Day #22,839-840

Walk km 16,922-16,933: Brighouse Station to Steveston
Walk km 16,933-16,947: Shaughnessy

pool with trees
approx km 16,923 Minoru Park

Book #499: The Black Box (2012, Michael Connelly)

Haven't read a Connelly for awhile because the last two were subpar. However, there's no problem with this one. Connelly sticks to the standard crime novel formula here. And since he's one of the best at this sort of thing, he keeps those pages turning right to the end.

Movie #2506: Curling (2010, Denis Cote)

Reminds me of the good old days (the 60s) when Quebecoise filmmakers were famous for their depictions of rural Quebec. Here's another. Crazy/dull dad keeps his daughter locked away at home to protect her from the world. One of those evils lurking just beyond the family home? Curling!
Excellent although some may complain that the film has no ending.

Day #22,836-838

Walk km 16,900-16,904: running errands
Walk km 16,904-16,915: Meetup walk to Sapperton
Walk km 16,915-16,918: running errands
Walk km 16,918-16,922 (5914 to go): to Denman and Coal Harbour

Movie #2505: Five and Ten (1931, Robert Z Leonard)

This is the first movie I've seen starring the silent movie queen, Marion Davies. Marion was the girlfriend of the extremely wealthy William Randolph Hurst and this movie was based on a novel by Fannie Hurst. Apparantly they were not related.
Actually, this isn't half bad although the old "money grubbing is bad for you" theme has been done to death (although possibly not in 1931). A "never heard of him" named Douglass Montgomery comes off  best as the geeky brother of Marion.

Day #22,834-835

Walk km 16,899-16,900: to Dollarama

Movie #2504: Hot Summer Night (1958, David Friedkin)

My kinda movie. A newspaperman who has just lost his job arrives in a small Arkansas town and learns that a notorious bank robber may be nearby. If he can get an interview with this modern Pretty Boy Floyd he can get hired on by another paper.
Great depiction of a poor rural town whose residents have no reason for living there except that a local boy who grew up to be a bank robber is making them famous. And some of the dialogue is pretty darn good too. Highly recommended.

Day #22,833

Walk km 16,887-16,899: Ruskin to Dewdney Trunk Road @ 248th

Meetup walker and mailboxes
approx km 16,891 somewhere in Whonnock/Ruskin

Movie #2503: Gamera 2: Attack Of The Legion (1996, Shusuke Kaneko)

Japan still hasn't gotten over WWII and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Aliens arrive from outer space and Japan's only hope for survival is an atomic mutant: a flying, fire breathing, giant turtle called Gamera
The same ideas are trotted out as in the 60s but with some better FX. 

Day #22,832

Walk km 16,872-16,887: West Vancouver, up to TransCanada and back

the floating globe
approx km 16,884 Dundarave

TV Episode #105: Highway Patrol - Dan Hostage (1959, Leon Chooluck)

Movie #2502: Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013, Michel Gondry)

This one has a lot in common with the Bertrand Russell book I just finished. This one is interviews with Noam Chomsky and the subject matter is a hodgepodge of this-an-that. As usual, I had a bit of a problem hearing which was not helped by Gondry's thick accent.
As with the book, I did not agree with everything but in this case it was a lot more fun than the book.
 

Day #22,830-831

Walk km 16,852-16,865: Riverport to Steveston
Walk km 16,865-16,872: to T&T, library & Safeway

horses and dogs do not mix
approx km 16,859 South Dyke Trail, Richmond


Book #498: Why I Am Not A Christian (1899-1954, Bertrand Russell)

A hodgepodge of writing and transcribed lectures/discussions. Most items are interesting to read but the overall effect is lukewarm due to repetition.

Day #22,826-829

Walk km 16,838-16,848: Renfrew to downtown
Walk km 16,848-16,850: to Dollarama
Walk km 16,850-16,852: to T&T

a muscle car
approx km 16,843 Woodland Drive

Day #22,823-825

Walk km 16,817-16,826: to Stanley Park and Portside Park
Walk km 16,826-16,830: Robson, Denman, Beach, Burrard
Walk km 16,830-16,838: New Westminster to Queensborough

big toy soldier
approx km 16,830 New Westminster Quay

Day #22,821-822

Walk km 16,797-16,807: Stanley Park
Walk km 16,807-16,809: to the library
Walk km 16,809-16,817 (6002 to go): down from Heritage Mountain

pier
approx km 16,816 Port Moody

Movie #2501: Peril En La Demeure (1985, Michel Deville)

Entertaining whodunit not due to the plot but because of the oddball cast of characters.

Day #22,820

Walk km 16,794-16,797: running errands

Movie #2500: Katzelmacher (1969, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

action scene from Katzelmacher

Buncha deadbeats mope around. Then they mope some more. And some more. And then it ends.
Pretty much useless except that it probably has the most slug-like characters in the history of cinema. That's something I guess.

Day #22,818-22,819

Walk km 16,790-16,796: running erands

Movie #2499: Face Of Fire (1959, Albert Band)

Unusually artistic movie from Hollywood. It's about a town's reaction to a person who has his face disfigured in a fire. They want to kill him because he'll scare the kids and womenfolk. Seems, even to a sceptic like me, a rather harsh condemnation of the human race.
Beautifully realized though.

Dau #22,817

Walk km 16,779-16,790

a field
approx km 16,782 Port Kells


TV episode #104: Rockford Files - Dwarf In A Helium Hat (1978, Reza Badiyi)

Day #22,815-22,816

Walk km 16,762-17,775: to Kitsilano, then to T&T
Walk km 16,775-16,779: running errands

Book #497: The Hypnotist (Lars Kepler, 2009)

Excellent thriller with one large problem. The authors stop in the middle to insert a 70 page flashback that puts the breaks on a page turning plot. They try to restart everything for the second half but are only partially successful. I'm sure they won't do that again.

Movie #2497: Hercules Unchained (1959, Pietro Francisci)

With the internet down, I was forced to browse through my DVDs for something I hadn't seen before. I'd never seen one of these toga epics before because I hate period pieces. And I figured these would be especially bad because they didn't even depict anything that was real. Well, it was pretty awful but it does get a few extra points for being the first. However, I don't think I'll be watching any more of these.

Movie #2498: Man-Trap (1961, Edmond O'Brien)

I love these kind of movies. Regular Joe trapped in a hopeless marriage gets convinced that he should drive a getaway car in a heist. The money he gets will help him to start a new life. But, things don't go smoothly.
Not the best executed film of this kind. All the best roles go to the women. Stella Stevens really gets to chew up the scenery.

Day #22,814

Walk km 16,757-16,762: around downtown

Movie #2496: An Inspector Calls (1954, Guy Hamilton)

I do like these talky movies.
In this one a police inspector enters an upper class home and shows them how their actions have caused the suicide of a lower class woman.
They are all very sorry until they find out that the police inspector was an imposter. Then there is a split. Half want to forget what they've just learned about themselves and half want to remember the lesson they've learnt.
Excellent.

Day #22,813

Walk km 16,753-16,757: running errands

Movie #2495: No Clue (2013, Carl Bessai)

Well, that was fun. No, not the movie - that sucked. It was a great 90 minutes of spot that location.
The movie was shot in Vancouver so I got to see where all the scenes were shot. One of the longer scenes was set in the Patricia Hotel which is the hotel I stayed in the first time I came to Vancouver. I wonder why the hotel would agree to let them shoot there when the lead character makes all kind of disparaging remarks about the place? Probably because they knew it would be a pile of crap and nobody would ever see it. Ya, that was probably what they thought and they were almost right. I saw it. But then, they already have my money - $115 for a week.
BTW, this has a 7.3 rating on IMDB. Everybody who worked on this thing must have given it a 10. It was probably in their contract.

Day #22,809-22,812

Walk km 16,737-16,753: couple of walks to Stanley Park

Movie #2494:Drugstore Girl (2003, Katsuhide Motoki)

Not that bad. This movie is so inept that it actually has a bit of charm due to that very fact. A lot of this stuff has the viewer asking themselves "was that meant to be funny?".
Story concerns a group of 50 somethings who take up lacrosse because they want to have sex with a cute lacrosse player. Kinda gross by western standards but I guess no big deal in Japan.