A few observations on the John the Balladeer anthology.

The shorts follow a general structure. John wanders the hills & valleys of Appalachia searching for songs and the stories behind them, invariably discovering weirdness. Its kind of like how songs have a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, but within that framework there's a lot of variation.

Sometimes John kills a monster, sometimes he just bears witness to strange powers exacting justice. Sometimes he encounters evil counterparts.

It is time for The 13th Warrior (1999)

It is time for Bro cinema. *Record scratch*

"Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got in this mess"

In a fairytale, a young woman is brought to a mysterious nobleman's castle to be his bride. But he has to leave for a whole and gives her the keys that will open every room in the estate.

On the condition that she not open one specific door.

That is forbidden. Curiosity eventually gets the better of the young woman and she eventually opens the door to the forbidden room, wondering what kind of treasure he could be hiding.

We've got time for one last #Ninjanuary movie.

So let's go out on a high note.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) We open on some very nice B Roll of NYC (the movie itself was mostly shot in North Carolina) with some exposition from lovely TV Reporter April O'Neil covering an organized crime spree.

You voted and tonight we get esoteric with David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986)

Starring Kyle MacLachlan from "The Flintstones" and "Showgirls" and Dennis Hopper, who you will recognize from such classics as "Waterworld" and "Super Mario Bros" And seeing as the mystery is a huge part of film noir and (in this case) neo noir, it'll be a more disjointed review, focusing on themes and symbols rather than plot.

Since the discovery of the mystery is half the fun of a good noir.