#there's the one who has been both a librarian and a bank teller who also has a ton of cool tattoos

[svtskneecaps]

returned from the family reunion. the verdict: my cousins are all way cooler than me. i must become cooler.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes

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Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes

Fifty-eight years ago on October 2nd, the Twilight Zone aired its first episode. Since then, generations of viewers have been horrified and mesmerized by episodes containing alien encounters, living dolls, telepathic children, and much more. To celebrate this legendary television show, we’ve complied a list of the top Twilight Zone episodes. These episodes are not only the most memorable but discuss issues that can still be relevant and terrifying in today’s modern world. Without further ado, here are the top 10 Twilight Zone episodes.

10. “A Stop at Willoughby”

This Twilight Zone episode follows Gart Williams, an overworked and unappreciated ad executive who is dissatisfied with his life. On his commute home every night, he falls asleep on the train. Yet, when he wakes up, he hears a porter calling out “Next Stop, Willoughby.” Gart notices that the train has made a stop in the past, July 1888 to be exact. The peaceful pace of life in this 19th century town is all too alluring for Gart. He tries to tell his wife about Willoughby but she dismisses and mocks him.

Later, when he is no longer able to handle the pressures from his job, he has a breakdown at work and takes the train home. After falling asleep, the conductor beckons him to Willoughby only for Gart to jump from the train to his death. As the episode ends, we see the undertakers, Willoughby and Son, taking away Gart’s body.

While this episode is not the most terrifying of the Twilight Zone series, it still gives off a haunting impression. The issues Gart dealt with, feeling isolated and overburdened in the busy modern age, still rings to those living in the 21st century. Maybe there are other people out there longing for their own escape to Willoughby.

  9. “It’s a Good Life”

“It’s a Good Life” opens like any other Twilight Zone episode. Rob Sterling informs the audience that the town of Peak

sville is the only remaining town on Earth. It is also being terrorized by a monster. We soon learn that this monster is not a huge beast or strange-looking alien. Instead, a little boy with telekinesis is the one threatening the town. The people of Peaksville are forced to always think happy thoughts. If anyone thinks or does anything that displeases the boy, he will hurt or kill them.

Many critics believe that this is one of the most powerful Twilight Zone episodes. Viewers in 2017 and beyond can still be terrified by imagining what life would be like if they lived in Peaksville at the mercy of whims of an evil child.

  8. “The Lonely”

In the future, prisoners are sentences to solitary confinement on asteroids millions of miles from Earth. This Twilight Zone episode focuses on of these prisoners, James A. Corry who has been sentenced to stay on an asteroid alone for 50 years. His only company comes four times a year when a crew arrives to deliver supplies. The captain of this ship begins to pity Corry’s isolated existence and secretly gives him a female robot called Alicia for company. At first, Corry hates the robot but as loneliness sets in he interacts more and more with Alicia.

As time goes by, Corry falls in love with his robotic companion. When the spaceship returns, Corry learns he has been pardoned and can return to Earth. However, there is not enough room in the ship for Alicia to go with him. After another member of the crew accidentally shoots Alicia, Corry is forced to leave her behind.

As robots are now beginning to be manufactured for human companionship, this episode of the Twilight Zone reminds us of how powerful and potentially dangerous it is for humans to become attached to artificial intelligence.

  7. “The Midnight Sun”

This episode is a nightmare wrapped in another nightmare. Artist Norma and her landlady struggle to stay alive in their apartment building as the Earth moves closer to the Sun. New York City is almost abandoned as many have fled North to escape the heat. Even at midnight, the Sun is out causing temperatures to rise above 110 degrees. As the heat causes the paint to melt off her Norma’s canvas, everyone else left in New York goes insane from the high temperatures. Norma awakes to find that this has just been a nightmare, a result of her high fever. She soon learns that the Earth is actually drifting farther from the Sun, plunging the planet into freezing cold temperatures.

This Twilight Zone episode has a Lovecraftian feel to it as the characters are at the mercy of cosmic forces. The terror of this episode can be easily appreciated by modern viewers as we all reply on the Sun to sustain life on Earth.

  6. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

This episode contains one of the most iconic scenes from the Twilight Zone. In the beginning of William Shatner’s career, he took on the role of Bob Wilson, a man recovering from a nervous breakdown he had on an airplane several months ago. Now, Bob must face his first flight after being released from a mental hospital.

As the flight progresses, Bob notices a gremlin on the wing of the plane. Yet, whenever he calls other people over to look at the creature, it hides from sight. Bob sees that the gremlin is damaging the wiring and metal paneling on the wing. Bob ties himself to the inside of the plane, opens the emergency door and shoots at the gremlin. When the plane lands, Bob is escorted away by doctors bound to take him back to the mental hospital. Yet as the episode closes, the camera pans to the damage on the plane’s wing.

This Twilight Zone episode is sure to scare modern viewers just as it scared audiences in the 1960’s. Our fears of something going wrong during a flight have only increased since this episode was aired.

  5. “The Obsolete Man”

It is clear that “The Obsolete Man” episode of the Twilight Zone is about our fears of living in a totalitarian regime. In this episode, Mr. Wordsworth is on trial for crimes against the State as both books and religion have been outlawed. Wordsword both believes in God and is a librarian. Because of this, Wordsworth has been deemed obsolete, meaning he will be executed for not contributing to society.

Wordsworth accepts his fate but requests that he gets to choose how he will die. Wordsworth chooses to die by having a bomb placed in his apartment and tricks one of the leaders of the State to visit him before he dies. Just before the bomb goes off, the leader begs God to let him live which is a crime against the State. While he is able to escape the bomb that kills Wordsworth, he is later sentenced to being obsolete.

This episodes touches on issues of free speech, freedom of religion and the power of the government which are important issues that are relevant in modern times and will be discussed for years to come.

  4. “The Eye of The Beholder”

This Twilight Zone episode has one of the most memorable twist endings of any TV episode. Janet Tyler is a patient at a hospital where she has just undergone her 11th treatment for her deformed appearance. With her head wrapped entirely in bandages, she has live in darkness for several days. Unable to stand it any longer, she begs the doctor to take her bandages off early. As he and his nurse prepared to remove the bandages, they discuss the nature of beauty and how they pity Janet for her poor appearance. As the bandages come off, we see that Janet looks like a normal woman and that the doctors and nurses all of the twisted faces that closely resemble pigs. Since Janet has failed to live up to this society’s standard of beauty, she is banished to the ghetto re severed for the ugly.

This episode highlights the Twilight Zone‘s ability to comment on social values and expectations. Even over 50 years later, this story makes an important statement about placing too much value on beauty and physical appearance.

  3. “To Serve Man”

U.S. code-breaker, Michael Chambers and his employee, Patty are assigned the immense task of decrypting a text from the alien race, The Kanamits. These large aliens have evaded Earth but promise to help humans by ending hunger and providing an endless energy source. They even promise to take thousands of people to their home planet for a better life. At first, the code breaking team are only able to decipher “To Serve Man” from the title. Assuming the aliens want to help humans, Chambers decides to board the spaceship to their home planet. Just as he is about to get on to the ship, Patty runs up to him yelling that “To Serve Man” is a cookbook.

This Twilight Zone episode taps into the common fear of extraterrestrials which is sure to strike fear into the hearts of generations to come.

  2. “Time Enough At Last”

This heartbreaking episode follows, Henry Bemis is a bank teller and avid reader. His boss and his wife both bullying him day in and day out. His work and his wife interfere with his reading as his wife takes it upon herself to destroy some of his books. One day while he is in the bank’s vault, an atomic bomb is dropped, killing everyone around Henry for miles. Much to Henry’s relief, he now has as much time as he wants to read. Just as he is able to settle down with a pile of books he took from the destroyed library, his glasses fall off and break.

The tragic irony of this Twilight Zone episode makes it one of the greatest and most memorable episodes in American television that can still be appreciated today.

  1. “Monsters are due on Maple Street”

Strange events start happening in the quaint and peaceful suburban neighborhood located on Maple Street in an American town. Load noises and power malfunctions soon destroy the tranquility of the afternoon. The neighbors begin to believe that an alien invasion is occurring and behind to look for the possible alien in disguise. People being accusing each other, even children, of working with the aliens to cause the strange power outages. Eventually, the whole neighborhood erupts into a fight. The camera zooms out to reveal the aliens controlling the power outages from afar. These extraterrestrials state that they won’t even have to fight humans to take over Earth if they can so easily cause us to fight with our own kind.

This episode of the Twilight Zone not only can be terrifying from the perceptive of the characters on Maple Street but has an important message about how fighting among ourselves and turning our backs on our friends makes us weaker instead of stronger.

  What is your favorite Twilight Zone episode? Tell in the comments below!

[amyalicechristensen-blog]

The Pleasure Path

Two weeks before New Year’s Eve I was in the grocery store and I made sure to grab a package of black eyed peas while they were in stock. My son and I have an established tradition at our house.  I make Mice and Beans, we drink champagne, we state one resolution and then we stay up until midnight to greet the brand new year.  The champagne is sparkling grape juice.  The Mice and Beans is actually Hoppin’ John a dish made with black eyed peas because my mother and Martha Stewart say that they bring you luck for the New Year.  My son doesn’t remember why we call it Mice and Beans, but when he was little we read about Skippy John, a Siamese cat that had an adventure to Mexico in his magic closet. He met some Chihuahuas who asked him if he liked rice and beans.  Skippy John responded “Si! I love Mice and Beans!”  Because he’s a cat…not a Chihuahua.  Anyway, I held those black eyed peas in my hand for several minutes remembering Skippy John Jones.  I won’t ever forget that silly cat even though my son doesn’t remember that story anymore.  

I was laughing outright as I tossed those peas into my cart. Then it hit me – by the Gods I was laughing!  With reckless abandon in a grocery store filled with people who might be judging me! What the heck was going on?  I was actually happy.  

Sadly, that’s really not my default setting.  I really like to simmer in my sadness and delve into my despondency.  I live to mourn my life.  

Singing along to the Christmas Carols in that grocery store I started to ponder if maybe there was a different route to consider.  I went home and I began working on a project to reflect on 2016.  I wanted to know precisely what made me unhappy.  Although, I knew that if I really wanted to make a change – that is if I wanted to keep this mysterious mirthful mood – what might be even more important was to consider what made me happy.

Research in behavioral science has suggested that there seems to be an evolutionary factor for why it is easier to remember the worst things that happened rather than the good things.  It stands to reason that if something can kill you, you might want the memory of that permanently etched on the back of your eyelids.  But if I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s how easily mired I can become with all that negativity.  Really, most of the things I carry with me looming like a dark cloud over my head, while uncomfortable, are not really environmental threats to my survival.  Yes, I wanted to learn and grow from the mistakes I made in 2016, but really the burning question I had was, “What makes me happy?” I couldn’t necessarily find that by reliving my failures.

Then, I was sifting through blogs on Tumblr and came across a post by TheCrownedCrow.  It was a divination challenge to create a personal map for 2017 in order to help you realize your goals.  Although I knew I’d probably be the only geomancer in the challenge, I was hooked. Particularly when I read the seeking question for day 2:  The New Year also brings a moment of reflection.  What is something I learned in the previous year that will help me grow in this one?

That is the beauty of geomancy.  There’s very little about it that’s cryptic. Geomancy says, “Look right here for your answer.”  I already had the memory project well underway. All I had to do was roll my geomancy dice, and cast the house chart.  A repeat of the first symbol would tell me exactly what memory would be the most helpful to focus on!  Part of me thought that it would lead to a particularly painful lesson I endured in 2016, if I could master that it would be the key to lasting happiness in 2017! But my dice had a different tale to tell.

The first figure was Via or Way, I often interpret this as path or road.  I was very pleased to see this figure.  This was going to be an interesting reading.  I cast the chart, and Via reappeared in none other than the House of Children.  The Fifth Astrological House can represent actual growing children, but it also uses the concept of children as a metaphor. Children are strongly motivated by pleasure, so in a geomantic reading, the symbol in the fifth house also represents things that induce pleasure.

So, the key to my growth in 2017?  It was to look at what makes me happy.  I must look at everything that brought me a semblance of joy in 2016 and instead of collecting negativity to loom over me, I needed to draw my positive experiences with me into 2017.  I’m so obsessed with my work with Accidental Talismans and getting rid of things, I had never really taken the time to consider what things are important to keep.  The key to my growth was waiting for me in those treasures of memory rolling around in the back of mind.  I just needed to give them a place of prominence.  I needed them to tell me their stories.

January 2016

In January I was looking for something my son and I could do and I found a Dog Sledding event called Musher Mania.  It was fun and spontaneous.  We got out of the house and participated in an event that fed our connection.  Then, I did some pretty scrapbook pages because I gave myself the time to do this small hobby that brings me joy.

The lesson that I took from this was the celebration of the spontaneous.  There actually wasn’t a lick of snow, we mushed in the mud which probably made it that much more hilarious.  The event planners worked with the weather they were given and it was still a blast.  I learned that you don’t need perfection to have a perfect day.  Just live in the moment.

Capturing the moment was also significant.  The scrapbook pages I made were some of my favorites of the year.  I love scrapbooking.  I love it.  It makes me happy.  If I am to follow a new path, scrapbooking then is important.  It is a mile marker on the road to happiness.

February 2016

Every year in association with Valentine’s Day my son and I visit Medieval Times.  It is a tradition that we both look forward to every year. I love the show and I love the tradition.  I worry so much about being repetitive and boring but tradition is a touchstone so worth keeping.  

March 2016

I am a serious homebody, vacations are often not relaxing for me.  In 2016 I took a huge risk, for the first time I traveled to another country with my child!  We went to Grand Cayman.  My son took me snorkeling and in Devil’s Grotto, we looked down over the edge of the reef and saw two huge sharks enjoying the waters.  I have absolutely no photographic evidence of the event. My son and I were so stunned by these magnificent creatures that we just observed them in frozen awe.  

I learned that I was capable of risk!  I was also pretty proud that I paid for that risk in cold hard cash!  No banks were broken in the making of this moment.  Definitely my financial planning is a skill to be proud of!  

April 2016

I really loved doing the Council Oak Fundraiser as Ruby Ruse.  I loved telling fortunes and found that I was very good at it.  I often give people the option to consider that I might just be reading their body language and reactions more than I am looking into their future; because if what I say is helpful, then it doesn’t really matter where the information comes from.  But how I knew a former accountant was changing careers to be a librarian…that’s a bit difficult to explain away with body language.  You know what? Being a creepy fortune teller in pink sparkles really makes me deliriously happy.

May 2016

In May I finally got the opportunity to work with visual art in three dimensional way.  Joan Forest Mage teamed me up to create an Art Adventure for the Life Force Arts Center with Errol McLendon.  I created the second event, a Creative Drama program called Come Play With Me.  The participants really got into it and I was delighted to dust off my skills in improvisational performance.  I learned that I am indeed a creative individual.  More than anything else, it is my creativity that I feel defines me. And, when I am being creative, I am happy.  

June 2016

I really love fitness. That is a fact.  I was intensely involved in my training and doing research on fitness for a summer presentation.  I was perhaps in the best shape of my life in June of 2016 and that really made me happy.  Scientific research suggests that a fit body releases endorphins in the brain that perpetuates happiness.    

July 2016

Very few people know when my birthday is.  I don’t like to share the information partly because it is on the holiday weekend and my birthday gets swept away under the national fervor.  But the deeper (and darker) reason is my belief that my birth was an accident and that my parents really didn’t want me.  It’s a little difficult to celebrate your birthday if you wonder whether you really were meant to be born.  

However, hopped up on all those fitness endorphins I was hell bound and determined to have a happy birthday.  As I was polling my friends for trip suggestions, one clever soul offered up the City Museum in St. Louis and I was hooked from the mention of seven-story slide. The City Museum was completely awesome yet I loved pretty much everything about that trip!  

The most important thing I learned was that I didn’t always have to worry about what everyone else may or may not be thinking.  I spent my childhood and a great deal of my adult life trying to do what I thought my parents wanted me to do.  I did this hoping to prove to them that I was worth their love, even though I was an accident.  I carried that mentality into my most of my relationships.  I chose activities based on what I thought somebody else might want. This isn’t the fortune telling that makes me happy, this is just crazy making!

This time, in July of 2016, I went somewhere that I wanted to go without worrying about what someone else wanted.  And it not only turned out okay – it was better than okay – it was awesome!

August 2016

For reasons I may write about later (or perhaps never) I was in an exceptionally dark place in August. It was quite possibly the lowest I have ever been yet.  My child brings me joy, but my happiness is not his responsibility.  He knew I was depressed, but there was nothing he could have done and I sure wasn’t going to disclose to him just how bad I really felt.

It was my cat Bing who pulled me out of the dark.  When I picked her up from the groomer she was so darn happy to see me!  And she was just so cute with her hair all shaved off, rolling on her back and telling me to rub her belly.  She loves getting her hair cut.  She just would rather be naked – she’s a weird cat.  She made me laugh and then she licked away my tears with that sandpaper tongue.  She quietly listened to all of my darkness and took in all of it without so much as flick of her tail.

“Silly Amy Alice,” she said. “I love you.  See, you’re worthy of love.  Now rub this naked belly!”  

Bing, a half blind naked cat, taught me that there is unconditional love in this world, I just have to be willing to accept it in whatever package it may come in.

September 2016

September was about just surviving; it was just about putting one foot in front of the other.  As luck would have it, the Summer of 2016 was the summer Pokemon Go became all the rage.  As the season was coming to a close I put one foot in front of the other while capturing Pokemons with my son.    We would walk for hours and talk about all sorts of things.  I don’t think that I will ever forget that.  What a wonderful game.  Sometimes happiness comes in tiny packages – in this case, anime animals on an IPhone.

October 2016

I adore Halloween.  It was hard for me to choose just one highlight; it was a toss-up between the Trick-or-Treat in Oak Park or Fright Fest at Six Flags – both were Halloween themed fun.  I love making Halloween Costumes.  I just love it!  It’s not lost on me that this is another example of a hobby.  It was also the aspect of using a skill.  A part of the joy in those events was the oohs and ahhs my son and I received over our one-of-a-kind costumes.  I also love to see the obvious surge of pride on my son’s face when he informs his fans, “This costume is handmade.”  I love that my son gives me picture and trusts that I will bring it to life.  My sewing skill alone can bring me happiness, but to share that joy with my son makes me that much more deliriously joyful!

November 2016

This makes me feel a little sheepish to admit…but the best thing in November was discovering how much I like the television show Supernatural.  And not just the show, the character of Sam Winchester.  I finally felt like a normal human being because I had a legitimate crush!  Albeit it was on a fictional character who I would consider far too young for me in real life, but I hadn’t had a sweet and innocent crush since William Shatner ruled 1970’s syndication as Captain Kirk, so I’ll just take it for what it is.  

This little crush made me research the actor Jared Padalecki; and I learned that he too suffered from depression.  He had a crisis in the early seasons of the show, probably because he was enjoying so much success and a part of himself was screaming that there was no way that he could possibly deserve it.  I was able to make that assumption because I feel that way so much of the time.  I love too that he used his own creation of Sam Winchester to see himself through.  He reminded himself that Sam always kept fighting, and that became his mantra.  He founded a whole awareness campaign with that as the slogan. Jared Padalecki is a hero to me because he risked stigma and rejection to help others who share the battle with depression.  In him, I found someone to model.  

Isn’t that what the arts are supposed to do?  Give you something to model so that you can find and become the very best version of yourself?  Art shows us the possibilities.  And when it comes to possibilities you want the outlandish, the bigger the better! If we imagine ourselves fighting the very Darkness Herself then perhaps it is then easier to find a flashlight when the circuit in the kitchen blows.  

Watching Supernatural gave me the ability to see possibilities as I shrieked in gleeful terror watching the impossible adventures of the Winchester brothers.  It made me laugh when I needed a break from my sadness. It gave me adventure when I wanted to get away from the monotony of my job.  It made me realize that I had emotions…even the flirty one I wasn’t sure I had.  It gave me hope.  

It would seem that frivolity has its wisdom too.

December 2016

While sweet Sam Winchester was leading me down a new path of hope, the day everything suddenly changed was when I responded to Errol McLendon’s request to share my thoughts about death and what happens after that event.  I wrote to him about my son’s birth, and how it nearly killed me.  I had such a strong, spiritual, and life changing experience.  I found my Goddess and I found my purpose - I found that when I died.  

I sent him a long message detailing my experience and then I went to his show.  It was so very profound that the audience stayed for more than an hour afterwards to talk, and to be with one another.  After that, it was as if the dark cloud that I had carrying over my head burst.  I was free. I was happy again.  I felt more myself than I had for longer than I could remember.  Errol’s show stayed with me and I thought about it that whole week.  Then, I decided to write about the experience again. This time I posted it on my blog. It was one of the most well received posts I had ever written; probably because it was the very best article I had ever written.  It was the best, because it was so true.

I learn so much about myself when I write.  In my blog post about my death, it was during the process of writing that I discovered something so important:  when my body was dead and there was nothing left of me except my own instinct and my own feelings, what I wanted – what I needed more than anything – was to be a mother. I realized that it was really the first time I had expressed a deep desire that came not from someone else’s expectations of me, but truly from my own desire – my own instinct and feelings. Despite the mistakes I had made as a mother and despite the fact that I had been unable to control all the circumstances, ultimately being a mother had brought me the greatest joy I had ever known. It made me wonder what I could accomplish if I trusted my desire more often.  I wondered what I could accomplish if I listened to my own instinct and my feelings instead of giving that power away to someone else.  I wondered this because I wrote.  The dark cloud burst when I told my story.

There were things from 2015 that I stuffed into that dark cloud I carried all through 2016.  My geomancy reading suggests that there is a new path for 2017 through the House of Children.  I must make time for hobbies.  I must celebrate my traditions.  I must take pride in the financial freedom I worked so hard to earn. I must acknowledge my talents.  I must be creativity at every opportunity. I must pump my iron.  I must exercise my independence.  I must love my pets (particularly by rubbing my naked cat’s belly). I must play, just play.  I must utilize my skills.  I must give myself every opportunity to experience possibility, the more impossible the better.  And finally, I must tell my story.  It really doesn’t matter if it isn’t important to someone else, it’s important to me.  I matter – to my son, to my weird cat, to me.

Happy New Year!