Day #22,262

Walk km 12,320-12,322: to Safeway
Walk km 12,322-12,332: Meetup walk Ambleside & Dundarave

Movie #2153: Dear Brigitte (1965, Henry Koster)

Fluff. Pure fluff. 8 year old child prodigy can pick horses. He uses the money to go to Paris to visit Brigitte Bardot. Fluff's ok once in a while I suppose.

Day #22,260-261

Walk km 12,304-12,206: running errands
Walk km 12,306-12,313: every block: Boundary
Walk km 12,313-12,320: every block: Charles & Napier

Movie #2152: Robinson Crusoe (1954, Luis Bunuel)

Slave trader washed up on deserted island brings his English imperialist ways with him. After 18 years, he is joined by "savage" Friday who tries to teach him a thing or two.
Pretty straightforward telling with a few jabs at civilisation thrown in.

Day #22,259

Walk km 12,297-12,304 (9,955 to go): busted Meetup walk

someone's front yard
approx km 12,300 Cedarhurst Street

Book #438: Corporations Are Not People (2012, Jeffrey D Clements)
I already wrote a review but Firefox or Windows erased it. Not typing it in again.

Day #22,258

Walk km 12,291-12,293: to T&T
Walk km 12,293-12,296 (9,961 to go): every block walk (7th Ave)

Movie #2151: Green Street Hooligans (2005, Lexi Alexander)

A movie about football hoolangism in England. But, it's PRO hooliganism. It's pro stupidity. It's that bloody civilization that has stopped all red blooded males from having their fun. About as disgusting a movie as you'll ever see. IMDB rates this one 75!

Day #22,257

Walk km 12,278-12,291: Meetup walk from Lonsdale to Dundarave

Movie #2150: Rollerball (1975, Norman Jewison)

Who needs Netflix. As they keep taking movies off their roster and replacing them with old TV shows, YouTube is looking better and better as your place to watch films (in Canada anyway, not sure about the rest of the world).
In Rollerball, we have a future world where corporations have taken over the world. It may have sounded farfetched in 1975 but here in 2012 it seems quite likely. There's not much F left in this SF.

Day #22,253-256

Walk km 12,247-12,254: home from Commercial.Broadway Station
Walk km 12,254-12,260: every block walk (Sophia)
Walk km 12,260-12,263: running errands
Walk km 12,263-12,268: King Edward station to 39th @ Main
Walk km 12,268-12,278 (9,978 to go): every block walk (Prince Edward)

Gurdwara Khalsa Darbar
approx km 12,274 Prince Edward Street

Movie #2149: Thriller: en grym film (1974, Bo Arne Vibenius)

The goofiest movie ever made? Maybe. This Swedish director decided to make a crime film but do it spaghetti western style. The plot makes no sense. The special effects are ludicrous (cars explode into flames at the slightest touch, victims stand around like store room dummies while they wait for that bullet or karate chop). The fight scene is the worst - Christina Lindberg is just too small to have her scenes look authentic so they slow them down so much that the the film is barely moving. And there's some weird music bits. And some inserted X-rated scenes. Also, a few very effective low-angle shots. The ending is very goofy: bury a guy with only his head sticking out, tie a rope around his head, tie the other end of the rope to a horse - then, put a bucket of water (or is it food, we can't see what's in the bucket) just out of reach of the horse - then, just sit down by the head and watch it until the horse gets thirsty (or hungry)!
Tarantino loved this one and patterned Uma Thurman in Kill Bill after the Christina Lindberg character.
Most of the copies of this one are missing 20 or 25 minutes but YouTube has the complete 104 minute version.

Day #22,251-252

Walk km 12,230-12,232: to T&t
Walk km 12,232-12,244: Meetup walk along False Creek
Walk km 12,244-12,245: to the Skytrain
Walk km 12,245-12,247 (10,005 to go): to the library

Movie #2147: I Vitelloni (1953, Federico Fellini)

I like movies with plots more but this slice-of-life film is about as good as it gets in this genre. It's about a bunch of punks who live a carefree lifestyle in an out of the way Italian town. But these are not young punks - they are approaching middle age and wear suits and trench coats. Fausto is the worst. He runs after any skirt that passes by and refuses tell the truth about anything. He's slime. But he's charming slime.

Movie #2148: Mundo Deprevados (1967, Herb Jeffries)

Tempest Storm - careful, you could poke an eye out with one of those things!

Herb used to be a western movie star in the 30s (in all-black cast movies). From there, he dropped far enough down to direct this piece of trash. Of course, nobody was actually trying to make a good movie here so it's not like they failed.
Tempest Storm gets top billing and not only can't she act, she doesn't even bother trying. There's one character called Pops who always talks with a cigar in his mouth and appears to be the inspirartion for "Ed The Sock". At one point, the two detectives take a break from their crime fighting chores to do an Ed Sullivan/Topo Gigieo impersonation!
Empty headed fun.

Day #22,249-250

Walk km 12,214-12,228: Meetup walk in Delta
Walk km 12,228-12,230 (10,020 to go): to Denman at Davie

Movie #2146: Susana (1951, Luis Bunuel)

High spirited female escapes from prison. She finds her way to a local ranch where she proceeds to drive all the men into a sexual frenzy. Of course, these are all god-fearin' folk and so a nice layer of guilt is spread over all the proceedings. Everyone is at everyone else's throat until the police drop in to take Susana back to the slammer. Then they all see the light. Susana was the devil and now that she's gone everything is right with the world!

Day #22,246-248

Walk km 12,196-12,205: Braid Station to Boulevard Casino
Walk km 12,205-12,207: running errands
Walk km 12,207-12,211: to Stanley Park
Walk km 12,211-12,214: Queensborough to Anaccis Island

Richmond Centre
approx km 12,214 from Brighouse Station platform

Movie #2145: The Good Die Young (1954, Lewis Gilbert)

Superior British noir. Four guys in a car with guns. But how did they get there? We have the four backstories and then it's full speed ahead to oblivion.

Day #22,245

Walk km 12,182-12,196 (10,049 to go): Meetup walk from Braid Station to Queensborough

trucks on Front Street
approx km 12,185 near the Fraser River (New Westminster)

Book #437: Doom Service (1960, Dan J Marlowe)

How bad is this book? Hard to tell. This is the first book that I read using an eReader so maybe that was it or maybe the book really does stink.
Maybe the mind cannot accept the story coming from an unusual source - and that was the problem - not once did I believe anything about this story. It was just words on a screen.

Day #22,243-244

Walk km 12,165-12,177: Meetup walk from SFU to Braid Station
Walk km 12,177-12,182: test walk around Sapperton Station

Movie #2143-2144: Le journal érotique d'une Thailandaise (1980, Jean-Marie Pallardy) and The Big Snatch (1971, Martin & Mabe)

One of the things you learn from "The Big Snatch": if you wear clothes like this in a public park, you're just askin' to be snatched

It was "R" rated movie night tonight. First off we had an X-rated film with all the sex scenes removed. This was shot in Thailand and makes a fairly decent travelogue. The second movie was made before there was such a thing as X-rated and that's where the problem lies. Since they can't have any sex scenes how are the filmmakers  supposed to satisfy their sexually repressed audience. Well, they come up with this plot: some guy goes around in an old pickup truck and kidnaps five women. Then he drives them back to his place (kinda looks like the Spahn Ranch). Now he has five sex slaves. And the women love it! This wouldn't have been much of a favourite with the women in the audience (safe to say, there were none). I know women were up in arms when real porn came along but this sort of thing is in a whole nother universe of obnoxious. One point in it's favour: the surprise ending.    

Day #22,241-242

Walk km 12,149-12,160: Meetup walk around Stanley Park
Walk km 12,160-12,165 (10,077 to go): running errands

Movie #2141: Kill List (2011, Ben Wheatley)

OK, enough of searching the far corners of the Internet to dredge out movies from the slag heap of cinematic history. Tonight, it's Netflix time.
Kill List is a British movie about how it's hard to balance your professional and family life when your profession is hit man! A bit of fun is to be had here but all the symbolism is a bit much.
And, whoever invented scrolling closed captions should ave whuts dun to 'em as thet there librarian had dun to im.

Movie #2142: Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles (1980, Bernard Kokoine)
Tried another Kokoine, hoping for another "Initiation Au College" but it was not to be. It looked nice, but that's all you can say for it.
The porno genre is kinda like the western - there are certain scenes that are required (shoot 'em up / barroom brawl) but there's a limited number of ways to make them interesting. 

Day #22,239-240

Walk km 12,124-12,127: running errands
Walk km 12,127-12,138: Lougheed to Sapperton Station
Walk km 12,138-12,149: Meetup walk from Confederation Park to SFU

mushrooms
approx km 12,144 along Hastings Ave

Book #436: Double Or Nothing (2010, D'Arcy Christensen)

This must be one of the most obscure books written by a poker player. Hendon Mob shows 69 cashes for D'Arcy Christensen.
However, this is mostly about his days as fur trader/rancher/store owner in the interior of British Columbia. A few poker stories are thrown in here and there.
A pleasant read but it's probably meant for others who are from the same location. I read it because I remembered talking to D'arcy's son Chuck in Reno.

Movie #2140: Secrets Of A Co-Ed (1942, Joseph H Lewis)

Cheapie from PRC directed by the guy who was to go on to direct Gun Crazy, The Big Combo and Terror In A Texas Town. The print is in rough shape and the dialogue is sub-par but at least it's not a period piece.
Mobster's spoiled brat of a daughter gets herself involved with a hit man who works for her father. Final speach by Otto Kruger is a highlight.Crappy acting of lead Linda Thayer is a lowlight.

Day #22,236-238

Walk km 12,097-12,109: Meetup walk around Stanley Park
Walk km 12,109-12,112: running errands
Walk km 12,112-12,124: Meetup walk to Confederation Park

meetup walkers and Ironworker's Memorial bridge
approx km 12,120 by Burrard Inlet

Movie #2139: Quality Street (1937, George Stevens)

Another period piece. This time the place/time is England/1805. We have here a group of sexually repressed females who's only recourse to their malady is through  "romance". This reliance on romance does allow for quite a few plot twists (some of which are quite amusing). Still, being a period piece does dampen what could have been a much better movie if it were set in the year 1937. 

Movie #2138: Petites Filles Au Bordel (Francis LeRoi, 1980)
French porno period picture. Obviously, a lot of money was spent on this one. Actual costumes, old cars, horse and buggies. But, it's still a period piece and generally those bore me and it's no different here.
Cathy Stewart was in it but she has only a small role. Julia Perrin gets the main role and does quite well but it ain't enough.

Day #22,235

Walk km 12,094-12,097: to T&T

Movie #2137: Man Of The West (1958, Anthony Mann)

This is a pretty sad movie. The western was coming to an end. I don't know if Hollywood knew this but the genre was pretty much finished by '58. And here we have one of the great western stars, Gary Cooper, playing a role that was just way too young for him. He looks old and has trouble moving. Sad.
Otherwise, it's another beautifully shot western - at least when the western died, it looked great.

Movie #2136: Handle With Care (1956, David Friedkin)

A giant fake. The entire dramatic structure of the plot is based upon a piece of information that the lead character does not have. Many of the characters have this information and could have just told him what it was and there would be no plot. It was in their interest to tell him. But they did not. Why? Simply, so that the movie could continue.
And the worst part is, anyone watching this movie knows what that information is. They know the movie is built on a totally fake plot. How stupid were the people who made this movie? How stupid did they think the audience was?
It's a horrible movie but I kinda enjoyed watching it.  

Day #22,234

Walk km 12,082-12,094 (10,140 to go): UBC to English Bay

Meetup walkers
approx km 12,090 Cornwall Street

Day #22,233

Walk km 12,070-12,082: to Confederation Park

Movie #2135: A Strange Adventure (1956, William Witney)

a fedora, a trench coat, a rifle, a geiger counter and a fur coat

Here's a William Witney from smpr12 on YouTube. Witney is famous for his Roy Rogers movies and being championed by Quentin Tarantino.
This is my kind of plot line. A group of criminals pull off an armoured car robbery, get a teen and his hot rod to drive the getaway car and then hide out in a cabin high in the Sierras.
The plot is full of holes and the film quality is horrible but that doesn't matter - any time I get a bunch of hoodlums holed up in the Sierras, I'm happy.