From the Couch Hole: I’d Call That a Bargain

Previously on FTCH, we talked trash, discussed the merits of the Kit Kat, fretted about expensive french fries, and reviewed the trip to Utopia. This week was a difficult week. I lost a duck friend that I’ve had at our pond for the past five years. The air has played havoc on my lungs thanks to the fires in California and Oregon. The weekend is a good time to recharge and spend time eating some good food and watching some quality (and lesser quality) television and movies. There’s more on the Kit Kat front, some fun with twins, plague chipmunks, and the Who.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• The Parent Trap (1962): Just a year after hitting it big with Pollyanna, Hayley Mills is double trouble in this technically challenging film as separated twins that are conveniently brought back together at Summer Camp. It feels like the “twins switcharoo” plot has been done to death but this feels different still today. There’s a comfortable ease to the way you can slip into a Disney Universe in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith are so well cast as the parents. Their chemistry is palpable but they let the children (child) have the center stage. I’m not going to argue that I’m big softie for Disney live-action films of this era. There’s a hint at early feminism and gender roles here as the Hayley Mills’ characters are chastised but stick up for themselves for having short hair. The separation of the parents is a wide gap to start between California and Boston. Maybe the anti-divorce message doesn’t play so well anymore but the story of lost love still resonates. “It’s no fun swearing because you’re not around to make believe you’re shocked by it. Nothing’s any good without you, Maggie.” – Mitch (Brian Keith).

• M*A*S*H – “Mulcahy’s War” (S.5 E.6) (1976): This season has definitely been one to expand the roles of the supporting cast like Klinger, Radar, and in this episode, Father Mulcahy. There’s been an increase in his appearances but this episode brings the humanity to the character. Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) feels guilty about his lack of combat experience. A trip to front to get a patient ends in Radar and Father Mulcahy having to perform an emergency tracheotomy under bombing. Plus you get a cute German Shepherd (Corporal Cupcake) as a bonus. (Mulcahy sees the dog) Father Mulcahy: “Oh my! What denomination is he?” Hawkeye: “He’s a German Shepherd; I guess that makes him a Lutheran.”

• The Who – “Bargain” (from Who’s Next) (1971): Much like the Beatles a few years earlier, the Who themselves had their own spiritual awakenings. Meher Baba was their guru who influenced many of the lyrics on this album. In particular “Baba O’Riley” and “Bargain” hint at the evil of material goods as a barrier to real enlightenment. “I’d gladly lose me to find you” works as part of the philosophy and it fits what is a sort of bleak outlook on love throughout this album. The synthesizer line here isn’t as strong as in “Baba” but it’s pretty advanced for 1971. Pete’s guitar work, as usual, is what really drives the song for me. The combination of Roger Daltrey singing and Pete Townshend’s guitar is just a pleasurable way to spend a morning.

• Wellington Paranormal – “Cop Circles” (S.1 E.2) (2018): The show is a mockumentary spin-off of sorts to the movie What We Do In The Shadows. The first episode felt like the necessary exposition to explain that this small town in New Zealand is tormented by supernatural events that they don’t realize are such. Their ignorance to the paranormal and acceptance of weird events make for most of the dry humor. Ultimately, it will need to be a character-driven show and in this episode we are starting to see that. This one explores crop circles and includes some predatory plants. I love the parody of police shows here as much as the X-Files humor. “It’s really important that the community remembers that bovines belong on the ground, never in a tree.”

• Oliver Twist (1948) (Directed by David Lean) – This isn’t the great David Lean’s first Charles Dickens adaptation. Two years previous, he did the more heralded Great Expectations. I’m a huge fan of that film and have watched it multiple times. This might only be my second time watching this film and I’ve done it a disservice. I might rate it as the best Dickens adaptation that isn’t a version of A Christmas Carol. The world of Oliver Twist is cruel and dark and dirty. His England is full of cold rain and hunger that you can sense in every scene. Alec Guinness is at his best as the troublesome Fagin. It’s important to put the anti-Semitism here in context of the era when Dickens wrote and even the era when David Lean made the film. The film is just simply one of the best put on celluloid. “Please sir, may I have some more?”

Best of the Rest

• You post about your distaste for snakes and all of a sudden you are the “snake guy”. So when a killer cobra is on the loose in North Texas guess who gets every article forwarded and “well check” texts from all his comedian friends? The search for a West African Banded Cobra in your general area is normally disconcerting. To be fair, the wildlife expert did say, “It’s not going to chase you down.” That wasn’t one of my first fears, but now it is. Was that an option? Do other snakes “chase you down”? In the most 2021 manner, both the Grand Prairie cobra and its new nemesis, the Grand Prairie mongoose, have Twitter pages to harass each other.

• We might have dangerous cobras here in Texas, but California has Plague Chipmunks. According to the article, they seem to have interrogated the diseased rodents and they claim to have not contacted anyone. Although, out of extreme precaution, a man named David Seville is being held in quarantine.

• It might still be two years away, but the announcement of an “In-Shoe Navigation System” is fascinating for the possibilities. I’m only thrown off a little by the fact that it’s Honda announcing it. Feels a bit like Adidas announcing they’ve perfected a new electric lawn mower.

What the Hell Did I Put In My Mouth?

“I’d gladly lose me to find you
I’d gladly give up all I had
To find you, I’d suffer anything and be glad
I’d pay any price just to get you
I’d work all my life and I will” Pete Townshend, The Who

Stay Hard.  
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