Category Archives: Movies

LQCs: Bad Map Projections; Worldle; Banned Books

Posted on 4 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve commented a few times about map projections, and how projections of the entire globe are invariably misleading in one way or another, because there’s no accurate way to map a spherical surface onto a flat map. Inevitably there are … Continue reading →

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Movie Notes: Belfast; Licorice Pizza

Posted on 7 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Having given up on visiting movie theaters any time in the near future, we’ve been catching up on Oscar Best Picture nominees in the past couple weeks via Amazon Prime, at $19.99 a movie. Weekend before last, Belfast; yesterday, Licorice … Continue reading →

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Links & Comments: Narrative Shortcuts, Fantasy Worlds, Arabic Numerals

Posted on 30 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Sunny but chilly today; we’ve had rain for much of the past two weeks, and now we’re in for a week or so of sun. We did a 34-minute walk, though Robinson Drive and around on  Skyline and back to … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs: Theocrats, School Boards, Libraries, Shocked Parents; The Sound of Music

Posted on 20 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

How shocked parents are fighting back against school boards and public libraries; how other parents respond; how and when abortion became so important to the Christian right; and about the usual Republican gerrymandering. With an endpiece about The Sound of … Continue reading →

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Link and Comments: From McCarthyism to the Assault on the Capitol, via 1951 SF movies

Posted on 27 February 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate: What UFOs and Joe McCarthy Have to Do With the Assault on the Capitol. Who knew?

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Favorite Film: Magnolia

Posted on 11 August 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Sunday night we caught, on one of the cable channels, the 1999 film by Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia (all but the first few minutes; we caught up on those the next night, since I have the DVD). It’s one of … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Destination Moon

Posted on 8 August 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This 1951 film was the first prestigious science fiction film, its script inspired or perhaps partially written, by Robert A. Heinlein. The credits say “from a novel by” Heinlein but that’s not accurate. Heinlein had written a juvenile novel about … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Rocketship X-M

Posted on 23 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Now the fun starts. Having dutifully watched the precursors of science fiction films in the mostly horror films of the 1930s and ‘40s (with just two SF films from before 1950, Metropolis from 1927 and Things to Come from 1936), … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Things to Come

Posted on 17 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is an ambitious film from 1936, based on a treatment by H.G. Wells depicting future history from 1950 to 2036. Again, Wikipedia has a fairly detailed plot at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come. I’ve read that for decades after, Things to Come was … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Son of Frankenstein

Posted on 15 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This third Frankenstein film, Son of Frankenstein, from 1939 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Frankenstein), again features Boris Karloff as the monster. I saw this film decades ago, likely in the 1990s when there was a fine, independent video rental store around the corner from … Continue reading →

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