War Of The Worlds

     

Tucson Weather Today

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It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.
--Andy Warhol

Saturday afternoon I tuned in to the vintage movie channel and watched The War Of The Worlds. 

It was advertised to be a gripping 1953 thriller about a devastating attack on Earth by Mars, starring Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, and Les Tremayne. It was supposed to have superb special effects. and was based on the novel by H.G. Wells.

Below is a published one-paragraph review:

A key sci-fi film of the 1950s, George Pal's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS is a vividly realized adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel, updated from 19th century London to 20th century California. Though it's bogged down by a stiff cast, a yawn-inspiring conventional romance, and a sappy religiosity, it remains a landmark in the history of special effects. The lumbersome triopods of the Wells novel are jettisoned in favor of cool, green, slickly contoured flying saucers that fire death rays accompanied by one of the most fondly remembered sound effects in screen history. Filmed on a relatively modest budget of $2 million ($1.3 million went to special effects), 

But in my estimation, unless it's viewed as old-fashionedly comedic and strictly campy, the film stinks. Of course, it was filmed in 1953, when I was 14 years old, and it was perfectly believable back then that all these meteor-like spaceships could speed in from Mars and crash into the ground in rural areas without any government's knowledge and  so the whole operation at first is run by the local sheriff, directing a crowd of local yokels, and of course it makes sense that a famous scientist (Gene Barry) would be on a fishing trip in the area when the first Mars spaceship crashed, and a beautiful Masters Degree holder happened to be a Red Cross volunteer who served everyone sandwiches and coffee at the crash site before falling for the Famous Scientist.

Etc.

I don't know why, but I continued to watch the thing... until I finally fell asleep in my chair.

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Did You Know . . .?

Every day your heart creates enough energy to drive a truck twenty miles or to the moon and back throughout a lifetime.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1862, former President Martin Van Buren, who served as the nation's eighth president between 1837 and 1841, slipped into a coma. Van Buren, who developed asthma in 1860, had a history of heavy drinking as well as, later in life, cardiac problems. The drinking, for which he had earned a reputation as early as age 25, may have contributed to a host of illnesses he experienced in his lifetime. Eventually his circulatory system began to fail, causing the coma. Three days later, he passed away. Some historians claim that a possible case of sleep apnea, caused by disruptive snoring, may have contributed to Van Buren's declining health and his ultimate death.

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WORD FOR TODAY

opinion  [uh-PIN-yuhn]
noun
1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.
3. the formal expression of a professional judgment: to ask for a second medical opinion.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
--Edward Gibbon

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Ernest Miller Hemingway

(July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961)

Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Robin McLaurin Williams

(born July 21, 1951)

Robin Williams is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, Williams went on to establish a successful career, including such acclaimed films as Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, The Fisher King, and Good Will Hunting, as well as financial successes such as Popeye, Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, Night at the Museum, and Happy Feet.

Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts

(July 21, 1924 - Feb 24, 2006)

Don Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards. He also played landlord Ralph Furley on the 1970s and 1980s television sitcom Three's Company.

Jonathan M. “Jon” Lovitz

(born July 21, 1957)

Jon Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.

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Why should people go out and pay money to see bad films when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing?
--Samuel Goldwyn

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Sharing Of Personal Opinions

 

Tucson Weather Today


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My latest (10/27/2012) Kindle purchase is Kindred ($4.95) and I'd like to offer a brief description of it, not a personal review, since I have not read it yet. That will come later.

Kindred is the title of a book written by Octavia E. Butler who is an author I had never heard of until yesterday when I happened upon her name while reading an intriguing review of another of her books.

Octavia E. Butler is author of many novels, including Adulthood Rites and The Parable of the Sower. She is the winner of the Nebula Award and twice winner of the Hugo Award.

Octavia E. Butler

 (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006)

 One reader said about Kindred --

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Kindred utilizes the devices of science fiction in order to answer the question "how could anybody be a slave?" A woman from the twentieth century, Dana is repeatedly brought back in time by her slave-owning ancestor Rufus when his life is endangered. She chooses to save him, knowing that because of her actions a free-born black woman will eventually become his slave and her own grandmother. When forced to live the life of a slave, Dana realizes she is not as strong as her ancestors. Unable to will herself back to her own time and unable to tolerate the institution of slavery, she attempts to run away and is caught within a few hours.

Her illiterate ancestor Alice succeeds in eluding capture for four days even though "She knew only the area she'd been born and raised in, and she couldn't read a map." Alice is captured, beaten, and sold as a slave to Rufus. As Dana is sent back and forth through time, she continues to save Rufus's life, attempting during each visit to care for Alice, even as she is encouraging Alice to allow Rufus to rape her and thus ensure Dana's own birth. As a twentieth-century African-American woman trying to endure the brutalities of nineteenth-century slavery, Dana answers the question, "See how easily slaves are made?" For Dana, to choose to preserve an institution, to save a life, and nurture victimization is to choose to survive.

As I hinted at above, after I finish reading Kindred I will attempt an in-depth review of it, similar to the one above, but which will be my personal opinions.

And if that works out, I might do the same here on the old' blog for each reading of forthcoming books, ones I like and those for which I don't care much.

Should be interesting to some readers.

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WORD FOR TODAY

cilia [sil-ee-uh]
plural noun
cilium [cil-ee-uhm]
singular noun

1.
Biology  minute hairlike organelles, identical in structure to flagella, that line the surfaces of certain cells and beat in rhythmic waves, providing locomotion to ciliate protozoans and moving liquids along internal epithelial tissue in animals.
2.
Anatomy  the eyelashes.

Nasal Cilia

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Dennis Franz

Born Oct 28, 1944
Age: 67 years old.

Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective, in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt. Norman Buntz on Hill Street Blues, and earlier played Detective Benedetto on the same show.  He starred as "Earl", the abusive husband, in the Dixie Chicks' music video "Goodbye Earl", as Captain Carmine Lorenzo in the 1990 action film Die Hard 2 and as Nathaniel Messinger in the 1998 film, City of Angels.

Jonas Salk

Born Oct 28, 1914
Died Jun 23, 1995

Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first polio vaccine.

Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of its victims being children.

Bill Gates

Born Oct 28, 1955
Age: 56 years old.

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third;[in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Julia Roberts

Born Oct 28, 1967
Age: 44 years old

Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Mystic Pizza (1988), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Valentine's Day (2010), The Pelican Brief (1993), Ocean's Eleven (2001), and Ocean's Twelve (2004) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actresses in terms of box office receipts.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
--Octavia Butler