Mikellaneous

My Recent Confessions and Observations on Twitter: 

Undergoing snacking issues. Threw the head back to gulp, but we're all out of frosting in a can. So, I've moved on to the squirt mustard....

Well, just great. Another day shot and not one, not one person favored me with a tune.

Still not seeing ISHTAR, but realize I am slowly giving in.

Rewatched W.C. Fields' TILLIE AND GUS (1933). I have to love any film that has an unnecessary pet duck waddling through the entire picture!

I watched four 1950s movies by director Roy Del Ruth last night. Today, I am baritone, overly cheery and acrobatic hoofing in a sailor suit.

Uh oh. Spring Fever just hit. Time for my three-month nap....

Watching THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. My body’s just a-quivering with cleanliness and substituting the Alka-Seltzer tablets for Necco Wafers.

Rewatched riveting thriller THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955). I can think of no film like this one. Unforgettable imagery. LOVE knuckles up.

Watched: REAP THE WILD WIND (1942). Will I dream of Paulette Goddard or behemoth rubber squid? Bet I wake in a sweat with suction cup marks.

Stupid diet. It's just not normal to nibble-a-lug.

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Harold Lloyd Soars to New Heights

Continued From: "Remembering Harold Lloyd, the Man on the Clock"

I wrote about Harold Lloyd's classic thrill sequence in the 1923 silent film, "Safety Last." After the invention of sound movies, Harold returned to skyscraper climbs in "Feet First." The 1930 incarnation is often described as a remake of the scene, but it's not. The gags are different, especially with our fearless hero arriving inside a postal sack for his surprise adventure. It's the only way to fly.



Harold Lloyd: "Feet First" via YouTube

Off the Wall

Saving Facebook: My Confessions: 

On Famous Last Words 

Alfred Hitchcock Geek 
Let Hitchcock write your epitaph. Pick a quote from his movies to be engraved on your tombstone.

Mike
‎"Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this?" --"The Birds"

On the Cinema

Friend Michael
Classic and memorable (or not) movies released on May 12th: "Earth Girls Are Easy" (1989), "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Poseidon" (2006).

Mike
I saw "Poseidon" in IMAX. OK, but not particularly memorable. The original "Poseidon Adventure" is memorable. Not so much the film or effects, but Stella Stevens in her underwear. That's a movie!

On It

Friend Donna
There you go, makin' my heart beat again...

Mike
I think it's my socks. Kicky!

On Osama bin Laden's Farewell Tour

Friend Bill
For crying out loud, can we stop the damn conspiracy theories, finger pointing, "who gets credit, who doesn't" crap and celebrate an AMERICAN victory for a day or two?

Mike
I blame Yoko.

On "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

Mike
Love it, although I was cut out. I am, of course, The Dimpled.

On My A-List Friends

Mike
How cool is this? @DavidHasselhoff and I are now pals on Twitter. I'm excited. Maybe he can get me SpongeBob's autograph.

Friend Astroray
You are the same guy who listed "Barney Rubble" as your favorite actor!

Mike
Sir Rubble rules.

On Wild Cat Joy Ride

Mike
My cat, Melvin, found the car keys. He's out driving to every moth in the county.

Friend Claire
Has he caught any yet?

Mike
Nope. He was carjacked by a dog chasing a stick.

 

Smartin', Missing the Martin

I relocated to Marietta, GA, a northwestern suburb of Atlanta, in 1974. One of the first things I did in anticipation of the move was to discover all of the motion picture theatres in the area. There were three drive-ins operated by Martin Theatres, plus five or six assorted hardtops. If my memory is correct, the first film I saw in Marietta was Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" on its opening day in '74. The comedy was showing inside the Town & Country on Roswell Rd., near U.S. 41.

It wasn't until recently that I learned there had been another drive-in theatre, Martin's Martin on Roswell Rd. This vintage photograph may have been snapped as early as Sept. 1955 when the feature attraction, "My Sister Eileen" with Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, and Betty Garrett, was released.

By the time I arrived in town, the Martin Drive-in had been demolished and redeveloped into the New London Square Shopping Center, which exists to this day, as seen in the color images I shot along the busy, expanded five-lane thoroughfare in April.

Ironically, the left edge of the Martin Drive-in's real estate was adjacent to the auditorium where I viewed "Blazing Saddles."

Here's another irony involving this property, previously unknown to us.

My wife and I have been long-time customers at the health food market situated along the bottom of the old drive-in's amphitheatre. I love their vegan-buttered popcorn, vegan corn dogs, Vegan Duds, and a large barrel-sized Tofu Diet Sprite.

Children under 12 admitted free.

I also shop in my jammies, in case I get sleepy before it's over.

---

Martin Drive-in photo via Chicken Fat; color shots by Mike Durrett, 2011.

Big Weekend

Big weekend, lunching with warthogs. 

No Tipping! 

Home Teat Home.

Here's Joe Cool Hanging Around the Dollar Store Eyeing Chicks

Continued From: "Meanwhile..." 

After purchasing cat bowls to appease the furry gaping maws at home, I looked for place mats to go under their food.

Nothing dresses up appetizing floorboards beneath the coat hooks like a piece of cheap plastic with kitty paw print designs splotched on it.

I found zilch suitable for the pets.

But for me, SCORE!!

Meanwhile...

We required four new food bowls to serve our cats adequately, so Father Goose, as the wife calls me, along with the alternate sweetheart appellation Guts o' Thunder & Cheese, plus the unnecessary For Whom the Bed Toils, headed off to do the shopping.

I found the ideal dishes, but there were only three labeled worthy of kitties, so I was forced to purchase one intended for another culture.

"Hey, these bowls look identical to me," I said, in case continuity might be needed later. "No one will ever be the wiser. I shall check-out now and leave my camera operative and handy, in case a cute photo opportunity makes itself available when I unpack the merchandise back at the abode."

Someone's feline intuition and evil eye went directly to the offending vessel. I got into the car and returned the dog bowl to the market, where I upgraded Morty to a cat gravy boat and the obligatory accessory, an official tabby captain's hat.

Mikellaneous

My Recent Confessions and Observations on Twitter:

Guess what? My cats still love me. They had a meeting.

A year ago today, we friends were riding mules to the bottom of the Grand Canyon - and taking ibuprofen. I guess that was our hippie period.

I've lost four pounds, which will make my doctor happy, one pound per week. As a user, I'd like it go faster. I crave user-friendly fat!

My doc dissed my weight. I said, "You're looking at a 300-lb man in the wild. I'm doing great 2B only 200." Said he never heard that one B4.

Reading: JENNIFER ANISTON TO BE FETED FOR A DECADE OF HOTNESS, like me. Well, I'm being feted for a Decade of Puddings.

When The Rapture canceled, we watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Hey, I have to get my religion somewhere.

My site's host had a 20.5 hr. outage, reverting to a days-old edition, not the latest post. I fired off a letter to the IT guy, Marty McFly.

I hate when the orange juice says "Concentrate." Now, I'll be thinking about it all day....

Item: Disney earned $28.6B in 2010 on licensed merchandise. Not bad, if you don't consider a Dumbo shirt & Tinkerbell wand cost $7.2B each.

I'm sensitive to the unsightliness of ear hair. I do the periodic cochlea comb-out with a part down the Eustachian. And, I cowlick my incus.

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