2010: Week 51 Blots

BLOT: (23 Dec 2010 - 05:17:43 PM)

Die Farbe (2010 German indie adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space)

When Jonathan Davis tries to track down his missing father, thought to be in Germany, he comes across a small and somewhat cut off village near a newly filling resevoir. Here Jonathan meants Amin Pierske, an old German villager who briefly met Jonathan's father right after the war (World War II I believe, but not sure if they ever really say what year this is supposed to be). Amin took Dr. Davis (the father had been a medical officer) down to see a blighted farm, a "blasted heath" to quote the original story, while the American army was doing a post-war sweep of the farms, and from here the story jumps back before the war and tells the story of the Gärteners, the family who used to live there in that decayed place.

The story Amin gives plays out something like this. One day a meterorite came down and carshed nearby his and the Gärtener's farms. Scientific probing into it found strange plastic properties, and the whole thing started to waste away with whole chunks subliming after only a day or two. After cracking it open, a strange orb was found that suddenly vanished, and then later a electrical storm resulted in many bolts of lightning hitting the remaining stone, rendering it into smoldering nothing. Life went on for Nahum Gärtener and his family, though things became weirder and harder to bear. Snows melted a little too fast on the farm. Plants would give forth plenty of huge fruit just for the crop to have a horrible, spoiled aftertaste. The animals and insects began to grow larger and more fertile. As it started wearing down, though, the spoilage in the plants became more prominent and the animals started dying. The Gärteners begin to break down, too, turning pale and suffering delusions, especially the wife. Soon the sons break down and two of them go missing. The trees sway back and forth even when there is no breeze. Human flash begins to grow ashen and go awry to match the mind, and all the the time a strange, indescribable color creeps over the land.

As hinted in the above paragraph, Die Farbe mostly sticks to the plot of the original short story—"The Colour Out of Space"—with the biggest changes in the initial story being the time-shift to about 50 or so years later and a location-shift to Germany. Rather than a surveyor plotting out a potential resevoir, we have a youngish American there to look for his missing father and the resevoir is already being filled due to the recent construction of a dam (rather than forthcoming). Still, most of the story is pretty close to the source material. A few thing are elided, some others are delved into moreso than the original, but nothing too astray. Until the ending, where a handful of differences are cast in, most minor—like soldiers being there at the well instead of police detectives and various medical folk from the town—but a couple of major ones—without spoiling the story too much, there is suggestion of there being more afoot than in the original. The overall package is respectful to the original, but willing to branch out, and it works as cinematic narrative. As the ending wraps up, the changes work and, there at the end, where a few sharp gotcha grabs could have been used, the film makers respectfully allow implication to finish the job.

The acting is mostly superb for such a low-key number, and much of the staging and timing and other bits of direction are likewise well done; so perhaps the biggest deal will be the special effects. A few places suffer some strange CG insertions such as an early scene between Davis and a friend of the father's. Apparently, the scene was shot around a desk but in front of a green screen. The backdrop in that room, as well as the proceeding one in Miskatonic's library (though the interior is just rows of books that could have been any library), appear to be computer graphics with the actors and a minimal amount of props digitally placed, and not without glitch, in front. A later scene involves the soldiers sweeping a beam of their flashlight across the deserted Gärtener house, and the beam is a CG enhancement that gives an almost Edward Gorey illustration sort of unreality. Computer graphics are also used to represent a couple of heavily infected bodies. These scenes are all case-by-case. Some moments the oddness of them is better for it, in others it comes across as a videogame cutscene. Most prominently, the colour [as opposed to color, or maybe I could say "die farbe"] itself is CG (and more on it in a second) and while not all of it really grooves into the scene it is meant to be part of, it at least becomes effective when it counts the most. Just keep in mind, if you do not like CG in horror: avoid this movie. Nearly all of the key horror scenes, but not all, rely on it as the core of the effect.

As for the colour, a neat little conceit is used. The whole thing is black and white, a grey-tone experience. Except for the color, which is a bright purplish hue. While this matches, slightly, the "violet gas" referred to elsewhere in Lovecraft's vision, in also acts as a bit of meta-filmmaking. For characters in a black and white chromatic universe, any actual color at all is thrust out of normal experience. How do people who see in tones of grey contemplate purple? They do not.

The climax of this colour coming forth from the well scene. Mileage may vary with having the indescribable so clearly portrayed (not that what is portrayed is altogether easily described) but the strange epic nature of the encounter, devoid of all but circumstantial menace after completely destroying an innocent family's lives, gives the movie a punch you did not realize it had been missing for half an hour. It makes earlier scenes with clearly breeze moved tree branches (down to the inclusion of a breeze sound effect, which might be a slightly foley mistake) feel a bit plain in comparison.

The whole package is nice. One of the better members of a still growing family of low-key but passionately indie Lovecraftian horror adaptations. A few flaws pepper the piece. The early CG as well as American aspects and accents—presumably they are meant to be talking non-accented American English—unfortunately trip up the movie early on, even though it regains its footing. The insanity that sets into the family is realized well, but still feels like it could have a bit more of an audio-visual experience. The most damning criticism of the movie is that it is primarily made for those who know and love the story. Little of it acts as a hooks to bring a completely untrained viewer in. We are even deprived of the emotional heart of the blighted family by seeing it, as true to the story, mind you, from a third person perspective. Elementally, all the bits are there but in some places other bits might have been used to better effect.

All in all, a Good adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space" and a worthy purchase for fans of that story and for fans of low-budget, fan-driven filmmaking. If that sentence does not apply to you, then it is better to be thought of as a mostly Fair film with some flaws and some moments of well-played genius. Those in the second group should maybe rent it or borrow it, instead. The DVD includes a few extras, including a deleted scene and some discussion on the behind-the-scenes thoughts. It does have English subtitles as well as a handful of other languages, and the movie itself is shot in a mixture of German and English, but mostly German. You can find out more and see some bits at Die-Farbe.com, the official site. Also check out the trailer, which will go a long way to letting you into a taste of it.

LABEL(s): Horror

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010

BLOT: (23 Dec 2010 - 02:15:54 AM)

The Things from Below, or: why you should never ask me for uplifting responses to strange occurrences

Before I get into the meat of the story, let me give a slight bit of background. Some myths—and I'll use this term broadly to encompass even things that might be deemed true or at least true-ish, but absorbed into the structure of legends and folklore—and regional, ethni-specific, or otherwise narrow in spread and focus. Many of them are in a second category, shoring traits and ideals with other myths but being fairly unique to certain areas and times. Then you have those that are very widespread. Let's call these "common myth structures", or CMS. Some very CMS include flood stories, vampires, and dragons. Another that is not quite as common, but still frequent, is the "crucified and pierced god" structure: Odin, Jesus, Prometheus. Even as far back as classic Egypt, 4500 years ago, you had Osiris who was killed and whose body was found washed up and embedded into a tree. Rescued from it only to be ripped into shreds and then brought back to life. Certain elements in our stories repeat throughout human history as surely as any other trait: eye colors and skin tones and what have you.

You could then set aside something that might be called "un-common myth structures". Myths that repeat throughout time and places but are not super-frequent. One such myth might be best called "The Things from Below". What are these things? Depends on some factors. One of the Japanese myths about fox spirits is that they will try and imitate humans but are unable to do proper faces, and so walk around without faces or with misshapen ones. The fairy-tales of Europe included things that looked almost, but not quite human. Sometimes having too large of eyes, or too pretty of skin, or otherwise something that did not look right. There are some African tales and African-American tales of things that wear human skins, as well as tales about things like plat-eyes that just can't quite get it right. Around the 19th century, especially late, some horror writers and ethnologist types started discussing these myth structures. One famous musing in fictional form is Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal", which describes a somewhat ironically named fair folk. Ramsey Campbell has turned to this idea a few times, especially in novels like Midnight Sun, The Overnight, and Creatures of the Pool. Neil Gaiman taps into the myth structure in Coraline as the rat-things in the other-world sing: "We were here before you rose/ We will be here when you fall." In "The Broadsword", Laird Barron discusses something that crawls in the dark and is waiting for our Sun to dim so that it can casually claim the planet, currently living in its inhuman tunnels with flesh like walls and acid dripping environs..

The structure is becoming more prominent: creepy, squishy pale things with malformed faces (if they have faces) that drip from our air-vents and plot the time when mankind will be washed from the earth. Things that existed before man and are now hiding in the hidden cracks and are waiting for man to go away. Mostly small, childlike in appearance, but otherwise horrible in an utterly alien way. There has been much debate about which myth structures currently being developed will spread past our times, and a lot of folklorists are chiming in on the vampire. Except many vampires nowadays are not really vampires, there are just rich and successful men (almost always men) who happen to drink blood. Zombies are nominated, but too few people even care of the myth structure of the Romero-esque zombie for that to hold. I think the "Things from Below" might have a chance. They are more insidious as horror myths go, often even infiltrating the vampire and zombie and alien invasion and swarm and whatever stories, where they are hinted to be the cause. Ancient evils, small twisted things, and infectious agents? We love all of those nowadays. Not to mention that Machenian, Lovecraftian, and even Dunsanian horror has stood the test of a century and all of them hint at little, odd things behind the curtain.. Time will tell.

When a friend recently told me a story of his car having footprints on it after a snow storm, I mentioned The Things from Below, and we went back and forth half joking. Get this, though: a two sets of footprints were left on his car in the middle of a late night snow storm. And there were none around his car on the ground. One set was small, toddler sized shoe prints. The other? Smallish human feet. Bare feet. Only a couple of prints on top of the car, none dismounting. Sure, the most logical answers are (a) someone was screwing around and making fake footprints or (b) someone took their kids for a walk in the snow and lifted them up on his car (possible (c) a small bear). At any rate, I imagine few people would find it too hard to picture something short, amorphous, crawling. With little mock feet and mismatched eyes. Giggling like a child in its too-old face. Hiding in the cold, playing in the white snow that mostly camouflages it.

As Ramsey Campbell wrote: "That's one story about when the ice comes out of the dark." To play, you know, for now. Until our sun dims sufficiently that it all is for ice and time, and in that long stretch of nether-centuries, the quiet little clicks and sighs will drift out from the discarded carapaces that were once the accoutrements of man.

And that, everyone, is why you don't come to me for a nice explanation for a strange occurrence. I'll get that far off look in my eyes, and start talking about stuff like this.

LABEL(s): Horror

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010

BLOT: (22 Dec 2010 - 03:13:38 AM)

Leaking libraries, kicking trash-bins, drinking with friends, and other diverse elements

I am at that moment that happens to all bloggers. Or well, all who blog out of an inclination to talk about daily life and hobbies and musings and not about a given thing. That moment where you have a string of a dozen blog posts stretching out behind you into the nether, distant enough from the now as to be pointless to recollect, and yet almost essential to fill in the gaps. Like all who reach this moment, I can try to catch up and spam the boards for a day or two until I have done so, or I can try and summarize, or I can let go. None is a perfect solution, none a horrible one. I think I will opt for some compromise: a few of those posts will show up over the next couple of days, and most will be let go. I tend to write about immediate things, which can some days be Dickens and some days be tea. Yesterday's news is almost never my forte.

Before I become nostalgic about something that will not be, let's turn to what recently was: this past weekend or so. I have to say, the weekend was mostly without merit unless times that try the souls have merit in their own right. The major-piece details escape me, I see it like a slideshow of various non-positive things drifting across Friday night through Sunday morning. It started, to a degree, on Friday. Or well, Thursday night. I could not sleep. Just couldn't. When I would try, I would get this strange itch or my nose would hurt or something that was enough to jolt me awake. About 6am, I had to get up and get ready to go the library. Luckily, the day was a non-event. There was a Christmas party which I showed up to kind of late and so was able to just quietly snack on food and drink water for about half an hour. Prior to that, I did some campaign design for Shadows of Cthulhu and I read and I answered a few questions and whatnot. However, even a non-event becomes somewhat tiresome after a night of no sleep and so the rest of Friday drifted down into dust. I know I did things, but I barely remember any of them.

Let's rewind slightly back into Thursday. Thursday afternoon, a maintenance man came by to fix my library (this is my personal study, which I'll just call "study" for here on to avoid confusion with the place I work) light. And to repaint a part of the ceiling that had been victim to a recent but not widespread leak. In the midst of this, I was sort of kicked out of my study, which is my respite from the world, and he had to shut down power to get to the light. This was not too big a deal, but in flipping the breakers, he caused a slight surge that caused havoc with both the router and my computer and it took hours to fix it (and even after, it eventually just crashed because of some issues with the swap, which seems fine now). I had a poor Thursday. Then no sleep. Then comes the long day Friday. After I got off work, we did things. What things? I think shopping was involved. I'm sure of it. Seems like other things. At any rate...

We get back home kind of late Friday night. I am ready to pass out but I need my respite. I need my study so I can kick off the world for a few hours. But the newly installed light has water pouring through it and there are many spots coming through the ceiling. Minor, barely damp spots, but many. The chair, which luckily was the only thing really under the light fixture, is soaked in this brown, brackish water mixed with roof tar. We dare not try and shut any power down anywhere because of what happened last night, so we tape the light switch "off" and then we get the chair out and a bucket down and we make sure the splash is not doing any damage to anything else. I got important stuff out. We called the emergency maintenance line and we were told to just put a bucket down and no care was given to the dripping through the light thing. I'll get back to this.

Saturday, then, was mostly spent resting from the night before and doing other various errands. I started to find out things like a gift that I had ordered for Sarah might not be here. In fact, a one-printing only gift might have been lost in the mail (it wasn't, just was given the wrong tracking number which hosed up a small bit of shipping). We were still debating how much we could afford for the three or four people we would be exchanging gifts with. We had several petty fights over dumb things (for instance, one involved the ending to Neon Genesis Evangelion).

The mood had soured enough that on Sunday morning I ended up kicking a trash can. Not enough to do damage but enough to scatter trash. This was in preamble to me taking it out, but still. It was a bad mood to start the day. Eventually, we kind of got moods sorted, kind of, and that night we had a rather relaxed Shadows of Cthulhu game session. I'll discuss all of those when we get the current arc finished. At any rate, the emotional low that started the day followed by the creative energy that ended it led me to fall asleep and hard about 10pm that night.

I slept all the way through until about 6, eventually got up and cleaned up my study and confirmed that the leaks seem to have stopped (for now) and did some deep cleaning in there that I haven't done since Summer, and eventually went back to bed. Got lots of sleep, and by the night cooked a decent meal and Sarah and I sat down and watched TV together.

After dinner, we went out with Katie and Jason to La Alameda to get some quesadilla and drinks. Jason is in the above campaign but I have not seen Katie since October. I ordered a couple of pitchers of Dos Equis and there were various margaritas enjoyed by the rest. I ended up doing about a pitcher and a half myself. The rest all got good and relaxed. We hung out for a couple of hours and just chattered on about this or that. Came back to the apartment. I showed them the clip from the Cronos DVD where Guillermo Del Toro is talking about "Bleak House", which is what he calls his second home which is full of trinkets and doo dads and rare books and all sorts of neat things. I drank a plum wine called umesha that had pickled plums in the bottom (they all sipped it but found it lacking). Again, pretty early, I went on to bed.

Today was mostly relaxing. It has been drizzling which makes me nervous about my library, leading me to check every few hours, but so far there seems to be no additional water issues. Sarah got home and we went to Bridge Street to see about a couple of gifts and to get food. Ate at Sakoa Japanese Grill. This is the second time that Sarah and I have entered with the place completely empty or near it (this time the only other couple was leaving when went in) and by the time our food comes out every single seat in the place is full. I don't know if we come in right before a lunch/dinner crowd or if there is some sort of rule where people see someone going in and then decide to follow suit. Ordered a bento box and a sushi special. I have to say, part of me really likes the place but you have to know what to order. Some of their udons are good. Their miso is good. Some of their sushi is excellent (try the spicy tuna roll, for instance). And some of their stuff isn't that good. Their rice seems pretty bland and their fried rice appeared to be just white rice that had some soy sauce splashed on it with a couple of vegetables tossed inside. Probably really healthy for you but there is an umami quality expected in fried rice and it was lacking from mine. The fish from the bento was strong, which especially drowned out the rice flavor. Ah well. I'll just stick with the udon and sushi from now on, I think.

After food, we went down to the Christmas "tree" (bonus fun, look inside) and listened to the "The Alabama Blues Man" sing some songs. Tipped him after a nice few minutes of relaxing, picked up a couple of items, and then left. Swung by Walgreens, rented four movies from the Redbox and I picked up some stocking stuffers. Came here, proceeded to watch none of them (did an episode of QI, instead) and she went to bed and I went and listened to some Big Finish Doctor Who and some H.P. Podcraft while playing Minecraft and it was awesome getting my respite back.

To end, I am a 30-ish guy who looks slovenly enough that I pretty much either have to be married or hopelessly single. When walking around Walgreens, picking up stocking stuffers, I had two separate women stare at me funny. One actually pulled quite a large face when I walked by with them in my hand. Keep in mind, the items were girly because they were meant for the wife, right? In what fantasy does this woman live in that a dude is at Walgreens at 9pm of the Tuesday before Christmas, kind of wandering around with a look of confusion on his face with girly things in hand is somehow worthy of her scorn? Handful of like aged guys saw me also looking at makeup and socks and girly scents and such and you know what, they didn't even bat an eye.

LABEL(s): Me in 2010, Huntsville Eateries

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010

BLOT: (21 Dec 2010 - 10:05:40 AM)

The Unexpected Who Autograph: how a cheap used book lead to a bonus Tom Baker autograph

Tom Baker best known in the United States (and elsewhere) as playing the Fourth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, and for having a rather excellent voice, including doing voice overs in shows like Little Britain (LGT: Youtube, skip the first minute to get the actual Baker bits). He has also written at least one book: The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. Per its description on Amazon:

After hearing about in November (the book is a decade-plus-old), I ordered a used copy through AmazonMarketplace. And waited. Waited and waited. Finally, the deadline for the book to show up went by, and still no book. This happens from time to time, and often means that the book is not going to show up. Mailing labels have fallen off. Wrong addresses have been used (my brother Danny recently got a package addressed to him but clearly meant for someone else, including the shipping label). Something has gone awry. However, in this case, the book did show up, just late. I opened it up and one of the first things I noticed was this front page:

Not only is the book signed, though not to me, alas, but the bookmark in it was a postcard art print of Baker in the Fourth Doctor outfit* and it is also autographed!

The second signature you see towards the bottom is from June Hudson, who designed the outfit, and is printed on the card itself.

I was curious as to why a double autographed item would not have been marked as such—short answer: looks like bookseller didn't even really open the item just eyeballed it on the shelf—and I wanted to confirm the signature, just in case. I found these two other copies of roughly the same postcard print that have also been autographed. Curious that mine clearly has a thin-line border around the picture, separating it from the text at the bottom, while neither of the other two have that.

There you go, though, the story of how I ordered a cheap used book online and got not one but two bonus autographs from one of my favorite actors to have played my favorite TV show character. Merry Christmas to me.

* The "mark I" version of the outfit, which had a brownish coat and multi-color but mostly green, red, yellow, and brown scarf (as well as a shifting series of other bits, boots, and waistcoats) is the most famous. Later on, a second version of the scarf was used that was longer. In the last season or so, John Nathan-Turner switched out the outfit for a red and maroon themed one, which had much less variation. The original scarf was replaced by a red-hued one with purple stripes. This "mark II" style outfit is the one pictured in the postcard.

LABEL(s): Doctor Who

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 51
BY MONTH: December 2010