'You Can't Take That Away'

The end of the month is upon us once again and I haven't yet fulfilled my contractual obligation to the Blogger community - which as you know by now is the promise to offer up a monthly video of some description originating from the far distant past. Usually from the 70s.

We're only transporting ourselves back in time 31 years with today's production. Revisiting the summer of 1980 to be exact - which compared to all the stuff we've watched from 1974 and 1975 is much more recent, comparatively speaking. The main character in this film had a real passion for living that impressed this cameraman to no end at the time. I'm still impressed all these years later. She'd be well over the age of 50 these days and I can only assume (and hope) that she went on to live a satisfying and rewarding life in the decades after this film was shot. Unfortunately I have no updates to offer our readers in this regard. Heather had a zest for life - a way of making anyone that came in contact with her feel upbeat and 'alive'. "Truly alive... and you can't take that away" as the old Mac McAnally song sez.  Someday we'll add that song to a video.  But not today.

Project Competition

A viewer wrote in recently to ask: "pray tell what exactly is the project of higher value that you are working on that is superseding any further uploads to this NRP webstation?" I took pleasure from this investigative query because it seemed to indicate that there are NRP audience members out there (have you received your membership card yet?) that actually obtain a moment or two of entertainment while watching these ancient super 8 films that make up the bulk of our program diet.

In reply, I wrote: "My full attention to the NRP blog-o-rama has been interrupted over the past few months while a different retro project receives possibly more attention than it deserves. I refer to the vast library of musical tracks that were recorded in the mid-80s and 90s by the weak but prolific pop band, The Midhrifs starring Harry B. on lead vocals and myself on lead keyboards." A sample of which has been offered in this (and the previous) blog upload.

Just A Postman

Have we already plunked down this weak attempt at a rock video somewhere inside this blog already? I don't recall. And I'm certainly not gonna go a'looking thru the 400+ posts that precede this one just to find out.

But yeah, something tells me, if I searched long enuff, I'd probably find it hiding in amongst the rubble. But we can't be choosy here. We're running on a strict time limit these days and this is all the effort I'm going to put into this upload. Heck with it. Too busy with other projects.

Monthly Blog Contribution

Hmm. I guess I've been gone so long (6 weeks?) that my Blogger account didn't recognize me when I tried to sign in. I had to make up a brand new password to be granted access. (For you trivia buffs, the password is... Gulgamesh.) Never been forced to do that before. Oh well, would anyone actually miss this stuff? I doubt it.

And now that I'm back here on Blogger, there's not much I've brought along to announce my return. Just this short run of discarded clips of old films. Might have a few bits of new stuff, but I didn't have time to arrange a nice presentation. Slap 'em down and toss a peppy tune on top of everything - that's my attitude. I'm outta here in a few hours, don'tcha know, so I won't be reading the complaints. Leaving the country, I is. You betcha. Who knows when or if I'll ever bother to come back.

But before I catch the plane heading south, I simply MUST have something uploaded on NRP for the February sweeps week. Otherwise I might lose my consecutive monthly blog contribution award and that's just not on.

Something Beats Nothing

And sometimes nothing beats nothing. In other words, sometimes it's better to leave the blog alone rather than to pollute it even further than it already is by adding second tier offerings just for the sake of adding new content.

Not much new content with this one. Well, maybe a few scenes here and there. Basically, it's just another one of those low budget, low effort, low reward video submissions which is becoming somewhat the norm in recent months. (Wonder what's going on upstairs at NRP headquarters?) However, SOMEthing is always better than nothing; or at least that's the oft-repeated slogan around here. And it's certainly a catchy song rattling away in the background; which is probably the only reason we threw this video together in the first place. Just to match some pictures up with the peppy (yet melancholy) storyline.

Merry Xmas 2010

A Curious Reminder

I was surprised to discover that THIS little movie had not been uploaded to the main fort yet. Out of the 800 or so uploads already in situ on the giant NRP website, this old favorite from 1974 has managed to somehow be overlooked and forgotten and left to putrify elsewhere totally unseen. Until now of course.

As it is with all these old homemade films, it's a case of complete coincidence that it exists at all. A snowy Sunday afternoon, a couple of new rolls of super-8 film to kill, and a typical come-as-you-are attitude with my friends on the street outside. It all resulted in this 'once and it's done' wintertime recording. I can't recall if we ever engaged in such foolish, snow related, tom foolery ever again, but if we did, we certainly didn't have the cameras rolling to capture it as we did on this day.

The most surprising thing about re-watching this old footage is to stop and realize that although it's 30+ years later - and greatly diminished from his original condition he may be - the snowman we built that day, with his haircomb smile and jaunty hat, continues to stand proudly in the same spot to this day, remaining a curious reminder of our youthful time in Blazerville. A time that we can revisit in person anytime we want.