PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Wodehouse Playhouse Series 2

I plowed through the second series in an evening. The shows are about a half an hour each and they have John Alderton and Pauline Collins playing various characters from the stories of PG Wodehouse. There are only 6 episodes and I had a good time watching them. They're about the same quality as the first season, not great, but still  good and enjoyable in that dry Brit way. They were made at a different time about a different time and that might not work for some. Some are going to find them somewhat slow and droll, though they are a bit slapsticky. The dialog is reminiscent of Wodehouse even though the stories have to rely on visuals over the wonderful prose that Wodehouse described things with. One of my favorite opening lines in story is: "A sudden cat shot into the room."  Says so much. Still those what liked season 1 might have a go at the second lot. Again, here's your chance to watch the series for free on YouTube. 

Series 2

Anselm Gets His Chance

Mr. Potter Takes a Rest Cure

Strychnine in the Soup

Feet of Clay

The Nodder

The Code of the Mulliners

 

Science Fiction Sunday 162

 

The 23rd Godzilla film came out in 1999 in Japan as Godzilla 2000: Millennium. It came out in the US as Godzilla 2000. I'm watching the US version first on a TriStar dvd that came out in 2000. It's a bit shorter, at 99 minutes, than the Japanese release that ran 107 minutes. I have a copy Hong Kong dvd that has subtitles and runs the original length. G2000 was released in the theaters in the US. TriStar spent $300,000 dubbing the film, more than $10,000,000 promoting the release, and had a box office of about $4,000,000. They never released any Godzilla films in US theaters since then. Toho spent just over $8,000,000 making the movie and they took in about double that in it's Japanese release. The movie restarts the story again. This Godzilla is smaller than the previous few films but larger than the orginal G-monster. See Chart above.

 

The guy in the car is a Godzilla chaser; the other two are his daughter and a reporter looking for a story. Dad started the G-spotting club and they have a lot of high tech gear to keep an eye out for him. They have a close encounter with the big guy at the opening of the movie. They are so close that his breath clouds their windshield. That would make me poop my pants! They all escape, as does the poor lighthouse keeper who has a metal tower dropped on him Buster Keaton style. The movie plot falls back on the alien invasion theme. A huge meteorite is found in the ocean. It's been there for 60 million years. They try to bring it to the surface but it takes off on it's own. Godzilla shows up again and they shoot him with missiles while he's tossing some buildings around. The meteor takes off, files to where Godzilla is and attacks him. G fights back but is knocked into the ocean. The rock surface is broken and the spaceship within is revealed. Oh oh! The ship clamps onto the top of a building and starts drawing all sorts of data about Godzilla from the network. The ship looks fairly good but at times the CGI shows. The military tries to blow it up but that doesn't work. Godzilla and the ship battle again, G gets knocked down and sampled. Dad guesses that the aliens are trying to use Godzilla's regenerative powers to re-create their bodies. Sometimes I think that the characters make such accurate guesses based on little knowledge that it makes me think they had read the script. Things don't go well in the genetics department and the big monster the ship made turns into the monster battling Godzilla in that picture above. Orga only appears in the one film. He gets trampled after a bit and things go back to normal. Not the best of the lot that's for sure but a watchable film with a fairly solid story. The Japanese version is a bit better story wise, the US translation isn't my favorite. It's a matter of taste, Toho liked it enough they didn't release their English dubbed version.

Godzilla returns in 2000 with the 24th film Godzilla Vs Megaguirus. It too looks to the 1954 Godzillaas it's start. The movie shows us a montage of appearances culled from older films. There is a group devoted to destroying Godzilla, the G-Graspers. Terrible name, huh? Their scientists have created a black hole weapon that they hope to capture Godzilla with. A test opens a worm hole to the past and a prehistoric dragonfly pops out to deposit an egg before returning to it's own time. How convenient. As convenient as the stupid kid who picks up the egg and delivers it to Tokyo. It starts oozing goo and the kid tosses it into the sewer. It hatches into a plethora of murderous bug critters. They grow to larger than human size and flood the city. Inspecting the flooded area the G-Graspers find more eggs. They soon hatch and cause great problems. Godzilla destroys some and the G-Graspers attack him with the black hole but they miss. The big guy is pissed and follows the remaining bug critters to the city. The bugs have a giant queen named Megaguirus. It soon starts battling with Godzilla and that results in some nice collateral damage. The G-Graspers have smaller ships than the previous G-Force. Gone are the ponderous flying vehicles, they are replaced with nimble VTOL fighters. Of course they don't work any better and the monsters are free to rampage around for a time. Godzilla toasts Megaguirus with his super atomic breath and then gets blasted by the black hole device for all his trouble. He's gone but don't worry his roar is heard off camera in the epilogue. Even if the audience that saw this in the theatre suspected there would be some more Godzilla films I know for sure there are 4 more coming. Most of the CGI looks ok or better. there's a lot on the screen for the $8.3 million they spent. It didn't do as well in the Japanese release as the previous film, only grossing $10 million. The suits are pretty darn good and mostly the movie is entertaining.

Science Fiction Sunday 159

Five years would pass before Toho returned to Godzilla with the 17th Godzilla movie. The 1989 Godzilla Vs Biolante had some sort of script contest and a dentist won with his story. It was changed before it made it to the big screen but several of his concepts, like the plant creature and the psychic girl, remain in the film. The movie was made for about $5 million and it sold a couple of million tickets which brought in $7 million. It was directed by Kazuki Omori, who also re-wrote the script the dentist turned in. He's directed the two films I watched today and he'd write the following two Godzilla films before he is done with the series.  The movie starts back in 1984 in the Godzilla universe created in The Return Of Godzilla. During the clean up of Tokyo scientists collect Godzilla DNA from around the battle areas. Some samples are stolen by a swarthy guy with a crappy beard and a rifle. A scientist gets some of G's DNA and his lab, along with his daughter, is blown up. We jump ahead 5 years, to the present, and the cells are being used to create a Godzilla eating bacteria.  A bio-company threatens to blow up the volcano and release Godzilla if they don't get some of those Godzilla cells. Things go wrong and soon enough the Big Guy is stomping around once again. The scientist, driven mad by the death of his daughter, has created a slurry of Godzilla, rose and daughter DNA which he uses it to create life. Even my mother would say that's crazy but she wasn't there to warn him. The bio-beast-plant grows large and eventually the rose genes take over and the thing, dubbed Biolante, takes root in a bay. Godzilla shows up in Japan and they attack him with the Super X II. It's now remote controlled which is good since it takes a savage beating from Godzilla. There are a good number of minutes of monster mayhem and the complex subplots keep you busy wondering what's going to happen next. It's an entertainingly goofy what with the giant plant monster, there are lots of characters running about to keep you from getting too bored, and things blow up once in a while. Unfortunately it's a movie that isn't available here in the US. There was an Englished dubbed version on VHS tape and laserdisc out in the 1990's but no dvd. Someone gave me a bootleg dvdr from that laserdisc and I watched parts of that. I've got a Video Daikaiju fan subbed bootleg and I watched that all the way through. If you need one you can find one out on the Internet. Maybe someday someone will release a good version here. It reminds me that divisions by country is stupid. It's always something, huh.

 

I did not find the story to Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah as entertaining as the previous film. It's back to a slightly skewed version of the alien invasion story. A spaceship shows up and it turns out to be human's from the future who plan to destroy Japan with monsters so it doesn't become a future superpower. They go into the past near the end of World War 2 to move the dinosaur that would become Godzilla after being exposed to radiation from the nuke tests. That's the Godzillasaurus over on the right. Rather handsome, yes? Some Japanese soldiers are on the island that the dino is on. They are under attack from US soldiers and the dino saves them. They leave and the future humans move the dino and leave baby Ghidorah's behind. They are exposed to the radiation and they turn into the three headed beast that is attacking Japan when the future humans return to the 20th century. Even though the WWII dino was moved out of the range of the nukes it turned into Godzilla when it was exposed to radiation from a sunken Russian sub. It comes out of hiding in the present day of the movie and attacks King Ghidorah who takes an ass whooping. The future people take King Ghidorah into the future and fit it out with mechanical attachments. They bring Mecha-Ghidorah back to the present and the big guy beats them. Both monsters get thrown into the ocean by a sympathetic future human. Don't worry Godzilla will return. For the most part the monster battles are pretty good but the story is weak. There isn't much story consistency across the 1990 series, especially when you throw some time travel in there. They just keep piling plot points on and run like hell when the story starts to topple. Still, it's not awful or anything and there are all the fun monster fights. At least you can pick up a copy of it in a double movie pack with the Mothra movie. The effects and sets are pretty darn good for such a low budget movie. They know how to stretch a dollar in the Japan movie business.

Science Fiction Sunday 154

 

Number 7 in the Godzilla series is Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas or Godzilla Vs The Sea Monster as it was released here in the US. It's a 1966 movie that was directed by Jun Fukuda. He had directed many movies before he got his first crack at the Godzilla series. He would direct 4 more Godzilla movies before the long break in the series. He does an ok job, the movie moves along pretty briskly, things happen and there's danger and excitement even before the monsters appear. The first half of the movie seems more like crime or spy genre. Ebirah appears briefly but the big G doesn't show up until the 45 minute mark. He's sleeping in a cave and they still have to wake his ass up with a bolt of lightning before he starts rampaging around. Sadly, being as they are on an island, there are hardly any buildings for him to trash. I miss the buildings going down and bursting into flames. I have the Sony/Columbia TriStar DVD of the uncut Toho International version from 2005. It's got a nice letterboxed picture and it's in Japanese with English subtitles. Or you can listen to the fairly typical English dub track which changes tiny bits of the dialog. The pan and scan version of the movie hosted on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 is 4 minutes shorter than the 87 minutes of the Sony DVD and that version has a different dub of the movie. I also have a Video Daikaiju bootleg that came to me on vhs tape. It has some slightly different subtitles. The picture is letter boxed, and the movie is uncut, but it doesn't look nearly as good. Some guy's brother disappears at sea and an old lady who talks to the spirits of the dead tells him that his brother is still alive. He steals a boat with the help of a couple of tired marathon dancers and a thief with a brief case full of stolen cash. Everyone has a story, huh. Their new combined story gets worse as a storm strands them on a deserted island that isn't so deserted. It contains a secret lab run by the Red Bamboo. They are a bunch of crazies who have captured the islanders from Infant Island and are making them work as slaves in their heavy water factory. The stranded guys team up with an islander woman to wake Godzilla and set him against the giant crab Ebirah. The islanders call up Mothra for added fire power. The island is destroyed and the good people mostly escape. The effects had a different guy working them and they are pretty entertaining but there just aren't enough monsters. Godzilla doesn't finally appear until the 55 minute mark. There is a giant condor tossed in to take a turn against Godzilla but he's soon roasted. Originally the script was written for a King Kong movie but it was changed to Godzilla without enough rewrites. That's Toho for ya. It's not a bad movie, fun in fact, but the movies start changing here under new leadership, becoming more kid friendly.

 

You can really see that change in Son Of Godzilla a 1967 movie again directed by Jan Fukuda. Titled Monster Island's Decisive Battle: Godzilla's Son in Japan the movie opens with some reporter washing up on a small south seas island where some science guys are conducting a weather experiment. There are several large critters on the island and a pretty girl. The giant praying mantis, the pretty girl, and the giant spider are entertaining but baby Godzilla, man o' man, a face only a mother would love! Minilla looks pretty poorly sculpted and people complain about the character all the time. I like enough of the other parts of the movie that this small bit doesn't bother me much. The boy and the big guy have some touching moments as Godzilla teaches junior to use his atomic breath. The human story is mostly ok, the scientists are having their problems, especially after the first big test. The giant praying mantis gets larger and there are three of them now. The people are in jeopardy, as is Minilla, lucky for him his cries attract Godzilla. He raises up from the sea and tramples the science camp with a quick dash to junior. He blasts the bugs, the condor and the giant spider before the scientist's weather controller buries the island in ice and snow. Godzilla and son settle down for a snooze until they ware thawed out next year to appear in Godzilla's Revenge or All Monsters Attack.  SOG isn't a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, I've seen so many worse, it's just not great but that's ok. Mostly something is happening and it kept my interest, even for the umpteenth time. The music, by Masaru Sato,  is pretty good. He did the movie score for Godzilla Vs The Sea Monster and they are fine. These movies are more for the fan of the genre, most people just wouldn't care to see them, but I'm still enjoyin' them.

Science Fiction Sunday 153

 

Back to watching Godzilla movies. I'm sticking to the chronological order of the series so Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster up up first. The Japanese title is 三大怪獣　地球最大の決戦, the literal translation is, Three Giant Monsters: Earth's Greatest Battle, which is kind of weird since there are 4 monsters. It's the fifth film with Godzilla and it came out in 1964. The big G is joined by Rodan, the Mothra Larva and the new threat to Japanese architecture, King Ghidorah. Luckily for the towns of Japan some of this movie takes place in the countryside; only some small houses get smashed. I'm watching the Classic Media dvd which has the original 92 minute Japanese version and the 7 minute shorter English dub version. They changed a few things and you can read about it on the Wikipedia. Before the critters start their destruction a princess from a made up country is stolen from her airplane by a ball of light. Then the plane blows up. Her mind is controlled by some space aliens, Venus in the Japan version and Mars in the US, and she's dropped down in the city where she warns the people in a park. No one cares, they all laugh when some goof tells her to take off her clothes. Men, they're just the same all over the world, they all want to see a naked lady. First we get a glimpse of the Mothra Larve on Infant Island then assassins are dispatched to check if the alien lady is really the princess. If so they have to kill her. Rodan shows up, followed by Godzilla. The alien princess warns the earth people about King Ghidorah. He had previously destroyed Mars and now he's on earth. People don't believe her until the giant meteor, that fell in an earlier part of the movie, bursts open to reveal the three headed monster. His lightning bolts destroy stuff as he flies over the city. All the monsters show up and battle. The assassins keep trying to kill the princess but they are crushed by rocks falling on them. The princess is hurt and regains her memory and Godzilla chases Ghidorah back into space. The movie is directed by Inoshiro Honda and it's pretty much fun in either version. The movie marks the point where Godzilla changes from a threat to the people and becomes more of a friend. I know he's the kind of friend who knocks over buildings but who doesn't have a friend like that. Even though it's a bit goofier than the previous entry it's still enjoyable and fun to watch.

 

Invasion Of The Astro Monster is the 6th Godzilla film and it came out in 1965. Toho doubled it's monster movie production over the next few years and some of them got pretty silly as they aimed the series at a younger and younger crowd. Like the previous movie IOTAM shows signs of that new trend but it's still fun enough, and has enough entertaining elements, that I still enjoy watching it. The US release was called Monster Zero or Godzilla Vs Monster Zero. I'm watching the Classic Media dvd and while they are nice packages, with Japanese and American versions of the film, the dvd's are annoying. It takes forever to get to the main menu and you're forced to watch the trailers first, or skip through them, before you get to the menu. Each dvd has a commentary and a short featurette so that helps make up for the bad formatting. IOTAM is another alien invasion movie, and unlike the first movie, this one has the aliens make an appearance. Check the Controller and his henchmen below.

 

I love the costumes of the men from Planet X and their woman is pretty cute. All their women look the same which makes sense for this computer controlled male dominant society. Some earth astronauts are visiting Planet X, hidden behind Jupiter, when they encounter the people living below the surface. The subterranean dwellers reveal that King Ghidorah, or Monster Zero, is the cause of the devastation on the surface. They ask the earth people to allow them to capture Godzilla and Rodan so they can be used to attack King Ghidorah. They get their wish and remove the monsters only to put controls on them and use them to threaten the earth with destruction unless they knuckle under to the Controller of Planet X. What a dick, huh. Oh, well, trying to control monsters never works and the plan is foiled. Earth will be ok, at least for a while. American actor Nick Adams has a main part in the movie as one of the astronauts. He made several films in Japan near the end of his short movie career. He died of a drug overdose at 36 years old in 1968. Sad but it happened ages ago and we can enjoy him here. The rest of the cast are equally entertaining, especially that controller. 

Science Fiction Sunday 152

 

I watched King Kong VS Godzilla early this morning. I only have a copy of the Universal International DVD which looks like the only version in the US. For some reason I never picked up a bootleg of the original movie. The US and Japanese versions are different enough that I should have one. I'll have to do something about that one of these days, huh. King Kong Vs Godzilla came out in 1962 in Japan, seven years after the last Godzilla movie, and the US version came out in 1963. Toho had done several other monster movies in that time period. This was the first time Godzilla was filmed in color and it's the first appearance of King Kong. There's a rather complicated story behind the production with people acting kind of like the people in the movie. You can read it over at the Wikipedia. I have hidden a link in this post. Ishirō Honda returns to directing Godzilla. I've read that he was impressed by the original King Kong. Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects guy, saw the 1933 release of King Kong and got into the effects business. I have to admit to really liking King Kong right from the first viewing. It's quite the movie. Sad though. Poor Kong. In KKVG some businessman, wanting to get some attention getting publicity, captures a giant ape on an island near Japan. He wants to bring it back to Japan and show it off. You know that's going to go badly, especially since Godzilla has broken out of the icey tomb he'd been trapped in at the end of Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Big G clashes with Kong when their paths cross. There's some furious battle action but it's still a more lighthearted take on the series than the previous two Godzilla films. There are more comedic parts in the film and even the fight scenes have a goofiness to them. The studio wanted to appeal more to the kids and that didn't always help the series. Director Honda was not a fan of this but he's a powerless cog in the Japanese film world. The King Kong suit isn't one of my favorites but what are you going to do. Mostly it's entertaining.

 

The fourth Godzilla movie is the 1964 Mothra vs Godzilla and it's more serious than the last movie. The Classic Media DVD has both the Japanese version and the English version, and unlike the previous Godzilla films, this one wasn't changed that much. The Us release changed the title to Godzilla Vs The Thing and they ran an ad campaign with a mystery monster theme. The guy doing the commentary mentioned actually trying to guess what the monster could be with kids in his school back when the movie was released. A giant egg washes up on shore. Immediately people get up on it's shell, staking it out, fighting over it, building a building around it. There's money to be made, science to be done. The natives of Infant Island, where Mothra lives, ask for the egg back. It's a Mothra egg and it needs to come back to the island. They are refused by the people around the egg. Godzilla shows up soon after. Darn, huh. Mothra gets involved and the fight kills her. The egg hatches into a couple of Mothra larvae who seal Godzilla up in a cocoon and push him into the sea. The larvae leave for home. There are a bunch of human characters running about during all this, but they are kind of annoying at times, what with their greed and stupidity. There is some great damage done to the city and some stuff blows up pretty regularly. It's one of my favorites in the series and worth watching.

Science Fiction Sunday 151

I've been upgrading my Japanese Monster movies to better versions than I had. I thought I'd start watching them sundays and that would give me a lot to blog about for the next while.

 

Of course I've got to start with the King Of The Monsters - Godzilla. It's a 1954 film produced by the Toho Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda. The screenplay was written by Honda and Takeo Murata. The original Japanese movie is a lot darker than it's heavily altered US version and there's no Raymond Burr. The Japanese movie run about 95 minutes and the 1956 US version is only 80 minutes so you can see there is a lot missing. I've got that Classic Media dvd which has both versions of the film and some nice extras. Both movies have a commentary by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski that tells you plenty. I wound up watching both versions of the film and some of the commentaries.

 

I still enjoy watching the movie even though I have seen it many times. After all those atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific Godzilla surfaces near Japan and destroys a ship. More ships get sunk and big G comes a visiting. First to a small island and then he heads for the big city. There's a lots of fiery death and destruction as the city takes a savage beating from Godzilla's atomic breath and huge stompy feet. Our main human characters are this young ship captain, a gal and her professor father, and a sad scientist with an eye patch. The gal is betrothed to the sad scientist but she loves the ship captain. Her father wants to save Godzilla and the sad scientist has invented a terrible weapon that will destroy the beast. In the US version much of that human story is transferred to Raymond Burr's reporter character.

 

An American director was hired to redub the film and shoot new footage to add an American actor to give the US audiences someone to connect with. The original Japanese movie was released in the US but only in Japanese speaking theaters. There were bootlegs of the original version, I got one from Video Daikaiju in the 1990's, but the 2006 Classic Media dvd is the first legit US release. It's worth seeing, especially if you've only seen the Raymond Burr version.

  

The gal is played by Momoko Kochi. That's a picture of her from when she was dating Godzilla. Cute couple. He looks much bigger in the movies. It's like magic! Momoko's father, the professor, is played by Fuyuki Murakami. He's one of my favorite Japanese actors. You might recognize him from Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai which he acted in just before Godzilla. The sad scientist with the eye patch is played by Akihiko Hirata; he's another good actor who's in a lot of Toho films. The picture on the left has Momoko and Akira Takarada. He's the ship captain she's in love with. He helps Akihiko to deliver the only Oxygen Destroyer which does it's job. Don't worry! There will be a new Godzilla soon enough.

 

Sure enough, the good ticket sales for Godzilla prompted a quickly made Godzilla Raids Again. It's a 1955 product that isn't quite up to the original. They had a different director. It's still fun to watch. The Classic Media dvd has both the original Japanese version and the reworked American release. The difference between the two is not as great as the difference between the two versions of Godzilla. Some pilots are looking for schools of fish when one of them has plane trouble and ditches near an island. The other comes to the rescue and the two of them not only see a new Godzilla but a second giant monster Angurius. They escape and report to the authorities. Sadly the only way to kill Godzilla was lost last movie so the inevitable happens and the monsters come to Osaka, where they fight, smashing up Osaka Castle real good. G kills Angurius and leaves. The military traps him in a mountain range and bury him under ice. Everyone's safe for now but we know he'll be back in 26 more sequels. The movie has a lighter tone than the first and hardly as many people get slaughtered. It's nice to see more monsters and Angurius is just the start of a long series to come.

Tarzan of the Apes

That cover above is the magazine that had the very first Tarzan novel in The All-Story Magazine from Oct 1912. For nearly 100 years the world has continued to follow the exploits of the Lord of the Jungle in books, movies, tv and strips in newspapers and comic book form. It's all popular. Turner Classic Movies has been running some of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan pictures in the last month or so and I have been watching them. All 12 of the pictures are available on dvd in various sets. I'm not at all certain that I've seen all of these pictures before but I know I would have watched just about anything with Tarzan as a kid and that hasn't changed hardly any since I grew up some. I was a fan of the tv shows and the comics and the novels, though I hadn't read the later until I was about 17. I never finished reading the whole Tarzan series but my mother did. Several years ago I went out and picked up copies of the old Ballantine series with the Richard Powers covers but I haven't read any of them yet. That's the cover to the first novel over on the left. I saw some of these originals at TorCon - the 1973 World Science Fiction Convention. It was my first convention and I meet Richard Powers there. I was already a big fan. He was a real friendly and nice to talk to. I kick myself for not buying one of the Tarzan paintings, it was only $75. That was alot for me in those days, more than a weeks take home pay, so I passed them up. I guess I have to be happy with the two cheaper Powers book covers I wound up with. Some day I'll sell them and buy a new used car.

Johnny Weissmuller, a former Olympic Gold medal winning swimmer, made a dozen Tarzan pictures, the first in 1932, the last in 1947. After that he did 13 Jungle Jim pictures before he retired from the movie business. I've only seen a couple of the Jungle Jim pics, they were ok, nothing outstanding. Six of the Tarzan movies were done at MGM and then Weissmuller moved to RKO Pictures for 6 more Tarzan pictures. The plots are pretty much the same. Some awful white people come to the jungle looking for treasure with larceny in their hearts. They'll take what they want at the point of a gun if the natives don't do what they say. Tarzan warns them to keep on the straight and narrow but they don't listen and the bad guys pretty much come to a grisly end. The jungle is harsh, death lurks around every tree, I know I would stay away. Adding the Tarzan brand of justice, which often involves a pointy stick, makes the place much more dangerous to the rule breaker. In one movie Tarzan is stuck up a tree with Boy. He breaks off a branch that is as thick as an arm, sharpens the point, and nails some guy who's chasing him right in the chest. That was a damn big tree branch, I bet that hurt, lucky it wasn't me. Another time he called to the elephants, who came down stream and helped Tarzan kick the ass of some cannibals. That made me laugh. I like elephants. I don't like cannibals. Unless they are being stomped on by elephants, then I'm going to laugh.

Like the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, I have an issue with the barely literate Tarzan that you often see on the movie screen. "Me Tarzan, you Jane." In the books, which I started reading in around 1969 or 1970, Tarzan was raised by apes after his family perished. They had been the only survivors of a ship wreck. They build a cabin, soon after their son is born, and a bit after that they both are dead, leaving the infant boy all alone. His cries bring some apes  Tarzan is nearly killed by king of the apes, who had just killed his father, but luckily a female ape, who had lost her child recently, takes him under her protection. Years later Tarzan would kill that ape and take his place as king. Tarzan teaches himself to read from books found in his parents cabin. He rescues Jane without her knowing it and falls in love with her. He rescues a Fenchman from the local natives and that guy teaches him French and helps him find his family. Tarzan even travels to Wisconsin in his pursuit of Jane. Not liking the life in the civilized world he returns to the jungle to set up a large estate where he has plenty of adventures. Burroughs isn't the greatest writer but he tells a big story with lots of stuff going on. Mostly I found his writing easy to read, occasionally a sentence would make me stumble and fall, but you pick yourself up and continue on. There were a couple of dozen books in the series and they are in the public domain so you can read them for free from all sorts of places like project Guttenberg Australia or Amazon's Kindle. Not all of them are going to be jems but they should be mostly entertaining. I hope to get to read those sometime in the future. Unless I want to go digital I need to find out where I stuck those Tarzan books. They'll turn up eventually.

City Gone Mad

 

I have come to believe it was about 1985 that I started to seriously buy some LEGO. The Basic Brick set 350 had come that year and I got 8 of them for about 12 bucks each. That gave me a nice start on some bulk. I started small, mostly just noodling around. It's the stuff you wouldn't take pictures of, and there wasn't anywhere to put stuff like that. I did take a a roll of 35 millimeter film and printed those pics. This is them, scanned, slightly cropped, with the brightness, color and contrast tweeked a bit.

 

I started making buildings first, then it grew into a statement about uncontrolled building. In the world of those small plastic buildings the right to the air space above buildings gets sold and they build in it. The buildings don't have much detail, especially compared to the Micropolis type building, but that wasn't the point. I certainly didn't have much gray back in those days. It just wasn't as common as it is currently.

 

It's kind of hard to see everything. The pics just aren't well enough lit and it's a pretty big lump of plastic. It was about 2 feet deep, 30 plus inches wide and more than 2 feet tall. The smallest buildings are supposed to be 3-5 story buildings, then bigger ones are built over them, finally the giant upside down U-shaped building gets tossed up. You can see more pics at Flickr.

Miniatur Wunderland

 

As someone who builds miniatures I enjoy what other people do. Train people can produce wonderful scenes with trains and houses and cars and people. Spotted around the world are big train layouts. Most big cities have one or two. You might have to look for it. Here's one that the builders claim is the largest train layout in the world. Wow. It's Miniatur Wunderland and it's pretty amazing. What lead me to their site was this video post on Bits & Pieces. That lead me over to Gizmodo where Jesus Diaz has some pictures and a link to the MW site. Diaz often writes about LEGO. Last year he had a great series of videos about his trip to the LEGO HQ and factory. MW is a huge layout at 900 square meters. Here are some numbers. Impresive, huh. The site has some video of the layout and the staff. Fun stuff to look at and watching the videos saves me a trip to Hamburg Germany and the 10 Euros to get in. Good economic sense these days.