Friday the Thirteenth

Heard about the Yahoo! Time Capsule? The idea is to gather contemporary digital data from anyone interested and bury it in a secret spot in California. And there were grand plans to project the same information into space from Teotihuacán's* majestic Pyramid of the Sun in central México.* I guess it was supposedly an ancient slash state-of-the-art statement. It's moot, now. México has denied Yahoo! use of this national heritage treasure for this scheme.* I guess Mexico was concerned about the damaging side-effects of crowds, massive electrical equipment, laser beams, and pyramid-side digital projections (never mind the uncomfortable statement made by using a usurped culture's religious shrine as a quirky US gala stage). Not bad for a country that allows smoking in its art museums. Last night's Movie-thon movie was a double bill. The Equinox, a Journey into the Supernatural was made by well-connected Famous Monsters of Filmdom fans in the late sixties for the sum of $6,500. The amateur production then garnered the notice of schlock guru Jack H. Harris, who optioned distribution, re-edited the film with new footage, and opened it in 1970 under the shortened title Equinox.* I watched both versions after midnight last night. Both have the following plot, with re-edited differences presented in italics. David is a genius geology student who embarks on a blind date to a(n Equinox?) party with friends, or to meet his professor in the woods. On a detour to picnic at his missing professor's cabin, the teens confront painstakingly-animated clay models of rubber monster costumes, a park ranger named Asmodeus, and the book of the dead. Overflowing with the reasons why Evil Dead was ever made, Equinox was more influential than "good," though the excitement the filmmakers felt for the culture of horror cinema is charming and infectious. [Cavin]