31 Days of Horror: The Thing

Who Goes There?

Stupid snow! Sure it's inevitable but it doesn't mean I have to like it. And when it gets this time of year and the temperature drops and the snow falls, then melts, then falls again, I always turn to one movie that always makes me feel better. John Carpenter's 1982 remake The Thing. As cold as it gets here - it always looks colder where Kurt Russell and company are.

Not to discount the original 1951 Howard Hawks "produced" film - it's a damn fine film but Carpenter's remake is absolutely terrifying. Set in the harsh isolation of Antarctica - an American research station stumbles across a couple of Norwegians from a nearby research station that are trying to kill a dog. The Norwegians end up dead and the dog gets to stay with the Americans. A quick trip to the Norwegians' base shows that everybody there is dead and that they had previously dug something up in the ice (which references the 1951 version). And that dog isn't what it seems to be. It's some thing.

The 1951 film featured a group of American scientists and some U.S. army personnel digging up something in the arctic. The creature (James Arness) revives and goes on a rampage. As I said it's a good movie but a vegetable alien monster is no comparison for Rob Bottin's amazing special effects in the 1982 film. Also between the two films Carpenter's is closer to the original short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. that the movies are based on.

The cold, dark isolation of the arctic is the perfect setting for a scary game of guess who the monster is. This movie looks cold, damn cold. Kurt Russell's beard constantly seems to have icicles hanging from it. And there's nothing worse than freezing your ass off while trying to fight an evil shape changing monster.

Four In The Afternoon

1 THE CUTS COMETH Whacked by falling potash royalties, the Saskatchewan government sharpens its fiscal knife. (CBC)

2 SEVERENCE SCARE Canwest employees fear they'll lose their vacation pay. Isn't that illegal? anyone know? (CBC)

3 WHITE DUDE PUTS BLACK WOMAN IN PLACE Prime Minister Stephen Harper is correct. Governor general Michaelle Jean isn't Canada's head of state--she is the head of state's--the Queen's--representative. But did the PM really need to stick his big, pink nose into this minor gaffe by our country's GG? (Leader-Post)

4 DAILY PYTHON And not just ANY daily Python, but one NO ONE expects! Diabolical laughter!

Pick of the Day: Chad VanGaalen w/ Castlemusic

Tonight's second instalment in the Regina Folk Festival's Concert Series at the Exchange follows on the heels of Final Fantasy and Timber Timbre on Oct. 30. Like it, the headliner here is a veteran of the RFF's main stage. Chad VanGaalen played the festival this year, in fact. Prior to his appearance on Aug. 7 Steve did this Dog Blog post on the multi-talented Albertan.

Another similarity between the two concerts is that like Final Fantasy, VanGaalen is also backed up by a pseudonymous singer-songwriter -- Castlemusic a.k.a Jennifer Castle. Toronto-based, she's collaborated with the likes of Elliott Brood, the Constantines and Fucked Up, but when she performs solo she favours quiet, quirky introspective songs. I'm not sure when the Oct. 8 issue of prairie dog will hit the streets, but inside you'll find an interview with Jennifer by Emily Zimmerman. Here's a video for her tune Man Outa Me. (YouTube)

31 Days of Horror: Deep Red

It's time for a little Giallo. Giallo is a genre of Italian horror crime / murder thrillers, predominantly from the 1960's to the 1980's although there are still attempts being made to make them today. Dario Argento was the master of this genre at one time and the 1975 Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) is his best film. Sure his supernatural witch movie Suspiria gets a lot of praise but after watching it a few times, I think it's highly overrated.

The movie starts with a psychic woman (Macha Meril) giving a conference on her abilities. While trying to demonstrate her abilities, she shouts out that someone in the theatre is a murderer and will kill again. Later on at night - David Hemmings is walking along with his friend down a street and happens to witness the medium getting killed in her apartment. He rushes into her apartment and misses the killer but the killer sees him. Thus a game of cat and mouse begins as Hemmings tries to find the killer before the killer finds him.

The film is filled with Argento's trademarks - extremely gory and innovative deaths, a music score from Italian rock band Goblin and brilliant cinematography. It's a shame that Argento's current films (The Card Player, Mother of Tears) are no where near as good as this movie is. Apparently Argento plans to remake this movie in 3D - I hope that's just a bad internet rumour.

The American Dream

Right. The American Dream has been demonized, says John Thain, former head of Merrill Lynch.

Umm, now, as a Canuck, perhaps I'm wrong about this, but I always thought the American Dream was where anyone could have a good idea, work hard, act ethically and become a success. Guess I was all wrong about that.

Apparently the American Dream is really about moving up the banking oligarchy, coming damned close to bankrupting your own country, going on the hook for up to $17 TRILLION WITH A 'T" taxpayer dollars, then bitching that the plebes aren't treating you with due deference because they're a tad pissed about the whole thing.

Holy crap. These people haven't learned a damn thing. I've been more than a bit bearish on the States over the past few years, but I was hoping against hope they'd keep it between the ditches and figure it out like they always have before.

But if they can't bring people like this to heel, it's official. They've jumped the shark.

Six in the Morning

1. CANWEST GETS PROTECTION FOR POST AND GLOBAL: A judge has granted Canwest protection for the Global and National Post portions of its media empire as the company struggles to restructure its $3.9 billion debt. (CBC)

2. SPAMMERS TRY TO WATERDOWN ANTI-SPAM LAW: Lobbyists for on-line marketers -- the spam lobby, that is -- are urging Ottawa to include loopholes in their tough anti-spam laws that're working their way to the House of Commons. How're they doing this? I'm guessing lots and lots of emails and phonecalls to MPs. (Globe and Mail)

3. SASKPOWER TO HIKE RATES: SaskPower warns it'll have to hike rates in order to pay for new capacity to cope with Saskatchewan's growing population, and because they have to work to curb carbon emissions, and because they have to replace a lot of aging infrastructure. When can we expect the hikes? At some point over the next 20 years. Thanks for the heads up, guys. I'll put it in my calendar. Oh, and don't think for one second this announcement has anything to do with warming us up to the idea of building a nuclear reactor in the province. I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. (Leader Post)

4. HUGE DINO PRINTS FOUND IN FRANCE: Paleontologists in eastern France report they've uncovered some of the largest sauropod prints ever. (Globe and Mail)

5. U.S. TO DERAIL CLIMATE TALKS: The US is threatening to derail climate change talks in Copenhagen (Phew! Saves Canada the trouble) because it (the US) doesn't want the Kyoto Protocol targets included in the new agreement. China is not pleased. This bickering goes on as big corporations like Apple are pulling out of the US Chamber of Commerce in protest of that organization's lobbying to undermine climate legislation in the States. (Guardian)

6. UPPER CLASS TWIT: Today's the day Christopher Walter, the Viscount of Monkton, presents his screed against science, Apocalypse Cancelled, at the University of Regina. Now, I could go off on a profanity-fueled rage about how every single thing the man has to say on the subject of climate change is likely fraudulent (check this link out too). Or I could note that, yes, he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher but not, as far as I can tell, a science advisor despite what the organizers of this lecture claim because, you see, he isn't a scientist -- he's a part time "journalist" which means he's about as qualified to speak on the subject as I am (meaning: he isn't), the only difference being, I won't charge you $60 to listen to my incoherent babbling. Or I could demonstrate what a pathetic little toad he is by writing about his attempts to pass himself off as a member of the British House of Lords (he isn't) and as a winner of the Nobel Prize (he didn't). Or I could relate an amusing anecdote about the Viscount in which he invents and markets a puzzle so complex (he claims) that he offers a million pounds to the person who can solve it....... which an unemployed mathematician does just over a year after the puzzle is released and then the Viscount can't pay out the prize money. Or I could mention that he's written that all AIDS sufferers should be quarantined. I could do all those things. Or I could just direct your attention to the photo of the Viscount that accompanies this item and then to this Monty Python sketch and leave it at that....

Pick of the Day: Apocalypse Cancelled

I alluded to this talk in my Pick of the Day post for Sept. 22. The guy's actual name is Lord Christopher Monckton. In his publicity photo, he looks like the classic British upper-class twit, complete with pursed lips and tweedy aura. He's one of the world's leading climate change deniers who skilfully uses the language of science and pseudo-facts gathered from here and there to advance his cause. Here's a site that debunks his "arguments" (Deltoid)

At our story meeting Sept. 23, the idea of "pieing" him was actually floated. That's not really our style. It's probably not yours either. But hopefully members of Regina's green community will make their presence felt at his talk (which is being held today at the Delta Hotel at 11:45 a.m.). Heck, kill two birds with one stone (if you'll pardon the environmentally unfriendly analogy) and send the sponsor the Frontier Centre for Public Policy a message too.

Alternately, Monckton is scheduled to debate University of Regina Poli-Sci professor Jeremy Rayner at the Recital Hall (Rm. 214), College Ave. Campus, between 2-3:30 p.m.

Perverse Morality?

Valerie Scott, one of the women mentioned in the linked CBC news story about sex trade workers challenging Criminal Code provisions related to keeping a common bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution that imperil their safety has family roots in Regina. When she was home for a visit last summer, I interviewed her for a story that ran in prairie dog. As with the debate over marijuana, where prohibitionists condemn the violence and illicit profits that the drug trade engenders, the bottom-line is that the reason those problems occur in the first place is because weed and other soft recreational drugs are illegal.

When I spoke with Scott she made a compelling case that, regardless of one's personal feelings about prostitution and the overall commercialization of sex, the current situation is untenable as all it does is put women (and men) who work in the trade at the mercy of psychopaths like Robert Pickton and John Crawford.

Scott is executive director of the Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). When I spoke with her last June, the legal action was in the works, and she fully expected the fight would land them eventually in the Supreme Court of Canada. Here's hoping she and her colleagues win their fight.

31 Days of Horror: Doctor X

Every so often I run across someone who think that movies were really tame in the old days and that movies only became gruesome and violent in more recent years. They clearly haven't watched enough movies. From mayhem to murder, from cannibalism to rape, this movie has it all. This classic Pre-Code movie (from 1929-1934 movies were pretty much unrated until the big crack down in 1934) was also shot in 2 strip Technicolor, making it one of the earliest colour movies.

The Moon Killer attacks on every full moon. Six women have been found so far, all of them strangled, scalpeled (a scalpel was inserted into the back of their heads) and partial eaten. Cannibalism is the name of the game and the brilliant Doctor Xavier (Lionel Atwill) is called in for his expertise and a little more. It seems that most of the murders have happened around his college and the good doctor and his colleagues have fallen under police suspicion. His colleagues include Dr. Wells (Preston Foster), an amputee who has made a study of cannibalism, Dr. Haines (John Wray), Dr. Duke (Harry Beresford) and Dr. Rowitz (Arthur Edmund Carewe). It is later learned that Haines and Rowitz were stranded in a boat with another man, and that while they claimed he had died and they had thrown him overboard, it was suspected that they had, in fact, cannibalized him. Mmmm good eating.

Meanwhile ace reporter Lee Tailor (Lee Tracy) has been snooping around and manages to sneak into Doctor Xavier's place and makes time with Xavier's daughter Fay Wray. Xavier is going to try and solve the murders by using his new invention - a truth detector that monitor's peoples heart rates so they can figure out who's lying.

The early Technicolor adds a creepy element to the film. Being only a 2 strip film - it's not like the more colourful 3 strip films that came at the end of the 1930's. The colours seem to be mostly green and red and it gives the movie a moody grim feeling. Oscar winning director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Captain Blood, Angels With Dirty Faces) directs this horror film with the right amount of tension. The only real draw back is the more slapsitck antics of the reporter, but they can be overlooked. Then there's the revealation of the Moon Killer. It's not just the who - it's the why - brilliant and creepy is all I can say.

Free Stuff: Chad Vangaalen Tickets

Enter to win a pair of tickets to the Chad Vangaalen show this Thursday Oct.8th at the Exchange. Castlemusic opens. Just tell us the name of Chad's record label. Send an e-mail with your answer to contests@prairiedogmag.com with "CHAD VANGAALEN" in the subject line by 4p.m. tommorrow Wednesday, Oct.7th. A random draw of all correct answers will determine the lucky winner.

Thanks once again to our good friends at the Regina Folk Festival for the tix!