Halloween Favourites 2009

Well I've been behind on Halloween this year and I can only attribute that to possibly having too much in my head and not enough time to execute.

So here are some images and views on some of my fav scary films.

Alien. This will always be at the top of my list. I was 9 when this came out and it wasn't scary in the sense that I went away terrified, but the overall suspense of the film and the waiting to see just what this alien was going to do and to who and how just scared the shit out of me. I can tell you that my favourite combination is horror and space/science fiction.
Trick r Treat. This was a pretty cool movie. Not all hack and slash but a fair bit of it. This one came out last year and I don't know how I missed this one. It takes a Tales From the Crypt/Creepshow approach in the fact that there are four story lines going on in this film and they all arc together in the end. The key to the film is the very opening sequence. In the first 5 minutes you have your first kill. Not surprising is Britt McKillip in a role suited to her now typecasted image. Here she is playing an emotionless little bitch and pulling it off successfully. Then there is Ana Paquin......not sure what her decision was to do this film, but I can say that I can see why she is took the lead role for TrueBlood. This one is a must see.
Final Destination 2. This is my fav of the series. No I haven't seen number 4. Not sure I want to but I may have to in order to see how far the producers can fling that steaming pile. The body count isn't any higher than the first but I think the deaths were a little more creative and I can see some of them actually happening under the right circumstances. Definitely the best of the first three.
Rear Window. Alfred Hitchcock. Enough said. Voyeurism taken to a new level. Hitchcock just has a way of taking the everyday and making it into something suspenseful. One of my fav Hitchcock films. This one was later remade with Shia Lebuef as Disturbia. See the original instead.
Dial M For Murder. I actually don't recall a lot from this one since it has been a few years since I saw it last. The premise is great. Again, Alfred Hitchcock. Nuff said. Here a man plans to kill his wife and hires a man with a rather seedy reputation to do the job and things go wrong when the man's blackmail attempts backfire and the hired hitman is killed. This was later remade with Michael Douglas and Gweneth Paltrow as A Perfect Murder. See the original.
An American Werewolf in Paris. First off I have to say that after all the years it took to make a follow up to An American Werewolf In London that I find it hard to believe this was the best that anyone could come up with. Julie Delpy was a nice touch to the film and I do like the backstory involving her family. The special effects are so much better over the original. In the end I do like this one. There are too few werewolf films out there and this one is pretty cool compared to say Silver Bullet which was just a big steamy pile of crap. This film has had the potential to spawn more American Werewolf films, but I'm glad it hasn't.
Twilight Zone The Movie. I don't consider this to be a horror or even a suspense film, but there are elements to it that are just fitting for this time of year. For those movie geeks out there you should take notice that John Landis wrote and directed the first story starring Vic Morrow and has cleverly placed a line in the film with reference to his earlier film, Animal House. My favourite of the stories in this film is the last one with John Lithgow on the airplane being torn apart mid air by some kind of demon. This role was originally played by William Shatner in the original tv series.

Another thing that I really enjoyed in this film was the introductory with Dan Akroyd and Albert Brooks talking about the Twilight Zone series and reminiscing about the one with Burgess Meredith only to have the movie narrated by Burgess Meredith. A must see and great anytime of year really.
The Village. This is one of M Night Shyamalan's best films. Let's face it folks his last two films were no better than rotting road apples. I loved the suspense of not knowing what the creature was for a good portion of the film and not seeing this creature for sometime either. I like the darker overtone this one had compared to his earlier films. A must see for suspense freaks.
Wrong Turn. This was just a plain weird and creepy film. In not sure of the reality of in-breeders and their behaviour in general, but this film sure plays on the myth pretty well. This is a pretty cool hack and slash and make up is pretty good. Amusing at least once. I recently saw the second one and it really paled compared to the first. Not even Henry Rollins was able to salvage the second.
White Noise. This one started out a little slow in my opinion. It did pick up a and I found it pretty intriguing. I'm not sure how much of this is based on reality or if there's even been a study done on white noise, but this film did make my skin crawl like a toddler on a dirty floor.
The Host. I was first introduced to this film back in 2007 while working on our film, The Book of Zombie. I do like this one and I like that it's great example of an new generation films coming out of foreign countries. It's a bit of Jaws with a creature that looks like something from Skywalker ranch. Not very suspensful, but still another great creature film with a backstory that's been done before.

I had another one, but I had it on last years list so I will spare you all. There are so many great horror, suspense films out there and I encourage everyone to branch out and watch as many as possible. No matter how cheesy and ridiculous they may seem, they are in a class all their own and offer something for everyone.

Happy Halloween.

2009 Kirkland Concours D'Elegance

It's that time of year again. Every September for the last few years I've been attending the Kirkland Concours with my father in law.

I love going to this event every year. This is the one show that I find I can't wait to see who will have what car there this year. The 2008 winner was John Shirley, who also won the Pebble Beach Concours.

The honourary host/MC of the Kirkland Concours every year is actor Edward Herman. Seems one of his hobbies is restoration of vintage cars. I can't be sure but I'm sure that the last car he was working on is a 1930's era Rolls Royce.

When the FIL and I started going there was a new catagory for vintage wooden hull boats such as Chris Craft and the likes. It was cool to see these boats, but it was getting a bit repetative. Well this year I was glad to see that the sponsors and promotors changed things up a bit. There were no wooden boat entries this year, but instead there were the vintage hydro boats. The big boys of thunder, the piston boats. Every hour two piston boats were started and run. That was a nice little treat. Those boats were just bloody loud. From 50 yards those boats create such noise that you can't hear anyone around you.
For the 2nd year in a row the local chapter of the PCA (Porsche Club of America) has had their own corral with member cars on display. I like to see the different member cars. Most are 911's as expected. A large portion are from the 1970's and 1980's. The newer Porsches on display are the Boxster and the Cayman. There are a growing number of 914's there. Last year saw one and this year brought three.

Last year there were no 944's and this year had one. I'm hoping that next year I will have my 944 in the PCA chapter corral. I'd like to see more 944's there and I would like to say that I've had a car at the Kirkland Concours show. That would be one hell of a story later on since I've only had two cars in local shows previously..........and gotten a trophy for each one. Not bad for a novice that doesnt do this on a regular basis. Those were easy catches anyhow.

This year the weather was great and there was also a new category. I cant recall the precise name but the premise is vintage cars that are original and un-restored. The conditions are it must run/drive and be street legal to do so.
This year also saw another new class: the mini cars. There were of course the Cooper/Austin mini's and there were Messerschmidts and there were two BMW Isetta's on display and a few of the small Fiat country wagons.



There were steam powered carriages on display and with those came owners dressed in period clothing. Also in attendance (although I didn't find them as I'm fairly new to their group) were members of the Seattle Steamrats, our local steampunk group. They were there to cheer on the steam cars on display.
One of the biggest sponsors of this show is Phil Smart Mercedes. This is the larges local Mercedes dealerships in western Washington. There was a whole row of Mercedes 300 SL Gullwings on display.

There were the usual displays as well: Woodie Row and the Museum pieces brought by the LeMay Museum. The Tucker Torpedo was the hit from them on this day.
I did see a few repeats from previous shows. They are still great to look at though.

The end of the road for the Bronze Bitch

Well as those of you know I had contemplated selling my beloved BMW 325is for sometime and moving into a Porsche.

After much debate in my mind to justify such a move the decision was made to go ahead and do it.

The big selling points were the mileage of the two cars: the BMW had almost 250k on the clock and the Porsche has only 180k despite being an older car. Reliability was a major factor as well.

While I have taken many "Sunday" drives in the BMW, I haven't taken it on any trips since it seems that I was always getting the car into order to make it more reliable. The Porsche on the other hand was driven across the state, into Oregon and up into British Columbia by my father in law in the 4 years that he's owned it.

Seems I need something capable of such reliability in the next month. Seems that my wife's company will be moving up their move to a new location and we won't be able to carpool after November. Additionally I would like to be able road trip with the Porsche...........I'll be joining the PCA and want to participate in drives and other local events.

The interior of the Porsche is in better shape as well. Good carpeting, good condition of the leather on the seats, no cracks in the dash and all the little bits works. The E30 was in good shape except for a wear in the leather on the drivers seat and the shift boot being worn. There were some interior bits that needed replacing, but nothing major.

The body is another consideration as well. The Porsche has bad paint on one fender, but otherwise needs no bodywork. The E30 however did have some minor dings and and dimples in the body and one fender had a small dent that with the proper tools can be hammed out and massaged back into shape. Fortunately I have a friend that has been an automotive painter for 20 years and will paint for free if I supply the paint.

I love the E30, but I really wasn't all the sad to see it go. I was concerned that it would go to someone that wouldn't take care of it, and that was something I had control over. After all I didn't need to sell it someone that I thought would treat it badly. Fortunately it has gone to a good home. After all it is a car. An object. Something that like all other material possessions will come and go in our lives. Will it make a difference that I had it? Probably not. Did I have fun with it? You bet. Maybe not to the full extent that the car was designed, but I had fun with it.

I look at the Porsche from this perspective as well............I have always wanted one. Who hasn't really? Well I'm taking this as the sign that this is the time for me to own one. Sure it's not the one that I want, but it's a sign non the less. My ideal is a mid 1980's 911, but for now the 944 will be a good introductory. I've driven Porsches before with my time as a car dealership employee years ago, but ownership will be a new thing and I look forward to it.

The Bronze Bitch leaves for good
This is not the actual Porsche I've bought, but this is the colour and the same style wheels and black leather interior.

Vintage Races-Pacific Raceways

So back into the swing of writing. Far from professionally, but writing none the less.

One of my many car show adventures this year was the Vintage Races at Pacific Raceways (the old SIR for those of us old enough to remember it by such name) and this was really quite something to see as far as races go.

I went down there with my father in law and he wants to take the free parking so this means we walk a bit. It's summer and the weather is good so walking is good.

Next is the entry. WE walk down the road and right past the entrance and straight into pit row. There is no fee for us that day. Seems the year before he couldn't believe how much it costs to get in and his friend Bob Morton of his was racing and tells him "next year just walk into the pits like you belong" so that's exactly what we did.

My father in law is a big Ferrari fiend. Not sure why. Ok so they are fast and they have pretty impressive uber sports car line up. Really though, how many people do you know that own one? Really? I know absolutely zero and so does my father in law.

Back to the story. He's immediately drawn to a rather large tour style motourhome and full awning with a few cars under it and several people gathered around table. He's drawn to the 1957 Ferrari 250TR. I have to admit that is a nice car. I think I was born in the wrong decade. I'm not much for sports cars made past the 1960's. They just lost something in the 1970's and beyond.

Back to the story...........the 1957 Ferrari 250TR.........this one is owned by Jon A. Shirley . Jon Shirley took best of class and best of show at the 2008 Pebble Beach with his 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta. This same car also took best of show and a first in class at the Kirkaland Concourse in 2008 as well.

There were a lot of vintage cars of different classes and makes: Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Talbot Lago, Porsche, BMW, Lola, Elva, Triumph, Alfa, MG, Fiat, Austin Healey and the list just keeps going.

There were many car clubs in attendance that day as well. Among them were the BMWCCA, and the PCA.

Some of my shots from the day:

Porsche 356C BMW 2002

John Shirley's Ferrari

Rover TC A unique cooler fan set up in a Porsche SpyderThe "original" clubmanthe very rare Piper