Sven- The Deadly Mantis (1957)

 

A long frozen prehistoric insect is unleashed after a volcano explodes.  This mantis is 200" long and hungry.  It flies south from the North Pole attacking outposts and planes along the way.  Experts and military personnel are called in to figure out what is going on.  The only clue they have is a piece of a claw spur.  There are a few more shenanigans, plus the obligatory romance, with several men vying for Marge's attention.  The bug ends up in Washington DC, atop the Washington Monument.  Eventually, it is wounded and flies into the Manhattan Tunnel, where the army finishes it off.

Ms. Marvel 04- Seeing Red

 

In which Kamala travels to Pakistan to talk to her grandmother.  Karachi looks beautiful, but completely alien to me.  Like most episode fours, there is a lot of talking in this one.  We meet yet another secret society, the Red Daggers, trained fighters out to stop the Clandestine djinn.  How is all this unknown to the sorcerers in the MCU?  I know, logic is not to be completely applied to superheroes, but come on.  Kamala finally wears the mask Bruno made for her, which looks great.  She doesn't use her powers until the last 15 minutes which of course entails a car chase.  At least it is in a different country and city.  It finally ends with Kamala getting thrown back in time (damn time travel) to 1947, when the Partition of India happened.  I wonder if the Time Variance Authority is aware of this happening as well?

The Deadly Mantis (1957) - Official Trailer

                          

Finally Sven is showing a movie I don't recall seeing before. This one was aired a lot when I was growing up, and I am looking forward to seeing what Sven will do with it.

Garden of the Gods

This is an amazing place in Colorado to visit.  I have only lived here and this was the first time I have visited it.  It is pretty spectacular.  It isn't a large area; it only takes about an hour to walk the whole area.  There are some other places to drive by and see, like Balancing Rock.  It was also a very pleasant day, as the clouds had come in and kept the heat down.  There were also no bugs like at the Royal Gorge the day before.  

MOTW- Seaboz

 

The Science Patrol finds a Graveyard of Monsters in "The Ultra Zone".  In space, of course.  They see and name several monsters from previous episodes, some of whom were not named in the US dubs.  They then see an unknown monster, and of course, that is Seaboz.  Later on, a research rocket crashes into the poor beast and brings it to Earth, where it causes havoc trying to return to space.  The Science Patrol and Ultraman feel bad for some of the monsters they had to destroy in previous episodes, and they want to help Seaboz get back to it's "home".  Another rocket is painted like Ultraman, and eventually the creature is returned to space.

Ms. Marvel 3- Destined

 

Kamala finds out what her wannabe boyfriend and his family are.  They say they djinn, though probably there are many kinds of those magical creatures in the MCU.  Anyway, Kamala is wondering if she can be the hero she wanted to be and wishes she could be.  Be careful what you wish for, Ms. Khan.  The other wannabe boyfriend, Bruno, is wrestling with going to CA for his college.  He wants to help, and makes Kamala the mask she needs.  Now if she can get rid of the terrible Night Light name....

"Good is not something you are, it is something  you do."

Pass the smokes, eh?

 

This photo came from the back of some homemaker's magazine from October of 1980.  I had blurred the name of the smokes on the carton at first, then realized it was also emblazoned right there above said cartons.  Ads for smokes were ubiquitous in nearly all magazines back then, trying to make people think they can make people cool if they smoke.  Sure worked for a long time, but I never thought it was cool.  The right character can pull it off, but overall it just looks dumb.  "Putting tar and all kinds of chemicals in your lungs voluntarily is a great idea!" I flirted with smoking for about 2 months in college.   It is a funny story, see below for details!

Odyssey (2016)

 Music From the Elder is a rather unusual KISS album.  It is either loved or hated by the hardcore fans, and ignored by most everyone else.  I have always enjoyed it, though even in 1981 I wondered at the idea of a concept album from KISS.  The band has mostly dismissed it, and I can understand why.  It was not successful, despite being full of some good songs and a mostly coherent story.  It did mark the end of the first KISS era, more or less, and it took until the late 90s to find out more about the creation of this album, and everything that was going on in the band at that time as well.  I never thought much more about the recording, but after finding Conversations with Phantoms I was led to this book, which I also bought.

Jurassic world Dominion

 Once again, an evil corporation wants to take control of the planet with bio-engineered locusts.  The original set of heroes gets involved, and the second set of heroes go off to rescue their kid and Blue's kid.  There are a lot of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  Heck, some of them even have feathers.  That oughtta keep the nerds happy now.  It all wraps up well.  In the end, the veggiesaurus dinosaurs are living happily or at least peacefully with mammals.  One can only hope that another meteor isn't on the way.

Jurassic World Dominion - Official Trailer