As the President mentioned today, there are a few medicines that are being tested out for effective treatment of this corona virus. Some of them are existing medicines that were used for other diseases like malaria. It’s too soon to say anything with certainty but maybe in a week or two we’ll be able to emerge from our bunkers and breath the air like free men again instead of hunkered down like troglodytes.
Month: March 2020
The Professionals – A Movie Review
Here’s a western made in 1966 that reflected the later anti-hero story line that Clint Eastwood mined so successfully in his spaghetti westerns. The big names are Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin. They are former mercenaries who have ridden with Pancho Villa but now are selling their services to a Texan (played by Ralph Bellamy) whose wife has been kidnapped by an old bandit ally of theirs. This bandit, Jesus Raza, played by Jack Palance is over the border in Mexico with a small army of followers in a heavily defended camp. Marvin adds two more men to his crew with Robert Ryan and Woody Strode. Together they devise a scheme to disrupt the camp, rescue the woman and outwit and outfight Raza’s army. Claudia Cardinale plays the kidnapped wife and in addition to being a capable actress she shows why she is remembered as one of the most attractive actresses of her time. She is a fine-looking babe.
The script is tight and the dialog is apt with each of the main characters given the words that fit the part. Marvin is the cool efficient tactician and leader. Lancaster is the fearless daredevil who lightheartedly plunks dynamite at his enemies while firing off jokes and insults at everyone around him. Ryan and Strode ably fulfill their parts but with less dialog. And at the end of the main action Lancaster and Palance get to discuss life and love as they prepare for their strange duel.
The plot has a surprising twist and plenty of action and is in my opinion, one of the better westerns from its era. Marvin and Lancaster have good chemistry and have been placed in a production that uses their particular talents to excellent effect. If you’re a fan of the western genre this movie delivers the goods. Highly recommended.
20MAR2020 – Quote of the Day
In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.
Saint Augustine
20MAR2020 – Photo of the Day
Killing Time
Sitting around at home trying to wait out the quarantine reminded me of an old story from Herodotus about a people trying to wait out a bad situation. A famine isn’t the same as a plague but something about the story seemed appropriate for our present predicament.
The customs of the Lydians are like those of the Greeks, except that they make prostitutes of their female children. They were the first men whom we know who coined and used gold and silver currency; and they were the first to sell by retail. And, according to what they themselves say, the games now in use among them and the Greeks were invented by the Lydians: these, they say, were invented among them at the time when they colonized Tyrrhenia. This is their story: In the reign of Atys son of Manes there was great scarcity of food in all Lydia. For a while the Lydians bore this with what patience they could; presently, when the famine did not abate, they looked for remedies, and different plans were devised by different men. Then it was that they invented the games of dice and knuckle-bones and ball and all other forms of game except dice, which the Lydians do not claim to have discovered. Then, using their discovery to lighten the famine, every other day they would play for the whole day, so that they would not have to look for food, and the next day they quit their play and ate. This was their way of life for eighteen years. But the famine did not cease to trouble them, and instead afflicted them even more. At last their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed. Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to Smyrna and built ships, in which they loaded all their goods that could be transported aboard ship, and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country; until at last, after sojourning with one people after another, they came to the Ombrici,1 where they founded cities and have lived ever since. They no longer called themselves Lydians, but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king’s son who had led them there.
Luckily OCF won’t allow me to get bored.
photog
Ready Player One – A Science Fiction Movie Review
Lately I’ve been at a loss to find any sci-fi movies that I might like. After some searches I saw a trailer for this 2018 Spielberg film and decided to give it a viewing. The scenario is a dystopian future where because of (you guessed it) global warming and the exhaustion of all fossil fuels everybody lives in trailer homes stacked on top of each other in piles. And because life is so miserable, everybody spends all their time inside a virtual reality program called the Oasis. This program was invented by an uber-geek named James Donovan Halliday who when he died revealed to the world that hidden in Oasis was an Easter Egg and clues to finding it. Whoever found it would inherit his ownership of Oasis which was worth around a trillion dollars.
This is the story of how a teen age geek named Wade Owen Watts (in game name; Parzival) with the help of his friends Aech, Art3mis, Daito and Shoto find the Easter Egg and save the gaming world from the evil IOI (Innovative Online Industries) corporation that wanted to win the contest and turn Oasis into a boring commercial wasteland. Nolan Sorrento, the head of IOI, detects Wade’s success at finding the clues and uses real world violence to try and sideline Wade and his friends. And in fact, Wade’s aunt and many people living in his trailer stack are killed in a drone attack meant for Wade. But eventually good prevails and Wade and his friends find the egg and live happily ever after. Now for my review.
This is a Spielberg film. And it is like every other Spielberg film. The hero is introduced and we watch him struggle, fail, learn and grow. The good people are hip and watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Breakfast Club when they were young and the bad people are corporate types that wear three-piece suits. And because this is today one of the characters is a black lesbian because diversity. And like in all Spielberg films, when the climactic scene where everything will either fail or succeed is reached, there is the annoying back and forth fumbling which is supposed to produce nervous tension. In this one the on-line character is trying to get a key into a keyhole while his real-life body is standing in the back of a speeding mail truck that is being slammed into by hostile vehicles. So, for several minutes we have to watch him miss the keyhole. This sort of thing was annoying in the Indiana Jones movies and in Saving Private Ryan. It’s still annoying today.
It’s not a terrible movie. The special effects in the movie are extremely good. But the characters in Oasis and in the real world are not particularly likable or realistic. And the plot is very predictable with the usual strawman for the villain. I suppose someone who is a big fan of gaming might enjoy the in-jokes and references to classic games. I thought it was trite and very self-indulgent. Probably good for Spielberg fans.
19MAR2020 – Photo of the Day
The first snake of the year in the field. As usual it’s an eastern garter snake. Last year we saw a northern water snake and an eastern milk snake. Hopefully this year we’ll see some of the rarer species.
19MAR2020 – Quote of the Day
Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
Saint Augustine
A Thoughtful Article Over at the American Mind – Our Calamitous Century by Forfare Davis
This was a fun and interesting read. It also quotes a movie that I might want to watch. Our society has prioritized cost above all else and now we may find out what happens when all your stuff comes from people who don’t like you in a place that is quarantined under the plague.
A Focus Stack in Need of Some Work
My idea was that this cantaloupe would make a good substitute for one of those really weird looking moons of Jupiter. But I need to get the exposure right and then I’ll need to practice cutting it out of the background with photo shop. Then if I can superimpose the Enterprise next to it in front of a starry field, I can drag in Shatner. “We have to rendezvous with the Vulcans on Cantaloupus IV or millions of people will …. DIE!”
