Red Planet Revolution

I spent the morning doing things around the apartment. First thing on my list was calling Shelly Stahl, the therapist in Haddonfield. Didn't get her. I'll try again later in the week. I also checked my temporary disability. The money I got yesterday will be my last from them. The partial unemployment money still hasn't arrived. I swept out the pantry and cleared a pile of papers from on top of my printer.

When my chores were finished, I ran John Carter and worked on my current crocheting project. Disney had high hopes for John Carter, but it was a huge bomb when it came out in March...and I'm not really sure why. This adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs book A Princess of Mars takes the title character (Taylor Kirsch), a former Civil War captain who has vowed never to fight again, to the planet of Mars. He finds himself caught in another civil war, this between two human races and one lizard-like one. He befriends the lizard group, then falls for the princess (Lynn Collins) of the city of Helium. She's being married off to the head of the more war-like tribe and isn't happy about it one bit. Carter is desperate to return home - he just secured a cache of gold - but the longer her remains on Mars, the more he begins to realize how much he's come to care for the war-torn planet. Using the jumping powers he's gained from Mars' different gravity levels, he finally decides to open his heart...and discovers that a cause is more important than all the gold in the Wild West.

What did the critics not like about this again? I thought it was totally awesome. Ok, so the story is really complicated. You'll probably need to watch this two or three times to catch the names, titles, and even just get some idea of the back stories. Taylor Kirsch was a surprisingly gruff Carter; Lynn Collins was a wonderfully feisty and intelligent princess. And come on, haven't you ever wanted your own dog-lizard-thing who follows you everywhere? The special effects are absolutely amazing, too, especially the war ships.

If you are any kind of a sci-fi or pulp fiction fan, you owe yourself to see this movie. It has "cult favorite" written all over it. The long-running series of novels practically invented many action adventure cliches, influencing everything from Tarzan (Burroughs' other major series) to Superman to Flash Gordon.

After John Carter ended, I went for a walk. I didn't get very far before I saw two packages on front apartment porch. One was the present for my Secret Santa; the other was from Linda Young. The package had one intriguing present with Sailor Moon and "I Love Beatles" pins on it that is to be opened on Christmas Day, one very book-like package for Christmas Eve morning, and one for now. The "now" present turned out to be Tales Told Under the Christmas Tree, a nifty vintage collection of holiday stories, including a whole chapter on Hanukkah tales.

I did finally get to a quick walk after that. While the fog was gone, it was partly cloudy, chilly, and windy. I hiked down to Goff Avenue and back; didn't have the time to go anywhere else. The river had an austere beauty under the gray-blue skies, with the Ben Franklin Bridge clearly in the background despite the weather. I also saw Andrew helping out his mother at her house and gave the rest of the rent to him.

Made a quick Tuna Salad lunch while watching Tom & Jerry Tales shorts before heading to work. Work was very busy today, far more so than it has been. Fortunately,  it slowed down enough by 7PM for me to get off without a relief.