trees

[davemerrill]

Used to be I'd write a lot about what movies we'd been watching or what TV shows or comics or whatever we were reading. Haven't done that in a while. My enjoyment of something is its own thing now, I guess. We did watch more Gundam Unicorn which is shaping up nicely. Shain got the TV series GHOST STORY aka CIRCLE OF FEAR for Valentines and we've been watching our way through those.

It's an early 70s supernatural anthology series hosted by TV's Sebastian Cabot and produced by William "The Tingler" Castle, and it's a curious beast. Lots of guest stars of varying degrees of stardom like Jodie Foster, Hal Linden, Jason Robards, etc. Most of the stories lack the punch of your better Twilight Zones or Night Galleries, and a few are downright sluggish, but after a slow start the series seems to be picking up steam. The show went in for regrooving after 13 episodes and apparently the second half of the series is less supernatural, which is going to be tough as even the most occultish of the first 13 aren't really THAT occultish.

We have been watching a lot of the recent Rifftrax versions of things like VIVA KNIEVEL and THE APPLE. Yup, finally saw THE APPLE. It's a terrible film, but nowhere near as bad as SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND.

We caught FROM UP ON POPPY HILL in the theater at the Tiff Bell Lightbox and enjoyed it; lots of mid century Japan, family tragedy, a struggling teenage romance, a never-say-die high school clubhouse. Worth catching on the big screen.

MAD MEN is back on the air and we're devouring that. Seems like HOARDERS over on A&E hasn't been picked up for new episodes so I don't know how we're going to get our reality TV schadenfreude now. Just as well.

Oh yeah and there's a Stupid Comics all about planting trees. Go plant a tree today.

Comments

[mr-sadhead.livejournal.com]

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What is UP with these weird little icons. I saw "Poppy Hill" this weekend at a theatre -- the English dub, sure, but still effective. The Kyu Sakamoto sequence, I love that most of all. What great schmaltz!

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

We saw the dubbed version too. It was fine. The theater was running both versions and the box office was careful to let us know that we were seeing the dubbed instead of the subtitled; I have been through the entire spectrum of reactions and I'm at the point now where it really doesn't matter, at least not with a film like "Poppy Hill". It's not like they're going to edit in footage from "Wolf Children" or claim it all takes place on an alien planet or anything.