Day #22,594-595

Walk km 15,051-15,053: to Safeway
Walk km 15,053-15,055: to T&T

TV Episode #61: Bachelor Father - Summer Love (1962, Earl Bellamy)

Fluff about girl falling for outdoorsey type and "uncle" and "houseboy" getting upset. Watched because Allison Hayes was the co-star. Very disappointed when she did not grow to her normal 50 foot height.

Day #22,593

Walk km 15,040-15,051: Port Moody to Port Coquitlam

a lake
approx km 15,047 Mundy Park

Day #22,591-592

Walk km 15,028-15,040: Champlain Heights

Movie #2372: Mississippi Burning (1988, Alan Parker)

The book I read about Medger Evers mentioned that this movie caused quite a stir in Mississippi. I didn't see any "based on a true story" announcement at the beginning but based on the list of prison sentences at the end, I guess this was supposed to be based on a real FBI case. But, since the FBI used somewhat shady practices in order to get confessions, I'm not sure how close to real this is.
They did Hollywood it up a bit: I'm sure the 2 FBI agents were not quite the direct opposites that are portrayed here. And they even threw in a little love interest in as well.
Gotta admit, it does keep a person glued to their seat.

Movie #2373: Black Sheep (2006, Oliver Rihs)
A bunch of stupid people doing stupid things. No matter how trendy the visuals, it's still stupid people doing stupid things.

Day #22,590

Walk km 15,027-15,028 (7562 to go): running errands

Book #470: The Three-Way Split (1960, Gil Brewer)

Another "direct to paperback" novel from the golden era of cheap paperbacks. In this one, you pretty much get what you pay for. Brewer jumps right into the story and keeps zipping right along to the finale. There are just a few pitstops, one for the obligatory torrid sex scene and one for the equally obligatory big brawl scene.
Brewer's OK but nothing special.

Movie #2371: Peeper (1976, Peter Hyams)
Private eye movie spoof. Not very funny.

Day #22,589

Walk km 15,015-15,027: Grouse Grind to Lonsdale Quay

Meetup walkers
approx km 15,021 Mosquito Creek trail

Movie #2370: The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974, Joseph Sargent)

This was supposed to be one hot shot movie (for some reason I thought Don Siegel directed it). Well, I was wrong about the director but everyone else was right about this movie: it's a peach. Big time caper as four armed men hijack a subway train. Walter Matthau is the head of transit police. Superb.

Day #22,588

Walk km 15,005-15,015: Champlain Heights

Wednesday afternoon in the suburbs
approx km 15,014 Marquette Crescent

Book #469: Fatal Obsession (1983, Stephen Greenleaf)

Stephen Greenleaf is one of the best but this is kinda sub-par for him. Detective Tanner goes back to his midwest hometown and guess what he finds? That's right, murder! Ending is really tacked on and a good first half of the book spirals down to that.

Movie #2369: The Savage Seven (1968, Richard Rush)

I knew I was in trouble when the screen said "A Dick Clark production". I had the soundtrack album of this film since the 60s. It contains 2 Iron Butterfly tunes and 1 by Cream (and some filler). The Cream song is "Anyone For Tennis?" and a more unlikely tune for a biker flick would be hard to find. But there it was being played in the background during the all-out battle scene. And I do mean "background" as the volume was way down and being drowned out by the motorcycles. A much better tune was Iron Butterfly's "Iron Butterfly Theme" which would have made a great theme to a biker flick but they did the same thing to it: little snippets played with the sounds of motorcycles drowning it out. Obviously these 3 tunes were just snuck in to try and sell a few soundtrack LPs.
And the movie? It was crap.  

Day #22,587

Movie #2368: Le Chien (1962, Francois Chalais)

Only 60 minutes and IMDB says that it was originally made for TV. Alain Delon heads off to Pigalle for some night life with his dog. The dog disappears but Elke Sommer takes it's place. Full of mumbo-jumbo just like the French like it.

Day #22,585-586

Walk km 14,995-15,002: Lighthouse Park
Walk km 15,002-15,005: to Chinatown/Stadium Station

Movie #2367: The Hypnotic Eye (1960, George Blair)

Enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. This has got to be the stupidest plot ever devised. And that makes the detective in the story the stupidest policeman ever. Women are self-mutilating themselves much to the shagrin of Detective Dave. One evening he attends a hypnotism show where his friend is hypnotised. That evening  the friend washes her face with sulphuric acid. Someone suggests to Dave that it's quite a coincidence that she was hypnotised on the same evening that she washes her face with sulphuric acid. Dave says "no way" it's just a coincidence. Even when his friend says she doesn't know why she did it but that she felt no pain from the acid, he still says "no way". Later on, he starts to catch on and lets his girlfriend get hypnotised by the same guy to find out what's going on. His girlfriend spends the evening with the hypnotist and then goes home with Detective Dave following behind. When she gets home, Detective Dave says "well we might as well go home too"! You'll be screaming at this guy!
Also, there's a long sequence of audience/hypnotist participation right near the end to pad the movie length which deflates any tension that might have been building.
A masterpiece of idiocy.  
Oh yes, almost forgot, it has a beatnik scene too. It's a real scream. There's this guy who looks straight outta squaresville reading the squarest poem ever written. The people that made this movie were clueless.

Day #22,584

Walk km 14,983-14,995: Langara Station to Main Street Station

plants
approx km 14,992 Queen Elizabeth Park

Day #22,583

Walk km 14,971-14,975 (7608 to go): Caulfeild Shopping Centre to Marine Drive

car
approx 14,974 Calfield (West Vancouver)

Movie #2366: Django (1966, Sergio Corbucci)

They thought everyone would have forgotten by now? Only two years after "A Fistfull Of Dollars", the other Sergio makes a spaghetti western with almost the identical plot. It looks great but it could not hold my interest. Maybe Quentin Tarantino might like it.

Day #22,582

Walk km 14,970-14,971: to T&T

Movie #2364: Colossus Of New York (Eugene Lourie, 1958)

What a wonderful looking print from VIOOZ.
Unfortunately, it's a mad scientist movie and that's a genre I'm not much fond of. This one is no different. Pretty bad.

Movie #2365: Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996, Mike Judge)

Sometimes you just feel like watching a movie that someone else has seen instead of wall-to-wall obscurities. I think a lot of people have seen this movie. And even those who haven't, have seen the TV show.
And unlike "Colossus Of New York" which is in a genre that I don't like (mad scientist) this one is in a genre that I do like (road movie).
In this one, Beavis and Butthead head off across America to get their TV back. I won't spoil the ending.
A fun trip.

Day #22,581

Walk km 14,958-14,970: around Carvolth and Walnut Grove

something hanging from a tree
aprox km 14,960 Walnut Grove

Day #22,580

Walk km 14,946-14,958: SFU to Braid Station

Movie #2363: My Name Is Trinity (1970, Enzo Barboni)

I think that this was the first of the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer spaghetti westerns. They add a big helping of comedy to the spaghetti western formula and come up with a quite enjoyable 2 hours. The VIOOZ version is actually longer than the IMDB listened length and it's shown in the correct aspect ratio! I'd pay much more for Netflix if they actually had interesting movies like this but since they don't I have to watch them for free on VIOOZ.

Day #22,578-579

Walk km 14,925-14,937: Cleveland Dam to Lonsdale Quay
Walk km 14,937-14,946: Fell @ Hastings to Production Way Station

who's that coming over the hill?
approx km 14,938 by Kensington Park in Burnaby

Book #468: Vultures' Picnic (2011, Greg Palast)

Expose of the dirty dealing in the world of oil and banking. Greg has decided to liven things up a bit by doing the retelling in private eye style. That kind of detracts from the seriousness of the subject matter. Also, the inclusion of a whole lot about Greg Palast makes a person wonder.

Day #22,576-577

Walk km 14,914-14,925: Grouse Grind to Lonsdale Quay

Movie #2362: An American Hippie In Israel (1972, Amos Sefer)

Where does VIOOZ get these from?  I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this before! The closest I can think of is if "Lord Of The Flies" had hippies instead of children. I'm sure VIOOZ will be shut down soon so be sure to check these out while you can. 

Day #22,575

Walk km 14,905-14,914: Capilano Road to Lonsdale Quay

trail in the park
approx km 14,911 Mosquito Creek Park

Movie #2361: Aroused (1966, Anton Holden)

Sleazy NYC serial killer flick with artistic pretensions.
The main star of this movie is 1966 nightime New York City. Director Anton also throws in lots of artistic shots and there's a swingin' soundtrack too. What's not to like?

Day #22,574

Walk km 14,895-14,905: Grouse Grind to Lonsdale Quay

Meetup walkers
approx km 14,898 Baden Powell Trail

Movie #2361: Ramrod (1947, Andre De Toth)

Another reason why Andre De Toth was one of the greats. Just another western except for Toth's direction and Adolph Deutsch's (no, never heard of him either) music.  

Day #22,573

TV Episode #60: Telephone Time: Grandpa Changes The World (1956, Lewis Allen)

Didn't have a TV set in 1956 so I never saw this when first broadcast. Didn't miss much. Thomas Mitchell plays Andrew Hamilton.

Day #22,572

Walk km 14,884-14,895: Riverview Hospital grounds and Malairdville

Movie #2360: Paradise Alley (1962, Hugo Haas)

Hugo Haas certainly made oddball movies. In this one he plays an old-time silent movie director who decides to make a fake movie in which people in his neighbourhood would be forced to say nice things to one another and thus get rid of all the animosity that is poisoning the neighbourhood.
Only thing wrong is that this was recorded off of a TV broadcast and so the picture quality is terrible.
Lots of long forgotten silent stars have parts in this one.

Day #22,571

Walk km 14,872-14,884: Grouse Grind to Lonsdale Quay

Powerline Trail
approx km 14,876 North Vancouver

Movie #2359: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950, Gordon Douglas)

This was one of the great novels so it's hard to bring that intense evil/weirdness to the screen. They do a pretty good job though. Cagney is pretty adept at evil/crazy so he's perfectly cast as the ruthless escaped convict who's also a little nutso. Love it that Cagney is always so obliging - heck, he'd give you the shirt right off his back. But, he's got a long memory - if he gives in on anything, he'll get it back... with interest. 

Day #22,570

Walkk  km 14,863-14,872: Cambie area of Richmond

Movie #2358: Shadows And Fog (1991, Woody Allen)

A movie with a lot of shadows and fog doesn't really appeal to me. Kinda reminds me of those old Sherlock Holmes movies. However, Mr Allen has done a fine job directing a real movie - lots of work went into the look of this one. And the plot and dialogue are above par. Enjoyable without being anything more.

Day #22,569

Walk km 14,854-14,856: to Dollarama
Walk km 14,856-14,863: North Delta

a creek
approx km 14,859 North Delta

Day #22,568

Walk km 14,845-14,854: Coquitlam

trail through a park
approx km 14,852 near Booth Creek

Day #22,567

Walk km 14,837-14,845: Cambie area of Richmond

Movie not watched: Face 2 Face (2013, Katherine Brooks)
This is new on NetFlix and it sounded like a good idea because this woman decides to visit 50 "Facebook friends".
However, this woman is very annoying, it's faked and has the most horrible music you could imagine. Avoid!
According to IMDB this woman used to direct reality TV. I don't watch reality TV but if this is an example of it, I've made a wise choice.

Movie #2357: L'Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)

All kinds of nice touches here from director Vigo. However, there isn't much of a plot so it's more a mood piece highlited by the oddball character played by Michel Simon.
Hot stuff in 1934 but now just a nice movie.

Day #22,566

Walk km 14,835-14,837: to T&T

Movie #2356: Paradise:Love (2012, Ulrich Seidel)

Not nearly as disgusting as Seidl's earlier films but just as depressing.
An ugly overweight and stupid houewife heads for Africa and a seaside vacation. She's so stupid that she thinks the native men who are after her are doing it because they love her. It takes awhile, but she finally learns her lesson. Then there are repeated phone calls home to her daughter. She can't seem to understand why her daughter never calls her - even on her birthday. In response, she starts treating the locals like they were dirt. If you like your movies depressing, look no further. The feel bad movie of the year.