The Roanoke Star has crested Mill Mountain more than 1,000 feet above the city since 1949. It is visible for 60 miles, and results in Roanoke’s nickname as the “Star City.”
The views of the Roanoke Valley from the mountain’s crown are breathtaking.
Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan
Worried about handing Donald Trump the nuclear codes?
Then this song’s for you!
Courtesy of Radio Nolan.
Roanoke, Virginia, October 2016 (2)
Rainy Roanoke.
Roanoke, Virginia, October 2016
Rainy Roanoke! It actually is a beautiful small city, even during an overcast October week — and the skies cleared up brightly my last day there.
What I loved most about the city during the daytime is how the surrounding mountain peaks ascended to be obscured by darkening alabaster clouds. It’s as though some celestial painter was coloring outside the lines, and brushed broad swathes of smoky white to cover the summits, and to turn the slopes the hues of deep, royal blue-gray and dimming charcoal.
This entire region in Southern Virginia rests along a broad valley encircled by mountains — the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west. (The Alleghenies are where you can find Iron Gate and Clifton Forge.) It is slightly disorienting for a first-time visitor to see mountains virtually everywhere on the horizon; I think it subtly affects one’s sense of direction. (Mill Mountain, home of the famed Roanoke Star, is within the city limits.)
There actually is a Long Island, Virginia along the Roanoke River, presumably where all the cool people live. Just northwest of that is Altavista, Virginia, with its notable cottage industry of obsolete Internet search engines.
My girlfriend calls Roanoke “The Snow Globe City,” and that makes sense when you view downtown from the highway. It is a quaint looking southern city, its streets are neatly lined with boxlike period buildings, and it has the appearance of a picturesque architectural huddle.
And there are churches everywhere within the city. It is indeed part of the Bible Belt.
A review of “Damnation Alley” (1977)
I’m not sure how to review “Damnation Alley” (1977). I can’t call it a classic. Portions of it are just too poorly made for that — even to the point where it deserves the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” treatment. But it is an extremely enjoyable 1970’s end-of-the-world flick, it has some notably successful key scenes and it’s nothing less than venerated by people who love 70’s science fiction.
The movie’s story sounds as though it were conceived by scientifically illiterate teenagers who were passing a joint around … and the joint was laced with hallucinogens, and it was the crazy 70’s. A nuclear war with Russia has actually tilted the earth on its axis, so it’s spinning askew. This (and apparently not radiation or nuclear winter) has caused all sorts of cataclysms, and mankind’s best hope is that, through an act of God or something, the correct axis just sort of … reasserts itself. In the meantime, the same threats you’d usually expect are inhabiting 70’s cinema’s postapocalyptic America: sick hillbillies and mutant fauna.
A trio of United States Air Force servicemen are forced to leave a protected California missile silo that has allowed them to survive the holocaust. (It burns down after a drunk commanding officer passes out and drops a lit cigarette. Seriously.) Our heroes embark across America in the desperate hope to reach the one city that has apparently survived the nuclear fire. And that’s Albany, for some reason.
I’m pretty sure Roger Zelazny’s 1967 novel, upon which this is ostensibly based, has little to do with this simplistic and head-scratching screenplay. The book sounds much smarter and more interesting.
The movie gets off to a rocky start, in an ineptly blocked scene in which the director can’t even manage to get the three principal actors to make their faces visible during their conversation with one another. (These would be a pre-“The A-Team” George Peppard, a pre-“Airwolf” Jan Michael Vincent, and a pre-“Terminator” Paul Winfield.”) Just after this is an action sequence with “giant” scorpions that are composited onto the action via blue-screen. The special effects here are embarrassingly bad; for a frame of reference, consider that this is the same year that the studio, 20th Century Fox, also released “Star Wars.”
Still, this ridiculous movie rises above its failings with some elements that were damn good. For starters, I inexplicably found myself liking Peppard’s stern, laconic, Southern-drawled leader, and Winfield’s likable sidekick. Even Vincent’s mimbo antics weren’t too grating. He must have been a fan-favorite heartthrob back in the 70’s; the writer and director keep him front and center — saving girls, cracking jokes and riding a dirtbike. (His character, “Hell Tanner,” was actually the main protagonist of Zelazny’s book.)
Here is where “Damnation Alley” actually reminded me of some of the better George A. Romero films. Despite thin and slightly offbeat characterizations, the protagonists still managed to turn out cool and likable. I identified with them. (Is it just because this and the “Dead” movies seem to portray real, regular people instead common tropes?)
Second, certain scenes worked beautifully. A no-budget scene depicting the inside of a casino was perfectly atmospheric and haunting. The abandoned-town-with-a-secret scene was perfect, horrifying and unforgettable. (And it had some nicely conceived antagonists.) What should have been a by-the-numbers, cliched, post-apocalyptic hillbilly gang turned out to be genuinely frightening. (The actors in these minor roles were quite competent.) Don’t these prosaically characterized evildoers menace us more effectively than the clownish supervillains of the “Mad Max” films?
And, crappy scorpions notwithstanding, some of the period special effects actually worked. The centerpiece of “Damnation Alley,” for a lot of fans, is the “Landmaster” — the quite genuine 12-wheel, seven-ton, futuristic amphibious armored personnel carrier constructed specifically for the movie. (That’s it in the second photo below.) Seeing the actual (badass) vehicle instead of a model for the film should appeal to the kid in a lot of filmgoers, even today. (I’m not even a gearhead, and I had fun with it.) The custom vehicle cost $350,000 to build in 1976, and it’s still a legend in the 70’s science fiction fan community.
Another “special effect” that strangely holds up over time is the movie’s depiction of “radioactive skies.” It’s a gaudy visual effect that would be cheap and low-tech by today’s standards, and it absolutely screams “1970’s cheese.” Yet, as a modern movie fan, I loved it. It’s perfect for setting the film’s unintentional clumsy-yet-creepy mood; it sets the tone for a beloved vintage B-movie classic, and it’s just neat to look at. Wikipedia has some interesting information on the back ground for “Damnation Alley” — the radioactive skies effect actually took up 10 months of post-production, despite a final result that paled in comparison to “Star Wars.” It was a troubled production, and its story is interesting reading.
Seriously, I had fun with “Damnation Alley.” If it isn’t quite a “classic,” then it’s at least a really fun movie to which I’m sure I’ll return. I’d give it an 8 out of 10, and I’m going to label it a Triple F — it’s a Forgivably Flawed Favorite.
Eric Robert Nolan published in the Peeking Cat Anthology 2016
The Peeking Cat Anthology 2016 was released today! It has no fewer than 40 poems, three short stories and six photos. One of the poems is a micropoem of mine entitled “My mother’s apartment.” (It’s the third one in the volume, on page 5.)
You can order this first ever of Peeking Cat’s anthologies in hardcover right here, and paperback right here. If you’d prefer a Kindle version of the collection, you can purchase and download it here.
It is always wonderful to see my work appear in Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine, but being published in its first anthology is a real honor. Thanks once again to Editor Sam Rose!
Throwback Thursday: one ugly 80’s kid!!!
This picture was taken at homecoming game, I think, at Longwood High School in Suffolk County, New York, in the very early 1980’s. This would have been the site of the “old” high school, at the end of Smith Road on Longwood Road, and not the “new” school building to which we moved in the late 80’s.
The furry fella is our school mascot, the Longwood Lion; that off-putting lily-white waif you see is me. (God does not equally bless all children with pleasing appearances.) I think I still remember that gray sweatshirt, and the oversized black digital watch. (In the age before home computers, those cheap little doodads were considered a bit fancy.)
It’s a good thing I wasn’t smiling here. Roughly half my body weight at the time resulted from my oversized teeth and gums, and that was not a pretty thing to look at. My school picture could have redefined the term “Gummi” in a categorically horrible fashion. I looked like somebody had cross-bred a “‘Nilla Wafer” with Ridley Scott’s “Alien.” Or maybe crossbred John Carpenter’s “Village of the Damned” with David Cronenberg’s “The Fly.” I’m serious.
I really don’t care weather you like these jokes …
Yeesh, my heart goes out to anyone today who might have seasonal affective disorder.
I’m sure it doesn’t help that the sky outside is the color of the grim reaper’s ass in a poorly lit room.
Seriously, look outside your window right now. It’s like God’s ashtray. If Crayola made a new gray color and named it “F***ing depression,” then that would be it.
Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine features “Our Room In Brooklyn”
The September 2016 Issue of Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine was just released, with pieces both by me and by a couple of good friends of mine. You can find my poem, “Our Room In Brooklyn,” on page 14. Be sure also to check out “Bacchus and Cheap Tobacco,” by Dennis Villelmi, as well as “Antidote,” by Scott Thomas Outlar.
You can purchase the September Issue in right here, or you can simply download a free electronic copy in PDF format here.
Enjoy.
Publication Notice: Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine to feature “Our Room In Brooklyn”
I’m honored once again to share that another poem of mine will be published by Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine. The upcoming September 2016 issue will include “Our Room In Brooklyn.” This is a piece that I authored many years ago; it was first featured by Dagda Publishing in 2013.
Thanks to Editor Samantha Rose for allowing me to be a part of of the terrific creative community over at Peeking Cat!
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 