January 2007 Archives

Sean Means over at the Trib reports that the American Film Institute is sending out ballots to various film-industry and scholar types so it can update its list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. Hard to believe it's already been ten years since the first list came out... refer to yesterday's post about the future being right around the corner and how did it get here so quickly?

In any event, this repolling is intended to take into consideration the movies made in the ten years since the original AFI list came out. Means included the nominees in his post, which I'll now reprint here, along with this question for the reader: [Do these] movie[s] belong with the classics?

This is amusing: I've been doing some research for a proofreading assignment here at work and I've discovered quite by accident that the phrase "Where the bloody hell are you?" has been trademarked by the Tourism Australia Statutory Authority.

So, I was at The Girlfriend's house the other night, idly flipping through the various cable-TV offerings after she'd gone to bed, when I stumbled upon Back to the Future II. And as I was watching Marty McFly running around trying to change history (again!), it occurred to me that the future depicted in this film -- the year 2015 -- is only eight years away. Eight... years. That's nothing. That's less than the lifespan of an overweight house cat.

There are times when I can't believe I've gotten so damn old, or that it happened so damn fast. Somebody had better be working on inventing me a flying Delorean, dammit.

Via the indomitable Brian Greenberg, here's a bizarre YouTube clip of the Death Star battle from the original Star Wars, re-enacted entirely by hands:

It's time for a silly Internet quiz! Today, the question is, "Which science fiction author am I?" And the answer is:

I am: Arthur C. Clarke Well known for nonfiction science writing and for early promotion of the effort toward space travel, his fiction was often grand and visionary.

I enjoyed a lot of Clarke's work in my younger days, so I'm satisfied with this. The really amusing thing is, I haven't actually attempted to write any science fiction in a good 15 or 20 years. I like to read the stuff, but was never much good at creating it...

Writing a few days ago about old buildings reminded me of something I read recently. It's yet another passage from the book 1939: The Lost World of the Fair:

Now I've always been fascinated with the world my parents grew up in, I mean the actual look & feel of it, because the change between that time and this seems so uncannily large, as if five centuries had passed and not five decades... I have always wanted so badly to feel what that time was like -- because of a strange belief I suppose I was born with -- that if, somehow, I could feel an era before I was born, the scales would fall from my eyes & and I would then be able to feel my own life, grasp what it is really like, the way you can grasp time after the fact, when it is all over...

--author David Gelernter, speaking through a fictional character's diary in 1939

That quote doesn't entirely capture my own reasons for being fascinated by the artifacts of the past -- a big part of the appeal for me is simple aesthetics; I just plain like all that old stuff -- but it does begin to get at the yearning I seem to feel when I'm around those artifacts. I really would like to experience what the world was like for my parents and grandparents, to know not just how things looked, but how they smelled and sounded, how mundane daily tasks were accomplished. I've always enjoyed historical stories, and stories about time travel and immortal characters, and I think that yearning to have first-hand experience of another time might be partly why.

Shifting gears a bit, I'd like to offer a few thoughts on the book I quoted above. I meant to do a proper review when I finished it a few weeks ago, but as with so many of the entries I plan to do for for this silly blog, the time slipped away from me and I never got around to it.

As you may have heard, the Oscar nominations for 2006 were announced this week. I have little to say about them because, to be honest, I've only seen one of the movies that turns up in any of the major categories, Martin Scorsese's The Departed. (For the record, I thought it was a good movie, driven by strong performances from Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, but not an exceptional movie. It's really starting to look like Goodfellas was Scorsese's masterpiece and he'll never again achieve quite that same level of perfection.)

However, I thought maybe I could contribute to award season with a couple honors of my own invention, gleaned from this week's online activities. Here we go:

Best Subject Line on an Unsolicited "Spam" E-Mail: "Mean-spirited Gonad," received 1/25/06.

I wouldn't want to run into one of those in a dark alley, that's for sure!

Best Title on a Blog Entry Written by Someone Else: Bush to Seek Gas Relief.

If you just rolled your eyes, follow that link, pay attention to the photo that accompanies the blog entry, and then tell me that the scatological reading of the title is a coincidence.

That is all. Actually, it's probably too much. But hey it's late and I'm feeling a little punchy...

Since I discovered it a few months back, EnglishRussia.com has become one of my favorite daily 'net habits. While the photos and videos posted there are sometimes banal or even just plain stupid, they are just as often hauntingly beautiful glimpses of an alien world. Today's entry is especially fascinating: a collection of color photographs taken around the year 1910. The photographer, a chap named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, came up with a technique of shooting multiple exposures of the same scene through colored filters. When the monochrome pictures were projected over the top of each other, the color of the scene was reconstructed with startlingly realistic accuracy. Nowadays, his images can be easily recombined with digital imaging, and the results look like stills from Doctor Zhivago. But they're not... they're time capsules of people and places that predate the communist revolution that transformed the old Russian Empire into the USSR. Amazing stuff, well worth your time. I especially like these folks...

According to local film critic Sean Means, there's a new movie coming out in May that uses the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre as a backdrop for a "romantic drama." The MMM, if you don't know, is the historical event that the LDS Church wishes everyone would just forget about. The short version is that in September 1857, a wagon train of settlers bound for the west coast was attacked as it passed through Utah by a group of men variously described as Paiute Indians, Mormons dressed as Indians, or a mixture of both. Most of the settlers, some 120 men, women, and older children, were killed; a handful of younger kids survived, apparently spared by the attackers. The big question that has always swirled at the heart of this incident is, was the attack carried out independently or on orders from the Church? Needless to say, it's a touchy subject in these parts, and has given rise to all kinds of conspiracy theories involving secret Mormon vigilante groups and official cover-ups.

All of which should make for an interesting (not to mention controversial) movie. But the thing that really caught my eye was the casting of Terence Stamp as Brigham Young. Yes, that's right, General Zod himself will be playing Brother Brigham, the most famous leader of the Mormon Church and the founder of Salt Lake City. There's no word on whether Stamp will be crushing hands or shooting laser beams from his eyes, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does. Because, you know, he's Zod. It just won't be right if he doesn't heat-vision something...

(The title of the movie, incidentally, is September Dawn. I've found no official website for it, but its IMDB entry has already garnered one angry comment denouncing it as inaccurate and biased against the Church. There is no indication that the commenter has actually seen the movie in question, but then that's how it usually goes whenever the MMM comes up. As I said, it's a touchy subject.)

Remember a few days ago when I was griping about how cold it's been in Salt Lake? EnglishRussia.com has just reminded me that it could be worse.

Siberia looks beautiful, but count me out of anyplace where it's cold enough to freeze vodka...

Science fiction author Steven Brust has come up with an analogy to categorize different types of reading matter according to their "nutritional" value:

I've mentioned before that I'm fascinated by the life of Howard Hughes, the billionaire aviator, movie producer, Lothario, and eventual recluse and nutcase. There are many chapters in Howard's life story that are worth considering, but one of the most interesting to me personally is the epilogue that comes after his death, the tale of Melvin Dummar and the so-called "Mormon Will."

[Ed. note: this topic is well past its prime -- which was way back around the second week of December, if you're keeping track -- but it's something I still wanted to talk about, so here we are...]

I write fairly often on this blog about the changing face of the Salt Lake Valley, how places and landmarks I've known all my life are disappearing, and how difficult it is for me to see them go. I'm not sure why this so-called "progress" affects me so deeply, but it does. Watching yet another familiar old house or historic commercial building fall, or an alfalfa field get paved over to make way for yet another WalMart-Home-Depot-Chili's-cell-phone-store cluster, fills me with a genuine sense of despair. And it makes me downright angry that the local Utah culture, collectively speaking, pays so much lip service to its heritage by throwing a parade and fireworks every July 24th, but seems so disinterested in preserving any of the tangible aspects of its past, namely the buildings and landscapes of earlier times.

According to a brief article referenced over at SF Signal, the SciFi Channel is planning a new Flash Gordon series. A full 22-episode run (that's a complete season for a weekly series these days) has already been greenlighted.

Although I'm normally opposed to remakes on principle, I find that I'm okay with this one. That's probably because I grew up enjoying multiple (and radically different) versions of the Flash Gordon story, including the campy 1980 feature film that most readers of this blog probably know, the 1930s-vintage serials starring Buster Crabbe, and the comic books published by Gold Key in the late '70s. Like Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, Flash seems to endure in part because he gets dusted off and updated for a new audience every 20 or 30 years. So long as the basic premise of his adventures on the planet Mongo and struggles against the evil Ming the Merciless remain intact, I'm willing to give the latest version a try.

My biggest concern is that SciFi's original productions generally look pretty cheap, and the involvement of Robert Halmi Sr. and his son suggests that this one will, too. Which is a shame. Personally, I'd love to see a Flash Gordon series that's visually faithful to the original comic strips drawn by Alex Raymond, possibly even beginning as a 1930s period piece before the action shifts to Mongo, but I imagine that such a series would cost more than SciFi wants to spend. We'll see, I guess. As I said, I'm willing to try it.

Incidentally, if you've never seen those original Raymond strips, the Checker Book Publishing Group has recently reprinted them in a series of nicely done hardcovers. I suggest you buy them from this guy, who has always provided me with fast delivery and excellent customer service.

And if you don't get the title of this entry, you obviously don't remember the best line of the 1980 Flash movie...

As if getting ripped off the other night wasn't reason enough to be in a bad mood this week, the temperatures around here have plunged right through the floor into the god-forsaken darkness below. It's cold. I mean, really cold. Bone-chilling, record-breaking, taun-taun-killing, frakking cold. It's Minnesota cold. And that just ain't right.

Believe it or not, Salt Lake is usually quite comfortable in the wintertime. Nighttime temps for this time of year are supposed to be in the low 30s, sometimes in the upper 20s. Chilly, but tolerable, so long as you have a decent coat. For the last couple of weeks, however, the highs have been in the teens and low 20s, and once the sun goes down, the mercury drops into the single digits. This is the kind of weather in which people die if they get stuck outside overnight. I spent a few minutes in the driveway last night talking to my dad, and my exposed face ended up feeling sunburned.

I'm not usually one to complain about the weather, but this is just miserable. I find myself watching the evening re-runs of Magnum, PI and Hawaii Five-0 a bit more wistfully these days...

So, I'm mentioned yesterday that things haven't been going so well lately. Here's the reason:

On Sunday night, my car got burglarized as it sat in the parking lot at The Girlfriend's apartment complex.

I know, I know, this makes three video entries in a row. What can I say? I keep finding stuff that amuses me. Just play the clip...

Ah, Defender... I wasted many hours of my life on that one...

I've had a really crappy couple of days, the details of which I intend to blog about shortly. In the meantime, here's the one thing today that's managed to bring much of a smile to my face, a mash-up of classic Star Trek footage with Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit":

If nothing else, this reminded me of how much more expressive acting styles were in the '60s compared to now, how creative and striking the camera work and lighting was on the original Trek, and, most of all, how much drinking and drug usage there was on the old show. Feed your head indeed...

(Hat tip to Chris Roberson...)

Just when I think I've seen every Star Wars-inspired bit of lunacy there is out there in the vast, vast Internet, I run across a barbershop quartet singing the Ewok celebration song from Return of the Jedi...

Man, I must be getting old, because I was genuinely shocked -- shocked, I say! -- during tonight's episode of ER to hear one of our hunky, idealistic young doctors called somebody an asshole. I remember when Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H called someone a bastard -- which is, to my mind, a far less vulgar and offensive term -- and it made headlines. I find myself wondering which expletives still remain on the verboten list for broadcast TV, and how long will it be before that list ceases to exist altogether? And is this a good thing?

I used to think it was cool that TV standards were loosening and that characters were starting to speak more like real people. But now I think this new-found realism comes with a price. You see, these words used to have real power when I was younger, and part of their power was that you only heard them in the movies. You only heard grown-ups use them, and often only under very specific circumstances. Today... well, today profanity just doesn't accomplish much. For example, a certain four-letter word that starts with "f" has become as common in casual conversation as "you know" and "um," and it's just as meaningless. And that bothers me. Not because I'm a prude, but because the word has been drained of its effectiveness. It used to be the ne plus ultra of cussing, the atom bomb of expletives, the one you reserved for extra-special occasions when nothing else was strong enough to make your point. What are we supposed to say now when we've just dropped a sledge hammer on our foot?

I'm telling you, the world has gone to hell. And those kids today... I swear.

Huh... while digging for material about Yvonne DeCarlo, I learned that her Munsters co-star Al Lewis died just under a year ago, on February 3, 2006, at the age of 82. Somehow that little tidbit slipped past my notice. Here is an NPR obit for him.

Another of those familiar faces I grew up with, Yvonne DeCarlo of Munsters fame, died Monday, aged 84. Here is one of the more comprehensive obits for her.

President Bush's strategy for Iraq, 2006: Stay the course.

President Bush's strategy for Iraq, 2007: Stay the course. Only with more troops.

Here's another meme from SF Signal, focusing this time on genre literature. As I pondered my answers, I realized that I'm not nearly as much of an SF junkie as I used to be, or at least as I used to imagine myself to be, because it was downright hard to answer some of these items. However, much of this meme can relate to book habits in general, so it's still worth considering, if you're interested in this sort of thing.

Marketing people being what they are -- which is, um, marketing people -- and YouTube being what it is -- which is incredibly popular and frighteningly efficient at spreading content across the whole of the InterWebs in a very short time -- it was inevitable that the one would try to find a way to take advantage of the other in order to get more advertisements in front of more eyeballs. And thus was born "viral video commercials" i.e., ads that don't look like ads or which have high entertainment value, so people will pass them around to their friends online and thus fulfill that whole marketing imperative involving ads and eyeballs.

Normally, I would find such methods insidious and distasteful -- good lord, isn't the average citizen confronted by enough marketing messages during the day? -- but when one of these viral ads features the great Bruce Campbell (of whom I've sung praises before), well, I guess I have no choice but to bow and do my part for capitalism. Enjoy the following... oh, and pay attention to the painting behind Bruce as he walks. There's a whole lot of sailcloth in that image...

Time for some memeage, courtesy of SF Signal. This one asks you to let the world know which 2007 genre films (i.e., science fiction, fantasy, and horror) you're looking forward to. Instructions and the list after the break...

About every six months for the last decade or so, some well-meaning acquaintance of mine has come rushing up, breathless with the news that there's going to be a fourth Indiana Jones film. My reaction has always been something to the effect of, "I'll believe it when I see the credits roll..."

Well, it looks like I might have to start believing. The news broke across the InterWebs a few days ago that the three men at the creative heart of the Indy franchise -- George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford, for those who haven't been paying attention -- have finally found a script they all like and are ready to proceed. I've heard variants of that one before, though, so I still didn't lend much credence to the story until I read that there's been an official press release issued. According to it, the cameras are scheduled to roll in June of this year with a planned release date in May of '08.

I should be enthused as all get-out for this project. After all, the Indy movies are among my top three all-time favorite entertainment properties (along with Star Wars and Star Trek, if you couldn't guess), and they've all been very important to me at various points in my life. Even Temple of Doom, believe it or not. As I type this, Indy's scruffy viasge is smiling down upon me from a framed Last Crusade one-sheet, and it is not a coincidence that in most of the photos taken of me in England 13 years ago, I'm wearing a fedora. Yes, Indy is one of my Main Men, right up there with Han Solo and Jim Kirk.

But I can't help but think that making another movie about him is a really bad idea.

I just learned that Mike Evans, the first actor to play Archie Bunker's neighbor and occasional antagonist Lionel Jefferson on All in the Family (there were two Lionels, you know), died a couple weeks ago at the age of 57. As with so many others I eulogize around here, it was the damned cancer that got him. What a shame -- 57 isn't very old, and I'm sure he had lots of living left to do.

Just a little PSA for a couple of my loyal readers who I know are fans of the new Battlestar Galactica series: TVSquad.com is reporting that Tricia Helfer -- a.k.a. "Number Six" -- will appear in next month's issue of Playboy, presumably nekkid. Reserve your copy today.

For any fellow space buffs who may be reading my humble ramblings, I've compiled some end-of-year retrospectives that you may find interesting:

If I'd seen this in a movie, I would've said it was too far-fetched to believe: a 50-year-old man saved a 20-year-old stranger's life after the other guy suffered some sort of seizure and fell from a New York subway platform onto the tracks. The older man -- who was with his two young daughters, no less -- dove onto the tracks himself and held the seizure victim down in the small space between the rails as a train roared past only inches above their heads. Neither man was badly injured, although Wesley Autrey, the hero of our story, emerged with a smear of grease on his stocking cap where the underside of the train grazed his head. The man he saved, Cameron Hollopeter, is in the hospital but I'd guess that's as much to determine what happened to him before the train as from any damage the train did.

I've read the article I linked to above three times now, and I just keep shaking my head at the amazing-ness of it. How cool is it that there are people in the world who give enough of a damn (and who are fast-thinking enough) to do something like this for another human being? We all like to think that we'd be the hero ourselves if we found ourselves in a situation that required it, but how many of us would really rise to the occasion? I think I'd probably just stand there like an idiot. This story is both humbling and uplifting...

(Hat tip to Brian Greenberg for letting me know about this...)

You may have already noticed that I've added a new feature to Simple Tricks and Nonsense. If not, take a look at the sidebar there on the right. You'll need to scroll down a ways to see it, past the Quick Links module; it's a "widget" that shows which DVDs The Girlfriend and I currently have on loan from Netflix. (We share the account, so the titles you see appearing there at any given time may reflect my tastes, her tastes, or our tastes. Try to guess which is which; it's the fun new party game that's sweeping the nation!) Kind of fun. Naturally, the three inaugural titles are a bit, well, uninspiring, but they can't all be Wild Strawberries, can they?

I'm looking into a similar widget that will show off random titles from my LibraryThing catalog, and I'm also planning to prune down the Quick Links so you don't have to scroll so far to see the widgets. Eventually, I'd like to change Simple Tricks to a three-column format and divide all the stuff that's currently in the sidebar between two columns, but I haven't had the time (and, to be honest, I haven't yet figured out how) to do that.

In the meantime, enjoy my latest exercise in exhibitionism. Hey, I may not get around to writing reviews anymore, but at least you won't have to wait a whole year to find out how I'm killing my free time!

[UPDATE: As promised, I've cleaned house on the Quick Links. I removed a bunch of blogs and journals that I read via Bloglines, as well as some sites that don't update very often or that have outlived their usefulness. I don't know if anyone other than me ever uses those links, but if I've taken away something you valued, just let me know and I'll put it back.]

And we're back. Here's the other half of my annual media retrospective, focusing this time on my literary pursuits.

We briefly digress from our regularly scheduled end-of-year rambling to offer up the following bits of potentially useful and/or entertaining information:

Morning, everyone. Hope you've all recovered from New Year's Eve by now. I'm getting there, with some help from the kind folks at The Coffee Garden down the street. Anyway, as promised, here is a quick look back at all the books I read and movies I watched during the year just ended. If you care, that is. Personally, I'm always curious to see where my tastes, interests, and whims have led during the past twelve. Sometimes there are interesting patterns to be found, moments when I was obviously obsessing on particular ideas and didn't realize it; other times, it's all an exercise in randomness, and that's frequently interesting, too. At least it is for me. If it is for you as well, read on...

For the convenience of my three loyal readers, I've decided to split this topic across two entries this year. First up: movies!