I am so excited!

and I just can't hide it!

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Thought you might like to know...

I never blogged about the final Harry Potter movies because, well, I couldn't find anything new to say about them.

On the March 3 episode of the National Public Radio show Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, host Peter Sagal and the panelists discuss the latest news from the wizarding world

Listen to the complete show here

Tuesday Afternoon

 At Miami I had to read selections from Robert  Ardrey's African Genesis (1961, I think) which put out the ideas that mankind was born on the African Savannah and  aggression (and the invention of weapons) fueled the survival of the species.  This was leading up a discussions about how visionary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and futurist Arthur C. Clarke then extrapolated those ideas to create the world's most expensive pornographic film, 2001, a Space Odyssey (money shot here)

I never know what my friend Todd will send me, but it is always worthwhile.  Today was a video clip that, even though it pre-dates Ardrey's book by a few years, takes that same evolutionary trip backwards, from space to the African plain and a pre-technological society (not killer apes!) to welcome the Star Child, all in under 8 minutes.

The Woman in Black, (James Watkins, 2012)

I just finished watching Hammer Films' The Woman in Black with Harry Potter Daniel Radcliff, Ciaran Hinds and some of the most frightening CGI I have ever seen.

This film was pants-wettingly-scary, plenty of jump out of-your-skin moments.

True story:  In 1984, my girlfriend and I went to see  a Friday the 13th movie on a rainy, Easter Sunday before her  parents took us back to Miami University.  I remember thinking it was odd that there were so many small children in the same theater.

The movie was laughably bad, which is not always a bad thing with me.  As I was explaining to my girlfriend that Jason was surely about to grab his next victim from under the stairs I paused long enough to jump out of my seat and somehow leap completely over her, landing on her lap and screaming the rest of my snarky comments about how predictable a movie it was into her ear, all because Jason Voorhees grabbed his next victim from under the stairs.

Better than drugs.

Funny Stuff

To make something funny, add:

an obese person

bigots (although it seems the only PC stereotypes left are Canadians and left-handed people.  This is not a bad thing)

S. William Hinzman (1936 - 2012)

Bill Hinzman, No. 1 Zombie from the cemetery in the original Night of the Living Dead, the  ghoul that was "Coming to get you, Barbara." is dead.  John T. at his superlative blog, Shocks to the System has written a very loving tribute to the man, his character and career.

I have written about my life long nightmares of gaunt, hollow eyed men pursuing me, but I never realized until tonight that Bill Hinzman was the zombie that haunted me.

I doubt I will sleep better tonight knowing he is dead.  In fact, I hope comes to chase me one more time.

Monday Morning Halftime Quarterbacking

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Our visit with Mercedes

The Sanducky Mall and my dreams of monsters

I returned to the center of the universe last week-The Sandusky Mall.  Large malls were a novel phenomena in the heartland of the 1970s. These local edifices were both brothels, where the sins of lust and conspicuous consumption were fanned to fever pitch, and cathedrals that provided expiation and atonement.  This was an irresistible, sensual experience a dissatisfied, alienated teenager.  I devoted countless hours to searching behind the mall's garish facades, prowling its promenades, perusing the emporiums and boutique,s and spending my quarters in  the meretricious arcade, hoping to find that one thing that would bring gratification.

Hardcore, Paul Schrader (1979)

Paul Schrader's Hardcore, 1979, is a dark, postlapsarian fable showing America's  rapid and irresistible decline into debauchery and decadence. As the family of staunchly religious busnessman Jake VanDorn unravels, the forces of darkness  move in to entice his teen-age daughter into their subterranean culture.