Thursday Movie Picks-Sci-Fi Horror

This is the week where I will get scared to death by seeing all the Alien and Predator movies. I still can't watch any Alien film because it just scares the bejeebies out of me. I went old school again....really old school because I love silent films. Head on over to the brainchild of this series, Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the other film lovers have chosen.

1. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE-1920

I said I would go old school and this film is 96 years old so...very old school and yes, silent. I actually just watched this film on Monday since I was crippled up and home from work. I think we all know the story about a nice, handsome, good man who is a doctor engaged to a loving young woman. He becomes intrigued and then obsessed with the duality of human nature...good and bad that is inherent in all of us. He concocts a potion that can bring out the evil part of his nature resulting in Mr. Hyde. This is the film that freaked audiences out way back when and made this story famous. John Barrymore of (hiccup) theatre and film fame( and alcoholism) stars as the famous doctor and he plays it to his hammiest best. I did laugh a little when he was changing into Hyde but that was his style. His makeup as Hyde is truly stellar and you can see the human in the evil Hyde. It co-stars the pretty and tragic Martha Mansfield( she died while making a movie, in 1923, when her costume caught fire) and the temptress Nita Naldi. Oh...yes, Drew Barrymore is related to John...it's her grandfather. There are tons of versions of this classic.

2.  THE DEVIL DOLL-1936

When I was a teen, I was home alone for the weekend and my home was large and creaky. It was close to Halloween and my imagination was getting the better of me. I did not feel like watching The Omen or the many scary movies that were on. I watched the Love Boat but now I was stuck about what to do. I turned to Saturday Night At The Movies hosted by the great Elwy Yost and found this film. Lionel Barrymore, brother of John,  stars as a wrongly convicted man who escapes prison with a mad scientist(of course). The Mad scientist dies but not before showing Lionel's character his invention of making humans smaller. The reason....to try to stop the food sources from disappearing. The "innocent" convict decides to use this on the people who actually did the bad deed. I love this movie as it made me forget that Sasquatch could be looking through the living room window and enjoy Lionel Barrymore's performance especially since he plays an old lady in much of this film which is a hoot to see. This is a fun movie and love the effects considering this was made in the 1930's.

3. THE FLY-1958

This is the original  that made many people go...ewwwwwww. It stars David Hedison as a loving scientist, with a wife and young son, who is developing a way to transport his body from one place to another. He is successful with inanimate objects and proceeds to try this on their poor cat and then finally himself. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize a fly is in the box with him and they change matter so he ends up with the head and arm of the fly. He informs his wife not to look under the towel over his head and search for the fly so he can reverse the process (She doesn't listen and takes the towel off of course). His mind slowly becomes that of the fly and he asks his wife to end his suffering. It co-stars Vincent Price and I was fine with this movie until the very end when they find the fly...in a spider web. I can never hear "Help Me" quite the same way again. This film was remade with Jeff Goldbloom and was parodied by the Simpsons.

I went all mad scientist this week. What films would you choose?

Lovey-Dovey

I'm a bit late.....bad pain but I am still posting about our next in line pussy cat. This is our adorable Jade who is named after my wonderful niece. We got Jade before we got Mia but she is younger so that's why she is the fourth post in my family saga of fur babes.

We first heard about our cat, Jade, when we read a story about a cat that was left behind by university students in their former apartment. The cat was left to die which is disgusting and just shows that there should be more rules before anyone can adopt. We called about this cat but she was already adopted out but that is when we heard about a group of kittens also left behind by students. The kittens were so starved for food that they were eating crayons!  My hubby jumped at the chance to rescue one of these and he named her Jade after my niece. A few days later, a lady from the cat rescue place brought her to us and we just fell in love.

She is our lover....she loves and loves and loves. Now Naddie and Lucy looked at her and wanted nothing to do with her...Naddie just walked away but Lucy would hiss at poor Jade. Jade took instantly to...Katie, my wonderful black lab who would lick her but only when I was not looking. If I was looking at the 2 of them, Katie would feign disinterest which made me laugh. Jade never cared, she would lick Katie and then sit beside her.  Jade also loves hugs and being snuggled so she always climbs up on us when we are watching tv and head butts us for about 5 minutes and then proceeds to licks us with her sand paper tongue. She often will sit on my hubby, either his chest or his legs and feel very much at home. He can't move for the rest of the night otherwise it would disturb her:). When Katie passed away, she was lost and would go to Katie's bed and sniff it and meow and then lay down in the middle of it. Jade got better and moved on To Wallace our current phobic dog. She will lick and lick and lick him which he loves and you know that those 2 did some porn which I wrote about quite a while ago.

The one thing she does which irritates us are her claws. When you pick her up she comes right to you to snuggle but she puts her claws into you so deep you realize she might be an S & M cat. She has ruined a few sweaters and tops of mine by pulling the strings on the shoulder of my clothing and embedding her claws into my skin. She also loves to sleep on top of my chest in the morning since she is hungry and is awaiting her tuna. She is our sweetie pie...

NAME-Jade
AGE: 8 years
NICKNAME- Jay-Jade, little one, muess-muess, snookums, Sandpaper Sally
LOVES- Wallace, licking everyone and then batting them with her  paw, tuna, tuna, tuna. Sitting in boxes, under trees, in bags...
TOYS- not much...just wants to snuggle

Thursday Movie Picks-Monsters but no vampires, werewolves, zombies or aliens

When we think of movie monsters, we normally go to vampires, werewolves and zombies...Oh My! We also pick aliens but this week we are to steer clear of these and choose other movie monsters. Now I know I could go directly to King Kong, Godzilla, dinosaurs etc... but I decided to go all 1950's since that decade just loved horror films dealing with atomic bombs or man playing God which resulted in strange monsters. This weekly film series is the brainchild of Wandering Through The Shelves where you find out the theme and pick 3 films that correlate to that theme. Head on over to her blog to check out what the others have chosen...here are my 3

1. THEM-1954

A little girl found lost in the desert is found and, the police know they are in trouble when she starts screaming,"THEM". Due to atomic testing, ants grow to be gigantic and start finding fresh food....people. With the help of the police, a scientist and his pretty daughter and the FBI, they kill the colony but they realize that 2 queens escaped and headed to L.A......of course. To stop the colony from growing, they head over to LA to save the city. Believe it or not, Santa Claus, I mean, Edmund Gwenn, from Miracle on 34th Street, co-stars in this film. It's actually pretty good and it started the craze of these big monsters ready to do damage.

2. TARANTULA-1955

This movie really freaked me out when I was a kid and, of course, I watched it more than once which resulted in nightmares that I had many times and still do! In fact, I dream this same dream with the tarantula coming over a golf course towards my dad and myself and my dad is trying to outrun the spider in the car we are in. The last time I had this dream was 3 months ago and I have been having this dream for over 40 years. So, the plot is about a scientist who decides to play God by fiddling with growth hormones to increase the world's food supply. He works on animals that become huge including a tarantula but he also works on his own assistants who keep dying. Before the one dies, he tries to destroy the lab which sets the spider free. The new assistant to the mad scientist, a pretty lass, comes to help and teams up with the local Doctor to destroy this spider. I'm getting shivers just writing this so I am stopping. Watch for a very young Clint Eastwood in a role of a young soldier.

3. ATTACK OF THE KILLER SHREWS-1959

Oh this is a silly one where a group of scientists on a remote island have been playing around with shrews as test subjects in an attempt to make humans small to help stop food from becoming scarce. Of course, the scientist goofed and made mean nasty huge shrews who now want to eat the humans. Yes, there is a pretty assistant in the mix. You can tell dogs were used with some sad looking coats on top of their back to make them look like killer shrews....oh and their bite is poisonous. How will they escape the island? OK The trailer is fun to watch because it shows, at the end this cool cat...not part of the movie:)


Bonus pick

TO CATCH A KILLER-1992

go ahead 38 seconds to see the preview

What could be a worse monster than man himself. We hear about it every day on the news and there are many shows dealing with people who kill others, destroy animals, lives and the planet. I chose this TV  Miniseries which was very chilling and Brian Dennehy is brilliant in this role as John Wayne Gacy. This monster, who was even cited by Nancy Reagon for bringing happiness to kids in hospitals as a clown, was responsible for the rape, torture and murder of over 30 young men.  The acting is powerful and I felt great unease watching this film. At one point, Dennehy was able to master this look, as if he were hypnotized, before wishing to kill this unsuspecting victim, only to "come out of it" and tell the man to leave. I have experienced this look when I was little and it gave me chills to see it again.

What movie monster would you choose? Mothra anyone? How about Gamera? Any Ray Harryhausen fan?

Tag! You're It:)

I joined a challenge which is to make a Christmas tag each week for the next 12 weeks. I have done my first 3 and have enjoyed this immensely:) This is the brain child of the Funky Junkie which I recently found and felt very inspired by her own tags that she created. I decided to CASE her since I love her creations. She also has her own store, The Funkie Junkie Boutique. You should check it out because there are a lot of neat things to buy. which you can see if you pop over. I hope it's ok to showcase the first 3 in one post as I am catching up.

Here is my first tag.

Funkie Junkie (check out her first card here) created a tag using stars, trees and sky so I created my own unique take on her tag. I took a dark blue tag ( my hubby bought a bunch from the Dollar store and gave them to me last Christmas which I am now using:). I sponged on some Burlap colour from the distress inks. I stamped the musical notes in black as well as the background trees. I stamped the front tree in the burlap colour and fussy cut the tree out and adhered it to the tag. I took  a star stencil ( say that 10 times fast) and used a textured paste that I coloured up with gold to produce the starry sky. It turned out pretty nice I think.

Here is the 2nd

I loved The Funkie Junkie's tag so I paid homage to her tag by using the same tree stamp, that I used in my first tag, for the background in a hunter green and stamped the ornaments in red. I stamped the reindeer in brown and fussy cut her out and glued her to the front. I took a scrap of paper(I only have a few thousand of these scraps), stamped & embossed the saying and popped it onto the tag.

And my 3rd

I saw this last night and even though it was late, I felt inspired by the Funkie Junkie's 3rd tag where she created something really pretty. To see her 3rd tag, just look at it here. Music notes and birdies were the inspiration so I used a new stamp I recently bought for $1!  I coloured my birdie stamp in turquoise and gold (using Wink of Stella) and then did the fussy cut. (sounds like a new dance craze). I took a tag and put black ink all over it with the round foam tool. I took gold stickers and created the music as a background. I placed the birdie on with pop up dots, glued on an antique ribbon which I placed to the side and used my punch to create the leafy design. Now I am all caught up and enjoyed every minute of it.

I have made a ton of cards which I hope to show more as the week progresses. It's such a pain to download all the pictures and combine them with the challenges. It can take a couple of hours! I could use my valuable time watching TV instead:)

Fatty Watty

This is the fourth cat that we adopted but she is next in line age wise, so this is why she is next. Mia....what can I say about our Mia except that she is a unique psycho..um, I mean cat. How did we find this special bundle of cellulite joy?  There was a business that catered to all things stamping and I would always be in there any chance I could since I love making cards. The owners, a married couple, belonged to a cat rescue society who would open their arms to many cats and people knew it. A friend of theirs lived in Niagara On The Lake and her next door neighbours were taking care of this cat that they no longer wanted since this cat was actually their son's. He no longer wanted the cat because he was getting married and the cat was in the way. I knew we already had 3 cats and that was enough but this cat was being chucked aside and was already an adult so the chance of this cat being adopted was doubtful.  Yes, I made the decision and said yes to the cat. We were told she was affectionate and got along great with other cats and dogs .....Da..da dum, dumb.

When the parents came to bring us the cat, the father couldn't wait to get rid of her. We opened the cat door and she went right under the bed... it took some time for her to come out from under her secure place but she did. Now to say she is slightly overweight is an understatement, she is one fat cat!( We inherited her this way). When we open a can for her, her eyes dilate in a sort of ecstasy kind of way and she sits by her dish waiting for food. One night, we heard a  Crack and Bang and saw her walk with the cat door around her waist. We soon realized that she hates all the other cats and the dog and routinely hisses at them if they are near her. She will hiss at us if we try to move her which is a feat in itself since she is quite the load. She will eat the other cats' food, guard her area and not let the other cats in and she is so fat that, to clean her ass, she drags her ass along our white carpet leaving a streak that one only sees on men's underwear. We have routinely shaved her butt and clean it and keep her away from the other cats' food. We try to exercise her but she just looks at us  and then flops down to be petted.

Even with her psycho ways, she loves to be near us and be petted and is a loving if not the fat...um, black sheep of the family.

NAME-Mia
AGE- 9 years
NICKNAMES-Mama Mia, Fatty Watty, Fat Swan, Psycho, the termite
LOVES-being with her human parents, licking our hands then biting them. Licking and purring even when getting shaved. Being petted, eating, eating, eating. Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.
FOOD- Any food, anytime, anywhere. Caught her eating dog food once
TOYS- laser...when she can move, my foot.

Thursday Movie Picks-Witches/Warlocks

It's October which means things can be spooky....or not:) in Canada we will be celebrating a thanksgiving this weekend. This means we overeat, see family we can only wish to see once a year and don't do much else. Thankfully, my hubby and I decided to just be home with each other and enjoy a nice turkey dinner. This week it's all about Witches and Warlocks which I love, mainly in comedy and, in fact, one of my favourite T.V. shows is Bewitched. Don't we all wish we could do what Samantha and Endora could do. Darrin was a real fudge actually and wanted his wife home in the kitchen.... I 'd be turning him into a chimp as well.  So here are my three picks and, to see what the others have chosen, head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to enjoy more picks.

1. I MARRIED A WITCH-1942

I always liked this film despite Veronica Lake and her hair(peek-a-boo). It is sweet yet has a sense of the spookiness about it. It's all about a witch and her warlock dad who are burned at the stake by the head of the town and buried under a tree to keep their spirits captive.  They condemn the head of the town and all his male descendants to marry very bad women. Now we are brought to present day and the witch and her warlock dad are released from the Tree when lightening strikes it. They meet the descendant of the man, who condemned them from way back when, and the witch  wants to get even. Somehow she ends up drinking a love potion and falls for him. Mayhem ensues when she loses her powers and her dad is not at all happy with his daughter. This film was one of the inspirations for Bewitched. It is fun, bewitching and funny.

2. BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE-1958

This Stars James Stewart, my favourite actor,  as a publisher who becomes involved with a witch played by the lavender blonde, Kim Novak. She is enchanted by him and decides to use a love potion on him but doesn't think that she would actually fall for him which she does. It is a fun movie which was also another inspiration for Bewitched. I love the cat in this movie and Jack Lemmon plays the warlock brother to Kim Novak. A fun film that is quite the romance as well.

3. PRACTICAL MAGIC- 1998

This is not an amazing film but it's one that I can watch over and over for some reason. It stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as 2 sisters who love each other even though they are very different from one another. Sandra is the goody two shoes and Nicole is the bad ass who gets involved with the wrong guy. There is a curse they must deal with which has any man they fall in love with die. That must be a bummer for the man. It is nicely acted and funny in parts with a really nice town I would love to visit...if it exists. It is a nice entertaining film that doesn't require much thought but is fun to watch.


Must include...

Can you think of a warlock or witch movie?

Meet Lucy

Lucy, is our second cat......yes, she is named after Lucille Ball but, no, she does not have orange fur.  Hubby and I met 10 years ago and knew we were it and that was...that. I had a dog and hubby had a cat-Naddie whom I spoke of last week. I am a dog person and never thought of myself as a cat person, in fact, I have to admit I found the "I Hate Cat Calendars" quite funny. So 2 weeks into our relationship, my hubby introduced me to a new pussy cat he had picked up at the local pet store and he named her Lucy. I ...was nervous...now he has, gulp, 2 cats and this one seemed to just love being into our business.

Lucy was the runt and hubby fell in love with her when he saw her in the pet store because, although she was knocked off her perch by another cat, she went right back up and knocked the bigger cat down. With success, she started to licked her paws in victory. Since then, Lucy broke a mirror and a crystal glass that was a set of 2 given to my parents way back in the early 60's. She loves to climb and feel above you...in every sense of the word. I can say she can be a real bitch! She is the one that, when you are writing, she must walk right on top of the keys and then lay down demanding to be stroked and petted. If you tell her no and send her on her way, she does this certain meow that is ever so snippy and means she is giving us the middle finger. In fact, when my mom was still with us, living in the upstairs apartment, she turned off the kitchen light and heard Lucy jump off the chair (that my mom made comfortable for her by the window), trot over to my  mom and meow in demand. My mom turned on the light, Lucy trotted back to the window only to do an about face when my mom, once again, turned off the light. Lucy informed my mom, in no uncertain meows, that the light must stay on....my mom behaved and kept the light on.

Lucy is very affectionate when she wants to be, lets us know with her meows when we are not being her dutiful servant and takes off and hides the moment someone else enters her palace....she does not want to be disturbed. She is quite pretty, thin and doesn't eat much...the perfect model-thank God she can't throw a cell phone.  Her lover is Naddie and the rest be dammed! There are many stories about our Lucy but I shall save them for another day.

Name: Lucy
Age: 10 Years
Nickname: Lucykins, Diva, Bitch
Loves: To groom and groom; placing one nail inside your nose if you don't do what she wants; be the centre of attention on her terms; Be brushed-she seems to go into ecstasy...a little disturbing; The outside but only on our yard.
Food: Picky, Picky, Picky-she's a model....model.
Toys: Rolled up paper ball, The laser. pencils, pens, eyeglasses (ughh)

Who can relate to a model cat?