off topic - movies ..... Vertigo

The summer of boredom continues. The Lighting continue to sign everyone who ever played on the Penguins forward lines, and they still don't have defense. October is a long way away, so I'm gonna spend my summer watching lots and lots of movies. The netflix cue should be hopping, and I think I'm gonna spend a small fortune just going to see classic films.

The historic Carolina Theatre of Greensboro is just around the corner from my house, and they always show classic films on Tuesdays. Every summer, they kick the classic films into high gear, doing them most every night. Tonight, they're showing one of my all-time favorites, Vertigo.
Vertigo is by far my favorite Hitchcock film, and it usually sits in my "top five all-time"

As usual, Jimmy Stewart is perfect, and the stunning Kim Novak is amazing. Let's be honest, though. It doesn't matter how good or bad her acting is. She's just simply there, and she's beautiful. One of my favorite things, though, is the very underrated performance by Barbara Bel Geddes as Scotty's (Stewart) gal-pal Midge. I've probably seen this movie 20 times, and I never tire of it.

Next Wednesday, the Hitchcock series continues with The Man Who Knew Too Much. I've never seen it, and I doubt I'll go this time. In two weeks, The Birds, with Tippy "Poor Man's Kim Novak" Hedren. I liked it a lot the first time I saw it, but not so much on subsequent viewings.

Among others in the summer Hitchcock series : Rebecca, Rear Window.

Among other classic films being shown that are worth mentioning: This is Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I'm pretty excited about the lineup, and there's about 10 others that I didn't mention, but I'll probably go see most or all of these. Of course I own most of these on DVD, and it isn't as if they own film prints of these movies. They're just projecting the DVD version on the huge screen. Still, I'm gonna go. Y'know. Support the arts. The theatre is non-profit; it uses ticket sales to fund building renovation and upkeep. It's a beautiful 1920's theatre complete with balconies, private boxes, massive staircases, marble pillars, statues and all the other glorious fixtures that you would expect from that era. Oh. And a high-quality up-to-date sound system.

As the summer wears on, I'll have more off-topic posts. Hopefully Frantisek Kaberle will get traded so I'll have something hockey-related to write about.

Weird hockey card #2: Pat Falloon

In what may or may not be more than a three-part series, RBH takes another look at a weird hockey card. Tonight's oddity: 1992-93 Pat Falloon (Pinnacle #238).
Click to enlarge


Pat Falloon was highly touted and was the second overall pick in the deep 1991 NHL entry draft. Unfortunately, he didn't quite live up to the expectations. In nine NHL seasons, he played for five different teams, amassing 322 (143/179) points in 575 games. Not bad, but not exactly what you would hope for out of a #2 overall pick.

According to the card, which is valued at about 20 cents, Falloon spent off-seasons "riding a tractor on his family's grain farm outside Foxwarren, Manitoba". Yeah. I'm sure Eric, Jordan and Marc Staal still help out on Henry's sod farm during the summer, too.

This card has absolutely nothing, NOTHING, to do with hockey. Not only is it absurd because of that, but it shows Falloon wearing a San Jose Sharks t-shirt/hat combo that he probably didn't even own, and a completely ridicuous pair of white shorts. The back of the card says Pat Falloon, FARMER. There is no way that there is a real farmer anywhere in the world who wears white shorts. Real farmers don't wear short pants at all. I know it was the early nineties, but that's just absurd. Way beyond my willing suspension of disbelief.

For some reason, this card reminded me of a funny parody radio commercial I heard a few years ago. Somebody put it up on YouTube, and I feel obliged to share it. Be warned though. The material within the YouTube link is not appropriate for most working environments.


The next "weird card" in this series (and maybe the last) will be Jeff O'Neill. Look for that in the next couple of days.

I've also got some "random" cards of some of the potential HOF inductees. They're not weird in any way, but I might use them as well.

Weird hockey card #1: Martin Lapointe

Now that the Stanley Cup playoffs are over, we have a long summer ahead of us. The entry draft is next weekend, followed by the free agent signing period beginning on July 1. I'm already really bored.

I have a few projects in mind for the summer to break the monotony of "and so and so signed a contract with such and such team for whatever whatever years at yadda yadda dollars." One potential project will involve the participation of bloggers for other teams.

One other project, which I'll introduce tonight, is very much inspired by an excellent series over at IPB called "Project Bicycle Spoke". Basically, they bought a bunch of 07-08 hockey cards, put them in a shoe box, draw one out at random and write a little bit about the player (and the card). This is a very entertaining series, and I highly recommend reading them all. IPB has become a daily read for me, and I suggest you all do the same.

For a few months, I've been buying these hockey card sets at Target that have four packs of cards from the 06-07 season, and also 100 completely random cards. These "random" cards are really really random. They're not just "assorted", they're random. Most are from a name-brand card company, and most are from at the very earliest the late 80s, but some are either from an off-off-off brand or they're more than 30 years old, or both. I've bought four of these sets, and to illustrate the "randomness" of it, one set had three of the exact same Eric Weinrich card from the 1990-91 season. This card is worth about 25 cents.

Anyway, there's usually one card in every set that makes me laugh. I'm going to try to share these with you. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, so I have to take a photo of the card, but I hope you enjoy. I don't know what I'm gonna call this project, or even if I'm going to give it a name, but without further ado, here is a very strange Martin Lapointe card:


First off, this is from a card company called "Arena Holograms", which I've never heard of. I guess this card had something to do with the entry draft that year. Presumably, they had everyone who was projected to be a first round pick pose for one of these cards wearing a tuxedo and a hockey stick. It looks like they had him pegged to be the #8 pick, but he actually went as the #10 pick to the Detroit Red Wings. At first, I thought the card was funny, but the more I look at it, the more I think it's creepy.
Despite the comparisons that were made to Mario Lemieux, Lapointe never really made it big in the NHL. He's still playing, and he's a player that everybody knows, but he never had the offensive output that people were expecting from him.

I've looked this card up in several databases, and nobody has it listed. At all. AFter a little bit of research, I found out that this was the first and only year that this series of cards was produced. Apparently, the #1 card in that series was a hologram of Pat Falloon, who went with the #2 pick to the Sharks, right behind Eric Lindros. Later on, RBH will bring you a goofy card featuring the very same Pat Falloon.

As an aside, that 1991 draft was pretty packed. Ray Whitney was the first pick in the second round (23rd overall), and there were some really good players deep into the third round.