Dark Shadows

One of the TV shows I watch regularly is Dark Shadows, which was an American soap opera popular in the late 60's and early 70's. It was released on Demonoid in 33 torrents: six dealing with the early shows, one of the revival from 1991, and the remainder dealing with the height of its fame. There're also a couple of movies based on the show included.
The show was created by Dan Curtis, and started off as a kind of gothic romance. A young girl is hired as a governess by the Collins family, in a fairly remote seaport in Maine. About six months into its run, the writers introduced a ghost, but it wasn't until a year after its premiere that the show introduced its most famous character, played by Jonathan Frid, the vampire Barnabas Collins.


After Barnabas' arrival, the show's poularity took off and the floodgates opened. There were witches, warlocks, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, time travel and even a parallel universe.
Many of the actors on the show played several roles, and appeared and reappeared throughout its run, sometimes as a perfectly ordinary person and sometimes as say, a werewolf or a zombie. It was a variation on what Stephen King called, 'the kid trick.' He wrote about it in his book about modern American horror, Danse Macabre.
'The kid trick' is used by soap operas whenever they change actors for a particular part. For instance, a little boy or girl is sent off to summer camp and returns as a teenager. Or a businessman goes to South America, his plane crashes, and later on he's found. That's when it was revealed that a new actor is playing the part.
Nowadays, soap operas no longer do this. Once an actor becomes identified with a role, it's his until death. Could you imagine J.R. Ewing being played by any other actor than Larry Hagman? I didn't think so.
Dark Shadows was a half-hour in length, and there were over 1200 episodes filmed before the ratings sank out of sight and the show was cancelled. I watch one episode each weekday, just as if the show was really on the air. I never saw it during its original run, but it was shown briefly on a Spokane station as part of its afternoon lineup of shows in 1981 or '82.
Two movies based on storylines from the show were made during its run, using the same actors, and featured gore that regular TV wouldn't allow. There was a revival of the show in 1991 that lasted twelve episodes, starring Ben Cross as Barnabas. And now Tim Burton is remaking it as a film starring Johnny Depp as the vampire.
The show is dated by today's standards. The romantic aspects are extremely underplayed, when you consider the average soap opera of today features uninhibited and unlimited sexual activity.
Women were played very differently back then. One of the characters is Angelique, a witch of almost incomparable power. And what does she do with it? Torture Barnabas so that he will say he loves her and they can be married. That's it.
Women characters on the show want nothing more out of life than to be married and raise a family for their man.
Different times.

The Drifters

I'm reading "The Drifters" by James Michener. It was first published in 1971, and tells the story of six young people from diverse backgrounds whose paths meet in Europe. They travel together through Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, and Morocco. It's narrated by an older man who has known most of them before they all meet up. They all open up to him and give him insight into what they are thinking as they experience life.
It's not a bad story. "The Sixties" is a pretty big subject, and this book only scratches the surface, but it does give a good overview. Whether it tells the truth about what happened is up to the reader, or someone who was there, to decide. Robin Williams once said, "If can you remember the Sixties, you weren't there."

What I remember most about the Sixties is the music, especially The Beatles. They're my favourite. I think I saw them when they first appeared on Ed Sullivan, but my memory may be faulty. I do remember walking into the living room in my pajamas, having been awoken by the excited screams of my sisters.

One sister is five years older than me, and the other is ten years older. So they were exactly the right age to contract Beatlemania. They passed it along to me without a second thought. They always had to have each new Beatle record, and they always had to play it ten thousand times a day, so the music became a part of my physical being. A lot of my memories are associated with whatever Beatle song was popular at the time.
Later, when I was reading Vincent Bugliosi's "Helter Skelter," about how Charles Manson used "The White Album" to convince his followers to commit mass murder, I had to get the album to listen for myself.
And then when I read Nicholas Schaffner's "The Beatles Forever," I read about how The Beatles changed music as well as influencing other areas of popular culture such as dress, hairstyles, and drug use, to name a few.
Schaffner also talked about Beatles collectibles. For example, there was a German release of "Magical Mystery Tour" that had the only true stereo versions of that collection of songs. He also discussed how the American releases differed from the British releases. The US release of "Revolver" was missing three songs, giving people a distorted version of that magnificent album's set list.
That book inspired the collector in me, and I was off, hunting for this or that record in the bins of record stores all over the city. I remember that time fondly. When music was being released on 33and 1/3 LPs, shopping for music for me was very enjoyable. The cover art was more accessible than nowadays, when an old man like me has to hold up a CD practically in front of his nose to see it properly.
I always turn to The Beatles' music, especially in times of trouble. It soothes me like nothing else. When I was going through the terrible changes wrought by adolescence, The Beatles were always there for me in the way nobody else was. I think the reason I am still alive today is because I had The Beatles.

At one point in "The Drifters," the narrator becomes enchanted by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," especially the song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." When another character maliciously informs him about the way the song's initials spell out LSD, and he reflects how badly one of the girls reacted to the drug, he becomes so upset that he breaks the record over his knee.
John Lennon denied that the song was inspired by the drug. He says that a drawing his son Julian brought home from school gave him the idea. Paul McCartney still repeats the claim today. But there is no doubt that the imagery of the song is meant to evoke for the listener what it must be like to "take a trip."
Paul McCartney, when talking about writing "A Day In The Life," talks about the line "I'd love to turn you on," an obvious reference to drug taking. He looked John in the eyes and knew he was thinking the same thing. "We're really going to do this."
After reading about "Sgt. Pepper," I had to listen to it again, and I got to thinking about "The Beatles Anthology," their autobiography. The book is just quote after quote, with The Beatles describing their history from the time they were born until their breakup in 1970.
The TV series includes filmed interviews with the surviving members, and the difference between Paul's interviews and George's and Ringo's is striking. George and Ringo are filmed sitting down at their various residences, while Paul is filmed piloting a boat, at concert preparations, sitting in front of a campfire, and on and on. He always has to be... "interesting."

I was reading the autobiography of the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus at the same time. Their book is set up to look almost exactly like The Beatles'. It's not a mistake, or an attempted rip off, as the groups were very close.
When George Harrison saw the first episode of Python, he sent the BBC a congratulatory telegram for finally getting TV right. Paul always stopped any recording session when Python was on, and didn't resume making music until it was over.
George was especially close to the Python's, especially Eric Idle. When Python was doing a series of live shows in New York, George dropped by and suited up to sing in the RCMP chorus for "The Lumberjack Song." When Python lost their financing for "Life Of Brian," George stepped into the breach simply because he wanted to see the film.

My sisters are responsible for my interest in The Pythons, as well. My older sister showed me an episode once when I was about ten, and that was it. My tiny little mind was warped forever.
The Drifters, set in The Sixties, is almost like a piece of that time preserved in print. It is an attempt to describe and define those times, even though they weren't over. As I said, it's a pretty good story, and has at least succeeded in bringing many memories.