Tired tonight. Yeah, I know......."when am I not tired"? The answer is "most of the day", actually. I am only tired when I have to get up early in the morn, and then late at night like everybody else. I got up early this morning because Pearl's cleaning lady was supposed to come, but then she didn't end up showing until 12:45 pm.
Coulda slept in. But didn't know. No biggie.
I don't think anyone is reading this doggone thing anymore. But still I write, for that one person from Malaysia or Poland who happens upon this blog by accident and then clicks away to another site after perusing the contents here for several seconds.
I went to Whitney Canyon in Newhall this afternoon for a 50 minute hike. Hot and humid out, not 100 degrees, but close. Humidity very high. The hike was nice, but felt perfunctory because the Vibe wasn't there. Whitney has more of an Autumn vibe to begin with. Think of bent trees, birds flitting between them, maybe a deer around the next bend. Long shadows, and no one on the trail but you. This time though, it was all kind of "beat up" looking. There was a lot of debris on the trail, rocks strewn around and tree branches and twigs fallen and piled haphazardly. I think this was all due to the heavy weather last Winter, and then the extreme drying out in Spring and Summer. Lots of overgrown brush, but messy looking and without the Usual Magic of Rustic Summer Colors and Very Still Shadows.
Still, a good hike all in all, if only because it is Summer, and it was Whitney. And I got 3 miles in.
Tonight, an episode of "The Outer Limits" (season two 1965), called "The Brain Of Colonel Barham". This was right up there with the best of the Brain-related sci-fi movies and tv shows of that era, the 1950s and early sixties, up to about 1965, maybe 66. Once the Hippies took over America, nobody made great sci-fi with Brains as protagonists anymore. But this episode was really good. In it, the military (and not NASA, for some reason) is getting ready to send a robotic probe to Mars. But the General and Scientist With An Accent, probably a Paperclip scientist haha, feel that the computerised brain of the probe will not be able to adapt fast enough to the possible situational changes which may present themselves on The Red Planet. A computer cannot think like a human, plain and simple.
And so they decide that a Human Brain is needed to power the probe.
Luckily for them, they have an astronaut at their disposal, Col. Barham of the title, who is not only possessed of a brilliant mind, but is also fortunately dying of an unmentioned disease.
They talk him into donating his Brain to be used for the Mars probe. A surgery is performed, and It Is Done. His body goes the way of all flesh, and his Brain is being prepared to go to Mars.
But then, the Rules Of Science Fiction take over, as they must.
The Colonel's Brain has been put in a large cylindrical glass jar, electrodes protruding, ghostly white light eminating, and.........as always.........The Brain Becomes Arrogant.
This happens in every Brain Oriented movie, without fail.
In this episode, the Brain (sitting in the jar with ethereal lighting) starts ordering everyone around. First, it's wife. Then, the psychologist who was preparing it for the journey to Mars.
The Brain uses Mind Control to make Zombies out of some of the scientists.
The main setting is A Laboratory (pronounced Lab-bor-a-tory) with all the requisite bubbling beakers and fluttering needles on meters, measuring the intelligence outgrowth of the disembodied but rapidly adapting Brain.
The Brain keeps growing, getting bigger, bullying everyone around it, until.....
The Laws Of Science Fiction take over, and the Humans fight back with wits and emotion.
The Brain can't do much at this point, because it is still sitting in a jar.
But it doesn't matter, because - Holy Smokes - it's a show about A Brain.
What more can you ask for? :)
That's all I know for tonight. A Shout Out to the person in Malaysia or Poland who is reading this. :)
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