Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Space Needle considered as an unguarded ham sandwich. Or maybe a squirrel.

By Mark Bourne
Tags: Elizabeth, Kai, Seattle
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Mark Bourne
Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL is my "mostly movies" blog. It's a work in progress, but then aren't we all?

I'm a Seattle-based writer who enjoys, well, a lot of things: movies, theater, books, astronomy, science fiction, a sense of humor, the lambent amber of firelight through Bowmore Darkest Islay, dogs, the combination of chocolate and orange....

My main site: www.markbourne.com
Email: mark[at]markbourne.com
Twitter: @BourneInSeattle
View my complete profile

Previously on Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal:

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    • ►  March (20)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ▼  2010 (134)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (13)
    • ►  September (9)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ▼  May (14)
      • Talk about having an old friend for dinner...
      • Pic pick: "Chungking Express"
      • Close Encounters of the Cool Job Kind
      • Blazing Saddles (1974) — Excuse me while I whip th...
      • From A to Zuul
      • The Circus (1928) — Chaplin between the mirrors
      • Mashup: Clip from Buster Keaton's "The Navigator" ...
      • The Fall (2008) — Paint me a story, Singh me a dream
      • Scenes I love: French Cancan (1955) — Renoir, c'es...
      • Alternate universe movies: "The Maltese Falcon" wi...
      • When Peter Cushing played the chap in the TARDIS...
      • The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) — Spanish class
      • Pic pick: We've all had days like this
      • The Space Needle considered as an unguarded ham sa...
    • ►  April (24)
    • ►  March (18)

Popular feature posts

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  • Bedazzled (1967) — Giving the devil his due
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  • Charley Bowers — Breaking a few eggs
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  • Freaks (1932): Sex and the single freak
  • Happy 90th birthday, Ray Bradbury — A bit about Mr. B and me
  • Hoffman (1970) — What fits in the middle
  • Hugo — Dear Martin Scorsese: Thank you for making a movie just for me
  • I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) — Making a hash of it
  • I'm All Right, Jack (1959) — For the benefit of Mr. Kite
  • Junebug (2005) — Family happens
  • Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) — Murder by numbers, 1, 2 ... 8
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  • Octoberfilms: Häxan / Witchcraft Through the Ages — Danish diabolism
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  • Octoberfilms: The Abominable Dr. Phibes & Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1971, '72) — Curses!
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  • Octoberfilms: The Innocents (1961) — The screw turns
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  • Octoberfilms: The Tomb of Ligeia / An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe (1964, '70)
  • Of lighthouses and foghorns and beasts from evocative fathoms
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  • Petulia (1968) — Uncommon
  • Random thoughts on "Midnight in Paris"
  • Scenes I love: "The Third Man" — a slice of Lime
  • Scenes I love: Charlie Chaplin's science fiction movie (from "Modern Times")
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  • SIFF — The Thief of Bagdad: Re-imagined by Shadoe Stevens with the Music of E.L.O.
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  • The Circus (1928) — Chaplin between the mirrors
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"Jack Cole's 'Plastic Man' belongs high on any adult's How to Avoid Prozac list, up there with the best of S.J. Perelman, Laurel and Hardy, Damon Runyon, Tex Avery and the Marx Brothers." — Art Spiegelman, The New Yorker

"You know what your problem is? It's that you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.” — Steve Martin, Grand Canyon

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Nick: "I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune."
Nora: "I read you were shot five times in the tabloids."
Nick: "It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."
— Myrna Loy and William Powell, The Thin Man


"I always dress appropriately and impeccably for all occasions. I would show you a snapshot of myself in a G-string, taken at Simm-La, with a flying wombat, dingo dog and a wily platypus." — Professor Posthlewhistle (W.C. Fields)

"Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle." — G.K. Chesterton

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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others." — Groucho Marx

“Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar / Truth is hard and tough as nails / That's why we need fairy tales.”
— from Munchhausen (1931) by Weimar Berlin cabaret composer Friedrich Hollaender

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