It's a-Me, Earlio!

And Sean-io. 
 

Invitation to Consider Invitation to Love

During the first season of Twin Peaks, we see several characters watching Invitation to Love, a soap opera that seems as crazed and histrionic as Twin Peaks itself can be. This gave me a thought today: If the characters in Twin Peaks watch Invitation to Love, do the characters in Invitation to Love watch Twin Peaks? 

In real life, Mark Frost took the helm for the Invitation to Love sequences, all shot over the course of one day for later insertion into Twin Peaks. Reportedly, co-creator David Lynch didn't like Frost's overt parody of the soap opera genre, so the device was allowed to fade out. It's too bad; it's a nicely Shakespearean conceit, and I would have loved to see it return in, well, The Return. 

Back to the meta question: The answer, for me, is yes, Jade and Montana and the others are just as enthralled with the drama of Twin Peaks as the people of Twin Peaks (the town) are with the world of Invitation to Love. The symmetry is just too perfect to ignore. 

What brought this question to mind today? I stumbled across Nestflix, a website dedicated to shows-within-shows. According to Nestflix, Invitation to Love ran for 10 seasons! 

Some Feelings on Fiscus

 

Howie Mandel as Doctor Wayne Fiscus

I've never been a fan of Howie Mandel.

That's a me problem, not a Mandel problem. His particular comic persona just isn't to my taste, accomplished as he may be. 

But I must say that I really enjoy Mandel as Doctor Wayne Fiscus, St. Eligius' emergency room resident. Fiscus likes to goof around a bit, but he's affectionate, cares about patients and staff alike, and does the right thing even when it's hard. Also, he's a casual dresser, and complains righteously when he's forced to wear a suit and tie while on duty. I loathe suits and ties, so naturally I'm sympathetic to the character's plight. 

I look forward to seeing where Mandel takes this character. In the almost-three seasons I've watched so far, he's already grown significantly. I hope that continues to the end of the series. 

Afternoon Visitor

I find it somewhat comforting when a bird drops in to hang out on our doorstep. 
 

A Comment about Comments

 Mea culpa! I just now noticed that my filter flagged several comments from readers as potentially spam and held them for me, awaiting my moderation. A handful of these comments were indeed spam, but at least that many were legitimate some stretching back several months. My apologies to all affected--it wasn't my intention to censor you. The legit comments have been approved. 

White's Wounded Women

Some of St. Elsewhere's Season Three Players.
Fans of Babylon 5 might recognize Stephen Furst in the middle. 

I guess you could say that Doctor Peter White's story began with some whimpering, and ended with a bang. A couple of days ago, I wrote about my amazement regarding the character's dark turn, and how I wondered how the writers could possibly bring him back for a third season. 

They found a way. White is a deeply troubling foil for the first third of the season, shoving his verdict of innocence in the faces of his colleagues while continuing to brazenly rape women--including a second attack on one of his prior victims, who winds up deeply psychologically damaged on top of her physical trauma (and little wonder). 

Three of White's victims: Nurse Shirley Daniels (driven to murder), Doctor Wendy Armstrong (victim of attempted rape, assaulted, driven to suicide), and Doctor Cathy Martin (raped and assaulted twice, driven to madness. Also, Ed Begley Jr.

Having White parading around St. Eligius as if he wasn't a violent rapist gets to be too much for Nurse Shirley Daniels (Ellen Bry), who steals a weapon from a police officer in the ER, hunts white down, and shoots him. White survives for a couple of hours, but ties before he can name is killer. It doesn't matter, because while it took forever for the police to arrest White for his crimes, poor Nurse Daniels is caught within hours. Hmmmm. 

The whole arc has, thus far, shone a lot of light--maybe accidentally, maybe not--on how women are treated at home, in the workplace, and in fiction. Wendy Armstrong (Kim Miyori) lasted only a season and a half on St. Elsewhere, and I can only think of one episode in which she was the focus and got a win--a "win" defined as a moment of respect from the male doctors. Even worse, Cathy Martin (Barbara Whinnery) was written from the beginning as a flighty, promiscuous eccentric--part of the reason her testimony is dismissed by the jury. The show neglected Armstrong and killed her off--without much real buildup or even proper connection to her frustration with White's trial or her assault. It just felt like the writers didn't know what to do with her. But Martin fares even worse, treated as comic relief for most of her appearances, then as a victim--twice--and then to madness. (She might recover; I haven't watched the whole series yet.) And the formerly level-headed Nurse Daniels becomes erratic enough to take revenge on White, resorting to a murder that she surely knows she can't get away with. She also confesses to a crush on Doctor Jack Morrison (David Morse), without any hint of having those feelings in previous episodes. One of the episodes I watched tonight culimates with Nurse Daniels being captured by the police, so I assume that she'll be written out shortly, as well. 

David Morse as Doctor Jack Morrison

The somewhat hapless Jack Morrison has, all the while, stuck by his friend, Peter White, despite everyone else at the hospital believing White to be responsible for the attacks. At one point, White asks Morrison "Why do you believe me?" Jack says something like "Because you told me you didn't do it, and that's good enough for me." He believes his male friend, but not the multiple women colleagues who were victimized. This really puts a dark stain on Jack's character, who I really want to like because he's the most compassionate doctor of the bunch. But wow, his reaction here is completely tone-deaf, and he seems to be confident in it even after White is shot! (Morse is a superb actor, by the way; I still remember him as a police officer blinded in the line of duty in Homicide: Life on the Streets.)

Eric Laneuville as Luther Hawkins. 

To be fair to Jack, in the last episode I watched tonight, "Sweet Dreams," it appears as though Jack does indeed have doubts. Jack, Dr. Victor Ehrlich (Ed Begley Jr.), and orderly Luther Hawkins (Eric Laneuville) are all involved in a dream study. Ehrlich, true to his character, dreams of being stranded on a tropical island with beautiful warrior women who sentence him to death by, er, snu-snu. Hawkins' dream is a wonderful spoof of the ZZ Top music video for "Legs," complete with the music track, several members of the cast dressed as the band and sexy models, and the ZZ Top roadster famous from the video. 

Jack, on the other hand, has a terrible nightmare about Peter White. Only in the dream do Jack's doubts materialize, and though he asks "Who killed you?" (White says "That's classified"), he does not ask "Did you do it?" 

But he doesn't need to, because the dream shows that he knows the answer is "yes" and hasn't been able to accept it. White bids Jack farewell, then puts on his ski mask and laughs manically, mocking Jack for his unearned trust. It's a very chilling sequence, and redeems Jack a tiny bit. I hope he apologizes to the women he dismissed. 

Ay, Ay, Eye!

 

Doctor Peter White's Heel Turn

 

Terence Knox as Doctor Peter White

Last month I finally started watching St. Elsewhere, the groundbreaking 1980s medical drama. I just finished season two, and I find myself astounded by Doctor Peter White's insanely dark heel turn about halfway through the season. 

Up to this point, White had been portrayed as a troubled resident beset with marital and money problems--issues that sometimes caused mildly jerk-ish behaviour, but nothing truly outlandish. Indeed, most of the residents on the show had similar or comparable personality quirks. But some well-meaning actions on White's part backfire on him, leading to his censure and putting his residency at risk. This leads to some addiction problems, which, to his credit, he overcomes, and becomes a better doctor to boot. 

Then, despite this rebound, he puts on a ski mask and rapes several women and attempts to rape one of the other residents. Caught red-handed in this last assault, White is arrested and put on trial. (His amusingly sleazy defence lawyer is played by Conrad Janis, who I remember as Mindy's dad from Mork & Mindy.) Amazingly, he's acquitted, despite testimony from his victims--two of whom are colleagues and fellow doctors at the hospital. And as an innocent man, he can't be prevented from returning to work at St. Eligius (AKA St. Elsewhere). One of the victims who testified commits suicide at the end of the season, and while--somewhat strangely--White's return to work isn't stated as one of the reasons for her suicide, it surely must have played a role. Considering the crucial role women play on this show, I feel like this was a deliberate choice by the writers--even the most accomplished women in crucial positions remain devalued in comparison to their male colleagues. 

I thought for sure this would be the end of White as a character, and that he'd be written off the show. But according to Wikipedia, Knox as White remains part of the main cast through season three, and even returns as a guest in season five. At this point it would be impossible to redeem White, so I imagine he'll act as a villainous foil for the other characters in season three. I did not expect this show to take such a starkly dark turn. 

DC Boardwalk

One might toss some jacks; caltrops for kids
Bounce ball on boardwalk
Grab jack
Second ground, grab two
And so on
Bonus points: ball colour
Perfectly matches wall colour
Ghosts peer through obsidian panes
Nails squeaking against glass
But the kids don't hear
They've reached tensies
And Harpreet has one chance to win
She scoops--she scores. 
Time for ice cream--the wall inspires Neapolitan
"We're all out of chocolate strawberry vanilla ice cream" 

Muddied Metaphors

Life isn't always perfectly pretty
Sometimes there's mud in the water
In poetry as in life
Green needs brown
Words need structure
But sometimes those structures fall apart and you get a horrible mess but hey
There's still life in it

Hail Sean!

Today's is Sean's birthday! And a big one, too. 

Happy Birthday, Sean, with many more to come! Your presents are, er...late. But coming! 

Pope Hat

♝
I accidentally discovered I can insert special characters into my blog posts. This sentence follows a pope hat.  

Pope hat
Pope hat
Roly poly pope hat
Pope hat pope hat
Eat them up, yum

Salem's Lot Boo Boo

Today a lovely special edition of Tobe Hooper's adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot appeared on my doorstep. It comes with a two-sided poster, a "Welcome to Salem's Lot" sticker, and a handsome perfect-bound booklet that collects essays about the miniseries. 

Alas, sometime during the editing process, someone--more likely, multiple people--missed adding the name of Bonnie Bedelia's character to the cast list. For the record, Bedelia played the ill-fated Susan Norton. 

Gemini-Generated Paranoid Productions Logos

Some of these are fun, but most are kind of meh. A lot of them look like triangles because the original logo, created by Jeff Shyluk, was a pyramid with an eye near the apex, and I told Gemini that in the prompts. The wordmarks aren't bad, but look too much like the CBS logo. The pyramid with the shadow might be my favourite conceptually, but it feels like an awkward shape for most real-world purposes. Pyramid eyeball sunrise might have promise if reworked. 

Again, as a starting point? Maybe. Not ready for prime time, though. 
 

Gemini Generated Earliad Banners

A few weeks ago, I asked Gemini to generate some banners for the blog. I hate to admit that I kind of like these, but I'm not going to use them, not unless I pay a real artist to use these strictly as a "this is the sort of thing I'm looking for" sample. I think there might be a place to use generative AI as inspiration as long as we keep supporting human artists. 
 

What a Time to Be Alive

That one prophetic conversation
I can't shake it from my mind
1992 or 1993
After the fall of the wall; the end of history
"What if this is as good as it ever gets?" 
Maybe it was

Maybe the real end of history is chasing us now
Like a comet diving in from the Oort cloud
We see it coming
We can't stop it

And that's it--
Lights out forever

Reddit Glimpses Cranberry Portage

 

I came upon this post on r/1980s on Reddit just now, and I thought "Wow, this looks just like Grandma's place did in the 1980s. Hey...that looks like Mom and Dad's green Ford station wagon. And that looks like an Alberta plate. HEY...wait a minute..." 

I searched my own blog for the keywords "Cranberry Portage," and here's the source of the Reddit photo.

Pilfered from my own blog! But I'm not angry. How many images have I used from the web? Plenty. I think this is kind of neat. 

Threads

Black threads under our collective skin
Spreading insidiously through our careless flesh
Threads of envy; greed; hate
We live in one skin
Though we are billions
But the infection spreads

We are close
To being overwhelmed
Awakening sluggisly
Too slowly
Too late

A Few Thoughts on Manhattan Transfer

I picked up John E. Stith's Manhattan Transfer (1993) at the Wee Book Inn back in the early 2000s, based solely on the cover art and the title. I finally read it, a quarter of a century later, a few days ago. As it turns out, Manhattan Transfer, despite the goofy premise, turns out to be a thoughtful high concept science fiction thriller with heart. 

What you see is what you get: As seen on the cover, aliens pop a bubble around Manhattan Island, rip it out of the Hudson River, and put the whole borough inside their giant starship, on an interior plain with what appear to be dozens of other similarly kidnapped species--but these are cities from other worlds. 

The likeable protagonists spend a good deal of time exploring the mystery of their new situation: Why would aliens steal a city? Are they in a zoo? Are they going to be used as food? How will they meet their needs? Can they make contact with the aliens? 

The New Yorkers turn out to be pretty resilient in the face of all this, though there is some initial looting and panic at the start of the crisis. Once the alien kidnappers provide food, water, and maintain their oxygen supply, things calm down and a group of about a half-dozen motivated folks work with the mayor to explore the other kidnapped cities and see if there's a way to force the aliens to take them back to Earth. 

John E. Stith approaches his plot and characters with care, attention to detail, empathy, and prose style well-suited to a steadily-paced adventure. I found myself easily invested in the characters and their quest to get some answers, and the second half of the novel becomes quite exciting as they discover their real predicament and wind up playing for much, much higher stakes. 

I wasn't expecting much from this novel, thanks to the novel's name and the cover art. I'd also never heard of the author, though now I know he was nominated for a Nebula! (Ignorance, thy name is Earl.) I don't think my low expectations should prejudice my view of the novel; I think it's genuinely good. Even the science is reasonably plausible, given the ideas set out in the story. Certainly issues with inertia and the speed of light are hand-waved away, but that's common for the genre; what's important is Stith makes everything believeable. 

I wonder what kind of conversations this stirred up in the 1990s, when I'm sure at least a few New Yorkers were reading this on the subway. 


 

Hope at the Ridge

Grandma Hope at "the Ridge," according to the back of the photo, 1941. 
 

Three Soldiers

If I remember correctly, Dad said that his father was declared medically unfit to serve overseas in World War II, but I don't recall the particular malady. He did serve in the militia in Canada, though, and here he is with two of his friends. Granddad is in the centre, flanked by Bill Arnotte (left) and Dan Burr (right). 
 

Invisible Movie Star

 

I fed Gemini a decade-old photo of me at the Edmonton Film Festival and asked it to "have this man surprised by a movie star." I guess the star was Claude Rains, or maybe Kevin Bacon. 

Starro v. Titano: Dawn of Injustice

One eye and five arms

Silent Starro's children fall

Dominating with whispers

Save us, Titano!

Kryptonite vision just might

Work on this creepy thing

Vernal Geekquinox 2026: Dem Bones, Dem Tasty Bones

The great thing about bones, in a culinary sense, is their ability to act as handles for meat. This year's first Geekquinox, held yesterday afternoon, was built on very sold bones: Pete and Ellen's peerless hosting and cooking skills, and friendships that now stretch back decades. Zounds! 

The lamb lollipops were so delicious that I forgot to take a photo before they'd all been scarfed down--thanks to Stephen for this photo! Moist, juicy, tender--I don't have lamb often, but wow, these were scrumptious. They certainly put a SHEEPISH GRIN on my face! 

The next course consisted of braised lamb shanks served on a bed of rice. The sauce...oh, the sauce...the meat and the rice were excellent, too, of a quality far better than, I dare say, most restaurants. 

Here's our dapper chef in his skeleton-themed shirt, alongside a couple of the cocktail recipes. I'm not a drinker, but apparently at least one of them was "face-numbing." 

Ellen took this shot of us, which means she's not in it! Still a fun photo that captures the feeling of the day. 

We took a break between courses to marvel at Pete and Ellen's just-completed library. It's utterly gorgeous, and really makes me want to do something similar in my (much smaller) space. 

Unfortunately, family matters called us away early, so we missed the steak and the duck. But we did share a piece of this amazing homemade dinosaur dig cake. Needless to say, we dug it, bones and all. 

For better photos and a more comprehensive writeup, including the dishes we missed, see Steve's story of the event! 

Bird vs. Sean