Francis Bacon on Truth

"Science is but an image of the truth."

Would the great English philosopher and statesman have believed the abundance of ignorance in the advanced year of 2020?

The Astounding Year 2020 Will Be Here in Hours

When I was a kid I watched a Saturday morning animated show called Sealab 2020.

The short-lived series was produced in 1972, 48 years (yikes!) before the titular year.

It's here....

Here Come the New Year's Resolutions

A Forever Question: Assurance

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

Sir. Why won't insurance companies cover one whose claim gets declined by an insurance company?

Dad on Too Many Same TV Episode Watches

"Jesus Christ. How many times have you seen this goddamn thing?!"

My dad was into character actors. No doubt he recognized the guest star and thought: "Is he in more than one episode?"

You Talkin' to Me?

Movie-lovers love to quote their favourite lines. ("You talkin' to me?")

There are the usual suspects. Say the famous line and some people will know its source.

I have my own faves. Just a samplin'....

"You get what you pay for, Franz."
- The Doctor (John Considine), Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (1973)

"He's dying."
- Barrot, the camp warden (William Smithers), Papillon (1973)

"Good afternoon, my ass."
- The farmer (John Baskcomb), Battle of Britain (1969)

"I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do."
- HAL 9000 (Douglas Rain, voice), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

"I'm a lawyer from Denver, Colorado."
- Lt. Harry Brubaker (William Holden), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)


Any recent movies? I'll work on it....

Why Criterion is Cool (Zeman!)

It's Sunday morning, one thing led to another:

"Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman"

I saw that and knew right away what was going on.

Criterion: Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman
Coming Soon, available February 25, 2020

There are those expected superb Criterion special features....

The Blu-ray set, for sure.

I consider myself lucky to have seen Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) and Invention for Destruction (1958) on the big screen. These flicks are wonderful. Karel Zeman is one of my favourite complete-package directors.

Tape to Tape Trump Edit Feature

Some memories came back to me after hearing this business, over and over again, about U.S. prez Donald J. Trump and his faithful getting in a knot because the CBC ran Home Alone 2: Lost in New York sans The Donald's seven-second moment. ("Disrupters!")

A few times in my videotape-operator days I received a work order specifying the removal of scenes or shots from a supplied tape of a given feature film. This was, and still is, done to carve special shorter versions of movies. The new cut might be for airlines, television stations/networks, or home-video.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would have run a trimmed-down version to allow for commercial time. With these necessary edits, a 108-minute film, for instance, could fit comfortably into a 120-minute time slot. (Then there's "time compression".) The Corp claims the edits were done in 2014. Two years before The Man took the White House. I believe them.

That's the way it goes. Trump and his supporters can bellyache and rage all they want. It changes nothing.

It's not personal. It's business.

Bob Monkhouse on Orgy Thanks

"The awkward part about an orgy, is that afterwards you're not too sure who to thank."

I use the opportunity to practice my Oscar acceptance speech.

They Shoot These Things in Canada, Don't They?

"A romance expert conceals her recent breakup and asks a TV producer to pretend they are a couple before she is exposed as a fraud. When he agrees, she never expects to find herself falling for him."

And that, dear reader, is what my telescreen's "what's playing" display describes as a typical Hallmark Christmas TV Movie.

Maybe if I click on later today I'll get this:

"A gold medal winning figure skater, recently injured at a World Championship, moves to a small town and soon finds herself competing for the affections of a star Beer League ice hockey player."

Merry Christmas!

A Forever Question: Pre Post

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

Sir. Can we be nice before and after Christmas?

It Might Devour You at the Box Office

"Disney stock has taken a bit of a hit." The business news story then got my full attention. "... Due to the less-than-expected performance of the new Star Wars film."

Why am I not surprised? Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker makes a load of money over the weekend but fails to hit the heights of the two previous SW pics, and the money-grabbers are disappointed.

It's very possible that this 'underperformance' is due to Star Wars Fatigue. I also understand that word-of-mouth isn't great with this one -- not that real fans care what critics or their fellow fans think. (For what real SW fans think about what their fellow fans think about TROS, go to the Internet.)

Then I remembered hearing today that Cats underperformed this same weekend. It made 6 million, to be applied against a negative cost of around 100 mill. This comparison is even more distinct when one realizes that that 6 mill is "gross"; the "net" would be 2 to 3 million.

It seems that the box office version of Peg Powler was sleeping.

All Those Christmas Cookies and Treats

I'm watching (while I work) one of those weekday morning television programs where the subject is "lifestyle". Look at all those sugary treats! Are those meant to be consumed? Hopefully not by just one person, or even a small team of sweet teeth. (That's a lot of preparation. I have a hard enough time preparing my tax returns.)

Someone's eating a sugar thing. The audience cheers!

(Am I high on sugar?)

A sugar rush just might be the thing I need to get back to work....

The Leafs Have Won Some Games Trivia

A Leafs fan tells me they won tonight, and that my negativity "is getting old". My predictions, known as "negativity" to some folk, have been accurate these past few years.

What am I going to do? Say that the Toronto Maple Leafs will go to the playoffs this NHL year and win the Stanley Cup?

How am I able to predict what will really happen?

Cats Review Cats

The movie Cats is getting horrible reviews. I just read an article sampling paws-down notices.

That bad. I love cats but I'll watch the real thing, not creepy humans trying to imitate our feline friends.

Yes, I'm sure: "Cats are snickering..."

Sure to Get a Rise of Some Kind

Late this afternoon I saw a television advert for the new Star Wars movie. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker looks like the kind of movie that attracts customers by offering hamburgers, fries, chocolate bars, and super-sized pops (sodas).

I'm not feeling it.

If it offered sushi I might be convinced to pull out my chopsticks -- I can pretend they're lightsabres.

Makes It All Worthwhile

On the weekend I received a nice concise review. My friend said of my blog postings:

"... your writing is fun, pithy and clever!"

Thank you! Much appreciated.

That email text also provided me with a nice pop-up blog posting; one requiring minimal effort on my part.

A Canadian Knight's Tale (In One Act)

In 2015, Justin Trudeau sent Stephen Harper to the scrapheap.

A Forever Question: More or Less

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

Sir. Why does more so often end up less?

John Irving in Toronto, Canada

On Thursday afternoon the American writer John Irving became a Canadian citizen. The author of the best-sellers "The World According to Garp" and "The Ciderhouse Rules" has long loved this country, and Toronto, where he now lives with his Canadian love and maintains his downtown office. Irving's not given up his U.S. passport, but his move here is very special to him: during the citizenship swearing-in he was misty-eyed and sang "O Canada" with pride.

I should read one of his books....

From Friday's edition of the Toronto Star: "Ending up here is a love story."