Monday, March 19, 2012

The Birds

The Brazos Valley Loop of the Prairies and Pineywoods Wildlife Trail - a state-designated system of trails and wildlife sanctuaries in Texas - runs through College Station. During certain times of the year, never before imagined quantities of birds descend upon our quiet town, creeping the hell out of me, Tom, our kids, and probably anyone who has seen or heard of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds".

"The Birds", which I watched only once when I was in high school, is a 1963 horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie was based on the Daphne du Maurier book of the same name, and tells the story of a sudden and unexplained series of widespread and violent bird attacks.  The simple yet engaging plot somehow creates a tremendous level of tension and suspense, and like many Alfred Hitchcock movies, the ending is hauntingly unsettling.

(I had nightmares after watching this movie, which is why I only saw it once.  I also had nightmares after watching two episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock television series.  One episode was about Pandora's Box and had something to do with the box moving mysteriously from owner to owner and when a new owner opened the box the previous owner met an untimely death.  The other episode was about a paralyzed man - who we believed was paralyzed because at some point during the episode he was stabbed in the leg and didn't even flinch - who a woman tried to kill by pushing his wheelchair with him in it into the deep end of a swimming pool...and then he slowly rose from the bottom of the pool, clearly not at all paralyzed, and killed his attempted murderer by electrocuting her in the same pool.  I'm probably going to have nightmares tonight after just typing those brief and very poor episode descriptions.  So anyway, I stay away from Alfred Hitchcock this, that, and the other.)

Here are a couple of promotional photos from the movie:


Creepy, right?  What's even creepier are the photos below...

From The Birds

Of the College Station Birds

From The Birds

Of the College Station Birds

Coincidence?  I think not.  Should you ever not hear from me when you're expecting a call, email, blog post, etc., it will be reasonable to assume that the birds have gotten me.  

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