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Ganden Monastery or Ganden Namgyeling or Monastery of Gahlden is one of the "great three" Gelug university monasteries located in Dagzê County, Lhasa, Tibet. The other two are Sera Monastery and Drepung Monastery. Ganden Monastery was founded in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa Lozang-dragpa, founder of the Gelug order. The monastery was destroyed after 1959, but has since been partially rebuilt. Another monastery with the same name and tradition was established in Southern India in 1966 by Tibetan exiles.
The Dunwich Horror is a 1970 American supernatural horror film directed by Daniel Haller, and starring Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, and Ed Begley. A loose adaptation of the novella of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, the film concerns a young female graduate student who is targeted by a man attempting to use her in an occult ritual taken from the Necronomicon. The screenplay was co-written by Curtis Hanson, while Roger Corman served as an executive producer on the film. The film's distributor, American International Pictures, had tentatively planned an adaptation of the Lovecraft story in 1963. Executive producer Corman hired Haller to direct, as he had previously directed several features for him, including Devil's Angels (1967). Though set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Arkham, principal photography of The Dunwich Horror took place in and around Mendocino, California in the spring of 1969. The film marked Sandra Dee's first adult role, following the break in her contract with Universal Pictures, and she envisioned the picture as a major departure from the films she had appeared in as a child and teen actor, in which she had been presented in a very wholesome way. The Dunwich Horror premiered in Chicago in January 1970, and screened throughout the country that year, as well as internationally. Critical response was divided, with some critics praising the film's technical elements and adaptation of the source material, while others felt the performances were ineffective, and the film generally mediocre. Despite this, some contemporary film scholars, such as Alain Silver, have championed it as one of the best film adaptations of a Lovecraft literary work. Film historian Rob Craig similarly deemed it "one of the most overall successful adaptations of a Lovecraft source work ever committed to film." Aesthetically, the film has been noted for its psychedelic posterized imagery.
The meeting went well last night. The AoL Cub Scouts seemed to have fun. And when each was asked who their favorite Disney Princess was (a question that always gets asked), each one said they did not have a favorite Disney Princess. It's moments like that which fill my old heart with joy. And Disney has no one to blame but themselves.
Diane Ladd, Oscar-Nominated Actress and Mother to Laura Dern, Dies at 89 Sad to hear. She was a wonderful actress. And she gave us Laura Dern, who helped give us Jurassic Park. Rest in Peace.
Spectre is a 1977 American made-for-television horror film produced by Gene Roddenberry. It was co-written by Roddenberry and Samuel A. Peeples and directed by Clive Donner. It was one of several unsuccessful pilots created by Roddenberry, and one of several pilots in the 1970s in the occult detective subgenre. The pilot follows the adventures of William Sebastian (Robert Culp), a former criminologist and occult expert, and his colleague, Dr. Amos Hamilton (Gig Young), a physician and forensic pathologist, as they visit the United Kingdom to investigate a case involving the aristocratic Cyon family. The cast includes John Hurt, James Villiers, Gordon Jackson, Ann Bell, and Majel Barrett.
Since I was out late last night for the troop committee meeting, I didn't have time to watch a Godzilla movie for the anniversary. Very sad. Instead, I found on this animated Splinter Cell series. It's new. I remember my coworker showing me the trailer a week or two back. I've never played the games. The series was...interesting. I'm three episodes in, and for the most part it's been a lot of shooting and fighting. Not much in the way of complex plot. We'll see how it goes. The episodes are only half-hour or so. Easy to watch.
In a fit of pique because they didn't get a series, Spectre went on to attempt to conquer the world, and were defeated by James Bond. And, sadly, they gave up using the occult for the efforts. Focusing instead on Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. How boring.
And today will be another long one. Work, plus a regular troop meeting tonight. And I think I'll have to force the boy to volunteer for grubmaster again. I don't think he got everything he needed signed off last time. We'll also be hosting a bunch of AoL Cub Scouts tonight. Hopefully, they'll all crossover to the troop. We're also going to present the Spirit of the Eagle Award to the parents of the scout who passed away awhile back. I'm sure that'll be emotional. Not for me, mind you. I'm an emotional black hole. The only thing that escapes my gravity well is annoyance (and the occasional anger) and disappointment.
Today I solved a mystery which has haunted the depths of my mind for probably close to 40 years. I remember being a young lad and finding a supernatural horror movie on that had John Hurt as Asmodeus. I promptly forgot about, but vague knowledge of it has returned over the decades since, encroaching on my thoughts every so often. It did so again today, so I finally decided to look it up. Gods bless the internet. The movie Spectre, from 1977. It was a pilot developed by Gene Roddenberry - think Holmes and Watson, but (for the time) modern and investigating the occult. It wasn’t picked up for a series, but they expanded it to a sort of TV movie.
In the Mouth of Madness is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who visits a small town while looking into the disappearance of a successful author of horror novels, and begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur. Informally, the film is the third and final installment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy", preceded by The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987). In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the works of author H. P. Lovecraft in its exploration of insanity, and its title is derived from the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. Distributed by New Line Cinema, In the Mouth of Madness received mixed reviews upon release, but has gained a cult following.
Then there was another weird occurrence when I got to the building. Dude in a pickup truck, park at the entrance the building's driveway. I went past him to the parking garage, and he moved a bit further up. As I was walking to the building, he kept pulling through towards the garage. Before he could enter the garage, he turned to exit the driveway. Then he looped around. I had to come back down a few minutes later because I forgot the leftover Halloween candy in my vehicle, and he was parked in the garage. Weird. |
