to heal thy calf

Day 3 of healing my strained right calf.

Oh well.

more swindling

Old Overland Trail (1953)

Rex Allen, Slim Pickens and Leonard Nimoy star in this what could almost be categorized as Really Bad B-western. There was apparently next to no money given to this project. Why make it look real? Film, for the most part, on a sound stage indoors and use generic stock footage and piece it all together to make a fun and enjoyable hour long movie. Uhh, didn't work. The story has Allen as a government investigator getting involved with a government contractor who's using indians and settlers essentially as slave labor to build a railroad. It's a decent enough plot but the filmmaking just fails.

With so many B-westerns,

ya win some, ya lose some . . .

hurtin'

Still hurtin'. Day 2 sidelined with a strained right calf. My best guess is to go for a run or a hike would absolutely not be a good thing. If there's healing to be done, a hike or a run would just prolong that healing, perhaps even make the problem a little worse.

So I keep the heating pad on and try to stay off my feet.

Having a legitimate reason not to be on the trail is actually, in a way, better than not exercising due to just being a lazy bum.

Here She Is

Nancy Drew -- Detective (1938)

This is definitely not Nancy Drew text messaging while wearing a mini-skirt. No, that's the new upcoming Nancy Drew movie. When that opens in theaters, Nancy, in a manner of speaking, will be 69 years old. At least that's how many years it's been since she was first on the silver screen way back before World War II. In 1938 everything was simpler, prim & proper, but still kids could have fun and Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew played the part well.

Having never once read a single sentence of a Nancy Drew book, there's no point in trying to compare the film on the screen to the words in the book. One shouldn't ever do that anyway, for each is its very own entity; there is no law of cinematography that says a movie must be similar to a book. In any case, in Nancy Drew -- Detective, the teen sleuth is busy with her friend Ned solving a case involving a missing benefactor. There isn't a whole lot of substance to the movie which is the case with practically all B-movie serials of the time. That's not to say it's bad but when a film is so short (only about 65 minutes) it should move along faster. This kind of drags a little. Most kids now would find this wicked boring so I'm hoping that kids in 1938 were able to appreciate the time they spent in front of their TV while this played in the old DVD machine, oh wait, ummm, while this was shown on the screen down at the local movie house . . . which probably cost 15¢ for a ticket and 5¢ for popcorn!

muy mal a.k.a. ouch-o

Horrible day!

Seems yesterday mornin' i strained my right calf to the point where it really hurts to walk. I don't get it. Why? All I did was go for a nice two hour hike. Felt fine. Felt great, in fact. Nothing noticeable all day yesterday afterwards. Gettin' up outta bed this mornin', though -- ouch. Not good. No way I can go for a run today. Just no freakin' way. Talk about things that bite -- Dead shows with all kinds of splices and cuts on the master reels, taxes especially raised taxes, crocodiles, grizzly bears, Jaws, a strained right calf muscle.

So I've got it on top of a heating pad. This won't keep me layed up too long but an injury keeping me sidelined even one day is an injury I do not want . . . but I've got so what can I do?

Wait and perhaps a little prayer for some divine healing.

foggy!

When I saw the intense fog this mornin', I knew I couldn't let it go unhiked. There's somethin' so eerily peaceful about a hike in the fog.

Time on the trail: 2 hours 11 minutes

Ministry -- Twitch (1986)

Where You At Now?/Crash And Burn/Twitch
Over The Shoulder
Just Like You
We Believe
All Day Remix
The Angel
My Possession
Over The Shoulder (12" version)
Isle Of Man

Ministry -- The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)

The Missing
You Know What You Are
The Land of Rape and Honey
Deity
Golden Dawn
Destruction
Hizbollah
I Prefer
Flashback
Abortive
Stigmata
+
Jackaroo
Off To Sea Once More -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

Ministry sounds like it might make a great name for a Christian music group. This music isn't satanic or anything ridiculous like that . . . but it's certainly on the opposite end of the spectrum from Christian! What intense music for a dreary morning foggy hike. Awesome stuff! And then to clearly demonstrate my range in musical tastes, a nice Garcia-Grisman double encore!!

Saving the Fish Hatchery

Susanna Pass (1949)

starring: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans & the Riders Of The Purple Sage

Yet another later year B-western gem from screen legend Roy Rogers! Owing great thanks to Republic Pictures, we are treated to a presentation in full TruColor. As far as these types of movies go, this is top notch quality screenwriting, directing, and acting. In between the action and mystery solving, there are the standard western songs and sidekick laughs for good measure, all helping this 65 minutes along. Of course the ultimate outcome has the hero saving the day again.

Interestingly, there's almost a pro-environment feeling about this movie, at least in afterthought. There certainly was in Roy's little speech to the audience at the end of the film. An entire reservoir, used as a fish hatchery, could have been completely decimated in the name of oil. Isn't oil and making money more important than anything else?!? Many would like you to think so . . . but it's not. Roy knew that the answer wasn't DRILL FOR MORE OIL!!! . . . somehow he knew the answer was alternative fuels plus he knew the importance of a fish hatchery, to provide a source of recreation away from the bustle of busier areas, to provide youth a reason to get out in the country, away from the stoplights, Sprawl-marts and $tarbucks. I'm sure a lot of "conservative" Republicans today could very easily look at Roy Rogers as a swell role model. Why, then, aren't most of them conservation-minded when it comes to the environment?

Conservative . . . conserve . . . protect . . . not destroy.
That always boggles my mind.

zilch day

Wasted day. No run. No Hike.

Zilch.

i absolutely HATE going two days in a row without getting outside for movement, for a little exercise, to get the heart rate going. Two days!? 0 minutes. Why can so many able-bodied people go a week with 0 minutes? Many can go a month!? Wow.

Just hope i can get out tomorrow. "can" get out? i WILL get out!!

Nothin' says Appalachia like the Sierra Nevada

The Incredible Journey Of Doctor Meg Laurel

(Made-for-TV 1979)

starring: Lindsay Wagner, Jane Wyman

Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a bad experience with the local, uh, witch doctor. Never did she want others to suffer as she had so she went off to a real medical school in Boston, Masschusetts. Big city traditions in the 1930's dictated that Doctor Meg Laurel couldn't make a man look bad, even if she's right and he's a big doofus. But after Dr. Laurel publicly embarrasses a very important judge, she decides to go and lay low for awhile. She sets off on a journey to her hometown in the Appalachian Mountains in the state of, well, they never told us. Why they didn't tell us, I dunno.

In any case, Dr. Meg arrives with medical supplies in tow, hoping to bring some real medicine to these backwoods hillbillies. That was not such an easy task. The mountain people don't care much for Outsiders and their ways. It's quite a challenge for Doc Laurel. Slowly but surely she's able to reclaim these people as her very own.

Going into this TV-movie, I had high hopes that The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel would be a gem. All I took away from it was a bit of a feeling of what that kind of life was like back in the first part of the 20th century. The mountain people lived, in a bunch of ways, very weird lives compared to how we live in 21st century suburbia. They even lived quite differently than people only a few hundred miles away in big cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philly and NYC. Unfortunately most of the movie just seemed to fall flat. I haven't done any research but I'm guessin' this is truly based on a real-life woman who I'm sure lived quite a remarkable life! Sadly, the story on the screen was kind of unimpressive and a little bland.

On top of it all, the producers completely misrepresented the geography of the Appalachian Mountains (on the Eastern side of America) by filming in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (in the West.) For shame.

zilch day

Oi. Another zero day. No run. No hike.

No excuse.

saving the day . . . again

Riders Of The Rio Grande (1943)

So many B-westerns were made in the 1930's and 40's and many of those leave a lot to be desired. Thankfully there was one company in particular, Republic Pictures, who could be counted on to give us something of decent quality.

Riders Of The Rio Grande features The Three Mesquiteers once again to the rescue. When they ride into town they're quickly mistaken for a gang of outlaws. They roll with it and in the end the real bad guys are all found out.

How many B-westerns were made that are so similar to this? A thousand? More? They only took mere days to film in many cases. It seems like the Encore Westerns channel has a never-ending stream of titles I've never seen . . . and I've seen quite a few! But I just can't get enough. A week without watching one of these is a weak week of movies no matter what else I might see!

escalation...

If I add on only five or ten or twelve seconds, that I planned due to music reasons. An added fifteen seconds is the minimum I usually shoot for; mucho acceptable. An added 20-25 seconds is better. Adding a whole half a minute is, for me, just STUPENDOUS!!! (gotta add a LOTTA emphasis on STUPENDOUS, maybe like a circus ring announcer type of dude. Not just stupendous. Not even STUPENDOUS! More like -- STUUUPENDOUSSS!!!!

72 minutes on the trail . . .

Running Time -- 12 minutes & 30 seconds (+30!!!)

mucho classico:

Allman Brothers Band

self-title debut album (1969)

Don't Want You No More
Trouble No More
Every Hungry Woman
Dreams
Black Hearted Woman
It's Not My Cross To Bear
Whipping Post

Idlewild South (1970)

Revival
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
Hoochie Coochie Man
Please Call Home
Leave My Blues At Home
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Midnight Rider

There isn't much to say about those two albums. They're both just full of incredibly great songs. Once again, listening to such a great hour or so of tunes like this completely makes up for the gobs of mediocre music that I give a spin on occasion.

ABB self-titled debut, grab it from -> Freemusic07
-and-
Idlewild South also from -> Freemusic07

a waste

Dead Men Walk (1943)

I'm quite surprised this film is on DVD. The quality is some of the worst ever shown on Turner Classic Movies. Dead Men Walk truly doesn't deserve to exist. It should never have been made. I should not have watched it.

The story involves a doctor who must stop his twin brother who has returned from the dead as a vampire out to kill, obviously. To continue typing would be a waste of the few minutes more I would spend on this film so I am done . . . just about. It does no one on Earth any good to see this 65 minutes of horrendous moviemaking. One star is probably generous.

zilch day

another zilch day.

no hike. no run.

no excuse.

terror underground

The Cave (2005)

starring: Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Piper Perabo, Morris Chestnut

Scientists call in a group of ultra-expert cave divers to help map a cavern system in the mountains of Romania. A piece of cake and an adventure is what it should have been. No one counted on it being more like hell than anything else.

I had no idea what to expect but what it turned out to be was a quick-paced, semi-interesting horror/suspense flick taking place almost exclusively underground. Like so many movies made in this same layout, we never get to really know who these characters are. The suspense is supposed to make up for that and here in The Cave it does. The action flows along nicely, killing off one person after another but without a whole lot of gore. A lot of the acting is just plain and even bordering on lame. I wasn't bored but neither was I left thinking this is a very good movie. All together everything levels out into a mediocre viewing experience.

Furthest Ever!

I've now officially run further than ever before! Last summer I did around a dozen or so runs of about 10-11 minutes but I'm pretty sure I never reached 12. Now I have!

yet again just about 70 minutes on the trail . . .

running time -- 12 minutes, 0 seconds (+25 from last time)

a lil honkytonk, a lil Dead:

Danni Leigh -- 29 Nights (1998)

Chain Me
I Feel A Heartache Coming On
Weren't You The One
29 Nights
Teardrops, Teardrop
If The Jukebox Took Teardrops
Mixed Up Mess Of A Heart
Touch Me
Beatin' My Head Against The Wall
Ol' Lonesome
How Does It Feel To You

Grateful Dead
5-5-67 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco

He Was A Friend Of Mine
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)->
New Potato Caboose
Alligator

Twas a few years back when I heard a song belonging to Danni Leigh but haven't heard anything since. She's one of those country singers who's come along and made good music but not gotten much mainstream airplay. What does that mean? I dunno. But for some reason it makes me respect her music and music like even more than the run-of-the-mill, Nashville-made, radio-friendly stuff that makes CMT's Top 20 every week. Anyway, really like Danni Leigh, will run with her again eventually!

And here's my 2¢ worth on . . .

Friday, May 5, 1967

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco

Pretty good little (portion of a?) show! Apparently it's not known what the whole setlist consisted of. Luckily four songs, almost 40 years later, exist for us to groove on and enjoy today.

He Was A Friend Of Mine opens this recording on a nice, mellow note. If this was somehow the first song in the show and someone was seeing the Dead for their first time, wow, they'd have no clue what they were in for! Friend Of Mine cuts off near the end and cuts into the band in between numbers, bantering probably under the influence of, well . . . items of interest to those seeking hallucinogenic enlightenment. That fun couple of minutes goes into a nearly lightning fast but sweet Golden Road.

The first notes of New Potato kick in as Golden Road comes to a close and we soon hear Bobby yell out, "This number's for Laughlin."

Now, after a little internet research, I found nothing to tell me definitively who this Laughlin person is. Closest I can figure the name refers possibly to a 60's Bay Area guy named Chandler A. Laughlin a.k.a. Travus T. Hipp.

Back in that era Laughlin helped open the Cabale Creamery on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley. In early '66 the Dead had a show scheduled there but it was cancelled. Later the Cabale became the Questing Beast where the Dead may or may not have rehearsed. Once upon a time a tape was in circulation labeled "Questing Beast" but it's since been determined that those sessions are from another date and location. Interestingly, The Beast closed down on May 9, right about the time the May 5th Fillmore show was thought (but not definitively known) to have taken place . . . uh, except The Beast is said to have closed in '66 (according to http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com) and this show is from '67. Hmmm.

Okay, so perhaps Bobby's shout out to Laughlin is for the following (which appears on http://www.fatchance.org) -- "Chased across the Mexican border twice by the FBI for subversive associations and drugs, and back once by the Federales of that noble nation for somewhat the same reasons, Hipp finally fell afoul the law and was doing a short term of county time when he was bailed out by the legendary Tom Donahue to go to work for KMPX, America's premier FM rock station in 1967."

Until I ask around some more and maybe find out from someone who knows, the true meaning of Laughlin will remain a mystery to me.

In any case, the Golden Road segue into New Potato Caboose is almost as quiet and mellow as He Was a Friend of Mine, really not at all indicitive of what's to come. On a down side, the vocals in the mix are almost lost behind the music, almost a little muddy. Thankfully, it's not the vocals that I'm listening for! Once the lyrics are done with, at about the three minute mark, the song quickly picks up a ton of steam and blasts so well into a cataclysmic atomic shebang. While the vocals aren't all there, the smile on my face along with the feeling I had made me fully aware the music is all there!!!

Alligator rolls forward in a very similar fashion. Once the seemingly half-hidden vocals are out of the way after the first few minutes of the song, the music picks up some intense primitive Dead strength cranking into the final screams of "Allligatorrrrrrrrrrr . . . Alligatorrrrrrr," it's clear what a contrast the last two songs are in comparison to the first.

Great audio quality for the era and seeing as how there's so little '67 Dead to listen to, this is 31 minutes to be nothing less than treasured.

a what?

Yankee Fakir (1947)

After coming into town, a traveling snake-oil salesman, Yankee Davis, (rather quickly) gets involved with the owner of the boarding house he checks into. (This guy was really forward with a woman he only just met!) When the woman's Border Patrol agent father is killed, Yankee sets the wheels rolling to find out who the killer is.

After a whole lot of nothingness, Mr. Davis wraps up the mystery. Getting back to hawking goods on his snake-oil wagon, he's called "Yankee Fakir." Huh?

I know fakir in Turkish means poor or needy.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fakir means:

1) A Muslim religious mendicant.

2) A Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.

Well, Mr. Yankee Davis was seemingly neither Muslim or Hindu. There was nothing religious about him. He wasn't a beggar, either.

So I'm not sure why they used the word "fakir" in the screenplay and in the title. This is not a word used everyday in the American language.

Whatever. One more thing about this film -- it was not a western. Just 'cause it takes place in southern Arizona wayback before automobiles, that doesn't mean it's a western. One again -- whatever. Not a great B-"Western" by any means. Fairly boring, sadly. Definitely below average.

13 more

Just another run . . .

almost 70 minutes on the trail

running time -- 11 minutes, 35 seconds (+13 seconds)

is it country?:

Kim Richey -- Rise (2002)

A Place Called Home
Cowards In A Brave New World
Me And You
Hard To Say Goodbye
Good Day Here
No Judges
This Love
Without You
The Circus Song (Can't Let Go)
Reel Me In
Fading
Girl In A Car
Electric Green
+
I Fell Asleeep At The Grateful Dead Show -- Jones Crusher
Jerry's Gone -- Chad Hollister
Old Hippie Christmas -- The Bellamy Brothers

It's interesting and a little weird to hear someone who doesn't really fit into a particular category of music. Kim Richey's album Rise isn't country, it isn't "alternative," it isn't rock . . . it's an amalgamation of sounds, at times kind of Sheryl Crow-ish, other times Shawn Colvin-ish. In any case, it was pretty good-ish. Most of it isn't that rockin' which makes it fairly ideal for a nice, mellow running pace or late-night driving tunes. I'll definitely revisit her in the future and try some of her other albums.

more spies stealing secrets

The Scarlet Clue (1945)

starring: Sidney Toler (for like the two dozenth time as this character)

World Famous Detective Charlie Chan gets involved in a case dealing with spies stealing radar technology. Number three son and number two assistant help piece together a clue or two and in the end, surprise, Charlie solves the case.

I was pretty sure when watching this that I've indeed seen it before. Of the dozens of Charlie Chan movies I decided to pick one of the few that I've seen in the past. Oh well. Unfortunately there's nothing too special about this but then again I'm not sure there's anything special about any Charlie Chan movie. They all, at least from what I know, seem to be pretty standard fare. Fortunately they're not too bad so even without a whole lotta story to work with, this was an okay hour or so. But the title has absolutely nothing at all to do with the content of the film. Hmmm.

What I'm wondering now, though, isn't it extremely politically incorrect to have a guy from Missouri playing a man from China?

adding on...

Just another run. I'm not really sure that it was just another run 'cause I'm not backing off. To be able to continuously run 26.2 miles is a semi-goal of mine so each time out that I go a little longer is important. Should I never achieve the accomplishment of running a marathon that'll be no big whoop to me, no disappointment whatsoever. Running is still healthy, even if it's just ten minutes a day. In any case, I'm pushing onward...

70 minutes on the trail

running time -- 11 minutes, 22 seconds (up 21 seconds)

post-Veruca Salt:

Nina Gordon -- Tonight And The Rest Of My Life (2000)

Badway
New Year's Eve
Black And Blonde
Tonight And The Rest Of My Life
Now I Can Die
Number One Camera
Horses In The City
The End Of The World
Hold On To Me
Too Slow To Ride
Fade To Black
Got Me Down
Hate Your Way
2003
+
Mason's Children
High Time -- Henry Kaiser, Bob Bralove, Tom Constanten

Good stuff. What a voice! I remember well the great mid-90's song Seether by Veruca Salt. Since then I haven't heard any more by them and never even knew about Nina Gordon until very recently. She hasn't quickly risen to the ranks of my favorite non-Dead music but I'll definitely dload her again.