Hoping For the Best

Last night I saw pictures of Patrick Swayze not looking very good....he has been fighting pancreatic cancer and the rumors are that they have reached the end of treatments and he has gone home to his ranch to be as comfortable as possible.......

It made me sad.....I will hope that the rumors are not true, but we all also know what a bitch pancreatic cancer is.

I have always had a soft spot in my little black heart for the Swayze. I heart guilty pleasures (everyone needs at least a couple) and I rate the Swayze amongst mine.

Woke up this morning, after a night of nightmares (more on that later), and put in Dirty Dancing.

I prefer Road House (why don't I own Road House anyway??) but this worked....
BTW I don't think 'Nobody puts baby in a corner' is the best Swayze line in the movie.

My money is on:
"You just put your pickle on everybody's plate, college boy, and leave the hard stuff to me."

Hahahaha........LOVES IT
Much love out to my man Swayze,
Mother Firefly

Guess Who Got Adopted?

Chance went to his new home on Friday morning. A very good friend of mine (and fellow RN) adopted him. Chance now has a family and an entire house to himself...and a VERY sweet little boy who was THRILLED to meet him and take him home. By all reports, he is doing just fine....exploring his new home and interacting with his new family. He'll never have to worry about being unsafe or homeless again.

We miss him- he was a great little cat with a loving personality- but we also feel really good that he ended up with such wonderful people. Yay Chance!

-Purrs and Hugs,
Mother Firefly

Chancey Chance

He is developing into quite a beautiful boy:

A 'Lost' Blog

I have a number of blogs listed here that I try to read regularly....including my brother's entertaining slice of life, Project Blue

But today I discovered another entertaining blog from perhaps a not so likely source:

Jorge Garcia, 'Hurley' from Lost.
Here he is with Mr. Yum Yum, I mean Naveen Andrews.

It's a fun blog to read and I found myself going back and reading the entire archive. I added it to my list but here's his blog:
Dispatches from the Island

It's not really about Lost, either, so you can enjoy it even if you don't watch the show. Also, his girlfriend is from Milwaukee and there's some posts and pictures from about a year ago when he visited.

Oh Yeah......

Btw, I did actually have a mini 70's vampire marathon.....I watched a second movie and started a third- then realized the third one really didn't fit in with the Dracula theme. By that time it was too late to start another one, so I finished my blog and went to bed. Oh, the days when a movie marathon actually meant more than two movies....which I realize is more accurately described as a double feature.

But I did watch another film that night that I enjoyed even more than Scars, and that was Blood for Dracula. Blood was made in 1974 and written and directed by Paul Morrissey. I saw the last half of it a few years ago at Cinema Wasteland and I've always wanted to see the entire thing. Blood is a rather naughty movie, with lots of nudity and sex. But remember this is 1974, so these boobies are real, and not the kind we see on Rock of Love Bus.

Side note- do you watch this mess? it's by far the cheapest, trashiest guilty pleasure out there today. Nobody (including Bret Michaels) really thinks he's looking for love anymore (except MAYBE some of the very drunk and disillusioned females on this show) and I find myself actually rooting for the drunkest and the bitchiest to stay because they're the most fun. But I digress.....

So Dracula apparently needs virgin blood. Or he will die. So Drac (played by Udo Kier) and his manservant go off to the Italian countryside to find virgins. Because, apparently, that is where they keep them. Ah, the lovely Italian countryside, where the virgins grow!
(Dig Drac's FUNKY ASS coat, people!)

On arrival, Anton the manservant, goes into town and apparently decided sublety is NOT called for as he announces his master is in town looking for a wife and she MUST be virginal. He is told of a local family named DiFiore who have four unmarried daughters and of course they would be THRILLED to marry off one of them.

Word spreads to the family that some Count dude is in town scouting for a virgin wife, and instead of being freaked out by that, Momma DiFiore thinks that is pretty nifty. Because A)We gotta start marrying off these bitches, and B)they need the money because their home is in ruins.
I mean, just look at this shack.
I don't know how we manage to live in this dump!

So Anton shows up to arrange a meeting, Poppa D thinks Dracula is a pretty neat sounding name, and Momma invites them to stay in their house. Then there's a little entertaining side story where Anton hits the local pub and a young girl is involved in some kind of unseen accident outside the pub and is apparently losing blood. Quick thinking Anton manages to soak up her virginal blood in A LOAF OF BREAD and presents it to his boss, who is already starting to feel weak.
I vant to suck your bread!

Back to the DiFiore household....it's bedtime, and the girls are all talking about the count's impending arrival....soon we find out that a couple of the sisters like to bunk at night with the family's hired hand, Mario.....And that's as naughty as the pictures in this blog are gonna get, folks.

The next day Drac and Anton show up at the house, ready to interview virgins and pick one (or two) out. Eventually Saphria is picked as the first candidate, and even under pressure, she swears to Dracula that she is indeed a virgin.....
You can't lie to Drac, however, because apparently non-virgin blood makes him very ill...what follows is probably the longest 'vomiting blood in a bathtub' scene you're ever likely to see on film.

The next morning, Saphria is acting very strange and sporting a scarf around her neck. We end up repeating the whole cycle with Rubinia, which leads to Dracula spouting one of the best lines of the movie:

The blood of these whores is killing me!

Eventually, Dracula's intentions turn towards the youngest of the bunch, Perla. But Mario the family handyman has managed to figure out what Drac is up to and in a very chilvarous move, takes it upon himself to deflower Perla before Drac can get to her. What a guy!

Drac is a day late and a dollar short, and comes on the scene just as Momma D has caught Mario and Perla in the act (in the hallway, of course). But Mario explains that he's just being a good guy and that Dracula is a vampire, blah blah blah.

There's just no good way to delicately explain the end. Suffice it to say Dracula finds sustenance in what's left behind from Mario and Perla's 'encounter' in the hallway. Oh yeah and then the eldest daugher, Esmerelda shows up and catches Drac.....taking in said sustenance from the marble floor. Yeah, nasty.

Oh yeah, big Sis Esmerelda, she's been kind of forgotten in all this virgin madness....I guess because.......she has weird hair and she's real pale and.....I really don't know why. But Big Sis has saved the biggest surprise for last......

She's the only FREAKING Virgin in the house! And apparently more than thrilled to give up her blood to Dracula. But with Mario gunning for Dracula's hide, their new love may not last long.....

And in what can only be referred to as the Monty Python Holy Grail of vampire killings, Mario severs Dracula's limbs one at a time, reducing him to a writhing bloody torso (although still capable of delivering threats, which I found particularly amusing) before delivering the final stake to the heart. Esmerelda is beside herself and joins her love in death as she impales herself on the stake imbedded in Dracula.

And THAT is Blood of Dracula. It's a great little film and holds up well after thirty years.

Maybe next time 'marathon' will actually develop into a real one.......
-Mother Firefly

The Best Thing I Have Seen This Year

What makes this even more wonderful is that it's an actual sign...in that someone hacked a sign on the side of the road and made it say this.

After I laughed my ass off, I realized the only thing that could make this better is if I was driving late at night with my brother J.L. and we actually drove past the sign ourselves.

Then I realized after our applause , about 30 seconds later, the moment would come when we looked at each other and think, 'what if?' And silently we both take an inventory of what can be used as weapons in the car. And then about ten seconds later we look each other again and we know what the other is thinking:

Romero zombies or Resident Evil zombies?

And, yes you are a huge ZOMBIE MOVIE NERD if you thought you'd find yourself doing the same thing.
But at least you're in good company.

When there's no more room in hell,
Mother Firefly

Gettin' Hammered

So my WinterIm class ended today, and I wanted to relax and enjoy what's left of my break, and what better way to do it?
You guessed it, with a marathon of vampire movies from the 1970's!

We'll start with a Hammer film, Scars of Dracula (1970), starring Christopher Lee.

The movie begins with a village finding a dead girl and they just know that Dracula is up to his old tricks. So the men get together and tell the women to go to the church, and go to the castle to kill Dracula.

Not even five minutes and we've already got villagers with torches......

They torch the castle and let it burn and for some reason spare Dracula's henchman. But when they return to the church, they find all is not well and all the women are dead.
Meanwhile, in another village, Simon and Sarah are celebrating her birthday. Nothing could spoil the happy day except.....where is that brother of Simon's at, Paul? Turns out he's in the bed of some nubile young chick and just now realizing he's late to the party.....just as he's leaving, nubile young chick's dad comes home and is none too happy to find Paul there....
Paul escapes and arrives at the partyto drop off his gift, a portrait of Sarah that he has taken. but just as he gives it to her, he decides it's not perfect and takes it back so he can fix it. Paul also has to be on the run as mad dad is still on his tail....Paul goes to the next village and ends up flirting with yet another young woman.....when her father interrupts them and tells him to leave. Paul figures that maybe the people in that castle over there will be friendlier, so he goes there.

Turns out some real nice people live there named Dracula and Tania. Wow, they seem really cool, and of course Paul can spend the night there. Paul can't believe his luck at finding such a nifty castle and nice people to stay with. He can't wait to tell his family and friends back home.
While Paul is settling in his room, Dracula takes a little.....restitution from Tania.Dracula and Tania sitting in a tree...............................
S - U-C- K - I - N- G!

Later, Tania shows up in Paul's room, telling him she is a prisoner and needs his help to escape....and then ten seconds later wants him to do the dirty with her. So which is it? Oh well, maybe there's time for both....

But like any good vampire woman, it turns out she only really wants one thing-

Evidently you don't cheat on Count D

Paul gets locked in his room and eventually escapes to another part of the castle...where he finds that his host is safely tucked away in his casket!

Dracula's henchman discovers Paul's picture of Sarah and decides she is one hot property.

Sarah and Simon get worried about what's happened to Paul and decide to go looking for him. Eventually angry people in the next town finally let them know that Paul went over to that big old castle....

Sarah is not feeling well when they make it to the castle, and Dracula is MORE than happy to set them up for the night. Although he denies that Paul ever made it there.

Just let me take your bags.

Simon is suspicious, Sarah wears a cross, and Dracula needs his henchman to remove it so he can get down to business. But henchman recognizes her as his crush from the photograph, and refuses to do it. Eventually Sarah and Simon escape, and finally get some answers from the local priest, who offers to keep Sarah safe while Simon goes off and kills that menace Dracula once and for all.

Simon goes back to the castle, finds Dracula and also his dead brother nailed up to a wall. At the same time, the priest is attacked, and Sarah runs off to the castle to find Simon. But Dracula finds her first, and pulls the ol' let me hypnotize you......but whoops, Sarah still has that pesky old cross around her neck.

We all run around the castle a lot, Dracula gets his pet bat to pull the cross off Sarah, Simon attempts to run a iron stake through Dracula's heart, which D just pulls right out....but as he starts to throw it back at Simon, lucky lightning strikes it, D catches on fire, and falls off the castle. Wow. How's that for serendipidty?
Don't worry....(because I know you are!) that my festival ended here.....I've got a few more bloodsucking hits from the 70's coming your way..........
Mother Firefly