Sunday Night Movie: Journey To The Seventh Planet

So there I was last night playing around with the Netflix instant queue on my Xbox 360 when I saw this title pop up.

Hmm, this is a 50’s SF film I had never heard of and I was in the mood for something light and fairly mindless. A badly imagined trip to the planet Uranus just was the thing.

This film from 1962 is Danish. I wonder just how many danish SF films are there? T stars John Agar who made a career out fo B-Sf films though this particular movie is several grade lower than his standard fare.

It starts with voice-over narration to let us know that it is the year 2001 and mankind has made the earth a paradise. There are no nations and no wars and all of man energies have been harnessed for peaceful and exploratory goals. To quote the narration: ‘All the planets close to the sun, including Saturn, have been explored.’ The writers were clearly using values of ‘close’ that are unfamiliar to me.

Anyway the UN has noticed regular radiation pulses coming from the planet Uranus and has dispatched an international crew to investigate and see if there is life. There is little expectation for life as they suspect that the planet has a surface temperature of negative 400 degrees. As they enter orbit and a brief period of weightlessness an alien intelligence, vast, cool, and unsympathetic —wait that’s from a better story — the evil alien mind takes over theirs and probes it for their dreams and fears. (1962? I wonder if this film was a favorite of Gene Roddenberry?)

They land and the landscape around the ship changes from bleak and frozen to lush and rich woodland. Our intrepid crew don’t realize this ’cause apparently they have no external cameras. They plan to take hours testing the suddenly hospitable atmosphere before exiting the ship. The Evil Alien Presence — as impatient as an author awaiting a rejection slip —  opens the door to their craft flooding it with rich breathable air.

Freaked beyond measure, the crew logically decided to leave and head for home. No they didn’t, they went ahead and walked outside, sans suits. I couldn’t PAY my players to be that stupid.

They quickly encounter old flames, childhood homes, and apple trees, all apparently equally loved by the repercussive crewmen. Let’s not consider where the apple-fetish might take us,

Further exploration indicates that a forcefield surrounds their landing site. A handy stick can be pushed through the field so they know it can be penetrated, but have no way to determine what the conditions are beyond. With due care and planning remote probes are sent through the barrier to ascertain the conditions. You don’t believe me do you? Well, you’re right. The German kid, on his first mission, sticks his arm through and finds out what it feels like to be a frozen TV dinner. Lucky for him the budget did not include one-arm effects and he is allowed to recover in a day with no ill effects.

The rest of the film is the crew exploring the frozen world in very thick non-pressure suits, encountering lovely ladies and accepting them as their long lost loves, fighting giant one-eyes bipedal rats,  and fighting with a Cycloptic-brain that pulses radiation at 750 roentgens.

If you are into MST3K fare, but without Joel and the Bots then this might be for you.

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Relaxing Sunday

Today I hung out with my Sweetie-wife for the day. We started the day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. (While I was off have my Vegas Adventure, she had gotten us new memberships at the Zoo.) Sadly my knees were less than stellar and I could only amble around the Zoo for just over an hour.

Afterwards we shopped, had lunch and then returned home for a relaxing day of just the two of us.

Nothing exciting, but the happy little moments that define a happy life.

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My mind’s been blown to the 70′s

As a teenager in the 70’s there was a lot of thing I wanted that I could never have. My family never had much money so while I never wanted for the essentials of life and a few basic pleasures, I spent lusted for things in catalogs that I knew would never be mine.

One of my favorite catalogs to daydream in was from Edmund Scientific. Oh what wondrous items they had. Tonight on a whim I went to their website. To see what sort of things might still inspire and thrill me.

Here’s what I found.

That my friends is the CARDIAC cardboard computer. It as an educational tool for teaching someone the basics of how a computer worked. Seeing this at the website blew my mind because I remember by Brother-In-Law Thom (Pronounced ‘Tom’ he was and remains unique.) putting one of these in my hands. It was a throughly engaging and engrossing device.

Had I been a teenager a decade later that event would have sent me spinning down a life in computers. I am certain of it.

For decades later I would remember this device — never by name — and wonder upon its coolness. Edmund Scientific is selling them for $20 and it’s really tough to resist.

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Post election comments

Well, the Republicans both over performed and under-performed for my expectations.

60+ seats is a huge wave one that normally crushes everything beneath it. However, the senate remains in Democratic hands the only question is by how much. Oregon may go Democratic still. Alaska? No way, but right now the Republican and tea-party favorite Joe Miller is behind.

I was surprised to see the democrats hold onto both Colorado and Nevada. I though the wave would be strong enough to sweep both states, but apparently you can be too outside the main stream for even this wave. Frankly I am happy to have Angle and O’Donnell loss their bids.

Now the hard part come in for the Republicans. If the tea Party truly is an independent movement and not the Republican Party in Fancy Dress they are going to expect that this new Congress do more than just snipe from the sidelines. However if this Congress moves against big budget items that are popular — such as Medicare and Social Security — which they will have to do to balance the budget, they’ll see their number tumbles.

As we heard often during the health care debates the Senior Citizens hates socialized Medicine and love Medicare.

There are of course people already talking about what this mean for 2012. Dudes. it is way too early to speak about that.

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Final Vegas Posting

So after the Atomic testing Museum I ended up with more hours to kill than I had expected. I programmed the GPS in the rental for the Luxor and drove over there to see ‘Bodies: The Exhibition.’ This is an exhibition of dissected human bodies and various states of display. Some of detailed to show musculature, others focus on the organs, or other systems of the human body. It was quite interesting, but for my money I think I got a better deal from the Atomic Testing Museum. (certainly more bang for the buck.) Sadly like the Museum, no photography was allowed.

After visiting the Exhibition at the Luxor I returned to my room to shower and change into nicer clothes for dinner and the Concert. I drove to The South Point Casino and Hotel where I ate at their buffet. OH once again I was stuffed before I was finished. Truly, Vegas likes to feed you. I had more time to kill and I wondered around the casino for a bit.

Here is a photograph I took of a million dollars on display in the Casino. as you can see it doesn’t take up all that much space, but after all it is only a million dollars.

Here are a set of Slot machines that are themed on Star trek: The Original Series. Frankly all the advanced video slot machine leave me cold. I don’t know what combination are the winning combinations and frankly games of purse chance at not my bag baby.

While people played the games still from various episodes would display on the screens above them. (where you can see the orbiting Enterprise on the left.) Geek that I am I stood and played a game in my mind of how many still could I place. (Turned out to be quite a few.)

I wondered upstairs to the Bowling Alley and found a video game arcade, Ah, now this was more my speed. To my eternal delight I spotted the game pictured on the right. If you watched in the background at Pizza Planet in Toy Story you would have seen a game based on this very idea; Whack-a-mole but with chest bursters. I loved it in Toy Story and I positively giggled upon seeing that someone was un-PC enough to actually make one. I  moved towards the game to play it but a young boy I guess maybe 8 or so, dashed excitedly at the games. I stood back. Who was I to stand in the way of such fun and if had parents — I saw them there – that would allow him to play the game, then he NEEDED to play the agme.

I went back downstairs and passed the next forty minutes or so playing Blakcjack for money. As I have already noted, I left the table with $10 more than I had started. No bad for my first game ever.

By this time the doors had opened and I went in the Showroom to take my seat. I was way down front, an excellent position to watch the concert.

There was no opening act, Just Sheena Easton singing and chatting and interacting with the audience. This shot was done with little or no zoom, so you can get an impression of just how close I sat.

Sheena is now 51 and not the sex kitten of the 80’s anymore, that said I throughly enjoyed the show. She has a lively wit and sharp sense of humor along with her lovely singing voice.

I took plenty of photos, but she moved around a lot and has a very expressionistic face. These sort of people are not easy to photograph and have them look good. (just ask Joh McCain.)

I throughly enjoyed my trip to Sin City — even my sins were quite tamed and under control. I look forward to another trip someday with my sweetie-wife.

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