Friday, June 30, 2023

Picturing: Cats Perfectly

Why would a cat sit still for a photo session when it can just move out of camera view?

I was ready.

My friend's adorably peevish pussycat was not going to get away that easily. The flurrious feline's attempt to slink down from his perch to a lower level ended up giving me a better and more interesting shot, I think; it's not as though pictures of cats hanging about, not doing much of anything, are of a unique breed.

You pettish little....


A Forever Question: He Must Be a Meisner Man

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Are cats method actors?



Thursday, June 29, 2023

CD: Lost in Space 2 (Courage, Mullendore, Williams)



Lost in Space
- Original Television Soundtrack -
Volume Two

Music by
Alexander Courage, Joseph Mullendore, John Williams

GNP/Crescendo Records
1996

Sunday, June 25, 2023

A Forever Question: Philosophical Tricks

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Is my cat letting me live so I can write this?



Titanic to the IMAX

Early last Monday morning I fired-up my computer, clicked onto Twitter, and saw the news: all contact had been lost with a submersible 1 hour and 45 minutes after it started its descent to the Titanic. I spoke out loud with nobody to hear my take: "It imploded. They're all dead."

My natural inclination was to tweet out, "It imploded. They're all dead", but I decided that such a tweet so early would be construed as being negative, not to mention, ghoulish. However, that was the only answer possible. James Cameron, the Canadian deep sea explorer and filmmaker, admitted a few days ago that he knew what happened, but decided to keep a lid on it for the time being ― after all, perhaps there was another possible explanation for a total communications breakdown with the submersible Titan.

With terrible news confirming that the tiny ship had indeed been crushed instantly by tons of water pressure, I did not tweet "I knew it", but rather: "With the horrible loss of the OceanGate submersible Titan, and crew, Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella 'Futility' has come full circle."


Thirty years ago I attended a CSC (Canadian Society of Cinematographers) meeting, here in Toronto, that had, as guests, a film crew that visited the wreck of the Titanic in order to shoot footage for the IMAX film Titanica.  (I enjoyed the finished film; saw it with friends at Ontario Place's "Cinesphere".) Around a mockup of the submersible dangled a netting, the kind one could use for a grocery shopping trip. We attendees gathered around, and all of us, no doubt, took notice of what cargo was in the netting: miniature Styrofoam coffee cups. We listened as the filmmakers talked about going deep down into the consuming darkness. Eventually one of the explorer chaps pointed out the 'reformatted' cups. He explained that they were normal-size Styrofoam cups when they were on the ocean surface. We all laughed, and pondered....





Thursday, June 22, 2023

CD: Lost in Space 3 (Salter, Stein, LaSalle, Williams)



Lost in Space
- Original Television Soundtrack -
Volume Three

Music by
Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein, Richard LaSalle, John Williams

GNP/Crescendo Records
2000

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Book: Midway (Sanford) ― Movie Tie-In Novelization



Midway

by
Donald S. Sanford

A Bantam Book
June 1976


A Forever Question: Fair Trade

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Do cats eat cryptocurrencies?


Father's Day 2023


H.W. St. Laurent, RCAF / CAF

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Poem: Hey June, Don't Make Me Mad (Late This Year)

June has arrived knocking at my door
before I've finished cooking....

(The year has been speeding with us stuck in traffic
gassed from fast food dripping sauce over our laps,
down our legs,
and into our dancing shoes.)

... June will eat Macaroni Cheese Dinner from a paper plate
― not formed out of fibre but pressed out of paper.

Can I drink wine from coned copier paper?

It'll have to do, for that's the kind of year it's able to.


Hey June,

You can start to make it better.


___

2022
Simon St. Laurent


Tuesday, June 13, 2023

A Forever Question: Well Versed

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Do cats read Shakespeare?



Thursday, June 8, 2023

Andrew Cartmel's Latest 'Arrived in Fine Condition'



Andrew Cartmel is one of my favourite working fiction writers. His outstanding "Vinyl Detective" books, three of which I've read and greatly enjoyed, prompted me to buy his latest effort.

Death in Fine Condition, the first in the planned "Paperback Sleuth" book series, is on my reading table ready for some investigative mystery action, and no doubt it will be deliciously entertaining given Mr Cartmel's track record... pardon the pun.

"He was dead all right."

How can I not read further?....


***

The Paperback Sleuth - Death in Fine Condition
Titan Books (June 6, 2023)

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

A Forever Question: Humor [sic]

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Are Conservatives unintentionally funny deliberately?