Thursday, May 28, 2015

Doing Time On Planet Mongo

Started off a steamy, sunny morning with some lesser-known Dr. Seuss. The title character of Pontofel Pock and His Magic Piano is a rather nerdy young man who was just fired from his job at a pickle factory. In despair, his home crumbling around him, he wishes to just get away from it all. A fairy hears his wish and gives him a flying piano that can take him anywhere. Trouble is, he's not any more careful with the piano than he was with his work in the factory. Suddenly, the fairies are asking
"Where in the world is Pontofel Pock?" as they search for him and he tries to get back to the "eyeball dancer" he's fallen for, Eefa Neefa.

I spent most of the morning working on my story. Victor had gone to Fort Pitt to get help, but he's captured on the way and brought to Captain Pavla DeVile's ship. She's going to sell Scott to Pruitt and turn Jeff and Victor over to the British in Boston. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and the remaining staff has rallied the guests at the Inn to help them rescue the men. They're on their way to the Weeping Joker Inn across Pittsburgh to get more help, namely C.J and the other Crimson Blade members who were imprisoned after the "Happy Homecomings" incidents.

Moved to another Dr. Seuss cartoon as I had a quick lunch and got ready for work. The Hoober Bloob Highway is a favorite of mine, and one of the strangest of the Dr. Seuss specials. Mr. Hoober Bloob is a "dispatcher" who sends children down to random lives on Earth. Before they're sent on the afore-mentioned orbital road, Mr. Hoober Bloob and his living mandolin show the baby all the things that make humans what they are, good and bad, and even give him ideas of other things he could be.

Work was, once again, dead for most of the afternoon. It's hot and humid, we're between major holidays, and the beginning of the month is next week. It did get cloudy at one point, but it never rained. It started picking up a little around 2 PM, but not enough that I wasn't able to shut down quickly without a relief when it was time for me to go.

When I got home, I cleaned the refrigerator. It wasn't quite as much of a chore as last year. There was no sticky ice tea spilled under the vegetable crisper this time. It didn't take me more than an hour or so. After I finished the fridge, I made scrambled eggs with spring vegetables for dinner.

Ran Flash Gordon as I worked. The 1981 version of the famous comic strips is a pretty accurate rendition, as far as I can tell. Football star Flash (Sam Jones), travel agent Dale Arden (Melody Anderson), and mad scientist Zarkov (Topol) find themselves on the planet Mongo, which is beset by warring factions and ruled by the evil dictator Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydrow). Prince Barron (Timothy Dalton) is jealous of Flash, who has attracted the attention of his lover Princess Arula (Ornella Muti). The king of the flying Vulcan warriors (Brian Blessed) just doesn't trust anyone. Flash fights to bring the people of Mongo together to fight Ming, save the Earth, and rescue his beloved Dale.

Campy fun if you're into comic book style movies. The set design and costumes in particular are an eyeful. Like Dick Tracy a decade later, they went full-on comic book here, with everything looking like a Technicolor 50's sci-fi extravaganza.

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