p e n g u i n d e v i l

Yet another great hiking area. We went up Larch Mountain. It was really nice, though it rained the whole way and some parts of it were cold enough to still have thick mounds of snow on the ground. We will be heading back in warmer weather. The trail wasn’t too hard or very steep, but it certainly had rough spots. The views were not there, due to thick fog floating around everywhere. Supposedly at times you can see Hood from there. But the way up was a nice varied hike through some beautiful woods.

heading in…
To skip ahead to the way back down, most of that was through an eerie wood. A forest of Birch that was heavily damaged by a storm. There were trees downed everywhere and debris and then, of course, still the fog. It was a little surreal, in a pleasant way. What about the top, you say? Well, that was interesting too! It is a bit odd to hike 3-4 miles on a trail to reach a road and a parking lot but, once you get there, you are greeted with a very nice picnic area, it looked more like a camping area, secluded and well-treed. After that area though, a nice walk down a wooded path to be greeted by a stairway going up through the trees.

the stairs…
Where does it go? Well, if you clamber up these stairs you reach the viewing platform on top of the ol’ lava plug. The day we were there I was 4000 feet up, yet nothing to be seen but white. The edge could have been a 4000 foot plunge or a 400 foot plunge, if you leaned over though, you could see somewhat straight down… We’ll have to check it out in clearer weather, it was still a nice, interesting sensation though.

where am i?


down you go…
Finally, after all of the years of having Corben’s Vic and Blood laying around, I actually sat down to watch A Boy and His Dog. It was nice to get it out of the way. Sure, it’s a bit hokey, but it follows the graphic novel (I haven’t read the actiual story) pretty well and if you can avoid thinking about Don Johnson, it’s a pretty fun movie to sit and watch. The post-apocalyptic movies are always fun, and they take soo little money to throw together. Yes, watching someone walking though the desert with a dog can be fun! Following along Vic’s love troubles and wondering why all the white face keeps it a fresh and unique film from that genre.

a boy and his dog 1:01:52
We also rented Hellboy. I suppose it was alright. I mainly liked the beginning, with the occult nazi stuff. You can’t really go wrong with occult nazi stuff. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have many film appearences. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hellboy, any others? But it looked good in this. Some rather bad looking bad guy, some nice portal action… Trouble is, once the cartoon characters showed up, the movie fizzled a bit. Though it still remained interesting enough for a comic book movie, it made me just want to watch Sin City and to find more occult nazi stuff. But there were good effects and some nice sets. None of the “heroes” interested me at all, though I liked the doctor character. But let’s talk about the villains…

hellboy 8:34
We also watched Carrie. It seemed a sort of kindergarten for actors. So many soon to be famous faces that I would have sworn that the actor who played Freddy was really Chris Penn. Of course, the credits don’t agree but anyway, plenty, not just Travolta! In general though, I didn’t find the movie too interesting. William Katt freaks me out (and not in a good way), but the prayer closet with the statue of Howard Stern is neat and Piper Laurie does a wonderful job! She really is the movie… A great character and great playing of the character, really provide a solid core. Sissy Spacek does good too, very convincing. The two of them together really did the job.

carrie 1:31:30
And the for an unheard of one, I watched Time without Pity. Washed up drunk trying to get his act together to save his son… Okay, so it’s not The Lost Weekend but it is an interesting film. It is interestingly shot and some of the casting is quite good, in fact some really nice shots and something about some of the acting seemed really fresh and but the story seemed a bit fluff. Padded, I might say. It was an unexpected surprise to see Peter Cushing and Michael Redgrave did a good job, though he kept reminding me of Ray Milland… but I was drawn in, for the most part, by Leo McKern. I thought he put good energy and an interesting angle to his role. I found Alec Graham to be completely unconvincing. Anyway. The story was good, It was a combination of nicely crafted film with some good acting jobs and a nice noirish mystery… with some not so good roles and some parts that a seemed very strangely put together. I would still recommended it though. Maybe a good double with The Lost Weekend.

time without pity 20:01


a boy time without pity 20:58

Yes, it’s been another lengthy vacation from here. I’ll be back in the movie saddle soon, I suppose. But what’s been going on these last few weeks? Be prepared… I do have a couple on things to throw down.

Two weeks ago I had another good hike. A nice forest park romp through the woods. I was afraid that there might be some souls on it, for that is how the parts of forest park that I know are, but I think the Monday morning time-slot and the fact that the spot we went to was about 10 miles past the part of the park I’m used to, led to us not seeing a soul on our little nature walk. Very nice, but sadly, our batteries died after the first picture, so there is little evidence.

Then last week, we went to Sauvie Island and had, to that point, my favorite hike yet of the series… maybe 8 or so miles, light wooded area, beach walking, a little lighthouse at the end, and perfect “60 degrees with occasional sprinkle weather”. Very nice. All was lush and green and meadows and the big river. And, yet again, not a soul on the path. In fact, aside from a couple of guys fishing in a boat, it seems the that whole end of the island was empty. All very nice, though the little side trek to catch a glimpse of the lovely town of St Helen’s is not worth the time, though we did find two strangely out of place concrete platforms… Mysterious…

This Monday was another really nice one. We brought along Brian and went out gorgeside for a trip up at Waukeena Falls and over and down Multnomah. Well, that was nice. Lots of trees, waterfalls and all that stuff, very few other folks. Sadly, once we got around the top of Multnomah, the little crowds came out and, worst of all, our route became paved! A sad, sad thing. The concrete o’er the earth is bad enough, but it also brings such pain to the feets that tromping along rocks and dirt just doesn’t have.

very nice…

quite nice…

do we live here?

Other things? I was enlisted to be the guest on PhilosophyTalk this week. Well, it turned out ok. The show went nothing like I had been told and so my preparations were for naught and I was unprepared for what happened.. But, at least Powells got mentioned alot and some books that I picked out got some airtime. Strangely, its broadcast here in town was pre-empted by some senate hearings about some evil hard-to-listen-to fascist general who’s going to be taking over the CIA. I was kinda glad it was, but, then again, it seemed really lame too. I guess I can always just stream it…Movie wise, it’s been a quiet couple of weeks. but I feel like things are picking up,

We Watched Persuasion. A while ago I tried watching the one in the Jane Austen Box Set. Sadly, not good. This version, on HBO, was much superior. Instead of a cheap movie of people in costumes blandly walking around this one actually gave an feeling of what it might have been like to actually live in those times. A seemingly low budget was put to a very good use. The production design was genuine, the acting was good, the actors worked well. It was quite good all-around!

I also watched North by Northwest. For the first time… Yes, I had never seen this old classic before. Another, of course, in my series of watching all of these Cary Grant movies, he didn’t really bother me in this one, though. It was quite a good film! Fun, nicely shot, non-stop…. James Mason was great, of course. The twists were nice. Well, what else to say, classic Hitchcock. Great James Mason, great sets… Really great sets. And a fun story!

I finally watched The Call of Cthulhu. Soo many HPL stories have been movieized in one sense or another, it is a relief and a thrill to see one soo pure to his stories. The standard movie style (sound… color… girls…) seems to thoroughly dispel that literary aura that is the core of his writings, so a lovingly literal black and white silent film in the old style is a joy to behold. A must see for fans. But, sadly, the disc seems to be missing, so no shots of it… For now…

I also had never seen Casablanca, “The greatest film of all time or something”. I thought it was pretty good, not going to end up in my top 100 though. Of course, maybe great for it’s time, but for an older thriller, I’ll take a Melville film anytime. But it is quite classic, the casting is great: Veidt is great, Lorre is great, Dooley Wilson is great! Pondering the French Colonies after the fall of france, which i never thought much about, was interesting. And it was, yes, a good story with twists and turns and backstabbing. All that good stuff. You know? It was kind of like Star Wars.

After much wanting to for many months, we also watched Goodbye Lenin. I liked this one. Yes, I thought the premise was a bit weak. I understood, sort of, his original idea, but I thought that after a little time, it would have to become obvious to him how much he was overreacting, but that aside it was a fun and interesting movie. Touching at times and funny.

Hard Candy. I had been looking forward to this’n since viewing the preview some time back. I did like quite like it, it’s pretty non-stop and can be fairly unsettling. Plot-wise it was reminiscent of Death and The Maiden. My only issues with it were the obvious DV filming and the annoying “fast editing” sequences that, I guess, are supposed to be artsie or whatever, but they just seem rather unneeded. The movie was interesting enough and the roles were quite well played, no fancy tricks are needed. Fun, nonstop, in your face and exciting!

A Clockwork Orange! Yes yes… Again and again. About the only thing better than this movie is the trailer for it included on this disk, wonderful! Fun! Brian hadn’t seen it yet so we sat down to it for some viewing. I noticed some things I hadn’t before, “home” (the second time around) has the old ludwig van’s 5th as a doorbell and the “new wife” was played by none of than David Prowse! Kind of a surprise, though I don’t know why. But back to the expected… Lot’s of the Ultra-violence, with about the most rollicking first 10 minutes a film has ever had. It always reminds me that I should read the book. Another funny one that I remember in Ma’s room when i was but a lil’ un. Anyway, I know it’s unfair to rate Kubrick movies, but this has to be one of the big three of them. If you haven’t seen it, see it! But be prepared. Also, personally I feel a bit odd viewing it in a public setting, as I did at the Mission Theater a couple of years back. There’s just a bit too much goodness to share with a room full of strangers.

a clockwork orange 34:13