Various and Sundry

Swedes Take Distress Calls Seriously

I’ve been working on an update on the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, but I saw a meme of the photo above and felt we could all use some good news about humans helping humans. Basically, a small sailboat lost its rudder and called for distress. Naturally, the closest ship came to their aid. It just happened to be a 788-ton 1:1 replica of an 18th century sailing vessel: the Götheborg. Looking for more information than…

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Various and Sundry

Is a Pirate’s Life for You? Ask the Expert!

I’m going through my final round of Netflix DVDs and this weekend’s entry was the 2012 mini-series of Treasure Island with Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver. The short version? Izzard delivers a great Silver, but the mini-series takes some odd diversions from the source material that are far from satisfying. My wife actually suggested, knowing my penchant for ranking, that I rank all the different version of Treasure Island, which is very tempting –perhaps…

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Reviews Various and Sundry

One Last Ride into the Sunset: Red Envelope Reviews

Not quite three months ago, I, along with a couple million other people, got the sad news that Netflix was finally shuttering its films-by-mail service aka, the DVD rental business with “no late fees” that started it all. Now, there’s also over 200 million other Netflix subscribers who likely didn’t realize you could still get DVDs and Blu-Rays by mail. That doesn’t change the fact that this Postal method was and is a great way…

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Various and Sundry

Bond, Historical Bond (A Retrospective)

Having done villains last week, let’s take a look at heroes. Okay, James Bond is something of an anti-hero as established from the get-go in that “you’ve had your six” moment in Dr. No. But still, he is working for Queen and Country as well as saving the world (sometimes as a sad clown). This is a fun overview of how James Bond has changed with the times that Fandom released just before No Time…

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Rants Various and Sundry

The Promise of Star Trek: Prodigy Cut Short

I debated whether or not to mention what has been widely reported in both trade publications and fan sites, but so many visitors come to my blog for the Star Trek content. So here’s the deal: Star Trek: Prodigy has been removed from the Paramount+ less than a week since the decision was announced. Why, it’s almost like they forgot their declared goal of not quite a year ago: Sigh. Yeah, it won’t be the…

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Various and Sundry

Heraldry, Design, and Ranking State Flags

A bit overdue for Father’s Day, but definitely thinking of my dad, for whom heraldry was a passion, here’s CGP Grey ranking all the state flags with the requisite amount of snark because so many of them are just so bad as flags. My dad also loved flags and would have approved of many of the guidelines Grey (and others) mention for good, clean, flag design. Not sure if he’d agree with all the rankings…

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Various and Sundry

Enjoying your Road Trip on a Deeper Level

School’s out for so many people and summer road trips are going to be on many minds in the weeks ahead, so since while working on a post featuring a CGP Grey video next week, I thought I’d drop this here. As with many of his videos, I knew some of this information, but Grey gives you so much more detail, like the odd exceptions. It’s something to think about as you’re driving on the…

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Various and Sundry

Babylon 5: Billy Pilgrim Edition

Okay, so we’ve had several sci-fi stories where the main character slips between timelines and times in their lives (looking epecially at you, Picard in “All Good Things…”), but they specifically mention Sheridan being “unstuck in time” which is absolutely a Slaughterhouse Five reference. Also, for folks who have checked out the Babylon 5 Viewing Guide, this is almost certainly a film to check out after checking out the series. If you don’t believe me,…

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Raves Various and Sundry

A Viewing Guide for Babylon 5

With the announcement of a B5 animated feature, I have been reminded that many people have not seen the original Babylon 5, that ambitious and inventive science fiction series from the 1990s. As of May 2023, you can currently watch the entire series for free on Tubi as well as renting or buying it streaming on Amazon. But should you watch Babylon 5? My answer is a resounding yes if you: This last factor of…

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Acting Various and Sundry Writing

The Court Jester’s Duel with Ravenhurst is great. Get it?

I am still following accounts of the Writers’ Strike, which looks like it’ll be a long one, but while you can continue to check out information, like the Strike Diaries from the Hollywood Reporter, for today, I wanted to just post about film, specifically a great example where writing, performance, and fight choreography comes together beautifully. I’m talking about the climactic duel in the 1956 comedy The Court Jester. I love the duel because, as…

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