Day #21,592

Walk km 3797-3803: Thurlow/Pacific/Burrard bridge/Cornwall/Cypress/2nd/Bayswater/2nd/Blenheim/4th/Trutch/3rd/McDonald

south shore of False Creek
aprox km 3799 as seen from the Burrard bridge

Movie #1200 (#24 this year): Teen-Age Crime Wave(Fred F Sears, 1955)

This film and yesterday's "Girls On The Loose" were shown back-to-back on TCM. IMDB shows this as being much inferior to "Girls On The Loose" but don't you believe it. Teens are holed up in a farmhouse after a prison break. Molly McCart is excellent as the teenage JD. Tommy Cook is just annoying as her partner in crime. I thought Fred F Sears was just a hack - turns out he can really move the action along despite a less than stellar script.

Book #277 (#4 this year): Ashes(1990, Kenzo Kitakata)

No great shakes here. I enjoyed the first couple of chapters but then the character study continued to book length without a plot to bolster it.

Day #21,591

Walk km 3786-3797: Dunbar/39th/Camosun/Marine/Salish/Kullahun/Salish/Sennock/Salish/Semana/Salish/Tamath/Salish/Tylahun/Salish/Marine/Wallace St/Wallace Cr/8th/Alma

bilingual street sign (English & hunquhminuhm)
aprox km 3788 Salish @ Kullahun

Movie #1199 (#23 this year): Girls On The Loose(1958, Paul Henreid)

This one is OK. Starts out kinda tame but picks up steam as it goes along. There is a fine selection of women's lingerie on display and the obligatory catfight at the end. Leading lady Mara Corday may not be another Allison Hayes but she ain't far behind.

Day #21,590

Walk km 3777-3786: Wesbrook/Ogronomy/Marine/unnamed roads/Marine/4th

WanderLodge bus
aprox km 3784 NW Marine Drive

Movie #1198 (#22 this year): Dirigable (1931, Frank Capra)

Not much to this film but it must have wowed them back in '31. Capra recreates a trip to the South Pole on the Hollywood back lot. The acting is especially dreadful.

Day #21,589

Walk 3770-3777: Smithe/Howe/(bus)/Blanca/13th/Camosun/Crown Cr/Crown St/10th/Alma/(bus)/Granville/Alder/6th/(skytrain)/Georgia/Denman/Robson

skytrain tunnel
aprox km 3775 Olympic Village Station

Movie #1197 (#21 this year): The Fugitive Kind (1959, Sidney Lumet)

Well, I like everything about this movie. Scripts good. Acting fine (especially that Victor Jory!), directin's top notch. But somehow it doesn't quite jell. Still fun though.

Day #21,588

Walk km 3764-3767: shopping at the Army&Navy
Walk km 3767-3770: shopping at Safeway

war memorial
aprox km 3766 Hastings Street

Movie #1196 (#20 this year): Rain(1932,Lewis Milestone)

I found one really big problem with this movie: when Sadie Thompson comes out of her room in the morning of "the night before", I could not hear what she was saying because of that darn music. This leaves a big hole in the plot. Did Sadie Thompson set out to bring down Mr Davidson or did she just find out that he was human after all?
Anyway, I think it's safe to say that this movie could not be made today. At least not by anybody who wanted to preserve their career in Hollywood. 1932: those were enlightened times!
Note: Once again it's IMDB to the rescue. It seems that even people who could hear the dialogue at the end couldn't figure out what Sadie had been up to! The consensus however was that in the Maugham story, Sadie really does convert and then returns to character when Davidson proves himself to be merely mortal afterall.

Day #21,587

Walk km 3757-3764: Westbrook Mall/16th/Marine/Camosun/40th/Crown/41st

I wonder what these things are for?
aprox km 3760 Marine Drive

Day #21,586

Walk km 3745-3757: Science World to English Bay & return with Meetup walking group

sculpted dolphin
aprox km 3756 behind Burrard Station

Movie #1195 (#19 this year): Lonelyhearts (1958,Vincent J Donehue)

I liked this one for all the wrong reasons. This is a high class production with artistic aspirations. I liked it in the same way that I used to like The Twilight Zone. There's something wrong with this picture...... are these people from another planet? Nobody here acts this way. Nobody talks that way. In this movie reality has become warped and nobody is more warped than Montgomery Clift. He's a strange alien in some weird reflection of the real earth.

Day #21,585

Walk km 3738-3745: Smithe/Howe/(bus)/37th/Cartier/38th/Cartier/39th/Cartier/40th/Cartier/Athlone/Cartier/73rd/72nd/Granville/(bus)/Smithe

behind the Chevron station
aprox km 3744 Granville near 72nd

Day #21,584

Walk km 3726-3738: 4th/Trutch/3rd/Blenheim/2nd/Waterloo/7th/Dunbar/2nd/Alma/and then with Meetup Walking group to UBC via (mainly) the beach

driftwood
aprox km 3730 somewhere between Jericho Beach & Wreck Beach

Movie #1194 (#18 this year): Captured (1933,Roy Del Ruth)
Very civilized war movie concerning a double betrayal between two friends. Interesting how the Germans are portrayed as a likeable lot (this was a WWI movie not WWII).

Day #21,583

Walk km 3717-3726: to English Bay and then on to Science World with the Meetup walking group

shrubbery
aprox km 3719 Cardero Street

Movie #1193 (#17 this year): Two Seconds (1932,Mervyn LeRoy)
Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence on you? So says the judge in an oddly darkened courtroom. Just then a spotlight appears on Edward G Robinson and Eddie goes into the dangdest monologue in movie history. He rants! He raves! He's totally nutso! Edward G Robinson was the goofiest looking movie star ever but looks don't matter (even in Hollywood) when you can deliver the goods like Edward G Robinson.
Here's another scene:

Day #21,582

Walk km 3709-3717: Smithe/Granville/Nelson/Hamilton/Davie/(skytrain)/41st/Osler/37th/Selkirk/41st/Hudson/Marine/Granville/(bus)/Smithe

typical winter scene
aprox km 3714 48th @ Hudson

Movie #1188 (#16 this year): No Other Woman (1933, J Walter Ruben)

The plot is a load of hooey. There are some nice touches from director Ruben but they can't overcome this horrid screenplay.

Day #21,581

Walk km 3696-3698: to the library
Walk km 3698-3709: from Science World to English Bay (and return) with the Meetup group

skytrain
aprox km 3708 Main Street station

Book #276 (#3 this year): Despair(1934-65, Vladamir Nabokov)

I was browsing this website and realized that the book under discussion was a Nabokov that I had never read. Well, I am happy to report that I have now remedied that situation. Despair may not be another The Defense or Pale Fire but it's still filled with the usual (actually quite unusual) Nabokov mind games. Reading it is like looking at a series of Salvador Dali paintings where reality is beginning to melt and dribble off the side of the table. But by the end everything seems to have righted itself and the cameras are ready to roll.

Day #21,580

Walk km 3686-3696: Burrard/(skytrain,bus)/46th/Killarney/45th/Doman/46th/Brooks/a park/Rosemont/Kerr/Kent/Victoria

Morris Minor pickup truck
aprox km 3689 46th Ave

Day #21,579

Walk km 3680-3686: Smithe/Seymour/Nelson/Homer/Drake/Pacific/Davie/(skytrain)/Cambie/back alley/24th/Sophia/22nd/St George/15th/Kingsway/St George

car as lawn decoration?
aprox km 3684 St George Street

Today's Tune: For The Turnstiles

Day #21,578

Walk km 3668-3674: shopping
Walk km 3674-3680: Robson/Denman/seawalk/Homer/Pacific/(skytrain)/Georgia/Howe/Robson

trees with lights
aprox km 3677 seawalk at English Bay

Day #21,577

Walk km 3655-3665: with walking Meetup group from 29th Ave station to Kerr, around Fraserview Golf Course and then to Victoria @ Waverley
Walk 3665-3668: running errands

a cluttered lawn
aprox km 3668 44th near Kerr

Movie #1187 (#15 this year): Scene Of The Crime (1949, Roy Rowland)

I usually record these movies from TCM and then watch them later. I watched this one "live" because I just felt like watching a movie at this particular time and it was a 1949 crime drama. However, the director was Roy Rowland so I wasn't expecting too much. And that's what I got. All the elements were there but the atmosphere was too light and breezy to make this a real "film noir". Another point deducted for the tacked on happy ending.

Day #21,576

Walk km 3646-3655: 11th/Blanca/12th/(bus)/Robson/Bute/Alberni/Thurlow

Christmas decorations are still up (and the sun is shining!)
aprox km 3652 12th Avenue near Blenheim

Day #21,575

Walk km 3644-3646: Robson/Denman/(bus)/Robson

a cupcake restaurant
aprox km 3646 Denman Street

Today's Tune: Tennessee Wig Walk
We all remember the 1953 hit by Bonnie Lou but how many remember the Swedish version by Karl-Erik "Cacka" Israelsson? How about the Finnish version by Aune Ala-Tuuhonen?



Movie #1186 (#14 this year): Alien Apocalypse (2005,Josh Becker)

If you'd figure that a movie about an invasion of giant termites from outer space would at least be good for a few laughs, you'd be figuring wrong.
Just looked at good old IMDB to see what the problem was: this was a "made for TV" movie. Nuff said.

Day #21,574

Walk km 3632-3644: Science World to English Bay and return with the Meetup Walking group
Today's Tune: J'attendrai

Those of you too young to remember this when it was a hit in 1938 may remember it as the song at the end of Francois Truffaut's "Une Belle Fille Comme Moi" (1972).



Movie #1185 (#13 this year): Baby Face Morgan (1942,Arthur Dreifuss)

Back on New Year's Day I watched a stinker called "BOSS OF BIG TOWN":
released by: PRC
written by: Ed Dein
Directed by: Arthur Dreifuss
and "BABY FACE MORGAN"?
released by: PRC
written by: Ed Dein
directed by: Arthur Dreifuss
Will I never learn?

Day #21,573

Walk km 3628-3632: Thurlow/seawalk/Stanley Park/Alberni/Denman

"squatting man"
aprox km 3630 Coal Harbour

Day #21,572

Walk km 3621-3628: Burrard/(skytrain)/Slocan park/Duchess/Euclid/Slocan/Norquay/Clarendon/Kingsway/Boundary/45th/Doman/49th/(bus)/Georgia/Burrard/Alberni/Thurlow

a polar bear shilling for Klondike ice cream bars
aprox km 3623 Kingsway

Movie #1184 (#12 this year): Zachariah (1971,George Englund)

What happened? It's the first psychedelic western! They hired the Firesign Theatre to write the script. Why so dull?
I looked over at IMDB and it appears that the Firesign Theatre script was never used. The MGM brass passed it on to a hack to do a re-write. OK, makes sense now.

Day #21,571

Walk km 3610-3612: Robson/Denman/(bus)/Robson
Walk km 3612-3621: Burrard/(skytrain)/Nanaimo/27th/Gladstone/31st/Little/32nd/Bruce/30th/Argyle/32nd/Argyle/51st/Fleming/58th/Knight/Marine/Fraser/64th/Poplar/(bus)/Burrard/Alberni/Thurlow

lawn decorations
aprox km 3618 Fleming @ 53rd

Movie #1183 (#11 this year): Life Begins(1932, Elliott Nugent & James Flood)

This look inside a maternity ward is nothing special. But that's because we've all seen these dramas played out many times before. However, back in 1932, this was probably fresh material. And that line by the nurse when a father faints and someone asks "Is he all right?": "We've never lost a father yet!" never gets old.

Day #21,570

Walk km 3597-3610: downtown to Granville Island and then to Jericho Beach with the Meetup Walking group

an elephant tramples through the front lawn
aprox km 3605 Point Grey Road

Today's Tune: Harper Valley PTA
Here's the original (by Jeannie C Riley), the soul/funk version (by Mary Jane Hooper) and a more contemporary version (by Kate Campbell). There is more info on the Mary Jane Hooper version at Funky16Corners (note: the version here is from "Funky Delicacies").



Movie #1182 (#10 this year): King Of California(2007, Mike Cahill)

It's a father/daughter bonding film. The gimmick is that the teenage daughter is the mature one and her father is the childlike one. That's it. That's all.

Day #21,569

Walk km 3588-3593: Robson/seawalk/National/Station/Prior/(bus)/Alberni/Bute/Robson
Walk km 3593-3597: Robson/Jervis/seawalk/Stanley Park//Alberni/Denman/(bus)/Robson

boats in the harbour
aprox km 3595 Coal Harbour

Movie #1181 (#9 this year): Two Alone (1934, Eliott Nugent)

Arthur Byron (without overalls)

Backwoods shenanigans as righteous old farmer Arthur Byron rules the roost with an iron fist. Of course he does manage to "look the other way" when he can get free labour from a young fellow who's on the lamb or when he starts puttin' the make on a teenage girl that he got from an orphanage (to supply him with more free labour).
A wonderful performance by Mr Byron. I wonder if he won the academy award that year?

Day #21,568

Walk km 3579-3581: Haro/Bidwell/Robson
Walk km 3581-3588: Burrard/(skytrain)/Nanaimo/23rd/Renfrew/21st/Slocan/McGill/(bus)/Howe/Smithe

Our Lady Of Sorrows School (kids must have fun here!)
aprox km 3586 Slocan Street

Movie #1180 (#8 this year): Mr Soft Touch(1949, Gordon Douglas & Henry Levin)

Very entertaining film with Glenn Ford as a WWII vet who comes back to the States to find that the mob has taken over his business. In the final scenes he robs the mob and gives the money to a charity to re-build their "settlement house" that had been burnt down by the mob. However, since he committed robbery, the Hays Code says he must be punished and so he gets gunned down by the mob in the last scene. That'll teach people a valuable lesson!

Book #266 (#2 this year): Carte Blanche(1990,Carlo Lucarelli)

A lot of praise for this one on the back jacket but the worth of this book eludes me. Set during 1945 in Italy so that the police have more important things to worry about than solving a murder. So, a unique setting but nothing more.

Day #21,567

Walk km 3567-3579: Robson/Denman/Stanley Park seawall/Denman/(bus)/Robson

"laughing man"
aprox km 3577 near Denman @ Davie

Movie #1178 (#6 this year): Play Girl (1932, Ray Enright)

Useless photoplay and a director that only knows how to point a camera. What's left? About 70 minutes of Loretta Young. So it ain't all bad.
The guy who posted this picture of Ms Young claims it's from this movie. Unless they cut this scene from the print I saw, it ain't.

Movie #1179 (#7 this year): She Had To Say Yes (1933, Busby Berkely & George Amy)

It's a Loretta Young double feature today and this is more like it. Corporation is using it's female employees as prostitutes in order to get orders from buyers. Loretta is used by one of the salesmen to pad his commissions while claiming he loves her. What a cad. The whole thing gets very complicated when she falls for one of the buyers. Both men are very concerned that she might be having sex with the buyers. But, the first guy was trying to get her to have sex with them! And the buyer only got worried when he found out that she'd tricked a fellow into signing a contract without having sex with him. So, he seemed to react in just the opposite way to what you would expect. I was confused.
This is all pretty risque even for a pre-code film.
Ms Young never looked better. And she can act too!

Today's Tune: Harlem Nocturne

Day #21,566

Walk km 3561-3567: Smithe/Mainland/(skytrain)/Broadway/Columbus/3rd/Main/Keefer/Gore/Pender/(bus)/Alberni/Bute/Robson

a store
aprox km 3565 Keefer Street

Today's Tune: Truckload Of Art

Now, I was thinking that a 1979 song from Terry Allen must be from early in his career. That's what I thought until I saw this video on YouTube of him from 1965! I thought Lubbock Texas was Buddy Holly in the 50s and then nothing til The Flatlanders first release in 1972. I guess this explains why Lubbock's 4th major singer/songwriter of the 70s wasn't in the Flatlanders: he was just too darn old!
Equally amazing is the second song on this video: it's Canada's obscure "The Great Scots" doing a song that I had up on Hearing Double because a Japanese group called the Carnabeats had covered it. I love how those groups of the 60s could play electric guitars without amplifiers! That Shindig must have been quite a show.


Here's another version that cannot be downloaded but can be "shared".
Truckload Of ARt by Dylan | iCompositions - Music

Posted using ShareThis

Movie #1177 (#5 this year): Deadline At Dawn(1946, Harold Clurman)

The only movie ever directed by Harold Clurman (theatre director). I thought I'd read the Cornell Woolrich novel that this is based on but now I'm not sure. They must have really changed the story around.
Basic low-life New York characters but they all talk like was a bunch of philosophers! Includes the nicest murderer you'd ever wanna meet. The contrast between the characters (a bookie, taxi cab driver, dime-a-dance girl, sailor on leave, blackmailer, blind musician) and what comes out of their mouths make this one entertaining from start to finish.

Day #21,565

Walk km 3551-3558: Smithe/Granville/Nelson/Seymour/Davie/(skytrain)/Oakridge Mall/Tisdall/49th/Laurel/54th/Oak/57th/Laurel/59th/Heather/61st/Cambie/(skytrain)/Robson/Burrard
Walk km 3558-3561: Robson/Georgia/Denman

rain on a Corvette Stingray
aprox km 3555 Laurel Street

Book #265 (#1 this year): Kill The Buddha(2004, various)

A mishmash. Half the book is taken up with different people's take on a particular part the The Bible (pretty much ho-hum). The other half is two guys roaming around the U S of A talking to religious folks (a little better but still no great shakes).

Today's Tune: Orange Colored Sky


Movie #1176 (#4 this year): Man With The Screaming Brain(2005, Bruce Campbell)

This was made 24 years after Evil Dead but Bruce Campbell is still at it. Sam Raimi is long gone so Bruce is directing himself and doing a very good job of it. Good acting as well from all concerned (including Sam Raimi's brother Ted Raimi). Enjoyable mindless entertainment.