Dark Shadows 2012 Trailer and Time and Again by Jack Finney

Dark Shadows started as a gothic horror soap opera in 1966. It began delving into the supernatural with the introduction of reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins. I discovered the series when Barnabas was terrorizing Maggie Evans, trying to turn her into his lost love. It gave me nightmares and my mother said no more Dark Shadows.

I couldn't stay away from it though and began to watch it again when my mother wasn't in the room. This was easy because she was Deaf and couldn't hear that I'd changed the channel. The storyline at the time was a Frankenstein one--Barnabas had been "cured" of vampirism. I was totally hooked and watched the series to the end, running home from school to make sure I didn't miss any of it.

There can never be another series like it. The actors who played the characters can never be replaced. Dark Shadows fandom lives on, even though the show went off in 1971. Every year there is a Fest, bringing together fans and actors/actresses. It's a lot of fun. I've been to three.

This year, there's a new movie called Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas and directed by Tim Burton. I've seen other films by Burton and figured this movie would be offbeat and kooky. That doesn't bother me because, like I said, you can't remake the original. I'm looking forward to the movie because I like Johnny Depp and think he'll make a good Barnabas.

The trailer was released last week and it seems to have divided the fans in half--those that liked it and those that hated it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but I've been surprised at how hostile things became sometimes. Oh well. The debate has nothing to do with how I feel anyway and May (when the movie is released) is just a few weeks away.

Time and Again by Jack Finney is a book I always meant to read from high school on. I saw it at a library book sale and decided that now was the time I'd finally read it. It's a science fiction story about time travel and I enjoy that kind of thing.

I had really mixed feelings about the book though. Simon Morley is an illustrator in NY who meets up with a mysterious man that wants to involve him in some secret project he gives little details about. I wondered what made the guy pick Si Morley first of all and, second of all, why Morley was so willing to go with the man based on such little information. Morley meets a bunch of people in a warehouse who, once again, provide little information and convince him to join the project. Huh? Maybe 2012 me would be too suspicious to fall for that, where 1970 me might have gone along with it.

Eventually, though, it turns out that the government is working on a great experiment in time travel. They say they want to just go back and observe but I wondered to myself, why? I also wondered how this time travel was supposed to be accomplished. There were no machines or anything to go back. It turns out this was to be done mentally, although all time is a river and the past is right alongside us in the present. Okay.

After a whole lot of practice, Si takes an experimental trip back to New York, 1882. Then he goes back again to watch a specific event. Then he's sent back again, to gather more information for the researchers. Later, we find out what the researchers true motive is for all this research and it's disturbing.

Looking back, I think it was good to have an air of mystery. It was like watching an episode of Lost--as one question was answered, another rose in my mind. I also enjoyed the inclusion of photographs and drawings from the times. Some of the descriptions were very interesting.

On the downside, there was a lot of description and detail given to buildings, streets, and trees. I found it all tedious after awhile and so I'd skip those parts. Another thing I didn't like was the inconsistency of the time travel. Si had to practice and train to do it, yet some other people were able to do it without any training at all. It also wasn't really clear to me whether their minds were travelling and their bodies remained stationery or did they really disappear back into time?

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly About the DS Fest Today

The Good: Seeing my friends! It was great having Pinoke stay over with us so we could get caught up with each other! It was terrific to meet up with Cheryl today too. I met one friend I'd chatted with online a few times. That was all fun!

TB and I very much enjoyed the talk given on parallel time and time travel by professor of physics and author, Frank Borzellieri. We liked how he tied into examples of time travel/parallel time using examples from Dark Shadows, i.e. Quentin's staircase = wormhole. It was also particularly helpful to us in understanding a lot of the time travelling going on in Lost.

I bought a book by David Selby and one by Lara Parker. We took a spin through the marketplace room.

The Bad: Standard complaints--food was way overpriced. The marketplace room was a lot smaller than I'd remembered from earlier Fests. Everyone seemed to have the same things for sale: books, magazines, and photographs. One merchandiser had some jewelry and tee shirts; another had Dark Shadows wear. What happened to the vampire teeth?

The Ugly: This is why TB and I ended up leaving early: neither of us can stand for more than a few minutes at a time. He has his spinal stenosis, bulging & herniated disks; I have my slipping disks and piriformis syndrome plus the brace on my ankle. So anyway, we go back to the ballroom after lunch because we wanted to see Jonathan Frid and the cast reunion.

The place is packed, standing room only. In Fests gone by, I seem to remember that disabled people--those in wheelchairs and with mobility issues--had a section in the front. In Fests gone by, there'd been volunteers at the entrances and disabled people could get help finding a place or a seat from them.

Well, here I was seeing people in wheelchairs all over, many unable to see over the people standing up along the walls. There were no volunteers in sight, just hordes of people standing everywhere (this in addition to all the ones seated in the audience).

Two of my friends had arrived earlier and had snagged seats but there were none left--except for the ones taped off with the words "reserved for Marcy". One friend explained these seats were reserved for the "volunteers" but maybe not all of them would show up. She and my other friend were sitting in two of these "reserved" seats and suggested TB and I sit behind them, so we did.

Almost immediately, a woman leans over and says to me, "No, you can sit here, these are for volunteers."

So I said, "My husband and I are both disabled and unable to stand. If volunteers don't show up, could we sit here?"

And she goes, "No, they're for the stars."

So the one friend offers her chair and says she'll sit on the floor. I want Ted to take the seat because of his back and I'll sit on the floor too. He, gentleman that he is, insists I sit. So I'm thinking, I'm never going to enjoy this knowing Ted's standing up and in pain, this is going to go on for over 2 hours, and my friends are probably going to be thrown out of their chairs too. So I said to TB, let's just go.

My friend was horrified. "Don't you want to see Frid? Or the cast reunion? You guys paid $30 registration!"

But we couldn't stay. So we left the ballroom. Out in the hall way, though, there were still people sitting at the registration. So I approached one and I asked, "If you are handicapped and you're coming to the Fest, are you supposed to let someone know ahead of time so there's accommodations made?" He didn't know and hands me off to Ann, the lady sitting next to him.

So I repeat my question and then add that TB and I can't stand. She says, "Well, you have to tell a volunteer."

So I answered there's none there, only the ones sitting down already. I said there's no available chairs in there.

So she says, "Well, I don't know what to tell you."

I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. What, is this back to the stone age?

TB said, "let's just go." And so we did. But I'm going to be writing some letters tomorrow you betcha!