17JUL2019 – OCF Update

As the days of my vacation dwindle down I am reminded of the importance of prioritizing tasks.  Yesterday I returned the lenses and teleconverters to the rental company, taking a flurry of photos right before packing them up.  Just as a preliminary statement without actually having analyzed any of the files I took with the Mitakon SpeedMaster 50mm f/0.95, I will go out on a limb and guess that I won’t want to own this lens.  First off its a manual lens (which isn’t a deal breaker by itself).  Secondly the aperture is not only manual but it doesn’t register on my Sony A7 III files.  And thirdly, I’m kind of a sharp lens junky.  This lens is not that kind of lens.  At f/0.95, sharpness isn’t even a possibility.  So, I’m guessing I’ll be giving it a pass.  But that’s not to say I might find some applications where it makes sense to use it.

I will also review the Sony 100-400mm GM zoom lens.  This is a very good and useful lens that I’m very interested in.  There will be a lot of comparisons between the 400 with and without the 1.4X and 2X teleconverters attached.I’ll have a lot more to say about these combinations but one thing I will state upfront is that telephoto work is a lot more than a honking big lens.  Technique is everything.  Using monopods, tripods, teleconverters, polarizers and using the correct camera modes for ISO, exposure and focus are every bit as important as the lens.  And hand holding a very heavy lens is an art in and of itself.

The political news cycle is jam packed with important and bizarre occurrences so I actually have to show restraint and concentrate on the most entertaining items.  Otherwise I might overload on SJW outrage and lose my sunny disposition.

On the review front, today I’ll be reviewing the last episode of Twilight Zone, Season Four.  That will be the last of the hour long episodes and back to the half hour format that I think works best for this genera.  So that means we have about ten more weeks of TZ articles.

Last week the first phase of ShatnerKhan began.  And as expected it was cheesy and pathetic.  It exceeded all expectations.  I will write up this first volley soon and all will be amazed at how truly sad an acting career can be.

Stay tuned.

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The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 4 Episode 17 – Passage on the Lady Anne

Alan Ransome is a hard charging business executive who spends all his waking hours pushing to get ahead.  His neglected wife Eileen is ready to give up on their marriage but she decides to try one last idea to see if they can reconnect.  On a trip to London that Alan must make she demands that he bring her along and that they travel by ocean liner.  Because of the season and the short reservation timing the only ship available is a very old one called the Lady Anne.

When they arrive at the dock two fellow passengers question whether the Ransomes have made a mistake.  These two old men McKenzie and Burgess say that a mistake has occurred because the trip on the Lady Anne is an excursion that was privately booked by a group.  They relent when Alan shows them their tickets.  But later, just as the ship is ready to embark McKenzie and Burgess make a last attempt to buy back the tickets from Alan for $10,000.  Alan refuses.

Going over the passenger list Alan discovers that no one on board is under seventy-five years of age.  When Alan and Eileen go into the passenger’s lounge, they discover that this used to be a honeymoon ship and that all the passengers are former honeymooners who wanted to ride on the final voyage of the Lady Anne before it is retired.

Meanwhile Alan and Eileen reflect on the failure of their marriage and Allan admits that his business life is more important to him than his marriage.  They decide to divorce when they return from the trip.  Toby McKenzie, the man that tried to buy their tickets invites Alan and Eileen to a “tea” with him and his wife Millie.  Ian Burgess stops by and the three older people talk affectionately of their memories of the Lady Anne back when they were young married couples.  Ian’s wife was supposed to accompany him on this voyage but she died shortly before.  The talk of love and happiness affect both Alan and Eileen but when they leave the tea they get into an argument.  After speaking angrily to Eileen Alan turns away from her and looks over the ocean but when he looks back, she is gone.  Alan feels panicky and starts searching the ship and alerting the passengers and crew of Eileen’s disappearance.  The McKenzies assure Alan that Eileen will show up soon and not to worry.  That night when Alan returns to his cabin Eileen is waiting for him in bed wearing a nightgown given to her by Millie.  And somehow Alan and Eileen manage to reconnect and Alan realizes how mixed up his priorities have been.  They rekindle their marriage and the next day they are in a celebratory mood when the ship is throwing a party.  At some point Alan notices that the ship engine has been stopped.  But the passengers are in no way alarmed and the party goes on happily.  At one point Captain Prothero joins their table and asks the older passengers if they’ve told the Ransomes about the event coming up but the passengers decline to talk about it.  The party continues happily until Captain Prothero returns and asks the passengers again if they’ve told the Ransomes about what will happen that night.  McKenzie says they decided not to spoil the evening.  Then the Captain tells the Ransomes that he will have their belongings loaded on a lifeboat and they will be set out on the ocean.  He assures them that a beacon will alert the Coast Guard and they will be picked up safely but that they cannot stay on the Lady Anne.  Alan resists but one of the ship’s crew pulls a pistol on them.  As they are being loaded on the lifeboat Alan says that he thought the passengers were his friends.  The passengers lower their eyes in sadness but Eileen tells Alan that she knows that they are their friends.

Alan and Eileen are lowered down in the lifeboat and drift away.  They are picked up in a few hours by the Coast Guard.  When they returned to shore, they looked for news of the Lady Anne.  But no news of the ship or its crew and passengers was ever heard of.

This is a very odd story.  Obviously, the Lady Anne is transporting these old couples to a heavenly hereafter and the Ransomes are being let off to allow them to continue their young lives.  There isn’t any way of explaining how exactly the Ransomes were able to get tickets to a ghost ship but this is the Twilight Zone.  I thought I’d b a little harsher with this episode but McKenzie and Burgess are played by two actors that I enjoy watching quite a bit.  McKenzie is played by Wilfrid Hyde-White who has a small but memorable part in the movie “The Third Man” and Burgess is played by Cecil Kellaway who was the murdered husband in “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”  Both of them are great fun in this teleplay along with a few other fine character actors.  Let’s say B.

 

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Peter Thiel Says CIA and FBI Should Probe Google

It seems they may be getting a little too chummy with the Chinese military intelligence.

https://www.axios.com/peter-thiel-says-fbi-cia-should-probe-google-9846a042-e689-49bc-bdc7-595988ce5d8c.html

But they hold the US intelligence agencies at arms length for some reason.  Interesting.

 

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Deportation, an Antifa Termination and a Presidential Denunciation

Three related occurrences this week caught my eye.  The first was the long-awaited beginning of illegal alien deportations.  ICE officers began serving papers and arresting the illegal aliens that either lost their asylum cases or skipped out on the procedure.  President Trump had delayed this action for two weeks at the request of Nancy Pelosi but since the Democrat House did exactly nothing to legislate some compromise on illegal immigration the deportation actions are moving forward.

The second was the attack on an ICE detention center by some antifa kook who apparently wanted to commit suicide by policeman.  He brought a rifle to a detention center and started lighting cars on fire possibly hoping to shoot the occupants running from the facility.  But they called the police and the officers put him out of his lunacy.  Apparently, he was a 69-year-old “activist” who was looking for the ultimate way to signal his virtue.

The third item was President Trump’s “tweet” noting that the immigrant democrat congresswomen who are always criticizing the United States didn’t stay in their own countries and fix the dysfunctional societies they belonged to.  I have to paste a copy of it here.  It’s too good to only paraphrase:

 “So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

 

So after some delays and side issues, illegal immigration is in center stage again where it belongs.  President Trump is a shrewd judge of human nature and he realizes that following through on the deportations will have both a profound negative impact on Democrat morale and at the same time powerfully encourage his own followers.  He also realizes that not deporting the illegals will have the opposite effect on both sides.  So, he is doing what is necessary.  And that is not to say that it is easy.  He will be bombarded with negative press and attacked by Democrats such as the above referenced immigrant congresswomen.  And there will be activists that will try to create havoc such as the man attacking the ICE detention center.  The truth of the matter is there isn’t another leader on the Right who would have the guts to even try doing it.  He deserves credit for it.

Now where does it go from here?  My guess is that if the deportations continue then Pelosi will try to negotiate.  And therein lies a trap.  For she will delay and equivocate.  If President Trump allows another moratorium on deportations while Pelosi performs the delay dance it will be demoralizing.  Hopefully he will let the pressure of ongoing deportations motivate the Democrats to come up with some bipartisan actions that will satisfy both sides.

You might ask what would satisfy our side.  Something I could imagine would be a moratorium on deportations in exchange for full border wall implementation, changes in legislation that allowed for illegals apprehended at the border that claim refugee status being kept out of the country until after winning their case in court, tough legislation punishing so-called sanctuary cities with loss of funding and finally legislation that accurately identifies the existing illegal aliens in the country and targets any criminal individuals with immediate deportation.  And identifying the illegals will also allow us to eliminate voter fraud by them.

The important thing is to put them on their heels.  Start enforcing the law all the time and to the fullest extent.  Don’t accept their narrative for how to look at actions and judge motivations.  Don’t let them tell you what you’re allowed to think or do.

Of course, President Trump is the master deal maker and the biggest deal he’ll ever make is his negotiation with the American people for his second term.  That is why he will play all the right cards.  The booming economy, his judicial appointments and the policies that he has instituted (e.g., reining in the EPA on CO2 hysteria) will all help him put together a winning hand.  But the ace in the deck is draining off the flood of illegal immigration.  Hopefully he’ll have that card in his hand next November.

 

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