PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Blandings Series 2

The second series of Blandings showed up at the library so I popped round there and took it home. I bunged it into the DVD player and had gander. The 7 episodes were broadcast in February and March of 2014. The series is written by Guy Andrews and directed by Mandie Fletcher and Geoffrey Sax. The setting is Blandings Castle which is played by Crom Castle, near Newtownbutler, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It's a great pile with of bricks with turrets and crenellated towers. Perfect for Blandings.

 

The main cast members from the first series return. Timothy Spall plays Clarence Threepwood, the 9th Earl of Emsworth, Jennifer Saunders plays his sister Lady Constance Keeble and Jack Farthing is Clarence's son The Hon. Frederick Threepwood. Tim Vine replaces Mark Williams as the only intelligent person in the place, the butler Sebastian Beach. Sadly, Empress, the pig in the show died of a massive heartache just before the last show of the series ended. There is talk of a 3rd series so I'm guessing that there will be a new pig playing the Empress Of Blandings. She's the apple of Clarence's eye.

The stories are silly, the dialog hilarious and the actors are all top notch. I can't think of anything more entertaining. Of course, I'm a die-hard PG Wodehouse fan and think it's all a great hoot. Wodehouse has said that he thinks of his stories as musical comedies without the music. All I think is, I laughed a lot. As the DVD box says, it's "very funny", and for once I can agree. It's one of the better adaptations of Wodehouse and right up there with Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster. I'd also recommend the books, to those that might like them, they're light and breezy. The perfect balm for the weary reader.

The Caganer

I believe you can learn something from just about any source and you can learn a shitload from Qi. A shitload is more than one man can carry and a load of shit is what the Caganer is all about. The Caganer is a figure found taking a poop in the nativity scenes in Catalonia and places around there.

 

The Caganer comes in many forms, all pooping, and there seem to be hundreds of figures available. A quick Google turned up some goofy ones like Tintin, Yoda and Spongebob but the giant guy in a mall takes all the marbles.

 

I do like that people stop for a pose with the guy's backside. The tradition has been going on since the late 17th or early 18th century. The Wikipedia describes the tradition.

In Catalonia, as well as in the rest of Spain and in most of Italy and Southern France, traditional Christmas decorations often consist of a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to the Nativity scenes of the English-speaking world but encompassing the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. This "pessebre" is often a reproduction of a pastoral scene—a traditional Catalan "masia" (farmhouse) as the central setting with the child in a manger, and outlying scenes including a washerwoman by a river, a woman spinning, shepherds herding their sheep or walking towards the manger with gifts, the three wise men approaching on horseback, an annunciation scene with the angel and shepherds, the star pointing the way, etc. Commonly materials such as moss will be used to represent grass, with cork used to represent mountains or cliffs. Another variant is to make the setting oriental, with the wise men arriving by camel and the figures dressed accordingly.

The caganer is a particular and highly popular feature of modern Catalan nativity scenes. It is believed to have entered the nativity scene by the late 17th or early 18th century, during the Baroque period. Eminent folklorist Joan Amades called it an essential piece and the most popular figure of the nativity scene. It can also be found in other parts of southwestern Europe, including Murcia, the region just south of the Valencia in Spain (where they are called cagones), Naples (cacone or pastore che caca) and Portugal (cagões).There is a sculpture of a person defecating hidden inside the cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo, Province of Salamanca, though this is not part of a nativity scene. Accompanying Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds and company, the caganer is often tucked away in a corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene. A tradition in the Catalan Countries is to have children find the hidden figure.

It's little things like this that make me glad I tuned into Qi. So much of what is on there is appealing. I do find the Caganer less appealing than goofy. What a world, huh.

Russian Car Crash Videos

 

For some reason I totally enjoy those Russian car crash videos. Since the meteor exploding over Mother Russia last week had been in the news I had been hearing newscasters talk about how Russians use dash cams to record their driving around to keep from getting sued over fake accidents by the Russian mob. It happens a lot there, you know, what with Russia being a bit filled with criminals. Before the meteor I had been watching the the car crashes from the dash cams and in some preverse way I liked them. I have been talking to people about both and was surprised to find a lot of them hadn't seen these joyful attempts at driving. I say joyful, 'cause I think a lot of people are drunk, hopefully they aren't just totally fucking stupid. Not that it's only the Russians, they just seem to have the market cornered on dash cams. There are some really big dumbasses all around the world. When it comes to driving, no place is safe. Here's nearly two hours of world wide "what the fuck!"

 

Sometimes it does seem like it's the road conditions that cause the accident but if it's icy, you should slow down, dumbass. Here's one from January 2013 that has a lot of poor skills on bad roads. There's a plane in there too. It sure makes me less interested in visiting Russian, that's for sure. I'm glad I hardly see this sort of thing in real life. Better to enjoy it on tv and feel good that the Russian body shop business is steady work. If you count the people selling dash cams, that's a couple of Russian business that might be making some rubles.

Baytekin Fezada Carpinsanlar - Flash Gordon's Battle In Space

Someone posted this 1967 Turkish film on the Internet Archive today. It's kind of typical of the Turkish cinema of the day and that makes for some unintentional laughs. The film industry in Turkey was not up to the standards set by Hollywood in the mid-60's. It more like crappy 1950's tv. There might be some real intentional jokes and such in the movie but it's not been subtitled and I don't know the language. It doesn't really matter, you can sort of figure it out. The style of film is based on the 1930's Flash Gordon serials and that's just perfect for Turkish cinema of the time.  

   

That's Flash there. He's telling his story from jail. I'm not sure why. Some guy comes and lets him out and takes him to his spaceship. Baldy is tough and he's got a ray gun. That's his flying saucer below. Nice, huh.

   

They have a nice control panel too. I know I like blinking lights right at eye level when I'm working. At least they get to wear capes on the job. I like Flash's A-cups. That MTV image you see in the upper left hand corner of the screen is always there. I can't imagine why they would put the logo in that corner, it often obscures the people's faces. I can only guess that the poor state of Turkish Film in the 1960's has carried over to the Turkish tv industry of whenever this was broadcast.

     

There's another annoying bit of message placement. It says "good night guys" and it reminds me that while you can put some message over the movie doesn't mean you should. It's one of the reason's I don't watch that much commercial tv. Flash makes out with some babe at one point. He joins up with some guys to kick the evil guy's butt. There's a fair bit of action, mostly on the ground, in fakey looking sets, or outside. There are some nice rock formations in some scenes. The effects are pretty poor but workable. There's a great plant creature that made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Not everyone will like watching this and you'll know right away. There are plenty of examples of goofy Turkish cinema of the period and this is a pretty good one. Here are some more Turkish films on the Internet Archive.

Casus Kiran - Spy Smasher,  Cilgin Kiz Ve Uc Super Adam - Three Supermen and Mad Girl 1973, Kilink Soy Ve Oldur - Kilink Strip And Kill 1967, Kilink Istanbul'da - Kilink in Istanbul 1967, Kilink Ucan Adama Karsi - Kilink vs Flying Man 1967, Demir Pence Korsan Adam - Iron Claw The Pirate 1969.

Scrubs Season 5

I hadn't seen any Scrubs for a long while. I had started buying the series dvds when they were coming out but stopped with season 4. I decided to wait to pick them up after they had fallen in price. That was precipitated by seeing the pricing pattern that developed over the first 5 or 6 years that dvds were coming out and the desire to spend more money on LEGO. Now thanks to a Half Price Books 40% coupon I picked up season 5 and got to watched it for 6 bucks, plus tax. It's got 24 episodes on three discs and I had seen a few of them before in syndication. Originally the episodes were broadcast from January to May 2006. That was pretty much just after I had given up trying to keep up with shows as they were broadcast. There were too many dvds to watch. I could never remember to watch broadcast episodes at the right times. I just missed a lot of stuff I was often interested in. Of course watching a series on dvd is preferable to broadcast, what with no commercials, which made waiting seem like a good idea. For the most part I enjoyed the 5th season but I really like the cast of actors and the characters they play. It just helps so much to have clever scripts and visuals to enjoy.

Zack Braff and Donald Faison play two best friends who had been interning at the Sacred Heart teaching hospital. In the 5th season they have moved up to attending doctors with Zack a GP and Donald a surgeon. Zach goes through the season commenting on his life and life at the hospital. We hear his internal monologue and see his fantasies. He's got a bunch of interns to take care of plus all the regular stuff that happens in a hospital, some sad and some happy, it's a humourous melodramatic mixture. Then there's Zack's love life. Lots of comedy potential there. He's dating a woman at the beginning of the show and as soon as they buy some property and build a porch they break up over commitment. That pouch later attracts middle aged gay men who like hanging out on it. It's a nice porch. For a while Zack lives in a tent on his porch. It's a show with heavy continutity that moves people through several story arcs of varied lengths that can continue from season to season. That porch is in later seasons and later in the 5th season Zack gets something going with Elizabeth Banks that lasts into the 6th season and beyond. Donald and Judy Reyes are trying to have a baby so there's lots of fun stuff going on there. I just love Donald Faison. He can act, he's really great at physical comedy, and I find him a delight to watch. He has great chemistry with Zack, they are best friends in real life, and their scenes together really make me laugh. Laugh out loud at times.

That's good cause some of the stories are kind of sad. People are always dying from one thing or another. One episode has a woman die, her organs are harvested and transplanted, and the recipients get sicker. They find out that the dead woman had rabies. It's totally unexpected  and sadly everyone dies. It breaks John C McGinley's tough doctor Cox even thought it was not his fault. Rabies is very rare and there was little time to do tests for something you would never expect. John dives into depression and Scotch and stays that way for a couple of episodes before he's back on track. McGinley's created a really complex tomented character that I might not like to hang out with but do enjoy on tv. Sarah Chalk plays another doctor who worked at Sacred Heart but she left last season to work on a fellowship which ends the second show into the season. She winds up going back to Sacred Heart and starts dating a young intern. That will continue into next season before that goes all to hell. There's always pain mixed in with pleasure in the show. You don't get a laugh for nothing with this show. The cost is worth it for the excellent writing and wonderful comedic moments. Hard to do a hundred shows and keep the quality up but they manage to get something good in each week story wise and there are plenty of jokes. I'm looking forward to finishing off the series thanks to a batch of 40% off coupons.

Psych Season 4

I've been getting back logged with all the tv show dvd's piling up. It's hard to pick the one to watch next sometimes, they're all clamoring for my attention. I picked Psych season 4 and had a hoot watching that the last few days. That was the last of the 4 sets that I picked up after the last Black Friday for 8 bucks each. Can't beat that price, huh. James Roday and Dule Hill are back as the fake psychic detective and his funky partner. I've grown accustomed to their entertaining banter and quirky personalities. James Roday's character is still too much of a wild card for personal contact but he's entertaining on TV in nice little 45 minute doses, especially with such great co-stars like Maggie Lawson, Timothy Omundson, Corbin Bernsen and Kristen Nelson. These are all great actors who have brought life to some fun characters. Steve Franks, the show creator, is back as show runner for the 16 episode season which ran on USA from Aug 2009 to March 2010. It looks like they do half the season and take a 2 month break before returning with the rest of the episodes. Steve also wrote and directed some of those episodes. James Roday continues to write, working on three episodes and he takes a shot at directing the season finale. The level of guest stars just continues to rise with Cary Elwes appearing in the first episode. He's a debonair thief that Tim has been after for years. They all run up to Vancouver to try to catch him. The show is set in Santa Barbara but it's really filmed in British Columbia. On the audio commmentaries the cast and crew joke about the amount of Canadian stuff that sneaks into the background of the show.

Rachel Leigh Cook is back as a potential girlfriend for James. In real life James and Maggie Lawson have been together for the last 5 years. In Psych season 5 they start their relationship on the show. Back in season 4 James and Rachel date for a while, then she leaves for a few months, returning later in the season. James Brolin stars as the sheriff at a wild west theme park Tim has been part of for several years. There's something goofy going on and Tim asks the guys to help figure out who's sabotaging the park. Ray Wise asks Gus and Shaun to help him with a girl who seems possessed. You can't beat Ray in nearly any role. He's the best. Jaleel White and Kenan Thompson were a couple of the singers in Dule's a cappella singing group. He hadn't seen them in a while and when the fourth member is found dead they find themselves in a mystery. The dead guyleft a clue in a piece of music. Jaleel used to play Steve Urkel on Family Matters and Kenan was onNickelodeon's All That & Kenan and Kel shows. Michael Rooker and John Hawks kidnap James and he gets shot while they are holding him. Police lessons from Corbin help him get clues out to everyone while he's trapped in the trunk of the car. Arnold Vosloo is a convicted murder that James helps out to save Maggie's old flame. Ali Sheedy returns as Mr Yang in the season finale. Turn out the evil psycho killer had a partner and that creep kidnaps both Maggie and Rachel. James has to try to save both of them before time runs out. Don't worry he saves them but Rachel has had enough and leaves. The final episode had a lot of Hitchcock references in it. I know I didn't get them all since I have never been a very serious Hitchcock fan.

I love that picture above. The shows look and style seem to click with me. The series continues to make me laugh and I plan to pick up season 5 when it gets cheaper. I'll want to watch these again down the road.

Psych Season 2

Turns out the 8 dollar investment I made purhasing second season of Psych is paying off great dividends in giggles and outright gaffaws. All our cast are back. James Roday, Dule Hill, Corbin Bernsen, Maggie Lawson, Timothy Omundson and Kristen Nelson. There were 16 episodes in the season that was broadcast from July 2007 to Feb 2008. The dvd came out that same summer. I'm sure it was more than 8 bucks, huh. James, playing Shaun the fake psychic, has solved quite a number of cases for the Santa Barbara Police Department, so they keep hiring him back. Kristen plays the Chief and she gets a credit in the open titles. Tim and Maggie are the detectives. Tim's Detective Lassiter, or Lassie as Shaun calls him, is not so happy with Shaun most of the time. Maggie and Shaun get along together most of the time. There's always that chance they will hook up and the scripts play to that theme a bit. In real life Maggie and James hook up but in the series they don't start dating this season. The first show starts off with Tim Curry guesting as the judge on an American Idol like talent show which has come to the area looking for new talent. Did one of those spurned talents think Tim deserved to die for his nasty ways. Someone's been trying but they've failed so far. The Chief asks Shaun and Gus to help keep someone from succeeding. Gina Gershon also appears in the episode. Was she someone? The second episode has a dead guy turn up with weird slashes on his body and Shaun, in full psychic mode, draws the killer on a large pad of paper. Damn, it's a T-Rex! No one believes him, he's scorned, still he's right. How's that work then? You'll have to catch the episode if you want to find out. Lou Diamond Phillips guests in an episode where he plays an FBI agent. He has an FBI psychic along with him. She's a hottie and Shaun falls for her. Somehow I don't think she'll still want to go out with him after he's had her arrested. John Amos appears as a visiting Uncle. Kevin Sorbo appears in an episode as a Dawg style bounty hunter. Corbin has always looked down at the profession but Shaun and Gus were impressed with the guy 20 years ago. They've got a different attitude after they go up against him. They're all after an escaped prisoner played by W. Earl Brown. Phylicia Rashad and Ernie Hudson play Gus's parents and both of them are suspects in a murder case. Shaun helps Gus deal with that over the Christmas holidays. Shaun becomes a tv star on a locally produced Spanish Language tv soap opera. He was there to investigate a murder and things just fall into place. Amanda Pays, Corbin's real life wife, plays his blind date in an episode. The cast is fun and the scripts have funny things for them to do. All the characters have subplots that work around the main theme of the episode. Some of them are pretty silly and that's one of the things that I like about the show. It's not serious and there are goofy things that happen. From the flashbacks to the interesting effects shots it all works well. It's not over the top like Pushing Daisies but it's stylish enough to create a nice look. Flashy graphics and camera tricks won't make up for a sad script lacking laughs. I found them to be filled with yuks. Yay, for me! The show continues to feature a pineapple in each episode. John Landis and John Badham both directed episodes this season. The shows are still being shot in Canada. That's where the studio work is done and for the outdoor locations BC fills in for Santa Barbara well enough. They don't seem to worry when a bus goes by with a Canadian flag on it or that Gus drives a car only available in Canada. Oh well, that setting is less important than the characters, the murders are really subservient to the character development. Not that there's much growth, Shaun still runs wild, people still let him get away with plenty. I'm still enjoying his antics and will enjoy visiting with him and Gus when I get around to season 3 and 4. The dvd's have a few extras like commentaries on some episodes. There were a couple of featurettes. Some were fairly entertaining.   

Wodehouse Playhouse Series 1

I've been a fan of PG Wodehouse since some time in the 1980's. My old girlfriend Karen turned me on to his work. If you haven't read any, and you do read, you should. It's some of the best writing, ever. The stories might not appeal to everyone, they are set in an older England, before the second World War. Light comedies, with bits of romance, lots of odd characters, silly situations and amazingly clever words strung together in delightful patterns that are a joy to read. Wodehouse wrote from the 1890's to 1975 and there are close to 100 books of stories and novels. There's a bit of non-fiction and song related material out there too. His work has been adapted pretty much regularily since he started writing. The BBC has done a lot of it and this 1975 program was one of htem.

John Alderton and Pauline Collins are the two main actors in the first series. They play different characters in each episode. I remember John from Zardoz, where he played Friend, and from the British Sitcom Please Sir! where he played a teacher to a class of misfits. Kind of like Welcome Back Kotter but 7 years earlier and with English accents. John was in plenty of British TV including Upstairs, Downstairs. I didn't watch that when it was new and I still am not interested. I couldn't remember seeing Pauline in anything, she was un Upstairs Downstairs too, but I see from her IMDb page that she was in an episode of The Saint in 1966. I vaguely remember her but it's been a couple of years since I saw that episode. They both do a good job on the acting stuff and they are joined by a fine lot of character actors. The shows were fun for me to watch but I recognized the stories they were taken from. Others might not like them as well. Here's your chance to find out for free. The seven episodes are all available on YouTube as I write this. They look fine. See if you like them. I'm going to go read a book before I hit the hay.

1. "The Truth About George"
2. "Romance at Droitgate"
3. "Portrait of a Disciplinarian"
4. "Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court"
5. "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom"
6. "Rodney Fails to Qualify"
7. "A Voice From the Past"

A LEGO Christmas Special from Monsieur Caron

 

Marc Andre Caron posted a link in a comment in a post of mine and I watched his Christmas short about Santa's sleigh troubles and thought it was fun. You can watch it and be the judge. It's so easy to embed a video, just cut and paste, I don't know why I don't do it more often. Check out Marc's other videos on his YouTube page. Have a Merry Christmas too. If you don't celebrate Christmas, enjoy the days off for the holidays, if you're working. I know I've got two four day weekends coming up and there's a ton of stuff to watch on my shelf. I hope to get some of that watched as well as get some serious lazing about done.

Muppets rock the house.

I thought this was a hoot. Muppets rocking out to Sure Shot by The Beatie Boys.