The Tragedy of Captive Killer Whales

The death of Dawn Brancheau, erstwhile trainer of Tillikum the Killer Whale, at Sea World on February 24, 2010 prompted a great deal of outrage on both sides of the question regarding wild animals performing in captivity, in particular killer whales. People wondered how an animal obviously beloved by its trainer could turn on her so unpredictably. According to her sister, Diane Gross, Dawn was living her dream and would never want any harm to come to the animal. She loved working with him.

Tillikum had in fact been implicated in the deaths of two other people prior to this incident, but Chuck Tompkins, head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks, in an interview with the CBS Early Show stated, “There wasn't anything to indicate to us that there was a problem.” Oh really? While with Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia, a trainer drowned in his enclosure, before he was sold as a breeding animal to Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Then in 1999 a man, who snuck into the facility during the night, was found dead of hypothermia in Tillicum’s tank one morning. There was no sign the whale actually killed him, though he did have bumps and bruises on his body. Neither of these deaths may have been “his fault”, but due to his blemished history, only a dozen of Sea World’s 29 trainers were allowed to work with him, and none were supposed to be in the water with him.

Remember Keiko? The killer whale who starred in the 1993 Warner Brothers movies Free Willy? The original movie was a blockbuster and was followed by Free Willy 2, and Free Willy 3, plus a short-lived animated TV series. A fourth movie is projected for release in 2010. Keiko was rescued from life in a dinky little swimming pool at Reino Aventura in Mexico City, his hide rotting away from skin lesions he’d developed due to poor health. Donations from Warner Brothers’ studio and Craig McCaw led to the establishment of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation in 1995 and with money sent in by thousands of school kids (and many others) in the U.S. who felt moved to help him, Keiko came to the U.S. where he received top-level care and where he became the star-in-residence for several years at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. Over $7 million dollars was spent to build a facility to house him and return him to health, and while at his home in Oregon, he regained over a ton in weight. People flocked to see him, and the country fell in love. Eventually an effort was mounted to return Keiko to the wild, where the hope was he could live out his days as Nature intended, and he was flown to Klettsvik Bay in Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland, where he was installed in a specially-built sea pen, to be re-trained to hunt for himself so he could be released to live with his own kind one day. Many felt that these efforts were misguided, if not downright ludicrous, and millions more dollars were spent in the effort to help him have a normal life.

Well, it was a fine and noble dream—but it failed, and Keiko, even though he was finally released, never joined up with a pod to live out his days as everyone hoped. Steinar Bastesen, a Norwegian politician of the time made International news when he said that Keiko should be killed and the meat sent to Africa as foreign aid! I believe the Norwegians realized it would be a huge PR faux pas if they followed up on this threat, but it does highlight how outrageous the entire venture had become. The fact remains that Keiko never learned to hunt again in order to feed himself, and he eventually died of pneumonia, beaching himself on December 12, 2003 at the age of 26 years. He was buried in a cairn of stones in Halsa, Norway, made by local Norwegian school children, and a memorial site remains there. In all, it was a very sad end for an animal much-beloved by millions of people—including me.

Fortunately, the US Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 made trapping wild killer whales illegal, because some people at least realized it was a mistake to take these creatures out of their element (many never survived being caught in the first place), stick them in little pools, oftentimes in complete isolation from others of their own kind, and then “train” them to perform for our pleasure. Nearly all of the killer whales seen performing now are bred in captivity—and Tillikum has sired a number of them, making him a very valuable commodity. The one figure I saw quoted regarding his worth was $2 million dollars.

The environment these creatures inhabit leaves much to be desired. Imagine being cooped up in a barren little room all alone for years at a time, with no contact with anyone but an alien creature that you can’t talk to. Then these beings engage you in training, so you can perform on command for treats, which is somewhat better than being bored out of your mind. What a complete and total insult to creatures of high intelligence with a complex social structure! The rest of the time they do things to you that you can’t understand. Don’t you think you’d go a little nuts? Don’t you think you’d be insulted, get angry, and rebel? I can say that, if I were placed in that situation, I’d probably have lost it long before Tillikum did—if that is truly what happened. In fact, taking a good look at this whole scenario is animal cruelty in my book.

The thing that annoys me most, however, is that of course the animal is always at fault when bad things happen. Anytime an animal does something to hurt or injure a human being, it is labeled as “bad,” a criminal, and since it is guilty of the ultimate sin, it must be destroyed. No matter who is really at fault, the animal is ALWAYS the one to suffer.

People forget entirely the nature of the creatures who share our lives—the majority of whom have had no choice whatsoever in the matter. We have taken them out of their natural habitat (sometimes even destroyed it), made them totally dependent on us, invested them with all sorts of unnatural thoughts and feelings we’ve projected on them, and then we are horrified when something bad happens. We forget too, that “just because we love them,” what the animal feels toward us is not necessarily love at all—and that they may be utterly mystified or frightened by what we do to them and act to defend themselves. Many of us think of them as little furry humans or our children. Heck, I’m a pet parent myself, but at least I realize that my dog is not a child—and my horse isn’t either. I don’t know why animals seem to like us, but for some strange reason they often do—at least until we prove we can’t be trusted and drive them over the edge to insanity.

I sincerely hope that a humane solution (what a euphemism!) can be found for Tillikum and the others of his kind in captivity, so they may live with others of their own kind and not be expected to perform tricks for the gratification of our children. Let them be what they are: killer whales—Orcas, for Pete’s sake—and stop vilifying Tillikum. Regardless of why he did what he did—and we may never know the real answer, it’s time to back off. As one researcher (I’m sorry, but I don’t know his name) said in a TV interview this past week, there are no recorded incidents of killer whales attacking human beings in the wild—where they belong. And, who wouldn’t rather see them there, swimming and hunting fish or seals with their pods? I know I sure would. Let’s clean up the environment where they ought to live!

PETA Has Done It Again

I can’t say I was overly surprised when PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, founded in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk and boasting a membership of two million members world-wide) came out earlier this week saying it was cruel for Punxsutawney Phil (the official weather groundhog of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.) to be exhibited on Groundhogs Day, and that he should be replaced by a robot. Really? I should think PETA would be against the entire operation, but replacing him?--With a robot? Puh-leaze! It would be laughable, except they’re 100% serious.

First, let me say that Groundhog Day is one of my favorite holidays out of the year, precisely because it does involve these furry creatures. One look at Phil and you know that he is a pampered pet—and he doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest missing out on hibernation in favor of all the publicity. Not to mention that his home town rakes in the dough, thanks to Phil. Remember Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day? Losing Phil would put a major dent in the local bottom line, I’m sure. It would probably not be a good day for Phil, either.

What I want to know is where it will end with PETA? For an organization which equates the rights of a rat with those of a human boy, who knows? According to Wikipedia,

"PETA is an animal rights organization. It rejects speciesism, and the idea that animals may be regarded as property. It therefore opposes the use of animals in any form: in animal testing, as food, entertainment, clothing, furniture, decoration, companionship for people, seeing eye dogs for the blind, or as working in any form such as shepherding sheep. PETA would like for all animals to be completely free from dependency on humans to survive." (For more please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals)

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am 100% behind them when they target abuses in research or the meat industry, for example, but I believe that some of what PETA takes exception to is way out of line. According to them, none of us could have pets anymore, no more service animals, nor could dogs be trained to sniff out drugs or explosives in order to protect us from terrorists. No more horseback riding, especially jumping over courses, no more . . . anything to do with animals! Gosh, I guess we wouldn’t need to worry about preserving endangered species anymore either. Forget the world going to the dogs, there would be nothing here but wall to wall people!

Nearly all of the people I know have had pets sometime during their lives or lived on farms, and aside from the occasional irresponsible person, have regarded their animals as trusted friends and companions. For some, their pets are more like their kids. Farm animals, which are expected to earn their way and eventually end up as food, are valued and cared for humanely, and yes, oftentimes even loved too. I don’t think I speak out of turn when I maintain that animals greatly enrich the quality of our lives just by being there. The few times I’ve been without a cat or dog to share my life have been lonely and miserable, because they give back something that the companionship of other humans does not. They don’t judge us, and they are always there and glad to see us, whether we’ve been gone five hours or five months. When they are finally gone, we are heartbroken, and the grief is just as real as for a human being. I remember every cat, dog, horse, and goat that has been kind enough to share my life, and I miss each and every one of them.

So PETA, please forget replacing Punxsutawney Phil with a dead thing made of electrical wires and plastic. No matter how realistic, it wouldn’t come within a million miles of being what Phil represents to the rest of us. To even make the suggestion makes me wonder if you truly care about animals at all. You certainly must have never loved one—or had one love you.

Uh-oh! My Inner Geek Is in Love Again!

I’m afraid it’s true. Those of you who know me won’t be surprised, since it was love at first sight with the iPod Touch, and I soon was the proud owner of a 32 GB version. I never went for the iPhone; somehow it just never grabbed me, but the Touch has been my constant companion ever since I forked over the roughly $500 purchase price several years ago. Looking back, I’d say I got my money’s worth.

Fast forward to 2010: I had always liked the idea behind Amazon’s Kindle (and I’m sure I must be one of their best customers), but I was never much enamored of its gray-scale interface, though it was kind of cute. Seeing as how I’ve always been an eclectic reader (and part of my lumbar scoliosis is due no doubt to the fact that I always hauled tons of books home from school as a kid), the idea of being able to pack all the books and magazines I wanted to read in a little e-Book reader was appealing. I maintained that I would buy one when it came out with color, which it seems was not to be—or at least Apple beat them to it.

As with the Touch, it won’t be cheap, but it supposedly will go far beyond even the Touch’s capability and be useful in gaming or even at work. Available in 16-, 32-, and 64 GB interfaces with Blue Tooth wireless, it weighs in at 1.5 lb. I hear that’s a bit heavy if you plan on watching a 30-minute TV show, but it beats the socks off my 4 lb. laptop. Battery life for video is 10 hours (or a once monthly charge if you only read print), according to Steve Jobs (the best I ever got on my iPod Touch was 7 hours, and that was playing music with the display turned off—not playing video), and my Dell or HP laptops have never done better than 2.5 hours. Wi-Fi capability will cost you an additional $130 for the hardware, no matter which version you buy, but monthly plans (through AT&T only) will be $14.99 for up to 250 mg or $29.99 for unlimited usage. That seems reasonable enough for just about anybody, assuming they can afford the unit in the first place.

And to think I was considering upgrading to the 64 GB Touch. Now I don’t think so. The iPad is supposed to start shipping in March. I think I may need one.

Another Day in the Life

It’s been another soggy Seattle day. I hate to say that, because the rest of the week-end has been rather nice with lots of sun, and because so many people elsewhere think that’s ALL it does here. Today though has been downright wet. I’m sure the ducks, if there are any still here this time of year, love it.

Since I haven’t wanted to go outside, what have I been doing instead? I’ve been cooking, knitting, reading, and watching TV. It looks as though I may finish the sweater I’ve been working on since completing the baby blanket project, and I tried a new recipe. Last night we watched PBS’ Nova program on the Sphinx on Comcast On Demand (which has a companion article in this month’s Smithsonian magazine, by the way—if you get a chance, see both of them), plus a couple of Netflix rentals: The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007); and Babel (2006), starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Quite a juxtaposition of movies!

I rented The Silver Surfer because Sam and I used to be big comics fans many years ago (my own favorites being The Mighty Thor—Marvel Comics, 1970, scripted by Stan Lee’s brother Larry and penciled by Jack Kirby; and Conan the Barbarian—Marvel Comics, 1970, written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith. These are collector’s items, folks!), and because the Silver Surfer character was supposed to have some sort of cosmic significance—since I’d never read any of The Fantastic Four comics, I didn’t know what that was. If you’ve ever been to my house, you’ve probably seen the painting I’ve been working on of Odin, which was taken from an old back issue of Thor. Anyway, the Silver Surfer movie is extremely light-weight stuff and very comic-bookish, which was no doubt intentional. Stan Lee even has a cameo in it. Sorry guys, it was entertaining but not much more than that. There is probably a sequel planned, because we see the Surfer floating in space at the end of the movie, after he’s defeated Galactus and saved Earth from destruction. Tsk, tsk, I won’t be adding this to my library.

Babel is quite another story. I rented this movie because it had a number of Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and won a Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006, but aside from those things, I had no idea what the story was about—except perhaps the obvious theme from the Biblical story regarding the Tower of Babel. The movie posits that humanity still suffers from confusion and the lack of communication, though according to New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott, October 27, 2006, in his review of the same name, emotion needs no translation. It is a moving story, and I don’t want to say too much in case you haven’t yet seen it. It is worth viewing, and I find myself still reflecting on it today.

Now let’s get to the recipe. This year I re-subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated magazine (they are the same folks who produce America’s Test Kitchen TV series), and part of the deal is weekly emails from them. This week there was mention of a recipe they had developed for beef enchiladas, which I had not prepared for some time (the last time I made it, I used a recipe from one of Betty Crocker’s cookbooks), so I went to their Website and downloaded it. Needless (perhaps) to say, I came up with my own variation of the recipe after preparing it once, and frankly, I think it’s better and easier to make than their version. I will share my version, and maybe you’ll be inspired to make it yourself:

Aunt Di’s Beef Enchiladas (Serves 4 to 6)

3 large (or 6 small) garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ lb beef flatiron or flank steak, cut in strips
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 (15-oz) or 2 (8-oz) cans tomato sauce
½ C water
1 C shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 C shredded medium Cheddar cheese
½ C chopped fresh cilantro leaves (a nice big handful)
1 C chopped, canned nacho jalapenos (I used the hot La Victoria ones that come in a jar. These are actually only about medium hot, or I couldn’t eat them. If you want milder chilies, you can buy them canned, though I’ve found those have hardly any flavor at all.)
12 (6-inch) yellow corn tortillas

Combine the minced garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Slice the flatiron or flank steak into strips against the grain and also set aside. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat and cook the meat until browned on all sides, about six minutes, and then transfer it to a plate. Cook the chopped onion in the pot until golden and then add the garlic/spice mixture. Cook this about a minute, and then add the tomato sauce and water. Bring sauce to a boil, return the meat to the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer it for about 1 ½ hours, until the meat is tender enough to break up with a spoon (if not, you’ll have to remove the meat and chop it up when you get to the next step).

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and pre-heat oven to 350⁰ F. Strain sauce over a medium bowl to remove the meat and set it aside. In another medium bowl mix the meat with ½ cup each of the Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses, plus the chopped cilantro and jalapenos.

Prepare a 9 x 13-inch baking dish by spreading about ¾ cup of the sauce in the bottom. Microwave the corn tortillas for about a minute to soften them, and then spread about 1/3 cup of the meat mixture in each tortilla. Roll the tortillas and set into baking pan with seam sides down, and then ladle the remaining sauce over the top, being sure to cover all the tortillas. Spread the remaining cheese over the sauce, then cover pan with aluminum foil, and bake until fully heated—about 20 minutes. Remove foil and brown the cheese for another 5 minutes, then serve. Sour cream and/or guacamole make nice accompaniments, as does a tossed salad or other greens.

Note: The beef filling and sauce can be made ahead and the enchiladas rolled and baked just before serving.

I should tell you that when I asked the butcher at QFC about using blade steaks, as directed by Cook’s Illustrated, he told me, “No, no, no! You don’t want to have to be messing around boning out meat for this—just use a flatiron or flank steak and cut it against the grain before you cook it.” Well, I took his advice and was not sorry, though I did have to chop the meat before making the enchiladas. Enjoy! This is great comfort food for a cold rainy winter day.

I'm Ba-a-ack!

Hello again to all my friends and Happy New Year! Christmas and the old year are behind us at last, so now we can move forward, hopefully to a better future filled with many good things. I’ve been quite busy these last few months, though not with writing—as you are aware, since I’ve scarcely written anything on my blog for ages. No, I’ve been knitting or crocheting baby blankets for several co-workers’ new arrivals, not to mention Christmas presents I made for friends. Whew! Now I can finally turn my attention to something else.

It feels good to be writing again. There were a number of times I almost sat down and blogged, but then something would interrupt, or I just didn’t have the time, or the time was past regarding what I wanted to write. Well, no more!

For example, I was in my kitchen cleaning the other day and discovered something fantastic. I felt so smug; I wanted to share my discovery with you. You know that nasty layer of grease and dust that settles over everything in the kitchen? I found out how to get rid of it! Honestly, I’ve bought all kinds of super-duper grease-and-dirt-fighting products through the years, but most household cleaners just smeared it around—that is, if they touched it at all. Plain old soap and water, which is good for most cleaning, won’t cut it, but the amazing wonder cleaner I discovered right in my bathroom medicine cabinet will: Rubbing Alcohol. Imagine that! No kidding! It’s fabulous!

I had thought of writing a blog on Holiday movies in the same vein as my Halloween movie review, but I got involved watching them, and before I knew it, the Holiday season was marching along rather fast. I had loads of other things I needed to get done, so the blog on Holiday movies will have to wait until NEXT season. In the meantime I shall continue my research.

It went like that with a number of ideas. Believe me, nobody cares about Halloween movies on November 1st, unless they’re dyed-in-the-wool horror movie fans. I came up with a few new recipes, which I may share eventually, but I need to get them properly written down first. There were some Thanksgiving reflections among other things, and even a few thoughts regarding the professional sports scene up here. What I wrote has been saved for future reference.

The real killer where my writing is concerned, however, is that this year I became a serious knitter. I’m not joking! Most people’s stereotype of a knitter is some little granny sitting in her rocking chair by the fireplace knitting socks. Man, that is so yesterday! Today’s knitter may still knit socks (it’s all the rage now), but there is so much more going on in the knitting scene. There are shelves of books on knitting and knitting patterns at the library, not to mention more than a dozen magazines that I know of devoted to the subject. Some of them target teenage knitters and several carry high fashion designs, in addition to homier projects such as afghans, shawls, dishrags, or socks. The patterns, stitches, and process are fascinating. I subscribe to six magazines now myself.

Then there’s the yarn. That’s IF you decide to buy it, rather than spin your own (that’s the rage too). You can literally buy any kind of yarn you can dream of, in any color, from any part of the world, at any price you wish to pay. There is that much variety out there; and if you can’t go to the store, then the store can come to you via catalogs or the Internet. All that demand has a huge impact. I’ve been told that the Chinese government is farming so many of the goats that produce cashmere fiber that you can see the denuded pastureland from outer space.

New fibers are “in” too. There’s yarn made from bamboo fiber, even from corn, and some very rare animal fibers (e.g. qiviut from the arctic musk ox) are on stage now. In addition, there’s llama, alpaca, and bison—or if you’re really adventurous (tsk, tsk), you can save fur combed from your pets, send it off, and it will be made into yarn for you. If you’re like me and grew up knitting Red Heart acrylic (there was something else?), the new yarns will knock your socks off. They are wonderfully soft and beautiful, especially the hand-painted ones, but holy moly are they ever expensive. You get ruined though, and it’s so hard to go back to scratchy old acrylic (no matter how cheap) after knitting a lacy scarf in a wonderful teal color from Rowan’s “Kidsilk Haze” and Debbie Bliss’ “Cashmerino!” Once you’ve gone there, there’s no going back.

No, I won’t stop knitting. But I’ve got to write too, so discipline will have to prevail. You know, “moderation in all things.” Besides, I’ve got bundles of yarn I’ve bought for projects pending just waiting for me.

Another Halloween Has Come and Gone

I know I haven’t written much of late, but I have my reasons. I shall probably be writing more now, since I’ve cleared up some major issues—in case anyone missed hearing from me.

Ever since I bought my Dell laptop a year ago last January, I’ve had on-going problems with the operating system, and I know some of you have had the pleasure of hearing me whine about it. Yes, “good old Vista.” I never could get Service Pack 1 to install, even though I’d never had trouble with any of the other updates, and more things seemed to go wrong every day. It got so that I no longer looked forward to my keyboard time at all. It was a continuing episode of frustration and problems that were snowballing out of control, so one day I finally just quit—especially after signing onto Facebook (what a name) at the urging of several friends. Between a computer operating system that was giving me fits, my Office program deciding to go on the fritz as well, and the incredible time-suck that is Facebook, I just could not take any more. I went for an entire week without logging on at all, let alone reading e-mail, and it was wonderful. When I did finally log on, it was with very mixed feelings, but the laptop was still up to its old tricks, and I decided that enough was definitely all I could stand already.

So, I set about organizing and backing up all my files. I didn’t want to lose all the stuff on my computer—just the crappy OS, so this took some time to accomplish. Thank God I have a jump drive where I can store all my Word documents, an iPod to back up all my iTunes stuff, and CDs for downloading all the photos. Today I re-installed Office 2007 so I could get e-mail on Outlook again—and after going through about 250 e-mails, I got a wild hare to try installing Vista Service Pack 1 again. What the heck, my time has no value. Well, it hung there forever, so I did what it expressly tells you NOT to do—I turned off the computer. Then I got out the Vista installation disc and plugged it into the CD/DVD drive. I was going to re-install Vista itself if I had to, but then the computer actually started working! It even installed Service Pack 1, according to Windows Update. Golly gee whiz, I could have danced a jig, I was so thrilled! Windows Update is still prompting me to install Service Pack 1—why, I do not know, but I’m not letting that bring me down.

I abruptly realized last week that I had not written my annual “Best Halloween Movies” update—but then, you now know why. For some unknown reason, I couldn’t “get into” Halloween this year. My heart wasn’t in it at all, which is quite unlike me, kid that I am at heart. I even signed on to work a few hours this evening, rather than hand out candy to the little urchins. The candy went to work too, because there was no way I was going to be alone in the house with it! I’ve already eaten my yearly quota of fun-size Snickers bars! I did consider applying my Egyptian eye make-up for work, but then I thought better of that idea.

My Top 25 List from last year is pretty definitive, though from time to time there will be a new movie worth putting down. I have to confess that, all else aside, I am not a big horror movie buff. I generally prefer action movies or sci-fi thrillers, as long as they’re not too stupid, gruesome, or revolting. You will probably note that I tend to favor the older classics, when realistic special effects were beyond the capability of movie producers. This made the movies far scarier in my opinion, because the audience had to use imagination to fill in the gaps. Let’s face it. I don’t want to watch movies that are going to gross me out, nor do I care to inflict the antics of psychotic killers on my brain (thank you Saw 1, 2, 3, and 4 now—or Halloween however many there are of those). Some things are just sick—there’s no other name for it, and I won’t watch that stuff!

One thing I could share with you is my list of Halloween Hits: songs that for one reason or another are appropriate for the Halloween season. We listen to Christmas carols for weeks on end, so why not some nice, creepy Halloween tunes? Here’s what’s on my iPod playlist (there is no order of preference):

1.“Monster Mash” with Bobby (Boris) Pickett
2.“Ghostbusters Theme,” Ray Parker Jr.
3.“The Purple People Eater,” Sheb Wooley
4.“Love Potion Number 9,” The Searchers
5.“Halloween,” Cosmicity
6.“This is Halloween,” Danny Elfman (The Nightmare before Christmas)
7.“Thriller,” Michael Jackson
8.“Time Warp,” Richard O’Brien and the SAS Band
9.“Werewolves of London,” Warren Zevon
10.“The Addams Family Theme,” Various Artists (sorry, that’s all I have)
11.“Somebody’s Watching Me,” Rockwell
12.“Jump in the Line,” Harry Belafonte (re: Beetlejuice)
13.“Witch Doctor,” Sha Na Na
14.“Before You Die You See the Ring,” Fiachra Trench, Hans Zimmer, Henning Lohner, and Martin Tillman (The Ring, The Ring 2)
15.“The Cellar,” Antonio Cora (The Blair Witch Project)
16.“Prelude” and “Outer Space,” Bernard Hermann (The Day the Earth Stood Still—original movie)
17.“Gort,” Bernard Hermann (ditto)
18.“Boris the Spider,” The Who
19.“Destroy Tina” from the episode “Living Doll,” Bernard Hermann, The Twilight Zone series
20.“Main Title A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Charles Bernstein
21.“The Creation of the Female Monster,” Charles Gerhardt National Philharmonic Orchestra (The Bride of Frankenstein)
22.“I Put a Spell on You,” Creedence Clearwater Revival
23.“Main title Ed Wood,” City of Prague Orchestra
24.“The Twilight Zone Theme,” City of Prague Orchestra
25.“Night on Bald Mountain,” Mannheim Steamroller
26.“Main Theme The Shining,” City of Prague Orchestra
27.“Main Title Dark Shadows,” Dark Shadows soundtrack
28.“Eptesicus,” Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
29.“De Profundis,” James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense)
30.“Main Theme Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Knightsbridge
31.“The Shed Not to Be Used,” James Newton Howard (The Village)
32.“Ave Satani,” Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen)
33.“Theme from Halloween,” John Carpenter
34.“Sidney’s Lament,” Marco Beltrami, (Scream)
35.“Nothing Stays Buried Forever,” Mark Isham (The Black Dahlia)
36.“Suite from Hush,” Orchestra (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
37.“Overture,” Original London Cast (Phantom of the Opera)
38.“Official Clown Business,” Tyler Bates (The Devil’s Rejects)
39.“Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” BWV 565, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
40.“Danse Macabre, Poeme Symphonique,” Op. 40, Luben Yordanov, Orchestre de Paris
41.“Night on Disco Mountain,” David Shire (Saturday Night Fever)
42.“Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, David Bowie

So, that’s all I have to offer this Halloween (and you can download each and every one of these songs from iTunes). Next year (!) I’ll do better I promise. Now I have to get busy with those Christmas cards—and now that my computer is working again, I should be writing much more often.

Point of View

I had a revelation tonight while watching The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando. I had never actually seen this movie before, which is a classic and which set the tone for all the rebel biker movies that followed. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that no one—and I mean no one, with the possible exception of James Dean—ever portrayed the teenage rebel hero more poignantly than Brando, and generations of teens have knowingly (or unknowingly) modeled themselves after the character of Johnny Strabler that Brando portrays so well, right down to the rolled-up jeans.

My revelation was the realization of how much a viewer’s current circumstances affect the impact of a film. While I’ll admit I've spent some years of my life as a loner and a blonde in black leather, I’ve never been quite so far out on the fringe of society as Johnny and the members of the Black Racer Motorcycle Gang. Nowadays I’m pretty normal, though I do have an awesome black Miata MX-5 that I love to drive fast. I don’t think I’ve become an old fogey, but let’s just own up to the fact that my perspective has changed since I was 20 years old, and the spare tire that most concerns me now is not the one in my car!

While I might have identified more with Johnny in years past, I was horrified by the antics of the motorcycle gang while it terrorized the town. Even in my loner years I could never stomach punks such as the movie portrays, and I found myself becoming angrier as the movie progressed. I was angry at the townspeople, too. First, for being so weak and naïve, and then for the mob mentality that possessed them, ending in the death of an innocent bystander and Johnny being wrongfully accused of the murder. This script was so powerfully written and portrayed by the film’s cast that you could find yourself in just about any character’s skin at one point or another: Johnny, the jilted girlfriend, Kathie Bleeker (the girl he hopes to impress and the daughter of the local policeman), or any of the townspeople who were victimized by the gang, though I must say that I couldn’t identify with any of the other gang members. That, I’m certain, was the intent of the producer, director, and those who wrote the script (Stanley Kramer, Lazlo Benedek, and John Paxton and Ben Maddow).

It’s very nearly a storybook ending: law and order prevails, and the right things happen. Johnny even returns for a hopeful cup of coffee and leaves Kathie the trophy he’s carried throughout the movie—the significance of which is known only to them and the viewer, but he sees he’s lost the girl, so he rides away alone to seek the horizon, the perfect anti-hero. In times past, my sympathies might have gone with him, but now I share the sense of relief he leaves behind, knowing that Kathie’s dreams of a lover to rescue her have been dashed and replaced by the knowledge of just how unrealistic her dreams were. She’s a fortunate girl, really, because now she knows her life will be what she’s chosen, not what she’s settled for.