B-movies

courtesy of: http://members.tripod.com/~dizzyfreak/posters5.html

This past Saturday, I went to to Victoria's Free B-Film Festival and watched "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)". Once I got used to the slow pace, the old-school special effects and corny jokes were hilarious. The festival got me wondering how B-films originated...

Apparently, the term 'B-movie' was coined in the early 1930s to distinguish low-budget pictures from more expensive 'A-movies'. B movies were usually produced as the "lower half" of a double feature. Often, they were genre films; formulaic and campy, with cheap special effects, uninspired dialogue, and gratuitous nudity, sexuality, and/or violence (yea!).

B-movies were produced by "Poverty Row" companies (ex. Republic and Monogram), which specialized in cheap pictures. The movies' habitat was backstreet cinemas and small-town movie houses; both of these appealed to audiences in the Depression-era.

Along with delivering cheap thrills, B-movie-makers often incorporated social criticism, satire, and surreal commentary on American society into their productions.

Puppy wish

courtesy of: http://www.cheston.com/pbf/archive.html

Bikes blow my tires...

DaVinci's original bike sketch

The bicycle is my favourite invention. Bikes are amazingly fun to ride and are a great way to tour a city or countryside while simultaneously getting in shape. Plus, they're very eco-friendly.

My current bike was assembled by a middle-aged scruffy guy here in Victoria. She was his favourite bike creation. I named her "Silver" and she has wicked fat tires. She also has a yellow and black bell-creature attached to her handlebars named 'The Navigator', after one of my favourite childhood movies which was about a little boy who navigated space with the aid of his alien sidekick.

The history of bicycles is quite vague. Sources often disagree about inventor's names and the dates of their inventions. In 1490, Leonardo DaVinci sketched a facsimile of the modern bicycle which never left the drawing board.

The first bicycle precurser was invented in 1790 by a Frenchmen named Comte Mede de Sivrac. It had no steering. Later, German Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn created the "Laufmaschine" or "Running Machine". The steerable Laufmaschine was constructed of wood and had no pedals. Instead of pedaling, the rider would push her/his feet against the ground to make the machine go forward. Sauerbronn's bicycle was first exhibited in Paris on April 6, 1818.

In 1871, British engineer James Starley invented the Penny Farthing. It was the first truly efficient bicycle, and had a small rear wheel and large front wheel that pivoted on a simple tubular frame with rubber tires.

Today there are countless different types of bikes that are used for a variety of purposes, from commuting, to touring, to doing tricks off mountainsides. Here in Victoria, a popular mountainbiking location is 'The Dump'. The guys at my bikeshop invited me to join them there, but I am still builing up my nerve and skills.