persona non sequitur

a review of media by a slightly jaded baby boomer.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

GOING POSTAL: in the postal zone HOW TO...

...I see people still think if you mail a brick to a credit card company, using the business reply envelopes, the company has to pay postage. This is no longer the case. Companies have the right of refusal. I see lots of bricks being thrown out at work. Were I to save then, I probably could build a new garage in a few months time out of the post office's trash. Still, if you have the urge and anger towards Banks and credit card companies and whatever else is out there, simply take the forms they mail you, fill it out with a ficticious name and nearly real address and send it back. They'll fill it out and mail off the credit cards and samples to the address, which will cause expense from sending, and another from it coming back "addressee unknown". The time lapse usually means they'll have sent several other forms and letters before the company has the address and name deleted.

You can also forward unwanted junk mail as follows:

Joe Doaks
c/o Publisher's Clearing House
382 Channel Drive
Port Washington, NY 11050

Now, get on with it.

Friday, April 11, 2008

POPCORN FACTOR

I've failed to mention this in my previous posts about attneding movie shows. I got the insight when I attended a screening of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. For me it was kind of exciting. Most of the actors I had not heard of before, and didn't know squat about the director. I had just read reviews of film. Housemates backed off on seeing it, and Giani had to work.

People already know the movie. I'm not reviewing the film, but the aftermath.

The credits rolled, and people left. I stayed to catch the credits. This person, that person...hmm hmm...

Lights went up, and all around the theater were tubs of popcorn, largely uneaten. They spilled out on the floor or sat in seats. Not small amounts either. Large tubs of popcorn, 1/5 finished.

My observation: the gorier the flick, the less popcorn eaten.

This observation has held on to a few others films. I don't see every slasher flick, but when I see a few disturbing films, I see less consumption of theater goods.

Though I haven't gone into a "Garfield" movie to see if people give up eating out of sheer nausea from what they see on the screen. Ditto THE CHIMPMUNK MOVIE ...

BAD SF FILMS (more on a topic)

A faithful read named Ron said he liked bad science fiction films as well, and mentioned THE WILD WOMEN OF WONGO.

Oh that one. A picture that looked like it had no budget. A half rumor has floated around that Tennesse Williams had a smudgy hand in the "script". Island of good looking women want good looking men on another island. In order to pad out the film to feature length, there are many shots of a parrot on a log, hopping up and down and making shrieking noises.

WILD WOMEN OF WONGO has been re released with a format similar to SCIENCE MYSTERY THEATER, called The Film Crew.

As an aside, I find the format of Mystery Science Theater annoying, akin to being in a real theater and having people nearby talking too loud or shouting into their cell phones.

On another note: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS has been novelised, and a disc of the film is enclosed as a gift (?). I've no interest in reading this, let alone seeing any more of the movie than I already have.

The horror show host Zacherly issued a VHS tape with excerps from many films, mugging it up between clips and trailers and showing a condensed vesion of the film. Someone told me a lot of the actors in the film also did porno, which makes for a strange kind of ambiguity ("I do porno and children's movies!")

I know that if you take one form of art and present it in another format, the content changes. I'd find it easy to believe that the novel version of said film could only be improved.

The book's selling point is Pia Zadora, who was of brat age when the film was shot. It currently is available from Amazon.com for a mear $2.50.