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Holy Shit!!!! The House Is Shaking
This morning as a laid peacefully in my bed, sound asleep, I was suddenly awoken to find that my house was shaking. First I though, my wife must have jumped out of bed and ran though the house. Then I realized she was still in bad and the house was moving, I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Turns out it was an earthquake. I live in St. Louis, not California. We are supposed to be concerned with tornadoes, floods and meth labs, not earthquakes.
The earthquake that rumbled through the Midwest early this morning registered at 5.2 on the Richter scale. That may not seem that bad to some of you that live in California, but here in the Midwest that’s pretty strong.
So, needless to say the earthquake has been the topic of conversation everywhere I’ve been today. The news channels have talked about it all day and it was the big topic with neighbors, friends and family even people I never met before. All of this talk got me thinking about all of the ways the earthquakes have impacted the entertainment world. The eathquake is allways featured in natual disaster movies, but here are the most memorable ones.
The first one that always comes to mind for me is the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. This was the first earthquake to ever be televised on national television. It, of course took place during game 3 of the Oakland A’s/San Francisco Giants World Series that year (God knew the A’s were cheating and he was trying to stop them from winning). The quake being on National T.V. allowed people to immediately know what was happening/or coming there way and may have saved thousands of lives. Here is a video taken moments after the quake hit.
Then there is the blockbuster 1979 film Earthquake. The movie was stacked full of stars and became one of the biggest hits of the year. It capitalized on peoples natural fears of a earth shaking catastrophe. The movie showed people what a major quake could do and even though the special effects look bad now, they were effected at the time. The quake destroyed Los Angeles and showed the fear of people just trying to survive, something that everybody can relate to.
The most recent use of earthquakes in a movie (at least that I can think of at the moment) is the earthquake destruction of Metropolis in the film Superman Returns. This is also one of the worst earthquakes ever on film and maybe why it is so memorable to me.
Movies are not the only forms of entertainment to pay homage to earthquakes. Carole King had a pretty big hit with the song I Feel The Earth Move. Where do you think she got that idea?
Then there is wrestling. Who could forget the Earthquake. I remember the shocking morning, as a child when Earthquake squashed Jake The Snake’s snake Damien. What a terrible thing this was.
Anyway it was kind of cool living through my first real earthquake, but I think I’ll pass on any future opportunities to experience another.
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9 Responses to “Holy Shit!!!! The House Is Shaking”
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I’ve been through a few when I lived in California. They are truly not fun at the time.
But I love EARTHQUAKE and how silly and catastrophic it is. My favorite bit comes when a guy goes running into a house to shut off the gas - WHILE SMOKING A CIGARETTE, with predictable results. Hilarious.
GRAND CANYON has an earthquake. LA STORY has an earthquake. I think maybe SHORT CUTS has an earthquake.
That 89 quake was a doozy. I was living in San Jose then. I will never forget it.
The 04 tsunami was caused by an earthquake.
@ Burbanked - Yeah there are some great moments in Earthquake. Dumb, but still great. I also like the earthquake scene in Ghostbusters. Nothing like a big-ass marshmallow causing an earthquake to destroy the city.
Oh, and don’t forget about the Tremor’s movies.
Who’s “Tremor?” Is he a wrestler or something??
“I found the ass end!”
Tremors not Tremor’s LOL. You know the movie with the dad from Family Ties.
“Air filtration. Water filtration. Geiger counter. Goddamn underground monsters.”
My family loves Tremors.
LOL, Megan your family is messed up.
And yours isn’t?