One Night of Love

No art credits on this 1934 sheet music cover, but it does include a mention of Lyle Talbot, known to legions of Ed Wood fans for his role as General Roberts in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Catnip Frenzy at Steve's Acres of Cats

 

So, as you can see this innocent little construct was peacefully existing on my living room floor. It actually looks like something Ed Wood would've used as a set in one of his films.

 But then I added catnip

This morning this is what I found

And yet after this they still go outside and kill things with their insatiable thirst for thrills. I live with four literal wild and crazy party animal killers! 

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Violent Years

"So what?"

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 67]

Favorite Movie Quotes: Plan 9 From Outer Space

"And then one day it could all be gone, in one big puff of smoke and ball of fire. All that out there, the stars, the planets all just an empty void."

See also: Selected Quotes from Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space.

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 6]

Favorite Movie Quotes: Night of the Ghouls

"Barnum sure was right!"

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 38]

Favorite Movie Quotes: Glen or Glenda

"People. All going somewhere. All with their own thoughts, their own ideas. All with their own personalities. One is wrong because he does right. One is right because he does wrong. PULL THE STRING! Dance to that which one is created for!"

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 30]

Favorite Movie Quotes: Bride of the Monster

"Home? I have no home. Hunted, despised, living like an animal! The jungle is my home. But I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world! Ha ha ha ha!"

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 10]

Selected Quotes From Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space

with an introduction by Michel Jolivet. I have no idea what sort of print run this had, but it couldn't have been very many copies. This was hammered out on my old typewriter in May 1988.

I later reviewed Plan 9 From Outer Space as part of my Cheaper by the Dozen film reviews for OlyBlog. Here's what I said:

Plan 9 From Outer Space / directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1959, VHS). Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Tor Johnson, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore, Tom Keene, Carl Anthony, Paul Marco, Dudley Manlove, Joanna Lee, John "Bunny" Breckinridge, Lyle Talbot, Criswell, Conrad Brooks, Tom Mason. "Can you prove that it didn't happen?" Don't you hate it when you enjoy what you think is a nice little secret and then everyone finds out about it and it gets to be a big deal? That's what I experienced with Ed Wood movies in general and this one in particular. There is a natural evolution for Woodians. First, you laugh at his movies, then you slowly start to realize the guy really was a true visionary. A conceptualist. A genius. His work was totally unique, there was no other director like him. But as you reach these last stages of Wood enlightenment, the rest of the world is just starting to discover him-- and they laugh. And if you try to explain the gifted side of Wood and his masterpiece, Plan 9, no one will take you seriously. Wood first came to my attention in the early 80s when this movie was touted inaccurately as "Worst Film of All Time" in the book "The Golden Turkey Awards." Then I fell in with a wild crowd of bassoon players, which included a veterinarian in Burien who showed cassettes on Beta and a librarian who had a lawnmower that was previously owned by Mason Williams, and we watched Ed Wood movies with morbid fascination until all hours. Those were the days, before Tim Burton mainstreamed Ed. Plan 9 was Wood's attempt to lift the veil on the government's secrecy concerning UFO activity. Through the aliens, the brutal every-man-for-himself and ignorant nature of our modern American society is revealed. What makes this movie so interesting is that Wood built the whole thing around a few minutes of footage of Lugosi, right before Bela's death in 1956. In the course of telling the story Wood asks the audience to suspend expectations of several natural consistencies, like day and night going back and forth in the course of a few minutes, different actors playing the same character, scars that move around, etc. The cast is wonderful. Wood must've been a very gifted director to bring out such unique and spirited performances from his actors. They might not be polished, but they have spark. Since Wood didn't really believe in more than one take, you are watching some pretty spontaneous and improvisational moments on the screen. Plan 9, watch it once and laugh, watch it twice and think.

Suuri Kurpitsa

Finnish cartoonist Pauli Kallio invited several of us American Newavers into his amazing anthology series, Suuri Kurpitsa (translated = "Great Pumpkin"). I've included the cover of the issues followed by my contributions.

While many of us here in the states were messing around with cheap photocopy, Suuri Kurpitsa had slick paper production values and color on the covers. I couldn't decide what was more thrilling: having my work published in high quality hardcopy, or someone thinking enough of my comix to take the trouble to translate them.

Finland, by the way, has quite a role in Pacific Northwest history. Here in Grays Harbor County, you can see many Finnish surnames adorning the signs of business enterprises, especially in Aberdeen. Down in the neighboring Lewis County, the town of Winlock was basically a Finnish colony. Nearby Astoria, Oregon had a major Finnish neighborhood that was home to Maila Nurmi, also known to us Ed Wood fans as Vampira.

It would also be safe to place the Finns as among the most politically radical ethnic groups up here in the first half of the 20th century.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. So I'll slap myself in the face and start my morning chores now, like filling the porcupine with helium. No, that isn't a quaint euphemism for anything-- I really do have to fill the porcupine with helium. Otherwise he gets earthbound and cranky.

Asteroid 1997 XF11

This happy little monograph was published in Mar. 1998, when it was thought the possibility of this space rock slamming into our distracted globe was rather high. Actually, it will be coming uncomfortably close in 2028. But the news did give me a chance to exhibit my feelings about negative social forces that divide the human race.

The initial printing was just 20 copies. My personal copy is on red paper and unstapled, but I don't know about the others. The June 2005 1st Danger Room Ed. consisted of 5 copies on pink card stock.

You can see by the quotes at the start and finish that I am a Woodian. I first became of aware of Ed Wood and his films when I lived in Pullman sometime between 1983-1986 and have been interested in his work ever since. By the time Ed Wood was the age I am now he was dead. Too bad he didn't live long enough to see the attention he has generated.