Things New Parents Should Know #24 - Straitjackets

The straitjacket was first designed way back in the dim, dark days of dealing with mental illness. It's main function was to prevent the wearer harming themselves or other people. One school of thought was that by holding the arms immobile, if the wearer were to struggle and fight against their bonds, they would soon themselves out and become restful.

Swaddle cloths for your baby perform much the same function when it comes to getting the little blighters to sleep. The baby's arms are held immobile, and struggling tends to help tire them out even more. Certainly Lex will not sleep unless securely swaddled. It's amazing to watch how often he changes from screaming and not wanting to be put down, to comparitively quiet and restful once swaddled.

But like a madman, he screams and struggles against it every single time.

Danger Man & Trek

I wouldn't normally have bothered, but with the deaths of Ricardo Montalban and Patrick McGoohan, I decided to watch something from each of them. They are both actors who I have enjoyed over the years, possibly because they were both a little larger than life.

I ended up watching Star Trek - Space Seed for Montalban. I didn't want to watch Star Trek 2 and have yet to pick up Spy Kids 2, and after checking his credits, realised I had nothing else he'd done. There are many shows I'm planning on picking up in which he's done an episode, but none so far. So I dragged out my old videotape of Space Seed and gave it a look.

It still mostly holds up, and Montalban is very good in the part. It could so easily have been two dimensional and forgetable, but his take on the character mean Kahn always has his pride and dignity on show. It works, and is a good reminder of why they bought him back.


Then I watched an episode of Danger Man I hadn't seen before called Position of Trust. John Drake embarks on a personal mission to bring down some drug lords by getting their names to pass on to the US government. To do this he has to screw over a minor functionary, and is quite prepared to do this to have an impact on the heroin trade. McGoohan is in good form, as usual. Drake is focused and has no remorse in what he needs to do to achieve his goal.

As an added bonus the episode also starred Donald Pleasence and Lois Maxwell. It's odd watching McGoohan with Maxwell, knowing that he could have easily have been James Bond.

Goodbye you pair, you'll be missed, but I'm glad you both had good long lives.

Elm St. 5 cuts

I was right!

Checked my VHS and there is approximately 15 seconds cut from the scene with Greta, and another 10 or so from Dan's scene. My set is the US Box set, so will have to check the Aussie DVD release to see if it has the same edits, which were apparently originally there to achieve a American R rating...

( Cuts details under... er... cut. Contains spoilers. )

I've never actually liked the Greta scene, it always felt a little clumsy and forced. Still for an expensive box set, the edits are annoying. Glad I got it cheap.

Comic Book Opera

I originally intended for this to be my 1,000th post, but I lost count and posted the Elm St one, so this is my 1,001st post.

Went to see The Young Music Society's production of Comic Book Opera, which was written for them by the ever talented azahru, or as she's known professionally, Liz Argall. Liz is a talented and intelligent woman, so I was looking forward to the production.

And it was good. It was good with a cast of 200+ schoolkids, and 2 weeks rehearsal. It was good with fluffed lines and sound issues that meant it was hard to always hear the singing. It was fun, silly and dark. Kind of hard to describe in detail, but basically a brother and sister get transported to a dimension where villains and super-heroes exist. That's fine, but then the villains decide to come to our reality and take over.

I think my favourite character was Duke Disaster. He was a wonderful dag. And for favourite moments I'm stuck between Goldstar's sideways hop across the stage, followed by her new sidekick's relectant attempt to do the same when ordered to, and the fight scene which featured people running around in front of the action with signs that said "BANG!" and "POW!"

I can't say go out and see it, as the production I saw was it! But Liz is hoping to do more with the project, and I hope she does. I think it would be amazing as a full, professional production.