Vanishing act

 

Here's another fun thing. I got a copy of Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes from the library. As it turned out, the disc that actually held the movie on it was damaged and wouldn't play on my VCR. But I found the movie on Dailymotion so was still able to watch it.

The main story is pretty exciting and clever. Not only, per the title, is someone kidnapped. She disappears, and no one but the heroine will even credit that she was there. One interesting factor is that most people aren't in on the conspiracy. They just don't want to get involved.

The side characters of Charters and Caldicott were so popular that, even though Hitchcock never used them again, they got their own film series. You can see why.

Ah, kids

 

Syndicated comics are in a sorry state. Newspapers will only give them a postage stamp worth of space for art. Bill Watterson fought against the trend, of course, but he's long gone. Most strips are done by faceless interns, the original creators being retired or expired. Anyone creative would prefer to be their own boss by putting a PayPal link under their webcomic.

Luckily, Will Henry, the artist and writer of Wallace the Brave, seems not to have heard about any of this. He creates beautiful, off-kilter artwork for his strip, apparently in the faith that somebody somewhere will appreciate it. And while Wallace isn't as fascinating a character as young Calvin, it's really more of an ensemble piece.

Plus, the strip takes place in South County, where Henry is from, so it's another bit of Rhode Island pride.

More voices in the choir

 While I could maybe address this in the comments, I thought it might be worth exploring why I posted a particular guest from Penn and Teller: Fool Us a few days ago. A female guest, as it happens. And that's significant because, well, how many female stage magicians do you hear about, anyway? The field seems to be heavily slanted towards the wand, with the top hat hardly getting a chance to shine at all.[/Freud] Women are free to do the kind of magic that gets you burned at the stake, but otherwise...I don't know, is it considered cheating to have boobs when you do sleight of hand?

Samuel Johnson, wise in most cases, is reported to have said, "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." While the apparent sexism isn't in fashion now, the tenet that certain things can be dismissed as novelty for novelty's sake still gets a lot of play. But I don't entirely agree. And for certain, I think it's worth paying attention to when people do something or create something that they're not really expected to on a demographic basis. Like when black musicians play in genres that tend to be considered "white." (country, heavy metal, punk, etc) It's interesting to see how they do things differently, or don't do them differently for that matter.

Perro y gato

So there's a dog and a cat in this Spanish short. Their hipster owners smoke half a joint, then go out without roaching it. The dog and cat get high and then...

Well, I doubt that second hand cannabis smoke would have much of an effect unless they were really close. Certainly not the hallucinations seen here, not without some strong additives. In general, though, don't leave stuff burning in your apartment when you go out.

Guessing game

 Not sure if Penn in this clip actually has the answer right as to what this British magician did to get the right answer in her mentalist act. His hypothesis is kind of wordy. Well, that's to be expected. What he seems to be saying is that she listened to the crowd response, which could work but could also lead her astray. I was thinking that each block maybe was filed a certain way so as to make a certain identifiable sound?

The drift

Tokyo Drifter, directed by Seijun Suzuki, is a 1967 Japanese gangster movie. Actually, though, it's a Western. 

Phoenix Tetsu is an ex-Yakuza. The "ex" is because his boss has gone straight, and he's gone along straight with him and is trying to honor that. Rival Yakuza want to take over the nightclub that they run, but really what they seem to want is to make Tetsu fall.

It's not really a plot-heavy movie. The colors are more the point. There are a lot of them, and hairpin edits, weird visual touches. Revolving around a discotheque, it takes a certain infectious pride in its artificiality.

 

One state over

 Kate was lucky, as far as servants go. Her master and mistress were wealthy., and she lived a comfortable life working for them. The last thing she would want would be to jeopardize her job with them and be cast out on the streets for some bizarre ailment she'd become afflicted with that couldn't be explained. Rather than risk losing her job and the life she'd grown accustomed to, and realizing that the attacks were increasing in intensity and frequency and could no longer be hidden, Kate may have consciously chosen to blame it on a couple of women she knew her masters didn't get along with. Or maybe she truly believed she was bewitched; it didn't take much to make one believe such a thing in those days. At any rate, Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disborough were brought to trial, and the entire community became involved in the outcome.

Preceding is a passage from Haunted Connecticut: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Constitution State.

The Stamford Witch Trials of 1692 have very much been overshadowed by those occurring in Salem, Massachusetts to the north in the same year. In terms of inherent drama, this is understandable. Still, the Connecticut trials were pretty fascinating in themselves. What distinguishes them is the relatively happy ending that resulted. Innocent people were accused and convicted, but they weren't put to death. In fact the people of Stanford, or at least enough of them to make a difference, seem to have concluded that this system of accusation and punishment was no longer right for the society they wanted to build. Witch trials were discontinued.