The Power of Babble: Dead Crow Walking ....

Hello Folks,

Well - the pictures revealed the raven crow beast flying through the arch upside down with a huge grin on it`s face - let me tell you, the next time that thing is upside down it will be on a spit in my BBQ!!

Well - I admit it - I have been a huge fan of what we will loosely call the horror genre for years - not so much movies, but in the written form. I would have to say that, for my taste, H.P. Lovecraft is my favorite. In the last blog I attempted to write part of it in his style with some linked references just in case you thought I might be `losing it` - of course, some of you are probably convinced that Ì lost it`, a long time ago - and you may be right!

During the hike up to Delicate Arch - the landscape reminded of some of Lovecraft`s story`s and thus the previous blog - cyclopean topography, angles that don't add up the way they should in our geometry, the ancient ones, etc.

I would recommend you try at least one H.P. Lovecraft story - and I am not sure where to start but three to come mind quickly - At The Mountains of Madness (think of John Carpenter`s, ``The Thing`` and then square it), The Dunwich Horror, or The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

I have always been a fan of Stephen King - some folks think he is too wordy - but I love that - but what I especially love is the fact he never forgot what it was like to be a kid and how life impacts you at a young age - time and distance is totally different at that age and he captures it perfectly. Read his book 'It!' to see what I mean. My favorite King book would be The Stand - next to Darth Vader, Randall Flagg is the quintessential villain; and the scope and range of the story is so vast. I am going to have to re-read that one very soon.

King`s premise is simply - you can`t defeat or eradicate evil, you can only beat it back - and like the Pillsbury Doughboy - you push in on evil in one place, evil expands somewhere else - you suppress evil in one place and it jumps up in the next novel. King also has a story arc that runs through several of his novels and short stories - which I won`t get into here - suffice it to say, it makes his writing doubly interesting - once you are into it.

On the video side of things, I think television has had more good horror/science fiction moments than movies themselves - but again my opinion only. I think the classics are Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone (and how many great writers worked on that show), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Prisoner (yes, The Prisoner), The Avengers, Lost in Space, Star Trek (the original), Dr. Who, Tales From The Crypt (only because they used stories from the 50`s) and The X-Files.

The movies seemed to be all derivative of these shows - meaning they took to heart the great writing and ran with it - however if I could mention five stand outs - Blade Runner, Alien, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Donnie Darko (honorable mention for Cloverfield and District 9).

So the raven crow beast really doesn't know what he up against - my second favorite author to Lovecraft would have to be Edgar Allan Poe - and we all know about Poe's poem, 'The Raven' - which was made into a cheesy movie by Corman that I absolutely sucked up as a kid - I sat through it twice at The Odeon (or was it The Kent) theatre in Saint John.

I spent the afternoon yesterday in Arches - a great sunny - I got caught up in how the light was playing off the rock and trees - and then a great sunset. No biking yesterday - but I'll be back at that today.

Oh yeah - speaking of the charcoal winged menace - we were talking about the creature weren't we - it has developed a new strategy - it has left the air and it is now walking behind me while I am taking photos - check this picture out - OK - I am just going to have to summon the ancient ones to assist me in pushing this particular harbinger of evil back.