Lana the Dog and Alien: Covenant

Thanks for coming back! I've been gone a long time, because of a stubborn chest cold and work overload.

So a few quick things:

--Lana has been saved! Thanks to those of you who told me you went to the shelter's Facebook page!

--Looks to be like the Trump administration--and I do mean all of them--have been to brunch with Russia, if you catch my drift. We can impeach a guy who slept with an intern, but not a guy who for years has been in bed with the Russians? It'll get uglier before it gets better, and I'm not sure I want Mike Pence at the con, either. Maybe if it's proved the entire election was rigged, they all go, and we do it all over again. The proof is there. Someone just has to type it up. Where's Woodward and Bernstein when we need them?

--And Jared Kushner is yet another thug in an expensive suit. He and all of his brothers-in-law.

--Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, which I just saw today, is a visually stunning film of bleh! I'm really upset about how he chose to deviate from Prometheus's sense of ideological wonder and instead delve into monomaniacal domination, which we've seen plenty of times before. I'm also angry about what he did with Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw character, an awesome, riveting, strong women who deserved a helluva lot better than this. Like her, I also wanted to know about the Engineers, and about why they created, and then wanted to destroy, us. You'll see why we're now never going to know. Why would a very talented director waste so much time making a visual but morose film? And the captain...I swear, he must be the dumbest character this side of Friday the 13th movies. After seeing lots of death and destruction and aliens, he actually peers inside a hatching alien cocoon for several long moments. Deserved what he got, though Ridley Scott made him suffer for way too long, after he asked David, the Synthetic, philosophically, about what he believed in. Odd last question. Watch Prometheus again and skip this one.

Saving animals; TerrorCon, and Linda Blair

Photo: Linda Blair and an unshaved fan.  You can still see the little girl from The Exorcist in her face.

Not too much to say here, except that some time ago I was fortunate enough to go to TerrorCon and to get my picture taken with Linda Blair and a few others, as well as with many Jaws props.  (In blogs to come.)

In case you didn't know, Linda Blair was Regan in The Exorcist, still one of the best (and creepiest) horror films ever made.  (Though I am seemingly amongst the minority who sees Ridley Scott's Prometheus as a masterpiece.  I saw it again last night [or this morning, depending on your POV] and was still jolted a few times.  Every time I see it I get something new, important, and scary out of it.  How many films can you say that about?)  A blog entry to come will be about The Exorcist, as well, so stay tuned.

I don't have anything new to add about Linda Blair's filming of The Exorcist.  If you're reading this, you're probably a fan of the film, and if you're a fan of the film you already know that the really bad lines to come out of Linda Blair's mouth was over-dubbed by Mercedes McCambridge (though initially said by Blair), and that she didn't know the meaning of what she was saying most of the time.  She was a down-to-Earth kid (so much so that William Friedkin, the director, was a little surprised by the directness of her answers during their interview) and she had a good time during filming.  She did, and didn't, like the incredible attention she received afterwards.  And, of course, she was never able to repeat such a success.  (Though who could?)

And so I just want to take a moment and mention a cause she and I have in common, as I promised her I would, and I am a man of my word.  We talked a bit about adopting animals (I have a greyhound, as you may know, who was left in a cage for two years)...

...and she mentioned that she had just bought many acres of land to use to house and treat abused and neglected animals.  She takes in dogs and cats and other animals who have been abandoned, left to die, abused and/or neglected, and she gives them a safe haven and the best health care available.  It's her Worldheart Foundation.  Read about it at http://www.lindablairworldheart.org/ 

Give, if you can.  And report those who abuse and neglect animals.

Have a nice fourth, everyone.