Picturing: Port of Calais Pier West

Picturing: Port of Calais Ferry Line Drop

Picturing: Port of Calais Ferry Action

Picturing: Eastern Arm, Port of Dover, UK

A Double Feature Challenge

Watching a home-programmed double feature of Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams movies is easy. We know what we're getting.

On the weekend I went random, self-programming two disparate, in time and place (and style), narrative feature films.

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960 - Edgar Ulmer)
True Stories (1986 - David Byrne)


The first picture I saw a few times in my childhood as it played often on television and at least once at my local movie theatre (the Astral in CFB Borden, Ontario). Watching it as an adult makes one appreciate its themes. For a child it was more about the interesting visual stylings, and chills. (Those horrific mutants.) The environmental theme is up front: testing of nuclear weapons 'back' in the early 1970s led to a horrible plague, all but decommissioning the human race. The survivors moved underground; the human birthrate eventually dropped to zero. There's more, all leading to a memorable ending -- I remembered it for decades. This time, Beyond was better overall than I had remembered it being. The passage of time helped. By the way, the X-80 rocket plane, which flies star Robert Clarke to the astounding year 2024, is in fact a Convair F-102 Delta Dagger.

In the mid 1980s I was a bit of a fan of the band Talking Heads, so it made sense that when band leader David Byrne released his True Stories I would arrive at Toronto's (now gone) Uptown Theatre with bells on. I left slightly disappointed. About a dozen years ago I gave the film another shot, this time on VHS. The loosely connected stories about the quirky but human inhabitants of a fictitious Texas town called Virgil resonated more with this viewer that time around. Spinning the Criterion 2018 DVD release made me appreciate True Stories even more. And there're those always cool Talking Heads tunes.

After my double feature finished I realized that both flicks were filmed in Texas. True Story.


PS: What's next? Maybe Aguirre, the Wrath of God and The Endless Summer.

A Forever Question: We the North Thanksgiving

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

Sir. Are we giving thanks or saying thanks?

Sunday Fun: The Prisoner - "Free for All"

With the Canadian Federal Election just over a week away (Monday, October 21st) it's time perhaps for me to rewatch an episode from perhaps the greatest television series of all time.

"Free for All" first aired on October 20, 1067, and covers a subject as relevant today: The democratic process (vote) and its inherent themes of conflict, contradiction, and superficiality.

Democracy above all.

Stars on the New TVOntario Calendar

This proud TVO Supporter likes the 2020 calendar (2020?!). Inside and on the front are pictures of various past TVOntario/OECA television programmes.

Elwy Yost, front and centre above, was such an important fixture on that network for many of us. He was my first film professor. (My own father was perhaps my first film educator in that he had very broad tastes in movies, and would take me to see flicks not necessarily mainstream.)

Elwy Yost, host of Magic Shadows and Saturday Night at the Movies, was the guy who pushed me in that direction.

Picturing: Trees in The Annex, Toronto, October

Picturing: The Annex, Toronto, October

Afterward

“We (scientists) don’t know what happens after you die.”

Well, something to that effect. The scientific television guest got one thinking.

I will defer to my good friend Günther Spatz. In mild German-accented English he offered his opinion on the subject of “death after dying” as we enjoyed our beers, and moroseness:

“As long as it’s the full death, the real deal, and not some half-assed, phony death; where I’m forever playing the bongos on a downtown street corner.”

Who Do I Vote For? (Got a Penny?)

If it weren't for the fact that I continue to like Justin Trudeau as Canada's prime minister, my vote scheduled for the 21st of this month (or earlier in the advance polls) would be an almost torturous affair. As far as I'm concerned, Andrew Scheer, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is a write-off; he and his boys are a joke. That leaves the Greens and the NDP. I like both Elizabeth May (Green Party of Canada) and Jagmeet Singh (New Democratic Party), but it's the old dilemma. As one of my teachers said back in high school, nobody wants to waste a vote on the low-polling.

And. The reality is, my riding of "University-Rosedale" is heavily Liberal. I'll toss a penny into a barrel of pennies.

Last Night's Leaders' Debate

The first time Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer spoke last night during the federal leaders' debate, he attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with vehemence. The problem was the question asked of each party leader was not about the PM's leadership or lack of, but rather how each would represent Canada's values and interests internationally. (Make no mistake, emotion complete with sniping came to the fore when the 'proper' time came.)

It reminded me of a debate held on TVOntario's superb public affairs show The Agenda a few years ago. Show host Steve Paikin asked Doug Ford (that Doug Ford) to state why Ontarians should vote for the Conservatives. The answer consisted of a tirade about the Liberals.

I'm convinced.

Liberals: 20 percent emotion; 80 percent logic/knowledge.
Conservatives: 20 percent logic/knowledge; 80 percent emotion.

A Forever Question: A Talk Show

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

Sir. Why do humans talk so much?

... The Budget Will Balance Itself - The Partial Quote

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau gets some people going. A frequent attack on the PM is the very selective extraction of a certain quote by him; a line from a greater idea. This method is commonly referred to as "quote mining". (Out of context.)

In fact, Mr Trudeau was speaking about the Stephen Harper government's inability to present a strategy to stimulate economic growth. Economists disagree with one another to various degrees on how much such growth leads down the line to less government expenditures. The theory is that increased government revenues through taxation rolls ultimately to a decreased demand for outlays to departments such as employment insurance and welfare. Part of the PM's platform was to support infrastructure building, which hopefully would get the ball rolling and help lead to the above.

The original quote:

"The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself."

In its proper context the idea doesn't sound so harebrained.

The Vandals' Graffiti

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The above illustration was first posted as "Graphic Vandalism Graphic" on August 24, 2016.

Conductor Christopher Keene

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This picture was originally posted on August 25, 2016, as "My Old Sketchbook: Conductor Christopher Keene".

Flat Heads Go 'Round

On Monday night’s edition of TVOntario’s outstanding current affairs television program The Agenda was a segment on the subject of science and some people’s resistance to science.

The special guest was Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University, and author of The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience.

He spent a few minutes talking about The Flat Earth Society, and similar societies, and recounted an experience he had attending a conference for one such group. Mr McIntyre spoke at the meeting but, no surprise, took the alternative view.

I too will deny the concept of a flat Earth by presenting some incontrovertible evidence.

I doubt very much The Big Cheese was able to cast a large enough adhesive sheet for a disc-shaped Earth’s backside, and it was probably for this very reason that he made the bold decision to build the Earth as a sphere. Problem solved. It was so successful, he modelled all the solar system’s planets in the same manner. (Of course, our home planet was the template. Maybe it was Planet X.)

For some reason those bodies lack deniers. (Martians stick with hard science. Their planet's rarefied atmosphere helps in that regard.)

Science, baby! Science!

CQD; SOS; LOL

The rowboat is leaking. You’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There’s a sandbar up ahead.

Made it.

The ratty old duffle bag holds emergency supplies: the infamous “desert island” physical media.

I discovered what was in my hastily-packed bag.

My discipline held to one of each:

Music: Carmina Burana
Movie: Metropolis


Darn.

I just realized that while I had remembered to pack a disc player, I forgot the a/c (alternating current) plug and adaptor.

I cheated in that I had packed quite a few books: Kafka; Allen; Hesse; Kerouac; “The English Channel” (Calder); “The Pearl” (Steinbeck); “The Mysterious Island” (Verne); “Roy Hinkley’s Guide to Making Coconut-based Electronics”....

A Forever Question: Doug Dennis

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

Sir. Who elected Dennis Moore as Ontario’s current premier?