So there I am, all dressed for work, and my good mood is starting to turn sour. I smoke a cigarette... and I swear to god it's like I just threw a hundred dollar bill on the ground in front of me. literally 5 people came up to me, and they probably had about 3 teeth between them, begging me for a cigarette.

The first hour consisted of the conductors saying they couldn't let us off the train to walk up to the platform and if anyone tried they would be arrested on the spot. Needless to say, I decided to stay put

Hate everything, just want my bagel and my Vitamin Water.

Complete sentences will resume when Amtrak power turns back on.

But they are glad to tell me that I'm free to take the cab and share the expense with OTHER passengers!

Losing power to a backbone transit service like Amtrak and MARC is a pretty big deal, yet no reasons for the outage are currently known, and no explanations are, I suppose, likely to be forthcoming. Nobody likes to say "mea culpa" in this economy when retribution at the stock market or in future contracts tends to be a serious matter that costs jobs, even when it's the right thing to say.

Todd Browning's amazing 1932 horror film Freaks still has the power to shock and scare. Browning used real, working sideshow freaks rather than rely on special effects and the results were so unsettling the film was banned in many countries. The recent DVD reissue is excellent, as it includes a feature-length documentary about the film and sideshow history in general. Watch Freaks on Google Video.

Benjamin Christensen's 1922 film Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages is another film that was way ahead of it's time. Ostensibly a documentary, this silent film depicts beautiful and grotesque recreations of witchcraft, black magic, and satanism in the middle ages and then makes a link between those accused of witchcraft in the middle ages with modern day (1922) psychiatric patients. This film was an inspiration to the makers of The Blair Witch Project, who named their production company after it. Watch Häxan on Google Video.

Via Bibi's Box, via We Make Money Not Art