Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Rocks on the brain
‘Kay, everyone, Kris Starr has a contest, and it’s easy. (But Kris, you really expect me to believe that guy on the cover is a doctor? He looks younger than Doogie Howser at his youngest! And he doesn’t look like he’s had all the joy stomped out of him by med school and training. He . . . he looks like a pre-med. *Shiver.*) Michelle has a book giveaway, too!
I woke up this morning thinking about the Vasquez Rocks. You all know the Vasquez Rocks, unless you’ve spent the last 40 years or more never watching television, never going to any movies. You may not think you know the Vasquez Rocks, but you do.
Vasquez Rocks are an absolute trip for people like me and my son who love to rockclimb but don’t know a thing about it. And who don’t have proper shoes, not to mention proper equipment. Thanks to the formation of the rocks — a formation which makes them recognizable to damn near everyone — newbies like my son and me can climb to great heights with little risk of broken bones. And it’s always cool to be climbing a little bit of Hollywood history.
Here’s a short list of the Vasquez Rocks’ guest appearances:
Star Trek: The Original Series. Three episodes
Blazing Saddles
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Apache (1954)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Outer LimitsAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Army of Darkness (1993)
Dracula (1931)
Give up? Pic below the cut.
And if that’s not enough to jog your memory, here’s a link to more photos, along with a colorful history of the park. Here’s a snip from that moviesites.org page:
In 1871, Tiburcio Vasquez, the so-called Scourge of California, began using the craggy rocks as a hideout. Vasquez was born Jose Jesus Lopez on August 11, 1835 in Monterey, Alta California. His first brush with the law came in 1854, when he and a friend, Anastacio Garcia, while engaged in a saloon brawl, a local constable, William Hardmount, was murdered. With the law in pursuit, Jose Lopez fled and changed his name to Tiburcio Vasquez, embarking into a life as a bandit. He joined a gang of desperados, and in time became leader of his own group which ranged up and down central and southern California.
Read the rest; it’s quite a story. Great fodder for a movie script . . . and for once, a director could use the Vasquez Rocks for exterior shots and it would be historically accurate.
Somewhere in this house, I have photos of Jake and me climbing the Vasquez Rocks. If I ever find ’em, I’ll post ’em.
D.
Aren’t they in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, too?
Yup, and lots more, too.
Thanks for the linky luuuuuurve, Doug!
And hey, I didn’t pick the cover models. Unfortunately, I have no say in the matter. I can tell them who I modeled the characters after (in Nicholas Federov’s case it’s Cillian Murphy), but that’s no guarantee.
By the way, your odds are still pretty good. Not as great as before, but positive nonetheless. 🙂