"Hunger Games"

Listening to a couple friends this morning talk about their midnight viewing of the new movie "Hunger Games" was a real treat. They have followed the trilogy in book form and now hope to do the same in video form. "Excited" is so far under their radar in describing their exuberance it's not funny. Maybe ecstatic and downright giddy would be closer. They don't care though how you describe them. A trip into fantasy is what they were after and a trip into fantasy is what they got. A theater owner, back in the day told me the reason so many people liked horror movies is because they wanted to be literally scared out of their wits with something that couldn't happen in real life so they were better prepared when something real and frightening did happen. In listening to the hunger games fans I wondered what they were searching for. Also while listening to them I was sort of envious of their total interest, knowledge and enjoyment of the whole thing.

Funny thing, this business of entertainment. Does it actually create a culture or does it simply cater to an existing culture. Of late it's been "Star Wars" "Transformers" "Harry Potter", all those vampires and werewolves and even angels and centaurs coming together to give us fright, wizardry and the battle between good and evil. Oh, what fun it is too. From my youth visions of Davey Crocket fighting river pirates and grizzly bears was a huge thrill and "Monster from the Black Lagoon" in 3D "The War of the Worlds" and "The Thing" were enough to scare the begeebies out of an entire generation. In going over old archives I have to say that "The Murder's of the Moulon Rouge" and "Count Dracula" in Black and white were two of the scariest ever.

I've never found enough interest to buy advance tickets or wait in line at midnight just to be the first to see a movie. But that's just me. The people I listened to this morning couldn't have been more thrilled if they'd of won the lottery. It was fun just being around them. I wish you a fun day also...................Joe

Kids, aliens, werewolfs, vampires and cowboys

Listening to young kids and their logic can be an enlightening experience. As adults most of us have forgotten our youthful perceptions of reality. TV shows and fantasy films had a profound affect on our impressionable minds. Why, far into my adulthood I still entertained thoughts of riding the open range rounding up steers or capturing rustlers. Although perhaps the particulars of childhood ideas may have changed, the line between reality and fantasy is still as blurred as ever.

While discussing the upcoming Halloween activities with a couple neighborhood boys I found out a thing or two that I hadn't realized: Ghosts don't exist. It is ridiculous to even think that something can be made out of thin air. That only happens on TV. Zombies and aliens are real though. Zombies can pop up out of the ground or the side of a building. Aliens can hide inside someone Else's body or a dog or other animal. Aliens hide their spaceships in houses a lot and pretend to be regular people so they can spy. Werewolfs aren't really people. Werewolfs are actually dogs disguised as people in order to get people so they can eat them. Another thing, werewolfs sometimes just bite and chew people for fun. Centaurs live by the mountains only because anywhere else people want to fight with them too much and they don't really like to fight that much. They like to run more because of their horse feet. Vampires are scariest of all. Vampires fly at night looking for people to suck blood from. If a vampire sucks blood from your neck you turn into a vampire too. But, and listen carefully, if a vampire bites you anywhere else you can get away and not be a vampire. So make sure you put up your arm for them to bite and when it bites you hit it hard and run away. You'll be OK then and not a vampire too.

I was left with one more bit of juvenile wisdom: Cowboys can kill vampires, werewolfs and aliens with their 50/50 guns and sometimes they train centaurs to ride them. Cowboys can do almost anything and they protect us just like the Army. I guess some things only change a little.