.
So, um, I have a blog. It’s kind of where the other side of my brain hangs out. The snob.
And guess what? I’ve found something even more obscure to write about than pre-Airport disaster movies and made-for-TV killer animal films.
After several false starts, it’s just beginning to look something like what it should be. However, as I said over at the BMMB, while I’ll be very happy if anyone feels like stopping by for a visit, please don’t feel obliged. I certainly appreciate that this stuff is far from most people’s cup of, uh, coffee.
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#1 by The Rev. on September 25, 2010 - 10:11 am
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Oh, come now. With your writing ability, I think we’d read pretty much anything you wrote. Your blog could be about your weekly laundry list and I’m sure we’d visit at least a couple of times.
#2 by El Santo on September 25, 2010 - 1:36 pm
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You’re covering Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun— the basis for a Jesus Franco movie— and you don’t think people around here will be interested? Really?
#3 by lyzard on September 25, 2010 - 2:21 pm
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Aw, thank you, Rev. But – weekly laundry? How little you know me!
That’s a nice theory, Santo, but it’s going to get much more obscure from here. You know – stuff that hasn’t been filmed by Jess Franco!
Oh, and really, “the basis for a Jess Franco movie” inasmuch as he stole four words from its title for his title.
Actually, the author of one of my reference books (obviously in unfamilar territory) put herself to the trouble of tracking that film down. Hey, everyone! – remember what finding/watching a Jess Franco film used to be like?-
“…this German-Swiss coproduction appears to be shot entirely on location in Portugal…I was unable to determine what language (if any) the actors shared in the film’s orginal version, since the dialogue on the tape I rented from a video store in Athens, Georgia, was entirely dubbed in English, although the subtitles were in what I finally managed to identify as Finnish…”
She goes on to describe her puzzlement at discovering there are no love-letters in the film (feh! – newbie), and at the appearance of Satan himself in the story, who she refers to as “an early Bela Lugosi look-alike who goes about dressed in a cheesy red jumpsuit”…which makes me want to see it RIGHT NOW. She’s also amazed that Jess apparently got permission to shoot in the basilica of the Mosteiro (which she compares to Westminister Abbey and Notre Dame) despite the fact that he was making “a pornographic movie”.
But there’s a movie doing the festival circuit at the moment (I think it played Toronto) just called The Portuguese Nun that may be The Real Deal. I need to look into that.
#4 by Read MacGuirtose on September 26, 2010 - 12:26 pm
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Having just last night finished reading [i]Moby Dick[/i], I can make a case for not being entirely uninterested in 17th, 18th, and 19th century literature.
#5 by Read MacGuirtose on September 26, 2010 - 12:29 pm
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I can, however, make a case for for some reason being continually unable to remember to use standard HTML tags on this site instead of BBCode…
#6 by Read MacGuirtose on September 26, 2010 - 12:42 pm
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And for forgetting the wording of my previous post and therefore using “however” where “also” would have been more appropriate.
And for excessively replying to myself to criticize my earlier posts.
I’ll shut up now.
#7 by lyzard on September 26, 2010 - 6:25 pm
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Thanks, Read. (Uh, for the encouragement, not for shutting up. 🙂 ) Sadly, at this distance my clearest memory of Moby Dick is the obsession with dumplings.
I’m pretty sure there was something about a whale, though.
#8 by Read MacGuirtose on September 26, 2010 - 7:50 pm
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Hmm… I only remember two places dumplings were prominently mentioned, though admittedly in both places they were touted as a rare and special treat.
Overall, it was a very interesting book, though ponderous in places. And I found the chapter where Melville explains in detail why he’s sure fears that whale-hunting may be causing whales to be in danger of extinction are completely ignorant and unfounded a little… disturbing…
#9 by lyzard on September 26, 2010 - 7:55 pm
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Ah, yes, I tell a lie – that also stayed with me, as well as the queasy feeling it provoked.
I believe there are only two mentions of dumplings, at that. It’s probably that my own family always reacted to the promise of “dumplings for supper!” (whether European or Asian) in pretty much the same way as Ishmael that made those moments stick.
#10 by Luke Blanchard on September 26, 2010 - 8:00 pm
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Regarding Kit Talbot’s reading list, Tom Brown might be the writer Thomas Brown (1663-1704), of whom I haven’t previously heard. Apparently, a volume of selections from his work titled The beauties of Tom Brown: consisting of humorous Pieces in Prose and Verse, selected from the Works of that satirical and lively Writer was published in 1808. The collection is online at Google Books, but more than that I cannot say, as I don’t have an account there.
For what it’s worth, Internet Archive and Google Books do have Brougham Castle by Jane Harvey, “author of Auberry Stanhope, Ethelia, Castle of Tynemouth, Warkfield Castle &c. &c.”
#11 by lyzard on September 26, 2010 - 8:05 pm
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That’s a good suggestion, Luke – thanks. I confess, I haven’t done too much about trying to pin down “Tom Brown”, beyond eliminating the obvious suspect.
Yes, she liked her castles, didn’t she? (As many did at the time, as well as their abbeys and their towers.) I can’t remember now, but that may be where I got “Warkfield” from.
#12 by Luke Blanchard on September 27, 2010 - 9:09 am
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I fear I misunderstood, and Google Books only has a placehold listing of that particular Brown collection. It does have works by him.
#13 by PCachu on September 28, 2010 - 1:36 pm
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So, the burning $64,000 question is:
Would that make it “choopla”?
#14 by lyzard on September 28, 2010 - 9:50 pm
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“Choopla” – to brag about something of which one is nevertheless ashamed.
#15 by Turzman on September 28, 2010 - 10:32 pm
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hoopla + chutzpa = funny.
#16 by Alaric on September 29, 2010 - 12:20 am
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Type your comment here
Seems to be a lot of that around here, doesn’t there?
#17 by lyzard on September 29, 2010 - 12:22 am
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😛
(I was hoping for a ruder and less cheerful-looking tongue-poke, but I guess that will have to do.)
#18 by Alaric on September 29, 2010 - 7:30 am
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Sorry, that was meant to come across as a friendly reference to the number of times various B-Masters make references along those lines… should never post when I’m (more than) half asleep. I apologize.
#19 by lyzard on September 29, 2010 - 4:32 pm
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Neither should I, obviously: I was going for an admiring Well played, sir – damn your eyes! sort of tone, in response to the accuracy of your observation.