The opening of Twilight Zone: The Movie is great. Nice touch having Burgess Meredith do the movie's narration. I may lose SyFy in the middle of the marathon due to a dispute between Spectrum and NBC.
Kick the Can directed by Steven Spielberg is the best segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. One character paraphrases Hamlet:"There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough hewn though it may be."
Actual quote: Hamlet, Act V, scene II
HAMLET: Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,--
Sherlock Season 4 starts tomorrow night on PBS.
Cocktail franks and knishes from Knish Nosh.
Amazon cut the price to $24 so I grabbed it. My refund should be about $2,500. But, I pay through the nose all year. I owed over $3,000 last year, and that made me change my withholding's.
From Dec. 31 through early morning of Jan. 3, the 2016 Syfy Twilight Zone New Year’s Marathon will feature 128 classic episodes; the original series contained 156 episodes.
Saw Patterns earlier this week, written by Rod Serling. Everett Sloane was real good. I remembered him from The Fever.
Story was too busy and the movie was a bit of a slog. I would rank it # 5 in the series.
Gifts to myself from a $35 Amazon gift card. Thinking Fast and Slow is in my collection but in storage,I saw the new Magnificent Seven but missed the first five minutes.
Featured in today's NYT crossword. All the days in neat little boxes.
Grand Central Oyster Bar New England Clam Chowder with Flagship Oyster Bay Stout.
A Christmas gift. I would never have bought it for myself but it looks interesting.
2009 was a good year for Château La Tour L'Aspic. A gift of a wine outside of my usual price range.
The Cuizen Pizza Box Oven. Will try it out tonight with a frozen pizza.
A gift to myself.
Benedict Cumberbatch makes a terrific Richard III.
King Henry VI, part III, Act III, scene II:
GLOUCESTER: Ay, Edward will use women honourably.
Would he were wasted, marrow, bones and all,
That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring,
To cross me from the golden time I look for!
And yet, between my soul's desire and me--
The lustful Edward's title buried--
Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,
And all the unlook'd for issue of their bodies,
To take their rooms, ere I can place myself:
A cold premeditation for my purpose!
Why, then, I do but dream on sovereignty;
Like one that stands upon a promontory,
And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,
And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way:
So do I wish the crown, being so far off;
And so I chide the means that keeps me from it;
And so I say, I'll cut the causes off,
Flattering me with impossibilities.
My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much,
Unless my hand and strength could equal them.
Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;
What other pleasure can the world afford?
I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,
And deck my body in gay ornaments,
And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
O miserable thought! and more unlikely
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns!
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb:
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.
And am I then a man to be beloved?
O monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought!
Then, since this earth affords no joy to me,
But to command, to cheque, to o'erbear such
As are of better person than myself,
I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,
And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell,
Until my mis-shaped trunk that bears this head
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I,--like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,--
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down.
The famous "Warriors come out to play" scene was improvised by David Patrick Kelly in collaboration with Walter Hill who told him to just "come up with something" when he felt the scripted scene wasn't working. He then gathered up some empty beer bottles he found under the board walk and created the taunting dialogue based on a neighbor who used to intimidate him.
Great chapter in American Ulysses on the siege of Vicksburg.
Christmas decoration by a co-worker. Today is a shopping day. Doing the Christmas markets, trying to get the last few presents. This year I did a lot of on-line orders. I am also giving out a bit of cash. I am looking forward to my usual New England Clam chowder and beer at the Grand Central Oyster Bar.
Not quite re-gifting but I do some questionable things. Like: reading the books I give as gifts, hint - be careful and read it without leaving traces; getting Starbucks gift cards and accumulate points for free coffee for myself, hint - you have to purchase the gift cards via your registered Starbucks card.
A little San Gennaro in Queens. Great sausage hero.
A Fried Oreo is a Zeppole with an Oreo inside.
The Shop Around The Corner was on TCM on-demand. I had seen the Broadway show She Loves Me, so I figured I would watch the original. I really liked Frank Morgan and Joseph Schildkraut. I remembered Joseph Schildkraut from The Twilight Zone: The Trade-Ins and Deaths-Head Revisited.
First snow of the season last night. About 3 inches.
