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X-Files Case Report: “Fire”

Scully: “I forgot what it’s like to spend a day in court.”
Mulder: “That’s one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants. You rarely get to press charges.”
After taking a bit of a break from The X-Files during the summer and first part of the fall, but now it’s time to get back in the swing of things here. We’re still in Season One, when the show is finding its way.

“Fire” is another episode that I’m seeing for the first time via this rewatch, and I have to say – it’s a terrific episode. Written by Chris Carter, this one has a lot going for it: a strong story, a compelling and eerie villain, and some more of Mulder’s backstory with some good character moments.

Our story opens in England, where a government guy is leaving for work. He lifts his arm to wave goodbye to the wife and kids, and sees that his arm is on fire. As his family looks on in terror, the flames consume him right there in his front yard. One person, however, is not looking on in terror: a groundskeeper is looking on in what can only be described as amusement.
Cut to Washington, where Mulder and Scully are completing a court appearance when Mulder gets a message from Phoebe Greene, a woman he worked with during his Oxford days. It quickly becomes clear that this woman was more than a friend, and that she and Mulder enjoyed a relationship that left Mulder with some serious emotional scars. She is in the US to ask for his help in protecting another aristocratic British family that is coming to the US to try and evade the fire-killer, who has the habit of mailing love letters to the wives of his victims.
Being The X-Files, of course, the fire-killer comes along for the ride, deviously working himself into this family’s lives as a live-in handyman on the property they rent. Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully work with Phoebe Greene to figure out just who the killer is, in hopes of stopping him. Hampering their case are Mulder’s antipathy toward Greene, and the fact that he is deeply phobic about fire.
“Fire” is very effectively done, with a compellingly scary villain and the “race against time” factor in the story’s unfolding. The episode also boasts some terrific special effects work through the use of flame and fire, although some of this does remind me somewhat of the effects in the movie Backdraft, which had come out a few years earlier. This episode is a well-done thriller.

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Sentential Links #265

Just one this week….

:: We were lucky, my son and I. We didn’t have much awkwardness between us. Spending so much time together, everyone in our family has time to make him- or herself clear. To say what needs to be said. To leave unsaid what is already understood. To sit in companionable silence. (Mrs. M-Mv raised a fine young man…whose story very sadly came to an end last year. Memories like this, freely offered, provide a glimpse into not one soul, but two.)

More next week.

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Giants 27, Bills 24

What it feels like to be a Bills fan these days

Oh well. Can’t win ’em all.

What’s pretty cool this year is that, even with the Bills having lost two of their last three, both losses were by three points, and both games felt like what they were: games the Bills most certainly could have won. Even close losses in recent years were “ho hum” affairs. The Bills’ two losses thus far have still been entertaining, fun games to watch.

But yeesh, without a few goof-ups, they very likely win this one!

Drayon Florence got flagged for pass interference three times, two of which within minutes of each other in the fourth quarter. That sucked. What also sucked were Ryan Fitzpatrick’s two interceptions, both of which came on maddeningly underthrown passes to Stevie Johnson. He had to put the passes over Stevie’s shoulder, but instead he didn’t put enough on either pass, and two drives died near the goal line. Ugh!

The defense got shredded for…oh, a lot of yards. That’s been happening a lot, and this time they didn’t compensate for that with any takeaways. I’m not really worried about the defense, though. The winning is fun and very welcome — the more a young team wins, the better, because it helps breed that “winning culture” that’s so important — but this year is, for me, mainly about developing a lot of young players. Yes, they’re giving up a lot of yards, but I get more of a sense of potential in this team than in any Bills team of recently dolorous years.

Let’s see, what else? Phil Simms is a terrible color commentator. He just drove me crazy, constantly saying things like “They need to run here!” and then say, “Oh, I’m wrong”, when the pass instead. At one point he called linebacker Arthur Moats “Eric”. Early in the game, he whined a little about how he doesn’t know the names of any of the Bills, but later on, he held forth in expert fashion about the recent history of the Buffalo Bills. Which is it, Phil?

And that’s about it. I didn’t watch any football other than the Bills game this week, so that’s about it. Next week, our lovely football fan gets a break from being pied as the Bills are on their bye week. After that, they go to Toronto to take on the mighty Redskins. Last time the Bills played Rex Grossman, they got shredded in Chicago during the Bears’ Super Bowl season. I have a feeling things will be a bit different this time!

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Saturday Centus

This week we’re supposed to use tactile descriptors, basing our entry on this photo:

OK then:

The place looks innocent enough in the gold light of sunset. Nobody’s lived here in years, and of course the current inhabitant doesn’t live at all. There is rot in the air: rotting wood, rotting fabric…something else. Rotting. I know the smell of blood anywhere.

The steps creeeeeak, but I’m safe. He can’t rise until after dusk. The door bangs behind me as I enter. I retch on the death-filled air, but keep going.

The coffin’s lid makes the loudest creeeeeeak of all. I place the tip of the stake, raise my mallet…and his eyes snap open….

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A deeply serious question

OK, I’ve had this question running about my head for a while now, and the time has at last come for me to ask it. So, gentle readers, if any of you can finally clear this matter up for me, I would be eternally grateful. Here’s the question:

WHAT THE HELL IS A ‘HIPSTER’???


Thank you all in advance.

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Five years ago….


Look how tall she is!, originally uploaded by Jaquandor.

This was the scene outside Casa Jaquandor five years ago today, after the Buffalo Niagara area got walloped by a lake-effect snow storm very early in the season. The next day was actually fairly warm, and melting started quickly; had this storm happened in November, it would barely be remembered. But this storm happened early enough in the fall that there were still leaves on most of the trees, which caused snow to pile on the branches; all that extra weight caused branches to snap. Thousands of trees were destroyed around here in this storm.

This also brought down many power lines, and thousands were without power for days, some for over a week. I remember working at The Store that morning…as none of our lot attendants were able to make it in, I worked the lot for half the day, and early on, most folks shopping were buying beer, chips, crackers, Cheetos, and that kind of thing — the Sabres had a game that night. I joked that the storm had given Buffalo a massive case of the munchies.

But after a few hours, as the magnitude of this event became clear, I noticed that folks were now buying lots of bread. Milk. Bottled water. Bags of ice. Canned foods.

We never lost power at Casa Jaquandor. Our lines are underground, and we almost never lose power — not even during the 2003 blackout that shut down almost everything east of the Mississippi. So for us, it was like we were spectators in the middle of a natural disaster.

But, as always, Buffalo’s response to snow is “Shovel it, shove it over there, and let’s get on with things.” (After a bit of initial panic, that is.)

Ahhhh, life in Buffalo!

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Something for Thursday

I’ve written before about my kinda-sorta-hate-love relationship with Phantom of the Opera, but I really do like the 2004 film version, which I think is very well made and which actually improves the story of the original stage version somewhat by moving the chandelier collapse to the film’s climax and by fleshing out the ‘flashback’ nature of the story a bit. I just discovered this the other day: it’s a song that was deleted from the film, called “No One Would Listen”, sung by the Phantom. I believe this would have come in the second half of the film, probably shortly after “Masquerade”. I assume it was cut for running time, but that’s a shame because it’s only a couple of minutes and it illustrates the Phantom’s crushing loneliness, which really needs to be leaned upon if we’re to sorry for a guy who is, let’s be honest, a murderous stalker!

Anyway, here’s the song. I really do like how they cast a guy who doesn’t have the most perfect of singing voices; Gerard Butler makes up for that by dialing up the passion of his singing to the proverbial 11. I like that the Phantom here isn’t a golden voice trapped in a beast’s body, but that he is really and truly doomed to fall short for everything in his life. And that he knows it.

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A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

You’re walk into your dining room, and you’re hungry. There’s a fruit bowl on the table, containing…well, any kind of fruit you could ever possibly want. (It’s a magic fruit bowl, obviously. Work with me, people!) What’s more, every piece of fruit within it is at the exact level of ripeness that you prefer, whether or not the fruit is in season. (Again, folks: Magic fruit bowl.) Any piece of fruit that you take from this Magic Fruit Bowl will be absolutely perfect, the Platonic ideal for you of what that fruit should be.

And you get to take one piece of fruit from the bowl to eat. What do you take?

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The Bool Hunt

When Stephen King is on (IT), I like few writers better. And when he’s off (Dreamcatcher), well…he can still be intriguing, if long-winded. And then there are the books where I’m not honestly sure if he’s on or off. Into that category I find myself placing Lisey’s Story.
It took me a long time to get into this book. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but I think part of it is due to King’s approach in this book, which is more stream-of-conscious than previous books of his that I’ve read. The book is very psychological in nature, with many long and somewhat dreamy passages taking us into the mind of a woman, Lisey Landon, whose husband, Scott – a famous writer – has recently died. She is only now beginning to go through his belongings, which carry her into an exploration of his own world, which turns out to be a lot more extensive than she had ever known – to the point of actually journeying into a magical world of Scott’s own mindscape.
And while Lisey is doing all of this, she is also dealing with things in the present. A college professor who thinks that she should donate all of Scott’s things to his school. When she refuses, he drunkenly mouths off to a guy who turns out to be insane, violent, and ruthless. So while she is, in a real way, getting to know her dead husband now for the first time, she must also deal with a real threat to her life.
King writes all of this in a very dreamy style, which is markedly different than the style he’s used in previous books of his that I’ve read. Now, this may be part of what is King’s style nowadays, since I haven’t really read any of his more recent books other than this one. It was due to this style that it took me a long time to really get emotionally involved with the book. I don’t know Scott Landon either, so it’s hard to relate at first to any of the specifics of Lisey’s loss. Gradually, though, it becomes more and more clear what King is up to.
As King slowly unfolds Lisey’s life with Scott, he also slowly unfolds Scott’s life itself, so it’s almost as if three different stories are playing out: Scott’s early life, filled with traumas of its own; Lisey’s life with Scott; and Lisey’s life after Scott.
King’s style in Lisey’s Story took quite a while to get used to. King shifts between his time periods often, and he does it by splitting his chapters in mid-sentence. Plus, there’s the whole matter of the stream-of-consciousness that makes the book a bit of a slog in the early going. But by the time I’d reached about one-fourth of the way through the book, it was becoming more and more clear what King was doing and the style was starting to settle into place, and as the book moved into its final act, I could really feel the momentum of all of King’s story threads all starting to move toward their conclusions.
Lisey’s Story is not the most engrossing King novel I’ve ever read, but it is a fine novel nonetheless.

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The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer

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