Overlapping Dream Circuitry

I had the most frightening dream last night. I was trying to enter UQAM by one of the underground passages but I was in the western part of town, and I didn't know exactly where the "Underground City" began. I took a chance and entered a dark tunnel that seemed to go east. There was a whole world waiting for me underneath the noisy surface of Montreal streets, a world filled with homeless zombies bumping into me by accident, and of friends I had to kill to get outta there. That was weird, and when I woke up, I half expected the dream to continue, and its horros to creep out of the surface of my subconscious.

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I bought it some time ago, but I only started reading it at the beginning of December, and I have to say that Jared Diamond's COLLAPSE is quite the brain twister. Diamond, an historian, is interested in the way civilisations are formed and why they succeed, something he explored in his previous book GUNS, GERMS & STEEL. It was only logic that he'd study, next, the way some societies, consciously or not, completely vanish from the surface of the earth. A perspective that is once, I have to say, abysmally thought-provoking and frightening.



The reason why I unearthed his book from my busy and overstuffed shelves is that, for my URBANISATION, POPULATION & DÉVELOPPEMENT course at UQAM - drawing to an end, don't worry - I had to study a population movement anywhere in the world and its history, so I chose Easter Island's tragic decrease in inhabitants, a case that is particularly well documented in Jared's book.



Now, you know you'll hear from it soon enough, as I'll give you an overview of my conclusions as soon as my paper is done, but there are no words that can translate how gripping this book is. To hold in your hand a cold-blooded, minutious and detailed account of how several societies failed to survive and make it through to see today's developments is downright frightening, and might have a part to play in my recuring nightmares. I am not the kind of guy who's afraid of many things, but let's just say that global catastrophes and massive deaths are some of the things that make me cringe.

Picture my surprise, then, when I read about Thor Heyerdahl's gutsy expedition, started in 1947 on this raft :



This Norwegian adventurer traveled from South America to Polynesia, stopping on its way on Easter Island to study the possible reasons for its population's decline, and noting his observations in his trip's written account, KON-TIKI, a book published in 1948. The book would, of course, go on to become a best seller and make kids and adults alike dream about traveling the world and exploring lost tribes and remote areas.



Easter Island is the most remote of all Polynesian islands, located at 3 600 KM west of coastal Chile, and 2 075 KM est of Pitcairn Island. To say it's far from everything would be an understatement. Thor, je te lève mon chapeau !



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Imagine living in a house like this on the Hollywood Hills...



Thank you, Richard Neutra.

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When the time comes to sing you "happy birthday", I might as well stuff a shish kebab stick down your throat. That's how bad I sing overplayed festivity songs such as Christmas carols or other unbearable hymns. And that's what one guy is served for dinner in J. Lee Thompson's 1981 flick HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.



Part of my current slasher frenzy, this Canada / USA co-production was viewed with delight, as the sleeve has forever haunted my youth and the movie always evaded me. This is the type of flick whose box you look at and say : "Maybe some other time", as if there was a possibility that the title might stay there, at your disposal, forever. But no, unfortunately, with the massive VHS clean-up that occured at the end of the nineties, we were doomed, and fucked. Lube-free.

It is perhaps worthy of noting that Mr. Thompson wrote the cript for Cirio H. Santiago's FUTURE HUNTERS (1986), a cheapo futuristic thriller set in post-apocalyptic times.

The movie starts off rather hysterically, with a pub scene followed by a car race. Some excited - and drunk - teens hop over a drawbridge as it's unfolding, a blue Trans-Am (with Quebec license plates !) nearly not making it - and losing some parts of its hood in the process. A frightened girl runs away, and as the plot thickens we'll learn more and more about her, as she is the main character, coming back to a high end college after years off due to a brain surgery.

The main interest of this rather enjoyable slasher is the gruesome murder scenes, and the multiplicity of possible suspects. As the movie draws to an end, the killer is identified, but not its motives. And the conclusion is even more confusing, not solving anything. This is mainly due to the fact that while shooting, the crew had NO IDEA how it all would finish. They had to improvise an ending, and let me tell you they barely make sense.

It doesn't ruin anything, however; the brutality of every death scene, the lovely ladies posing as victims and the high end houses and cars all contribute to making this an extremely pleasant experience. Like swallowing coagulated blood through a straw.