Nothing to write home about, alas: an EXTREMELY colorful addition to Sears 1934, here, and 100 Mysteries, a rather visually static and looong movie, here. Only dedication to the 100 Mysteries project makes me do anything about it. Some weeks are like that, you know.

There is a Diner today. Can’t let Halloween go by without a Diner. I haven’t done any for a while for two simple reasons: life got busy, and –
Well, first the Busy part. I’m now firmly seated in the new schedule, and I am starting to exhale. As long as I can nap, it’s [...]

Thursday already? Well, YES. That was a stupid question. Or not: I’ve found that days are smearing together as never before. They’re busier. And I get less done.
But Thursday is still the hell-day on which all duties bear down, and Friday still has its standard release, unchanged through the years. It all comes down [...]

Sitting in the kitchen / family area; mom & child are watching “It’s the Charlie Brown Show Boomers Make Their Kids Watch, Charlie Brown.” Linus berates CB for believing in Santa Clause; CB says it’s a matter of denominational difference.
“Is Linus Jewish?” Natalie asks. Made my day.
Earlier today she came home from school with [...]

Yet another unusual entrance. Go HERE.

I think this might be the first year I’ve ever really enjoyed the classic monster movies. I remember seeing “Bride of Frankenstein” in college, in my dorm room, probably on a lonely weekend – back when you had to wait for these things to roll around on broadcast TV. (Didn’t see “Casablanca” until I was [...]

This being Halloween week, we might as well enjoy some of the founding documents of the great cinematic monsters. I’m watching all the originals – the “canon” of Universal films, not including the 426 sequels. We begin with a very fine film:

I don’t know why a balding man with eye-beams and vampire hands is used, [...]

Just another bygone drive-in. Miss these places. Go HERE. Or, if you can, back in time.

I’ve seen “Fargo” a few times, but I couldn’t remember if the woman to whom I was talking had ended up in the wood chipper. You hate to ask. Was that your leg, or Steve Bucemi’s? Not a question you want to put to an attractive lass. She played the kidnapped wife in “Fargo,” [...]

Driving down a sad empty suburban boulevard the other day, I saw this remnant:

I wonder if the owner stood in the lot and threw rocks at the tubes until the name was erased.
Over the last year I’ve been photographing empty storefonts, logo-scars, and other evidence of retail contraction. The best series will probably never [...]