In 2009, our family went to China to see a solar eclipse. This was the second solar eclipse we had gone to, the first being in Turkey in 2006, but this time we also took our daughters, Miriam and Tamar with us. In Wuhan, where we watched the eclipse we were joined by an American [...]
Tags: alvin drew·china·Firefly·howard spero·miriam mintz·moscow·nasa·space station·tamar mintz
Finished Run Lola Run, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/run_lola_run/, Lola Rennt (literally Lola runs). I guess this is one of those films I had to see in the theatre to really appreciate rather than my usual 20-30 minutes at a time on the elliptical walker down in the basement. Got high marks on Rotten Tomatoes, I remember the noise [...]
I sometimes reserve weekend and/or holiday mornings for seeing movies my wife, Ellen, will not see with me. There is no particular rhyme or reason as to which movies she is interested in going with me to see and those not, with the one mild exception perhaps of quality – the lower the quality the [...]
Tags: 3D·amc·beau garnett·blonde·bruce boxleitner·brunette·capitalist·christmas·grid·imax·jeff bridges·martin short·michael sheen·microsoft·off-grid·olivia wilde·open-source·operating system·super mario brothers·the big lebowski·The Dude·tron·tron legacy·tysons corners
I finished Superman Doomsday, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/superman_doomsday/, this morning. This was an animated cartoon based on the series where DC killed off Superman in the early 1990′s. At the time, it cause quite a reaction, getting coverage in the national and even international press. Millions of readers who had never read comics, bought copies. While I had [...]
Tags: adam baldwin·dc comics·doomsday·Firefly·nicolas cage·superman·tim burton
For those who knew me when I was the CIO at the US Department of Transportation, you will know that I held a monthly lunch with a small band of fans of both the TV show Firefly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series), and the movie Serenity, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/serenity/. For references to this, see the end of the interview I gave [...]
Tags: big bang theory·cio·Firefly·geneva·large hadron collider·Serenity·us department of transportation
Periodically my wife, Ellen, and I go to visit Ellen’s parents in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Every time we visit I am reminded how lucky I was to not just to marry Ellen but also to marry into such a wonderful family. I have learned much about my professional life and how to behave like [...]
Tags: buffalo_bob·children·circus·clown·conrad_hartz·hilton_head·howdy_doody·library·puppets
In December, 1975, I was one of a group of young political and civic leaders on a State Department sponsored visit to Europe. One of the places we visited was pre-unification Berlin. The initial visit to East Berlin was sobering. On the West Berlin side, the Christmas season lead to brightly colored decorations, shoppers, and [...]
So says Norma Desmond, the iconic former silent movie star who is the focus of Sunset Boulevard. Considered by many to be the iconic film noir about the vacuity of Hollywood, it is well worth seeing. Norma Desmond was played by Gloria Swanson, who herself had been a star in silent films and didn’t make [...]
Tags: billy wilder·drama·film noir·films·gloria swanson·william holden
For those who have come in late to the story, I am a member of what some might call a cult that worships Firefly and Serenity. Firefly was a TV show created by Joss Whedon, who among other things was the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which lasted less than one season. It was [...]
Tags: alberta·browncoats·canada·china·cruise·eclipse·edmonton·Firefly·movies·Serenity·yangtze