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
