I don't get FXM, but I do own a copy of RACE WITH THE DEVIL. I always enjoyed this movie quite a bit, especially when I first saw it back in the 70s. While it's somewhat cheesy, it reaches a level of intensity that most movies of its ilk don't achieve. It's most interesting to see Lara playing an "ordinary," vulnerable woman, which she does with aplomb.

But the highlight of this movie is Warren Oates (a true folk hero), as he gets to put on his best acerbic face a number of times. Peter Fonda's not a favorite of mine, but he comes off OK here. Alas, Loretta Swit is definitely not a favorite of mine, and the ill-will between Lara and her on the set is well-known.

Now I got a hankering to watch it. Might have to pull out the ole VHS.

Also on tonight, on Plex -- SUGAR HILL, which I've not seen except for a few clips that looked interesting. I think I want to catch it, though, mainly because it stars Robert Quarry of COUNT YORGA fame. I always liked Quarry as a vampire; his portrayal reminds me very much of Barnabas in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS.

--Mark

Yes.  It could be called something like...

DARK SHADOWS: Lap Dance Labyrinth
A Tale Of Strip Joint Horror, by Mark "I'll sign yours if you sign mine" Rainey

I neglected to mention I took a photo or two.

--Mark

I may have related this before, but the most unusual discovery of an "unexpected" DS fan happened after gathering with Bobubas and several other DS fans a couple of years ago in New York. At the time, I was head sysop on the Air Warrior online combat sim, and one of the other staff members lived nearby, so he offered to meet me and take me to the airport after Bob's event was finished. When we got together, there were still a few hours before my flight left, so he said he knew of a bar where we could go for a few drinks first.

Bar turns out to be a strip club. We're having some drinks, and as the strippers come out, lo and behold my friend Wayne stands up and yells "Famous writer here! Famous writer here!" In horror, I kinda slunk under the table, but by then two of the strippers came over to see what the ruckus was about. When they found out I'd written a DARK SHADOWS novel, excitement ranneth over, for they were both knocked-out, diehard DS fans from way back. One of them started on about Barnabas and Quentin, and her favorite episodes, etc. Since I had a couple of copies of DREAMS OF THE DARK along in case of an emergency, I ended up giving them the copies in exchange for a few drinks.

The other girl, however, was a bit wary, figuring just anyone might come in claiming to be writer. Never minding a bit, since my friend Wayne was the one doing all the claiming, I produced my driver's license and let her compare it to the name on the book. "So you've got the same name as the writer. Big deal," she says.

"Writers go to strip clubs too, you know," says Wayne.

"It's real cost-effective for me to have a bunch of copies of some guy's book because we have the same name," I says. "But if you don't want the book, you don't have to keep it."

"Oh, no," she says. "I'll take the book. I loved DARK SHADOWS. And there's always a chance you're the real guy."

After that, the first girl made a couple of offers I sort of had to refuse, and I came out of there two books poorer and quite a few shots drunker.

Never know whom you're going to meet.

--Mark[/b][/color]

Carl Collins - bisexual, or just real friendly.  Discuss.

Where's the damned storyboard, already?

--Mark

You must have been inspired by our wintry weather the other day. Very atmospheric beginning!

Actually, it was merely a foreshadowing of what we actually got. I wrote the prologue last week. Then on Thursday morning, we were getting ice and snow, but we still had electricity. I was in the process of posting it to the SFC board when POW. Electricity goes out. We've got four inches of ice, still no power at home, and probably won't get it back till mid next week. We came up to my mom's place since she's still got power; fortunately, the main roads are mostly passable. I had saved the prologue to my online storage site, so I was able to post it from here.

--M

MB,  how do you get to those graph's?  Is there a link that you have to go to to get that?

Cassandra, that's from a program called Ping Plotter. It provides a traceroute to IP of your choice and illustrates the hops using the graph. It's a $15 program, I believe, available from http://www.pingplotter.com. There's a freeware version, but I've never used it so I don't know what features it has (or doesn't have).

It's a nice little tool to have if you're interested in figuring out where your logjams are; if you don't do traceroutes from time to time now, though, it's probably not a real great investment for you.

--Mark

It's very intermittent here. When I just tried to enter the forum, it took a couple of minutes to get beyond the main page. But then once I started accessing new topics, it picked up to normal speed.

--M