Winter Driveways

 After a fresh snow fall my wife and I enjoy driving around admiring how beautiful everything looks with a fresh blanket of snow on it.  At the same time I am judging my neighbors and everyone else that hasn't taken the time to properly clean their driveways.

  

I take great pride in how my driveway looks clearing out both ends, making sure the banks are pushed back to leave room for the next storm, making sure the edges are just right.  My driveway is like a crescent moon that goes downhill from the top looping around to the bottom, if it's icy it can be dangerous or difficult to get in and out of.  We are fortunate that we get a lot of sun on the driveway, and as it's paved I ensure it's clear of ice so the sun can dry it.

I just don't understand how people drive over the snow, not clear out the ends, or simply not care.  I get it, if you have a dirt driveway you can't scrape it all the way down, but if it's paved you have no excuse.

So I judge.  

The Blair Witch Project - Second Sight Release

In the Summer of 1999 the internet existed, but it wasn't what we have today, not by a long shot.  Most people still were using dial up access, there was no YouTube or Social Media, Ebay was in it's infancy and Amazon was mostly selling books.

I remember seeing ads on TV for something called The Blair Witch Project coming to theaters in July.  I even read about it in magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Fangoria.  Sci-Fi Channel even had a special about the upcoming documentary.  

The movie was billed as being real, it was about 3 college students making a documentary about an urban legend Blair Witch in Maryland in 1994 and they disappeared.  The footage they shot was discovered in the foundations of a structure where it shouldn't have been and what was being released was a compilation of the footage edited together.  The production company even created a website to support their narrative.

There was so much buzz about this movie and so many people believed that it was legit.  To be honest I wasn't sure if it was real or not.  Part of me knew it had to be a work of fiction, but another part of me really wanted to believe that it was real.  Either way I wasn't missing this movie and fully intended to go opening night. 

My wife at the time was not a fan of horror movies, but she even wanted to see this.  We headed to Hoyts Cinema and the line was huge as the turn out was way more than the theater anticipated.  We bought our tickets and the screening very quickly sold out, however the theater decided to show it on a second screen.  

We went to the first theater, where our tickets were for and couldn't find two seats together other than the front row, so we went to the other theater and acquired a couple good seats.  The start of the movie was delayed, which was unusual, and we didn't have to normal trailers before the film either. 

It was delayed so long that the theatre employees brough in concessions to sell at a discounted rate, I have never experienced that before or since at a standard theatre.  The discussion the whole time by my fellow audience members was the validity of the movie, and the vast majority fully believed that it was real.  They were thoroughly convinced.

Finally the movie started everyone was so into the movie.  About 25 minutes into the flick it night time and the they are hearing strange noises  and we get hit with a jump scare and simultaneously the screen jumps and the picture melts away.

The audience started to scream, like legit fear started to scream.  More than one person cried out something about the Blair Witch was coming for us, I think some of them actually meant it too.  People were panicked!  Eventually the house lights came on, we were informed that the projector broke in Theater 1 and once they respooled the film they would restart the movie.  Everyone in theatre 1 was sent home with a voucher.  

This was back when 35mm film was the standard for showing movies, they only had one print of the film so they fed through the projector in Theatre 2 and ran it across the room to the projector in Theatre 1, so when the that projector broke what we saw was a single frame that was stuck in front of the projection bulb too long and melted.  

We eventually finished the movie, it was awesome and the overall experience really enhanced we feelings towards it.  As we were leaving people were still debating if it was real or not.  It was so remarkable because they captured something special when they released this movie and they really were able to work the audience on the validity of the film in a way that simply couldn't be done today.  

The movie also innovated the found footage feature film genre.  It wasn't the first movie to use this style of filming, others like Cannibal Holocaust and 84C MoPic were successful with the format, however The Blair Witch is what really jumpstarted it.   

I've seen the other films, Book of Shadows was just okay, however 2016 Blair Witch I thought was excellent.  In 2024 UK based Second Sight announced a new blu ray release of the film. For the first time the film would be seen as the film makers intended it to be seen.  

When it was originally filmed it was done so on 16mm film and Hi8 Videotapes.  For theatrical release they had to upscale the print which distorted the picture a bit.  When Lionsgate released it on home video they took the 35mm print and scaled it down for the home video release further degrading to film.

The only catch is Second Sight is only releasing it in Region B, where as North America is Region A, so unless you have a region free player or Region B player you can't watch this.  I have a Region free player, so I ordered it.  I must say this new cut of film does have a different feel to it, and looks great.  Much of the clearer shots makes the film spookier at times.

It's also LOADED with special features, deleted scenes, alternate takes, the documentary special that aired before the movies release and more.  If you have  chance to check it out, it's worth it. 

To be fair, it's not the greatest movie in the world, but I have a lot of fond memories from it's release. 

Until Next Time!

My Twilight Zone Watch Through

The Twilight Zone is one of my all time favorite shows, one I've enjoyed since I was a kid. Watching the New Years Eve / Day Marathon became a tradition that I looked forward to.

Christmas 2023 my mom got me the blu ray release of The Twilight Zone 1959 - 1964 series and the DVD release of the 2019 - 2020 series.  I used Christmas money to pick up the 1985 - 1989 and the 2002 - 2003 series, Twilight Zone the Movie and Rod Serling's Lost Classics.  Lost classic's came out in 1994 as a TV movie of the week, it featured two unproduced scripts written by Rod Serling that were discovered by his wife Caroline in a trunk in the garage.

Christmas Day 2023 I started watching Season 1 from the original series and on January 5, 2025 I watched the final episode of Season 2 from the Jordan Peele 2019 series.

The original series ran for 5 seasons from 1959 to 1964.  I enjoyed season 1, 2, 3, & 5 immensely.  While I didn't love every episode, it was very few that I didn't.  The episodes hold up so well and except for the few filmed on video tape, because they were filmed on film they still look great!  

These seasons were half hour episodes, where as Season 4 were hour long episodes.  They didn't have a sponsor at the what would have been the start of the 4th season, so it ended up being a midseason replacement and needed to fill and hour of TV time.  The episodes were just not as good, didn't flow well, and was a struggle to get through.  I don't think I've ever seen a season 4 episode until this watch through. If I were to watch the series again, I would skip season 4 and not feel guilty.  

Chronologically next up was Twilight Zone: The Movie released on my 4th birthday, June 24, 1983.  A tremendous cast and crew that featured a prologue and 4 segments of which 3 segments that were remakes of episodes Kick The Can", "It's a Good Life", and "Nightmare at 20,000 feet".  

The movie is infamous for the helicopter accident that claimed the life of actor Vic Morrow and children Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen.

Next up was the 1985 revival series, which ran for 3 seasons, the first two on CBS and the 3rd in syndication.  Much like the original run the cast of these episodes was made up of young up and coming actors and seasoned veterans.  The First episode was directed by Wes Craven and the first segment starred Bruce Willis.  The first two seasons were hour long episodes consisting of 1 to 3 different stories per episode.  Some of these were good and other really dragged.  I had a rough go getting through these seasons, much like Season 4 of the original run. 

Season 3, was tremendously better!  This was the season in syndication and featured 30 half hour episodes that were concise like the original series.  The best episode of this entire revival is "The Cold Equations" based on the Tom Godwin short story that came out in 1954.  The ending is so dark, and I would have loved to see Serling do this in the original series. 

The downside to all of the seasons is the cheesy 1980's special effects.  I would re-watch the 3rd season, but would most likely pass on the first two.  This revival features the remake of 4 original series episodes "Night of the Meek", "Shadow Play", "The After Hours", and "A Game of Pool".

In 1994 CBS released Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classic, a made for television film featuring two stories Rod Serling had written that his wife found in a trunk in the garage.  James Earl Jones appeared on screen as the narrator and did the voice over for the segments.

The television network UPN hosted the next version of the Twilight Zone in 2002 with 43 half hour episodes featuring Forest Whitaker as the narrator and on screen host.  Once again the cast of this series was comprised of young up and coming actors and veterans.  They remade original episodes "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Monsters Are on Maple Street".

We were treated with a sequel of original episode "It's A Good Life" entitled "It's Still A Good Life" with Bill Mumy reprising his role of Anthony and Cloris Leachman returning has his mother.  I enjoyed this single season thoroughly and watched it rather quickly. 

It would be a decade and a half before we the Twilight Zone returned for the most recent revival to date in 2019 for two, 10 episode seasons.  The series was developed by Jordan Peele who also served in the Serling role of The Narrator both on scene and in voiceovers.

This series aired on the CBS All Access steaming network, later rebranded as Paramount+.  This series was more adult orientated, episodes were rated TV-MA, with swearing, sexual content, and adult themes.  The episode "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" was an update of the original series "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".  These episodes varied from 36 to 53 minutes in length, and unlike previous versions that went beyond the half hour format these episodes did not drag and I watch through them rather quickly.

If I were to rank the series as a whole here it goes:

1959 Series Seasons 1, 2, 3, & 5

2002 Series

2019 Series

1985 Series Season 3

Twilight Zone The Movie

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics

1959 Series Season 4 & 1985 Season 1 & 2

Through the year I picked up a couple more series that I want to watch, The Night Gallery, Tales From The Darkside, & Friday The 13th The Series.  I'm not sure what I want to watch next, but I am drawn to The Night Gallery to watch more Rod Serling. Thanks for reading.

In the summer of 2025 we went to Binghamton, New York and we saw Rod Serling's home town and everything there that celebrates him.

Rod Serling's Binghamton

Until Next Time!

Update

Time of Day Greeting!

Back in January 2025 I stopped posting here and started a blog at bearblog and began posting Random Thoughts & Pondering over there.

I'm shutting that blog down and I'm going to repost some of the posts from that site over here. 

Enjoy