Twin City Photos

Had to buy another el cheapo DVD player to replace the one that sits on my TV in my computer area. Apparently they spoil if you don’t use them for a while, which in my case was 12 months ago, during Christmas break, to watch some DVD’s Santa had brought. This year we hit the jackpot. Three boxed sets, 100 movies each, of B-Movies. I don’t go for the schmucky stuff, but the Horror and Sci-Fi sets look promising. A selection of some of the movies I like see out of them:

• Alien Contamination
• Beast of the Yellow Night
• Chloe, Love is Calling You – Wonder if this was the prequel for ‘Play Misty for Me’.
• Death Warmed Up – I’m sure I’ve eaten it a few times.
• Evil Brain from Outer Space – Let me guess, it floats in an aquarium with tubing attached to it.
• Frozen Alive – Must involve liquid Nitrogen, else doesn’t make sense. Wait, its a B-Movie.
• Good Against Evil – Very original, promises to be good.
• Hercules and the Captive Women – Better screen that one before I let the kids see it.
• Invasion of the Bee Girls – Sounds sweet
• Killers from Space – Another original title, how do they come up with these?
• The Lucifer Complex – I’ve heard of the Oedipus complex, but not this one.
• Mole Men against the Son of Hercules – I think wart men would be more visual.
• The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave – Hope she puts on some makeup.
• One Frightened Night – Guess Evelyn didn’t put on some makeup after all.
• Piranha, Piranha – Sheets of plexiglass with Piranhas painted on them sliding through the water?
• Radio Ranch – with Gene Autry … will there be singing? Or am I thinking of Gene Kelly?
• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians – Single-handedly?
• Teenagers From Outer Space – In other words just regular teenagers.
• They – …. what?
• This is not a Test – This is not a test.
• Unsane – Either a typo or Insane must be copyrighted.
• Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women – Hope those astronauts have taken their vitamins.
• The Wasp Women – Is that what happens to Bee Girls once they grow up?
• Werewolf Women – Would be interesting to see a Wasp Women against Werewolf Women sequel.
• The Wild Women of Wongo – Had to google for that one. You can actually watch it online, if you’re willing to put up with ads. The intro looked promising.

As I’m typing this I’m watching Lawrence of Arabia. It has some truly spectacular desert scenery, great cinematography and music, and a bit of true Arab history to boot. They just don’t make movies like that anymore. Too expensive. You gotta see it at least once, but be forewarned, it’s a long movie, with a bit of overacting here and there, but Omar Sharif is great.

Based on what I’ve learned thus far on my current pet project (coming soon), it’s perfectly allright to put pictures of those the DVD sets up there, as long as I don’t have any google ads on my site. Think I’m safe even if wrong.

It was a lot darker then the photos would let you believe, close to midnight out in the country side near Duluth. Focusing through the lens is impossible, and I had to use the distance marker on the lens barrel. The first shot is a 20 second (ISO 400) exposure, the second almost 150 seconds (ISO 100), causing the clouds to streak. I manually fired an external flash a few times to illuminate the foreground. Third shot is the big dipper.

Just a few minutes before we had heard a pack of Coyotes howling, not to far away. Coyotes normally hunt alone, but will also hunt in packs for larger prey. The group howling was probably to celebrate a kill, likely a deer. I don’t think they’re interested in humans. Wolfs would be a different story though. Not sure I’d stand alone in dark out there if I thought wolves were nearby. Did you know that Minnesota has the largest wolf population (estimated at around 3,000) in the lower 48? They’ve pretty much filled up the north woods, and population is stable now as a balance between prey (deer), space, and wolves has been reached.

As it was though the only creatures interested in me standing a the river’s edge were the mosquitoes.

That’s what the counter weight is for 1/2 of the lift bridge in Duluth (there’s one on each side). The counter weights of course mean that the power required for lifting the bridge is primarily needed to overcome friction, not the actual weight of the bridge. Imagine the hole that weight would make if it were to come loose way up in the air. Not to fear, from what I’ve seen this bridge is well maintained.