Three Skeleton Key

Three Skeleton Key is one of my favorite OTR programs. It is... the one with the rats.

[[[And as an aside, some school kids adapted this in movie class, we're talking kids 12 or 13, it is GREAT. For kids of that age! Anyway, I don't want to take up room here sharing the video boxes, so I'll just share the URL that takes you to the YouTUbe page for the show.

It's well worth your time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KuzN3iFKCg ]]]


Starred Vincent Price as Jean, Harry Bartell as Auguste (Do not be frightened, little children. I will not hurt you. Much.) and Jeff Corey as Louis.

Price reprised the role several times, first on Escape, then on Suspense.

I've put it up on Youtube, and so unfortunately it has to be in three parts:

An Alien Sings Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive

I like this song, but this video is a hoot.

OT: Marian McQuade has died

I never knew there was a National Grandparent's Day, and that there'd been one since 1978.

A woman named Marian McQuade was the driving force behind getting the day recognized nationally. She didn't do it, apparently, just for kids to honor their own grandparents, but rather she wanted kids to adopt a grandparent from a local nursing home, some lonely individual who needed personal interaction, needed to be able to share their stories and their experiences of life.

McQuade died at the age of 91, two days ago.

http://www.grandparents-day.com/y2008/y2008Obit.htm

and

http://www.grandparents-day.com/

If you've got grandparents, call 'em or send 'em a bouquet of flowers today. If you don't, stop by one of the nursing homes in your area and see who needs a friend.

AAaaaaaargh!!!

Words cannot express how P-Od I am at this exact moment...

A few months ago I invested a couple thousand dollars in Freddie Mac stock, when it was at $9, went up to $11, and I was expecting it to skyrocket.

Instead, as you all know, it tanked. I never sold the stock. I'd bought it with discretionary funds and though I didn't really want to lose it, it was an annoyance, not a disaster, and I was just gonna tough it out.

So it was down to 26 cents, then up to 43 cents, and I thought to myself, I've got to buy some more of this stock!

So, I tried to transfer funds from my checking account to my AIG account called Sharebuilder. Only, it didn't work. My bank had changed the routing number to my checking account, so the transfer didn't go through.

So I had no money in the account to buy shares at 43 cents each.

Today...the stock is at $2.46.

So if I'd bought $1,000 worth of shares, and been able to sell that particular stock today, I'd have trebled my money. (Which I would have sold right now, take my profits and ran!)

Instead.... the stocks that I'd purchased months ago for $9 to $11 - I've got 500 total shares - are now at $2.46...which of course doesn't make me happy.

Well...I'm hoping that the stock continues to go up... so I can at least recoup my original investment on those shares...

But I'd really like to be squeezing some people's throats at Suntrust right now!!!!

John Wyndham's The Chrysalids

I've really got to get my girdle in gear and do an article on John Wyndham. A lot of his work turns up on BBC 7. Indeed, right now, you can listen to The Chrysalids, for the next seven days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/sunday/

(You need pay no attention to the times listed on any of these broadcasts. Just click on the link, and you can listen to each show immediately.)

Anyway, what has John Wyndam written?

Foul Play Suspected (1935)
The Secret People (1935)
Planet Plane (also known as Stowaway to Mars, 1936)
The Day of the Triffids (also known as Revolt of the Triffids, 1951)
The Kraken Wakes (also known as Out of the Deeps, 1953)
The Chrysalids (also known as Re-Birth, 1955)
The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)
The Outward Urge (1959)
Trouble with Lichen (1960)
Chocky (1968)

Yes, time I did some research and wrote an article about him.

The Plot of the Polls

Have you ever noticed, when you're reading an article or op ed piece based on poll information, that they never tell you, until the very last sentence of the poll, how many people took part in that poll?

http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race

You read the body of the article and the author makes sweeping statements (40% of ALL white Deomocrats feel this way. 40% of ALL white Americans feel this way):

1) one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.

2) 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

3) More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey

4) Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.

5) The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."

6) Just 59 percent of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain.

Now... after reading that.... you probably think that the 300 Million People who make up these United States answered those questions.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Those sweeping statements, about ALL Democrats, come from a poll of a grand total of 2,227 adults.

The poll doesn't answer these questions. From what state was each of the people polled? They were polled by telephone number - how were their phone numbers acquired? (From voting rolls, presumably, since they knew they were Democrats.)

Sentence 4 seems to imply that Republicans were given this survey, too. Of the 2,227 adults given this survey, how many were Democrats, and how many Republicans?

Adults.... how many were 18, how many were 30, how many in their 60s.

Frankly, this poll is useless. Most polls are useless.

Yes, there is racism in America - white on black, black on white, white on the other minorities, the other minorities against white - no denying that.

But how did Obama overcome Hilary Clinton with so many Democrats feeling as this poll says they do? Was "black power" enough to get Obama over the top, or were Democrats just not ready for a woman president?

Could it be that *personalities*, not race, have a role here?

I'm a woman, a feminist, and I would never vote for Hilary CLinton because she should have divorced hubby Bill a long time ago. Not to mention her lies about being under sniper fire, White Water, etc.

Put Colin Powell on the ticket, or Howard Caine...I'd vote for them. But Barack Obama, he of the "funny" name? The guy with ties to terrorist Bill Ayers. Ties to the Reverend Wright who preaches black liberation theology and then has his church buy him a multi-million dollar house in a 99% white GATED community? His ties to Tony Rezko? The fact that he promised to bring "new politics" to the government and is turning out to be justs like any other politician, and even better at it? The fact that his wife tells black women not to try to go to college to get good jobs, but rather enter the "service" professions, while she herself gets a $300,000 a year job at a hospital, right after her husband is elected to the Senate?

Obama think there are 57 states. Does that make him stupid? No...most kids these days, black or white, probably think the same thing. There's a few other verbal gaffes of his I can't call to mind right now.

But there's plenty of good reason not to vote for Obama...but if he doesn't win the presidency... it's going to be because of racism.

That's what the media wants us to think...piling on that white guilt...

Part 2 of Part 4 of The Summoning Dark

Fred and Nobby complete their chat with the museum curator over the missing painting, Angua introduces Vampire Sally to the Watch locker room, and Vimes learns that Hamcrusher has been killed.

Lights Out: The Chicken Heart

Here is the original audio of Arch Oboler's episode The Chicken Heart on Lights Out, first broadcast in 1937. The audio is accompanied by the type of animation that only an artist of my own particular caliber could have created:

The Summoning Dark Part Four

Parts 1 and 2 of Part Four of The Summoning Dark, a film treatment of Terry Pratchett's Thud!

(Had to break it into 2 parts because of YouTube's rule restricting videos to 10 minutes.)

The Summoning Dark Part III

Here is the next part of The Summoning Dark. Vimes interviews the vampire recruit, Sally, and the goverment inspector, A.E. Pessimal. Then Carrot comes in and tells him that Hamcrusher the dwarf has been killed, and they think a troll did it!



To see all parts to date, check out: http://thethunderchild.com/SummoningDark.html

The original Chicken Heart

I found my version of The Chicken Heart, and here it is:




but I also found a website that also has it.

http://davidszondy.com/Radio.htm

Although for some reason the davidszondy version does not have the heartbeats as part of the program. I don't understand why. The actors are the same, their vocal inflections are all the same as far as I can tell, which leads me to believe it's the same broadcast, but the ever-present beating of the Heart that gives the show its eerieness... isn't there!

This radio page is full of treasures (all except WoW broadcast in the 1950s), which you can listen to for free:

- Appointment in Tomorrow, by Fritz Leiber
- The Green Hills of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein
- First Contact, by Murray Leinster
- The Seventh Victim, by Robert Sheckley
- Tunnel Under the World, by Frederik Pohl
- Liar! by Isaac Asimov
- The Cave of Night, by James Gunn
- The Roads Must Roll, by Robert A. Heinlein
- Space Merchants, by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth
- A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster
- The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. (1938 version by Orson Welles)
- Junkyard, by Clifford D. Simak.

Nora the Cat Plays the Piano

Not much of a tune...but better than I can do!

And the sequel...



and Nora and the Piano tuner

The Summoning Dark Scene 2

I continue to work on my film treatment for Terry Pratchett's Thud!, which I call The Summoning Dark, and you can view it here:



See all scenes on one page at The Summoning Dark

The Summoning Dark

How does a no-name person get their film treatment for a great book by Terry Pratchett considered by those filmmakers that have the wherewithal to make the masterpiece?

Why, by creating that film treatment in what one hopes is a new and interesting way, putting it on YouTube so that thousands of hopefully soon-to-be-adoring fans can see it, and will get together a petition to say, "Yes, buy the rights of Thud! from Terry Pratchett, use this screenplay written by this woman, and use the actors she chooses, and make this movie!

Here's the opening scene of the movie. I'll be uploading new scenes on a regular basis until finally the entire masterpiece is complete.



See all scenes on one page at The Summoning Dark

Post Awful Part Deux

Continuing the saga of my paychecks from this Idaho company I do work for... got my paycheck today, Wednesday, Sept 10.

Payday was Friday, Sept 5, so it took a total of 5 days to get here this time (sent priority again.) Better than the 8 it took the last time, and the 12 it took (non-priority) the time before that.

The thing is, the cancellation stamp says it went out on Sept 8 from Idaho, which meant that from Idaho it took 3 days to get here.

And what I wanna know is, why did it come from Idaho this time instead of Seattle...where Coure d'Aline mail apparently goes first?

I'm wondering if the secretary took it upon herself to drive somewhere where she knew the mail would not get sent back to Seattle but instead would go in the right direction from day 1?

Anyway, it's weird, but I'm happy.

New York, New York

I'm planning on going to Manhattan next week to see The Thirty-nine Steps on Broadway (written by Patrick Barlow), and they are having some Hitchcockian events going on which it would have been nice to see (see the 39 Steps website for details) but I just cannot believe the prices they're asking in Manhattan for hotels.

$299 on Sunday. $399 on Monday. For a room that I'll spend maybe 8 hours in, sleeping, that's it!

I checked out some hostels... and if you're willing to sleep 8 to a room you can get in there for $40 a night. I wouldn't mind that at all except I'll be going up with my laptop and a couple of cameras, and there's no way I'm going to leave them in a room with 8 people wandering in and out. In addition, I'm a very light sleeper and I need my sleep or I literally get sick, and who knows if one or more if these 8 people would be snoring or doing other things that would keep me awake all night...

So I'm bummed..it's going to be an expensive vacation... but heck, I deserve one!

Blood Drips on Newsies Square

You're a young actor in a supporting role in a movie called Newsies. You've got a lot of time on your hands. What do you do? Well, if you're Michael Goorjian, you make a film of your own, called Blood Drips Heavily On Newsies Square.

In it, "washed up" actor Don Knotts (Mark David) comes to the movie lot in hopes of getting cast in the movie Newsies, but director Danny Ortega (himself, in a cameo) has him tossed off the lot. So Knotts proceeds to start killing all the Newsies actors...ending finally with Michael Goorjian, who gets run over, hung, and finally burned to death.

It's a lot of fun, but I confess Michael did miss a chance at the end with his extended death scenes. He should be in pain and trying to escape, sort of like Will Farrell's Mustafa in the Austin Powers movies, but instead he's asking his would-be killer for bandaids, etc. Still, a minor detail in what is an amusing little film (and I suspect people who have actually seen Newsies will find it even more amusing.)



What I find most impressive about this little film is the amount of "names" Goorjian got to work with him on it - albeit in cameos, from his fellow castmates to the director of Newsies, Michael Ortega, various crew members, and even Bill Pullman. He must have been quite a well-liked guy on the set to pull this off...and of course it was the first in what has become a long line of his independent film projects.

There's an official website for this independent, 25-minute production, at http://www.blooddripsonnewsiessquare.com/Blood_drips.html, where you can purchase a DVD of this for $25, including postage.

Newsies fans have made independent websites of the movie, as for example here:

http://mushsgoil.tripod.com/id41.html
and here:

http://www.geocities.com/newsiesquiz/bloodrips-script.html

and

http://newsiesfreak.com/newsiesnow.html

And here's Michael at the end of the movie, showing off his dance moves.

Blood Drips on the Seattle Post Awful

I do some freelance writing for a company out in Coure d'Aline, Idaho. (How long I continue to do it is problematical, as they are really, really starting to vex me.) I used to get paid via paypal, now for various reasons known only to my boss, I get paid via check. The mail goes from Cour d'Aline to the main post office in Seattle, where it then is supposed to come to me.

So the first check took 18 days to get here (Virginia) although the cancel stamp on it was such that it seemed like whoever had been supposed to mail it hadn't actually sent it out until a week later than what they said, otherwise, if they did mail it when they said, it sat in the Seattle Post Awful for a week before they did anything with it.

So the next check goes out, Priority Mail... and gets here in eight days. There wasn't a cancel stamp on it this time, so I wasn't able to see if the secretary had actually mailed it in a timely manner or what.

So, do I have a right to feel skeptical that it takes a letter, sent priority mail, 8 days to get from Seattle to YOrktown, VA?

Well, a few days ago I ordered Blood Drips on Newsies Square from a place in Los Angeles, CA. He sent it First Class. On Friday. And I received it today, Monday. That's 3 days that it took to get here. 3 bloody days!

If it takes 3 days for a First Class packet to get here from Los Angeles, you can't tell me it takes 8 days for a Priority letter to get here from Seattle. Even if the letter has to go from Cour D'ALine to Seattle first, that should add only one extra day to the transit...not 3 or more. So I'm more than ever convinced that the boss of this joint is having his secretary yank my chain. Seems a weird and childish thing for him to do (as well as her!)..but he does seem to be that kind of guy.

(Because, see, I'd been promised that I'd start getting paid via Direct Deposit. And I've been in email contact with this secretary on a regular basis throughout all this, and she never once told me that the whole company out there has yet to have direct deposit, (though it's supposedly been in the works for at least a month and probably more). So I'd spent all this time stressing out because I thought I was the only one not on Direct Deposit, and wondering why it could take all this time to get it going. If she'd just made it clear that the whole company didn't have it, I at least would have not been expecting to have it, either.

I'd emailed her last week asking for a status on the Direct Deposit thing, and she didn't bother to reply. So I emailed her on "payday" (5 Sept - why a company pays its employees on the 5th and the 20th I do not know) asking if there was an HR rep I could talk to about why it was taking so long to get me on direct deposit. So today I get an email from the HR rep, who pointed out, rather sarcastically towards me, the info that no one there had Direct Deposit, ya da ya da, and it will now take probably 2 months more to get it in gear. Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. The whole company, from its boss downwards, seem to be incompetent and amateurish in what they do (and considering what they do, that is not a good thing!)

So...anyway... Blood Drips on Newsies Square.

I'll give that it's separate entry, just in case my loyal readers know better than to read me when I'm in full rant mode.

The Chicken Heart that Ate New York City

I'm not really a fan of horror - in any medium, but occasionally I listen to it if it has a certain actor I like for example. (Although this is verrrrrrrrrry rare, as I learned that it's not worth it a long time ago -- when I actually went to see the movie The Devil's Rain because it had William Shatner in it. NEVER AGAIN.)

Anyway, long story short, I've got Chicken Heart, a Lights Out episode by Arch Oboler. I don't know which version I've got - it was on the Best of Radio compilation tape, and is certainly not the entire episode...but it's pretty fun.

And the monologue in which Bill Crosby talks about it (on his album Wonderfulness) is absolutely hilarious.

I've taken the 5 minutes specifically about CHicken Heart and put them here.



If you like it, you have to hear the full monologue of Bill Cosby's to enjoy the experience totally, and you can get it from Amazon (and I'd appreciate it if you'd use the link below!)

Enjoy.

Friday on BBC 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/friday/

The Gibson
It's the day of the festival and Saul and the Guardians prepare to fight the 2Cs. Conclusion of Bruce Bedford's thriller. Episode 6 of 6.

Blood Lines
A Lasting Impression: The new writing series continues. Following a terrible row with her boyfriend, a woman receives a chilling supernatural message.

Blood Lines
Father's Day: A reunion between an estranged father and daughter is threatened by sinister state forces.

Sci Fi Movies

Getting back to the business of science fiction...what movies are on the horizon...

Babylon AD: with Vin Diesel... probably will be good if you like those kinds of movies... I'm not into apocalypitic fare and will probably give it a miss.

Death Race: oh puhlease! If we don't have enough mindless violence in the real world without glorifying it in crap like this.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Animated. Not something I'll go to see... I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since the original trilogy... although I do enjoy the screenclips of Yoda fighting duels with Christopher Lee. That guy rocks!

Indeed, here's Yoda vs Dooku:



Yoda vs Palpatine was just too ridiculous...

SCI FI on BBC Radio 7

Wednesday

The Gibson
Saul learns the truth about the fear instilling Gibson room, and cavers push too deep. Time-hop thriller with Robert Glenister. Episode 4 of 6.

Horror:
Blood Lines
Expecting: The new writing series continues. Alone in a house, a pregnant young woman grows distressed when she keeps hearing a baby cry.

Blood Lines
Cthul-You: A dark horror story featuring demonic goings-on in internet chat rooms.

Sci Fi on BBC Radio 7

Tuesday, September 2

The Gibson
Haensel warns Elise, Saul is summoned by Selwyn - and what is going on in Roman Bath? Time-hop thriller with Robert Glenister. Episode 3 of 6.

(You can still catch episode 1, which aired Friday, for one more day. Episode 2 is on Monday.)

The Gibson
An aspiring poet gets drawn into a web of dark and mysterious forces. A time-hopping thriller with Robert Glenister. Episode 1 of 6.

The Gibson
After Saul and his family win a competition, strange events happen. A time-hopping thriller with Robert Glenister. Episode 2 of 6.

Actors in repertory

I've been having a lot of fun with Michael Goorjian in the last couple of days... in a purely electronic sense of the word, of course!

I first saw him as the high-functioning autistic Aaron Pratt in the "Caged" episode of CSI (from 2001) which aired a couple of days ago (Thank heaven for reruns). And I liked his character, and his performance, and whenever I see an actor do that kind of role, I want to see what they're "really" like.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was able to download his episodes from Monk and House via Amazon Unbox, and I've watched those. Never watched House before - although I like Hugh Laurie I can't stand medical dramas (I have too many chronic illnesses of my own that are killing me to want to watch doctors pluck a miracle cure out of a 45-minute time segment.)



Anyway.. impossible to enjoy House as the subject matter was so sad, Michael's character's pregnant wife refuses treatment to save her life so as not to harm her baby, and Michael goes from all happy and in love at the beginning of the episode to a teary-eyed widower with a baby at the end of it. Lots of emotion, very affecting, but not fun!

The Monk, episode, however, is a keeper. Michael has only 3 short scenes, but he steals the scenes in them all. The plot is that a severed pinkie finger is found in a park. Because of the position of a callous on the finger and the presence of rosin, Monk deduces it must come from a violist. So he and his assistant Natalie search through the city for missing 25-year old violinists and come up with Daniel Carlyle.



The visit Carlyle's house. His mother says there's nothing wrong, and "Daniel" (Michael) comes down the stairs carrying violin and bow and asks them to leave as he's rehearsing for a concert that night. He's holding one hand behind his back, Monk asks to see it, Michael displays it.

Then there's a couple of scenes of Michael - or rather his character Jacob - standing with his mother outside a phone box. Michael gets to pace around and act really nervous.

Next scene is a good one....it's all Michael. He and his mother are sitting on one side of the room, Monk and Natalie on the other. Long shot of them all for several seconds, and we're able to see Michael sitting there, clearly hyperventilating and stressed out. Then the camera closes in and everyone gets their closeups, etc., and Michael's character is soooo terrified...he's a rather wimpy character and Michael plays him to perfection.

There's a phone call from the kidnappers, we get reaction shots from Michael as he hears his mother tell the kidnapper (someone who would sever the finger from a violinist!) that her son will deliver the ransom, then she approaches him and he backs up and says, he can't do it, he'll mess it up.

This scene was disappointing in one sense, in that his mother has no reaction to this except to say, "I'll do it," instead of telling the guy to buck up... but she must know her son and how wimpy he is.

Then, Natalie points out that Mrs. Carlyle can't go. The kidnappers are expecting a man. And Monk says, "Yes, we'll have to find a man."


This is another point where the camera work lets Michael down. It's all in semi-long shot, one take -- He gets no reaction shot. He looks at Monk, starts to look at his mother as Monk says, "Yes, we'll have to find a man," and then looks back at Monk and just for a second his eyes squint as if he's wondering if Monk has just insulted his manhood, but then Monk immediately says, "Or I can do it." and the scene ends. He's in profile the whole time.

The final scene is a curious one. The kidnapped brother has been saved. Mrs. Carlyle and Michael are shown getting out of their car, then the mother arrives and hugs the son, then Michael arrives, and before he hugs his brother, he turns to look behind him.

And I'm wondering... why does he do that? Is it an extension of his cowardly persona, that he wants to make sure the kidnappers are definitely gone before he hugs his brother? Or are we to think... did he have anything to do with this kidnapping, and he doesn't want the kidnappers to see him to realize that he's the one who put them up to it (because, how did these particular kidnappers get the idea of kidnapping a violinist?). Or was it just Michael letting the camera get a shot of his face one last time?




Anyway, as I say, I've been having fun watching these episodes. Also, fortunately, Michael's CSI: Miami episode aired a couple of days ago to, and I recorded it on DVD. He's only got a two-minute long scene, if that, where he's being interrogated by a cop. He's a photographer, kind of scruffy looking, arrogant, quite cute. And accused of murder. He has a few lines of dialog which he delivers well...then the scene ends and that's it. Still, a completely different character from all the others I'd seen.

(As an aside, just now I put that CSI: Miami episode back in my DVD player and tried to watch it from the beginning instead of just skipping to Michael's scene. I had been chastised in a Blog Comment for my comments about David Caruso, and I gotta tell you... I stand by every one. After watching his opening scene on the show I just couldnt' stand it and had to turn it off. It's just too weird of a characterization for me....and his vocal delivery...

I enjoy watching the same actor give several different performances. (Indeed, it might be interesting to see David Caruso in something else, just to see if he can play a normal character, but I don't care enough about him as an actor to even look up his old stuff...)

One of the greatest years of my life, from an entertainment standpoint, was in the early 1990s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Garland Wright was the director of the Guthrie Theater, and he put together a season of repertory that was absolutely fantastic. There were three plays, and each one would run a couple of days a week. And the same company played all the roles. So one day I'd see actor Charles Janasz as wimpy Richard II, the next day as a more macho character, the next day as a hilarious comedic actor. Same for Steve Yoakam, a couple of other actors also...

And it was just a joy to be able to see them demonstrate their "acting chops" on a day to day basis.

The tragedy about the Guthrie, and indeed, any live theater, is that it is live. An actor can give a fantastic performance, give three curtain calls at the end of it... and then its gone. No one will ever be able to see it again. I really wish each of those Guthrie plays that season had been perserved for posterity, even as a "photographed stage play" I'd love to relive those memories again...

Ah, well.

And all this has been a long build-up to share my new Michael Goorjian screencap page.
http://volcanoseven.com/TheFaceandtheVoice/MichaelGoorjianindex.html
which I typically do for all actors I like.

So, next entry I'll get back on topic with science fiction!

The Face and the Voice

Spoilers for Monsters Inc and Monk and the Kid ahead


I've been thinking about actors and acting today...

When people speak, they put inflection into their voice. (Otherwise they just talk in a robotic monotone, like Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith - loved her cameo as herself in Will and Grace where she talks normally, then segues into her Lilith voice in an attempt to convince Jack and Karen that she is an actress and not the character of Lilth.)

(Or, they sound like David Caruso!)

What importance does inflection play in lines? Well, take Monsters, Inc., on of my top 5 animated films. Steve Buscemi plays the villainous Randall. In one scene - after it has already been shown that he's the villain - he has a dialog with Sully and Mike in which he's asking about the kid who escaped and is in the factory.

Randall/Buscemi's line is, "You haven't seen anything, have you?"

But the way he delivers the line (not to mention the way the character's animated while he says the line) makes it clear that he's trying oh so desperately to sound casual and not succeeding. (And as an actor, you know Buscemi could have sounded casual if he'd wanted to.)

He delivers the line with an inflection and a pause... "You haven't seen anything...have you?" If you didn't know he was a villain you'd know it at that moment.

Then, later on in the movie, Mr. Waternoose aka James Coburn, says, "Does anyone else know about this?"

But it's the way he says it that is the key.

"Does....anybody else... know about this?"

Right until that exact second I had no idea that Mr Waternoose was going to turn into a villain, but as soon as he said that line in that way, I knew it.

It's all about inflection.

So now we come to my mini-obsession with Michael Goorjian. Through the magic of Unbox, I downloaded his episode, Mr. Monk and the Kid. Of course he only had 3 brief scenes (so annoying) but he got to display a wide range of emotions in that time.




So, first scene, Monk and his assistant are in the house of Mrs. Carlyle and her son who plays the violin. They're in the living room talking to the mother, who exudes just a slight bit of nervousness. Then Michael comes down the stairs a little way, carrying violin and bow, and says, "Mother."

"Daniel." says the mother, in a rather emphasized way, as she's signalling to the son that he's to pretend he's Daniel, not Jacob.

"Is something...wrong." says Michael, in an unconvincing tone...just the way someone who is not used to playing a role would say it (as in one brother pretending for some reason.)

He says his next line, kind of all in a rush and uninflected. Bad acting, yes, but not the bad acting of a bad actor, but the good acting of an actor playing someone who's not used to lying.

"Can you ask them to come back I'm rehearsing right now."

but he says it

"Canyouaskthemtocomeback I'mrehearsingrightnow."

In his subsequent two lines, he gets in a bit more inflection, as he cements himself int he role of his brother...

Next scene, mother and son have been found out, and they're sitting in the living room. Mike has a glass of liquor in his hand, and he's obviously very nervous and very frightened, and he plays the scene wonderfully. He's a bit of a wimp, chickening out of delivering the ransom money - but then he has to be so that Monk can do it, and thus we get a very funny scene of Monk throwig the ransom money to the wrong person...



Anyway, final scene, no dialog, Mrs Carlyle and Mike run up to the just-released brother, complete with bloodily bandaged hand, and Mike looks back before he embraces his brother (which I gotta tell you, made me wonder if he actually didn't have something to do with it. Did he look around, as if nervous that all the crooks might not have been captured, continuing his cowardly role, or did he look around just to make sure they were gone and hadn't seen him, because he's the one who told the crooks about his brother and the fact that his mother could come up with $500,000 at short notice?

Anyay, contrast his normal speaking voice (not to mention his facial expressions) with his role as the highly-functional autistic Aaron Pratt in the CSI episode "Caged." His inflection is all on the wrong words, or he speaks too loudly... he seems to inhabit the character and does it very very well...