Monthly Archives: February 2011

Sunday Night Movie: Creature From The Black Lagoon

So last night , after a weekend of science-fiction and horror discussions, I was in the mood for a classic Universal horror film and gravitated instantly towards my all time favorite of those films, Creature From The Black Lagoon. Creature is a marvelous film that still holds up remarkably well today, 56 years after its initial release. (1954) With two enormous chili-dogs I settled in for a pleasant night of chills and entertainment from the classic film.

The story is simple, A scientist find a unique fossil far up the Amazon river. It is incomplete, but suggests a whole new order of amphibian life.He consults with fellow scientists and they launch an expedition to hopefully find the rest of the curious fossil. Of course what they find is so much more than a fossil, a living specimen of the new amphibian order, the Gillman, know to us primarily as The Creature.

So much of this film seems to recall King Kong for me. The isolated locale, the native myths, the somewhat sympathetic portrayal of the monster, the monster’s fascination with a beautiful woman, all echo the themes that we can find on Kong, while exploring them in a different and more personal setting. Continue reading →

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Weekend wrap-up

Well Condor 2011 has ended and I have to say I had a pretty good time this weekend. There were plenty of interesting panels, presentations, and person throughout the convention. I have come away with any short story idea, this one is a fantasy about water nymphs and spirits and will be another experimentation for me with my new writing style,

My headache seems to have at long last subsided. I saw a specialist on Weds and he advised 2 liters of water everyday to prevent migraines. That’s what I have done and the constant headache from last Sunday finally seems to be on the way out. So there will be a Sunday Night Movie tonight.

 

 

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Condor update

This will not be much of an update as we are about to leave for the convention. Condor, being a local convention, is one we attend from home rather than staying at the hotel. (My sweetie-wife does like to save the money.)

There were a number of good panels yesterday and I had a blast. We covered everything from why are zombies so popular right now to classic SF cinema such as When Worlds Collide. (Which I am now noticing is a suspensive sentence.)

 

Off for more fun and frolic, though today in the rain.

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Final thought on Wisconsin

Not a big post here. I still feel that Public sector unions are a very different beast from Private Sector unions and there is considerable question as to their ultimate utility to the republic.

That said, I would favor that the governor’s proposal be defeated in Wisconsin.

Since he has excempted politically favorable unions from the legilation this is unequal and appears to be mostly politically motivated. Break all the public sector unions, or none of them, not just the ones who supported the opposition in the last election.

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quick post

Got back late from the Mysterious Galaxy Writer’s Meeting. I really like this writers’ group and I think we’re starting to find our stride.

However due ot the late hour this is all the posting I will do.

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Experimental Prose

So, I have been experimenting with a new writing style.

This is a very novel experiment for me as style, that elusive and difficult to define aspect, is something I have not tried to craft. The lecture series I purchased has given me thoughts and really courage to experiment in this way.

After the jump is a short story playing with this new style, albeit in an extreme form. Let me know what you think.

Continue reading →

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No Sunday Night Movie this week.

Last night , about 7:45 I started getting a nasty little headache. By 8:30 it had progressed into a low-level migraine and I knew that there would be no Sunday Night Movie for me. I bid goodnight to my sweetie-wife and crawled into bed. I stayed there, leaving only to call in sick to work, for the next 14 hours. (A tleast I can report that the new bed is comfortable.) Now it has throttled back to just a nasty tension headache.

For those who enjoy my Sunday Night Movie feature, I apologize sorry for the miss.

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The Pernicious Prevarication of The Instapundit

So there I was doing political blog reading the other day when I came across this posting from Instapundit:

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: ObamaCare Repeal Would Save $1.4 Trillion.

This is a very typical type of posting from Professor Reynolds. Short, makes a dramatic point, and  linking to further information. It is also an excellent example of how he prevaricates with this short pithy posts. Someone who was justing reading down the numerous posting for that day would read the slug, come away with the impression that repealing Healthcare reform would save us 1.4 trillion dollars, and move on. I followed the link because it seemed at odds with what knew of the situation. Maybe I was wrong and I wouldn’t going to dismiss the concept out of hand. Continue reading →

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