All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
A general of ordinary talent, occupying a bad position and surprised by a superior force, seeks his safety in retreat; but a great captain supplies all deficiencies by his courage, and marches boldly to meet the attack. By this means he disconcerts his adversary, and if this last shows any irresolution in his movements, a skillful leader, profiting by his indecision, may even hope for victory.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Regardless of how jaded we may feel about the American electoral system, Vox has provided an inspirational reason to vote.
The mental image of Bono driving his car over a cliff a la “Thelma and Louise” is just the perfect antidote for the sad reality we see around us.
The aircraft are, I fear, getting a little stale. So I’ll change the subject to—no subject, no theme. Just pictures that I think are interesting.
Fractal Symmetry, This photo was taken at a US Military Cemetery Near Canton, Ga.
Mardi Gras, Pensacola version. Don’t know her but she seems to be having a great time.
Beach scene, In January way out on Ft Pickens.
Early March, my front yard
I’m not sure just what the hell was going on with the winds aloft but I don’t remember seeing the like either before or since. For my front yard.
Oliver, one of my cats.
“Run you stick bastards!” Seen in a local parking lot.
Just stopped at a light somewhere. I thought close focus on the drops on the windshield with the background blurred out would make an interesting shot.
TomD
Got home real late but have tomorrow off so I’m cudgeling my brains for a good topic. And since I’ve been running my series of horror movie reviews for October, I considered finishing off the Universal monster movie triumvirate by reviewing Frankenstein.
But Camera Girl was watching the Yankees World Series game and since they were down 0-3 in the series and would be eliminated if they lost tonight, I didn’t have the heart to refuse her control of the tv. As it worked out, New York had an orgy of hitting including a grand slam to take the game 11-4. There was much rejoicing by Camera Girl but I think she understands that no team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win the Series. But let her enjoy the moment.
As for Frankenstein, at its core Mary Shelley’s book is another meditation on the Renaissance civilization in Europe substituting science for God. Well, since Renaissance civilization lately seems to be in full retreat, maybe God is sending his reply.
But properly considered, the idea that Man has replaced God with human intelligence is sort of laughably ridiculous. Every time we are told that biologists have cracked the code that will allow us to cure cancer or reverse aging or turn men into women and vice versa, our efforts are shown to be abysmally inadequate. We talk about uploading our consciousness into the internet to allow us to live forever but we don’t even know what consciousness is or for instance, how a memory from our childhood persists throughout our lives, or even whether it exists in one brain cell or many.
And when we consider the unimaginable size of even the portion of the known universe that we’ve already observed, the idea that we can become like God should quickly evaporate from our minds. From my point of view, the fact that we exist separated from even the nearest star by about twenty-four trillion miles of empty space make me feel like we are an experiment locked into a terrarium that we can’t escape from.
Of course, maybe escaping from our ant farm is part of our testing. Maybe on one of the planets in the Centauri system is a message in English or Proto-Indo-European saying, “Well done. Now here is a clue to get you to level three.” Maybe God has a sense of humor and he wants to let us in on the joke. Maybe some day he’ll give us a book that explains why we can’t avoid childhood cancer, endless war, telemarketers and Joy Reid. Maybe after we die suddenly everything will make sense and we can stop worrying about the war between men and women, type two diabetes and the national debt.
Well, tomorrow is my last chance to review Frankenstein. I better get some sleep so I’ll be ready to report truthfully on the incomparable acting skills and technique of Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. On second thought maybe I should just concentrate on the cool noises and flashing lights in Henry Frankenstein’s electrical glassware display in Germany (I mean Hollywood).
Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Tonight, I got around to rewatching “Sleepy Hollow.” This 1999 movie starred Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, a New York City lawman whose scientific methods were too advanced for 1799. He is sent upstate to solve a string of murders that all involve the victims being left headless. Christina Ricci stars as Katrina Van Tassel the daughter of a prosperous businessman whose family is at the center of the ring of murders. And, of course Katrina is Ichabod’s love interest in the movie.
Spoiler alert; skip down to the last paragraph to avoid spoilers and just read the recommendation.
What we learn is that, just as in the Washington Irving stories about Sleepy Hollow, the countryside is haunted by the ghost of a Hessian soldier that was killed during the American Revolutionary War. The Hessian lost his head during a battle with the Americans and his spirit has haunted the neighborhood ever since. In our story, the Hessian (when he has a head) is played by Cristopher Walken. And when he doesn’t have a head, well, who knows?
Being a man of reason, Ichabod disbelieves the stories about the ghost and claims the murders were the result of human efforts. He claims this until he actually sees the Headless Horseman kill a couple of townspeople. But once Ichabod recovers from his shock, he determines that he will investigate the ghost and figure out a way to end the string of murders.
And after most of the prominent townspeople are murdered, Ichabod realizes that the horseman is controlled by someone inside the town who understands black magic. And that turns out to be Katrina’s stepmother (naturally). There is a showdown and Ichabod figures out how to turn the horseman against the witch and save Katrina from being decapitated by the head-lopping Hessian.
Sleepy Hollow was a Tim Burton film and so it is no surprise that the look of the film stylishly captures the eerie, misty atmosphere of this dark fairy tale land. The movie is always at least half comedy and Depp is very good as the always squeamish but determinedly, reluctantly brave man of science doing his best to solve the mystery and save his love interest from a gruesome fate. While this tongue in cheek approach does not allow the movie to ever frighten us, it does succeed (in my opinion) in entertaining the audience. The special effects around the character of the horseman aren’t quite up to the current state of the art CGI standards. Nevertheless, his scenes are very well choreographed and look splendid. The supporting cast do a creditable job of moving the plot forward one severed head at a time. I’m going to recommend this movie to anyone who likes fantasy and the supernatural. Here’s a natural pick for October viewing.
I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning.
Napoleon Bonaparte
