Just saw this plane fly by, probably headed to Oshkosh.

This photo reminds me of the dining room in the SciFi series ‘Silo’1. If you know, you know. It was taken in the cafe of the main pavilion at the National Arboretum in Canberra. –ooOoo- In other news, my email digest saga continues. I finally got it up and running all tickety-boo, only to have the service temporarily frozen because of the number of sketchy email addresses in my subscriber list. I am probably going to need to manually cull the entire list (around 700). Im guessing…

ok Die Woche hat mit viel Energie begonnen. Am Ende war ich müde. Musik geniessenAm Dienstag ist unser Plattenspieler angekommen! Ich habe Kid Cudis Album „Free” oft gehört, denn es war unser einziges Album. Am Freitag ist Metronomys „Greatest Hits” im Plattenladen angekommen. Ich geniesse es, im Bett zu liegen und Schallplatten zu hören. Es ist ein tolles Gefühl. HeimwerkerarbeitenUnsere „Entspannungsecke“ ist fast fertig. Wir müssen nur noch ein paar Dinge montieren. Ein kleines Wandregal ist…

When the gods wish to punish us… and if you’re twins, then your run the risk of double trouble. This animated short from Rubika students tells the story of a pair of twins who are rescued by the gods and are gifted a place to live. Twin Island East for one, and Twin Island West for the other. The only problem is that the gods (twins themselves) ordain that everything must go two by two in a kind of cult of symmetry. That leads to a big problem when the queen of Twin Island West gives birth… and…

Two villages that received only half their necessary annual budgets decide to wage it all on a soccer game between themselves. Whoever wins gets it all and fulfill their objectives. So everything becomes fair game in their quest to win. Knowing about the guy that wrote and directed the movie, I was expecting more from this movie. There are some funny moments here and there, but it felt rushed, underdeveloped and the good actors that starred in this were severely underutilized. Good to watch on…

Some times, I got the feeling that the plot was put together with the same nonchalant attitude. Not a super great movie. Overall, I liked the movie. I wanted to like it more. I was ready to see someone get in there and be a hero, but I left the movie with a feeling of indifference. Why? I think it might be that this movie isn’t much different from other superhero movies that I’ve already seen in other movies. It really emphasizes that the execution of the story is very important. I’m not saying…

This is the second part of Justin’s article about his experience at Kyokutaisei’s sumo training venue. For the earlier post, click here. Suriashi and Psychological Warfare: Next came suriashi or “sliding feet”. The goal is to combine that low posture from the squats with forward movement, keeping feet close to the ground. You should almost … Continue reading The Peek Behind the Curtain (幕の内): The Conclusion

Algorithms are funny old things. After seeking out all the Cretinetti films I could find on YouTube, I suddenly find another one, CRETINETTI’S TWO LOVES, that was posted six years ago. And it’s a good one! The opening shot creates a nice comic tension since the title clues us in that the window on the […]

Alan Alda in The Four Seasons (1981) Vitals Alan Alda as Jack Burroughs, married lawyer Saint Thomas, Summer 1980 Film: The Four Seasons Release Date: May 22, 1981 Director: Alan Alda Costume Designer: Jane Greenwood WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background Six months ago, I observed Alan Alda’s 90th birthday with my first post of his seasonal wardrobe in The Four Seasons, his 1981 comedy following four pairs of couples vacationing together throughout a tumultuous year in their lives, scored by…

I started the day by misreading the time for Trauma or, Monsters All as 1:45pm rather than 1:15pm, which means when I got there at 1:30pm, the film was just starting because it had a nice long intro. I occasionally complain about that sort of thing causing films to bump into each other, but in this case it worked out for me, so I'll try not to whine later! It did mean there wasn't a whole lot

Welcome to Day 7 of The Great Balkans Road Trip. If you’ve just joined me, you’ve missed some great adventures already. You can find the whole series here. This is a 13-part series, beginning in Romania, travelling through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, before completing the circle back in Romania. This blog includes affiliate links to help support my writing. Breakfast at the Hotel Solun Breakfast was ace today. I went all in on the strawberries. I’ve always considered…

Throughout my life, I've ran across three movies that I just could not understand the appeal of: The Big Lebowski The Lord of the Rings Franchise Blade Runner Now, normally it wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't like a movie, but all three of these films seemed like something I should like. I always felt like I was just missing something. So, over the past few decades, I've revisited these films over and over again... waiting for something to click. The Big Lebowski clicked first. It took three…

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet......An advance review copy MURDER AT THE MOVIES: A MOVIE PALACE MYSTERY by Alicia Malone of Turner Classic Movies has just arrived in my mailbox. It will be published by Running Press in October. Looks like fun! ...Dave Karger of TCM also has a book coming out from Running Press later this year: 50 MOVIE NIGHTS: CONTEMPORARY STARS ON THEIR FAVORITE CLASSIC FILMS...Raquel Stecher of Out of the Past has just published a new…

A Magical Mystery Tour parody, I think. A Monkee wonderful-lifes himself off a bridge, then a girl makes out with each Monkee in turn in a single take. A highlight is Mickey puncturing a Western scene by swiping away the fake arrows and walking through the backdrop. Maybe not a highlight but certainly memorable is when the boys get shrunk to dandruff-size then are vacuumed off Vic Morrow’s head. Pretty meaty role for Timothy Carey. Jack Nicholson pops in for three seconds, and Frank Zappa…

“de-gene-erates” is hilarious the core premise is an interesting thought experiment, but the overall plot unfortunately doesn’t do it justice

Watched: Dark Matter S1E8, Jupiter 🍿 One more episode left and this one was very good!

★★★★: Still a little goofy in that way 60s movies were, but has a pretty straightforward plot and some fun action. Good humor too, he's cheeky. The series is really starting to come together! FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

By Kirk KahoeCrimson River Games LLCGeneric/UniversalLevels: Any Warning! This is as close as you can get to being a Heartbreaker without actua;;y being a Heartbreaker. An eternal horror haunts the woods, reaping an endless harvest of woe from those foolish or desperate enough to travel through them. Tired and injured, the party will have to not only face an endless onslaught from the horror but fatigue and madness as well, for there is no sleep in the Old Man’s realm other than the sleep of…

Have you ever had a romantic moment interrupted? It can be annoying – and it is certainly the case for the two lobsters in Tanked an award winning animated short by Duncan Rudd. Their tango in a tank is interrupted by the chef, who has a dinner order to fulfil and a sadistic gleam in his eye. Well, you know what karma is… Tanked was something of a passion project for Rudd, who fitted it in around family and work commitments over a period of nine months. Although this animation is short and…

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come” –Victor Hugo 2010’s Shinryaku! Ika Musume was one of the more memorable series of its time – centred around the premise of ocean-dweller Ika Musume, Shinryaku! Ika Musume follows Ika Musume as she migrates onto dry land with the singular […]

The swashbuckling classic THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH (1954) has just been released on Blu-ray by Universal Pictures.I don't use the word "classic" lightly; like Curtis's earlier SON OF ALI BABA (1952), this film is a joy start to finish, '50s era studio entertainment at its best.The movie played on local television often when I was young -- I seem to recall it was KHJ Channel 9 which showed it -- and the wonderful cast and combination of action, humor, and romance helped draw me into the…

A fascinating read by Albert Wegner

BERTAIL, Thomas; GHERGHESCU, Mica;LUCCI-GOUTNIKOV, Nicolas. L’Internationale situationniste. Vies, textes et pratiques (2026). Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2026. 183 p.; ill.; white wrappers with text in black. Francais Suite à l’acquisition des archives de Guy Debord par la BNF en 2009, et de celles de tous ses petits camarades de l’Internationale situationniste par Yale dans les quinze années qui ont suivi, les chercheurs ont enfin pu avoir accès à la majorité des lettres, manuscrits et…

Click here to book through August, September & October . I cycled along the River Lea to Waltham Abbey. On my approach, even from the riverbank, I could see the majestic tower rising over the water meadows as the Abbey has done for the past thousand years, commanding the landscape and undiminished in visual authority. Once you see it, you realise you are following in the footsteps of the innumerable credulous pilgrims who came here in hope of miraculous cures from the holy cross, which had…

In my Kurosawa festival, I’ve gotten to The Bad Sleep Well, which is astonishingly good, with a riveting performance by Mifune — I can’t believe I’d barely heard of it. (Actually, I can, because it’s the grimmest, bitterest movie he ever made aside from Ran, and it openly attacks the corruption and brutality of corporate life.) But I bring it here for its title, which in Japanese is 悪い奴ほどよく眠る Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru. Now, I don’t actually know Japanese, but I did when I was very young and…

The following was written for Locarno Film Festival’s retrospective and book Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960, edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht. It wasn’t called Foul Pest at the time, but actor Brian Pettifer tells me that was Guest’s nickname in the industry, and even though I love a lot of his work as a blog […]

*Jacques Henri Lartigue, "Florette, Piozzo, Juillet 1959." (Other Lartigue clotheslines here.)*James Tate, "At the Clothesline."*Related: "Love calls us to the things of this world."

Born Nigel Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Nth Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealand father serving in the British army. His family moved to Christchurch N.Z in 1954 where Sam went to school. He took the name Sam because there were several Nigels at school, saying “I moved more easily in the world as a Sam”.Sam Neill and Meryl Streep as Michael & Lindy Chamberlain,Evil Angels, 1988Sam Neill went on to study English literature and acting at Canterbury Uni. He began acting in Canberbury Uni…