This Has Been A Good Spring For Science Fiction And Fantasy Films

For the most part...

 

Just when you think there's no new way to spin a cloak and dagger action pic along comes Hanna.  Think Grimms' Fairy Tales meets The Three Days of the Condor.  The interplay between image, motion, sound, and music is unlike anything I've experienced recently, thanks no doubt to The Chemical Brothers.  Roger Ebert explains it better, as usual...  Fable.

The Adjustment Bureau reminds us that Matt Damon really is pretty talented.  Emily Blunt does a very fine turn.  Almost any movie adapted from a Phillip K. Dick story is worth a try; this one delivers.  Fate.

Source Code features Jake Gyllenhaal, a much more human Vera Farmiga than we saw in the unsatisfactory Up In The Air, and a totally dreamy Michelle Monaghan.  It started out far fetched, got a little weirder, then became engaging and emotionally true.  Second chances.

Okay, so Sucker Punch was as emotionally bereft as it was visually striking, but it's visual strikingness was pretty damn striking.  Image over substance.

Just kidding!  Battle: Los Angeles was not so good, but it made Roger Ebert's hilarious review possible.  Action-packed action, with an extra helping of action.

Spring Suffers A Setback

Our patio the morning of 16 April 2011...

Spring was here, summer was just around the corner, I swear it.  It's like some Twilight Zone version of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, except I'm not Peter and I don't want it to snow.

Did Someone Let The Magic Out Of Their Rubber Bracelets?

The Power Balance woo-meisters are chastened and unrepentant...

Seems there are folks willing to call them on their BS, first in Australia, now here in the States.  Reality marches on.  I wonder how long the profits will continue to roll in.

POWER BALANCE RESOLVES ADVERTISING DISPUTE

Agreement Provides for Full Refunds

LAGUNA NIGUEL, (March 28, 2011) — Power Balance LLC (“Power Balance”) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to resolve a recent advertising-related class action lawsuit, Batungbacal v. Power Balance LLC et al., which was filed in a federal district court in California on January 4, 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Power Balance will provide full refunds, plus an amount for shipping and handling, to dissatisfied customers who join the class. Power Balance will also make select changes to product claims and the ways in which it advertises and markets its products in order to better define the scope of its marketing claims. The agreement makes clear that there is no acknowledgement, admission, liability, wrongdoing, noncompliance or violation on the part of Power Balance. Importantly, Power Balance expects a series of related lawsuits to be resolved as a result of this settlement.

“We are pleased to resolve these matters, which will enable Power Balance to get back to the business of building a brand and further developing our Performance Technology™,” said Nina Freeland-Ringel, general counsel for Power Balance. “As with many early technologies, especially one involving Eastern origins, we recognize the potential for confusion in the marketplace, and concede we got ahead of ourselves with claims about our first product. While we have yet to fully document its benefits, we are wholly committed to the continued development of Power Balance products in association with athletes around the world."

Power Balance and counsel for the plaintiff in Batungbacal on Friday filed papers requesting the Court’s preliminary approval of the settlement. This case and related lawsuits stem from a similar matter involving Power Balance’s Australian distributor and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which was resolved in December 2010.

Dr. Steve Novella, M.D., has a very nice write-up at Neurologica.  If you still need a magic rubber bracelet be sure to buy an accurately labeled Placebo Band from SkepticBros.

A Guest Writer at the Eclectic Breakfast

My mother has been working on her memoir...

Mayville, North Dakota, 1956.  The good old days...

This challenging chapter of her life story was published and distributed with the Sunday announcements at St. Richard's Parish this last Sunday (April 10, 2011).

My Personal Journey to Becoming a Catholic
by Kay Solberg Brady

I was born in eastern North Dakota in a very close-knit Norwegian Lutheran family. They have worshiped at Norway Lutheran Church for at least four, possibly five generations. We lived on a farm nine miles east of Mayville, ND, with two older brothers and one who was younger, but no sisters. While growing up I had a cousin and classmate who were Catholic. I was always fascinated by the way they lived their lives and by the way they worshiped.

I met my best friend who now has been my husband of 54 years when I was 19. He happened to be a college friend of my oldest brother. Larry was Catholic so about four months before our wedding I began religious instruction from the local priest, Father Hannaher to determine if I wanted to become a member of the Catholic Church. After six weeks of one-on-one instruction from that wonderful priest, I decided to become a Catholic.

Coming from a Lutheran family and joining the Catholic Church in the 1950’s in North Dakota became a very big issue. The fact that there were Catholics in my extended family didn’t seem to make any difference. My mother was the most upset. My dad had to support my mom. My grandmother Anderson, my mom’s mother who was 80 at the time was a great support to me. Everyone really liked Larry and believed we would have a good future.

We continued to plan our wedding day, with some major changes. I was baptized a second time a month before our wedding with a good friend serving as my godmother. (I continue to have a close relationship with her.) The events became very upsetting for my mom during those final planning days. Larry and I decided to go our separate ways just two weeks before our wedding day. That only lasted a few hours as my brother went to the college to get Larry in the middle of the night, and then came for me. He was such a great help to both of us.

As we got closer to the wedding, feelings within the family didn’t change. After hours of talk and prayer, Larry and I decided that we wanted to be married and we continued with our plans. The evening before our wedding my dad called to say, “I’m sorry Kay but you are no longer a part of our family!” I went to be with my godmother, Rosemary. We cried and I was so upset that she had me stay with her through the night as we prayed the rosary and talked. What a comfort she was!

The next day she helped me get ready for my wedding in St. Rose of Lima Church in Hillsboro, ND at 9:00 a. m. on December 28, 1956. The number of friends and family invited had been reduced because of the feelings. My older brother gave me away. Father Hannaher said he had never seen such a happy bride coming down the isle.

My parents and two of my brothers did not attend our wedding, but two weeks later we were invited to the farm for Sunday dinner. The worst was over! There have been good feelings in my family ever since the emotional start. Both Larry and I understood my parent’s disappointment, and really enjoyed the many years we had with them throughout our married life.

I have never regretted joining the Catholic Church. My best times are when I’m in Church for Mass or helping people in any way in can.

Ed. Note

Kay and Larry have been members of St. Richard’s since 1963. Kay serves as a greeter, Loaves and Fishes server coordinator, Prayer Shawl Ministry, Parish Festival, and both Spring and Fall Rummage Sales. Kay adds that St. Richard’s has been a home away from home for many years. She wishes to give credit for her involvement in activities at St. Richard’s to Dorothy Becker. What a wonderful friend and worker she was!

Anyone Here Old Enough To Remember Jonny Quest?

The real one, from 1964...

My brother Steve and I used to watch it every chance we got.  As far as I remember Jonny Quest was just about the only kids cartoon featuring gun battles, aerial dog fights, and explosions in which bad guys, and even a few good guys, were actually killed.  I don't remember if Jonny or Hadji ever did anyone in, but Dr. Quest and the family's bodyguard, Race Bannon, certainly did.  I would have guessed there were more than just 26 episodes and that it ran more than just one season.

Technically JQ was a science fiction adventure program, given that its stories depended on technologies that were not realized at the time (or since).  There were laser weapons, a flying saucer (which delivered a really cool robot spider spy), hydrofoils, undersea crawlers, private supersonic jet transports, hovercraft, fighter jets that looked remarkably like the modern F-16, personal computers, and jetpacks.  Ooh, jetpacks...  There were some monsters too - mummies, pterodactyls, giant lizards, mutant crabs, sea monsters, and energy creatures.  The bad guys were either agents of unnamed hostile governments, mercenaries, or Dr. Quest's old friends who had become mad scientists.  Ah, the 60s...good times.

I must admit I'd forgotten how annoying Jonny's clever bulldog Bandit was, but he's not as grating as Scooby-Doo, Garfield, or Jar Jar Binks.  Oh yeah, there was an inferior version of JQ in the 1980s.  Those are not the shows we're talking about here.  These days you can enjoy this blast from the past by logging on to NetFlix and ordering home delivery for the four disk series.  Ah, the good old days!