31 Days of Horror: Vampyr

Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)

Carl Theodor Dreyer ( The Passion of Joan of Arc) directed this loose adaptation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 's 1872 short story Carmilla.

Allan Gray (Julian West) arrives at an inn in the village of Courtempierre. Once he arrives there - he is drawn into a series of weird occurrences involving an old man's daughter who is the victim of a vampyr or vampire.

This was Danish filmmaker Dreyer's first sound feature - although he uses it sparsely. The film is eerily shot - with a faded washed out look - creating an almost dream / nightmare like appearance. There are several really creepy moments like when the main character is buried alive.

This was the first of the often filmed Carmilla - the story was written 25 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula and probably influenced Stoker. Plus it was the first lesbian vampire - this was down played in this film where the vampire (vampyr) is an old woman but Hammer Productions exploited that particular aspect in their adaptations in the 1970's (The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil).

Meet Stephen Harper's New Brain

Nigel Hannaford, former Calgary Herald columnist and editorial board member has just been appointed as Stephen Harper's new speechwriter. He sure don't like them faggots. Ooooo, goody. (Xtra.ca)

Six in the Morning

1. NO FREE, PUBLIC MAYORAL DEBATE: The Chamber of Commerce is hosting a mayoral candidates forum tomorrow. But it's happening first thing in the morning and will cost $45 to non-members. Thinking this isn't really a public debate, the Cathedral Area Community Association last week started organizing a free-to-attend mayoral forum. They'd booked the Legion for October 26. They got word that the two challengers would be willing to attend. But yesterday, after several days of cajoling, the CACA got word that the incumbent, Mayor Pat Fiacco, would absolutely not be attending because of "prior engagements." Jim Elliott responded saying (I'm paraphrasing here) he shuffled his schedule around to accomodate the CoC debate so why can't the mayor do the same for a public one? (Leader Post)

Now, confession time: I'm a CACA board member (a rec committee chair is me) so I've been in on the organizing emails for this event. And, do I want a public mayoral forum? Heck yes. I can't make the CoC event because it's expensive (I could probably get in free as press, but there's a principle at stake here) and 7:30 am on a Thursday is unworkable for me, as it is for most people with jobs (no, city hall reporter for the prairie dog is not my main gig). So, yes, I'm disappointed there won't be a debate. But at the same time, I'm also a little relieved I won't be volunteering to clean coffee cups or something. And, I should also note I'm in a position to know the space for the debate is still booked.

In other election news, mayoral candidates Jim Elliott and Pat Fiacco have websites (www.myspace.com/jimelliottformayor, www.fiacco4mayor.com) on which there is contact info like phone numbers and email addresses. I'm just saying....

2. PROVINCE TO INTRODUCE WAIT-TIME TARGETS: The new session of the legislature starts today and in the throne speech the Sask Party will be announcing wait-time targets for healthcare. This comes amid hints from Brad Wall that his government is not averse to private surgical facilities. (Leader Post)

3. TUITION GAP WIDENS: Stats Can notes annual tuition in Ontario has hit $6,000, double what the kids are paying in cheaper provinces like Newfoundland and Quebec. Meanwhile, the Walrus does a forensic accounting of why Canadian education funding is lagging behind other developed nations and how education defunding has been the worst in Ontario. (Globe and Mail, Walrus)

4. LIMBAUGH WANTS NYTIMES REPORTER DEAD: The infamous talkradio host calls NY Times environmental columnist, Andy Rivkin, a jihadi and a terrorist then suggests he should kill himself. (Guardian)

5. OIL PRICES CLIMB AS GROUP WARNS OF SUPPLY CRUNCH: The price for US light crude has hit $79 a barrel -- more than double its low point from the spring, but still about half of the high it hit last summer. At the same time, the group Global Witness warns that the world could soon be facing a serious oil shortage. (Guardian)

6. BC STOMPS ON OLYMPICS HATERS: British Columbia government is contemplating a law to allow municipal authorities to enter homes and seize anti-Olympics signs and then fine the perps up to $10,000 a day. (rabble.ca)

When did these guys get into the movie business?

I went through my camera's files this morning -- including some photos from our family's vacation at White Bear Lake -- and guess what I found ...

Greed is God

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi takes down Wall Street yet again with an entertaining and easy-to-understand explanation of what when wrong.

A shorter version: a group of borderline sociopaths exploited weak regulations to ensure that the playing field is so tilted that your average mom-and-pop investor never stood a chance.

And when they ran out of innocent victims this pack of jackals began to eat each other last fall, with the unintended consequence of consuming all our pension plans.

Pick of the Day: Philosophy Cafe

From my admittedly limited knowledge of religion, I believe that the first religions that arose millennia ago were polytheistic and tied closely to natural processes that we had limited understanding of, but which impacted significantly on our well-being as we struggled to survive in a harsh environment.

It's impossible to put ourselves in the position of our forebears 10,000 or more years ago. But if we had lived back then, what would we have made of phenomena like lightning, thunder, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, droughts, eclipses and the like? Not surprisingly, people concluded that they, and numerous other equally incomprehensible phenomena like the changing of the seasons and the migration of animals, were the work of supernatural beings -- some benevolent, most malevolent.

Eventually, some people living in the Middle East hit on the idea of consolidating all the gods into one uber-powerful God whom they credited with all facets of Creation. As to what prompted this shift to monotheism, I don't have a clue. But in his talk at Connaught Library tonight called From Gods to God to Euclid Campion College prof Dwayne Raymond is apparently going to argue that the intuition that supported this transition was integral to the work Euclid later did.

Euclid (artist's rendition above) was a Greek mathematician who resided in Alexandria, Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy I in third century B.C. Credited with being the Father of Geometry, he instituted a rigorous system of logical proofs to solve complex problems that remains the basis of mathematics to this day.

In an e-mail exchange, Raymond described his presentation as visual and accessible to a broad audience. To put you in the mood to attend and listen to his philosophical musings here's video of Supertramp's "The Logical Song" (YouTube)

31 Days of Horror: Hellraiser

Hellraiser (1987)

There are some movies that despite their age - never stop being nasty pieces of work. After several failed adaptations of his stories into film - Clive Barker decided to adapted his own novella The Hellbound Heart into this film which he also directed.

Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) is a sick and twisted fellow who finds and opens up the Lament Configuration - a puzzle box that links this world with another dimension filled with demons called Cenobites whose specialty is pleasure and pain. Your pain - their pleasure. Frank's skin is ripped off with chains and he is torn apart as a result of opening the box.

Later Frank's brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his new wife Julia (Clare Higgins) move into Frank's house. Larry's daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) dislikes Julia. When blood is spilled on where Frank died - it brings him back - well mostly. Julia who has had an affair with Frank finds him and helps him. Frank needs blood to become whole. A lot of blood. And then Kirsty discovers what Frank and Julia have been up to along with finding the box.

Hellraiser is just one nasty gory movie. It's great to watch it with a large group of people who are all squeamish. As bad as all the chains and all the hooks and all the skin removing -that doesn't seem nearly as bad as when Julia whips out a simple hammer and goes to town on a victim for Frank.

Like all popular horror movies - this film spawned eight sequels. Part two wasn't bad but the rest are all a waste of film. And now there is rumours of a remake. It's to be expected I suppose but why bother when there's a perfect film right here that will tough to top. You can't really make it any more suspenseful, more terrifying and more gorier than it already is.

Alternate Pick of the Day: LeE HARVeY OsMOND

Don't feel like hanging with Greg at Garnet Rogers? Come with me instead to see LeE HARVey OsMOND, and remember the good old days when the Cowboy Junkies played at the BeeBop Cafe every other weekend. At the Abbey, 8:30p.m., proceeds to the Regina Food Bank. Come for dinner and get in for free. See Bim. Remember the BeeBop again. It's the prairie dog office now. Regina is so weird.

Ward 3 Candidates Debate Tonight

At the risk of being accused -- again -- of being too Cathedral focused, thought it worth mentioning the second Ward 3 All Candidates Forum takes place tonight. The fun starts at 7:30 and is happening at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre, 2900 13th Ave. (Apologies to the Heritage Community Association. They held the first Ward 3 forum last Thursday and I didn't announce it. My only defense is I forgot.)

For those with questions for incumbent Fred Clipsham or who want to see what the other candidates -- Don Young, Shirley Dixon and John Conway -- are made of, this is your chance.

I suspect there are other all candidates forums out there in buildings I don't pass everyday on my way to get groceries. If anyone wants to pass details along, please do.

While I'm on the subject, I was speaking to one councillor last week (who didn't know I'd use this on the blog so I'll leave his name out of it) about why there was no debate in his ward. He pointed out that generally it's up to the local community associations to organize such events and the one in his ward wasn't going to this time around.

But, he also talked about how such forums can be really unfair to challengers as the incumbent has a serious advantage by dint of having at least one term in city politics. He said that at the municipal level, for some candidates it's their first time running for any kind of public office and while they may prove a capable councillor once they're in the job, they're not always aware of the details of how municipal government works or even the minutiae of what council's been up to lately -- and that can make them look very bad in a debate.

Interesting points, I thought.

Probably not going to be a problem in the Ward 3 debate tonight as all four seem pretty seasoned at politicking. Fred's been a long-term councillor, Don Young's run for his job twice before, Shirley Dixon has experience in union campaigning, and, John Conway has long served as the squeaky wheel on Regina's Public School Board.

All in all, should be a good chance to hear some of the more divisive election issues get fleshed out and argued over.

Rosie LaRose's Top Six on Tuesday

1. CANADA’S TEAM, EH? The nearest I have been able to figure out, the Saskatchewan Roughriders set, if not a record, something noteworthy during Sunday’s 44-44 tie against the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium. All the Riders' points were scored by Canadians. Fullback and Regina city councilor wanna-be Chris Szarka scored three touchdowns, Chris Getzlaf scored one and Andy Fantuz scored the other. Placekicker Luca Congi kicked four extra points and two field goals. (cfl.ca)

2. YOUR CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT IN ACTION The fact that someone installed a doorknob at a Charlottetown RCMP detachment is proof that Stephen Harper’s stimulus plan works (cbc.ca). Well, there are a lot of doorknobs on that side of the House of Commons, you have to admit.

3. UP, UP AND AWAY Arianna Huffington pwons American celebrity culture and Balloon Boy’s parents. (Huffington Post) Oh yeah, these parents look like real winners. (CNN)

4. CHINESE DEMOCRACY CANADIAN STYLE My money’s on Axl not showing up (Leader-Post).

5. GETTING THE VOTE OUT Here’s an idea – instead of begging people to vote, why not have a political system where people’s voices are more important than businesses and self-appointed don’t-tax-me-don’t-tax-thee groups? (cbc.ca)

6. I WAS OLNY FOLLOWING ORDERS! When the Second World War ended, there was a host of surviving German generals who wrote their memoirs, blaming the loss on Hitler and the Nazis’ incompetence. Admittedly, such books are more interesting than hearing from the winners (Winston Churchill’s six-volume History of the Second World War notwithstanding). But at the risk of invoking Godwin’s law, former Canadian top soldier Rick Hillier is starting the same blame-the-politicians campaign in today’s Toronto star (Toronto Star). After spending $10 billion and losing nearly 140 men in an unwinnable war, he’s now doing what I was doing in 2003 – questioning why Canada has troops there in the first place.