Changes Blow In

Began the morning with silvery clouds, breakfast, and Blockbusters. The champ made short work of a pair of sisters in the beginning and a mother-daughter team in the end, but he still struck out in the Gold Run bonus round. I think he got two answers there.

Switched to original My Little Pony on The Roku Channel as I made Orange-Chocolate Chip Muffins for lunch at work this week. "Crunch the Rockdog" mercilessly turns everything he touches into stone. The ponies discover from a living mountain he was made to be a guard dog without feelings. They have to bring him the mountain's Heartstone to make him understand how others feel about his actions. Meanwhile, romantic Truly can't understand how logical Wind Whistler can be so seemingly frigid...but sometimes Wind Whistler reveals how logic can be helpful in dealing with a problem.

Paradise and Fizzy would rather be reading and playing than repairing Paradise Estate. They think they've found the answer when a sorcerer sells them magic paint that will make anything easier to repair. What it does is make the furniture come to life and repair itself, then decide it doesn't like how the ponies handle them and chase them out. Only Baby Cuddles' motherly buggy remains faithful to her pony. It's Cuddles who finally ends "The Revolt of Paradise Estate" when she helps the furniture see that the sorcerer treats them even worse.

As the cartoons ran, I happened to look at the window and notice snow coming down, and hard. It didn't stick, or amount to more than very pretty frozen rain. It was gone by the time I called Uber...and of course, started again more heavily by the time the car arrived. At least the guy was a good sport about it, even switching to music from the Inauguration when we both came to the conclusion that neither of us really wanted to hear about politics. 

Thankfully, the snow was slowing down when I arrived and was gone by the time I went out to gather carts. The squalls did leave behind some nasty cold gales, blowing carts around and making it hard to push them. There was also a mix-up with the sweeping early in the day, and I got stuck in a register for a few minutes later to go in for a manager's break. (Apparently a lot of people called out or didn't show, I'm guessing because of the Inauguration.) At least it wasn't busy. In fact, we were dead almost the entire afternoon. It got a little busy at rush hour, then went right back to being dead. More help arrived later to take over the cleaning and sweeping.

Went straight into Match Game PM when I got home. Brian Billick, future Super Bowl-winning coach of the Baltimore Ravens, was a contestant in this episode. He's definitely a better coach than a game show player. He lost rather badly and didn't really seem to understand the game that well. The champ had a far easier time on Sale of the Century. She was ahead by the second half and killed at the Speed Round, winning a trip to Aruba. Still couldn't get that Bonus Round, though.

Finished the night after a shower watching the 1940 Thief of Baghdad at TCM's on-demand site. I'm in the mood for a good romantic adventure. Sabu is the title character Abu, who first encounters King Ahmad (John Justin) in prison. Ahmad was tricked by his Grand Vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) into going among his people as a poor man. The two do manage to escape, only for Ahmad to fall for the Princess (June Duprez) of a neighboring city. Jaffar wants her (and her kingdom) too. He plies her father the Sultan (Miles Malleson) with mechanical toys in order to gain her hand, but she's in love with Ahmad. Jaffar angrily blinds Ahmed and turns Abu into a dog. He also tricks the Princess, letting Ahmed awaken her, only to force her onto a ship so he can get her to hold him. 

That restores the guys, but Jaffar shipwrecks them when they chase their vessel. Abu finds himself alone with a bottle and a genie (Rex Ingram) who gives him three wishes. It may take a lot more than even a genie's magic to help Abu find the All-Seeing Eye and keep his friend from ending up losing his love and his head!

Oooh, this was fun, and worth all the trouble they had filming it. (It started in England, but had to move to the US when World War II broke out and went through at least five directors.) The special effects still look pretty darn good, especially on the genie. Sabu and Ingram have the most fun as the young thief caught up in adventure and the genie who sees Abu as his ticket to freedom. I love the gorgeous pastel colors too, straight out of an Arabian Knight storybook. Honestly, if you love Arabian Knights tales or are also looking for a good adventure, you'll want to check this out on TCM or dig up the recent Criterion Collection release. 

Magic In the Rain

It was raining when I awoke this morning...and that rain would continue in some capacity for most of the day. I cheered myself up with more Bowery Boys while I made the bed and did a few small chores around the apartment. Jungle Gents is one of the goofy mid-50's movies with Sach and Slip. Here, a larger-than-usual sinus pill somehow gives Sach the ability to smell diamonds. Slip senses an opportunity when a man offers to take them to a fabulous diamond mind in Africa. Things don't go well from there. Sach loses the map, they have a run-in with a lion and a hostile tribe, and there some members of their group are plotting sabotage. Meanwhile, Sach is more thrilled with the jungle maiden who has fallen in love with him.

Headed out to run a few errands around 12:30. The rain and the inauguration must have scared off most folks. The librarian was the only person at the Oaklyn Library the entire time I was there besides me. She didn't even have the TV on. I organized DVDs, shelved kids' books, and moved on.

Oh, and I took out a few movies. While the Oaklyn Library doesn't have the selection of indies and British movies that Haddon Township does, they not only get more new releases, they get them faster and usually have them around longer. I took out Captain America: Civil War and last year's all-female Ghostbusters, neither of which have turned up at Haddon Township yet. They also have the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which I haven't seen in years. (For some reason, Haddon Township has every Harry Potter movie but the first one.) Grabbed a Star Wars reference book as well.

Had a quick lunch at Phillies Phatties while I figured out my next move. I wanted to go to the grocery store, but not only was it coming down a bit harder, but the zipper had broken off my green L.L Bean jacket. Ordered my usual slice of mushroom and slice of cheese pizza with a can of Mountain Dew Pitch Black. The inauguration was just ending on PBS as I arrived. I heard part of it at home. I don't have cable and didn't technically watch it, but Charlie had it turned up so damn loud, they probably heard it half-way across Oaklyn.

The rain was not abating. I finally gave up and just headed home. Finished an episode of Get Smart I started before I left while I got organized. I ran "Run, Robot, Run" from the third season in honor of Dick Gautier, aka Hymie the Robot, who just recently passed away. Hymie is recruited to replace the "Free World" team in a major track meet when CHAOS drugs all the regular athletes.

Spent the rest of the evening writing. Han can't dance and keeps stepping on Leia's feet, but that doesn't matter to either of them. Han's happy to be there, with a girl who doesn't see him as a servant. Leia's happy to have met a man who doesn't see her as a prize. She even introduces him to her parents and her Aunt Ashoka. Han, in turn, introduces her to Lando. Jabba tries to interfere, but Ashoka and Obi-Wan head him off.

Han and Leia are kissing on a moonlit balcony when the clock tower strikes midnight. To Leia's surprise, Han leaps over the balcony railing and takes off, vanishing into the night. Unlike the original story, Obi-Wan does know where he lives. He promises to take the twins there the next morning. For one thing, Leia still has Han's navy jacket, the only clue he left behind to his real identity. He draped it on her shoulders when she got cold and forgot to take it with him.

Moved to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while eating fish cakes and leftover green beans for dinner, and later while making Chocolate Chip Muffins. (Which I forgot the eggs for.) Harry Potter (Daniel Ratcliffe) is a fairly normal kid, living with his resentful and unloving aunt, uncle, and cousin...until one day, he gets a letter, and then another. It seems he's a wizard, the last remaining member of a beloved wizard family. Hagrid, a friendly giant (Robbie Coultrane), takes Harry to Hogwarts, a school of magic where young wizards train for their futures. Harry and his new friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) inadvertently stumble onto a mystery when they find a huge three-headed dog guarding something major on the forbidden third floor. The trio have to navigate through the mystery...and figure out their first year at Hogwarts...before they find themselves in major trouble.

On one hand, it's the details that's the thing here. Harry's colorful world, even while not being as detailed as the books, still stands out with little things like the floating candles or Ron's wizard chess. The kids had great chemistry from the get-go, and they're working with an outstanding cast of British character actors. Richard Harris is beloved old headmaster Dumbledore. Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman are among the professors.

However, this is not one of the series' better entries. The CGI hasn't dated well in spots (especially in the troll sequence), and the story had plot hole problems, even in the book. Those of you who are new to the series will want to see it anyway. This is one series you really have to watch in progression to understand anything about what's going on...but rest assured, it does get better later, as the kids get older and the stories become more complex.

Ended the night with The Naked Gun. Having enjoyed Airplane! the other day, I decided to hit the other half of the 80's and stick with the Zucker Brothers. Nielson is back, this time playing cop Lieutenant Frank Drebin. Drebin returns from a major case to discover that his partner (O.J Simpson) was brutally assaulted while checking out a major narcotics ring. Meanwhile, the mayor would prefer Drebin devoted his time to the visit of Queen Elizabeth to LA. Drebin finds himself falling in love with the secretary (Priscilla Prestley) of an industrialist (Ricardo Montalban) who may have connections with both the drug ring and a plot to eliminate the queen at a California Angels game.

A hilarious parody of cop movies and thrillers. My favorite sequence is at the ball game. You've never lived until you've heard Leslie Nielson (try to) sing. If you love spoofs, Nielson, or the Zuckers' joke-a-minute style, this one is a no-brainer. (And the two sequels, both of which I have, aren't bad either.)

(And the rain did finally end...around 5:30, too late for me to go anywhere else. I'll have to hold off on grocery shopping until tomorrow after work.)

Winter Wonderland at Last

First of all, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to all! I didn't get to see the inauguration, but I did read about it online.

The day was just cloudy and much colder when I finally woke up this morning. I finished out the Jake and the Neverland Pirates set during breakfast. My favorite episode on the Peter Pan Returns disc had fun with Disney's perpetual fondness for princesses. Izzy has been reading about (and dressing like) a "pirate princess" from her book who has been turned into gold by a wicked witch. The kids first have to save her and her golden ship from Hook. (Interestingly, Hook has no interest in her, even after she's changed back - it's her ship he's after.) Next, they have to return her rainbow wand to her, with Hook in hot pursuit.

Since I didn't have much in the way of plans today, I decided to go for a quick run to Rite Aid early this afternoon. It's supposed to be very cold all week, and today was no exception. It was probably in the lower 30s when I headed down to Cuthbert Road. They were surprisingly busy, given the weather. I did find the contact lens solution CVS was out of yesterday (for slightly cheaper). And their skim milk has dropped even further in price, and it was already the cheapest milk in the area! I grabbed that, too.

Worried about the weather, I headed straight home. Spent the rest of the day having lunch, messing around online, baking Banana Honey Muffins, and finally getting to watch Time After Time. I took this one out numerous times last year, only to not get a chance to watch it for some reason or another. In the year 1893, reporter and science fiction author H.G Wells (Malcom McDowell) has invented a genuine time machine. Most of Wells' colleagues think he's nuts, but one good friend, a surgeon named John Robertson (David Warner), seems particularly interested. Wells discovers the hard way why when the local bobbies show up at his house...and Robertson is revealed to be the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Wells pursues him to then-modern times - more specifically, San Francisco, November 1979. He's dismayed to discover that the Utopian society of peace and serenity that he envisioned has hardly come to pass. Cars honk, guns can be bought easily, McDonald's has lousy breakfasts, and the world would continue  to make war. On the other hand, women are also far less restricted, as he learns from feminist banker Amy (Mary Steenburgen). Amy becomes his introduction to a strange new world where sweetly nerdy sci-fi geniuses are considered lunatics....and lunatics are considered normal.

The film had a few surprises for me, too. This unusual sci-fi/romance/thriller hybrid is one of the sweetest fantasy movies I've ever seen. Mom used to talk about it in the early 80s. She was a fan of Mary Steenburgen, and she often mentioned the film's science fiction themes. McDowell and Steenburgen have wonderful chemistry - they would, in fact, get married in real-life a year later. If you're a fan of Steeburgen or McDowell or Wells' real-life books, this is highly recommended.

The muffins took so long, I was almost late getting to work! It may not have been worth the fuss. Work was steady through about 6:30, after which it died so quickly, I spent at least three hours organizing shelves, cleaning registers, and returning items.

It was sunny when I headed off to work, but there were clouds on the horizon. Most of my customers mentioned that it finally started snowing around 6-7ish, and was so bad, it obscured their vision. By the time I left, the snow was long gone. There was at least an inch or so of snow on the ground, and the streets were icy. I walked my bike a lot of the way home, especially on the back roads like Manor and Goff.

Historic Inauguration

I did get to see bits and pieces of today's historic Presidential Inauguration. I watched about 20 minutes of it before I went to Dad and Uncle Ken's to do my laundry and a half-hour after I came back around 12:30. No, I didn't get to see the parade or Obama be sworn in. Dad and Uncle Ken were watching their usual 24 hours of nothing but thrillers and crime shows, and I didn't want to tell them what to watch on their TVs. If they wanted to miss history, that was on them. And alas, by the time the parade started, I was at work.

I still got to see enough to make me feel like I saw history. I've seen some history on TV before. I was five when the Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1985. Not that I cared at the time; I was more upset that they pre-empted The Price Is Right to cover the explosion and NASA's reaction. I was far more interested when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. I still remember seeing all those people yanking away at it clear as day, even on my little black and white TV. And of course, I was in college when 9/11 happened. Ironically, I was in a class on 20th century American history when the Towers were hit. I didn't find out until I went to work at the Stockton Media Center, by which time they were almost on the ground.

As for today, I could have done with fewer talking heads and more actual footage (this is why I don't watch network or cable news more often). I did get to see former President Bush leave Washington for Texas (not a moment too soon, if you ask me) and the beginning of the Inaugural Lunch.

Work was, in the opposite of the last few days, dead when I came in and when I left, but busy during the usual rush hour, by which time most Inaugural festivities were over or nearly so. A lot of people apparently called out this morning, either due to family trouble or the Inauguration, but there was no trouble whatsoever by the time I was there. Other than it was a little windy and icy going home, I had no trouble getting to or from work.