Has The Republican Party Learned?

I think it is likely that the Republicans will take control of the House this November. The senate is a much steeper hill to climb, but not out of reach. (Personally I think they’ll miss on the Senate, but I withhold final predictions until we are closer and there is more data.)

Regardless of the Senate, I think just from the House we might see some clues to if the republicans truly have becom serious about debt or if that is all just election year smoke and mirrors.

Defunding Obama’s projects and initiatives will be meaningless data. Simple partisianship will compel them that far. What will be telling is if they are willing to cut any program that they are the proponents for and has serious electoral consequences. (Such as Farm Subsidies.)

Color me pessimistic on the odds of this happening. I think that they, the Republicans, have not spent enough time in the wilderness. They’ll attack Democratic spending with vigor, but I think that their own cows will remain most holy and untouched.

I do not think the  ‘Tea Party’ will drive the Republican into serious thought about debt and spending.

I would be happy to be wrong. I think that all empires fade and this could be the twilight of our own. Unless we get serious about bringing our financial house in order, very dire consequences could befall our nation. Ones too painful and terrible to contemplate.

What signs would you read as proof the Republicans were serious about this issue?

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I also hate paint fumes

So, some weeks ago our condo suffered water-damage  after a large spill from the unit above ours. The last of the repairs is being completed on our guest bathroom and the paint fumes are horrid.

Just when the first round of paint fumes has died away and I had stopped getting headaches from them, they’ve gone and painted the trim on the door. No work tonight on ‘Cawdor’ as I am in too much pain for clear thinking.

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An Arthritis day

For some reason my arthritis is acting up today. It made my day job fairly rough and by the end of the day my fingers were smarting quite a bit.

I did manage more editing on Cawdor, but the project is taking longer in the 1.5 draft than I had expected. Still, I am happy with the product and should have a readable version ready before the end of September.

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DVD Review: The Lost Skeleton Returns Again!

A few years ago, before I had met my lovely sweetie-wife, I saw a charming movie at the local Art House theater. The movie was The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. A tongue in cheek send up of bad SF/monster movies of the late 50’s and early 70’s. the film gave us many memorable comedy bits including the famed Amish Terrarium. If you have not seen this movie you need to see it.

Yes, not every scene works as well as it could have. Some scenes drag on too long, but overall I enjoyed the movie.

This week the sequel hit the DVD shelves. It’s rare that I buy a DVD without having seen the movie, but I was willing to take that risk with a Lost Skeleton sequel.

The good news is I felt I got my money’s worth. This was charming and funny. It was clear that the cast enjoyed working with each other again. (those whose characters had died in the first film were playing the twins of those original characters.)

Unlike cheap SF films of the era they actually tried to  shoe-horn in character  growth as part of the comedy and it mostly worked.

What didn’t work was that this film by its very nature could not be as original at the first. Many of the jokes are extensions of gags and jokes used in the first film. Because of that they lose punch and comedy needs punch.

There is nothing in the film as original or as quote worth as the aforementioned ‘Amish Terrarium.’

I can’t wholeheartedly recommend buying this DVD unless it really strike your fancy. Best rent it first.

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Sunday Night Movie: Incubus (1965)

So yesterday my sweetie-wife and I watched a film called Incubus, from 1965.

Now this was a film I had heard about, but one I had never seen. It stars — as you can see from the screen cap — William Shatner just a few years before he began his five– no three — year voyage as Captain James Kirk.

As the title suggests, it is a horror film and a demonically based horror story. (Though much better than Shatner’s other foray into devil worship The Devil’s Rain.)

What made this film so utterly mysterious and difficult to see is two factors.

One, it was thought that all know prints had been lost and or destroyed. The film failed miserably at the box office and this was before there was a home-video market to rescue turkeys like Manic Cop 2.

Second this movie was and is the only film to be entirely in Esperanto a wholly artificial language invented in the late 19th century. Continue reading →

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SF history

Anyone who has been around lit SF for any amount of time is likely aware of the nearly instant debate that can be generated with a single name: Robert A Heinlein.
Depending on who you ask, Heinlein was….
A Communist
A Fascists
A Hippie
An Authoritarian
A Libertarian
The best Sf Writer of all time. (including future tense)
A Hack
A talented creator of female characters.
A sexist.

And he was all these things at the same time. Truly he is the Rorschach test of SF Fandom.
One of his most controversial works was the novel Starship Troopers. He wrote the book as a juvenile, it was rejected, new material was added and ti has not been out of print ever since. This is the book many point to when they call Heinlein a Fascist.

I have stumbled across — thanks to the comments and discussions at TOR SF — an archive of criticisms and defenses of Starship Troopers spanning a time from 1959 when it was being serialized in F&SF through its publication as a novel and ending in 1963.

Wow. The Heinlein flame wars are sort of like the 100 years war. This was a fascinating series of comments and essays to read. It has not moved my thoughts on the matter. (I’m a Heinlein Fan, but I worship no man. Something I think got from reading Heinlein; though — like Ayn rand — fantatical followers are upsetting and close-minded.) The essay comparing Starship Troopers with The Star Dwellers has made me want to find a copy of The Star Dwellers and give it a read.

If you have any interest at all this link is worth your time.

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Sunday Night Movie: The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938)

By way of my Netflix account I got ahold of the Blu-ray for the 1938 production of The Adventures Of Robin hood, starring Errol Flynn as Robin Hood.

There have been a number of Robin hood productions. The character has been in the popular imagination for literally centuries. Which means two things to movie makers.

One, that there is a built-in audience for the stories, and producers love a built-in audience. Producers really hate risk, when it comes to putting money into films they can be very conservative.

And two Robin Hood is in the Public Domain and they don’t have to pay no rights to nobody.

This production of Robin Hood was hardly the first. Douglas Fairbanks had been in a very successful silent version and was considered the definitive screen Robin Hood until this film was realeased. Continue reading →

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Monday Monday

‘Can’t stand that day.’

Seems to be an off Monday all around. I have been having one and off headaches, while my sweetie-wife has been suffering from migraines.

I have managed to edit a chapter and a half tonight. (Typing in the edits is a fairly brainless job, as the hard calls were made when I put the changes down on the manuscript with ink and paper.) I have two new scenes to write for Chapter 7, but they will have wait for my faculties to improve.

As it stands I am about a third of the way through and I haven’t burned the manuscript yet.

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