Fire Walk With Me (1992)

After watching the first two seasons of Twin Peaks again, I revisited the (at the time) book ending to the series, which also serves as a prequel to the series. Therefore, you absolutely should NOT watch the movie before watching the series, because it spoils EVERYTHING.

When I first watched the movie, I hated it. I was desperate for resolution after the way season 2 ended. There were so many questions left unanswered, yet it was all leading somewhere so wonderful. However, David Lynch is a hard act to follow/understand, and anyone casually tuning into this television program would surely be absolutely confused by this Lynchian (yes, that's now a word) style of filmmaking.

Twin Peaks was quirky, but David Lynch would often get carried away with his bizarre symbolism and even I find it a bit hard to follow sometimes. Yet, in most every other way, the series is quite endearing. So much so that it brings a tear to my eye, in more ways than one.

So after season 2 got axed, Lynch was attempting to make about 4 feature films https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105665/trivia?item=tr0725249 . FWWM didn't fare too well in the box office, so the others were scrapped. Goddamn, would I have loved to see the movie about David Bowie's character Philip Jeffries, because Bowie with a southern accent is priceless. Also, there would have been resolution to Cooper, Desmond, and Major Briggs. Surely, anyone invested in the series would have loved to get their hands on any of this material, because any TP mythology is gold in our eyes.

So how about this movie, Fire Walk with Me? Well, it's all a prequel about Laura Palmer and her inevitable demise. After all, the series begins with Laura Palmer's dead body being found, so that's not a spoiler. Therefore, I originally felt that the story was redundant tripe, but in restrospect, this movie is emotional as fuck, and it hits me really hard every time I see it.

Sheryl Lee does a fantastic job as the doomed protagonist, and it's strange how much of this film is foretold in premonitions by Cooper. The series and the movie tie in together in such a fascinating way, and even when the characters in the film who have died in the series, it just feels so good to see them again.

Not much can be said in the case that ignorant audiences are reading this post, but this is a damn fine movie. I'd give it a 5 out of 5 rating, because I fucking LOVE anything relating to Twin Peaks. My man @ballz recently informed me of the Missing Pieces deleted scenes movies, and I'm anxious for that shit. Then, I'll revisit season 3, which was such a damn fine season, it makes me weep even moreso.

Season 3 was a phenomenal effort by Lynch. Not only does it tie up loose ends that were 27 years in the making, but they even have some brilliant tie-ins to Fire Walk with Me. I really love the episodes that feature Harry Dean Stanton, even though he only had a bit part in the movie, but he had some great scenes in season 3. Hard-hitting stuff, by a legendary actor.

On a side note, that movie "Lucky" was also pretty good, featuring David Lynch as a tortoise-loving bizarro, because Harry Dean and David Lynch should have collaborated in all of their efforts. They go together like Lynch and MacLachlan, which is to say... damn fine(ly)!

I drank a LOT of alchohol tonight, so I could rant about how great this movie is all night, but I'll stow it for the night. Once I rewatch season 3, I'll rant on that a bit more, because it's one of the greatest television events of all time. Damn fine coffee!

Trash Epics updates coming soon

Between work and the commute to work, I usually only have a couple hours a day to myself, so bear with me if I seem like I've been lazy on here. Trust me, I haven't. I've been working on a slew of updates for TE that I'm so very close to completing. The only problem is my limited window in each day to work on these things, which is quite frustrating considering how little work I actually have left.

After some of our regulars decided to bail on us for no good reason, I've been promising that I'd do my best to improve the TE experience with new, more robust functionality, and I'm in the mood to ramble on about these things.


One thing I've been doing these past few days is restructuring the board system. Originally, a post could only be on one board, like most forums do. However, posts get lost in the sea of under-utilized boards, so after a while, I changed it up so a post could be on two boards. It seemed okay for a while, but the same lack of exposure befell posts again, and so I'm changing it up again. You'll soon be able to tag a post under as many boards as you want, and it'll automatically categorize them appropriately.

Say for example, you post a topic on the "Halloween" 1978 board. Your post will also be filed under the boards for Movies, Horror, and Thrillers/Suspense automatically. Posts will also be able to be moved to multiple boards just as easily. Therefore, the board index will function much more accurately, too.

Of course, with this added functionality, I have to manually go through about 2000 posts, but I'm halfway there! 😦 That's the hard part. Once that's done, I'll update the main forum, the post pages, TEDb, and that shitty FreeForums skin in no time.


Another big update that's taken me a bit longer to wrap my head around is a new dynamic markup editor that wont redirect you off the page, and you'll get live preview results. They call this a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. So if you click the reply button, a box will pop up right under the post and you wont have to worry about [ b ] and [ url=blah blah ] tags, because you'll see the bold text text and the link as you make your post.

Of course, if you're old fashioned, the current way will still be available because I have to make this backwards compatible with all of our existing posts. The same thing goes for when you add or edit posts. You wont be redirected, and you'll see the formatting as you type. I have to do a lot of debugging to make sure I don't screw this up though, but it'll be pretty damn sleek once it's finished.


The home page will also probably be revamped, too. I don't think I'll include the post feed on there, but probably just a Board Index. This means I'll be removing subdomains, but nobody ever uses them anyway. I'll figure out a better use for those later.

Even with my efforts to make things easier for newbies to understand, I know that people will still have trouble with them, so I'm going to make the other skins more accessible, too, and that includes that stupid Facebook skin I've been designing on and off again these past few month. I figure a lot of our reliable users migrated to that shithole, so I might as well cater to them with something they'll recognize visually.

There will be a few more tweaks here and there, such as how you search and sort stuff, but the big changes revolve around the markup editor, the new board system, and the facebook skin. Hopefully, this stuff can be ready in time for the October Challenge, because that's always a big deal.

I really can't wait until I have this stuff all sorted out. Then, I can finally start working on CONTENT! Maybe, if we're lucky, we can lure back a few of our old regulars to this place with these epic redesigns, minimal drama, and high-end low-class trash!

Horror movies in sewers and subways

I'm watching Mimic right now. Somehow it isn't 100% successful, but it's hard to say why not. It does a lot of things right, I think.

Anyway, what are some other horror movies (or books!) that have a lot of scenes, or at least one really important scene, somewhere underground like a sewer or a subway? I'll start.

It
Relic
Reliquary (book)
CHUD
Mimic
Return of the Living Dead 2 (just a couple quick scenes in that huge sewer pipe, but they are important scenes for the movie)
Midnight Meat Train
This horror short film:
Resident Evil (arguably)
Demons (1985) (the beginning)
American Werewolf in London
Cloverfield

and I see some more when I start Googling, but nothing I've seen personally. Anyone got any good ones to mention?

HBO Mini-challenge

I will put this one out there as a mini-challenge for at some point during this month. Basically you will have 10-12 days to watch as many episodes from any HBO series (minimum 40 minutes per episode) as you can. You will get 1 point per episode. If you manage to complete a whole season (minimum 8 episodes), you will get a bonus 10 points. So for example managing to watch 2 seasons of Deadwood would get you 44 points. If anyone would prefer it to be based on the traditional running time though, that is also ok.

If anyone is up for this, grab your spot and if there are 5 participants minimum, I will stick a date on it to begin.

Cheap Trick, Bad Company, and ZZ Top Concert

This was a convenient concert that sprung up on der's radar, so I went to Dallas with him to catch the 50th anniversary of ZZ Top's career. FIFTY years, dude! The other two bands are only a few years from their 50th as well, but rock and roll has kept these fuckers young.

This was the same place we'd seen Alice Cooper and Deep Purple a couple years ago, but we were waaay in the back of the lawn this time. Not a problem though, because a lot of weed was passed around back there, but damn were those beers expensive. Good thing der was banking at work recently, because I would never spend $17 for two fucking beers.


So first up was Cheap Trick as the "special guest". They played loud, so their sound had a lot of gain and you couldn't make out many intricacies in the guitar playing, but I love Cheap Trick, so it was worthwhile. Why are they touring with ZZ Top? I don't know, but I'll take it. Set list was:

Hello There
Hot Love
California Man
If You Want My Love
Never Had a Lot to Lose
Ain't That a Shame
Voices
I Want You to Want Me
Dream Police
Surrender
Goodnight



Next up was Bad Company. I only really know their hits, but they played them, and they played them well:

Can't Get Enough of Your Love
Rock and Roll Fantasy
Movin' On
Feel Like Makin' Love
All Because of You
Ready for Love
All Along the Watchtower
Ride on a Pony
Shooting Star
Bad Company
All Right Now

I started getting jazzed up by the time they got to "Shooting Star". I didn't think they'd outperform Cheap Trick, but they did it.



Finally... ZZ Top comes along, and they killed it. These guys are almost 70, but being a trio, their sound was loud and clear, and pretty damn perfect. Billie and Dusty had their beards, they moved in sync a lot, and they were shredding. Frank Beard (drummer) was kicking that drum's ass, too.

I knew some of these songs more when I was younger, and had to look up some of them when I got home. Around halfway through the set, there were a few songs I couldn't make out ANY words too, but it all cleared up toward the end, where they rocked our socks off:

Under Pressure
I Thank You
Gimme All Your Loving
Pearl Necklace
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
I Gotsta Get Paid
My Head's in Mississippi
Sixteen Tons
Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers
Just Got Paid
Sharp Dressed Man
Legs
La Grange/Tush



The whole night was pretty fun. Nice weather, beer, weed, more beer, and a lot of rock and roll. Also, being a TX concert for a TX band, there were a lot of rednecks too, but also a lot of titties and sexy women.

We tried to bail a touch early during their final medley so we could beat traffic, but we definitely did not beat it. We were stuck in that damn parking lot for 70 minutes!

Everyone got along fine during the concert because of all that rock and roll peace and love vibes, but as soon as the concert was over, people turned into assholes, trying to inch ahead and cut in front of us, and shout double middle-fingered obscenities at us when they couldn't, but fortunately, der wasn't having any of it, or we'd have probably been there another 30 something minutes.

Finally got home at 1am, had to wake up for work at 3am, and that sucked, but the rest was great. We'll return to that venue in September to see... Iron Maiden! Can't wait for that shit.

Rank the best to worst decades for Horror

**
70's
80's
50's
30's
2010's
2000's
60's
20's
90's
40's**

Rant #xd4-niner

I planned on getting some shit done tonight, but I drank a bunch instead. I've been drinking a lot lately as means of cutting back on weed, and I've been feeling fucking FANTASTIC about it. I've been sleeping well, and I've been having all sorts of random-ass dreams. Do you hear me! Do you know what I'm saying?! I've been having dreams lately! I haven't had dreams in so long, so this is a good sign! It means I'm inspired!

My dream last night was about John Wick. I think? Cool ass movie, that was... Movies are always on the brain, especially when you work in a business that's all about shilling out movies. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was fucking pointless, but I still really want to watch it again. Hobbs and Shaw, as stupid as this movie is going to be, was selling out like crazy today. I'll probably watch that shit within the week, because of how preposterously overboard that series has gone. From street-racing to stopping super-soldier terrorists! My oh my!

Trash Epics is going to get back on track, though. I know I'm exposed to too much contemporary bullshit, but October is coming up and we're going to have some good, trashy fun, just like we always do. I'll try to watch some of those titles listed on the top 10 bezt movieez listsz, because peep and yakko listed a few titles that tickled my fancy.

Fun times are ahead, as well as some unique changes to the TE layout. Keep your eyes peeled for some weird and crazy shit, and as always, don't be afraid to suggest some more weird and crazy shit for TE to implement. Afterall, this is the only alternative IMDb replacement out there, and I'm okay with doing anything that's suggested. I've stooped to all kinds of lows, and I'm not opposed to stooping lower than I already have!

If only I didn't have to work for the next umpteen days just to put McDonalds in my mouth, I'd be getting even MORE shit done! Shit like coding, writing sleazy and bizarre trash epics, and watching pure garbage on the silver screen, but alas, I have to keep the lights on. In the mean time, keep on truckin' and drinkin' and smokin' or whatever it is that you do to keep sane.

War movie challenge - results!

Congratulations to Ballz, the victor of the war (pun intended) movie challenge. It was a close run combat right until the end with literally just a short movie in it. I have to say it, there were some disappointing showings with at least a couple of desertions (pun intended again). Court-martials will undoubtably ensue.. OK, I will stop now. Here are the results:

Ballz 4,019
Markus-san 3,929
Snowy 1,794
Box 712
Bambi 423
Der 325
Zombie 121

Ballz, I hope you discovered some movies you enjoyed, well.. I know you did! And maybe some movies you didn't enjoy so much but will give a second chance 😉. Hopefully the next challenges will be a little more "active", and I know October usually gets the numbers but sadly it will still be down on previous years I fear. So if you sucked at this one, you know what to do!

Hollywood, 1969!

We've had Once Upon a Time movies for all sorts of things. America, The West, China, Mexico, Venice, and now... Hollywood. Tarantino loves the era, and that's evident in a lot of his works, where he'll showcase grindhouse cinema, kung fu, Italian films, westerns, and whatever else inbetween.

This time, it's all about the behind the scenes for these movies, where we follow the washed up Rick Dalton and his stuntman Cliff Booth as they struggle to find work and relevance in an age of movie-making when Hollywood was breaking all sorts of new ground.

DiCaprio does his best, but he doesn't really have much to do in this movie except act. Brad Pitt steals the show with his ultra cool and extremely laid back persona. Nothing brings this guy down, and somehow, he manages to be very sexy even in his mid-50s. He has some of the best scenes in the movie, even though he's basically doing nothing the whole time, because he's got charisma for days.

Then, we have Margot Robbie shoe-horned into this film as Sharon Tate. She also has nothing to do the entire movie, and for those familiar with the true story of her life, you'll be waiting the entire movie to see how her part connects with the Manson family ordeal, but it's totally worth it, in that unexpected yet typical Tarantino fashion.

A lot of the fun parts of this movie relate to the movies that Rick Dalton stars in, whether he's currently filming them or reflecting back on them. I would totally watch some of those shitty old school movies and tv shows he was in, be it the westerns or Italian sleaze he ends up doing.

The movie has a few major scenes regarding the Manson family hippies and the ranch they dwell in, but it isn't so much about any of that as it is about the era and events around and leading up to that, so don't expect too much historical significance relating that plot, or even Sharon Tate. As said, she really is a mostly pointless character that will hardly if ever interact with our main two characters.

It seems like I'm saying some of these things as if they're detriments to the overall film, but they're not. Somehow, this movie is still rather fascinating as a period piece. It's all about soaking up that late 60s Hollywood atmosphere, and the film does an exceptional job at capturing those vibes. The film also has a phenomenal cast, but with so much of the screentime going to our primary characters, you'll wish you could get a little more out of the other side characters, because there are some awesome actors in this movie.

Most of the time, I was watching the screen rather hypnotically, because Tarantino movies at the very least are always entertaining. There are a few laugh out loud moments, and I basically loved that ending. So what's Tarantino going to do next? It seems rather out of character for him to do that rumored R-rated Star Trek movie, but fuck it. I'd watch it. I'd watch anything this fucker makes.

There are too many posts by this Box of Hair character

And I don't like it! Where's the diversity around here? I want to see other people talking about stuff, and not just that idiot box! Who does he think he is? Some kind of admin?!

This place is all about hospitality! You hear that?! HOSPITALITY!