Berlin – Part 1
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013
I had trouble convincing everyone in my family to go to Berlin. Part of the problem was a pesky travel agent who told my Mom and Diana that there was no reason to go there, that only the southern portions of the country were scenic. I knew that it wasn’t going to ‘beautiful’ there, but still was desperate to make the trip (having arrived too late in Germany when I visited in 2008 to see Berlin with the Wileys). Basically, the bulk of what was on my bucket list could be found in Berlin. Admittedly, this had more to do with American history – or at least things that Americans had been involved with. Thankfully, eventually I was able to sway everyone into making the trip, even if it wasn’t scenic and it was roughly six or seven hours away from our home base in Trippstadt. By the time it was over, I think everyone concurred that it was a most important city to tour. Read the rest of this entry »
I must caution you that if you’re going to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, ignore the hype that surrounds it and don’t expect some over-the-top exciting science fiction extravaganza. That was what I did the first time, and I came away sorely disappointed wondering why nothing exciting ever happened in this film. Years later, I re-visited it, now knowing that there was nothing earth-shattering that took place in the film, but still knowing full-well that it had been critically acclaimed. After this second viewing, I came away loving the film – amazed at its depth and beauty, understanding how cool the special effects really were, even though on the surface there appeared to be none. 
Poltergeist is one of the greatest of all horror films, because it gets the bulk of its scares from general creepiness, jump-inducing surprises, and horrifying imagery. It seldom relies on any sort of gore or violence – and even managed to pull off a PG rating, so I could justify showing this film to Ashleigh and Briana when they were quite young. But there is one scene that involves a bit of gore, and it is that disgusting, disturbing scene that ultimately comes to mind whenever I think about the film Poltergeist. As you might guess from the photo above, it is the scene in which the young parapsychologist Marty hallucinates that he rips off his own face in front of a mirror. 
As some previous postings have mentioned, a recent Horrorhound Weekend show in Indianapolis was comprised mostly of actors and actresses from the Halloween franchise – which all centered around the appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis at the show. I attended on Saturday, November 17, 2012, and was happy to take advantage of meeting the bulk of those present. You’ve already seen the postings on