This afternoon I drove out to Placerita Canyon. I hadn't been there since 2017, and today was only my second visit since the Spring of 2016. A few months after that, in July, a terrible wildfire raged through the area and destroyed part of the park, including a lot of the main trail, known as the Canyon Trail. Before the fire, I used to go to Placerita on a regular basis, as you may remember if you saw my numerous photographic posts on FB in the years 2014-15. Back then, the two mile Canyon Trail leading from Placerita to Walker Ranch was one of my favorite hikes. It was such a peaceful and beautiful trail with gorgeous oaks and sycamore trees. The trail has been closed since July 2016, so I just wandered around the rest of the park without going on an actual hike, but the good news is that after three long years, the funds have been approved to repair the Canyon Trail, and according to their website, it should be ready to re-open by next Spring. I can't wait, but in the meantime it was just good to be at the park anyway, especially cause it was 100 degrees outside, haha.... :)
I haven't been doing as many Hundred Degree Hikes as I used to, but today was a day off, so nothing could stop me. :):)
After Placerita, I stopped off at Aliso on my way home, so I could do an actual hike and get some daily mileage in.
This eve I watched a weird little sci-fi called "The Day Mars Invaded Earth" (1962). I'd never heard of this one, and was expecting flying saucers and bug-eyed aliens, but what I got was more like an extended episode of "Outer Limits" crossed with "Playhouse 90". A scientist working on a Mars probe down at Cape Canaveral is stunned, along with the rest of his team, when the rover they have landed catches fire and explodes.
Yes, this movie shows an early Mars Rover in 1962! But it explodes just as it is transmitting a message, which the NASA team never receives. The mission is over, the scientist (Kent Taylor) is dismayed, so he heads back to California to his wife (Marie Windsor) who was just about to divorce him because he is never home.
When he returns, she isn't home either, but is staying at the gigantic mansion of her in-laws, who have asked her to house sit while they are away. So far, this doesn't sound like much of an Alien Invasion story, right? Well, the place she is house sitting is the famous Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The filmmakers must've spent 9/10s of their budget renting the joint out, but they make great use of their time on the property, because the movie then locks down at that location and becomes about keeping the Martians out.
But wait! It's hard to tell who the Martians are, because they look just like the scientist and his wife, and their two children. Think "Invasion of The Body Snatchers" once again, but with a psychological bent, because the scientist gets into a debate with the Martian Him about what the motive is for taking over our planet. I won't bother trying to explain it, but it's a whole lot weirder than it sounds, and best of all, the movie is shot in rich black and white and the photography is excellent, making full use of the geometry of Greystone's architecture. This is one of those types of isolated character plots that I love, where the entire cast consists of only a handful of people, and they are cut off from the rest of the world, and have no other option but to solve the problem on their own. Here, they are stuck on the grounds of the immense Greystone Mansion, which has a spooky history in real life, and they are fighting aliens from Mars who don't resemble ants but are actually forms of energy who are able to take the shape of humans and impersonate them.
This is well made, low budget, high production value stuff. It's all about the drama, and using your imagination to fill in the gaps. It's Pasadena Playhouse with Greystone Mansion as the stage.
I give "The Day Mars Invaded Earth" Two Thumbs Up. It clocks in at a wiry 70 minutes, no time is wasted and every scene leads into the next in a linear fashion. And, it's weird. And isolated.
Sci-Fi fans will not go wrong by looking for it. I discovered it myself in a library database search for "Fox Cinema Archives".
That's basically my story for today and I'm sticking to it. Before I cash in my chips for the night, I want to once again mention the book I am reading, which is called "The Rendlesham Enigma".
If you are a UFO buff, or if you simply want to know what is going on in this world, you should read this book. I think it is obvious to say that the biggest revelation that could come out of the news media, short of the return of Jesus, would be that there was proof that Planet Earth had been visited by an intelligence from another world.
This is what happened in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980, and the book "The Rendlesham Enigma" gives an extremely detailed, 675 page account of the entire affair.
It is a book I take very much to heart, given my own experience. Read it if you were involved in 1989.
That's all I know for tonight. See you tomorrow morning in church.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox :):)
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