:: This isn’t weird, but rather, stunningly cool: Artificial Owl, a blog devoted to photography of abandoned things throughout the world. Shipwrecks, abandoned military sites, old lighthouses that no longer glow, and more. I spent a long time yesterday surfing its archives. Go check it out.
:: Following a pointer from the above-linked blog, I was noodling about on Google Maps on the coast of Mauritania, when I saw this:
What do you suppose that is? A single dolphin or whale? A shark? A small boat that leaves a wake suggestive of those things? It’s about a thousand feet off the shore. There are more of those visible as I scroll along the shoreline.
:: Two employees at Yellowstone National Park were fired for…wait for it…urinating into Old Faithful. The funniest part of the linked story is the matter-of-fact statement that “the geyser was not erupting at the time”. Thanks for spelling that out!
:: Shamus linked a version of this video, one that had music added. I like the version without music better — or, at least, I like “no music” better than the music selected for that version, so here’s the no-music version. It’s a timelapse-photography film of a cargo ship navigating the ship channel in Houston, TX.
It turns out that there’s a lot of this kind of thing on YouTube — just search “ship timelapse” and you’ll find a bunch of videos. Here’s one I particularly liked, of a cruise ship traversing the Panama Canal. In this one you get to see the timelapse of the locks filling or emptying, raising and lowering the ship; I like how the decks fill with people who want to watch the action when they arrive at the locks.
Cool!
:: And this certainly is weird: FOX has renewed Dollhouse, despite its lackluster ratings in a dead-end Friday night timeslot — i.e., the timeslot that led FOX to give Firefly the heave-ho. FOX, doing right. Who knew.
Twelve years ago today, the woman pictured here voluntarily became my wife. I’m not entirely sure what possessed her to do that, but I’m glad she did, because it spared me the trouble of kidnapping some woman and holding her captive in my basement. Thanks, Dear!
Kidding aside, I’m glad I had her to walk beside me, and for me to walk beside, over these years — both the good times and the bad. I’m luckier than I deserve, I suspect. Hoping for twelve more years, and twelve more after that, and twelve more after that….
(And a few months ago, on her birthday, I posted 100 things I love about her. Always a good post to revisit!)
I’m not sure if I’ve ever held forth on the movie Cousins before in this space, but I recently watched it again and wanted to flesh out my thoughts on it a bit.
Cousins is a remake of a French movie that I’ve never seen. It came out in 1988 or 1989, somewhere in there, so by this time it’s full of the kinds of fashions we like to laugh at nowadays. (Mullets and big hair, chiefly. I actually like the big hair, but the mullets, not so much.) It’s directed, very well, by Joel Schumacher, a guy who isn’t on anybody’s list of great directors but whom I think tend to produce well-made films (from a technical standpoint).
In the movie, Ted Danson plays Larry, a dance teacher who is married to Tish (Sean Young, who never looked more beautiful). Isabella Rossellini plays Maria, who is married to Tom (William Petersen, ten years before he started following the evidence). In the opening scene, Larry’s Uncle Phil marries Maria’s mother, so Larry and Maria become cousins of some sort. They also meet in the reception hall after the reception has ended, because neither is sure where their respective spouses have disappeared to. Well, it turns out Tom and Tish have been doing the dirty (Tom turns out to be quite the philanderer), and after Larry and Maria realize this, they decide to pretend to be having their own affair in order to get back at them. It’s a little joke…except they end up becoming close friends and then falling in love with one another. Hilarity ensues.
Of course, this is a remake of a French movie, so it all gets more complicated than that. Uncle Phil dies of a heart attack after being married for a couple of weeks, and then Larry’s father Vince (Lloyd Bridges, who has most of the film’s best lines) shows up and starts to woo Maria’s mother. More hilarity ensues.
It’s hard to honestly appraise a movie like this, since one must acknowledge that a state of affairs anywhere remotely resembling this one would result in all manner of emotional trauma for all concerned. (The movie does address, in passing, the effects of all this on Maria and Tom’s daughter.) But the movie itself is awfully well-made, with chemistry positively dripping between virtually every couple it shows us, so I end up looking past a lot of that. Of course Danson and Rossellini have great chemistry; the movie wouldn’t work at all if they didn’t. But so do Danson and Young, and so do Rossellini and Petersen, and so do Young and Petersen. Heck, in a couple of scenes, even Danson and Petersen have good chemistry (although as rivals). It’s also to the film’s credit that its characters do bad things without being bad people. Even Petersen’s Tom, the “cheating husband”, is a fairly low-grade jerk who is genuinely hurt when he realizes that he’s losing his wife. “Are you in love with him?” he asks; “If I am I’ll get over it,” she replies. “Yeah,” he says, in return. “We were in love once, and we got over it.” (It is kind of unfair the way the movie’s finale leaves Tom in a limbo state; we get some idea that Tish will be just fine, but Tom’s just tossed aside.)
Of course, this is a romantic comedy, so one must also judge it by if it makes one laugh, and it certainly makes me laugh. The Lloyd Bridges character has zinger after zinger (“At my age, you don’t want to get too close to an open grave”, “I’d rather have a case of the clap than a case of that wine.”), and there’s a hilarious scene set inside a wedding theme park where one of the cherubs is shown smoking behind a bush.
And the score is wonderful. Angelo Badalamenti writes a very French-sounding score (apropos, obviously), bound by two main themes: a love theme in waltz time (heard in a big way when Larry and Maria run away on Larry’s motorcycle), and a simpler, beautiful theme for Maria. In a very nice touch, Maria’s theme turns up throughout the film as diagetic music, played by street musicians as Larry and Maria wander by. The movie is also great looking, filmed in Vancouver, with lots of sweeping shots of that city’s environs. Cousins is wonderful froth, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Continuing my look at each of the Statehood Quarters, we turn our attention to the South and Southwest. Yay!
Kentucky
I like what they do here, although I think it would work better as an action picture rather than a staid view of a horse just standing there; plus, the mansion in the background makes the image a little too busy for my tastes. I think a jockey riding a horse on a track might have been a better way to go. The motto, “My Old Kentucky Home”, is presented in quotes, which I find interesting.
Kentucky’s quarter: $0.18
Tennessee
Another of my favorites, honoring Memphis’s jazz scene and Nashville’s importance to country music. It’s a simple design, with three instruments and a music score, and the symmetry is helped by aiming the guitar and fiddle in opposite directions. This is a very nice quarter.
Tennessee’s quarter: $0.23
Arkansas
Here’s a bit of design-by-committee that works OK, but not terrifically well. As usual, too many elements make for too busy a quarter, but at least the design elements are arranged in a way that’s not too confusing. You’ve got a flowing river (the Mississippi, I assume), a waterfowl in flight, some kind of crop, and a diamond in honor of the fact that Arkansas has a diamond mine. As the design-by-committee quarters go, this isn’t too bad, but it could have been better.
Arkansas’s quarter: $0.17
Oklahoma
I have readers from Oklahoma, so let’s end the suspense! It’s terrible.
Actually, I’m kidding. Oklahoma proves, once again, that simplicity can work wonders. They give a bird (the state bird, actually, the Scissortail Flycatcher) in flight over two flowers (one of which is the state wildflower, called “Indian Blanket”), and that’s it. It’s a beautiful coin.
Oklahoma’s quarter: $0.21
Texas
I’m conflicted about this quarter, which makes sense, since I’m often conflicted about Texas itself. The design here is so blindingly obvious that it makes me almost crazy. The whole “Lone Star” thing is almost a cliché by this point, and I’d have really hoped that Texas would do something different, and yet, that’s what they did: the Lone Star yet again. Yeah, we get it. Lone Star. Texas. Gotcha. And yet, this is a really nicely done design. The state outline is done in textured relief, and the Lone Star is also textured. But the best part of this quarter, for me, is the border, which is done with a lasso rope. So, Texas did something very nice with a really boring Texas trope.
Texas’s quarter: $0.20
New Mexico
This would be almost perfect if they hadn’t marred it with the off-center inscription “Land of Enchantment”. The relief map of New Mexico with the Navajo symbol above it is terrific. I like this quarter a lot. Nicely done, NM!
New Mexico’s quarter: $0.22
Arizona
Another very beautiful design, my only quibble being that it renders a bit hard-to-make out on the actual coin. I really love how much detail they’re able to get onto a coin, though; this is terribly impressive, which makes some of the other quarters look dowdy by comparison. Arizona did well here.
Arizona’s quarter: $0.21
Colorado
Here’s yet another example of a fine quarter whose only downside is the addition of verbiage. The coin already makes clear that we’re looking at Colorado, so why they felt the need to also have the coin say “Colorful Colorado” is beyond me. I like the mountain scene, though.
Colorado’s quarter: $0.20
Utah
This is another of my favorites, even if we now have our third state that’s identified itself as a crossroads; this time we’re at the “Crossroads of the West”. The coin pays tribute to the completion of the intercontinental railroad, with the final railroad spike ready to be driven, and the two locomotives facing opposite directions.
Utah’s quarter: $0.23
Next time: the Heartland and the northern Rockies.
SamuraiFrog did this last week, and I just have to follow suit. That being the case, here are my thirty favorite fantasy movies.
One caveat: I’m taking a more inclusive stance on what constitutes “fantasy” here, to basically include any kind of non-SF story in which supernatural stuff happens. For those who think that “fantasy” means armored Princes going to war on horseback using magical swords against evil wizards, well, you need to broaden your views!
The list is in no particular order, except for the final two, which really do constitute my top two.
Ghostbusters
So, why start here? Why not? It’s funny and it’s got ghosts. It’s full of wildly funny visual jokery, and some of it can slip by without notice; for instance, the StayPuft Marshmallow Man gets a huge laugh when he shows up, but what’s great is that he actually changes facial expressions: his grin turns mean when he’s stepping on people, and when he’s clinging to the edge of the building, watching helplessly as our heroes cross the streams (even though “it would be bad”), he has this comical expression of anger and fear. On a Marshmallow Man. I love that. This movie also features one of my favorite throwaway lines of all time: “Listen! Do you smell something?”
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Now, I do like the recent Tim Burton version of this story, but it’s the old one that’s the enduring classic, and with good reason. I remember watching it when I was just a kid, and then I didn’t see it again until I was in college. Usually that is a formula for serious disappointment; nostalgia, as someone once wrote (I can’t remember who), is usually happiest when not fully investigated. But Willy Wonka sucked me right back in when I was twenty. To this day it’s the best thing Gene Wilder ever did. I love the way he takes over the film as soon as he shows up, and the casual malevolence and benevolence he is able to portray, often from one line of dialogue to the next.
The Exorcist
A lot of people I know don’t find this movie particularly scary, but I thought it enormously effective, and it accomplished its scares without resorting to things going bump in the night or evil slashers hiding behind curtains or any of the usual horror movie tropes. Instead, the movie takes place in brightly lit rooms where everyone can be seen, and it still got under my skin when I saw it. (I do consider horror to be part of fantasy.)
Back to the Future
Am I wrong to think of this as fantasy? Maybe. Maybe it’s science fiction. I’m not really sure. It depends on the definition, and as everyone knows, there’s just no good definition separating SF from fantasy. So I include BttF here because the BS behind its story is such cheerfully made-up BS. Sure, they dress it up a bit with some technobabble, but I’m calling it fantasy. So there it is.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Now this is most definitely fantasy, and one of the most engaging movies of the 1980s. The sheer amount of craft in melding the animation and the live acting is amazing, but the movie’s script is just so perfect, always taking its material seriously but managing to evoke its madcap world of cartoons and people living together with extremely subtle winks to the audience. It’s a wildly funny and inventive fantasy.
TRON
Is it actually SF? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s pure fantasy, and another grand example of a movie creating its own world. Fantasy all the way.
The Princess Bride
Is it fantasy? Or parody of fantasy? I think it straddles the line like no other movie ever has. This movie kids because it loves.
Stardust
This movie died a quick death at the box office, and I don’t know why; I found it charming and fun.
The Green Mile
I may be cheating a bit here, since I haven’t seen the whole movie in one go, but I’ve seen all of its bits and pieces enough times in various telecasts that it all adds up to the whole thing. That said, this is, well, The Shawshank Redemption with some added supernatural elements.
(Warning — that’s the last scene of the film.)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
This is another one that straddles the SF-Fantasy line. Maybe it’s actually SF, but I’m not sure; all of its Sfnal content is completely made up out of whole cloth. It’s a wickedly funny movie, too, full of sly and twisted humor that’s my cup of tea in such things. Lots of great lines, including another of my all-time favorites, “Whoa, don’t tug on that! You never know what it might be attached to.”
Pirates of the Caribbean
I’m listing all three of them here, because I genuinely love them all, even if the last one could have used one more pass through the rewrite stage.
Ben Hur
By far my favorite Biblical epic. Am I on blasphemous ground in calling it a fantasy? I guess one day I’ll find out. But I really love this movie (and I’m due to watch it again, come to that).
Raiders of the Lost Ark
‘Nuff said.
Merlin
The only movie on this list that was made for teevee. I don’t get the sense that it’s very well liked or remembered, but I find it a lively romp, telling the story of Merlin’s life as it intersects with the Arthurian story. It tends to be a bit episodic and disjointed, but I still think it’s a fun movie.
Interview with the Vampire
I thought Tom Cruise was just fine as Lestat. This is one of those movies that gets better on repeat viewings, I’ve found.
The Wizard of Oz
This movie is almost clicheed at this point, but it’s really a finely crafted fantasy. (Although frankly, I’ve often wondered what happens after the movie’s end – isn’t Toto still doomed?)
Krull
It’s not that great a movie, but it’s an ambitious piece of 1980s adventure movie making, it has a terrific score by James Horner, and as fantasy set-pieces go, surely the fire-mares sequence is one of the best.
Excalibur
It may seem odd, at first glance, that no indisputably great film has been made out of the King Arthur legends, but when one considers the Matter of Britain as a whole, the obstacles it poses to filmmakers become obvious. The Arthur “legend” is actually a giant collection of legends, and any telling of the story in a movie form is going to leave large amounts of stuff out. And if you really do it proper, Arthur himself will disappear for large periods of time while we follow other knights around. So, for now, Excalibur is as good as it gets, as far as Arthurian films are concerned. It’s a beautifully made movie, even if the tone is generally cool.
Peter Pan
I’ve long maintained that this is my favorite Disney animated film, and I’ve not changed my mind yet.
Pinocchio
You know what? This is not only fantasy, but in a lot of ways it’s straight-up horror. The whole Pleasure Island part of the movie is downright scary, especially when Lampwick starts his own transformation. Most people think of Jiminy Cricket warbling “When You Wish Upon a Star”, but that’s only the tiniest portion of this movie.
The Emperor’s New Groove
I never tire of giving this flick some love. It’s by far the zaniest thing ever to come out of Disney; it’s so zany and madcap and hilarious, in fact, that I almost think they were channeling the spirit of Chuck Jones when they made it. General opinion seems to be that Disney’s animated offerings after, say, Pocahontas were poor, but I’ve never believed that, and this movie stands with anything they ever did.
Aladdin
Rounding out the Disney portion of this list. This movie just barely edges out Beauty and the Beast, which is probably actually a better movie, maybe. But this one’s a sentimental favorite of mine, because in college The Girlfriend (now The Wife) and I saw it in theaters together four times.
My Neighbor Totoro
Now the Hayao Miyazaki portion of the program. Miyazaki is so good at making magic a part of his worlds, as normal as wind or trains or trees or whatever. He doesn’t give long explanations of anything; he just shows us his magical stuff and we accept it. The masterstroke here is how not only are we seeing the magical world of the Totoros, but they are seeing what is to them the magical world of us. How many other movies show big magical creatures taking enormous delight in the sound a raindrop makes when it hits an umbrella?
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Such a simple, low-key movie, telling the story of a young witch who has to use her powers to…deliver packages and find her own self-confidence. That’s it. No evil wizards to defeat, no threats to the world to thwart, just a girl at an awkward age trying to figure things out. And one of the most beautiful fictional cities ever in a movie. I’d love to live in that town!
Spiderman II
Spidey’s my favorite superhero, and I like all of the movies, but the first and third ones have problems that bug me a bit about them, where the second one is just about as good as it can be.
Superman
To this day, my favorite superhero movie ever. It does, admittedly, come a bit close to derailing courtesy of some of the slapstick stuff with Otis and Miss Tessmacher, but even with the “Turning back the world” thing, it just works on all levels for me.
Spirited Away
Many think that this is Hayao Miyazaki’s best film. I think it’s his second best.
