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...and all of Mike Olbinski's marvelous short films.
Monsoon III is very much like what living in Arizona during the monsoon season is like, only faster.
As a bonus Kerry Muzzey's music accompanies and compliments the visuals.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Monsoon III
Watch this...
...and all of Mike Olbinski's marvelous short films.
Monsoon III is very much like what living in Arizona during the monsoon season is like, only faster.
As a bonus Kerry Muzzey's music accompanies and compliments the visuals.
...and all of Mike Olbinski's marvelous short films.
Monsoon III is very much like what living in Arizona during the monsoon season is like, only faster.
As a bonus Kerry Muzzey's music accompanies and compliments the visuals.
Friday, November 11, 2016
Best Movie Of The Year
If you like your science fiction evocative, Arrival will deliver...
There have been (or will be) perhaps a dozen good movies in 2016, and Last Days in the Desert was excellent, but Arrival may be the only great film I've seen this year.
This compelling story of first contact, based on the Nebula Award winning novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, runs with the likes of 2013's Upstream Color, 2014's Interstellar and 2015's Ex Machina.
A team is urgently assembled to make first contact with whoever or whatever has arrived in the alien craft now hovering over a remote valley in Montana, as are eleven others at different locations around the planet. On the American team is Amy Adams, a renowned linguist whose passion for communication is tempered by personal loss. Jeremy Renner plays an amiable astrophysicist who chooses to follow her lead. Forest Whitaker's performance as a dour Army officer was so rigidly subdued I didn't recognize him at first.
I can't say a word more without giving away too much. You deserve to experience this lushly beautiful, deeply thoughtful, and rigorously imaginative film the way director Denis Villeneuve intended, without preconception.
I'll be seeing it again, at least once. See it cold, then let's talk.
PS, The final theatrical trailer even gives to much away. The first trailer does not.
UPDATE 11/11/16: Saw it again today. Even better the second time. I'm ordering the anthology in which the source material was first published in 1998.
UPDATE 11/18/16: Chiang's "Story of Your Life" was innovative and well-written, but it turns out the screenplay by Eric Heisserer improves upon it in many significant ways.
UPDATE: 11/22/16: Watched it again last night. Third time is the charm. What a marvelously well-crafted film.
This compelling story of first contact, based on the Nebula Award winning novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, runs with the likes of 2013's Upstream Color, 2014's Interstellar and 2015's Ex Machina.
A team is urgently assembled to make first contact with whoever or whatever has arrived in the alien craft now hovering over a remote valley in Montana, as are eleven others at different locations around the planet. On the American team is Amy Adams, a renowned linguist whose passion for communication is tempered by personal loss. Jeremy Renner plays an amiable astrophysicist who chooses to follow her lead. Forest Whitaker's performance as a dour Army officer was so rigidly subdued I didn't recognize him at first.
I can't say a word more without giving away too much. You deserve to experience this lushly beautiful, deeply thoughtful, and rigorously imaginative film the way director Denis Villeneuve intended, without preconception.
I'll be seeing it again, at least once. See it cold, then let's talk.
PS, The final theatrical trailer even gives to much away. The first trailer does not.
UPDATE 11/11/16: Saw it again today. Even better the second time. I'm ordering the anthology in which the source material was first published in 1998.
UPDATE 11/18/16: Chiang's "Story of Your Life" was innovative and well-written, but it turns out the screenplay by Eric Heisserer improves upon it in many significant ways.
UPDATE: 11/22/16: Watched it again last night. Third time is the charm. What a marvelously well-crafted film.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Books Upon Books
Heaven protect me from used book stores and National Park gift shops...
Went away on a very nice four day weekend, visiting Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. More on that later.
Of course I found books at the gift shops of said national parks and a used book store in Springdale, Utah, as well. Purchasing ensued.
Hiking the Southwest's Geology: Four Corners Region
Bryce National Park: Impressions
Zion National Park: Impressions
Arrowheads & Projectile Points: Identification & Values
Themes in Southwest Prehistory
Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins
It was a fine long weekend.
Went away on a very nice four day weekend, visiting Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. More on that later.
Of course I found books at the gift shops of said national parks and a used book store in Springdale, Utah, as well. Purchasing ensued.
Hiking the Southwest's Geology: Four Corners Region
Bryce National Park: Impressions
Zion National Park: Impressions
Arrowheads & Projectile Points: Identification & Values
Themes in Southwest Prehistory
Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins
It was a fine long weekend.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Maybe God Is A Bad Boss
I suppose it's possible we're not getting the whole story...
No sooner was the celestial kingdom established but a third of the heavenly host rebelled and were cast down from heaven. Then God created a physical world and humankind. But no sooner than it took for Adam to name all the critters and hook up with the only girl in town and - BAM - they give in to temptations and find themselves cast out of paradise. Maybe God is a bad boss? So, if there's free will in heaven what's to keep another third of the angels, or the souls of humankind, from rebelling again? The Book of Job (arguably the oldest book in the bible) gives other clues. What's the big deal about wrestling with behemoth and leviathan? You spoke them both into existence with a word and You can unmake them with a wink. Maybe the various Abrahamics have been snookered. Maybe the Zoroastrians have the straight scoop. Maybe it really is nasty barroom brawl on earth at it is in heaven, winner take all...and no clear winner in sight.
Yeah, some days Unbelievable gets me going...
No sooner was the celestial kingdom established but a third of the heavenly host rebelled and were cast down from heaven. Then God created a physical world and humankind. But no sooner than it took for Adam to name all the critters and hook up with the only girl in town and - BAM - they give in to temptations and find themselves cast out of paradise. Maybe God is a bad boss? So, if there's free will in heaven what's to keep another third of the angels, or the souls of humankind, from rebelling again? The Book of Job (arguably the oldest book in the bible) gives other clues. What's the big deal about wrestling with behemoth and leviathan? You spoke them both into existence with a word and You can unmake them with a wink. Maybe the various Abrahamics have been snookered. Maybe the Zoroastrians have the straight scoop. Maybe it really is nasty barroom brawl on earth at it is in heaven, winner take all...and no clear winner in sight.
Yeah, some days Unbelievable gets me going...
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
More Books Than I'll Have Time To Read
There are worse problems I suppose...
So, there I was driving through downtown Prescott on my way home after working 20 hours of the last 24, none of them for good reasons. Suddenly I remembered I needed a patch kit for my Thermarest mattress in anticipation of my trip to Colorado to visit son Erik! Granite Mountain Outfitters was closed but, hey, there's The Book Nook! In I went because, well, I've been looking for a copy of The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality, by André Comte-Sponville (seriously, I really have). No joy searching for that slim book in the just barely shoulder width stacks. But look, here were four other volumes begging to be taken home!
The Art of Living, by Epictetus (because Massimo Pigliucci said so)
The Phenomenon of Man, by Teilhard de Chardin (because I read it in my undergrad years, but haven't seen my copy since)
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse (because Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse)
The Courage to Be, by Paul Tillich (because I like Tillich)
Being about a dozen steps from Rosa's, it seemed only sensible to step in for an antipasto salad and a tall beer. I walked past the tattoo parlor (focus!). After my late lunch I walked to the courthouse square on the chance The Hike Shack was open. It was. Remember that patch kit? It cost $10.00. The Thermarest Slacker Hammock and its tree-friendly suspension kit ran me another $110.00.
There, just like I planned it...
So, there I was driving through downtown Prescott on my way home after working 20 hours of the last 24, none of them for good reasons. Suddenly I remembered I needed a patch kit for my Thermarest mattress in anticipation of my trip to Colorado to visit son Erik! Granite Mountain Outfitters was closed but, hey, there's The Book Nook! In I went because, well, I've been looking for a copy of The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality, by André Comte-Sponville (seriously, I really have). No joy searching for that slim book in the just barely shoulder width stacks. But look, here were four other volumes begging to be taken home!
The Art of Living, by Epictetus (because Massimo Pigliucci said so)
The Phenomenon of Man, by Teilhard de Chardin (because I read it in my undergrad years, but haven't seen my copy since)
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse (because Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse)
The Courage to Be, by Paul Tillich (because I like Tillich)
Being about a dozen steps from Rosa's, it seemed only sensible to step in for an antipasto salad and a tall beer. I walked past the tattoo parlor (focus!). After my late lunch I walked to the courthouse square on the chance The Hike Shack was open. It was. Remember that patch kit? It cost $10.00. The Thermarest Slacker Hammock and its tree-friendly suspension kit ran me another $110.00.
There, just like I planned it...
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