My older brother taught me and my little brother to play chess when we small children. Maybe he had hopes of turning us into little Bobby Fischers, or maybe he just wanted someone to play with. My little brother was never very interested in chess, but I became mildly obsessed, as is my tendency with all things. Once I was in school I found out that there were whole books written about chess. Cool. I learned a 4 move checkmate and promptly used it on all my schoolmates who played chess. I even tried using it on a older player…
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Spring Is Here
Sometimes I miss good old Doctor Demento. Tom Lehrer was always a favorite of mine and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park has such a snappy beat.
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
first pulished on Technorati Image Robert A Heinlein’s Puppetmasters from the point of view of the alien invaders. Or the Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the point of view of the Pod People. Stephane Meyers’s Host is one more story where there is no black and white, only many shades of grey. The bad guys aren’t really bad, the good guys aren’t really good. The Host is set in the not too distant future where the Earth has been invaded and conquered by small parasitic lifeforms which attach themselves to the victim’s brains. The alien minds are stronger than…
The Silva Method of Mind Control
About thirty years ago I went through a phase where I read all these wonderfully odd little books meant to change your life and your worldview. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Dianetics, books on Alexander Technique and Rolfing, the Feldenkrais Method, Super Learning, and The Silva Method of Mind Control. All of these things promise the impossible, but wrap it up in a nice semi-logical sounding package. I recently re-read The Silva Method of Mind Control. Silva starts off with advising that everyone should meditate, morning and night and add the Émile Coué affirmation Everyday, in Every way, I’m getting better and…
Dallas Arboretum Dollar Days
Article first published as Dollar Days 2010 at The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society on Technorati. Celebrate the final days of summer at the Dallas Arboretum where everyone pays $1 admission everyday through the month of August. The 66 acres of gardens at the Dallas Arboretum are filled with winding stone paths, quiet koi filled ponds, and even the occasional rabbit. Among the many interesting items at the Dallas Arboretum are walls of water, views of White Rock Lake, two 19th century cabin replicas, a thatched roof cottage, two stately mansions, outdoor sculptures, misty bridge views, mature trees including oaks,…
Eden Log
A 2007 black and white Sci Fi film with a minimum of dialogue and the feel of an adventure game. Eden Log starts out with a man who doesn’t know who he is or where he is and we follow him around as he makes his way up level by level. Along the way he encounters mutants, security guards, and the seemingly endless roots of a giant tree. This was a stylish film with an interesting look to it-but for me there were a few too many missing elements. We are never told when, where, or what is going on. …
Knight and Day
Like my favorite movie, The Matrix, there is a lot of gun play here and the Hero walks through raining lead without fear of injury. The reason for this is Tom’s totally Bourne Identity mad super spy skills and the fact that Cameron’s Dad wanted a boy. I really enjoyed Knight and Day, for all it’s silliness and it’s superhero story line. Tom does a wonderful job of acting like he’s crazy and this is a great nod to his real life occasional bouts of madness and couch jumping. Tom still has his good looks and this a still a…
The Tudors
Henry VIII was a nasty bit of work who loved women, war, and God-though not necessarily in that order. Thanks to Henry, Protestants and Catholics have been killing each in England for a few hundred years and those funny little people known as Vicars have been popular in comedy skits for a almost as long. Showtime’s The Tudors has played fast and loose with the history, but hey, who really cares? It was great TV-filled with sex, violence, and mad costume skills. I still think Jonathan Rhys Meyers was a little short for the part, but he gave Henry that…
the imaginarium of doctor parnassus
Terry Gilliam is the only American in the Monty Python cast and his vision has always been a bit warped by his early exposure to the British sense of humor. My favorite of his films was Time Bandits, a wonderfully odd bit of business that was funny, sad, and ultimately just weird. Over the years Terry’s films have retained their weirdness, but I have not been too impressed with them. The Brothers Grim and Tideland were just awful. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’s claim to fame is that Heath Ledger died during it’s filming. Having just been hailed as a…
LOST
“Cold hearted orb that rules the night Removes the colors from our sight Red is gray and yellow white But we decide which is Right And which is an Illusion” – Moody Blues “Now, now,” Bobby says, comforting her. “It was just a bad dream.” It was pretty much impossible for LOST to have a completely satisfying ending, as the entire series has swung from fun to frustrating to totally impenetrable. But I did like it, for the most part. A wrap up that said, in effect, it’s just a TV Show and none of it really happened anyway. LOST’s…