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.

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Sears, Roebuck, USA (Gordon L Weil. 1977)

Book I recently finished on the history of Sears (up thru the late 7os). Some interesting Sears trivia in here.. I didn't realize Sears originated as a mail order business. Richard Sears started selling watches thru the mail to Midwestern farmers. Guess they were generally isolated from (non-essential) retail items, so the mail order was convenient. Also never knew that Allstate Insurance was created (& for a long time administered) by Sears. Biographies on the secession of Sears pioneers, details on their (once great) catalog ordering/packing process.

Growing up, I liked going thru Sears' Christmas catalogs, picking out NFL gear.. It's a shame Sears didn't comprehend the imminent online marketplace. They had a sophisticated shipping network (& in some respects were the original Amazon), but they didn't understand (or acknowledge) the retail future. This book was researched & published when Sears was still @ the top of the game. At the end of the book a U of Oklahoma business professor is quoted as saying Sears has an '..extraordinary track record in reprogramming itself to adapt to change.' True for a 100 years, but an incidental pincer movement from Wal*Mart & Amazon ate Sears up.

Pembroke Mall Sears, circa 1960s.

* Nat Rrain Cast Portrait:

(Front to back, left to right: Creeps, Nathaniel, Nat, Sharpie, Pudgy Nauseous, Texas Weiner Man, Morgan Pepper, Laura Harell, Martin Hess, Billy, Jon-Lycanthropus Buffinus Neanderthalus, Frankie, Edgar Allen Toe, the Golden Shower.)

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^ Panels from a full-length I'm working on, recounting the tragic 1982 crash of Air Florida flight 90.

Interesting book I finished recently (Spaceships of Ezekiel).. There had been a theory circulating that the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel gave a primitive firsthand account of an alien visit in his testimony.. A NASA engineer (Blumrich) set out to disprove this theory as foolish & superstitious; but ended up embracing and expanding on the theory. Spaceships of Ezekiel is Blumrich' technical breakdown & intepretation of Ezekiel's eyewitness account.
A lot of Blumrich's theory & diagrams (of the theoretical UFO) make sense to me, but he seemed to conveniently omit passages from Ezekiel's testimony that would bolster the traditional interpretation: which is that Ezekiel was visited by the Lord (specifically with warnings & chastisement to the house of Israel). I mean, why would an E.T. visit include preaching against Israel's religious sins (violating dietary laws, worship of idols) (?) This messaging seems consistent with God of the Old Testament, not w/a universal greeting you might expect from an otherworldly explorer.
Book cover is great, looks like something straight from In Search of..
So '7os, it hurts.               
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Unrelated (and belated) eulogy for artist Jack Davis. His work had a ubiquitous influence on me growing up. I liked the work he did for Mad Magazine, and football related sketches he generated over the years. Davis was good at recreating the energy & eccentricities of football players & team mascots. Rest in Peace..

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^ page 1 from Beginning. Based loosely on the Genesis' Creation account.

old Lynnhaven Mall signs (circa early '90s) & vintage Cavalier Hotel.

From A Night in Virginia Beach (2003).

More pointless Hampton Roads' nostalgia.. Listing for the long-gone bowling alley. Corner of Plaza Trail & Virginia Beach Blvd. The strip mall was rebuilt @ some point, with a PetSmart.

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Greyskull & the band. (1998).

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Original Masters of the Universe characters don't need updating, but I was feeling nostalgic..

Nat Rrain version of Tess (giantess from recent animated series Disenchantment).

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