Lord, I’m walking Your way. Let me in, for my feet are sore, my clothes ragged. Look in my eyes, Lord, and my sins will play out on them as on a screen. Read them all. Forgive what You can, and send me on my path. I will walk on, until You bid me rest.”
—Shepherd Book
Tag: film/vid
Takes on takes.
First Graf(s): The Fellowship of the Ring
IF YOU HAVE ONLY SEEN the movie version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you are missing out on an extraordinary literary work.
Granted, it takes a while to get into — a criticism also (and often) leveled against authors Steven King, Herman Melville and other exposition-happy types. But you’ll be surprised by the richness of the prose, the wealth of Middle-Earth’s detail, and the extensive background material. It truly reads like an historical travelogue filled with interesting sights and people. (And you’ll also encounter some significant differences from the movies, chief among which being that Aragorn is not a wimp.) Continue reading “First Graf(s): The Fellowship of the Ring”
Why I Love: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
IT’S THE EPISODE-BY-EPISODE CONTINUITY. It’s the attention to detail (even in the direction). It’s the character development. (It’s also the characters.) It’s the insiders-feeling treatment of religious faith. It’s the strong female roles (mostly). It’s the sometimes-complicated political schemes. It’s the merry departure from physics (spaceships don’t swoop and dive, dudes!). It’s the treatment of alien cultures as complex, internally consistent organisms. It’s the realistic chemistry between O’Brien and his wife Keiko. (It’s also the making-fun of the lack of chemistry between Worf and Dax.) It’s watching Nog grow from a juvenile delinquent to an essential and important member of Starfleet. Continue reading “Why I Love: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine“
Einstein’s Idiot Equation
Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
— Albert Einstein
5 Thoughts: Re-re-RE-Viewings
0. THERE ARE FILMS THAT YOU see once and say, “Meh.” Then there are others which grab hold of and mold your psyche in unexpected ways; movies that cry out “Watch me!” and require repeated viewings to grok in fullness — films that, while deep enough on their own, reveal new depths as the viewer grows with life-experience. Here are five to which I return every couple of years to measure myself.
1. Casablanca. Perhaps the greatest movie ever made, it has everything — romance, intrigue, honor, superb acting / writing / directing, Humphrey Bogart. Who doesn’t want to watch Bogie go from cynic to idealist and wind up fighting Nazis with someone he barely trusts? Continue reading “5 Thoughts: Re-re-RE-Viewings”
Literal Myths
DOES IT MATTER WHETHER OR not our sacred writings are historically accurate?
This question comes up every year at our synagogue Torah study, as people go to great lengths to try and explain the fantastical events of the text, especially the Book of Exodus, by relating them to natural events. Somebody is bound to mention that the Nile’s fish were killed by a blood-red tide, that locust swarms were a common (and in the Torah’s case, well-timed) occurrence, that Mount Sinai was a volcano, etc., etc., etc.
I feel that these good-natured and well-intentioned attempts at explanations may be unnecessarily missing the point. My own point of view is that what matters is the story. Continue reading “Literal Myths”
Why I Love: Star Wars
IT’S THE BLUE INTERTITLE PROCLAIMING “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” It’s the concept of the Force: nakedly nondual, essentially Taoist, but not preachy about it. It’s the costumes. It’s the sets (even the CGI ones, but especially those of handmade origin). It’s the original spaceship designs. It’s the lightsaber battles, especially the long-awaited-by-fans Darth Vader v. Obi-wan Kenobi duel in Episode III. It’s the way each film ups the special-effects ante for the whole film industry. It’s the details. It’s the recycled sounds; especially for R2D2, the jawas, various droids, etc. (It’s also the Wilhelm Scream.) Continue reading “Why I Love: Star Wars”
Our Own Little “Zone”
IF YOU WERE CONSIDERED A teenage weirdo in the late 1970s/early 1980s in Northern California’s suburban Diablo Valley, you could always find a place on Friday nights at an independent cinema-house in Walnut Creek, gathering with others of your tribe to enact the mythic and terrible rites associated with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Aside from the ritualized viewing experience itself, this weekly event included standing in line hobnobbing with dozens of fellow viewers outside the El Rey Cinema for an hour or two before the film started at midnight. Continue reading “Our Own Little “Zone””
5 Thoughts: The ORIGINAL Matrix
1. WHILE I DON’T BEGRUDGE THE siblings Wachowski their success, and I don’t really believe they stole my idea, as the first populizer of something called “The Matrix” I feel I must firmly and finally speak my piece.
2. Make a circle with a dot in the center. The dot represents you. Within the circle is the sum of your knowledge. Outside the circle is the vasty unknown. The circle itself? I call that The Matrix.
3. This simple reality-diagram was created by me c. 1990, long before the first installment of the popular film series, as part of the work I did for Obscure Research Labs. Continue reading “5 Thoughts: The ORIGINAL Matrix”
Well, He Did
DRIVING THROUGH SONOMA RECENTLY, I spied what may be the funniest, most secretly famous vanity plate ever devised. It was a California plate bearing the simple, six-character legend:
HAN 1ST
(If you need this explained, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first.)
By the way — you have just read The Metaphorager’s 700th post. It was a long trip from http://www.sonic.net/scoop to blogger.com to “here;” in that vein, I offer my very first blog post. Enjoy!
Live Long and Proffer
THE FIRST SOLO BAY AREA excursion I made after my mom and I moved to Walnut Creek in August 1977 was a trip to the aptly named Federation Trading Post, a Berkeley specialty store selling all sorts of Star Trek merchandise.
It was my second brush with official fandom of any sort. When I still lived back East, I had attended the 1975 Boston Star Trek convention, where my 13-year-old mind was blown by a hotel full of people who all suffered from the same obsession I did. Oh, I had it bad. Continue reading “Live Long and Proffer”
Raiders of the Lost Prayer
THE SCENE IS TENSE. RENE Belloq, a French archaeologist hired by the Nazi government (ptoo ptoo ptoo) to steal the Ark of the Covenant in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, is about to open the sacred artifact wherein lay the original tablets of the Ten Commandments. Dressed in the garb of the High Priest as detailed in the biblical book of Exodus (and standing before the Ark as described in the same book), he whispers a prayer before raising the lid — and thereby provoking the fiery Wrath of G?d to incinerate the infidels. Continue reading “Raiders of the Lost Prayer”