WHAT SANTA BROUGHT ME FOR CHRISTMAS

OKAY... so I didn't get the Doctor Who collection of mini-mates (all 10 of the Doctors in Lego-like coolness)... I did get this awesome tee-shirt (below)
My son, MothT bought me this shirt because he knows that DOCTOR WHO is my all-time (I mean #1 period!) favorite television show (the CLASSIC WHO, Pertwee, BAKER, Davison). Now rogue evolent is ready to meet Rassilon himself for tete-a-tete in the High Council of Gallifrey!

The boy also got me SEASON ONE of my current favorite TV show, FRINGE. I think HOUSE is a better show, but I like FRINGE more!

Happy New Years one and all

r/e

MO' MONSTUH' MERRY CHRISTMAS ! ! !

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL

BE SAFE! BE LIKE THE BUMBLE!

BEST WISHES FROM ROGUE EVOLENT & tROAD!

Gee, Mr. Moto

"You think a little Japanese dick is goin' to scare me?"

Well he should, this diminutive detective has nerves as cold as steel. Who else can toss an opponent over the side of a ship and casually walk away as cool as a cucumber?
The one and only MR MOTO!
CLASS DISMISSED!

NO ROOM IN THE INN redux (Gill Man Evicted!!!)

So, the other night Mrs. Rogue Evolent and I finally put up the Christmas tree (artificial) and all the other castle decorations...
including her "Nativity Set" over the fireplace-- on the mantle.

It doesn't actually look quite like this (above) but close enough for this blog ;) As I do every year (you'd think she would finally relent and let me have my way...sheeese! w'min!) I insert several non-Biblical characters into the background just to add some "figgy pudding" fun! Last year it was a small plastic Eugene the Jeep, another year it was Snoopy & Woodstock... you get the idea. The Missus always finds them and removes them with a "traditionalist" retort "they don't belong in the Bethlehem stable!"

This year I stuck in the background, fairly well obscured by donkey and angel- - the CREECH!!!!!! The Gill Man was there to worship Immanuel, the New Born King too! why? cause he's a "Creature" (of the Black Lagoon). I figured the famous poem by Cecil Frances Alexander "Maker of Heaven and Earth" would win the day in my argument with my "better half"

But HON!!!!! the words do say:
"All things bright and beautiful (ALL things, amphibians included!)

All creatures great and small (the Gill Man is not "a" creature but "the" Creature)

All things wise and wonderful (it is the most wonderful UNI monster flick)

The Lord God made them all (c'mon.... be green!)

This (above) is the Creech minimate that was in the creche scene.

My wife kicked him out as fast as ever before. She said: "Nope, no monsters in the stable"

I grumbled, but did not protest too much. I'm still hoping for that Doctor Who collection of minimates for my present under the tree... no need to upset "she who must be obeyed" :)

rogue

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

MiniMates are cool (maybe not as neat as legos but still very fun and ingenious)

The "DOCTOR" is my all-time favorite televison series. I love the Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee incarnations the best, but I also really appreciate the Peter Davison brief run, as well as the reboot with David Tennant (though I could make the argument that the re-launch is a whole different character, hmmm?) I have yet to see any of the Matt Smith episodes.

The above boxed-set of the whole slew of Doctors is something that I'd love to have. I've dropped the hint to my son (MothT), and hope he'll pick me up the set for my Christmas present this coming Sunday the 25th.

He recently down-loaded me the Doctor Who theme song for my ring-tone on my trusty cell-phone. I love it.
Though, truth be told, I'd rather have the "sound" of the TARDIS de-materializing.

ciao
rogue (hey! a toy sonic-screwdriver would be pretty awesome too!)

HO(rror)! HO(rror)! HO(orror)!

Got both of these over at CHFB...
Yeah, I'm swiping them, but I like them that much :)
"DECK THE HOWLS"
-r/e

CREECH COMMENTARY (mini-essay)

The Gill Man is my absolutely favorite Universal Monster. Except as I think about it, he is N-O-T a monster. Not really.

I think I will explore this in three movie reviews as I take my TRIO of Creech films off the shelf (and out of their DVD cases) and re-watch them...and then review them for the blog. Stay Tuned!

But for now, let's look at the facts.

Dracula is a cursed creature of the night with definite evil, almost devilish overtones. He kills to live, yes, but he sure enjoys the "perks" of being the head honcho of the living dead. And notice that (in Stoker's novel) that Van Helsing is most effective against the Count when he uses the physical manifestations of good & the Church.

The Monster of Frankenstein started off as body parts from killers, and other rogues (HEY!!! I resemble that remark - - rogue evolent). Sure he's got the emotional maturity of a child in the movie... but, at least in the novel, he evolves into one mean, nasty, vindictive, son of a gun.

The Mummy is also a cursed spirit of vengeance and retribution...bad mojo and all that. Plus there's the Egyptian religious pantheon and all that amulet stuff... very monstrous!

But the Gill Man is like a grizzly bear, or a moose. Well, maybe a very smart grizzly bear...

There he is in his ancient antedeluvian home away from homes - - the Black Lagoon. He's content, he's minding his own business, and then the white man explorer/scientist comes into his "crib" and starts messing around with him. Like a Bear or Tiger, he's territorial and animal by instinct; so he lashes out with the claws and teeth nature has provided him with. He's not evil or monstrous just wild. He is not meant to be domesticated. But he also does not have an "evil" bone in his amphibian body!

Yeah, I know he's got a "thing" for Julia Adams (later Julie) that bespeaks his "higher mental faculties" (or lower, depending on how you view it :) ) but this doesn't make him less animal, just a higher evolved form of animal. His interactions (fascination, obsession, sexual attraction) are much like those of an intelligent great ape (Gorilla or Chimp) for Jane Goodall.

Come to think of it (this is not original, I stole it from somebody over at Classic Horror Film Board) the Gill Man is very similar to King Kong.

He would have been just find and dandy...and normal... had the Americans just left him alone. But no!!!! Go into his home... poke him...dope him up with chemicals, shoot him, burn him alive (almost), and then cart him off to the "States" in ropes and chains to be an exhibit for kiddies and tourists. Carl Denham, anyone?

What the Creech needed at the end of movie three, was not just his "gills" back in his neck, but a darn good Lawyer... or maybe even the United Nations.

just sayin'

- rogue evolent.

p.s. Yeah, I know, the Wolf Man (Larry Talbot/Lon Chaney Jr.) might also fit into this category of Non-monster, but rather, sad and tragic victim. hmmm.

The "GAG" Is Afoot! - - - NOT

I did not begin my love affair with Doyle's "Consulting Detective" with the short stories and novellas. I first became aquainted with Holmes (& Watson) by watching the old black and white Universal films on late night weekend "mystery theaters" on a b&w Zenith portable TV. I watched these with my Dad. I don't think I've any better television memories (except maybe watching Charlie Chan with my Dad)

Later on, much later really, in my college days, my best friend "the Spoiler" gave me a set (two hardbound volumes) of the Complete Sherlock Holmes to safeguard for him as he embarked on a cross country journey of self-discovery (kind of like when Green Lantern/Hal Jordan took off to "find America" as penned by Denny O'Neil)

It was in that fiction that my mind's eye drew Holmes as he really is!!! That is, TO MY MIND's EYE!!! This is my blog, so I make up the rules as to my own likes and preferences :) (smiley emoticon means I'm not mad)

The annotated Holmes' volumes usually contained the famous artwork of Sidney Paget who drew some 350 black and white illustrations of Holmes & company for THE STRAND MAGAZINE. As these were drawn during the life-time of author/creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and as they met with his full approval... this IS WHAT HOLMES looks like. Sorry, Santa Claus is an old fat, red-cheeked white guy, not an Indonesian... some things "just are!" Shaft is a black guy not an Icelandic girl!

Above is a great example of Paget's rendition of Sherlock Holmes.

Above we see the American stage actor William Gillette in his famous ground-breaking portrayal of Holmes for the theater! He appropriately looks like a real-live version of Paget's creations. I like his visual aesthetic very much.

Above is the one-and-only Basil Rathbone who starred in all of those famous HOLMES movies from the 1940's that I "cut my teeth on." The movies were a mixed bag to be sure (I love 'em all nonetheless) but Rathbone simply was a spectacular HOLMES! His look was perfect. And, Rathbone was a good actor, only limited by the screenplays and the production team's (really probably the studio) unwillingness to do all the stories as "period" pieces. For almost twenty years, this rogue evolent thought RATHBONE would always be the definitive HOLMES.

Above is one of my favorite genre/horror actors, Peter Cushing. He also made a fine Sherlock. His acting was impeccable and his look authentic and very reassuring to the canon, and to Doyle's creation. Kudos!

And then "lightning struck!" On a Thursday night in 1984, American television debuted a 13 episode series of Sherlock Holmes stories produced by the UK's Granda Television starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes.

My word.... it was magic; it was alchemy; it was so HOLMESIAN as to forever end all discussion as to WHO WAS HOLMES. Rathbone "played" a brilliant Holmes, but BRETT WAS HOLMES! It was as if a camera had been placed back in London at 221b Baker Street; it was as if we were inside Doyle's brain. Brett was so much Holmes it was almost unsettling spooky... but fun... exhilarating...and iconic in every sense of the word.

I'm not saying more Holmes movies and television series can't be done or shouldn't be done. Good writing and good acting will always invite new endeavors to bring new life to a character "for the ages" (Sherlock Holmes is such a character who belongs to the collective zeitgeist of 19th and 20th century America and to all English speaking countries).

But ladies and gentlemen.... the "game is not afoot" any longer. It's rather a gag reflex that is "afoot," as in "gag me with a dead maggot stick." Downey is a good actor. I've liked him in many roles. Ritchie is a competent director. Action films with explosions and gun-fire, and fist-fights, and double entendres, and sexual humor, and adult themes, and humor, are all appropriate in their place. Why not create a new character in a new setting and have some fun with a fresh and innovative idea?? Huh? But why take the precious memories of an established tradition and jerk it all around like some waxen nose to mishapen it and make it something it's not, nor was it meant to be. Yeah, I know, $$$. After all, it is show business.

Robert Downey Jr. comes off as a smirking chimp; a smarmy "look how clever I am" smart-ass. Stan Lee did not write Holmes into our hearts and minds and souls.... Arthur Conan Doyle did. Tony Stark transplanted to 1898 is pathetic and just plain wrong.

Robert Downey Jr. IS NOT SHERLOCK HOLMES....

and never will be... and I don't give a fig how much money these abominations make. They may be good movies. They are not Sherlock Holmes movies.

Case Closed!

rogue evolent

MY FIRST TV HORROR HOST since '75

Minding my own business (maybe a bit too much) I've slipped into ennui and mental lassitude (don't know what they mean but wanted to use them)... until a few weeks ago when "Mrs. rogue evolent" let me bring the television upstairs from the dungeon to the "la-boor-a-tree."

I am ashamed to admit to any fellow cinephiles and genre-junkies that I don't have cable (or dishTV, or, even electricity most of the time). But now that the TV is upstairs where the ol' "rabbit ears" can get some reception, I have found a couple of stations that were not playing in my "neck of the woods" last time I was a regular TV watcher (which was around January of 2009, or whenever the networks and local stations went from analog to ALL digital).

Anywho... I have discovered both ANTENNA TV and MeTV. Oh glorious day for an old guy like me that grooves on watching old 1950's, 1960's and 1970's television fare.

AND THEN.... I discovered that on MeTV, every Saturday night (central time zone) from 9 pm to 11 pm there's a show called SEVENGOOLIE ! ! !

I can't believe how fun it/he is!!! I never had a "horror host" growing up in the Twin Cities (Mpls. and St. Paul, MN). During my latter high school years and first couple of college years ( the massive quantity of beer dulls my memory) I did have Jeff Gibson who played horror-host "Asmodeus" on our ABC Ft. Wayne, IN affiliate. But that was back in 1975.

I never really had the opportunity to watch much Elvira or the other cable show hosts in the 80's (or since).

So, SVENGOOLIE, for me, is just a riot!!! I love the guy. I love the dumb jokes, the "corn," the puns, the sight-gags, and the whole "amateur-vibe" schtick. It's just a great throw-back to the good-old days.

I'm sure you all know him, but if not:

http://svengoolie.com/

Also:

I've already seen the great old 1932/33 classic (the public domain version, not the new restored Criterion print/DVD) with Charles Laughton: "ISLAND OF LOST SOULS."

I'm thinking SVENGOOLIE is just what the "Mad Doctor" ordered to "jolt" me out of fermentation and ossification ( yeah, ? ? ?)

-rogue evolent