Essay of the Day: Broca's Brain-Carl Sagan

 This is the first essay in the book, also called Broca's Brain. It's about Sagan's trip to a museum in France. One of the, I'm not certain if exhibit's is the right word since it was no longer on display, was the preserved brain of Paul Broca. Who was a 19th century French neuro-anatomist most famous for discovering Broca's Area a part of the brain responsible for speech.

I read the book originally a couple of decades ago, and re-reading this essay now I remember having a similar reaction to it. That is I enjoyed it, but I heartily disagree with some of Sagan's conclusions. Some of the essay was about the fact that Broca's study of the brain was fueled, in part, by the belief that brain structures would be different between criminals and non-criminals. Sagab was confident that society "created" it's criminals.

IOW, it's nature vs. nurture. This is a short post so I don't want to go into all of my problems with that argument, but to put it briefly, I disagree with both. And that's because at the core of it both sides disregard free will and a human being's responsibility for their own actions. Obviously both nature and nurture play their part in the decisions we make, but they don't dictate them. The responsibility for the decisions are our own.

Story of the Day: The Monkey's Paw-W.W. Jacobs

 Is a synopsis even necessary? A friend of the family (a retired soldier) comes by to tell stories about his travels and ends up discussing the eponymous fetish. The father ends up buying it, even though the soldier thinks it should be destroyed. 

The father wishes for some money; nothing happens. The son goes off to work, and later that day a visitor comes by to tell them their son died in an accident at work. And though the company declaims all responsibility, they do offer compensation. In the exact amount the father had wished for. There's a funeral, and days pass, and eventually the mother insists the father wish for their son to come back to life. He does, and for a while it seems like nothings going to happen, but then there's a knock on the door. The mother goes to answer it, but the father has a foreboding of what will be on the other side and makes his final wish. When the mother opens the door only a terrible moaning is on the other side.

The biggest difference between the story as written and how it usually gets portrayed is the timing of events. The son doesn't go off to work until the next day and the mother doesn't even think of wishing him back until several days after the funeral. The story has a very British feel, unsurprising since the author was British. One thing I did learn from the introduction was that in his lifetime he was most famous as a humorist writing stories about the sea and sailors. 

The atmosphere in the story is spot on. Which is very important since it's a short story that doesn't have gore or anything of the sort, the atmosphere is what has to do the work.

W.W. Jacobs

Poem of the Day: This is my letter to the World-Emily Dickinson

This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me, — The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!

I don't know much about poetry, but I like this poem. But it feels lonely.

Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood

 Just some thoughts.

Introducing Kane Hodder!

Cool guy. And strong as hell. I met him once. But that's a story for another time.

There's a little prologue giving us some backstory for our final girl. And letting us know that she's got something to even the playing field with Jason when the time comes. Also bye bet Dad. Hello nuthouse!

As Tina and her mom drive up to the house I can't help but thin Dr. Crews just oozes scuzbag. Mom, showing the good judgement that led her to marry an abusive drunk, trusts him completely. She will change her mind about that eventually, but far too late to do any good.

There's what, if this were a romcom, would be a meet cute. Where Tina gets more than a bit angry at Nick who's just trying to help her pick up the stuff that accidentally spilled out of her luggage. Yes he does end up grabbing her panties, but that wasn't his intent. I should mention she wasn't wearing the panties. If she had been then her anger would be justifiable.

We also get a brief into to Melissa, the rich cunt of the movie. 

I have to say, I really look forward to Jason kabobbing Crews when the time comes. I don't know if it's money he's after, or fame for exposing Tina's powers to the world, but he's pure scuz. 

Tina faints after trying to bring up dad, but actually bringing up Jason. Jason doesn't attack her in anyway. There's more than one way you can explain this, but in my own headcanon Jason instinctively knew she brought him up and had no intention of harming her. Circumstances changed however.

We find out that Nick and crew are going to be waiting in vain for his cousin and cousins girlfriend as they are Jason's 1st victims.

We find out nudity is back on the menu for Friday the 13th movies via a surprisingly honest gold-digger. I would say she lives to regret this, but she doesn't. Live that is. 

So of and on throughout the movie we've had the black couple having some sort of problem. This is treated as if it's going to matter. It never does. They make up in the van without ever revealing what the problem was. Fortunately Jason got rid of them fairly shortly after that.

Mom and Dr. Crews have a confrontation when she finally figures out he's a scuzbag. The only thing this accomplishes is to get Tina (who overheard his threats to commit her) to take a car and run off. She ends up running off the road after having a vision of her mom being killed by Jason. 

She's fine (physically speaking) and runs off before her Mom and Dr. Crews find the car. They try to find her, with no luck.

Dr. Crews is a scuzbag and a coward, but I have to say, his ideas make a lot more sense then Mom's. He says they should go back to the house to see if Tina went back there, or to call the cops for help if she hasn't. This makes a lot more sense then just running around the forest blind not having a clue where Tina's at. And this would be true even if Jason wasn't running around hacking people apart. Speaking of which.

Jason shows up and hacks mom apart. While Dr. Crews hold her in front of himself like a human shield. I mean, ok you're a coward. But why not just run? That would have actually made more sense. But the not so good Dr. manages to get away. Long enough to catch up to Tina so she can see her mother's blood all over him and realize that her mother's dead. She runs off and Jason catches up to Crews and kills him with some sort of powered tool. My only complaint is Crews didn't suffer enough.

Melissa tries to Make Nick jealous by going off with the worst sci-fi wannabe writer in the world. Pro-tip hon, they have to have some interest in you at all to get jealous over what you do. When this fails she settles for just giving the guy a case of blue balls, and sneaking out on him.

Tina meets up with Nick and gets him caught up with what's going on. He gets her to agree to stay there while he gets the others so they can all get out of there together. Of course he finds out the rest have already been taken care of by Jason.

And Tina shows mom's "good judgement" runs in the family by running off by herself and finding her mom's body. And Jason. She then "kills" Jason with some power lines. This doesn't stick and eventually she drops a porch roof on him and heads back to the house. 

There she meets up with Melissa and Nick. Why did Melissa even go there? Is she so desperate for Nick that she's decided to try breaking and entering? Tina explains what happened. Melissa decides they're both nuts and opens the door to leave, just in time to be offed by Jason. And now we have the final showdown. And it's a good one. I'm not gonna try to describe it, to do it justice would take a couple of pages. 

I will say this, the house explosion was a bit over the top. They had a wood burning stove to heat the house, so what caused the explosion. Maybe they had a gas stove for cooking, but that's still a pretty big explosion.

In some technical sense of the term Tina might not be a final girl since Nick survived as well, but I still think she did a pretty good job of it. At the end anyways. She makes some bad choices before that but handles the fight well.

Enough from me, here's someone else's take: 1000 MISSPENT HOURS AND COUNTING: Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood (1988) **½

Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

 Just some thoughts, not a review.

Is that a James Bond opening? Yes, yes it is. Voorhees. Jason Voorhees. Slashed, not chopped.

This is the first Friday the 13 where Jason is explicitly supernatural. He's certainly done things a normal man couldn't or shouldn't be able to do, but that was never explained, it was just left to the audience to decide what it meant.

I do appreciate the nod to the classics by having him be resurrected by lightning bolt.

This movie does hit a pet peeve of mine. That is the sane person (for certain values of sane considering Tommy's history) sounds crazy because he chooses the worst way to explain the insanity he's going through.

I mean, yeah Tommy, you know Jason was brought back to life. You saw it happen. But you must know how it's gonna sound to anybody else. Just tell'em you and your friend were at the cemetery and a giant psycho killed your friend.

If they ask why you were there just say, "Hey if you wanna arrest me for trespassing, fine, but I think the giant killer psycho is a higher priority." A couple of dumb teenagers vandalizing a cemetery is  a much easier sell than a lightening powered revenant.

This is the first (and last, so far) Friday the 13th where a summer camp is actually being used as a camp. And it's the first since part 2 to be explicitly happening on Friday the 13th. Part 5 might have been happening on Friday the 13th, but no one references the date specifically.

This is the tamest of the series as well, with no nudity and very little gore. They have people come upon the remains of Jason's victims a couple of times and make it look like somebody just threw a bucket of blood all over in an attempt to hide this, but it's not terribly effective.

Also having Jason in the cabin with the kids is obviously meant to amp up the tension, but in a movie that's not even willing to flash a pair of tits at you no ones buying the idea Jason's gonna start chopping up little kids. And I don't particularly want that anyway. Chopping up fornicating teenagers is one thing, chopping up little kids is not what I come to a Friday the 13th movie for.

There's a little girl named Nancy. She's having nightmares. I have nothing to add, just wanted to acknowledge the Elm St reference.

Oh yeah, a little tip for all the Dads out there. If you wanna keep your daughter away from someone don't tell her how dangerous he is. Just don't. 

Speaking of Megan I have to say she has some obnoxious moments early on but after it becomes clear that there is a killer on the loose she does rise to the occasion.

I did enjoy this movie, but it is one of the weaker entries. If it wasn't for the return of Jason I'd probably put it behind part 5.

Enough from me, here's someone else's take on it: 1000 MISSPENT HOURS AND COUNTING: Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) *½

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

 Been a hell of a week at work. But enough of that, now some thoughts on Part 5.

When it first came out this one ticked a lot of people off. More recently opinion of it has improved, somewhat. Which makes a certain amount of sense. Since the thing that most angered fans, the idea of replacing Jason with Tommy Jarvis, ended up never happening. And even the temporary replacement of Roy Burns is more fondly looked at now, since his motivation is very similar to Mrs. Voorhees from part 1.

Still, it is a very weak entry. The number of things that happen because they're trying to make you think it's Tommy, (like stacking the bodies in Tommy's room, why would Roy do that?) to the kills that don't make sense no matter who's supposed to be doing it.

Like those rejects from a hotrodder movie, the closest you come to a reason is they say some mean things about the kids at Pinehurst. Was Roy walking around the middle of nowhere mourning his son and heard those guys talkin' and decide, that's it, they gotta die? Apparently.

The last name of one of the actress's is Voorhees. Absolutely nothing is made of this. This fact has messed with my head since the first time I read the credits. William Castle must be spinning in his grave.

I was thinking that for one of the big franchises of horror it's kind of funny that they only do the traditional final girl once, in part 1. Then I realized I forgot about part 3. Which I think says a lot about 3. If it wasn't for 5, 3 would be at the bottom of the list so far.

I find it kind of funny how it was such a big deal that they killed of Jason in part 4 that they couldn't bring him back here, but in part 2 they brought him back as a grown man, when he'd died as a child before part 1. And not a single word of explanation was given. Nor was a single fuck given. But I think you'd have a hard time finding someone who thought 5 was better or more logical than part 2.

Haven't said a whole about 5, but, well. What is there to say? It's got some pretty girls and some gruesome killings, but the narrative around it is nonsensical. And not in a fun or interesting way. I don't hate it (anymore), but I don't feel particularly strongly positive about it either.

Enough from me, here's someone else's take: 1000 MISSPENT HOURS AND COUNTING: Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning/Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) -*½

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

The gist of it is, thoughts, not a review.

This is probably my favorite of the Friday the 13th movies. The reason is fairly simple. When I finally saw it (on vhs, a few years after release) I was about the same age as Tommy Jarvis is in the movie. And I got a kick out of the hero being a kid like me.

This takes place less than a week after Part 2. Jason's had a busy week.

In future movies they'll make a big deal out of bringing Jason back to life, but in this one he just wakes up and starts offing people. Maybe the paramedics didn't bother to check his vitals before bringing him in?

This is probably the best looking of the movies as far as production values go. Not necessary really. Of the previous movies Part 3 had the highest production values and was the worst, but parts 1& 2 looked like they'd been made with change found in someone's couch cushions but were great. But still nice.

I wonder why Tommy is so certain Rob can't be hunting bears. He's not, he looking for revenge for his sister that was killed in Part 2. But what makes Tommy so certain. According to Paul (also in part 2) Crystal Lake is bear country. So why not? Is it not bear hunting season? Is that a thing? I'm aware of deer hunting season, but I don't know about bear season. 

I like Rob. On a mission of vengeance but still has time to be nice to a weird kid. The fact that the weird kid's big sister is a babe probably helps, but still he seems like a good guy. Too bad Jason doesn't care about that.

When I see a scene like Jim's dancing I wonder what the direction was. Did they just say, "Dance like a spaz." and let him work it out from there, or did they get more specific. "I want people to wonder whether he's dancing or having an epileptic fit."

Speaking of Jim I'm glad he got a chance to put the "dead fuck" thing to rest with one of the twins before Jason showed up. And tbf to Ted he at least was happy for his friend despite his own failure with the other twin. That's friendship dammit.

This movie has something that movies are constantly try to say is great, but that I'm certain would be horrible. Shower sex. Granted I've never tried shower sex, so maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. 

After more than 30 years of shaving I can't hep but watch Tommy shave his head and think he would be bleeding all over the place.

I have a certain amount of sympathy with Trish's frustration that Tommy hadn't run when she decoyed Jason away, but at the same time I think, run where? They're deep in the woods, there doesn't seem to be anyone else living anywhere nearby and the trip to town is usually made by car, making me thinks it could be 10 miles or more away. The woods are Jason's home, he'd catch Tommy long before he could get anywhere.

That's enough from me. Here's someone else's take on it:

1000 MISSPENT HOURS AND COUNTING: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)