Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... Two Legends

 

"I'm gonna get that gun of mine... and up till now I've been forgiving and forgetting, because that's how I was brought up. But "ill tell you one thing: if you ever say another thing about me, or make another indecent proposal, I'm gonna get that gun of mine and I'm going to change you from a rooster to a hen in one shot."

~Doralee Rhodes ( Dolly Parton )

9 To 5

Two amazing performers left us exactly one week ago today, Dolly Parton and Time Curry. It would be wrong to not make this post a double feature, as both brought so much to the big screen, in two very different directions. My favorite movie that Dolly Parton did was 9 To 5. What a way to make a living! I loved the song, and hummed it often with my pals, boy and girl, when we worked at both the title company and the marketing offices. My pal, Steven, and I, worked at both companies, so it was an especially humorous inside joke that no one else got! Our actual hours were 8:30 to 5:00 but the truth of the story, and of the song, still held true... office workers rarely get the appreciation they deserve! 

Dolly, Jane, and Lily brought it to life, as did Dabney Colman as their egotistical chauvinistic, misogynistic boss, and boy did I meet my share of those! And it was perfect! As 1980's movies go this was one of the best. The movie is directed by Colin Higgins, who never made a movie I've hated. Silver Streak, Foul Play, Harold and Maude, and 9 to 5 are all masterpieces! But this one has Dolly Parton in it, and that makes it all the more special! Dolly was a star in her first movie role as, Doralee Rhodes, and her star shined brightly!

9 To 5 Official Video

Stephen King's

 "IT"

"I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream come true. I'm everything you've ever been afraid of."

~ IT

Stephen King's "IT" ( 1990 )

In 1990, network tv introduced one of the scariest movies of all time, Stephen King's, IT. I am sure that you have either seen this version, or the remake that was done in 2017 and It Chapter 2, which was released in 2019. The remakes weren't for me, oh they were fine, but they just didn't scare me the way the original did! Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise was incredible. He brought the evil clown to life, and even if you never had a particular fear of clowns before, this clown would definitely haunt your dreams. He did mine! Tim Curry was such a good actor. Watching him as Pennywise, didn't make you think of Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the, Rocky Horror Picture Show. That's a good thing. Not all actors can shed an iconic roll, to move between movie rolls, but Time Curry did, and he did it brilliantly!  Watch, IT, and you'll see the depth of his talent! I still worry about Pennywise showing up one day, having shed, Derry, in search of a new place to call home. 

Beep, Beep Ritchie.

"Let go. Be afraid. You taste so much better when you're scared."

~Pennywise

The Way You Do The Things You Do

The Temptations

Halloween Countdown Film #8 &7 It and The Stand

 

 IT

By Stephen King 

 

IT: I'm every nightmare you've ever had.

 I'm your worst dream come true.

 I'm everything you ever were afraid of.

 

 

The Stand

By Stephen King

 

Mother Abagail:  "It's time now to give your will over to the will of God.

 It's time to make your Stand."

 

Once again, I am probably making a political statement with these choices, but that's all beside the point, I love Stephen King's books, and I thought these adaptions were horror perfection! They are great on a windy, rainy afternoon, but if you're watching it while suffering from Captain Tripps, Uh, I mean Captain Trumps, oops, I mean Covid-19, it can feel really surreal, like you've suddenly found yourself in a Stephen King book. but really, aren't we?

 

 

“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

 

~T.S. Eliot,

  The Hollow Men

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #24/Pennywise The President

 

“Everything's a lot tougher when it's for real. 

That's when you choke. When it's for real.” 

~Stephen King,

  It

 

“I started after him...and the clown looked back. I saw Its eyes,

 and all at once I understood who It was."
"Who was it, Don?" Harold Gardner asked softly.
"It was Derry," Don Hagarty said. "It was this town.” 

 
~Stephen King,

  It

 

I get up every day thinking that it will be the day when I hear that Donald Trump had fallen15 points behind Kamala Harris in the polls. Not only has that not happened, but Harris is the one slipping downward, despite the violent speech and promise of installing a fascist state once elected, coming from Trump. It's like living with Pennywise the Dancing Clown every day, and the citizens of the United States are just as cowardly and forgetful as the citizens of, Derry Maine. The people of Derry ignored the danger that cycled around every 30 years or so, but in America's case, it seems our memories fade a lot sooner than that. Case in point, did COVID fatigue cause you to forget the real danger Trump posed during the pandemic?And did you forget he incited a mob to attempt to overthrow the United States? I can go on with his list of evils, but do you really need me to help you remember, or do you know deep down, without me reminding you of a thing, that Donald John Trump poses a real and genuine threat to our very lives?

 

"Beep, Beep, Ritchie." 

 

~Stephen King,

IT 

 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #15/The Poetry Of Horror

 

“Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.”

 
~Stephen King

  It

 

That's one of my favorite quotes from movies ever! It's romantic, sweet and innocent, all at the same time. If you have never read the book, or seen the original TV mini-series, please do. The 2017 theatrical remake lacked soul in my opinion. I felt no emotional connection with the characters, but I sure did with the original. It haunted me in many ways, for a long time. Just the way a story, when told excellently, should. It's the pure poetry of horror.

Standing In The Last Leaves Of October

"In this universe there might be roses which sing."

~Stephen King

IT

That is a photo of the last of October leaves of 2017. It was also the last moments of light, on October 28th, in Quincy, California, and across the street the movie IT was on the marque of a small movie house. In my imagination, for just a few minutes, I could have sworn I was in Derry, Maine, home of Pennywise the clown, waiting for him to pop out of nowhere with a red balloon to offer me.  

Stephen King has always been one of my favorite authors. I like being scared, and his books do just that... scare me! But they also comfort me in an odd way, because they cause great introspection, and encourage me to imagine my response, and how I would react should I find myself in a terrifying unforeseen circumstance. So one day, last summer I think, when King posted on his Twitter feed that Donald Trump had blocked him, I was dumbfounded for a moment, and I couldn't quite wrap my mind around Trump blocking Stephen King!

I guess on some level, King had touched a nerve. He either angered a madman, or frightened him, I wasn't sure which, because those two emotions are so close in relation. The Fight or Flight response tends to kick in when we are faced with a sudden situation presents itself. Do we run... or do we stay and take a stand?

It seems to me that Trump runs, more often than he chooses to stand. Running is easier than facing what frightens you. In Trump's case, I believe it's truth that scares him, and drives most of his decisions. President Pennywise, much like Pennywise the clown, he plays on the fears of anyone who dare stand up to him. Ironically, it's fear that drives most of his maniacal decisions.

I have spent most of this past year terrified. Will nuclear war break out? Will the tax plan he is pushing, make it impossible to hold onto our new house? Will he continue to drive us mad with his constant denials that Russia was involved in the 2016 election? What has be promised Putin, and is it too late to fix the damage? And most recently, will he manufacture false evidence to begin jailing his political opponents, and if so, will he also begin jailing folks like you and me, in essence, anyone who dare speak against him?

But standing in that pile of leaves, on that late afternoon, in October, I didn't know what to do. It was the middle of vacation, and I had a chill deep down in my soul, like I was seeing autumn for the last time, and it made me sad, and scared. Sigh. So many things have happened in my life, that I never saw coming, both good and bad, and to tell you the truth, I think I handled it better because I didn't see it coming. Like an earthquake, knowing about it, wouldn't have give me the power to stop it. It is going to happen with or without my permission, and it was the decision, in the moment, that saved me.

 So, I was pondering, on that day, what it would be like to go through your entire life, so self absorbed, that when when something happens to you, unexpectedly, you pretend that truth doesn't exist, unless you have NO choice but decide your path in the moment. But in all other scenarios, if you block the source of the truth that could lead you to saving your own life or the life of others, what happens then?

Trump once admitted seeing a man fall, and hit his head so hard that the man began bleeding badly, and he chose not to lift a finger to help him. Trump is the king of lies, and anyone paying attention knows he lies to himself, as much as he lies to the rest of us, but if that story, if true, proved himself not just a liar, but indeed a coward. It takes courage to take a stand, and for months now I have seen very few in our government willing to do much, if anything to take a stand against his dangerous decisions and actions. 

Does love always win?

Does it matter if you have courage, if the circumstances requiring you to choose your stance, are completely out of your control? Then it dawned on me, that Trump isn't just President Pennywise, he is at least half Randall Flagg, the evil protagonist, from The Stand. I know, I know, books that provoke the timeless questions of how defeat evil is what King writes about, many authors do, but maybe it's time to pay attention to the moral of King's stories. Anything worth living for, is worth fighting for, and that requires strength, truth, and self esteem. So, if I am going to survive Trump's presidency, I have to find my courage, and refuse to let that clown in the White House steal my life.

And I'm trying to do just that.

Some days are easier than others, but I'm working on it.

If Trump is so scared of the honest opinions and truth that he blocked Stephen King, then I would say we are all in good company, and we are not alone in this. 

That feeling of not being alone makes me feel stronger.

We will survive this, and I will be standing in a big pile of leaves in some October yet to come, with no fear, only relief.

"The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet."

Stephen King
~The Stand

#15 Leaf Of The Day
November 15th 2017
Stockton, California

Mood: Contemplative

~Me

The Presence...

"But then fall comes, kicking summer out on it's treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed.

 It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since the last time he saw you."

~Stephen King, Salem's Lot

I was amazed that while it was a very warm sunny day, when I stood in the shadow of the tree the whole world seemed eerily dark. My camera saw it too. It wasn't just the shadow, it was a deep feeling inside me, that in the shadow exists some parallel world we mortals move in and out of without consequence, or knowledge that we had left out own universe. In the moment I was standing in the shadow, it seemed that the only real light came from the crimson red and deep purple leaves, giving the impression that they weren't leaves at all, but rather something so beautiful, so singularly unique, that they bordered not on the natural color one would expect on the first day of the autumnal equinox, but rather on the supernatural. The slight chill I felt that day, made me feel like on any given late September day, but especially this one, I was merely one glance, or one shadow, away from finding myself in a Stephen King novel. And with that thought I smiled, because surely I could conquer the shadowy presence, and besides, that's what happens when one stares at autumn leaves too long. The imagination wanders... and wonders.

Shadows have a different presence in autumn.

That's all.

~

"He thrusts his fists against the posts, 

and still insists he sees the ghosts."

~Stephen King, It

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 156~ Darkness And Fog Shrouding Angel Island

"Who is that trip-trapping upon my bridge?" Miss Davies spoke in the low, growling tones of the troll in the story. Some of the little ones covered their mouths and giggled, but most only watched her solemnly, accepting the voice of the troll as they accepted the voices of their dreams, and their grave eyes reflected the eternal fascination of the fairy tale. Would the monster be bested... or would it feed?"

~ Stephen King, IT.

It wouldn't be October without watching Stephen King's IT. Of all of Stephen King's magnificently written horror, IT is the story that captures my attention the most. There is a lot about it that I can identify with. Loss of a friend to an untimely death as a child. Bullies. Fighting through the fear... whatever the fear, and remembering as an adult that sometimes you have to tap into what motivated you as a child, to survive being an adult. It always amazes me when I encounter someone who carries a behavior of bullying past the age of 15. My neighbor is a bully. At least he thinks he is, but like with most bullies, he is legend in his own mind. I feel sorry for him more than anything else.


Anyway, if you haven't already saw the TV movie IT, or read the book, I highly recommend it! It's perfect for a foggy October night, with Halloween right around the corner!

"Come on back and we'll see if you remember the simplest thing of all... how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark."

~Stephen King, IT.

:)

~Me

Today's Link comes by way of my pal JR. GO SAY HI! :)

JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/10/apadf6-154.html