For pointless nostalgic value, I recently re-watched The Glass House. The memory of watching it in the theater always stands out to me, because we watched it shortly after 9/11. We saw it up on Hollywood Blvd, and the Hollywood tourism felt eerily quiet in the day(s) right after 9/11. And in a way, it personally felt kinda crass to be indulging in meaningless activity like killing time in a theater.

Re-watching it tho I noticed something new.. there's a brief theater scene right at the start, that was filmed in a cool old theater in the Valley. It's a spot I always sought as a movie goer in the early 2ooos called the Pacific Theaters (in Sherman Oaks). It's kind of tucked on a side street, and for a long time aesthetically frozen in the early 8os. I used to love watching movies in their empty theaters. And they had unusually convenient parking for LA. I haven't been in there in many years, but hope it hasn't changed too much, it's a really cool, unique relic.

Daytime photo I took of the theater (circa 2005). At the time it wasn't advertised as Pacific Theaters, not sure if it was re-branded for a while..

Have to admit, the movie was an enjoyable re-watch.. it's now a good time capsule of (very) early 2ooos teen culture.

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A cool paperback I wanted for a while.. I heard about it years ago, when I saw it featured on a rerun of In Search of.. The episode featured some of the disappearances cataloged in this book. It's a well-researched compilation of both famous & obscure plane and boat disasters & disappearances. The author ties together different elements that he believed made the Great Lakes a uniquely mysterious travel zone. Book's publishing date is 1977, and I assume it went out-of-print because even worn-out copies are still kind of expensive. Going thru the missing flights & sunken ships, I have the contemporary advantage (and ease) of doing supplemental research online. I found some of the cases to be more just harsh weather, than a mysterious vortex at work. But there was one that embodied a combination of both. The 1879 disappearance of a boat named Waubuno. Which attempted a go in terrible weather (nothing especially mysterious about it's sinking).. but a passenger the day before had tried to avoid going on it, telling her husband she had a vision of them sinking & drowning in the icy waters. Unfortunately, she was right and disappeared with the ship. 

A lot of tragedies in this book, but I tend to believe the harsh Great Lakes' weather is more of a culprit than any unexplained or surreal factors. But Gourley does produce some great chapter titles, and alternate suppositions.. Check out the table of contents, The Cloudy Shroud, Crew Insanity, Foreseen Events, Complete Disappearances. 

If you appreciate a '70s-style dive in to the unexplained, this is a good one.

contact: nat.rain@gmail.com

First post of 2020.. a bird portrait I recently finished, and Lower Learning.. Haven't been posting much here, I'm selling some work under a different, stupid pen name..

On an art related note, this is a book I recently read. Friedman is one of my favorite Mad magazine artists. He compiled/created short bios & vivid portraits of pioneers from the comic book industry.

Contact- nat.rain@gmail.com