Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E6: Escape Clause

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E6: Escape Clause

It seems that whenever you are in or around the Twilight Zone, and you start wishing for something to be different,a dodgy character always turns up and offers you a better deal - for a price. And the same old chumps are always there to accept said offer, believing they have outsmarted the offerer of the deal in a way that can only advantage themselves.

You can't help but like this episode, for the fact that it is so obviously doomed from the start. When Walter Bedeker who is a Class A hypochondriac seals a deal with the Devil to swap his soul for immortality, he thinks he's made sure he has enough conditions in there to last him that long. Our evil one agrees, but allows Bedeker the opportunity of an Escape Clause, meaning he can renege on the deal at any time and accept his fate.

The conclusion is well done and well thought out - though if this was a 'reality' you would think there would be plenty of ways to get around it. However, enjoyable all the same.  4/5

The Definition of Commitment

Definition of Commitment:

Playing cricket all day Saturday, and having to back up Sunday morning for an hour and a half of backyard cricket, complete with catching drills. And the threat of more to come before the ODI starts this afternoon.

The body has held up better this week, though mostly due to the fact that we only fielded for about 18 overs or so, and not much batting to be done. 

Josh just keeps on improving. He's counting the seconds until he can play a real game, but is also excited that he will get to play against Jack Yates next Sunday. 

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E5: Walking Distance

Season 1: Episode 5: Walking Distance

The most surprising thing to me about this episode is that when TIME magazine put together their list of best episodes ever on the occasion of the series’ 50th anniversary, this ranked as number 9. Once again, it isn’t a bad episode, and it does adequately go through the motions of a real Twilight Zone episode, but there really are more than eight episodes that are better and more poignant than this one!

Apart from seeing one of the earliest appearances of Ron Howard on the screen, this is a nostalgic trip for those that see the episode. Most people at some time in their life dream of going back in time to their childhood and revisiting those times, and this episode is clever in dealing with that occurrence for Martin Sloan, and the consequences of that. If nothing else, it also tries to show that you only tend to remember the good memories from previous days, and scrub the small minute details that were not so great. As a result it is an interesting and thought provoking episode… but not one that ranks at the very top.

Rating:  The youthful days of yore.

Vale: Alan Rickman

There is a very very small list of actors/actresses in the history of acting. That list comprises people who, no matter what movie or show they are in, no matter whether it is hugely popular and enjoyable or complete trash and rubbish, their performance is still hugely watchable or captivating.

Alan Rickman was most certainly on that list.

His sad passing today of cancer allows us to reflect on his wonderful and perhaps understated career. He rarely appeared as a leading man but he almost always stole the screen in every movie he appeared in. Some no one knows about. As Ed the painter alongside Kevin Kline in The January Man. As the Metatron in Dogma. As the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Wonderful.

As terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard he was superb. If not for him playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves it would have been a disaster. He and Tim McInerny made Sense and Sensibility slightly less tedious. His role as Harry in Love Actually was subtlely superb. No one could ever have brought Severus Snape to existence on the screen so brilliantly and believably as he did. And one of his finest performances will never receive the recognition it deserves, as it was in the Sci-Fi parody Galaxy Quest. In which he was brilliant.

So many performances left unsaid here. But for me he is firmly in this exclusive list of genius performers.

Thanks for everything Alan. "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged".

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E4: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

Season 1: Episode 4: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

This is another of those early episodes of the series that, while it probably fulfilled the brief of the Twilight Zone in that something happened that involved crossing or passing through the Zone, it doesn’t rank highly in terms of the best around.

What I do like is that it involves the strong will – deranged or otherwise – of the protagonist, wishing and wanting for something to occur (in this instance, the return to the days of yore and youth) and through that strength of will (in the Twilight Zone) making it happen. And that’s what helps keep this episode alive throughout. The apparent disintegration of Barbara Jean’s sanity as she wishes for the past glories, while those who are close around her trying to help her deal with that, and yet in the end she succeeds in the impossible.

Like I said, it isn’t anywhere near the top of my list, but the fantasy yet completely believable conclusion in Twilight Zone terms makes this bearable on the odd occasion.

Rating:   Capturing the light of youth.

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E3: Mr. Denton on Doomsday

Season 1: Episode 3: Mr. Denton on Doomsday

Watch out when ol’ Henry J. Fate comes in to town with his wagon full of wares, because he’s sure to offer you things that may look great on the surface, but maybe don’t work out the way you would imagine. To me, the highlight of this episode is still seeing Martin Landau in his ultimate youth, that shock of black hair standing out against the whole bleak landscape. His role is perfunctory, but I still smile when I see it.

As for the rest of the episode, well it is okay without being terrific. The story has some interest throughout, but in effect it could have still gone the same way without the addition of a potion to help bring things along to its conclusion. Given that the potion brings the twist it is necessary, but it doesn’t feel like a strong enough story to be one of those most memorable episodes.

Except, of course, for the youthful Martin Landau…

Rating:  Quick Draw McGraw.

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E2: One For the Angels

Season 1: Episode 2: One For the Angels

Yeah OK, I don’t really care how good a pitch salesman you are, you would be treading a very fine line to get me to believe that anyone could pull such a stunt on Death such that it would delay him from reaping the soul of someone he had his mark on. So part of this episode still grates at me whenever I watch it.

But there is so much here to like. The performances of Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton are sublime, perfect in every way. It is refreshing to see Death portrayed here as… well… normal, just someone who is doing their job in a functionary and exacting way, without hysterics or crazed outcomes. It is the two major scenes with the two characters that make this episode – the first where Death informs Lou that he is finished with this world, and how Lou believes he has found a way out, and then the final scene, where the two head off together for the afterlife. There is the scene I mentioned in the opening stanza, which does feel a bit too much for me, though it is done well by both.

Rating:  A negotiated settlement.

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S1 E1: Where Is Everybody?

Season 1: Episode 1: Where Is Everybody?

The first episode of any series is always the starting point, and in retrospect most will always have flaws or feel out of place in the whole scheme of the series. As a first episode this does everything it needs to, with a story that poses a problem that seems out of the ordinary, before the twist at the end. In this instance, the twist is also the answer to the problem posed, rather than changing the storyline cleverly at the end, as would become the trait of the show.

The episode poses an interesting question, set as it is a decade before humans set foot on the moon, about how isolation and loneliness in space would affect potential astronauts. Not knowing that at the commencement of the episode, and only knowing that our friend doesn’t know who he is, or where he is, or how he got there, makes for an interesting debate throughout as to what is actually going on.

Rating:  The start of something big. 

Lunch (there's chicken in there somewhere)

O'Keefe Loses in Big Wet

If there is anyone you should feel sorry for with this almost complete washout of the Sydney Test, it has to be Steve O'Keefe. His opportunities in the Baggy Green are going to be few and far between, and his first Test on home soil has had more than three days taken out of it by weather.
At least he got a bowl on the first day, and today he finished with figures of 3/63 from 26.1 overs. It may well be some time before he gets another chance in the Test team, but he has at least made his impact here on his home ground. Imagine if Australia had batted. he could have gone the whole Test doing nothing!

Front Page on RYM - For Lemmy

Nice to have my review for Motörhead's latest - and now last - album Black Magic put on the front page of the Rate Your Music website in honour of Lemmy's passing last week. Cheers guys.

New Look Australian ODI Squad. And No Shane Watson!

Watson 'still in the frame' despite ODI omission: https://t.co/kxjjHGtnMy #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/tamP56FMHU

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 4, 2016

Steve Smith (c), Dave Warner (vc), Aaron Finch, George Bailey, Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, Glen Maxwell, James Faulkner, Matthew Wade (WK), Josh Hazelwood, Kane Richardson, Scott Boland (debut), Joel Paris (debut).

How do we dissect the 13 man squad chosen for the five ODI's to be played against India in January?

• In a team that looks as though it is beginning to regenerate with the next World Cup in focus, George Bailey retains his place while Shane Watson has been discarded. This would appear to signify that Bailey is still in the frame for the T20 World Cup in March and this is being used as a warm up for him with that in mind. Whether his tenure will last into the next Australian season is yet to be seen, but if he keeps performing then there would seem to be little to be achieved in moving him aside. Watson however would appear superfluous now, and his International career may finally be at an end. Yes... not before time.
• The resurrection of Kane Richardson, and the debut selections of Scott Boland and Joel Paris, has certainly been forced upon the selectors with retirements and injuries. No doubt all three will get an opportunity in the five match series, and each will look at it as the first stepping stone for them towards an international career. Each has had impressive moments at domestic level recently. Richardson appears to be an enforcer, something Australia will be looking for in the absence of Mitch Starc and the retirements of Mitch Johnson and Ryan Harris, while Paris looks an exciting left arm prospect, and Boland an end-stopper. Josh Hazelwood's insistence on playing every game possible is to be applauded, and while he will not play all five ODI's he will continue as the number one Australian paceman.
• Mitch Marsh, Glen Maxwell and James Faulkner continue in their all round roles (the success or otherwise still to be determined), while Matthew Wade continues in his anointed role of ODI keeper, something that should be monitored closely in this series given Peter Nevill's flawless glove display this summer.

Given India was just here 12 months ago this seems like a money-grabber rather than a concerted series of one day internationals. It will be interesting to see what crowds these games can pull while the Big Bash continues around these fixtures.

Aussie ODI squad: Smith (c), Warner, Bailey, Boland, Hazlewood, Faulkner, Finch, MMarsh, SMarsh, Maxwell, Richardson, Paris, Wade #AUSvIND

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 3, 2016

A Bit of a Tidy

NINE DARTER AT THE WORLDS FROM @garyanderson180!! Watch all 9 darts as the crowd go WILD! #WHDarts https://t.co/0Cf27BXtGK

— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 2, 2016

I again rose before the rest of the household, looking to watch the two semi-finals of the PDC Darts World Championships. Helen and I watched as firstly Adrian Lewis took apart Raymond van Barneveld, leading 5-0 before eventually winning 6-3, and then reigning champ Gary Anderson proving too good for Jellie Klaasen 6-0, including a nine darter to take out the first set. Great stuff. I expect Anderson will get the job done tomorrow morning to win his second successive title, he looks way too good.

The 3rd Test started between Australia and West Indies at the S.C.G this morning. Rain took a couple of hours out of the day, with the Windies reaching 6/207 at stumps off 75 overs, thanks to Lyon and O'Keefe ripping through the over in quick time.

I moved around the Metal Cavern during the day, tidying and re-organising things, returning The Trooper to the southern wall, and finally putting my dart board up on the western wall to enable it to be used more often than was the case when it was in the garage.

We took the kids to Mum and Dad's this afternoon for their sleepover and had dinner there as well, before returning home to watch a few more episodes of Parks and Recreation Season 3 before heading to bed and getting prepared for the return to work tomorrow.

Saturday Situation

Helen was missing in action for most of the morning, firstly taking Madeleine to her party, after which she was off for a sleepover (24 hours of silence!), and then over to see her parents for awhile. I roused the other two to have breakfast while I took on Guitar Hero.

I then took the initiative and decided to teach Jess and Josh how to play Hearts, as much so that we can play this card game at home when there is just the family around. Helen came home once the teaching had been done, and after lunch we played our first game together, and as seems to happen each and every time I teach someone to play this game, the newbie won, on this occasion Josh was the victor.

After a casual afternoon we finally began that long-awaited-for game on My Monopoly, with Jessie's revamped properties and cards enhancing the gameplay. For those that enjoy playing Monopoly. Which my two kids and my wife do. Which I do not. Two and a half long hours there.

We stopped the game at 9.30pm with no end in sight and sent the kids to bed. Helen and I then watched the end of Series 2 and the start of Series 3 of Parks and Recreation, until Helen finally decided bed was the call sometime after 1.00am.

New Years Day

Given that we didn't get home from the Young's this morning until 2.00am, it probably wasn't too much of a surprise that I had the house to myself when I got up just after 9.00am until midday, when Helen, Maddi and Josh finally got their arses out of bed. Jess didn't rise until about 1.00pm, so I had some quality time watching the Man vs Food marathon on Austar.

Helen decided that she wanted to play Monopoly this evening, but Jess was proving to be a hard case. Having tried at every opportunity to play her My Monopoly setup in recent days, she now decided she just wanted to return to bed with her new school notebook and surf the net. After much gnashing of teeth, and a change of game to The Game of Life, she finally surfaced, and the family games night eventuated after all, which I believe Madeleine won quite easily.

Helen and the kids went off to bed at 9.00pm, with Helen having to work tomorrow morning, so I took the chance to watch Quentin Tarantino's new film, The Hateful Eight. Loved it. Thought it was just brilliant. OK, so it probably ended on a slight whimper, but I still thought the set up and the story was good, as well as the performances, especially by Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walton Goggins. Well worth a look for anyone who loves Tarantino's work.

The Countdown is On!

https://countingdownto.com

BBL Match 2: Strikers vs Stars

Scorecard

The Strikers struck early in the competition, taking down the highly fancied Stars team with what appeared to be a minimum of fuss.

It wasn't all plain sailed being 4/66 off ten overs, but another old boy Brad Hodge fired away to score 56 off 41 balls, while the up-and-coming star of Australian cricket Alex Ross pounded and swept his way to 65 off just 31 deliveries, to be the mainstay of the Strikers eventual total of 5/187.

The Stars innings was almost comical, as five catches were put down in the first half a dozen overs, four of them alone by keeper Tim Ludeman, and four of them also off the bowling of Kane Richardson, whose mood grew darker with each failing.
At 1/90 off 11 overs the Stars appeared to be cruising, but finally things started to turn for the Strikers. Ben Laughlin and Adil Rashid cleaned up the first four batsmen, helped by Luke Wright standing on his stumps, and Kevin Pietersen and Glen Maxwell playing equally ill-though-out shots in a pressure situation. Richardson returned to clean up the middle order, and finished with 3/22 off his four overs (which could have been anything). The Stars petered out to 7/168 and with some questions still to be answered of their superstar team.

BBL Match 1: Thunder vs Sixers

Scorecard

The Thunder's best chance of victory in this match was always going to be to bat first, and they were able to do this. Still, if not for Michael Hussey, the 40 year old veteran who still seems to be able to bat as well as he ever has, they would still be without a win in the Sydney Smash. His 80 not out off 59 balls propelled what looked like being a meager total to a much defendable one at 4/158.

Michael Lumb showed off his classic English fielding skills, not only misfielding terribly a couple of balls, but dropping what is quite possibly the easiest catch of all time.

Brad Haddin excelled with the first ball he faced in the Sixers innings, being caught plumb in front off Green, but immediately looking at the bottom of his bat as if he had gotten an edge on the ball. It fooled the umpired, who ruled not out, which makes this one of the most audacious efforts in cricket history since W.G. Grace put the bails back on the stumps after being bowled and exclaiming "the crowd came to see me bat, not you bowl".

None of this helped as the Sixers were routed for just 122, giving the Thunder their first victory over their cross town rivals and a solid start in the new season.

The Mikado 1987 Act I Eric Idle Lesley Garrett

BBL05. Where Will They Finish?

Another season of the Big Bash League begins, and as always there is no chance in hell of me being able to pick who is going to win, except to say that at least 80% of the games will be won by the team that bats first (lock that in). Apart from that, here are my tips for the current season.

1. SCORCHERS. They just have something that makes them a good T20 team. Packed home stadiums help. Can't really see anyone beating them unless they get injuries.

2. SIXERS. Still good enough to be one of the better teams. Three spinners in Lyon, O'Keefe and Botha should mean spinning tracks aplenty, especially with Starc now out of the equation.

3. HURRICANES. Have to like their squad, and Sangakkara and Sammy will be handy. If Dunk and bailey fire they could go all the way.

4. STARS. Eclectic mix with David Hussey and Hastings and Pietersen and Wright with the spin options of Zampa and Beer. Will probably win enough to make the top four again.

5. STRIKERS. Will be good again, but surely not as bright as last year. Losing the players they have lost won't be offset by Jayawardene's arrival.

6. THUNDER. Maybe they'll do better than this, but even with the roster they've put together, playing on a dud wicket at Homebush is going to be costly in the long run.

7. RENEGADES. Don't like their recruits, even with the "names" I just don't think they can cut it with the rest.

8. HEAT. Again relying on mostly 1st Grade talent to do the job in the big league. If they win more than 2 of their 8 games I'd be very very surprised.

Can't wait to see how poorly this ends up in a few weeks time.