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It's been over a year since I was in the local hospital, and they've updated their wall art:

Because it was so pleasant to be in the ER waiting room before there were giant bugs on the wall.

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Considered topics for today's blog post:

• Tried Vietnamese pho. Didn't like it.
• Is life really worth living if you can't drink all the Coca-Cola you want?
• The tyranny of the Rule of Three when making lists
• Whether the death penalty should be reserved for people who decorate for Christmas during the first week of November (or, God forbid, earlier)

I try to present the facade of someone who is reasonably emotionally stable (in part because I inherently conflate stoicism with strength), but I'm having trouble typing something that doesn't strike me on a re-read as maudlin, self-pitying, or grossly insulting to the intelligence of anyone within eyeshot.

So I think maybe this is all I'll post today. Instead, I'm going to go give a poodle a cuddle. I encourage you to do the same (but get your own poodles; mine are busy).

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97/2529. Love and Monsters (2020)
This post-apocalyptic adventure film, in many ways gentle enough to be a kids movie, set my anxiety level to "full," mostly because the sidekick on the traditional hero's journey is a dog who clearly lost her mistress when the world ended. Note to producers: "uplifting" adventure movies shouldn't start this sad.

98/2530. My Darling Clementine (1946)
John Ford's classic interpretation of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral has a couple of love stories grafted onto the protagonists, and neither feels particularly organic, especially while Utah's Monument Valley is filling in for Tombstone, Arizona, two locations that look nothing alike. The story of the most famous shootout in history has been told much better in films since.

99/2531. So Long at the Fair (1950)
Less a mystery story than a gothic horror, this overly-long Twilight Zone episode succeeds at atmosphere, but golly, the sudden stop at the end is painful.

100/2532. The Lost World (1925)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself introduces this silent precursor to the genre of stop-motion monster adventure films that will eventually give us King Kong and Ray Harryhausen. Like all adaptations of the source material I've seen, it's dull in the middle.

101/2533. Winter Kills (1979)
It's not immediately clear that this conspiracy theory thriller is intended as a satire of its genre until after the first reel, and I still can't decide if that's madness or genius. In either case, a better director and cinematographer (and much bigger budget) could have made a cinema classic here instead of just a bonkers B-movie.

102/2534. The Harvey Girls (1946)
TCM loves to play this movie, and now I get why. It's bubbly, and Judy Garland is great. I'm glad I watched it.

103/2535. Forty Naughty Girls (1937)
The last Hildegard Withers mystery movie from RKO, and for very good reason. Edna May Oliver is sorely missed in the title role, as ZaSu Pitts' Withers is dull and clumsy, completely unworthy of the audience's sympathy. Blech.

More to come.

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I'm so happy with how our Halloween dog portraits turned out, let's keep looking at pictures! You probably won't be as impressed with this next set, but they represent some of the graphic design work I've done in the past year for a local vintage toy store that I think turned out well.

To be clear, I do not mean to take create any of the art: those all belong to their original copyright holders for those toys. I just laid everything out to create some attractive 4- and 8-foot in-store store displays. For what it's worth, this is the kind of work that is increasingly being turned over to generative AI. My days are numbered.

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Happy Halloween from Henry, Louis, and Audrey (and her mom)!

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