BIG OL' ODYSSEY... TOTAL RIGHT KNEE REPLACEMENT

I haven't been down this road since 1999. Total joint replacement. I could tell you I'd rather be gut shot and left for the pigs, but that's not quite true. Actually, I'm pretty darned grateful. Joint replacement is a good surgery. If you have confidence in your surgeon, rehab your buttinsky off, stay ahead of your pain courtesy the friendly neighborhood pharmacy, when all's said and done quality of life improves. 

So.....tonight in preparation for tomorrow, I have to shower with an antibacterial soap, clean pajamas, and clean sheets on the bed. All part of my doctor's war on infection. Good for him...I hate germs too.

The Orthopedic Surgery Department at UK Med Center is a pretty on the ball kind of place. Everything is streamlined to get you into the hospital as smoothly as possible.  Surgery is performed the day of admission. My room will not be assigned until after recovery. I have packets of information that answer every question under the sun about the surgery. Every consideration will be given to my husband Ray because he'll be a big player in my progress.

Later this evening I'll have something else small to eat because  after midnight its nix on food or water, even my precious morning cup of Joe. (And nooooooo I'm not happy about that). An Ambien tonight should help me sleep.  6:45am will come early. Surgery is set for 10am, but probably before. I'm second in line.  

Updates as Oxycontin is available.

Late Show Video - Web-Exclusive: The Heavy (with Encore Performance) - CBS.com

Late Show Video - Web-Exclusive: The Heavy (with Encore Performance) - CBS.com


Great video...one of my favorites.....Enjoy it!

FRIDAY HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN...ITS ALIVE..ITS ALIVE!!!!

I bid you welcome. Wait, that's the wrong movie..oh well; got to  start a blog out someway...and today's Jeanie's Halloween favorite is Frankenstein.  To my way of thinking, there is only one that did it justice, corny as it may be...and that's Frankenstein with Boris Karloff.  Back in the day...or so I'm told....the site of the sewn together with bits and pieces of dead folk Frankenstein could scare even a good girl straight into the arms of her beloved.  I'll wager most young men found it worth the price of admission and popcorn to cop a feel while watching Colin Clive shout the immortal words....It's alive! It's alive!

Boris Karloff said he endured 5 to 6 hours a day in the makeup chair to create his role as the monster, who he played a total of 3 times in his career. In the sequel to Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, the monster is actually given dialogue...sort of. ...and would like Dr. Henry Frankenstein to piece together a little something in the form of a wife.  Gotta admire positive thinking.

There have been some imitators over the years. Hammer Film Studios released several of their own versions.  Kenneth Branaugh directed and starred along side Robert DeNiro in a version of Frankenstein in 1994, staying more true to Mary Shelley's novel. However, in my way of thinking, no one is as memorable or stands the test of time like Karloff's Frankenstein.

Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein were released in 1931 and 1935 and both directed by James Whale (see Gods and Monsters 1998).

Son of Frankenstein with Karloff's last turn as the monster was released in 1939 and directed by Rowland V. Lee upon James Whale's departure from Universal Studios.

Frankenstein is another one of those monsters from which no one can manage to escape. He may be slow moving...but he's tenacious! Tomorrow is my final Halloween entry.  It will be catch-all day for monsters...including ghosts, ghouls, demons and in general folks who have jumped the trolley tracks...so's to speak.

I hope everyone is planning to have a Happy Halloween. Better get out now and get your candy; and please, don't be a cheap bastard....buy the good stuff!

HE WHO DISTURBS THE GRAVES OF EGYPT DIES....

He who disturbs the graves of Egypt dies.  Well, that would certainly be enough to make me leave 'em alone.  I think the excavators of King Tut's tomb found out the hard way about messing around with an Egyptian curse. Nasty stuff!

Which brings me to this evening's Halloween countdown entry...Mummies.  The younger set probably thinks the latest films to be released starring Brendan Fraser and Arnold Vosloo (as the Mummy) could whip my oldies but goodies hands-down; but it ain't so.

My favorite of all the Mummy movies is from Hammer Film Studios. Considered a remake (sort of) of the Universal classic..it is titled "The Mummy". Hammer Films trademark is their vivid colors...red, blues, golds, etc. and plenty of big boobed gals with 70's hairdos.  Kharis, the Mummy, is played by Sir Christopher Lee, who is still going strong at the age of 87. (A search of IMDB finds 5 films of Lee's in post-production...guess he believes if you rest..you rust).  Peter Cushing stars along side Lee as John Banning, who figures out that the Egyptian fellow who just moved to town is up to noooooooooo good.  Christopher Lee has very few lines in this film...mostly narration describing why the High Priest Kharis deserved such a grissly fate as becoming a mummy.  Makes you feel kind of sorry for him actually.

No talk of mummies would be complete without The Mummy himself, Boris Karloff.  As the mummy Imhotep, a condemned High Priest, he is still looking for his lost lady love. I have this film, which is in black and white, as part of my Universal Classics series. Yep, its old..but still worth watching even today.  The Mummy came on the heels of Karloff's depiction of Frankenstein..but more about that later.

Hammer Films released its version of The Mummy in 1959 and it was directed by Terence Fisher.

Universal Studios released The Mummy in 1932, directed by Karl Freund.

On a parting note..I never could figure out why no one could get away from these classic horror villains...they couldn't run worth squat...hell they could barely walk.  All wrapped up in bandages...dragging one leg around...mercy!

Tomorrow nite....Frankenstein.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN..WEDNESDAY..Even a Man Who is Pure of Heart..

Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the Autumn moon is bright. ~Wolfman, 1941~

Yikes! Doesn't sound like anything good can come from that now does it? Poor old Larry Talbot didn't think so either.  Universal Studio's classic The Wolfman starred Lon Chaney, Jr. as a cursed man who made the mistake of getting into a free-for-all with a wolf. The wolf lost the battle...but so did Larry Talbot.  With the onset of the first full moon after Larry's close encounter with a wolf, we see only his feet make the transformation from normal to a wolf's paws. Larry Talbot, it seems, was the two-legged variety of werewolf. Watch the scene closely, as Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) begins his walk as a werewolf, he slightly raises his trouser legs...and you can clearly see the top of his yak hair boots developed for the wolf transformation.  The Wolfman starred a veritable Who's Who of Hollywood including Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy and Maria Ouspenskaya as the rather pessimistic but helpful gypsy, Maleva. Look for Bela Lugosi in a short role as the son of Maleva, a werewolf of the four-legged kind who dooms Larry Talbot.

A list of my favorite werewolf movies would definitely include An American Werewolf in London.  David Naughton as David and Griffin Dunne as Jack are completing the requisite college backpacking thru England/Europe/wherever trip...hitching a ride along the way with a local sheep farmer who warns them about staying on the path. Fellows...you should've listened more closely.  After receiving a very cold reception at a pub called...The Slaughtered Lamb..(yeh that's what I thought too) the boys strike out on their own once again, and of course, do not stay on the path.  They soon find themselves in the middle of the moors..lost...and there are some very odd growls and movements which appear to be coming from all around them.  The werewolf strikes and Jack (Griffin Dunne) is killed...but David (David Naughton) runs hell bent for leather until his conscience finally gets the better of him..but its too late. He is, of course, wounded in the fracas....the werewolf is killed by the locals..and the cycle begins again. Jenny Agutter plays the love interest of our doomed David..who keeps seeing the ghosts of his victims; believe me, they are not the least bit sympathetic to his plight.  The werewolf transformation effects in this film stand out as some of the best.  There has been a sequel to this movie, An American Werewolf in Paris..but I can't say I cared for it.

Last is a film that probably most folks don't think of..but I rather like it. Silver Bullet is based on a novella by Stephen King, Cycle of the Werewolf. The story centers around Marty (Corey Haim) a paraplegic and his older sister Jane (Megan Follows), who find they must lay their differences aside when the town of Tarker's Mills, Maine has some very unexplained (and messy) deaths. Gary Busey is great in the role of Uncle Red...an excellent role-model in the form of a hard-drinking womanizer who must come to the aid of his niece and nephew.

Lon Chaney, Jr. revisited his role as The Wolfman four times for Universal Studios. The original Wolfman was released in 1941 and directed by George Waggner.

An American Werewolf in London was released in 1981 and directed by John Landis, who later directed Thriller for Michael Jackson.

Silver Bullet was released in 1985 and directed by Daniel Attias. Special effects were designed by effects guru Carlo Rambaldi.

Stay tuned...tomorrow we'll visit The Mummy.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN, TUESDAY...

Second day heading toward Halloween and this is Part 2 of my monster movie greats. Today's serving is Dracula. Hypnotic, erotic, alluring...and likes to bite.  Plenty of actors have from time to time taken on the role of the great Count...but my all time favorite is Frank Langella (in a reprise of his Tony-nominated role from Broadway).  From the moment you see Miss Mina slip into a cave seeking what she believes is a lost dog from a shipwreck (where, by the way, the captain's throat is ....well..missing) and those long fingers wrap spider-like around hers...you're hooked.  Is it just me...or do Frank's (the Count's) eyes have an unnerving way of vibrating back and forth when he spots his prey.  I'd definitely be ripping my bodice open for this guy, but I'd demand he clean up Carfax Abbey. Place is a mess. Sir Laurence Olivier chews up the scenery as Dr. Van Helsing with Donald Pleasance as the bumbling but well meaning Dr. Seward.

The second entry but by no means less noteworthy, is of course the great Bela Lugosi. As with Frank Langella, Bela Lugosi had also played Dracula on Broadway to very good reviews.  Mr. Lugosi went on to act in many other of Universal's horror classics...but is most often imitated for his speech pattern in Dracula.  "Good.......EvEninnnng, I am Dracula."

Honorable mention in my Dracula roundup goes to Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula, one of my all time favorite horror film actors..ever.  Lee's Dracula takes on a much more sinister turn...you never like him..not ever.  By the end of the film, Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing does an excellent job of ridding the world of such evil..or does he?

Frank Langella's Dracula was released in 1979, directed by John Badham with a fabulous film score by John Williams.  Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula was directed by Terrence Fischer and produced by Hammer Films and released in 1958.  The Lugosi Dracula came out in 1931 directed by Todd Browing.

Stay tuned...tomorrow The Wolfman.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN!

I love the week before Halloween. Autumn, I guess, is my favorite time of year...but Halloween is something special. I love to see the kids in their costumes...and candy, Jack O' Lanterns...and candy, brisk cold air and cloudy spooky evenings...and candy, but most of all I love spooky movies. I've been watching them all my life (or at least when my parents would begin to allow me).

So, in honor of Halloween and all things that go bump in the night, every day this week I'll select some of my own personal favorite characters, actors and stories that I think make scary movies and Halloween positively creepalicious!  Some might be fairly popular...others not so much, and you can bet I'll probably leave out or forget your favorite. 

First up, two of the very bad boys of scary movieland. Norman Bates and Michael Myers. Now here are two fellows that definitely had issues.  The character of Michael Myers is a product of the Halloween franchise. Whilst wearing an altered William Shatner Halloween mask, Michael damn near killed the whole town of Haddonfield in the attempt to settle the score with his sister..or his niece...or basically whoever made the mistake of stepping in his path (depending on the sequel number). He seemed to be especially fond of teenage girls with big bossoms.

Norman Bates....(Psycho) now there's a boy who loved his mother...to death.  He loved her so much, he carried her mummified corpse all around his rather forboding home.  Poor Marion Crane (a very young Janet Leigh) made the mistake of trying to take herself a shower while Norman was peeking...and well...we all know how that turned out.  Please try to remember...a boy's best friend is his mother.

Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and originally released in 1960. Halloween was directed by John Carpenter and originally released in 1978. Point of interest....Michael Myer's targeted sister was played by none other than Jamie Leigh Curtis, who is the daughter of Janet Leigh, who played Marion Crane, the unfortunate shower scene victim in Psycho.  Both of these films had theme and background music that was essential in helping scare the poot out of you.

Hope you've enjoyed my first two selections...stay tuned...its only Monday.