2 Not a moment too soon.
3 I didn't see too many JFK specials on Saturday.
4 <crickets>
5 That was the 51st anniversary of the assassination to end all assassinations.
6 I still teach it.
7 It is updated and moves in all sorts of new directions, but I still think young people need to know that every now and again their government lies to them.
8 The fact that we refer to our leaders as "the government" is of itself a distortion.
9 Ah, foolishness.
10 I imagine it is nice not to look too carefully at history. Once we realize it is ongoing it becomes scary.
11 I watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes the other day, only because it was on. It is the sequel to the 1968 film version of the Pierre Boulle book.
12 It began with the By the Waters of Babylon ending with Taylor (Charlton Heston) looking up at the Statue of Liberty resting on an ocean shore. Logic would dictate that the Statue of Liberty would probably have been beneath the shore given the amount of time since said Apocalypse. Remember being a kid and letting the waves bury your feet? You ankles go under pretty swiftly. There was no Statue of Liberty in the book. Rod Serling added that. Not criticizing, because Rod Serling can get away with things like that.
13 We then see Taylor and Nova (Linda Harrison) ride past the Statue and THEN continue into The Forbidden Zone.
14 To me, the history lesson should have stopped there.
15 In Beneath, no sooner had they gone off by horse when fire suddenly surrounded them, and Heston disappeared. He came back at the end, probably for his paycheck.
16 I won't bore you with the rest. It received a 41% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Contrast with 89% for the original, which was written my Michael Wilson and Rod Serling.
17 The back story of Beneath is far too complex and depressing to put here, except that it ended up being written by some of the actors. Nobody wanted to touch it, and it looked like it.
18 And then...
19 The world came to an end and everybody died.
20 The End.
21 Pretty lofty. It sure brought me up.
22 The final scene in the original, by the way, wasn't filmed on the East Coast. It was filmed at Point Dume in Malibu.
23 Dume. Doom. Get it? <finger snaps>
24 Deep.
25 Beneath the Planet of the Apes is arguably the worst film ever written.
26 I wish Mystery Science Theater could have gotten a hold of it. They would have taken it home.
27 Moving On, Part One: I don't remember my original thesis. Oh, following the JFK story. That's right.
28 I don't like doing that. The history doesn't go where I want it to go, which is to bring someone to justice.
29 We still have those rogues and their children creating all sorts of havoc.
30 And they'll make anyone getting close to the truth look like a lunatic.
31 No thanks.
32 I'll leave it at Oliver Stone's doorstep.
33 Stone was much closer to the truth than was the Warren Commission, the fairy tale story "the government" concocted. As Dr. Cyril Wecht once put it, "...the report issued by the Commission should be moved from the nonfiction section of every library and placed into the fiction section."
34 IAmen brother.
35 I'd rather not think about it too much anymore. Ironically, I'm done, yet I have to teach it now that I started it.
36 It's not that I'm disinterested; it's just so depressing, really. I'd rather not think too much about anything these days except family and friends.
37 Good place to be on a Monday.
38 Well, I overslept this morning, always a good thing, but not too restful, and it tends to rush things a bit.
39 I just need to match my shoes. Can't run off with a red tennis shoe and a black church shoe. People might think I'm in the Illuminaughty.
40
41 That's the name of one of my student groups, their concoction. You gotta love it.
42 Gottago.
43 See yous again. Short week if you can work it. Fly low and don't take nothin' from nobody.
44 I can even turn a triple negative if I add the word "hardly" in there. Students manage to do that artistically.
45 Ask any teacher who reads and grades the papers they collect. There are quite a few of us, believe it or not.
46 AnywayZ...
47 See you again.
48 Peace.
~H~
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