BUT TWO IDENTICAL CATS?

This double-chonk cat post has been coming around on Facebook for a few years now. And it was from before I lost my original Facebook account so it must have been a long time. But I laugh every time I see it! I can’t believe that there are two identical, equally plump, yet very uniquely marked, cats. In the same neighborhood?!   Come on, can it be real? 

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Movie: The St. Francisville Experiment (2000)

 

Okay. You know how I wrote about The Blair Witch Project (1999) being an "early bringer" of the Found Footage genre? Well, so is The St. Francisville Experiment. It was released a year later, but not to theatres and hype and a scintillating website like Blair Witch. It went straight to VHS/DVD, which explains its relative obscurity.

The St. Francisville Experiment opens with a producer outlining the experiment: four non-professionals are going to spend 24 hours in a haunted house, exploring it top-to-bottom and filming the entire time. But it's not just any haunted house. It's none other than the New Orleans plantation home of Delphine LaLaurie. LaLaurie was a socialite in the 1800s who was discovered to be a brutal, sadistic serial killer. She practiced her bloody dark arts on her unfortunate slaves. One of the enslaved women, who was chained to the stove, started a fire, which led to the staggering discovery. Living and dead bodies, including children, were found in the attic. LaLaurie and her family fled in the night. It's said that she later died in Paris.

I really wanted The St. Francisville Experiment to work. I was rooting for it the whole time. The house was sufficiently creepy. The camerawork was good--remember, the movie-making landscape did not have precedent for found footage in the year 2000, and in my opinion the camerawork here is far superior to Blair Witch. So too are the characters superior. Not that we have to compare The St. Francisville Experiment to The Blair Witch Project, it's just the fact of their close proximity in release date, plus the found footage thing. In The St. Francisville Experiment, the purpose of the experiment is noble--you get the sense that four participants really want to help these trapped earthbound spirits to move on. All four are natural and credible, most of all likeable. I especially appreciate The Psychic, portrayed by Madison Charap.

Madison Charap

She hasn't acted in much in the last 25 years, which is too bad, because she is so compelling. Madison's participation in the foursome is to perform blessings (lots of "bathing in white light" talk), lead a seance using a Ouija board, keep everyone else calm, and to sense and communicate with spirits in the house. When I looked Madison up (because of course I did) I found that she really is a psychic (because of course she is). Outstanding. 

Spoilers ahead!

So what didn't work? Well that's just it--it mostly did, right up until the end. It ended with Madison screaming, a blurry camera shot, one of the guys in the doorway looking at something scary, which we can't see, and then the closing shot is a short blurb (text) telling us the fate of the four ghost hunters. And they're fine. 

What? That's it?

As far as found footage goes, I'd have to call The St. Francisville Experiment a success, for all the reasons I mentioned before--creepy house, good camera work, good characters and acting. But as for story, this one had so much promise! And so much set-up! Only to end too soon! It feels like they just kind of ran out of...time? Budget? Or they just didn't quite know how to end things. There's a long scene in which Paul is about to go into the attic for a second time but he's too scared to open the door and enter. He feels cold. The others are encouraging him, especially Madison. I mean it's a really long scene, but it works to build suspense. The problem is it just doesn't deliver. I guess he enters the attic? It's not clear. Honestly that final text screen feels like a cop-out, and an insult to the viewers. All four ghost hunters are fine? What about Paul and the haunted attic? What about the ghost(s)? Did Madison's blessings help them move on? Why was Madison screaming at the end, when she seemed so in control the whole time? What or whom did she see? 

The St. Francisville Experiment is almost a really good found footage movie. In my opinion, it's ruined by all these unanswered questions and a cop-out of an ending. Even so, I'd recommend it, if only just for the magic that is Madison Charap.👻

 

 

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Daughter's Day? Hey, That's Me!

 

Me and my mom (1970)

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Oh no, not again: DHL sucks balls

Oh Lord. I ordered something. On September 6th. A long fleece robe from Catherine's. It shipped using DHL. (Insert blood-curdling scream here.)

Here's the thing. DHL is pathetic. I had a long career in Logistics before my brain broke, and therefore I can state with certain authority: never ship with DHL. 

 

How did they even do that, I thought DHL finally stopped trying to do domestic shipments? What the heck, they're back?

 

Over the years, at work I mean, I have lost so many hours on the phone with DHL trying to get packages un-stuck from processing centers, you don't even want to know. I had to tell one of our locations to stop using them, it was just ridiculous. One time, an important shipment was stuck for like a week, and the guy at DHL told me, in all seriousness, that they can't do anything about it because the driver's wife just had a baby. Excuse me? You just have...the one driver? So you're just...not doing the shipments anymore? Have you considered the implications of that? 

 

I could never imagine such a thing with Fed Ex or UPS. Even the US post office is faster and more reliable.

 

My delivery isn't urgent or anything, so I'll just wait. They can take their stupid sweet time. I just thought I was forever done with freakin' DHL Oh no, not again.

 

I placed the order on September 6th, coming from Indianapolis. It was expected to arrive last Thursday September 18th. As of the 17th, it was in Kentucky. 

 

It's the 24th. It's still in Kentucky. I'll just be here waiting for DHL.

 

I'm going to die and go to hell and it'll just be me on hold with DHL for eternity trying to get a package un-stuck.

 

UPDATE Sept 30: I finally sent a note to DHL asking if there is any possibility of getting this shipment out of Kentucky at any point, since it hasn't moved in more than a week. There was movement on it the next day. It's unstuck, finally. Hurray.

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Dear Former Bloggers: Why Did You Stop?

Dear Former Bloggers,

Why did you stop?

 

I myself had some major mental health challenges, a lot of which I blogged about, but there came a time when the effort was just too much. I stopped in November 2020. Five years ago. I started back up again last week. 

 

Diary of a Low Budget Superhero was launched in 1999. It had a different name then: Jungle Sweet Jungle. I named it that as a reference to the book Welcome to the Jungle: The Why Behind "Generation X" by Geoffrey T Holtz. You see, it was to be a GEN X blog. Of course, this was before they were called blogs. It was just an online diary. I thought I'd write about my life, for 20 years, and at the end of 20 years, I'd see how an ordinary, un-spectacular Gen X'er had it all turn out.

 

I started on Diaryland.com, went briefly to Livejournal, I feel like I wrote a few entries on Tumbler, and ultimately landed at Blogger. I've been happiest at Blogger. So here I still am.

 

All entries are available. All the way back to 1999.

 

It's been interesting to see which entries have risen to most-read in my absence. Because I created a List showing Most Popular Posts that's been aggregating the whole five years. I see The Star Wars Holiday Special is still making a decent showing. Heh. That was a fun one.

 

Well, the reason I ask why you stopped blogging is this: I spent some time on Diary of a Low Budget Superhero over the last week. One of the things I want to add to my Layout, that I used to have on here, is what we used to call a blogroll. A list of other blogs we like to read. So I checked it out, looking for all my friends' blogs. And they're all abandoned, having old entries but nothing recent.

 

So...how come?

____________________

UPDATE! Sept 27th

 

YOU GUYS. Guess what? I spent some time yesterday continuing what I'd been trying to do: link some cool blogs in Diary of a Low Budget Superhero. I found a ton of them! In Blogger, a few Wordpress, even some Substack. (I learned that LiveJournal has been sold to Russia, whaaaaat? No thank you.) This is so heartening! People were saying (I asked on Facebook) that the blog is a thing of the past. Old school. Done away with in favor of social media. NOPE. So I linked to some I would love to read daily, under "Other Cool Blogs." Check 'em out!

#thebloglives #longlivetheblog

 

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If You Had This Haircut...

 

Michael, Lou, and me...with that haircut.

 

 

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Movie: The Psychic (1977)

Joe and I watched The Psychic last night. It's a Fulci, so we thought we knew what to expect. But we were pleasantly surprised! We were glad to get into it. 

Lead actress Jennifer O'neill is stunning, haunted and fraught. Her psychic visions are tantalizing, letting us in on her mounting horror and providing glimpses of the approaching danger. It builds tension, it teases suspense. 

And by the way, I found myself exclaiming "Want!" at every single outfit O'neill wore, including the fedoras and jewels. When the movie finally revealed it's surprising ending (well, I distrusted that character the whole time if I'm honest) we immediately went back to the beginning to see who the costume designer was--it's a dude named Massimo Lentini. According to IMDb he worked a lot, on other Fulci movies and more, as both costume designer and production designer. Well, I'm a fan. Those costumes were gorgeous, evoking a slick, stylish 1920s vibe, even though the action takes place in the 1970s. 

Two things of note just so you're aware--the actors speak English rather than Italian. That's unusual for Fulci. And even more unusual is the mild gore--this is a director who is known for filming long, drawn out and close up kills, and a high body count. Not this time! It's way toned down. All told, The Psychic is a thoroughly enjoyable, beautiful to look at thriller. Highly Recommended.

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FISH CHAIR!

Ebay

The weirdest thing happened at about 8am. 

We were in bed, and I was asleep, dreaming about something…I have no idea what. When I found myself coming up from the depths of sleep saying “fish chair.” Joe was asking me “What? What are you saying?” And I very clearly enunciated “fish chair!” I like woke up saying the words and was aware that I had said it a few times already, while simultaneously thinking “WTF am I saying?” I don’t remember anything after that and wasn't sure it even happened!

Later I asked Joe if it had really happened. It did. What the hell was I dreaming about? Fish chair? 

Joe said, "That last one was emphatic too. 'FISH CHAIR.'  I still don't know if it's a chair for fish to sit on or a chair sculpted of ornamental fish. I assume the former."

I dunno. My brain is broken, it could be anything.🐟 

 

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"Credit Score" Is A Scam And They Know It

Credit score is something I have never understood. 

Most of my adult life, I have always had debit cards—if I don’t have the cash for Thing, then I don’t buy Thing. I learned about debit cards in college at my retail job. My friend Mary Ann told me about debit cards. Well, it sounded like a great idea to me.

My parents got into some serious credit card debt when I was a kid. For years, the phone rang often every day with creditors seeking payment. We were pretty poor, had no food sometimes. My parents did the best they could. But they were young. In those early days they shopped. A LOT. Clothes and shoes.

Those calls from creditors were so frequent and so traumatic to me when I answered the phone. Those callers were relentless. I vowed to never let credit card debts pile up in my life. And I didn’t. Whenever I had debt happen to me, it was medical or student loans. And this one time a roommate ran up a phone bill and ghosted. 

I was seriously against credit cards. It infuriates me that credit score is such a big factor in life. 

I really believe that one’s personal financial status should be measured by how responsible you are with your money. Except for college (poor as fuck) and the early 2000s when I had diverticulitis (even poorer than fuck) I have always paid my rent, medical bills,  phone bills, student loans, insurance, car payments etc. If I couldn't pay all at once I negotiated payment plans. 

That history should be on record somewhere and count for something. I was always current. I just didn’t use credit cards. 

This has always resulted in a low credit score. To me, if I am good with my money, the record should show that I am responsible and smart, never over-extended. I spend money only if I have money. I saw what happened to my parents in the 70s and 80s. I lived it.

But "spending only if you have the money" is not the way it works. They want you in debt. That makes no sense to me, never has. Utterly ridiculous system. 

Every time the topic comes up, people try to explain credit scores to me. You guys. I understand how it works. I'm saying IT'S AN UTTERLY RIDICULOUS SYSTEM.

I said what I said.💸

PS: I actually have an "Exceptional" credit score by marriage. It's the principle that annoys me to no end. 

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The Apartment Hunt Continues (And These People Have Lost Touch With Reality)

Braintree Street at dusk

To bring you up to date, we have to move this year. We have most probably been priced out of Allston, but I look at listings sometimes. What I'm finding is astonishing. The housing prices have skyrocketed in the 15 years we've been living here. This is Allston we're talking about. People used to make fun of Allston. But we love it. I wrote about the neighborhood I've called home for two decades in 2016:

Allston is a thickly settled multi-generational, multi-cultural Boston neighborhood off the Mass Pike. It's a student ghetto, situated on the 57 and 66 bus routes, and the B train from Boston College to Boston University to Kenmore (Red Sox territory), and onward into Park Street, where you can change trains and get pretty much anywhere you want to go. Lower Allston, or "LA" so dubbed by its genial citizenry, is a comparatively quiet residential sprawl of vintage double and triple deckers. Upper Allston is the busy ramshackle Mah Jong board of brownstones and walk-ups and restaurants and coffee shops and tattoo boutiques and thrift stores and churches and a thousand other urban services and delicacies. Stand in the middle of Upper Allston any time of day and you're in the perfect spot to take the pulse of Rock City. It's a hopping hive of students and rockers and immigrants from everywhere, and when you stand on the corner at night, you think, "Excellent city." 

Well that's no longer accurate. We made it cool, now the wealthy people have taken over and priced us right out. Same old story. Happens all the time. It happened to Cambridge 25 years ago. Now it's Allston's turn.

Case in point. "The Indie" is a newer apartment building on Braintree Street in Allston. Braintree is a little street that goes from the restaurant that's currently called Hobson’s (the old Pizzeria Regina) to the Stop and Shop plaza. It’s located right beside the commuter rail tracks and highway. 

I walked the short length of Braintree every day for nine years because my work was in the last building on the end. 119 Braintree, you can see it from the Pike. Braintree was all industrial--plumbing parts and automotive and parking lots. Safe, quiet, but not much to look at, really.

So it's been redeveloped. Built up. The Indie is being heavily marketed to young people, and it's being touted as "affordable housing."  That's a laugh riot. Affordable for WHO?

I should mention, if you didn't know, that "indie" is a term likened to Allston back when it was still "Rock City" and populated with a ton of indie rock bands. There were rehearsal spaces and "band houses." 

That's all gone. 

Now "indie" is nothing but a marketing term to attract wealthy young people to an overpriced building. They offer “work pods” and a rooftop lounge, among other amenities. 

And you can rent a 348 sq ft studio for just $3425!

348 square feet. For $3425.

 

These people have lost touch with reality. This is just gross. 

 

Indie my ass.∎ 

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Publishers Clearing House Is Bankrupt?

 

Story

What! 

That sucks! 

That was always the dream!

I filled out that fucking thing a few times. When I was still young and hopeful.💰

 

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On The Topic Of Charlie Kirk's Shooting Death And Performative Grieving Of The Typical Trumper

To be perfectly honest with you guys, I didn't really even know who Charlie Kirk was--then he died in the dumbest possible way. Apparently Charlie Kirk was on stage arguing his point on gun violence (he was all for it) when he was blown away by gun violence.

Now everyone wants the flag at half-mast. That's an honor. For a guy who was, arguably, not an honorable man.

Some civic leaders are refusing to do such a thing. 

“I condemn Kirk’s killing, regardless of who pulled the trigger or why. But I will not grant Johnson County honors to a man who made it his life’s mission to denigrate so many of the constituents I have sworn to protect, and who did so much harm not only to the marginalized, but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic.” - Jon Green

It’s frankly embarrassing to live in a society that would lower the flag to half-staff for a hate-filled lowlife as though he were a national hero. EMBARRASSING! Lowering the flag is a sign of respect, deference and honor. None of which Charlie Kirk earned. NONE. I’m sorry he died so senselessly, but to honor him? What for? I’m disgusted.

A big deal is often made about Kirk being a college drop-out, but I don't subscribe to that; many smart, accomplished people didn't go to college. That's not why he's an ass. 

He's an ass because of the things he promotes under the guise of Christianity and Patriotism, including support of Donald Fucking Trump. Some of what Charlie Kirk said:

"MLK was awful. He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe.”  (December 2023, Wired)

"There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication, it’s a fiction, it’s not in the constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists." (From the July 6, 2022, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on YouTube)

"The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates."  (Turning Point PAC, Duluth, Georgia, Oct. 24, 2024)

On Taylor Swift’s engagement, “This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative," he said. "Engage in reality more. Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge.” (Real American Voice, August 2025)

"If we would have said three weeks ago [...] that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative-action picks, we would have been called racist. But now they're comin' out and they're saying it for us! They're comin' out and they're saying, "I'm only here because of affirmative action. Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously." (July 13, 2023, on his podcast)

"It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights...That is a prudent deal." (Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church, April 5, 2023)

From Wikipedia:

Kirk espoused a range of conservative positions, including opposition to abortion, gun control, DEI programs, and LGBTQ rights. Over time, he aligned with the Christian right and advocated for Christian nationalism. His more controversial positions included criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as promotion of COVID-19 misinformation, false allegations of electoral fraud in 2020, and the white genocide conspiracy theory. 

That is all I have to say on the topic of Charlie Kirk.∎

 

 

 

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More Adventures In Apartment Hunting: The Bunker

Would you look at this place? It's like a prison. Not one window. Is it even legal? The other photos shoe even more windowless horror. Ugh. Next!

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In Honor Of Mel Torme (100th Birthday)

This was the Facebook/email invite I made for the cocktail party Joey and I threw ten years ago for Mel Torme's 90th birthday. Today is his 100th! 

Happy Birthday, Mel Torme!

That was a fun party. 

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RIP David Johnston

You guys. Mike Piehl posted on Facebook that David Johnston died yesterday.

Oh man. I loved him. 

I found him busking one day, and stood and listened. I was utterly captivated by his voice, his Dobro, his wild tumble of blond hair. I booked him in one of my showcases at the Lizard Lounge. He didn't have a CD yet. Not yet. When he made one, it blew me away. 

You were the real deal, David. Following, my review from my archives (as Lexi Kahn) and a video I found on YouTube of David busking.
____________________________________________
02 Dec, 2002

David Johnston
Gibraltar Records
David Johnston
9-song CD 

Somewhere between a back-alley troubadour and a world weary flower child, David Johnston is the man for whom they invented the word soulful, and his genuine grit and grizzle infuse every track on his nine song debut. 

The key to the appeal of Johnston's style is, though he defiantly shifts from brooding and rootsy ("You Outdid Yourself") to swamp-tinged and sexy ("Ten Miles of Bad Road"), to gospel-inspired ("To The Well"), that he manages to keep a certain core consistency. 

David Johnston became best known among Boston rock circles for his guitar work with One Thin Dime, a band that also included drummer John Sands (Aimee Mann), sax guru Dana Colley (Morphine), bassist Rob Jefferies (Barrance Whitfield & the Savages) and singer/guitarist Tim Hughes. When One Thin Dime was driven into hiatus (sadly, devastated by the death of bassist Rob Jefferies) Johnston continued to play in Cambridge clubs, and in the streets and subways, either with various musicians or by himself with just his battered Gibson. On this CD, John Sands plays drums and percussion, Tim Hughes contributes background vocals, and longtime friend and collaborator David Schlichting plays bass. 

Pick up this CD (CD Baby has it), and catch this guy in the Harvard Square T stop, Toad, or the Plough; I promise, feelin' good is easy when David Johnston sings the blues.

_________________________________________________

 

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Movie: Found Footage 3D (2016)

I never hear about this one. Found Footage 3D, it's on Shudder. The premise will resonate with some of you! A group of filmmakers want to go to a remote house in the woods to make a found footage movie, but they don't want it to be same-old same-old. So one of them gets the idea to shoot it on 3D cameras, and procures a few. On Shudder it's not 3D, but I understand from a friend of mine you can get it in 3D. 3D aside, it's a pretty good movie! There are decent jump scares, an original story, and a great ending. I recommend it!

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The Time Joe Found Waldo At Work

I spotted this top in a catalog, and for about two seconds, I liked it. That’s how long it took me to remember something Joe told me a long time ago. It was a story from work.

“I saw ________ in the stairwell at work today. She was wearing a red and white striped shirt. I said, HEY, I FOUND WALDO!”

 

I must have looked at him with an expression of horror, because he said “What?” I said, “Joey! She is never going to wear that shirt again!”

 

I really like the neckline though.

 

 

 

PS: This is how he looks at me when he thinks he's made a particularly funny joke. LOL. He is such a minx.

 

 

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