Thursday, January 26, 2012

One Positive from a Migraine - The Last Man on Earth

Here's a post I started a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post. LOL...

I cried 'uncle' last night, conceding defeat to my aching brain, despite the fact that I wanted to spend some time reading more of Eden's Root and work on a little side writing project I have going.
Migraines suck! I get them several times a month, and sometimes they can last half a day and even bleed over into the next day. Your brain feels swollen like someone has shot a bullet or an arrow into the middle of it, and there's a large volume of blood pressing onto your skull. The worst ones have the added bonus of nausea on top of them. Luckily, this most recent one just involved pain.
Since I usually can't sleep or read when I feel that icky, I often turn on the TV and just listen to it or watch it with my left eye open (with a cold compress covering the right eye where there is the most pain). I don't usually watch much TV, because nothing appeals to me unless there's something good on Discovery or the SyFy channel. (Or it's Sunday night and AMC's 'The Walking Dead' is on.) Last night, in my misery, I was channel hopping and paused when I saw a movie description including the words, zombie vampires. It turned out to be The Last Man on Earth on the TCM channel with Vincent Price. It didn't take long before I realized that this was an early (1964) movie version of Richard Matheson's story, I Am Legend. I've read the book and seen the 2007 I Am Legend movie with Will Smith, but didn't know this movie existed. Watching old black & white movies can be challenging if you're expecting a modern style of acting or great CGI effects. What I did like was that the story was stripped clean with emphasis on each important scene in the plot. Watching this movie was like watching a modern horror movie and then going back and watching the original Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968)--intense but quite different from what we're used today. Do you watch old movies? Do you dislike them because you compare them to what's on the big screen these days? Or, do you see nostalgic story value in them and treasure them?

4 comments:

  1. Sorry about your migraine. You know I understand how you feel.

    I don't watch old movies too often, but I've been watching Dark Shadows on Netflix. And I mean the original Dark Shadows where Jonathan Frid played Barnabas Collins. I've had so much fun revisiting this old show that I used to watch when I was about 7 years old! This was the TV show that started my love for vampires and other supernaturals.

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    1. I'm sorry that you do understand. There's a part missing from the Bible where God said that Eve would suffer pain from both childbirth and migraines. In many cases, labor doesn't last as long as the head/stomach misery!

      I'd never heard of Dark Shadows until the early 90's. (Thanks, Andrew "C"!) Creepy cool show.

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  2. You're welcome Michelle! Glad to have turned you on to DS! (and Laura Lynn you just gained 10 cool points) So sorry to hear of your continued suffering... poor thing.

    As to the movies.. I did recently see a really old Zombie film from like the 30's, remember thinking it had to be one of the first zombie movies ever made. These zombies were nothing like yours or George Romero's, though. Haitian voodoo was involved in their creation. Watching it made me think of you, though. I have no idea what it was called.

    Then just earlier tonight I watched the Halloween-themed 'South Park' where the whole town turns into zombies... that was waycool too! Zombies are overly popular these days.

    Hope you're doing well, my dear, migraines aside. Life in H-Town is progressing as I expected. Found a halfway decent job in a little wine-n-cheese bar in Magnolia, of all places. GenuWine Tasting Room. Check it out next time you come down home. Rivethead continues to grow and gain recognition. Jeff, Ray, and Marty's ex-wife Niki all say hi! And I'm still very glad we were able to get together one last time before I left Colorado.

    Don't forget... fans worldwide are anxious to learn the fates of Cheryl and Aiden, so when the Eaters novel is finally released, don't keep it a secret!

    All the best to you Michelle! Hope to someday see you again.

    -Andrew 'C' (for 'also need a hard copy of Gardener.') ;-)

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  3. Lauralynn is a kindred writer with a healthy paranormal fixation! Migraines are definitely punishment. (I must have been VERY BAD in a previous life.) Glad to hear that you are settling in down under. Tell the old gang 'hi'. The fates of Cheryl and Aiden should be revealed soon. Eaters is on Permuted Press's upcoming releases list! (Also...one of my goals this year is to self-publish The Gardener in paperback. You are on the mailing list :)

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