{"id":815,"date":"2010-08-24T08:18:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T13:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=815"},"modified":"2010-08-24T21:48:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T02:48:25","slug":"crazy-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2010\/08\/crazy-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Crazy People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, 21 August 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we went to my parents-in-law\u2019s house. This marked Isla\u2019s longest car ride and, apart from a visit to the midwife, her first time in another home. More importantly, it was her first time meeting her cousins Lyric and Asa. Actually, it was the first time Jennifer, Owen, and I had met Asa, too (he was just born earlier this month).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, when Isla was born, the midwife said she looked like a girl (she was referring to the dainty features of Isla\u2019s face, and not to the more obvious girl-looking areas). I wasn\u2019t really sure what the midwife meant at that time \u2013 to me, babies just look like babies and I have a tough time ascertaining gender based on facial features alone (at least until they start shaving).<\/p>\n

But today, seeing Isla up next to her boy cousin Asa, man, I gotta say: that kid looks like a boy. Sorry I can\u2019t be more precise than that, but he just had the look of a boy and, seeing my daughter next to him, she did<\/em> look like she has girl\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as you can imagine, there was all sorts of photography going on; what with two babies getting together and all four cousins being there along with the grandpa and grandma and great-grandma. My dad-in-law commented that it was like the paparazzi in his living room with all the flashes going off. I shot some video, too.<\/p>\n

ISLA WITH HER NEW COUSIN:
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Sunday, 22 August 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

I submitted four articles to The Humanist<\/a> <\/em>some months ago, and the editor wrote back saying she was interested in publishing two of them, only she wanted to mash them together into a single article. I told her this was fine, and she sent me a draft of the conjoined articles. I responded with a few suggestions. Six suggestions, actually, and she decided to go with five of my six suggestions. A couple of days ago, I received the magazine in the mail, and I felt quite please with myself to see my article on page 36. I posted on Facebook telling people to go check it out at their local library or bookstore, but I\u2019ve since discovered that the article is also available online. So, READ IT HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, I wrote this article<\/a> for The Minnesota Atheist <\/em>(MNA<\/em>). It\u2019s actually a little long for MNA<\/em>, so I may shorten it for the paper edition, but I\u2019m gonna submit this article to a few places, too.<\/p>\n

Monday, 23 August 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

This morning, I watched the last half of the movie Psycho II<\/em><\/a> (I\u2019d watched the first half a few days ago). In case you don\u2019t know, this is the sequel to Psycho<\/em>. It was made 22 years after the first film, by witch time Hitchcock was dead. It\u2019s safe to say, I think, that there was really no need for this movie, and that Hitchcock had no intention of ever filming a sequel to Psycho<\/em> (or any of his films, for that matter).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really a fan of sequels. I hate the way they sully the memory of the original. They\u2019re almost always disappointments \u2013 tacked on stories out for a quick buck once it was realized that the original made more money than expected. All sorts of great films have had lousy sequels made \u2013 and I would list them off here, but I think there are already a good number of lists of bad sequels to great films elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But, I feel compelled to admit: Psycho II<\/em> was a rather good flick. I mean, it was worth the watch. In fact, I\u2019ll even go so far as to say that if you\u2019ve seen Psycho<\/em>, then go ahead and rent the sequel. It\u2019s fun. Oh \u2013 and if you haven\u2019t seen Psycho<\/em>, what\u2019s wrong with you? Put it on your Netflix queue and bump it up to #1.<\/p>\n

Psycho II <\/em>owes a deep debt to Hitchcock, a fact they graciously admit in the closing credits. Perkins reprises his role as Bates and is, again, brilliantly creepy, unsure, just plain mad. The music, while not as inspired as the first, is well done. The cinematography is reminiscent of the original and just as cool. It employs two of the great tricks of the master: first, the camera moves from one place to another to heighten the emotion. When characters are scared or confused, the camera rises up and we look down on the players from a bird\u2019s eye view. In one particularly inspired bit of camera work, the camera pans out of the attic window as we watch Norman looking out; it then tilts straight down and head \u2013 in a single shot \u2013 for the cellar window. It\u2019s at the same time disorienting and clever. The camera also takes the place of the characters\u2019 eyes from time to time, another homage to the original. This is pure Hitchcock \u2013 nothing puts you into the action like sitting behind the actors\u2019 pupils.<\/p>\n

My favorite scene was near the end. Norman kills Ms. Spool. The scene was so jolting and well executed that I had to rewind the film and watch it again. In the days before digital manipulation, I was amazed at how precise the scene was. I can\u2019t imagine how many takes it took to get that scene just right.<\/p>\n

Still, the film has its detractions. The first two minutes of the film is simply a clip from the first film. And, predictably, it\u2019s the famous shower scene. Out of place, and at the start of the film, the scene loses all meaning and becomes simply a murder scene. Other scenes in the film, while not using the same footage, are nonetheless exact copies of the original. Boring. And some things are just a bit too contrived \u2013 Norman is released from a mental hospital after being in the for over 20 years, and his doctor sees no problem in letting him return to his creepy home where all his problems first started. The home itself is so troubling for Norman that he can\u2019t even go into some of the rooms. Then there\u2019s the young woman who knows Norman\u2019s past, yet still decides to stay in his house with him for several days. She and Norman even spend a night in the same room, where Norman stands guard\u2026with a knife. Why is she risking her life like that? Oh, there\u2019s a reason, but it\u2019s a lousy reason.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the case of the film showing us what\u2019s about to happen. In the original, I enjoyed when the camera took viewers aside, as if to say, \u201cbut what about this?\u201d That\u2019s great film-making, but this sequel, instead, tries to say: \u201cguess what\u2019s gonna happen!\u201d Yes, yes, I am guessing, but don\u2019t make it so obvious. The worst offense is when Norman offers a guest some tea, and then we see him reach into the cabinet and grab the tea\u2026and the poison. Come on. That scene would\u2019ve been so much better had I not known for sure if he was going to poison his guest or not.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line: B+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, 21 August 2010 Today we went to my parents-in-law\u2019s house. This marked Isla\u2019s longest car ride and, apart from a visit to the midwife, her first time in another home. More importantly, it was her first time meeting her cousins Lyric and Asa. Actually, it was the first time Jennifer, Owen, and I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}