourage people to try out a delightful show.


What happens when you mix a Kamen Rider spoof, higher math, and a love quadrangle?  You get unadulterated silliness of course! Episode six goes exclusively for the laughs while portraying the battle between Squid Girl and everyday life.


What’s a Squid Doing in a Hero’s Show?


The madness begins with a spoof of children’s traveling shows that mixes Noh theater with Kamen Rider  to create the twisted Noh Mask Rider. One has to applaud the warped mind that came up with this and that mind belongs to Masahiro Anbe, the creator of the manga. Imagine combining Shakespeare with Sponge Bob Squarepants and you get an idea of how wrong this is.


I cannot blame Squid Girl for her reaction to the show, for I find the whole concept hilarious too. But hey, the kids like it and there is a place for everything I suppose. The appearance of the villain gets her attention, for he is Demon Squid and he is out to punish humanity for mistreating the oceans!
Now where have we heard that before?

Soon she is rooting for the villain and the cast of the show are afraid they will have a riot on their hands. The diminutive blond in particular shows an inappropriate coping mechanism as things spiral downward.


A costume theft, adoration from the crowd, and radical deviations from the script ensue. You know it cannot end well…

Is Studying for the Fish?


Eiko may be the voice of reason, or at least normality, but when confronted with an implacable enemy she begins to crack. I speak of mathematics, of course. Noticing her outbursts while studying, Ika-chan can’t understand why the high schooler is having problems. To Eiko’s shock and dismay, it turns out she is a squidding genius!


Neither one of the girls handle this revelation well. Some very creative imagery reflects their inner emotions and thoughts, which are all a tad insane. While I can remember some frustration with homework those many moons ago, I don’t recall have a psychotic break over it. Nor did I have delusions of grandeur like Squid Girl, who thinks she has found her ticket to world domination.

It is one thing to be a math genius, it is another thing entirely to use it in the real world as our feisty hybrid finds out at the beach. But what is Eiko scheming and why does she have that evil smile on her face?

Is This Gilly Love?


In the final segment, Nagisa takes a starring turn after nearly drowning. Saved by Goro, her gratitude gets mistaken for something more by Eiko. Meanwhile, Squid Girl continues to torment the paranoid surfer girl since she is her “favorite prey.”


Eiko does her part to fan the flames of misunderstanding in the hopes of generating a soap opera at the beach. Actually, most of the misunderstanding is on her part as she reads just about everything wrong. This does not help Nagisa’s precarious state of mind one bit as she worries about the squid invasion and Goro.


Ika has her own worries about the situation brewing and soon a romantic farce breaks out. In the end, it looks like Nagisa’s prior observation about everyone being weird is turning out to be true. Will any of the relationships work out?

Thoughts


This is a particularly good episode in the series and left me wanting more, which is aggravated by the delay of the second set of DVD’s until December. Cultural satire is the focus of the stories and they have a nice edge to them rather than being soft on their targets. Kid shows and soap operas are such universal fare throughout the world that the humor translates out very well.

The math story is also a winner, but mainly due to the imagery which is amongst the most creative shown to this point.

Bonus: Noh Mask Rider


The first segment is a classic in the series and still has me amused as I write this.  Capping off the lunatic story is the opening title sequence for the Noh Mask Rider show complete with theme song.

The overwrought lyrics are hilarious, especially the origin ones. Ridiculous amounts of emotional angst centered around the superhero character makes for a fantastic lampoon of the genre. I would love to see a Noh Mask Rider OVA one day.

Squid Girl Episode 10

UPDATED: August 27, 2018

After being up for six years, an incredibly vague DMCA notice to Blogger from MX International Inc. caused this post to be taken down. 

Specifically, it stated: "The original works are copyrighted Japanese anime television broadcasts and translated releases by MX International Inc. Pursuant to 17 USC sec. 512(c)(3)(A)(ii) the official website for 'Squid Girl' includes a representative list at the below url" Said redacted URL was for TV Tokyo's website. 

Other blogs hit in the same notice look like they were hosting pirated videos. It appears Fair Use of screen captures may be going away since there was no video content in this post. All images have therefore been removed from the post and we'll see if it gets removed again.

Original post follows:

A rainy day brings out artistry in the Aizawa home, Sannae finally realizes she may have a problem, and a baseball game tests Squid Girl’s athletic abilities. From horror to the despairs of addiction to the thrill of competition, a lot of silliness happens -- but there are some surprising moments of angst to be found amidst the comedy this time out.


Rain Rain, Gill Away?
When a typhoon hits Japan, the normal summer fun goes out the window thanks to the associated torrential rain. A frustrated Ika Musame is taught all about teru teru bozu making by the Aizawa siblings and a nice little lesson about Japanese culture is explained to the rest of us. Personally, I love these moments in anime because they offer a glimpse at everyday practices in Japan.

Man of Steel (2013) Review

Rebooting a film franchise is always divisive, however this bold reinterpretation of Superman’s origin may qualify as one of the most controversial in cinema history. Big, brashly violent, and unabashedly emotional this is definitely not the Christopher Reeve’s superhero that so many have fond memories of. Instead it is a science fiction story about what it would be like to be a perpetual stranger in a strange land while trying to find your own unique identity.

See the title above? You won’t see that until the movie ends. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of this freight train of a story that hurtles through the two and half hours the movie runs. Contained within is a densely packed journey of discovery alternating with loss combined with all the repercussions of finding out alien life exists and may not be friendly.

Don’t expect much comic relief in this very serious take on the first comic book superhero. It stands in stark contrast to the relatively cheery 1970’s Superman film series.

Like Richard Donner’s classic from 1978, the movie begins on the dying world of Krypton somewhere far off in space. Hans Zimmer’s masterful soundtrack thrums away before giving way to a heartbeat of a baby being born. Amidst the decay of a spent people, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) have done something not allowed in hundreds of years: they have had a baby by natural childbirth rather than artificial engineering.

The Gorgon (1964) Review

Director Terence Fisher redeemed himself after the fiasco of The Phantom of the Opera with this gothic romance featuring a predatory woman with looks that kill. Featuring Hammer Films lurid use of Technicolor, it chooses to bring chills rather than scares compared to prior releases by the studio. Tragic love, severe calcification, and an ensemble cast combine to deliver the goods in this mostly forgotten movie.

Having bombed spectacularly with a remake of The Phantom of the Opera two years before, Terence Fisher was on the outs with Hammer Films. Fortunately for him and for horror fans, he was given another chance with a new property to direct. Stepping away from remaking old classic monster movies, Hammer took a risk by reviving a monster from Greek myth as the star villain. While the results looked silly even by the standards of the time, the rest of the movie almost made up for it.

Like many a Hammer intro, a matte painting of a castle on a hill opens the movie while serving as a backdrop for the title credits and a short crawl defining the setting. It is a strangely comforting indication that we’ll be getting one of their typical stories set in the 1800s filled with lavish sets, lovely women, and fiendish villainy.

Well, once the scroll finishes the story goes straight for the middle part, at least.

The Phantom of the Opera (1962) Review

When Hammer Films was on a roll remaking classic horror stories the idea of revisiting a masked man lurking in an opera house was inevitable. What they never imagined was that the surefire hit would be anything but. This film bombed so spectacularly that it nearly ended the director’s career. Uneven and draggy, the new Phantom failed to terrify audiences despite some redeeming qualities to the production.

Imagine having Cary Grant playing one of the most famous movie villains of all time. Imagine that the movie would be made by Hammer Films, a studio having massive success releasing color remakes of black and white classic horror flicks. Imagine the box office receipts!

That’s the thinking that started The Phantom of the Opera remake into fast development. What was finally unveiled to the public not only lacked the superstar actor, but also the frights of Gaston Leroux’s novel. There is some confusion as to whether Grant may have been set to star as either the titular villain or the heroic lead, however it really doesn’t matter since he wouldn’t have been able to save this rather bloodless movie.

The Brides of Dracula (1960) Review

This sequel was the obligatory follow up to Hammer Films monster of a hit Horror of Dracula. Beset by production problems from the very beginning, what was put out certainly wasn’t what the public expected. Dripping more atmosphere than blood, the unusually warm and character driven story focused more on the heroic acts of Doctor Van Helsing than the villainy of the undead.

Most people remember Hammer for their vampire films, especially those starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. He isn’t in this one due to personal fears of being typecast (supremely ironic given what happened later), however this movie is one of the better entries in the genre even if the title is false advertising. Yeah, the character Dracula isn’t in it either.

Summer 2015 Capsule Movie Reviews

In the past I’ve written a few mini-reviews of films after seeing them in theater, but this year I’ve been too tired or busy to type my impressions. So better late than never here are three micro-reviews of films I’ve seen this summer at the nearby Spring Grove Cinema.

Jurassic World

First a disclaimer has to be made: I’ve never been a fan of the franchise despite being a kaiju and science fiction lover. The first flick was entertaining, if not very memorable, and what little I saw of the sequels they were pretty abysmal. This opinion puts me in a tiny minority, of course. So it was with low expectations I went into the darkened theater to watch dinosaurs once again run amok.

Expecting a popcorn based confection with no style or substance, I was very surprised to find a genuinely tasty plot blended perfectly with intelligent action along with surprising amounts of emotional moments. Likeable characters played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard carried the movie mainly due to a very cookie cutter villain played by Vince D’Onofrio (see Daredevil on Netflix to see what he’s really capable of) and a mixed effort by the supporting cast.

Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) Review

The decade of the 1980s was the era of the cult movie and probably spawned more initially unsuccessful films that eventually became popular than any other period. A perfect example of the kind can be found in this moody little story about a rock band that hit it big in the early ‘60s then disintegrated under mysterious circumstances. While the mystery may not be all that clever, the characters, acting, and music make this a classic rock and roll flick.

Movies about the inherent drama found within rock and roll bands are a dime a dozen, being a kind of low hanging fruit that writers and producers can’t resist. Easy to write, easy to shoehorn a music act into, and always teeming with conflict they are also relatively cheap to produce.

So what sets this low budget flick apart from the pack?

“On the Dark Side”.

Okay, I’m being a little facetious, but once the movie premiered, vanished quietly, and moved on to cable rotation, that song dominated MTV and radio in 1984. Odds are younger folk have heard that tune on classic rock stations and never seen the movie. They have missed out on quite a treat featuring a talented cast that went on to bigger things later.

Back in the early ‘80s, I watched this film many times on cable and so it was with some surprise that I ran into a used DVD at a local coffee shop. The surprise wasn’t that it had been put out in that format, but that I’d never gotten around to purchasing it. So of course I had to buy the well battered DVD out of nostalgia and to review.

The movie begins with the previously mentioned song being played live before a 1960s audience. Don’t be alarmed by the sudden shift from film to VHS level quality! Artistic choices can be alarming, but remember not to panic since it is only a device meant to show a shift to the present – the present being 1983 in this case.

Media Magazine staff are watching archival footage of an old band, Eddie and the Cruisers in a small studio. Conveniently, they name each member of the band thereby introducing us to the cast of characters we’ll be watching for the next ninety minutes. If it feels a little heavy handed, it is. I forgive the hokey method because it helps the story get up and running very quickly.

Cheesiness aside, we also get to know the main instigator of the film, Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin), in the scene. Blonde and always smoking a cigarette, she’s the intrepid if somewhat suspect reporter always looking to work an angle for ratings -- even if it means making things up. Pushy, blonde, and slightly seductive, Maggie appears to be a main star of the production.

Appearances can be deceiving. It may be overanalyzing, but that seems to be one of the themes of the story.

Eddie and the Cruisers hit it big back in ‘63, only for tragedy to destroy the band. Nostalgia for their music has their songs getting air play again and with that setup, the story begins to unspool. A lost album and the circumstances around Eddie’s death are the twin mysteries driving the narrative.

Not only are the fans haunted by what was and could have been, so are the remaining survivors of the rock and roll group. “Warm Summer Nights” features nostalgia driven lyric, so it is the perfect song to segue way to the real main protagonist of the movie, Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger). Through his eyes and memories we are presented the tumultuous events of twenty years before.

 

Currently a high school English literature teacher, he once was a college graduate pushing a broom at a bar on the Jersey Shore.

This was a dead period in American rock and roll, with girl bands dominating the pop charts and the British Invasion led by the Beatles yet to happen. Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens were killed in the plane crash immortalized in Don McLean’s “American Pie” three years before on “the day the music died.”

So it was the Jersey Shore sound that kept rock and roll alive during the interim, at least according to the movie. In reality, that regional sound didn’t start up until the late ‘60s. Never learn your history from Hollywood, folks.

Del Shannon’s classic “Runaway” is the trigger bringing back Frank’s memories of a fateful meeting with a pretty girl. The flashback goes somewhat awry when she turns out to have not just a boyfriend in tow, but an entire band. Still, the chance meeting would change Frank’s life forever.

Entering his life are:

Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré), the leader of the band and main vocalist. Sparse with his words and always passionate, he’s a driven perfectionist.

Joanne Carlino (Helen Schneider), Eddie’s girl and backup singer. Immediately drawn to Frank, she’s obviously going to be a source of friction within the group.

Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance) fills the role of the member chafing from being in the leader’s shadow. His tastes in music does not mesh well with the mercurial Eddie, but hey, who pays attention to bass players anyway?

The drummer (David Wilson). Not only doesn’t he suffer from sudden human combustion, he doesn’t show any signs of life or even a name. He is “just going through a phase” according to Eddie.

Wendall Newton (Michael ‘Tunes’ Antunes from the Beaver Brown Band) plays sax and that’s all. He never says a word during the entire film, in fact. There are token performances and then there is this, which is fairly ridiculous.

And of course, no band would be complete without their sleazy manager. Coming off as a low level conman, Doc Robbins (Joe Pantoliano) is something of a scene stealer whenever he gets a chance to speak.

A present day break in leads Frank to reuniting with the surviving band members one by one. Someone wants the missing tapes from the Season in Hell album that never was put out and is willing to go to extremes to do so. Against that backdrop are flashbacks to when the band started to see success. Alternating between the past and present is the structure for the movie, so this isn’t a flick you can walk out of for awhile and easily jump back into.

All the tropes need covering so the one of girls coming between band members isn’t going to be surprising. Consequently, a considerable amount of time is spent on Joann’s flirtations with Frank. Obviously still single in the ‘80s, she is the one who got away for the bookish man. His introducing her to the poem “A Season in Hell” by Arthur Rimbaud becomes a pivotal plot point in a scene that screams “pay attention to me!”

So pay attention!

There are some stand out moments depicting the band coming together with their new song writer when Frank is drafted by Eddie. The two bond quickly due to a mutual desire to create art rather than just churn out what everyone else is doing. Eddie in particular wants to make songs that “will last forever” and dubs the college boy the Wordman.

The rest of the band is not so enthused by all this, but what their leader wants, he gets.

Such treatment can engender resentment and that kind of bitterness can last for decades. Sal is that member of the group, so it is painfully ironic that he’s running around with a Cruisers tribute band to make money. Despite all the years, he’s still in Eddie’s shadow.

It is character moments like this that make the movie, since the mystery is such a straightforward story. Seeing the band members older and haunted by their brush with fame is compelling cinema thanks to their being believable characters. Anyone who has been involved with a band or has friends who were will recognize the personalities presented here.

Frank has his own mixed bag of emotions for all was not fun back in the day. Taking the band out of their comfort zone and then taking Joann for something akin to a date exposes the classic New Jersey lower class resentments seen so often in entertainment. Wordman doesn’t quite fit in with the rest, despite his humility and even temper, no matter how hard he tries.

Conflict ensues with Eddie and the immortal line “words and music” makes its debut when Frank explains his sometimes turbulent relationship with the late singer to Maggie. It seems like everywhere he’s going, the reporter is there or was just there digging for more on Wilson. Her flirtations with Frank are questionable in their sincerity adding some tension to the newshound’s appearances.

More bad memories are uncovered via catching up to the drummer, Kenny Hopkins (David Wilson). Yes, he actually has a name, though not much more in the way of a personality. Frankly, he comes off as a bit of a creep and someone you’d keep your daughter away from. Just going through a phase? Pfft, that’s his true nature.

Maggie’s digging combines with Frank’s revisiting the past leads to more questions, including the biggest of them all. Is Eddie really dead or did he copy Rimbaud by faking his death? What really happened during the recording of the second album? Who is after the tapes?

Thoughts

Cult movies usually become so for one of two reasons: they are so terrible they become unintentional comedies or they are gems that managed to be overlooked at first. Luckily, this movie is an example of the latter. Sincere and guileless, it never gets overly pretentious as the highly entertaining, if formulaic, yarn unspools.

Eddie and the Cruisers is an earnest movie that often has an intimate feeling about it. This is due mainly to the performances of the cast with no real weak points except for Wendall. Whether he had dialogue in the script that was cut or was provided none, Antunes got no chance to shine like the others. Given he was the only real musician amidst a bunch of actors, maybe that was for the best.

Whatever the case may be, an impression is made of dealing with real people rather than cardboard cutouts churned out from a typewriter. Hey, that’s what was used back when this was made. Fancy shmancy word processors… Real writers went deaf from the sound of keys thwacking the paper and had fingers stained with White Out fluid.

Ahem. These kinds of wandering off of subject happen when you get old.

Direction by Martin Davidson is competent, though not flashy. The same can be said about Fred Murphy’s cinematography which handles the night filming well, an important thing for a movie that mostly takes place after dark. Other than a few creative shots using mirrors, the camera work is pedestrian with no innovative angles or panning.

Music dominates much of the running time with multiple performances showcasing entire songs while managing not to come off as being forced in. For a brief time, the soundtrack made a star out of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Deservedly so, though the irony of them becoming a one album hit is a bit too on point. I have to say Paré’s lip synching to Cafferty’s vocals is pretty good and might fool a few people.

Simply put, this was an ideal movie for the MTV era it landed in, back when the cable network aired music videos, influenced cinema, and was watched by what seemed like every teenager in America. The timing couldn’t have been better for it to become a cult hit.

When we aren’t watching performances by the band, the script serves up scads of dialogue betraying the fact this is an adaptation of a novel. P.F. Kluge approved of the adaptation, but couldn’t stand the horrible sequel which only had Eddie Wilson in common with his book.

Rated PG, the movie has plenty of mild profanity and innuendo sprinkled throughout nearly perfectly fitting what the movie rating. Not really suitable for kids in subject matter, ages in the double digits will find the story more interesting anyway.

I recommend Eddie and the Cruisers to rock and roll fans, lovers of wistful characters filled with regret, and anyone who enjoys a good, solidly made movie. After all these years, it still holds up well.

Technical

MGM Home Entertainment’s DVD dates back to 2001 and is a basic offering with only the theatrical trailer for an extra.

Video quality is fairly good with demerits for occasional muddiness during the many dark scenes along with occasional dirt scratches betraying the age of the material. Time seems to have been unkind to a lot of 1980s film stock with lower quality 35mm film being to blame if I recall correctly.

The good news is that the transfer is 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen so if you are like me and only saw it on HBO way back when it is a treat to see the complete picture. Colors are well saturated and show no bleed while contrast is decent. It is not a tack sharp presentation despite the film grain being present.

Audio is typical Dolby Digital Stereo Surround, but don’t expect much in the way of back channel action. This is a solidly stereo soundtrack with no no pops or hiss, but not as spectacular as a movie about music should be. It inexplicably lacks vavoom, making me wonder if the compression was too high.

Subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish.

Yep, it is a no frills DVD.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

Wendall’s death by “heart attack” marks the beginning of the end for the Cruisers. I like how the scene where Eddie can’t bring himself to perform before a packed bar reveals just how sensitive he really is. Down comes the façade of his tough guy image in a great performance by Paré. While the band plays on with Joann awkwardly singing in his place, the difference without the main man is glaring.

Oddly enough, the replacement sax player doesn’t get any dialogue either. Is it racial or is there a hatred of saxophone players involved? For some reason, I find the latter more sinister.

‘80s Joann makes her entrance late in the story in a reprise of how Frank first saw her. Again the chemistry is immediate, though this time tinged heavily with regrets. The melancholy nature of nostalgia is at its purest in this reunion of these two almost love birds. It is through her memories the final hours of Eddie are revealed.

Can’t make a film about the music industry without creative differences with the money men, can you? We finally get to hear some of the music that was lost and it is clearly five to ten years ahead of its time. Featuring distortion and backwards sampling, it is dark and slightly reminiscent of The Doors.

Told it is unreleasable crap, Eddie goes off in a rage at the record label exec. However, the anger is masking something else going on with the singer.

With Joann in tow, he flees to Jersey and a castle made of junk called Palace Depression. A real life place, it was destroyed by vandals years after the movie was made. There he begins to crack up, realizing his drive to create something great has failed and that everything he’s worked toward is gone.

Here is the tortured poet fully realized with the macho mask stripped away to reveal a panicked depressive at the end of his rope. In mere hours he will have vanished and his empty car found in a river.

A recovery run by Joann with Frank to Palace Depression is successful at finding the tapes, however they fail to notice somebody following them every step of the way. That somebody has a turquoise Chevy convertible just like Eddie’s.

Somebody who sounds like Eddie calls Joann, somebody who knows all their private signals with phone calls and headlight flashing. For you younger types, this was a time honored way of communications with a gal you were dating who had hostile parents. It was another era, one far, far away from texting.

I loved Frank finally being proactive at the end, ambushing “Eddie” without Joann’s knowledge. He manned up and would have worked over his former collaborator, except it turned out to be Doc posing as the dead singer. The tapes are his last chance at making it, so he staged the break ins and phone calls.

This was quite a scene, adultly handled with a visible weariness in the reactions of Frank and Joann. Rather than being enraged at Doc, they pity the eternal loser desperate for success. Giving him the tapes, they also give him the opportunity to finally get rich. Their actions are very grown up, which can’t be said of characters in many movies today.

Also mature is the couple finally forming at the end, with both of them letting go of Eddie at long last. He was always the one thing keeping them apart, both in life and death.

Eddie’s being alive in Canada is depicted very nicely as is his reaction to the tapes finally being released. Not a word is said, just showing body language made it a perfect ending to the story and reason enough to never make a sequel. Sadly they did and you will never read a review of it here for it is supremely bad.

Snow and Other Discomforts

A short guide to configuring a LG 27MP33HQ monitor for a better picture follows after an account of how I ended up having to do so. Not what I was planning to write, but what else is new?

Yesterday morning greeted the residents of rural Yucatan with a small accumulation of snow. As I type this, more of the white stuff is falling leaving the yard a patchwork of green and white. Winter has shown up early in Southeastern Minnesota and shows no signs of letting go in the immediate future if the forecasts are to be believed.

That wasn’t the only sight to rudely greet me yesterday. Turning on my computer monitor revealed waves of green rolling through the right side of the screen. Having seen this before, I knew it was hardware failure. Still, doing all the right things to eliminate software driver and cable issues were undertaken to no avail. In fact, the not terribly old Asus VH236H decided to get worse by the minute.

Stephen King’s IT (1990) Review

A strong cast competes against shaky material in this ground breaking television adaptation. Based on the famous horror novelist’s decades spanning story about a group of friends battling a mysterious entity in a small town. When murders resembling those from thirty years before begin, the group must reassemble to face what appears to be a killer clown. However, nothing is what it appears to be… But I  do promise a cameo by Godzilla.

Even a miniseries isn’t enough to cram in everything from a Stephen King novel and his 1985 novel IT manages to be even more daunting thanks to excessive metaphysical noodling contained within. Still, the story had the benefit of a young group of adolescents like King’s Stand By Me along with the striking visual of a clown for the villain. So it is no surprise that ABC television network got the rights to adapt the tome for a big event. Put together with great care by director Tommy Lee Wallace, the show was a hit featuring some memorable images.

But was IT any good?

Part 1 starts off the whole affair off with ominous music accompanying pages from a photo album showing seven kids from the late 1950s or early ‘60s before shifting to the current time. Well, “current” being the late ‘80s (1990 to be specific) which of course is almost a quarter of a century ago now. Inadvertently a double period piece for modern viewers, IT does show IT’s age. There will be both pompadours and big hair for you to decide which is the more frightening.