two from the Italian master.

We'll start with his first directorial effort, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.  1970 with obligatory American actor Tony Musante.  Scare factor?  Minimal.  Special effects?  One good scene.  Plot?  Missing and slow.  Babe factor?  Suzy Kendall.  1 out of 10 and even though so-called experts rave, I just can't.

Jump ahead to 1987 and you'll find a different story.  It's his telling of The Phantom of the Opera.  Set during a horror directors effort to mount a production of Verdi's Macbeth.  Some SERIOUS BDSM included.  Scare factor? High.  Some ganuinely frightening/ick factor moments here.  Special effects?  Yup.  Plot?  Can't go wrong with Shakespeare and/or Phantom.  Babe factor?  Cristina Marsillach and a couple others.  The Sound of Music scene at the end is a huge laugh as a tagline to an otherwise good serious film.  Recommended and 9 out of 10.  This one might be on the list for a few years, like Devil's Backbone used to be.

After yesterday's stinker I thought we might sex it up a bit.

We'll start with Blood and Black Lace from Mario Bava this time with Cameron Mitchell in the George what's his name role.  Someone is killing fashion models in unusual (well, not THAT unusual) ways.  Scare factor?  Medium at best.  Special effects?  Almost nil.  Plot?  Moderately interesting.  Babe factor - a lot of variety but bvery little pulcritude.  The more of Bava I see the more I realize I'm not a fan, still this gets 6 out of 10.

Our next feature is a bodice ripper from our friends at Hammer Films:  Vampire Lovers.  Scare factor?  Meh.  Special effects?  Some noce atmospherics.  Plot?  Meh.  Babe factor?  This one shines.  Two of the stables best in Ingrid Pitt and Pippa Steel with a bevy of other pretties to dress the set.  Throw in Peter Cushing and you have a 7 out of 10.

Yesterday, in honor of Constitution Day (and Citizenship Day and Constitution Week), President Obama issued a proclamation.  I was struck by the following passage:

Our Constitution reflects the values we cherish as a people and the ideals we strive for as a society.  It secures the privileges we enjoy as citizens, but also demands participation, responsibility, and service to our country and to one another.

I think it’s fair to say that this statement reflects a contested view of our nation’s founding document and what it means.  In particular, many would contest the President’s invocation of “privileges” as opposed to rights, as well as the suggestion that the Constitution “demands participation, responsibility, and service.”  Indeed, I suspect this is not the view of the Constitution presented yesterday at 1000 Massachusetts Ave.

MY GODDAMNED RIGHTS ARE NOT PRIVILEGES!

and then there was this.

and for kicks, this: A. Barton Hinkle on Barack Obama, Imperial President

Unapologetic Lois Lerner Insists She’s Done Nothing Wrong

[Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz] Targeting the Constitution

I’M SURE THE IRS WILL BE RIGHT ON THIS: Martha Coakley Staffer Doing Illegal Coordination With Nonprofit? 

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: IRS Bosses Rating Agents According To Audit Quotas Even Though That’s Illegal.

Plus: “A growing number of tax agency bosses are declining to verify whether IRS employees are using discrimination or intimidation in their dealings with taxpayers.”

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Report: Producer of anti-Obamacare video being audited by IRS.

Related: In 2009, President Barack Obama “Joked” About Auditing His Enemies.

a lot of roundups coming while I get caught up

Decrying “Wishful Science” on NPR(!)

Quote of the week: The link between ‘defending Michael Mann is defending climate science’ seems to have been broken

@CNN asks ‘Why worry about ISIS when the danger of Climate Change is so much more clear and imminent? ‘

Al Gore Leaves People's Climate March in Chevy Suburban SUV

Obama to UN : Climate Change Our Fault

The ‘Black Tuesday’ of Climate Science

The color of the climate social movement – Zombie says ‘red’

Been a wild week.  I apologize for my scant posting.  It'll get better.  I promise.

With the November elections just around the corner I thought I'd throw up a couple articles about polling - methodology, math, errors, that kinda thing.

How The FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecast Model Works A VERY detailed article but a must-read for those interested.  It explains the kinds of questions that should be asked of EVERY poll!

How FiveThirtyEight Calculates Pollster Ratings  a little more detail into one aspect of the earlier artcle - again - knowledge is power but this is pretty "inside baseball" stuff.

and finally - what to do about error?  Pollsters Predict Greater Polling Error In Midterm Elections

Two dissapointing entries on the same day.

We'll start with Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead.  A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from the grave.  For some reason Christopher George is in this.  Scare factor?  Medium.  Special effects?  Medium.  Plot?  Nice try on an old one.  Babe factor?  Negligable.  One out of ten.

And then there's Critters, another in a long line of Gremlins knock off, complete with Dee Wallace as the mom.  Scares?  Meh,  Special effects?  Not bad for the mid-80s.  Plot?  See above.  Babe factor?  Does Dee Wallace count?  1 out of 10.  I watch em so you don't have to.  And they made three MORE of these!

Body Snatchers.  I hated the original (because it scared the beejeesus outta me) and the remake (because it did the same thing only with Leonard Nimoy.)  This is the same damned story but with a young Gabrielle Anwar.  Scares?  A few, but you KNOW they're coming.  Special effects?  Not bad.  Plot?  Ripped from the pages of a dozen other tellings of the same damned story.  Babe factor?  Ms. Anwar.  and a screechy Meg Tilley.  1 out of 10.

The Possession of Michael King.  Another 2014 entry.  Not BAD per se.  But not that interesting.  Per imdb: Michael King (Shane Johnson), who doesn't believe in God or the Devil. Following the sudden death of his wife, Michael decides to make his next film about the search for the existence of the supernatural, making himself the center of the experiment - allowing demonologists, necromancers, and various practitioners of the occult to try the deepest and darkest spells and rituals they can find on him - in the hopes that when they fail, he'll once and for all have proof that religion, spiritualism, and the paranormal are nothing more than myth. But something does happen. An evil and horrifying force has taken over Michael King. And it will not let him go.

So - a non-believing journalist is taken over by an evil entitity.  Welcome to Obama's America.  Scares?  A few.  Special Effects?  A few.  Plot?  An interesting idea.  Babe factor?  None that I can remember.  5 out of 10

really beginning to regret this "unseen" plan. Some real stinkers down there.  Some things best left forgotten.  Like ....

Poltergeist II. Chills?  A few.  Special effects?  You can see the strings.  Plot?  Strained.  Babe factor?  JoBeth Williams as the best it can muster.  1 out of 10.

Hunger is a neat little 2009 feature that was better than expected.  Hunger is a dark exploration into the breakdown of humanity. How far would you go to survive in the most extreme of circumstances? Five strangers awaken to find themselves trapped in an underground dungeon. They soon realize they are the subjects of one man's sadistic experiment to test the depths of a human being's will to survive. As the days go by with no means of escape, their hunger increases as their humanity fades away. Chills?  A few. Special effects?  Not needed. Plot?  An interesting one, even if it loses some punch in the end.  Babe factor?  Lori Heuring and Lea Kohl but it is soooo not about that.  6 out of 10 and perhaps the best I've seen so far.