New Sci-Fi Tales of the Old West

Started off a lovely, warm, surprisingly dry morning with the American Top 40. We ram headlong into 1985 as pop, jazz, ballads, and dance music took us into summer. Hits from early June included "Smooth Operator" by Debarge, "Ssudieo" by Phil Collins, "Heaven" by Brian Adams, "Angel" by Madonna, "(Don't You) Forget About Me" by Simple Minds, the lovely "Suddenly" by Howard Jones, "Everything She Wants" by Wham!, and "Axel F," the theme from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie, by Harold Faltermeyer.

That week's #1 was one of my favorite songs from childhood. I still associate it with villains of any stripe to this day - Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

My first stop this morning was the Logan Presbyterian Church Thrift Shop. I had my first bag of donations to bring there since mid-March, including my old DVD player. They had lots of new things I hadn't seen before, including boxes of new videos. I ended up with five videos:

Two more movies in the Thin Man Series, The Thin Man Goes Home and Shadow of the Thin Man

The unusual western musical Red Garters with Rosemary Clooney.

Two classic English mysteries, the early Hitchcock tale The Lady Vanishes, and the second 70s all-star Agatha Christie adaptation Death On the Nile.

I found the video for the early 70s Muppet special Hey Cinderella! in the children's room. I saw the other Muppet fairy tale specials The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and The Frog Prince frequently on cable in the 80s and early 90s, but I don't remember catching this one.

It's just as well that I did so well at the Thrift Shop. I only saw one yard sale in Collingswood, and they had nothing interesting. I went right on to the Farm Market. The summer harvests are starting to make their debut. I saw cucumbers and blueberries for the first time today and got some of both, along with cherries, orange honey, zucchini, and organic romaine lettuce. It's a good thing more fruit is starting to appear. I heard one farmer say this is the last week for strawberries. The final pint was sold as I bought my honey; good thing I have plenty leftover from last week.

Went straight home afterwards. Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon baking Blueberry Muffins and watching Cowboys and Aliens. Oh boy, was this a weird one. A lone man (Daniel Craig) awakens in 1873 Montana to find that he has no memory of who he is or how he ended up a with a huge wound and a strange metal cuff on his hand. He tries to hit the nearest town, Absolution, for medical attention, but only gets in trouble with the local cattle baron Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Dolarhyde discovers he's a bandit and is about to have him strung up when suddenly, a fleet of spaceships rocket out of nowhere, destroy much of the town, and rope people into their ships. Those who remain, including a lovely young woman (Olivia Wilde) with mysteries of her own, go out in search of these strange creatures who don't seem to be quite of this earth.

I did end up enjoying it. Craig and Ford played well off each other, and I like how everyone, Indians, cowboys, pacifists, war-mongers, outlaws, women, and kids, all ended up banding together to stop this strange menace from the stars. (Note that I don't use the word "alien." Neither do they. Science fiction wouldn't really become a popular genre for another couple of decades or so.)  The creatures are very well done and VERY scary-looking. There's a bit of blood, too, though not enough to make gag reflexes kick in. Just blending two very different genres may make this too odd for most people, and the aliens were a bit too gross for my taste, but if you like westerns, alien invasion tales, Craig, or Ford, you may find this to be your cup of sarsaparilla.

I ran some of the Garfield Travel Adventures specials before heading to work. Work was a pain. We had long lines all day, and plenty of cranky people. I was very happy to get out of there. Finished out the specials while having leftovers for dinner.