Author: Mark Alexander

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Interstellar

Interstellar was one of the must-see movies on my list this year. I’m by no means a fan of Matthew McConaughey, but the story itself intrigued and excited me.

We saw it last night, and I came away impressed. I’d give it an 8 out of 10, and the only reason I didn’t rate it any higher was that I had to suspend belief for some of the “sciencey” things the film; the whole surviving a trip into a black hole among them. I know a lot of critics hated the “love transcends time and space” theme that figured so prominently in the final acts of the movie, but that aspect of the story didn’t bother me at all..

The visuals—as expected—were stunning, and the homage payed to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was brilliant: everything from the practical effects the filmmakers used to the very real total-silence-in space shots of the spacecraft themselves.

It was nice to see woofy Wes Bentley cast in a non-adversarial role for a change, and Matt Damon—not to mention Topher Grace—popping up (I hadn’t seen any mention of their involvement in the film prior to actually seeing it) was a total surprise.

Movie of the Year? This generation’s 2001? I wouldn’t go that far, but definitely left an impression.

We didn’t see it in IMAX, which I kind of regret because this film definitely deserves it—but there’s nothing to say we won’t see it again…

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Get Your Veto Pen Ready, Mr. President

…and pray that no Supreme Court Justices decide to retire before the Democrats regain control of Congress, because you’ll never get them approved now.

What comes as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, the pod people took over the Senate yesterday and I suspect that during the coming months the country will slowly wake up to one hell of a “what did I do last November? (or more likely, what didn’t I do last November since so many people couldn’t be bothered to get their asses out and vote) hangover as the full extent of the amount of crazy elected to office comes to light.

What does that mean? At the very least, two years of posturing, inactivity on any of the issues that the citizens of this country actually care about, religious batshittery and the political circus of Impeachment proceedings against the “black communist Kenyan about-to-unleash-ebola-on-the-good-upstanding-white-christians-of-this-country usurper” (did I forget anything?) in the White House—all the while the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, what remains of the middle class will get bent over and screwed even more forcefully than before.

And though it all, the right-wing fear machine will continue to screech what they’ve been screeching for the last six years—that everything is still “Obama’s fault”—except that now at deafening levels.

As many others have opined today, I agree that in the long run this will be a good thing. By the time 2016 rolls around the country will once again be so thoroughly and completely disgusted with the Jeebus-lovin, bible-quotin’ obstructionist republicans, it will all but assure a Democratic sweep. (There’s also the fact that Presidential elections tend to bring out a younger, much more progressive voting crowd—versus the mid-terms where it was pointed out the average age of people voting in yesterday’s election was over sixty!)

That’s not to say the next two years will be without pain. You can count on the Republicans doing everything in their limited time in office to royally fuck over the greatest number of people as possible.

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I Actually Liked It

…a lot more than I expected, considering some of the reviews I’d read.

Disclaimer: I have never read the book(s), and frankly one of the main reasons I wanted to see it was because I think Dylan O’Brien is cute. And at my age I realize that makes me a bit of a perv, even if the guy is 23 years old.

Anyhow…

It was an engaging story. There was plenty of attractive eye candy in the casting and I didn’t find myself nodding off, or reaching for my phone to check the time. I didn’t leave the theater feeling like I’d been cheated out of $6.50.

Some reviewers had issue with the “ending” (there’s a sequel in the works, natch), of the film. Even I found it a bit of a letdown as the expected “it was aliens” storyline didn’t pan out, but that’s not my beef with the last act.

[Spoilers ahead]

My beef—and it’s not something that immediately slapped me up the side of the head while watching the film, but only came to me as a WTF moment when I was thinking about the film much later—comes from the fact that Gally, one of the characters who chose to remain behind in the Glade when Thomas and the others left to find a way out, miraculously showed up in the control room shortly after they arrived there and started to (pardon the pun) put the puzzle together.

So wait, let me get this straight: after Thomas’s group dispatched several of the dreaded and deadly grievers in the maze by bringing down the huge stone doors and blocking further access to the promised exit as well as having the only key to open the portals—not to mention the knowledge of the numbers necessary to unlock the final door—Gally somehow manages to recreate all that by himself?

Seriously?

Okay, I realize he was a bit of a dick character from the get-go whose offing wasn’t exactly mourned by the audience, and whose presence at the end of the movie was necessary to dispatch one of the more sympathetic players, but still…HOW DID HE GET THERE?

And while I’m thinking about all this, the perv in me keeps asking, “So we have this group of (presumably hormone-addled) teenage boys thrown together for the last three years with only each other for company and there wasn’t one instance of bump-bump going on out in the forest or even any romantic pairing? Or more importantly, when a girl arrives, she isn’t immediately passed around like a party favor?

I guess I really am jaded.

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Beautiful


As NASA’s Cassini spacecraft soared past Saturn’s moon Titan, it recently caught a glimpse of bright sunlight reflecting off hydrocarbon seas. In the past, Cassini had captured, separately, views of the polar seas and the sun glinting off them, but this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view.

[Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho]

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A Clean Bill of Health

I saw a new Otolaryngologist last week for my bi-annual post cancer treatment checkup. I wasn’t impressed with the guy who examined me two years ago, so I mentioned to my Primary Care Doc that I wanted to go to a new one.

Good news all around. After snaking that scope up my nose and down my throat (first time I got to see what she was seeing via a pair of attached display glasses), everything is good. Yeah, my larynx still looks like a war zone with one cord still immobile and the rest of the area remaining permanently swollen, but no sign of any recurring malignancy.

11 years and counting, baby!

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Chihuly at Night, Take 1

Last night Ben and I attended Chihuly at Night at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I was really torn as to whether or not to take my DSLR or just my new iPhone 6 to photograph the exhibit.

I decided on the iPhone to put it through its paces and see if it really lived up to all the shooting-in-low-level-light hype.

It didn’t. I was sorely disappointed. The evening wasn’t a waste and I had a good time (it’s been far too long since Ben and I had a date night), but I really wish I’d brought my DSLR along because the iPhone camera simply wasn’t up to the challenge.

In addition, Ben also had issues with the flash on his 6 Plus washing out entire scenes.

Granted, Chihuly at Night is a difficult subject to photograph even with the best equipment. But it seemed I got much better results with my DSLR when the exhibition was in Phoenix several years ago.

Thankfully, the exhibit continues in Denver through the end of November, and we’ve already purchased tickets to return. This time I’ll bring the DSLR and a tripod…

All that being said, out of approximately 80 shots, I did manage to capture of a few decent—not good, but merely decent—pictures:

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Say Hello to the Face of Hate Stupidity

From Towleroad:

Boise, Idaho-area couple Justin and Melanie Sease are driving around in a car painted with phrases like “HOMOSEXUALITY is a sin & a abomination”, “Just Say NO to Gay Marriage”, and “GOD’S NOT DEAD”. They say they’re speaking out for others who are afraid to do the same in light of the recent arrival of marriage equality in the state, and whine to KBOI that they’re being ridiculed for it:

2truck“We’ve had a few homosexual extremists who cuss us out and get very angry with us and threaten us.”

Why are they on a crusade?

Says Justin, who claims he’s “taking a stand for the Heavenly Father”:

“We can never accept public homosexuality. It’s wrong, and it’s wrong in God’s eyes first. He’s very clear in the Bible. The Bible says that when homosexuality is publicly accepted, basically it spreads like a cancer….This is kind our little way of protesting the homosexual extremist movement…”

Said Melanie:

“If nobody else is going to do it, why not start doing it. Hopefully, other people will join us and follow us and do what we’re doing.Most everyone who has seen our vehicles gives us a thumbs up, waves, smiles, or honks.”

Watch, here…

I have a question for these “Christians:” why is it that their supposedly omniscient, all-powerful daddy-in-the-sky is so utterly and completely incapable of enforcing his supposed edicts by himself? Why does he always have to call upon the assistance of these yahoos who have barely three brain cells between them to do his bidding? In the old days this sky-fairy would supposedly have to do little more than sneeze and fire and brimstone would be raining down upon the unwashed, unworthy heathen before you could say, “Gesundheit!”

The only possible explanations I see are…

◆ Sky Daddy is—despite their pronouncements to the contrary—in fact, dead.

◆ Sky Daddy doesn’t exist—and never has.

◆ Sky Daddy is alive and well and is either perfectly okay with gay marriage—or has in fact moved on to watching over much more interesting creatures than Homo sapiens.

…none of which fit too well into this couple’s narrow, self-centered, bigoted view of the universe.

Seriously…can you imagine spending eternity with these people?

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Why I Hate Television

Such a provocative title.

I don’t hate all television, and I don’t hate the medium in and of itself. I hate the way networks have decided to push out series in 8, 10, 12-episode increments and then go on hiatus for what seems like years before returning. (I’m talking to you, Mad Men.)

It’s not just Mad Men; it’s pretty much any dramatic, scripted show these days. It seems that once you get hooked on something and really start getting into the current storyline, it’s the end of the season’s run—or worse yet, they split a single season up into two parts.

Pretty much everything we watch (or have watched) on a regular basis falls into this category:

Nurse Jackie
Helix
American Horror Story
Z Nation
The Strain
Doctor Who
Masters of Sex
The Walking Dead

Now I realize the cost of producing a full 30 episodes of a series like networks used to do when I was young is astronomical these days—especially when you factor in many of the shows we enjoy are heavy on special effects, but c’mon people. 8 episodes followed by a year-long hiatus? What’s the logic in that?

I mean, it’s gotten to the point that we cancel our premium channels for half the year because everything we watch is missing from their lineup. That’s costing you money, HBO & Showtime.

I suppose I should just give up complaining about this because the companies that produce what we watch don’t give a shit as long as the advertising dollars (or paid subscriptions) keep rolling in, but sooner or later if enough people just flat out cancel their premium channels for half the year they might wake up and take notice…

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Wow

In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d see this in Arizona. I figured the state would have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.

Wow. Just wow.

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