On Thursday I had a strange dream right before waking. I dreamed that I was meeting the widow of Arthur Koestler. Now in my waking state I know full well that Koestler and his last wife both died in a suicide pact over twenty years ago. But in this dream I was with this old woman with a German accent (K's wife was English I think) and I just ( Read more... )

Last night there were two episodes of the old Battlestar Galactica on. One I didn't remember at all. The other I more or less did. Perhaps I missed the first one entirely back in the 70s. That was before endless repeats on cable and also before VCRs were common. As I watch these I become more certain that I never saw these again since the late 70s ( Read more... )

So far as TV habits go, I've given up on "24" this season, perhaps for good. Too much of the same. They've got a formula, and they just keep going back to it since it has "worked" (so far as ratings go) before. Also, they've lost track of the awareness of real-time events and it has become like just about any other suspense show. Think about all ( Read more... )

Broadcast television has allowed me a sort of trip down memory lane this past week. PBS started showing the 2005 Doctor Who revival, while what used to the be the Pax network started showing reruns of the original Battlestar Galactica. Like many science fiction oriented kids of the late 70s and 80s, I loved Galactica and a few years later loved the ( Read more... )

My guess about Clint Eastwood presenting to Morricone turned out to be right. (What was Quincy Jones doing in the spectator box with Morricone and his family? He always had close ties with Italian-American musicians like Mancini and Sinatra, plus there's the whole film composer fraternity thing. But I've never heard anything about an EM-QJ link.) ( Read more... )

So for once I'm slightly excited about the Academy Awards presentation. Not because I'm rooting for or against any movie/actor/director. In fact it's because of something for which there is really no suspense or doubt about the outcome -- namely the awarding of an honorary Oscar to Ennio Morricone. Perhaps the only thing to wonder about is who will ( Read more... )

Unfortunately the line from which my post's subject title is taken could not be heard in last night's Trek broadcast, because that key bit of the scene between Matt Decker and Spock was part of the material snipped to make room for commercials. The outrage! One second, Spock is saying Decker is relieved, the next Decker is relenting and magically ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Last week I picked up Mystic River at one of the Clackamas branch libraries. I had never gotten around to seeing it, and looked forward to watching what I'd been led to believe was a contemporary classic. So I steeled myself (I had heard it was an intense movie -- the sort of thing you might appreciate viewing once, but perhaps not want to watch ( Read more... )

I see that Milton Friedman has died. His long-time friend and ideological opposite J K Galbraith (closer to my own politics)died earlier this year. Were they like a married couple where after one went, the other couldn't go on alone? Well, considering they were both pushing the century mark, it isn't surprising news to read. So now the most well- ( Read more... )