Sunday, June 25, 2017

Post-Friday Beast Blogging: The Mutual of Omaha Edition

SHADOW: We should cull her.

MOONDOGGIE: We should what to who?

SHADOW: Look at her limping around like that! She's sick and injured! We should totally cull her from the herd.

MOONDOGGIE: What herd? There's only two of them.

SHADOW: And there's two of us! That makes it a fair fight...

MOONDOGGIE: I'm not culling anybody. I don't even know what "cull" means.

SHADOW: It means we're predators, and we do what predators do: we predate! Or maybe we postdate. I'm not sure...Anyway, it has something to do with writing a check.

MOONDOGGIE: I'm confused...

SHADOW: You're confused?! How do you think I feel? I was raised by you! (SIGH) Fine! Just roll over on the remote and change the channel. This episode of Wild Kingdom is making me depressed...

8 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

actually, they look kind of relieved. Maybe put on Better Caul Saul for them...

Li'l Innocent said...

First off, I wish to say that Mary "limping around" is a far more fit and desirable (in every way) exemplar of humankind than any current member of the Republican party in Congress (esp. my Congressman, an old-money blot named Rodney Frelinghuysen whom a local journalist referred to as "an inbred goofball" a few weeks back).

Secondly any reference to "culling" is bound to put knowledgeable fans in mind of "Quatermass and the Pit" aka "5 Million Miles to Earth". And if we're trying to avoid depression... well, need I say more?

Li'l Innocent said...

I am not dissing "Quatermass" at all - just realized the above might sound like I was. Au contraire, it's excellent - but not exactly cheerful. It's got to be one of the darker SF classics. I have it on good authority that the original BBC TV version was even better.

I saw the movie in US release in 1968 - on a date, at a drive-in! - in a double bill with "The Conqueror Worm". And I did not go home and slash my wrists or anything - but boy, that double barrel of dark stuck in my head for quite a while. Both British films; they're good at that sort of thing.

Kittehs are beautiful! And glad mom's home, I can tell.

Hank said...

"Leaping and hopping ... in and out o' them buildings ... way up into the sky!"

Li'l, you just ref'd one of my favorite British SF films. Imo, it's Nigel Kneale's best script. The way his story effortlessly juggled demonology, militarism, hive-minds, human evolution, genetic engineering and invasion-by-proxy from Mars is amazing. And right damned creepy.

So many fine actors in that one, too, especially Andrew Keir as Quatermass. But in a double-feature with The Conqueror Worm? Holy crap! Variations on a theme of mass psychosis.

I believe the BBC serial version of Quatermass and the Pit might still be out there on YouTube, if you'd like to give it a look sometime. The film and the serial each have things to recommend them, though obviously the TV version proceeds at a somewhat more leisurely pace.

And my apologies to our feline overlords, for indulging in so much boring SF cinema geekery before getting to the admiration which is their rightful due. Glad to hear Mary's back home, and at least semi-mobile.

Mentis Fugit said...

I obtained the BBC TV series on VHS, and still have a device capable of playing it, which is probably the more remarkable achievement. Minimal editing runs the episodes into a continuous whole.

The six 35-minute episodes were filmed live for broadcast with supplemental material on 35mm film, and the broadcast recorded onto 35mm film using a camera synchronised to a television monitor. The resulting image quality is surprisingly good, all things considered.

It's here if you have three and a half hours to spare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmyyzUSn5Y

Debbi said...

Anything but Game of Thrones! :)

Anonymous said...

ANNTI sez...

All love & good thoughts headed out y'all's way, if that's worth the electrons to say it. Gawgeous kitteh portrait, and I head the little four-legged bastids around here muttering similar conversations about me all the fucking time, but they know that *I* have the opposable thumbs to open the dry cat food box AND to operate the nightly can-opener orgies, so they've let me continue to exist thus far. No idea of how they'll react when we're finally able to move into the tuna-can-on-wheels up the hill, but Moose (teh Dick's adoptee) may go into withdrawal, seeing as how he views me as his personal electric blankee. Getting James AND Penny (cancer, my ass!!! She's gotten STRONGER!!! Little bitch can SLAP MY HAND AWAY every time that I go to give her medicine!) into the tuna can may require tranq darts and severe bribery, let alone getting them BACK into it after they've had their daily walkabouts. Wish me luck and a windfall of really good kitteh weed.

Much love & kitteh nuzzles (as long as they're not bitey) for Mary, and much patience & eventual foot rubs & a fucking INVERSION BOARD for Scott, once Mary's in the free & clear. Hell, he's earned it by now, n'est-ce pas?

XOXOXO
L,
Annti

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I believe Scott is actually enjoying his subservience. He always struck me as a bottom.

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