Finishing up new-to-me movies watched in September:

163. (1392.) The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
Film noir about a cop who makes the really bad decision to cover up a murder committed by his lover. And he might have gotten away with it, too, if not for his damn kid brother. Pretty good, in no small part because of the many atmospheric shots of San Francisco.

164. (1393.) Bright Leaf (1950)
Tobacco farmer Gary Cooper loses sight of his own moorings when he becomes blinded by revenge. No one treats Lauren Bacall like that and gets away with it! Also pretty good.

165. (1394.) Sausage Party (2016)
Imagine a few stoners sitting around the dinner table pondering the source and purpose of their meal and you'd get this, a weird mash-up of food puns, cliched stereotypes, and humanist philosophical treatise. Not the worst waste of an hour and a half, but also not worth going out of your way for.

More to come.

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Almost everyone reading this already knows that in April 2014, my father moved to Fountain, Florida. What you may not know is that Fountain is only 37 miles due north of Mexico Beach, the town Hurricane Michael wiped off the map this past Wednesday.

Through a series of unexpected coincidences, Dad wasn't at home when the hurricane hit, which is good. (He has temporarily relocated to Heard County, Georgia for... other reasons.) Also good is the news that although trees fell everywhere around, including on his barn, the house emerged unscathed! Even his whole herd of cattle survived.

That's even more amazing considering that this news came from my father's friend who lives not 10 miles to the west. His friend's house was all but completely blown apart and submerged under water. (Fortunately, his friend was also out of town on business planned before and completely coincidental to the arrival of Michael.)

Both properties are without power and are expected to be so for another month. And while Father has offered his house to his friend, travel between the two will be quite the hike until Bay County can get around to clearing the roads of fallen trees, which might take considerably more than a month.

Anyway, the point of this story is that everyone is alive, and one day we'll all look back and laugh about it. Assuming that Dad's friend can find clean water and get gas to keep his generator running, and assuming that Dad ever gets over the fever he hasn't treated for the past two weeks because his doctor is unreachable.... Did I mention that the livestock seem fine?

UPDATE: I wrote this post on the 12th. On the 13th, Dad finally decided he'd had enough and visited the ER in Newnan where he was diagnosed with abscessed diverticulitis. That's bad. The hospital docs will determine on the 15th how well the abscess is responding to a heavy dose of antibiotics. Otherwise, there may be emergency surgery in Dad's near future. Freaking hurricane.

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"I haven't been very good about updating the 'work' section of this site lately (so much of what I've done in the recent past is app coding, which doesn't show off very well)" is what I wrote in 2013 as introduction to a post promoting the first postcard design I'd made to promote a local Halloween event.

Well, I've still got that job.

As you can see, zombies are taking a bit of a back seat to super heroes these days. As well they should.

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Hawkgirl had an apricot standard poodle!

from "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman," Hawkman Volume 1, #3 (1964)

In case it's not obvious here, the source of Penny's sudden fear is that Egyptian statue in the museum gardens. That sort of thing happened a lot in the Silver Age.

A few things:

1. She named her poodle "Penny"? No wonder it ran away.
    
2. "Oh -- all right!" Shiera doesn't seem to care very much about her run away dog, does she? Bad Hawkgirl, bad!
    
3. Penny never appears again, not in this comic or any other.
   THAT'S NOT RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERSHIP!

Do yourself a favor, Hawkgirl. Next time, get a goldfish.

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The first night game of the season meant the return of the cell phone lights to Athens!

Ok, so they're not really visible in that pic, but trust me, it's cool. In fact, the only reason Sanford Stadium was that full at the start of the 4th quarter (score at the time: Vanderbilt 6, UGA 38) was because the homecoming crowd was waiting to play with their flashlights. It was worth it.

As for the football game itself: Vanderbilt was who we thought they were, and UGA started its season 6-0 for the second straight year — for the first time ever! National title, here we come (he says, tongue only partly in cheek).

The next home game isn't until November. I have my fingers crossed that by then, the temperature will finally fall below 80° during a game. While I like my Georgia football team hot, I prefer my Georgia football weather mild. And yes, I believe that I *can* have it all.

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What with football season starting, I managed to see only 7 new movies in September. (I also watched several movies I had already seen, such as both terrific volumes of Kill Bill — Vol 1 used to get all my love, but I appreciate Vol 2 more as time goes by. However, we're not tracking movies I've watched 2 or more times here.)

159. (1388.) The Lobster (2015)
I enjoyed this movie about a normal man threatened with being put out to pasture (literally) if he can't make his life meaningful (read: get married and have children). I love this sort of absurdity so long as the "reality" presented is internally logical, especially when it's being satirical. (See: Brazil or The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen or most films by Terry Gilliam.) Your mileage may vary. Wildly.

160. (1389.) Django Unchained (2012)
Like I mentioned above, I rewatched the Kill Bills to remind me why I used to love Tarantino movies. Since Inglorious Basterds, I've soured on his style of niche payback films. Kill Bill sparkles, but while Django has its moments — the proto-KKK meeting is a highlight — it feels predictable and plodding. I liked Django fine, but I'd much rather watch Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs again instead.

161. (1390.) Equals (2015)
Speaking of plodding, I'd describe this film as Equilibrium without the cool action... or hope for the future. I kept hoping the story would go somewhere. It doesn't. I should have rewatched Equilibrium instead.

162. (1391.) Violet & Daisy (2011)
Speaking of Tarantino, this movie wants to be Pulp Fiction so badly, it might as well be called Derivative Film. The biggest problem isn't the written-on-its-face inspiration but the lack of character depth. Oddly, characters refusing to talk about themselves is not a problem Tarantino movies usually have.

More to come.

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I must be earning a reputation. I now have friends sending me pics of poo whenever they're spotted in the wild.

Thank you, Brian. If anything ever deserved to be on clearance at Wal-Mart, it's a toy based on everyone's favorite Caddyshack scene.

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For the second time this season, I will not be attending a UGA football home game. Making it to one out of three would be a pretty good success rate... if I had season tickets to baseball.

At least this time, I have a good excuse: family. Can't live with 'em; can't turn your back on 'em and pretend they don't exist. (Right, Trey?)

Good luck with Tennessee, Bulldogs. And enjoy the tickets enough for both of us, Matt.

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