The Vampire Doll

The Vampire Doll is a 1970 Japanese horror film. This is the first film in the Bloodthirsty trilogy. I watched it on Amazon Prime. I can't find a trailer with subtitles, but you can get an idea of what to expect as far as atmosphere goes in the original trailer:

Testament (1983)

Testament is a 1983 film about the collapse of civilization after a nuclear apocalypse. It focuses specifically on one family in California.

Roger Ebert opens with this: ""Testament" may be the first movie in a long time that will make you cry. It made me cry. And seeing it again for the second time, knowing everything that would happen, anticipating each scene before it came, I was affected just as deeply."

To the Land of Long Lost Friends

image from the author's site

To the Land of Long Lost Friends is the 20th book in the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I read these as I'm able after they're released in paperback. They are easy reads with delightful characters.

from the back of the book:

When Mma Ramotswe reconnects with an old friend who's having problems with her daughter, she can't help but lend a hand. The young woman appears to be involved with a charismatic preacher -but are his ministrations entirely of a godly nature?

Elsewhere, Charlie is also dealing with a tricky matter of the heart. He wishes to propose to his girlfriend, Queenie-Quennie, but he needs to impress her father. When Queenie-Queenie's brother offers to help by giving him a job, it may not be quite what Charlie expected. As always, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni will share wise counsel, Mma Makutsi will weigh in with her opinions, and Mma Potokwane will be there with her welcome fruitcake. But in the end it will be up to Mma Ramotswe to reflect on love, family, and the nature of men and women in order to resolve familial dramas and remind everyone about all the good things they have in life -so many, in fact, that it would take far too long to count them.

Kirkus Reviews has a review. Publishers Weekly concludes, "As usual, the warm, humorous interactions among the characters count more than the detecting. Smith’s humanity shines throughout."

Voodoo Man

Voodoo Man is a 1944 horror movie starring Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, and George Zucco. It's not breaking any new ground, but it's only an hour long, so...

DVD Talk concludes with this:

Voodoo Man isn't good in the sense of...well, anything, really, but part of me kind of loves it anyway. If nothing else, maybe you'll get a few solid riffs out of it. (RiffTrax and the earliest incarnation of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have both skewered it over the years.) If you've somehow managed to make it this far into the review, chances are that you'll find Voodoo Man well-worth seeking out on Blu-ray. Recommended as long as you know what you're getting into here.

Bloody Disgusting calls it "40’s Schlock With a Bit of Charm". DVD Drive-In calls it "Dreamy silliness" and says "As for Lugosi, he isn't asked to do anything out of the ordinary from his usual B efforts at that time, but he has one or two nice moments, such as his breakdown when his wife "dies" again, that remind you how his valid dramatic talents were often underutilized." The Spinning Image says it "paradoxically moves briskly under the prolific William Beaudine's functional direction, yet feels oddly leisurely." 1000 Misspent Hours has a review. Time Out calls it "pleasantly tacky".

Blood on the Moon

Blood on the Moon is a 1948 Western film directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston. Walter Brennan is also in this one. I watched it at this link.

trailer:

50 Westerns from the 50s opens with this:

In a strict chronological sense, Blood On The Moon (1948) isn’t a 50s Western. But in other ways — look, themes, etc., it fits right in with the best the 50s came up with. It also stands as maybe the finest example of film noir creeping into a cowboy movie.

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 100%.

Spider the Artist

Spider the Artist is a science fiction short story by Nnedi Okorafor. You can read it online here. It begins,

My husband used to beat me. That was how I ended up out there that evening behind our house, just past the bushes, through the tall grass, in front of the pipelines. Our small house was the last in the village, practically in the forest itself. So nobody ever saw or heard him beating me.

Going out there was the best way to put space between me and him without sending him into further rage. When I went behind the house, he knew where I was and he knew I was alone. But he was too full of himself to realize I was thinking about killing myself.

The main character plays this song on her late father's guitar:

It's cold here in Memphis, but nothing like the Big Storm they're having in the northeast! I'm drinking a hot cup of coffee while I visit with the Tea Stands for Tuesday folks:

Then I'll keep an eye out on my notifications so I don't miss the press briefings. It's been so delightful to not have any insults, demeaning name-calling, or wild lies. As I watch what's going on in Myanmar, I'm so grateful the January 6 insurrection here was unsuccessful.

A Hard Act to Follow

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1966 of Buster Keaton. He was a comic genius with a career beginning in 1898 and lasting until the year of his death.

Here's an 8-minute short appreciation of his style, The Art of the Gag:

Here he is in his final film role, the priceless A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:

Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (below) is a 3-part documentary TV miniseries.

part 1:

part 2:

part 3:

Salem's Lot (1979)

Salem's Lot is a 2-part miniseries adaptation of the Stephen King novel. It features vampires and an old house with an evil reputation. David Soul stars. Also you get James Mason and Elisha Cook, Jr.

Part 1:

part 2:

Bao (2018)

Bao is a 2018 animated short film. (on Vimeo)

The Uninvited (2009)

The Uninvited is the 2009 American remake of the 2003 South Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters. I watched it at Tubi, but it's not there now. It's on CBS All Access, which is a premium service we subscribe to for Star Trek: Discovery.

trailer:

Grave Reviews calls it, "an engaging psychological thriller that would engage viewers." Roger Ebert says, "When a movie like this is done well, it's uncommon. "The Uninvited" is done well."

Duet (2014)

Duet is a 2014 animated short film from former Disney animator Glen Keane.

The Nanny (1965)

The Nanny is a 1965 suspense film starring Bette Davis. I am not a Bette Davis fan but watched this because it appears on so many lists of recommended movies. You can watch it online at this link.

trailer:

The BBC calls it "easily one of the best British psycho-thrillers committed to celluloid". TCM has an overview. Rotten Tomatoes has a consensus critics score of 85%.

Unity

"Biden made his whole thing about bipartisanship and unity and Republicans are going to join him in precisely none of it then blame him for being unable to fulfill his promise and say that in fact he actually divided things worse. That about cover the next four years?" -Luke O'Neil. O'Neil has a Twitter account here.

And there it is. McConnell won't even allow the normal transfer of committee chairmanships to the majority party, but Trump cultists are complaining that Biden carrying forward in presenting plans towards accomplishing what we all knew his agenda was is a sign that he's not trying to unify us? Biden's overt willingness to compromise and work with Republicans isn't good enough because he won't just do what the right-wing Republicans wanted before they lost the presidency and both houses?

"Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth." -President Joe Biden (link)

Reaching out requires someone reach back to accomplish anything. "Unity" has never meant everybody is going to agree on everything. "Unity" means we're agreeing to work together towards the common cause of making things better. Some Republicans seem to think it means, "We lost, but you said "unity" so you should do what we want anyway". To them I'd like to say, "F***k your feelings" and "You lost, get over it, move on" and "Elections have consequences" -you know, like they told me...

but I won't.

No, in the spirit of Biden's longing for unity I'll say, "Can we at least talk about our differences and try to work towards an understanding?" Give up the baseless conspiracy theories and the "We were robbed" plaint and the threats of secession and work with us, for Heaven's sake.

Or not. But don't then complain that Biden divided us.

P.S. This post is in no way intended as a response to anything said by any of my blogging buddies. If it had been I'd've just come right out and said so and quoted y'all and linked to your posts, like I've done in the past. 

No, this post is in response to statements I'm seeing from politicians. I'll include a few examples below, just so you can see what I'm seeing if you've quit tracking news reports.

Rand Paul said this of Biden's inauguration speech

"If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly-veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book."

Josh Hawley (insurrectionist cheerleader) said,

"Democrats in DC say they want unity. They don’t want unity. They want total control. Control of what we say, what we think, and who we support."

Marco Rubio tweeted:

"A radical leftist agenda in a divided country will not help unify our country..."

In the midst of these lies and insults, the ongoing inflammatory rhetoric, Republican refusal to reach back and take Biden's hand, and continuing reluctance of elected Republicans to admit the truth that Biden won a free and fair election, you can't say Biden's the one at fault for continuing division. Well, you can, but that'd be another lie.

Leaning Woman with Dog and Still Life

Leaning Woman with Dog and Still Life (1917)

by Pierre Bonnard, who died on January 23, 1947, at 79 years of age. You can see more of his work at WikiArt at this link.

Please join me in sharing a drink-related post and joining me at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

The Safety Net

The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri is the 25th book in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series. I enjoy the characters, the plots, the food desctiptions... I always look forward to reading the next one.

from the back of the book:

Vigata is bustling as the new filming location for a Swedish television series set in 1950. In the production frenzy, the director asks the locals to track down movies and vintage photos to faithfully re-create the town's atmosphere at that time. While rummaging in the attic of his house, Ernesto Sabatello finds a collection of films shot by his father from 1958 to 1963, always on the same day, March 27, and always the same shot: the outside wall of a country house.

Montalbano hears the story and, intrigued, begins to investigate its meaning. Meanwhile, a middle school is threatened by a group of armed men, and a closer look at the situation finds Montalbano considering the students as suspects, forcing him to delve into the online world of social media for answers.

Publishers Weekly has a positive review. Kirkus Reviews concludes, "Both darker and more absurd than previous romps, the latest Montalbano is a bracing cautionary tale."

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 West German remake of the 1922 Nosferatu film. Directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, how can you resist?

I watched it on TubiTV. Here's a trailer:

The British Film Institute closes an appreciative article with this:

Eerily beautiful and remarkable in many respects (not least for the acting – notably the expressionist performances of Kinski and Isabelle Adjani, but also that of Bruno Ganz), Nosferatu the Vampyre is at once a tribute to Murnau’s original and the golden age of German filmmaking and a musing on the vampire myth and the gothic tradition. In its various divergences from its hallowed predecessor, it is also – perhaps inevitably, I’d say, given that this is a Herzog film – a wry, haunting meditation on the human condition. Death, as Dracula reminds us, is not the worst thing that can befall us.

The Guardian gives it a full 5 stars and says, "Klaus Kinski is genuinely scary as the bloodthirsty Count in Werner Herzog's homage to the 1922 FW Murnau movie". Roger Ebert considered it a Great Movie. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 95%.

Tombstone (1993)

Tombstone is a 1993 Western film starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, with Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Charlton Heston, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dana Delany in supporting roles, as well as narration by Robert Mitchum. It's a traditional western, well told and well acted. And that cast! I watched it on Amazon Prime, free with ads. Or Daily Motion has it.

trailer:

Mr Hublot

Mr Hublot is a 2014 award-winning animated short film.

Just Walkin' in the Rain

Just Walkin' in the Rain (Sun Records in Memphis):

a 1952 popular song written when The Prisonaires were, well, in prison in Nashville, TN. Lead singer Johnny Bragg had his sentence commuted in 1956, but in 1960 he was arrested for "parole violation" for being found in the back of an automobile with a white women. It was his wife. He was returned to jail for six and a half years.

And you wonder why they protest. #BlackLivesMatter

A Single Life

A Single Life is a 2014 animated short film. And I do mean short.