I've been playing around with different variations on the D-G-A chord progression, just to see how many different melodic "flavors" you can develop from just those three chords, depending on what order you play them and in what rhythm. So many songs have been written with those chords as a basis. It's interesting to substitute a B minor for the D and see how that changes the feeling of the progression, and then it's also interesting to just play B minor (at the second fret) and open D, back and forth, and notice how similar they sound, yet they evoke different emotions. I'm fascinated by the role a vocal melody plays in shaping a song, and I'm noticing more and more how slight changes in a chord progression - like substituting a B minor for a D - can accentuate a crest in the melody. I've been on a Bobby Fuller kick recently and this time I went ahead and bought one of his cds and also a Buddy Holly collection. Both of those guys were masters of the simple chord progression, both were great guitarists, and I'm having a lot of fun studying their songs. As a final experiment for the evening, play some variations of D-G-A, then replace the A with a C. Start with D-C-G, switch the order around a little bit, and notice how entirely different it sounds from D-G-A, even though they share two of the three chords. /////
Tonight's motion picture was "Space Probe Taurus"(1965), the story of a mission beyond the Solar System to locate habitable planets for mankind's expanding population. The liftoff is depicted by some cool stock footage of a Redstone rocket, but the initial voyage is aborted after the astronauts are irradiated in a remote star system. A second spaceship is then readied, optimistically named "Hope One". The crew, consisting of three men and a woman, are set to continue the original mission, but are sidetracked en route by an object that resembles a Giant Norelco Razor. It lies directly in their flight path, so after failing to make contact the Captain (James Brown, not the Godfather of Soul) decides to board it. "It may be a power station of some kind, possibly the source of the radiation that killed the first crew". He and the ship's engineer (Baynes Barron, gotta love that name) perform a Space Walk to the Norelco, with admirable special effects. They enter the craft and begin to search it. Thinking it empty, the Captain prepares to place a bomb near the power plant, to be detonated after Hope One departs.
But then, out of nowhere, a Super Scary Looking Alien appears! Folks, if I'd seen this guy as a five year old, I'd still be having nightmares. He appears to be suffering from an advanced form of Cretinism, with the added condition of Progeria. On top of that he's Raving Mad. He jumps the Captain and begins strangling him. If not for the prescience of the engineer, who's brought along his gun, the mission would soon be over. He shoots the Alien dead, the bomb is placed, and as Hope One flies away, the Norelco explodes.
And that, folks, is all you're gonna get for the next 45 minutes. I have no idea what writer/director Leonard Katzman was thinking. He went on to become a big-time television producer (Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Dallas) so he must know what constitutes a good screenplay. Here, he begins with a good set-up (the deadly radiation), builds on it (the Norelco power station with the scary Alien), and then he tosses it all out as if it never existed. After Hope One leaves the scene, we hear no more about the irradiated crew or the exploded power station. We hear nothing of the Alien or who he might have been, what planet he was from......nothing.
Instead, Katzman switches us over to Sociology 101, in which we will study the Battle of the Sexes for an interminable period. Inside their awesome looking cabin (which really does look like the inside of a spaceship), the crew descend into bickering. First the Captain complains about having a woman on board. "I'm actually a highly qualified scientist, believe it or not", she protests. This goes on for some time until the angle is changed by the engineer, who observes : "Qualified or not, she sure fills out her uniform nicely". He fancies himself a Lothario and will spend a great deal of the movie hitting on Dr. Wayne (Francine York), who rebuffs him while trying to concentrate on her lab work.
"Hello? Yes, may I speak with Leonard Katzman?.........Hello, Mr. Katzman? We get it already"!!
I wish I had a movie to describe to you, but I don't. I only have a beginning and an end, with a whole bunch of sexism in the middle. The engineer even has a dream at one point, where he's laying on a beach with a bikini-clad Dr. Wayne! That may be fine and dandy, but what happened to our sci-fi movie? Why go to all the trouble of assembling a cool rocket ship set if you're not gonna put it to good use? This has got to be one of the lamest scripts we've endured, fellow movie fans.
Finally, somewhere around the hour mark, the engineer stops pestering Dr. Wayne and informs the Captain that they're running low on power (and so is the audience by now). They need to land post haste, so they choose the nearest available planet, not knowing when, or if, they'll be able to return to Earth. The Captain overshoots his landing and sends Hope One splashing down into an extraterrestrial ocean, where it comes to rest on the bottom. "All we can do now is wait and see if the power restores", he says.
Me : "Don't bet on it, Sir".
While they are waiting, snacking on their Food Pills, Dr. Wayne spots something out the window, scuttling around the ocean floor. "Captain, look! What is that creature? It's huge"!
"It appears to be a giant crab of some sort".
Looks like they've wandered into a Roger Corman movie by accident.
"Right now it seems to be keeping it's distance, but we'll monitor it. If it gets too close we'll use the Reflector Shields". Thank goodness for those. But yeah, so here's the end of the movie : the Giant Crab Monsters (there's actually two of them), move around a bit, kicking up sand, and eventually do get closer to the ship. In the meantime, the engineer decides to risk it by putting on his scuba gear and swimming to the surface. "We can't stay here, that thing will get us eventually"!
As he rises through the water, he is stalked by a Rubber Suited Monster that looks like a cross between the "Creature From The Black Lagoon" and Genghis Khan. Unaware of it's presence, he emerges on the beach and removes his mask, to discover that not only is the atmosphere breathable, but there's no coronavirus. Hooray for that! When he returns to tell his crewmates the good news, he is attacked by the RSM and killed. Bum deal.
Postscript : Hope One returns home. The planet is eventually colonized and named Andros One, in honor of the fallen engineer, who is also forgiven his chauvinism by Dr. Wayne. No word on what happened to the RSM, if he still lives on Andros One, swimming around in the waves to terrorize beachgoers. Maybe he's been dealt with but if so, we are never informed.
And that's it. The End.
It goes without saying that I can't recommend "Space Probe Taurus" to any but the most dedicated sci-fi fan, and even then you're gonna need to take a No-Doz before watching this non-sequitur of a film. I'm gonna be generous and give it One and One Half Thumbs because it does have that horrible, horrible Alien at the beginning, and also the cool spaceship interior. The Norelco Power Plant and the rest of the models and special effects are good for 1965, and Katzman at least had the decency to shoot in black and white, but it's all wasted by his inept script. Good grief. ///////
Well, that's all for the moment. I had a nice hike at Aliso this afternoon, and I will now finish up my miles with a CSUN walk. Tomorrow I will be back at Pearl's for the next two weeks, so tonight will be my last blog from home until May 30th. I will do my best to keep up the Everyday Blogging Schedule we've enjoyed throughout the quarantine, but please bear with me if the editing is not as good or the movie reviews a little less comprehensive. I will try to maintain those standards as well; I only mention it because I will be working and thus will not have the luxury of taking my time while writing.
But - as always, I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time, and with luck, every night thereafter.
Tons, tons and more tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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