Wasn't Born to Follow

I woke up to bright sunshine and a lovely breeze. Celebrated the return of nice weather with a first season episode of Sailor Moon that's as close to flat-out horror as this show gets. "The Summer, the Beach, the Youth, and Ghosts" has Usagi, Ami, and Rei visiting a seaside resort for some training. Usagi is convinced the Victorian resort they're staying at is haunted after seeing three creatures who look like they just walked out of Scooby Doo perform strange rituals. Ami's more interested in a mysterious little girl with psychic powers who seems to be under her domineering father's thumb.

Worked on writing for the rest of the morning. Labor Day and the morning of the surfing contest dawns hot and sunny, perfect beach weather. The shoreline is packed with spectators, including Hank, Charlie, most of the residents of the Cottages, Davy Wicket and his family, and Uncle Ben. (Lance and the crew of the Ghost are watching from their boats as they get ready for the Boat Pageant later.) Vader shows up with his boys...and then Palpatine, in all his wrinkled, Gordon Gecko-suited glory, arrives to watch his protege.

Broke around quarter after 1 for lunch. Started Ghost Chasers while eating that Chicken-Lemon-Orzo Soup I picked up on Friday. The second Bowery Boys horror movie is also their second go-around with spiritualists and mediums. Whitey's latest hobby is spiritualism and conducting seances. Slip sees this as an opportunity to reveal a phony medium who's been bilking an older woman in their neighborhood. She leads them to Margo the Medium, a famous spiritualist who is really the head of a ring of fake mediums. The boys check out her house filled with water traps and odd costumes, aided by a ghost that only Sach can see.

Work was as quiet as yesterday was crazy. I mopped the bathrooms twice, gathered baskets, and did small bags of inside trash and recycling and a smaller basket of returns, but I was mainly outside. Even that could have been worse. It wasn't even busy at rush hour. Had no problems filling both sides. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, windy, and still above-average hot, in the lower 80's. It's also the day after a major holiday, we're between holidays again, and that 4-day sale just ended.

I didn't have any leftovers at home, and I wasn't in the mood for cooking anyway. I had dinner at Chick Fil'A. Ate a too-peppery Grilled Chicken Sandwich and tasty waffle fries with that wonderfully creamy Frosted Lemonade. Watched a dad and his toddler girl enjoy their meal while I ate mine. She was so cute! She waved to everyone, smiled at the lady getting the trash, and looked all around the ceiling for the source of the classical music in the background.

Went straight into the shower when I got home. Put on Easy Rider as I went online, after finishing Ghost Chasers. Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt, or "Captain America" (Peter Fonda), are heading to New Orleans with a wad of cash they got from selling drugs in Los Angeles. The film follows their many adventures across the southwest, from discussing free love with the members of a commune to picking up an alcoholic lawyer (Jack Nicholson) who helps them get out of jail after they're arrested for parading without a permit. Though they do make it to Mardi Gras, where they hang with a pair of prostitutes (Karen Black and Toni Basil), the lawyer's untimely demise at the hands of rednecks who don't appreciate or approve of their freewheeling lifestyle ultimately forecasts their own deaths on the road.

If you want to know what the late 60's-early 70's counterculture was all about, this is a good place to start. No wonder these guys wanted to go on a road trip. The cinematography is incredible. The panoramic views of the dusty southwest and hot and damp south enhance the boys' adventures across a changing American landscape. I honestly found their actual adventures to be a little less interesting, though this did win a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Nicholson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as the uptight lawyer who learns a little bit about letting go from Wyatt and Billy. Awesome hard rock soundtrack, too, including "The Weight" by The Band, "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, "Wasn't Born to Follow" by the Byrds, and "If 6 Was 9" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Frankly, all the talk about freedom and free love - not to mention Billy's fringed hippie get-up and some of the outfits on the folks in the commune and the Big Easy - makes this a tad bit dated. That aside, if you're a fan of Hopper, Fonda, Nicholson, or are interested in the late 60's, this is a landmark in experimental cinema and is absolutely worth a look.

Ended the night with another movie about misfits, National Lampoon's Animal House. It's 1962, and the Delta Thi Chi fraternity is the worst on campus. They're filled with losers and misfits like Bluto (John Belushi) who can't fit into the uptight Omega Theta Pi. Dean Wormer (John Vernon) is fed up with their antics, from accidentally giving a horse a heart attack to having a major toga party with guests that include Wormer's wife and the mayor's daughter. They're put on probation after the toga party incident and expelled after their grades drop even lower. But they're not giving up without a fight. Their entry into the homecoming parade finally proves that a misfits do have a place, even on college campuses.

Hilarious and raunchy tale remains popular on real-life college campuses to this day. Belushi, already a hit on Saturday Night Live, was the break-out star with his child-like Bluto. My favorite was D-Day, the random biker guy whom no one knows anything about and seemed to hang out with Bluto a lot.

Too raunchy for kids and young teens, but older teens onwards will probably get a huge kick out of this great salute to bad behavior.