I must admit that I really enjoyed this clip. I was also surprised by how many of the film I had seen.
H/T Andrew Sulllivan
A video for real movie fans
Author Archives: Bob Evans
No Post tonight
Sorry my friends I have a terrible near migraine headache so I will not be pontificating on anything at all tonight.
See you tomorrow.
Night Time Visit to the Zoo
So tonight my sweetie-wife and I went to the World Famous San Diego zoo for a night time bird show. We walked around the zoo for about thirty minutes before show time looking at other animals then went to the show.
One of the more amusing sights before the show was a mountain lion. It was just at dusk and the cats were active. Pacing back and forth in their enclosure. a small scrum of people were up close to the fencing only a couple of feet away from the lions including a couple of families. The lion at one point spotted a baby, maybe a year old at most and the lion froze, its gaze intent on the child. Oh every knew exactly what was in that predator’s little mind.
If this mesh wasn’t here you’d be mine!
The show was fun. To raise money that had a trained African Raven that would accept bills from people and stuff it into the big collection box the conservation charity. I tried desperately to get a photo of the raven with a wad of bills in its beak, but I failed.
Damn it.
Sunday Night Movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
For those who are new to my blog on Sunday nights after my sweetie-wife has retired for the evening I pop in a DVD or Blu-ray and watch a movie. As often as not with a big bowl of pocorn and with all the lights out. It’s the chance during the week for me to watch a film at home the way I prefer to. In a dark room and with a few stops as possible. (Usually none.) Lately I have made it a regular feature on my blog to talk about the films as I watch them.
The week’s movie was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (1962) Continue reading
Thoughts on today’s historical significance.
July 20, 1944.
Today a conspiracy of plotters sought to assassinate Adolph Hitler and overthrow the NAZI dictatorship with a coup. The coup was generated from with Hitler’s own military and nearly succeeded. It is only by chance and a string of unlikely events that Hitler survived this attempt. (I understand there were something like 15 different attempts on Hitler’s life. He had the devils own luck in avoiding these attempts.)
A film which does a very good job of being both entertainment and capturing the events — with some alterations one should always be wary of film as history — is last year’s Valkyrie . This film is tense and dramatic with a top notch cast that give a power performance.
July 20, 1969.
Mankind landed on the moon. Forty years have passed and age has dulled my memory but I do remember lying on a narrow bed (I was nine) with a father in a trailer on one of his worksites and watching the astronauts descend to the lunar surface.
I have always been a space bug. As a child I drew Gemini and Apollo and Mercury capsules. I was six and I would watch and try to understand Star Trek. (I remember asking my sister how the Enterprise could launch, thinking at the time that everything had to go straight up from the ground like an Atlas. She explained how ships may be built in orbit and my horizons were expanded a bit. (At least until JJ Abrams got his hand on the future.)
I loved the space program and I still believe that man’s destiny lies off-planet. It may not be America’s destiny but it is mans.
Gun Rights in America
As I have mentioned in others post a reader of this blog should not confuse my attacks and problems withe the Republican Party as an indication that I am of a liberal political persuasion. To paraphrase SF author John Scalzi; I believe that same-sex couples have the right to marry and get automatic weapons as wedding gifts.
I am very concerned about gun right in this country. I am a support the contention that the second amendment is an individual right. (Come on people, all those other amendments – excepting the 10th are individual rights, it;s silly and asinine not to read the second the same way.)
While I myself do not own a collection of firearms I can understand the viewpoint of people who do. (Just as I do not have to be gay to support marriage- equality.)
Continue reading
For our God is an Ironic God
This was taken from a Yahoo news article about stars and their unusual phobias.
Sarah Michelle Gellar: Afraid of Graveyards
Oh, the irony. Sarah Michelle Gellar, the star of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has a fear of graveyards and admits that she’s had nightmares of being buried alive. Lucky for her, the set-dressing wizards on “Buffy” were able to create phony grave sites so that Gellar never had to shoot in a real cemetery.
I know people who do have a phobia of graveyards and who get creeped out just passing near or through one. (One of our trolley lines in San Diego passes through a graveyard.)
Me? I’ve l always liked graveyard ever since I was a teenager.I spent the summer of ’77 with my sister in the mountains and I used to climb up the hills into this tiny almost forgotten graveyard. I’d sit and read there. It was quite peaceful.
Going Electronic
I’ve decided I really want to go electronic for my pleasure reading. There are a number of reasons why I think eBooks are the way to go for me. Firstly I like the idea of less clutter and few physical objects to keep track of. I also know it will make magazine subscription much better for me. I like having magazines to read but I dislike throwing them out when they start to pile up as much as I dislike having them pile up to begin with. The obvious answer is to get these magazine as eBooks and keep them stored on a disc where I can access them if I like but where they won’t start taking over the condo. Continue reading
Power-Sats may yet be a reality
Here’s an article on a company that is looking at doing orbital solar power satellites for earth base powers.
Will The Star Align For Space-base Solar Power?
A h/t to Instapundit for the link. (Not that he needs any traffic help.)
Of they can do it I am all for it. We need power solutions like this and more nuclear based power. Of course all this is by the way side if Polywell works out.
A surprise in the mail
So I had just finished climbing the hill from the trolley stop and getting inside when I notice my wife has dropped the mail on the table.
Fine and dandy, it’s got the usual assortment of bills and other doo-dads you expect on a normal mail day. It also had my current issue of Scientific American but there was one other magazine and that was a surprise.
The current issue of Realms of Fantasy. This is surprising because I have not subscribed to this magazine. I read the odd bit of fantasy here and there, primarily Terry Pratchett’s stuff, but not enough to warrant a magazine subscription.
I wonder why those chose me out of the blue to try and tempt into a subscription.
No matter, it’s something new to read.