Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly

Links and Comments: Trump vs California; Rural America vs the big cities

Posted on 19 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s another. Paul Krugman, Sept. 20th: Trump Declares War on California. Subtitled: “It’s a liberal state, so it must be punished.” I’m on a number of right-wing mailing lists, and I try to at least skim what they’re going on … Continue reading →

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Status mid-October 2019

Posted on 17 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been light posting here for months now. Here’s the arc of where I’ve been this year, and where I’m going. It’s now just about 7 years since I was laid off from my 30-year career at Rocketdyne. It’s nearly … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Fear and Playing Dirty

Posted on 17 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items from about a month ago, both from The New York Times. Why Republicans Play Dirty. Subtitled: “They fear that if they stick to the rules, they will lose everything. Their behavior is a threat to democratic stability.” The … Continue reading →

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Horror Flix: The Mummy

Posted on 7 October 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

The Mummy was released in 1932, though the copyright, curiously, is 1933, right there in the credits, in roman numerals. It was released in December 1932, according to Wikipedia, just over a year after Frankenstein’s release in November 1931. Familiar … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Bride of Frankenstein

Posted on 28 September 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

So Dracula begat Frankenstein, and Frankenstein begat Bride of Frankenstein (no ‘the’ in the title, note). Though actually it took nearly 3 ½ years, and there were intermediaries: Boris Karloff did The Mummy next after Frankenstein, and James Whale next … Continue reading →

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Monster Flix: Dracula

Posted on 28 September 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Having realized that Dracula actually preceded Frankenstein – both from Universal Studios, and together the founding pair of the entire genre of horror films in the 1930s and ‘40s, even though Frankenstein might be taken as science fiction, not horror … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Metropolis

Posted on 26 September 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

I mentioned this on Facebook a couple weeks ago: I finally watched, all the way through, Metropolis. Tonight I watched the 1927 silent film Metropolis, for the first time all the way through. (I watched the first 45 minutes or … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Frankenstein

Posted on 25 September 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Have been busy the past few weeks with 1) family visits and 2) work on sfadb – the end is in sight. Very little reading in the past two months. But I have taken the occasional couple hours to watch … Continue reading →

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The Invaders — In Color!

Posted on 10 September 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

The past few evenings I’ve watched and rewatched several episodes of the mid-1960s TV series The Invaders. The show began in January 1967 – a mid-season replacement for some other show, presumably, in the same season as Star Trek’s first … Continue reading →

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Asimov, I, ROBOT

Posted on 16 August 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

(The photo shows a 1969-era Science Fiction Book Club edition of a Doubleday hardcover, with the jacket copy claiming the book is “Long out of print and in great demand”; a 1984 mass market paperback from Del Rey; and the … Continue reading →

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